vegan – Page 11 – Bit of the Good Stuff

A Vegan Vacation in the Black Forest, Germany

Published on April 18, 2017September 27, 2025 by Sharon6 Comments

Last Summer, my family spent a glorious three weeks in the Black Forest, Germany. At the time, I was busy editing my cookbook so I never got the chance to write about the trip, so it’s been wonderful to spend time this weekend looking through photos and reminiscing.

In this post, I thought I’d share some of our favourite activities from the vacation as well as our experiences of eating vegan in the Black Forest; an area of Germany that isn’t particularly known for its ‘vegan-friendliness’.

For the majority of our vacation, we stayed in a holiday apartment on the outskirts of Freudenstadt. Just a two minute walk from the apartment and we were in the Black Forest. It’s one of the most beautiful, peaceful places I’ve ever been.

We spent many hours in the forest, hiking and running.

We also took picnics with us and enjoyed them in the log cabins that are dotted through the forest.

The forest smelt incredible too… a mixture of pine and earthy, mossy scents.

On our trips, we also stumbled across waterfalls and lakes. Lots of special places to pause and soak in the beauty of nature.

We were able to explore further afield, thanks to our kind hosts, Edeltraud and Gunther, who provided us with complimentary Schwarzald Plus cards. With these cards, we were able to use the trains, buses and chair lifts in the region for free, as well as free entry into 80 attractions (including the local swimming pool) throughout our entire stay! What an amazing card! It literally saved us hundreds of pounds.

We made full use of the free transport to explore the region’s cities and towns (Baden Baden was a favourite of ours) as well as the chair lift in neighbouring Baiersbronn. There’s a lovely cafe at the top of the chair lift, where I spent time chilling out and reading, while the boys whizzed down the hill in go-karts (another attraction that’s free with the Schwarzwald Plus card!)

The card also gave us free entry to the incredible Baumwipfelpfad in Bayern! It’s like a huge, modern helter skelter.

At the top you’re greeted with the most breath-taking views of the forest – trees for as far as the eye can see. To return back to the bottom, you can either walk or grab a cushion and whiz you way down the helter skelter. How fun is that?

After spending our days exploring, we’d return to the beautiful apartment, cook some delicious dinner then curl up on the huge comfy sofas to watch movies. We’d bought 20 second-hand dvds with us (purchased from Amazon for a penny each!) and they were just perfect for family evening entertainment.

Each day, we stocked up on groceries in Freudenstadt, which was a 20 minute walk from the apartment, commencing along this beautiful path.

The town has two supermarkets – Aldi and Norma – as well as an organic health-food shop, and all were well stocked with vegan-friendly food (much to our delight!)

We were especially appreciative of the clear labelling. We don’t speak German, but luckily we didn’t have to try and read the ingredients as there were big vegan labels on the packaging!

In the main supermarkets, we were able to buy a whole array of vegan products including pesto, pates, dips, mayonnaise, hummus, milks, crackers and cookies.

In the health food shop, we were able to buy more specialist items, such as flavoured tofus (my favourite Taifun brand!) and chocolates including the gorgeous Vivani.

For lunch, we would buy fresh-baked seeded rolls from Aldi, fill them with hummus or pate, tofu, and salad. Pack them in containers that we’d brought from England and stash them in our backpacks. For snacks we had trail mix and chocolate.

For evening meals, we loved these bags of organic frozen vegetables. They were so handy (and I really wish we could get them in England!) We mixed them with jars of marinara, sweet ’n’ sour or curry sauces and serve them with pasta, rice or noodles, and nuts/seeds/tofu for a protein boost. It literally took 15 minutes to make dinner (and no chopping involved!)

The supermarkets also sold vegan-friendly meals. We tried this green curry one night, which was lovely (but these kinds of meals tend to work out a lot more expensive than making your own).

We saw a couple of vegan-friendly restaurants during our excursions to the Black Forest towns, but we were happy to eat at the apartment every night. Not only were the meals tasty and nourishing, but they were cheap to make too.

During our vacation in Germany, we also got to stay in Stuttgart for a couple of nights. We stayed with the lovely Katja (an architect) in her stunning, modern house. I’d emailed ahead and mentioned to Katja that we were vegan and she kindly offered to make us a vegan breakfast. We happened to be her first ever vegan guests, but you would never have known. In the morning, we were greeted with a table laden with vegan-friendly goodies, including plant-based milks, yogurts, muesli as well as breads and home-made jam.

We had one whole day in Stuttgart so we went to the most famous attraction – the Mercedes-Benz Museum. It’s a great day out and highly recommended. Lil’ L and M were lucky enough to return to Stuttgart another day with our Freudenstadt host, Gunther, who took them on a tour of the Mercedes-Benz factory (he took an afternoon off work to accompany them – how kind is that?)

It happened to be our 14th wedding anniversary while we were in Stuttgart and we celebrated in style, sitting on bar stools and munching falafel platters at Vegi. Not very classy I know, but we loved it! While we were there, more and more people arrived to order their takeaway dinners, and the queue ended up going right out the door. It made me smile to see veggie food so popular here in Stuttgart!

We also found a lovely cafe in Stuttgart called Cafe DA where we tucked into yummy chocolate cake. The staff are really friendly here so be sure to go say hi to them if you ever find yourself in Stuttgart.

Even though I was working on my book during our time in the Black Forest, I couldn’t have been in a more beautiful, relaxing place to put the final touches to it. I will always look back at this summer with great fondness. Thank you Gunther, Edeltraud and Katja for making our stay so comfortable. We’ll be back, for sure!

Sharon xx

Sultana Banana Mini Pancakes (Vegan)

Published on March 31, 2017September 27, 2025 by Sharon6 Comments

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Today I’m sharing a recipe for Sultana Banana Mini Pancakes ❤️ They are quick, easy to make and use basic pantry ingredients. They’re perfect for serving as a weekend breakfast or for ‘elevenses’. Me and Lil’ L have made them three times so far and they have proven to be a big hit with the family.

Have you tried adding sultanas to pancake batter before? They work beautifully in these American-style fluffy pancakes. In fact, I loved them so much that I ended up adding more than the original recipe called for.

The original recipe is from Kate Ford’s new cookbook ‘Vegan in 15’ and was published in this month’s Vegan Life magazine.

Check out that cute pancake stack!

* Disclaimer: Vegan Life kindly sent me a complimentary copy of this magazine

And below is my little pancake stack, before the obligatory drizzle of maple syrup. As you can see, I still haven’t learnt the art of food styling 😊 I still just plonk the food on a plate or in a bowl and click the shoot button on the camera.

Well at least you know how they will turn out when you make them, and the pancakes themselves look pretty similar to the ones above, don’t you think? I just need to work on the presentation.

I did tweak Kate’s pancake recipe ever so slightly, increasing the quantity of sultanas (as we were enjoying them so much!) and omitting the nuts from the batter (so we could keep them as an option for sprinkling on top instead). I found that the flour conversion from grams into cups in the Vegan Life magazine was slightly off (according to my scales and cups anyhow!) so I’ve taken this into account in the recipe I share below.

I usually get nine pancakes out of the batter, which means three pancakes each for me and the boys.

As soon as the photoshoot was over, you can guess where these three ended up.

Recipe Card

Sultana Banana Mini Pancakes (Vegan)

These mini pancakes are perfect for serving as a weekend breakfast or for ‘elevenses’. The recipe is lightly adapted from the Banana and Pecan Pancakes recipe in Kate Ford’s Vegan in 15. We love these pancakes with sultanas in the batter and chopped nuts as an optional topping, but feel free to add 2 TBSP chopped pecans into the batter as per the original recipe.

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Hands-on time 20

Total Time 20

Course Breakfast, Elevenses, Snack

Servings 8 mini pancakes

Ingredients

▢ 1 ripe banana chopped into chunks
▢ 150 ml / ⅔ cup soya, nut or oat milk (I use fortified soya milk)
▢ 120 g / 1 scant cup self-raising flour
▢ 1 tsp maple syrup plus extra for drizzling
▢ pinch of salt
▢ 4 TBSP sultanas
▢ neutral-flavoured oil for frying I use organic rapeseed (canola oil or sunflower oil)

Optional topping

▢ chopped walnuts or pecans

Instructions

In a blender or food processor, blitz the banana, milk, flour, syrup and salt into a smooth batter. Pour into a jug and stir in the sultanas.
If possible, use two frying pans (skillets) to halve the cooking time. Brush the bottom of the pan with oil and heat on medium heat. To check the pan is hot enough, flick a few drops of water into the pan. If they sizzle, the pan’s ready.
Pour the batter into three separate circles to create mini pancakes (I use my ice cream scoop – one scoop per pancake). Cook for a minute or so until the underneath is golden brown, then flip over and cook for a further minute. Pop them in a warm oven while you prepare the remaining pancakes.
Drizzle with syrup, sprinkle on some chopped nuts (if desired) and serve.
These pancakes will keep for 3 days in the refrigerator. Gently heat through before serving.

Keyword Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Vegan Pancakes

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Have a great weekend everyone!

With love,

Sharon xx

Orange Drizzle Cake (Vegan / Dairy-free / Egg-free)

Published on March 24, 2017September 27, 2025 by Sharon10 Comments

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Back in 2013, I shared the recipe for a Lemon Drizzle Cake that I baked for my mum for Mother’s Day. It proved to be a big hit with my readers and, four years later, it’s still one of the most popular recipes on my blog!

Though I made it specifically with my mum in mind, the Lemon Drizzle quickly became my husband’s favourite cake. It’s the one he’s requested every birthday… even though his birthday is a week before Christmas and Lemon Drizzle feels like a Spring-time cake (well, to me anyway!) Recently, however, I made an adaptation of the Lemon Drizzle and, after tasting it, my husband declared that THIS one may just be his new favourite!

With a few little tweaks, I transformed the Lemon Drizzle into an Orange Drizzle speckled with poppy seeds It still has the beautiful, moist consistency and light texture, but the flavour is of course orange rather than lemon. Rather than ‘zingy’ like the Lemon Drizzle, this one is more sweet and fruity. It reminds me of summer and sunshine. So maybe Lemon Drizzle will be my spring-time cake, and Orange Drizzle will be the summer-time version. But, of course, you can eat it whenever you like. I know we’ll be eating it in December 😉

Oh, and this cakes smells amazing as it’s baking. It fills the house with this beautiful orangey aroma!

I’ve made this cake at least five times in the past few weeks. I’ve given it as gifts, taken it on our travels when visiting family, and shared it with friends on coffee mornings. It’s always received great compliments. It’s also been road-tested and approved by my mum. I took it to her on our last visit to Dorset and she really enjoyed it! When I got home, she’d already emailed asking for the recipe.

I hope you love this recipe as much as we do!