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I’m going to start this post with a confession and end it with a plea. You see, when I talk about ‘reading’, I’m not referring to what you’re probably expecting to hear about ie. novels I am currently enjoying. That’s because I don’t read novels, and I honestly cannot remember the last novel I even read. View Post

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I wouldn’t call myself a ‘food blogger’, more of a “crap-what’s-for-dinner-oh-yes-there-is-that-aubergine-in-the-fridge” kind of writer. I post simple, nutritious, mainly plant-based meals for busy people who might, just say, be mopping up yoghurt off the floor with one hand and layering pasta sheets with the other, meals or snacks that are EASY to make and make your soul actually feel good. View Post

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The festive period should be a wonderful time to come together as a family, delve into your religion or spirituality a little (if that’s relevant to you and yours), eat some delicious food and exchange a few gifts for fun. Don’t let the consumerism side of it take over, live by the rules you want to and you’ll have a wonderful few weeks.  This year, I’ll be living by the below:

*Be honest – my relatives know my opinion on all things ‘stuff’ by now so I will be asking them in a kind way not to give the kids loads of gifts. Don’t shy away from how you feel – you can still be sensitive around it!
*Be practical – practical gifts that the kids really need, and which are still a treat, are always winners
*Drop the shame – I have no qualms in wrapping up an empty washed out spray for Sonny to have his very own spray to clean with. And you know what, I bet Jack will want one exactly the same

Here’s some things I’m considering getting the kids (or already have, and adore!):


A notebook to personalise and write down memories from the day or fill with recipes they enjoy making, £3.50 for 5

Paint your own wooden bird house, to get arty and enjoy nature in the process, £2.99


Kids kitchen knife and peeler, to get them helping in the kitchen. £34

Garden gloves, to foster those green fingers young. £4.19


Quilted cosy pyjamas, £13

Goldfish, because kids can keep beings alive alive too

Mindful Kin cards, because sometimes you need a reminder to be mindful (and fun!) with your kids. £9.50


Stainless steel straws, there ain’t no better way to slurp. £5.50


DOT magazine subscription, aka the coolest magazine out there for pre-schoolers, £20 for 4 issues

What will you be getting your little ones? Any amazing gifts that went down super well that you can share with us?

Emma xxx

P.S 10 Ethical Valentines Gifts under £20 and 10 Loving Gifts for Mother’s Day

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I have many faults but I don’t think vanity is one of them. My dad called it on my wedding day in his father of the bride speech (in front of my new husband to be – thanks dad, I think) and I have to say, he’s right. Becoming a mother only concretized this; I have no qualms in leaving the house basically in my pyjamas with zero make up on and sometimes without even having looked at myself in the mirror. (This seriously backfired last year when I turned up at work with my eye mask still slung around my neck. Not such a cool look in a business meeting.) View Post

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This is one of those soups that has super simple ingredients which together – and even more so after one, two, three, FOUR days in the fridge – yes, that’s how many days in a row I ate this soup (I am addicted) – taste just incredible. I think it’s the combination of the coconut oil, dates and paprika that make it so exceedingly sweet and so deliciously spicy. The Moroccan spices are easy to get hold of and who doesn’t have a can of tomatoes and some chickpeas lurking at the back of the cupboard? So here goes – a wonderfully simple soup recipe that makes the tastiest, most warming and MOREISH soup that is low in calories and packed with health benefits. You will need:

MAKES ENOUGH FOR 3-4 PEOPLE

  • A small scoop of coconut oil (use your hand and give yourself an impromptu hand massage with what remains)
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves chopped up
  • 2 carrots chopped
  • 2 tsp tomato puree or tomato ketchup
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp paprika (be generous if you like spice)
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 litre vegetable stock
  • 1 400g can of tomatoes (chopped or whole – doesn’t matter)
  • 1 handful of dates chopped
  • 1 handful of fresh herbs (parsley / basil / coriander)
  • 1 400g can of cooked chickpeas/ lentils / buckwheat – really doesn’t matter – this just adds bulk
  • half a packet of spinach or four big handfuls
  • 1 dollop of Oatly creme fraiche (vegan-friendly), otherwise just yoghurt
  • sprinkle of flaxseed / chia seeds / sesame seeds
  • green herbs to garnish (parsley pictured)

Melt the coconut oil and sauté the onion and garlic in a big pot for a few minutes. Add all the spices and stir, followed by the tomato puree, vegetable stock, carrots and tomatoes and simmer for about half an hour. Add the dates and the chickpeas / whatever your bulking agent is and simmer for a few more minutes / however long it takes to get kids to bed / people to the table. 5 minutes before it’s time to eat, add in the spinach and stir until wilted. Serve with a dollop of Oatly or yoghurt, any leftover dates, sprinkles of flaxseed / chia seeds / sesame seeds and something green on top. Best served with a giant chunk of bread, a glass of red wine and a flickering candle to stare in to

Emma xx

P.S 3 Ingredient Oat Milk and Outrageously Good Vegan Lasagne

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CRIPES, this blog post has been in my drafts for months. Much like my own photos, somehow the super personal blog posts are the ones that get sidelined. Dairy free milk and hassle free potty training tips always strike me as far more widely appealing topics, but the reality is, it’s this sort of post that I, as a mother, return to again and again to remember what exactly was going on with the kids – Jack, aged 3 years, seven months, and Sonny, one year and five months. They’re also the posts that I find most easy to write (and also why I assume must be less ‘good’ because they require less effort on my part). I think it’s because the words are all floating around my head and heart and it’s once I finally find the time to put finger to keyboard that they all just come flowing out. It’s a real release. Having always kept a diary which I still scribble notes in from time to time, I love documenting what’s going on around me. Because, yes I want to know what they were doing, what they loved saying, what they were eating and what were they were wearing. What were their favourite games, and what pissed them off no end? What was I, as a mum struggling with, and what makes me excited each day? So here goes, November 2017, where we at kiddos?

Summer has been and gone (camping was my highlight), we moved house (which brought with it a new nursery), and I’m back at YouTube three days a week. Jack, let’s start with you. You are literally one of my best mates these days. We chat non stop. Non stop. I look forward to you walking calmly into our bedroom each morning often asking with genuine curiosity, “why are you still in bed?” Nappies are long gone, at night too, though the odd accident does happen which doesn’t matter one jot. You’ve taken to your new nursery ridiculously well, and have already been given the nickname “Jackarooroo.” On the whole you (and your few wooden trains) are 95% amazingly behaved though the other week for some reason, you were really difficult all day and that totally threw me. It really, really upset me. We talked it out and I hope we don’t see that side of you again for a while. I guess you must have been tired, or something. We all have bad days but I shocked myself by how much it affected me. And whenever you do ‘play up’, we always talk it out afterwards when you’re feeling better. I suppose I discipline you broadly using these ‘techniques‘ but now as you’re getting older, and understand everything, we mainly just talk things over when they go wrong. What else? You love singing and making up little jingles. Of late, you’ve also got into rapping with daddy and you enjoy nothing more than helping me cook, always wanting to pull up a stool, climb on top and stir whatever I’m stirring. We grew some vegetables this Summer so you learnt that vegetables come from the ground, and not from the supermarket. You love practising yoga with me and always ask for new poses – balancing is your thing right now. We made pizza from scratch the other week and we’re totally overdue a cake making session soon. Tomorrow’s plan involves laying down newspapers and helping mama pick out pomegranate seeds. You’re still as adaptable as ever and never cease to surprise me with just how well you cope with whatever we throw at you. No lunch til 2.30 pm? No problem. New bedroom? Whatever. Right now I’ve left you in your bedroom watching the fireworks out the window just exclaiming at each colour with Sonny watching on.  You’re smart. Wow, I think you’re smart. The other morning a gardener popped over and you just sat on the doorstep chatting to him for a good half an hour about, I don’t even know. Life, I guess. I left you to it, and the gardener certainly enjoyed the unexpected chat. At the moment, you tell me that you’re favourite things are trains and gazelles and you notice everything said and done around you. “Why did you take your necklace off, mama?” More than anything, you strike me as mature, polite (I am always keen to remind you to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ – I just think this sets kids on a good path in life) and a kid that loves life. I love you so much, Jacky and am so crazy proud of you.

Sonny (Sonster, Sonny bunny, Son bun), you’re now a fully fledged toddler and walk everywhere! You’re trying your absolute best to talk – “bah-bools”, “bot bot” and “nap nap” are among your first words. You are obsessed with bananas – literally, everything can be cured with a “nah nah” and there are times I can’t help it, but I look at you and cannot believe you’re as cute as you are #mamalove. After our time c0-sleeping when you were a baby which I so loved, you’re now a really good sleeper. You went through a phase of not wanting to settle at night a few months back and one day I realised you may have simply felt lonely and that you’d be OK if you were with your best mate. And it seemed to work! It also still makes my heart swell every time I put you both to bed (some tips on how I transitioned them here). You now love going to bed and sleep through the night 9 times out of 10. You won’t go many places without your beloved sheep (Ewan the sheep or ‘ish’) who has turned a slightly grey colour and gets dragged everywhere. You love to play peekaboo and bring your joyful smile and infectious little giggle wherever you go. Like your brother, you are totally content in your own world stacking tupperware and whatever else you find. You love your food but are becoming more discriminate – you did not like the pumpkin mama gave you last night. Neither of you are vegan kids but I’d love for you to be…I’m working on it. You love kicking around a ball and are becoming quite an expert dribbler. Indeed, you’re at the stage – and I remember this well with Jack – where you just want to walk. And walk and walk and walk. Doesn’t matter where, but you are finding your freedom and enjoying every step of the journey. You’re not clingy and just want to explore. You’re outgrowing your oshkosh (sad times) but you and your brother live in other hand me downs and love your new dr martens. You’re learning so quickly just from watching Jack and I’m sure you’ll soon be talking sentences. Again like Jack, you’re awesomely flexible (even more so, considering your age) and need no particular time for meals or sleeps – you just go with us and fit in like nothing I could have ever dreamt of. You’re simply the best Son, and I love you worlds and worlds.

The relationship you two Jack and Sonny have can only be described as ‘brotherly; Jack, you keep an eye out for Sonny when we’re out and about but when we’re home you two play, bicker over trains, share plums and generally just ‘hang’. It’s beautiful to witness. Sleeping in the same bedroom together has undoubtedly brought you closer. I feel like Sonny might be more ‘sporty’ whereas Jack perhaps more ‘arty’ but who knows. Thursdays and Fridays are my days with you both and these are by far my favourite days. We tend to make very few or no plans (#zeroplansdays) and just go with the flow. We have very little routine and spend our days in coffee shops and garden centres and going to the shops. Nothing particularly interesting, but equally it’s the stuff that rocks my world and makes me feel like I am achieving sh*t in life. I love every step of mothering you both (the reusable nappy stuff and incessant scrubbing, not always), and I don’t know why but I *just* don’t enjoy reading bedtime stories (by that point I’m always knackered, who wants to read?! Does that make me a bad mum…?), I have still never learnt more about myself than on this job and am genuinely excited for what lies ahead when I wake up each morning. Thank you both for being, ummm, you. Mama xxx

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I’ve known Sam, my husband, for sixteen years so officially half my life. Whilst we have almost identical values, a very similar sense of humour and a love that runs very deep, day to day we are in many ways wildly different people. And thankfully so – because had I ended up with someone like me I’d probably be living in a tent somewhere with all my money stashed underneath a blanket and have either no kids or like, ten kids. So whilst he’s taken on yoga, has become a pretty adept camper and eats daal at least once a week, I get to go to gigs, hear about the world of Fin Tech and now understand why food hygiene ratings at restaurants matter. We complement each other and have a set of behaviours we try to stick to all the while learning a helluva lot in the process. Because what’s a relationship if it isn’t compromise, exploring and learning from and with each other all the while trying to allow the other one to be who we were always meant to be? Beyond that though Sam makes me want to work on myself like no one else can. He reminds me almost on a daily basis that life is short and not to take it too seriously, to take things slow (he hates rushing and compares himself to a sloth), he lets me be free and he asks very little of me.

It was during a long car journey a few months back when we were having one of those conversations couples have – the kind when both kids are asleep, you have a hot coffee by your side and good music playing – that we were reminiscing about the silly things he’ s done for me. So here’s 10 things Sam has done for me over the years that have made us grow together as a family, learn a little, laugh a little, get frustrated a little…

1. Live 1.5 minutes walk from his in laws

Despite Sam being really close to my parents and the extra help having them there afforded us with the kids, it was still a substantial life choice of ours to live literally 1.5 minutes walk away from my parents for three years and have mum pop in to borrow a vase / return a buggy basically every day (which I loved, by the way mum if you’re reading this). I’m grateful for dressing gowns, is all I’ll say.

2. Go vegan

It was back in December 2016 after reading up about Veganuary that I decided I’d give veganism a go in 2017. Sam stuck it out pretty much for the entirety of January and still now, we eat very little meat at home (I’ll cook meat for him once a week) and are increasingly turning away from dairy (wahey!)

3. Listen to chillfm every time we go anywhere in the car

Anyone that follows me on Instagram will know that I regularly listen to Chill fm ; an ad-free, digital radio station that pumps out ‘chill out’ music and is amazing for getting kids to sleep. I love it but it’s essentially incredibly bland music with a tendency to repeat songs and a tagline of “we’re here to help you chill”.

4. Become hairy

I have a thing for hairy men (I used be part of a Facebook group called ‘Real Men have Stubble’) and pretty much hide Sam’s razor from him.

5. Have a wife who wears a brace and eye mask to bed every night.

Oh, hai there! Yes, I still wear my mouth retainer at night and an eye mask to bed. Sexy times.

6. Sleep next to someone who can never find her brace and eye mask, religiously, every night.

Seriously – with two small kids and no bedside table, these are super easy items to lose.

7. Eat raw fish with our hands up some dodgy scaffolding in the freezing cold

I fall for anything with the word ‘festival’ in it, and this occasion, I fell hard. One evening this Summer, we found ourselves sitting in what was marketed as a ‘treehouse’ but was actually some scaffolding, eating a ‘woodland meze’ (me) which was actually some decanted humus and a few nuts and a truly undercooked piece of fish. If anyone else went, please tell me you thought it was as bizarre as we did! (Though to their credit, apparently the oven wasn’t working that night…)

8. Go camping with a hurricane coming

Like a few other things, Sam has learnt to take on my love for camping. But there was one time that we were due to go, and on innocently checking the weather that morning, a severe storm appeared to be hitting precisely where we were heading. (Sam was incredible and gently suggested that we change location).

9. Never use aircon

It can be absolutely sweltering outside and I still don’t switch it on. I just don’t like air conditioning, whether in a car, hotel room or aeroplane. Fresh (hot, sticky) air for the win.

10. Wear cut up t shirts that show half his torso

I like to cut up his (albeit kind of crappy) t-shirts. He looks really hot with them like that, what can I say!

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Are you and your partner similar ? What have you asked of or sacrificed for each other? I’d love to hear.

And if you’re wandering what I’ve done for him, well that blog post is in the making….

Love,

Emma xxx

P.S Here’s 10 things I’ve learnt about men

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“Moving house is the second most stressful thing that can happen to you, after divorce”, was the main response leveled at us when we told people we were moving house. With two young children, a new job, and a husband with a super busy job, it’s true to say that I felt somewhat anxious and a little overwhelmed by the thought of uprooting and moving us and our 4505704534 belongings. I found myself regretting our decision to move house and fantasized about staying put in our home. Nice, easy, safe.

M(oving)-day was creeping ever closer when I forced myself to begin to systematically sort through rooms, spaces, cupboards. The wardrobe on the landing that has just had things thrown into it without thinking for three years, the ‘art’ drawers that were supposed to contain crafts but which I knew probably had living matter in them, my wardrobe which had clothes in it from when I was 13 years old. All of it. All of it had to be examined, analysized and judged if it were worthy of a space in our moving boxes and (smaller) new home.

Countless bin bags, shifting, lugging, charity shop shlepping, eBay bartering, give aways later, it turns out that moving house is one of the best things that has happened to us. You see, we sorted through and got rid of A LOT of items (there’s still some way to go) but the result of it is that I feel amazing. I feel physically lighter. I feel inspired by knowing now what I know own. (Who knew we had the most awesome Abel and Cole veg book festering at the book of a bookcase?). I can appreciate my belongings far more, and crucially, enjoy them so much more. I feel excited by a new space, and a new area. I feel closer to my kids and to my husband. All those feelings of anxiety have been channeled into clear thinking and S P A C E. Without being able to offer you any gimmicky titles, and certainly not mentioning the word ‘minimalist’ because that I am *not*, there were certain behaviours and questions I’d ask myself that seemed to help.

First up, my mood. I’d really have to find myself in the right one; there were days I could hardly bring myself to get rid of a broken hanger and other days I would accumulate bags of things to go. When I caught myself in the right frame of mind, I would latch onto it and launch myself into the decluttering process. Then here were 4 questions that I would ask myself again and again which hugely helped:

1. Does this item bring me joy when I look at it?

2. Is this item good quality?

3. Have I used this item in the last two years?

4. Is this item irreplaceable?

So, how would this work in theory? Let’s start with the stuff that you look at and that brings you zero joy (1). Like the ‘fleecy’ (who knows what it’s made of, but put it this way, I wouldn’t like to see it next to a naked flame) Paw Patrol blanket we received as a gift (eeks). I look at it and every time, it brings me zero joy. It had to go.

And then there’s the question of quality (2). The crappy plastic toys that were falling apart. The Primark strap tops. The ripped tupperware. All of it had to go.

And what about frequency of use (3). Let’s take my (ex) sewing machine. We’d got it for a wedding present, so four years ago. Four years later, it still sat on the shelf, (sadly) untouched, unused and mainly, unloved. Not only was it taking up valuable ‘real estate’ in our home but I really struggled with the idea that I knew that someone out there would love to be putting it to use and yet here it was, literally gathering dust in our home. Same story with the balance bike – I knew there are so many children out there who would be up and down the street with this; it’s just Jack wasn’t one of them and really didn’t seem to take to it.

And then finally, there was the items that were all of the above, and yet are all imminently replaceable at later date. So stuff I kind of like (not love) but that for one reason or another is just not being used. Like the bamboo fencing that had been leant against our back garden fence that we’d been sent as an extra set, that had been untouched for a year. Now you all know that there is little more I love than bamboo but now that we’ve moved house into a rental home, we won’t need it. Not for at least a year. So I ask myself: how much is the space it’s taking up, it being sat there, untouched, worth vs. the £19.99 it cost me?

So next time you’re thinking about decluttering, check your mood and perhaps try asking yourself those four questions and see where you get. And if you’re umm-ing and ahh-ing about moving house, and it’s within your realms, (FRIGGIN’) DO IT. Moving house forced us to address how much stuff we own, face up to the fact that much of it is not being used, acknowledge and appreciate what we do own far more. And as a result, feel lighter, freeer and perhaps even a little happier.

Thanks so much for reading this folks. Do you feel like you need to declutter? Have you asked yourself any of these questions I’ve mentioned and found they have helped?

Emma

P.S 10 ways to Reduce Waste & Live With Less