Category Archives: vegan

I’ve now completed my second month with no purchases of clothes, shoes, or accessories. It’s not been difficult. However I have noted the following:

• It seems odd when I do walk through a shop selling clothes – as if I’d forgotten such things existed.
• Sales still catch my eye – I had to remind myself that I had no need of more shoes when I spotted a shop with a closing down sale.
• I’m finding more satisfaction in wearing the stuff I do have.

I’ve been setting myself 3 goals each month using the New Year Revolution planner. My goals for March are:

• Organise a vegan meet up in Chelmsford – all welcome
• Create a classics reading list for myself – suggestions welcome
• Sort out the garden – good weather welcome

I’m rather nervous about the vegan meet up, and know that I need to take action on this sooner rather than later. Hence I’ve made my other goals easy to ensure that I have no excuse for not doing it.

Last month I got organised with forty for 40, and assigned a few tasks for each month. So during March I’ll be looking at:

• Making crumpets – need to buy cook’s rings
• Planning a visit to Veganz in Berlin
• Making a green cape
• Organising a boudoir photo shoot with Carla and my bass

Wishing you all things green,

Annastasia

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It’s not that I’m a lazy cook when I’m just cooking for me. However it would be fair to say that I tend to make a dish and stretch it over several meals. Hence weekend guests encourage more variety. This weekend I made creamy cauliflower soup, grilled ‘cheese’ and ‘pepperoni’ sandwiches, tofu and kale delight, and a sort of Chinese inspired cabbage served with spring rolls. Most of these left no remains. The ones that did are finding their way into my lunch box this week.

In the mix:

• Cabbage, shredded and fried in sesame oil with leeks, garlic, peanut butter, and soy sauce.
• Brown basimati rice
• Hoisin ‘duck’ rolls – picked this V-bites item up in my local health food shop
• Spring rolls from the Coop – a cut price bargain I couldn’t resist
• Samosas from Iceland – still using up excess Christmas provisions.

To read

I’m still working my way through A Greedy Man in a Hungry world by Jay Rayner. Happily a bus malfunction( the wing mirror fell off!) allowed me the time to actually finish this. It’s a book where every page gives you something else to think about. I liked that he was Clare Rayner’s son and seemed to have inherited her common sense. I enjoyed the anecdotes about his childhood, and recognition of when he was basing an opinion on something other than facts.

I did indeed find that he made me think differently about things like farmers’ markets. I can see that the situation with food supply is a tricky one, and that there is no easy answer. One cannot simply say supermarkets are evil and be done with it. Indeed Rayner points out that supermarkets are both evil and not evil at all. I think this book was saying that there is a need to embrace both the big and the small, accept that there is no one solution for anything, and really focus on sustainability. This need to embrace multiple viewpoints is what makes the content of this book so difficult to take.

Oh, and I should add that I thought his comment that vegans had difficulty getting enough protein a tad on the ill-informed side. A pity when research had clearly been carried out in a thoughtful manner in other areas. He might have been better off simply saying theat veganism wasn’t for him. Which in the context of the book surely Rayner would have agreed would be perfectly fine.

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The days following Christmas are great for meals made up entirely of leftovers. As the days past and the choicest items are gone meals either get duller or more inventive. The first week in January is the one where you try to make sense out of what is left.

In my case two pots of hummus (that the label claims should be off by isn’t), not as crisp as they could be vegetables, and some of the nut mountain.

Clockwise from top right:

• Brazil nuts, pistachio nuts, dark chocolate – should have added some dates
• Hummus with a blob of fig chutney
• Cracker selection
• Raw cabbage and carrots

To read – A greedy man in a hungry world by Jay Rayner. This promises to challenge my assumptions about food. I’m interested to see how this will compare to Not on the label. So far I’m willing to concede that supermarkets did open our eyes to a broad range of ingredients, and reduced the time it takes to shop. However it doesn’t make the terms they offer suppliers any better. Let’s see how things develop in the next few chapters.

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Once again I am rummaging in the freezer. Mainly for inspiration but also because I need to clear some space for Christmas food. Admittedly a small pot of coconut milk isn’t going to clear that much space, but as that well known supermarket chain puts it – Every little helps.

Clockwise from bottom left

• Asian marinated tofu – Marinade ‘inspired’ (as they say on film credits) by the recipe in Vwav.
• Satsumas – I couldn’t resist these – a little piece of Spanish sunshine
• Brown basmati rice
• Thai curry – onion, cabbage, spinach, mushroom, and carrots cooked with thai curry paste, coconut milk, and soy sauce. It tastes creamier than it looks.

To read – Now you see me by S.J. Bolton

This was packed with false trails, dead ends, and unexpected revelations. I kept thinking that I had ti all worked out and then something would happen that would throw my theory. Everyone was a suspect so the only way to solve the mystery is too keep reading.

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Looking at the photo of my lunch I’m impressed with how autumnal it seems. I’m slightly disappointed in myself at including two types of chestnut dish but I’m sure I can live with it.

Clockwise from bottom right:

• Roast chestnuts – so easy to do. Fun to shell. And surpringly filling.
• A delicious ripe conference pear
• Pasties filled with chestnut purée. I made Chestnut soup last week and has some left over so it seemed the idea filling for these cute mini pasties.
• Roasted garlic Brussel sprouts from VWAV. I still prefer them steamed but as the oven on…also enabled to breathe anti vampire fumes!
• To read – The first book of Calamity Leek by Paula Lichtarowicz. This reminded me of Room crossed with Lace crossed with The Amtrak Wars. The use of language is inventive and has a quirky charm. I enjoyed the cultural references, and the different ways things could be interpreted depending on context. The reader is torn between which characters to root for – knowing full well that they can’t all get what they want.

Wishing you green ink and good food,

Annastasia

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Ever keen to expand my knowledge of pulses, I decided to give marrow fat peas a go. I vaguely recalled reading somewhere that they were grown and produced in the UK (although I haven’t investigated this any further. I’d also read somewhere about the … Continue reading →

An arm injury (it involved a stool and momentarily forgetting where I was) curtailed my ability to get around at the end of October so I was happy to make up for it this week by attending two vegan events.Vegan Pot Luck is something I’ve planned to att… Continue reading →

So 200 years after it was written I’ve finally gotten around to reading Pride and prejudice. My ignorance of it (beyond the opening line) was a growing embarrassing. I read and loved the graphic novel Pride and Prejudice and zombies, but there was a… Continue reading →

After feasting on this at lunchtime I think I can conclude that vegetables really my ideal lunch. This selection filled me up. Plus I was free of afternoon cravings for snacks. Not great when you have a 30 minute round trip from your desk to have an… Continue reading →