South Korea burying live animals in Foot and Mouth outbreak

Photo source: Sky News

Rather than immunize their livestock against food and mouth (costing an estimated $63 million), the South Korean government instead chooses to spend almost $230 million to dispose of possibly infected pigs... by burying them alive. I'm speechless... Read the full story here.

Compassion in World Farming is on the case, and you can add your voice here.

My first interview!

Today my first interview for This Dish is Veg was published - it was with the very lovely Tracy Perkins, owner of the vegan, all natural skin care company, Strawberry Hedgehog.

Take a minute to check out the interview here, and use the discount code that Tracy gave exclusively to TDIV readers to buy some yummy skin goodies!

All change for the New Year!

It's almost that time of year again - time to look back on the last twelve months and hopefully build on the positive experiences we've had as well as learn from the negative ones.

It's been an exciting year for me. I started this blog, started writing for This Dish is Veg, and had an inkling of an idea for a vegan (of course!) home-based business, and in the coming year I hope to continue doing the first two and to expand on the third!

The blog is going to have a bit of a face-lift over the next few days, and will have more varied content than there has been so far. There will still be yummy recipes don't worry, and you'll have to tune in after the New Year for the rest!

Meanwhile, have a bit of ABBA to herald in the New Year!

Have a great vegan New Year's Eve everyone!!!

Vegan MoFo! I is for...

While I love pizza and calzones, I'm not a big fan of too much dough - if I want lots of bread I'll make a sandwich thanks very much! So when setting out to make calzone dough, I wasn't interested in making regular pizza dough, I needed something thinner and crispier. As usual when I'm recipe brainstorming, I headed for Veg Web and found this recipe from Love Joy Harvest which is more of a pastry than a bread dough, and looked really promising. Of course I made a few changes lol!

This is what you'll need...

• 1 2/3 cups flour
• pinch of salt
• 6 tablespoons ice cold water (or more of needed)
• 4 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder

Throw everything except for the water in a food processor and mix well. Add the water one tablespoon at a time until the dough starts to come away from the sides of the bowl. Wrap dough in plastic wrap until you use it as it dries out very easily.

How many you make out of this is up to you - I usually make three big calzones, but you could easily get five or six smaller ones out of it. Just roll out the dough to about 3 mm thick, fill with whatever you have to hand (I usually do Daiya cheese and vegetables with pizza sauce) and cook at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes. Another easy recipe, that the whole family loves so that makes me a happy momma!

Enjoy!

Vegan MoFo! H is for...

When I was brainstorming what to do for Vegan MoFo, I came across a recipe for hoecakes by Paula Deen. I'd never heard of hoecakes before, but I loved the name (which has nothing to do with ladies of ill repute and everything to do with garden tools), and thought if anyone needs to be veganized, it's Paula Deen! The recipe looked pretty easy to switch from the dark side, and the family likes cornbread so it looked like a win-win situation. But sadly I forgot to take photos of the endeavor... so picture if you can, a steaming bowl of homemade veggie chili, with lovely crispy-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside corn pancakes on the side and we'll be good to go.

You will need...

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup self raising cornbread
• 2 egg equivalents (I used Ener-G)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3/4 cup soy milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• oil for frying

Mix the soy milk and vinegar together and allow to curdle for for a few minutes, then add to all the other ingredients except for the frying oil. Heat the frying oil in the frying pan and drop the mixture into it. I used a 1/4 cup measure for each pancake. Wait until the underside is browned and crispy then flip to cook the other side. When you take them out of the pan, place on kitchen paper to absorb any excess oil then munch away merrily!

Here's a pic of Paula's hoecakes... mine looked better ;o)

Vegan MoFo! G is for....

Yup, I'm still here! After being sick for a week (bleh), and sorting out my gorgeous daughter's 7th birthday party, there wasn't too much room for Vegan Mofo. I guess I'm a bad moFo-er haha!!! Alright, enough of the bad jokes and on with the show... my faux chick'n of choice used to be Quorn, until I went vegan that is. All those egg white laden goodies don't cut the mustard in our house any more and so I was a happy camper when the Gardein products came to West Michigan! I've made quite a few dishes with it, and it never fails to please. From curries to pot pies (which my husband said was just like the real version!), it works every time AND the whole family will eat it so another huge bonus. This recipe was adapted from one at Eclectic Recipes, who adapted one from Martha Stewart. I made it for the first time the week before last when I was having a friend round for dinner, and it went down really well. Hubby even took leftovers to work and it was still good!
Here's what you need...

• One bag of diced Gardein Chicken Scallopini
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup of raw cashews
• 1 diced bell pepper
• 4 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
• 8 sliced green onions (I lost these on the way back from the store so didn't add them lol)
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• 3/4 cup water or vegan chicken stock (I used Better than Bouillon)
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• salt and pepper
• rice of choice

Start cooking the rice. The actual dish doesn't take too long, so start cooking it when the rice has about 15 minutes to go.
Heat a skillet then heat the oil over a low-medium heat. Add the peppers, garlic and cashews and cook, making sure you don't burn the garlic. Add the Gardein and brown gently. Meanwhile, mix together the cornstarch and chicken stock/water and add to the skillet. Add the hoisin sauce and vinegar and simmer for about 5-10 minutes until the sauce thickens. Add the green onions just before serving, and serve over the rice.
Yummy!

Vegan MoFo! F is for...

The first time I ever had falafel, I was living in London, and working on a market stall on Portobello Road. If you've ever been to the Portobello Road market, you'll know that the antique-y type stalls are at the beginning down by the Portobello Star and the Earl of Lonsdale (both awesome pubs!), while as you go towards Portobello Green, you get the more diverse stalls. I was right under the flyover, next to Portobello Green and at least was protected from the rain, but it could get incredibly cold there! Over the road from my stall, was a food store called 'Pita the Great' and the smells from there were AMAZING, so my nose led me to find out what the fuss was about. I bought the fresh falafel, in a pita with salad and tahini sauce, took a bite and was forever smitten. The taste was fabulous and since that day I have been a falafel lover. For this I decided to make a larger patty and have it in a bun instead of smaller balls in a pita. I'm feeling like poop at the moment (bloody cold!), and didn't feel like making pita bread but had some skinny bagels on hand which looked perfect enough to slide a falafel burger into!

So! You will need...

• 1 can of garbanzo beans (chick peas), or 4oz dried, soaked, cooked and drained
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon flour (I used whole wheat, but all purpose would be fine too)
• oil for frying
• salad
• some kind of bread to house the patties

Through all the ingredients up to and including the flour into a food processor and blitz. You want everything to be mixed together, but make sure you still get some chunks of chickpeas left. Put in a lidded container and leave in the fridge for an hour or so. I'm not sure why but it makes it less likely to break up in the frying pan if you do this! When your belly is rumbling and you can stand it no more, heat up the frying pan, add the oil, and when it is hot take some of the falafel mix in your hand, shape into a patty and cook it. It will take a couple of minutes to brown, then flip that baby over and cook the other side. Easy peasy! Repeat with the rest of the mix. I made 4 big patties with this recipe. And this is what one of them looked like...

Delicious, no?