A Positive Lent: The 7th Day

So, I hear you ask, how's this Positive Lent malarky going? You'll be pleased to hear it is going rather well!

Let's break it down in to sections, because they're easier to read:

The Mushroom and Walnut Pie
My folks visited last week and for the first time since I've been vegan (nearly 2 years) I had the chance to cook for them. The recipe is from this book, which is jam packed full of over 90 delish dishes. I substituted some of the oyster mushrooms for chestnut mushrooms as I'm a bit short on cash and I also forgot to get the pastry out of the oven to defrost (cue hungry family members and a wine-guzzling, empty stomached and drunk me, doing my best Keith Floyd impression) but, eventually, it was a success!

Crafting
I somehow haven't managed to do much crafting. In fact I don't know if I've done any. I might have sewn some limbs on to a currently headless amigurumi creation but that's about it.

I'm in a bit of a creative funk I suppose. It happens, it'll pass. I have a knitting group I go to called the Oxford Bluestockings on a Wednesday night so that should help, even if I do only crochet hexagons whilst there.

Job Hunting
Still no job but it's not like I'm banging down people's doors and begging. I handed my CV in to Holland Barrett last week for a part time position. It'd be perfect for me but now I guess I just have to do the waiting game. In the meantime I'm sucking up my distaste for office work and am going to put my CV on job sites and go to local agencies for part time work. It's been a month since I got back from India and I need money and routine now. I also need a hair cut. The sub-tropics have not been kind to my locks. Le sigh.

More Exercise (and everything else)
I need exercise, both physically and mentally and have created a little chart to help run my life a bit better whilst I don't have a job. The chart includes exercise 4 days a week and also reminds me to do things like cleaning and crafting and baking. To some it might seem a bit mad but to me it's like a tiny slice of heaven. I need order and routine in some parts of my life because so many other parts are all over the place (like my brain). 

 

The 'Vegan' bits don't mean these are the days I'm vegan, I'm vegan all the time! These are the days I'll fit a little advocacy or organising of advocacy into my life whilst I have the time. I do this quite often anyway. In fact this weekend a friend who I hadn't seen for ages asked me for some help in transitioning, which was awesome. Hello and good luck if you're reading - you can do it!

Date night is special time for me and the man. No distractions (apart from Tony Cat, but that goes without saying).

Finally, today I dropped a cake in to a local cafe to see if their customers like my cakes. If they do there's a chance of setting up a partnership and spreading vegan delights to the unassuming tastebuds of Oxfordshire!

Well, that's about all for now. I hope that whatever you've decided to do for lent that it's going well (apart from the guy who has pledged to subsist on beer alone. Whatever your reasons, you're a bit of a numpty if you don't mind me saying)

Ooooh. As I was writing this closing passage I got a phone call for a potential job!! Watch this space...

Indoor Cats: An Opinion

"According to the Humane Society of the United States, the average life span of a healthy indoor cat is now 15-18 years. The life extension from former years is due in part to advances in veteninary medicine but primarily to the growing trend of keeping cats strictly indoors, confined to fenced-in areas or on a leash."

One of the most beautiful things about domesticated cats is that they have so much independence, in spite of all manner of human breeding and intervention. I understand wanting to keep cats safe after dark but I do not agree with keeping cats strictly indoors and the idea of walking a cat on a leash is absurd, unless it's to get the cat used to an area or if the cat requires supervision (e.g. if injured).

Every healthy cat should have a choice. The decision to go out or not should be theirs, not ours. If we make the choice for them it certainly shouldn't be tainted by the fear that they won't live as long. If you're scared for their safety, use a leash for a while and get them street wise. Ultimately, quality of life is the most important thing and to keep a cat inside against their will for no reason but your own is inherently wrong.

The Skin-Clear Challenge

Rather unfortunately, I suffer from inflammatory acne.

The condition is painful and causes long term spots (which are more like nodules deep under the skin) but, more than anything, it is extremely detrimental to the self-esteem of anyone who suffers from it. In comparison to many, my condition is minor (and I truly feel for those people who have it bad) however I am ready to take some pretty drastic action to regain my confidence.

Recently, I have noticed what could be a possible link between my diet and the health of my skin, especially when it comes to processed foods. The more bread I eat, the worse my inflammatory acne seems to get. Rather stupidly, last week I ate some kind of bread every day and my skin is worse than it's ever been (mmmmm, delicious self-destructive tendencies) and so, I have decided to test a change in my diet.


The Skin-Clear Challenge

For the next two weeks I will be following a similar programme to Happy Herbivore's 30 Whole Days. I'm going to cut out as many processed and crappy foods as is possible and make sure the majority of my food looks like it did when it came out of the ground or from the tree or wherever. I will allow myself some luxuries, such as soy milk (because a girl's gotta have her Masala Chai) or dark chocolate and I may very occasionally treat myself to bread so long as I know it is free from preservatives and any other nasties.


My, what a sexy still of my face.


So, what the hell are you going to eat?

Here's an example of what I might eat on a typical day; in fact this is what I've put in my face today (so far!)

Morning:
1 Banana
Nuts, raisins and sultanas

Snack:
3 squares of dark chocolate

Lunch:
1/4 cucumber
1/2 tin black beans
Homemade guacamole

Dinner:
Garlic brown rice
Steamed courgettes, sweetcorn and broad beans.

Drinks:
2 ltrs water
3 cups of chai

See, not so scary huh? All quick, easy, delicious and readily available. Wish me luck and hopefully I can report back in a day or two or three with some positive results.

Simple Vegan Guacamole Recipe

Guacamole is available, prepackaged, everywhere. For some reason many supermarkets add cream. I have no idea why, especially as avocados really are creamy enough all by themselves, so I've taken to making my own.

A bowl of the good stuff

This simple vegan guacamole recipe can be whipped up in a couple of minutes (at the moment I eat it almost every day and I make it in our very basic work kitchen) and is delicious. Proof that a fancy recipe doesn't always have to be the best recipe!

Ingredients:

1 ripe avocado**
1/2 small red onion, diced
1 scant tsp garlic puree (or one clove garlic, finely chopped)
Splash of lemon juice
Salt and pepper

The How To Part:

* Cut the avocado in half and twist to reveal the stone. Discard of the stone, scoop the flesh from the skin into a bowl and mash.

*Add the diced onion and garlic and stir into the mashed avocado.

*To taste, add as much lemon juice, salt and pepper as is required et viola! You have a delicious, quick and easy dip.

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I eat mine with wholemeal pittas, cucumber sticks and cherry tomatoes. Sometimes, for an added twist I'll dice the tomatoes and add them to the mix rather than having them on the side.

**Ripe avocados are a must for any guacamole recipe. I have found the best fruits come from small independent shops rather than supermarkets, where they tend to be far from ready, more expensive and not as tasty.

Random avocado fact: They contain more protein than cow's milk. Hell yeah!

The Sweet Tooth vs #HH30

Day 4 of the #HH30 Whole Days Challenge and I'm feeling less hungry.

I now have porridge in my life and have discovered an ingenious way of sweetening it - with a mashed banana! Yes, yes, I'm behind with the times and you've all probably been doing this for years but I am a sugar junkie. It had never occurred to me that I could actually sweeten my breakfast cereal in a healthy way. Whether I continue to do it after the challenge is over is another story. I do love sugar but luckily I'm not missing it too much because I gave it up for lent this year.

Continuing on the subject of satiating my sweet-tooth, tonight I'll be making Happy Herbivore's deliciously famous Black Bean Brownies for the first time (sans sugar, but there's banana and agave in there). I cannot wait, the recipe is so simple and it's fat free, flour free and vegan. Take a look.

Whilst all is going well on the surface though, I did dream about cheese last night. Daiya cheese to be precise (which I've never tried - come to the UK!). And pizza. And melting bits of cheese in a microwave and eating it.

Repressed much?

Running and #HH30

So it's day 3 of the #HH30 Challenge and something has only just crossed my mind. I run and am currently in training to run around 18km between Bournemouth and Swanage. I need A LOT of nutrients.

I am slowly building up my distance (I was a non-runner until November 2009) and this morning ran 6.25km, which doesn't sound much but actually burned off 360 calories. I'm not super-slim by any stretch of the imagination but I certainly don't want to waste away (or make myself sick) whilst running and doing the #HH30 challenge.

I'm going to have to make sure I stock up on a lot of carb and protein rich foods on the days I run. Obviously, chickpeas immediately spring to mind, but I'm certainly going to have to do some more research if I want to make sure I remain healthy throughout this month.

Does anyone out there have some whole food recipe suggestions to suit my lifestyle? Any ideas would be welcomed!

Now... to the kitchen I go to quieten my noisy stomach!

What a Yarn: knitcroblo7

Just over a year ago I went vegan, which will of course make this final blog (knitcroblo7) in the Knit and Crochet Blog Week a little different to most.

Being vegan means that, as well as not eating animal products, I also don't use them in any other form. This includes wools from any animal and silk products, any mixed yarn that may contain any amount of either of those products and also yarns (often cottons) that include milk proteins.

Over time, with the help of my local yarn store and our beloved internet I have found a wide range of yarns (mostly cottons) that are amazingly soft and a joy to knit with.

Obviously, now I've got you here, I would like to get you thinking about where your yarns come from. For me, I feel that it is not right to own any animal and use the animal for it's products, no matter how great the welfare standards. Have you ever considered how silk is produced or what happens to sheep during their lives when producing wool (see mulesing) and afterwards (see the supermarket)?

I believe all animals, human and non, have the right to be free and equal and that is why I choose to buy and make knitted and crochet products which are 100% vegan. I hope next time you come to buy some yarn you take a moment to consider it's origins.

30 Day Whole Food Challenge

I love a challenge me, especially a food challenge. Going vegan in some ways was a challenge, this lent I gave up added refined sugars (such as in tea and on cereal) and now I am doing something quite exciting. I have signed up for Happy Herbivore's 30 Whole Days Challenge.

So what does this mean? In a nutshell, it means no processed foods for the month of May. If it doesn't like like it did when it came out of the ground or from the tree or vine, or has more than one ingredient then I'm not going to put it into my body. I can obviously cook with these ingredients as much as I like but the idea is to take things back to basics, and for me to cleanse my body.

Yes, I am mental. No peanut butter. No sugar. No marzipan (god, I love you marzipan). No bread. No pasta. Did I mention no peanut butter (oh, god...)?

It's ok, I'm pulling myself together. I can live without peanut butter for 30 days. I've always romanticised the idea of being completely self-sufficient, living in an eco-community and only taking what mother nature provides so I guess this is my comfortable middle class way of dipping my toes into the water without getting too muddy.

I've upped my veg box delivery from Riverford to get enough food to feed a family of 4 (yes, I am one hungry little lady) and have joined the Google Group to get hints, tips and more importantly support from fellow participants.

I hope you will also follow and support me on this journey to see if I really can live from the earth for a whole month. There will be tantrums, whining, fighting, a training montage and a guaranteed triumphant ending. Don't miss it.