Chocolate dessert pots!

by

My buddy Bob emailed a few days ago to let me know about these gorgeous looking pots of goodness hitting the UK right about now.

Check them out!

pots

I am a HUGE fan of Coconut Collaborative products so I’m sure these Little Choc Pots are not to be missed.

Excited by the sight of these pots, I popped over to the Coconut Collaborative Facebook page and saw a post for these other new delights.

13012715_1050986804994379_4955966254787215988_n

Has anyone tried these? They look splendid.

Get shopping at places like Waitrose and Whole Foods Market for these new products. Tasty!

south of france cruise

Vegan option in a German beer hall

by

A friendly Twitter follower named Marie-Anne just gave me a tip that quite a few people will be interested in.

There is a Bavarian-styled pub and restaurant in London with vegan food on the menu. Check out these options:

NÜRNBERGER BRATVÜRST’L £5.90
Starter – Three grilled vegan sausages served with Sauerkraut and a pretzel

CURRYVURST MIT POMMES £7.90
Snack – Grilled sausage served with curry sauce and chips

BAVARIAN BEERHOUSE ‘VURSTPLATTE’ SPEZIAL £13.50
Main – Special Bavarian Beerhouse sausage platter: ‘BratVurst, spicy Merguez and ‘Wiener’ sausages served with Sauerkraut and chips

That grilled sausage dish with curry sauce and chips is the sort of thing I write poems about. It sounds incredible.

The staff at Bavarian Beerhouse certainly look the stereotypical part.

bavarian panel

You can visit Bavarian Beerhouse online and make plans to visit either their Tower Hill or Old Street location.

qvd prince advert

Vegan BBQ cooking class

by

My friend Nishma of Shambhu’s is planning a one-time-only cooking class that sounds super tasty.

Get over to Islington on Saturday June 11, 2016 from 2:30pm for a demonstration featuring the following dishes:

– Marinated tofu & vegetable skewers
– Cassava bites
– Marinated tofu in potato parcels
– Spicy vegetable masala toasted sandwiches

The whole idea behind the class is for people to be inspired to create BBQ suitable food without any meat or dairy. Sounds like a great plan! I especially like how you get to eat food after you watched how to make it. That is my favourite part.

You need to click here to find out all the details and to book a spot.

nishmaatvdeliciousjuly2014

south of france cruise

Vegan ice cream in Manchester

by

The vegan ice cream news just won’t quit. Check out this vegetarian ice cream shop located in the Manchester neighbourhood of Withington.

emotionheader8940191

Ice Shack is a dessert parlour with some solid vegan options.

I’ve posted a selection of the vegan menu items below:

Vegan Ice Cream Flavours (isolated in their own vegan freezer)

Coconut/Chocolate/Raspberry/Raspberry and mango/Strawberry/Vanilla/Wild berry/Blackcurrant sorbet/Lemon sorbet/Orange sorbet

Vegan truffles

Dark chocolate/Dark chocolate and ginger/Dark chocolate, lime and chilli

Vegan Cakes and Pastries

Apple pie/Chocolate cake/Lemon Cheesecake/Mango and passion fruit cheesecake/Sponge/Flapjack
13051555_1540502242922454_8539981704498282835_n

Sounds tasty!

You can like Ice Shack on Facebook, visit their website and follow them on Twitter.

qvd prince advert

Inexpensive vegan ice cream

by

There are so many vegan ice cream stories to tell, I’m frankly getting tired of relaying them. My main annoyance being all the news relates to the UK and I’m a long way from that part of the world.

My fab friend Mirel sent me the following photos of what she found in her local Morrisons supermarket this week.

With each box priced at just £2, you might just be able to afford to try them all.

IMAG4254 IMAG4255 IMAG4256

It looks as though a company is making these treats for UK supermarkets to rebrand as their own product. These Morrisons ice creams look very similar to what I reported on from Tesco a short while ago.

Anyway, affordable vegan ice cream for those who want it.

south of france cruise

Part time job with vegan burger company

by

Hi there, London.

There is a 2-day a week job being advertised with a vegan burger producer.

Excerpt from the job advert reads:

burger job

More details such as starting hourly pay rate (which is £7 per hour – a couple of quid below suggested London Living Wage of £9.40 per hour) and how to apply can be found by clicking here.

Happy job hunting!

patreon bottom advert

Brexit and animals

by

A few people have asked me what I think the upcoming vote on whether the UK should stay or leave the European Union means for animals.

On one hand, I don’t feel informed or accomplished enough to give a detailed analysis of how the Brexit decision could affect animals. One the other hand, I think it is crucial that people who are voting on June 23, 2106 discuss the situation, share information and debate topics surrounding the referendum.

I have collated a few news and opinion articles on what Brexit could mean for animal welfare reform, animal protection laws and even animal testing policies.

I have included some links for publications and commentators who I deem as divisive and extreme. You should be able to determine these for yourself from the title should you wish not to click on them.

I would also urge vegans and vegan-friendly people who are undecided on their vote to consider broader issues when it comes to Brexit. Of course animals are a major concern (that is why we are all hanging out here to begin with) but I hope your vote takes into count how Brexit might affect human wellbeing, economical security, freedom of movement, food security and countless other considerations.

Basically, I don’t think your entire decision should be based solely around non-human animals but it is certainly a fucking amazingly important topic for you to consider in your decision.

A fairly basic pros vs cons article that mentions EU role in animal testing ban – The Metro

A racist-laden look at how EU exit could save animals from Halal slaughter – Express

80% of animal welfare laws originate from EU – RSPCA

An in depth look at pros and cons in relation to animal laws – Vegan Life Magazine

Brexit would be disastrous for Britain’s farm animals – Guardian

The EU has worked to end cosmetic testing (amongst other positives) – Independent

Would UK have desire to raise welfare standards outside of EU? – Compassion in World Farming

Brexit is a step backwards for animal welfare – Phil Wilson MP

Please add more links in the comment section below. I’m sure there must be many more opinions and articles on this topic.

Happy voting!

south of france cruise

Horses in airports?

by

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, along come therapy horses in airports.

OK. I’m going to have to break this down into digestible chunks as this story is not palatable on several levels.

The Transportation Security Authority, the organisation responsible for airport security all over the USA, has recently been in the news for terminating a whole lot of people in order to save money. The TSA thought they could persuade travellers to pay for the express PreCheck lane at security screening. This confident belief led to more than 4,000 airport security screeners losing their jobs which is about 10% of the people in this role.

People have not flocked to the PreCheck lanes as expected resulting in waits of up to three hours in some US airports just to clear security. So lots of people lose their jobs and chaos takes over.

And what do humans do when they create a bad situation? Exploit animals, of course!

This BBC article and this Daily Mail article both highlight not only the loss of income for thousands of people but also how one airport is bringing in ‘therapy ponies’ to help keep people calm as they wait hours to clear security.

mini therapy seven oaks kentucky pony

These unfortunate animals are having their hair coloured and are being paraded through hot and crowded airports so frustrated travellers can touch them as a form of relaxation.

If you would like to explain to this airport that animals do not belong in crowded airports, you can reach them on Twitter.

patreon bottom advert

Why can’t vegans say ‘milk’?

by

A member of an online vegan group I am a part of posted the following message. I asked Daniel if he minded me sharing it here in the hope someone can give him legal advice or insight based on their own experiences as a vegan business owner, either in Scotland or around the UK.

Daniel says:

Posting this to see if any vegan business owners have had a similar experience – I run Juice Warrior and today we had our first environmental health inspection in our new Bathgate premises. They are really not happy about us using the word ‘mylk’. We use this because we don’t like using the term ‘milk’ as in the beginning a lot of people thought we were selling dairy milks. We obviously want to completely separate ourselves from the dairy industry.

They have said ‘milk’ is a protected term by the dairy industry, so we are not allowed to use it as our milks don’t contain any dairy. Apparently this has been referred to the FSA and is going to be an issue with all the dairy free milk companies in the future.

They then said we can’t use the term ‘mylk’ as it sounds too much like milk and it’s a made up term. We pointed out that’s a bit ridiculous as there was once a time when ‘Cola’ didn’t mean anything. It really just became an argument over semantics.

The inspector used to work in a meat factory and I feel he had a problem with us from the get go – constantly backing up the meat and dairy industries and trying to tear apart the raw juice/dairy free industry.

Our kitchen and machinery are kept beyond spotless and if you were to walk in it would look like it’s never used, so we pointed out that we found it frustrating that if you were to walk into a meat factory there would potentially be blood and faeces on the floor. He said this doesn’t matter because you can kill all of that in a frying pan…

He may have a point, but we couldn’t help but feel alienated and wished there was more support for vegan businesses. It seems biased that the meat industry can get away with having blood and guts on their floors but we are being warned that if our carrots go near our apples before cleaning, we could be shut down. Obviously, we make sure we separate our roots vegetables from everything else, it was more the way he said it to us.

I read in a magazine lately of a plant based lobby for vegan businesses starting in America – does anyone know if there is anything like this in the UK yet?

slideshow_5

Get in contact with Daniel on his website or via Twitter if you think you can assist.

south of france cruise

How many vegans in Great Britain?

by

An email popped up today from The Vegan Society with the following information:

Dietary vegans in Great Britain 542,000

Lifestyle vegans in Great Britain 360,000

The Vegan Society have reported that a survey was carried out earlier this year across England, Wales and Scotland by a professional survey company and the findings determined those are the ‘ballpark’ figures of the number of vegans in Great Britain.

The Vegan Society have extrapolated further findings from the research and have highlighted the following:

  • The results show that well over one and a half million people are vegetarian or vegan.
  • Over half a million people follow a vegan diet.
  • More than a third of a million avoid all animal products. That includes food, clothing and other products.
  • Over half a million vegetarians are looking to reduce their consumption of animal products.
  • There are approaching a million vegetarians and vegans who avoid leather, wool and other animal fibres.
  • There are almost twice as many women than men who are vegan.
  • Of all vegans 42% are in the 15-34 age group compared to only 14% of those over 65.
  • 88% of all vegans live in urban areas against 12% who live in rural areas.

There is apparently more detailed analysis published on the charity’s website but the link was not working for me, so please do share in the comments if you find a functioning link to the full facts and figures.

patreon bottom advert