All about... (vegan) food!

Getting practical

2012-01-21T13:11:00.001Z

If you were wondering if I already had my baby the answer is not ;-) But I'm not cooking or doing anything special in the last weeks besides trying to get as much rest as I can before the big day and that's why I'm not blogging too.

But today I'd like to share two Redwood products that we'd bought recently and are really good:

Celebration Roast: this is a Cheatin' Turkey Roast with Vegetarian Rashers. Matteo bought it thinking about Christmas but we ended up eating it a few days after and it is really good. Easy to prepare, soft and tasty.

Mixed Meat Free Sausages: this set is great for snacks and part of it was gone during a football (soccer) game last week with my mum here (she's staying 40 days with us). Once again, soft and tasty - and you can also eat with your favourite sauce (we've eaten them just with mayonnaise).

We found both products in The Health Store (located at Dundrum Shopping Centre). One more useful tips for vegans in Dublin.

Yesterday night we had friends coming over for dinner and Matteo prepared his almost famous cotechino servito con polenta e lenticchie (sausage served with polenta and lentils) and pizza and the guys brought chocolate and vanilla Swedish Glace ice cream and chocolates. It was a funny night and it was amazing for me to have friends around before the baby arrives.

Vegan job? I wish!

2012-01-06T18:16:00.000Z

As you can read in my bio here I love to cook and to write and it's great when I can do both. Lately I'm not cooking that much (well, I'm cooking basically everyday but nothing special or fancy, just regular meals to give me energy and everything I need in the end of the pregnancy) but in the last months I've started to write more.

Having a vegan job is like a dream to me but it's not my priority now considering that soon I'll be a full time mom for a while! But from time to time I write articles to vegan or vegetarian magazines about vegan subjects and this really makes me happy. In December I got my first freelance article for the biggest vegetarian magazine in Brazil (called "Revista dos Vegetarianos") and I wrote about vegan paradises around the world (not places to eat, but new initiatives such as supermarkets). I was pretty happy with the final result, it's a four page article mentioned in the cover and I was even happier when the editor said I could keep sending suggestions. And now I'm finishing the second one, which will be published in their February edition :) I really hope I can find time and energy too keep doing this even after baby is born.

Also, a while ago I've written an article for the Canadian vegan magazine T.O.F.U. and the issue came on line a few days ago. It's an article about how to be vegan in Brazil and where to eat in Sao Paulo (the biggest Brazilian city), with tips from my last trip there, in May 2011. You can download the magazine here!

Let's see if 2012 brings me more writing about veganism ;-)

The simple life

2012-01-03T19:37:00.001Z

Happy 2012 everyone! I hope you all had an amazing end of 2011 and are ready for this brand new year. I was always a big fan of New Year's Eve and I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's summer time in Brazil and I always celebrated it with friends and family. But since I'm in Europe I'm not going to big celebrations anymore (went one year and that was it) and this year wasn't different. But this year I've made a very conscious decision to spend the NYE at home with just Matteo and his mother who is visiting us. And this decision has all to do with my only resolution for 2012: to live the simple life. I think the most important thing pregnancy have taught me is to take it easy and enjoy simple things. And it worked pretty well for me in 2011 so I want to do it more and more in 2012.

For our NYE we decided to have simple (here ya go!) food and not any kind of complicated meal. We'd have just appetizers and alcohol free drinks (both me and Matteo don't drink alcohol at all). Matteo would help me with the preparation and we'd play cards. We ended up having Tomato Rosemary Scones from Vegan Brunch, Sun-Dried Tomato Dip from Veganomicon, pistachio nuts, hummus (this was the only thing we didn't make ourselves) and a lovely Capers Dip which Matteo came up with the recipe from his mind while he was preparing the other dip. Everything was delicious and 2012 arrived just like that: simple and bringing us happiness.

Here's the recipe of the Capers Dip:

Ingredients:

1 cup white beans, drained

1/4 cup capers

2 tablespoon olive oil

1/3 cup nutritional yeast

3 tablespoon water

salt

1 tablespoon French's mustard

Put the white beans, capers, mustard, olive oil and water in the food processor or blender and mix it until smooth. Add the nutritional yeast and salt and blend it again. Check if it's salty enough to your taste.

Cover and chill for at least half an hour. Serve it with crackers or slices of fake meat or vegan cheese.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T20:15:00.003Z

And why not go vegan in 2012?
Start trying it for a week or a month or the whole year or for a lifetime.
It is worth it ;-)

A very special Christmas

2011-12-28T20:28:00.000Z

After reading posts and seeing pictures of Christmas meals I have to say my Christmas wasn't that special or creative this year. But at the same time it was a very special one cause it's the last month of my pregnancy and it made everything a little bit different for me. I wasn't feeling that much into the Holidays as I've said here before and I got many cupcakes orders to delivery on the 22nd so just after everything was done I was able to think about the food for the weekend.

Matteo's mother and sister were here one more time and it's really nice to spend the Holidays with them. Can't describe how excited my mother-in-law is to become a grandma! To make things easier for me we decided to keep both menus (for the 24th eve and 25th lunch) simple and Matteo did most of the cooking this year (yes, I have the best husband in the world).

A Brazilian friend of mine is in Dublin for the Holidays and I invited her to come here on Saturday afternoon cause she couldn't come for the eve. So I baked some vanilla and almond biscuits based on this recipe. We ate them with vegan nutella and they were really good.

For dinner we got some snacks for starter and Matteo made mac'n'cheese. It was cool cause it's not an Italian dish even being done with pasta and it was appreciated by the Italians in the house. We had a vegan panettone from Vegusto afterwards and it was a really nice surprise (my sister-in-law said it tastes like the regular ones). We closed the night opening the presents.

For Sunday lunch I baked these "cheesy" crackers (the only difference is that this time I've used nutritional yeast and Redwood Soy free Cheezly cheddar style and not parmesan) and we had lots of appetizers prepared by Matteo that included guacamole and hummus, between other yummys. For the main dish he did cotechino servito con polenta e lenticchie (this dish became very popular in the house) and we got more panettone for dessert.

As you can see, nothing fancy or difficult or even new, but it was perfect. We had a great time and spend quality time at home with people we love. I missed my family a lot again and thought about my grandma a lot too, but it's the bad side of living this far from them. Anyway I was able to Skype them on Sunday morning and this completed my Christmas.

Now I'm preparing myself for a quiet New Year's eve. What are you doing next weekend?

Happy Vegan Holidays!

2011-12-22T12:38:00.001Z

"A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral." (Leo Tolstoy)

Wishing all my dear readers a lovely and cruelty-free Christmas and wishing that in 2012 more people decide to stop using animals.

Baking time

2011-12-17T14:32:00.001Z

This week I started baking for Christmas orders. If you're new to this blog, you don't know that I bake vegan cakes and cupcakes for vegans (and also non-vegans) in Dublin. I've started doing this in 2009 and this year I wasn't being able to bake that much cause of my Master but since September I'm back on track!

It's great being able to bake for people that many time don't get treats at their parties and I really enjoy doing this. I'm getting tired faster cause of the last month of pregnancy and after any small effort I feel breathless but I will bake while I can.

Yesterday I delivered some chocolate with peanut butter and lemon with coconut cupcakes for a birthday vegan girl and tomorrow I'll delivery more for a Christmas party (and next week will be all about baking, making decorations and frosting and I'm glad Matteo can help me with the deliveries). I'm not that much into Christmas this year (and this is a shock for me cause I really like the holidays) but the house is set up and gifts are under the tree, so I'm good.

If you want check my vegan cupcakes and cakes, like Sweet page on Facebook or visit the Flickr page :)

Saint Lucy's Day

2011-12-14T17:49:00.002Z

Yesterday, December 13, was Saint Lucy's Day (in Italian, Santa Lucia) and it brings to my husband many childhood memories. "St. Lucy is also popular among children in some regions of North-Eastern Italy, namely Trentino, East Lombardy (where Matteo is from), parts of Veneto, parts of Emilia-Romagna and all of Friuli, where she brings gifts to good children and coal to bad ones the night between December 12 and 13".

It's hard to me to remember the date cause we don't have it in Brazil (and it also should be related to kids, you know?!). But to please my lovely husband and dad-to-be I decided to make him some of his favourite treats: chocolate-white-chocolate-chips cookies.

It's nice to make an adult happy as a child sometimes, isn't it?

Vegan Christmas Bingo in Dublin

2011-12-13T17:44:00.001Z

Last Sunday evening me and Matteo went to the first Vegan Christmas Bingo Night in Dublin, organised by Vegan Ireland. It was their second social event this year and I had an amazing time there. It was great to see not just some familiar faces but new ones too. Even better seeing non-vegan people attending the event.

The evening started with Bingo (me or Matteo didn't win anything but I was happy to see non-vegan people winning and choosing vegan cookbooks or DVDs as prizes) and after it was served some samples of Vegusto vegan cheese for all the guests, followed by sandwiches and a table of salads from Cornucopia. It was plenty of food for everybody and everything was delicious. If you live in Europe, UK or Ireland I'd suggest you to order some Vegusto vegan cheese, it's the best vegan option for cheese I've seen around here!

With the belly full of amazing vegan food, the event wasn't done yet and people could choose playing more Bingo, board games, poker or just chill out and chat. We've decided to play some poker - no money involved cause just Matteo knew how to play it properly - and it was a good craic too.

It's very nice to see more and more people showing to this kind of event and supporting Vegan Ireland. I'll not stop saying how important the group is and that they deserve our support. Ireland kills a lot of animals every year and we need to be the voice of them.

If you want to know more about Vegan Ireland, check their website and also their page on Facebook.

Lemon and avocado (vegan) cupcake

2011-12-08T18:02:00.001Z

I've been craving for avocado and today I decided to treat myself with this lemon cupcake with avocado frosting. It's delicious and this mom-to-be deserve it!

PS. And how cute is this case and decoration?

Vegan treats - Christmas gift ideas

2011-12-07T19:07:00.001Z

With my sweet tooth I can't deny how much vegan treats always make me happy. And I gave up on avoiding sweets during my pregnancy a few months ago (I'm not eating them as a crazy person but I'm still eating some stuff in a regular basis). Having said that, I will suggest some amazing vegan treats for those who live in Dublin!

1. Sweet cupcakes: well, have to start with some shameless self promotion. I'm taking orders for this holidays and if you want to gift someone with cupcakes, please contact me at dublin.sweet (at) gmail (dot) com. I'm organizing my schedule and won't take last minute orders.

2. Choice chocolates: this brand have some amazing dairy free options, including Caramel Flavoured Choices, an awesome box of 12 foil wrapped choc's with a 'caramel' soft centre, Choc'n'Orange Bar, Choc'n'Crispie Bar and Choc Bar. You can find them in the The Sweet Life store at George's Street Arcade. Have to say that the caramel chocolates are one of the best vegan choc's I've ever eaten since I've become vegan.

3. Celtic Advent Calendar: Celtic has some dairy free options, which include this calendar and this is the second year I'm buying it not just for me but also for some friends. They're lovely. You can find them in the The Sweet Life store at George's Street Arcade.

4. Natasha's Living Food: the best option for raw treats in Dublin. You can contact her for private orders or you can check in the website where to get her products. They're really delicious and raw chocolate is great and rich in iron and magnesium too.

5. Nakd bars: I've been eating these bars since I've got pregnant to avoid sugar and solve my cravings for sweets. The "nudie" bars are great and also the "oatie" ones. Most of the health shops in Dublin have them and I think you can also find the "oatie" ones at Tesco.

That's it! Hope you can put together a nice package of threats for your vegan loved ones. A gift full of compassion and respect for the animals :)

And taking about Christmas, today we bought Cheatin' Roast Turkey for the first time (there's no Tofurky in Ireland) and I can't wait to try it and see if it's good!

Last minute bruschetta

2011-12-05T19:27:00.001Z

Yesterday Matteo decided to do some bruschetta for us for dinner time and I wouldn't complain about it, love all variations of this Italian food. As usual he doesn't have a recipe for what he cooks, but I'll share how he made it with you. It was delicious!

Recipe

Ingredients:

2 ciabatta bread

7 or 8 sliced mushrooms

2 medium shopped tomatoes

1 shopped onion

2 garlic gloves (1 sliced and save the other one)

2 tablespoon shoyu or any similar soy sauce

1 tablespoon vegetable margarine

2 tablespoon nutritional yeast (optional)

herbs

salt

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Slice the ciabatta bread in two and put them in the oven until they get golden on top and a little bit crispy on the edges (about 5 to 6 minutes).

Fry onion and garlic until golden (use a teaspoon of vegetable oil if you want or just fry them with water). Add the mushrooms and let them fry for 3 or 4 minutes. Add salt, herbs and soy sauce and let it cook for another 2 or 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes (if you want you can let them out of the filling and add them raw on the top just before eating) and let the mix cook for another minute. Add the margarine and nutritional yeast and cook until the margarine melts and create a creamy sauce.

Rub some garlic in the bread slices and place the mushroom sauce on top of each slice.

Vitamin D, veganism and information

2011-11-30T13:14:00.001Z

When you're vegan you can't assume things. Searching for information is a endless "job" and I'm still impressed about how many things that are present in what we consume that we don't know what exactly they are or where they come from. In Brazil we have even less information and it's not easy to figure things out but this is one more reason to keep searching for information, writing companies, asking questions.

This week two facts about Vitamin D came to my knowledge. The first one is related to a soy milk product in Brazil, from a company called Yoki. They have a line of soy milk, with different flavours, and I read on line that the Vitamin D they use to fortify their soy milks has an animal origin (D3 and not D2, which is vegetable). This was a shocking news for a lot of vegan friends that used to consume their products to avoid consuming Ades (a popular brand that's owned by Unilever).

The second news was about Kellogs corn flakes. I read that Kellogs used to have Vitamin D2 on their cereal and recently it was replaced by D3. I don't consume them but I know vegan people who do - and one of their reasons if because these cereals are fortified with vitamins while organic ones are not.

The biggest issue for me in cases like that is that the consumer is not informed and if you don't keep reading boxes and asking for information all the time you will end up consuming something that's not suitable for vegans. I know this is a risk that everybody is dealing with when consuming "regular" products that are "accidentally" vegan, mainly because these companies don't care about veganism, they just want to reach more parcels of the consuming market. But I still believe that consumers have the right to know everything about what they are consuming.

About the Vitamin D, I'm not an expert but make sure the products you're consuming have D2 and not D3 (fortified products are the main source of Vitamin D for vegans -and also sunlight). And don't forget to check your blood from time to time to see if you need any supplements (you'll find vegan options for sure).

Nando's in Dublin

2011-11-25T14:13:00.001Z

I have to say that I'm not a big fan of going to places that also sell meat products or meals but sometimes we have to face reality. Dublin has no vegan restaurants. Really. And just a few vegetarian places. And because me and Matteo cook at home every day sometimes all we want is to go out and have a good time outside. The only place we used to go that is not at least vegetarian is Rotana Cafe (and they have the best falafel in town). But yesterday things changed and we found out a new option.

I've heard about Nando's many times before. First cause a lot of my friends from the UK use to go there and second because a lot of my friends from Dublin use to go there too. But I always thought they wouldn't have anything suitable for vegans (they're a Portuguese chain specialized in spiced chicken) until a few weeks ago, when I read Hannah saying something about the place. So I decided to check the website and in their FAQ's they have a question related to options for vegans (just type "vegan" in the question box and search). So yesterday me and Matteo decided to go to the Dundrum Town Centre unit to see how things were for real.

Before we got a table Matteo asked if any of their burgers were suitable for vegans and the waitress said yes and told us they had a list of ingredients too. She brought us the menu and also a kind of brochure which has all the meals' ingredients and also marks for "suitable for vegetarians" and "suitable for vegans". I've seen in the website before that the veggie burger is suitable for vegans if you ask without mayonnaise and this was confirmed too. So we asked for a hummus starter to share and two veggie burgers with no mayonnaise and plus fries. They are also very clear about they way they prepare veggie food:

"Please note that Nando’s are not vegetarian restaurants and do not imply in any literature that we are. However we do take specific steps to segregate our vegetarian product from chicken products as follows: A separate area of the grill is defined for the exclusive cooking of vegetarian and bean burgers; Separate utensils are always used with vegetable products; Separate bottles of the Nando’s bastes are used exclusively for basting the vegetarian products." (from their FAQ's)

The food was really good and also the atmosphere of the place. Staff was also very friendly. One other positive aspect is that they've opened a new location in town and they're open until late (23:00), which is rare in Dublin too.

One more vegan pregnant in this world - Part II

2011-11-17T18:37:00.001Z

As you know I was very late to writeabout the first trimester and decided to not to the same with thesecond one (well, I'm a little bit late again, have to admit...).Everybody says the second trimester is the easiest one and I have toagree with that even considering that my first one was really calm.

What exactly changed during thisperiod? Not too much I have to say in regards to my diet. I kepttaking my supplements and in the end of the sixth month I started tofeel hungrier so I was eating more but I was still feeling great. I'mstill not drinking coffee and limiting my ingestion of caffeine ingeneral (just drinking some organic cola from time to time and chocolate,can't stop eating it). But I'm not doing that great with sugar. Itdoesn't mean I'm consuming that much of it but I was craving sweets alot during the fifth month.

I've tried to add flax seed oil to mymeals but it makes me feel a little bit sick so I'm trying to keep itat least for two meals a week, not that much but still a great sourceof Omega 3.

The biggest change is that this is thetime when you actually see your belly growing and start to feel yourbaby movements and that's why I think it is such a special period.Also, I started with Pre Natal Yoga classes and they are great. Ahuge preparation to labour day (through breath techniques and posesto help you to keep moving your pelvis during pre-labour and labour)and an important exchange of experience. It's amazing to besurrounded by moms-to-be once a week.

Sometimes I think if I'm overdoing withall this supplements and I know a lot of vegan moms-to-be don'tchange anything in their diets and don't take any supplements too butI don't know I just prefere to sin by exaggeration than by the lackin this case. But as I've written before every pregancy – and everyperson- is a different experience. All I can say is this is workingfor me. The combo of eating well + taking supplements + keepexercising as much as I can is being the base of a quiet pregnancyand my blood tests are all good.

I'm now getting close to the end ofthis journey and get ready for the next fase of my life and I feelgood. I don't feel like I'm pregnant forever like some moms-to-befeel and I'm glad I still have some weeks to prepare myself for thebig day. Day by day I'm getting ready for the arrival of my littleboy.

(vegan) Pumpkin white chocolate chips cookies

2011-11-09T17:52:00.001Z

As you can see I had enough pumpkin to make a few recipes! I've done the pie, cupcakes for the World Vegan Day and cookies (made them twice and still have pumpkin to one more batch!). I was inspired by this recipe from the blog have cake, will travel - one of my favourite blogs ever. I hadn't regular chocolate chips and decided to try the white ones, even not being sure if they would suit with pumpkin. And I really enjoyed the combination and also Matteo, who has eating most of the cookies!

I didn't follow the recipe and decided to try something new, so here's my recipe:

Pumpkin white chocolate chips cookie

1/2 cup wholemeal flour

1/2 cup white flour

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup vegan margarine

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup pumpkin purée

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Cook the pumpkin and when it's cold, dry the water and mash it. Using your stand mixer, cream together margarine and sugar. Stir in pumpkin and vanilla until combined. Add flour, nutmeg, salt and baking powder and mix. Stir in chips. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions, place on parchment pape and flatten your cookies. Preheat oven to 180°C and bake the cookies for 15 minutes or until golden on top and around the edges. Wait 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Pumpkin and chocolate cupcakes for the

World Vegan Day event in Dublin

Pumpkin pie

2011-11-07T17:06:00.000Z

Most of my friends (mainly the vegan ones) love to cook and this is great. From time to time we exchange recipes, tips and even products (I enjoy sending food gifts). Cinthia is one of these friends. She lives in Brazil and I sent her a while ago a box that had, between other stuff, nutritional yeast (we can't find it in Brazil). She made a recipe called "Escondidinho de abobora e PVT" (it's really hard to translate this cause "esconder" means "hide" but "escondidinho" has nothing close to it in English as far as I know... but "abobora" means pumpkin and "PVT" is "TVP", texturized vegetable protein). A few weeks ago Matteo got me a huge pumpking and I really wanted to try some new recipe and I went for this one. It looks like a pie but it also sounds like a potato/pumpkin pure.

Well, let's get down to the recipe so you can figure it out what it is! And thank you Cinthia for it ;)

"Escondidinho de abobora e PVT"

Ingredients:

- 1 kg pumpkin

- 2 medium potatoes

- 1 tablespoon vegetal margarine

- water

- 180g of fine texturized vegetable protein (TVP)

- 2 tablespoon olive oil

- 1 small onion

- 1 teaspoon minced garlic

- 340g ready tomato sauce

- Salt, pepper, nutmeg, sweet paprika, fresh basil, fresh oregano to taste.

Preparation:
Peel the potatoes and pumpkin and cut into cubes. Cook them separately in water, because they have different cooking times. When they are really soft, remove from heat. Squeeze the potatoes with a masher (or a fork). Try to dry the pumpkin first with your fingers to squeeze out excess water. In a saucepan, combine the potatoes and pumpkin, add the margarine and salt to taste (and if necessary water). The puree can not be too much soft (got to have a firmer consistency). Keep stirring it constantly until the desired point. Remove from heat and set aside. Meanwhile, soak the soy protein (with warm water). In a heated pan add the olive voil and fry the onion and garlic. Add the TVP. Lower the heat and add the tomato sauce and a cup of water. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, sweet paprika, fresh basil, fresh oregano, and with the pot half-covered, let the sauce ascertain. Once you are done, remove from heat. Take a rectangular bowl. Place a first layer of puree, then the protein with the sauce and, finally, another layer of puree. Sprinkle nutritional yeast on top and bake in the oven temperature to 200 ° C from 20 to 30 minutes.
PS. I've added a layer of spinach leaves between the sauce and the second puree and it tasted delicious.

Veganism: one more thought

2011-11-02T15:14:00.001Z

In October, when celebrating one more vegan anniversary, I wrote that I'm having some thoughts about veganism in general and that I wanted to write more about it. Yesterday it was the World Vegan Day and considering the attendance of the event in Dublin some of that thoughts came back when I was talking to Matteo about it.

One thing that I'm noticing lately - and the fact that veganism is going more and more mainstream has helped me to notice this - is that being vegan seems to be more focused on the diet and the consumption. Of course not eating and not consuming anything derived from animals is a huge part (and maybe the core?) of veganism but it's not everything. You are, for sure, helping the animals but you could do more. I know you could say that everybody could do more and I agree with you, but there are some things that are not that hard or "extreme" as some people like to say to fight more for animal lives, for animal rights.

I'm not saying that I think every vegan should be an animal liberation activist, involved in direct actions and I know there is a difference between being vegan and being an activist, but I think everybody should try to do more and more. How? Supporting your local vegan group, helping them with campaigns and protests (there are so many good causes around and most of the protests are pacific ones), organizing small events to spread the word, sharing vegan food with those who need food (this is a great way to help both humans and non-humans animals), etc. I know that our lives today are busy and crazy, but are you sure you can't do any of these things from time to time?

What all this have to do with the event of last night? Nothing really directly related to the event, which was really great and I hope Vegan Ireland will keep doing them, but with people. I think I (still) expect too much from people but I was hoping to see more people I know there (vegans and non-vegans). Vegan Ireland does an amazing work and they need all the support they can get. It's not up to me to judge what people can or can't do, want or don't want to do, but I really believe the animals deserve all of our efforts and as many voices as we can bring together to defend them.

Buying vegan products, cooking, eating vegan food (and writing about vegan food, recipes and places to eat) is truly amazing, but it's a hard battle and we need to keep on fighting.

World Vegan Day in Dublin

2011-10-31T19:55:00.000Z

Tomorrow (November 1st) the world celebrates the World Vegan Day and, yes, I think it's a day to celebrate. Celebrate the small victories that the animals are having and, most important, keep on fighting for them.

There will be an event in Dublin, the Fun Hat Table Quiz, for the World Vegan Day and I hope to see some new and old faces there (mainly non vegan people! It's a great opportunity to be around some vegans and get informed). It will be fun too!

I'm starting to bake some cupcakes for tomorrow cause Sweet will be contributing for the event :)

Italian memories veganized

2011-10-31T18:42:00.004Z

Yesterday Matteo decided to "veganize" a recipe that takes him back to childhood: cotechino servito con polenta e lenticchie (sausage served with polenta and lentils). We've bought this vegan sausage from Fry's Vegetarian a few days ago and he was excited to try it in the Italian dish (that's usually served for Christmas but he wanted to make sure it would be good first).

It's really an easy dish, fast to prepare and the result was amazing (don't let the pic fool you, it's delish!). All you need is to cook some polenta (instant polenta works fine), make your favourite lentil sauce (we used canned lentils - 2 cans would be better than one if you're cooking for two people) and cook and fry the sausage. Put all together and you're done!

I really enjoy cooking (or in this case just eating) meals that take us back home, to all these memories and reconstructing them in a vegan way is an wonderful way to keep memories alive and to build new memories, suitable to the choice we've made, the choice for life.

(Here's a picture of the original dish)

All about... Cafe Fresh

2011-10-28T16:20:00.000+01:00

I'm not sure why I haven't written about vegetarian restaurant Cafe Fresh here before... When I was working in town last year (exactly at this time) I used to go there basically every day for lunch. They have soups, hot meals and sandwiches and also added a salad bar to the options this summer. Prices are fair, staff is great (and the owner is lovely) and it's located inside The Powerscourt Townhouse Centre and I really like enjoy the building.

Me and Matteo are going there more often lately and we really enjoy the food. Also, since last year, they've increased their vegan options (this is something that's happening at Cornucopia too and it's great news). The only think I still don't love are the desserts. I usually have one cause I love sweets as you know and also cause it's a way to support the vegan options. I can't explain why I don't consider them amazing (something about the texture maybe?) but usually they have more than one vegan option, including a chocolate cake and some fruit pie.

Anyway, if you're in Dublin, go to Cafe Fresh. It's really a good option for vegans.

PS.: Talking about places for vegetarians and vegans in Dublin, it seems that Juice is closed. We tried to go there twice in the last weeks and it was closed. Considering that Dublin doesn't have that many veg restaurants this is really bad news. Let's see if someone will keep it as a vegetarian restaurant at least.

(vegan) food photography

2011-10-23T22:18:00.003+01:00

I was feeling very tired today (and particularly heavy) so the husband decided to cook our dinner. Not happy with just the cooking he thought we deserved a nice presentation too. He made white risotto, Linda McCartney Country Pies and dressed the plates with a lovely water crass, rocket and spinach salad.

My only "job" was to photography and eat! Couldn't be better, have to say.

Liebster Blog award

2011-10-21T20:45:00.002+01:00

I think this is the second blog award I get in all these years and it's a lovely one, thanks Vegan... but not scary!

“Liebster” is German and means ‘dearest’ or ‘beloved’ but it can also mean ‘favourite’.

The idea behind this award is to bring attention to bloggers who have less than 200 followers and show your support during Vegan Mofo!

The rules of winning this award are as follows:

1. Show your thanks to those who gave you the award by linking back to them.

2. Reveal 5 of your top picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3. Post the award on your blog.

4. Enjoy the love and support of some wonderful people on the big wide web!

Many of the blogs I read have more than 200 followers and some of them have no numbers so I have no idea about the numbers, but I decided to suggest just the ones which have less as suggested by this award so here we go:

* Bite me (I'm vegan)
* Tea and Sympatico
* In My Vegan Life
* Kale and Cookies
* Vegan and so Forth

Hope you can show them some love, it's really warming to get new readers and comments.

Back to Barcelona & fast food overdose!

2011-10-20T20:37:00.004+01:00

Last weekend me and Matteo went for three days to Barcelona to a friend's wedding. I was excited to go back, have only been in Barcelona once, in 2009. And it was probably my last travel until the baby is born (and also after for a while). We had a great time! Weather was amazing (so warm!) and we saved the Friday to walk around and eat (of course).

We didn't go to many different places. I have to admit we got addicted to vegan fast food place Gopal. In 2009 we didn't go there because the reviews on Happy Cow weren't good (huge mistake!) but for the last two years I've heard just good things about the place so when we arrived there on Thursday night we asked my friend to take us there. OMG! The burgers there are just perfect. I could say as good as the ones from Yoyo in Berlin. Gopal has a huge menu of burgers (19 options I think!) and they also sell cakes from Lujuria Vegana - and I was dying to try some of them cause a Brazilian friend of mine is working there and I've seen some pictures that looked like heaven in the format of sweets. We asked for burgers and french fries and there was no more room (even in my giant belly!) for the cake. Of course we asked to take away and it was our Saturday breakfast. We got the Excelcior cake (hazelnut praliné-chocolate textures) and it was the best cake I've ever tasted in my life.

Ice cream from Gelaaati! and food from Juicy Jones

On Friday we didn't come back to Gopal and decided to go to Juicy Jones, one of the restaurants we've been in 2009 that we really liked it. Everything there is vegan too. We got the daily menu (starter, main dish, dessert and water or wine for €8,50) and the food was amazing again. Their entire menu is vegan and we also asked for a Guacamole Tapas (I was craving avocado for weeks). We definitely had more food than we should but it was worth it (and in our defense I'll say we walked a lot before an after)! I got hummus as starter, cheesy pizza and salad as main course and pineapple and orange mousse. Matteo got gaspacho, a huge Indian plate with rice and three different sauces and a apple cake. Everything besides the desserts was perfect (they weren't bad but not amazing too if you get me!). At night we went to a pizzeria for a lovely pre-wedding dinner and met great people!

For our Saturday lunch, after a quick stop at Gelaaati! for a rice ice cream, we decided to go back to Gopal to try some different burgers. With so many options we had to go back you know?! Too good again. And one more cake to take away, this time the Supreme one (raspberry, pistachio and bourbon vanilla). The vanilla butter cream had a strong buttery flavour but the cake was delicious. Do you think we already had too much of Gopal at this point? Well, they were also responsible for the wedding catering! Too bad I couldn't take pictures but the menu was just perfect.

Burgers and cakes at Gopal

To finish up our trip in great style, after we checked out from the hotel on Sunday we decided to have our last meal in Barcelona before going to the airport and... yes, you got me, we went to Gopal again. But I just got a piece of the Excelcior cake and some bites of Matteo's burger (have to admit we had left overs from the party and I ate most of them as my breakfast).

If you're not afraid of addictions, go to Gopal if you're in Barcelona! Great staff, food, atmosphere, prices and desserts from Lujuria Vegana!

PS. Forgot to mention that Gopal also offers meal options at lunch time if you don't fancy having just burgers all the time!

14 years vegan and some thoughts

2011-10-10T14:48:00.002+01:00

October marks the month I went vegan. Back in 1997. I won't explain again why I am vegan but I feel comfortable to write about some things related to my choice here one more time.

One thing that I can say about myself is that I never stop questioning things and this includes veganism. Some people go vegan and they think that's it, they're better than other, they are doing their best and they don't need to look for more information or learn anything else about the choice they've made. I don't agree with that and seeing veganism going more and more mainstream brings me more and more thoughts.

I was already writing this post when I saw today's post of Happy Herbivore, which brought me to one of my main thoughts: to me veganism is about respect. Respect for life. Non-humane and humane. And I have to say, it's a way easier to respect the animals in the world we live today. Humane beings know how to disrespect others so well that it makes me feel sad. If you show respect for the others, respect will come back to you, that's how I think. And we, vegan people, should show even more respect. You won't create empathy being disrespectful with people who aren't vegan. And it's not you who is loosing with this, it's the animals. Being vegan is not about yourself or your ego, it's about that ones who can't defend themselves. If you want to be their voices, be kind as they are.

When I see someone like Lindsay saying she doesn't embrace the term 'vegan' anymore I feel sad, but I can understand. The difference between her and me, right now, is that I'm up to do the opposite: I will always say I am vegan cause the world need to know that there are different kinds of vegan people. Taking a stand for me is one thing I can do for the animals. Does it make me better than you or her? Absolutely not. This is just my way of thinking and acting and, as I said before, discussing, reading, talking, listening, questioning and (always) learning is a great way to be vegan (and to live life in my opinion).

This month I'm celebrating 14 years of veganism, with a healthy and vegan pregnancy and even more love and respect for the animals. I have some more thoughts to share with you regarding to veganism and I'll do this during this month.

Top 5: additional daily readings

2011-10-07T16:31:00.003+01:00

If there is any positive aspect of not blogging that much and not being part of the current edition of Vegan MoFo I'd say it is the fact that I have more time to read more. Although I'm not cooking nothing exciting (yet I'm cooking every single day) and not writing, I'm reading many blogs that I didn't know before Vegan MoFo 2011 and this is awesome.

I still didn't go through the entire list of blogs which are taking part of Vegan MoFo 2011 but I decided to share with you my top 5 additional daily readings:

1. Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk... - One thing that I really enjoy about Vegan MoFo is when people decide to have a theme (or a weekly plan) and this blog has one of the most creative ones I've ever seen: Vegan Dinner and A Horror movie. Just brilliant!

2. Vegan Chicks Rock - I'm still one of those people who eats with their eyes first and this blog has not just amazing food recipes and tips but also divine pictures.

3. Don't Fear the Vegan - first of all, what a great name for a vegan blog! And I also loved the idea for Vegan MoFo: “Vegan A-Z” theme.

4. Hungry Vegan Traveler - I love reading adventures of vegan traveler and it's never too much for me.

5. A Dash of Compassion - one more blog with amazing tips and recipes and wonderful pictures.

I'll probably have another top 5 soon cause I still have a lot of blogs to explore until the end of October!

And how about you? Any great findings during these first days of Vegan MoFo 2011? Share with us!

(All the pictures used here are from the mentioned blogs, please don't use them without giving a credit!)

Trying to find a balance

2011-09-30T19:08:00.001+01:00

Healthy lunch x sugar bomb

Days like today make me wonder if I'm really balancing my diet. Sometimes I feel like a complete failure trying to avoid sugar and sweets. It's not that I have tons of them, I don't. What I'm trying to do is to balance my diet, something that I was already doing before and I'm just more careful now. Hopefully I'm doing things right!

Today I baked a few chocolate cupcakes and filled them with black cherries and peanut butter frosting to celebrate the Vegan Baking Day! I ate just one and it was really good and it's good to do this kind of stuff which involves celebration towards vegan stuff.

Talking about vegan events the Internet is very excited this week about the beginning of another edition of VeganMoFo (Vegan Month of Food)! I'm not taking part of it this year (again) but I'll try to read as much as I can from the bloggers that are involved.

And how about you, do you try to balance your diet in a daily basis?

One more vegan pregnant in this world - Part I

2011-09-26T19:29:00.001+01:00

Before going to the subject of this post, I'd like to thank everybody who let comments on my post about keep going with the blog or giving up, it was very important to me to read your thoughts and I've decided to keep posting, even if I'm not to do it frequently :)

Now, the pregnancy. I usually avoid writing personal stuff here but I think it is important to share vegan pregnancy experiences and I'm close to the end of the second trimester (already!) so I think it's time to write about the first three months.

I know I'm not the first (and even less the least) vegan pregnant in the world but I still feel that information is never too much. I think it's not a big deal to be vegan and pregnant, I have to say, I don't feel special or anything, but I think it is pretty cool to know that this new life is growing in a vegan environment (for now, my belly and all I eat). I also think that the fact that I am having my first pregnancy away from my country, family and friends is more outstanding than the fact that I am having a vegan pregnancy.

My pregnancy was very well planned and expected. Because of this I had plenty of time to prepare my body and my mind, what I think it was pretty good. I was taking folic acid since last year and in the beginning of 2011 I started to take Solgar Prenatal Nutrients. I was already eating healthier (more vegs and fruits) but I was still drinking soda, coffee and eating a lot of sweets (you know I have a sweet tooth!).

I spent my first pregnant month (that one I have no clue I was pregnant) practicing to play with Purification in South America and then traveling and playing. After that I stayed with my family in Brazil for another 2 weeks and I had the chance to share the news with them and with my closest friends in person (and this was priceless). Also, I could go to see my gynecologist (who is also an obstetrician) and this was very important to me cause she has being my doctor since I was 19 years old. She was very relax with the fact that I am vegan and she said I was doing everything right.

I came back to Europe and was luck enough to have the only obstetrician I know in Dublin taking care of me. She and the maternity staff are being amazing and she also gave me tons of security about being vegan and pregnant. My blood exams so far are great (she pointed out that B12 rates are lower in pregnant women and that she would go through my exams to see if I needed more supplement or not - and I didn't need it until now). And she said something that I remember every day: "Can you imagine how many vegetarian women give birth in countries like India and they're completely fine? Don't worry, we in West Europe are not used to this but you'll be fine. You're probably healthier than the majority of the 'normal' pregnant women around".

And here I am. Taking care of my pregnancy not like a vegan mom-to-be but as a very conscious mom-to-be. I'm eating more vegetables and fruits, I'm not drinking coffee (this was my personal choice) and I'm trying to avoid sugar (this is being hard and I'm still eating sweets and chocolate in a regular basis, but I'm having more raw sweets and using just brown sugar at home). One thing that I really want to stress here is that this has being my personal experience. Every pregnancy has its own characteristics and I'm really blessed that I am being capable to keep vegan and healthy until now. But if you are experiencing healthy issues, seek for professional help (try to find doctors and nutritionists who actually have some knowledge about veganism) and do the best for you and your baby.

All I want is the best for me and my baby and I want him to have love and respect since the early beginning. For animals, for other people, for the world.

PS. Three important things I forgot to mention:
* I didn't suffer with morning sickness and this was for sure the best part of my first trimester;
* I didn't suffer with any constipation, probably cause the vegan diet is full of fibers and I started drinking more water too;
* I had a lot of gas and this was pretty bad. I also think it was due to all beans and broccoli that I eat, so if you're suffering with this you could change some foods. What helped me a lot were some teas, such as fennel and a organic tea from Yogi called Stomach Ease (they also have Mother to Be and Nursing Support options)

One image to replace my words today

2011-09-21T19:32:00.000+01:00

I was thinking about writing a post about being vegan and health but I just finished this:

Chocolate cake with

raspberry jam and

chocolate ganache fiilling

I won't eat it. Baked for some friends who are staying with us a couple of days, but still, it sounded controversial to my chosen topic.

And I'm still here!

2011-09-19T20:39:00.002+01:00

Lately I feel like blogging less than I expected and I've questioning myself a lot about keeping or not this blog. I think everybody goes through this question after a few years doing a blog. I still love writing here but I feel a lack of theme or focus and I really don't know how to feel about it.

I've started this blog to share my new adventures in the kitchen and also in Europe and that's what I'm trying to do. I'm not a chef or a master in recipes, I just enjoy cooking, eating, sharing food and sharing stories. And I really think it is important to keep showing the world that vegan people are everywhere and that we eat delicious things (it's hard to believe that people still think it, but it is true). And because of that I still think it is worth it to keep this space. It's incredible to see that more than a thousand people like the blog page on Facebook but I'm not sure if everybody that really comes to the blog to read the posts. I miss receiving more comments and interacting more with readers but I also know it is my fault cause I'm not blogging that much.

I won't use the excuse (or justification, who knows) of time because it is normal not having time to do everything we want. But it was good to me to focus on my dissertation in the first semester and it sounds right to focus on my pregnancy now. The fact is that I'm not cooking many new stuff or trying different recipes and I've being really lazy on taking pictures even considering that I do have a good camera now. I'm also not traveling that much anymore and routine just sounds boring sometimes to write about it.

Well, let's see how things go. I still have some thoughts and adventures I'd like to share here, so I'll try to keep the blog as much active as I can. And to show you a little bit of effort, I just took this picture (using my good camera and not my phone!) of the chocolate-white-chocolate cookies I baked a few minutes ago! I used the recipe of Veganomicon and the entire house smells good!

Gotta love... polenta (really?!)

2011-09-15T17:25:00.001+01:00

Have to start this post saying I'm having a great week. Good news coming, first one being that my Master results came today and I'm approved with honours and this makes me feel very happy cause it wasn't that easy to do a Master in different country, about this country that I don't know that well and in another language. My dissertation name was "Food and Media: How the Irish Press Covers the Subject of Food". I'll write more about it someday here.

The second news are the BIG news that I was waiting a appropriate moment to share here. Me and Matteo are expecting a baby boy! I have no words to describe how happy we are and I have some information prepared to share with you about my experience being a vegan pregnant. I'm with 22 weeks now and I'm feeling great! And this big news brings me to the topic of this post: polenta. I'm not craving nothing strange but I'm eating a lot of food that I didn't like that much before and this would include polenta.

For those who don't know, polenta is a popular Italian dish (made with ground yellow or white cornmeal) and it comes from Lombardia, the region where my husband is from. And polenta is one of his favourite dishes ever. And I never loved it and I know how frustrated he always was about it but I couldn't do anything about it. Until last month. When we're deciding what to cook, from time to time he suggests polenta (and my answer was always no!) but one day he asked me and I say myself saying a shy "yes". And for my (and his) surprise I ate it and I really enjoyed. And I had it again and again and I'm enjoying it even more. I'm sure this half milanese boy I'm carrying has something to do with this!

I'm not the one who's cooking the polenta but I'm glad to share two recipes that Matteo is making to us: polenta concia and polenta with beans. As some other Italian dishes, the secret of polenta is in the sauce. The polenta itself is easy to prepare, even more considering that today you can find instant polenta to buy and it tastes as good as the traditional one (which take at least one hour to cook).

Polenta concia: originally this polenta is cut on half while very hot and filled with butter and gorgonzola and on top there is an egg and parmesan. The vegan version has margarine and your favorite cheese in the middle (if you live in Europe and can get Vegusto cheese to use on it, please do it!). Usually Matteo eats it just with nutritional yeast on top but you can make some scrambled tofu too. I'm still not a big fan of polenta concia but this is Matteo's favourite for sure!

Polenta con intingolo di fagioli: this fancy Italian name means polenta with beans sauce! This is the one I'm eating and all you have to do is to cook some white beans (or even red beans) with tomato sauce, garlic and onions and serve on top of the polenta. Pretty easy, no?

Do you like polenta? Have you ever had any of these Italian ways of eating it? How do you prepare it usually?

Gotta love Lush

2011-09-07T18:52:00.000+01:00

There are some non food related topics that I want to write, so let's start now while I'm (still) not cooking new stuff and living basically of pasta, risotto, salads, pizza and all the food you already you know I love!

One thing that I really thing is still not that easy to find information on line (and also in books) is vegan cosmetics and clean products. There are so many amazing blogs about food in the internet but I still feel it should be more of those blogs around (if you have some good tips just let me know, I'd love to follow pages I still don't know!). And I'm not an expert to write about these subjects too, so from time to time I just share my personal experience.

I have a lot of bad hair days. Really. I'm not sure if this happens with all women on Earth but it's not easy to make my hair look like I really wanted. And I still didn't find vegan shampoos or conditioners that I love more than anything in the world. I like some and I hate others and I just keep trying. But for the last few months I've been using Lush bars and I'm enjoying it. Because my hair is thick (and a lot and rebel) I always use both shampoo and conditioner. To find out a Lush combo that worked well to me, I added a moinsturiser.

So my actual hair combo is:

Trichomania

Jungle

R and B

And I can't say that I don't love Lush because I've always loved their bath products. And considering that most of the residences in Dublin have a bath tube I'm using them a lot since we've moved here. But I have to admit that I don't remember the last time I had a relaxing and warming bath and I'm about to change this today with this delicious (my favourite Lush product ever!):

Ma Bar

(Italian) Vegan Mac and cheese

2011-08-25T20:10:00.007+01:00

Although this dish involves two ingredients very popular in Italy - pasta and cheese - it is not an Italian dish and it's not popular there. I'm not sure if it is or not popular in Brazil at all but I'm sure I've never eaten it there. So I've never eaten the non-vegan version of mac'n'cheese. But I do love both ingredients and I was delighted when, a few days ago, Matteo decided to make it for us in a day that I was really tired to cook.

Matteo - aka my husband - is not that type of person who likes to follow recipes. He can read them but he ends up doing everything in his own way. And it was the same with his mac'n'cheese dish. I would say it came out pretty good and reminded me the classic Italian "pasta al forno". So I'd say this is kind of an Italian recipe for the dish, a very easy one. You know, pasta should be always fast and easy!

Recipe

300 g pasta (penne or rigatoni are the best options)
grazed dairy-free cheese

For the sauce:
1 unsweetened plain soy yogurt
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup rice milk
1/3 cup soy cream (or rice cream)
2 tsp french mustard
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp soy sauce
salt
pepper
herbs (parsley or basil)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Put the pasta to cook while you prepare the sauce. Put the yogurt, the rice milk and the soy cream in the mixer and mix it until get a homogenous mix (a few seconds would be enough). Add the olive oil, french mustard and soy sauce and mix it again (another few seconds). Finally add the nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and herbs.

Mix half of the sauce with the cooked pasta and put it in a glass container. Add the rest of the sauce on top and the grazed dairy-free cheese (we used Redwood Soy free Cheezly cheddar style). Take the glass container to the oven for 30 minutes. Serve it hot.

There's no failing without trying

2011-08-22T17:46:00.005+01:00

I'm not sure if I told you before but I (finally!) got Hannah Kaminsky new book "Vegan Desserts - Sumptuous Sweets for Every Season" a while ago. The problem is I'm trying to avoid sugar as much as I can (it doesn't mean too much for a sugar tooth person like myself, but I'm doing my best), so it means I'm also avoiding get too close to this delicious book. You know that I'm a huge fan of Hannah's recipes and there are at least 20 recipes in the book I wish I could try as soon as possible!

Considering this, I just made one recipe until now. Shame on me or congrats, Glauce? I really don't know, but this is how things are. And I have to say that it was a partial fail too. Why? First things first, the recipe I've decide to make was the Summer (I love that the recipes are separated by seasons even thinking there's no real summer in Ireland) S'mores Pie.

Sounds delicious, right? Yeah, picture looks amazing in the book too (I also love all that amazing photos in the book and have to remind you that Hannah is an amazing food photographer too). So, where's the problem? My significant issue is called vegan marshmallow topping. I won't reveal the details of the recipe here (buy the book!) but this is kind of obvious. And even considering that I have Dandies marshmallows at home, I decided to follow the recipe step by step and make them from scracth. That was my mistake. Hanna was pretty clear in the beginning of her book that just one brand of egg replacer would work proper. Well, I don't live in the US and I wouldn't find it so I decided to risk everything and use the one that is available here in Dublin. Guess what? It didn't work at all.

But it wasn't the end of the world (well, kind of!) and the rest of the recipe came out pretty good. I didn't use Dandies anyway and decided to eat the pie the way it was. It was delicious, seriously. I wish I could eat more of it, but it was my husband that had most of it.

This experience didn't make me think the book is any worst, I love it and can't wait to try more recipes. Hopefully with no more mistakes (I don't believe on failing, do I?)

3rd Blog Anniversary

2011-08-16T13:17:00.004+01:00

Last Sunday was the third anniversary of this blog and I have to confess that I never expected it would last that much!

It all started as a way of sharing my new food adventures in Europe and now it's basically a part of my life. It also means that three years ago I left Brazil and the life I used to have to start again in a far far away land. It wasn't always easy but the food was always an amazing part of my journey. So many new foods, so many new places and so many awesome people. This blog was the space to share all the new flavours I was trying and my new adventures in the kitchen. And through this small place I've met so many cool people!

The first semester of 2011 was crazy and super busy for me and I couldn't share everything I wanted here, but now things are calm again and I'm trying to cook more, visit different places and write more. I have new plans for my life now that my Master is almost done (just have to do the presentation of the thesis in September!) and I'm excited.

I can't share too much yet, but I'd like to thank everybody who reads this blog - knowing me in person or not! It's being a pleasure and I hope I could inspire some of you to become vegan or to be more adventurous in the kitchen.

Easy like Sunday morning

2011-08-09T19:57:00.004+01:00

This title can sound strange in a Tuesday (also for being a Lionel Rich song?!) but I decided to finish my posts about the last travel to Berlin before changing the subject or I would get lost. Usually I feel lazy about cooking on Sunday but since I've not been cooking that much lately cause of my thesis now I'm in the kitchen every day! Good or bad, that's how it is. I am not working so I have a lot of free time to take care of the house.

Last Sunday I went to the basic pasta (spaghetti) cause, yeah, it was still a lazy Sunday. But I decided to do a different sauce using the rest of the coconut milk I had and I remembered one sauce that I used to do a lot in Brazil with tomato sauce, coconut milk and sun-dried tomatoes. In the north-east of Brazil, in a state called Bahia, it's very common to have dishes that have a lot of coconut milk and black pepper (many of these recipes came from Africa). And I really like this mix. I didn't have sun-dried tomatoes at home, so I decided to use cherry tomatoes. It is an easy recipe, perfect for a Sunday meal!

Cherry tomatoes and coconut milk sauce

7 or 8 cherry tomatoes (cut in half)
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup tomato sauce (homemade or canned)
1 chopped onion
1 or 2 chopped gloves
5 or 6 chopped Brazilian nuts
1 vegetable stock cube
salt
black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Fry the onion and the garlic in hot oil for 4 or 5 minutes, until they get a golden color. Add the cherry tomatoes and let them fry for another 3 or 4 minutes. Add the tomato sauce, the stock cube and black pepper. Let it cook until boiling. Add the coconut milk and keep cooking for another 2 or 3 minutes, stirring the sauce from time to time. Add the Brazilian nuts and taste it to see if you want to add salt. Serve it hot with your favourite pasta.

I also had some soy-free vegan cheese on the top of my plate! Delicious and a 100% vegan and soy-free recipe!

All about... Viasko (Berlin)

2011-08-08T17:16:00.008+01:00

As I said in my last post, we tried to do our best in the few free hours we had in Berlin (and when I say "do our best" I mean eat as much vegan food as we can). So after going to the Vegan Sommerfest we went to Viasko, a vegan restaurant opened last year.

Viasko looks like an Irish pub cause it was one before the actual owner buy it! And he decided to keep the design and decor the same and I have to say, I loved it. They serve food day and night and also a brunch on Sunday (have to go back to go to this!). I'm not sure if I'll be able to put in words how much me and Matteo enjoyed the place. The owner is really nice, speaks English and made his best to make us feel comfortable there. They have the menu also in English, which helped a lot. We were so excited to try the food that we decided to order (each one of us) starter and main course.

When I saw the starters coming I thought "Oh boy, I'll never be able to eat this and the main course!" but I was there to try. I had a "Überbackene Tomaten-Auberginen-Tofu Canapés", which looked like bruschetta and tasted amazingly and Matteo had an "Auberginen-Kartoffel-Strude" that was composed by some salad (some kind of coleslaw), mayonese garlic sauce and a huge strudel filled with potatoes and aubergine. It was delicious too, I've tried it of course. Our pictures don't look great cause I was using my phone this time and it was dark inside too, but you can have an idea of the awesomeness!

After eating enough for one lunch time, the main courses were still about to come! I have to say I ended up eating more than usual but wasn't able to finish my dish (this is never a problem cause Matteo - almost - always can do it!). Matteo was very Italian with his dish, asking for a gnocchi dish ("Hausgemachte Kartoffelgnocchi") and I tried to be as "local" as possible ordering a "Soja-Schnitzel „Wiener Art" (Soya Schnitzel Vienna Style). Well, it turns out that Schnitzel is an Austrian dish but I still thought it would be closer to some German food than any other Italian dish they had in the menu. Everything was just perfect, from presentation to flavours!

After eating more than we could, the owner suggested us to take one of the cakes of the day. OMG, I could not eat nothing else but we decided to take away a slice (and it was the delicious closing of our Saturday night).

I have to say that Viasko is now one of my favourite vegan places in the world. If you're going to Berlin, please go there and share your thoughts with me after!

PS.: The restaurant is also very pet-friendly, allowing dogs inside :)

Vegan in Berlin - Part ?

2011-08-04T18:45:00.007+01:00

(three of a hundred? twenty of a thousand? I don't know how many posts about Berlin I already have and have no clue about how many more can come cause you know how much I love that city!)

Last weekend, after handing my supervisor the last draft of my thesis (and believe me, I delivered the final paper TODAY to College!), me and Matteo went to Berlin for about... 36 hours. Yeah, not a big travel but it's always amazing to go there. We went there to my friend's wedding party and to meet her newborn baby girl (L) and I had some other objectives too: meet Melisser Elliott (from the blog The Urban Housewife and author of the book The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life), go to Veganz, the recently opened vegan supermarket, go to the Vegan-Vegetarisches Sommerfest, go to Yoyo at least once and go to Viasko, a vegan restaurant we've heard about it before but haven't gone there yet. Too much for just a few hours, I know. And it was raining all the time too (where were you, German hot summer?!) But we've managed to do must of the things in that list.

We arrived in Berlin on Friday evening and went to eat at Yoyo Foodworld. I won't write again about one of my favourite places ever but you can see how happy I was there!

On Saturday morning we woke up to go to the Sommerfest and we decided not to go to the supermarket this time (it will always be there - we hope so! - and the festival was just that day). Besides that Veganz would have a stand there too. We arrived there before noon and despite the rain there were already a lot of people there. The festival was hold at Alexanderplatz, a touristic must in Berlin, and it had between twenty and thirty stands, all about vegan stuff, from clothes to food. Melisser arrived after us cause she had an interview to perform in the stage and it was amazing to talk to her and watch the interview. She's absolutely lovely. We also won some good prizes there! One package of vegan pet treats and a €15 voucher to spend at Veganz (and the guys there were nice enough to let us spend in the stand and not in the supermarket), so I ended up buying vegan marshmallows (a dream coming true!), white chocolate chips and a slice of an amazing chocolate pudding cake. Seriously, Berlin is so vegan friendly that it surprises me still.

After that we went to Viasko, but this is a subject for another post. I'll be back soon, I have free time now.

If you want to read all my tips about Berlin (so far!) click here!

Potato-spinach Blintzes

2011-08-02T20:53:00.004+01:00

I can't believe it took me so long to buy the vegan bible Veganomicon but I (finally) got it a couple of months ago. But I did it in the middle of my thesis writing so I didn't have time to cook anything from it until a couple of weeks ago. Still in the middle of the craziness I decided to cook potato-spinach Blintzes for lunch during the week. It was a lot of work but the result was worth it. Recipe is not difficult but you end up preparing three dishes to make one (crepes, smashed potato-spinach and the sauce).

I won't post the recipe here cause it's part of the book, but I will share the mushroom sauce recipe I've made cause I didn't use any from the book and did my own sauce.

Mushroom sauce recipe

Ingredients

2 cup sliced mushroom
1/4 cup soya milk
1 tablespoon white flour
1 vegetable stock cube
1 glove
1 shopped onion
1/3 cup Shoyu (soya sauce)
1 tablespoon mustard (ready to eat one such as French's)
black pepper (as you like it)

Mix the milk and the flour in a bowl and separate it. In a hot pan fry the onion and garlic for 3 or 4 minutes and add the mushrooms. Fry it for more 3 or 4 minutes and add the milk and flour mix. Add the stock cube and let it cook for another 2 or 3 minutes, stirring it a few times. Add the black pepper, soya sauce and mustard and cook and cook for another minute. Serve it hot over the Blintzes.

And here's some pictures of the potato-spinach Blintzes cooking process:

Pasta with meatballs

2011-07-28T16:00:00.001+01:00

You might don't know that, but spaghetti with meatballs are rare in Italy. They were "created" by Italian immigrants in the US in the early 20th century. In Brazil they are popular too, maybe not that much as they are in the US, but still. But being married with an Italian made me think that eating spaghetti with meatballs is weird so I stayed more than 6 years avoiding trying the vegan version of this dish. But last time we went to Italy, my sister-in-law cooked spaghetti with meatballs so I felt free to try (you know, it was kind of an authentic Italian "bless"!).

A few weeks ago, in the middle of the craziness I was going through to write my thesis, I found time to cook vegan meatballs. I wanted to make them using texturized vegetable protein (TVP) and couldn't find any recipe in my cookbooks (found some great ones with lentils). So I decided to do at my own, remembering what I've used before as ingredients to make TVP burgers.
We didn't have spaghetti at home that day so we ate the meatballs with other pasta, but it was good the same!

TVP meatballs recipe

2 cup small TVP
1 vegetable stock cube
1 shopped onion
1 glove
1 cup white flour
extra flour
1/4 cup vegetable oil
salt and pepper (as you like it)
nutritional yeast

Dissolve the stock cube in hot water and put the TVP to hydrogenate (it's is important to do this with hot water). I've learned that dissolving the stock cube in the water and using it to hydrogenate the TVP gives it more flavour. Let it hydrogenate for at least 20 minutes. Dry it and put the TVP in a bawl. Mix the onion and glove with TVP. Add the oil and salt and pepper. Start adding the flour in small amounts and mix everything using your hands. Keep adding flour and mixing until you have a good texture to make the balls with your hands. Instead of covering the meatballs with bread crumbs before frying them I used nutritional yeast and it worked pretty well. Fry in a hot non-stick pan and fry it for 3 or 4 minutes (you shouldn't need more oil to do that). Take the meatballs to the oven for an additional 10 minutes to ensure they're thoroughly cooked. Add the meatballs to your favourite tomato sauce recipe (I just used a ready to go one this time) and serve with pasta (spaghetti would be the right one!)

Cheesy vegan omelette - Pic by pic

2011-07-21T13:03:00.006+01:00

I finally sent the first version of my thesis to my supervisor. Now I'm having a two days break until he gets back to me with suggestions and comments. Have to say it again: can't wait to be done with this.

Besides writing, I'm just cooking our daily meals. Nothing special but some good bits. Yesterday I've made a "cheesy" omelette, which was also soy free. We've bought the soy free Cheezly (cheddar style) from Redwood and I've decided to try it on the vegan omelette. It was a really good cheese alternative and for those who lives in Ireland or in the UK Redwood is a great option.

Food is always around

2011-07-10T12:02:00.006+01:00

Lunch time at Juice Vegetarian Restaurant

I thought I'd have more time to blog when I was back from Brazil but it didn't happen. I'm so busy with my thesis that it's being hard to find time (and strength) to do more than reading, writing and cooking regular meals for our daily lunch time in the house. So there's still not too much happening in my kitchen for now although I'm always thinking about food cause this is the subject of my dissertation as I've said here before. A few weeks ago I've made pasta with meatball and still have to write about it here cause it was delicious but not today.

I just stopped here on this lovely Sunday to post some pictures. My French friend-sister Aurelia is visiting us for the last time before she leaves to Canada and I'm enjoying every second close to her. Her b-day was in May and the only thing she asked me was a vegan carrot cake or carrot cupcakes and that's what she got:

Vegan carrot cupcake with chocolate frosting

And today she's making us breakfast. A proper French one with toasts and crepes. We already had the French toasts and now we're giving the stomach some time to prepare for the crepes!

Vegan French toast a la mode

Hope everybody is having an amazing Sunday.

Food with family and friends

2011-06-22T20:13:00.007+01:00

I can't believe we're back for almost three weeks and I still didn't have time to post my photos here from my hometown. But it's a good sign, it means I'm busy and being busy sounds good for now (have to finish my thesis until the middle of July!).

My dissertation is about food, so you can imagine how much I've be reading and writing about it. And one thing that I really agree is how much food is a social "tool", how is good to prepare and share food with people you love. And I have to say that I had a lot of this amazing sharing - of food and love - in Brazil. After the tour we went to my hometown to spend two weeks with family and friend and I was also in an important "mission": to know and baptize my newly born niece (L)!

In the first week we went to this fancy place with my parents and I didn't know if we would be able to find food to me and Matteo there, but silly me, Brazil has the best fruits and vegetables ever and there's always some options for vegan. So we ate well and had tons of fun:

The place:
built around a river with natural hot water

Tropical breakfast
(the only thing we took was the soy milk)

Lunch time

Dinner time

For the rest of the days I was just eating with my parents at home or with at friends:

One of my favourites: pastel de soja

Dinner with lovely friends:
spicy beans soup/cream (caldo de feijao)

Sfiha night with more lovely friends
(sfihas filled with pumpkin and broccoli)

Last night with friends:
couldn't leave Brazil without having açai
(this one was with mint, so refreshing!)

And on the last Saturday there I had the chance to do something I wanted since before going there: cooking a vegan meal to my family. I'm the only vegetarian in the family and my parents are not into it at all (well, my dad is curious about trying everything but not my mom or my brother). So there was this family lunch on Saturday to celebrate my niece's baptism and they've asked me to cook. Because my mom doesn't like a lot of things, me and Matteo decided to go basic: we'd cook corn risotto (what a surprise, but my sister-in-law loves it and asked me for that, so not my fault this time!) and pasta with two simple sauces - ragu and white sauce. Have to say it was a success and everybody enjoyed the meal and had a great time. I couldn't be happier.

We're back! Stronger than ever

2011-06-14T13:17:00.008+01:00

Smoked tofu burger - Vegacy (Sao Paulo)

After basically one month I'm back in Dublin. Have to say I had the best time.

Ten days with Purification made me feel even stronger about the values I have, about the choices I've made and about what I believe: hardcore, veganism, straight edge. South America is an amazing place to go and play if you love hardcore and if you're vegan straight edge. If you fancy watching a hardcore metal (vegan) band with me playing the bass, here's a video:

After the tour I went to my hometown to spend time with my family and it was just perfect. But this post is about the tour and about all the vegan food we had on the road! I'll post some photos and I have to say that we had more time to spend in Sao Paulo, Brazil, so most of my pictures are from there. And Vegacy is still my favourite vegan restaurant ever.

My favourite snacks and soda - Vegacy

Salad buffet - Vegacy

Vegacy serves the best feijoada ever

We spent three days in Buenos Aires and basically all we had was Chinese food! I'm not sure about other vegan options in Argentina, but I hope there's more than that. But we had the chance to go to a vegan take away place with good food and one of the best food we had in Buenos Aires was on Saturday night, before the gig. The guys from "Comida Vegan Delivery" made us an excellent catering with three different types of burger, empanadas, mayonnaise and hummus!

Chinese vegan food

Vegan take away place in Buenos Aires

Vegan food before Purification's gig in Buenos Aires

In Chile we stayed less than 24 hours but we had a delicious lunch at my friend's house (who were putting out the show) and Cintia is an amazing cook. She also bakes "empanadas" and cupcakes so during the show we could taste some of her amazing vegan food.

Cintia's vegan cupcakes

Guest post: “No Tell” Ro-Tel Cheese Dip

2011-05-17T17:58:00.002+01:00

Hey guys! I’m Bianca, a vegan from Memphis who runs a little blog called Vegan Crunk. Glauce asked me to fill in for her while she’s away with a guest post on my favorite ingredient.

It didn’t take me long to decide what that fave ingredient was! Nutritional yeast! Or “nooch” as so many vegans affectionately call it. Glauce said nutritional yeast isn’t as popular in her area as it is in the U.S., and I know she has a lot of international readers, so let me explain.

Nutritional yeast is deactivated yeast that’s technically a fungus. But don’t let that gross you out! It’s produced by culturing yeast with sugar cane and beet molasses for several days, and it has a rich cheesy, nutty flavor. Some brands are also packed with vitamin B-12, which vegans need for good health. It’s also a great source of protein.

I use nutritional yeast in all kinds of ways. It makes a great base for a vegan cheesy sauce for macaroni or steamed veggies. Just mix the nooch flakes with water or soymilk, flour, garlic powder, mustard, and vegan margarine on medium heat, and you’ve got yourself a tasty sauce.

It’s also excellent sprinkled on popcorn, and it makes a mighty-fine breading for fried tofu.

But today, I’m going to share my recipe for No-Tell Rotel Cheeze Dip, a nutritional yeast based nacho cheese dip that will be included in my upcoming vegan Southern comfort food cookbook. My book is due to hit stands in the U.S. in January, and it’ll be available on Amazon and such. For now, I’m calling the book Cookin’ Crunk: Eatin’ Vegan in the Dirty South. Here’s a sneak peek!

“No Tell” Ro-Tel Cheese Dip

Yields 2 cups

1 package silk tofu

3/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 cup Ro-Tel (or any brand of canned diced tomatoes and green chilis), divided

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

Process the silk tofu, nutritional yeast, 1/2 cup of the Ro-Tel, olive oil, salt, turmeric, garlic powder, and onion powder in a food processor until smooth, stopping once to scrape down the sides of the processor.

Transfer to dip to a small saucepan and stir in the remaining 1/2 cup of the Ro-Tel. Heat on low for 5 to 7 minutes or until bubbly. Immediately remove from heat and serve.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Thank you so much, Bianca!

I love your blog and it was lovely of you to find time in this crazy life to be part of my blog :)

Hope you all enjoyed reading this guest post as much as I did and I can't wait to try the recipe! And don't forget to get a copy of her book in January!

One more music and food trip!

2011-05-12T11:56:00.000+01:00

Today I'm leaving for this:

Purification is Matteo's band and they're a vegan edge band. They'll play six shows in South America and I'll be playing the bass for them. It will be 11 days playing, meeting friends, eating vegan food, having fun and spreading the word about veganism. If you wanna check the band, go to their Facebook page!

Our first stop will be Sao Paulo and I can't wait to go to Vegacy, a vegan restaurant there that I really love!

After the tour I'll be heading my hometown to spend some days with my family. Can't wait.

Have to say I don't know how I'll be able to manager the posts here, but I have a few guest posts prepared and scheduled to keep the blog alive while I'm in South America.

See you all soon!

Don't keep it secret!

2011-05-11T13:30:00.009+01:00

I'm pretty sure you've heard before about the "Secret Society of Vegans" and if you haven't it's time to know all about it! SSOV has been producing vegan gear in London since 2004 and in 2009 they decided to open their first shop in Camden Town. In the beginning of 2010 they moved to a new place, called Vx, the new home of SSOV.

Since I've heard they had opened the shop I wanted to go there and never had the chance until last week! So, what's so special about the shop? For me, the most exciting thing is that it's not (just) a food shop (I know you don't believe, but I think about other things too!). They sell clothes, vegan shoes, books, grocery AND food.

We ended spending more than a couple of hours there and it was amazing. Everybody in the shop is very nice and we had the opportunity to meet one of the guys responsible for the Accidentally Vegan (they supply the shop with some of the most amazing vegan treats, include a vegan profiterole that is to die for!). It was a lovely afternoon and I bought some great stuff.

Besides the shop, they have a lounge in the basement where you can relax, drink some coffee while eating some of the delicious vegan treats and chat with the friends.

Vx is totally wort it a visit when in London! And don't keep it secret, spread the word as much as you can.

73 Caledonian Road

Kings Cross

Vx on Facebook

Accidentally Vegan on Facebook

Music and food trip to London

2011-05-09T17:00:00.003+01:00

Oh, boy! I thought I had written about London here before and now I realized I didn't. I wrote about the trip we've done last year but in my old column in a Brazilian website. Shame on me. But well, better late than never and now I have even better tips and photos, so here we go!

London must be in every TOP 5 cities for vegans. It's very vegan-friendly and the prices are decent too (well, I always compare to f***ing-expensive Dublin!). And being a tourist there rules too. Me and Matteo went there in the end of April to see Descendents for the first time. The show was on of the biggest frustration of my life cause Milo (the singer) lost his voice after the third song. But well, this is not a blog about music so this was just an introduction (you know how much punk/hardcore is a big thing in my life!).

We stayed three days in London and went to some places to eat, including the vegan Thai place in Camden Town that is a must (it's all you can eat and it's basically in front of the tube station and close to most of the venues we go to). The place is not hard to find but I can't remember its name (sorry about that!) but there's a sign in the front door "vegetarian Thai buffet" and the place is big enough to see it :P Just one note: it's almost impossible to go there two days in a row cause the food is heavy, everything there is fried and in your first day there you will really want as much as you can, so do it right!

Second food stop was Gallery Cafe. The guys from the Vx store (I'll write a separated post about it) recommend us their vegan pizza. It's served after 3:30 so we decided to go there before the Saves the Day gig on Tuesday. Can't describe how good was the super cheesy vegan pizza! One of the best vegan pizzas I've ever had. Could eat there every day (yeah, you know, I do love pizza). The place is vegetarian, not vegan, but they have vegan options and the staff is pleased to help you to "build" your favourite pizza.

Gallery Cafe

St. Margaret's House
21 Old Ford Road

Bethnal Green Third stop was Ms. Cupcake. When I read that they had opened a store in London I got so excited and couldn't leave the city with a least one visit. They're located in Brixton so we took the tube and, have to say, I had the best cupcake of my life there: a Ferrero Rocher cupcake. We had the honor of meeting Ms. Cupcake in person too and she's a lovely lady. The shop is big and it's in a nice gallery with a coffee shop in the next door, where you can order your vegan favourite coffee to have with your cupcake. Matteo had the Triple Chocolate one (which also comes with homemade vegan marshmallows on top!) and I had another one, Raspberry Cheesecake. So, next time you're in London, make sure you'll stop by Ms. Cupcake, it's 1000% worth it!

Ms. Cupcake

408 Coldharbour Lane

Brixton

And our last stop before coming back to real life was Maoz Vegetarian. I know it's not a meal, but I love falafel and Maoz is handy, cheap and tasty. The filling options in London are great and the falafel balls are delicious too. And the shop is at Soho so it's always a good idea to walk around the area too.

Maoz Vegetarian

43 Old Compton Street

This is it! There are at least a million other vegan places to go so I'm sure I will have to keep going there to keep this blog full of tips.

Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale in Dublin

2011-05-08T10:43:00.002+01:00

Yesterday Dublin had its Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale 2011 promoted by the Vegetarian Society of Ireland. Since I've heard about the worldwide week I wished I could be part of it and organize or even be part or something but I couldn't and I was very frustrated about it. So going to the only event organized in Dublin and show my support was the minimum to do.

This was the second year that the Vegetarian Society of Ireland promoted the event and it happened in a very cool venue in town called Exchange Dublin. During the Saturdays there's a market there and in the street in front of it so it's always packed with residents and tourists walking around.

The Vegan Bake Sale was very good! I've met a vegan Brazilian girl and also had the chance to chat with one of the people involved in the Vegetarian Society of Ireland for the first time. The place was bustling and the atmosphere was great! The only thing is that I was expecting more. Probably my bad cause I know how is hard to promote this kind of thing in Ireland and to get people involved but I was expecting to find more vegan treats. So I really hope that next year more people will collaborate with the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale in Dublin!

For now, well done to the Vegetarian Society for promoting a vegan event and giving people the opportunity of trying good vegan treats and to have more information about veganism.

On the road: vegan in Sardinia

2011-04-29T14:32:00.011+01:00

Marinara pizza with artichokes and black olives

A couple of weeks ago me and Matteo went to Sardinia, Italy. We had a lovely time there and the island is really beautiful. We rented a car, so we could go to as many places as possible. The weather wasn't amazing, but it was still warmer than Ireland and it was sunny most of the time.
How was the food, you might be asking? Well, have to tell you that Sardinia was a good surprise for me. We didn't find much information on line before the travel and decided to go with the spirit that in Italy there's always pasta and pizza, "so will be fine". When we left the airport we stopped in a regular supermarket and found some vegan stuff to have in the hotel. It was a very good start.

In the first two days we kept eating breakfast in the hotel, eating some snacks in the car while driving around the island, having sandwiches, juice and fruits in the afternoon and pizza at night. But our vegan supply was ending and we were in a very small city and had no idea about what to find around to eat. But when we were coming back from La Maddalena, a small island part of Sardinia, I spotted an advertising on the road about a organic store and guess where was it?! Oh yeah, at "our" city (Olbia)! We went straight there and I was very surprised with the size of the store - it is huge! It's not a vegetarian or vegan place - so they had some fish (I didn't see meat) - but it had many vegan products and we could supply ourselves again. Talking to the owner, she said there are many vegans around!

Emporio Alcatraz
12, V. Roma, Olbia, OT 07026
07026, Italy

So, if you decide to go to Sardinia, don't be afraid, you will always find the Italian classics - pasta and pizza (marinara pizza with the vegetables you want) - and also vegan products in regular supermarkets and organic shops.

I couldn't help myself and had a marinara with french fries
It's not Italian at all but it was good (and funny!)

And don't forget, if there is any important Italian words to know when you're traveling and doesn't speak Italian at all, the word is "strutto" (it means "lard" and it's still used in some doughs in Italy, mainly in focaccia bread).

Lime granite in our last day, in Alguero

Enjoying your (vegan) food

2011-04-19T19:47:00.007+01:00

Spaghetti with "meat" balls in Italy:
Italians don't eat spaghetti with meat balls,
but my sister-in-law made it for us

A couple of weeks ago I came across this quote from chef Jamie Oliver: “Stop being a vegan and start enjoying what you eat.” Until that day I thought he was an "OK" chef who sometimes cook vegetarian (and even vegan) meals at his show 30 Minutes Meals. I don't know from when or where this quote came from and I won't spend this post talking about him (I already read some posts about the topic in the internet). What I really want to say here is that most of the people I know that truly enjoy their food are vegan.

I'm reading a lot about food to write my thesis and also its relation with culture. It's clear that the post-modern days pushed away people from the kitchen and from dinner tables too. Most of the people I know who aren't vegan don't know how to cook or just know a few basic dishes and a lot of them eat out or take away or ask for some fast food/pizza delivery. Yeah, I know, there are vegan people like that too! But I'm just talking about my experience and the people I know (and believe me, I know a lot of them).

vegan gorgonzola
also made by my sister-in-law

Becoming vegan still means that you should learn cooking and eating more at home. Even with more and more vegan options in restaurants and coffee shops it's still better (and more trustful) to eat at home. I know that my interest on cooking is not the usual one, I really enjoy spending time in the kitchen, but as everybody there are some days that I don't want to cook too. But there is no situation - even when I'm tired as I'm being these days - when I do not enjoy the food I'm preparing or just eating. For me, eating is one of the biggest pleasures in life and I do enjoy what I eat and I take time to do it every single day.

How many people do you know who spend more than 30 minutes in their kitchen preparing (and enjoying) their food and another 30 minutes eating (and enjoying even more) their meals in this crazy world where everything is fast and furious? Between these people, how many are vegan?

perfect vegan dessert plate

GO VEGAN. I'm sure you will enjoy your food.

Give away new winner

2011-04-09T13:45:00.004+01:00

While Mellisser's awesome book The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life! is sold out in a lot of websites I have to make this post to way that the winner of my giveaway didn't contact me to get her copy. I tried to contact her but nothing. After waiting one month since the post with the winner was published I decided to give the chance to another reader.

So the winner now is dolmadez (Hungry Vegan Traveler)!

Please contact me so I can get your info and ship the book :)

united by love and compassion

2011-04-07T19:52:00.003+01:00

Photo of a photo from our album

Today me and Matteo are celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary.

We have many things in common and we're different in many other things. But what made me fall in love with him was his compassion for the animals and the values we share.

As a friend told me today, we're keeping the vegan edge family alive. Hope we're doing it right ;-)

we had a 100% vegan buffet but no photos
this was the cake and the Italian confetti

Love you, husband.

The ultimate ice cream battle in Rome

2011-04-06T17:57:00.007+01:00

They say that going to Rome and not seeing the Pope is not going to Rome. I will not argue that but to me going to Rome and not having (vegan) ice cream is not going to Rome. Everybody should agree that Italy has the best ice cream in the world. If you don't agree, I'm sorry but you're wrong or you've never been there! This statement also include vegan ice cream and I can confirm it myself (never had regular ice cream in Italy cause I was already vegan the first time I went there).

But I've been reading different posts about where to get the best vegan ice cream in Rome. I was used to go to Gelarmony and I was very happy about the entire section of dairy free ice cream they have there. But I saw this post about my lovely friend and blogger Jill, from Vegan Backpacker, talking about Il Gelatone and the place was mentioned in basically every place I've searched for vegan gelato in Rome. So in my walking in the second day in Rome I decided to go there to check it out after going to the Colosseo.

Sooooo here's the contenders:

Gelarmony: as I said before they have an entire section of dairy free ice cream in the back of the shop, which includes soy and rice options that go from fruit ones to Italian classics such as coffee, gianduia and noce. And they have an amazing homemade soia panna montata (weep cream). I went there twice and had walnut and cinnamon in the first time in a cup of 2.50 euro and pistacchio and riso nero (vanilla rice milk with chocolate) in a (HUGE) cup of 3.50 euro in the second time. The place is close to the Lepanto stop (two blocks away), in the red line of the metro. Staff is super friendly. I can't say if they speak English or not cause I was speaking Italian with them.

Address: 34 Via Marcantonio Colonna

Il Gelatone: the place is really close to the Colosseo, like between 5 and 10 minutes walking. They have something between 8 and 10 soia options, including fruits and also the classics. I asked for cappuccino and chocolate options in a small cup (same size of the first one I got in the Gelarmony). It cost 4 euro. It was delicious. Staff was also very friendly. You can go out in the Colosseo metro stop (blue line), which is never a bad idea, or in the Cavour stop (red line).

Address: 28 Via Dei Serpenti

THE VERDICT: Considering location and staff both places are great. But considering variety of flavours, texture, price per size and the perfect vegan weep cream, I have to say that the winner is Gelarmony!

If you go to Rome, don't forget to go to these places, both are worth it a visit if you're an ice cream fan as myself. And let me know if you agree with my verdict!

PS. You can also find ice cream in the supermarkets in Italy and this time my mother in law got us these new delicious stuff from a new brand, Kioene (GMO free), and they are just amazing. The biscuit one was my favourite.

From Rome to the countryside in north of Italy

2011-04-04T13:32:00.007+01:00

Pizza rossa: a classic from Rome
(and vegan)

From time to time I go to Italy.

Last week we went first to Rome cause Matteo had to record the songs for the upcoming album of his band, Purification, a vegan straight edge band. I spent two days walking around the city and had the best time. There's something about Rome that makes me love that place.

After we went to Soresina to see Matteo's family and relax. It was warm and really good and I also made a two hours walk in the real countryside.

On Saturday night we headed Monza to meet a friend and it was great too cause I didn't know the city. It's really beautiful.

More about the food to come.

I ♥ Paris - Final post

2011-03-21T13:16:00.011Z

First things first: I'd like to ask susansoltis, the lucky winner of the book The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life, to contact me as soon as possible.

Now, back to my trip to Paris. I know you might think that three posts for a couple days in Paris is too much but I went to really good places and I like to read detailed reviews about vegan options around the world, they always help me when I'm traveling and I wanted to do the same, with a lot of photos too. On Sunday we did more sight see and went to the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral before lunch. Then we met Sabine to go to Maoz.

I will open a very important parenthesis here to say that I love falafel and it's one of the easiest vegan options to find around the world and that EVERY SINGLE TIME that I eat a falafel sandwich I remember my BFF Filype. He's Brazilian and he lives in Santos and I wish he lived close to me and that we could travel together and hang out every day. But it's not possible so I keep myself happy thinking about him in good moments (L). And I know he LOVES falafel as much as I do or even more. And I'm sure that he would be the happiest person on earth if there was Maoz in Brazil.

Unfortunately I was too busy filling my sandwich a million times and chatting with Sabine (L) to take pictures but you can have an idea checking Maoz website. The place is vegetarian and if you eat there you can fill your sandwich with the options they have in the buffet. Another great advantage of Maoz is that it's opened until late in the night, being a perfect option for after a late hang out.

After eating as much as we could we went to a ice cream shop that was supposed to have vegan chocolate ice cream but they don't have it during the winter. We had coffee and said goodbye to Sabine. And it was time for more sight see: Sacré-Cœur Basilica and Moulin Rouge.

And after this it was time for our last food stop in Paris: Tien Hiang, a vegetarian Chinese restaurant. Once again the food was amazing (if you like fried stuff, have to say) and the price was decent. Matteo ate so much that I couldn't believe!

First, me learning (better late than never) the proper way to eat spring rolls:

Now the rest of the food (check their menu here, it's huge!): Just one important note: the restaurant is quite small, most of the people take away. But if you arrive there early like we did you'll find a table to enjoy your meal there!

That's it! Go to Paris and enjoy the vegan food! I have not enough words to thank Aurelia for the amazing weekend we had and I can't wait to see her again.

Tien Hiang
92, rue du Chemin Vert
75011 PARIS
Opening hours: 11h30 to 15h and 18h30 to 22h30

I ♥ Paris - Part I
I ♥ Paris - Part II

I ♥ Paris - Part II

2011-03-18T13:04:00.008Z

Our first day in Paris was perfect for the food. It was a rainy day but it wasn't cold. We didn't saw many touristic places but we went to the Louvre and walked a lot around there to burn some of the calories we had consumed at Loving Hut (see first post about Paris here) and we took some rest in the beautiful Jardin des Tuileries eating some amazing olives stick bread!

Aurelia took as to Saveurs Végét'Halles for dinner. We were surprised when we got there for two reasons: first we have been there in 2007 but the placed used to be La Victoire Supreme du Coeur. I have to say that I loved even more the new restaurant. The menu is larger, with more vegan options (it is a vegetarian and vegan place) and the price is more decent (or at least the meals are bigger). The second surprise is that we met a friend that used to live in Dublin. It was really amazing and a good surprise!

One more time, we had amazing food. We asked different dishes again to enjoy as much as we could:

Entrees:

Crudités et Tofu
(raw vegetables with sesame tofu)

Omelette Végét’Halles, épinard-champignon

(Végét' Halles Omelet, spinach-mushroom)

Terrine de champignon avec sa confiture d’oignon
(mushroom terrine with onion jam)

Plats:

Rôti de champignon avec sa sauce mûre et ginbembre
(Mushroom Roasted with blackberry and ginger sauce)

Escalope de seitan avec sa sauce aux champignons

(Seitan Steak with mushroom sauce)

Dessert:

Crème au Chocolat

They have some good deals for lunch and evening, don't forget to check them on the menu (they are in the last page, not in the first one!). And they are opened from 11h30 to 3pm and from 6pm to 11pm.

Saveurs Végét'Halles
41 Rue Des Bourdonnais
75001 Paris
Tel: 01 40 41 93 95

Happy (vegan) St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T13:20:00.004Z

Go green! Go vegan ;-)

In 2009 I spent my first St. Patrick's day in Dublin and I was supposed to cook Colcannon (mashed potato and cabbage), but I didn't as you can read here. This year we're staying home and I'm cooking something like a colcannon. I started my day finishing these cupcakes and now I'm back to the kitchen!

I ♥ Paris - Part I

2011-03-15T11:52:00.009Z

I went to Paris in 2007 for the first (and only) time until this weekend. I had amazing memories about the city but not too much about the (vegan) food. Four years later Paris is a way more vegan friendly and I had the best weekend ever there.

The first reason for having such a good time wasn't the food though. I went there with Matteo to meet Aurélia, my little sister. She is not my real sister, but she is like a sister. I have just one brother and the idea of having a younger sister sounds amazing to me. I use to say that friends are even better than family cause we choose them. And two years ago life gave me this amazing friend-sister that I love from the bottom of my heart and every time I meet her is just perfect. She won't be that closer after July (she's moving to Canada) and I wanna see her as much as I can until there. She made an amazing plan for our weekend, including vegan food and sight see.

I'll write at least three posts about the places we went in Paris cause I have a lot of pictures that I want to share. Our first stop was

Loving Hut

Loving Hut is in a lot of countries (also in Brazil now, in São Paulo) and I always heard different opinions about the restaurants. It seems that some of them are amazing and others aren't that great. They are independent from each other so the menu changes a lot. But the one in Paris is now in my Top 10 favourite vegan restaurants for sure.

The place is amazing, the staff is nice (and they speak English) and the food is divine and 100% vegan (or végétalien). I won't complain about the price because I think it was decent for Paris standards. We asked for different starters and main courses to enjoy as much as we could of the menu.

Entrees:

Joyeux croustillant

Pépites dorées

Accompagnement:

Riz arc-an-ciel

Plats:

Quiche végé bonheur avec salade composée

Crêpes aux champignons & salade composée

Dessert:

The hugest banana split ever

Loving Hut
92 Boulevard Beaumarchais
75011 Paris 11e arrondissement, France
01 48 06 43 84

(vegan) Pancake Tuesday

2011-03-10T21:05:00.005Z

Savory pancakes/crepes with
seitan white sauce filling

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Shrove Tuesday is more commonly know as Pancake Tuesday or Pancake Day. And to be honest, this year I heard some of my Brazilian friends talking about this "pancake day" but I've never heard about it when I was living there (maybe it was just me being a dumb...). Well, since I'm living in Dublin, I wouldn't let pass one more opportunity to cook and eat pancakes.

I was thinking about breakfast pancakes but it didn't happen, so I did crepes/savory pancakes for lunch and a "special edition" for dessert. I thought I would explode after eating all them but it was 100% worth it.

Unfortunately I didn't heard about any place/restaurant in Dublin making vegan pancakes. Hopefully next year!

Peanut butter butter cream frosting
cherry and berries jam
soy cream

Congrats, you won!

2011-03-08T15:21:00.005Z

Today is the day to reveal the lucky winner of Melisser's amazing book The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life! And what a perfect day to give someone a book full of girl's experiences! Happy International Women's Day :)

I'd like to shout a BIG thanks to Melisser for all the inspiration and for helping on spreading the word about the giveaway. And thanks everybody that entered the giveaway! I hope you keep reading my blog if you just discovered my page cause of the giveaway :)

So, here we go!

The winner is susansoltis! Congrats and please contact me cause I don't have your email.

It was really good for me to read the answers to the giveaway question: what's the hardest topic on veganism to find information about. It seems that food is now the easiest topic (except for countries such as Brazil where a lot of things still need to change to make vegan's life better) and that there are many doubts related to non-food issues (tattoo ink, medical products, house cleaning products, personal care products and cosmetics, etc). With everybody doing blogs about vegan food, some other aspects still need a lot of attention and information on-line.

To give a little help to the readers, one great link: cruelty-free shopping guide!

Baby steps into the vegan raw universe

2011-03-07T13:04:00.008Z

If you're an "old" reader of this blog, you might remember that I'm not too much into salads and that I do an effort to eat more vegetables. But since 2009, when I wrote the blog post about it, I've been eating a lot more vegetables and salads (just salads, not into burgers or with other food to cover the vegetables taste) and I'm happy with it. But I still prefer cooked vegetables than raw ones. Last week I had an amazing experience that made me know a little bit more about the vegan raw universe.

We had a guest at home that has being vegan raw for two years now. When I first realized he's raw I thought that it would be hard to cook to him and to take him out in Dublin because I knew very little about vegan raw options around. But it wasn't that hard (I sound like people that think being vegan is the hardest thing in the world!) and I could learn a lot and discover some new pleasures and options in Dublin.

Cornucopia has always some vegan raw options in their salads. Thumbs up to them! Blazing Salads is another amazing place to find great salads and they also sell the delicious Nakd raw bars (love them). More thumbs up! But our best discover was Natasha's Living Food. I had eaten one of her cakes before and it was amazing but I didn't know nothing about her or her products. I called her to see if she has a store but she doesn't (yet). We were supposed to go to her place, where she produce the stuff but we couldn't make it this time. But her products can be found in a lot of places in Dublin and I found quite a lot of them at Nourish (Wicklow Street). Everything looks delicious. Check it out if you have the chance.

Besides that we got a lot of nuts and for the last night my friend was here we decided to do a dinner party at home with some other friends of the vegan group ALiberation. I decided to cook brazilian vegan feijoada to the non-raw guests and during the day I walked with my friend around Dublin and we got some amazing raw stuff.

First we went to the Dublin Food Co-op. They have great stuff there and the staff is great. I got organic red peppers and zucchini. And we also went to a street market close to South William Street to buy olives and artichokes. Everything was delicious and I had a great night with good friends that share same values: veganism and animal rights. The guys also brought their dogs and the apartment was full of life.

After these days learning more about vegan raw I have to admit that I became very interested in the option and that I'm doing an effort to learn more recipes and to eat more raw food in general.

P.S. Today is the last day to enter the blog giveaway and have a chance to win a copy of The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life, by Melisser Elliott.

Quick meals and some sauce ideas

2011-02-26T14:01:00.007Z

I have to confess something: I watch Jamie Oliver 30 Minute Meals TV show. I hate when he cooks meat (and this happens like always) but he has some good vegetarian (and even vegan) dishes and excellent tips for those who want to cook at home and don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen.

Because I cook everyday (well, not everyday cause me and Matteo divide the "shifts" in the kitchen) I'm not always in the mood to spend too much time in the kitchen too. And some people wouldn't believe but there are a lot of meals that you can prepare in less than 30 minutes. One tip by Jamie Oliver that I totally agree is that people should learn to use and keep using their kitchen appliances. I think I use my mixer and blender everyday and there's nothing wrong with that!

This week we got another vegetables and fruit bag from Home Organics and we're making a great use of everything. Besides carrots, beets, potatoes, broccoli, spinach, we got fungi and butternut squash. Matteo made an amazing soup with one butternut squash and potatoes. Today I used half of the other one to make the sauce for our "pasta al forno" and saved the other half to a dish from Veganize This!, by Jenn Shagrin, that I'm excited to try.

Back to the quick meals, one important thing to make them great is to vary with the sauces. Sauce is an amazing element cause it can change your meal completely sometimes just with one small variation.

Broccoli & fungi sauce
(served with spaghetti)

2 big fungi (or 4 small ones)
1 big broccoli (or 4 small ones)
2 full hands of spinach leaves
1 small onion
1 or 2 garlic clove
1/2 cup soy cream
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Put the fungi, broccoli, garlic cloves and onion in the food processor and mix it until have everything cut in very small pieces. Add the spinach leaves and mix it a little bit more. Heat the oil in a cook pan, add the vegetable mix and start adding the soy cream while stirring. Let it cook in a low temperature for 1 or 2 minutes. Add a little bit of water if you think it's necessary.

Carrot, butternut squash & soy mince sauce
(used in this amazing "pasta al forno" made
with a gluten-free penne)

1 big carrot (or 2 small ones)
1/2 butternut squash
1 onion
1 or 2 garlic clove
1 1/2 cup TVP (textured vegetable protein)
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 vegetable stock cube
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Put the TVP in a boll with hot water (it's important to leave the TVP in the hot water before cooking it) and stock cube. Set it aside and leave it for 10/15 minutes. Use your fine shred/slice disc of your food processor to cut the carrot and butternut squash. Chop the onion and garlic. Heat the oil in a cook pan. Add the chopped garlic and onion and let it fry for 1 minute or until the onion turn golden. Add the TVP and let if fry for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring it. Add the carrot and butternut squash and keep stirring for 1 or 2 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and let everything cook for other 3 or 4 minutes. Add a little bit of water if you think it's necessary.

This sauce is also great to fill crepes.

An amazing vegan guide to life!

2011-02-24T16:35:00.015Z

One day in the past I wrote here that I would do another giveaway and this day just arrived. Today is a great day for me (despite the fact that my internet at home is being a total bitch) cause I sent my dissertation proposal for the Master in Journalism I'm doing (and hopefully will be finished after this summer!). It will be about vegetarianism and press coverage in Ireland. I'm not so much excited about the course itself but I have to say that I like my topic and I hope I can do a good job.

Getting back to what really matters here, this giveaway is also important to me. Before the idea of this book came to my knowledge I was a fan of this girl's blog and when she contacted me to be part of the book I couldn't not be more delighted! I answered the questions she made, send a picture and waited for the book to come out. It's out now for a few months but just last week I got my copy. And I decided to buy one extra copy to make the giveaway.

The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life, by Melisser Elliott, is amazing. It's not a book just for girls but for everybody and it's full of great tips, recipes and stories. I asked Melisser to answer a few questions about the book to this post and, as usual, she was very nice and came back to me with the answers very quickly:

How did the idea of writing a girl's guide come?
I was approached by Skyhorse to write a book and I felt like there were so many amazing cookbooks out there, I wanted to go a different direction. I felt like there needed to be a hip guide to the vegan lifestyle that took an approachable tone, so I decided to write one!

What was the most interesting/funny part of the writing process?
The funniest part for me was, I was on the road for a lot of the time I was allotted to write the book. That means, the book was written all over the world on airplanes, in the back of cars, on trains, and even large parts of it were written on my phone!

You're touring a lot to spread the word about the book. Which are your favourite places/events till now?
NYC is always amazing, both events there were great, plus you can't beat the food. Manchester turned out the be the sleeper hit of the tour. I had SO much fun and the turn out was great. Seattle was also a fun one, as was Philly.

If you could give just one advice to people that are thinking about becoming vegan, what would you say?
As the Morrissey song goes, "Do Your Best and Don't Worry"! Everyone makes mistakes, but going vegan is the best thing you can do for the animals, the environment, and yourself, so strive to make the best choices each day. If you slip up, don't quit, just keep trying to do the very best you can.

Thanks a lot, Melisser!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The giveaway

The prize: 1 copy of the book The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life, by Melisser Elliott.

Who can enter the giveaway? It's open to everybody in the world!

How to enter: just leave a comment saying what's the hardest topic on veganism to find information about.

Dates: the entries will be accept from today (February 24th) until March 7th. The winner will be announced on March 8th. If the winner is not a blogger user, please come back here to check the blog post of March 8th and get in touch with me because I will need the winner's email :)

Increase your chances! You can do one or more of the following things, return here and leave a comment saying which one you did (leave a comment for each extra entry so you can have more chances):

a. Tweet about the giveaway and mention @GlaucexVx and @urban_housewife
You can use this text: "All about (vegan) food (@GlaucexVx) is giving away a copy of The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life, by @urban_housewife http://bit.ly/dXBWXs

b. "Like" the All about... (vegan) food Facebook page and "like" the wall post about the giveaway. You should also "like" The Urban Housewife page on Facebook (it's not part of the giveaway but it's worth it!).

c. Write about the giveaway in your blog and leave a comment here with the link.

PS. AOS LEITORES BRASILEIROS: mesmo não traduzindo o post, o sorteio do livro vale tambem para o Brasil e para respostas em português! Basta responder à pergunta com um comentário. Para aumentar as chances, basta divulgar no Twiter ou no seu blog (e postar um comentario aqui com os links) e se clicar em "Like" (ou "curtir") na pagina do blog no Facebook e também no post sobre o giveaway (e sempre voltar aqui e deixar outro comentário dizendo que fez isso também!).