When the munchies strike....

So the past few weeks I have been researching plenty. I'm a sugar junky. I would cut my arm off for anything sweet so trying to find easily available, sweet treats that agreed with my diet was something that needed some ground work.

I'm not all that keen on a diet full of processed food but I am quite aware that every 4 weeks I need to lower my food morals because I will have to indulge. Hey, female hormones are powerful things and I would be delusional to think I could resist.

There are plenty of certified vegan friendly "junk" out there but typically they come with a price. Luckily, there are plenty of things available out there that conveniently have no animal derived products included in their ingredients.

Today, I spent time reading food labels in Aldi and am pleased to say I came home with treats that will give me that sugar kick.

Other mainstream products that are accidently vegan are:

Kellogg's Frosties

Starburst

Fry's Chocolate Cream

Sadly, within 24 hours all the Aldi purchases have been devoured. OOPS!!!

But what do you eat?

The most frustrating question I have faced over the past 16 years is "but what do you eat?" when it comes up in conversation that I don't eat meat. Rarely it has been asked out of rudeness but more to do with curiosity on how I am surviving without meat. Now that I am abstaining from any animal derived food I am getting it even more frequently.

 It always manages to confuse me on what I should reply with because I eat such a wide variety of food. I don't see my chosen diet as limiting at all. An omnivore diet always seemed boring to me and I couldn't imagine even considering a meal with meat in it. Most omnivores I know seem to eat the same things over and over again and seem to lack the variety that I crave.

I've found since giving up dairy and eggs completely I've deviated from my normal routine of cereal and coffee for breakfast. I came across a great recipe for pancakes on Oh She Glows that is for one person. I live on my own, hate waste and have a tendency to over-eat so it is perfect for me. My favourite toppings is chia seeds, mixed seeds or chopped nuts and agave nectar.

The recipe is a cinch to make. The mixture takes less than 3 minutes to make and is ready to go straight into the frying pan. Less effort than porridge but a bit more effort than cereal. The lack of eggs actually improves the taste in my opinion.

Lotions and potions

So, I am pretty ohhhhhkay on the food front but I'm finding the cosmetic part difficult. I'm a girly girl. I spend an outrageous amount of time on my hair and face in the morning trying to make me look remotely human.  I now just have the not so simple task of reviewing all that I use.

For some light-reading pre-searching I go to PETA for a compressive list of animal derived ingredients that are used in cosmetics and toiletries. I then collapse in shock at the amount of things I need to look out for. I had a little snoop at the PETA naughty list. Next stop is My Makeup Mirror for a reference list of vegan friendly products.

This is way easier when there is a ready made list but then..... I do live in the back-arse of Ireland. Get real sweetie.... you need more research and a credit card with no limit. Now, it would be unrealistic for me to try change everything in one day and I would rather use up everything I have rather than add to all the waste that there is in the world so as I run out of products I replace them with alternatives that support my vegan lifestyle and are within my budget. Anyone else missing the pre-recession days where you thought nothing of spending 40quid on a tub of the latest potion to keep skin youthful?

The moisturizer I am currently using from my pre-vegan days was the victim of my research today. Why..... because it was affordable, doing great work with my skin and easily available. I researched and it ticked the right boxes; no animal testing by the brand or for the brand by other companies and no animal derived ingredients in most of it's products and these products clearly identified by the website.  BUT many vegans avoid any products that have that little blue "U" on the back of the bottle. Yes, the company I chose was a smaller company within the Unilever empire. I'm a bit confused as to what is the norm for vegans now because Unilever have changed their policies so much with regards to animal testing.

 The specific product I have is vegan so I am going to use the product. I think that by purchasing this product it is creating a demand for animal friendly, plant based products thus encouraging major companies to embrace these products further.

And so one change-over is sorted. I now have a moisturiser and when I am changing the rest of my toiletries I have easy access to a few products that are easily available in my country.

Of course with this bit of research a good bit of my afternoon was gone on the interwebs so lunch was an easy peasy quicky lunch but still yummy. Homemade spicy potato wedges and salad.

Ingredients for spicy potato wedges
2 medium potatoes (I prefer potatoes that are floury when cooked)
1 tablespoon (honestly I didn't use anymore) virgin olive oil
Freshly ground Sea salt and Black pepper
1tsp+ turmeric
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 to 1tsp paprika
1tsp rosemary

Ingredients for salad
Seriously? You want me to tell you what to put in your salad?!

Optional Toppings
Grated vegan cheese
nuts: whole/chopped
hummus
guacamole
vegan mayo
whatever..... go wild baby!

Method

Preheat the oven to whatever it lands on (I usually go with around 180 Celsius), put the olive oil in a roasting tin and put it in the oven until it is nice a runny around the place. While waiting, scrub your spuds (potatoes for the non-irish) and chop them up into wedges. I prefer to leave the skins on because I'm a lazy cow. Put them in the roasting tin and toss around until coated in oil. Season with salt and black pepper. Roast for 15mins then add the rest of the seasoning and toss around until all the wedges are coated. The seasoning doesn't have to be exact go with what you like. Cayenne pepper has a little bit of burn your mouth factor so if you are a wuss don't go wild with it. Roast for another 15mins or until wedges are starting to look a bit crispy on the edges. Prepare your salad while they are cooking away. Put them on a plate and be a savage.

Disclaimer: I may have added way more wedges to my plate after I took the photo. Couldn't have me looking like a complete and utter hunger.

Hello, I love you won't you tell me your name?

Ah, so life begins for me on the blogshpere. Is that how you spell it because Mac isn't being helpful with suggestions?

I'm a professional young lady (don't laugh) who divides her time between walking her dog, cooking and yelling at her dog for eating furniture or her freshly made muffins. I've officially been a vegetarian from the tender age of 13. Up until then I was a fan of pocketing any meat from my plate and dumping it in a nearby field at a later time.

On announcing my severe aversion to meat I was quickly told that if I became a vegetarian I would have to cook my own meals. I think that was meant to be a threat but it just made my day/week/month/year/decade hearing that. Goodbye to the severely unhealthy, heart attack inducing, taste of cardboard diet that my parents fed me! Hello to a moderately unhealthy diet of dry pasta and koka noodles for the remainder of my teens. 

On one occasion a well-meaning relative tried to reassure my parents of my severe personality abnormality would only be a phase. 16 years later I would just like to say............ Yeah, I'm stubborn and that one comment is probably the biggest motivator to me for sticking to being a vegetarian.  I eventually left home a few days short of my 21st birthday and I got to explore the wonderful world of fresh vegetables, whole grain carbs, rice and the occasional bit of fruit

At 22, after 5 years of not so pleasant symptoms, the doctor decided I was quite badly lactose intolerant. I battled on and off for a couple of years to kick the dairy addiction. It was horrible. Seriously, there should be a D.A. or something. Every few years I would engage in a seriously healthy diet that was completely dairy free, gluten free, low in sugar, salt and yeast. I would always end up annoyingly energetic, bloat-free and not glued to the loo. Unfortunately, I would end up having a relapse and end up back on bits and bobs of dairy and processed food would slowly take over my life again. I blame my upbringing.

 Then about 2 months ago I had a few run ins with some eggs. Our brilliant love affair dramatically ended with one too many fetus' found. Apparently, that "can't" happen but my experience says otherwise. *Shudders.* So, of course, the reasonable reaction would be running around screaming "THAT'S IT I'M A VEGAN."

So two months in, I am fairly happy with my choice. My new lifestyle makes a lesser impact on the environment, if forces me to try out new food, it dramatically cuts down on the amount of processed food I ingest, I have to plan ahead so cravings can rarely get the better of me and I feel pretty darn good. Most importantly, it has reignited my love of food and cooking food. 

This blog will be a "what I ate today" type blog and links to the creator of the recipe used. I'm not one of those geniuses that can conjure up their own recipes for baked goods but I love trying them out and I will share where I got them.

As for tonight, I was craving a sweet, chocolate, comfort kick so it was hot chocolate for me. 

Ingredients:

250mls of unsweetened soy milk

a teaspoonish of vanilla extract

a tablespoonish of green and blacks cocoa powder

a tablespoon then some more as an afterthought of agave nectar

a tablespoon of peanut butter

Method....

Fired them in a saucepan, stirred a whole lot to get the ingredients to mix while heating it. I used a wooden spoon because it made me feel like a bit of a kitchen hippie. Put it in a mug. Repeatedly move mug from table to mouth.

I got the idea of using the peanut butter from http://ohsheglows.com/2011/01/25/chocolate-peanut-butter-hot-cocoa/. I haven't tried this recipe myself because I am too much of a tight-arse to buy coconut milk and almond milk and haven't found vegan marshmallows locally yet.