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.

Vitamin D, veganism and information

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

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

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

What exactly changed during this period? Not too much I have to say in regards to my diet. I kept taking my supplements and in the end of the sixth month I started to feel hungrier so I was eating more but I was still feeling great. I'm still not drinking coffee and limiting my ingestion of caffeine in general (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. It doesn't mean I'm consuming that much of it but I was craving sweets a lot during the fifth month.

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

The biggest change is that this is the time when you actually see your belly growing and start to feel your baby 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. A huge preparation to labour day (through breath techniques and poses to help you to keep moving your pelvis during pre-labour and labour) and an important exchange of experience. It's amazing to be surrounded by moms-to-be once a week.

Sometimes I think if I'm overdoing with all this supplements and I know a lot of vegan moms-to-be don't change anything in their diets and don't take any supplements too but I don't know I just prefere to sin by exaggeration than by the lack in this case. But as I've written before every pregancy – and every person- is a different experience. All I can say is this is working for me. The combo of eating well + taking supplements + keep exercising as much as I can is being the base of a quiet pregnancy and my blood tests are all good.

I'm now getting close to the end of this journey and get ready for the next fase of my life and I feel good. I don't feel like I'm pregnant forever like some moms-to-be feel and I'm glad I still have some weeks to prepare myself for the big day. Day by day I'm getting ready for the arrival of my little boy.

(vegan) Pumpkin white chocolate chips cookies

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

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

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

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

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

 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

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

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!

 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

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

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!)