GOING VEGAN FOR 1 MONTH:

Majority of pictures taken from the Veganuary website and Facebook page.

Firstly, HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! I do hope you have had a fantastic kick start to the new year already. Can you believe we are nearly finished the first month of this year already?

Now...to get on with business, this month I have taken on the Veganuary challenge, along with many other people around the world who had signed up and are also taking part in the challenge.

For those of you who do not know what Veganuary is and why everyone is talking about it, allow me to explain it to you: Veganuary is a combination of Vegan and January together, hence Veganuary. This means you go completely vegan for the entire month of January. Veganuary is chosen in January because it will kick start your year of being a vegan for the rest of the year, if you feel the vegan lifestyle is perfect for you. Another amazing part of taking the Veganuary challenge is that you can enter competitions throughout the month and who knows? You might win yourself some vegan products!

There is a Facebook group called “Veganuary” where you can see what everyone who has taken the Veganuary challenge, is up to with regard to what they are eating, their thoughts they’d like to share with the group, some recipes they’d like to share along with many other subjects with regard to veganism.

 

The amount of people worldwide who signed up for the Veganuary Challenge.
Picture credit taken from the Veganuary Facebook page.

The best advice I could give you is to go onto www.veganuary.com and there you will find different recipes, the humane myths about the animal industry and also myths about being a vegan. Some of my absolute favourites on the Veganuary website are what foods are accidently vegan, the vegan food essentials, the vegan eating out tips and the vegan label reading guide. They are all a huge help!

Ever since I become a vegetarian a few years back, I learnt to read the food labels on every food I purchase as this doesn’t only show if there are any dairy/egg/meat products in them, it also helps you to see what you are putting into your body.

Picture stating the truth about being a vegan and the website underneath.
Picture credit taken from the Veganuary website.

Another amazing fact about Veganuary is that they have launched different versions in other countries to help people who are in those countries, to see what they can purchase in their own country, besides the products that are available in the UK.

 

Veganuary has launched an SA version, among other versions worldwide.
Picture credit taken from the Veganuary Facebook page.

With regard to eating out at restaurants, it is not impossible to have vegan food. All you  have to do is email the restaurants you mainly go to, then tell the restaurant that you are vegan or you are taking the Veganuary challenge , then ask the restaurants what they have that is vegan. If you are in a rush or you didn’t plan on going to a restaurant or you go to a restaurant you have never been to, look at the restaurant’s menu and see if you can subsidise the meals.

It is also important that you find out what the fries are cooked with. If the fries are cooked with sunflower oil or vegetable oil, then you don’t need to worry. If the fries are cooked in beef fat or palm oil, avoid ordering the fries, but most restaurants cook their fries in sunflower or vegetable oil nowadays. Just make sure before you order.

Unlike other countries, here in South Africa, restaurants mostly cater for vegetarians, but if you want to subsidise foods, just ask your waiter or ask for the manager to help you. Hopefully the waiter and/or manager will help you out and not look at you with a blank face. Some restaurants are vegan friendly and they do have vegan options on their menu, but if there aren’t any vegan options on the menu, just see what you can do to subsidise the meals you are looking at. You might not be able to subsidise the meals as it will confuse the waiters, but ask the waiter/manager if you can subsidise meals.

For people who are either living or visiting South Africa, you can go to these following restaurants/take-away places as they are vegan friendly:

Knead (Ask which bread options you can have as some bread contain animal protein)

PLANT (100% vegan take-away and sit down restaurant)

Portobello road (Has quite a few vegan options)

The Hungry Herbivore

Call-A-Pizza (ask for tofu instead of cheese)

Crush Fresh Food Cafe and Juice Bar

Osumo

Raw & Roxy (100% vegan)

Nu Health Food Cafe

Simply Asia (Scroll down until you reach the VEGETARIAN section. There are vegan options to)

Woolworths cafe (can substitute vegetarian meals to make a vegan meal)

PS: The best way to find out which restaurant/cafe is vegan friendly, download the Happy Cow app and you can see which restaurant/cafe is vegan friendly that is closest to where you are.

Mushroom Burger that is on the menu at PLANT restaurant.

Number 409: Hed Phad Med Prik Phao at Simply Asia.

Here are some tips for people who can make a vegan dish in their own house (This helps if you are eating on a budget):

• Look around your house, see what you have, gather all foods you have that is vegan. 
• Put all the food together or mix different foods and make your very own unique dish.

PS: You need to research veganism and know exactly what foods you can eat and what you must stay away from, aside from the obvious. This is very important as some people just switch to a vegan lifestyle, but have no idea what the lifestyle is.
Animal by-products do contain vitamin B12 and protein, which many people say vegans will vitamin B12 and protein. This isn't true, protein is found in many products such as tofu, which is high in protein. Here are a few foods that contain protein as well: Peanut butter, peas, almonds, lentils, soy milk and baked beans.
As for vitamin B12, this is truthfully a bit harder to consume for vegans, but luckily you can get substitutes such as: breakfast cereals, soy milk, vegan cheese, soya burger and nutritional yeast.
Also see what vegan foods you can buy as supplements or substitutes to get your daily nutrients in your system.

One of the best vegan food sources that will help you with your vegan lifestyle would be Fry’s Family Food. Their food is 100% vegan, and some of the foods are high in protein as well. I can guarantee you now you won’t taste the difference between Fry’s Foods compared to a dish which contains meat. An example would be you won’t taste the difference between a Fry’s Food Family curry pie to a normal meaty curry pie. They look the same, except the one is helping the animals to survive!

You can find out what different products they have here:
www.frysvegetarian.co.uk/product-category/our-food/

For January 2016, I am 100% vegan, and it feels good! After January I would then become about 85% vegan, which means cooking my own food with vegan ingredients, but if I really cannot help it, I would then eat vegetarian foods should I go to a restaurant or someone’s place. This is what I would call a flexetarian. I know that is not a word, but this word means I eat either like a vegan or a vegetarian.

The reason most people go vegan is because of the cruel treatment that the animals have to go through so people can have meat on their plate. I can understand way back in the day that people went to kill #1 single animal and make leather out of that animal and also eat that animal, and use every single bit of that animal to make whatever they needed to, but in today’s world, we have exploited this fact and have made slaughtering houses where millions upon billions of animals get slaughtered, and the worst part of all this, the meat is wasted and thrown away! An example of meat wastage would be if you gave a plate with meat on to a child and the child doesn’t want that meat or if you have meat in your fridge and the meat goes off, you then throw the meat away. In my eyes, I see that animal dying for no reason; he/she was slaughtered just to get thrown in the rubbish bin.

It isn’t just meat we have to worry about getting thrown away; it is also food wastage that is a huge problem! Try to avoid food wastage.
The animals also are aware of where they going when they go to get slaughtered. There has been articles stating animals try to escape the trucks they are crammed in to avoid being slaughtered. Also, the slaughterhouses can be contributing towards destroying the environment due to the gas fumes etc.

 

A picture stating a fact about chickens.
Picture credit taken from the Veganuary Facebook page.

If you want to be 100% vegan, it doesn’t just mean not consuming meat, eggs and dairy products, it also means to wear and use vegan products/items. If you consider yourself a hardcore vegan, don’t wear fur, wool or any other animal skin/coat. Also, if you wear make-up, use products that are cruelty-free and don’t wear make-up that is not cruelty-free. You can find many faux/artificial fur and fake leather at many shops, and you can also see which companies sell cruelty-free products by going onto the http://www.leapingbunny.org/ . If you’re in South Africa, you can go to http://www.bwcsa.co.za/ to see what products you can buy that is cruelty-free, and if you want to see which shops sell animal skins and fur, which you would want to stay away from, you can go to www.furfree.net

Top left: Beauty without Cruelty logo.
Bottom left: Fur Free SA logo.
Top right: Leaping Bunny logo.
Bottom right: Veganuary logo.

Here are some recipes I made during the month of January:

Overnight Oats:

Ingredients:

Rolled oats – about half of the jar size. Do NOT fill up the entire jar! (I used Woolworth’s rolled oats)

Alpro soya chocolate drink – enough to cover the rolled oats.

1 tbsp maple syrup (I subsidized and used maple flavoured syrup)

1 tsp ground flaxseed (I used Nature’s Choice ground flaxseed which you can purchase from a health shop)

Method:

Combine all ingredients into a jar and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, you can put soya yoghurt or put berries or whatever you wish on top of your overnight oats and that's all there is to it.

Overnight oats in a jar pictured above.

Curry with salad:

Ingredients:

Fry’s Food Family curry pieces

Various vegetables (I used McCain stew mix + chopped potatoes)

Oil (I used coconut oil)

Boiled water

1 Banana or coconut cream
Anything you wish for a salad, but make sure it is vegan.

(The quantity of ingredients depends on how much you want.)

Method:

Put oil into a pot and add the vegetables in the pot until it starts to heat up.

Add Fry’s Food Family curry pieces.

Add boiled water and allow food to simmer, but stir every now and again until the vegetables and curry pieces are soft and ready.

You can add either banana or coconut cream in the food and stir until food is ready.
SALAD: The salad is optional, and you can add whatever you wish to your salad. I had the following: couscous; cucumber; tomato; kale and peppadews. The quantity depends on how much you want to have.

Optional:

You can add sweet chilli sauce while the curry is still cooking for flavouring.

Add maizena if the food looks too watery.

A plate of curry with a salad.

Salad sandwich:

Ingredients:

1 Grated carrot

1 -2 leaves of kale

1 tsp Hummus

1 tsp Couscous

2 -3 Tomatoes

2 -3 Slices of cucumber

2 slices of toasted bread

Method:

Place hummus on the toasted bread, and then add in this order onto the sandwich: Cucumber, tomatoes, grated carrots and then the kale.

Add the other slice of toasted bread on top of the salad and that’s all there is to it.

Optional:

You can even add grounded flaxseeds onto your salad, which will add Omega-3 in this meal.

Pictured above is a salad sandwich.

Easy Peasy Banana Ice Cream:

Ingredients:

1 – 2 Bananas

3 – 4 Blocks of vegan melting chocolate

Chopped nuts– quantity depends on how much nuts you want. (I used chopped raw cashew nuts)

Method:

Cut up 1 – 2 bananas and place them into the freezer and leave them for about 2 hours.

After about 2 hours, take the bananas out of the freezer and blend in a blender until it forms a creamy texture.

Place banana ice cream into a bowl, and start to melt your vegan chocolate in a pot (you can also melt your vegan chocolate while you wait for the bananas to freeze).

Place melted chocolate on top of banana ice cream, and then add the chopped nuts.

Pictured above is the Easy Peasy Banana Ice Cream

Salad with tomato saucy pasta paste:

Ingredients:

2 -3 Slices of lettuce

4 -5 Olives

Spices (Pick any spices you want, but make sure it is vegan)

3 -4 Tomatoes

3 – 4 Peppadews

2 -3 Slices of cucumber

2 – 3 tbsp Tomato saucy pasta

Method:

Place the ingredients in this order into a bowl: Lettuce, tomato, peppadews, cucumber, olives, tomato saucy pasta and then the spices.

Pictured above is the salad with tomato saucy pasta.
This recipe was put together by just looking around the house and seeing what was available to have.

Fruit salad with granola cereal:

 Ingredients:

 Kiwi fruit

Grapefruit

Orange

Pineapple

Sweet Melon

(The quantity sizes of these fruit depend on how much you want.)

Blueberries – to sprinkle on your plate.

5 -6 tbsp of Granola cereal

Method:

Slice the fruit and put all fruit on a plate.

In a separate bowl, put the granola cereal in the bowl.

Put the bowl onto the plate (or don’t) and enjoy!

Truthfully I didn't make this exact dish in the picture above, but this is what it would look like when you make your fruit salad with granola cereal.

Vegan burger with salad:

Ingredients:

Vegan burger patty (I used Woolworth’s vegan burger patty)

1 tsp Couscous

2 – 3 Slices of cucumber

3 – 4 Tomatoes

1 – 2 leaves of kale

1 tsp Hummus or about half an avocado (I used hummus)

Method:

Fry or heat up the vegan burger patty or however you would like to heat up your patty.

Before placing the patty on the roll, first spread hummus or avocado on the roll, and then you add the patty to the roll.

You then add the kale, cucumber, tomatoes and couscous to your roll.

The salad can be your choice, excepting no meat/dairy/egg products. You can add foods such as lettuce, more tomatoes, quinoa and much more variety of foods to your salad. You can even make a fruit salad instead, or just the burger.

Pictured above is the vegan burger patty with butternut and a potato on the side.
Perfect if you go camping.

I can honestly say going completely vegan for 1 month is really not hard. I thought it would be so difficult, but actually, it is pretty easy. It is exciting as well because you can try different food techniques and explore with your cooking. It really is a load of fun to see what you can come up with!

Just think: If everyone in the world took part in the Veganuary challenge, imagine how many animals we will be saving and how much we would be helping out the environment as well!

If you would like to know more about Veganuary or you maybe want to contact them, here is their official website, along with their social media pages:

Official website: http://www.veganuary.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Veganuary

Facebook Veganuary Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/veganuary/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeAreVeganuary

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weareveganuary/

I thank every single person who took the time to read this blog!

I do hope you gained some information about this blog and will maybe try out these recipes I have shared, and maybe for those of you who haven’t yet, will take on the Veganuary challenge next year!

I appreciate every single person for reading this blog and taking the time out of their busy schedule to read this blog, it means so much!!

Thank you again to everybody!