Imbolc 2022

I have so much to catch up on from the last couple of months! So let's start with Imbolc, one of the sabbats in the Wheel of the Year. Imbolc celebrates the midpoint of winter, though in Brisbane it is not such a big deal. Though this year we did actually have a few months of cold (by Brisbane standards) winter! It is also a celebration in parts of the Celtic goddess Brigid. I celebrated with food, as usual, though the symbolic food itself was sort of spread out over a couple of weeks just due to work and life. Traditional food for Imbolc includes dairy (or non-dairy in our case!), breads, seeds, dried fruit, winter vegetables, and the colour red.

Imbolc (1st August, 2020)

I started my morning of Imbolc with a breakfast of vanilla yoghurt, granola, and fruit. I used golden kiwi fruit and frozen blackberries, as blackberries are particularly associated with this sabbat.



The granola I used was this Rise beetroot granola I had bought on sale somewhere. It fit nicely with the theme being quite red! The granola itself was just ok. It was more like a muesli. I like my granolas to have crunchy clusters... isn't that what granola is? I ended up using the rest of it to make overnight oats with.



One Pot Mac and Cheese from the Delightful Vegans Blog: I was working late on the actual day, so I just had something frozen and reheated for dinner. The next time I was able to cook I made this easy cheesy pasta. This has a cashew based cheesy sauce, and is full of whatever vegetables you wish. I used the recommended cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and spinach (but I added extra spinach), as well as adding some peas. The recipe says don't bother draining the pasta, but I did (reserving a bit of pasta water) and I think that was definitely the right choice or it would have been so soupy and dilute. I just added a bit of pasta water back in to help the sauce loosen up with the pasta and veggies for a nice coating. I didn't use the option grated cheese, but I did add extra nutritional yeast.
Rating: :)



I also bought some of this blackberry jam to enjoy in different ways. I made some excellent almond butter and blackberry jam sandwiches. Or I used it to top ice cream.



PB & J Banana Muffins from Epic Vegan Quick & Easy by Dustin Harder: One of the things I also made with that jam was these muffins! I used GF flour because I was making them for someone who is GF, so the texture definitely relfected that flour choice, but the flavour was great. The recipe saus to use 1/4 cup of batter to get 12 muffins, but I only got 10. Obviously I used blackberry jam to top them! They were also topped with crushed peanuts, though I left that off a couple for my dad's personal preferences.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



All these new kitties, but what about Boo? Boo has had a bit of a rough time over the last month. She was quite unwell a few weeks ago with her calcium spiking up again, so we have changed up her medications and are also waiting on some additional test rests. She is mostly back to her normal self, thankfully.

New Year

I am not a big New Year person. I don't really see a new year as being the start of something amazing, it is just the continuing passage of time. I don't do resolutions. I don't stay up until midnight. But I still do some food things. The last several years, I have had a pizza and pie theme for new year's eve. But this year I was working until late afternoon, I was tired, and I was stressed thinking about making pizza. So you know what, I just let it go. I made that tradition, I can break it, I can make another one! I can do whatever I want! Instead I decided to put together some platters of ready made things. That way I could just come home, sit down for a bit (my feet get so sore standing all day), and then platter things up.

These are some of the bought things I used in my platters, but I'll elaborate more on below!





First I made a savoury platter!



Clockwise from top:

• Grape tomatoes
• Beetroot Hummus
• Fine Cultures Port Wine Cheddar
• Leftfield Aged Cashew Brie
• Celery and Carrot Sticks
• Chris' Sweet Potato Vegan Dip
• Always Fresh Dolmades

Most of these things I have tried before, but it was my first time trying the Leftfield cashew cheese. This is a new vegan cheese available from Coles, and I was a bit wary as it has coconut oil listed. But it is honestly mostly cashew, and the coconut oil isn't very present. Maybe if I ate a whole block, but it is too rich for that! It was a great cheese.

On to a sweet platter:



Clockwise from top:

• Deli Originals Fresh Brownie Batter Dessert Dip
• Pink Lady Apple Slices
• Booja Booja Truffles
• Plantitude Meringue Nests filled with mango peach jam, vanilla yoghurt, and a blueberry

Friends, I finally found some dessert hummus! And it was DELICIOUS! It is from Aldi, which means I probably won't get it very often as Aldi is endlessly frustrating to me. Also, COVID everywhere. And I think it was limited edition. But this was SO GOOD! Definitely going to try and make my own. I served it with some apple slices for scooping. I also tried the Plantitude Meringue Nests from Woolworths. I don't actually like meringue, but I bought these for science. They space inside them was extremely shallow, so I couldn't put much filling in. I am not sure if they are all like this, or I just got a dodgy batch. Anyway, they were extremely too sweet, as I always find meringues.

I also had a few extras, for things that wouldn't fit on the platters. These included green grapes, Kettle Sea Salt crackers, water crackers, and peanut butter filled pretzels.



I spread everything out on the table, then we snacked while we watched You've Got Mail. And then I went to bed well before midnight.



Cranberry, Elderflower, and Rose Spirtzer from Delightful Vegans: I had bought some elderflower cordial and Ikea ages ago, had some left over cranberry juice from Christmas, and always have rosewater in my cupboard. So this seemed like a fun thing to make! I used lemon juice as I didn't have any lemon zest (I have loads of frozen lemon juice ice cubes in the freezer), and I topped mine off with coconut water rather than fizzy. It was a lovely refreshing drink!
Rating: :)



For the last several years, I have also traditionally made pancakes on New Year's Day for breakfast. But see above re tired. And being able to actual do whatever I want. So I didn't! I did try and make some pancake overnight oats for fun. I cobbled this together from few places, but basically just add some quantity of vanilla yoghurt, maple syrup, cinnamon, oat milk, and almond butter to your oats. The in the morning top with more yoghurt, almond butter, and maple syrup, and fruit and nuts of your choosing. Does it taste like panakes? Of course not. But it was still a nice breakfast for any time of year.



I did keep up with my New Year's Day tradition of making beans and greens for dinner. I used to try and make black eyed peas, as is the Southern US tradition. But I can't buy them tinned, and sometimes I just can't be bothered soaking and cooking them from scratch, so I have expanded it to just be any bean. Also, can't get collard greens here, so it has long been any green.

Southern New Year's Stew from Vegan On The Cheap by Robin Robertson: This recipe calls for both black eyed peas and collars. I used white beans and baby spinach. As I was using spinach, I got to skip right over the initial step whre you have to cook the collards, and just added it the end to cook down in the pot. I also used some pre-cooked brown rice and quinoa mix added at the end, rather than cooking brown rice in it. This was a great collection of beans, greens, grains, and vegetables.
Rating: :)



Anyway, it is now 2022, for better or for worse, or for more of the same. Back to your regular Kittens Gone Lentil Programming next time!

Cute Kitty Of the Post



New Year's Day is Abby's gotcha day. Not her adoption day, because when she first came into my life I was fostering her. Sure, it was a foster to adopt arrangement, but the formalities came later. She was a terrified little cat, hiding under a bedside table on her first day. But she opened herself up to me so quickly! Now she is a sweet, sassy, adorable little friend. She still has her limits, don't get me wrong. But she seems to be really living her best life and we have lots of snuggles.