Keeping taking those steps forward

After almost a year of blogging about my quest to lead a plant-based, more environmentally aware lifestyle, I've decided to post my final entry on free-range carrots.
I'm still as committed as I have been for the past twelve months, probably even more so, but now feels the right time to bring it to a close. Otherwise, there was a danger of be boring you with a daily run down of what I ate for every meal and what I bought on every shopping trip.
It doesn't mean I have to say goodbye though. My new blog, Sasieology, combines my experiences of living a plant-based lifestyle with my resolution to visit at least one new place and try at least one new activity every year. I hope you'll join me at Sasieology soon.
Bye for now :)

Vegan South Wales

As you know, I love discovering new things, so to discover two new things on the same day is a bonus. Whilst guiding my visiting parents around Cardiff one day, I got the opportunity to try a café I had seen a few weeks before and wanted to check out. The Embassy Café, situated in Cathays Community Centre, is a totally vegetarian café with plenty of vegan options. The staff are very welcoming and knowledgeable, so you can tell them your dietary requirements and they will come up with suitable options for you. It was perfect for me and my parents, I could get decent vegan food and they, as omnivores, could also have a coffee and snack with me.
Whilst waiting for our coffees, I found my second discovery of the day. The Embassy has a book swap and DVD rental table (fab idea!) which is also home to leaflets and flyers about local activities. ‘Vegan South Wales’ caught my eye immediately. This fantastic pocket-sized booklet lists loads of vegan options in South Wales, all categorised by area, so wherever you are you know where you can find something to eat. I carry mine with me whenever I’m out now, and it is so handy. It saves so much time, especially when you’re eating with people who aren’t vegan and you don’t want to appear fussy. Other areas of Wales are covered in separate booklets, and all the information is available on their website www.eatoutveganwales.org

Almond Milk

Over the past six months, I have grown quite accustomed to my unsweetened, organic soya milk. So, when the health food shop runs out of it, I feel a little lost. My usual back-up was rice milk, but now that I’ve found out I’m allergic to that, I’ve had to look at other options. I’d heard loads of people raving about almond milk. It’s quite a bit more expensive than soya milk, but everyone said it’s worth the price because it tastes so nice. Unfortunately, I don’t agree. You know when you get yourself hyped up about something that’s over-sold to you? Well, that’s what happened to me. Everyone’s tastes differ, but personally I find almond milk too sweet, even sweeter than rice milk. Although, on the plus side, it’s thicker than rice milk, so you can use it as you would soya milk.

Sushi’s Surprising Secret – It’s Simple!

Do you want to create a dish that looks amazingly complicated and professional, but is actually very simple to prepare? Sushi could be your answer.

Whenever I tell omnivores that I love sushi, their response is usually ‘I couldn’t eat raw fish’. Well, I can’t eat fish cooked either. Sushi also comes in vegetarian form, and I love the stuff. A friend of mine owns a Scandinavian sushi restaurant in Rhodes, Greece (it’s a bizarre cultural combination I know, but it works) and I always go there to eat when I’m on the island. I’ve also eaten sushi in a Japanese restaurant in the Venice hotel in Las Vegas. I think the best veggie sushi I have ever tasted was at Boston market. No matter what diet you follow, you could spend days in Boston Market trying all the food and you would probably come out weighing about a stone more.

I’ve been keen to try making sushi at home for a while, and I wish I’d tried it sooner because it is sooooo simple.

Here’s what you need:

• Nori seaweed sheets
• Sushi rice
• Something to put in the sushi. Anything that you can cut into thin strips will do. Personally I like cucumber, peppers and chillies.
• A sushi rolling mat – I’m not sure how essential this is, but I’d recommend investing in one. They only cost a couple of pounds, and if it turns out you don’t like sushi you can always use it as a decorative place mat.
• Pickled ginger, soy sauce, wasabi paste etc to accompany.

You should be able to find all these ingredients in a good health food store, or in the specialist section of large supermarkets.

Here’s what you do:

1. Prepare the sushi rice as directed on the packet.
2. Lay a nori sheet on your rolling mat so that the longest side is along the top.
3. Spread a thin layer of sushi rice on to the bottom two thirds of the nori sheet.
4. Lay the cucumber/pepper, or whatever you are using to fill your sushi, along the top of the rice, about halfway down the nori sheet.
5. Wet the top edge of the nori sheet with water.
6. Using the rolling mat, roll the whole thing into a long tube. Make sure the final edge sticks where you have wet it.
7. Cut the sushi into 2cm thick pieces.

Sushi will keep in the fridge for a couple of days.

Here are some top tips that the sales advisor in my local health food shop gave me about preparing sushi:

• You can use sticky brown rice if you can’t get hold of sushi rice.
• The instructions on the sushi rice will tell you to soak it in water for 40 minutes before cooking it. If you’re short of time, this soaking time can be reduced and the rice will still taste OK.
• Don’t be too generous with the sushi rice. Only spread a thin layer on to the nori sheet. If you use too much rice, it will all spill out the ends and your sushi won’t roll together properly.
• Use a really sharp knife to cut the sushi rolls.
• Be careful if you decide to prepare wasabi paste from powder. You only need to use a little bit. One teaspoon wasabi paste to two teaspoons water is enough for a 6 piece portion of sushi.

I was so proud of my sushi that I took these photos to show you.

Milgi

Eating out seems to be a big issue for me at the moment – it must be the weather! So, I have to mention a fantastic meal I had at Milgi (www.milgilounge.com) on City Road last week. Even if you’re not vegetarian or vegan, Milgi is just a cool, eclectic place to hang out and have a drink. It’s so popular as well. Me and a friend went in there late one night, and the only place we could find to sit was in the bath tub in the beer garden (as I said, it’s eclectic).

The kitchen at Milgi is now totally vegetarian, voted for by the customers, and the food is really tasty and very reasonably priced considering the huge portions they give you. Even Milgi couldn’t provide a menu to fit my weird dietary needs, though. However, have no fear, the staff are extremely helpful and offered to make me a vegan breakfast with polenta cake (gluten-free) instead of sour dough toast. Unlike some of the restaurants in the area, they don’t charge you for the switch either. They just want to make sure that everyone can get a meal. Along with the great atmosphere and good food, Milgi also has an impressive drinks list and vegan and gluten-free options amongst the desserts.

New Discovery – Kallo Soya Milk

I remember a time, only a few years ago, when there was only two choices of non-dairy milk in supermarkets, sweetened and unsweetened soya milk. Nowadays, ‘free-from’ aisles are big money, and are literally getting bigger. It’s great that we have so much choice now, but one downside is that it takes longer to do your shopping. Instead of just finding the one product you can use, you now have to actually choose from the array on offer. I don’t know how omnivores do it on a daily basis J

I usually buy my soya milk (unsweetened) from the health food shop, but due to supplier issues with Provamel I found myself in front of the non-dairy section at my local Tesco. I was lost. I had no idea which one to choose from the many brands with varying degrees of sweetness and added vitamins that were in front of me. Did I want soya, rice, oat or almond? Then something new caught my eye – Kallo soya milk. As a regular user of Kallo stock cubes, rice cakes and corn cakes, I know they are a reliable and quality brand. So I decided to give their new soya milk a try.

Kallo are the UK arm of Wessanen, a company with a 250 year history of producing natural and organic food throughout Europe. They also produce breadsticks and gluten-free cereals. Other brands under the Wessanen umbrella include Whole Earth, So Good and Rice Dream.

After buying the soya milk, I popped in to the health food shop to pick up some other bits. The sales advisor told me that she’d tried Kallo soya milk and didn’t like it, so when I first opened the carton my expectations weren’t very high. I have to say, though, it’s really nice. It’s a slightly different taste to Provamel, but the consistency is about the same so it’s perfect for adding to hot drinks or making porridge/oatbran etc.

Although I still stick to my Provamel unsweetened soya milk, I’d definitely sub it with the Kallo alternative again.

Caffeine Cold Turkey Update

If anyone is wondering if I'm still functioning with no caffeine, the answer is yes. One week on, I feel absolutely fine. It's like I never drank coffee. After the first three days of extreme tiredness and a constant headache, I was back to normal. I'm determined to keep it up even more now.

Growing meat? Really?

I've just read a really interesting article by the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18813075 about the upcoming food shortages and how we are possibly going to cope with them. The issue of food running out is already becoming a public issue here in the UK, supermarkets and markets have been fighting over the price of milk and celebrity chefs are doing the best to get people to use the bits of meat that are usually thrown away. The BBC have come up with a few solutions to the problem, including growing meat in a test tube and farming insects, all of which scientists are currently wasting thousands of pounds to test. The answer has been there all along, if everybody adopted a more plant-based, organic diet, we wouldn't have to worry about running out of food for a long time yet.
Oh, and if anyone from the BBC reads this the answer is no, a vegetarian could not eat meat from a test tube. It's still meat, there are many reasons for being vegetarian, and even if it was just about hurting the animal you still have to get the initial sample from a cow in the first place.

30 Tastes of...

Someone once told me that if you taste a food 30 times, you will grow to accept it. Whilst there are some foods that I don't think I'll ever grow to like, nor do I want to (Marmite springs to mind - I'm definitely in the Hate camp), I am finding this fact to be true. As part of my allergy-free diet, I have to take 2 teaspoons of flaxseed oil a day. You can add it to certain foods, although I prefer to just down the spoonful. The important thing is that you consume it cold, as it helps to maintain the properties of the oil. Flaxseed oil, or linseed oil as it is also known, is a great natural source of omega 3, which is why I take it. The label on the bottle describes it as having a 'slight nutty taste', but as someone who generally likes nuts, I would not describe it as such. For the first few days, I had to force myself to swallow it, but the 30 tastes rule must work because, after two weeks, I find it much more bearable now. I wouldn't say I like it, but it's edible.

Caffeine Cold Turkey Day 3

Oh my God - I have no idea how people cope with coming off hard, class A drugs. All credit to them. After 3 days without any coffee, I still feel pretty terrible. OK, I will admit that I caved slightly. No, don't worry, I didn't run into Starbucks and order a double espresso, but I did take my migraine medication. I know it's not technically cheating, but I still feel guilty. Suffering two days with a constant headache and my brain feeling like it was full of cotton wool cracked me, I had to do something or I wouldn't have been able to function at all at work. I know I've been extra snappy with my colleagues this week, although the hot weather has fortunately also brought out the grumpy side of a few other people so I don't think anyone's noticed me too much.
Every morning this week I have dropped more things and walked into more objects than I did the day before. I boiled a pan of milk for five minutes yesterday before I realised that I hadn't put any buckwheat flakes in it. I'm really hoping that this feeling isn't going to last much longer. Outside of work, all I've done is sleep. I have felt SOOOOO tired. I haven't even been to the gym (apart from my pathetic attempt on Tuesday) or done any sport, which is really unlike me.
My original plan was to go caffeine-free for four weeks and then go back to just having a coffee once in a while. After seeing what it does to my body, though, I don't think I ever want to have caffeine again!

Caffeine Cold Turkey

Picking one of the hottest days of the summer to try going caffeine-free for the first time probably wasn't the best idea. It's hard to tell how much it is the sun making me light-headed and tired, and how much it's the lack of coffee. I thought the worst part would be first thing this morning when I got up. I imagined myself half-asleep, attempting to run through my morning routine and accidently putting the buckwheat flakes back in the fridge and soya milk in the coffee machine instead of water. However, I felt fine until about 10am. That's when the tiredness and the headache hit me. Considering caffeine is so addictive, I haven't actually craved it all day, although I almost went and bought a coffee to keep me awake at my desk. I persisted, though, and I've made it through the day sans-caffeine! My usual 45 minute gym workout was a bit half-arsed, and I had to have a nap when I got home, but I'm hoping my energy will come back as the days go on.

One week down, four to go...

Week one of my allergy-free diet and lifestyle is behind me, and I feel good. I'm not saying that I suddenly leap out of bed at 5am (unfortunately that's what time I have to get up for work) every morning and bounce around all day with a huge grin on my face instead of eczema, but I do feel better. One big difference I have noticed is that I'm much more focused and able to concentrate better. I don't feel as stressed, either. And I'm not really missing any of the things that I've cut out of my diet. I thought I'd be craving bread and chocolate, but it's not really bothering me. I think that's because I'm eating the right stuff so my body doesn't feel the need to crave the bad things, but whatever the reason it seems to be working.
This week my aim is to cut back on caffeine even further than I have done already. From tomorrow I'm replacing my morning filter coffee with decaf, so it'll be interesting to see how I cope without the caffeine fix and if I cave and go and buy a real coffee from the coffee shop in my office.

Whoever knew buckwheat was so versatile?

Considering that I'd barely heard of buckwheat a couple of weeks ago, I'm surprised at how many products there are available made from it. I've just had my first taste of buckwheat pasta and it tastes like..., well, it tastes like pasta. The only discernible difference is the appearance. If you can get past the fact that the colour of buckwheat pasta makes it look more like something that would ooze out of an alien in a sci-fi movie, you should be fine. I don't think I'm going to really miss wheat pasta on my gluten-free diet.

Funky Feet

In keeping with my love of all things made in the UK (if you live in the UK that is) I have to tell you about one of my favourite British businesses. Funky Feet Fashions are based in Shrewsbury and make the most adorable baby shoes, clothes and accessories. All their products can be ordered online at www.funkyfeetfashions.co.uk, from soft shoes and clothing gift sets to personalised cushions and bunting. It's so exciting when my friends have babies because it means that I get to shop at Funky feet again. All the products are really good quality as well. I bought my nephew a soft toy from Funky Feet when he was a baby, and it's survived over three years of being chewed, stained and dropped into puddles. And the best thing is, everything is hand-made here in the UK.

Xantham Gum

One of the discoveries I have made during my cooking and baking experiments is that xanthan gum is a great alternative to eggs. For those of you that can’t eat wheat or gluten, it also comes in handy for making gluten-free bread as it binds the mixture together better. Xanthan gum is used as a food thickening agent and as a stabiliser in things such as cosmetic products. It can be derived from sources such as corn, wheat, dairy, or soy, so you do need to check the label carefully before you buy it. Doves Farm www.dovesfarm.co.uk sell a great vegan, gluten-free xanthan gum that even comes with a recipe for gluten-free bread on the side of the tube.

Xanthan gum comes in the form of a dry powder, and as a general rule I use ¼ tsp for every egg that the recipe calls for. You do have to be quick when working with xanthan gum, as it starts to set as soon as you add it to anything liquid. For this reason, I would recommend adding it at the end of the recipe wherever possible. If you’re using xanthan gum in place of eggs, I also find that adding a splash of soya milk provides the moisture that you lose when using the dry powder.

More Sweet Treats

For those of you with a sweet tooth, here are some more recipes. Apologies if you are on a health kick, and I promise I will be blogging some more veggie-based, healthier recipes again soon. I'll also be trying gluten-free alternatives to these ones. Enjoy J

Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

100g/3½oz plain flour

½ tsp baking powder

large pinch of salt

125g/4oz soya spread

175g/6oz soft brown sugar

1tsp xanthan gum

1tsp vanilla essence

175g/6oz organic porridge oats

50g/2oz chocolate chips (These are optional. Obviously, regular chocolate chips contain dairy, but you can buy vegan alternatives. The cookies still taste great even if you miss them out altogether)

1. Preheat the oven to Gas 4/180ºc/Fan 160ºc.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.
3. Beat together the soya spread, sugar and vanilla essence until smooth. Stir in the flour mixture and then beat for another 2 minutes. Add the oats and chocolate chips (if using them) and stir to mix through. Finally, add the xanthan gum and quickly mix in.
4. Line 2 baking sheets with non-stick baking paper. Drop a heaped tbsp of the dough onto a baking sheet and press down to flatten, then repeat it 11 times – you should be able to fit 12 cookies onto each sheet.
5. Bake for 8 minutes until golden but still slightly soft in the middle. Allow to sit on the baking sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer onto a wire rack to cool.

It took me a long time and many attempts to find a cookie recipe as good as this one. Previous recipes that I tried all tasted really dry, but what makes the difference with this one is the porridge oats. They keep the cookies nice and moist.

　

Flapjack

If anyone ever tells you they can’t bake, pass this recipe on to them. It only uses 3 ingredients, is really easy and makes the best home-made flapjack I have ever found.

To avoid any language barriers, what we call a flapjack in the UK is known as a muesli bar in Australasia and totally different to what is classed as a flapjack in the States. For anyone reading this in the USA, the best was I can describe it is as an oat bar. Please see the photo above.

Ingredients

4½oz/6tbsp golden syrup or corn syrup (Please note: I’m not sure why, but golden syrup from a tin works better than the squeezy bottles)

200g soya spread

12oz/330g organic porridge oats

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºf/180ºc/Gas 4.
2. Grease a 9"x13"/23cm x 33cm tin and line the base with baking paper.
3. Place the syrup and soya spread into a large saucepan and heat gently until the spread has melted into the syrup. Stir well.
4. Put the porridge oats into a large mixing bowl, add a pinch of salt (optional – I usually forget!) then pour the soya spread and syrup mixture over the oats and stir until they are all coated well.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, flatten down well with the back of a metal spoon, and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven while the flapjack is still slightly soft.
6. Place the tin on a wire cooling rack and cut the flapjack into squares. Leave in the tin until completely cool.

Day 2 of the Buckwheat Challenge

When the nutritional therapist gave me my new food plan, what upset me the most was that I have to give up my beloved oatbran for breakfast. I think I even found that harder than having to cut down on chocolate, alcohol and caffeine. I've grown accustomed to making my oatbran over the past six months, it's become a part of my morning routine.
Gluten-free alternatives to oatbran are rice and millet porridge and buckwheat flakes. I've never heard of rice and millet porridge before, plus I couldn't find it in the health food shops, so I decided to give the buckwheat a go. I was a little concerned. After all, would this new foodstuff be able to replace my love of oatbran? The shop assistant assured me that the buckwheat can be prepared exactly the same as oatbran, or porridge, and apart from a slightly different texture is essentially the same.
The texture certainly is different, although still very tasty. I've also noticed that buckwheat doesn't take as long to heat up if you're making it like porridge. That messed up my morning routine a bit on the first morning, and luckily I thought to check it before it burnt through the pan and set my whole building alight.
So, panic over, I have indeed found a more than suitable substitute for oatbran that is gluten-free. One word of warning, though. Some people have been known to have severe allergic reactions to buckwheat itself, so please check you're not allergic before trying it yourself.

Filtered Water: Refreshingly Different

Just tried my new water filter for the first time. There were an array of filters to choose from in the shop, but in all honesty I went for the cheapest one. After all, as long as it filters water then it should be OK. I made sure I got one with a universal filter, though. The last thing I need is to run out of filters and find that the shop has stopped stocking the one that I need.
The blurb on the box promises to reduce chlorine and organics from tap water by up to 90%, reduce limescale (my kettle will thank me for that) and reduce metal contamination, sediment and pesticides.
I must admit, that water does taste different. I'm just finding it hard to get out of the habit of going straight to the tap rather than the water filter, especially when I'm filling up the kettle. Maybe I need to put a big STOP sign above my tap or something.

Anti-Allergy Regime

I've decided to go all-out with my anti-allergy diet. The nutritional therapist recommended that I avoid everything I'm allergic to for 5 weeks and also follow a course of vitamins and supplements that she has suggested, so that's what I'm going to do. As of today, I'm taking all my B vitamins as well as two teaspoonfuls of flaxseed oil everyday. I've also bought some spirulina powder, which I have to say is one of the wierdest things I've ever consumed. It's a blue-green algae, which I always thought was just something that grows on canals and kills all the wildlife. It comes in powder form and you dissolve it in water. It's a bit messy to prepare if you don't concentrate, it looks a bit like a deep green smoothie, but it doesn't taste that bad. I think I can handle one glass a day at any rate.
I've bought some plant-based shampoo and laundry detergent to help with my contact allergies, and I took my list of things that I can't eat shopping with me today. Surprisingly, there was actually still a lot at the market that I can eat.
My consultation with the therapist also gave me lots of tips that are useful for everyone. Like drinking 2 litres of filtered water daily (I must remember to go and buy a water filter tomorrow), and not drinking and eating at the same time. It's important to allow 30 minutes between eating and drinking, otherwise the water dilutes your stomach acid whilst it's trying to do it's job, which causes heartburn. The hardest part for me is going to be remembering to drink water at work, and specifically remembering to drink it 30 minutes before my lunch break. My lunch box and water bottle usually get buried underneath all the paper on my desk, so I'll have to set myself some kind of reminder to dig them out at the right time.

Allergy Testing

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I've known since childhood that I have food allergies. Unfortunately, not many other people have believed me, including my parents and doctors. One doctor who did listen to me, however, was my doctor when I was living in Rhodes. He advised me to request an allergy test on my return to the UK. Once my laughter had died down, I explained to him that in the UK it's not so easy as walking into a surgery and asking for what you need. This practice seemed crazy to him, and rightly so. Surely it makes more sense, and is much more cost effective, for the NHS to diagnose peoples’ allergies that to repeatedly treat their reactions. Apparently not. According to my wonderful GP, there's no point in me knowing what I'm allergic to. He says that I'll work out my allergies on my own eventually, and even if I know what I'm allergic to I probably won't be able to avoid most of it anyway.

The problem, I believe, is that people who don't suffer from allergies don't understand the affect they have on your body. My main problem is eczema, which is classed as a 'skin allergy'. Most of my reactions are contact reactions, ie things that my skin literally comes into contact with, but eczema is also promoted by food allergies. The assumption by the medical world seems to be that eczema just causes itchy skin, but believe me it has a much greater effect. Everyone is different, but when I have an allergic reaction it makes my whole body feel ill. Sometimes my whole body or parts of it swell up, including my tongue and throat, which can mean I have problems breathing. Sometimes I feel so tired all I'm able to do is curl up on my bed.

As my GP suggested, I have been able to figure out a lot of my triggers through educating myself and omitting certain foods from my diet. Although this method can deliver results, it’s really just trial and error. The phrase ‘needle in a haystack’ comes to mind. Most recently, following a plant- based diet has had a huge positive impact on my health generally. There are some triggers, though, that I don't think I would ever find on my own. I figure that if I haven't worked it out yet (I'm 32 years old) then I'm probably not going to. So, when I saw that my local health food shop was offering private allergy tests, I signed myself up.

Using the Asyra Pro test, a simple and non-invasive machine that looks at your health status, the nutritional therapist was able to answer a lot of my questions that I have been asking for years. All that was required of me was to hold two electrodes and answer a few questions about my health and lifestyle. She seemed pleased that I was already following a plant-based diet. This makes a refreshing change, as most people look at you like you’ve just landed in your spacecraft when you mention that you live a plant-based lifestyle.

Although I’ve always suspected that I have complex food allergies, the results surprised even me. Apparently, if someone has food allergies, the computer usually displays about twenty foods that they are intolerant to. My list contained over forty.

There were some triggers which I would never eat anyway, such as clams, duck and haddock. However, knowing that I am allergic to them could explain some of my severe reactions in the past. Although I wouldn’t eat a clam, if I’ve come into contact with something that has been made near clams, that could explain why in the past I have suddenly blown up like a balloon with no known cause.

Among my other allergies, which I would usually eat but now need to avoid, are cabbage, caffeine (I knew that one already really, I’ve just been hoping I can pretend it’s not true), cane sugar, coconut (not worried about this one, I hate coconut), cucumber, ginger, mango, rice milk (gutted!), mushrooms, nutmeg, onion, pea and raisin. The list goes on, and if I avoided it all completely then there wouldn’t be much left for me to eat. The two main culprits, however, are dairy products and gluten. Dairy products are no surprise, as they are a common trigger for eczema. I remember when I first read that dairy products are not good for eczema sufferers. I was horrified that my doctor had not even suggested I cut down on dairy. I spent most of my childhood in horrific pain as a result of my condition, and my life was greatly affected by it, yet here was a simple solution that all the adults in my life were too stubborn to try. As I’ve been trying to follow a plant-based diet anyway, having a medical reason to give up dairy can only encourage me to be healthier.

The real surprise in my allergy test is that I can’t eat gluten. I’ve long suspected that bread is not good for my skin, but I assumed it was the wheat I was reacting to and not the gluten. This piece of information, I believe, is the key to me solving my food problems. It means I have to give up my beloved oats and replace them with buckwheat and quinoa. I can no longer eat couscous or drink beer, but if I don’t eat gluten then the hope is that my body can begin to repair itself and I can re-introduce some of the other foods into my diet.

When I first signed up for the allergy test, I was apprehensive and worried that I would just be faced with another ‘grown up’ telling me I was lying or trying to get attention and that really there’s nothing wrong with me. What I found, however, was a caring professional who genuinely wants to help me turn my life around. I’ll keep you posted on how the diet changes go.

The more scientific answer to why soya milk 'flocks'

Whilst doing some research for another post, I got a bit distracted online and came across the answer to a question that I asked last year. When I first switched from dairy to soya milk I found that the milk always looked like it was curdling in my coffee. Through experimentation I discovered that this doesn't happen if you allow the coffee to cool a little before you add the milk. According to the So Good Soya Milk website, this is because coffee is acidic. The two main factors that will cause the milk to separate are the temperature of the water and the strength of the coffee. They do also warn that some percolated and filter coffees are so strong that they will always cause the soya milk to separate. My top tip is to try The Co-operative own brand organic fairtrade filter coffee. It's the only one I've found (so far) that you can add soya milk to straight away, you don't even have to let the coffee cool down. It makes my life a lot easy when I'm in a rush to get my flask ready for work. My morning routine is now: Get up at 5am(ish), put the oatbran on a low heat, fill up the coffee machine, go get ready for work, and when I'm done breakfast is all done and I can fill my flask up straight away.

Calorie Density

Are you following a plant-based diet and finding that you're putting on weight instead of losing it? This article about calorie density on the Forks Over Knives website might help to explain why. http://www.forksoverknives.com/the-calorie-density-approach-to-nutrition-and-lifelong-weight-management/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Newsletter062612

Fairly Traded Charcoal

As a keen camper who loves being outdoors, I am one of thousands of people who enjoy barbequeing. Barbeques are not just for meat eaters. Plant-based options include vegetable kebabs, grilled vegetables and home-made vegan burgers.
Today, I read a piece in The Co-operative Food magazine about their Fairly Traded Charcoal. Although I used to work for The Co-operative, I didn't realise that they were the first retailer to launch fairly traded charcoal back in 2009. The charcoal they stock is from Namibia, and The Co-operative ensure that the producers have contracts, are provided with free kilns and that they typically receive three times the minimum wage. So, if you want to barbeque with a conscience this summer (when we get nice weather again here in the UK!), you know where to shop.

Planet Friendly Treats

Back in November last year, I told you about how I had been experimenting with converting recipes into plant-based, planet friendly alternatives. Over the past few months I have started to share some of these recipes with you, but the area where I am finding this hardest is baking. I’ve been doing lots of research into healthier alternatives to oil-based products, eggs and sugar, but I’m not quite there yet with the final product. I’m glad that none of you could see some of my baking disasters so far. I have made some progress, though, and I wanted to share that with you. Below you will find my recipes for shortbread and chocolate brownies. Admittedly, they do both contain oil (in the soya spread) and sugar. However, the recipes are both vegan and if you want to treat yourself occasionally or you’re looking for a slightly healthier, but still sweet, snack for the kids, these are both great. Remember, though, if you are going to buy sugar then make sure it’s Fairtrade. We’re very lucky to have a sugar producer here in the UK called Silver Spoon who are very proud of their home-grown, Assured Food Standards sugar.

I tested the chocolate brownies on my colleagues at work, giving them both the original recipe (with eggs) and the vegan version, to see if they could taste the difference. The two are noticeably different, as xanthan gum is not as light as using fresh eggs, but I’m happy to say that my human guinea pigs said they both tasted great! Plus, both recipes are super easy to make.

Shortbread

Ingredients

125g/4oz soya spread

55g/2oz caster sugar

180g/6oz plain flour

1. Heat oven to 190º/375º/Gas 5.
2. Beat soya spread and sugar together until smooth.
3. Stir in flour to get a smooth paste. Turn onto a work surface and gently roll out until the paste is 1cm/½ in thick. Cut into rounds/fingers and place onto a baking tray.
(I can never be bothered with this bit. Instead, I roll some of the mixture into a ball in my hand and flatten into on the baking tray).

4. Sprinkle with icing sugar (still tastes OK without the icing sugar if, like me, you forget to buy it) and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
5. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until pale golden-brown.

　

Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

125g soya spread

175g caster sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

125g plain flour

55g cocoa powder (make sure it’s Fairtrade/local)

¼tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 170ºc/150ºc fan/325ºf/Gas 3. Use a little soya spread to grease a 15cm x 20cm deep baking tin and line the base with baking paper.
2. Melt the remaining butter and set aside to cool.
3. Put the sugar into a large bowl, and whisk in the melted butter.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Mix this together and then fold into the sugar/butter mixture. Add the xanthan gum and quickly mix in before transferring the brownie mixture to the prepared tin. The xanthan gum will start to set straight away, so you do have to be a bit speedy with this.
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer when inserted at the centre comes out with just a few crumbs on. Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes until before slicing.

Together For Trees

Tesco have a really good campaign running at the moment that helps to educate people about the importance of the rainforests and their influence on all our lives. As with my ‘one small step’ philosophy, Tesco want to encourage people to make small changes in their lives that together will have a huge impact on halting the destruction of the rainforests. If you’re looking for some inspiration to motivate yourself to start taking those small steps, I think it’s best to let the facts speak for themselves. Full information can be found at www.tesco.com/trees.

• Rainforests regulate the climate, store carbon, clean water and provide a home to animals and birds. They are often referred to as the ‘green lungs’ of the planet because much of the oxygen in our air comes from rainforests. The trees and soil also store a huge amount of man-made carbon dioxide emissions. When the trees are cut down those gases are released back into the atmosphere, heating it up and contributing to global warming. The destruction of the rainforests creates more carbon dioxide each year than the emissions from all our planes, ships and cars put together.

• An area the size of a football pitch is destroyed every four seconds. That’s almost eight million football pitches a year. 50 years ago, it is estimated that the rainforests covered 14% of the Earth. Now they cover just 6%.

• The rainforests support more than one billion of the poorest people on the planet.

• An estimated 140 animal and plant species are lost every day through the destruction of the rainforest.

• More than 70% of all land-based species exist only in the rainforest.

• There are a huge number of items that we use everyday that originate from the rainforests, including grapefruit, coffee, tomatoes, chocolate, plant ingredients for modern medicine, oils to make cosmetics and detergents, coconuts, avocados, figs, lemons, limes, bananas, squash, pepper, tumeric, cayenne, vanilla, cloves, cinnamon and ginger. There are still many more to be discovered.

Oatmeal Biscuits

Today I’m going to share with you a recipe for one of my favourite snacks, oatmeal biscuits. They taste great on their own, or you can add a bit of humus (see picture below), and they go great with soup. OK, I know the recipe doesn’t follow the rules of the plant-based diet because it uses oil (in the soya spread), but they are vegan and they taste great.

Ingredients

75g/3oz/⅔ cup plain flour

2.5ml/½ tsp salt

1.5ml/¼ tsp baking powder

115g/4oz/1 cup fine pinhead oatmeal (oatbran also works)

65g/2½oz/generous ¼ cup soya spread

1. Preheat oven to 200ºc/400ºf/Gas 6 and grease a baking sheet.
2. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Add the oatmeal and mix well. Rub in the soya spread to make a crumbly mixture, then blend in enough water to make a stiff dough.
3. You’ve got two choices at this point. The original recipe states ‘turn out onto a worktop sprinkled with fine oatmeal and knead until smooth and manageable. Roll out to about 3mm/⅛in thick and cut into rounds, squares or triangles. Place on the baking sheet’ If you’re like me, though, and you prefer to do things a bit more rustic and can’t be bothered to clean up your worktop afterwards, you can instead roll some of the mixture into a ball in your hands and flatten it straight onto the baking sheet.
4. Bake for about 15 mins or until crisp.

The symbolism of me

Whilst in a pilates class recently, I suddenly realised that my purple yoga mat and orange water bottle are very symbolic of me. Not only are purple and orange my favourite colours, but both items represent my commitment to living a healthy, environmentally aware lifestyle in a very simplistic way. I was so inspired by the composition that I set it up again when I got home and took a photo to show you. I’m so glad that I did capture it on my camera as well, because my water bottle broke a couple of days later, leaked all over my lunch bag and I had to get rid of it.

Don't Be Dictated To

My recent post about The Occupy Movement has got me thinking more and more about how we should stand up for what we believe in. One of my pet hates is when people tell me that I shouldn’t be so stubborn, and I should just back down to other people because it makes life easier. Why should I? If everyone did that, laws would never change, technology would never develop, our human rights would be ignored and we'd probably all still be living in caves. A few years ago, I was lucky to work with a young Hungarian woman who had grown up during communist rule. She taught me that when you are fortunate to have freedom, you should use it as much as possible.

For anyone who has been living under a rock the past few weeks and doesn’t know, we had local elections here in the UK on Thursday 3^rd May. For the month running up to the elections, my letter box was bombarded by junk mail from the two main political parties in my neighbourhood. I found the literature from the Welsh Liberal Democrats to be particularly arrogant. First of all, they announced to everyone that they had been ‘running’ Cardiff since 2004. We live in a country that is governed by the National Assembly which, unlike England, is designed so that our politics aren’t about a particular party ruling over us. The Lib Dems then had the cheek to tell us that our only voting options in Roath are the Welsh Lib Dems or the Welsh Labour Party. Wow, I thought, that’s really strange because when I go and vote there are at least another four options on my ballot paper. Surely the fact that we are lucky enough to have the vote in the UK means that we have the choice to vote for whoever we want, otherwise we might as well live under a dictatorship. If every person in my neighbourhood didn’t listen to the propaganda about there ‘only being two political parties in Roath’, that accepted norm would probably soon disappear. So my message is to stand by what you believe in. And remember, it only takes one person to knock the balance the other way.

What's Your Occupy Movement?

As I have said in earlier blogs, what started as me recording my efforts to follow a plant-based diet has evolved into a platform for me to talk about all subjects that affect our future as a species. I think it would be naïve of me to not include the recent coverage of the Occupy Movement in that. In recent months, the Occupy Movement has taken up a lot of column inches, but the most poignant for me is a photo essay by Tom Campbell in The Big Issue. Rather than focus on the political aspects of the movement or it’s ramifications on recent history, Campbell chose instead to base his essay around a series of portraits of some of the individuals involved.

The portraits are a stunning collection of art. I have scanned a couple onto this blog, but my meagre attempts at reproduction do not do the artist justice.

It has been said that a picture speaks a thousand words, and Campbell’s photos are definitely proof of that. Even if you don’t read the accompanying text, by looking at the photos you begin to see the story of the subjects, and the passion with which they live their lives. These people have built a community, and it is a community that will stay strong and continue no matter how many times they are evicted and moved on.

When it comes to my personal opinion of things such as the Occupy Movement, some people would describe me as being ‘sat on the fence’, but I see it more as being open-minded. In any debate, I always try to see things from the viewpoint of every side and understand where they are coming from and why. With campaigns and demonstrations such as the Occupy Movement, regardless of what the outcome is and how much they achieve towards making the world a ‘better’ place, I think the important thing is that someone is doing something. It makes me question why more people don’t stand by what they believe in, and why they don’t share their views. When I first turned vegetarian, for me it was a private thing and I disliked other vegetarians who were trying to convert the world. My opinion was that it was everyone’s choice what they ate. Now that I eat a plant-based diet, and I understand the importance of everyone following a more planet friendly lifestyle to preserve our species, I shout about it much more, hence this blog. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not trying to convert the world, I just want everyone to be more educated about the issues that are important to us. We don’t all have to drastically change our lives, but if reading this blog helps one person to make one small step in the right direction then it is worth it.

What the Occupy Movement is showing us is that we don’t have to just sit back and accept the norm. Just because we live in a world that is controlled by big business and leaders, it does not mean that it always has to be like that. In the same way, just because we have been told in the West that eating meat is good for us, it doesn’t mean that we can’t change. After all, before Christopher Columbus came along, everyone knew that the Earth was flat. The greatest gift we have as humans is education. We all need to listen to each other, learn from each other and absorb as much as possible. As the Occupy Movement has shown, if we’re stronger together then we don’t need leaders. Maybe if we were all more open with our own beliefs, we would find it easier to be accepting of other people’s.

Israeli potatoes - really?

As you may have noticed, due to the change of season here in the UK I have been a bit (OK, a lot) obsessed with local, seasonal produce recently. One of the great things about following a plant-based diet and writing this blog is that it instigates discussions and ideas sharing with other people. Only the other day I was talking to one of my friends about buying British. Like me, my friend tries to buy local whenever possible, although she does admit that pineapple is a weakness for her. With all the will in the world, I don't think we'll ever be able to grow descent pineapples here. My friend had noticed, however, that our local Co-operative is selling potatoes from Israel. Really?????? Although we may not have the most exotic choice of fruit and vegetables in the UK, the one thing we can grow really well and in abundance is potatoes. So why do we need to import them from Israel?

Strawberries

Oh my gosh - I am soooo excited. There are loads of fruits and vegetables coming into season in the UK at the moment. I popped into the supermarket earlier to pick up some salad for my lunch tomorrow and also found British strawberries. And they taste delicious. For anyone outside the UK who is reading this, if you ever visit our beautiful shores then I recommend you try strawberries whilst you're here.
Although I love all fruit (apart from grapefruit, I could never get my head round that), strawberries hold a special place in my heart. When I was a kid growing up in Blackpool, my parents used to grow strawberries around an old corrugated iron swimming pool that stood in the middle of our garden. And boy did they grow. We used to have buckets and buckets of strawberries every week in the summer, they grow so well here. One of my fondest memories of my chilhood is standing on a stool in the kitchen, helping my mum to wash and hull them all.

Woo hoo! New food!

I'm so happy this week. Salad crops are starting to come into season in the UK. I've been eating salad all week - fresh tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, and I bought some amazing lettuce and spinach at Roath Real Food Market yesterday. It's so nice to have a change in diet. Don't get me wrong, I love winter vegetables, but it does get a bit tiresome by April.

I read in yesterday's Metro that the British Prime Minister David Cameron has agreed to more wind turbines being built. For me personally, this can only be good news. There are still lots of NIMBY's against this, icluding 100 MPs. Although I can sympathise with the noise levels which must be loud if you live in an otherwise quiet part of the countryside, I really don't think there is any valid argument against wind turbines. There is one near my house in Cardiff, and I think it is fantastic that we have this beautiful piece of modern engineering to provide us with clean energy. A few weeks ago, I was on a plane that flew over the wind turbines in the English Channel. It was such an incredible, awe-inspiring sight. People say that the turbines are ugly, but I disagree. If you look at the history of traditional windmills, they too were considered big, ugly, dirty machines in their time, yet we now preserve them as a piece of our heritage. I can't help but wonder if in 100 years time out descendants will be desperately trying to preserve the wind turbines that David Cameron's generation built, whilst thinking us crazy for not appreciating their beauty and benefit.

Is it natural for us to eat meat?

A thought has just occured to me. A lot of meat eaters argue that it is natural for humans to eat meat. That we would have the instinct to go out and hunt our food (or select it from Tesco) regardless of what other food is availabe. I don't know about you, but if I was living in the prehistoric world where I had to fend for myself, I would find it a lot easier to dig up a plant than to hunt and kill an animal. Maybe our predecessors only went to the trouble of chasing down other mammals because their plant supplies had dwindled.

Making a Meal Out of Sides

   Today I found myself eating in a chain restaurant with friends where the food is generally reheated rather than served fresh. My first glance at the menu led me to believe there was quite a selection for vegetarians. On closer inspection, however, it turned out that three of the vegetarian meals were the same cauliflower cheese dish that had been included under different course options. The only main I could find that included no animal protein was a jacket potato with baked beans. Tinned beans aren't ideal, I know, but sometimes you have to cheat a bit. With all the will in the world, a jacket potato with beans is never going to be an exciting meal. So, I decided to add a side of flat mushrooms to make it a bit more interesting.
   Making a meal out of starters and sides is a skill that I picked up whilst living in Greece. Whereas Greek main meals generally revolve around meat, the starters (or mese dishes) are usually vegetarian, and a lot are plant-based.
   If you are finding it hard to make a plant-based choice when eating out, why not order a combination of starters and sides instead? It gives you much more variety and your dining companions will no doubt be jealous of your personal buffet!

No-Cheese Pizza

One of the hardest things I’ve found about following a plant-based diet is eating out in restaurants. By the time you’re searched through the menu to find something you can eat, it feels like everyone is looking at you and you still aren’t any closer to getting some food. A neat trick that I have picked up is to order a vegetable pizza with no cheese. Pizza is fairly common in restaurants, most of them are cooked fresh, and it’s not such a big deal for the kitchen to prepare them with no cheese. Plus, they’re really tasty.

Take a Step Together Reminder

   A few weeks ago, I talked about my initiative to 'Take a Step Together'. In a nutshell, the idea is to get together with some like-minded friends or work colleagues and encourage and support each other to lead a healthier, more environmentally aware lifestyle. This has worked really well for me and my work colleagues, but a regression by one of our team has got me thinking that maybe I should post a reminder.
   The colleague in question will remain anonymous, but over the last few weeks the rest of us have noticed that he has taken a couple of steps back in his diet, and he has started making excuses not to got to the gym. The rest of us have banded together to remind him of why we made out pact in the first place, and what he wanted to achieve, and we hope to get him back on track as soon as possible.
   So, why not check in with your 'Take a Step Together' buddies and see how they're getting on. They might just need a little nudge to get them back on track too.

Why freerangecarrots?

I thought I should take a moment to explain where the name Free-range Carrots comes from. I first turned vegetarian when I was nine years old. Unfortunately, it being the late 1980s and a time when everyone listened to their GP unquestioningly, my doctor told my parents they should force me to eat me and they did. For another four years. Then, when I was thirteen, I told my mum that I really couldn’t eat meat anymore. I’d always felt that I was born a vegetarian, and I needed to find my way into the lifestyle where I belonged. My mum’s initial reaction was that I was just being a fussy eater. I’m glad to say her viewpoint has now radically changed and my vegetarianism has in fact encouraged her to eat a healthier diet. Due to health problems when I was born, I’d struggled with food phobias all my life, and even then I could understand her apprehension at my converting to vegetarianism. So me made a compromise. I would take the conversion one step at a time, and together we would educate ourselves about healthy vegetarianism and make sure I was doing everything properly. Red meat was the first to go, and then I gradually gave up white meat, fish, animal fats, gelatine, leather and so on until I was a complete vegetarian.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the reactions you get from people when you tell them you’re vegetarian. I never set out to convert the world, and my belief at that time was that everyone has the right to eat whatever they want. I only told people I was a vegetarian when I had to, i.e. when someone insisted I eat a cocktail sausage at a party or I was in a restaurant when the menu wasn’t labelled for dietary needs. Most people seemed to want to catch me out, to find something I did that proved I wasn’t a real vegetarian. They demanded to know what my shoes were made of (in case it was leather) and quizzed me on what sweets I ate (assuming I wouldn’t know that most jelly sweets contain animal gelatine). Bizarrely, a common response I received was ‘plants have feelings too’. Although this may one day be proved true, my survival comes first for me, and I have to eat something. Ever the sarcastic teenager, and wanting to confuse people before they could drag me into an argument, my stock answer to this comment became ‘Yes, but I only eat free-range carrots’. Hence the name freerangecarrotsJ

Obesity can't be ignored

On Friday 24^th February 2012, The Metro newspaper published an article about the rising numbers if hospital admissions due to obesity. The statistics they quote are scary:

‘The number of weight-loss stomach operations has risen 12 per cent in one year as fatter people try to reverse the rising tide of obesity.
There were 8,087 operations in England’s hospitals in 2010/11, up from 7,214 the previous year, according to NHS data.’
The Metro 24/02/2012

Even if you don’t believe in climate change, and you think that the way we eat does not have an impact on the planet we live on, you cannot deny that obesity is a problem in the western world. Every week in the UK there are numerous documentaries on television about people who are literally eating themselves to death. Although it’s commendable that these documentaries are getting the message out to the wider world, it’s sadly ironic that they do it via one of the sources of obesity, the television. We live in a world where technology is so advanced that we don’t even have to leave the sofa.

One in four people in the UK are now classed as obese. What is even scarier is that in the child population, the figure is three in ten. We are teaching our children how to live unhealthy lives and become overweight. Only 25% of the population eat the recommended 5-a-day of fruit and vegetables, which by the way is supposed to be a recommended minimum. What shocked me the most in the data was that 20% of people said they walk less than 20 minutes a year. I can’t even comprehend how that can be possible.

I’m reminded of when I worked with children about ten years ago. Serving dinner to a group of young boys one night, I asked them if they wanted carrots and one of the boys asked me what a carrot was. I was stunned that a child could not recognise what is a very common vegetable in the UK. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. The boy tried the carrots and liked them so much that the next night he asked for just a plate of carrots. Unfortunately, though, there are a lot of children out there who do not get the right advice.

So, what’s the answer? A good start is to watch those documentaries on TV, as long as you make sure you get up off the sofa and take their advice afterwards.

Vegan Bodybuilders

One of my biggest pet hates is people who stereotype and make assumptions, but I must admit that as much as I try I am sometimes guilty of it myself. Whilst browsing through the www.meatlessmonday.com website I was pleasantly surprised to find an article which provides advice for vegan bodybuilders. Apparently there are over 5,000 bodybuilders who use fruit, vegetables, beans and wholegrains to aid their training. What I find even more interesting is that they manage to consume the same amount of protein (what you need to make your muscles look really big) as their omnivore competitors, but consume less fat and toxins.

Personally, I don’t think I could physically eat the 4,000 calories a day needed by bodybuilders, wherever it came from, but it’s interesting to know that a plant-based diet is an option for different groups of people.

The Plant-Based Traveller

   Before I go any further, apologies for being absent for so long. Unfortunately, it wasn't so easy to find internet access on my trip to Germany, and since I've been back I've fallen victim to the dreaded flu that has been making its way round Cardiff. I must point out, though, that this is the first time I've been ill since converting to a plant-based diet, and there's not many people in the UK who can say they've gone almost a whole winter illness-free.
   During my absence I have been doing lots of reading and learning, and I have so much I want to share with you. First, though, a bit about my adventures in Germany. If you want to read more about my adventures, there will be a full blog on http://thetravelbug.blog.co.uk/ soon.
   OK, I'm not going to pretend that on my 4 day skiing trip to Garmisch I stuck to a completely plant-based, organic, wholefood diet. I did, however, as always, do my best to be conscious of what I was eating and made small changes wherever I could. It surprised me how little effort it took. The excellent continental buffet that my hostel provided made it very easy for me to choose a suitable breakfast. I was happy to drink black coffee, although I know from my experience working in the Alps that hotels and guesthouses will provide soya milk if you request it. Along with my coffee, I had a fresh semmel with jam, no butter. For those who haven't visited the Alps, a semmel is a small, round bread roll and is present at pretty much every meal. Believe me, when you work there you soon get sick of eating semmels everyday, but I'd had long enough away for them to be tasty again.
   Lunchtime up the mountain is generally spent in a self-service restaurant, most of which offer spaghetti and tomato sauce as an option. Remember to ask for no parmesan, though, Austrians and Germans seem to like putting cheese on top of everything. One thing that self-service restaurants in the Alps do very well are salad bars. So there's no excuse not to fill up on the fresh, tasty food available. You can also have yet another semmel to go with it if you choose.
   Most restaurants have at least one vegan option on the menu, you just have to ask. The range of dishes available might not leave you spoilt for choice, and in ski resorts will most probably revolve around pasta, but at least the options are there.

   I know I repeat this all the time, but I've learnt that the best way with a plant-based diet is to be prepared. Health food shops are really popular in Austria and Germany, so stock up on things to snack on. Most supermarkets now stock a 'bio' range, and they will highlight what is organic and what has been grown in the local region. In German speaking countries, look out for the 'bio' sign and 'aus unsere region' (from our region).

Off on Holiday...

   I'm so excited! I'm off on holiday to Germany tonight. I'll keep you updated on how the plant-based diet goes whilst I'm away.

Take a Step Together

What started as a blog about me trying to eat a more plant-based diet has developed in to me blabbing on about anything to do with health, fitness, food and the environment. I’m aware that a lot of my recent blogs have been about converting to a healthier lifestyle, and I’m also aware that even with the best will in the world this is difficult for a lot of people. Which is why I’m introducing my new mantra ‘take a step together’.

During my own personal lifestyle change, one of the things I constantly tell myself is ‘one step at a time’. The longest lasting change is gradual, and if I happen to slip up and take a couple of steps backwards I try not to beat myself up about it and work out how I can move forward again. Making those small steps can be incredibly difficult, though, and it is so easy to make an excuse as to why you have to wait until next week to start.

At the moment I work in an office, a very sedentary environment where it is very easy to become lazy and put on weight. Determined to break this trend, my team and I have been making changes together. All five of us are trying to live healthier lives (and I’m also encouraging them to live more environmentally friendly lives J ). We all have our own personal reasons for doing it, and we’re all going about it in different ways, but we encourage each other daily and share ideas and knowledge. I have no doubt that, without the support of the other four, no one of us would have succeeded as well as we have so far. Who needs a personal trainer or nutritionist when you have four coaches stopping you from buying that chocolate bar from the vending machine.

So, why not find a few more like-minded individuals and try taking a step together. It might give you the push you need to improve your life forever.

Easy Veg

This one is for anyone who says that fresh food can't be as quick as convenience food. Yesterday I told you that kale is a great source of nutrients. As an added bonus, kale is also extremely easy to prepare and cook. You don't even need a knife. Just rip the leaves from the stalk, and cook in a covered frying pan in about 1 inch of water for 3 minutes. It's a great, easy green to put on the side of any dish.

Do We Lack Nutrients?

A few weeks ago I talked about Rip Esselstyn and the Engine 2 Diet. On his website, Rip answers what I believe is one of the most frequently asked questions about plant-based diets.

Ever since I became a vegetarian, people have told me that I’m unhealthy. Usually while they’re munching on an incredibly unhealthy beef burger, I might add. The common misperception is that if you don’t eat meat or dairy products, you lack protein, iron and calcium. They literally look at you like they expect you to drop dead in front of them. People are quite often surprised when I say I’m a vegetarian, as I don’t look permanently ill. Believe it or not, I have survived without meat now for almost twenty years, and I intend to do it for a lot more years to come.

Spinach, mushrooms, beans, oatmeal, wholewheat pasta, corn and potatoes are all healthy sources of protein. Iron can be found in lentils, beans, leafy vegetables, pistachios and tofu. Green leafy vegetables such as collard greens, kale, bok choy and romaine lettuce are great for calcium, as well as nuts, oranges, kidney beans, lima beans, whole grains, lentils, raisins, broccoli and brussel sprouts.

As Rip explains, the only nutrient that you may develop a deficiency in on a plant-based diet is vitamin B12. If this is a concern, you can get your daily supply from two tablespoons of nutritional yeast, a glass of fortified soya milk, a bowl of fortified cereal or a 500 milligram B12 supplement. That’s not bad compared to the number of omnivores who can eat anything they want, but choose to eat only the bad stuff and therefore develop lots of deficiencies.

Deficiencies are sometimes unavoidable, no matter what you eat. Both my father and I have problems giving blood due to our iron count being ‘at the lower end of the normal scale’ (the story of my life!). I eat an iron-rich plant-based diet, and he eats meat.

Before I stopped eating dairy I was told by a dentist that I had a calcium deficiency. One of the solutions was to drink more cows milk. No matter how much milk I drank, it didn’t seem to make any difference. Since converting to a plant-based diet, my calcium levels are fine.

So, next time you meet a vegetarian, please don’t look so surprised that they’re still able to stand.

An extra note about the blood donation and my apparently low iron count – a quick jog around the car park before I take the iron test seems to get my blood moving faster and I pass with flying colours, so I’m not so sure it’s my actual iron that’s the problem. I think my blood is just a bit slow.

Come on Spring!

 Although I've found it a lot easier than I thought to eat local, seasonal food, I must admit that at times it gets a bit boring. Around this time of year, there's a bit of a gap in foods that can be farmed in the UK, so the range of food is limited. As much as I like carrots, butternut squash and potatoes, I can't wait for spring to arrive so I can experiement with some different ingredients.

Handmade in the Hills

Since starting this blog, one of the things I've loved most is coming across great, local, independent businesses. This week I tried out a new one, Handmade In The Hills (www.handmadeinthehills.co.uk). All the products on their website are hand made by artists and makers in Ceredigion. They make and sell a wide selection of products, including children's toys, homewares, jewellery and food goods.
As it's my neice's birthday next month, I thought I'd see if there was anything suitable for her. Although I was spoilt for choice, I decided on a pink magical wand.
I used to work in retail, and when working for good retailers (there were a lot of bad ones too) I was always taught that problems can be an opportunity to demonstrate excellent customer service. When I encountered a problem with Pay Pal (for some reason they don't believe I live at my address), the team at Handmade In The Hills not only sorted it out straight away for me, they kept in contact via email to make sure everything was to my satisfaction. Rarely do you encounter a company in today's modern world that is so keen to look after it's customers. I'm sure my neice will love her magical wand, and I will definitely be returning to the Handmade In The Hills website in the future.

Mixing it up

   I've been trying to think of new ideas for lunches that I can take into work. When you're trying to only eat seasonal, local vegetables you can find yourself eating the same things over and over again. So I've looked back through my recipes and adapted some of them. Here's one of my favourites. The recipe is for Summer Risotto, but you can use pretty much any vegetables as a substitute. I made some this week using pumpkin, butternut squash and mushrooms.

Ingredients
100g (3½oz) asparagus, trimmed
350g (12oz) risotto rice (or short brown rice)
125g (4oz) broad beans
1 small onion, finely diced
1 litre vegetable stock
150ml (¼ pint) dry white wine
½ lemon, juiced (I substitute this with a splash of vinegar as we don't tend to get many lemons growing in South Wales)

Boil the asparagus and beans in water for 3 minutes. Drain and plunge into cold water and then drain again.
Using a little of the vegetable stock, fry the onion until transparent. If you're using mushrooms, add them here as well. Stir in the rice. Add 1 ladle of hot stock and cook until absorbed. Keep the stock simmering on the stove and add it a ladle at a time until absorbed. When most of the stock has been used, add the asparagus and beans, white wine and lemon juice. Simmer for a few more minutes.


The trick with risotto is to add the stock gradually. I once saw a TV cookery competition where a chef did not follow this advice, and his colleagues and customers were not best pleased.

Scrubbed but not peeled

   Scrubbed but not peeled. That's how I like my vegetables. It's a simple tip, but one that can provide you with more food and therefore save you money. My mum also used to tell me that there are lots of nutrients in vegetable skins.

Thirsty for Knowledge?

Are you fed up of being one of the millions of ignorant people who don’t know where their food comes from? Do you want to know more? One of the biggest habits I’ve picked up since starting the freerangecarrots blog is to check out the websites on food packaging. Pretty much every food brand and producer has their own website these days, and they’re all packed full of information. Whilst I would recommend taking the information that company websites give you with a pinch of salt (their main mission, of course, is to promote their products), they’re a great place to start. If you do suspect they are being economical with the truth just to sell to you, my top tip is to google whatever it is you are reading about. Unlike other mass communication outlets, the internet is somewhere where you will get a completely broad view of a variety of opinions!

The Engine 2 Diet

   Rip Esselstyn, triathlete and firefighter, started The Engine 2 Diet to help one of his colleagues in Austin, Texas who had a dangerously high cholesterol level. Rip had adopted a plant-based diet at the advice of his father, Dr Caldwell B Esselstyn, and he motivated the entire Engine 2 firehouse team to lose weight, lower their cholestoerol and improve their overall health. You can read more about Rip and The Engine 2 Diet at www.engine2diet.com.
   One of the comments that Rip makes on his website really struck a chord with me. He talks about how our tastes can change. So many people tell me they could not follow a plant-based diet because they don't like the food, but if your body is only used to processed, high fat food that is filled with sugar, healthier alternatives are going to taste a bit strange. It's worth sticking to it for the sake of your health. Rip is totally right in what he says. When I first started to eat a more plant-based diet, soy milk tasted odd. Now, though, I love soy milk and the thought of drinking cow's milk does not sound appealing at all.

Household Tips

My energy supplier are always sending me lots of great information about how to make my home energy fit, saving both money and resources. I thought I’d share a few of them with you.

• Check that your loft insulation is at least 270mm (11") thick.
• Have a shower instead of a bath. Baths can use and heat twice the amount of water compared to showers.
• Replace standard light bulbs with energy saving ones, which can last up to five times longer and use up to 70% less energy. And of course don’t forget to turn the lights off when you leave a room.
• Turn plugs off completely when appliances aren’t in use. They waste energy when they’re left on standby.
• Draw your curtains from dusk onwards to keep heat in the room.
• Make sure the area at the back of your fridge or freezer is clear so that it can operate more efficiently.
• Lowering your thermostat by just 1 degree can cut your fuel bills by up to 10%.

Nature's Little Helpers

One of the things I’ve loved best about my research for freerangecarrots has been discovering great, local-made Welsh products.www.natureslittlehelpers.co.uk are the perfect example. Vegans should look away now (sorry!), because this Cardiff based company make all their products from bee-keeping. As well as the most obvious gift that bees give us, honey, these clever beekeepers also create cosmetics and soap from bees wax. You can even join them on an experience day and learn how to become a beekeeper yourself. Everything you need for your new hobby can be purchased from the farm shop.

Over the winter I always suffer with really dry hands. The combination of cold weather and working with paper all day gives me the hands of a ninety-year-old with bad eczema. I regularly apply cream, and I’m constantly on the look out for the latest cure. Nature’s Little Helpers’ ylang ylang hand balm has been a huge help to me this year. It comes in a handy little tin that’s easy to pop in you bag or pocket and carry around with you, and because it’s made from bees wax it stays solid until you’re ready to use it. Then you simply warm a bit up in your hands. Plus, it smells great.

While I’m on the subject of bees, the Co-operative Plan Bee project (www.co-operative.coop/corporate/ethicsinaction/takeaction/planbee/) is a great way to learn more about these fascinating creatures. As well as helping to conserve bee populations in the UK, The Co-operative also use bee as a positive example of how teams should work together.

Are we really still that naïve?

   I heard in the news today that MPs are calling on the Prime Minister to cut the amount of money we spend on wind farms because they're not productive enough yet. Oil wasn't productive enough until someone thought to design a machine that could drill into the ground so we could get to it.

The guilt-free way to keep yourself clean

   Sorry to go all Oprah on you, but I have a new favourite thing. Whilst doing my weekly shopping at Roath Real Food Market, I came across Sebon Soaps ('sebon' is Welsh for 'soap'). They make environmentally-friendly products that are free from palm oil, animal ingredients, artificial fragrances and artificial colours.
   After a chat with the lovely lady behind the stall, I couldn't wait to try some of their products. Unfortunately I'm allergic to soap (as well as garlic, I know - it's wierd), but there was lots more to choose from. As well as their natural soap, Sebon also make other artisan products such as lip balms, deodorants, aftershave and moisturisers. So far I can tell you that the spearmint lip balm is lush, and I was very excited to find that Welsh tiger balm exists. Since my brother brought me a tiny tin of tiger balm back from Thailand seven years ago, I have requested a fresh supply from anyone who I know who has been travelling in Asia. Tiger balm is a great cure-all. It clears your head and sinuses if you have a cold, you can mix it with baby oil and massage it into sore or injured muscles and it even soothes mosquito bites. Sebon's tiger balm isn't as strong as the Thai stuff, so it's great for massaging into pressure points when you have a headache or migraine.
   Although Sebon might seem pricey at first, their products last for ages so in the long run it's a real bargain. For more info check them out on-line www.sebonsoaps.com

The travelling plant eater

I'm planning a trip to Austria and Germany in March. The main reason for my holiday is that I haven't skied in two years, but I'll also be visiting family in Austria on my way back. As well as trying to organise flights, accommodation, train fares and airport parking (aaarrrgh!) my mind has also been on how I'm going to cope with my plant-based diet whilst I'm away. As a realist, I don't expect myself to avoid animal protein for the whole week. I would, however, like to eat plant-based as much as possible. As always, I think my best tactic will be to plan ahead. I'll keep you up to date on how I get on, and my adventures will also be posted on my travel blog thetravelbug.blog.uk.

A vegan cure for hungover hunger

This morning I tried out the Breakfast Homefries recipe from www.vegankickstart.org, and I discovered that it's a great hangover aid. However, it does take a bit of effort to make, so if you are genuinely hungover I'd recommend persuading someone else to make it for you while you stay in bed :)

Chewy Carrots

Due to work commitments, I was unable to make it to the real food market last week. As a result, by mid-week my kitchen was empty of food. So I went to the supermarket. As I needed some snacks to take to work with me, I thought I'd buy some carrots to nibble on. Unfortunately, I was unable to get organic, but they did have British carrots, so I bought a bag. I now understand the difference between supermarket and fresh produce. It's no wonder people say they don't like vegetables if that's all they think there is on offer. I'd never realised before that carrots can actually be chewy! Needless to say, I'm off to the real food market this morning to buy some carrots that taste like carrots. And all I have to say about the supermarket-bought carrots is - Urgh!

Forks Over Knives

Great news! Dr T. Colin Campbell and Dr Caldwell Esselstyn from Planeat have been working on a new project. Forks over Knives is a mission to teach the world about how to eat a plant-based diet and the health benefits associated with it.

Although the website, www.forksoverknives.com, is still in development, there will be a new film coming soon, and you can sign up to receive information by email.

Want to be a revolutionary?

One of my missions when I started this blog was to share my new-found confidence with as many fellow humans as I could find. Encouraging other people to try new experiences and venture out of their comfort zone really motives me.

It’s not easy to make changes in your life, especially if you’ve got into a long-term routine of doing the same things again and again. Don’t despair. Changes can be made. If you want to make a step towards a different way of life, but you’re not sure where to start or you’re finding it hard to find the motivation, Channel 4 have a great new website to give you a helping hand. www.channel4.com/revolution is a fun and inspiring one-stop shop where you can discover the new you. I first heard about the revolution whilst watching The Fat Fighters, a very entertaining show that’s based in a gym and aims to help people from all walks of life get fit. I’m addicted to all shows that encourage people to get healthy and change their lives, and the unique selling point (USP) of The Fat Fighters is the unusual methods the four trainers use with their clients. From cheerleading to bouncing on trampolines, their clients seem to genuinely train with a smile on their face.

As well as encouragement from The Fat FIghters team, you can also get tips about saving money and trying new things. If you sign up for one of the revolutions, they will even email you tips and ideas to keep you motivated.

Alternatively, why not ask a friend to write a list of new challenges for you? Or, think back to all the things you wanted to do as a child. What stopped you from doing them? Stop making excuses and give things a go. Today!

Plate to Planet

   If you're still not convinved that our dietary choices have such an effect on the environment, or you think it's all a conspiracy (although I can't think of anything they would be conspiring for), then the www.platetoplanet.org website should provide you with proof that factory farming is a very real problem. Here are just a few of the scary facts that platetoplanet highlight about the effect of factory farming in the US:

   * Agriculture generates 18% of greenhouse gas emissions.
 
   * Animals raised for food in the US produce so much manure that alot of it is stored in lagoons. When the lagoons leak, the maure enters into the environment and threatens water quality across the US.

   * Scientists at the Smithsonian Institute say that the equivalent of seven football fields is bulldozed every minute for animal agriculture.

   * It takes an average 16 pounds of grain to produce just one pound of beef and takes 11 times as much fossil fuel to make 1 calorie from animal protein as 1 calorie from plant protein.

   * It takes an estimated 4,000 gallons of water to produce one day of animal-based food for the average American. In comparison, one day of plant-based food only requires about 300 gallons.

   How mad is it that most factory plant farming is fertilised using chemicals, when the factory animal farms are producing tonnes of maure that goes to waste? Before any of my fellow Britons say 'That's America, not the UK', remember that the effects of factory farming are felt all over the world, the focus is just more on the US because they have more space in which to farm. Next time you're about to bite into your McDonalds burger, think about where the meat came from.
   You can also pledge to go meat free for a week, a month or forever on the platetoplanet website. So even if you only sign up for a week, please, please make a pledge today. You never know, not eating meat for a week might open up a whole new world of experiences for you.

Organic vs Vegetarian

   One of the frustrating things about being vegetarian are the odd, and to be honest sometimes downright rude, reactions you get when you utter the words ‘I’m a vegetarian’. When a lot of people hear those three simple words they seem to think it’s OK to immediately tell you what their assumptions about vegetarians are. The most common replies revolve around the feelings of animals, and my most common comeback is ‘I’m a vegetarian, not a tree-hugging hippy’. In all honesty, when I first became vegetarian I wasn’t really sure why. I just knew that it was meant to be. As I’ve grown up, I’ve learnt to understand more about my beliefs around eating and wearing animal-based products, and our impact on the planet. I suppose I consider myself to be a ‘realist vegetarian’. I’ve not really got an issue with people eating meat, as long as they know where their food comes from and it’s produced ethically. What annoys me is that, in the Western world today, most people will only eat meat if it comes pre-packaged from the supermarket. And they couldn’t care less where it comes from. They argue that it’s natural for humans to eat meat, but as soon as you suggest they go out and kill their own prey they look at you like you’ve just told them to run six marathons back-to-back. If it came down to me or the animal, I wouldn’t hesitate in slaughtering the animal. Having spent a lot of my childhood in the countryside, I grew up eating rabbit that the local farmer caught, pheasant that my uncle was paid in (he’s a pheasant beater) and fish that my dad and I caught ourselves. I even used to gut my own fish. Besides, most of the types of meat available in supermarkets were never originally eaten my humans. Cows, for example, started off as skinny bags of bones before they were fattened up during the agricultural revolution. The omnivores I respect are the ones that are aware of the origins of the meat they eat, whether they’ve caught it themselves or not, and obtain it in a way that has as little impact on the environment as possible.

   I’m not the best person to explain this belief, but I’ve found someone who is. ‘Scenes From a Smallholding’ is a book written by Chas Griffin about the experiences his family had when they decided to leave suburbia and take over a farm in West Wales. Rather than try to change his words, and get it completely wrong, I’ve decided to just copy the insert from his book into my blog. In the unlikely event that Chas Griffin reads this blog, I hope he doesn’t mind me using his material, and I apologise if he does.

‘Organic vs Vegetarian?’ by Chas Griffin, Summer 1992     ‘We were vegetarian for quite some time before we moved to the smallholding, but living and working here has driven us to the unexpected and apparently harsh conclusion that as far as we can see, you can either be organic, or vegetarian, but not both.
   The logic behind this seemingly brutal claim runs like this: like all living things, plants need feeding; chemical farmers who produce the tasteless rubbish you buy at the supermarket, use chemicals; chemicals weaken the plants, kill off the micro soil life, and destroy the soil structure, so it eventually erodes away, just as it is now doing in East Anglia (Britain’s own up-and-coming dustbowl) and across the world, at the alarming rate of millions of tons a month. And once it’s gone, it’s gone for good. Now there’s a thought. Never mind global warming, soil loss is humanity’s greatest problem. And the less soil there is, the more they are going to blast it with chemicals, aren’t they? Unless you and I can persuade them to stabilise their soil by going organic.
   So chemical farming is a long-term disaster. What is the alternative?
   Organic farmers use compost, which feeds the soil that feeds the crops; so the soil is built up, not destroyed.
   But here’s the rub: it is virtually impossible to produce enough vegetable-only compost for the needs of a farm or market garden, and anyway, compost needs a nitrogen input to get it going. The nitrogen naturally comes from animal urine and dung.
   There may be a way around needing this animal input, but there is no convincing evidence that I know of that is really practically possible for an organic farmer to avoid the need for animal excreta. And anyway, it is clear that animals and plants were made for each other. The animal is designed to eat the plants, and then to fertilise the land it grazes on.
   As a by-product of the essential nitrogenous waste, a cow also produces valuable milk, and, with a bit of extra work, butter and cheese. But… and here’s the point… she will only produce milk after producing a calf.
   Unfortunately, 50 per cent of calves are male. As one bull will serve about 40 females, what is going to happen to the other 39 bull calves? They can’t be left to eat a whole herd’s worth of grass, or the price of milk would double every year (work it out for yourself). What is more, 39 testosterone-stuffed bulls in one field would soon make the Battle of Kursk look like Salad Days.
   On top of all this, the Artificial Insemination service has reduced the need for bulls even more. One super-stud can now serve hundreds or thousands of heifers, and without all that unseemly bellowing and drooling.
   So… if you want organic vegetables, and I for one think you ought to on ecological grounds alone, you must accept animals going for early slaughter, unless you can find a logical flaw in my argument.’
  
   See, I told you that Chas Griffin could explain it much better than me. Personally, I still prefer to be a vegetarian who eats a plant-based diet for health reasons. Besides, I have no desire to eat meat. I do agree with what Chas is saying, though. I think we need to take a step back and look at how we farmed before the agricultural revolution. Before the days of mass farming, everyone ate from local, small, organic smallholdings. If all omnivores thought like Chas Griffin, I for one think the world would be a better place.