Monday, May 30, 2011

The Best Vegan Recipe EVER!

How great does this look?

Hi Space
Just me again, checking in after a creative afternoon in my kitchen, which inspired me to blog on my creation, adored and rated by a non-vegan trifle lover! After I discovered a gelatine free jelly in the health food section of Coles yesterday, I came home to my partner dreaming of trifle, and I had a light bulb moment! It must be about 10 years since I have even eaten trifle, not that I missed it, but I had just bought gelatine free jelly and checked my cupboard for other ingredients, and wala!! Vegan Trifle was created, and it was a welcomed change on our menu! So I will share with you all my recipe incase you too are inspired!
 
So you need to make the vegan jelly found in Coles, no gelatine in this brand "Vitarum"
Can you believe people put the hooves of pigs in most of children's lollies and jelly's...I bet mothers would be horrified if their child tried to suck on the hoof of a pig, yet that is what "Gelatine" really is... a ground down pigs hoof!  Just a little sad knowledge for you all there!! Anyway....lets go back to the recipe without this sadness!
To make the sponge:
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1/2 cup Castor sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3 tsp baking powder
Sift these ingredients then add,
  • 3/4 cup soy milk 
  • 1/4 cup canola oil.
Bake the mixture in any small tin and in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. It will need to be cut up or you can just break it up with your hands....
Then you need soy custard:
  • 1 tbsp cornflour
  • 1&1/2 tbsp raw sugar
  • 1 cup cold soy milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Mix cornflour to smooth liquid with little soy milk
Heat remaining milk with sugar. When it nearly boils, take it off and stir in cornflour.
Return to heat and boil, stir constantly and cook for another minute, add vanilla.
Then you just mix them all in together, the custard, cake and jelly in a clear bowl if you can to show off off the colours, and you can toss in some strawberries or raspberries or jam.Then top with Vanilla Bliss soy ice cream instead of the usual cream, and grate some of that vegan chocolate from Aldi, for $2.50 the peppermint version of "Moser Roth" works for me!!
 
Enjoy with your family, or take it to the next party!
Made With Love from Renata xo

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Peace, Love.......VEGAN!

Spreading the Peace Baby

The word “VEGAN” can resonate negative connotations in my mind....or society’s mind.....or society’s mind in my mind....ha-ha....and I would like the opportunity  to consciously change that habit of my way of thinking...in my own mind!! Am I making sense yet? The word “Vegan” can bring on lots of feelings to different people, and I am feeling like I need to have more trust in this word for the future of its survival in the positive realm!

Vegan means peace, vegan means love for all beings, yet it also seems to be a great excuse for some to get angry and judgemental, myself included in this statement. A close friend recently told me I can be these things, which caused me to take a deep look inside and clean up some more!

The fact is, it is a hard task to be vegan in society...not because of the myth that there is nothing for vegans to eat, but because everywhere around us is food that turns human stomachs into graveyards....and it makes us feel so sad...which then makes us feel frustrated when we look around supermarkets...and barbeques.... and children’s lunchboxes....which in turn makes us feel judgmental...... and ....well... sometimes we are hungry when uncreative chefs think all that we eat is “Garden Salad”....but that is beside the point!

People are vegans for so many reasons, but beside the fact that so many animals suffer for the palate and it’s a healthy way of life, our diet is now actually detrimental to the future of our planet. And it’s not rocket science to the average IQ....Billions of animals are bred for human consumption, it wastes billions of litres of water and petrol, and wastes millions of hectares of land, which clears and wastes millions of trees,, and wastes millions of kilos of grain to feed the animals that we fatten up to kill, who also need millions of dollars worth of medicines, and well...the meat industry is basically a huge waste of time and resources!! Meat is actually and factually...quite destructive to the planet on a huge level!! The most rediculous thing is we don’t need it to survive...it is actually poisoning our species survival and the planet that we live.

A friend once said to me “If the government told me to stop eating meat  then I would!” Do we really need to be dictated to? Can we no longer think for ourselves? The government is not going to tell millions of people to stop eating a product that generates billions of dollars ...they would rather watch the destruction of our planet before they “Let Go!” 
We are so programmed to both ignore and endure the cruelty we inflict on animals.

So vegan is a great word as it means peace for all animals, it means tranquility for the future of climate change, it means not wasting precious resources that the planet provides for us, and most importantly it means happy healthy humans! Vegan is the only way of the future!!

So for now, I will do my best to try to be all of these attributes to protect the reputation of the word Vegan!

Peace Love & Vegan!