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Recipe Sunday – Vegan Chocolate Covered Strawberries

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Happy Sunday, kittens! I hope you’re having a nice weekend. Here it has been very hot for a few days, with a very clear sky and temperatures around 27°C which is exceptionally high for where I live! Today I decided to go to the shops to get a little present for a colleague: the shop I wanted to visit is not in the town centre and I can reach it in 15 minutes by walking, so I went to the shop, got the present and when I went out it started raining. I got literally soaked! Wasn’t expecting that. Oh well, that’s life. Anyway, enough of my adventure! Because it is so warm, I wanted to share the recipe for a dessert that doesn’t need too much heat to prepare and is still extremely delicious: Vegan Chocolate Covered Strawberries by Nutriciously!

Vegan Chocolate Covered Strawberries by Nutriciously

I made them quite recently and are already on my list of favourite recipes. In addition, if you omit the white chocolate these are also a great snack or dessert for when you do the Limpia.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb fresh strawberries (450 g)

Vegan chocolate coating

  • 1 cup semi-sweet dark chocolate, chopped (100 g)
  • 1 tsp almond butter (optional)
  • ½ cup vegan white chocolate, chopped (50 g)

Toppings

Instructions

Prepare the strawberries

  1. Rinse and drain the strawberries without removing the green leaves. 
  2. Pat dry with paper towels and place them in the fridge. 

Make the chocolate coating

  1. Get two clean bowls and put the chopped dark chocolate in one, the chopped white chocolate in the other.
  2. Fill two pots ¼ of the way with water and bring to a boil. Reduce to low heat, then place the bowls inside — make sure they are big enough to cover the pots!
  3. Let the chocolate melt over the sightly boiling water, stirring occasionally.
  4. When the dark chocolate has melted, add the almond butter and stir to incorporate.

Dip & coat your strawberries

  1. Remove the strawberries from the refrigerator and get a tray lined with parchment paper.
  2. Gather your toppings: melted dark chocolate, melted white chocolate, crushed almonds, shredded coconut and cocoa nibs. Make sure each of them gets its own little bowl or plate. 
  3. Grasp your first strawberry by the small green leaves and dip it into the melted dark chocolate, aiming to coat the strawberry evenly. Shake off any excess, then put your coated strawberry on your prepared tray. Repeat with the remaining strawberries and place them in a single layer on your tray. Drizzle a few of them with more black or contrasting white chocolate by using a fork or a piping bag.
  4. Finally, add some crunchy toppings! Roll your chocolate-covered strawberries in the prepared bowls with crushed almonds, shredded coconut or cocoa nibs.
  5. Refrigerate the decorated strawberries for 30 minutes before serving.

Easy-peasy! I hope you’ll enjoy these snacks perfect for the summer.

Love,

TVCL xx

Recipe Sunday – Roasted Buckwheat with Vegetables (Vegan Kasha)

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Hello beautiful kittens! Here the weather has been quite benevolent, not too hot (only a couple of days with unusually high temperatures two weeks ago, whew!) so I’ve been able to cook and bake and all – love it! One of the recipes I tried is this Roasted Buckwheat with Vegetables by WhereIsMySpoon: probably the third recipe I made with buckwheat and it’s lovely. Obviously nice and easy and quick.

As buckwheat is not a cereal but a seed similarly to quinoa and amaranth, it can be used in recipes that also would call for a cereal, making for the perfect gluten-free lunch/dinner (and limpia-friendly too!).

Roasted Buckwheat with Vegetables by WhereIsMySpoon

Ingredients 

  • 200 g/ 7 oz/ about 1 cup buckwheat groats Notes 1 and 2
  • 350 ml/ 11.8 fl. oz/ 1 ¾ cups vegetable broth
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 medium onions about 150 g/ 5.3 oz
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 2 bell peppers
  • 1 leek about 120 g/ 4.2 oz (Note 3)
  • 15 cherry tomatoes
  • ½ teaspoon smoked paprika powder
  • 1 teaspoon sweet paprika powder
  • ½ teaspoon turmeric
  • ¼ – ½ teaspoon hot chili flakes to taste
  • juice from 1 lemon
  • 250 ml/ 8.4 fl.oz/ 1 cup vegetable broth
  • salt and black pepper

Instructions

  • Chop the onions finely, the garlic as well, cut the peppers into thin strips, halve the leeks lengthwise, if very thick, and cut the halves into thin half rounds.
  • Bring the vegetable stock used for cooking the buckwheat groats to a boil. When the liquid boils, add the rinsed buckwheat groats, cover the saucepan with a lid and simmer on low heat until done to your liking.
  • Heat the oil in a larger and deeper pan. Cook the onions for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, peppers, and leeks. Stir well and cook for about 3-4 minutes or until slightly softer.
  • In the meantime, halve the cherry tomatoes. Add them to the pan with smoked and sweet paprika powder, turmeric, chili flakes, lemon juice, and vegetable broth.
  • Cover, turn the heat down to medium-low, and cook the vegetables, occasionally stirring, for about 10 minutes or until done to your liking.
  • Add the cooked kasha to the vegetable pan and stir well but carefully.
  • Adjust the taste generously with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and the remaining lemon juice.

The recipe calls for a carrot and yojurt sauce, but I haven’t tried it with that and it was already spectacular.

I hope you’ll make it and enjoy!

Love,

TVCL xx

Recipe Sunday – Vegan Brownies

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Happy Sunday, my kittens! Today I wanted to share with you the best vegan brownies recipe: you won’t need others as this is THE ONE. A premise though, because I love the soft brownies and I am not too much of a fan of those big, chewy brownies that you find around. These are soft and almost spongy, my favourite kind!

This recipe is by ChocolateCoveredKatie: she makes delicious vegan as well as keto and paleo recipes.

Vegan Brownies by ChocolateCoveredKatie

Ingredients

  • 1 cup + 2 tbsp milk of choice
  • 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp oil
  • 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup spelt, white, or ap gf flour
  • 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, unrefined if desired
  • 1/3 cup white sugar, unrefined if desired, OR stevia baking blend
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch, or ground flax
  • 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips optional

Instructions

  • Whisk the first 3 ingredients, then set aside. (If using flax, whisk it in as well.)
  • Preheat oven to 330F. Grease a 9×13 pan (or 8×8 for thick brownies), or line with parchment paper, and set aside.
  • In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly combine all dry ingredients. Stir wet into dry.
  • Pour into the pan. Smooth down. Bake 16 minutes, or 24 in 8×8.
  • The brownies will look a little underdone when they come out, but that’s okay! Refrigerate – they start to firm up after a few hours and are nice and cut-able by the next day, and the taste is much better the next day as well.

Trust me, you’ll love them!

Love,

TVCL xx

Recipe Sunday – Quinoa Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Beautiful Kittens! This is a “Recipe Sunday on a Monday” – yesterday has been a very busy day and didn’t really manage to sit down and write. So here we go today! The recipe is for these beautiful and healthy Quinoa Chocolate Chip Cookies by HealthyLittleVittlle: I know, it’s warm and it’s not ideal to get the oven going, but I need comfort food at least once a week. But here’s the kick: the recipe I am sharing today is also very healthy!

Quinoa Chocolate Chip Cookies by HealthyLittleVittles

Ingredients

  • 4 flax eggs (4 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal + 1/2 cup water)
  • 1/2 cup tapioca starch
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3/4 cup maple sugar* (may substitute with coconut sugar)
  • 1 cup cooked quinoa
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup peanut butter (or other nut/seed butter)
  • 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Method

  1. Cook one serving of quinoa per package directions.
  2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Make the flax eggs by combining the flaxseed meal and water together in a bowl and let it sit to ‘gel up’.
  3. In a large bowl, whisk together the tapioca starch, baking powder and maple sugar. Add the cooked quinoa, vanilla, peanut butter (or other nut/seed butter) and flax eggs to the bowl and mix until a batter forms, then fold in the chocolate chips.
  4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then using a large cookie scoop (about 2-3 heaping tablespoons of batter per cookie), scoop the cookie dough onto the baking sheet leaving a few inches in between cookies.
  5. Bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes, they should just start to look golden- avoid over baking unless you like crunchier cookies.
  6. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for about 5 minutes, then using the back of a small bowl or measuring up gently flatten the cookies, not too flat. Let them cool to set up completely and then enjoy!

Easy-peasy.

I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I do!

Have a great day,

TVCL xx

Conversations

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So, some time ago I went to the beauty salon in the town where I live. Despite being a little salon, all the products that they use are cruelty-free with a choice of vegan products too: this is thanks to the owner of the shop, a lovely lady that loves animals and is a firm believer that animals shouldn’t be exploited in the beauty industry (she’s not vegan, but she’s doing her little bit by making a choice that I snot made that widely in the place where I live).

Anyway, I go there once in a while to have my nails done (and last year I was invited to three weddings so I felt I would have liked to have my nails and hands looking nicer than they usually do) plus the staff is always so nice and we often have a good chat and laugh.

The last time I went there, with the young lady that was doing my nails we were talking about making food, how good is it to have dinner ready when going back home after a long day at work and this kind of stuff. A bit of context, she is not a vegan nor vegetarian but sympathises with the cause, however, she lives with her fiance who is most definitely a meat-eater and also quite picky so it can be difficult to have him eating vegetables.

Then we started talking about how food cultures are different everywhere: for example, while here it’s almost unthinkable to eat a horse, she was quite surprised to know that where I grew up, horse meat is not that unusual. From there we went on that in many Asian Countries, dog and cat meat is also very common, and there she said: “Well, yes, in the end, what’s the difference between cows and cats? If you can eat a cow, why can’t you eat a cat?”. Like that. She talked about one of the main principles of veganism so casually. And I’m like “this is all veganism is about!”. It was very interesting and a different point of view from the usual one that I get in the village where I live: most of the people keep sustaining that eating meat it’s good, it’s only natural. True, here there are a lot of farmers meaning that not only the farm workers but also their families are more inclined to think this way.

Go Vegan word-art

So I am here basically alone in my veganism (after 4 years living here, I still haven’t found a single vegan despite media saying that vegans are on the rise here in the UK), and I this girl is talking about eating cows is the same as eating a cat!

This made me think that then the message is out there, we need a bit more advocating, showing that we are not extremists, just that a life it’s a life: it doesn’t matter if it is a sheep, a dog, a horse, a rabbit etc. A life it’s a life: as vegans, we probably have stopped, watching the heartbreaking videos of cows before being slaughtered, how you can see the fear and anguish in their eyes. It is undeniable. I always wonder if those killing them do see it, if they have thoughts on this. Even the animals raised “well and with care”, left out grazing: they have then to kill them. Don’t they see what we see?

The message is there, my kittens. We just have to keep going, keep spreading the word the way you are doing. But. Keep. Going. We can do it.

Love,

TVCL xx

Recipe Sunday – Vegan Gluten-Free Chocolate Banana Muffins

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Happy Sunday, kittens! Here in the UK, we’ve had a couple of days of very spring-y weather with some sunshine, but without being terribly hot. And I feel that this is still muffin weather. I tried this recipe a few days ago and oh, my goodness! it’s just too delectable.

Before reading this recipe, I was thinking I wanted to do something gluten-free and lo and behold, looking through my emails I found the newsletter by Delightful Adventures where she shared her recipe for Vegan Gluten-Free Chocolate Banana Muffins. It sounded perfect, I had all the ingredients, only a few steps and there you have an amazing result.

Vegan Gluten-Free Chocolate Banana Muffins by Delightful Adventures

The only thing I modified is the flour as I used ground oats: the recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of gluten-free flour and I used the same amount of ground oats. The result is excellent!

At the same time, I have been a bit more generous in the scooping part, because I have one set of silicone muffin cups and they can yield a good amount of batter, so I got 8 muffins. Which is great because they are the perfect breakfast for the workweek, or you could have them as a quick snack for whenever.

Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I do!

Enjoy your Sunday,

TVCL xx

Recipe Sunday – Vegan Spinach and Artichoke Dip

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Happy Sunday beautiful kittens! For today’s Recipe Sunday I wanted to share with you a delicious recipe, perfect comfort food for this time of the year: full of veggies and warming you from inside. This Vegan Spinach and Artichoke Dip by Running on Real Food is perfect as a delicious side dish!

Vegan Spinach and Artichoke Dip by Running on Real Food

As usual, I like to share recipes that are really easy and delicious, as I think we all need something nice to eat especially during these even crazier days.

This recipe has ingredients that are found in your regular vegan pantry and fridge like cashews, plant-based milk, olive oil, garlic cloves, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, fresh spinach and artichoke hearts.

  • Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C)
  • Soak cashews for 6-8 hours or for 15 minutes in hot water: drain and add to blender with milk, water, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt and pepper until creamy and smooth.
  • Sauté minced garlic in non-stick pan.
  • Add garlic, spinach and artichoke hearts to blender until you get a chunky texture.
  • Transfer everything to a baking dish and bake for 15-20 minutes.

That’s it! Easy peasy 😉

Let me know if you try it and enjoy your Sunday!

Love,

TVCL xx

On Vegan and Plant-based Milk

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Beautiful peeps! I hope you are all doing great and have survived the holiday period (and maybe enjoyed it, too!). I have been lucky enough to have enjoyed this time as I had a few days off from work and oh my, I needed it: the last months of 2021 had been quite demanding at work and hadn’t managed to get a proper balance in my personal life, so getting almost 10 days off had been fabulous. A lot of relaxing and recharging, much needed. It has been also a good time to catch up with some reading and researching and I am going to share with you the fruits of such research!

Today I wanted to expand a bit on what I was writing about in my last post, where I was referring to the Veganuary website suggesting to use certain foods and ingredients as substitutes for their non-vegan counterparts, while they are owned by big multinational corporations such as Coca Cola, Unilever, etc. that are really not vegan nor have animal and environment welfare as part of their principles.

An example, is the Alpro brand. Oooft! I know, it is everywhere, it is convenient and it has a wide variety of non-dairy products. Unfortunately, Alpro is owned by Danone, a massive multinational company with a focus on dairy products (it literally started as a yoghurt producer).

Similarly, the successful oat milk brand, Oatly, has been recently purchased by The Blackstone Group, an investment management group: its CEO, Stephen A. Schwarzman has shares in companies connected to deforestation in the Amazon (you can read a bit more here and here).

Another popular plant-based milk brand that is owned by a parent company to a multinational is Plenish, which has been acquired by Britvic, which “holds the franchises for producing and bottling Pepsi Cola and 7Up in the United Kingdom“.

Other brands that are not independent:

  • Rude Health (PepsiCo.);
  • Provamel (Danone);
  • Soya Soleil (Danone).

These are just few of the most popular brands that are taking over the vegan and dairy-free market of milk substitutes.

You might find this frustrating because these brands are easy to find and fairly cheap, and now you might wonder if there can be alternatives to these plant-based milks, as it seems that as soon as a brand becomes just a bit more available, any of the multinationals want a bite of them! Well, don’t despair! There are plenty of smaller and independent plant-based milk brands that are fairly easy to find and still maintain their ethical essence.

Among these are (and no, I am not sponsored by any of them):

  • Mighty Pea;
  • Plamil;
  • Ecomil;
  • Good Hemp;
  • Isola Bio;
  • Minor Figures (although I am afraid of where they are heading with their big expanse in the U.S. market).

The good thing about these smaller/independent businesses (at least in theory and from what they advertise), is that they use fewer and more genuine ingredients and it is easier to hold them accountable for what they are doing.

I am going to keep a watchful eye on the situation and will keep you updated with any changes.

It’s all for today, my beautiful kittens!

TVCL xx

Veganuary it’s here!

/ thevegancatlibrarian / 1 Comment

It’s officially 2022. Today it’s the very first day of a new year and I am very excited to see what it will bring (but I don’t want to jinx anything as we’ve seen how the past 2 years have gone, generally speaking). And with the new year, it comes also Veganuary. Let’s take a look into it.

Veganuary is an initiative by the UK organisation with the same name, that promotes veganism by simply asking whoever want to take part to try a vegan diet during the month of January. I think it is quite a simple and fairly effective initiative and it can surely benefit the vegan cause: they provide facts to raise awareness without being too pushy, in their website you can find recipes to get you started as well as nutrition tips. They are making it very easy for people to potentially go vegan, without excuses of not knowing what to eat, of vegan food, being too difficult to make or that the dishes are not balanced. On the Veganuary website, you’ll find all the relevant information.

The initiative started in 2014 and seems to go quite well. However… I still have to find a person that decided to go vegan because they tried Veganuary. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I live in a small rural town, but it also seems that the places where I can get a vegan takeout or even sit in for a meal, have either closed or significantly reduced the variety of vegan food on offer. Yes, supermarkets are providing some ready meals or quick to make stuff, which is great when you are in a hurry and didn’t manage to cook anything the night before. But they are not for everyday consumption. So I am wondering where are all these vegans? Are they only in the bigger cities? If you know, please share your knowledge.

Now, going back to Veganuary and its effectiveness. I applaud the initiative and the organisation because they are raising awareness not only in the UK but all around the world, and as the old saying goes “The more, the merrier”. But I have to raise a concern (no, I don’t have to-have to in the categorical sense, but that I feel I should. Then why you don’t say that? Because I don’t want to. Now let’s proceed.): some of the ingredients they are suggesting people should use, are from brands owned by multinational companies such as Coca Cola, Pepsi, etc, which we established are not vegan (you can find a list of non-vegan companies, as well as a chart of the multinationals and the brands that they own). I know that many vegans are very excited about this initiative, and again, I am too and I am very supportive. Also, I understand that they are promoting the use of certain foods because they might be cheaper than buying them from smaller, independent companies and it’s also easier than making them yourself: all factors that can help people approach veganism.

Nevertheless, I strongly believe that any money given to these companies is just protracting the suffering of animals: it doesn’t matter that that product is labelled as plant-based and vegan-friendly if it comes from a business that is exploiting animals, its employees and the environment (you can read some more of this here). There are really plenty of small businesses that make vegan food and ingredients, that are true to vegan ethics because they were born as vegan and ethical companies. There are several places where you can find lists of such businesses for vegan food, clothes etc. and if you find yourself stuck in terms of beauty products and snacks, FreedmStreet is the website for you (no, this is not a paid post, it’s just that I have been buying stuff from them for the past 3 years and I am always 100% satisfied, hence why I am suggesting it).

So, go vegan, try it for January, for a few months or for your life, but try to do also some research: there are many resources online that you can consult and this blog wants to make your life easier, plus there is a massive community online and many charities and organisations to whom you can talk about going vegan.

If you need any assistance, please leave a comment or get in touch!

And to conclude, here are some easy recipes to get you started

31 DROOL-WORTHY Healthy Veganuary Recipes
Healthy Broccoli Potato Soup

Love,

TVCL

Recipe Sunday – Chocolate Yogurt Loaf

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Happy Sunday, folks! I hope you are well. I don’t know you, but as it is becoming colder and colder, getting closer to the Winter Solstice (21st December) I feel that I am craving chocolate-y food. So today I made this recipe by Chocolate Covered Katie: it is a delicious, easy and comfortable dessert that you can make quickly and requires minimal ingredients. This Chocolate Yogurt Loaf is so easy to make and the result is just amazing!

All you need is

1 1/2 cups spelt, white, or oat flour (180g)

1/4 cup cocoa powder2

1/2 tbsp dutch cocoa (or additional regular)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp each: baking soda and salt

2/3 cup sugar, unrefined if desired

3/4 cup yogurt (or see substitution note above)

2/3 cup milk of choice

1/4 cup oil, peanut butter, or additional yogurt

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (not optional)

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp instant coffee (optional)

While the oven is heating up to 350F, mix all the dry ingredients then all the other ingredients. Set in a loaf pan (previously greased). Bake until the centre of the loaf is cooked through (i.e. toothpick inserted come out clean)

You can make a chocolate glazing, but the loaf it’s already perfect this way!

Let me know if you try it and enjoyed it as much as I did.

Will be back soon!

TVCL xx