Soya Milk Success!

Had a minor breakthrough the past couple of days. Through some controlled experimentation, well, through trying different things in my kitchen at least, I think I've solved the issue of my soya milk looking like it's gone off when mixed into hot drinks. If you leave the drink to cool slightly first before adding the soya milk, it seems to be fine.

Eliminate Oil!

My biggest learning this week has been to remind myself of what I said in my very first posting on this blog. Rather than rushing in and trying everything at once, the key to making big changes in life is to take them one step at a time. Although I had some successes with my cookery experiments on the weekend, I also had some total disasters. Being a keen baker, I'm really interested in developing recipes for healthier, animal-free cakes and biscuits. As interested as I am, though, even I couldn't muster enough enthusiasm to eat my first attempts. So, with my 'one step at a time' mantra in mind, I've gone right back to my original recipes and started to make small changes. My first step has been to replace dairy-based butter and fat with a dairy-free option. So far it's been working well, even with recipes that call for a hard vegetable fat.
There's another small change that I've surprisingly found a lot easier than I thought I would. Ann Esselstyn's third rule on her 8 Principles is Eliminate Oil! She urges everyone to empty all oil, even virgin olive oil, out of your cupboards. Instead any liquid works. Vegetable broth (no sodium), water, wine, beer, orange juice, carrot juice, vinegar are all viable alternatives. When I first read this I was dubious, but I have since tried using orange juice, vinegar and white wine vinegar and found that they do actually work. Most vegetables also produce enough liquid that they don't need much else to cook them anyway. Chef Sarno's basting liquid for the seitan brisket on planeat.tv is also a tasty way to cook other dishes, and I roasted some delicious vegetables in my own version by mixing vegetable stock, soy sauce and a drop of marsala wine. Coincidentally, whilst conducting my own experiements with alternatives to oil, I saw an episode of Secret Millionaire where the same thing was being done but for entirely different reasons. The secret millionaire in this particular episode was trying to fry a hamburger, and asked his neighbours if he could borrow some oil. They told him he didn't need oil, and he could fry his burger using water. Theirs was a discovery borne out of necessity, as in such a poor neighbourhood oil was a luxury they could not afford. I found it interesting that in these economically challenging times, the cheapest option quite often also turns out to be the most environmentally friendly.

As promised, I have spent a lot of time cooking and baking this weekend. I have had some successes and, well let's just say there are some recipes it wouldn't be fair to you to share yet. First of all I tried the seitan brisket from planeat.tv. One of the major drawbacks from using the recipes from the website is that the ingredients and meaures are quite often difficult to translate into British equivalents. I tried my best, but my efforts came out looking and tasting a bit too much like bread. I did a bit more research online, and it turns out there are other Brits out there having the same problems trying to cook seitan brisket. Never fear, though, I will persevere.
One definite success for me this weekend is the wild mushroom gravy from planeat.tv which tastes AMAZING! I'm definitely going to persuade my family to let me cook it on Christmas Day.

Go Exploring

I'm planning a big cooking and baking weekend to try out some of the recipes from Planeat.tv, and I also had a peek at some of the fab recipes on the Provamel website (www.provamel.com). I've found that when cooking fresh food the most important thing is to plan ahead, because if I don't know exactly what I'm going to need I always forget an important ingredient (like tomatoes for the bolognese sauce, and yes I actually did that once) and end up with lots of bits left over which are hard to use up for anything else. So I've been through the recipes that caught my eye, selected enough that I can feasibly eat in one weekend, and I've made my shopping list. I'm very lucky in that I live in a city and as well as having two excellent health food shops and a Saturday real food market virtually on my doorstep, I also pass a great farm shop on my drive home from work, and most of out local supermarkets have free-from and wholefood ranges. Understandably, depending on where you live, it can be difficult to get hold of fresh, whole food. However, it's worth searching online for farm shops and real food markets in your area because they quite often go unnoticed. Don't be shy to ask your local supermarkets to stock more options, either. I used to work in food retail, and any good manager will be happy to receive your requests. The Co-operative Food stores in particular are keen to provide healthier alternatives for the benefit of the community, and they also stock a great animal product-free range of toiletries and cleaning products.

Eat Oats!

Having made so many changes to my diet and lifestyle the past week, it's good to know that I was already doing something right. The first rule of Ann Esselstyn's 8 Principles is Eat Oats for breakfast. Oats help lower cholesterol and also reduce artery inflammation. Personally I like to eat oatbran made with water and a splash of milk (soy milk of course), topped with honey (or natural syrup if you're vegan) and sometimes sliced banana. It's also a handy breakfast to prepare when you're in a rush to get ready in the morning. I put the oatbran on a low heat whilst I dash round my apartment finding my work clothes and packing my lunch, and hey presto! breakfast is ready.

Ruben Tabares has written a great article about the training benefits of a whole food diet. Check it out at http://him.uk.msn.com/health-and-fitness/train-like-an-olympian
The phrase that stands out for me is "It's a matter of changing one thing at a time until it becomes the norm. It takes about 100 days of doing something before it becomes 'natural'".

Hummus is my new favourite snack

Without wanting to sound like a stereotypical vegetarian, I'm going to talk about the merits of hummus. Over the years I've tried various types and brands of pre-packed hummus and, whilst it is perfectly edible, I've never been a huge fan. Inspired by Ann Esselstyn's 8 Principles on www.planeat.tv, I decided to give in another shot. Number 8 on Ann's List is Eat Beans and Lentils instead of meat and dairy. You should, however, avoid hummus that contains tahini, and Ann has a great, simple recipe for making your own hummus. Blend together chick peas, lemon and garlic and add cumin, vinegar, red peppers, parsley or cilantro (coriander to us Brits) to taste. On a personal note, I'm alergic to garlic (I know, it's a nightmare) so instead I use chilli which tastes great. My top tips are to boil the chick peas for 5 minutes first for a smoother texture, and grate a bit of the lemon zest into the blender for an extra tangy taste. Whilst we're on the subject of blenders, it's an important piece of kit for any whole food home cook. I got mine for Christmas last year and it's probably been used more than anything else in my kitchen. When I'm trying new recipes, I always find that I have lots of vegetables left over that I'm not going to use up before they go off. Just fry some chopped onion and chilli in a large pan, chop the leftover veg and add to the pan with some vegetable stock (2:3 ratio is about right). Leave it to boil until all the veg is soft, and then once it's cooled down blend it to make a tasty soup. I then freeze the soup into batches so that I can reheat it at a later date when I don't have time to cook.
Anyway, I've finished my hummus and oat cakes that I've been eating whilst typing this, so I'm off to the fridge to get some more.

The first step is always the hardest, and sometimes tastes a bit funny

Aaaarrrrggggh! It's Ok saying that you're going to make a conscious effort to eat a plant-based diet and be more environmentally friendly, but where do you start? My biggest dairy crime is probably skimmed milk, so I decided to start there.
In the past I have made quite a few attempts to switch from cows milk to soya milk. As I was born with eczema, I've always been aware that dairy isn't good for me as it makes my skin break out and blocks my throat up. But, as a vegetarian, I've always been told that I should have more dairy. My most successful attempt was for a few months whilst I was living in Austria, where due to my vegetarianism I was fed so much cheese that I almost couldn't breathe.
Admittedly, though, the taste of soya milk does take a bit of getting used to if you usually drink cows milk. You can buy sweetened soya milk if you prefer, and you can also choose to buy organic. And if anyone can tell my why the soya milk sometimes looks like it's gone off when I put it in coffee, I'll be eternally grateful.

Dyfal Donc i dyr y Garreg

Apologies to anyone who can't read Welsh, and rest assured that 'Dyfal donc i dyr y garreg' isn't offensive. At least, my Welsh tutor told me it isn't. The phrase translates into English as 'It's a steady tapping that breaks the stone', and I thought it an apt mantra to adopt whilst tackling my latest challenge. Having been a vegetarian for the past seventeen(ish) years, I know a few facts about the impact our diet has on the environment. However, I'm always keen to broaden my knowledge, and with that in mind, last week I watched the Planeat film (www.planeat.tv). According to the scientists in Planeat the less animal-based foods and the more plant-based foods you eat the better, both on a health and environmental level. Their mission is to create awareness of the benefits of a plant-based diet, encourage consumers to reduce their meat and dairy consumption and be inspired by plant-based cuisine.
Already being a vegetarian, I fully admit that at the start of the film I was quitely confident that my diet was already pretty environmentally friendly. I was soon brought down a peg or two though, when Gidon Eshel, prof. of Physics and Geosciences at Bard College, explained that vegetarian diets aren't actually that much better than an average omnivore diet, and in fact a poultry-based diet can have less impact on the environment. This is due to us veggies tending to over-compensate by eating more dairy products and eggs. Which brings me neatly to another important message that I learnt from Planeat. In the Western world we are brought up to believe that we should eat lots of animal-based protein.The research of T Colin Campbell shows that too much protein from an animal-based diet is damaging to our health (As you may have guessed already, I'm no scientist, so please watch the film or visit the website for a more coherent explanation of this theory).
So, where am I going with this? I'm not saying that I'm going to turn vegan overnight, but what I am interested in, though, is to see if it's possible to make small changes towards the Planeat philosophy. I will use the free-range carrots blog to chart my ups and down, and also to share any tips and plant-based recipes that I come across. And I'll take it one small step at a time, because as we say in Wales 'Dyfal donc i dyr y garreg'.