A productive couple of days

So I didn't get called in for any relief teaching work yesterday or today but did I let that get me down? No! Did I spend my time worrying about how I will pay the bills? N... ok maybe a bit. But did I choose to see this freed up time as an opportunity? Yes! Apart from looking for jobs, which is pretty much a daily occurrence in my life at the moment, I've spent the past couple of days being quite productive, sorting things out and getting to some of those 'I'll do that when I've got some spare time' jobs. It is so satisfying!

My mum recently gave me her old sewing machine and I am so excited and touched by this. She has had this machine my whole life, and it is the one she taught me to sew on when I was a child. I'm a very sentimental person so this sewing machine is something that is very special to me. I am so so excited to have it as my very own, and my mind is buzzing with all the projects I could make.

I have had this idea in my head for a while now, to make a different tablecloth for each Pagan festival. Then I could put the tablecloths on for dinner that night to really make it feel like a special celebration, and a reminder of the moment of the year that we are in. So yesterday I decided to christen my new sewing machine by making the first of my tablecloths. I made this one for Mabon, which is the upcoming festival celebrating the Autumn Equinox.

It was actually quite difficult to find fabric that really suited the Adelaide Autumn feel that I was going for. I wanted something which was Autumn coloured, but not dark or reminiscent of cold weather and snugliness, as Mabon falls in March in the Southern hemisphere and in Adelaide it is still very hot in March. After about an hour spent looking at every roll of fabric in Spotlight (not that I'm complaining, it was heaven!) I managed to find one that I think suits the feel. I'm still not quite sure though. But anyway, it was the best I could do! Hopefully I can save my pennies and make another one for Samhain in May, the festival celebrating the halfway point between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice. It's the origin of Halloween and one of my favourite festivals (because there is a feeling of cold weather and snugliness!).

My project today was to make my life a little more organised and stress-free. I don't know about you, but clutter and disorganisation make me feel stressed, and an organised environment where everything has a properly allocated (and labelled) place makes me feel peaceful and relaxed. Being a teacher, I have a lot of teaching resources and organising and storing these is a nightmare, particularly when you don't have a permanent job so you have to store them all at your house! I have one particular shelf in one of my wardrobes, where I had a whole heap of really great resources, but they were just all shoved in there so they were not accessible or usable. This was the shelf when I started:

This was the shelf when I finished:

It's still not quite done to the standard I would like, I still need to buy a couple of things next time I go shopping and borrow my mum's label maker, but looking at that shelf now makes me feel happy and satisfied, rather than panicked! Also, look at all the extra space for new resources! Yay!

Happy living! :)

Bio Cheese has landed in Australia!

Have you heard exuberant cries of excitement and delight echoing across the country? It's probably because Coles has recently begun stocking Bio Cheese, previously very hard to get in Australia. So there is now finally a vegan cheese available in a major supermarket! Yay Coles!

But what does it taste like? Well, apparently very very good. The internet was going crazy about it, so I decided I had better get into it and see what all the fuss was about. At $9.50 for 250g, it's not cheap, but vegan cheese never is, is it? So I forked out and excitedly unwrapped it and took a bite of a slice. Now as I have mentioned before, I have been burned by vegan cheese before, so I cautiously chewed my mouthful and carefully analysed the flavour and texture, but I'll be damned, it is very nice! The flavour and texture are both very reminiscent of Edam or Swiss cheese, and it is very hard to stop at just one slice. I have eaten it by itself, and on Arnott's Jatz biscuits, and both are delicious.

Next, the toughest test; the melt test. To be able to best analyse the melt texture and flavour, I made some simple cheese on toast (and very handily, 3 slices of Bio Cheese are the exact perfect fit for a slice of bread!). The cheese bubbled well under the grill and melted very well I think, compared to other vegan cheeses. Compared to dairy cheese, Bio Cheese melts like processed cheese slices, with a skin on the top and creamy melted cheese within. My only issue with this was that the skin got stuck on my teeth. Do not eat in public. The melted cheese within was very nice though, very creamy. It didn't stretch but hey, you can't have it all!

I think this cheese is great, definitely the closest I've ever tasted to dairy cheese. I think that it would be great in a toasted sandwich, as you wouldn't get the processed cheese skin issue, and I really want to experiment with putting it in pastas, soups, and seeing how it reacts when grated and spread on a pizza. Whie I still have a soft spot for Sheese on Jatz biscuits, I think that Bio Cheese is a definite winner, and very readily available! Yay! A sure sign that the vegan market is growing and becoming more influential, and a perfect example of the cycle of consume and demand. Companies only provide what you ask for with your money, if you ask for ethical foods and practices, that's what you'll get. So much for the "But you're only one person" argument, we're all only one person, and together we are billions of people.

Happy eating! :)

Top 5 family movies with vegan messages (that won't scar your children for life)

Growing up in the 90's, I was exposed to a large number of environmentalist-message TV shows and films. Most of them, while having an impact, weren't disturbing to me at all (with the exception of perhaps the poaching episodes of Captain Planet and Widget the World Watcher) but some of them were just plain horrifying.

I will never forget sitting glued to the TV every afternoon watching The Animals of Farthing Wood feeling so anxious and nauseous about which animals were not going to survive the traps, hunters, and road crossings on their way to finding a new home; and it was pretty gruesome.

There was also an awful 8.5 minute claymation called Turtle World which showed monkeys building a civilization on the back of a turtle that swam through the sky and as they cut down trees the turtle became sadder, then the monkeys pried up one of the scutes of its shell and 'mined' down into its body while it cried, and eventually the turtle dies and so does everyone riding on it. DISTURBING. If you too want to be disturbed, you can watch it here. There was also another animation shown at Christmas time which depicted happy pine trees being cut down and taken away from their friends to wither in lounge rooms before finally being thrown out to die in the gutters. I wish I was embellishing that story but I truly am not. Merry Christmas.

And that was just on the TV. As far as movies went there were gems like Once Upon A Forest where animals are killed by poison gas thanks to a road being built through their woodland home, and FernGully: the last rainforest where one of the main characters was an escaped laboratory animal who had electrodes sticking out of his brain.

All I can say is thank god that my mother kept Bambi and Black Beauty away from me or else I may have spent the rest of my life rocking in a corner.

So, what can you do if you're an ethically-minded vegan adult wanting to instill the same values in your children without terrifying them and scarring them for life? Don't worry, as a massive fan of children's movies I have been there and done all the research for you! Here are my top 5 picks of child friendly movies with powerful vegan messages. 

Number 5

Beauty and the Beast (Disney)

What it's about:

Come on guys, it's a 'tale as old as time'! Classic fairy tale set in provincial 19th century France. Selfish prince is cursed by enchantress to live life as a hideous beast until he can learn to love, and is loved in return. Intellectual Belle offers herself as The Beast's prisoner in exchange for her father's freedom. They fall in love. There is singing furniture.

Vegan messages:

In his introductory song, Gaston, the villain, declares "I use antlers in all of my decorating". If that's not a bad guy, I don't know what is. Belle, at first afraid of the mysterious and wild Beast, soon befriends him and sees his true, gentle nature. She, like all Disney princesses, is also very kind and nurturing towards other animals, and teaches the Beast to be the same. When the villagers find out about The Beast, they are afraid of "what we don't understand" and, rallied by Gaston's cry of "We're not safe until his head is mounted on my wall!", they set off to hunt down and kill The Beast, despite Belle trying to educate them on his true gentle, loving nature (replace 'Beast' with any other wild animal!). However, love and kindness prevail, bad guys are vanquished, and miracles happen.

Warning: This movie was made almost 25 years ago, when scary scenes in children's movies were actually a bit scary. Beauty and the Beast has 2 scary scenes involving a pack of wolves, a scary looking man who runs an insane asylum and is involved in a plot to have Belle's father institutionalised, and the scary-ish mob scene at the end. Depending on your child, they might want you close-by during those scenes, especially during the first viewing when they don't know that it all turns out ok. The wolf scenes would also provide a good opportunity to talk with children about how wolves are generally misunderstood and are often portrayed as evil and aggressive when in reality they are not (much like The Beast!). Oh, and if your child is anything like I was, they may become most upset when The Beast regains his true, human, form and may have to be carried out of the cinema screaming "I want The Beast back!" But don't worry, they will get over it and by the time they are in their mid-twenties they will just sulk and mutter it under their breath during that scene.

Number 4

Finding Nemo (Disney Pixar)

What it's about:

Nemo, a young clownfish living on the Great Barrier Reef, strives for independence and to prove to his father that he is quite capable despite his disability. During an effort to illustrate this, he is caught by a diver and taken away to Sydney to live in an office aquarium. His dad, Marlin, must traverse the oceans in an effort to find his son and along the way is joined by the bubbly but very forgetful Dory, as well as a whole cast of other animals the pair meet along the way. Hilarity ensures.

Vegan messages:

The diver who takes Nemo, mistakenly believes that he 'saved' him while he was "struggling for life out on the reef", when in fact that was not the case at all, Nemo was doing fine in his natural habitat. This highlights the ethics of removing animals from the wild and assuming that we know what is best for them, as well as the ethics of taking animals from the wild to keep as pets. There is also a scene where Dory is captured in a fishing trawler's net and Nemo and Marlin must help her, and the hundreds of other fish in the net, escape. I think this scene does a really good job of illustrating the terror felt by the fish in the net, and their will to live. It is also a great example of the problem of by-catch. Dory is obviously not the target species and yet she is caught in the net all the same. Additionally, along their journey, Marlin and Dory meet a group of sharks who have decided not to eat fish anymore because "Fish are friends, not food". Yes, there are vegan characters in this movie. Sure, one of them has a bit of a relapse, but he is back to living his ethical lifestyle at the end. But where do they get their protein...?

Point of annoyance: Movie is set in Australia, almost all of the side characters have Australian accents, so why do the main characters have American accents? Weird and jarring.


Number 3
Monsters Inc (Disney Pixar)

What it's about:
Set in the world of monsters, in a city called Monstropolis, best friends Sully and Mike work at Monsters Inc, the city's power company. In the monster world, power is generated by collecting children's screams. Sully and Mike work on the scare floor, where only the elite work. Sully is the company's best scarer, and Mike is his assistant. To collect screams, wardrobe doors are used to enter into the world of humans. The scarer scares the child in the room and then leaves, while the assistant collects the child's scream in a canister. All is well until one day, Sully and Mike find themselves in possession of Boo, an escaped toddler. A child escaping into the monster world is unprecedented, and children are believed to be extremely dangerous. Together Sully and Mike must return Boo to her world without being caught. Along the way they discover an evil plot that goes all the way to the top of the company, to kidnap children and use a machine to suck their screams out of them in an effort to combat falling productivity. 

Vegan messages:
Monsters Inc is an industry that runs on the exploitation of children. Children are treated cruelly, scared, and traumatized, but no one questions this because it is socially normal. Children and their screams are commodities, and there is a belief that screams are necessary in order for society to function. Societal myths support the exploitation of children; children are believed to be toxic, dangerous, and stupid, they are not thought of as having feelings like the monsters, they are lesser beings. It is not until Sully and Mike make a meaningful connection to a child that they realise that the social myths are wrong. However, they still believe in scaring, just doing it in an 'ethical' way, i.e. going into children's bedrooms to scare them rather than kidnapping them and using "The Machine" to suck screams out of them. This is a similar stance to that taken by those who buy 'free range' meat and eggs rather than factory farmed. A turning point comes in a moving scene where Sully accidentally scares Boo and is faced with the reality of how terrifying he is to children, and how much they are suffering because of him. Sully realises that what he is doing is wrong, there is no excuse for it and scaring has to stop. Sully ends up revolutionizing the industry so that both monsters and children benefit, changing the whole of society and showing that there is a better way. Throughout, Sully is guided by love and kindness and in the end, everyone is happier when the system is changed to one based on kindness.

What else your child will gain:
An introduction to Steve Buscemi, Billy Crystal, and John Goodman, which can only be a good thing. Also, if you're a fan of Disney Pixar movies (as I am) you'll know to look out for Easter eggs (hidden references to other Disney Pixar movies). Monsters Inc probably has the most Easter eggs of any Disney Pixar movie.

Number 2

Brother Bear (Disney)

What it's about:

Brother Bear is a beautifully animated coming of age story that follows an Inuit boy named Kenai, whose transition to manhood, he is told, must be lead by love. During a confrontation with a bear, which Kenai provokes, his older brother, Sitka is killed. Kenai's other brother, Denahi, says that he doesn't blame the bear for Sitka's death, as the bear was only acting within its nature, he blames Kenai. Kenai then hunts down the bear and kills it in revenge for Sitka's death. However, the spirits, including Sitka's spirit, are extremely saddened by Kenai's actions, and transform him into a bear. Denahi, who has followed his brother, arrives shortly after the transformation and believes that Kenai is the bear who killed Sitka, and that it has killed Kenai as well. In a fit of grief, Denahi swears to avenge his two brothers and kill the bear, who is really Kenai. While dodging Denahi and journeying to a sacred mountain in an effort to regain his human form, Kenai meets a young bear named Koda, who promises to take him to the mountain if Kenai will accompany him to the salmon run, as he has become separated from his mother. Over the course of their journey, the two form a close bond, however when Koda tells the other bears how he became separated from his mother, Kenai suddenly realises with horror that Koda's mother was the bear that he killed. Kenai must take responsibility for his actions and their outcomes. He learns to live guided by love, and everyone is changed for the better. As the movie's tagline says, 'the story of a boy who became a man, by becoming a bear'.

Vegan messages:

Wow, where do you start with this one? Killing animals is wrong. Animals have thoughts and feelings just like us. Animals are just as important as humans. Animals are here for their own purposes, not ours. This whole movie is just a wrap-up of vegan values! Ok firstly, this film does an excellent job of showing the same series of events from the point of view of the human, Kenai, and the point of view of the bear, Koda's mother. If you ever wanted a perfect instrument for teaching empathy, Brother Bear is it. Secondly, through his transformation and the relationships he builds, Kenai learns that bears are not vicious, mindless monsters undeserving of kindness, like he had always thought thought they were. He also realises that the bears (and other animals) fear humans and try to run away rather than resort to confrontation. When he revisits the events leading up to his murder of Koda's mother, he realises that this is what she had tried to do. Kenai realises that there was no excuse for his actions, and in a heartbreaking scene he tells Koda, "I have a story to tell you. It's kind of about a man, and it's kind of about a bear, but mostly it's about a monster. Koda, I did something very wrong. You're mother's not coming." By the end of his journey, Kenai chooses to put the needs of the animals above his own needs, and his transition into manhood is complete. Brother Bear does a great job of showing that all life on this planet is connected, all life is equal, and all life is sacred.

Also useful for:

Times when you need a good cry but can't find a socially appropriate reason to do so.

Number 1

How to Train Your Dragon (DreamWorks)

What it's about:
Hiccup is a Viking boy on the verge of manhood. Hiccup's home island, Berk, is periodically raided by dragons, who steal the Vikings' food. The Vikings respond by fighting the dragons and killing them (don't worry, you don't see any dragons being killed). Small, scrawny, accident-prone, and not dragon-fighting material, Hiccup is a disappointment to his tough, chieftain father. Hiccup's strongest desire is to kill a dragon to prove himself to his father, his community, and of course his love interest. There are many kinds of dragons, each different in its attack methods and the skill it takes to kill. The most dangerous of all dragons is one which is never seen, the Night Fury. No Viking would even attempt to engage a Night Fury in combat, so of course this dragon is Hiccup's target. Miraculously, Hiccup manages to catch a Night Fury, but he doesn't have the heart to kill it, and instead lets it free. However, the catlike dragon has been injured during capture, and is unable to fly. Hiccup ensures that the dragon, whom he names Toothless, is kept secret from the rest of the island's inhabitants, and constructs a prosthetic for the missing part of Toothless' tail, the part which is preventing him from flying. However, the pair discover that the prosthetic will not work on its own, Toothless will only be able to fly again if he is ridden by a human, so that the human can turn the prosthetic like a rudder for Toothless. Slowly Hiccup and Toothless gain one another's trust and friendship, and work in partnership. Meanwhile, Hiccup is enrolled in dragon-fighting school, where he uses his new found understanding of dragons and their behaviour to avoid having to fight any. However, this plan backfires when Hiccup comes top of the class and is giving the 'honour' of killing a captured dragon. Needless to say, Hiccup refuses, Toothless is discovered and captured, and everything gets very bad. Hiccup's father uses Toothless to lead him to the dragons' nest, where he hopes to kill them all. Of course this doesn't happen though, Hiccup and Toothless are reunited, minds are changed, dragons are saved, and the society is reformed into one where humans and dragons live in harmony. Hooray!

Vegan messages:

It was very, very tough ranking Brother Bear and How to Train Your Dragon, and How to Train Your Dragon only just came first, mostly because I think that it is very relevant to our society at present. Something that strikes me in this movie is the activism messages, and the 'it's ok to be different' messages. Basically, How to Train Your Dragon says it's ok to have ideas and beliefs that are different from the mainstream. It speaks to me as a vegan, saying yes, people might oppose you and your views, people close to you included, mostly because they are afraid of change and a move away from 'tradition', you must persist anyway. How to Train Your Dragon is about doing what's right, not what's popular, it's about questioning authority and 'the way things are'. It also highlights that old saying, 'the most dangerous phrase in the English language is "Because that's the way we've always done it"'. Hiccup goes against his family and community because of differing morals, and I'm sure that's something that a lot of vegans can sadly relate to. Like Brother Bear, this movie teaches that killing animals is wrong, teaches kindness and respect towards animals, and says that animals have feelings and a purpose of their own. Hiccup's father exploits Toothless, and this is shown to be wrong. Hiccup can't kill Toothless, this is seen as a sign of weakness and of not being a 'real man', but it is actually a sign of strength. Like Brother Bear, How to Train Your Dragon says that kindness and empathy towards animals is manly and heroic. I think that this is a very important message. Once his hunting quarry, Hiccup feels guilt and remorse for injuring Toothless. He feels responsible for Toothless' wellbeing as the injury has taken away Toothless' freedom and ability to return to the wild. As with the children in Monsters Inc, and 'farm animals' in the real world, in How to Train Your Dragon there are societal myths about dragons that justify their treatment, dragons are believed to be ruthless, stupid, and evil. And like Beauty and the Beast, this movie really highlights how lack of understanding leads to fear, and we see this all the time, in relation to sharks for example. Hiccup seeks to achieve a humane society through education and this reminds me of a quote from one of my favourite books, Priceless by Bradley Trevor Greive: 'In the end we will save only what we love, and we will love only what we understand'. I believe this is so true. All in all, I find How to Train Your Dragon so powerful and moving. How could it not rank first in this list with a quote like: "I wouldn't kill him because he looked as terrified as I was. I looked at him and I saw myself."? And let's not forget that moment:

Disclaimer:

Unfortunately How to Train Your Dragon 2 is not vegan at all in its messages, which is very disappointing. The dragons are pretty much treated like horses and viewed as commodities. Don't even GO there with the 'sport' that sees the protagonists throwing terrified sheep through the air into hoops for entertainment. I also do have a few negative points I'd like to share about the original. Firstly, the movie does have a bit of a conflicting message, being all 'wild animals want to be free' at the start, and moving towards a mutually beneficial trust/respect partnership towards the middle and the end. Also, during the fight scene at the end, the protagonists are mean to the 'bad dragon' that is controlling the others (though it is suggested that this might be natural hive behaviour? Confusing), and do kill it. How to Train Your Dragon also suffers from The Nemo Effect, all of the characters have Scottish accents except Hiccup and his friends, who have American accents. WHY?!

Special Mention

WALL-E (Disney Pixar)

As WALL-E just missed out on making the top 5, I'm putting it in as an added bonus, because it's awesome.

What it's about:

WALL-E is set in the future, where Earth has become uninhabitable due to the enormous amounts of rubbish generated by humans. The humans have abandoned the planet and have been orbiting around in a big spaceship for generations waiting for the planet to be cleaned up by the WALL-E waste disposal robots. WALL-E is the last functioning robot on the planet. He meets EVE, a life-probe robot sent from the human ark spaceship on periodic missions to search for signs of life. She finds it and together she and WALL-E embark on a journey to save mankind from themselves and bring them back to Earth. And on the way romance ensures. Of course.

Vegan messages:

Ok so not quite vegan, more environmental, but being vegan is great for the environment right?! WALL-E is a gentle soul who is kind to the cockroach that he meets while cleaning up all the rubbish on the abandoned Earth. When EVE first sees the cockroach she is afraid because she doesn't understand it, and she tries to kill it. WALL-E stops her and teaches her how to connect with animals. Together WALL-E and EVE fight to protect the fragile life of Earth and bring the humans home to live in harmony with the natural world. Man, I can never get through the end credits (where the children are learning to plant vegetables and life is returning to the planet) without crying my eyes out.

Other reasons you should see it:

This film is a cinematic masterpiece. There is no dialogue FOR THE FIRST 22 MINUTES and it doesn't need it, it is amazing. The main characters themselves only say 5 words between them, and are machines and yet they convey everything through their dialogue and 'facial' expressions. I have no idea how they convey so much though their faces, absolutely exceptional character design and animation. When WALL-E changes, you know it, just by looking at his face. The music and sound are great, but visually, this movie is amazing. If you can, watch it on blu ray with a HD TV and be blown away by the fire extinguisher scene. Oh, and the movie also has a big message about corporatisation, consumerism, and reliance on technology. And is a huge homage to 2001: a space odyssey.


Happy watching! :)

'I Need to Eat More Vegetables' Curry Recipe

You'd think that being vegan it would be easy to eat fruit and vegetables everyday. Well, it is, but sometimes nutrition does fall by the wayside and you realise with a shock that you have only eaten vegetables twice in the past week and you start checking your gums for signs of scurvy. Never fear, this curry will replenish your poor neglected body! Also, you don't have to wait until you're in the early stages of scurvy to make this, you could just, you know, make it because it's delicious.

Serves 4

2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ginger
2 onions, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
3 potatoes, cut into 2cm chunks
A large handful of green beans, cut in half
400g tin kidney beans
3/4 cup peas
400g tin chopped tomatoes
500ml water
1tsp salt
2 large handfuls of baby spinach leaves

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, heat the oil, then add coriander, cumin, turmeric, and ginger and fry for 30 seconds. Next add onion and fry for 3-5 minutes, until softened.

2. Add potato, carrot, and green beans, and fry for 5-10 minutes (I usually do it until the spices start to stick to the bottom of the pot).

3. Add kidney beans and peas, and stir to coat. Next add tomatoes, water, and salt. Bring to the boil.

5. Add spinach and stir to combine well. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then cover and simmer for a further 30 minutes.

Serve with rice.

Happy eating! :)

Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe

This recipe is one of my favourites and is slightly adapted from the one in Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's cookbook, The Joy of Vegan Baking. If you don't already have a copy, you should feel ashamed and quickly walk down to the bookshop and get one (or, more likely, click around to find the best price online). This book is fabulous, and so are these cookies.

1 3/4 cup plain flour
3/4 tsp bi-carb soda
3/4 tsp salt
Egg replacer made up to the equivalent of 1 egg (I use Ogran brand)
2 tbsp water
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup Nuttelex
3 tbsp soy milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup crushed peanuts

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C and line baking trays with baking paper. Trust me on the baking paper.

2. In a small bowl, combine flour, bi-carb, and salt.

3. Next, in a large bowl, combine brown sugar, peanut butter, soy milk, and vanilla extract using an electric hand mixer. Beat until well blended.

4. Add the egg replacer to the peanut butter mixture and beat until just combined. Next, add the flour mixture and peanuts and mix until just blended.

5. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls 5cm apart on the baking trays, and flatten slightly with a fork.

6. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set and just beginning to brown. Leave to cool on tray for 3-5 minutes before removing to let cool on a wire rack.

Happy eating! :)

Gratitude

This morning I started off my day in a beautiful way, with a two hour yoga and meditation session with beautiful people in the beautiful Adelaide Botanic Park. Thanks to the Adelaide Yoga Community and Breathe In Peace initiatives, these free sessions are run on the last Sunday of the month (for more details see the Adelaide Yoga Community Facebook page). Basically the aim is to create a collective consciousness and spreading of kindness, gratitude, and peace throughout the community and the world. It is also about nurturing kindness and gratitude within ourselves, towards our bodies, our rhythms, our lives, and creating inner peace.

Filled with this positive energy I came home feeling very calm and relaxed. I feel that an important part of establishing inner peace is surround ourselves with environments that create peace within us. For me, this means a clean and tidy environment, so I burnt some incense and straightened my house. I stripped the bed and put on my yellow quilt cover, because it makes me feel happy. Then I put on some classical music and baked some biscuits for an afternoon tea I was having with a friend (you can find the recipe here). Ahh the peace!

However, we are all different, I know that for a lot of people clean and tidy spaces make them feel anxious. This is ok, we are all unique and we all require unique energies. Something that we all have in common though, I think, is that all too often we find ourselves drawn to thinking about what isn't, instead of what is. I really enjoyed talking with my friend over afternoon tea, and something that was talked of a lot (and even visited) was the house she is building. It would be easy to fall victim to feelings of envy and self pity, but instead I only felt excitement and gratitude that this wonderful thing was happening to a most deserving friend. It is so liberating to experience positive vibes over negative ones, if only we all lived with more gratitude, respect, and love in our hearts.

It was at this point in my day that I was truly overwhelmed with gratitude. Things have been tough for a long time, but I recently confided in my mum that I have been skipping meals because I can't afford to buy enough food for a whole week. This afternoon, she showed up at my door with boxes of food that she had bought for me, as well as a posy of herbs and flowers to brighten my day.

Tears were shed. There are just no words to describe how thankful I am for the kindness and generosity of this woman and how much she has helped me over the years, but particularly over this past year.

Having so many options for dinner was slightly overwhelming, but I eventually decided to make a curry filled with HEAPS of vegetables, because vegetables have been scarily lacking in my diet of late, what with my diet mostly consisting of rice, toast, and breakfast cereal. Instead of eating in front of the computer like I usually do, I made dinner a special event, a special time for me to just spend time on me.

The curry was amazing, so delicious, colourful, and nourishing, and you can find the recipe here. Unfortunately I began to feel a bit ill while eating dinner, I'm not used to eating a normal amount of food or eating food of actual substance. But still, I was thankful that my body was finally receiving the nutrition it needed.

Part of embracing gratitude, love, and peace, is being kind to ourselves, and taking the time to nurture ourselves. So often we are caught up in the business of life that we overlook this. Stop and take a moment to truly love yourself. To acknowledge your amazing body and the way it keeps you alive and makes you who you are. Take that moment to respect yourself and thank yourself for being awesome. Then give yourself an internal self-hug (or, hell, an actual self-hug). You could even nurture your body and soul with a warm candle-lit bath and the best of Tchaikovsky, as I did.

'I just love this day I just feel that we're blessed' - DNA (from the song Life As It Is)

Happy living! :)

Growing and changing: less salad, more life

So I haven't posted in a while and the reason is that I was just too flat out doing other things and something had to give! I did my final student teaching placement, finished my university degree, loved and lost, and started my career as an actual qualified teacher (finally!).

Also, I wanted a little break because I wanted some time and space to think, and I have been thinking a lot. Because increasingly I was wanting to post about things that weren't necessarily about veganism, they were just about my own life and things that I was doing that I wanted to share. But this didn't really fit with the focus of 'So Do You Just, Like, Eat Salad?'

I feel that it is time for a direction change, and as as I said, this is something I have been mulling over for a long time. Over time, I have been growing and changing and the things I want to share have been moving beyond 'So You You Just, Like, Eat Salad?', and something else has been taking shape in my head. Something called Little Vegan Life.

Now don't fret lovers of 'So Do You Just, Like, Eat Salad?', because Salad will still be here in spirit! All of the yummy recipes, the food product reviews, the reporting on what I ate at various events, and the thoughts and ponderings will continue, there will just be more... other stuff! Also, all of the old posts are still here to rummage through. I've even kept the URL the same so that links to this blog on other sites will still work.

Things grow and change, people grow and change, ideas grow and change, that is nature and that is wonderful. Think of this as 'So Do You Just, Like, Eat Salad?' growing and changing, dying its hair, listening to different music and wearing different clothes, but still being the same blog underneath.

I am really excited to be sharing more of my little vegan life with you, and as always I would love for you to share your life and thoughts with me as well as we go. Here's to a new chapter!

Happy reading! :)

Vegan chicken noodle soup recipe

The other day a colleague brought a chicken noodle soup in for lunch. It looked really yummy and I was like you know what? I can veganize that! So away I went to invent this recipe. It's quick, easy, very very yummy, and doesn't involve any dead animals.

Serves: 4-6

2 carrots, diced into small pieces
2 sticks celery, diced into small pieces
2 onions, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
250g vermicelli pasta, broken into 1/3 lengths (or use angel hair pasta if you can find it, I couldn't get any!)
3L vegan chicken stock (I am a fan of Massel powdered stock)
A big handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 tbsp Nuttelex

1. Melt the Nuttelex in a large saucepan, then add the carrot, celery, and onion and fry for 5 minutes.

2. Add the garlic and fry for a further 2 minutes. Then add stock and bring to the boil.

3. Add the pasta and stir. Boil soup for 10 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked.

4. Stir in the chopped parsley and serve.

Happy eating! :)

In sickness and in health

Sometimes in life we take risks. We take risks and we think 'it'll be alright', and then sometimes it isn't. This year I didn't get the flu shot. I was busy, I didn't have time to get it and I didn't have the money to pay for it. Then I got the flu, and considering the loss of productivity and wages I experienced, it would have been much better to just get the shot in the first place. Ah well, hindsight's like that isn't it?

So I was very ill for several weeks, even now that I'm back at work I'm still not 100%. This was also my first experience of being sick while living alone, and it was hard! But thankfully in my hour of need, I still had my family to take care of me. My grandmother to drive me to the doctor, my sister to lend me the entire box set of Horrible Histories, my mum to cook for me, buy me medicine, and lend me money so that I could pay my rent.

One day when I was really sick, my mum brought around this beautiful basket full of things to nurse me back to health. Herbal teas specifically designed to support your immune system, help you get to sleep, and restore energy; my favourite biscuits; a big pot of warm homemade baked beans, and some nice bread to go with it.

If my break-up and the difficult period following it has shown me anything, it's the love of my family and the way in which we all support each other. You're never alone when you're surrounded by people who love you. Thank you family, for being awesome.

Happy loving :)

Samhain (and the Woolton pie recipe)

As some of you may know, and others may have picked up, I am Pagan. For me, this means observing the movement of our amazing planet as it travels through space, the seasons which result from this, and the feelings we inherently associate with these seasons. I've always celebrated the Pagan festivals by having a special dinner that reflects the moment in time we are celebrating.

Shortly before we split up, Jeff and I observed Samhain, which is the festival from which Halloween was created. Samhain marks the halfway point between the Autumn Equinox (Mabon) and the Winter Solstice (Yule. Ah, I see you making the historical connections to another popular festival celebrated around the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere...). Samhain is the final festival of the Pagan calendar and represents death and dying in the circle of life, before the spark of life is reignited at Yule when the days begin to lengthen once more and the sun begins to return. It seems fitting then that this would be the last festival that Jeff and I would spend together. This is also a very fitting time for me to be grieving for this loss and spending my time healing, consolidating, and refocusing for a new beginning in the coming months, because that's what this time of year symbolizes.

However, Samhain, with its background of death, is not a time of sorrow. It is a time of acceptance, of love, and of appreciation for what you have, and what you will have. I like to make something for dinner on that night that reflects that feeling you get around this time of year, that you just want to curl up in the warmth with a hearty meal and those you love, and hibernate through the Winter. This year I made something I've been wanting to make for years, Woolton Pie.

Woolton Pie has its roots in WWII England when rations meant that there wasn't a whole lot to eat besides a few vegetables and a bit of flour. I found my recipe many years ago and cut it out of a magazine, the name of which I have long since forgotten, and have been saving it for a festival such as Samhain. It was a bit more effort than I like to take when making dinner, so I think it'll stay as a 'special occassions' meal only, though I must say the pasty was very yummy!


Woolton Pie

Serves 4

For the filling

450g potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
900g carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 leek, thinly sliced
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
Pinch of nutmeg
Chopped parsley
Nuttelex
Vegetable stock or water
Salt and pepper to taste

For the pastry

50g Nuttelex
22g plain wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

2. Fry the potatoes and carrot separately in Nuttelex until soft. Set aside.

3. Fry the spring onions, celery, and leek in Nuttelex until soft.

4. Mix all the cooked vegetables together with the dried thyme, and salt, pepper, nutmeg, and chopped parsley to taste. Fill a pie dish with this mixture, bury the bay leaf in the middle, and moisten with a little vegetable stock or water. Set aside to cool.

5. To make the pastry crust, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder together. Rub in the Nuttelex, then add enough water to make a rolling consistency, although one that is slightly softer than when making pastry with white flour. Roll out and use to cover the pie.

6. Bake for 1 1/2 hours.

Happy eating! :)

Lately...

I had intended to write longer individual posts on all of these, but in light of recent events I think a list will have to do.

Carrot, potato and peas curry from Allotment 2 Kitchen.

From the NEW Oxfam Vegetarian Cookbook (yes there's a new one!), spiced cauliflower masala.

African sweet potato and peanut stew.

Bean and vegetable chili from Fat Free Vegan with quinoa.

Pancakes with sliced banana and amber agave syrup for breakfast.

Roasted pumpkin seeds which came out this time with the most amazing melt-in-your-mouth texture!

Alpine Coconut Yoghurt with banana for a snack.

Porridge with amber agave syrup on cold mornings.

A delicious pie I got during my Everything Vegan shopping spree, McCain's Beer Batter Chips, and tomato sauce.

Homemade carbonara (you can find the sauce recipe here) with Kinda Bacon.

Happy eating! :)

How to heal a broken heart

Bob Graham wrote an excellent picture book called How to Heal a Broken Wing, the book follows a pigeon with a broken wing and the boy who helps it. There's a very vegan message of empathy, respect, and kindness towards all creatures and I highly recommend you check it out.

As you would have noticed, I have been absent from blogging for quite some time. The reason for this is that after 6 years together, Jeff and I split up. As I'm sure you can appreciate, this has been devastating and heart-wrenching for me, so I hit the pause button on my life and went to curl up by myself for a bit. I'm just starting to emerge back out into the world now, but the sadness and the grief is still there, and I'm still completely heartbroken.

Bob Graham writes that a broken wing can sometimes heal with rest, and time, and a little hope. But how does one heal a broken heart? Not with Breakup Pudding from PETA's Vegan College Cookbook, that's for sure! In my happily coupled-up days, I'd always wanted to make this recipe but never got around to it. Then when I found myself alone and facing suffocation under an ever-increasing mountain of snotty tissues, I thought yes, now's the time.

This pudding is not for the faint hearted. It contains 10 tablespoons of sugar and though it professes to feed 4, I dispute that claim. This is 10 tablespoons of sugar for 1 person. Along with the entire sugar stocks of Australia, the pudding also requires a whopping 8 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 pack of silken tofu, 2.5 teaspoons of vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. Then you simply blend it all until smooth and chill. The end result comes out like this (please excuse the poor quality of the photo, I was not in a good state of mind):

Is it possible to feel worse after your life partner has just abandoned you, you know you're going to be alone forever, and you find yourself curled up on the lounge watching 500 Days of Summer while wearing a jumper that says 'I Like Cats' and crying into your breakup pudding? Well, no, but it is possible to feel very very sick on top of that. Was it eating my own weight in sugar? No, I don't believe so, though that did cause my heart to race at an extraordinary speed. Was it eating a pudding made for 4 people in one sitting? No, that's not really out of the ordinary for me. No, it was the absurd amount of cocoa, I'm talking so much cocoa that it burns the back of your throat as you're eating it. The problem is, the ratio of cocoa to water was, well, non-existent. This meant that the cocoa created a sort of thick gel in my stomach and couldn't continue down into my small intestine which resulted in terrible nausea and a great amount of vomiting. On the plus side, the relief that one experiences post-vomit was probably the emotional highlight of my day.

So if you're ever heartbroken, I suggest that you ignore PETA's advice and do not eat their breakup pudding, even though sugary, chocolaty gloop is exactly what you feel you need. I think Bob Graham is probably on the right track, the only things that really heal a broken heart are rest, time, and a little hope.

Happy (not) eating...and here's to hope.

RSPCA: accepted fishing methods are inhumane

We have a sick fish in our house and while searching for advice I came across RSPCA guidelines on euthanasing fish (interesting) and RSPCA guidelines on killing fish for food (more interesting).

Personally I have never fished in my life because even as a child I found it an abhorrent bloodsport. However, as I'm sure we all have, I have witnessed my fair share of fishing. Now, the accepted method of fishing sees fish being pulled from the water and left out in the air to die by suffocation (how 'fun'!). Occasionally I have also seen them put into containers of icy water.

Interestingly, the RSPCA states that both of these methods are "not suitable for killing fish as they do not result in a rapid or humane death". Honestly, I was very surprised (pleasantly surprised) at this considering that the RSPCA endorses practices such as 'barn laid' eggs. So what are the killing methods considered 'humane'? A forceful blow to the head rendering unconsciousness followed by bleeding out, or spiking the brain (which should render the fish unconscious as soon as the spike enters the brain). So, how many people have you seen doing that?!

Unfortunately, despite all Australian animal welfare legislations covering vertebrates (which fish obviously are) in WA and my home state of SA fish are specifically excluded from cruelty protection. This is totally unacceptable and ridiculous! Animals are animals, pain is pain, suffering is suffering. Again, surprisingly the RSPCA agrees (it's not often that we see eye-to-eye) stating that "Because there is clear evidence that fish are sentient animals capable of experiencing pain and suffering, RSPCA Australia believes that fish should be uniformly protected under State and Territory animal welfare legislation."

So be a voice for sea kittens! Share this information and hopefully fish-killing-type-people will start to re-think their actions.

Happy reading and advocating! :)

Warming Winter stew recipe

There's just something about cold rainy nights that makes me want to eat warm, nutritious comfort food! Slow cooking food is the best because it makes the house smell all yummy and cozy. This is a favourite stew of ours, a hearty meal to warm your soul.

We used liquid smoke in this, which we bought during our Everything Vegan shopping spree. It really is a fantastic product, if you haven't tried it you should!

Serves: 6-8

4 large potatoes (or 6 smallish ones)

3 large carrots

2 parsnips

2 swedes/turnips

2 large brown onions

1 cup pearl barley

2.5L beef stock (Massel brand is vegan)

1 tsp liquid smoke

1. Peel the potatoes, parsnips, and swedes/turnips and chop into 1cm cubes. Peel the carrots and chop the smaller half into coins, and the thicker half into semi-circular pieces. Dice the onions.

2. Put all ingredients into a large saucepan, cover, and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 2 hours, stirring twice.

Happy eating! :)