Tips and resources for new vegans.

Are you taking part in Veganuary this year?

(Can you manage to say Veganuary without it sounding like vagina-ry?  Because I certainly can't!)

Veganary is here, 100,000 people have signed up to try veganism for a month, my 11 year veganiversary is almost here, and there's never a better time than the present to explore the concept of eating a little less meat and dairy to help your health, the environment and our animal friends.

Here are some nice resources I actually use and find really handy,  

Websites for vegan support and info.

The official Veganuary website has so much information, you can even click for a free online vegan starter kit. 

I love The Vegan Womble's website, for really, really extensive lists of vegan products available in supermarkets and highstreet stores.  Check out their vegan product lists to see all the yummy things you can still eat. 

The Vegan Society have loads of online resources, and a 30 day vegan pledge you can sign up to, anytime, for support and information while trying out veganism.  

Shopping.

My food shopping pretty much all comes from supermarkets and my organic veg box, there's no need to visit health food or specialist shops for vegan food anymore!  If you shop online you can type 'vegan' into the search box on the website of your supermarket of choice (eg. Morrisons) and all sorts of things will pop up.  If you're shopping in store you'll need to get real good at reading labels.  Either way check out this accidentally vegan account on Instagram for lots of inspiration.  

My staple vegan shopping items include Pure dairy free olive spread, Violife vegan cheese, Linda McCartney sausages, sausage rolls, vegan scampi and vegetarian burgers, Fry's chicken nuggets, Quorn vegan hot and spicy burgers, and for ice cream Ben and Jerry's vegan chocolate fudge brownie or Booja Booja hunky punky chocolate.  My favourite chocolate is Moo Free, Lindt 70% dark chocolate and Cadbury's Bournville, Tesco's own brand vegan white chocolate is really nice too.  

If you do want to find something special I like Ethical Superstore, The Vegan Kind and Vegan Store. 

Books and magazines. 

Vegan Life Magazine brings you monthly articles and recipes, and even a vegan agony uncle page - you can subscribe here.  

My favourite vegan cook books are Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Peace and Parsnips by Lee Watson and River Cottage Veg Every Day by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  To be honest though I usually just find recipes online, my favourite is Jamie Oliver's vegan chocolate brownie recipe, it's to die for and super easy to make.  

And if you want a fiction book that'll make you never want to eat eggs again then read The Hen Who Dreamed she could Fly by Sun-Mi Hwang.  

Eating out.

Trip Advisor (just make sure you tick 'vegan options' under dietary restrictions) or Happy Cow are pretty good shouts for checking out vegan restaurants and cafes.

So many chain restaurants are really vegan friendly now, I like eating at Wetherspoons (onion bhajis and chips!), Las Iguanas (mushroom fajitas and chips!), Loungers (vegan all day breakfast!), Zizzi (pizza!), Pizza Express (pizza!) and Handmade Burger Company (falafel burger!) but there's a full list of vegan friendly chain restaurants provided by Peta.    

If you're trying out a vegan diet or lifestyle during January (or anytime!) good luck, enjoy it and check out my vegan posts for lots of recipes and ideas.  

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Disclosure - I receive a free digital subscription to Vegan Life Magazine, in return for giving them a shout out.  I only work with brands I like and all opinions are my own.  

What I ate in a day, a day of yummy vegan food.

This is what I ate in a day, it was my day off work, with just a few errands to run and a bit of gardening to do, but mostly just chilling out at home.

Breakfast was a yummy mix of potatoes, chickpeas and onion, fried til crispy with some paprika and garlic and a splodge of ketchup.

My breakfast was super filling, so for lunch I had some home-grown salad leaves, with a few crackers, a stick of vegan cheese and a BBQ Graze box.

Followed by an apple and home grown raspberries - they're so sweet this year!

Joe made this tea.  Home-made tomato sauce, wholemeal spaghetti and sausages-pretending-to-be-meatballs.  If you cut up Linda McCartney sausages and fry them in a little paprika they make excellent quick pretend-meatballs for pasta dishes.

This vegan ice cream is supposed to be in the shape of a lion, but I think it's more like a cute little sheep!  It's not quite chocolatey enough so I like to dip it into dark chocolate chips too!

Don't forget to check out my other vegan blog posts for more vegan meal inspiration! 

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What I ate in a day, a day of yummy vegan meals.

This is what I ate on a lazy day at home,

Breakfast was a toasted sesame seed bagel, filled with a Linda McCartney sausage and ketchup - and it was really yummy!  Orange juice and strawberries on the side for fruity healthiness too.

For lunch I had a Brazilian inspired meal.  Herby kidney beans with left over brown rice and a little salad.  I dry fried some sesame seeds to sprinkle over the rice and added a few crisps to my plate.   My friend is married to a Brazilian guy and they lived in Rio for years.  When I visited them I learned that Brazilians sprinkle special little crisps over their rice and beans (and pretty much everything else!).

Tea was Thai noodle stir fry with loads of veg - including a home grown courgette!

I love a crispy snack when I'm watching TV in the evening, so I made my own vegan cheese and onion crisps with a packet of Pom Bears, some nooch and onion powder.

Don't forget to check out my other vegan blog posts for more vegan meal inspiration! 

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What I ate in a day, a day of vegan food.

Last week I had a shopping list of things to pick up in town.  As I was getting the bus anyway, I decided to rope in the husband and go out for lunch too.  Here's what we ate that day, 

I whipped up some vegan pancakes for breakfast, because pancakes.

We had lunch at Novello Lounge.  We tend to go there because they have yummy vegan options, and it's pretty and cosy.  I had the vegan all day breakfast, which comes with toast, hash browns, mushrooms, pepper and spinach, falafel and beans - it's so good! 

After that big lunch I didn't want to cook properly at tea time, so I made a vegan cheese quesadilla (my vegan cheese of choice is Violife), with a green salad, some crisps and nuts.  The market is selling these navel oranges 5 for £1 at the moment and I'm making the most of it! 

Don't forget to check out my other vegan blog posts for more vegan meal inspiration! 

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What I ate in a day, a day of vegan meals.

This is what I ate on a lazy Sunday.  All vegan and all yummy,

Breakfast was a 'bacon' sandwich.  These Vbites Cheatin' rashers are OK, but better if you sprinkle some smoked paprika on while they're cooking. In a toasted pitta with lots of ketchup and a glass of OJ.

My only real plan for the day was to pop round the supermarket with mum, which I did, then treated myself to a little crispy snack and a sit on the sofa when I got back.  Paprika Pringles are my downfall.

Lunch was organic rice with sautéed mushroom, onion, garlic, spinach and cashews.  I was even organised enough to make two portions, one to take to work for lunch the next day.

I had great plans to cook potato and leek bake for tea, but I just didn't get round to it and Joe was late back home from work, so I whipped up a quick and easy baked potato, beans and a little side salad instead.  I know there's a lettuce shortage at the moment, but all winter I've been able to pick up English grown lettuce for 75p from my local market and it's nice to have a salad occasionally! 

I bought a little vegan chocolate bar as a treat when I was in the supermarket earlier in the day.  I love these Moo Free Bunnycomb bars - they're just like vegan crunchies! 

Don't forget to check out my other vegan blog posts for more vegan meal inspiration! 

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Things I've learned and things I appreciate after 10 years of being vegan.

2017 marks 10 years since I went vegan.  It's my veganiversary! 

In February 2007 I was 22 and I went to live in Spain with my friend for a while.  She's vegan, so I ate the same food as her, found it was easy and yummy (despite the lack of convenient vegan alternatives in Valencia 10 years ago!) and cutting out dairy and eggs cleared up some health issues I was having (twice weekly migraines, tummy troubles and rashes).  Veganism was something I'd tried before but failed when I discovered soya made me super itchy and poorly, it was so good to go vegan with the support of my friend.  I'd been veggie since I was 12 and I knew veganism was the next step in helping myself, the environment and animals.  I'm so glad I took that step.

I thought I'd treat you all to some photos of me eating vegan food for the last 10 years too!

IT IS SO MUCH EASIER TO BE VEGAN NOW!

You guys, we have everything vegan now, ice cream, cheese, yoghurt, marshmallows, cheese and onion crisps, it's so good!  When I was a new vegan in Spain requests for vegan meals or products were met with a 'Que?' or more usually a 'Por que?', now there's vegan convenience food in the corner shop!  It's amazing!

You can actually eat meals in restaurants!

I no longer have to order a side salad and chips, or baked potato with beans when I'm out.  Lots of my favourite places have special vegan menus, I love Las Iguanas, Novello Lounge, Pizza Express, and even Wetherspoons, they all have special separate vegan menus with lots of nice choices.  There are also loads more completely vegan or vegetarian cafes and eating places - yey!

You can avoid being or interacting with the 'vegan police'.

I try to be pretty chill with my veganism nowadays.  I'm sure in my animal rights demo days I was a bit pushy with my beliefs, and I've definitely been on the receiving end of shouty vegans which isn't pleasant (once when I was 'just' vegetarian a guy giving me a lift to a demo said I shouldn't even be there because my doc martens were leather, I was about 18 and mortified!).  It's easier to be nice and just live in the way you think is right, plenty of people will be curious and ask you about your lifestyle without you ramming it down their throats.

Vegan cheese!

I definitely appreciate vegan cheese.  I remember when Cheezly was the only choice, and that stuff makes me shudder!  Now I'm Violife for life.

I don't wear my vegan jumper any more.
It still fits, I wear it to do the gardening, but it seems a bit to much to wander round in public proclaiming what I eat in such big lettering.  I have some awesome, slightly more discreet, vegan pin badges though!

Social media is a vegan's best friend.

As soon as a new, exciting vegan product hits the shelves you can guarantee a vegan somewhere will be Instagramming and Twittering it.  The vegan network is strong.

Vegan magazines are awesome.

Veganism can't be that much of a weird thing any more if you can wander into your local newsies and pick up a lovely, glossy vegan magazine full of recipes and articles.  I prefer Vegan Life Magazine for my monthly dose of vegan inspiration.  

Being vegan makes you a better cook.

It's true!  I cook so much more and have to cleverly substitute vegan ingredients.  In the last few years there's been loads of vegan cookbooks out too, with lots of lovely vegan recipes. 

Vegan street food is a thing now.

And that's totally fine by me!  We go to an event in Digbeth quite regularly with street food trucks, and every single truck has a vegan option.  So good!

It's possible to marry a non-vegan!

Yes, if I'd have told teenage me I'd marry a meat eater I might not have believed it, but I have married a man who eats meat, and we don't even argue about it.  We don't cook meat in the house, anything he eats out of the house I don't comment on, and he cooks me yummy vegan meals and looks up if there's vegan options on the menu before we go out.  I think he's a keeper.

Most importantly, being vegan helps the environment and animals.

Climate change isn't getting any better and animals aren't being treated any nicer.  Not eating animals is one of the best and easiest ways to help the environment and ease suffering, and that's why I've been doing it for so long!

Finally, here are some of my bestest vegan food blog posts, 

Vegan Thai spiced noodle recipe.

Graze box - for vegans.

3 ways to eat vegan yoghurt. 

Vegan buckwheat flour and coconut milk pancakes. 

What do vegans eat in Birmingham? 

What do vegans eat in Rio de Janeiro?

3 easy vegan potato recipes.

DIY vegan cheese and onion crisps.

Make your own vegan cheese, from nutritional yeast and pine nuts. 

Vegan leek, lentil and potato bake. 

Disclosure - I get a digital subscription to Vegan Life Magazine in return for giving them a shout out every month.  I only work with brands I like and all opinions and ideas are my own.  Vegan Life Mag is ace, you can subscribe here.

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Vegan review - all of the vegan cheese and cream flavour crisps!

One of my local shops started stocking loads of the Eat Real cheese and cream flavour crisps, and they're vegan!  It seemed the right thing to do to buy one of every variety, and then try them out.  For the blog, of course.  I'm so selfless.  I also had a bag of Ten Acre vegan cheese and onion crisps, so I've included them too.

Here we go...

Eat Real Quinoa Puffs - White Cheddar

Firstly, these puffs are huge!  They're the same length as my fingers!  They're really crispy and have a yummy, salty, cheese flavour.

Eat Real Quinoa Puffs - Jalapeño and Cheddar
Same puffs, different flavour.  I actually don't think these taste particularly cheesy, they're more jalapeño flavour, but husband has tried them and he thinks they taste of cheese.  These are my least favourite.

Eat Real Quinoa Chips - Sour Cream and Chive

Vegan sour cream and chive is a dream come true for me!  These quinoa chips have a similar texture to wholegrain or sunbites style crisps and they taste tangy and chive-y.  I don't think you'd know these were vegan if you hadn't seen the bag!

Eat Real Lentil Chips - Creamy Dill

The lentil chips are light and crunchy and the chips themselves really taste creamy and tangy, with a hint of  herby dill.  A packet of these doesn't last very long - these ones are my favourite. 

Ten Acre - The Story of when the Cheese met the Onion
 If you want vegan crisps that taste like good old Walkers cheese and onion then these are your best bet.  Crunchy little potato crisps with a strong onion and tangy cheese flavour that definitely don't taste like they're vegan friendly.  But they are.  Woohoo!

I also really, really, really like my own homemade vegan cheese and onion crisps, just take some nooch, onion powder and plain crisps and mix them all together, you can find the recipe for DIY vegan cheese and onion crisps here.

Are there any more vegan cheesy crisps I should know about?

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What I ate in a day, vegan New Year's Eve eats.

I love this nosey sort of blog post when other people write them, so here's what I ate in a typical, vegan day.  

I took these photos on New Year's Eve, I ate some fruits and veggies but some yummy treats too - my days are usually a little less heavy on the crisps!

For breakfast I had some fruit, an apple and a clementine.  I got up, dressed and had a walk into town, to the market and supermarket to pick up some supplies, and to get some fresh air because I knew I was going to spend all evening watching TV on the sofa!




Lunch was one of those picky meals, they're my favourite kind and they always feel a bit festive and buffet like to me.  I cooked up 3 Fry's vegan chicken nuggets to have with some cubed Violife vegan cheese, pistachios, paprika pringles, some Bournville chocolate and some tiny chocolate cookies.



Tea was Chinese-ish, some Iceland own brand mini vegetable spring rolls (which are really yummy, garlicky and gingery, and only £1 for 16), rice with spring onion, soy sauce and toasted sesame seeds, steamed broccoli and sautéed garlicky leeks.

We saw the new year in watching Supergirl, cosy on the sofa.  I finished up my Christmas chocolate, some Bournville and the last of my Hotel Chocolat vegan chocolate reindeer.  I had a little bowlful of Walkers Max paprika crisps, and finished off the tube of paprika Pringles too!

Don't forget to check out my other vegan blog posts for more vegan meal inspiration! 

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Vegan rice krispie treat recipe, with Freedom Mallows vegan marshmallows.

These vegan rice krispie treats are sweet, light and yummy!  I was sent some vegan marshmallows from Freedom Mallows to try, they're delicious to eat on their own, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to whip up some lovely vegan treats!

You will need

1 75g packet vanilla Freedom Mallows

2 desert spoons vegan margarine

2 or 3 cups of rice krispies

Pan, spoon and a tin or tray.

How to make yummy vegan rice krispie treats

Melt the margarine in the pan over a gentle heat.

Add the vegan marshmallows and stir until they've melted.

Add rice krispies slowly into the pan, until they're covered with a light coating of the marshmallow mixture and are sticking together.

Push into a tin, tray or pyrex dish and firm and flatten out with the back of a spoon.

Chill in the fridge, then cut into squares and enjoy!

Freedom Mallows come in vanilla and strawberry flavours, and they're free from egg, dairy, gluten, gelatine, soy, GMOs and nuts, and they're suitable for vegetarians and vegans!  Phew!  They're also yummy, soft and melt in the mouth-y.  

My chief omnivore taste tester, Joe, say's the Freedom Mallows are just as good as non-vegan mallows and that my homemade vegan rice krispie treats are just as good as the Kellogs ones he buys from the shop. 

Have you tried Freedom Mallows yet?

Disclosure - I was sent the Freedom Mallows to try.  I only work with brands I like and all opinions are my own.  

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How to make vegan potato and lentil bake, the perfect autumnal comfort food.

Now it's officially autumn it's officially time for comfort food!  Yey!

This vegan potato and lentil bake is my take on one of my Mum's vegan recipes.  We call it Monday Bake because Mum would cook it on Sunday night in the oven with the Sunday dinner then reheat it to eat on Monday after we'd all had a busy day at work and school.

I still call it Monday Bake, although it can be eaten any day of the week, and it's even good zapped in the microwave at work for lunch too.

 

You will need

2 large carrots

3 medium sweet potatoes

6 medium potatoes

2 leeks

3 cloves garlic

6 handfuls fresh spinach, or a couple of handfuls of frozen spinach

2/3 cereal bowl of red lentils

a little oil

2 oxo cubes.

Steaming pan

ovenproof dish

bowl

jug

serves 6 (you can make it in a big huge oven dish, or split it into smaller dishes to store or freeze)

How to make your yummy vegan lentil and potato bake

Put the kettle on, or get some water boiling in the steamer pan.

First slice all the root veg into slices about half a centimetre or so thick.  Peel any veg you think needs peeling, but I usually make do with giving everything a good scrub.  Mix up the sliced veg and add it to the steaming baskets, then steam until they're soft.

Put the red lentils in the cereal bowl, and top up with water, just to soak them and help speed up the cooking time.

While the veg is steaming, cut the leeks up into fine slices, then fry in a little oil until they're soft and a bit caramelised.  Add the garlic, sliced or crushed, about 5 minutes before the leeks are finished.

Roughly chop the spinach.

Make up some vegetable stock, I do about 500ml boiling water with 2 veg oxo cubes.

Ok, so that's your prep all done and you're ready to layer up the bake then bake it! 

Put a layer of the leeks in the bottom of your dish, then a layer of lentils, then a layer of spinach, then a layer of the potato, sweet potato and carrot slice mixture.  Pour a little stock on to just cover the layers.  Carry on building layers until the dish is full up, or you've run out of mixture! 

Pop the dish in the oven to bake, about 200 degrees for an hour.  If you use a glass dish you can see all the layers and keep an eye on the lentils to let you know when it's cooked, if they're still orange and hard looking it needs more time! 

After an hour you can eat it, or let it cool and fridge or freeze it.  It's waaay better eaten the day after, the flavours get better the longer you leave it.  And it's best served with homemade garlic bread! 

 

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