Walnut and Cranberry Pumpkin Triangles

As with all my recipes, this has been tried and tested on many non-vegans or non-vegetarians. This was a major hit! I served these for a light lunch for 8 people. These are very freezable and i will be eating these right through the exam period.

Serves 4 (8 triangles) It is very easy to make more or less.

Ingredients 

1/4 large butternut pumpkin (1/2 a small one)
2-3 sheets of vegan puff pastry (in Australia we have Borg's which i buy at the grocery store)
Handful of dried cranberries
Handful of walnuts (crushed)
1/2 Cup cashews
Sage
Parsley

Method 

1. Soak the cashews in water for 2 -3 hours (if you don't have time don't worry too much) 
2. Cut pumpkin and bake in over for 1 hour at 180c (350c), or until soft.
3. Whilst pumpkin is cooking blend together cashews, sage and 1/2 water until smooth.
4. Next blend the pumpkin into the cashew mix until smooth (or you can mash the pumpkin)
5. Add the parsley, cranberries and walnuts, and mix in
6. Cut the puff pastry into squares and then triangles
   
   
   
    
7. Place some of the mixture on one triangle and cover and seal with another. (you can brush the edges with water because this makes them seal better)
8. Freeze the triangles as you make them (they puff up more if you cook them from frozen)
9. Bake in over for 15 mins, or until crisp
10. Serve

Detox week

Now that Tough Mudder is well and truly over I've decided to have a long over due detox week, not only for my body but my mind as well.

So here is the plan for the next 6 days.

Sunday

Eat a clean, fresh, vegetarian diet. (I'm going out for lunch for my grandmothers birthday so a vegan meal may not be possible)

Juggling for 30 mins
Mediation for 30 mins

Going to drink lemon water and peppermint tea for dinner to start to flush out the toxins

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

Going on a juice fast, drinking only fresh vegetable juice and herbal tea. Maybe I will have some carrot sticks if the hunger pangs get to much!

Juggling for 30 mins
Meditation 30 mins

Thursday and Friday

 Eating a strictly raw vegan diet with plenty of veggies and tea.

Also continuing the meditation and juggling.


I will be posting my favorite juice recipes throughout the week and keep a log of how I am going!

Cheese

I have had a very long love affair with cheese. Iv always thought cheese is amazing and it is the final food i need to give up to become totally vegan. A few nights ago my friends ordered pizza, i did not order any, but ate a vegan wrap. This didn't stop me polishing off three slices of vegetarian pizza. I keep telling my self that surly cheese is not that bad?

So i started doing my research. Turns out i was wrong.

Background: The history of cheese making

Cheese making has dated back before recorded history. Many myths exist around the discovery of cheese making but the one i like most is that ancient Arabians tided the stomachs of goats filled with goats milk onto their camels and rode out into the dessert and the milk separated and cheese formed. (i will get back to the importance of the stomach later). I must mention that cheese making is also thought to date before this time in Poland as cloth with milk fat residue has been found.

The dairy industry harms cows

I love animals and i believe that cows milk is for calves. The dairy industry do terrible things to cows and calves, like separating parent and child a birth.This separation usually occurs within 3 days, as the longer the calve is with the mother the more distress that will occur. (like having your baby taken from you wasn't distressing enough) They also kill male calves at a very young age for veal as they are not useful for milk. They are fed up on a "milk substitute" as to make sure there mums milk goes towards human consumption.  As well as this dairy cows often live a short.

Cows have a gestation period for 9 months, as soon as they give birth they are often impregnated again as to keep the milk cycle up so they are producing almost all year round.
As well as this most cows do not live for more than 4 years as the milk production decreases and they are culled. There are also other reasons like udder infections and if they become lame.

Cheese production is particularly harmful (and often not vegetarian)

It takes around 10 units of milk to make 1 unit of cheese. That means that the 50g of cheese on your sandwich took half liter of milk to produce. Per capita in Australia it is estimated consumption in 2011/2012 was 13.4 kg that is around 130L of milk per person per year on cheese alone. Source

Not only is the large amount of milk used to produce cheese, but also i was surprised to learn that many cheeses are not even vegetarian. A substance called rennet is often used in the production of cheese. Rennet is found in the stomach of mammals and includes enzymes that coagulate milk and cause it to break up into curds and whey. Rennet is important for animals to break down mothers milk. Rennet from calves stomachs is used to create cheese. The modern method involves placing calves stomachs in an enzyme extracting solution to remove the rennet.

Cheese is bad for you and addictive

Cheese is made mainly casein and fat from milk. It is very high in protein and fat and can be seen as a highly concentrated form of milk. This means that it is not very high in calories, but also very high in other toxins which may be found in milk. This may include hormones, infections, worming injections ect.

Cheese is also very high in saturated fat. In some cheeses 100g contains your daily saturated fat recommendation. This also means that cholesterol is fairly high, so if this is something you are worried about, give cheese the boot. Here is a list of cholesterol in different cheeses.

Casein is a main component to cheese. It is broken down into several substances in the body. Substances produced include casomorphine and opioid peptide. Both of these substances are opioids and have similar effects on the body to morphine or opiates. This is fine if you are a calf as it encourages you to drink more and grow up big and strong, but it is not so good if you are a human. Cheese concentrates these substances and makes it far more addictive than milk.

Another interesting fact that i learnt is that the white layer around solf cheeses such as brie is actually a film of mold that forms. It is not usually harmful, but still its mold.

Good Bye Cheese

I feel that my research has convinced me to say no to next time i am offered mold covered, concentrated cows milk morphine filled with toxins and say yes to better treatment of animals and better health for me.

I will be trying out some different alternatives to cheese over the next week so i will be writing a post when im done.

Most Amazing Healthly "Ice-cream" Ever!!!

Vegan Banana Ice-cream 

I know this is breaking my no non-essential internet rule. But this is essential, it is for the good of all humanity (vegan or health conscious humanity that is)! 

Just had this for lunch, it was amazing. Its really easy to make too!

You will need:

2 Frozen bananas 

Vanilla essence 

Your choice of toppings (i used sugar free chocolate topping)

Put the banana and vanilla in a blender, and blend till smooth.

Spoon into a bowl 

Add sauce

EAT!

Yummo! I ate all of it and don't feel bad at all!

Ok its time for me to get off the internet!

Why you should consider a vegetarian or plant based diet

"It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind." - Einstein 

 I avoid using the word vegan because i find a strict vegan diet hard to follow when eating out with friends or
family. I first decided to try cutting out meat, eggs and dairy after finding out that many of my favorite bloggers practiced some form of vegan diet.
I saw the benefits immediately, i felt happier, healthier and had more energy. As well as this i was helping the environment and i wasn't eating the animals i love.

Here are my reasons why i suggest you try eating vegetarian and cutting out as much egg and dairy as possible. Just try it for a week!

It helps with your well being

I was really amazed how i felt after the first week! My skin looked better, i had more energy and i was altogether happier. I had a lot of assignments at the time, but i felt far less stressed than i usually would have. I began trying new foods and being more aware about what i was eating. 

The reduction in my stress levels and my mood being more stable could probably be attributed to having less refined carbohydrates and sugar and more filling and nutritious foods.  There have also been some studies on how dairy effects the body, but i am not sure what to believe. So maybe less dairy played a part in making me feel better.

It helps the environment

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” - Gandhi

Manufacturing animal products can cause considerable harm to the environment. 

Far less land is needed to support someone on a vegan or vegetarian diet then on a normal diet. I believe that in the next hundred years will we face a global food crisis as there will not be enough usable land to support the ever growing population. As well as this, as the amount of already available farming land decreases, the world will look for other land to use. This would mean an increase on destruction of natural habitats, such as rain forests and other beautiful areas. The answer to this is surly to eat foods which require less land to produce.   

As well as this, the meat, egg and dairy industries produce many greenhouse gasses. Some studies suggest that meat production produces more harmful gasses than all transport combined. I am big on reducing global warming because i love the world the way it is! (I also love skiing and would be very sad of couldn't do this any more)

If you want to know more i suggest you look at this great graphic representation as a place to start.

I would hate it if our world changed so much that animals and plants became extinct, but i would really miss the snow as well!  

Its cheaper 

As a student, this means a lot to me. I couldn't believe how cheap its is to eat vegan. I try and buy fruit and veg that is in season and my grocery bill has halved since then. As well as this all the food i buy seems to keep for ages! I need to go shopping less than once a  week. I really don't have anything else to say on this matter! Its just cheaper!

Reduces cruelty 

I was bought up eating free range eggs and chicken but was oblivious to the suffering of other animals. I do not want to use guilt to try and encourage people to eat vegan by telling them about all the horrible things that happen to animals, but it is pretty bad how cows, chickens, pigs and other animals are treated.

What about dairy? Surly that is fine?

I used to live off dairy. Unhurt, milk, ice cream; i would eat kilos a week. We always here so much about getting our calcium so we should eat lots of dairy, right? Not so much, we can get our calcium from other sources such as broccoli, soy beans and kale.

I have not done much research into the effects of dairy on the human body, but i have found that cutting back as much dairy as i could, my body felt amazing. As well as this i looked into how the the dairy industry treats calf's and i was pretty upset. All living things deserve to live a life at least for a few days. 

What about protein deficiency?

I can say that i believe that there is no reason why vegetarians should be deficient in protein. I eat a lot pf foods that are high in protein, such as my favorite home made hummus and paprika or edamame beans. (if you only take one thing from this blog, make it that next time you are at Japanese order edamame beans! Everyone in my family loves them!)  Have a look here for a far more in depth blog on protein and vegans (its much better than i could do).

My home made hummus!

Try it out! 

I encourage if you are reading this to try going vegetarian for a week and see how you feel! Don't be to hard on your self and explore new foods and different flavors! If you have any questions at all please leave a comment! 

Yummy vegan dumplings, ice tea and lotus tea with my man!