What a gloriously sunny day which was just perfect for a walk in the forest and then gathering some of the produce from my garden and using it.  I prepared food to eat during the week and prepared passatta for the freezer to try and use up some of my tomato mountain.

 Hmmmm, I seem to have loaded my photos in reverse so I will recap my day chronologically, beginning with the most recent. .Harvey has been asking me, for about 4 weeks to make him “a shepherd’s pie like we had at Aunty Lucy’s”.  Here one is; cruelty free, no animal products, lentils instead of beef and every bit as tasty.  The Little Fella was not disappointed.  I really liked it too.  The potatoes were a bit too waxy to mash properly and they were hard to spread so it’s not the prettiest but it looked better on the plate.  I baked it for 25 minutes at 180 C.

 Potatoes mashed simply with vegan spread, soya milk and salt and pepper.  I do concede that spread is not a patch on butter for taste but I needed something g for mashing and I tried this spread.  It’s ok, just, so I am hoping there is a better tasting one out there.  

  I boiled the lentils according to the packet instructions.  5 minutes before they were due to be ready I added the chopped up carrot and celery.  I drained the lentil mix and set aside while I fried some onions.  I added the lentil mix when the onions were soft with a rich tomato paste, garlic, vegetable stock, some flour and yellow tomato passatta.  When it was cooked I poured it in to a baking dish.
  Lentils, carrots and celery – the basis for the shepherd’s pie.  The finished tomato passatta.  It looks like custard so I am definitely reverting to red tomatoes next year.
  Tomato skins and excess water.  After the tomatoes roasted and cooled, they slipped easily out of their skins and in to the blender, where they were blitzed to make a super smooth sauce.
 Tomatoes, ready for roasting and blitzing to make passatta.

  Produce from the garden: celery, tomatoes and a very large cucumber which is probably just useful for juicing.
  Something was munching my tomatoes    – GRRRRRRRRRRR 😫😫😫😫
  The plum tomatoes are beginning to ripen but all was not as good as it looked!  The cherry tomatoes look fantastic.
The plum tomatoes.
   The cherry tomatoes.
The yellow tomatoes have been very prolific.  Apples from the garden which I peeled, cored and steamed and then blitzed with dates as they are not very sweet.
  Apple and date purée which is lovely as it is or stirred in to some porridge or topped with some yogurt.  Breakfast pancakes, served with blueberries and a little maple syrup.
  A little Sunday treat of some pancakes, which we had earned with the walk and these kept us going until supper time.  A late breakfast and an early supper meant we skipped a meal which is a bonus.  Harvey and I took the dogs to Hemstead where we met Lucy and had a lovely walk in the surprisingly warm sunshine.
    
    
 So that was a really good day.  I exercised, I ate only plant food and not too much of that either, I had a lovely walk with Lucy, found time to do some painting, spent lots of time with Harvey and made good use of the garden produce.  I have supper prepared for 2 evenings for us and a healthy bowl of stewed Apple, ready for when the sweet cravings kick in.  I feel conent and ready for the week ahead. And Downton Abbey is on 👍