Vegan month

Hello sweet peas,

If you have followed this blog from the beginning you’ll realise that I will be turning vegan this month as part of my new years resolution. I am already 5 days into it and so far I have not found it too difficult. The real challenge for me was a friend’s birthday which included a Nutella and KitKat chocolate vanilla cake. It looked incredible and super yummy however instead I munched on carrots and houmous. I could have easily given in and had a slice of cake but I will just wait until this month is over and ask her to bake another in March. The term ‘vegan’ as quoted by the Collins English Dictionary states: ‘a person who refrains from using any animal product whatever for food, clothing, or any other purpose’. I am quite interested how I will cope eliminating major food groups from my diet for a whole month, especially dairy, however I see it as a personal challenge to experience a different aspect of life. Despite changing my diet, I would say I have a vegan approach to clothing especially the use of fur, reptile skin and ivory. The dubious killing of animals to fulfil your materialistic extravagances is ridiculous especially in terms of increasing extinction and effects towards global environmental changes. At all costs I try to refrain from buying cosmetic products that have been tested on animals although I won’t say that I religiously do this. You could call me a hypocrite but I do think and read about most products before buying them #ecofriendly

Back to my vegan diet; to prepare I sent off an online grocery order and whilst shopping I realised how accessible it was to find vegan alternatives to your everyday shop. On the other hand I had to spend quite a long time closely looking at product information because nowadays most foods have unnecessary additives therefore certain foods like soups are not actually vegan-friendly. I bought a lot of fruit and vegetables including dried mango and tinned peaches, a substitute for chocolate and other snacks. If you’re like me and have a sweet tooth, try vegan fruit flapjacks or vegan chocolate because they taste just as good without any animal products in them. Once I’ve got into the swing of this, I will start baking vegan recipes and I will let you guys know what I thought of them and top tips to improve them. This, in a sense, is the real reason why I am becoming vegan for a month in order to develop my culinary skills and use different ingredients that I would usually avoid. If any of you know of a good vegan recipe, please comment below and I’ll give it a go! Keep a look out for another vegan post next week if you’re interested how I’m doing.

Keep smiling,

Love Poppy x