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All about.. Rewild

After three weeks in Rome me and Matteo finally had the chance to go to Rewild, the only vegan restaurant in Rome. It's said to think that a 5 million people city has just one vegan place to eat. Well, better than nothing. They open just for dinner and it would be too late to go with baby boy - and we're still fighting to get him a new routine after the moving out of Ireland - so we asked them if we could go earlier and they agreed to open the doors like two hours before to have us ;-)


The place is not that close from city center but you can get there by subway, so it's all good. It's a nice and big salon and people are the nicest. Their menu is huge, from starters to deserts and they have the classic Italian way of eating: starter, primo, secondo, dolce. And we wanted it all!


I have to apologize for not having good pictures but I only had my phone and it was dark there. But I'll go back - as many times as it's possible - and I promisse a good photo shoot in the future.


First me and Matteo ordered two sandwiches, with different types of burgers. Both delicious (and huge!). Than for primo(usually some kind of pasta) we ordered lasagna and raviolli (and these pictures aren't nothing close to show how good they were). We could stop here and just ask for dessert but we asked for secondo (usually meat). I asked for a kamut seitan and vegetables medallion and Matteo got a sliced seitan thing. I didn't taste Matteo's one cause it was time to breast feed little boy but mine was a piece of heaven!

To close the night - yes, we had more - we asked for the veganisu, or vegan tiramisu, of course. It was great that I could order it for two reasons: it's made with orzo and not coffee (and I'm not having coffee) and it doesn't have liquor (to attend their straight edge audience)! I have just one thing to say about it: I could it a piece of this veganisu every day of my life.

So, if you come to Rome - better, when you come to Rome - don't worry about seeing the Pope but go to Rewild!

When in Rome

I'm probably not doing as the romans do for most of the time but I'm eating pizza bianca and pizza rossa everyday and gelato three times a week, so life is good!

You can find ice cream in every supermarket 

Gelarmony - My favourite place in Rome

 From the local market

 Mother's Day lunch

my first mother's day with a lovely lunch cooked by Matteo

 Brunch at Il Margutta RistorArte

 Not even close to coffee but I really like it

Baby boy enjoying the sunny days (L)

Sweet end to (vegan) Sweet

Sometimes we see the end of things like a bitter end but this is not the case. Since baby boy was born I decided to not take orders to Sweet for a few months to dedicate myself 100% to him and I was happy about that. And then life gave me a few surprises which took me to a decision: it is the end of Sweet in Dublin.


I'm not saying I won't bake sweet treats anymore but I have no idea about when I'll be able to get back on taking orders and making other vegans happier. Sweet last 3 years and I'm very happy about all the cakes and cupcakes I've baked but life now has other plans to me and my family.


I'd like to say THANK YOU to everyone who ordered from me, enjoyed my cakes and spread the world about Sweet all this time. It was a pleasure and I'm happy that I could find in vegan baking something great and inspiring to do here in Ireland.

(Pic by Greg)

We are the vegans

Posted this at my Facebook page and thought it was worth it to share also here.

Making your house cleaner

Here I am after many weeks of my last post. It's not that as a mother of a 2 months baby boy I don't have time to write here, it's just that it's still being hard to organize my time. I should be sleeping when baby sleeps (doesn't happen at all expect for the nights). And now that I'm recovered from the emergency c-section I have tons of things to do at home too.

I am still not cooking that much and making a good use of all the pre-made meals I can find in Dublin. And I'm extremely grateful for all my friends that are visiting us and bringing us food or cooking here, it's the best help we can get. But today I won't write about vegan food but about vegan cleaning products. I always think that cruelty-free and vegan house products and personal care products are harder to find than vegan food. And I'm always trying everything I can find in the market. So today I'm doing some free publicity for Bio-D, an UK company.

We've being using their product for a few months now and I'm really happy with them. Quality products with a decent price. I'm using even their Nappy Fresh for baby dirty clothes and it's great.


In Dublin it's possible to find their products at Nourish (Wicklow Street). And if they don't have something you want on stock you can ask the staff there and they will order.


Which are your favourite house cleaning products?

New life. More love. Less cooking

Our Italian-Brazilian baby boy arrived on the 28th of January and we couldn't be happier. We're now adjusting to the new life, filled with the biggest love ever. 

Of course there's not too much cooking going on and Matteo is doing most of it but this week I ate Amy's Dairy Free Rice Macaroni and Cheeze and it was an amazing surprise. Matteo got it in the health store at Dundrum and the only thing I wish is that it was cheaper (it's imported), but it's worth to have it from time to time and it's really practical.

And now that I'm a vegan mom, any tips of good blogs to follow?

Getting practical

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!

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

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!

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

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!

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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.