Five Years

Today, my very good friend Dale and I celebrate our 5 year Veganniversary! During that time we've had some of the best meals ever, visited the fantastic Bristol Vegan Fayre 4 times, organised vegan events in Manchester (including the now legendary Basement Chocolate Fest), met lots of other great vegans ( we didn't know any 5 years ago!) and set up the Cake Liberation Front.

Dale had been vegetarian for a long time and didn't like milk so it's wasn't too big a leap for him. I wasn't vegetarian but had been gradually changing my diet for health reasons for about 2 years and probably ate vegan about 70% of the time so it didn't actually feel like a massive leap for me either. I think we both would agree that we probably eat a bigger variety of foods now than ever before! If you're interested in veganism I would encourage you to just have fun exploring it - go along to local social meet-ups, free food fairs etc and investigate the wealth of information available on the web. It took me a long time to decide if I wanted to commit to veganism and to use the label for my lifestyle but I still feel it's one of the best decisions I ever made!

Comments

  1. Carol11 June 2011 at 20:41

    Happy 5th veganniversary!!! I would say I'm 99% there generally. If I could just give up pizza!! Any tips?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tea and Sympatico11 June 2011 at 21:44

    Thanks Carol. I actually found that after a few months without dairy when I tried a piece of cheese again out of curiosity (because I'd read that your tastebuds change) I have to say it didn't taste the same at all and I really didn't like the taste - same with honey! Sometimes I make pizza without cheese or I rip up a few Tofutti Mozarella Style slices. I'm also lucky in living near a pizza restaurant that offers dairy free cheese too. The best dairy free cheese I've tried was Daiya in Canada and USA, hopefully it'll be available here soon too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. PixieRoseDresses12 June 2011 at 17:53

    wow, 5 years! what a great achievement! well done!:))xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Siobhan12 June 2011 at 18:38

    Happy Veganniversary too! I can't remember how long I've been vegan, almost 4 years I think...your tastebuds definitely change. Dairy products are the hardest things to give up but now they seem so unappealing to me. Milk just smells weird!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Islaborg13 June 2011 at 13:10

    Happy Vegan-Anniversary! It is similar for me, I have tried SO many new foods and dishes since becoming vegan, it has opened a whole new world for me. Going vegan was one of the best decisions I ever made to be honest. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cola de Mono

Image
Colo de Mono (Tail of the Monkey) is a Chilean concoction traditionally drunk ice cold at Christmastime. Obviously their winters are a lot warmer than ours so in the UK it's more suited to this time of year. The Chileans use aguadiente an overproof cane spirit. I use Cachaca 51 which I have in for Mojitos and Caipirinhas. Traditionally made with cows milk, here is my vegan version. Colo De Mono Makes 1 pint Serves 4 2 cups of vanilla soy milk 1/3 cup of caster sugar 1/3 teaspoon of cinammon 3 teaspoons of instant coffee 1/2 cup of spirit* Bring the milk, sugar and cinnamon to a low boil in a pan stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Turn off the heat and stir in the coffee. Leave to cool. Once cool add the spirit and chill in the fridge. It will keep for 2 weeks. Serve over ice or straight up but make it cold. * Spirit - I use Cachaca but have heard that people use tequila too.
Read more

Interview With Lisa Goddard of Lily and Dilly

Image
If you've eaten vegan cake in Manchester City Centre in the last few years then chances are you'll have eaten cake baked by Lisa Goddard of bakery Lily and Dilly . We caught up with Lisa to find out what set her on the vegan baking path! So, Lily and Dilly? What made you set up as an independent bakery and where does the name come from? Having worked as a stop frame animator for 12 years, I was getting rather fed up with short term contracts, so the last time I was made redundant, I decided not to chase work round the country, and if that meant a career change, then so be it. A friend of mine had just set up The Cocoa Emporium as an independent Chocolatier, so I gave her a hand whilst navigating through the benefits system, mostly to get me out of bed on a morning! Doing baking for her farmers market was fun, as it was one of my main hobbies, so when she asked if I fancied getting a little shop  with her, it seemed a nice chance to start something new. We got the shop
Read more

Growing your own, bargains and a breakfast recipe

Image
I've started sprouting again! In my old flat I used to do sprouting all the time. The flat was in an old 1930's building and had radiators run from a central boiler room and it was always nice and warm. The constant warm temp made sprouting pretty fail safe. Now I'm in a Derbyshire stone house where it's not as warm the results haven't been as great and I gave up trying  but with this very hot summer we are having I thought I would give it another go and I'm glad I have done. As I already have the seeds it kind of feels like free food too! I'm using these sprouts  from A Vogel. This week I've grown alfalfa but pictured is my first attempt from the week before which was a mix of radish, lentil and rocket which grew into lovely peppery tasting sprouts that we used to garnish our bowl meals for the week. These took 4 days to grow and I nearly gave up on day 2 because I could see mold. Luckily I googled and found out that it wasn't mold at all but r
Read more