Long time no post! In the middle of February I surpassed 7 months eating Vegan, so let me fill you in since I last checked in five months ago with my journey.
Environment
Since last time, I have tried so many new things and of course become more educated surrounding environmental issues and veganism as a whole. Two of the most exciting things that I experienced in 2019, were my first two Climate Strikes. I had great fun on both of them and it felt awesome to be surrounded by people with the same views.
During my first strike, I had two little girls come up to me and compliment my sign. They said they were vegan too and it was so cute! On my second climate strike, I stood up with a microphone that Extinction Rebellion Bath provided, and read out a poem that I had written (up on my blog under 'LIFESYLE' or search 'poem' in the top right corner). I must add, that my confidence to do this came from my friend Lizzie who spoke at the first climate strike that I went to - she did it spontaneously and all my friends and I were so proud of her!
Celebrations
Two major celebrations happened for me too within the past 6 months: my birthday and Christmas.
Firstly, my birthday. For my birthday, I had two separate 'dos' with two groups of friends. The first was a party at my house with a few of my close guy friends. We watched Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse (amazing film btw) and then had dinner together. It took me a while to think of what I wanted to serve them, as I didn't feel comfortable serving any animal products. I eventually settled on a crowd favourite: Fajitas. Mexican food is some of my favourite food so this worked really well, and my Mum felt a bit better, as she wanted to feed the boys 'normal' food (eg. pizzas, but I'd be the only one with a vegan one). From the first picture, you can see our leftovers. We had loads of wraps, tomatoes, peppers, onions, mixed salad, hummus carrots, cucumber, plain yoghurt (soy based), salsa, curly fries, tortilla chips etc. The spread was so good and honestly fajitas are one of my favourite foods ever, and incredibly easy to veganise. During this 'do', Mum served a chocolate cake with Oreos (second picture). For context, my Mum adores baking, and her speciality is cakes. This was the first ever vegan cake that she made, and it turned out pretty good!
On my actual birthday, my family and I went out to one of The Lounges for breakfast, because they wanted to take me out somewhere. I was a bit apprehensive about going out for breakfast, but I explained to them that I didn't just want a vegetarian breakfast minus eggs and such - I didn't want a breakfast where it felt like I had to take stuff away. After a bit of research, I found out that The Lounges do a proper 'Vegan Breakfast' and it was amazing! I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything as it was super tasty (full review here). In the evening, I had coincidentally planned to go to Rivo again with my girlfriends, so I did and had the Beyond Cheese Burger. This tasted incredible and the cheese was particularly convincing (full review here). When I got home with a few of the girls ready for a sleepover, Mum brought out my 'proper' birthday cake (as in it was a special one for my actual birthday day) and it was an incredible vegan madeira cake with Peaky Blinders decorations! This tasted awesome and the decor was super lovely. I received a lot of sweets and chocolate from my friends and family for my birthday too, and thankfully most of it was vegan.
Now onto Christmas. I was a little nervous about what Mum was going to make for our Christmas dinner this year but I did not need to be whatsoever. This Xmas, I had dinner with my immediate family two weekends before, and on the actual day, our family went round to our friends' house where they cooked for us. So firstly: our major family roast. This was quite possibly the best roast that I have ever had - I'm not even kidding. From the first picture, you can see my plate: carrots, brussel sprouts, herby hasselback roast potatoes, parsnips, broccoli, sage and onion stuffing, vegan dauphinoise potatoes, a nut roast, red cabbage, Morrison's 'No-Pigs In Blankets' (jackfruit based) and cranberry sauce. After the picture was taken I drowned it in gravy and it tasted heavenly! I felt so full afterwards (as you should on Christmas,) and did not feel like I was missing out on anything. I can't remember what I had for pudding after this as I didn't take any pictures, but I doubt it was much.
On Christmas eve, I decided to make some of my own mince pies (second picture). Super easy and fun to do - roll out pre-made pastry, cut into circles and put in a muffin tin, add in a spoon of mince meat (Tesco's is vegan) and more pastry on top. Out of the oven the pastry was a bit thick but they tasted pretty good! (Also peep my baby one that I made with leftover pastry.) On Christmas day at our family friends', I had all the usual roast veg, and an Aldi (I believe) mushroom wreath pastry, which I shared with the vegetarian Mum of the family. This was pretty good too, especially as they haven't cooked for a vegan before, so I was super grateful for it all. For dessert, my Mum made an incredible chocolate log that was entirely vegan (third picture)! She spent a week or two testing out different recipes to make it work and it paid off. The others said that they couldn't tell it was vegan which was even better, and it was super rich with thick cream made from coconut milk in the centre. Over Christmas I also received a lot more chocolate which I have barely gotten into yet because I got so much! I didn't get any chocolate/sweets that weren't vegan though too, which was lovely that everyone remembered. My favourite treat though was vegan chocolate coins - a Christmas staple in our household that I was not going to miss out on! Also, in my stocking I received something accidentally vegan called 'Gianduiotti'. 'Santa' apparently thought that they could be a replacement for my usual Ferrero Rochers, as they were apparently cocoa and hazelnut. These were unimaginably tasty, and I can't wait for them again, as they reminded me of something very familiar... You know in Quality Streets (another Xmas classic), there's the green triangles? - The Gianduiotti tastes exactly like them.
Family and Friends
Something that I have found over the past half-year, is that when eating around family or friends, I get so happy when they are eating something that is also vegan when I'm with them. My Dad will eat whatever I eat as long as it tastes good, and some of my friends have tried more vegetarian and vegan stuff at school. I have mentioned this to my Mum a few times as it makes me even more proud when she does it, because she doesn't really like trying new things (especially if it's vEgAn - apparently that makes it scary?). One evening, she sat down and watched the 'Vegan 2019' film with me, and immediately after requested that we watch 'The Game Changers'. This has been one of the highlights of my vegan experience so far, along with when we watched the 'Dirty Vegan' TV series on the BBC with vegan chocolate truffles that we both thought were delicious. I am yet to convince her to try the Greggs Vegan Sausage Roll, but my Dad has tried it and likes them. We have chilli con carne with vegan mince for dinner sometimes and there have been no complaints about it! My Dad and I have a small list of things that we want to try together, including the Greggs Vegan Steak Bake (I have tried this already, and Dad had a mouthful but he wants to try a full one for himself with me) and Rebel Whopper sans mayo at Burger King. I'm all about that father-daughter time, and want to do this with Mum to if she's willing!
Gousto
The most recent addition to our household is that we have welcomed a cooking recipe kit delivery for 4 meals a week. While Mum loves to bake, she hates to cook so this has helped her sort out the food shop a bit and plan meals. As I said, we get four recipes (each with four servings) and all ingredients included from Gousto a week, and within that Mum orders one plant-based meal. Now, I'm going to save more info on this for a future review, but the two kits we've had so far have been delicious. The plant-based ones have gone down a treat with Dad and I, and Mum even had one one night! Gousto have a variety of vegan options each week, which is really nice, and I'd love to maybe up it to two vegan ones a week if Mum finds that she is enjoying them just as much as Dad and I. As I say though, it's early days with this, but the whole family seems to be reaping the benefits of a wider range of cuisine with Gousto.
The Next Steps
All I can say that I want to do now is keep showing those around me how tasty it is to go vegan, and how you don't have to miss out on things just because you want to be kind to the planet and to animals. Nobody needs to have their bodies exploited for ice cream or cake and no blood needs to be spilt for a tasty burger. Four months ago in my two month check in, I said: "I haven't really missed anything other than the convenience and, I guess, ignorance." - This holds true for me, as I have quenched my longing for white chocolate with help from 'The Free From Kitchen', and duck pancakes with the help of 'Linda McCartney'. Convenience is less of an issue if you know do a bit of research, and it helps that most places we would normally eat at serve a vegan option or something easily veganised. The smell of bacon right in front of me on occasion is annoying, but I clearly don't miss bacon that much, because there's bacon substitutes on the market that I haven't bothered trying yet, that I hope I will in the future. (Fun fact, some of the supermarket own brand versions of 'Frazzles' are vegan, so you can still have your bacon crisps, everybody!) The only thing I could think of recently that I was surprised at missing, was honey crunch cornflakes. I used to eat these on occasion just as a snack, not even with milk, but now because of the honey I can't have them unforunately. Honestly it's no big deal, but if someone was to ask me what I wanted veganised right now, it'd be that. Weird request, I know.
Conclusion
So I'm not missing anything really, birthday and Christmas have been successful, and I love getting those close to me involved. I am super looking forward to trying new stuff in the future (particularly more pizzas, a big milkshake, donuts, cheesy pasta, cauli wings etc.) and honestly feel more morally aligned and awake to the world than ever. Learning so much about climate change and animal welfare through this transition has been such a big eye opener, and its something that people often hear about and bury their head in the sand. "I like meat", "I can't live without cheese", "It's the big companies' fault for burning fossil fuels all the time so me living this lifestyle and making small changes won't do anything" and "Vegan food is gross and not filling" are the mindsets that are going to lead us towards a more difficult future, and we can't keep ignoring the science. Do your research, try new foods and have fun without harming the planet! Food is one of the easiest changes you can make without sacrificing what you love, and three times a day you choose to be part of the problem or part of the solution.
Until next time, thank you for reading.
- the veggie frenchie
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