There are cookbooks that I think I would still buy, full price, if it only had one recipe. There’s the Banana Everything Cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. There is the Stir-fried Tofu, Shiitakis and Green Beans from Vegan For Everybody. And, because this post is about something brunchy, there is the hollandaise sauce from Vegan Bowl Attack by Jackie Sobon.

That isn’t, of course, to say that the rest of the book is no good. It’s just that this recipe gets made so much it justifies the price. It’s so quick and easy. In that respect completely unlike a traditional hollandaise, but the taste is exactly the same. It’s perfect on the bowl it belongs to or on top of a eggs Benedict type concoction usually with whatever seasonal veg we have on hand. Purple sprouting broccoli, asparagus or – like here – samphire.

Okay so there was only one thing I could post about with today’s prompt and that’s the current convenience food addiction of the Burgess/Morley House. Vivera Veggie Shawarma.

Yeah it doesn’t look like much but the spices are spot on and the texture is fantastic. We serve it on flat breads and then top it with whatever we want. Nothing for Kate and lettuce, chilli sauce and sliced spring onions for me. Takes about five minutes to make and then it’s all binge watching all night.

I can’t say Christmas is actually my favourite holiday. It’s actually probably my least favourite. It’s stressful. As a kid we’d go down to open presents, I’d have to be just the right amount of grateful, then there was stress over when I’d get to see my Dad and how wanting to spend time with his side of the family made me a bad person. And it hasn’t got to be any less of a mine field of family politics since then. And then there was the year Kate was admitted to hospital on Christmas Day. She’s not allowed to do that again.

The one break in the madness was Christmas breakfast. After the emotionally fraught unwrapping and before the emotionally fraught big family meal. Breakfast at my Mum’s was a simple bacon sandwich with brown sauce and a moment of peace. I don’t eat bacon now, and I’m not sure I enjoyed eating it all that much then. I do enjoy this though: maple flavoured rashers from VBites with spinach and sweet chilli sauce between two slices of grilled bread. And that’s why I picked Christmas Morning.