Anti-consumerist baby says buy nothing

There’s nothing like having a baby to turn you into a massive consumer. This Buy Nothing Day I am reflecting on all the baby related things I didn’t need to buy, making some excuses and hopefully going forward as a less consumerist human being. The baby hates shopping anyway so we have always labelled her as anti-consumerist as she screams from her pram while I try to find a nursing bra in M&S.

Things I feel guilty about

–Nappies. We use a mixture of reusable (little lamb which are fabulous) and disposable (“eco” brands such as Naty and Bio Baby)- the disposables more for when I am feeling lazy in the house and for going out so I don’t need such a big bag. Both make me feel bad- the extra washing with reusables and the waste with disposables. Before I gave birth I bought the book “Nappy free baby” about elimination communication (look it up: http://www.nappyfreebaby.co.uk/ ) but then never quite got to grips with it. I have started trying again and hoping it will at least save a few nappies!

–Amazon. Oh so easy to order something on prime for the next day. We have had “must have” teething toys, weaning equipment (should I just do baby led and not need spoons and mashers?), most of our nappies come from there. I wish I was supporting more independent retailers instead. Must try harder (and remove the baby’s Christmas wishlist!)

–Fisher price Rainforest Jumperoo. It’s hideous but all the other babies had one so C had to have it. She does like it and it keeps her both entertained and contained. Also I got it second hand off a local mums selling site and will sell it on after so trying to justify it that way.

–Letting others buy C presents such as clothes. It has meant that I have hardly bought her anything myself but I do feel guilty about so many new items from supermarkets as I worry about their ethical policies and don’t like the thought of supporting unethical factories indirectly by letting people get things for my daughter.

-Maternity and Nursing clothes. OK my fabulous mummy did find me a few wrap dresses in charity shops but I also ordered several items from Amazon, New Look and the Outnet. I try to avoid buying too many new clothes generally but could do better!

-My sling habit. I have a stretchy wrap, 2 ring slings, a baby bjorn and a manduca. Finding the right sling for every occasion is difficult but I do like babywearing rather than the evil travel system. All but one ring sling were second hand but now I am feeling like I really want a mei tai as I find the manduca buckles a bit difficult to adjust and when husband uses it too it makes things difficult.

-Buying the travel system new. It was just such a good deal, cheaper than the same one would have been second hand. But that’s not the point and I shouldn’t have got something new when a second hand alternative would have worked.

Things I am happy about

It’s impossible to be an ethical consumer if all you do is feel guilty, so I am giving myself a pat on the back for the following:

-My mother found a charity shop specialising in baby and children so lots of clothes have come from there.

-Other parents have passed on several items that we are using- cot and wardrobe in the nursery, several toys and books.

-Lots of items have come from ebay or local mums selling site- changing table, bumbo seat, bottles, jumperoo, slings, sleeping bags etc.

-I haven’t bought myself any clothes in about 3 months. I don’t intend to until I go back to work and then will aim to get them second hand where possible.

So avoiding the shops today and ignoring my ever expanding email inbox full of black Friday deals!!

Can you tell this was an alternative to writing my performance review for work while the in-laws take baby out? I think I’ll give myself 3/5.

Go the f*ck to sleep

Hello,

I’ve been on quite the blogging hiatus. In the past 16 months since I last wrote I have become a mother- woohoo. I have also spent *a lot* of time reading mummy blogs, normally after googling something like “baby green poo” “will baby die if it doesn’t sleep?” “Is it normal for a baby to cry?” etc. etc. I thought I would add an element of parenting to my blog. Especially as we plan to bring her up as vegan.

C is now 4 and a half months and she’s great even though I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in 4 and a half months. There’s an ‘amusing’ book/poem to make parents feel better about their non sleeping offspring called ‘Go the f*ck to sleep’ – you might have heard of it. Full transcript can be found here:

http://genius.com/Adam-mansbach-go-the-fuck-to-sleep-annotated

I read it to C. She did *not* go to sleep but, clever little sausage, rewrote it in response. I thought I would share it here:

The cats nestle close to their kittens,

The lambs have laid down with the sheep,

Where do you think you are going?

Shouldn’t you be cuddling me?

---

The windows are dark in the town,

I know you would like some rest,

I swear I will drift off soon,

If you promise I will never be left.

---

The eagles who soar through the sky are at rest,

And the doves who no longer coo,

If I say I am thirsty will you give me a drink?

Then I can be closer to you.

---

The wind whispers soft through the grass, mum,

It’s ages until it gets light,

Thirty more minutes is all that I ask,

Please make me feel everything’s alright.

---

The room is drifting away now,

As I know in your arms I will stay,

Cuddled up for the rest of the night,

Waking together for a new day.

---

Bleary and dazed I awaken,

To find you here no more,

Tomorrow I’ll have one eye open,

You’d best not go out that f*cking door.

US TRIP PART 2: A LITTLE MORE SAN FRAN AND FIRST NIGHT IN LAS VEGAS

There’s just one place in San Francisco that we enjoyed and I left out of the last post…
Tacolicious, 1548 Stockton St, San Francisco, CA 94133 (other locations exist)

Official Website: http://tacolicious.com/

We were starving after our cycle over the Golden Gate bridge and back so at about 3pm we stumbled into Tacolicious and hoped they would be able to feed me something vegan. They were very accommodating and advised me of the items on the menu that were vegan and those that could be adapted. Lots of choice. The décor of the place was a little fast-food-joint but there was table service and we really appreciated them bringing us chips and salsa as soon as we arrived!

R had something non-vegan that I didn’t bother photographing and I went for a couple of the veggie tacos that didn’t need any adapting to make them vegan) which I believe were the fingerling potatoes, oyster mushrooms, asparagus, green garlic ancho chile recado ones. They were pretty yummy- I love lots of filling and it all went well together with a touch of chilli/garlic spice.

We shared a side of asparagus- look how big it is!!!

We also had black beans which were really tasty too.

Also you can see all the sauces we were given on the side to add to our tacos. All in all a fun, tasty, filling, fast, extremely good value meal! I wish we had places like this in the UK!

Talking of Asparagus, we did actually pop to the Stockton, California annual asparagus festival on our way to Yosemite. Here is me with some growing asparagus and tasting the deep fried asparagus (not that nice)

I had a pleasant enough vegan burrito for lunch there and a tasty smoothie from a vegan smoothie van.

Now, Las Vegas is amazing for vegans. It’s not cheap but it’s easy to find really nice vegan food there. We only spent 3 nights in Vegas and one day we were out for the whole day at the Grand Canyon. On that day we took snacks from Whole Foods which were amazing! We made ourselves bagels with fake cheese and meat slices and had great popcorn, chips and oreos 😉

On our first night, we headed to the Wynn, having heard that Steve Wynn, the owner, as a vegan insists that most (or all?) of the restaurants in his hotels offer a separate vegan menu!

SW Steakhouse, Wynn hotel, 3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South Las Vegas, NV 89109

Official Website: http://wynnlasvegas.com/Restaurants/FineDining/SWSteakhouse

We ended up at SW Steakhouse, where R was able to have octopus and steak and where I got a huge vegan menu to choose from. It definitely wasn’t cheap but it was a fine dining restaurant. We had a lovely table from which we had a view of the Wynn waterfall and the light show on it. R had some wine and our water glasses were regularly topped up. We were brought some bread to start and the vegan bread options were pointed out to me. I chose the Kale and Apple salad with pecans to start. It was huge!! But tasty and hopefully healthy (a pile of that much green stuff has to be!)

For main I had roasted ‘maitake’ (?) mushrooms with white bean puree. The mushrooms were quite meaty and strongly seasoned, probably a good alternative to steak!

We still hadn’t managed to learn by this point that sides in the US are like main meals in themselves, so ordered creamed spinach (more green!) and french fries and didn’t manage to eat it all or order pudding. An expensive meal but a lovely experience!

US Trip Part 1: San Francisco

Hello. It’s been a while. I have plenty of photos and notes but haven’t translated them into a blog post yet! However, I’m going to start with the big one: My trip to San Francisco and Vegas. We also stopped along the way in Yosemite and Death Valley but we were mostly self-catering so made our own stir-fries, enchiladas etc.

We landed, a little bit sleepy, one Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco. Found our hotel which was The Hotel Carlton (http://www.jdvhotels.com/hotels/california/san-francisco-hotels/hotel-carlton) chosen partly for location, partly for its good TripAdvisor rating and partly because of the vegan-friendly Arabic fusion restaurant it housed.

Saha, 1075 Sutter Street, San Francisco , CA, 94109-5817

Official Website: http://www.sahasf.com/

We ate dinner here on our first and last nights in SF and had brunch on Saturday and Sunday! The menu has so many vegan options! They do ‘small plates’ as well as normal starters and entrees so we usually shared a couple of these and had one to ourselves J I didn’t get photos of all the dinner plates we had but dishes we liked were:

A lovely broccoli and celery soup with a bit of a kick that they split into 2 small bowls so we could share.

Wild mushroom pate

Stuffed Artichoke heart (with tofu and seasonal vegetables)

Shiitake mushroom ravioli in mango and coconut sauce.

Za’atar Cauliflower

Za’atar Cauliflower

Quinoa and Kale salad.

Half-eaten quinoa and kale

The bread was also lovely and came with oil full of herbs and spices to dip it in.

We did try a dessert while we were there (I feel like I have to if there are vegan options) but we weren’t huge fans.

‘Slap ya Mama’ consisted of banana, dried fruit, nuts and melted chocolate in filo pastry. As I’m not big on bananas it really wasn’t my cup of tea and there was too much going on. Some of the other sweets may be nicer.

Brunch at Saha was also an interesting affair. There were lots of very interesting sounding vegan options. On Saturday I went for Spinach Shakshuka as I was craving spinach and tofu. This consisted of spinach, potatoes and fried tofu in a spicy tomato sauce and was really tasty.

On Sunday I had ‘Fava Benedict’ which was a soft fried cake made from fava beans with avocado and tofu on top, covered in curry sauce. This was also a really lovely breakfast!

The waiting staff were very friendly and crucially understood veganism! The food was quite unusual and felt very much as if they were planned as they were, rather than there being any efforts to substitute meat or dairy with vegan ingredients. Prices were reasonable too.

You should definitely visit Saha if you’re ever in San Francisco and it got quite busy so you might want to make a reservation.

Loving Hut Chinatown,1365 Stockton Street, San Francisco, CA 94133, USA

Official website: http://lovinghut.us/sanfrancisco/

We had lunch on our second day at Loving hut in Chinatown. We clocked it in the morning on our way to Fisherman’s wharf and then returned at about 2pm. I hadn’t actually been to a Loving hut before, although I have been to similar places like Yummy V and Veggie World. I did really fancy some kind of dirty fast food, though, so it was ideal!

I went for the ‘fish’ and chips style dish which was really nice. A few breadcrumbed tofu/seaweed patties and loads of chips and dips! Not too fishy but pleasantly seaweedy. Big portion!

R went for the sweet and sour dish with some lovely wild rice on the side. It was quite nice- lots of veggies and fake chicken but so much food!

We didn’t manage pudding but did see a few noodle dishes we would try if we went back and would also like to try the burger. Service was pleasant and fast and prices were reasonable (slightly expensive for a quick lunch once you’ve added tax and tip)

Millenium, 580 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

Official website: http://www.millenniumrestaurant.com

This was the restaurant I was most looking forward to trying after reading recommendations by Chloe Coscarelli. I made sure to get a reservation in plenty of time and eventually remembered what name I’d reserved in (my passport is still in maiden name so hotels etc. were booked in that, but Millenium was booked in my married name which I wasn’t used to saying by then…) so got our table. It was definitely full and we sat at the bar while our table was being prepared. There were some nice cocktails on the menu but I went for an organic root beer which was really nice!

As we were shown to our table, we were offered a complimentary lentil dip with bread. This was really tasty and the homemade crusty bread was yummy too.

Chloe recommends the Crusted king Trumpet Mushrooms so we had to share these for a starter, and we also got some pickled vegetables to go with them (a whole starter each might have meant not enough room for pudding!)

The pickled vegetables were lotus root with ginger, fennel with something else nice and parsnip with chilli. The chilli was too much for me so I didn’t have much of the parsnip but the others were tasty.

The mushrooms were interesting. They did have a really chewy, slightly disconcerting texture but were fun to eat, a bit different but not too far removed from tempura and had a sweet dip and we both enjoyed them and agreed we had picked well (or Chloe had)!!

As a main, I went for a tamale. I hadn’t actually had a tamale before and my only real knowledge of them was Nicole Scherzinger on X factor calling the contestants ‘a hot tamale’ as if it was a good thing, so I assumed it would be good! It was. I wasn’t entirely sure how to eat it but I just peeled back the husk and ate from it. I think corn gives a really nice flavour and the filling and sauce were really lovely and aromatic too.

R got the Dosa which was quite nice, probably nothing special if you’ve had a chickpea masala Dosa in a south indian restaurant before. The crispy fried onions on top were really good though!

Luckily we had room for pudding! Mine was AMAZING!!!! It was an orange blossom and poppy seed cake with rhubarb jam and vanilla creme served with apricot ice cream. The sponge was moist and rich, the rhubarb jam was amazing, the vanilla crème was creamy and vanillaey and lovely and the apricot ice-cream was awesome too.

R chose Chocolate almond midnight which was quite nice but paled into insignificance alongside mine. The mocha mousse part of it was slightly kind of gritty with the coffee and I think would have been nicer if it was smooth, but the white chocolate mousse was good and the almond bark was really nice with a caramelised taste to it.

The restaurant itself was very classy with a good atmosphere for couples or friends. The serving staff were attentive and we did feel like we were in a really nice place. You can see from the presentation and the menu what a lovely restaurant it was. An excellent choice for a special occasion.

[Edited to add further photos I found on R’s phone]

February 2014 trip to Brighton

I love Brighton. Although it’s under an hour and a half’s drive or train ride away, I don’t visit enough! Last month, however, we were able to go for the night as my parents had got a free night in a hotel with their home insurance that they didn’t want and we were able to book a Friday night at The Old Ship hotel with it. I tried to book Terre a Terre for the Friday evening but couldn’t get a reservation so instead booked Food for Friends which was a stone’s throw from the hotel.

Food for Friends, 17 Prince Albert St, The Lanes, Brighton

Official Website: http://www.foodforfriends.com

No photos as we were too busy enjoying our meal.

I started with the soup which was some kind of root vegetable medley with a hint of ginger and was very tasty. R went for the cracked black peppered fried tofu with spring onions and saffron dashi, served with kombu seaweed, pickled cucumber and Chinese cabbage. I think this was a stand out dish- so many flavours on the plate, quite peppery tofu, awesome pickles and definitely something that would be hard to recreate but I’d order next time!

For main R had something that wasn’t vegan- a potato cake with a poached egg on top. I think he enjoyed it, especially the sesame onion rings!! They do a vegan version without the egg.

I had another dish that was a vegan-option. It was the Halloumi salad with mango, avocado, wasabi nuts and a mango dressing. I got crispy tofu instead of halloumi which was lovely, as were the leaves, nuts, avocado and slices of mango. However, the mango dressing was far too sweet and overpowering so this one wasn’t a winner!!

For pudding I had to try the coconut arancini with a trio of mango (which works much better in a sweet dish!) The sorbet was lovely, as were the sweet coconut rice balls so I really enjoyed this. We also shared the espresso and truffles for 2 to finish off the meal and had a nice bottle of vegan red wine with our meal too. Service was good and it was reasonably priced (I think mine fell into the 3 courses for £20 category!) so we will be back!

On the Saturday morning, I was a bit annoyed that R had organised for a meeting with our plumbers at 2pm so we didn’t have time to stick around for lunch/afternoon tea. We had a light breakfast in the hotel (I just had fruit and coffee, although there was toast, bread, baked beans etc.) and wandered up the pier,

bought some treats in Vbites, bought more treats in Infinity Foods and at about 11 settled in Rock’ola café bar for brunch.

Rock Ola, 29 Tidy Street, Brighton, BN1 4EL

Official website: http://www.rockolacoffeebar.com/

I loved this place! It’s like a cool 50s American diner and they have a separate vegan menu but also serve meat and lacto-ovo dishes.

I got the most awesome chocolate milkshake:

And a vegan breakfast-in-a-bun: Mushrooms, vegan bacon, sausage and a hash brown type patty- which was lovely.

Simple but hit the spot and I must find out how to make that milkshake. It was gloopy and ice-creamy and exactly how a milkshake should be.

Rock Ola was right near the station so we could just hop on a train back to London and our Brighton trip was over until next time!!!!

The Jumping Bean Cafe in Durham

I went up to Durham on Saturday for lunch with a friend. I really haven’t visited the city enough since I graduated in 2009 and do love to have a wander round to see what has changed. The day started beautifully with clear skies and sunshine and a wander around the cathedral. Both the cathedral and the castle on the other side of Palace Green looked lovely in the sunshine.

For lunch, we went to find the jumping bean cafe. I had seen their stall at the North East Vegan Festival, where the nice young northern man had plied my mother with lemon cake that she declared the ‘best cake of the festival’. It was slightly off my normal beaten track in Durham but was easy to find especially with a blackboard sign directing you towards their soup and sandwich offers and vegan and gluten free options.

The Jumping Bean cafe, 5 Neville Street, Durham, DH1 4EY

Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/jumpingbeancafedurham

The cafe has been open about a year and was quite busy when we dropped in. It was a bit bigger than I expected but still only around 7 tables inside and 3-4 outside (although a bit cold for that at the moment!) The drinks menu is up on a blackboard and the paper menu included a few lunch and some breakfast items- all vegetarian and most vegan, including options of vegan cheese. I was tempted by the Spanish stew but instead chose to try the pine nut and spinach falafel and tomato chutney sandwich on brown bread, with the soup of the day which was carrot and parsnip. I also had a soya cappuccino.

The bread was lovely and fresh and soft and the soup was clearly home-made. I could detect plenty of ginger and pepper (maybe even some cayenne) in the soup and the tomato chutney in my sandwich was quite spicy too. It was all very tasty but maybe a bit strongly seasoned/spicy for some people (I’m thinking of my mother here, and would have to order wisely if i brought her)

My cappuccino was lovely and hot (which my mother would be very happy about!) and Cathy went for a pot of tea which you can see in the picture was nice and big!

The guy I’d met at the festival was icing the lemon cake just as we were about to leave so I got a slice to take away- with still-sticky icing expertly packaged so the icing stayed on the cake !!!

This was really excellent lemon cake!!! It’s lucky I no longer live in Durham or I would definitely have too much lemon cake!

I really hope this vegan venture continues its success and I look forward to visiting again next time I’m in Durham!

Blueberry Swirl tray bake guinea pigging…

Hello!!

Wow it’s been ages since I last blogged. We bought a flat and have been manically packing/moving/redecorating/attempting to stay married. 2013’s been a big year! But after a month and a bit we’ve finally got a usable living room.

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll have a few things to mention in a round-up soon (lots of photos on my phone) but for now just a quick one to mention Blueberry Swirl: https://www.facebook.com/blueberryswirl

I discovered their stall at the North East Vegan Festival on 17th November at the Stadium of Light. I took my parents along to their first Vegan Festival and they loved it! Vegusto did some awesome hot dogs and there was so much cake about! My dad was a particular fan of the Blueberry Swirl savoury muffins and I went away with a coffee cupcake and an earl grey cupcake which were both delicious.

So when I saw that Blueberry Swirl were looking for people to test out postage methods on for a potential mail order service I volunteered immediately!

A snickers tray bake was put in the post with royal mail on Wednesday and R picked it up from the post office on Friday night. It was packaged up very securely:

And had travelled very well, with just a few peanuts stuck to the lid (which I imagine would have happened anyway):

 

Both R and I enjoyed the bake. It was definitely more of  cake than a brownie and was nice and moist, and the chocolate and peanut topping was tasty too.

Watch out for Blueberry Swirl’s postal service in 2014! And if you’re in the north-east find their cakes at various places including the Farplace Animal Rescue charity shop in Wallsend, the Good Apple café in Sunderland and the Olde Young tea house in Middlesbrough.

 

Baked Lemon and Sultana Almond Cheesecake

Here, I am trying to recreate one of my favourite childhood desserts- Marks and Spencer lemon and sultana cheesecake. It was my mum’s favourite too but then I think they changed the recipe and it got too sweet and she went off it. I think it would still be nice if you omitted the brown rice syrup but I do like to add a bit of sugar!

I based it on this recipe for almond feta which was very successful for me!

Ingredients

200g ground almonds

Juice and zest of 3-4 small lemons (mine yielded about 100ml juice)

100ml water

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp brown rice syrup

50g sultanas

Put all the ingredients except for the sultanas in a blender and blend into a thick cream texture.

Mix in the sultanas and put in a muslin cloth within the bowl that you will bake it in.

Tie up the muslin cloth and leave in the fridge for several hours. A small amount of liquid will drain off.

 

Unwrap, place the block of cheesecake back into the bowl and bake in the oven at 180’C for half an hour.

Allow to chill and serve sliced!

I think it’s quite close to the original Marks and Spencer cake I was recreating, with a nice almondy edge!

Lovely vegan food swap- September

This month’s vegan food swap came from Jade in Lancashire. She wrote me a really lovely little card about what was in the box and her life as a vegan which was a cute touch. Even better- the card is impregnated with thyme seeds so can be planted and I can grow herbs!!!

Jade mentioned that all the food was from local shops and markets. This made me feel a bit bad about my over-reliance on supermarkets for food swaps and I am going to try to use local shops more in future.

I picked up the box from the  post office on my way home from work one night when I was really hungry so may have eaten a bit of it before I had the chance to take a photo (I really need to stop photographing things on my ironing board) so you may notice that the fruit snack and mini-moo honeycomb are just the wrappers. I do like the real-fruit-mushed-into-bars concept so enjoyed the fruit snack bar and the bear rolls. The mini-moo honeycomb chocolate bar was amazing! How have I not had one before? Granted I was picking honeycomb out of my teeth in a traffic jam but it was so tasty!!!!

There was also a bar of dark chocolate with orange which I think must be buried in the photo but I nibbled on it a bit on my way home too and it was good!

When I opened the box initially, there was this amazing herby fragrance which came from the arabiata mix from the market in the middle of the photo. This stuff is great and I’ve used it in stews, tomato sauces and on noodles.

The pretzels made a good snack one evening and R helped me out with the super hot jalapeno crisps! I loved the provamel almond drink, it was really sweet and like an almond milkshake and was great after the gym one morning. The soyesse black cherry soya yoghurt was also yummy.

Aha, the little blue bag sticking out from under the english breakfast tea was a mini pack of  oreos. Love them.

I haven’t got around to the clearspring miso soup yet but it’s in my work cupboard for a hunger emergency and I like miso soup! I also haven’t had all the teas, one of which is olive leaf which I haven’t quite found an occasion for but I will as Jade says it’s really nice!

So thanks, Jade, for putting in so much effort and sending me lovely treats!

UK vegan food swap link: http://www.tohappyvegans.com/wordpress/uk-vegan-food-swap/

And a guide to being an awesome swapper: http://www.tohappyvegans.com/wordpress/uk-vegan-food-swap-september-2013/

What I ate this week

I have enlisted the help of a personal trainer and he asked me to keep a food diary for a week so he knows what my diet is like before he makes any nutritional suggestions. I thought I’d share this as I always find it interesting to see what other people eat on a typical day. I tried to take photos of most of my food. I haven’t included drink but generally will have a couple of diet cokes when I’m out, several pints of water, tea and coffee during the day.

I started on the Saturday after seeing the PT first thing.

Saturday

Saturday Breakfast

Saturday dinner-Sainsburys Taste the difference Tabbouleh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast: Scrambled tofu with 2 veggie ‘bacon rashers’ and brown sauce. Soy latte.

Snack: Montezuma dark chocolate buttons

Then I went to a cycling lesson to learn how to cycle in London traffic! I was really hungry when I got back so made a very quick meal of

Lunch: Noodles with curry powder and a black cherry soya yoghurt.

We headed into London and met my parents and had a look around a couple of ‘open’ buildings (it was London Open Houses weekend) including the royal courts of justice which was cool. Then back to the parents’ hotel room for:

Snack: Black coffee, a few original pringles and 3 nairns stem ginger oatcakes.

We had to head off to Jurassic Park: The Musical (which was pretty funny!) in Little Venice so picked up some food from Sainsburys.

Dinner: Sainsburys taste the difference Tabbouleh salad and roasted salted pistachios.

I was hungry by the time we got home so had some toast and marmalade.

Sunday

Sunday Breakfast

Mushroom risotto on toast

Chocolate chia pudding

Breakfast: Scrambled tofu on toast with 1 veggie ‘bacon rasher’ and brown sauce. Soy latte.

Snacks: Chocolate chia pudding (chia seeds soaked overnight in chocolate soy milk), roasted and salted pistachios, small bar of dark chocolate.

Lunch: 3 slices of toast

Dinner: Mushroom risotto on toast followed by another (espresso cup of) chocolate chia pudding.

Snack: Black pepper popcorn

Monday

Overnight oats (weekday breakfast)

Monday lunch

Monday dinner

Neapolitan Swedish Glace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast: Overnight oats- oats, chia seeds and cinnamon soaked in light soya milk overnight

Snacks: Apple, nectarine and small (30g) bar dark chocolate

Lunch: leftover mushroom risotto and a bag of wasabi glaze popcorn.

Dinner: courgette and carrot ‘noodles’ with arabiata tomato sauce (carrots and courgette spiralized in tomato sauce and arabiata seasoning from vegan food swap parcel) with 2 slices of toast with pure. Followed by a bowl of Neapolitan Swedish Glace.

Snacks: another small bar of chocolate and a sherbet fountain 

Tuesday

Tuesday Lunch

Tuesday dinner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast: Overnight oats

Snacks: Apple, nectarine and small (30g) bar dark chocolate

Lunch: leftover courgette and carrot ‘noodles’ with arabiata tomato sauce

Dinner: Ratatouille with raw cauliflower rice, 2 slices toast and pure.

Snacks: Some Montezuma dark chocolate buttons

 

Wednesday

Wednesday lunch

Toast snack

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast: Overnight oats

Snacks: Apple and nectarine

Lunch: leftover ratatouille with raw cauliflower rice, most of a box of orgran amaretti biscotti, Starbucks soy coffee frapuccino

Dinner: Bento box from somewhere in South Kensington with tofu, rice, root veg salad and seaweed salad. A glass of white wine.

Snacks: Black pepper crisps, 2 slices of toast with pure when I got home.

 

Thursday

Thursday lunch

Breakfast: Overnight oats

Snacks: Apple and nectarine

Lunch: bulgar wheat with chopped tofu and raw mushrooms, dressed in sushi vinegar and soy sauce

(I made this late on Thursday night and I think I did an alright job!)

Dinner: Curry Buffet from

Indian Veg Bhelpoori House

Official website: http://theindianveg.wordpress.com/

Address: 92-93 Chapel Market, N1 9EX

Nearest tube: Angel

I always love the food here and have brought a lot of non-vegetarian friends who have enjoyed it too. There are usually at least 2 kinds of curry plus a dal, plain basmati rice, brown rice, or pilau, a salad bar, pakora, poppadum, and awesome poori that taste a bit like vegan Yorkshire puddings. As much food as you like for £5.50 a head. Also it’s BYOB for no extra charge so I had a nice Aspall’s cider from waitrose plus a couple of glasses of red wine.

The décor in this restaurant is also really interesting with facts, articles and statistics about nutrition, mainly along the lines of meat, dairy and alcohol are bad for you, vegans feel healthier. Some might describe this as “vegan propaganda” but I quite like it, as did some of the friends I took this time!

 

Friday

I was a bit ill overnight and was feeling super rough on Friday morning after no sleep. I was inclined to blame the buffet but I think everyone else was fine after the same food so I guess I picked up some kind of bug from using the underground or a cashpoint or something. Anyway, at least it meant I didn’t eat as much as I normally would!

Lunch:  one and a half warburtons sandwich wraps spread with pure (I was in that state of being really hungry but still feeling quite sick so nice plain wheaty food felt like the right way to go)

Snacks: Some strawberries and coconut water, the remains of my Neapolitan Swedish glace.

Neapolitan Swedish Glace

Dinner: Pearl barley with summer vegetables.

Friday dinner

I was out for dinner at the Hawksmoore, Spitalfields celebrating my father-in-law’s 60^th. They always make me a nice vegan dish and look after me well, and normally offer an adapted starter and sorbet for pudding too. It’s a very nice place. They also serve amazing cocktails but I still felt too ill for alcohol so just had a few sips of whatever R had (whisky, old-fashioned, red wine, dessert wine) and a diet coke and lots of tap water for me!

So there’s my week of food. I think I definitely have too much sugar but otherwise I think I do ok as a vegan!