Vegan Meal Ideas - Potato Edition!

 

I love potatoes. I'm sure many people love potatoes. In all their different forms! I'm not into all this no-carb life and cutting out entire food groups (minus animal products obviously haha) and although this post may make it seem otherwise, I do like to try and live by 'everything in moderation!
As the weather is cooling down and yet again it's been far too long between my vegan food posts, I thought it was the right time for some comforting, potato-filled, vegan inspiration.
Here are five different ways we've eaten potatoes recently... 

Potato Latkes
My take on the traditionally Jewish fried potato pancake or fritter that is often eaten over Hanukkah.
Obviously, it contains no egg and so is vegan. 

Cheesy Broccoli Mashed Potatoes
Another variation of mashed potatoes including cheese and broccoli mashed in - so good!

Cheesy Potato Bake
I wasn't sure what you'd call this but I guess it is kind of like a pasta bake but with potato rounds instead.
Thin round slices of potato layered with a homemade cheesy sauce, oven-baked, and topped with garlic & parsley.

Fried Garlic and Chive Potato Pancakes
Rather than grated potatoes like the latkes, these are essentially mashed potato versions.
Mashed potato with spring onions fried in a frying pan and topped with parsley.

Green Lentil Shepards Pie
A shocking entry on this list for anyone who knows me and probably the first 'pie' I've ever eaten.
I wanted to try this to add a quick, easy, filling meal option to our list of recipes.
Made with green lentils, peas, and onion and topped with mashed potato!

I now have a whole host of different vegan food posts here on Underland to Wonderland and countless options for many different people and their needs including fussy eaters, easy-to-cook, gluten-free, healthier options and comfort foods.
Click this link here for a lot more posts - Vegan Food Ideas!

You don't have to be vegan to try any of the foods in my posts and you don't have to go fully vegan to add more plant-based meals into your diet. It's common knowledge that a vegan diet literally helps to save our planet so without getting on my soapbox and ranting, I do implore you to try and increase your vegan intake and decrease animal-derived ingredients from your life.

Hopefully, my posts help to show that we don't just eat seeds and leaves. So many things that non-vegans eat either are also vegan or can be made vegan very easily. There are more options now than ever so try something vegan!

Until next time...

Our Signed Book Collection

 

This is a post I've wanted to do for a while, but with many other books on pre-order, I kept putting it off.

We won't be* buying many if any, new books for a while so I thought now that the last signed edition has arrived and as it has been about a month since my last book related post it was the perfect time to gather the books together and 'take stock' of sorts!

I am a collector. Of many things. But we loved to collect books and I especially find signed books extra special. To think that the person who spent so much love, time, and effort in writing that book also took the time to sign it by hand feels really cool to me and so I don't just buy signed editions from authors I already love but from new-to-me authors of books I love the look of. 

The signed books in our collection have come from a few different places, regrettably many from Waterstones - the less we talk about them just now the better! However, there are also books that have come from Forbidden Planet, Fox Lane Books, Forum Books, one came from a charity shop and we didn't know it was signed until Mr H read it and finally, I actually won War of the Wind by Victoria Williamson on Twitter!

*...well, we'll be trying not to...

I am gutted to say that I am yet to read 16 of the 32 that are mine (there are 36 in total though 4 are not my cup of tea and are Mr H's books. All of the books are 'our' books however there are some that are more my taste and some more to his). I am so excited to get around to all of them, if only I had more hours in the day to read more.

I've taken close-up photos of some of the more special or cool signatures but I'd also like to mention a short list of some of my favorites out of those I've read so far.
Including:

The Secret of Haven Point by Lisette Auton - One of my favorite books of the year! Check out this post here to read why.

Rumaysa and Rumaysa Ever After by Radiya Hafiza - Completely magical books bringing to life classic fairytales with an empowering, Muslim girl as their lead. LOVE!! 

The Lost Whale by Hannah Gold - I adored The Last Bear and I found this just as heartbreakingly beautiful and poignant. 

Finally, of course, I adore all of the Ransom Riggs books.

So yeah, that is our current signed book collection as of 2022! 
Until next time...

Cats I Loved in June

 

Now that October has passed, I have now officially been volunteering with Cats Protection for over a year!
I originally applied to volunteer in 2019, had my phone interviews etc and had a meeting booked to go into the centre in February 2020. We all know what happened then... Thankfully I was very lucky to hear back in September 2021 and although I hadn't left my house for over a year and a half at that point, I pushed myself to do this because it was such a special opportunity. My title is Cat Desensitization Volunteer and as of the start of this year, I have also been running our centre's Instagram and doing bits for the other social media channels.
Once a week I get to go in and spend a few hours with the cats. I hug those that want to be hugged, play with those who want to play and just sit with those who may be afraid or are timid to help 'desensitize' them and give them company. While in I also take photos and videos to use on social media. Obviously, they also feature in my daily photo project as I want to remember every single cat I have the pleasure of meeting and loving. I was in two minds about sharing the photos here but have decided that I'm going to share them with a 6-month delay as by that time they will all be re-homed and a lot have had their names changed. This is purely for my own memories, as with everything on this blog but I'm sure people won't mind getting to see photos of cute cats...?

This day was National Hug Your Cat Day!
 Kirby
Leo
Alicia & Nessy

Zircon, Obsidian & Amethyst
Minim
Kiki

Doja
Angelina
Nessy
Sapphire
Rosie
Ted

Solero
Minim
Kiki
Cossie
Miles & Ronnie

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I tell each and every cat ' I love you' when I leave and my heart always breaks to close the door behind me whether they are sitting cosy in their hide or clawing and meowing at the glass. This volunteer placement has become a huge part of my life and part of my weekly routine. I can't wait to continue my journey with Cats Protection and urge you to check out your local centre!

Pop on over to Cats Protection | UK’s Largest Cat Welfare Charity to find the centre closest to you. Donate, shop online, buy from the centres' Amazon wishlist and most importantly ADOPT DON'T SHOP!!! Oh, and spay and neuter you're bloomin' pets. Rescue centres all over the country are really struggling right now and they all need your support. Thanks!

Check out lots more cute cats in the previous post in this series here >
Cats I Loved in January
Cats I Loved in February
Cats I Loved in March
Cats I Loved in April
Cats I Loved in May


Until next time...

Our Samhain and Halloween 2022

As I've mentioned in previous posts, this year our Halloween/Samhain/Anniversary looked a little bit different!This was the first time since 2019, the year we got married, that we spent the 31st of October away from home. And it was weird. Don't get me wrong, it was a much needed, well appreciated and a wonderful time...it was just so strange spending the most important day of the year away from home.

This is just a quick round up of what we actually did this Halloween, with plenty of photos. There will be many more posts to follow of our accomadtion, adventures and a dedicated post of our 2022 decorations.

Of course for us Halloween is more than a one day celebration, though for some reason this October didn't feel as October-y as Octobers normally feel. It was a busy month, I was on shift for my bereavment support role the week ending on the 30th and Mr H was at work a lot so of the things we'd usually do during the month didn't really happen. Decor went up later than usual and traditional movies didn't get watched. So to counteract that we extended into November!

Have a peek below to see how our non-tradtional tradtional Halloween and Samhain went...

Above shows the 31st of October 2022. Our 3rd wedding anniversary, 4th of being together and the day we travelled to our accomadation.
On the way to our final destination we took the opportunity to stop by the famous Kelpies for a visit, before heading on to the Wallace Monument woodland trail and finally home for the next 2 nights...Bag End. Again, there will be individual posts on all of these places so I won't say too much now.
By the time we got the fire lit and settled into our little Burrow the sun was already setting so it was time to prepare our Samhain meal. Although we had similar foods to our usual Samhain meal (we cooked a lot at home in the morning and was able to reheat it using the hob there), it was different this year as we were unable to set a place for those departed nor did not have my little alter of photos of our lost loved ones - I hope they knew that no matter where we are, no matter the day of the year we are always thinking of them and welcome their presence always. 
To end the evening we carved our Jack O Lanterns from the pumpkins that provided the main ingredient for the soup we ate.

Waking up somewhere so magical and so perfect for us was surreal. With a skylight above the bed, light rain in the early hours woke us up after a slight lay-in at around 7am. We had originally planned to head over to Loch Lomond though we ended up deciding to have a slower mini-break, staying closer to the accomadation meaning we had more time to really enjoy being there. 
I had found some cool ruins online in a woodland walk near Stirling University that had a view of Wallace Monment from them so we headed there, parked up and headed out on what ended up a 5 mile hike. The original ruins alluded us, desptie looping around and climing up steep leaf covered hills but we did have a wonderful walk seeing many auntumn sights as well as Logie Kirk and the Old Logie Kirk 'ruins' and cemetary. 
Back at Bag End I took some time to get lots of photos while it was still light, including our Novemeber portraits. We had vegan burgers and potatoes for tea and tried to play a board game...try being the principal word as it wasn't the most user friendly starting out!

We left Bag End with heavy hearts on the 2nd and headed home happily to our babies! My parents had come to look after them, which we are so greatful for because if it weren't for them we'd never leave home at all. I don't trust any one else looking after the zoo!
We had a normal evening on the 2nd but once my parents had gone home on the 3rd we had a traditional Hallow Halloween! Complete with pizza, crisps, sweets, cocktails and movies. (I think we were going to do it all over again in December too haha!).

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And that was our Samhain, Halloween and Anniversary celebrations! I look forward to sharing lots more photos over the coming months and would love to hear how you spent the magical month of October!

Until next time...