Smile, you’re vegan!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Summertime!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Violet’s Veg*n e-Comics declares that summer is here!

So switch off your computer, get outside and soak up some vitamin D! I’m off to plant my tomatoes 🙂

Recycle an old shirt or two

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Here’s an idea I got from this book: 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! 😉

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.

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.

It should look something like this.

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.

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

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

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

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 ….

… and pin it to your apron.

Sew it in place.

Nearly there. Now you just need 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!

When I was a young child …

By Violet's Vegan Comics

When I was a young child

An omnivore diet I ate.

I wasn’t very adventurous,

The same few things appeared on my plate.

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:

“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.”

“I eat mangos and apricots, pineapples and pears,

Almonds, sultanas and cashews;

Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries,

Dates, prunes, avocados.”

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!

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

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Veganism should be happy and it should be everywhere.

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

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

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.

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.

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!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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.

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:

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.

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!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Eliza Dushku!

Look at her website

Casey Affleck – Cool vegan number 4

By Violet's Vegan Comics

See him in Drowning Mona (one of my favourite films)

Cool vegan the third

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Nuvver cool vegan

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Cool Vegan

By Violet's Vegan Comics

By Barry Wax

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

I’ve said it before

And I’ll say it again

You don’t miss out

When you’re raw vegan!

Recipes adapted from Basic Formula for Nut Burgers and Basic Formula for Candy, page 147 of 12 Steps to Raw Foods by Victoria Boutenko

Raw Chocolate Cake at Infinity Foods Cafe

By Violet's Vegan Comics

It was calling to me

Like it had called me before,

But that’s ok,

’cause it was totally raw!

Infinity Foods Cafe, Brighton

Infinity Foods Cafe, Brighton

Sunday April 13th

By Violet's Vegan Comics

It’s National Scrabble Day!

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! 🙂

Saturday April 12th

By Violet's Vegan Comics

It’s National Licorice Day!

raw black licorice date wheels

Here’s something for ya! Click the pic for the recipe.

Raw Carrot Cake

By Violet's Vegan Comics

In celebration of …. life!

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.

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!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

I am dying to give this one a go – will my BL 30 Manual Juicer be up to doing the work of a vitamix blender and a food processor for this spectacular recipe? Well, it hasn’t let me down so far. I’ll give it a try and let you know 🙂

Marigold Marigold

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Marigold Marigold

Calendula Officinalis,

I planted you for bees,

But for me you have uses.

In salad for food

Or poultice for sting

I welcome the positive

Stuff that you bring 🙂

Spinach

By Violet's Vegan Comics

There’s little spinach

Growing here.

It’s so exciting,

This time of year!

Look what I’ve found!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Remember when we had a go at growing our own apple trees from seed? (They’re still going strong by the way). Well, I’ve just come across this brilliant site which shows you, step by step, how to grow all sorts of different trees from seeds you’ve collected yourself!

I can’t wait to have a go!

It just makes you want to plant stuff!

Dirt-Filled Pot

By Violet's Vegan Comics

What is that?

A dirt-filled pot!

It’s not just that.

I’m sure it’s not.

***

Look closer,

See what you can see,

It’s tiny lettuce,

There are more than three!

Dandelion Dandelion

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Oh glorious dandelion

So misunderstood.

Maligned as a weed

Don’t you wish you would

Be valued and treasured,

Encouraged to grow,

To extend your long leaves

Sun gold flowers to show?

Your leaves make good salads,

Green smoothies and juice,

Your flowers bright and yellow,

Sweet to taste; you produce

Vitamins and minerals

So many in abundance.

One day you’ll be treasured,

Recognised for your brilliance.

Sc-raw-umptious!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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!

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?

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:

Vegan!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Green Smoothie Magic

By Violet's Vegan Comics

This looks fun!

I am a big fan of the Boutenko family, having 3 of their books already, (and currently enjoying 12 Steps to Raw Foods) so when I discovered that Victoria has also made a few books for children, I just had to share.

In Green Smoothie Magic, beautifully illustrated by Katya Korobkina, Victoria tells a delightful story about a six year old boy who learns about the magic of greens.

Green Smoothie Magic is available from the Raw Family website and on Amazon where you can look inside 🙂

Stop trying to patent the fennel flower!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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 …

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Click on the picture to see what it might be like if humans were the main attraction at a theme park

Click on the picture to see what it might be like if humans were the main attraction at a theme park

Answerin’ Back

By Violet's Vegan Comics

She 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

By Violet's Vegan Comics

ethical consumption

Click the pic for more info

Click here because your food choices could change the world

Venus Aqueous demands:

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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

By Violet's Vegan Comics

black rhino hunter

Click the pic for the story

Vegan Food

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Vegan food hot

Vegan food cold

Vegan food never gets

Nine days old.

Some like it hot

Some like it cold,

It’s just too good to leave until

It’s nine days old.

Vegan Organic Fair-Trade

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Today I ate a bar of chocolate,

Vegan organic fair trade.

For taste, enjoyment and ethics it

Put other bars in the shade.

***

My chocolate went down so smoothly with

A piping hot cup of tea,

Vegan organic and fair trade too,

Happy indulgence for me.

***

Bananas we eat

And oranges sweet,

Are vegan organic fair trade.

***

On porridge we add

Sugar, just a tad,

That’s vegan organic fair trade.

***

The coffee and cocoa

And fruit that we can’t grow,

All vegan organic fair trade.

***

Vegan organic fair trade.

Vegan organic fair trade.

Just make up your mind

To keep purchases kind,

Buy vegan organic fair trade.

I have a dream …

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Come on down

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued …

I can’t I can’t I can’t!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued …

Let’s eat!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued ….

Great planters

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Click here for the story so far

To be continued …

Startled

By Violet's Vegan Comics

To be continued …

No, really, BEWARE OF THE OGRE!!!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

To be continued …

Lurking in the shadows

By Violet's Vegan Comics

To be continued …

BEWARE OF THE OGRE!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

To be continued …

A Life Less Ordinary

By Violet's Vegan Comics

The first episode of Itchycoo Park is here at last. This eccentric story is for little ones so after today you’ll be able to find it on the 2 and up page. Click on the pic to take a look 🙂

TICK TOCK

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Wait!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Itchycoo Park

New comic for little ones

Coming very soon!

😀

Make some sugar-free jam – you know you want to!

By Violet's Vegan Comics

If you want jam but not sugar (nor other added sweetener either) then this is the recipe for you!

In the inventor’s own words “This recipe for strawberry jam does take some time to make in the absence of sugar or a natural sweetener, but the end result is pure strawberry goodness. It is definitely sweet enough and has an amazing buttery smooth and creamy consistency. I guarantee that if you like fresh strawberries, you will love this recipe.”

So go on, pop over to this website – Living Healthy with Chocolate dot com – and give it a go!

I know I’m going to! 🙂

Don’t forget to wave

February 27, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Prompted by our new and exciting interest in growing our food we’ve found something garden-related for you to enjoy 🙂

And if, after that, you’re feeling inspired, as we are, to indulge in some forest gardening, take a look at this gem of a blog I found yesterday – Of Plums and Pignuts – it’s choc full of inspiration. This post in particular gives you that “anything’s possible” excitement that makes you want to just get out there and do it! 😉

Please look after this bear

February 26, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Please look after these bears

The Wombles – Rubbish Collectors & Recyclers Extraordinaire!

February 25, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics