Out and About

Well, Valentines day meal went well, even though I put too much soy sauce in the burgers and the mushroom paté was too runny, he enjoyed it (or said he did convincingly), and I thought it was pretty yummy myself, although I made way too much salad.

I had an idea for another topic on here: Eating out in and around Glasgow.

A lot of people assume that if you're vegan, you can't eat out. In France, I think that was true- I didn't eat out once in France after I went vegan (except when we went to Disneyland, see my post below). In Glasgow, I'd estimate I've eaten out around 30 times since last June. Usually about once a week. I go to the same places quite often though, but I thought I could do some reviews on vegan eating options in Glasgow, based on my experiences.

There are some all-vegan eateries, namely, Mono, Stereo and the Thirteenth Note. These are all great, but I wasn't going to do them first. Where I eat out more often are non-vegan restaurants, and I was going to list some options available at a few of the chains first.

Pizza Hut - I eat at pizza hut now and then with my bf- maybe not classy but it's cheerful, easy and close to the cinema, and I can usually get a buy-one-get-one free voucher. They have a pretty thorough allergen guide here which states the vegan status of all menu items: http://www.pizzahut.co.uk/media/77460/dietary_requirements-0910.pdf

Here's the vegan options summary:

Side salad

Nachos (hold the cheese and sour cream)

Potato Wedges with ketchup, sweet chilli sauce or BBQ dip

Pasta with Arrabiatta Sauce

House salad (Happy Hour)

Pizza Base and Tomato sauce (Pan or Italian)

Vegetable Toppings (Olives, peppers, mushrooms, onions, sweetcorn, tomato, chillis, jalapenos, cherry tomatoes, pineapple, peas, asparagus, rocket)

Some things I haven't seen that apparently you can get: Couscous, crispy onions, diced beetroot, fruit salad, humous, orange ice lolly.

Aside from the fruit salad and ice lolly which I've never seen, there's no desert options here, but since we usually go just before the cinema, this leaves me room for popcorn and chocolate (I bring ruffle bars or rice milk chocolate, I've found one that tastes like galaxy :) )

At pizza hut I usually have potato wedges with BBQ dip and a pan pizza with mushrooms, tomatoes and peppers.

QUANTITY OF VEGAN OPTIONS: ***

QUALITY OF FOOD: ***

ATMOSPHERE: **

PRICE: ***

Pizza Express- I've heard they are considering putting an actual, listed as vegan pizza on the menu. Til then, the base and sauce are vegan so it's a similar to pizza hut choose-some-toppings. Here's the allergen info http://www.pizzaexpress.com/pdfs/files/PE%20Recipe%20Data%20April%202010%20-%20Customer%20Copy_20100427-162130.pdf

Veg toppings: capers, olives, onions, pine kernels, sultanas, mushrooms, spinach, garlic, walnut halves, sundried tomatoes, rocket, green peppers, red peppers, fresh tomatoes, leeks, petite pois & artichokes.

Dough Balls (Ask for garlic oil instead of butter)

Mixed Salad (no dressing)

Caffe Reale Desert (without the mascarpone)

I never mind going there and getting dough balls and pizza. I haven't tried the caffe reale, but it's "Baby figs, cinnamon & white wine spiced syrup" and comes with a coffee.

QUANTITY OF VEGAN OPTIONS: **

QUALITY OF FOOD: ***

ATMOSPHERE: ***

PRICE: ***

Wagamama- There's quite a lot of choice at wagamama, and all servers are trained to know what's vegan (I know because I asked once and she spent 20 minutes talking to me about it!), here's the site info: http://www.wagamama.com/food/dietary/vegans

That link is pretty comprehensive. I've tried the yasai gyoza, edamame, and the yasai cha han.

I can't find much info on desert. The kids menu offers natural fruit ice lollies.

QUANTITY OF VEGAN OPTIONS: ****

QUALITY OF FOOD: ****

ATMOSPHERE: ***

PRICE: **

Bella Italia - I can't find any allergen info, but I know from asking what is available.

The usual pizza- base plus sauce plus toppings

Fusilli Pomodorini — roasted red peppers and onions in a cherry tomato sauce (ask for without mozarella)

Chips

Desert: Lemon and blood orange sorbet.

QUANTITY OF VEGAN OPTIONS: ***

QUALITY OF FOOD: ***

ATMOSPHERE: ***

PRICE: ***

Here's an info page with more on vegan chain restaurants: http://www.cookingforvegans.co.uk/eatingout/chainrestaurantinfo.html

Vegan Valentines

Well, I've had my first Vegan Easter, my first Vegan Birthday, my first Vegan Trip to Disneyland, my first Vegan Halloween and my first Vegan Christmas... now for my first Vegan Valentine's Day!!!

Normally valentines day would be much less challenging than any of those other things because we would just go out to eat, and I can almost always find something at restaurants.

But this year I said I'd cook.

I love cooking, but I normally prefer to cook for myself because I worry that I will disappoint other people with my food. Particularly my counterpart, Mr nonVeganBean, since his favourite foods are:

1. Pizza

2. Beef burger

3. Chicken

And that's pretty much it, well, except for garlic bread, salad, and tiger rolls. So my plan is to make a meal that involves garlic bread, salad and tiger rolls. The obvious solution is to add pizza to the meal, since vegan pizza is easy to make and he's had it before and liked it. But pizza isn't very valentines-y, particularly since we have it all the time. So I've settled on a slightly more ambitious menu, and tomorrow my culinary skills will be put to the test. I've picked a couple of recipes from Veganomicon.

Starter

Oatcakes with Mushroom Paté

Main

Chickpea cutlet in a tiger roll with fried onions, spicy tomato relish and melted mozarella cheezly

served with

Green salad and home-made italian dressing

Garlic ciabatta

Desert

Fresh fruit salad

Personally I'd have a more ambitious desert involving cake and ice cream, but he wouldn't eat it as he doesn't really 'do' deserts, probably just as well as I'd get carried away making the desert and mess up the rest of it!

I'll post at some point saying how it went. I probably shouldn't be nervous, if I mess up there's always pizza as a back up, but I really hope it goes down well. Oh yeah and he does know I'm making a vegan meal and it didn't seem to bother him at all, so at least I'm not dealing with a big-fat-greek-wedding-style horrified face and 'what? no meat?' :)

10 things you thought vegans couldn't eat...

Even my last post wasn't very good, I didn't really eloquently explain the reasons I'm vegan and what I have written is quite confusing.

Anyway, there are others out there who have shown/ explained things much more effectively than I ever can:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-513747926833909134#

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6361872964130308142#

http://www.eatinganimals.com/

http://www.milkmyths.org.uk/

http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/chickens/broiler.htm

http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/fish/index.html

http://www.viva.org.uk/goingveggie/whygoveggie/animalwelfare1.htm

Sooo I'll go back to what I like to do, which is talking about food!!!

10 THINGS YOU THOUGHT VEGANS COULDN'T EAT.... BUT YOU WERE WRONG

10. Quiche- Tofu is the best egg substitute around, a very firm tofu has a cooked-egg like texture, and with some salt, turmeric, soy sauce and pepper, tofu can make a good 'scrambled egg' type food. But it's also great pureed and used with veggies in a pastry case to make quiche! Or if you're lazy (like me) you can just buy some from Holland and Barrets:

9. Marshmallows- even vegetarians can't eat marshmallows, right? Well, ordinarily marshmallows use gelatine, but there are vegan versions on the market, which look, feel, and I would think (though it's ages since I've had a meaty marshmallow) taste like a marshmallow made with gelatine:

Available from: http://www.veganstore.co.uk/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=1&Product_Code=448&Category_Code=520

8. Caramel Shortcake- Yes siree, some magical person has veganised this former favourite afternoon tea treat. I can't eat too much though because it's so sweet:

http://www.veganstore.co.uk/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=1&Product_Code=696&Category_Code=640

Ok Ok I know what you're saying- vegans can only eat 'special' versions of these foods, not the 'normal' ones. Well here are some foods which are vegan even though they are not very special at all.

7. Starburst- I wouldn't eat them because of the hydrogenated fat and general destruction they are likely to do on a body, but they are nevertheless vegan:

6. Biscuits- I'm pretty sure some people think biscuits, as a general category, are not vegan. If this was true, what on earth would I dunk in my tea? For some good tea dunking suggestions see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJr9ekTf0xc

Oh yes and all these biscuits are vegan:

So get dunking!!!

5. Gravy- traditionally very very made of animals, vegan gravy is actually widely available, and there's an old favourite that you may be surprised about. Ahhh...

4. Pastry- sometimes made with butter, but vegan options are really readily available:

3. And on the subject of pastry- croissants!:

I made these the other day with some dark chocolate wrapped up in them- delicious!!

2. Ok I'm back to the 'special' food now- Whipped Cream:

http://www.veggiestuff.com/acatalog/soyatoo-dairy-free-rice-spray-cream.html#aTT7540

1. Ice Cream- The thing I am most happy about- that there is vegan ice cream!!!

This is the worthenshaws ice cream-style dessert from that girl who won Dragons Den. It's on offer at Asda for £2 so my mum bought eight, yes that's EIGHT tubs for our freezer. I haven't tried it yet.

My personal fave, and I've had omnivores tell me it tastes better than real ice cream, whatever that means!!

I've seen these in Holland and Barrett and always wanted to try them, but I worry about getting home before they melt!

Bambi's Mum

I've been thinking for a while how a lot of kids movies often have a vegetarian theme, encouraging an empathy with animals, and I think this may stem from the fact that many children have a natural love of animals and children's film makers know they will want to see films with animals in. I know the animals are generally anthromorphised but none the less, the ideas of animals as thinking, feeling creatures not unlike ourselves is considered in a lot of films, notably by Disney but also others:

1. ANTI FARMING

The first film that comes to mind is Babe. This film really tugged at my heartstrings as it points out that even the most cosy farmyard setting (which we are taught as young children to find exciting and fun, through farmyard toys and songs) hides the horrors of death, pain, and suffering, never mind the hideousness of factory farming, and the fate poor Babe's mum is sent to :(. This film turned the actor who plays the farmer into a vegan after it opened his eyes to what animal farming is really like, and of course, how loving an intelligent animals can be (not just cats and dogs but pigs too!). Pigs really are just as, if not more intelligent than dogs, and if domesticated they are just as sweet and loving pets, yet people happily chow down on pork and bacon even with the knowledge that a little sweetie like Babe had to be slaughtered to make it :(

Then there's chicken run, another farm setting, another lot of animals trying to escape the chop. You will see on the side bar how many chickens have died since you opened this page, and I think you will be shocked by the figure. Poor chickens are the most persecuted creature on our planet.

I haven't seen it... I might cry if I do, as I know the basic story, but here's another pig destined to be a porkchop and the idea that he might be worth saving. This film caused Dakota Fanning who starred in it to stop eating pork and bacon.

2. ANTI HUNTING

Who could forget that poignant moment in Bambi where his mum is brutally shot by hunters so that they can get some glory and perhaps skin her and chow down on her flesh. Deers are so beautiful and graceful, and to destroy them must take a very hard, cold, heart, but people still happily eat away at venison.

Thank goodness fox hunting is now banned in the UK... like deer, foxes are one of the most beautiful creatures of British wildlife and having them torn apart by a pack of dogs is a vile and disgusting practice that we should be ashamed of. The Fox and the Hound had a clear anti hunting message, as well as being a wonderful film.

3. ANTI FISHING

Moving on from my previous post about the fishing industry, Finding Nemo features several scenes which show how harmful man's interference with our seas can be. Sadly, it's unlikely that the fish are just going to start swimming against the net and save themselves. Only we can save them, with our wallets and our forks.

4. ANTI ANIMAL EXPLOITATION

Then there's the anti-circus theme in Dumbo, where again it's his poor mother who is beaten and terrorised so some humans can point and laugh at her baby. Yet people still happily go along to circuses and take their children to watch these poor, cruelly treated animals living a terrible life.

On why horses are best left able to run wild and free.

Whales and dolphins don't belong in captivity. I've been to sea world in the past but knowing what I know now, I wouldn't go again.

Not sure if anyone can think of any others? I was raised vegetarian so these films only cemented my beliefs but it made me very sad that others can eat animals and aren't bothered by their death and suffering.

I don't eat fish, fish piss in the sea

I don't know if anyone has been watching the 'Fish Fight' programme on TV... I haven't, because it would make me too sad. I think the basic idea is that EU quotas mean fish are caught and then thrown, dead, back into the sea?

All this could be stopped if people just stopped wanting to eat the flesh of poor dead creatures who suffered and died for no reason :(

On a positive note, Holland and Barrat do a good fish finger alternative, I can't remember what the real thing tastes like but I feel like these are pretty close :)

Unlike other meat alternatives, there doesn't seem to be a lot in terms of 'fake fish', I wonder why that is?

What I ate today

Breakfast:

Scottish pride toast with vitalite

Fruit salad

Strawberry Soya-shake

Lunch:

Avocado and Tomato Salad

Cup of tea

Dinner:

Home made vegetable and tofu korma

Vegetable Basmati Rice

Desert:

Raspberry Swedish Glace

Snack

Raspberry ruffle bar

Crisps

We are meant to have eight-to-ten servings of fruit and veg a day (more if you're a man)... I maybe get 5 if I'm lucky, need to work on that! I definitely could be eating a bit healthier.

When googling to get the picture of the ruffle bar I saw these:

*Drool* anyone know where I can find them? It's probably best not to say actually, since I'm trying to eat healthier and all!

I noticed my day was very strawberry and raspberry themed... mmm can't wait for summer and real strawberries!!!!

Can't believe I missed Christmas

Well, I was so busy over Christmas I forgot to blog about all the great food. Redwoods fake meats, roast potatoes, heaps of veggies, gravy, soup, pepperjack and breadcrumb cheezly (sooo delicious, but seems to be a seasonal product as I can't find it now) moo free chocs, vegebears, vegetable pies, loads of fruit, trifle, chocolate cake, custard, soya cream, sosage rolls, spring rolls, samosas, just one big lovely gluttonous feast :P

Now it's January, and my New Year's Resolution is to bake more. I made chocolate cake on the 1st, but haven't made anything since, but I have been eating plenty of cakes, like:

Mama Cucina Vegan Cheesecake:

Mr Kipling Treacle Tart:

Asda's apple and blackcurrant pies

For some ideas of other quick fix vegan deserts, on Hogmany we made a super quick trifle using nice biscuits as the base, strawberry jelly and a tin of fruit, let the jelly set for about an hour and a half, add alpro custard and thick vegan cream and a shaving of dark choc and voila! We also put cointreau in though and I think it was too much because it was all I could taste!

Here are other supermarket bought deserts for easy vegan sweet eating:

Ice Cream

Jam Tarts

I have been told co-op bakery donuts but not sure if that's still the case... if anyone knows, tell me!

Can hopefully post a fuller blog soon!