Lentil Burger with mushrooms and leeks

Don’t kill the world

A New Way of Living

So simple it’s brilliant!

Colette O'Neill's avatarBealtaine Cottage, Ireland

DSCF1520Food production can be a problem for many people who have little or no access to land.

DSCF1521There are many who live in conditions where even a balcony is a precious space.

DSCF1532I have spoken before about the ways in which access to growing space can be achieved, through allotments, community gardens and the like, but here is something which may prove to be an inspiration, a new way of looking at food, both growing it and eating!

DSCF1527As an aspiring Vegan, (sometimes I miss the mark!) and dedicated grower and lover of all life, I have recently been converted to “Micro Greens.”

DSCF1526The concept is extraordinarily simple!

DSCF1525Seeds such as lettuce, peas, beets, etc., are sown and grown for about two weeks or less, before being harvested and added to dishes.

DSCF1519These Micro-Greens, it is said, contain up to 40% more nutrients than older, traditionally grown and harvested vegetables.

View original post 230 more words

Loving the Loving Hut

Introducing Miranda

Well, Miranda has always been here, she has always been an indispensable part of the Violet’s Veg*n e-Comics team but since she’s now set up a separate username we thought we’d better introduce her properly so that it won’t confuse anyone when they see a different gravatar coming from VVeC.  Violet’s Vegan Comics would be nothing without her, no one would know it existed, so it’s time she got the recognition she deserves 🙂

Please say hello to our Miranda Lemon!

Miranda Lemon: Chief Visionary Officer of Violet's Veg*n e-Comics

Miranda Lemon: Chief Visionary Officer of Violet’s Veg*n e-Comics

You know it’s a good day when you see …

Vegan Nursery Rhymes on Kindle

Imagine if the tables were turned …

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

No-Bake Blueberry Chocolate Flapjacks

blueberry chocolate flapjacks

These are absolutely as good as they look!  I think they’re my best invention yet!

Want some?  This is what you’ll need:

 

200g of fresh dates (pits removed and soaked for 2 to 3 hours)

200g of organic fresh dates (pits removed and soaked for 2 to 3 hours)

125g of organic fresh blueberries

125g of organic fresh blueberries

organic raw cacao nibs

organic raw cacao nibs (optional)

organic jumbo oats

organic jumbo oats

dark chocolate

vegan organic fair trade chocolate – raw if you’ve got it

1.  Drain and rinse your soaked dates and chop them in your food processor, or by hand, until they’re well mushed up and combined.  Transfer them into a large mixing bowl.

2.  Add your fresh blueberries and mix well.

3.  Add as many cacao nibs as you want and mix well.

4.  Put the whole lot back into the food processor and chop/mix it into a smooth, wet, really quite runny, mixture.

5.  Return it to the mixing bowl and add oats.  Keep adding oats and mixing until you have a stiff flapjack mixture.  Then put the lot into a flat tin, lined with non-toxic parchment paper, and press it with the back of a spoon so that it fills the tin and is uniformly flat and smooth.

6.  Put your flapjacks in the fridge while you melt your chocolate.  Put some very hot water into a large bowl; break your chocolate into small pieces and put them in a small bowl; put the small bowl to float in the hot water; don’t get water in the chocolate.  Your chocolate will melt quite quickly – keep an eye on it 🙂

7.  Then remove your tin of flapjack mixture from the fridge and cover in melted chocolate.  Chill and cut into squares when set.

8.  Enjoy your gorgeous flapjacks 🙂

blueberry chocolate flapjacks close up

I know you will 😉

Smile, you’re vegan!

I want a new hat!

Summertime!

Recycle an old shirt or two

Here’s an idea I got from this book:  Sewing Green Click on the pic find it on Amazon

At least, I think I got it from this one but I gave it away a while ago so I’m not 100% sure.  Anyway, if you’ve got a couple of old shirts – preferably big men’s ones – lying around with nothing to do, why not cut them up and make a new apron?  My husband decided these just weren’t him any more.  Excellent! 😉

1 old shirts

So, you’ve got your hands on a couple of old shirts that nobody wants – actually you could do this with one shirt but it’s nice to have contrasting patterns and colours to work with.

2 cut the back out

Cut out the back of the shirt which is going to be the main piece of your apron.  If, like me, you don’t want to be bothered with hemming or edging, cut outside the seam (as shown here) and then your edge is already hemmed.  Cut up to the arm pit on both sides of the back and then straight across.

3 back

It should look something like this.

4 collar waist band

Cut off the collar of the other shirt (or the same one if you prefer) – this is going to be your apron’s waistband.  You only want the bit that would go around the neck, not the triangle-ish bit.  Again cut outside the stitching so that you don’t need to edge it yourself.

5 unpick collar

Then you need to unpick the bottom edge of the collar …

6 pin collar on

… so that you can slightly gather the top of your apron and fit it inside the collar (now waistband).  Pin it in place.

7 sew waist band on

Sew on the waistband.  I like zigzag but you could easily do this by hand.

8 cut out letters

Now for your design.  You could cut out the breast pocket from one of the shirts and attach it to your apron.  I think that’s what the book tells you to do and it does look lovely but I thought “I don’t need a pocket on my apron” so I decided not to.  You could do anything you like … or nothing at all 🙂 I went with lettering.

Cut your design out of the contrasting material ….

9 pin them in place

… and pin it to your apron.

10 sew the letters on

Sew it in place.

Nearly there.  Now you just need ties.

11 ties

I used the shirt button bands for the simplicity.  They’re already stitched and you can attach them to the collar/waistband with buttons!

12 finished apron

13 button band ties

14 back view

15 front

16 hanging apron

When I was a young child …

Meat_2_veg

When I was a young child

An omnivore diet I ate.

I wasn’t very adventurous,

The same few things appeared on my plate.

egg chips and beans

I liked to eat egg, chips and beans,

Or sometimes sausage and mash.

Occasionally I’d have fish fingers and peas,

Or maybe corned beef hash.

***

I didn’t like many vegetables,

Only peas, baked beans and carrots.

No one could make me eat my greens,

I’d never even heard of shallots.

***

My range of fruit went as far as apples,

Bananas, an orange at Christmas.

I preferred to eat biscuits and cakes and bread,

Peanuts and crisps, not citrus.

***

When I went veggie I ate lots more eggs

And cheese instead of the flesh foods.

Fat and more fat, cholesterol and fat,

But rarely increased the plant foods.

***

Now that I’m vegan, when they say to me,

“My goodness, what do you eat?”

I take a deep breath as I smile to myself

And happily repeat:

fresh-fruits-and-vegetables1

“I eat lettuce and spinach and onions and leeks,

Mushrooms and cabbage and beetroot;

Tomatoes and chard and purslane and sprouts,

Alfalfa and clover and bean shoots.”

fruits and vegetables

“I eat mangos and apricots, pineapples and pears,

Almonds, sultanas and cashews;

Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries,

Dates, prunes, avocados.”

My GM Diet Experience - Day 3 - Fruit and Vegetable Diet

My diet today is the most varied it’s been

Ever before in my lifetime.

High nutrition I get from my living food,

Not to mention the taste which is sublime!

nuts-and-seeds

fruits-vegetables-mental-health-550x550

 

Raw Vegan Chocolate Mousse Cake

Raw Vegan Chocolate Mousse Cake

Raw vegan chocolate cake with ganache frosting

Raw vegan chocolate cake with ganache frosting

 

raw-vegan-pizza-recipe skinnylimitsdotcom

Raw vegan pizza from skinnylimits.com

Raw vegan lasagne

Raw vegan lasagne

Crafty Vegan

Veganism should be happy and it should be everywhere.

You can say it loud and proud without ever having to open your mouth!

sewing

Show the world your happy veganism by writing it on your stuff!

vegan upcycled bag

vegan upcycled bag front and back

vegan upcycled pencil case

No pattern needed for these make-it-up-as-you-go bags and pencil cases made from upcycled old jeans and shirts.  Just put your imagination behind your scissors and get snipping.  Then sew your designs to your background.  The lettering (above) is made by sewing knitting yarn onto the material with zigzag machine stitch.

vegan smile bag front

This bag is different from the others in that it has no zip at the top.  Instead it has a fold-over flap that keeps your bag closed.  This is easily done by taking a rectangular piece of fabric which is a little wider than you want your bag and a bit longer than three times the depth of your bag.  Place a piece of contrasting material the same size (for the lining) with it’s right side against the right side of the outer fabric.  Then sew around 3 sides of the two of them and turn them right side out.  Tidily sew the open end together with the rough edges tucked in.

Then sew on your design(s).  If you’re doing a design on front, back and flap like this one, make sure each design will be the right way up when the fabric is folded.  Pin it first if you’re not sure.

Now, with your designs on the outside, fold the bottom of this piece up to 2 thirds of the way up – the last third will be your fold-over flap – then sew up the two sides (sew it inside out if you don’t want the stitches to show).  You should now have a bag (minus the strap) with a fold-over flap.

vegan smile bag back

  So, you’ve got your bag, you’ve got your design on your bag, now you just need to cut your strap, sew it together if it’s in two pieces, and attach it.  This “Smile – U R Vegan” bag is made of an old shirt and some oddments of material.  The strap is the button bands of the shirt.  Make sure your stitching is strong but don’t worry about neatly hemming it – I think it looks good being a bit rough around the edges.  Button hole bands are good to use for this because half the work’s done for you as it’s already sewn double thickness.

And that’s pretty much it.  You could have a different one for every day of the week! 🙂

Say it with knitting!

knit writing

Whether it be on your clothes, a cushion cover or a patchwork blanket – you can say it with knitting!

First of all decide what you want to write.  Then make a plan.

You’ll need some squared paper which you can buy or make yourself.  Each square on the paper will represent one stitch on your needle.  So number the squares and then mark out whatever you want to write in knitting.  Once you’ve worked out how many stitches wide your whole piece will be you can cast on in your background colour, and have your contrasting colour ready to use when you come to the stitches mapped out on your plan.  As you change colours you just string the other colour across the back of the knitting ready to use next time that colour is required by your plan – you don’t cut – just keep changing between colours while keeping all yarns attached until you’ve completed your design.

knit plan

It’s important to make sure you’re counting from the right direction so that your writing comes out the right way round.  Look what happens if you don’t:

knitting word backwards

This should read NEVER TRUST A MAN IN A SUIT but the words A MAN have come out backwards because the stitches were counted from the wrong direction – ie On your plan, on a purl row the stitches should be counted from the left and on a knit row you count from the right.  Let me show you what I mean.

knit plan 2

In this picture the purl rows are indicated in purple and the knit rows in red.  When you want to produce an image or writing on your knitting you have to remember you’ll be building from the bottom right.  So, if you’re following your own pattern, starting the bottom line of your words with a knit row, you need to count from the right.  For example, the first stitch for which you’d use a different colour in this example would be the 21st stitch of a knit row which is the tail of the G.  Then, on the next row, the first purl stitch for which you’d use a different colour would be the 6th, for the bottom of the V.

Does that make sense?

So that’s it.  Be a crafty activist and make your own outspoken jumpers, hats, scarves and blankets 🙂

Oh, and if you don’t know how to knit but would like to learn, here’s a really good video to get you started:

For the right handed:

For the left handed:

Super cool vegan NUMBER 5!

Casey Affleck – Cool vegan number 4

Cool vegan the third

Nuvver cool vegan

Cool Vegan

By Barry Wax

Click to enlarge

 Also by Barry:

In Veggie Land there are two groups.

One is the veggie that grows above ground.

The other is one that grows below ground.

These veggies have had some arguments.

One group says it is better than another.

The potatoes, the carrots and the radishes insisted they were the best.

The sweet peas, green beans and squash argued they were the best.

They proposed a soccer game.

They played on my plate and scooted around with the aid of my fork.

Neither one won, because I ate them all.

********************

And here’s Barry’s place 🙂

Don’t miss out!

Raw Chocolate Cake at Infinity Foods Cafe

Sunday April 13th

It’s National Scrabble Day!

Go Vegan

We love a good game of Scrabble as much as the next person but it’s even better when you make it vegan scrabble!

Give your game a vegan theme by stipulating that all the words must be related to veganism! It’s not as narrow as you might think.  You could have any word related to vegan food, to nature, to animals, to environment … anything related to veganism and the natural world, however tenuous the link.  It can be a real challenge and it’ll make you laugh when you have to try to find a vegan connection to whatever word you’ve managed to make with your tiles.

Give it a go – especially today on National Scrabble Day! 🙂

vegan scrabble

Saturday April 12th

Friday April 11th

Today, on National Pet Day, I would like to introduce the newest member of our family:  Carly

Carly on the cold radiator

Carly used to live in a small cage by herself.  Her “owner” had had to go into a dementia care home and for Carly, who went with her, this meant being left alone in a small cage in a bedroom all day every day.  She was never allowed out of the cage and never had been.

Finally the lady was persuaded to allow Carly to find a new home, and Birdline of Parrot Rescue was called.  It was hoped that she would soon be in the company of other birds like her and would live a more meaningful, if still captive, life.

Sadly many more weeks past and Carly was still in her dull, solitary prison.  The bird rescue volunteers were so inundated with needy birds (100 a week coming into their care) that they had been unable to find room for Carly.

So she came to live with us.

When we opened the cage she remained inside it for two more days, nervously peeping through the open door occasionally.  But the next day she emerged.  She swooped and soared the length and breadth of the room.  A bit uncoordinated at first, well, she’d never done this before, but she was trying out her wings; finding out what she was capable of.  It was wonderful.  I assumed she would go back to her cage when she wanted something to eat or drink and intended to leave it permanently open so that she could come and go as she pleased.  But she has never been back in.  She went a whole day without eating and drinking rather than go back into that cage!  And who could blame her?

So I put food and drink on top of the bookcase for her.  When we put away the cage she relaxed, noticeably.  She sings along with music played for her, be it birdsong or classical music, TV theme music or sounds from nature.  She is still nervous of us but getting more comfortable I think, especially as she can perch so high out of everyone’s reach and keep an eye on us all 🙂

Usually, when we all go to bed at night, she has the living room to herself and flies around a little more before settling in a warm spot on the wireless router until morning.  But last night, 11 days after arriving here, she demonstrated how skilled she’s become at flying when she glided at an angle through the slightly open doorway of our bedroom and slept on a picture frame by our bed.  She clearly didn’t want to be left alone all night, and I guess she quite likes us 🙂

Carly in the bedroom

by the screen

art lover

perch by the window

stretch

Carly on the bookshelf

Carly in the kitchen

Birds don’t belong in cages.

Thursday April 10th

We Must Speak Even Louder

Shout louder and don’t stop shouting!

Gator Woman's avatarWalking with the Alligators

640px-Orcas

Wild Orcas as they were meant to be,  free and Hunting in the Norwegian Sea.

Picture credit: Wolfgang Hägele

Yesterday in California,  more than a million voices, via their signatures on a petition, were  raised up against the continuing captivity of Orcas at Sea World San Diego, but they simply could not compete with those of the owners,  the local city Governments, or the faithful lobbyists who work so tirelessly on behalf of their clients.

What was at stake was the fate of the Orcas at Sea World facilities and their questionable safety and treatment.

Animal rights activists came from everywhere,  along with parents, teachers and children to show their support for the 

Bill AB2140 by  Democrat Richard Bloom of  Santa Monica,   who was apparently influenced by the highly popular and  widely publicized film,   Blackfish.

It is reported that the Sea World lobbyist is Scott Wetch.

Naomi Rose, who is a marine mammal scientist…

View original post 302 more words

Wednesday April 9th

Tuesday April 8th

Raw Carrot Cake

In celebration of …. life!

raw carrot cake

This is my modest version of Fully Raw Kristina’s Birthday Carrot Cake

I didn’t have all the ingredients on her list, nor the equipment (Vitamix and food processor) so I made do with what I had and made my own version.  Making raw recipes is a great idea for children to be able to do on their own or with little supervision because there’s no hot oven to worry about and, in the case of using these manual tools, there’s no sharp blades either.

Hand-crank BL30 manual juicer with different screens and hand-crank whisk.

Hand-crank BL30 manual juicer with different screens and hand-crank whisk.

For the base:

2 cups of carrot juice pulp

1 and a half cups of sultanas

Half a cup of medjool dates

Half a tablespoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

For the icing:

1 and a half cups of raw cashews (soaked for 3 hours -or overnight- in the fridge)

Half a cup of filtered water

Half a cup of medjool dates

1 tablespoon of fresh pineapple juice

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Now, if you have a blender and a food processor, you can follow Kristina’s instructions, but if, like me, you’re making do without, here’s how I suggest you continue 😉 :

First put the carrots through the juicer and collect the pulp. Put 2 cups full of pulp into a mixing bowl.

Then take the juicer apart, rinse it and put it back together, replacing the holey screen with the smooth one.  Put the sultanas, followed by the dates (after you’ve cut out the pits) through the juicer.  These come out as a stiff, sticky rope of fruity goodness.

Add the mushed sultanas and dates to the carrot pulp and mix well.  Your food processor is your arm and a large fork.  Really get stuck in and combine that stuff!  It’s not easy – I had to sit down! – but think how much you will have earned that cake when you’ve finished! 🙂

Then add the cinnamon and vanilla and mix well.  When you’ve got a moist mixture with all the ingredients and flavours well-combined you’re ready to mould it into a cake shape.

Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit the removable bottom of your cake tin.  Then cut a rectangular piece to line the sides of the tin.  Spoon your mixture into the lined tin and press it down so that it fills the bottom evenly.  Place the tin in the freezer for an hour to help the cake set in this shape.  While it’s setting, wash up your juicer and bowl and everything so that you can use it all again to make the icing.

Put a little fresh pineapple or lemon if you’ve got it, through the juicer (using the holey screen) and put aside 1 tablespoon of juice.  Then change to the smooth screen and put your soaked cashews through the juicer (after draining and rinsing with fresh filtered water).  Put the mushed cashews into your mixing bowl.

Put your pitted dates through and add the resultant sticky rope to the cashews.  Mix well -and again this is going to require some effort – with a fork.  Add half a cup of filtered water, plus 1 tablespoon of the juice you made and 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence.  Mix it all well with your fork.  You will notice it’s not as smooth as Kristina’s but as long as you’ve got all the flavours well combined it will taste just as delicious.  To make it as smooth as possible I also gave it a good whisk with my hand-crank whisk.

Put this mixture into the fridge and wait until your cake has been in the freezer for a full hour.

Now, this is the exciting bit where you see all your hard work come together:

Take your tin out of the freezer and carefully push the base of your tin up to remove the cake.  Slide the paper off the base of the tin and onto a plate.  Your cake should now be standing proudly, unsupported, on your plate.

Take your soft nutty icing out of the fridge and cover your cake.  Add decorative nuts or fruits if you like.

And that’s it! 😀

Slice it carefully, and then remove each slice with a pie-slice (triangular thing) if you’ve got it, and share it with lucky family and friends.  Keep what’s left, if any, in the fridge.

3 slices of raw carrot cake

This is delicious and incredibly sweet – though my family says “absolutely not too sweet!”

And I can now confirm that it tastes even better on day 2, and sooooo good on day 3.  After that it was all gone 😉

This looks amazing!

Marigold Marigold

Spinach

Look what I’ve found!

Dirt-Filled Pot

Dandelion Dandelion

Sc-raw-umptious!

raw cake

A cake is a cake

That you could make

And it’s unhealthy

Make no mistake

Unless it’s a cake

That you don’t bake

Made from fruits and nuts still raw!

raw cake

My first attempt at making raw cake and it’s deeelicious if I do say so myself 😉

*************

Having just finished reading 12 Steps to Raw Foods by Victoria Boutenko, I couldn’t wait to have a go at making raw cake.  At the back of the book are some really useful recipes which are designed to be adapted to suit your own tastes so, using the Generic Cake Recipe, I had a go.

For the chocolate base I combined 1 cup of ground walnuts, 1 tablespoon of flax oil, 1 tablespoon of agave nectar, and half a cup of cocoa (that should have been raw carob powder but I don’t have any of that yet).

This made a stiff, damp mixture which I formed into a cake shape on the plate.

Then for the topping I combined half a cup of fruit (banana in this case), half a cup of ground cashews, and half a cup of fresh coconut.  I put all these through my manual juicer (using the smooth screen) so that they were all ground and mushed, and then I mixed them together with a fork.

Then I spooned the topping onto the base and put it in the fridge to chill.  So easy.

Now I’m off to have another piece! 🙂

How about a strawberry one?

strawberry shortcake cut

For the strawberry version I just omitted the cocoa from the base and added a teaspoon of vanilla essence.

Then for the topping I combined half a cup of mushed strawberries, half a cup of ground cashews, (both of these were put through the manual juicer as above) and 1 tablespoon of agave nectar.

And voila:

raw strawberry shortcake

Vegan!

Green Smoothie Magic

Stop trying to patent the fennel flower!

nigella sativa fennel flower

Nigella sativa — more commonly known as fennel flower — has been used as a cure-all remedy for over a thousand years. It treats everything from vomiting to fevers to skin diseases, and has been widely available in impoverished communities across the Middle East and Asia.

But now Nestlé is claiming to own it, and filing patent claims around the world to try and take control over the natural cure of the fennel flower and turn it into a costly private drug.

They must be stopped!

Tell Nestle to stop trying to patent a natural cure!

Imagine if the tables were turned …

Blackfish Review

orca

We’ve just watched the fantastic documentary Blackfish and had to recommend it to everyone!  The film is shocking, moving and heart-breaking but don’t be afraid to watch it because it leaves you with a positive feeling.  A feeling that things are changing. That people are waking up to the truth that keeping animals in captivity is simply wrong.  That the lies of big companies like SeaWorld are being seen through.  Since they are dependent on being able to dupe the public into believing that their performing animals are happy in order to sell tickets, that means time is running out for them.

We are full of admiration for the people who made this film and for the many former SeaWorld trainers who spoke frankly about their own experiences there and the dishonesty of the company they worked for which of course puts money ahead of the welfare of their whales and their trainers.

Please watch this film and share it far and wide.  Knowledge is power and the more people have this knowledge, the more power we’ll have collectively to close these types of places.  SeaWorld needs bums on seats.  Let’s persuade all bums to sit elsewhere!

FIVE STARS! *****

Answerin’ Back

Luke Walker - vegan comic for childrenShe said

“Do as you’re told

So that as you grow old-

-er, you’ll learn how to be a success.”

****

I said

“What’s that to me

If there’s no bumble bee

And the world’s all polluted wiv mess?”

****

She said

“Be quiet and sit still

Or you certainly will

Be punished and I’ll send home a letter!”

 ****

“Don’t answer back,

Good manners you lack,

You should know that your teacher knows better.”

****

I said

“That’s not always true,

I mean, wasn’t it you

Who told me people were s’posed to eat meat?”

****

“Now that can’t be right,

We don’t have sharp enuf bite,

To kill a animal for us to eat.”

****

“So if it’s alright wiv you,

I think I’ll just have to,

Answer back when I think of a question.”

****

“Like Tuvok I won’t

Nod my head when I don’t

Agree wiv a nillogical lesson!”

Be like Luke – think for yourself and never stop asking questions 🙂

A wake up call from Megan & Flos

Venus Aqueous demands:

“a rather harsh way of dealing with senior citizens,” wrote Bob Barker, aged 90.

Vegan Food