New Year's Eve 2016

On this New Year's Eve, I'd like to post a little encouragement to everyone contemplating signing up to veganuary, as well as those who already have.

This year has seen some fantastic progress towards a more compassionate world, with greater awareness being brought about by incentives such as veganuary, now about to begin it's fourth year.

Locally, we celebrate the first anniversary of our monthly vegan potluck events, where we each bring a dish to share. This enables us to see and experience the diversity of vegan cuisine, as well as share ideas and events, socialise and form great friendships at the same time.

On a personal level, I would like to share with you just a few pictures of what vegan food has looked like for me over the festive period. Happy veganuary 2017!

Vegan 'Bailey's'

Christmas Eve buffet

Christmas dinner, featuring 'Tofurkey '.

Vegan Christmas cake- enriched with brandy.

Mince pie - check the ingredients (use Veganuary label reading guide).

Boxing Day buffet (accidentally vegan - see the veganuary accidentally vegan lists).

Animal Save

It's good to be back writing after such a long pause. The year has flown by, with leaving my old job and beginning a new one; helping our younger daughter with a project of hers; and having our older daughter move back locally. Lots more has happened, and I may write about some of those things in due course. For now, it would seem like a good time to come right up to date with recent events (with a little background) ...

Back in the summer, I visited Bristol Vegfest with my daughter. We both had an amazing two days. One of the stalls there was run by Manchester Pig Save, a group set up as part of the The Save Movement, begun in Toronto. They showed us what their organisation does. On reflection, on the way home with my travelling companion, we pondered the group's name: 'PIG SAVE', and wondered what on earth it meant? How did standing outside a slaughterhouse 'save' the pigs?
Over the next few months, I noticed more and more posts on social media from save groups, I started to realise that their purpose is to open people's eyes to the horror, brutality and gruesomeness of these places in which beautiful animals are sent en mass to die young. The facts have been hidden for far too long, and people buying meat for food, have in the main become so far removed from the grim reality, that most never question their social and cultural conditioning.
Around this time, I began to wonder if there was a save group locally, or how to set one up. There wasn't one, but at this point, some lovely people set up Cornwall Animal Save. The group has been holding vigils outside the gates of a local slaughter house for almost a month now. We have been joined and supported by people from West Yorkshire Save (a seven hour drive away), and Devon Animal Save. The group is growing.

So ... what makes people stand outside a slaughter house for hours in all weather enduring this horror?
Generally, a need to show people what happens (just a few moments from their home). There's an initial shock and disgust, and a heart wrenching encounter with a truck full of cattle, sheep, pigs. There then follows a feeling of helplessness which gives way to a burning need to highlight as much as possible of what is happening to these helpless souls. And that is why the save groups around the uk, and globally, summon every ounce of strength - so that we can bring the truth to those who, perhaps through no fault of their own, have not yet realised how much suffering, pain and death their 'food' causes. These places are truly brutal!
To those who now have me down as 'weird' or 'extreme', ask yourself this: could you stand with us, shoulder to shoulder and remain unaffected? Could you watch the Input (= live animals), output (= heads, entrails, skin and eventually 'meat' (the stuff 'normal' people eat))? Could you listen to the screams interspersed with the mechanical sound of the killing? Could you smell the stench of decomposing flesh whilst eating your steak? Could YOU look a beautiful animal in the eye and send it off to its gruesome end, and then eat it? If you have a dog or a cat, could you imagine sending them to this cruel fate - to strangers who shout and inflict suffering?
If so, I feel helpless as to how to reach you. Oh my goodness, look your bacon in the eye for one moment. If you have no feeling, then I feel for you. :-(
But there is another way, a compassionate way with the bonus of doing the least harm possible on a global scale regarding environmental damage as well as world hunger and alleviating suffering. There is no shame in a change of view, and there is no judgement for not realising sooner. There are plenty of resources available for those who wish to learn more.
Thank you for reading if you got this far. Much love. xx

Challenge update.

The 'eat what we have' challenge went well. Towards the end of the week, some staples run out, e.g. Onions, potatoes, bread, tinned tomatoes. It was an interesting experiment, and probably something we should be mindful of in general - using what's available before buying more.

The 'eat for £1 per day' challenge hasn't been a success. My daughter and I both did day one, and compared notes. We concluded that it was extremely difficult to get enough nutrients, although we know we could survive a week. We still had items to use up which would have perished had we had to count their value in the £1, as there wasn't a way to justify the expense. E.g., violife soft 'cheese' = 25p per 20g. So that's a quarter of a day's budget.
Porridge was a good option, at 4p - 5p, depending on serving size. That's made with water though, so add extra for milk substitutes or sweetener.
Fruit was barely affordable, although I managed to get half price apples at 15p each and bananas were 12p each.
All in all, a useful exercise, but difficult to achieve.

The 'shop local', planned for next week poses an interesting question: how much difference does time of year make? Does it just alter what's available? Is cost affected? What counts as 'local'?
Interestingly, I stumbled across a book a few days ago called 'A Life Stripped Bare' by Leo Hickman. I'm only a couple of chapters in, but so far, subjects such as food miles, fair trade versus organic, local versus supporting farmers abroad etc. have been looked at. I'm finding it incredibly interesting so far, and I think it's particularly topical whilst attempting these challenges.

One last thing for today ... here's a picture of today's lunch, featuring some of my alfalfa sprouts - the first crop!

Today is my 'eat what you have' challenge - day five. We've enjoyed some lovely vegan meals, although there have been comments from family members about lack of bread, onions, tomatoes etc., as each has run out :-)

Here's a sample:

Pictured are packed lunch, vegan quorn bolognaise with broccoli, beans on toast, roast dinner with vegan spicy quorn burger, lentil dhal, rice and onion bhajis, pasta with vegan sausages in homemade tomato sauce, crackers and violife cheese.

This is way more processed food than I would normally eat, however it is mainly things we bought in for Christmas still being used up and supplemented with vegetables, seeds etc.

Today, I also sowed some cress seeds to make a tiny start on my home grown food. I've also put some mung beans and alfalfa seeds to soak ready for sprouting.

Time now to do a little bit of colouring before bed.

Challenge - day two.

So, this has been day two of my 'eat what you have' challenge. So far, so good. Breakfast was toast with peanut butter and jam. For lunch, being a work day, I took a salad with olives, seeds and corn crackers. The salad was dressed with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Oddly, I didn't feel inclined to put salt and pepper all over it.

When I got home from work, my husband had made a lovely red lentil bolognaise with wholewheat spaghetti.

Snacks were a couple of bananas, an apple and a packet of crisps. (The crisps, I confess, I bought and opened before remembering it was no spending on food week).

Plans for January

For the remainder of this month (beginning today), I've decided to undertake four challenges - one per week - regarding meal planning. My eldest daughter is joining me, and we will compare our experiences. The challenges are:

Week 1 (4th - 10th) - Eat what we have (no food shopping).
Week 2 (11th - 17th) - Eat for £1 per day.
Week 3 (18th - 24th) - Shop local.
Week 4 (25th - 31st) - Avoid processed food.

Week 1 is designed to use up any food from the festive season, whilst allowing time to plan week 2.
Week 2 I will take £7 and buy food for the week.
Week 3 I have attempted before, as a vegetarian, and it was difficult then. Having learnt over time, I'm sure it's possible to do this as a vegan and not go short on nutrients.
Week 4 raises the question of 'what is processed?' Do we count flour? Frozen food? Bread? Pasta? Rice even? I think the best we can do is define unprocessed as whole foods, fresh, dried or frozen.

Other things I intend to do this month:

• Start growing sprouts (bean sprouts, sprouting seeds, etc.) - I have a salad sprouter from the '80s and I've bought some mung beans and alfalfa seeds.
• Begin preparing to grow some vegetables - we have a fairly large garden, but most of it is shaded by trees. We may thin some branches, but meanwhile, I have bought a book on container gardening (pictured above). I'm hoping to begin on a small scale and progress from there.
• I received a colouring book for Christmas from my younger daughter - I enjoyed making a start and look forward to continuing this relaxing pastime.

Welcome.

Hello and welcome to my brand new blog.
This is the place where I hope to document and share ideas, experiences, recipes, projects and anything which may be of interest.
I hope you enjoy reading. :-)