My Veganniversary

Inspired by Bazu’s post last month, I thought I would post about how I came to be a vegan as this month is my one year veganniversary. Also like Bazu this is actually my second time around being vegan. I wish I had stuck with it the first time, but here’s how I got there in the end:

I’ve always liked animals and when I was around 15 I used to see animal rights stalls in the city centre of Glasgow and would read the leaflets and sign their petitions. I made sure that my makeup was not tested on animals and discovered The Body Shop. My aunt is a vegetarian so I was always aware of what a vegetarian was, but at the time I never really connected the food on my plate to real life animals.

When I was 17 I studied Hospitality Management at college. Part of the course was a full day’s class in the kitchen where we learned basic food preparation and cooking skills. Some of the things we learned were filleting fish and preparing rack of lamb. I am really squeamish and I hated dealing with this kind of stuff and it was becoming much more apparent to me that the food I was eating was part of an animal that used to live and breathe. I decided to myself that when I moved out my parent’s home I would become vegetarian. But one day at home I was preparing chicken for dinner and there was blood on it and it just disgusted me so much that I decided there and then that I didn’t want to eat stuff like that anymore.

When I told my Mum that I was going to be vegetarian she was fine with it, but said to me, “I hope you’re not going to be one of those vegans”. I think she just gave me the idea, and within a year or two I had turned vegan. I was happy with my choice to be a vegan; I had never particularly liked milk or eggs and didn’t really miss them. When I was questioned about veganism I had a hard time explaining myself because I didn’t really know for sure why I was vegan. Sometimes I liked the idea that I was a bit different and other times I was mortified when put on the spot and questioned about veganism. I continued being vegan for about 3 years, but when Wee G and I went on holiday abroad I ended up eating cheese and eggs because I couldn’t find much else and I didn’t want to cause a fuss. When we came back home I realised that life was much easier being vegetarian. I continued drinking soy milk, but ate cheese and milk chocolate and eggs when they were an ingredient in something else. I didn’t like the idea that these products came from animals, and still thought they were pretty icky, but I chose to not think about it instead of avoiding them.

In 2006 it was almost ten years since I had quit being vegan. Every now and then I thought that it would be “ideal” to be vegan, but was just never motivated to do anything about it. My motivation initially came from reading the news that The Body Shop was taken over by L’Oreal. I still bought all my makeup there and loved their products and had more love for that shop than a person should have for a store selling bubble bath. But I have never bought anything from L’Oreal as they are notorious for testing on animals. I have never forgotten a leaflet I read when I was a teenager about one particular experiment for sunscreen that they carried out on mice. It still makes me ill to think about it so I won’t go in to details. I was hugely disappointed and outraged that The Body Shop would have anything to do with L’Oreal. I began searching online to find somewhere else to buy my makeup and somehow ended up on the PETA web site. There I ended up watching the Meet Your Meat video. Even though I was vegetarian I was shocked at the treatment of the animals and when it was stated in the film that the veal industry is directly linked to the dairy industry I decided right then that I would not consume any dairy again. I couldn’t believe that I had never realised this before. So that was it – I was vegan again!

This time round I’m much better informed and feel more certain about my reasons for being vegan. I know that I’ll be vegan for life now. I spent hours reading about veganism and animal rights on the internet last year. Wee G was very supportive of my decision, but didn’t like that I was getting upset over many of the things I was reading. I’ve never tried to get him to be a veggie, but if I could have changed one thing about him it would be to make him a veggie! One day I left this web site on the pc screen (accidentally-on-purpose :)). He read it and turned to me and said “I don’t want to eat meat anymore”. So, now we have a meat-free, almost completely vegan house and I have never been happier! I don’t miss any animal food products at all, but I still get a little sad when I get a whiff of The Body Shop as I walk by...

I continue to learn so much from the internet and my fellow bloggers. I appreciate all the help and support I have had since starting my blog... so thank you!

Veggie Cashew Soup and Clementine Juice

I recently borrowed Breaking The Food Seduction and Eat To Live from my local library as I had heard good things about both books online. I’m not actually following either programme but since reading Breaking The Food Seduction two weeks ago I haven’t eaten any chocolate which is pretty amazing for me as I usually eat some every day. What’s more I’m not missing it…

Anyway, this soup is from Eat To Live. It’s call Dr Fuhrman’s Famous Anti-Cancer Soup. It’s made from split peas, onions, leeks and zucchini combined with carrot and celery juice with cashew nuts blended in. I don’t have a juicer so I just threw the carrots and celery in the soup without juicing them. I really liked it…it was creamy and delicately flavoured and a lovely colour! What I didn’t like about it is the name…so I’m just going to call it Veggie Cashew Soup. You can find the recipe here. I’ve bought these boxes of Cuties several times from Trader Joe’s and they are usually really good, but this box I bought weren't as great as usual and neither of us were eating them. So, I decided to juice them. As I mentioned above I don’t have a juicer so I threw them in the blender and then strained them. Unfortunately the handle on my sieve broke in the middle of it all, but the juice was sweet and smooth and strangley much better than the fruit as a whole! Yum!

Mexican Weekend

On Saturday for dinner I made some Mexican Rice. I got the original recipe from allrecipes.com and adapted it. I love the spices in this and the colours from the tomatoes, green pepper, sweetcorn and green chickpeas. It’s very flavoursome and not too spicy.

Then on Sunday we went out to eat at Sharky’s, a Mexican fast food kind of restaurant nearby. I forgot to take photos, but I had a yummy fajita plate that had spicy tofu, veggies (onions, squash, courgettes), organic rice and beans and guacamole served with flour tortillas. Very tasty and I love that they offer tofu as a fajita/burrito/taco filling.

Mexican Recipe (Serves 2-3)

½ cup brown rice
1 cup water
½ medium onion, diced
2 tsps vegetable oil
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 garlic clove, crushed
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander seed
2 tsps paprika
1 pinch red pepper flakes
¼ tsp Tabasco sauce
1 green pepper
1 can tomatoes, chopped
1 cup frozen, sweetcorn, defrosted
1 cup cooked chickpeas
Salt to taste

Place rice and water in medium pot. Bring to boil and simmer for around 35 minutes until cooked. In a large frying pan heat oil over a medium high heat. Add onions and pepper and cook for around 5 minutes. Add garlic, turmeric, cumin, coriander seed, paprika and red pepper flakes and cook for another minute, stirring frequently. Add tomatoes, Tabasco, sweetcorn and rice and stir through until heated thoroughly. Add salt to taste.

Increase Tabasco and red pepper flakes if you like it spicy.

Serve topped with avocado/guacamole or vegan sour cream and chopped fresh coriander (cilantro).

Chickpea Crazy!

Anything with chickpeas is good in my opinion and I’m always looking for other ways to cook them . This Hummus-Quinoa Casserole is from Vive! and although it sounds like a strange mix it turned out really well. It’s a layer of quinoa covered with a layer of hummus and topped with veggies roasted in balsamic vinegar (to which I added garlic to make them extra tasty). It came out a little dry, but I think that was because I loosely halved the recipe and ended up with too much quinoa. I’ll definitely make it again with a few changes and I’m looking forward to it cos it was really good.

It looks quite pretty in the dish, but I made a bit of a mess taking it out so it looked a little different on the plate :)

For my casserole I made Creamy Hummus also from Vive! As I’m not crazy about tahini I substituted peanut butter as suggested by laura jesser and Melody a while back. And it was yumalicious! So thanks for the idea! And it also enhanced the smell of the casserole as it had a lovely peanutty aroma when I took it out the oven.

Last night we had some Morroccan Chickpea Patties that I have blogged about before. They are so good! And great with some potato wedges and a salad. Try them if you haven’t done it already!

Brown Rice and Green Lentils, Baked Portobello Mushrooms, Cornmeal Coated Tofu and Bean Salad

This rice and lentils recipe came from a recipe book I had years ago. I no longer have the book as it, and several of my other cookbooks, met a soggy end when I had the great idea of storing them near the sink. I have pretty much the worst memory of anyone I know so when I thought about making this recipe I remembered there was rice and lentils and ummmm..... Well, I think there was onions, garlic and soy sauce and there might have been thyme. So that’s what I put in and it turned out really yummy. I also had a search on the internet and found a few recipes that had fried, caramelised onions included which sounds really yummy. I am certain that the onions in my cookbook were cooked along with the lentils and rice so I did that to keep the fat content down. I had it with a baked Portobello Mushroom and broccoli. I like some strange combinations sometimes... :)
Next to the Balsamic Strawberries this is my new favourite thing – Bean Salad. Not very exciting, just a mix of chickpeas, edamame, green beans, sweetcorn, red onion, parsley and Simple Cider Vinaigrette from Vive Le Vegan! It is so yummy! I made a ton of Rice and Lentils so I had plenty left over and next day for lunch I had some with the bean salad on top. I added some home grown mung bean sprouts (that is about as green fingered as I get). Delish!

I bought some cornmeal recently for a recipe I was going to make, but I forgot what it was (see what I mean about my memory?!) so I thought I would use some to make this Cornmeal Coated Tofu. Wee G liked that they looked like fish fingers (fish sticks) and wanted to know if I could make them taste kind of fishy. I think I could use some kind of seaweed, but I don’t really know anything about seaweed. We tried sprinkling them with some kelp granules but I think those taste salty rather than fishy. Any suggestions?

Seitan and Strawberries

I made some seitan using the recipe from VWAV. Then wondering what I would do with it I flicked to the next page of the book and saw Jerk Seitan. I didn’t really know what it was supposed to taste like as it’s flavoured with lime, allspice, nutmeg and soy sauce among other things which sounded a strange mix to me, but it turned out really nice. Very tasty, but not the greatest dish lookswise.
Then with the rest of the seitan (I only made half a batch) I decided to make “meatballs”. I didn’t bother with a recipe, just mixed the ground seitan with breadcrumbs, onion, garlic, herbs and a “flax egg” to bind it together. Then I baked them in the oven and then served them with whole wheat pasta and tomato sauce. They turned out a little soft, next time I will need more breadcrumbs or something.
Now, for my new favourite thing in the world! Strawberries and balsamic vinegar! I adapted this from a Jamie Oliver recipe and it is so so so delicious! You can serve them with vegan yogurt or ice cream. I tried with vanilla soy yogurt and lime soy yogurt, both were super yummy, but they are also gorgeous all on their own.

Balsamic Strawberries (Serves 2-4)

1lb strawberries
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2-3 basil leaves, chopped

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Cover and let sit for at least half an hour at room temperature. Do not let sit for more than 2 hours. Serve and enjoy.

More Soup, Biscuits, Stir Fry and Another Eggless Omelette

Even though it’s like the middle of summer here I am still making soup with winter squash... This is Butternut Tomato Soup from How It All Vegan. It’s got a pretty mild taste as the only things flavouring it apart from the veggies are ginger and garlic. It was a nice change from my usual lentil soup.
I made US style biscuits for the first time a few weeks ago and I have started making them quite frequently. They are a bit like savoury scones and are great to have with soup. Plus they only take half an hour (at most) to make. The ones pictured are Fancy Biscuits (with dill and spring onions) from How It All Vegan, but I have also made the regular ones and they are yummy too.
I made another “omelette”, this time with mushrooms, Italian mixed herbs and nutritional yeast added. And again I didn’t add the oil from the original recipe (from VWaV). It was definitely more flavourful than the last one, but also a little flatter because it didn’t have the potatoes and onions to bulk it up. I think I’d like to try again with different veggies. So many variations I could try...

And finally this is a stir fry that I threw together one night for me when Wee G was working late. I wanted to try using up some of my pomegranate molasses that I bought ages ago for making BBQ Pomegranate Tofu so I added it to this stir fry along with soy sauce, garlic and some other stuff that I can’t remember because I didn’t write it down...ooops! I wish I had written it down as it was really nice... I guess I will just have to experiment to see if I can make it again!