My first vegan Christmas.

...wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. For once, I didn't feel horrible and unhealthy from the copious amounts of chocolate. So no weight gain what so ever!

As I said previously, I went to Cork for Christmas, down to my Aunt's. It was a long drive down and a very long and squishy one on the way back (4 people+2 dogs and a flat tyre on the m50). I didn't have my digital camera with me so all my pictures were taken on my phone. I had a surprisinly delicious dinner anyway. My aunt made me roasted sweet potatoes and gave me a lesson in roasting. I also had falafel, peas and roasted potatoes. As plain and boring as that sounds it was really tasty when put together with some gravy and ballymaloe country relish.

For dessert, My aunt had gotten me a slice of Natasha's Living food Raw Coaco Orange Ganache Tart. It's 4 euro for a small slice but was so worth it! It was so creamy.

I received 3 vegan baking cookbooks for Christmas.

I had picked out 'Sweet Vegan' myself for my mum to get me. I choose it mainly due to the fact all the recipes are in grams. I really don't trust my cups to grams conversions. Different sites have different calculations! I have marked out all the reicpes I want to try.

However.. a lot of the recipes have ' unprocessed cane juice'.. or un processed cane sugar. I've asked around a few health shops and they have no idea what I am talking about. Does anyone know where to get some??

And Jesse got me Vegan Cookies-Invade your cookie jar and Babycakes! They both have amazing looking recipes and are lovely books. Once my exams finish, I will get stuck in.

Update and Vegan Christmas prep

Food filled day. Went to Fresh Vegetarian restaurant (edit, no longer open) in Powerscourt for the first time in years. I got Red Lentil soup, Chocolate cake and coffee. I wanted to die after the cake, it was so heavy. It came with cashew cream, ew. Soy ish creams so far have been horrible. The powercourt centre is such a good building. Need to go in there more.

I picked up some dairy free caramel chocolates from the sweet shop in George's street arcade and my god they are good. It was good to have some good chocolate again. All the tins of roses are killing me this Christmas. They're 3.50 euro for 12. Quite expensive but good.

I also got a little vegan Christmas pudding by The Village Bakery from The Organic Supermarket to have on Christmas. They also have loads of the Moo Free Chocolate range. They taste real good too.

And here is tonight's late night dinner.

I am going down to Cork for Christmas, so it might be a bit of a challenge. Considering it's not my kitchen. I hope I'm not too annoying about the food. I just hope my aunt will leave me some mashed potatoes with no butter.

Vegan Pepperoni.

                                                                                                                                             Picked this up after work in The Organic Supermarket in Blackrock. Wasn't to sure at first but Ailbhe convinced me it was delish and at 99c, why not! It tastes just like the real thing too. Oh, it's vegan pepperoni and apparently packed with protein.

I thought it would go great with pasta so I made some sort of pesto. With semi sundried tomatoes plus some of the oil,a handful of rocket rocket, cashew nuts, 2 cloves of garlic and a chunk of chilli.

And put it with pasta along with the pepperoni and spinach. Very nice.

Followed by..!

Avocado Love and my biscuit downfall.

I've only realised in the past few days how good avocados are. I've never really tried them or used them until I made guacamole last week. They're often in my fridge as my sister always eats them with balsamic vinegar.

I threw some into the sandwich I eat all the time and it was an excellent addition! It tastes unreal and adds a whole load of added nutrition. However with a high calorie intake with each avocado they seem to be avoided. The nutritional benefits of them definitively outweigh the high calories.

So with a pitta bread add hummous, chilli sauce, cucumbers, red onion, spinach, balsamic vinegar and of course half a mashed up avocado. I mash it up with the chilli sauce. I tend to use the same ingredients in my sandwiches but I can't get enough of all of them combined. I guarantee that this is delicious! I made one and had to make another right after it was so good. My mum had a try and got me to make her one too!

And at about 69c in Dunnes stores per avocado, it's a bargain! I've seem them priced up to 1.50 euro in other shops.

In other news. I have been informed by other vegans I know that biscuits such as Tesco's bourbon creams and Boland's cookies are vegan( and are sooo addictive). I wish I didn't know this to an extent! I am a biscuit junkie and would be my biggest downfall in terms of junk food. I was glad when I decided to become vegan that I would be cutting out all the biscuits I previously ate and maybe I would loose some weight. However, this hasn't been the case! I come home with cravings and if they are there, I pig out. Oh my addiction to sugar! So if you didn't know they were vegan, pretend you didn't read this. Unless you're able to control yourself.

Lentil, Quinoa and falafel stuffed peppers.

I had made some of the Lentil and Quiona salad, mentioned below on this blog and had some left over. I also had some falafels in the fridge and lots of peppers. So a stuffed pepper was made. I added lots of chopped chilli and garlic into the mixture of cooked lentils and Quinoa along with some broken up falafel and sweet chilli sauce.

My mum bought me some Cheezly mozzerela. I had seen this in the health food shops but I'm quite wary of it. I grated a little bit on top and tasted grand. I didn't really put enough on to make it stand out to much though.

I baked the peppers until tender and served it with left over guacamole, spinach, sun dried tomatoes and balsamic dressing. It was very tasty but sooo spicy!

Bagels!

I go to Itsa Bagel a fair bit as I am in love with their Kind Veggie Bagel. It never fails to please me but It always promises a messy lunch. There is no way to eat it gracefully without getting food allover your face. I have managed to eat it neatly once, but I was alone so Bring lots of tissue if you are going to eat it. I have talked about it on this blog before but It needs another mention as It is Vegan. This bagel is Vegan and the Vegetable and Lentil soup, which is also unreal. There is an Itsa Bagel in Dun Laoghaire, Abbey Street in Arnottss, Sandyford, Fitzwilliam lane, Malahide. They're Irish, reasonably priced BUT I do not like the coffee one bit.

I tried to make one myself at home, didn't taste as good but still very good.

I started off by making some guacamole. It was my first time and it went as follows:

1 avocado

2 cloves of garlic

Juice of 1 lemon

Half a red chilli ( I made mine spicy)

1/4 of a chopped onion

salt and pepper

 all in the food processor

I then grilled some strips of red pepper and sweet potato.

Layered it up with some of the guac, hummous, strips of veg, spinach and balsamic dressing.

The photo isn't very pleasing but I was in a rush and just wanted to eat!

And another bagel idea, I have posted before.

Bagel with Hummous, sweet chilli sauce, Grilled or roasted thin strips of sweet potato in sweet chilli sauce and a salad on top!

Vegan.. 3 and a half weeks.

So Vegan for about 3 and a half weeks! I've wanted to update this sooner but been so busy with college work. I am nothing but positive with my choice to become Vegan. As I said at the start of my diet change, I felt very weak and tired. That,however has gone completely now. I feel the exact opposite now! I have loads more energy and have even lost a little bit of weight. I still eat a bit of crappy food but I've cut most of it out. For example, my previous biscuit and chocolate bar habits have gone out the window. Baking cookies is probably my biggest downfall. I eat them all to soon. And I've just after buying a jar of vegan dark chocolate spread!

I went out to The Happy Pear today in Greystones for some lunch. I got a celeriac, pepper, squash and onion bake thing. It was the first time they had made it but it tasted good! I ate half of it before I remembered to take a picture.

And I had some cake for the first time in ages. It was a vegan coffee infused chocolate cake. It tasted good but was very heavy.

I made some more roasted Butternut Squash falafel, the same recipe as below but just minus the egg, which works perfectly the same! I had some in a wrap with hummus, chilli, cucumber and spinach ( pretty much all I eat).

More cookies! yummm.

I've gone to Dehli o Deli a few times in a the past few weeks. The menu now states what is vegan, which is great! The majority of the menu is vegan. I am in love with the samosa and chole. It is so good every time.

Puy Lentil and Quinoa. I've made this before and it tastes great. It is great for bringing into college. I roasted off some peppers and squash and mixed it in with the cooked lentils and quinoa with a lemon juice and chopped chilli dressing. It is so yummy and of course very healthy.

Some of the bad stuff I have to keep in my room to make sure I can get my chocolate fix when needed!

In terms of cosmetics, I have gotten some Lush products. They're fairly expensive though but I found out that Simple skincare and most of their haircare is vegan and not tested on animals so that is a bit better on the pocket!

Vegan for 5 days.. so far.

I should probably write about my experience so far on Sunday, as it will have been a week but I want to write now!

So far, so good. It has been alot easier than I thought it would be. I am not craving everything I thought I would so bad.

I was feeling pretty crappy all week though, Very tired, weak and constantly hungry. This has made me make sure I get a proper balanced diet. I am so excited all ready about the benefits to my health and of course, my zero contribution Animal farming of any sort. I'm feeling very positive and I think I'll stick with this for sure. It has been hard a couple times though when out with friends. I was in a cafe today. Luckily I wasn't to hungry but I pretty much couldn't eat anything, which sucked. A soya coffee did the job though.

I've been writing down what I've been eating.

Monday: Black coffee, chickpea, potato and cauliflour curry, Bagel with salad, banana.

Tuesday:Baked beans on toast, Blackfrairs Flapjack, Soya Coffee, chickpea, aubergine, pepper casserole with rice, raisins.

Wednesday:Orange, Banana and Strawberry Smoothie(Homemade), popcorn, chickpea casserole(as above), soya coffee, Hummus pitta with carrot and cucumber sticks, nakd bar, 2 oranges, raisins.

Thrusday: 2 nakd bars (:/), Beans on toast, pasta with spinach and sun dried tomato paste, kind vegi bagel from itsa bagel, Nakd bar, Banana, Goodlife falafel burger in a pitta with hummus and salad.

Friday: Innocent smoothie, toast with Peanut Butter and Jam, Pitta with hummus, soya coffe, Nakd bar, Noodles, More smoothie, stir fry and homemade cookies.

As you can see, I have eaten a lot of Nakd bars. I'm hooked on them and they appear to be pretty guilt free. They're good as a snack. I've stocked up on them from Tesco.http://www.naturalbalancefoods.co.uk/

I gave Vegan baking another go and made Cookies and my god they are good! They are the type of cookie I've always wanted to make. Chewy and soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. I got the recipe from http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6391.0

and I highly recommend it!

Being able to google items on the spot with my phone to double check items being vegan has been a huge help too!

http://www.goodlife.co.uk/ Goodlife Vegetarian Foods So yum

And a big Thanks to Glauce for the Help and support so far! Check her vegan blog out! http://foodinmylife.blogspot.com/

Vegan Challenge

Going Vegan is something I've talked about on this blog before and something I really would like to do. I have stupid excuses not to do it but really I'm just a foodaholic at the end of the day and giving up certain things would be so hard. Not to forget my Mum when she cooks dinner. She allready finds it pretty hard whenever she makes dinner with me and my sister being vegetarian. So I would be doing a lot more cooking! Which isn't bad.

So, I watched Gary yourofsky's lecture on veganism ( http://www.adaptt.org/ ). He made me think and really pushed me to try veganism. I have a big conscience being a vegetarian and I feel guilty. I know about the dairy industry and the egg industry and how cruel it is. So I feel pretty bad a lot of the time about it as I know what goes on but I'm to selfish to do anything about it.

So for the past couple days, I've been adopting a vegan diet. It also happens to be World Vegan Week (http://www.worldgoveganweek.org/). I started properly yesterday on Monday. I made changes like having no milk in my coffee( college doesn't have soy milk), I ate a chick pea, potato and caulliflour curry, had a bagel with no cheese, snacked on fruit and opted for a fry's vegan bar for my chocolate fix. However, I slipped up when I got home. My chocolate cravings were high and there was a bag of twirls. I need to get vegan chocolate for the house!

Today for breakfast, I ate bakes beans on toast with no butter, a Blacfairs Flapjack (only vegan thing from the SU shop, as far as I'm aware), a soya coffee and a chickpea casserole thing from a cornucopia recipe. I've been pretty hungry all day and now I feel so sick. I don't know what to blame.

I've just made Cornucopia's oat bars, using a recipe from the book. I used Biona Sunflower Vegetable margarine. They turned out lovely but I was short 50g of margarine so they are falling apart just a little bit. There's one of fruits( raspberries, blackberries) between 2 layers of oats, coconut, flour, brown sugar and margarine.

Any recommendations for butter/margarine to bake with?

And soya milk is gross, is rice or oat any nicer?

Butternut squash falafel.

I just made these to bring into college. It’s been a while since I’ve cooked due to lack of time. They are so yum and easy to make so here is how.

Half a medium sizes Butter nut squash- peeled and cut into small chunks

Sweet chilli sauce and Honey

400g can chick peas

3 spring onions chopped up

100g bread crumbs

25g plain flour

1 egg yolk

4 cloves of garlic diced

2 teaspoons of cumin/chilli powder/ground corriander

salt and pepper

juice of 1 lemon

handfull of cashews (Optional though)

1. Cut the Butternut squash into chunks and cover with olive oil, a small bit of honey and sweet chilli sauce and salt and pepper and bake under soft.

2. When finished put the butter nut squash into a food processor and blitz and then transfer into a big bowl.

3. Put the drained chick peas, spring onion,Lemon juice, cashews, garlic and spices into the food processor and blitz until it’s a paste. Then transfer to the bowl.

4. Add the flour, breadcrumbs and egg to the bowl and mix together until a wet paste has formed.

5. Get a baking dish and put a little bit of oil on the base. Shape the mixture into little balls and place on the dish.

5. Bake for around 30 mins on a high heat. I turned them around half way through so they were crispy on both sides!