A Handful Of The Best Vegan Websites

I love looking through websites. I’ve become a bit of a junkie at collecting new veggie websites and my vegan bookmarks folder easily holds as many as every other folder put together.
I decided to post links to the ones that are interesting me right now. I apologise if I have linked to some before, but the ones that I’ve posted about previously (Earthlings, The Kind Life ...etc) have struck a chord and I couldn’t leave them off of the list.
If you know of any links that I have neglected to mention (some, like PETA were done on purpose), please feel free to link me to them, and I hope you appreciate the links.


Making the decision to go veggie

Do you feel as though you haven't heard the other side of the argument properly? Why shouldn’t you choose a vegan lifestyle? This web page is for you:
10 arguments against adopting a vegan lifestyle

A journalist took the plunge and went meat free (although not fish-free) for a year. She discovered the difficulty she faced in socialising with friends, finding something to eat in a restaurant that wasn't mushroom risotto and the ongoing question: was she doing enough?:
An Independent journalist learns to eat ethically

Not sure if you want to make the transition to fully vegan/vegetarian? Try making Monday a meat free day:
Meatless Monday

The Veggie Lifestyle

Some myths about dairy need to be eradicated:
Milk Myths

Ready to give up meat? The vegetarian Society will give you all of the information and support you need to ensure your transition is a trouble-free one:
Vegetarian Society

You've given up meat but you want to do more. The vegan society offers hundreds of animal-free recipes, advice and information:
Vegan Society

The VVF is a charity that was created to monitor the scientific information linking diet to health. An invaluable source of information:
The Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation

Vegan TV Shows

Isa Chandra Moskowitz is undoubtedly the Queen of Vegan cooking with 5 vegan cookbooks in her repertoire. She became famous for her series, Post Punk Kitchen:
Post Punk Kitchen episodes - Google video

Animal Rights

The Meatrix is of course a parody of the matrix. Instead of the matrix world, it shows that the happy farm with the content and cared for animals is in fact the illusion. It's a fantastic and informative cartoon for both adults and children alike:
The Meatrix

The most powerful film that anybody can watch, it covers everything from puppy mills to the fur and entertainment industry:
Earthlings

A one stop shop for information about the veggie lifestyle and animal compassion. It also has a shop:
Viva!

Compassion in world farming tries to ensure that animals reared for food are treated compassionately:
Compassion in World Farming

Animal Testing

Do you know if your cleaning products have been tested on animals? Check out the best way to go cruelty free:
Go Cruelty Free

The BUAV is leading the way to stop testing on animals:
The BUAV

Want to know which companies don't test on animals? While this site won't tell you if the company is vegan, it will tell you which are BUAV approved:
BUAV approved little book of cruelty free

Love the planet; it’s the only one we have!

Rightly or wrongly blasted as overzealous, these people truly care about the state of the planet, and they offer insights into the things our governments would rather we remain ignorant about:
Greenpeace

Vegan Food/Cosmetics/Clothing

Where to buy vegan food/cosmetics/clothing if you don't live near a whole foods market? The vegan store has a small variety of everything:
Vegan Store

Moo Free Chocolate :)
Moo Free Chocolates

While not completely vegan, they are cruelty free and they do have the vegan logo on most of their products. Plus, they are completely natural :)
Lush Cosmetics

Beautiful looking animal free handbags.
Feel Good Handbags

Animal free shoes
Alternative Stores

Social Networking

Alicia Silverstone’s community of kind lifers, based around her book, The Kind Diet
The Kind Life

Social networking for people wishing to connect with like-minded veggies
Volentia

Still looking for the right person who shares your values? Try this site:
Veggie Romance

Sausage Casserole Recipe

My housemate said something surprising to me last night. She's ready to lay off the meat substitutes :)

In slightly older news (a few days at least), I tossed the pumpkin flesh in olive oil, placed it in a large baking tray (I had loads of pumpkin), added a cup of water and baked it until the flesh was soft. As I did that, I pan cooked the seeds until they were beautifully golden. My housemate came downstairs (she'd been working nights) and said that the house smelled very 'eggy'. I didn't get that until I got home from work that night and walked in to 'burnt egg'. I have no idea if it's supposed to smell like that. It might have been because I prepared the pumpkin in stages. We'd brought the pumpkins about a week before Halloween but I'd left them sitting in a bag until Halloween night when I decided that I really must start them. And then once they were all cut up, I was so sick of the sight of pumpkin that I put the chopped flesh into a bowl, covered it in clingfilm and put it in the fridge. Then didn't deal with it until 2 days later.
Or maybe pumpkin seeds/flesh just smell like egg when they're cooking? Who knows? Google offers 'smelly feet' so maybe I should have cooked them immediately?

And I've spent the last week off the diet. I've gained about 4lbs, but then eating anything after being on a VLCD is bound to make you gain a little something. And those 4lbs will be off as soon as I've disciplined myself to get back on the diet.

I cooked another casserole last night. I decided that I was going to make a 'sausage’ casserole by adapting this Quorn sausage casserole recipe.
I didn’t use sweetcorn because my housemate hates it, and I didn’t bother with smoked paprika, mild chilli powder, sherry or tinned broad beans/cannellini beans either.

‘Sausage’ Casserole
6 quorn sausages, pan cooked, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 pack chestnut mushrooms, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed with Basil
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin lentils, drained
1 litre vegetable stock

Nothing complicated. Just add all ingredients to a large casserole dish.

Herby dumplings
Vegetable suet
Basil, chopped
Self raising flour
1tsp Baking powder
Warm water

Combine ingredients until you have an elastic dough. Split into 6, roll into balls and add to the casserole.
I discovered that the basil leaves a slightly menthol aftertaste to the dumplings. The recipe I borrowed suggested I use parsley but, me being me, I ignored it because I love basil. I think I’ll trust the recipe suggestion next time, and it’s not as though it suggested thyme (which I loathe)

Cook on 200 until the housemate gets home from work and everything is slightly burned on top and the dumplings are mostly uneatable (unless you’re me and you love burnt and mostly uneatable food – years spent overcooking food has resulted in a love of charcoal).
There were just a few too many ingredients for the dish and it spilt over, so left a roasting dish underneath to catch the over flow. Maybe in the future I shouldn’t attempt to stuff everything into the dish.

Anyway, the liquid was soaked up so it wasn’t really a casserole (again), but it wasn’t a ratatouille either. And our taste buds have really opened up – it tasted beautifully subtle and you could taste everything.
Maybe next time I do this, it’ll be a fully vegan meal, with no meaty substitutes.

I'll try to remember to take a photograph next time. It wasn't really pretty enough for a picture anyway - the layer of charcoal kinda messed with it a little.

Pumpkins, shopping and working in an anti-vegan environment

It's been a few weeks since I last posted here - naughty Lexa!

I don't really have very much to say. I haven't been cooking glorious vegan foods and I haven't done anything exciting to really warrent an update, but who cares?


Here's where I show that I'm a pumpkin virgin (despite my soup a short while ago).
I brought two small pumpkins to freeze so I could use it over the winter for soups and things. I didnt read instructions and I just did what felt right. So I cut the pumpkins into small pieces and cut away the outer bit. Then googled to find out how to prepare the pumpkin to freeze it. And discover that everyone tells me to cut the pumpkin in half, deseed, rub canola oil into the flesh and then bake for 90 mins. I don't have canola oil and the outside bit is in the rubbish. My pumpkin flesh is chopped into chunks in a bowl in the fridge. My seeds are waiting for some action too. I think I might toss the flesh in normal oil and bake until it softens, then freeze it once it's cool. I'm gonna toss the seeds in a frying pan shortly.
I can only mess up, right?
Besides, what do people do when they want to carve pumkinds and use the flesh? they can't bake the whole thing, surely?

In other news, I have visited the Whole Foods Market in Kensington, which was like walking into the Harrods of vegan cuisine. Ok, they sold everything, including masses of non vegan foods, but despite this, it was vegan mecca! (The one in Camden was like a tiny corner shop compared to this one).
I had already fallen off of the Cambridge weight plan wagon at the weekend and so went a little crazy. I wanted vegan marshmallows (which, incidentally, do not melt in hot chocolate and they float in the loo if you eat too much sugar and are sick later. Oops).
Vegan turkish delight was also purchased, along with diary free chocolate, sesame sticks (I know I'm not alone in considering these the best part of a decent bombay mix) and a vegan pasty (which, I hate to say, was much nicer than the one we brought from VX. A small-ish vegan chocolate cake may also have been purchased, on the basis that for something with eight slices, it was going to cost us £7.99, or we could have brought a solitary vegan cupcake each for £2.99. I live in the world of getting more for your buck, so I persuaded Helen (and it didn't take much persuasion, let me tell you) to say yes to us buying the cake. Cue an incredibly rich mass of cakey goodness that re-inforced the fact that as a vegan, I can still have my cake and chow down with the best of them. And then suffer the mother of all headaches later. My body has adapted to a fat free/bland diet (thanks to Cambridge) incredibly quickly. I'd been hoping that I could go wild with my cooking once I start eating after Cambridge again, but I may have to do the slowly slowly introductions. Or suffer. Oh well, it's hardly the end of the world.

Buying lunch in a non vegan world isn't so easy. Camden food co, Boots et al are all incredibly unhelpful. I didn't have time to go to Tesco (thanks to work cutting our meal breaks down to half hour) so I brought a non vegan sandwich. Lesson for the future: always prepare my own lunches for work - NEVER allow myself to get caught out. If I weren't still eating quorn or using Cambridge products, I'd have walked away with just a packet of crisps or something instead of a sandwich. I still felt like the biggest hypocrite on the planet as I scuttled back to my staff room and threw my (not very nice) sandwich down my throat before my colleagues entered the room. I'm not fully vegan but I've adopted the mindset (see, HUGE hypocrite) and I don't think I could have felt any worse about doing it had I taken a bite out of some meat. I know it's only a matter of time, but I can't wait for the cambridge products and quorn to be gone.

I'm going to be restarting my diet today - I really want to be fully vegan by my birthday, which means quitting using these cambridge products within 4 months. It doesn't give me a lot of time to drop 50lbs so it's time I quit messing about and focussed.