Celebrities: John Schneider

I just decided, quite randomly, to make a post linking to the Earthlings site and hadn't noticed the blog link before. I like blogs. I've been collecting links to blogs.

I'm unmoved by celebrities and their 'voice of reason' for animals. We've all seen the actors and models that advertise for PETA in one breath and then wear a fur coat in the next (Naomi isn't the first and she sure won't be the last). They received their substantial paycheck, right? Which, let's face it, is what your donations to PETA pay for - it most certainly isn't to ensure the welfare of the animals.

Anyway, I digress.
I can't seem to help myself when I see people crying. If an actor is good enough to convince me that they're crying for real in a movie, I'm in floods. As for watching a from the heart, genuine appeal, with crying, much clearing of the throat and a visible show of that person trying to pull themself together, it is even worse.

The last entry in Earthlings blog was from November 15th. I can't see a year so I'll assume it was from last year, although it could be older. It's an imbedded video of actor John Schneiders reaction to watching Earthlings and opening his eyes to the cruelty and horror of the world around us. I would expect to see a woman cry at the video, but the fact that a man recorded his reaction in his own hotel room, alone and then uploaded it makes it much more powerful. In a world where a man is thought of as a 'pussy' if he shows emotion in public, John Schneider has just become a personal hero of mine.

Hoping it works - the video:


Please check out Earthlings. Allow yourself to see the world as it really is beneath the shiny supermarket packaging so that you can make an informed choice.

The Vegan Pantry

There are many things that I've realised I'll require as I make the transition to vegan. An entirely new pantry is one of them. Actually, it'll just be 3 cupboards and a combo fridge freezer filled to bursting, but you get the idea.


Chez Bettay has an incredible list that they say is their ultimate vegan pantry, which looks like it's filled with more food than an extremely large family could eat in a week, let alone my housemate and me. However, one of the things I immediately noticed about the list was that a few items that are used in many of the vegan recipes I've scoured are not present.


For simple scrambled tofu 'egg' I know that while I can add loads of vegetables to the dish, the simplest thing I can do is simply add a little Kala Namak (black salt) to broken down tofu and enjoy thoroughly 'eggy' scramble.

As a meat eater, I'd add Worcester sauce to Bolognese mince and I really don't see why I shouldn't continue to do so if I am using vegan mince, except that Vegan Worcestershire Sauce is also not mentioned.

While I am content to just use Cheezley to recreate my need for cheese, not all of the recipes I've been collecting endorse such trust in deliciously recreated solid fat and instead call for nutritional yeast, which, as you've probably already guessed, is also absent.

And lastly, while they’ve added Seitan and multiple forms of tofu, they’ve forgotten to add my new acquaintances Polenta and Tempeh to the list.


It seems that every single person seems to have their own ideas of what their kitchen should consist of. I personally fantasise about seeing a brand spanking new recipe in one of the many sites I stalk, which urges me to recreate it immediately. Wouldn't it be awesome to be able to go to the cupboards and pull down every single necessary item? I imagine myself recreating vegan versions of Nigella Lawson-esque food porn in my house, which I admit would be completely wasted on my cats, ferrets and housemate, but in my fantasy, my kitchen faces the main road instead of the garden, and a cute, vegan, pagan, 30-something, single, non-smoking, sober, cute guy with his own place, a well paid job and all of his own hair just happens to be walking past the open window and stops to request a taste, followed by a date. *sighs* A girl can dream, can’t she?



Anyway, am I using this post as just an excuse to write down a few of the more common vegan items that I constantly forget? Absolutely. Will it help me to remember? Absolutely not :)




EDIT: I think that rather than creating blog post after blog post with other ingredients that I remember/come across, I shall simply make a list of them in this post and link to them in Amazon (although if I could, I'd link to the UK Amazon instead! Our Amazon doesn't seem to have half of this stuff, sadly.)


Currently:

*Kala Namak

*Vegan Worcestershire Sauce

*Nutritional Yeast

*Tempeh

*Polenta

*Soy protein

*Xanthan gum

Recipe: Cream of roasted tomato and red pepper soup

Cream of roasted tomato and red pepper soup

Time I updated this blog with more than just posts about my poor memory.
My very first soup was beautiful, if only because it was my own, very simple creation. I'm usually a follow the recipe kinda gal, but I had a basic concept of what a tomato soup should consist of, so just followed my instincts and added other things for flavour.

Serves 2

Ingredients
1 red pepper, deseeded
10-12 various fresh tomatoes (I used 8 plum and 3 salad)
1 small red onion, peeled but whole
3 cloves garlic, peeled but whole
2 Portobello mushrooms
Soya cream
Basil

Instructions
Place the deseeded pepper, tomato, peeled onion, garlic and mushrooms into a roasting tray,drizzle a little olive oil over and roast on 200c until soft (usually around 15-20 mins. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Peel the peppers and tomatoes before blending all vegetables until smooth. Sieve the liquid from the mixture into a saucepan and add soya cream (I used Alpro although use whatever type suits you). stir and reheat gently.
Serve immediately and enjoy x

Note
If you wish for a little heat, add half a teaspoon of vegan red chilli paste to the soup after it has been sieved.
The mass of vegetables that won't go through the sieve are delicious warmed slightly or left cold, spread on toast, crackers, dipped with breadsticks or just inside pita pockets.

This post is brought to you out of strange obsessions

I went to buy a paper from WhSmith yesterday after work. It's actually the job that I did for 4 years before joining the Underground. The aim as a till monkey (as I liked to call us - strangely, none of my former colleagues appreciated the term) is to persuade the customer to take an 'extra' with their desired shop. I always managed to sell the most chocolate, sweets, Harry Potter pre-orders, etc, than anybody else in my store. Not that I'm bragging, but if the person that sold the most got a voucher, free bar of chocolate or a free book out of it, I was going to be that person. I'm not overly competitive, but I will not be beaten.

The woman that served me asked in a nonchalant voice if I'd have liked any of the selection of sweets that she had on display (if I'd worked there, I'd have trounced her) and, joking because I'm still on my Cambridge diet, I said 'Not unless any of them are vegan', which, consisting of lots of Haribo jellies and Galaxy milk chocolate, I knew they weren't - I wouldn't touch any of it, even if she took the time to check all of them.
One of the things I'm beginning to find irritating about telling somebody else that I'm vegan (well, apart from the stupid diet, I almost am), is having to listen to people listing foods that they think are vegan. Apparently fish is vegan (who knew?) and you're a vegetarian if you don't eat any meat or dairy, so is a vegan somebody that only eats fruit? Grrr. This woman, thankfully, knew what a vegan is. She asked very simply, 'So how do you get all of your nutrients? Do you eat tofu and fruit?'
Now, yesterday I was running on about 45 minutes sleep from the night before thanks to being unable to sleep after shift changes, and I looked like death on a stick - I looked awful! I also couldn't list all of the vegan 'meats'. I managed to croak out that I ate tofu, and although I haven't tried it yet, the name amuses me so much that I also said 'Seitan', more for the look on her face. And then I was stuck. I knew there were a couple more but I just couldn't remember them, so I stuck 'nuts, seeds and vegetables' on the end. She just said that I looked very healthy so I aimed an ‘ok, I’m done and am outta here now’ look in her direction and scuttled out of the shop clutching my goods.

It's been bugging me all day: Tofu and Seitan. Great. And then I forgot about it until I got home and spotted 'Tempeh' in a vegan blog. Yay! 3 down, 1 to go. Obsession reignited.

I know the fourth began with 'P' but I was stuck on the word Paneer, which I know is an Indian cheese!
Google is very unhelpful. Nobody uses it in any of the recipes I've browsed. I've searched and came up empty. So I got bored and switched off.
Two minutes later, the correct word occurred to me: Polenta. Thank Goddess for that!

My vegan 'meats':
Tofu
Seitan
Tempeh
Polenta

I’ve seen loads of recipes that use Tofu and Seitan, but none that incorporate Tempeh or Polenta. Half of me is curious to know why that is? (are they both basically a one trick ingredient?) but the other half really wants to try them (when the diet is over, of course).

Now, excuse me, but it’s time to hunt down more recipes!

Planning ahead for Christmas recipes

I've made a decision about what I will be cooking for Christmas. Actually, I've made a decision about which recipes I will be using for Christmas. I will be making finger foods for the 21st, that I am planning on taking around to my sick grandmother.

Something to make now:
Christmas pudding
Mincemeat

Leading up to Christmas week that I'll be sharing w/neighbours:
Pumpkin spiced bread
Banana bread
Pumpkin Pie
Banana-maple oatmeal Cookies

Foods I am planning for the 21st are:
Individual Vegan toads in the hole
Vegan sausage rolls
Home made hummus with cheezley bread sticks
Individual pizzas
Roasted tomato and pepper soup w/flatbreads (no links, sorry, this is my own recipe)
Stuffed peppers w/cous cous
Baked paprika sweet potato crisps

Individual apple pies
Chocolate and coconut truffles
Vegan Milanos

Christmas eve:
Christmas cake
Chocolate tiffin
Gingerbread cookies
Mince pies
Chocolate cake

Christmas Day:
Quorn family roast (which will be the only non vegan item on the menu - I'll have a whole year to convince my housemate to allow me to try cooking a nut roast)
Swede and carrots
Vegan Cauliflower cheese
meat free bacon wrapped sausages


This Christmas, dinner will be brought to the Herbivore household courtesy of the following sites:
Fat Free Vegan Kitchen
Vegan Village
Parsley Soup
My Vegan Planet
Vegan Cupcakes
Razzle Dazzle Recipes
Cook Dannemann

My neighbours are going to love me this year! I hope some of this stuff will freeze ;)

Vegan Sites

I've been trawling the net looking for vegan suitable recipes for Christmas, and stumbled upon a spakly treasure trove of recipes to suit all occasions. I'll be honest, I walked into this diet thinking that it'll be 101 ways to cook chickpeas and lentils, and to be honest, there are a thousand ways to incorporate these into the foodie lifestyle, but there's so much more! You truly believe that you'll never eat another cheese scone or tiramisu dessert again, and I'm overjoyed to be shown how wrong I am!



Some of the sites thrilling me right now:

Veggie Love Planet

The Vegan Society

Vegan Village

BBC food

Veganfamily

Vegetarian Society

Parsley Soup

Veg family

Whole Foods Market

You may have noticed that a lot of the links are to the Yule section of the recipes. Enjoy and please feel free to suggest more :)

On the books front, my housemate ordered Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, which is just brilliant! I also received my copy the The Quorn Kitchen, which would have been perfect for when I turned Veggie back in June. I can still use it though - I just need to substitute lol.

I've also ordered my copy of Alicia Silverstones The Good Diet and Skinny Bitchin', which I'm anticipating imminently :)

Everybody loves Junk Food!

There seems to be a lot of food out there that seems to have the words Anti -Vegan written along the back in teeny, tiny writing. A lot of obvious stuff, like cream cakes, and a lot of non obvious ones, like health food bars that have honey as an ingredient. 

I was pointed to a group on Facebook by a fellow vegan friend of mine, Faye,  who has provided me with a wealth of information about making the transition first to vegetarian and then to vegan. The group she advised to me to join was The Vegan Societies' official FB page, and the thing she specified was a post requesting peoples favourite vegan eats/junk food.

Now, of course, veganism and vegetarianism are hugely political. The post was a call for suitable vegan food and there's one guy telling somebody off for listing Pringles because they're made by Proctor & Gamble, while another guy sits upon his gold plated high horse and informs everybody that the best snack food available is fruit and vegetables, brought from your local farmers market that are apparently set up right next to where I live. Nice to know. I've obviously walked right past them without seeing them for all of the four years that I've lived in Cheshunt. There is a house less than five minutes walk from me that sells honey from his own hives, but I'm boycotting honey so that's a no go.

Also, there seems to be huge debate over some of the foods listed. Apparently Oreos made in the UK use milk while the American company does not. Suddenly, a lot of the people are happy and some even rush out to buy Oreos. Except that the American company uses sugar that is processed using bone char. Oops.

This is a list of the appropriate foods I've managed to glean from the post (please note that I haven’t taken the time to write everything out and have simply copied and pasted everything, omitting opinions and changing from caps):

Condiments

Salad Cream

 Bisto original instant gravy

Henderson's Relish

Vitalite margarine.

HP Sauce.

Meals

Sainsburys frozen Vegetable Fingers

Linda McCartney Sausage Rolls.
Linda McCartney deep country pies

Realeat veggie mince

Pizza Hut bases and sauces

Linda McCartney sausages.

Tesco meatfree mince

Sainsburys own tinned spaghetti Bolognese

Dried pasta

Tesco finest garlic ciabatta

Veggie samosas

Morrison's stone baked garlic pizza,

Tesco dairy/egg free pizza base mix

Asda garlic stone baked pizza!

coop and Tesco value garlic baguettes

Tesco finest garlic bread

Morrison’s own yellow garlic bread

Waitrose cheeseless pizza

Snacks

beef & tomato pot noodles

Some walkers crisps

Haldirams Indian snack range

Lidl "Crusti croc" crisps (some only)

Sweet n sour noodles

Chow mein pot noodles

Various cheap flavoured noodle packets

Peanut butter

Chili heatwave Doritos

Pink panther wafer biscuits

Tesco value and Sainsbury’s basics tortilla chips

raw almonds

Joes dried mango slices

Butterkist micro popcorn

Doritos Spicy Sweet Chilli Flavoured Tortilla Chips

Snacks: Indian shops
- uttapam mix
- pakora mix
- bhaji mix
- idli mix
- dal vada mix
- pani puri ingredients
- samosa
- onion bhaji
- some indian sweets
- lots of cheap fresh, tinned and frozen vegetables
- cheap coriander and
- lots of spices and flours
- lots of vegan snacks (inc. Haldirams)
- some frozen vegan foods

Snacks: Arabic, Iranian and Turkish shops
- tinned Baba Ghannoush
- tinned Houmous
- multiple tinned Iranian dishes
- stuffed vine leaves
- stuffed pepper
- stuffed aubergine
- especially dark and delicious small cucumbers!
- most bread in these places is vegan. especially delicious is Lebanese flat bread - a palm oil free alternative to tortilla wraps

Cakes

Lyons treacle tart

Morrisons treacle tart

Asda iced fingers

Co-Op custard doughnuts

Asda Victoria ring

Co-Op Jam Doughnuts

Sainsburys basics large apple pie.

Tescos gluten free jam tarts
Mr Kiplings jam tarts

Mr Kiplings apple and blackcurrant pies

  

Biscuits

Bourbons,

Hob-Nobs

Lemon puffs

Oreos (imports only)

Oaties biscuits

Raspberry Ruffles

Happy shopper bourbons

Ginger nuts

Marzipan ritter sports

Jammie dodgers

Plain Chocolate HobNobs.

Tesco and Asda boxes of mini gingerbread men

Asda and Tesco value range digestive biscuits.

Morrison's value fruit shortcakes

Sweets

Jelly tots

Tutti Fruities

Starbust

Fry's chocolate cream

Co-Op packet sweets- eg fruit jellies and gums

Cherry brandy chocolates

Co Op mint & orange chocolate thins

Divine Dark Chocolate

Booja Booja truffles

Morrison's plain chocolate chips

Lindt and Tesco own dark choc (85%+)

As a disclaimer, I will quickly point out that I have no idea if any of these are actually suitable for vegans (they are ALL the opinions of other people).
Also, companies change their ingredients quite frequently and usually without making a big song and dance about it (remember when Mars started using animal rennet in its chocolate and the vegetarians were up in arms to discover their formerly veggie friendly treat had been taken away from them - before a lot of them had even realised!)

In the words of Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin (Skinny Bitch): Always read the ingredients, because you never know how these companies will cut corners to save and make money!