Welcome, 2019

Over 15 weeks have passed since I last logged on to Blogger. I was open about my plans to step back from blogging, but confess that I surprised myself by just how easy it was to do so, and so fully. Now that I am online less, I don't know how I found the time for it before.

Nonetheless, I felt a tug to come on and reflect on the final few months of the year. I also wanted to wish you all a very happy start to 2019. I hope you enjoyed the festive season and that 2018 finished off well for you.

Peak District, near Alstonefield

We spent Christmas in the Peak District, a beautiful part of the UK that I hadn't visited previously. It is more accessible for us than the Lake District where we have spent two previous Christmases and less crowded. As usual, we hired a self-catering holiday cottage and with a toddler in tow self-catered our Christmas meal and evening meals across the week. This is Mini Bite's third Christmas but the first she has really understood and it was nice to celebrate with her, and soak up her excitement at presents and holiday food.

Christmas lunch

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Medway Valley Walk - 16 miles between Tonbridge and Maidstone

Long-term readers may know that whilst I am poor at organised sports, I am very fond of being active and being outdoors. In a day-to-day and week-to-week sense, this translates to family walks in the Kent countryside and runs both in London, as part of my commute, and in Kent, on the weekend. (No prizes for guessing which gives the nicer scenery.)

In a bigger pictures sense, I harbour dreams of doing a long-distance walk, the type where you either camp out overnight or find accommodation along your route.

Medway Valley Walk, a few miles out from Tonbridge

I have never done a truly long distance walk and my only experience of walking, camping out, and walking some more was as a 14-year-old working towards the Duke of Edinburgh award. I have done a variety of long single day walks but even those have been fairly rare since we had Mini Bite two years ago.

Last week I managed to rekindle my walking enthusiasm by covering half of the Medway Valley Walk. This is a 28.5 mile route from Tonbridge to Rochester in Kent. Maidstone is roughly half way and I did the 16 mile stretch (25.5km) from Tonbridge to Maidstone.

Locks over the Medway River

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In my kitchen - September 2018

I am linking this into the monthly In My Kitchen round-up, hosted by Sherry of Sherry's Pickings.

After missing a few In My Kitchen posts, it is nice to be back for September. Here are some recent highlights from my kitchen, from new products to old staples.

A new product and an old staple comes in the form of tinned barley by Napolina. I love barley, but don't always love the time taken to cook it. Having a tin on hand is excellent when I need a quick meal (which is often).

Tinned barley

Every work day I buy a coffee from the coffee shop at my local train station. (I know this is a luxury). While they are making my oat milk latte, I ponder the cabinet with pastries and muffins. It has been years since I had a Danish pastry, but recently, they have been taunting me and making me wish a vegan alternative was available. I'm not aware of any vegan Danish pastry offerings so I made a version myself with Jus Roll puff pastry, Alpro custard, stewed apples and strawberries. I can't pretend these were authentic but they were tasty.

Vegan 'Danish pastry' variants

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Checking in, recent meals out and a vegan vanilla caramel butterfly cake

Well, hello. It is odd to log onto Blogger after nearly 2 months away. I confess that I haven't missed the act of blogging but I have missed the outlet for sharing food-related news and for connecting with regular readers. I hope you are all well.

I have been less active than I expected in reading blogs too. I opened Inoreader this week with a little apprehension - how much would have built up? - but found it freeing to look at 2 months of others' activity and know I could pick and choose what to read and what to comment on. It was a lovely surprise to see Johanna's reflection on blogging as part of my catch up. Her post captures many of my views and it summarises how blogging has changed and time can feel stretched for all of us.

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London

I think and hope I may be in a position to return to posting a little more often, but will make no promises in this post. I am pleased, however, to announce one update: Bite-sized thoughts is now on Instagram (@bitesizedthoughtsuk). I resisted Instagram for a long time because I thought it would be another thing to monitor and manage, but I like that I can share snapshots of products and meals when I wouldn't manage a full post. If you're on Instagram, let me know and I will look you up.

For now, I am pleased to share some highlights from the last 2 months.

Mini Bite in action

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(Not) in my kitchen - July 2018

This post will be short and sweet, and somewhat bittersweet. After 7.25 years and 1,035 posts I am taking a step back from blogging for a little while. Bite-Sized Thoughts will still be here and I will post intermittently, but the frequency will be less and likely variable.

With more demands on my time these days (a toddler-sized one, in particular!) blogging is still an enjoyable activity, but it also tends to feel like something on my To Do list. I hope in the future that will change and I will post regularly once more, but for now I am reducing the number of things I try to squeeze into each week and freeing up time for family, life and the occasional bit of relaxation (rare, with a toddler!).

I can read others' blogs on the train and so you may still see comments from me, or I may read and not comment, but for those of you who have read Bite-Sized Thoughts for weeks, months or years - thank you for your support and enthusiasm along the way. I look forward to checking in occasionally and perhaps reconnecting regularly in the future.

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Center Parcs and visiting family

It's been a busy two weeks in the Bite-Sized Thoughts household, as we followed a long weekend away with a visit from my sister and her boyfriend from Australia. Both were wonderful. My sister is now in France for a wedding but we're looking forward to welcoming her back for two further nights next week.

Coffee #1 in Warminster

We spent most of my sister's visit around our town and the adjoining countryside, but also made a day trip to Bodiam Castle. This is one of my favourite English castles with its intact exterior and impressive moat, but semi-ruined interior that you can climb around and explore without the confines of a tour. The picture below shows Mini Bite taking advantage of the opportunity to clamber. I first visited Bodiam as a 10-year-old and my family have returned regularly over the years, so it was also nice to go back with my sister and add to childhood memories

Mini Bite exploring Bodiam

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Carrot applesauce muffins

I'm pleased to say that Mini Bite and Mr Bite are back to full health. Mini Bite, in particular, is eating to make up for lost time and it is sometimes difficult to fill her up. I made these muffins to help get us through days of meals, snacks and more snacks!

We have also managed our long awaited first bike ride of 2018, and I hope to get out again this weekend. The weather is perfect for cycling and it is joyful to be on a bike again after so many months. 

 

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Giant wholemeal couscous salad with a tahini-maple dressing

I look back at my last post with a certain amount of wry acceptance. Alas, my hopes of long weekend bike riding and picnicking were not to be. Poor Mini Bite came down with a stomach bug early on Sunday morning and was unwell for the next 3 days. Poor Mr Bite had the same thing on Friday through to Saturday, and I am desperately hoping it ends there. (I had 24 hours of nausea but nothing more dramatic - at least to date!)

On to happier topics. This meal is, to me, the epitome of comfort food. 'Salad' usually conjures up images of crunchy greens but this dish is hearty and soothing. It pairs giant wholemeal couscous with sweet potato and peas, plus seasonings of paprika, turmeric and cinnamon and a simple tahini-maple dressing. You can enjoy it hot or cold, and as a side or main dish.

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Loving this week - Spring 2018

After a snowy start to spring, the UK has now leapt into warm weather. The sun has been shining, we have had maximums around 24'C, and the atmosphere is not even spring-like - it is decidedly summery.

Long time readers may recall that one reason we left Australia is that Mr Bite and I don't like hot weather. We burn easily, we aren't inclined towards lying on beaches, and we dislike the long hot Australian summers. Now we're in England, though, both of us are more kindly disposed towards sunshine. I am relishing the current warmth and the opportunity to go outside without coats and scarves. (Nonetheless, I will add that this is probably enough warmth for me. Mid-20's is perfect.)

I have soaked up the sunshine this week at home in Kent, around work in London, and on a work day trip to Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. Here are some photo highlights of England in its sunny glory. Mini Bite features a few times and you can see her clothing requirements decrease as the temperatures have increased!

Mini Bite exploring the Tonbridge riverside (still in a jacket but no longer a winter coat)

Our apple tree is starting to blossom

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From 2017 to 2018: Reflections and aspirations

I am not a fan of stereotypical New Year's resolutions, but I do like to use January as an opportunity to reflect on the year gone and the year head. Last year I outlined six goals, which I return to below. This year I have identified four. Before getting to those, here are some general comments on 2017 and a summary of key events and highlights (also some lowlights).

Somerset (March)

2017 was our first full year as parents and I returned to work from maternity leave. We started and ended the year with visits from my parents, and also welcomed my mother-in-law in spring and my sister in summer. We traveled to Somerset and Suffolk. Goodreads tells me I read 40 books, which is less than I'd have predicted (I read 67 in 2016) but is probably an accurate tally. I am fortunate to have reading time on my commute to work, but these days I have little time to read at home. We didn't visit the cinema but watched 19 films at home (10 fewer than in 2016).

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Zizzi's vegan eats - Salad and cake

We continue to enjoy my parent's company, although after today they are off visiting other family before returning to us for their final few nights in mid-January. Mostly we have relished the time with them, but an extra bonus last week was the opportunity to head out for dinner with Mr Bite and not Mini Bite. We have never left Mini Bite with a babysitter and this was our first night out as a couple in over 17 months. Quite the novelty!

Being the laid back pair we are, we didn't head anywhere fancy. Rather, we went to the local Zizzi so I could expand my experience of their vegan menu and Mr Bite could enjoy his usual pizza favourite.

Zizzi paved the way for vegan pizza a few years back, offering any of their pizzas with a 'vegan mozzarella alternative' instead of regular cheese. Said 'alternative' is made with coconut oil and I liked it well enough when I tried it, which is significant given I don't usually like cheese or non-dairy cheese. However, for me, I still prefer vegetarian pizza without cheese at all.

More recently, Zizzi has gone a step further and ensured that vegan customers can choose from a range of options for starters, mains and dessert. For some time I've wanted to try their sticky chocolate and praline torte, and last week was my opportunity.

Green goddess salad

To ensure I had room for dessert, I bypassed vegan pizza or pasta for the green goddess salad with broccoli. Despite sounding super-healthy, this is a delicious salad full of flavour and contrasting texture. It includes tenderstem broccoli, cannellini beans, tomatoes, mixed leaves, crunchy 'winter slaw' and a pesto with purple basil, pea shoots and toasted seeds. It's a salad, but a hearty one.

Fortunately, it isn't so hearty that dessert can't fit in too. In addition to the vegan torte, there is a vegan dessert calzone on offer and one day I will try this too (it features banana, berry coulis and crushed honeycomb). However, I had my heart set on torte this time around. It consisted of a super creamy, mousse-like chocolate cake on top of a date, hazelnut and walnut base and it came with coconut and chocolate ripple gelato. Both components were utterly delicious and enjoyed by me as well as Mr Bite.

All in all, it was a wonderful meal out and has motivated us to try Zizzi again before too long - even if the next visit may be a lunchtime with a toddler in tow!

On an unrelated but timely note - wishing all of my readers a very happy start to 2018 and a wonderful year to come.

Have you enjoyed any recent meals out?

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Christmas week

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with lots of laughter, love and good food. Life has been busy in the Bite-Sized Thoughts household for all the right reasons - my parents joined us from Australia on Christmas Eve and we have been soaking up their company after not seeing them for a year. Mini Bite was 5 months at their last visit and is almost 17 months now, so they are catching up on all her changes too.

We have enjoyed Christmas and ventured to some new local and semi-local sights - picture highlights below.

A present pile (and toy storage) all for Mini Bite

More presents (the walker wasn't one of them but was within the photo anyway!)

Our Christmas table

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Vegan pumpkin spice cake

Last week was my birthday, and birthdays are always a good excuse for cake. For home consumption I made the hummingbird cake I've posted twice before, which was just as good on this occasion as on occasions past. I also made a pumpkin spice cake to take to work, using the rest of the tin of pumpkin I recently bought.

Mr Bite doesn't like pumpkin, which is a shame, because I'd love to enter this cake into regular rotation. It was truly delicious. Three colleagues asked for the recipe, and whilst pumpkin preparation is annoying if you don't have the tinned variety to hand, I can attest it would be worth it here.

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Holidaying with a 15-month-old: A week in Suffolk

This last week has been a clear example of how our lives have changed since having Mini Bite. Two years ago, Mr Bite and I were travelling Scotland, thinking nothing of driving 4+ hours in a day, and walking extensively whatever the weather. Fast forward to now and we just had a week in Suffolk - all of 1.5 hours north of our home - where the key factors in our accommodation choice were the presence of a playground, indoor swimming pool, and animals for Mini Bite to visit. It was a different holiday, although equally enjoyable in its own way.

Gladwins Farm

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In my kitchen - November 2017

I am linking this in to the monthly In My Kitchen round-up, currently hosted by Sherry of Sherry's Pickings.

In my kitchen, it is often dark. I mentioned in my last post the end of daylight savings, but when I wrote it, I hadn't yet had a post-daylight savings workday. I'm officially in the stretch of the year when I leave for work in the dark and return from home in the dark. (I have a long commute, so it is at least light when I arrive at and leave work.)

Despite the darkness, there are bright food features to be found. I had to laugh at this 'Leapin Lemurs' cereal. The name amuses me and its pretense at being healthy amuses me. I bought it to snack on and I love the puffed peanut butter and chocolate flavoured balls - effectively a vegan version of Reese's peanut butter cup cereal. However, I can't imagine eating it for breakfast.

Instead, I have been having quinoa porridge for breakfast at home and packaged up to take to work. It is something I used to do a lot but then forgot about. I make mine by cooking 1 cup of quinoa with 2 cups of unsweetened almond milk, a diced apple, some vanilla, and some cinnamon or mixed spice. You can add a little more milk on serving if needed and additional fresh fruit. It is delicious warm or cold and I'm glad I've brought it back into rotation.

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Jacket potato stuffed with hummus, kale and pepper

This really doesn't qualify as a recipe, but sometimes the posts I like best on others' sites are those that give me inspiration without complication. In other words, posts like these, which may offer new ideas for ingredient combinations without lots of preparation time or effort. I'm not sure if this particular mix will be new to you - but it went down well for me this week as a simple but tasty lunch.

With little to say about this dish other than it being simple, quick and tasty, I will share some random other points with this post...

• Christmas products are officially in the shops. I am not a fan of Christmas marketing this early, but was pleased to see vegan white chocolate santas on sale for just 10p each (in Sainsburys).I bought 12! I think it may have been a labeling error (usually they are £1).

• For various reasons I won't bore you with, I found myself with time at home this week while Mini Bite was at nursery. It was my first time in the house without her in the 13 months since she was born. It was (and I hope I don't sound like a bad mother for saying this) amazing. I got so much done! It was so quiet! Things stayed where I left them! I will have to find a way to repeat the experience before another 13 months passes.
• Also coming up as a 'first since Mini Bite's arrival' is my first half marathon in almost 2 years. I'm running the Tonbridge half marathon on the 1st October and am excited to get out there and attempt 13.1 miles again. I've got up to 11 miles in training, so I'm hoping my body remembers the final stretch.
• It's been a while since I've shared book, TV or movie recommendations. I may organise myself to do a proper summary soon, but for now, I will say that we recently (finally) watched A Theory of Everything and loved it. I was also excited to hear about the new release, Mother, by Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky. However, on reading about it I am not sure I'll actually like the film. If you see it, let me know what you think. Given we never make it out to the cinema, I probably won't watch it for several years anyway.

Jacket potato stuffed with hummus, kale and pepper

Quick, easy and tasty!

Serves 1

Vegan

Author: Bite-sized thoughts

Print recipe

Ingredients

1 potato of a size to suit your appetite

1 cup baby kale leaves or chopped regular kale

1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup hummus

Salt and pepper, optional and to taste

Method

If using a microwave, microwave your potato until cooked through - in my case, roughly 7 minutes on medium-high power, turning once at the half way mark. If cooking in the oven, bake until cooked through.

Once cooked, cut the potato in half and scoop the soft potato filling into a small bowl. Stir through the kale, pepper, hummus and seasonings. Scoop back into the potato skin and serve.

What are you eating, or doing, this week?

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Double up strawberry apple bars {vegan + no added sugar}

I am rather proud of these bars. They are sweetened entirely by strawberries and apples, but still taste sweet. The fat content comes entirely from coconut and cashew butter, which add flavour as well as texture. All in all, they highlight that whole foods can be sufficient when baking.

I made these last weekend, when the sun was shining and we had an unusually sunny bank holiday Monday. (Unusual because bank holidays in England are characteristically associated with rain.) We did make it down to the coast, to Hastings, where we had a picnic lunch and visited the sea shore. It wasn't so warm that we wanted to swim - and Mini Bite proved scared of the sea anyway! - but we enjoyed our outing. These bars accompanied the picnic.

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Carob coconut avocado breakfast pudding

It is a bank holiday weekend here in England, and it comes at a perfect time for the Bite-Sized household. After the excitement of my sister's visit and Mini Bite's first birthday, we were fortunate to see family from Canada last weekend. Around that, we had our first two weeks of "real" work routines. In other words, Mr Bite and I are both back working and Mini Bite is in nursery three days per week. (Mr Bite had July off under shared parental leave, to ease the transition of my return to work.) Those routines are going better than I could have hoped, but it has still felt like a busy time. All in all, an extra day at home is welcome!

The weather for this weekend is also beautifully summery, to the extent that we may visit the coast on Monday. Today we took advantage of the sunshine to fit in a scenic bike ride, something that is still relatively novel since we bought a child bike seat three months ago.

Today's recipe is perfect for long weekends and summer days, but it would suit weekdays and clouds equally well. It's easy to make and jam-packed full of nutrition whilst also tasting delicious. I know many of you dislike carob - just swap cocoa powder in if that applies to you.

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New (to me) vegan lunches and snacks

It's been an exciting week in the Bite-Sized household. My sister is visiting from Australia and it is the first time I've seen her in over 3 years. It's also her first time meeting Mini Bite, and the visit spans Mini Bite's first birthday next week. I'm still at work this week but have next week off for birthday and visiting celebrations. So, with all this happening, I hope you'll understand if this post is short and sweet!

I did want to share some recent phone-snapped photos (please forgive quality) of new-to-me vegan products. One of the benefits of being back at work is having access to a new range of vegan lunch options in London, and the excuse to buy lunch and snacks on the go again. There are a surprising number of new options given my absence of only a year. M&S and Pret a Manger have branches near where I live or visit regularly, so today's post covers some of the less widespread options, albeit not necessarily London specific.

First, and starting away from lunch, did you know that Leon restaurants now stock vegan baked goods from Ruby's of London? I raved about Ruby's products in 2014 when I encountered them at the Greenwich food market. Sadly I don't make it to Greenwich these days, so having access to the items in central London is fantastic. I stopped at the London Bridge Leon restaurant and they had an assortment of vegan iced baked donuts and cupcakes.

Iced rose and pistachio donut by Ruby's of London, courtesy of Leon Restaurants

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Meal planning

For a long time, I have been someone who aspired to create a weekly meal plan, but who never did so. It has taken our current circumstances to push me from aspiration to realisation. You see, while I am back at work 4 days per week, Mr Bite is now home with Mini Bite. This takes advantage of the UK system allowing parents to take up to a year of parental leave between them. I was home for 11 months; Mr Bite is taking the last month to soak up time with Mini Bite and to ease the transition for her before she starts nursery in August.

To make life easier for all of us, I have taken to planning Mini Bite's meals and snacks for the week. We try and eat similarly to Mini Bite where possible during the day, so there are run-on plans for us too, and I am planning our evening meals separately.

To anyone else who has contemplated meal planning but not quite managed it - do it! It makes such a difference. Some of it will roll from one week into the next, so it is the first week that requires most thought. I don't plan Thursdays or Saturdays in detail, as Mr Bite has a take-away on Thursday (I make something easy at home as local vegan take away's aren't that inspiring, unless we've been out somewhere in the day where I can pick up a vegan meal). We then have burgers on Saturday.

I don't expect to share our plans every week, but I thought I would give you a peek into a week of menus. It reflects the day-to-day of plant-based eating as well as the more impressive meals and recipes that are more likely to make it online. At present we are relying a little more than usual on processed foods (like veggie sausages), but the plan below is a pretty accurate snapshot of how we regularly eat.

Chickpea flour pancakes with a tomato-bean filling

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