Returning to the world of blogging

I am back after a long time away due to a busy life! I am now studying a Advanced Diplomia of Nutritional Medicine. I hope to become a nutritionist that specialises in vegan nutrition. I have had a few slip ups with my vegan eating. I accidently ate crackers with milk products in it (oops!) and I gave into cravings for red lolly frogs with gelatine in them! I have discovered a nice alternative to the geletine filled red frogs, Woolworths Homebrand Jelly Babies do not contain gelatine! And they are so soft and delicious! I hope everybody is keeping cool (It was stinking hot in Adelaide today) if you are on the other side of the world I hope you are keeping warm! - Amanda

Stop Animal Abuse In Malaysia : Online Petition

Stop Animal Abuse In Malaysia : Online Petition:



Animal abuse is increasingly rampant in Malaysia, with senseless abuses and killings by local councils and cold-blooded people. We must act NOW, and act FAST.

Let's play a role in stopping animal abuse and cruelty! We aim to collect 50,000 signatures ASAP and present it to our Prime Minister.

Please sign the joint online petition by leading Malaysian animal welfare NGOs, and show how much you care about the animals. Spread the word to your friends too.

Together, we can make a difference.

Sign Petition Now:
http://StopAnimalAbuse.PetFinder.my/

Farm To Fridge

WARNING - This video has scenes that may disturb some viewers. The video portrays the cruel industries of meat, eggs and milk including slaughter. It is important that people see the source of their animal products so they can make an informed choice and help stop this cruelty.

What's wrong with wool

Get free stickers at peta2.com

A vegan feast!

My friend and I decided to try out two new veg cafes today, one for lunch and one for dessert. The first cafe we went to was Vego and Loving It, a very secuded little cafe upstairs in a building on Rundle Street. It was a little hard to find at first but when we found the cafe's mosaic sign we were pleases to have finally found it. I ordered a falafel wrap with a fresh orange juice. The wrap was full of delicious ingredients such as hummus, sprouts, lettuce, tomato and falafels. My friend ordered the tempeh burger that he didn't enjoy too much but he loved the juice and the bit of my wrap he tried.

Our next stop was to Joy Discovery Cafe on Bent Street in Adelaide. We ordered a pot of green tea to share and a slice of cake each. I had the Raspberry Vegan Cheesecake and he had Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake. We both throughly enjoyed the cake and the tea. A lovely sweet end to our little vegan feast. :)

Have a veggie good day
-Amanda

Bliss Organics

Yesterday my friend and I decided to give the Bliss Organics breakfast menu a try. I ordered the pancakes with apples and maple syrup and my friend tried the BLT. The pancakes were so cute and rustic but so delicious! The apple slices were cooked into the batter and the batter also included sunflower seeds, pepitas and raisins. For a drink I ordered the hot apple juice infused with lemon thyme, cloves and cinnamon. It was naturally sweet and comforting for a cold day. The cafe also houses a vegan shop that sells a variety of vegan groceries, raw foods, shoes, books, tshirts and personal care products.

The Bliss Organics website is http://blissorganiccafe.com.au/

My friend and I are planning to return to Bliss in the future to try other menu items :) A must see place for vegan living or visiting Adelaide.

Have a veggie good day
-Amanda

Jackie O's Factory Farming PSA for Animals Australia

More videos from Animals Australia

Lisa The Vegetarian

I am a big Simpsons fan!!! One of my favourite episodes is "Lisa The Vegetarian". I thought I would share a few clips from the episode.

My journey as a vegan so far

I have only been a vegan for a very short time but already I feel the benefits. My nails are stronger, I am getting less asthma and I feel more positive about the food choices I am making. The other benefit is that I am saving money because I no longer buy so much takeaway food, I carry around my own snacks and buying beans and tofu is so much cheaper than meat. Becoming vegan has been a positive change in my life and I know it will continue to be.

Have a veggie good day!
- Amanda :)

A new discovery!

I have found this wonderful veg eating guide called VegDining.com. It is an online guide to vegetarian and veg-friendly eateries and shops around the world. It would be a great resource for anybody travelling overseas or within Australia.

http://www.vegdining.com/Home

Have a veggie good day!
- Amanda

57 Health Benefits Of Going Vegan

I found this article on the net that I would like to share with you. It's about the health benefits of a vegan diet.

http://www.nursingdegree.net/blog/19/57-health-benefits-of-going-vegan/

Happy Cow and Cupcakes

This website is an excellent source of information for vegetarians and Vegans

HappyCow's Compassionate Healthy Eating Guide provides a worldwide directory of vegetarian restaurants and natural health food stores with peer reviews. Browse HappyCow's database with listing in over 100+ countries. Also find vegetarian and vegan recipes, an up-to-date events calendar, travel and health tips, raw food information as well as a lively online community.

I have also checked out this book that is a great cookbook for vegans who love cupcakes.




Have a veggie good day
-A

A light hearted video

This time an entertaining video on the reasons why humans are not meant to eat meat.

The truth about milk

Delicious dishes that are kind!

The last few days have been a new experience for me. I have been experimenting in the kitchen with spices, egg replacer, coconut milk and soy chocolate chips (not all in the one dish of course!). One delicious creation I came up with was my Dalmation Cake Bars

I bought a 89c Woolworths Homebrand Vanilla Cake Mix (which is a cheap vegan bargain!). I substituted the milk with the same amount of light coconut milk and the egg with egg replacer. I then added 1/2 a bag of Sweet Williams Dairy Free Chocolate Chips then mixed it all together. Then I put the mixture into a greased rectangle cake tin, sprinkled some extra chocolate chips on top and baked in a gas oven for about 30 minutes. When it was cooked and cooled I cut it into bars.

The finished product was morish and delicious!!! I couldn't stop at one piece and I could not believe it was vegan.

Have a veggie good day and keep warm! (Because its bloody freezing in Adelaide at the moment!)

- A

One step further - I am now a vegan!

I know that I have only been a vegetarian for a short time but I felt the time was right to go vegan. I have been researching the vegan life for a while even when I was an omnivore but felt scared to give up the foods I adored such as Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate and cheese (OMG I love cheese!!!).

The one other thing I feared was the impact I would have on other people and how they would feel about my change. My fiance is totally supportive and I don't pressure him to give up his meat eating ways because I don't want to push my beliefs on others, if they are curious about my eating they only have to ask.

So now this blog will be about my journey into being vegan! :)

Have a veggie good day :)

-A

Experimetation is the key to tasty meals

I am suprised how tasty my fried rice turned out today. I was going to make a tofu stir fry for lunch but took one whiff of the tofu and chucked it. So I decided to improvise. Instead of using tofu I used egg (I only buy humane choice free range eggs), chinese cabbage, carrot, garlic, sesame seeds and pepitas. I cooked up some basmati rice and sprinkled tamari (a type of soy sauce) on top after I put the stir fried egg and veggies on the rice.

This will be a dish I will make again in the future. Some of my favourite dishes have been created by throwing a few things together out of the pantry.

Have a veggie good day!
-A

Meet Your Meat

A video that everybody should see about the truth on where your meat comes from.

The cloest thing to meat for vegetarians

I have discovered the Fry's Vegetarian range at Woolworths and Foodland. In the last week I have tried the chicken style strips and the burgers and they were the best meat alternatives I have tasted! The burgers actually tasted like beef! I used the chicken strips in a sweet and sour stirfry with udon noodles and it was so tasty!

Check out their range on their website
http://www.frysvegetarian.co.za/

Have a veggie good day! :)
-A

Tofu Chocolate Pudding Experiment

I was very suprised that my tofu chocolate pudding turned out to be quite nice. I didn't follow a recipe, I just threw the ingredients into my blender, whizzed it up and chilled it until it was a little bit set.

I used the following ingredients in my experiment:
- a container of silken tofu
- jarrah chocolate drink powder
- maple syrup
- a little bit of stevia (a natural sweetner)

It actually tasted a lot like So Good Chocolate Frozen Dessert.

I would of taken a photo of it to post on here but I ate it before I had the chance to take a photo lol!

How many animals have I saved since I made the move to veg!

Save Lives with Animals Australia Unleashed!

The joys of my local library

I have discovered a number of excellent veggie cookbooks both vegan and vegetarian at my city's library.  The Adelaide City Library has an excellent range of cookbooks including:

How To Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

This book is actually written by a meat eater that wants to eat more meatless meals.  It is a very thick book (it was a pain to carry home in my backpack) but it has so much information from very basic recipes to more complex dishes.  A book worth checking out.  I would give it 5 tofu cubes out of 5!  (Instead of using stars to rate books, tofu cubes seem more appropriate lol!)
http://content.markbittman.com/books/how-to-cook-everything-vegetarian

The Best Veggie Burgers On The Planet by Joni Marie Newman

This book would be excellent for all those junk food addicts out there.  I love the variety of vegan burger recipes in this book from a Chinese Take Out Burger to a Coconut Rum Rice Burger. I give this book 5 tofu cubes out of 5!
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Veggie-Burgers-Planet-Creations/dp/1592334768

Have a veggie good day! :)
-A

Horray my first post!

I am excited to finally start up a blog to share my experience of my new meat free diet.  Before I decided to become a vegetarian I loved a nice juicy steak, cooked to medium with a side of curly fries!  I still love curly fries but now the steak is absent from my plate. 

It has taken me a long time to get to this point.  My first experience within a veg world was when a high school friend decided to become a vegetarian then a vegan.  He gave me a taste of delicious vegan food and also introduced me to fake meats.  It took me a while to become veg (a few years to be exact) but after being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and watching a documentry on slaughterhouses I decided that a veg diet was the way to go.

These are a few of my favourite websites that I have discovered during my 2 months of being vegetarian.  Check them out!  They might change your mind about meat.

The Australian Vegetarian Society http://www.veg-soc.org/cms/html/ 
Animals Australia Unleashed http://www.unleashed.org.au/change_the_world/
PETA http://www.peta.org/

Have a veggie good day :)
-A