Moving!

A big thank you to Greedy Bear Bakes for this nomination. Although the Dragon’s Picnic has not posted for a few months, this seems the perfect final post on my WordPress blog.  I am moving to a self-hosted site and although it is not up and running just yet, please drop by some time in the future!  I wanted to thank everyone for their support during my time with WordPress and I feel very fortunate to have come across many interesting people and their blogs.

Greedy Bear Bakes has been one of my favourite blogs so please be sure to check out their blog – such a fantastic name and logo and full of tasty vegan recipes!

What is the Golden Bloggerz Award?

The Golden Bloggerz Award was created by Chris Kosto to motivate and reward all the amazing bloggers who work hard every day to serve their audiences and deserve some recognition.

The Rules

1. Place the award logo on your blog.
2. Mention the rules.
3. Mention the award creator and link to their blog.
4. Thank whomever nominated you and link to their blog.
5. Tell your audience three things about you.
6. Answer your nominator’s questions.
7. Nominate 10 people who deserve this award.
8. Ask the nominees 5 questions of your choice.
9. Let the nominees know of their nomination by commenting on their social media or blog.
10. Share links to 2-3 of your best/favorite posts.

Three Things About Me

1. I enjoy wildlife photograph.  When that is not available, I settle for photographing food .. it is much easier to locate and tends to stay still for longer!
2.  At the beginning of this year, I completed a virtual challenge which involved running the 297 km of the Cabot Trail in Canada.
3. I was born on a small Mediterranean island in the middle of an air raid.

Answers to Greedy Bear Bake’s Questions

Why did you start blogging?

To provide a focus for my love of writing and photography as well as to share information and recipes for plant-based eating.

What have you learned that you wished you had known when you started your blog?

To be clear about my own reasons for creating and maintaining a blog and to stay true to that.

What is your all-time favourite meal?

My old favourite meal from childhood was Cornish pasties and potato salad. It is something I rarely eat these days but I always think of it as “the” meal!

What are you looking forward to this year?

Returning to house and pet sitting all over the world.  A great way to travel and more importantly, a way to get my “pet fix”.

How do you unwind after a hard day’s blogging?

Looking through recipes for the next idea!

My Nominees:

• StickyMangoRice – a travel and sketching blog full of amazing, intricate illustrations
• The Merry Spaniel – great walks and scenery from my home country
• Bonjour from Brittany – stories and illustrations from Brittany
• Disorderly Jottings – great insights on books and biking in the UK
• GP – pacific war era information and photographs
• Msdedeng – wonderful writer
• annecreates – vegan, running and more
• Olayinka Ofi – thoughtful thoughts
• Narendra Nayak – beautiful poems and photography
• tummytoheart01 – wonderful recipes

Questions for my nominees

1. What motivates you to blog?
2. If you could give another blogger one piece of advice, what would it be?
3. What is your favourite meal of the day?
4. What is your favourite season and why?
5. If you could time travel, would it be to the past or the future?

Thank you once again for all your support and happy blogging!

Sunshine Blogger Award

A great big thank you to Nourish for this nomination for the Sunshine Blogger Award! Nourish has been one of the sites that has had significant influence on my blogging.  Nourish began around the same time as The Dragon’s Picnic and I ended up learning a whole lot from you both and enjoy your interesting articles as well as the delicious food posts. You have a wonderful blog which has definitely inspired me!

The Sunshine Blogger Award is given to bloggers by fellow bloggers who are creative, positive, and inspiring. After receiving the nomination, the blogger has the honor of writing a post that thanks the nominator, answers some fun questions, and nominates more bloggers for the award.

Here’s what the nominees have to do:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and include a link to their blog.
2. Answer the 11 questions asked of you.
3. Nominate other bloggers for the award and ask them 11 questions.
4. Notify the nominees in the comments of one of their posts.
5. Include the request and logo of the Sunshine Blogger Award in your post.

Here are the questions from Nourish:

1. What is one positive thing that happened in 2020?

With respect to my job, I was fortunate to be able to move from the office and work from home. I usually have a lengthy commute into work which I have not missed at all and, as an introvert, lots more time by myself was not unwelcome!

2. What are you looking forward to in the New Year?

Hopefully more progress with dealing with Covid which would mean the opportunity to travel home to the UK for a visit.

3. How will you be celebrating New Year’s Eve?

In a low key and quiet way although there will definitely be something pink and bubbly as part of the plan.

4. Follow up to #3: are you planning on staying up until midnight on NYE?

Unlikely …. and I am not even sure if that would be possible! I am definitely an early morning person and often start my day between 4:00am and 5:00am so midnight is almost time to get up!

5. Best recipe you tried in 2020?

A one pot red lentil and sweet potato stew with coconut cashew cream. Anything with sweet potatoes is usually a winner for me!

6. Best book you read in 2020?

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn which is about a couple who, just days after learning that one of them is terminally ill, lose their home and livelihood. They decide to walk the 630 miles of the South West Coast Path of England. With very little money for food and shelter, they carry the essentials on their backs and it is an amazing story of survival and rediscovery in unexpected ways.

7. Favorite blog post you’ve ever done? (Feel free to link it!)

Cycling the100km which was an account about overcoming a fear to reach a goal. It was a brief synopsis of what had been a challenging few years learning to get back on the bicycle after a serious accident.

8. If you could travel anywhere (when it’s safe to, of course), where would you go?

There are so many wonderful countries where I would love to experience the food, culture and natural landscapes.  Currently, I am looking at a cycling trip through Europe.

9. What is something you do take care of yourself?

Strenuous exercise.  I find maintaining a regular exercise schedule, whether I feel like it or not, goes a long way to regulating my mood, finding balance and generally feeling more inclined to be creative and do something constructive with my time.

10. What do you hope readers get out of your blog?

This is a good question and it is something that I will be giving some more thought but, in general, I would say that I hope that my readers feel inspired to try a plant-based meal.  

11. What is your favorite thing about blogging?

The focus it provides.  It enables me to work on a number of my favourite interests which include research, writing and photography. It is an added bonus that I can interact with other bloggers and be a part of this amazing creative network.

Thank you again to Nourish. My nominees are:

• Anne the Vegan
• Bowl of Yum
• Sarchakra
• Asha’s Kitchen
• Plant Based Persian
• At my Kitchen
• My Virtually free-from Kitchen
• Dad’s Dinner Diary
• Ramblings
• Foodie Quartet

Questions:

1. What did you learn about yourself during 2020?
2. Do you have any specific goals for 2021?
3. Do you prefer your food sweet or savoury?
4. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
5. Do you have an all-time favourite book or film?
6. If you could eat only one food/meal for the rest of your life, what would you choose?
7. What mantra or quote inspires you?
8. What motivated you to write a blog?
9. From your experience blogging so far, what is the most important tip you would give to a new blogger?
10. Have you found any other social media helpful to your blog?
11. If you could spend the day with either your great great grandparents or your great great grandchildren, who would you choose and why?

Thank you to everyone who has supported my blog during the past year and I wish everyone a very Happy New Year for 2021.

The Dragon’s Picnic

Quick and Easy Lunches (Vegan and Gluten Free)

Most of us have grown up with the idea of eating three meals a day which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even though lunch is now established as the second meal of the day, it hasn’t always been this way. According to Denise Waterman of BBC News Magazine, during Roman times to the Middle Ages, “lunch as we know it didn’t exist – not even the word.”

Most of us have grown up with the idea of eating three meals a day which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even though lunch is now established as the second meal of the day, it hasn’t always been this way. According to Denise Waterman of BBC News Magazine, during Roman times to the Middle Ages, “lunch as we know it didn’t exist – not even the word.”

Apricot and Peanut Recovery Bars

After any endurance activity the body needs time to recover so it can reenergize itself for next time.  For the body to recover more quickly, choosing the right post-workout foods is important. This is one of the challenges I face as I rarely feel like eating after strenuous activity. However, these tasty apricot and peanut butter bars provide a great mixture of tasty ingredients which help kickstart the recovery process.

Tropical Vacation Granola

As we move through August, I can’t help but notice that the evenings are getting darker just a little earlier and there is no doubt that summer is slipping inevitably into fall. The older I get, it feels as though time is moving faster and faster. Apparently this may be no illusion and there are various interesting theories and scientific research which suggest this might actually be the case!

“Does the Mummy mind?”

Image by David Mark from Pixabay

“Does the Mummy mind?”

My four-year old nephew understood that meat came from animals and posed this question in response to being told that the family were having beef for dinner. It is a poignant question and not one with an easy answer.  

My nephew has been a vegetarian by choice his entire life. As an adult, I only ate meat occasionally, however, was raised on the notion that meat and dairy were part of a healthy balanced diet.  It has only been in recent years, that I have started to question this premise and take a greater interest in the food I eat.

In addition, I have often struggled to maintain a balance with food in relation to what might be considered healthy and the pleasure of a treat. Having explored many different diets over the years, deprivation always seemed to be the underlying premise of them all.

My first insight into the whole foods plant-based concept was through Deliciously Ella. From there, I came across Kris Carr who followed a similar diet after being diagnosed with inoperable cancer.  If the diet was considered healthy for someone with cancer, then I felt it should do well for me!

Little did I know that within a few months I would receive my own cancer diagnosis: Renal Cell Carcinoma.  Fortunately it was discovered at an early stage and after a partial nephrectomy I was given the all clear.  Wake up calls can come in many forms and for me, the adage “we are what we eat” began to ring true.

Since then, I have explored the world of whole foods, plant-based eating from many mediums including blogs, books, documentaries and articles. I find it a fascinating topic and the more information I gather, the more I am convinced this choice benefits not only my own health but also the health of the environment and planet.

For the first time in my life, I feel I have struck a balance and can honestly say I have never eaten so well. My goal with the Dragon’s Picnic is to share what I learn along the way and, even if it helps only one other person to break the diet cycle and discover an enjoyable and healthy alternative to traditional eating, it will serve its purpose.

In closing, we will probably never really know if the Mummy minds, but perhaps the question today is for each of us to ask ourselves, “how much do we mind”?

(This post can also be found in About)