What motivates you to eat differently? Fear, conscience, fitness or something else?

Reasons for eating differently

I have met people at different stages in their life who have chosen to eat differently for various reasons. Here's some examples

• Pregnancy - to maintain good health
• Weight - to gain or lose some
• Allergies - to minimise or nullify it
• Intolerances - to reduce or remove the effects of it
• Illnesses - to reverse, cure or pacify it
• Detox - to feel better
• Vibrancy - to feel less lethargic and more energetic

What does Alicia Silverstone have to say about shifting to a vegan diet?

Within 4 minutes, Alicia Silverstone discusses the pros of eating differently, reasons that fuel a change in diet, the visible benefits of shifting to a vegan diet and more.

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"People should flirt with a plant-based diet! The point here is that it's not all or nothing. You can sort of play with the idea and see if you like it a little. Often, the more you flirt, the more you want to flirt. Flirters try on these foods and hopefully become so into them they stick with it."
- Alicia Silverstone

Recipe: Houmous

This recipe serves 1.

Ingredients for vegan houmous

• 15g of dried chick peas
• 20g of lemon juice
• 10g of Rapeseed oil - also known as Canola oil
• 10g of Tahini

How to make vegan houmous

1. Soak the chick peas in cold water overnight
2. Rinse and cook until they are soft enough to purée
3. Mix the drained chick peas with the Tahini, lemon juice and oil
4. Blend the mixture
5. Add salt to taste

Note: the flavour and digestibility of chick peas is improved if they are peeled after cooking.

Recipe courtesy of Constantin. Translation courtesy of Sarah.

Can you eat a healthy plant-based diet whilst on a budget?

This video has a few comedy moments in it! Aside from those there are some huge positive, creative and realistic points to take away from it. It's 8 minutes long and the content shows us how we can eat really well without spending lots of money.

 “Every action has its pleasures and its price.” Socrates

Recipe: Pasta with a twist within 25 minutes

I didn't make this but I definitely enjoyed eating it! :)

This recipe serves 2.

Ingredients for the pasta

•    2/3 of a tablespoon of olive oil
•    3/4 of a bunch of broccoli – torn into edible sized pieces
•    1 fresh chilli – finely chopped
•    2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves – left whole
•    salt to taste
•    pepper to taste
•    8 cherry tomatoes – left whole
•    130g of pasta – I  use rigatoni
•    1/2 tablespoon of vegan margarine – I  use Pure sunflower margarine
•    2 carrots – grated
•    1 small (200g) can of sweetcorn
•    vegan sausage – thin circular slices – I  use Taifun Tofu-Wiener
•    1 tablespoon of salt – for the pasta

How to make the pasta

1.    Add the olive oil to a pan and heat it
2.    When it’s hot, add the broccoli let it cook for 2 minutes before adding the chill
3.    When the broccoli has become a little bit 'burnt', add the spinach, salt and pepper
4.    After 2 minutes, add the cherry tomatoes
5.    While this is cooking, boil some water and use it to boil the pasta in a separate pan
6.    Add the salt to the pasta and stir
7.    Check the pasta after 7 minutes and if it’s the way you like it, drain the water and add the pasta to the vegetables
8.    Add the margarine to the pan (with the vegetables and pasta in it) and stir
9.    To serve, create different sections on a plate, separating the carrots, sweetcorn and Wiener, and the pasta. 

Pasta served with grated carrots, sweetcorn and Wiener

Dr. Neal Barnard discusses the benefits of a plant-based diet

This video is about 9 minutes long. I consider it short for the amount of easily digestible information he covers.

Definitely worth watching.

Some points worth listening out for:-

• Diabetes
• Alzheimer's Disease
• Allergies
• Arthritis

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“Vegan diet reverses diabetes symptoms. Peo­ple that ate a low-fat vegan diet, cut­ting out all meat and dairy, low­ered their blood sugar more and lost more weight than peo­ple on a stan­dard Amer­i­can Dia­betes Asso­ci­a­tion diet.”
- Mag­gie Fox

Recipe: Banana Muffins within one hour

This recipe creates 12 regular sized muffins.

Ingredients for vegan banana muffins

• 4 very ripe bananas
• 2 tablespoons of vegan margarine
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 a cup of granulated sugar
• 1/4 of a cup of light brown sugar
• 1 and 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of Baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of Baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon powder
• 1/4 of a cup of Walnuts that are toasted and chopped
• 1/4 of a cup of vegan dark chocolate, chocolate chips

How to make vegan banana muffins

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degree F or 190 degree C for at least 10 minutes
2. Place the oven rack in middle of the oven
3. Put muffin liners in a tray
4. Put the all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon powder in a bowl
5. Mix it well
6. Mash the bananas in a separate bowl
7. Add the margarine, oil and vanilla extract
8. Mix it together and then add granulated sugar and light brown sugar
9. Mix it and add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients
10. Mix it but do not over mix it
11. Then add the chopped walnuts and chocolate chips
12. Fold them in and divide the batter in the muffin liners
13. Bake them in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes
14. Serve warm or let it cool completely

A tip:-

Check the muffins a few minutes earlier than the stated time by inserting toothpick in the middle of it. If the toothpick comes out clean, the muffins are done.

Recipe and photo courtesy of Sheela Shah.

Recipe: Butter Beans Shaak (curry) within 15 minutes

This Shaak is simple, filling and quick to make. It involves minimal preparation and tastes delicious.

This recipe serves 2.

Ingredients for butter beans Shaak

•    1 (240g) can of butter beans or use dried butter beans which would need to be soaked for 12 hours, the water drained and then boiled in fresh water
•    2 tomatoes - blended
•    1 fresh chilli – blended
•    3/4 of a tablespoon of sunflower oil or olive oil
•    1/2 a teaspoon of mustard seeds
•    1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
•    2 sweet neem leaves
•    1 pinch of asafetida
•    1 pinch of turmeric powder
•    salt to taste
•    1 teaspoon of dried coriander powder
•    1 handful of freshly chopped coriander
•    6 wholemeal mini wraps

How to make butter beans Shaak

1.    Heat the oil in a pan and then add the mustard seeds, cumin, sweet neem leaves and asafetida
2.    After the seeds have popped add the tomatoes and chilli
3.    After a 2 minutes, add the butter beans, turmeric powder, salt and dried coriander powder
4.    After 3 minutes add the chopped coriander, stir and let it cook for 5 - 7 minutes
5.    Fold each mini wraps in half and serve the butter beans alongside it

We enjoyed this with mini wraps. It can also be eaten with rice or Rotli.

Recipe: Pinwheel Biscuits

Ingredients for vegan pinwheel biscuits

• 2 & 1/4 cups of wholemeal wheat flour
• 3/4 cups of vegan butter - I used Vitalite
• 1/2 of cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon of Flaxmeal
• 3 tablespoons of water
• 1/2 cup of vegan dark chocolate
• 2 - 3 tablespoons of Almond milk
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla essence

How to make vegan pinwheel biscuits

1. Mix the Flaxmeal with water and leave it to stand
2. Cream the butter and sugar until it's fluffy
3. Add the Flaxmeal mix
4. Melt the chocolate in a Bain Marie
5. Blend the flour with the butter cream to form a dough and add some milk as required
6. Add the vanilla essence
7. Divide the dough into half
8. And the melted chocolate to one of the half mix
9. Knead the dough for 5 mins - the dough should be fairly stiff
10. Divide each portions of the flavoured dough into 2
11. On a cling filmed rolling board roll out the dough to create 8 -9 inch round shapes
12. Ensure that the vanilla dough and the chocolate dough is kept separate
13. Place the chocolate rolled out circular shapes onto the vanilla and fold together to form rolls - like a Swiss roll
14. Wrap in cling film and leave in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours
15. Once set, cut out equal pieces of the biscuits and bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius until golden brown
16. Cool them on a cooling rack and enjoy!

Recipe and photo courtesy of Jigna Malde.

How I define a vegan diet

Why is it helpful to have a definition of what veganism?

I wrote this definition to create a tool to communicate what you are willing to consume, so that it's easier on you and others.

Confusion about the many terms regarding what people eat

There are loads of different terms for people to remember.

- Those who eat fish but no other meat of any sort are Pescetarians.
- If you eat chicken and no other meat, you're a Pollo vegetarian.
- If someone says they are vegan but they eat meat, fish, honey, eggs etc. i.e. the only thing they have excluded from their diet is dairy; they are not vegan. They fall under the dairy-free category.

The definition of a vegan diet

A vegan diet includes any item that has not come from a living being e.g. an animal or insect. Examples of excluded foods are honey, eggs, fish, meat and products using the milk from an animal e.g. cream, milk, cheese, yogurt, butter etc. Vegan foods include vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, pulses and grains. Alternatives to dairy products can be made from oats, rice, soya or nuts.

A tool to help illustrate what vegans eat

A friend of mine made a chart to show the differences between what a vegan would eat and what a 'pure' vegetarian would eat. I hope you find it helpful.

Related posts

Why vegans don't consume honey
Why don't vegans eat eggs?

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"The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different."
Hippocrates