favourite zucchini spaghetti with a raw tomato salsa

pomodoro salsa:fresh garlic, fresh and ripe vine tomatoes(6),1TBS unfiltered Biona cider vinegar, 2 TBS olive oil, cayenne mixes to a smooth and velvety salsa. Pour over a bed of raw zucchini spaghetti, enjoy!

traditional N.African ie Moroccan product AKA barley cous cous find!

being real being human!

Praise and cheers goes out to the lovely Welsh actress, Catherine Zeta Jones for seeking professional help for bipolar and depression. Hopefully this endorsement will help to dispel and destigmatise mental illness as a taboo subject(I hope so)and thus save and improve lives!

let's have animal-friendly chocolate cake!

fine organic wholemeal flour(I normally use organic spelt but this was 50p off due to a slight tear in the paper packaging:)
cacoa powder
tiny amount of coconut sugar
2tsp baking soda
water
almond extract
cider vinegar

frosting: coconut sugar combined with coconut butter!

Sublime Smoothie

Started my Sunday with the most satiatingly-sublime green smoothie brunch: organic pointed sweet cabbage,
3 small local(Kent) apples, juice of 2 lemons(lemon and lime juice are soo incredibly-versatile and adds a real depth of flavor to any juice, smoothie or meal:) and a small, but perfectly-ripe avocado; ah what bliss in a glass. It was DELICIOUS! Go on try it for yourself(you know you want to:0), I dare you?! The perrrfectly-balanced, Sunday brunch meal in a glass for a healthy brain / mind, body and soul, Namaste

Here's why Veronka(founder of The Mother Magazine:) is a favorite bloggist!

Zest and Ordinary Days



I love ordinary days…


This morning I woke at 6.45am. It’s dark then! I made Paul and I our morning drink of hot water and lemon. He usually makes it and brings it to me in bed.The zing of lemon zest always makes me feel good. This was followed by a kelp and chia smoothie.


I felt the need to bake some lemon and blueberry scones to see if I want to include the recipe in my upcoming cookbook. (I DO!) We ate them later while I gave the girls a psychological astrology lesson.

Then I had a mentoring session by phone. During that time Eliza made a lovely barley soup for lunch.

Both girls did their music practise; I played cello. This afternoon I baked chocolate and almond cupcakes for a friend up the road to say ‘thanks for feeding the felines while we were away’. I delivered them earlier under the light of a beautiful three quarter moon.


Paul and I pottered in the garden, tidied up the shed where the back issues of TM are stored, made the compost heap a bit higher, took today’s postage down to the post office, fed the birds.


More time spent in the kitchen preparing vegan moussaka for tonight’s meal. A special friend is joining us for dinner. I’m looking forward to a long chatty evening by the fire.


I’ve been choosing my favourite recipes for The Mystic Cookfire and am immersed in the soup chapter this week, and spent some time going through astrological charts for some phone consultations.

Bethany was doing fashion design, and is now at her flute lesson a mile from here. Eliza’s reading a book on creative writing.


Paul’s spent a good chunk of the day doing TM admin. That’s my boy! He’ll be in Su Doku heaven right now while Bethany’s in her music lesson.


So, today’s just another ‘ordinary’ day but within that there’s zest. It’s a zest for life and following one’s passion. This is at the heart of unschooling. By observing their parents live their lives, our girls have found passions of their own. Bethany’s interests include music, drawing, dancing, writing, design. Eliza’s include history, historical fiction, writing, drama and music. They’ve come to these interests in their own time and way…all discovered on ordinary days.

Happy New Year, 2011!