Recipe: Sadie's Vitality Broth

This is a simple broth and noodle soup that is a good alternative to chicken noodle soup. I found it in the book Vegan Vittles: Second Helpings: Down-Home Cooking for Everyone  by Joanne Stepaniak . I can highly recommend this book to anyone who wants recipes that aren't too complicated, don't have too many ingredients and do not take forever to make. Apart from the recipes, it also has lovely drawings and profiles of the animals from Farm Sanctuary in New York.

What you will need:
4-5 cups of water
1 can (approx 470g - 500g) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 and a half tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 tp 2 tbsp fresh finely chopped parsley or 1 to 2 tsp dried
Just less than a tsp of salt, and onion powder (optional)
1 quarter tsp garlic powder (optional)
Dash of paprika and ground coriander
pinch of ground tumeric
2 thirds cup of orzo ( rice shaped pasta) or other small pasta.

Method:
Combine the water, chickpeas, nutritional yeast flakes, salt, herbs and spices in a large saucepan and bring to boil. Add the pasta and stir well. Lower heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until the pasta is tender, approx 20 minutes.

Notes: Nutritional yeast cane be found in health  food shops and is NOT to same as Brewer's yeast! Fresh parsley is what I used and always prefer. The flavour is better and the best thing is - parsley is easy to grow, including in pots. The pasta I used was made of corn - it keeps its shape when cooked and it is gluten free.

The finished product is a lovely noodle broth, perfect for these cold, rainy days we are having in Perth, at the moment.

Recipe: Basic Tofu Lasagna

I have never in my life, made a lasagna before, let alone a vegan one. Thankfully, this recipe is very easy to follow and the result was delicious! I found it in the book "The Everything Vegan Cookbook" - by Jolinda Hackett and Lorena Novak Bull.  It has a lot of easy to follow recipes, perfect for those of us who are either new to vegan cooking or cooking all together!

What you will need:

1 block of firm tofu (about 400g)
1 block of silken tofu (about 400g)
a quarter cup nutritional yeast (you can find this in health food shops)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp soy or tamari (I prefer tamari)
approx 2 teaspoons basil - fresh or dried, using less if dried
approx 3 tbsp parsley - fresh or dried , using less if dried
a pinch or two of salt
4 cups of vegan pasta sauce - I use  Paul Newman's Own: Classic Tomato Homestyle. Available in supermarkets. Any tomato based pasta sauce will do, so long as it doesn't have any cream or butter in it, really.
1 pack lasagna pasta sheets (check directions on pack as to whether they need to be presoaked or not.) As I am sensitive to gluten, I used gluten free ones which often can be found in supermarkets these days.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c
In a large bowl, mash together the firm and the silken tofu, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, soy/tamari sauce, herbs and salt, until they are all combined and crumbly like ricotta cheese. At this stage, you can mix in additions, like sliced mushrooms.
Grab a lasagna pan and spread about two thirds of a cup of pasta sauce on the bottom of it and then add a layer of  pasta sheets.
Spread about half of the tofu mix on top of the noodles and follow that with another layer of sauce. Place a second layer or pasta sheets on top and follow with the remaining tofu mix and more sauce. Finish it off with a third layer of pasta sheets and the rest of the sauce.
If you like, you can add a bit of grated vegan cheese on the top. Cheezly is a good brand and is available from from PAWS .
Cover your masterpiece with some foil, pop into the oven and give it about 40-50 minutes to cook. basically, what you are looking for is the pasta too cook well enough so you can put a knife through it. I used non pre-soak lasagna sheets and found that the recipe in the book recommended only 25 minutes, which was nowhere near enough time.

 And here is the final product. Totally delicious and totally free of dairy and any other animal products. Yum!

Event: D-Day for Our South West Whales and Marine Life

Time: Tuesday, August 2 · 7:30pm - 9:00pm

Location: Fly By Night Club
1 Holdsworth Street
Fremantle, Western Australia

The future of marine protection in Australia is at a cross roads, starting here in our South West. The Federal Government’s plan for marine sanctuaries fails the whales and our marine life.

But there is still time to act.

The marine park plan is out for a three month public comment period ending on the 8th August. Every submission made will count towards turning the tide and ensuring the Government acts to save our marine life.

Please join Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Save Our Marine Life at the Fly-By-Night club for a drink and presentations on the whale and marine life hotspot of South West Australia. Come along with your friends and family to help protect our unique marine life with less than a week left to make a difference!

RSVP appreciated; please call the Conservation Council of WA on (08) 9420 7266. Attendance is free, donations always welcome!

The Body Shop Revisited - Part 3!

In regards to my last post about L'Oreal buying Body Shop, I decided to have a look at PETA's website to see what they had to say..
This is what I wrote to them: On your list of "Search for Cruelty-Free Companies and Products - Companies that DO NOT test on animals" you have Body Shop listed. Although this is technically true, their PARENT company - L'Oreal - DOES. There should be a note made about this on the list, as purchases from The Body Shop will now line the pockets of L'Oreal.

Their response suprised me. This is what they had to say:  Thank you for contacting PETA about L’Oréal’s purchase of The Body Shop. We are very pleased to report that PETA has received written confirmation from The Body Shop assuring us that its animal-testing policy will not change and that all its products will remain cruelty-free. We feel that it’s imperative for consumers to continue buying personal-care products from The Body Shop in order to support the company’s strong anti-testing stance and show L’Oréal that the market for cruelty-free products is huge.

Invariably, when a massive corporation buys a smaller, more compassionate company, the big company learns from the smaller company’s success that consumers are concerned about issues such as animal testing and cruelty to farmed animals. For example, Boca Foods—maker of vegetarian burgers and other vegetarian products—is now owned by hot-dog giant Oscar Mayer, and ConAgra owns faux-meat maker LightLife. Dean Foods—the largest dairy-product company in the world—owns White Wave, the maker of Silk soy milk and other nondairy products. These conglomerates’ purchases of compassionate companies have meant that more humane products are widely promoted and sold than ever before. Shoppers see them on stores’ shelves and in advertisements, which enables these cruelty-free products to become more popular.


Large corporations now recognize the expanding market of compassionate consumers who want cruelty-free food, cosmetics, and clothing. We hope that The Body Shop’s no-testing policy and its support of projects that are friendly to animals, the environment, and native peoples will persuade L’Oréal to abandon animal tests across the board.

They make some valid points, I must admit. So, what to do? Well, I think so long as their consumers KNOW  about the L'Oreal connection and that that company still tests on animals, then they can make an educated choice as to whether they shop there or not. But the fact of the matter is, there will be a LOT out there who don't know (as I didn't know). This feels like deceit to me. And to some extent, hypocrisy from The Body Shop who really push the activist/against animal testing image.

Despite their arguments, for me, I wouldn't feel comfortable shopping there and I would inform friends/family about the L'Oreal connection. What they then do with that information, is up to them, of course. 

The Body Shop Revisited, Part 2!

After a comment posted on this blog, about Body Shop being bought by L'Oreal, I had to do some digging around and to my great dismay, have found a very good reason NOT to shop at The Body Shop.
You see, in 2006, Anita Rodderick sold her company to L'Oreal for a hefty amount. Although Body Shop state that their products are not tested on animals and this is true, their parent company (now L'Oreal) does. L'Oreal stated that they are aiming to eliminate animal testing by 2013 -that is two more years of animal cruelty and if you consider that they bought Body Shop in 2006, that will be 7 years of animal cruelty, in total.

You might ask "But if the Body Shop products are not tested on animals, why should I care if their parent  company does? The answer is below, which I have directly lifted from the website Uncaged because they explained it so succinctly:

FOLLOWING THE MONEY

The most important factor that affects whether a product is ‘cruelty-free’ is the animal testing policy of the manufacturing company. You have to ‘follow the money’.

Even if a particular product and its ingredients are not tested on animals, if the company that makes it performs animal tests in other areas, then purchasing any of their products promotes and supports cruelty to animals.

This also includes parent companies of subsidiaries. For example, purchases from The Body Shop will now line the pockets of animal testing cosmetics company L’Oreal. That’s why you should now boycott The Body Shop/L’Oreal.



 

Product: Buccaneer Bars

Buccaneer bars are rich, fluffy, chocolate nougat, reminding me much of Milky Way bars..

 They are coated with a rich rice milk chocolate coating and are completely dairy free and vegan. They contain no hydrogenated oils, no trans fats and no artificial ingredients.

I had my first one yesterday and it was delicious! You can buy these bars at PAWS , along with a few other tempting vegan chocolate bars. I shall be testing those ones out too. It is a tough job!

Vegan Cats?

The thought of feeding cats vegan food seems to be a controversial one, for some people. I have to admit, I was resistant to it for a long time, as I worried that it might compromise the health of my two male adult cats, Bandit and Arki.

But then I started to look into it and came across Veganpet which is an Australian company. Their website provides information on what cats and dogs need in their diets and how their products measure up.
For cats, there is both dry and wet food available.
I have started my two cats on the dry food by mixing it in with their current meat based one.  They LOVE it! I am confident that I will be able to eventually have them on just vegan dry food soon. I am making the change a gradual one, as to not upset their digestive tracts. That tends to happen to a lot of cats when their food is changed - be it vegan or animal based. As for the wet food, it was not as readily accepted by Arki. Both would eat it if was given with their regular meat wet food. If given just the vegan wet food, Arki would not eat it. As a result, I have decided to only feed them the vegan wet (along with their meat based one) now and then.

As for treats, there are cat treats available. My two like happierpets cat treats. (They also do dog treats and are also an Australian company.) With biccies such as Catnip cookies, Cheezy Biccies, Tasty Tempeh Treats and Pumpkin Treats, I am almost tempted to try them myself. (Just kidding!) They are homemade and including fresh organic fruits and vegetables. Their products contain no artificial colours, flavours, preservatives, or fillers.

So why am I doing this? Well, I have been accused by the unenlightened, that I am trying to 'make myself feel better' by 'forcing' my cats to be vegans. Not true. What I am trying to do is lessen their reliance on meat products for the sake of the animals being used and abused in factory farms. This isn't about making me 'feel better' but about doing the right thing by animals and by the environment. I have also been accused of being 'cruel' by giving them vegan cat food. Little do they realize that my cats (but especially Bandit) will BEG to eat vegetables, rice, and tofu! So long as the vegan food I give them contains the amino acids  (eg; Taurine) and  Fatty Acids they require to stay healthy, I hardly think I am being 'cruel'.


Even though it seems that I will not be successful in making them totally vegan, I am happy that I will be able to at least reduce their intake of animal products.
Both Veganpet and happierpet products are available from PAWS