No such thing as bad weather...

I'm sure it was Billy Connolly who once remarked: 'There's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes,' and I cling to that thought on bad weather days. I mean, the boys love splashing in puddles! However, today did push that a bit! I finally took steps to replace our hole-ridden buggy raincover this afternoon, which I'd been putting off! I was a bit late to collect the boys from preschool after work at lunchtime- the train platform digital display read 'delayed' which you get to know means ' may never come at all'! Got a black cab.. my oh my, that was an expensive journey! I've always thought that even thought they are pricey at least the drivers are knowledgeable. Well, the traffic was bad, but on top of that we had to keep stopping so the taxi driver could check his map! He mumbled something about not charging me for the time, even though he did at the end, when I was too keen to dash out and get my boys rather than stay and quibble! Grrr...

Still, we dried out soon enough. The boys got their Bookstart treasure chests today and have already started enjoying its contents, really lovely books and such a fantastic scheme.

Made some soup by roasting some jerusalem artichokes (from Dad's allotment) with some onion, and adding mushrooms, brown lentils, seasoning and other vegetables from the fridge. (The boys ended up eating some coating pasta!) Had ciabatta topped with 'cheezly' (melting mozzarrella style) and paprika with it. I hadn't heated cheezly before, and we thought it made a really good cheese substitute. I am now on the look out for the perfect vegan macaroni 'cheese' recipe. The boys love it (Barney the dinasour has a whole song about it on one of their dvds) and Luca asked for mac cheese almost every day when he was getting over chicken pox. His identified comfort food. I made it with organic dairy cheese but would like to see how they like a vegan version.

Tonight we made a sweet banana smoothie and they had ginger biscuits with it:

1 banana

half cup soya milk

2 scoops Swedish glace (vanilla)

2 walnuts

handful linseeds.

Was really nice- will make enough for all of us next time. The ginger biscuits are part of an attempt (when I remember) to give the boys some ingredients which I always perceived as ‘adult’ tastes as a child.

Looking back, when I was veggie, I remember seeing a vegan diet as possibly nudging towards the extreme but am quite embarrased I had that view now. Since following an almost vegan diet, my eyes have been opened to so many amazing ingredients and my tastebuds are loving it. Another misconception I held is that the vegan diet is on the lean side, whereas actually, , its just like any other diet, you can follow healthy options, or indulge in loads of unhealthy treats. Have defnitiely been having too many of the latter recently and its starting to show!