Hello cuties! How are you? Here we’re having some really hot weather – today it got to 23° C! And with this weather I am not too bothered with baking, but my sweet tooth always craves something sweet so I found this delicious recipe, really really easy to make and extra tasty – here is the recipe for Vegan Coconut Cups by Elavegan.
Process the ingredients for the chocolate layer in your food processor for about 10 seconds or until the mixture is crumbly and slightly sticky.
Transfer the dough to a muffin pan (I recommend using a silicone mold) and press it down firmly. Check the step-by-step photos above in the blog post.
Coconut Layer
Blend all the ingredients for the coconut layer in your blender for some seconds. You can also use a food processor as I did.
Spoon the filling onto the chocolate layer and slightly press it down. Put the pan in the freezer for at least one hour to set. Store the coconut cups in the fridge (for up to 5-6 days) or in the freezer (for up to 2 months). Let them thaw for about 20 to 30 minutes before serving.
I hope you’ll find this recipe as delicious as I found it!
Hello beautiful kittens! How are you? It’s the Spring Bank Holiday, meaning that many in the UK had a Monday off: I’m one of those lucky people and it’s been lovely being able to have a little rest, mostly reading and spending some time in the garden (but not too long because it’s really warm). And I didn’t post yesterday, but I’m here to propose a Recipe-Sunday-on-a-Monday! As the weather has been really sunny, I have been eating more fruit and salads, so here is one recipe I love making, a Wild Rice and Watercress Salad by TheVegSpace.
Cook the rice according to packet instructions, then tip into a large bowl and spread around to cool.
Meanwhile, bring a small saucepan of water to the boil, and add the asparagus. Cook for 3 minutes until just turning tender. Drain and add to the bowl with the rice.
Add all the remaining ingredients, and toss together until everything is fully coated with the dressing. Taste and season with a little salt if required.
Divide between two plates and serve immediately. (NB. If you are preparing this in advance, eg, to take to work in a lunchbox, leave the lemon juice and dressing off until you are about to eat it, or else the watercress will turn soggy and unpleasant).
Hello beauties! Are you enjoying your weekend? Here, it’s just been a lovely one, went to a local market yesterday with many nice local artisans. And I couldn’t believe it, but there were two stands totally vegan! While I am doing the Limpia at the moment, I had to take a couple of things from both of them and put them in the freezer so that I’ll be able to enjoy them after I finish the cleanse. And they should be back for another market in a few months. Really looking forward to it! As I am currently not eating things like pasta, bread, pasta, etc. I wanted something sweet that I could enjoy now and these Healthier Vegan Flapjacks by LazyCatKitchen are just perfect! Can have them for breakfast or for a quick snack. So, here is the recipe.
Preheat the oven to 170° C / 340° F (no fan) oven and line a 20 cm / 8″ square baking tin (or similar) with baking paper.
Combine peanut butter and maple syrup in a mixing bowl, until the mixture is smooth and homogenous. I like to use a wire whisk for that.
Next, mix in well mashed banana, baking soda and salt.
Finally add in the oats. Stir until all the oats are evenly coated in the mixture and the ‘dough’ is sticky but not overly wet – if it’s too wet, add a little bit more oats (this can happen especially when using cups to measure the oats).
Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking tray. Compress the mixture really well to make sure the bars hold together after baking – using an upside down glass is a good way.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until the oats start turning golden brown around the edges but resist the temptation to overbake as it will make the bars dry and crumbly.
Remove from the oven, compress the bars lightly again while warm.
OPTIONAL: Melt the chocolate over a water bath if using. Drizzle over the cooled bars.
Allow the bars to cool down completely and allow the chocolate topping to set before cutting with a sharp knife. Store in an airtight container, at room temperature, for up to a week.
Hello beautiful kittens, I hope you are well! Here it is all good, just working away and juggling the various aspects of life: work, partner, looking after a lovely cat, trying to maintain a social life, looking to buy a house and getting ripped by the banking system, etc. Yes, this post is not going to be nice and fluffy.
Lately, I have been experiencing some issues with my mental health: I don’t want to say that I am depressed, but certainly, all that is going on in the world, doesn’t help.
In the past
Before lockdown, I just wanted to work in libraries. My first career was in a legal firm: I understood that I didn’t want to do it after a couple of months working as a trainee in a legal firm – had to work with solicitors, deal with clients and go to court. It was a cutthroat career and I felt it wasn’t for me.
Then I moved to the UK and the only jobs I could get were in hospitality: a restaurant and then a very popular pub in a small town. Have you ever worked in hospitality? If yes, you know it has many pros, like being able to leave work issues outside of your life. But it has many cons: from difficult shifts (in one of the places I had to clock in at 3am, having to get up at 2am) to having to deal with the weird requests of customers that never seem to be happy even if you bring them exactly what they want.
However, the main issue with hospitality, as a vegan, is that you have to serve dead animals – and you can’t say anything! Also, the chaos. The total chaos coming from not only customers but also staff and management. I didn’t mind the interaction with customers, but it wasn’t an easy task. And some of the staff/management were quite undermining and also the little groups that used to form where management used to give better shifts to their friends.
So there I was, looking for another career change: something that wouldn’t involve serving carcasses and would seek some more calm in the day.
On the library path
Looking at job offers, I saw that there were quite a lot involving libraries and that seemed to just be perfect! No dead animals, a quiet place, books. Since I was a little girl, I loved reading and libraries: once, when I was a teenager, my aunt took my cousin and I on a tour of some libraries and that was one great day: my cousin didn’t enjoy it much (her being more of a “disco girl”) but I LOVED it! I also saw that there was a university postgraduate course on Libraries and Information Studies and I thought I could do it: just a great decision, as I made many friends and it helped me get my first library job as a Library Assistant in a public library.
I really loved it – helping people find the right books as well as helping when they had IT issues. At some point, my coursemates from the university were working on an additional qualification, the Chartership from CILIP (Chartered Institute of Libraries and Information Professionals): as part of the work toward this, one has to choose some skills to improve, such as cataloguing, leadership skills, archiving etc. In the library I was working in, there was a local studies and archive department too and I was very much interested in it so I got some training from the Local Studies Librarian. Little did I know that this would have been my next step in my library career! Local Studies meant research and organising events and promoting the library services. It seemed unreal I could land such a cool job. Next thing I know, I got an interview for when the Local Studies Librarian retired…and I got the job! I couldn’t believe my luck.
When I started on this new venture, I was so excited: tried to learn as much as I could, attended conferences, webinars and online courses (yes, I love to learn new things) while working and doing research. However, the desk from where I am working is in a public room that people use to access public PCs in the library and this means that when people have some issues with IT they’re going to ask me. And it happens a lot. Now, don’t get me wrong: I love helping people and it is great being able to answer queries. Although not in my job description, I set up a day at the end of the week to help people that need more help with computers, tablets and phones, as 1-to-1 sessions that are totally free. And it makes me happy when people come to my sessions and you can see the progress they’re making and all.
To be honest though, I am one of those people that really loved working from home: I was doing research, organised online courses and I was experimenting with some creative ways to promote our resources using graphic design. And it was working really well. Until we were required to “go back”. With other colleagues, we have tried to tell upper management that working from home would be much more beneficial to conduct our tasks – especially for research and statistics, even having 2 days working from home, where we could perform said tasks from home and be able to dedicate the three days at the library for events and courses. Nothing. Change won’t come from them. They are actually asking us to do more hours, with less staff and without a real need to do so. Just because they want to go back to “before”.
Change is not happening
How mental can this be? The pandemic showed that for some professions it is possible working from home: my team has shown that we can do research from home while organising events and providing services for the community.
Some organisations are also experimenting with a 4-day week and we got an email saying that our managers were considering this – a few weeks later another email arrived to say that they did consider this but didn’t think it would work for our service. I’m sure they thought about that a lot…not.
In the past, people were working 6 days per week, if not 7. But things changed. Whether we want it or not.
With another colleague, we applied for flexible working: despite being totally supported by our line managers, both applications were rejected.
Upper management wants us always available to people for as much time as possible.
Change won’t happen with the current management.
For the introverts
This is really difficult to cope with as an introvert: the interruptions from patrons and staff really drain my mental energy.
During lockdown, I used to get up at 6:30am, go for a run, do around 30-45minutes of yoga, have a shower, make breakfast and be ready for work by 8:55am. Then, after work, I went for a long walk, prepare dinner, clean a bit, write and read.
Now I barely manage to get out of bed for 7:30am, do 10-15min of yoga, shower, wear work clothes, have breakfast and go to work to then come back, prepare dinner and sit on the sofa for the rest of the evening. I manage some cleaning once a week and on another day I try to write. It is more and more difficult to read. It seems that I am just drained.
Similarly, it’s so difficult to maintain a social life: I see my friends once every couple of months and it takes me that time to recharge and go out again. Even answering texts is such a strain: I haven’t replied to a friend since November and I feel really bad about this, but then time is passing and it’s always more awkward answering which makes it even more straining – it’s a vicious circle.
I feel that there is a domino effect in action with me being tired because of work and it affects my personal life.
A 4-day week would already be a start, but the best option for me would be working 3 days from home and 2 at the library. Is it mad? Maybe for a pre-pandemic society, but not to the current one.
I love my job as I enjoy the research aspect and organising new events. All doable from home. Then 2 days dedicated to the more customer-related tasks. Sometimes I look at job alerts, and think if I could change my job: but the position I currently am is pretty sweet, with good colleagues, supportive line managers and a sugarload of research. And there are no job that are similar to mine that are also fully remote.
When I go to work I feel I am alone in this sentiment and it seems that all my colleagues are coping much better than I am. But then I go to Instagram and Twitter and I see that there are actually many people that feel the same and I am a bit less alone in this struggle.
Keep strong
If you are in the same situation, know that I am with you. I send you all the support. We can do it: we will find a way. Whether it’s changing jobs or finding a new balance in our current positions or another creative solution.
And maybe it will be us who will help change the system.
Hey kitties! How are you today? It’s been such a long week at work, every day has been busy and my SAD is kicking in. So I needed something good and comforting to keep my spirits high and here we go, I found this recipe by chance and it was exactly was I was looking for! Easy, quick, and absolutely delicious. I couldn’t find a website attached to the YouTube channel, hence I am linking to the video of the recipe for Potatoes and Spinach by WeCookVegan.
150ml (5fl oz) dairy free milk of your choice and preference
3tbsp nutritional yeast 2tbsp potato starch
1/2tbsp veg bouillon powder
1/4tsp turmeric powder
1tbsp fresh parsley
1/2tsp dijon mustard
Method:
Dice 3 potatoes.
Pour water and add a little bit of salt. Boil potatoes until fork tender.
Add 1tbsp of water to a deep frying pan. Transfer 250g (9oz) spinach to the pan and wilt. Stir occasionally.
When the spinach will start to shrink and release some water, turn off the heat and drain water.
Add potatoes to a large mixing bowl. Mix potatoes with spinach and set aside.
Time to make tofu mixture. Transfer 300g (11oz) extra firm tofu into a bowl. Pour 150ml (5fl oz) dairy free milk Add 3tbsp nutritional yeast, 2tbsp potato starch, 1/2tbsp veg bouillon powder and 1/4tsp turmeric powder. Blend it well altogether. Chop 1tbsp fresh parsley and add to tofu mixture. Add 1/2tsp dijon mustard. Stir well until all the ingredients are combined.
Pour tofu mixture into potatoes and spinach. Combine well together.
Crumple up the parchment paper in your hands, like a snowball to make it softer. Cover the baking dish (recipe calls for a baking dish size 20x5cm | 8x2inch) and transfer the mixture to the baking dish: spread potato, tofu and spinach mixture evenly. Top up with sliced in half cherry tomatoes (optional).
Bake in the preheated oven at 390F | 200C for 30 minutes or until golden and firm in the centre.
Hello kittens! Last week I was away all day on Sunday and didn’t manage to share any recipes with you, but today I have a delicious one that it’s great in every season: Vegan Welsh Cakes by DomesticGothess. I already mentioned them in this post, but haven’t shared the whole recipe. They are so easy and quick that during lockdown I have made them before work! And they work great for breakfast and for snacking. I am sure you’ll like them!
225 g (1 ¾ cups + 2 Tbsp) self-raising flour (or plain flour plus 1 tsp baking powder)
½ tsp mixed spice (pumpkin spice)
110 g (4oz / ½ cup) vegan block butter (Naturli Vegan Block or Stork block) cold and cubed
85 g (⅓ cup + 1 Tbsp) caster (superfine) sugar plus extra for dusting
65 g (2 ⅓ oz) sultanas or currants
2-4 Tbsp non-dairy milk
Method
Place the flour and mixed spice (and baking powder if using plain flour) in a bowl and stir to combine.
Add the cold cubed butter and rub in using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs and no lumps of fat remain.
Add the sugar and sultanas or currants and stir through.
Gradually stir in enough milk to bring the mixture together into a ball of dough. Be careful not to add too much, it should be soft but not sticky.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is about 5mm/¼in thick. Cut it into rounds using a 6.5cm/2 ½in to 7.5cm/3in fluted cutter.
Bring the scraps together gently and roll out again to cut out more rounds.
Place a cast iron griddle or heavy bottomed frying pan over a low-medium heat and brush with a small amount of butter. Place some caster sugar in a bowl for dusting.
Cook a few Welsh cakes at a time until golden, about 3 minutes. Then carefully flip them over and cook for about 3 minutes more until golden on both sides and cooked through. They firm up as they cool. Keep a close eye on them, they can go from golden to burnt very quickly!
It can be tricky to get the pan to the right temperature so it is a good idea to cook a test cake first to make sure it’s not too hot.
Once the Welsh cakes are cooked, roll them in the caster sugar while still hot and repeat with the rest of the cakes.
Beautiful kittens, how are you? Last week has been hectic, was back to work after a couple of days off and felt it would have been nice to treat myself to some delicious food for my dinner: I already eyed this recipe not long ago and was waiting for the perfect time to make it, a Monday night after a busy day. I ended up making a bit more and it lasted for Tuesday’s lunch and dinner: from one recipe I got out 3 meals! So, without further ado, here is the recipe for delicious Vegan Yachaejeon (Korean Vegetable Pancakes) by TheFoodieTakesFlight!
1 1/2 tsp salt or black salt (for an “eggy” flavour)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder optional for colour
1 1/2 cup room temperature water, plus additional 2-4 tbsp water to adjust consistency
Vegetables of Choice (see notes)
1 medium zucchini, sliced into match sticks
1 small sweet potato, sliced into match sticks or shredded
1 medium carrot, sliced into match sticks or shredded
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 long green chili or jalapeño, optional for heat
1 bunch scallions or green onions, around 2 cups, chopped or thinly sliced
Other vegetables of choice sliced
Neutral oil (I used vegetable oil)
Dipping Sauce to Serve
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp sugar, adjust to taste
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sesame seeds
Gochugaru or chili flakes/powder optional
Method
In a large mixing bowl, add in all the dry ingredients. Mix well.
Slowly pour in the water while mixing. Mix until you’ve reached a thick batter consistency. If the batter is still too thick, you can add 2-4 tbsp more water. The batter has to be thick and should coat the vegetables well.
Mix in the veggies of choice into the batter and mix evenly to coat. See notes for other vegetable options and cooking tips.
DIPPING SAUCE
Mix everything together and feel free to adjust to your taste. You can easily make this dipping sauce before hand.
COOKING THE PANCAKES
Heat a medium/large non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Note that the size of your pancake will depend on the size of your pan.IMPORTANT: I highly recommend using a non-stick pan for the best results and so that your pancakes do not stick to your pan. It’s also important that your pan has been preheated well and is hot before you add in the oil and the veggies/batter.
Add enough oil to add to coat the surface of the pan. Once hot, scoop a generous amount of the batter and veggie mix. Spread these over your pan and get these as thin as possible without exposing the surface of the pan.I use a spoon to spread it evenly onto the pan.If there are holes, feel free to scoop some of the batter to cover them.
Cook for 4-5 minutes over medium or medium heat or until the batter starts to dry up. You can also cover your pan to cook down the veggies.
If you covered your pancake, remove the cover and allow the excess steam to evaporate. Press down on the centre of your pancake. Once the top o the pancake and sides start to dry up, carefully scrape the sides and check underneath if the it’s lightly brown or golden.
Carefully flip the pancake with a spatula. Cook the other side until golden brown and crisp.
If you want extra crispness, allow the pancakes to cook over low heat for another 3-4 minutes on each side or until its a deep golden brown (a slight char is great too!) to get really nice and crisp on the outside.This way any excess moisture from the batter and veggies will evaporate and you’ll get crispier and less doughy pancakes.
Repeat this for the rest of the batter.
Slice your pancakes into small squares or bite-sized pieces and enjoy with the dipping sauce!
Hello cuties! How are you? Did you enjoy last week’s celebrations? Here, I was craving some more sweeties, but didn’t want to overdo it with more refined sugars than what I already ate and I also had three bananas in the fridge that needed to be used. I came across this Vegan Banana Bread by HolyCowVegan and decided to make it – easy and delicious, banana breads are just that comforting amount of sweet that you can enjoy any time of the day!
1 ⅓ cups flour (all purpose flour, a 50-50 mix of whole wheat flour and all purpose flour, or whole wheat pastry flour are all fine)
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
⅔ cup sugar
2 tablespoons flax meal
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons vegetable oil (I use sunflower oil, but you can also substitute vegan butter)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
¼ cup applesauce
4 very ripe bananas (mashed or blended until smooth with few or no lumps, You will need one more banana for the optional decorative top)
¾ cup walnuts (or pecans, lightly toasted, then chopped)
Method
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/175 degrees C. Oil an 8 ½-inch by 4 ½-inch loaf pan.
Whisk the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and flax meal in a bowl.
Add apple cider vinegar, applesauce and mashed bananas to the flour mixture. Mix until just combined and there’s no dry flour in the bowl.
Fold in the chopped walnuts.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan and spread evenly with a spoon or spatula. If using a banana to decorate the top slice it lengthwise into three slices, then halve each slice. Arrange on top of the loaf.
Bake the banana loaf about 50-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Place the banana bread on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes, then unmold and let cool completely on the rack.
Happy Easter, Ramadan and Passover to all of you, kittens! I hope you are enjoying a lovely day, doing what makes you happier and if not, I hope you’ll be able to do that as soon as possible – I know you deserve it!
I also hope you are having some nice vegan food and are avoiding putting dead, innocent animals on your plates for these holidays.
A Special Year
This year is a particular one as the three Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) are all celebrating and observing main holidays in the same 2-week period with Ramadan started on the 22nd March, Passover started on the 5th April and Easter on the 9th April. The amazing fact is that these religions have many common points, from worshipping one God to having sacrifice and hope and love as their main teachings. Also, people following these religions have been (or are still being) persecuted in different parts of the world.
The holidays are always a way to celebrate life and that’s what these three religions do teach in their own way: for Christians it’s the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection after being dead for three days, for Muslims it’s celebrating the end of the fasting period with three days of prayers and special food, and for the Jewish is the celebration of the end of the enslavement of the Hebrew people.
And all this seems so hopeful and beautiful! However, the preferred way to celebrate rebirth, end of fasting and the end of enslavement is to…kill. And who to kill? The most innocent lives on this Earth, the true symbol of innocence – lambs.
Is this the real way to celebrate? It is baffling how millions of people can all think that yes, this is the way to do it.
Need For Change
Following, are three reasons why these religions should leave animals out of their rituals:
So we have that in these religions, people are taught that lambs are a symbol of innocence and purity and that makes sense to kill them and eat them as a way to celebrate God. If you are killing the symbol of innocence, even symbolically, aren’t you like killing that virtue?
If the killing of animals is in the Sacred Books, this probably was meant to be as a means to provide food for the people. In 2023, this cannot be the case anymore: we produce so much food and even more food is grown to feed the animals that are then going to be killed. There is no reason to keep killing animals.
Killing animals is cruel and it’s even more cruel if it is done for religious reasons. Christianity, Islam and Judaism all have huge followings, all over the world and the leaders of said religions should give a much better example of compassion to all animals, humans and non-humans.
And a very wise man once said
If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him.
Mahatma Gandhi, 1913
Recipes For A More Compassionate Easter, Ramadan and Passover
Hi cuties! How are you? The past week has been long and busy and I was working yesterday, so I wanted to make something delicious but really easy and quick: a colleague told me her husband was going to make a stir fry for their dinner and thought that was going a brilliant idea for my special Saturday night dinner. So here we go, I found this Vegan Chinese Seitan and Vegetables Stir Fry by TheSpruceEats. I also had to use some tofu and used it instead of the seitan.
In a small saucepan, whisk together the vegetable broth, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, hoisin sauce, sugar, cornstarch, rice vinegar, garlic, and ginger over medium heat.
Simmer just until the mixture begins to thicken, about 5 minutes or so, then remove from heat and set aside.
In a large wok or skillet, stir-fry seitan in remaining 2 tablespoons sesame oil and remaining 2 tablespoons soy sauce until lightly browned, about 3 minutes.
Add the onions, pepper, and broccoli and stir-fry 2 to 3 minutes longer.
Add the prepared stir-fry sauce mixture to the stir-fry and combine well, allowing to cook 2 to 3 minutes more, until broccoli is done.
Serve your Chinese vegetable stir-fry over plain steamed white rice or cooked noodles, if you like, or your favorite whole grain, such as quinoa or even Israeli couscous.
The Vegan Cat Librarian 