Ciao peeps! It’s been a while again, mostly due to my having to organise our imminent house move, and rehearsing for a show I’m in this week! It’s been a very stressful time, but I finally feel like I’ve come out the other side, and I want to share some of the lovely things I’ve been eating to help me get here 😀
There was massive news last week that there are now half a million vegans in the UK, which I’m guessing is the reason why loads of food chains are introducing vegan menus and new options 🙂
One such place I have discovered is The Stable in Bath, where I went for a meal last night with my theatre group and tried a vegan version of their Hawaiian pizza. It was delicious, and the cheese tasted so realistic!
Also, just after Jacob and I had successfully agreed our new tenancy, we went for a celebratory meal at The Green Rocket, where I tried something new: sesame noodles 🙂 Just look at the gorgeous colours!
Also also, I made a very easy Thai-style recipe which made 4 portions and has been very handy for quick meals before work:
Fry a pack of Fry’s chicken-style strips in a bit of oil for about 5 mins
Add a jar of Sainsbury’s coconut and lime sauce and a pack of mixed oriental vegetables
Simmer for about 5 more mins (or whatever the instructions say!)
Serve with your rice of choice
Lastly, I made a small snail very famous on Facebook:
Ciao peeps! It’s been a while since I wrote a post about general thoughts and/or frustrations regarding the attitudes of defensive omnivores towards vegans. The links below are a combination of serious, informative and humorous answers to those questions which all vegans are tired of hearing. Since reading them, I have ended up discussing some of the topics with a few omnis who were open-minded and interested in going vegan in the future 🙂
Something I find particularly ironic is when omnis ask where vegans get their protein, or whether they are getting the right vitamins, because of how hypocritical the questions usually are. The vast majority of omnivores do not make sure they get all the right nutrients, vitamins and protein, and do not take good care of their health, but people never automatically ask an omnivore “Are you getting enough B12? Make sure you don’t turn anaemic!” etc. etc. As a side note, I was talking to a vegan colleague at work yesterday, and she was saying that apparently it is not possible to be deficient in protein but, funnily enough, you can have too much! I did not know this and will have to find out more.
Another question which irritates me is “Do you take supplements?” because it is usually asked with an accusatory air, as if a vegan diet alone cannot possibly provide all our essential vitamins. As it happens, I do occasionally take a vegan multi-vitamin tablet, but ONLY if I feel I need an extra boost (as a lot of onmis also do!). For example, nutritional yeast is packed full of B12, but I do not eat nutritional yeast all the time. Similarly, I am prone to getting leg cramps, and so if I am not currently eating leafy greens, I might take a magnesium supplement to help me along 🙂
So to summarise, all those judgemental and defensive omnivores can move on and stop being hypocritical! 😀
On a more cheerful note, I made a lentil and spinach curry again the other day (recipe here: Cooking curry!) and this time I remembered to take a picture. I didn’t bother with the raita this time, because the weather has been thoroughly weird and unseasonably cold, so I wanted something warming:
Comforting curry
On a slightly warmer day recently, we tried Booja Booja’s chocolate ice-cream, which was amazing! Until vegan Ben & Jerry’s becomes widely available, this will be my go-to cinema companion (as well as Jacob of course!)
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I also tried a simple new recipe for vegan mayonnaise, which somebody posted on Facebook and involved combining 1 cup of oil, 1/2 cup soya milk, salt n pepper, 1 tbsp vinegar and 1 tbsp mustard. It turned out far too runny though, even after being left in the fridge, and was a bit too mustardy for my personal taste as well, so I will adjust this in the future and post an update. I could tell that, with a few alterations, it will be delicious 🙂 Until then, I’m going to add garlic powder and herbs to a tub of vegan mayo from Sainsbury’s, to make an easy substitute pizza dip 😀
Ciao peeps! Today’s been a busy but enjoyable one, completing all my assessment work (now done!!) and then going into town for nosh and other things.
Thankfully I had lunch before walking up to uni, as it had slipped my mind that the cafe is currently closed because somebody broke into its cash machine over the weekend (!!). Don’t know why they bothered; we’re students, there won’t be any money in there…
Anyway, by the time I had walked up the massive hill, done three hours of work, and walked back into town, I was famished. I remembered reading on the Facebook Vegan Supermarket Finds page that Pret A Manger does a few vegan options, so I headed there and bought this yummy sandwich (I stupidly forgot to take a picture of the label, but I know it contained avocado, kale and some delicious spicy sauce etc.):
Nice things in bread
I have heard a lot of people raving about some new sweets from Marks and Spencer, called “Sticks of Summer” spicy fruit sticks, and I’ve tried twice now to get them, but they’re currently out of stock However, I had geared myself up for sweetie goodness, so I got a pack of gelatine-free Percy Pics instead 😀
Pigs without the pig 😀
There was one last nice surprise of the day when I found a load of new organic vegan chocolate bars in Sainsbury’s 🙂 They’re not the cheapest, but as a treat they look fab!
A birthday at the start of the week = using the entire remainder of the week to continue celebrating 😀
On Tuesday evening, we invited our friend Genesis over to have some dinner and to try the nut roasts that our pals gave us on Monday. We decided to make it a Mediterranean-Greek-randomness-themed meal, so we had mixed roast veggies, olives, baby carrots, and a couple of hummuses. It all went together really nicely, and we had the rest of Jacob’s birthday cake for pudding 🙂
Yummy spread 🙂
On Wednesday, I’d organised a day out at Airhop Bristol, which was sooo much fun (and also made us realise how unfit we are!). We travelled to Cribbs Causeway on the bus and ate lunch when we arrived. I fail to remember the name of the café, but needless to say it was the first suitable place we could find. However, the falafel wraps we had were surprisingly delicious, and filled us up nicely (but not too much before two hours of bouncing!).
Falafel wrap with salad and chips
After Airhop, it was early evening and we were exhausted and ready for something more substantial. I’d read on Facebook that Zizzi’s have a brand new vegan menu, and we were eager to try it, so we headed into Cabot Circus in search…
I’d been to Zizzi’s before, but never as a vegan, and so I can genuinely say that the vegan food was just as yummy as the “normal” stuff! We had olives and garlic bread to start, then customised our margherita pizzas with loads of extra toppings, then I had baked nectarines and sorbet for dessert. Phew!
Here’s a few pictures, with Jacob’s obligatory face-pulling:
Jacob said a very sweet thing to me at Zizzi’s which was that he’d never eaten such consistently delicious food, or such a wide variety, before we both went vegan. Just some of the foods he’d never tried before were kale, tofu (now a firm favourite), mangetout, and lentil curry. Yet again, the phrase “what do vegans eat?” seems to be redundant!
Yesterday, I was delighted to hear that Quorn are making their entire range vegan 🙂 Even though Quorn is not my favourite range of meat substitutes, it is great that it will soon be an option for us again, as it is used in a lot of restaurants as their go-to veggie option.
On Thursday evening, I had booked a table at The Green Rocket Cafe for us and a few friends to have a proper birthday meal. Many of the group had never eaten at a vegetarian/vegan restaurant before, but everybody was keen to try the food and, for the most part, they enjoyed it 🙂 Particularly the chocolate cake I had ordered everybody for pudding! 😀
The table set up 🙂 It was a lot messier when we’d finished!!
Finally, yesterday I watched a video on Facebook about how to make an easy Mexican-style ‘lasagne’ and decided to try making a vegan version after work. We invited Jacob’s cousin over, and the dish got his seal of approval too 😀 Here’s a recipe:
Serves 3-4
Chilli mixture (either made fresh or ready-bought)
plain nacho chips
2-3 tortillas
Violife cheese
jalapeños
Salsa and vegan sour cream
Spring onions (optional)
Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius
Put a layer of chilli mixture into a baking dish
Follow with a layer of nacho chips and a layer of Violife
Just watched these YouTube videos: an interview with Paul Burgess, who is a prevalent member of the Vegans UK- Off Topic Chat Facebook page. A very down-to-earth and helpful interview 🙂
This morning, I met my mum in town to go for lunch and a good catch-up 🙂 I forgot to set my alarm clock last night, but part of my brain must have realised this and, as a result, gave me a very light, interrupted sleep full of bad dreams in order to ensure I woke up on time!
These dreams included my dad giving me a giant pot of strawberry yoghurt and me eating half of it before remembering that it was made from dairy, and going to work (I work part-time at Lidl) and eating a whole selection of meat-, dairy- and egg-based goods
This was clearly just my subconscious symbolising and exaggerating my slight concern that I will no longer be able to eat a lot of things I enjoy (but I didn’t even like dairy yoghurt or pepperoni pizza much, so I don’t know why it chose those!).
However, there is a vast amount of knowledge and advice out there about yummy vegan substitutes. I have already been send loads of links to recipes and online resources, from friends and family, and there is a constant stream of handy finds from these vegan Facebook pages I follow:
The one element I thought I may struggle with is eggs, as I often got cravings for egg sandwiches since going veggie. However, I wondered whether the reason for this might be lack of iron, rather than the actual taste of the sandwiches and, sure enough, when I increased my iron intake, the cravings diminished! 🙂 So there is usually a logical answer for everything…
Today, Mum and I went to The Green Rocket Cafe, and ended up having a late breakfast instead of lunch, as we were a bit early! I had the vegan version of their ‘veggie monster breakfast’ and a soya latte (they were out of almond milk). The only thing they had to change to make it vegan was substituting scrambled egg for marinated tofu, which was delicious.
The compulsory food pic! NB: I am very bad at taking food photos, often because I am so hungry I forget until all that is left is an empty plate…
The breakfast included:
marinated tofu
2 sausages
kale
beans in a tasty sauce
mushrooms
tomato
sautéed potatoes
toast and spread
Phew I was full!! It’s lasted me till just now, while I’m writing this blog post. Thankfully, Jacob will be in soon; he’s going to make us hot dogs, using Linda McCartney sausages 😀 *mouth waters* Ciao for now!
However, I had geared myself up for sweetie goodness, so I got a pack of gelatine-free Percy Pics instead 😀
Jenny's Vegan Journey 