Beans, beans, good for your heart...

Sorry for the crappy picture, I took it on my webcam. A couple of weeks ago my dad introduced these to me. These yummy beans are called fava beans and as it says on the tin they are common in Saudi Arabia. These tasty beans are marinated in a tomato and spice sauce and are a alternative thats 10000000 x better than baked beans. I bought them at the local arabic store, however they are also a number of websites that sell them. here they are:


http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/acatalog/Medammes-Fava-Beans.html

and this one, which is quite a bit cheaper:


http://www.abubakarstore.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=29&products_id=657&osCsid=q0ei93isbr8lok5s8n928t82v2

M xxx

What's cooking? Good looking.

Today has been a stay in day today and other than reading my book and getting a little bit of work done for my EPQ, my main task for the day has been cooking up some yummy treats. I'm currently kicking myself for not having my camera up and running because they looked absolutely divine. I made 2 things, both with the assistance of my gorgeous assistant, my lovely little sister. I made a divine chocolate cake and some yummy spring rolls.



Usually I make my cakes from scratch, because, if I do say so myself, my cakes are pretty good. I've been told enough times. However this was on sale in the local co-op so I decided to give it a try. This product isn't  specifically vegan because you are meant to add butter and eggs, it's meant to be gluten free. However, if you use a powder egg substitute and some Pure dairy free margarine, then this makes up a "nommy", as my boyfriend says it, cake. Anyway, the cake is delicious and much recommended  to try.

9/10

This is their website: http://www.halenhearty.co.uk/our_range/products/classic_chocolate_cake_mix/


The other thing I made were some spring rolls. I've been meaning to make them for ages, since I bought the dim sung pastry at my local oriental supermarket. It was so cheap, about 89p and enough to make 100 or so spring rolls. I also bought a huge tin of water chestnuts for under a pound. So all in all, a cheap choice. To make them I grated some carrots, chopped some mushrooms, onion and water chestnuts and stir-fried them in a wok. Once the veggies were cooked I put them in a container and added extra oil to the wok. While I was waiting for the oil to heat up I laid out the pastry sheets, put a spoonful of veg on each and rolled them up. I popped 3 in at once, however I left them on one side for slightly too long. Oh well, they still tasted yummy. From then on, once I'd got the hang of it, they turned out pretty fab. Try this!


M xx  

Just a quickie

Found this link for all you chocolate lovers out there. Its a great website that sells all those yummy raw chocolates including "concious" and "ombar" that I've been talking about, and they are slightly cheaper than they are in the shops.

 Here you go:

http://www.therawchocolateshop.com/

Recent finds

Lucy's Gluten Free Chocolate Cookies:

Found these yesterday in the larger health food store in my area. They are currently on sale: reduced to £2.49 from £3.69. However I think they are still a little pricey. They taste nice, even my boyfriend liked them. They are pretty low calorie: I reckon each cookie is 20-30 calories, not too bad. They have a nice flavour but they are very crunchy cookies and i'm more of a fan of soft cookies. But still they deserve a pretty decent score.

6/10

Ombar Raw Vegan Chocolate:

 

There's no denying. This chocolate is yummy, and also, like the cookies is on sale. Its 3 for 2 down at my local health food shop. Still £2 a bar but not too dear.  They have loads of different flavours but i picked out Goji, Acia and Pro-biotic Strawberry. Unlike Conscious chocolate this chocolate is much harder, more like a normal bar. Though the taste doesn't beat Conscious its a much better bar for non vegans because the taste isn't too strong and my mum loved, as, rather surprisingly did my 3 year old sister.

8/10

Mmmm, chocolate.

Before I didn't really care about chocolate because I didn't miss it. But in the past couple of weeks I have been trying a couple of different Vegan chocolate, particularly raw chocolate. I've had a couple of bad experiences with vegan chocolates. Particularly a Sugar Free Milk Chocolate Alternative bar that I bought, it literally tasted like crap, everyone agreed- my brother, boyfriend, mum and sister. Very disappointing. But enough of the downside, more of the upside. 

The most amazing tasting chocolate: Conscious Organic Raw Handmade Chocolate. It made in Kent, UK, so not massively far for me. It tastes fantastic, melts in the mouth and the flavour remains with you for ages, leaving you with a heavenly after-taste. Another thing, its fantastically low in calories, the whole bar being under 100 cals.  My favourite flavour has to be "Mint Hint" but they are all yummy. Only downside, price. At £3+ for 50g its rather on the expensive side. But let me tell you, its worth every penny and i mean it. Every single penny.   

Here's a link to their website:

http://www.consciouschocolate.co.uk/ 

I will add anymore I find soon.

M xx

Accidentally Vegan

Just stumbled apon this post on the PETA website. Its about products that are accidentally vegan. Though its mostly about US based products and therefore doesn't really apply to me, I thought i would share it for all you stateside vegans :)

http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/accidentally-vegan.aspx

Oh and another one:

http://www.traderjoes.com/pdf/lists/list-vegan.pdf

Now for you UK Vegans like myself I will hunt down a site for you. Hmm.... I'm sure I saw one a few weeks back. However one thing I can tell you now is that Sainsburys Bakery Donuts are most definitely vegan, I had a bite of one yesterday, and my wildly carnivorous boyfriend who could not survive without a regular meat and dairy, loves them and was suprised when i told him they were vegan. I think he was hoping to have the 6 pack all to himself ;). Now here's two websites for you UK 'uns now but some of them are defunct. But here they are anyway:

http://accidentallyvegan.tumblr.com/

Here's a list from Sainsburys of their vegan products:

 http://www2.sainsburys.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/E90161C1-F753-412B-910C-36DDFB7331AF/0/VegansproductlistJune2012.pdf

Now we just need to get all the other supermarkets to follow suit :)

Vegan Celebs

There are plenty of vegan celebs- though I'm pretty sure there's many out there only choosing this lifestyle for the benefits that it does to your body, there are others who do a lot to promoting veganism and helping others understand us just a little bit better. One of the prime examples of this has to be Ellen DeGeneres who not only actively promotes all things vegan with her long term partner Portia De Rossi but has even created a website for wannabe vegans. I recommend you visit it!

http://vegan.ellen.warnerbros.com/