My first vegan dinner party!

Last weekend, we hosted our first dinner party since I became vegan and it was a-maz-ing!

Our friends that we invited have recently decided to go vegetarian, so it was cool to be able to share all of the vegan dishes with them.

I got waaaay too excited about making the table look pretty and may have gone a little overboard with decorating name cards!

vegan dinner party table

Now, onto the delicious food…

In some families you have to say grace before everyone can eat; in my house, it’s becoming pretty standard that everyone has to wait until I’ve taken pictures of the food before we can start eating , ah the life of a food blogger!!

Now really, onto the food! My mum is an amazing cook and has been adapting her previously meat dishes into vegetarian dishes for me for years. Now she has the even bigger challenge of adapting them into vegan-friendly meals, and she is doing a great job!

Her veggie Lasagne is one of my all time favourites, and she made it vegan by substituting the white sauce with an almond milk and corn flour mixture, and to add crunchiness – a bread crumb and vegan butter topping. YUM. Everyone LOVED this dish; and even my cheese loving, vegetarian boyfriend said this was the best lasagne yet – go mama!

We also had a fresh vegetable paella which was scrummy, and also really good for left-overs the next day too.

vegan lasagna and vegan paella

My mum’s vegetarian chilli is THE BOMB. Like seriously, party in your mouth. It’s my all time favourite dinner, as you can do so much with it: eat it with home-made garlic batons, in a jacket potato, with rice, with nachos, with salad, with home-made coleslaw – the possibilities are endless! So as always, this was a big hit!

We also had a mixed leaf salad with cherry tomatoes which is such a simple, healthy side and goes well with most things – a dinner party must.

vegan chilli and salad

For desert, we had some awesome home-made melted vegan chocolate…

vegan chocolate

…And to dip in the chocolate we had delicious strawberries and banana slices. Heaven.

strawberries and banana

It was such a lovely evening, and the food went down amazingly! I’ll be sharing some of the recipes on the blog soon, so watch this space!

Vegan dinner party

 

Vegan Eats at Glastonbury

After getting home from Glastonbury in the early hours of Monday morning and sleeping until 2 in the afternoon (that must be some kinda laziness record!) I am slowly returning to reality; so thought it was about time I wrote a post on my vegan eats and how I found my first ever festival!!

I shared my apprehension in relation to the shower/ toilet situation in my: How to do Glastonbury… Vegan style post; and unfortunately, my fears were validated within hours of arriving at the site when I became acquainted with the ‘toilets’. I’ll spare you the details but let’s just say I have a new found appreciation for modern plumbing. As expected, 2/6 of my Festival Shopping List went completely unused, I bet you can guess which items they were! The lack of showering wasn’t too bad, as I had daily wet-wipe ‘showers’ and the super drug dry shampoo was awesome! Although I must say, my Monday morning 2.30am shower was probably the best shower I’ve had in my entire life. Despite the toilet trauma and my poor personal hygiene; the weekend was filled with amazing music, great company, and of course lots of incredible vegan food.

So let’s get down to my Glastonbury vegan eats…

1. Fresh Organic

The Fresh Organic Veggie Burger stall quickly became my favourite spot. I’m not sure if ‘Fresh Organic’ was its name but that’s what I’m guessing based on their sign, so let’s go with that! fresh organic vegan stall glastonbury

I went there at least once a day to get my lemon juice fix. lemon juice glastonbury

And their chocolate banana bread was the perfect breakfast/ midday/ late night, okay all times of day, snack! chocolate and banana bread glastonbury

They also had a great range of veggie burgers with a huge selection of vegan friendly sauces, including my personal favourite: garlic mayonnaise!

vegan sauces glastonbury

On Sunday, we packed our tent up in the morning and carried it back to the car so that we could avoid the queues when leaving later that night. We got so wrapped up in packing up our messy and very muddy tent that we forgot to have breakfast… big mistake! After a 2 hour walk which comprised carrying extremely heavy bags in the sweltering heat, trekking across the wrong field for a good 20 mins, and a tent strap breaking (along with my spirit) midway through, I was feeling majorly hangry! I discovered recently that not everyone knows what hangry means, so in case you’ve never heard this before, it’s when you get so hungry that the lack of food starts to make you feel angry. I suffer from major hanger issues, kinda like this!

jennifer lawrence where's the pizza meme

So anyway, I’m not sure if this is the hanger speaking, but when I had my first meal of the day at 2pm: this veggie burger and chips with garlic mayonnaise, it tasted like the best thing I’ve ever eaten! veggie burger and chips glastonbury

 

2. No Bones Jones

I found this stall at lunch time on my third day, and dragged my boyfriend back there for dinner later that night because it was just that good!

image

Their veggie fritter bowl topped with salad, spinach and chickpea curry, and red bean stew was delicious; and just the kind of healthiness I needed after stuffing my face with veggie burgers for 2 days!

no bones jones galstonbury

 

3. Pizza Tabun

We went to see Newton Faulkner near the Green Fields on Friday night (he was freaking awesome by the way), and had dinner in the Pizza Tabun on the way back. The tent had a great, chilled out vibe, and it was so nice to actually sit down for a meal!

image

Two of our friends, who aren’t vegans or veggies, went to Pizza Tabun on the first night and said that the vegan tahini pizza was amazing. From the moment I heard that, I was on the hunt for vegan pizza, and when we finally found it I was so excited to get stuck in that I didn’t manage to take a very good picture. Despite the blurry picture, the pizza definitely lived up to my expectations, and if we had camped nearer I’m sure I would have been back there every day!

pizza tabun glastonbury

 

4. Paellaria

My last Glastonbury 2014 meal was at Paellaria, and it was delicious! When we visited Barcelona last year, my boyfriend and I became huge Paella fans; however, it is not something we get to have very often.

paellaria glastonbury

We were therefore extremely excited to find somewhere that served a vegetarian/ vegan Paella at Glastonbury!

image

The Paella de Veduras (vegan + gluten free) was the perfect way to end a festival full of amazingly varied vegan food.paellaria glastonbury

 

I’ve never had such an amazing array of vegan options available to me; and this, along with the awesome people and music, made this weekend an incredibly special experience for me. Glastonbury, you were awesome. Same time next year?

glastonbury sunset

How to do Glastonbury… Vegan style

At the end of this week, I will be heading to Glastonbury Festival for the first time ever! Excited does not even begin to describe how my boyfriend feels about this; we’ve spoken about nothing but tents, line ups, and portable chairs for the past few months. I, on the other hand have been feeling a little, okay a lot, apprehensive mainly due to the showering/ toilets/ general personal hygiene issues a festival presents, but also about how I will find food that fits in with my veggie/ vegan lifestyle.

Recently I was trawling through online vegan forums where I stumbled upon a plethora of comments saying that Glastonbury is THE best place for veggies/ vegans. Some people were even saying that Glastonbury was the one time of the year that they ate veggie, simply because the food is so good. After finding this out, I’m definitely giving my boyfriend a run for his money in the too excited to function department, and can’t wait to head to The Green Fields (where all the veggie/ vegan action happens). I’m so excited to share all of my Glasto-food instagram pics with you all and will be writing a full blog post about all my vegan eats when I’m back. For those mornings where we don’t have the energy to roll out of our tent for breakfast, I have packed some Fruitina snack bars; they’re the perfect festival snack: light-weight, healthy and filling!

fruity snacks

To mitigate my no-shower panic, I decided to go on a mini-toiletry shopping spree. I am passionate about using cruelty free beauty products, so shopping for tiny toiletries is as exciting to me, as shopping for collapsable chairs that fold into the size of a shoe (yes, we have those!) is to my boyfriend! So for all you compassionate festival go-ers, here is my:

Festival Shopping List

1. Moisturising Hand Sanitiser (Festival must have!)

Crabtree and Evelyn at Marks and Spencer 

crabtree and evelyn hand sanitiser

 

2. Wet-Wipes (as an alternative to showering, aaaaa!)

Dr. Organic at Holland and Barrett

dr. organic wet wipes

 

3. Dry Shampoo (I’ve been told by seasoned festival goers that realistically, I won’t be washing my hair :o)

Superdrug own brand

superdrug dry shampoo

 

4. Mini bottles of my favourite shampoo and conditioner (just in case I can’t go 4 days without hair washing)

Tara Smith at Marks & Spencer

tara smith hair products

 

5. Mini bottle of body wash (for that shower that may or may not happen)

Original Source at Superdrug

original source shower gel

 

6. One large bottle of sun screen (this is the one thing that my mum insisted I didn’t downsize)

Ultrasun 100ml  at Amazon

Ultrasun 400ml at Amazon

ultrasun

 

Glastonbury – here we come!!

10 reasons to go vegan

Since going vegan, I have been asked by so many people why I chose this lifestyle. There have been a lot of these moments…

i am vegan

However, it has also got me thinking. I’m always taken a little off guard and never know what to say when I’m asked this question, so I normally end up mumbling something about loving animals. The truth is, whilst my love for animals is my primary reason, I didn’t realise how many other amazing reasons I have until I started writing them all down. I thought it’d be fun to share my top 10 with you all, and also to maybe have somewhere to refer people to next time I get asked the question ;)…

My Top 10 Reasons for being Vegan

1. I have always loved animals, and this George Bernard Shaw quote pretty much sums it up Quotation-George-Bernard-Shaw-friends-Meetville-Quotes-156371

2. Animals are all sentient beings and I don’t believe that any of them have less of a right to live than I do

peace

3. Esther the wonder pig is so awesome and has shown us just how similar pigs can be to the dogs we love and share our homes with

esther the wonder pig4 cockapoos

4. Vegan food is awesome and I’m now so much more aware of what I’m putting into my body IMG_5973

5. I get to try out all of these cool, new vegan restaurants like Mildred’s and Bistro 1847 Bistro 1847 - battered vegetables

6. At 20 years old, I’ve finally given myself a good enough reason to learn to cook IMG_1392

7. Amazing people who I really admire, like Alicia Silverstone are great examples of how rewarding a vegan lifestyle can be

alicia silverstone

8. Since making this lifestyle change, I can honestly say I am feeling the healthiest I ever have vegans are healthier

9. I get to connect with like minded people and hopefully inspire people to live a kinder life through my vegan blog

blog

10. And if all of that isn’t convincing enough, who am I to argue with a genius?!

albert einstein veganism

I’d love to hear what made you decide to go vegetarian/ vegan in the comments box below this post?

My first entry in Jade’s Vegan Diary (Exciting!!!)

Hey and welcome to Jade’s Vegan Diary! I have been a vegetarian for the majority of my life and recently decided to become vegan. This decision was not only fueled by my love of animals, but also by the amazing health benefits that this awesome diet offers.

I am lucky that a lot of the people I’m closest to are either vegetarian or pescetarian, so I have never struggled in maintaining this diet. However, I know zero vegans so this lifestyle is completely new to me and has already been a massive learning curve since I started transitioning into it around a month ago.

In such a short space of time, I have already had so many amazing experiences and have learnt so much. On top of that, I am feeling the healthiest and most energised I have ever felt. I am so excited about living all aspects of this lifestyle, so  decided to start this blog as a way to share my experiences and connect with like-minded people.

On my blog, you can expect lots of yummy recipes; vegan and mainstream restaurant reviews; exercise and general healthy living  posts; vegan beauty product reviews… and really all things vegan! I’m sure I’ll also find a way to work in lots of stories about my amazing dogs, as everyone who knows me knows I always find a way to bring them into the conversation. They even have their own blog here; yep I’m one of those people!

One more thing to note about me, is that prior to becoming vegan my culinary skills were probably less extensive than those of most 5 year olds, so learning to cook and bake all of these yummy vegan foods has been a completely foreign but amazingly exciting experience for me.

I hope you enjoy getting to know me through this blog, and hopefully finding some inspiration is my stories and recipes. I’d love to hear from you so please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Jade xx