Gearing Up For Veganuary

I have spent the last couple of days stocking up on vegan items ready for the start of Veganuary tomorrow and I think I'm just about sorted. I don't get much time to prepare meals from scratch so I've opted for products that are quick and easy and that I can just bung in the oven when I get home from a busy day at work. Most of it is vegan junk food so if you you are looking for healthy this probably isn't the place for you. During the whole of January I will be blogging about the meals I eat and the products I use and hope that I don't slip up anywhere.

Until now I have maintained a mainly vegetarian diet with some vegan products thrown in. I already use almond milk on vegan cereal's and in tea and I use dairy free butter and spreads. Already being vegetarian has it's advantages as now all I have to do is cut out the dairy consumption and that's not something I tend to eat a lot of anyway although I must admit I had gone a little down hill during Christmas eating dairy chocolate.

While I'm here I'd like to say how excited I am to finally find 'Vegan Life' magazine in a branch of WH Smiths... I had been looking for it in the shops for ages after I had bought a one off copy at Vegfest. I think my quiet New Years Eve is going to be spent having a good old read.

Lastly I would like to share with you a great find, and if you are lucky you might still be able to get your hands on a copy in 'The Works.' It's the fabulous book by Ms. Cupcake called 'The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town' (bargain price of £5.99) which I intend on actually using. I'm terrible with cook books of any kind... I buy them but then they sit gathering dust but I definitely must make the effort with this one after sampling one of Ms. Cupcakes delicious cupcakes in her Brixton shop this year (one of my highlights).

Enjoy your New Year celebrations and I'll see you on the other side.

Weekly Round-up #1

Welcome to my first weekly round-up post inspired by the lovely Kelly over at 'The Vegan Taff'. This is something that I would like to keep up if possible. After considering the fact that I have got far too much to blog about in individual posts I thought I would put it all together in one big post so you don't miss a thing. It also adds a more personal element to my blog which you don't often get when I'm just posting product reviews. It acts as a type of diary entry and I really like that concept so here I go.

Raw food diet update:
As you may of seen from one of my previous posts 'Making Changes'  I made the decision to try and maintain a half raw food diet by including fruits and vegetables into one of my meals I eat per day. This was easier in theory than it was in practise. I spent at least two hours (or more) preparing the produce to be put into salads to take to work with me for lunch. I got a little bored with chopping, grating and shredding and by the time I had finished I was rather frustrated at the fact that I had just spent all that time in the kitchen when I could have been doing other things.

My time is very valuable to me at the weekends as I work long hours during the week and I'm too tired to do anything of an evening other than watch the odd film or two and chuck something together that is quick and easy for my dinner. Don't get me wrong, I would still like to maintain a healthier diet but I may have to re-asses the way I go about it. However the salads went down a treat and I felt much better for doing it.

Book Purchase:

I bought my first vegan recipe book from Amazon called 'Keep it Vegan' by Aine Carlin and it includes over 100 simple recipes which are ideal for beginners and students and perfect for someone like me who has a short attention span and gets impatient with long-winded recipes.

The book contains an introduction to the author, the health benefits of a vegan diet and a list of store cupboard essentials. It is broken up into 6 chapters, 'Breakfast, Brunch and More,' 'Midday Meals & Simple Suppers,' 'Something Special,' 'Sides and Sauces' and 'Sweet Treats.' I haven't tried out any of the dishes yet but I have been recommended the strawberry vanilla cheesecake and the macaro-no cheese by John Pellegrini (@ei8htyei8ht on twitter).

Holland & Barrett haul:

I originally went in to buy some 'Plamil' egg free mayonnaise as my friend told me that it's the best vegan mayo around, so while I was there I had a nosey in their refrigerator section and gave in to temptation. I hadn't been to Holland and Barrett for a long time so I had forgotten what products they sell. As I am currently trying to replace all my 'Quorn' products with dairy free alternatives I was delighted to have discovered the VBites range so I threw a few things into my basket.

I am excited to try the 'Cheezly,' it looks so much more appealing than the 'Tesco' free-from fake cheese. I also thought I would give 'Free & Easy dairy free cheese flavoured sauce' a try with a pasta dish but I was a little bit disappointed with the bland taste. Stella (@VeganStella on twitter) suggested that next time I should try livening it up a bit with a dollop of English mustard and vegan bouillon powder.

Blog Post fail:

I was all set to write a review of one of 'Treaclemoon's' bath and shower gels, (well I was half way through it) when I realised that they are owned by another company. I noticed on their website they state that they are owned by 'Blue orange Brand Management' which also owns various other brands that aren't cruelty free. I personally try not to buy products from brands that have parent companies that don't have a cruelty free policy.

Even after I had emailed them with concerns over one of their ingredients they proceeded to ensure me that none of their products are tested on animals and do not contain any animal derived ingredients so I was very relieved until I researched their parent company. If you have any views regarding this issue I would love to hear from you. I seem to be constantly fooled by companies that I think are cruelty free but really aren't.

The search for alternative milk continues:

I thought I had found the perfect alternative milk for me in the form of 'Almond Breeze' but @pudding4brains on twitter brought to my attention a very important article written by 'Oh She Glows' about the ingredient Carrageenan in some alternative milk including the one that I use. Now I'm on the look-out for a new brand that both works on cereal and in tea. 

It took me a while to find 'Almond Breeze' after trying out a few different alternatives. I'm not keen on Alpro, plus I don't want to consume too much soya based products as I've heard that they are not good for you. I don't like anything coconut based and the ones that I have already tried are not very nice in tea. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know in the comments.