Our Holiday in the South of France Pt.2

Welcome to part two of my this three part series about my time on holiday in the south of France. In this blog post I am going to write about our visit to galamus gorge and the hot springs of Rennes-les-bains.

While we were on Holiday we visited a certain gorge called galamus gorge and it is located in the south of France. The Agly river runs right down the middle of the gorge. There is a church built into a cave and it is said that Mary Madeleine went into hiding into the same cage and she grew her hair so it covered all of her body.

We decided to go to galamus gorge when our friends visited us from Bermuda! We all got in our car with our swimming costumes in case we found somewhere to swim. The gorge was 1 hour from where we were camping. The road to the car park is infamous for its road that is on the edge of the cliff. We were all scared when we driving on this road. They had recently made this road one way so it was much safer ahah!

We went for a walk to the cave where Mary stayed and it was down a little rocky path and it was beautiful it was hid in a rock and there were faces all in the wall. We walked back up and decided to have a coffee. I was very excited because I saw that people were doing canyoning but sadly there were no more spaces left, but that worked out in my favour you will see in my next blog post!

The next day we went to the hot springs of Rennes-les-bains which are natural hot water springs that can reach boiling point. We went for a swim in them one day and people had made pools with rocks and the water was as hot as a bath and it made your skin feel so soft because of all the minerals.

There were lots of people in the hot springs so me and my family decided to walk down a bit further down the river and we found a lovely little waterfall and a bunch of rocks that I could jump off. The water was the perfect temperature and I was having gun in the water for ages. We decided to head back to the caravan as we were changing campsite the next day.

In the morning we started to pack up our stuff and start the journey to …

Part 3 will be out soon. Dont forget to like if you enjoyed todays post and subscribe if you are new.

A holiday in the south of france P1

Welcome back to a long awaited blog post, many of you will be wondering where I have been. The answer to that is that I have been on holiday and I have also been in England for a month to see my dad so I have gathered lots of content to write about so that means more blog posts.

So welcome to the first part of this 3 part series of blog posts about my holiday in the south of France. This post I am going to be talking about the first place that we visited which is called Rennes-les-bains and it is located near one of the biggest wine producers: Limoux.

Firstly, lets talk about the pop up caravan that we all decided to do up to take on holiday. The caravan is made by a French caravan company called Rapido. We bought it and the inside was just plain and white but if you know my mum we had to bling it up! So we decided to redo the upholstery by hand and wallpaper the caravan. The process to redo the whole caravan took around a month to do. In the end we had redone the upholstery, painted and wallpapered the caravan and put new lino on the floor so we were finally ready to go away.

We all sat down one evening and we were talking about where we wanted to go, we could only go to places in France because this was during the COVID-19 pandemic. My mum said she had taught in a beautiful part of France down in the south near Carcassonne and she suggested that we should visit there. We all agreed and started to look for campsites and we decide to book four days there as it would be good to move campsite half way through the holiday. The campsite that we booked was called Camping la Bernade, it had a swimming pool, tennis court, mini golf, play ground, football pitch, basketball pitch and a bar and restaurant.

So the drive from our house in Haute Vienne would take around five hours which wasn’t really that bad. We packed the car up the night before and set off in the morning.

We arrived at the campsite around tea time so we decided to take the day off however the next day we decided to go the fountain of love which is a naturally formed fountain and swimming hole it is the coldest water in the region of Aude. There were rocks as you can see in the pictures that I was jumping off and the water made your skin feel so soft. This spot is said to have inspired one of France’s greatest writers, Jules Vernes, to write a lot of his books. Marlon got in with me but my mum decided to pass. As she doesn’t like cold water.

That is it for today guys I really hope you enjoyed todays blog post and keep your eyes out for part 2!

Dont forget to leave a like and comment and subscribe to my blog if you aren’t already.

New Kittens!

As you can probably tell by the title of this Blog Post I am going to be talking our new kittens ! I hope you enjoy todays blog post and if you do don’t forget to like and share !

I know it has been a while since I have written a lifestyle Blog Post so I thought I would try it out and see how you guys like it.

About a month ago, one of my mum’s friends messaged her saying that there was a stray cat wandering around her garden and it looked pregnant. She said she had been feeding it for a couple weeks and she would of loved to take it in but she already had 5 cats. My mum said that she would be happy to look after the cat and give her somewhere safe to have her kittens.

For the first week she was really on edge and wouldn’t really come that close to us however by the second week she was wanting cuddles so we knew that was a good sign. The only person (or animal I should say) she didn’t like was Reggie, our English Bulldog.

One day she was sick and there were worms in her sick so we rushed her straight to the vets to be given the correct medicine to de-worm her. The doctor verified that she was pregnant and said it will probably be in two weeks time that she gives birth.

Two weeks later there was no sign of any kittens… three weeks later there was no sign, and finally after 2 weeks of anticipation she was starting to go off her food, that we had read online is a sign that they are close and no doubt about it later that night her waters broke.

She climbed into her birthing bed and started having contractions so we thought that she was getting ready to give birth and then we saw a sack but there was no baby inside… we were puzzled. We decided to do some quick research and we found out that cats have a sack that they birth out before they can birth their kittens. The website also said that it can be within 1-7 hours until they give birth I was getting really excited to be able to see new lives being born onto our planet.

After the water sack was birthed the cat (called lady pompadour) was showing no signs of contractions and by this point it was 10 o’clock so we decided to take it in turns to rest and then go check on the cat.

My mother woke me up at 7 o’clock and said there are two kittens down stairs ! We got down stairs and of course there were two little black and white kittens there. She was still contacting and before long she had had another and it felt really special to be able to witness its birth because you’re helping a new little creature into the world.

In the end she ended up having four kittens. They were all feeding well for the first 10 hours but then we realised that one of them was being rejected by the mother because it had breathing problems. Sadly the kitten passed away. We were all very sad but we were sort of knew that not every kitten makes it . We buried it in the garden and said a little prayer. It made me think how irresponsible people are how aren’t neutering their cats. There are millions of cats and kittens in Animal Rescue Centres across the world and people are still just letting their cats get pregnant.

Overall it was a very special experience to be able to witness the birth of a little creature and I am going to be able to raise these little kittens over the next eight weeks.

For more updates on the kittens don’t forget to follow my blog so you get notifications every time I post!

Sun dried Tomato and Lemon Strozzapretti

This pasta is full of citrus flavours and is topped off by that flavour of sundried tomatos with an underglow of garlic and cheese. All vegan what’s not to love?

Ingredients

  • 300 grams of pasta
  •  2 tablespoons olive oil,
  •  one medium sized corgette sliced,
  • 4 tablespoons of flaked almonds,
  • sprinkle of black pepper,
  • handful of fresh basil chopped,
  • squeeze of lemon juice.

For the sauce,

  • 8 to 10 sun dried tomatoes,
  • 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes,
  •  four garlic cloves,
  •  1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast,
  • 2 tablespoons of tomato puree,
  • zest of half a lemon,
  • juice of one lemon,
  • pinch of sea salt,

for the pangrattato,

  • 2 tablespoons of extra Virgin olive oil,
  •  2 cups of homemade bread crumbs,
  •  zest and juice of one lemon,
  • 1 teaspoon of garlic powder,
  • pinch of sea salt,
  •  3 teaspoons of mixed herbs,

Method

first up get your pasta cooking in some salted boiling water according to packet instructions.

To make the sauce, rehydrate the sun-dried tomatoes by placing them in a small bowl with a ladle full of the pasta water for around one minute. Once they have slightly rehydrated , add them to a blender with the rest of the source ingredients and add a few tablespoons of the rehydrating water reserve the rest of the water. Blitz the mixture to a smooth paste

heat a large saucepan over medium heat, add a touch of oil comment followed by the broccoli and flaked almonds. Saute for a couple minutes or until the almonds are Golden. At the sun-dried tomato sauce to the pan and stir well, making sure the courgette is fully coated. Add the reserved rehydrating water from the tomatoes to the mixture to make it a bit more saucy

. Let the sauce and courgettes cook away for three to four minutes over low heat and stir every now and then.

Sun dried Tomato and Lemon Strozzapretti

Ingredients

  • 300 grams of pasta
  •  2 tablespoons olive oil,
  •  one medium sized corgette sliced,
  • 4 tablespoons of flaked almonds,
  • sprinkle of black pepper,
  • handful of fresh basil chopped,
  • squeeze of lemon juice.

For the sauce,

  • 8 to 10 sun dried tomatoes,
  • 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes,
  •  four garlic cloves,
  •  1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast,
  • 2 tablespoons of tomato puree,
  • zest of half a lemon,
  • juice of one lemon,
  • pinch of sea salt,

for the pangrattato,

  • 2 tablespoons of extra Virgin olive oil,
  •  2 cups of homemade bread crumbs,
  •  zest and juice of one lemon,
  • 1 teaspoon of garlic powder,
  • pinch of sea salt,
  •  3 teaspoons of mixed herbs,

Method

first up get your pasta cooking in some salted boiling water according to packet instructions.

To make the sauce, rehydrate the sun-dried tomatoes by placing them in a small bowl with a ladle full of the pasta water for around one minute. Once they have slightly rehydrated , add them to a blender with the rest of the source ingredients and add a few tablespoons of the rehydrating water reserve the rest of the water. Blitz the mixture to a smooth paste

heat a large saucepan over medium heat, add a touch of oil comment followed by the broccoli and flaked almonds. Saute for a couple minutes or until the almonds are Golden. At the sun-dried tomato sauce to the pan and stir well, making sure the courgette is fully coated. Add the reserved rehydrating water from the tomatoes to the mixture to make it a bit more saucy

. Let the sauce and courgettes cook away for three to four minutes over low heat and stir every now and then.

Meanwhile make the crispy bread crumbs. Place a non-stick frying pan over low heat comma and they’ll then add the bread crumbs lemon juice , zest call my garlic, salt and herbs. Toasted bread crumbs for a few minutes until they are nice and Golden. Watch your pastor is cooked drain and add the pasta to the sauce mix really well making sure all the pasta is coated. At some black pepper the chopped fresh basil and a squeeze of lemon juice.  

Meanwhile make the crispy bread crumbs. Place a non-stick frying pan over low heat comma and they’ll then add the bread crumbs lemon juice , zest call my garlic, salt and herbs. Toasted bread crumbs for a few minutes until they are nice and Golden. Watch your pastor is cooked drain and add the pasta to the sauce mix really well making sure all the pasta is coated. At some black pepper the chopped fresh basil and a squeeze of lemon juice.  

Blue Porridge with Lilac Flower and Cerimonial Cacao

This heart warming high protein breakfast is perfect for when you have a long day of work ahead of you. It will keep you full for hours.

Ingredients

2 tsp Blue Spirulina Powder

160 g rolled porridge oats

600 ml milk, organic soya milk or water

1tbsp ceremonial cacao (or cocoa powder)

4 tbsp desiccated cocounut

2 tbsp honey

Toppings

Blueberries

Bananas

Pumpkin Seeds

Lilac flower

Method

Place the oats and the milk or water in a large pan over a medium heat.

Add the blue spirulina, cacao, desiccate coconut and the honey to the pan.

Bring to a steady simmer for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring as often as you can to give you a smooth creamy porridge – if you like your porridge runnier, simply add a splash more milk or water until you’ve got the consistency you like.

Serve with a handful of toppings.

THIS IS PHILLIPS STORY

Phillip was a meat eater for all his life and was not open to trying a vegan diet. His friend Keeley had recommended le Temple de la Nourriture’s recipes.

Phillip decided to have a look at le Temple de la Nourriture’s recipes and the Vegan BBQ popped out to him. He looked at the pictures and was amazed how much it looked like a BBQ he is used to.

He bought the recipes and decided to invite his friends over for a BBQ.

He had all of his ingredients in his cupboard and after 1 hour had made the steaks and café de paris sauce.

His friends had no idea that the steaks and sausages weren’t made from a carcass.

After that meal Phillip said he would never turn back to meat. Never

That was 1 year ago and he hasn’t eaten meat since. He has bought every one of my recipes since then.

Falafels

Ingredients

500g of cooked Chick peas

1 cup of  Fresh Coriander

2 onions finely sliced

¼ cup of gram flour (chickpea flour)

3 cloves of garlic

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180oC  
  2. Add all ingredients to a food processor or blend with a stick blender. Blend until roughly mashed.
  3. Add gram flour to your board and roll a handful of mixture into a ball.
  4. Bake for 15 minutes

Hungarian Bean Stew

Ingredients

    1 pound (2 1/4 cups) red beans

    2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

    1 medium or large onion, chopped

    6 garlic cloves, minced

    2 carrots, peeled and chopped

    1 large or 2 small green bell peppers, cut in small dice

    2 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika

    2 tablespoons tomato paste

    1 bay leaf

    Salt

    1 teaspoon oregano

    Pinch of cayenne

    2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

    ½ teaspoon sugar

    Freshly ground pepper

    ½ cup minced fresh parsley, or a combination of parsley and dill

Method

  1. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet and add the onions, carrots and peppers. Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables are tender and fragrant, about 8 to 10 minutes.
  2.  Add 2 of the garlic cloves and continue to cook for another minute or so, until the garlic is fragrant. Season to taste with salt, add another tablespoon of oil and add the paprika. Cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes, until the vegetables are well coated with paprika and the mixture is aromatic.
  3. Add a ladleful of water, stir with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom and sides of the pan to deglaze, then stir this mixture into the beans. Add the tomato paste and bay leaf, reduce the heat, cover and simmer 1 hour.
  4. Add the oregano, the remaining garlic cloves, salt to taste, cayenne, vinegar and sugar, and continue to simmer for another hour. The beans should be thoroughly tender and the broth thick and fragrant.
  5. Taste and adjust salt, and add more cayenne if desired. For a thicker stew, strain out 1 heaped cup of beans with a little liquid and purée. Stir back into the stew.
  6. Just before serving, stir in the parsley. Serve over noodles or thick slices of country bread, topping each portion with a large dollop of drained yogurt.