The Latest Accessories for 2012 - A flask and a water bottle:)

The purpose of this blog is to see if making small changes to our lifestyle as individuals can have a bigger impact to us as a species. Although I have generally been good at sticking to the changes I have made, I will admit that over Christmas I ended up consuming more dairy products than I would have liked. With the combination of visiting restaurants for Christmas meals, where vegetarian meals are pretty much guaranteed to contain cheese because they think we'll keel over without it, and staying with family who are not yet fully aware of what a plant-based diet is, it became too much of an effort to avoid it. In a way I'm glad I did, though, because it made me notice how ill dairy products make me feel. Admittedly, due to my eczema I am more prone than most people to having a reaction to dairy, but I'll deifinitely avoid it as much as possible in the future.
If you feel you can only make one change to your lifestyle at the moment (and don't worry, it all counts) than my tip would be this - buy a water bottle and a thermos flask. I carry both almost everywhere with me, including to work. Compared to my colleagues, who waste countless disposable cups and bottles everyday by buying drinks from vending machines and the coffee shop, I wash and refill my water bottle and flask everyday. I also carry some herbal teabags with me, so I can refill my flask during the day. As well as the environmental advantages, there are two other huge benefits to using your own water bottle and flask. The first is that it's healthier. The best thing you can drink is water (although, depending on where you live in the world, your tap water may not be good). Any soft drink that comes in a bottle, regardless of whether it says 'diet', 'sugar free' or anything else on the bottle, will never as good for you as water is. I promise you, if you cut out soft drinks from your diet, you will notice weight loss within a couple of weeks. Plus, if you cut down on caffeine and start drinking herbal tea instead, you'll sleep a lot sounder at night and feel much better when you're awake.
The other benefit is that you save a lot of money. When I see how much my colleagues spend throughout the day on bottles of cola and take-out coffees, I can't believe that I used to do the same. If you work out how much you spend on these items over the course of a month, I'm sure you'll find something else much more worthwhile to spend the money on.

The British Christmas Stress

Over my lifetime I've lived in a few different countries and experienced different cultures. One of the common threads wherever I have lived, whenever and however it is celebrated, is the 'excitement' of Christmas. However, since moving back to the UK, I've noticed that on the island of my birth Christmas is nothing more than a stress. So much so that last year I spent Christmas on my own. And before you say 'bah humbug!' I have to say I had a really nice, relaxing few days off work, although I did have to fight for my right to celebrate Christmas how I choose to (so much for the season of goodwill!).
Here in the UK, the Christmas celebration lasts for a month. Basically, from the 1st December the whole island builds itself up for the biggest come down on 26th December. Today I visited Tesco to do a bit of last minute shopping before I drive to visit family in England. Although I have been doing my best to shop at local markets recently, in all honesty I went to Tesco because I had some vouchers to use up and I needed to fill my car up with petrol. After today's visit, however, I really don't want to go back there again. There's still two days to go until actual Christmas, but the supermarket was like some post-modernist film's prediction on utopian hell. Without wanting to cause offence to anyone, as I include myself amongst them, the whole shop was full of people who would genuinely starve if Tesco and other supermarkets like it didn't exist. Because they honestly have no idea where food comes from.

Too busy to chop?

Whilst attending a Christmas meal yesterday I heard someone say that they buy pre-cut, packed vegetables for Christmas dinner because, and I quote, 'you don't even need to chop them anymore'. Have we really got to the point where we are genuinely too busy to cut our own vegetables up? And do the people who buy these pre-packed vegetables, which I think taste like crap by the way, not question how the manufacturers manage to keep 'fresh' vegetables in a bag for so long whilst they're flown halfway across the planet?

The tardis of freezers

My freezer is like Aladdin's cave sometimes. Which is all the more amazing considering it's only a box freezer. Alongside the mushroon gravy I used to make the stew yesterday I also found a tub of the basting sauce from Chef Sarno's Seitan Briskett recipe. I added a teaspoon on cornflour, heated it gently whilst stirring continuously, and ended up with a lovely sauce to pour over vegetables.

Winter Warmer

It's freezing cold here in Wales (although I'm glad to say we have no snow in Cardiff yet). In an effort to win the battle against the freezing temperatures, I made a big batch of vegetable hotpot/stew this morning. A few weeks back I mentioned that I'd tried Chef Chad Sarno's Wild Mushroom Gravy recipe from the Planeat website with much success. I found a tub of it in my freezer, and it is a perfect base for my hotpot/stew. I simply defrosted the gravy with some vegetable stock to bulk it up a bit, and then added steamed vegetables. Whatever vegetables are seasonal to your area will do, personally I used the celeriac, potatoes, carrots and onions (fried in vinegar) that I bought at the market yesterday. This recipe will be of no use to anyone living in a warm climate, but for those of us currently experiencing winter it's a great way to warm up. And it means I've got my lunch sorted for the next few days. I've even got a little pot of pickled red cabbage to take into work with me and serve with my hotpot/stew.

My top real food market tip... Buy Bread Last!

Walking down to Roath Real Food Market on a Saturday morning has now become part of my weekly routine. I did make a schoolboy error this morning, though. As I was planning to drive to Bristol in the afternoon and visit a friend, I thought it would be nice to buy a treacle tart to take with me. So I bought this first, along with a loaf of spelt bread (really nice by the way, as was the treacle tart). I then spent the next hour trying to shop for vegetables and Christmas presents whilst balancing a treacle tart in my hand, as it had to lie flat, and trying not to crush the bread. So my tip is - buy the bread last. And the treacle tart.
Whilst I'm on the subject of Christmas presents, in an effort to find gifts that are unique and have a minimal impact on the environment, I bought my mum a lemon tree. I was smugly pleased with my purchase, until it occurred to me on the bus ride home that I'm going to have to keep the tree alive until Friday when I see my mum. Considering that the last plant I had visibly wilted the second I brought it into my apartment, and then died in front of my eyes over the course of two weeks (it's now an empty plant pot on my fire escape), I'm a wee bit nervous. Wish me luck!

Patchwork Quilts

The more I read and learn about conserving resources on a grand scale, the more I think about ways I can reuse things at home. So I've taken up quilting. I'm hoping that's the right verb, and if it isn't and I've said something offensive then I apologise and I'll explain. Rather than throw away old clothes (the ones that aren't suitable for the charity shop), I borrowed a book called 'Learn to Quilt' from the library and cut them up to make a quilt. I'm half way through my first quilt at the moment, and it's a great past-time while watching a DVD.