I used a vegan mince- vegemeal spicy beef mince for $6.80 from www.crueltyfreeshop.com.au its a dry mix which you add water to then cook. Along with some gluten-free pasta & some tomato & garlic pasta sauce. Word of warning- this vegan mince stuff is quite spicy! Im not a huge fan of spicy things but it was nice. I think next time I will definetely add more vegies and probably another bottle of pasta sauce to even out the spice! But overall was nice. I got 4 serves out of this, at $3 a serve.
In other news, ive lost another 1kg this week. I dont do an official weigh-in til wednesday so im a couple of days early but I was feeling particulary light this morning and fair enough, 1kg gone. So thats 1.7kg in nearly 2 weeks of being vegan. I have not counted 1 single calorie (I do look at the calories on the back of packets just for a rough idea & make sure its not massively high, but im not doing a total daily calorie count). Ive also had my fair share of vegan snacks this week! Note to self- do not purchase new & exciting vegan sweets or chocolates when doing my major thesis!!!! It will be devoured in 10 seconds flat with no memory of the event! Speaking of which, I have 17 days til my essay is due, and im working 10 of those days, so thats only 7 full days left to get this finished, and all ive done is a measly 200 word introduction! Time to pull my finger out!
I had to work in a ward yesturday. When its really quiet in ICU we get sent to other wards in the hospital to help out. I got sent to a general surgical ward and had the best shift! Its been a few years now since ive done general nursing and I was a little scared at first but turns out its like riding a bike! In ICU its 1 nurse to 1 patient as they are on life-support machines and are very sick but in the wards we had 10 patients to 2 nurses. The nurse I worked with was just loverly and was very appreciative for my help. It was just weird having patients with only 1 drip and who walk around-im used to heavily sedated patients lying in bed on breathing machines & dialysis and going into a cardiac arrest!
I have found a very nice studying companion though, soy chai lattes. My mother-in-law owns a coffee shop and I was reading the label of the chai syryp (seems all I do is read labels now- does everyone else do this?) and it was vegan yay! Ive found a brand of soy milk I actually like aswell and my MIL gave me nearly a full bottle of this chai to take home so ive been using my coffee machine to froth up some soy milk and its sooooooooooo good!!!! Yum.
Im still very unsure about some ingrediants, mainly the numbers on the back of the labels. I try to go for things with the least amount of numbers anyway. Does anyone know of a good book for vegan shopping??
Next week im going to break out my blender again and have a green smoothie for breakfast everyday! So baby spinach, a banana & ice. Ill take a photo to show how green it is! Its really nice though. I need to make the effort to make them more often. Last time I used my blender was to make mushroom soup then I left it too long til cleaning and it went quite nasty but ive been scrubbing it everyday for the last week in boiling water so hopefully its clean! Looks pretty clean. It was a $200 blender and I dont have any money to buy a new one!
Whats your most used kitchen appliance for vegan cooking??
Me and my partner have always ordered chai lattes with soy milk, even before we were vegan. We found the soy seemed to enhance the chai-ness of it :) So good.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I find this little pocket guide extremely handy: http://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Vegn-Shopper-Emily-Clark-Lisa-Dempster/9780980335101?cf=3 it has all the numbers in it that are NOT vegan so if any of them are on the ingredient list, you can put it back! It's so handy. Fits in my wallet. I read ingredients on everything I buy. I'm really quick now so a quick scan is all I need to do usually. If there's something I'm unsure of I either look it up in my book or if I'm in a rush I forget about it until the next time I need to buy the item. I also tend to buy brands I know have no animal ingredients, but I still do a quick check to make sure. Companies are mean and change their ingredients all the time. Where in bris are you? I got mine for $7.50 at a little vegan food store in Enoggera called The Green Edge. They also have an online shop.
I reckon a sharp knife and a large stockpot is my most used...but I also love my food processor. It's old and yellow and I'm pretty sure it was my grandparents before my mum's, before mine. Hahaha.
I think thats just it hey, the soy makes the chai much nicer. Weird!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommended read! Im after something small I can keep on me at all times. I live in north brisbane, i work at the prince charles hospital in chermside, so pretty close to enoggera.
I want to get a good processor. Might need to start going to garage sales and maybe get a second hand one. Yours sounds like it was made properly back in the day to still be alive today!