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.