Battling hay fever (and other inflammatory ills)

Child crying with hand over eyes

I’ve never really suffered with allergic hay fever reactions. The same cannot be said for everyone in our household. The runny nose and itchy-scratchy-want-to-rip-them-out eyes have regularly been a curse that has just about been held at bay by the highest dose of over-the-counter medicines. Sometimes we resorted to prescription…

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A healthy breakfast smoothie

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Fortunately we know this thanks to a 1917 issue of Good Health magazine, edited by Dr J H Kellogg. Some years later this fact was brought to a wider audience by another company with a product to sell, General Foods. Many…

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All things beige and beautiful

Fast food or Fresh Food?

Not far from where we lived there was, in my early teenage years, a car that was the subject of much ridicule in our household. It was not the vehicle’s vital statistics that caused this derision by top-trumps obsessed youngsters. It was the colour. Beige. Hearing-aid beige is not a…

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Leek and borlotti stew

Chopped leeks

With autumn well and truly here, it’ll soon be time to start preparing some of those warming dinners. Since we first introduced it, this tasty stew has become a firm family favourite. The quantities below fed our family of 2 adults and 4 young children. Ingredients 1 tbsp coconut oil…

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What beanz meanz

Picture of mixed beans

Voted the “top advertising slogan of all time” in 2012[1], the 1967 phrase “beanz meanz heinz” is probably more commonly repeated across many a school playground as “beanz meanz fartz!” Beans, like all legumes, are good for your health. As long as your diet is properly balanced they can be…

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Compost Muffins

Plate of muffins

I know what you’re thinking, “This sounds delightful!” If you’re a juicer (verb, not noun) then no doubt you’re producing lots of pulp that is either going in the bin or, hopefully, into the compost heap to provide your garden with lovely rich compost. Whilst the process of extracting the…

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Vanilla Spelt Cookies

Vanilla Spelt Cookies

Who doesn’t love a fresh cookie, yet when we’re trying to “be good” many of our favourite treats become temptations we struggle to resist. Cookies, like so many snacks, are laden with wheat and sugar so they’re not only bad for our waist-line, but also our health. What if we…

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Sourdough Bread Variations

Sourdough Loaf

I’ve had a bit more time in the kitchen recently and, having been eating the same basic bread for the last couple of months, I thought it was time to mix things up a little. So, for your culinary pleasure here are a few variations to the basic sourdough bread…

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