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.

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.

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

fork2fork

   I just checked out www.fork2fork.org.uk, a great website for anyone who lives in Wales and wants to eat fresh, direct and local food. Frustratingly, the website sends you round in circles a bit and some of the links don't work, but it's a good reference point for anyone who doesn't know where to start in buying local. You can pledge to buy local, find out where your nearest farmers markets and farm shops are, and read about Welsh producers. They will even send you a seasonality calendar so you know what best to buy when. Buying local isn't just about food, either. This year I bought Christmas presents from my local farmers market and Christmas market, including Welsh ale for my dad (he gave it a definite thumbs up), Welsh wine, chutney and preserves.

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.

Eliminate Oil!

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

Hummus is my new favourite snack

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

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

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