Cured

I'm well today, thank you for asking :) My bladder is ok, I have regular healthy temperature and, the most sure sign of my well being is - I'm bossing around and doing chores.


Yesterday I had a protein breakfast that really kept me full a long time. So I didn't think about food up until about 4 pm, when I decided for pizza. Problem was, we were running really low on flour (and well, other ingredients), so I ended up mixing regular flour, fullcorn rye flour and another type of wheat flour that is not really for baking. All this for a 200 g crust! Then, topping the pizza was another major adventure but thank god for mom's zucchini that keep 2 weeks in the fridge! I made half the pizza vegan for me, and the other half non vegan for the man. And guess what, we liked the crust even better than the regular! So next time I'm making pizza, I'll be using the same combination... on purpose!

Today's lunch was improvisation at its highest. Since I haven't been outside the house all week the fridge was just as good as empty. While I was looking around for edibles to cook for 2 I almost gave up and settled for pre-made gnocchi that can keep in the fridge and I like to save such things for days when cooking time (or ability) is limited.

So, in my opinion, you can pretty much grade a cook by the dish he or she does with limited resources and from scratch.

Had a quarter of small cauliflour turning brown, 2 carrots (literally), 2 tiny zucchini turning soft, 1 big onion turning to jelly and a tiny one still good, some rotting leeks and fresh (wow) garlic. I turned all this (save the rotting and jelly parts) into a veggie soup.

Gosh my phone camera is crap

Then I took bio potatoes (by bio I mean it was half unusable and I only had 4 small of them), that became fried potatoes, and luckily for the freezer where I found stashed a cup of peas that I cooked in a cream sauce and already roasted peppers (curtesy of my mother&sister-in-so-called-law!) that I simply thawed super-fast (lunch time was approaching), and added some chopped garlic on top (YUM!). I made me some mock fish fingers by the Redwood, and he got some barbecue chicken wings, everything also from the freezer, God bless it.

Although we're leaving tomorrow for visiting, I made the man go grocery-shopping for flour, yogurts and canned goods, and some apples, too, so at least when we return we'll have food in the house. It took him almost 2 hours, I was getting worried. Turns out he bought almost everything from the list and spend an agreeable amount of money. If I had gone shopping I'd buy the list + another off-list and spend twice the amount! So I'm seriously considering the idea of making him in charge of groceries. Even though he did not bring me the requested pommegranat, but mandarines instead.

We're visiting his place tomorrow for lunch, then I need to head south to my place (2,5 hours of driving) because we have much going on. It's my aunt's birthday so we're visiting her in the evening, then on Monday is national holiday and my boss is making me and half the company work, so hooray super happy about that. We have a family dinner planned in the evening and then on Tuesday (All Saint's Day, also national holiday) I need to visit the graves and so on and finally returning home. And a close friend of mine is having her birthday and I do not even know when to plan visiting her, what with the calendar being packed to the brim. *sigh* at least I get to have more time for her birthday present! And I am not telling yet what it is, but I think it's pretty awesome :)

I also need to start planing for a mini-trip. Heading to Milan next weekend for work and still need to book the hotel. So, another full weekend of work, no rest. Luckily, my boss is letting me bring along my boyfriend for free, so while I'm visiting the fair, he can go tour Milan. And I have company and a driver for the road :)

Saturday, 29/10/2011
breakfast: blueberry soy yogurt
lunch: veggie soup, mock fish fingers, fried potatoes, roasted red bell pepper & garlic, peas in creamy tamari sauce
dinner: 1 thin slice of pumpkin seed bread, 2 raw carrots, 1 apple, 2 mandarines


Friday, 28/10/2011
breakfast: vegan ham&eggs with bit of cheezly mozzarela, slice of bread
lunch: vegan pizza with rye-flour crust
dinner: half an apple and I totally forgot if there was anything more, but I had lunch at 5pm, so I highly doubt

No cacciatore in here, but the dog

First of all, I want to give a warm hello and welcome to all of the hundred readers that visit me daily and never bother to say hello :-) I know you're there, you cannot hide :-) I hope you're not shy and will soon man up to greet me properly :) or ask me questions or just simply support my point (and I do have one).

Next, I'm getting better, thankgod. My bladder is ok, I think, no major problems today or yesterday, but I'm running a bit of a temperature, so I'll mind myself for another day. No use of going back to the office on Friday, of all days, just to fall ill again on weekend, right? (I so hate that).

You'd think I'd have time to blog while laying around the house all day (oh well, I AM working, so) , and I just don't. Then I skip a day, or two, and I totally forgot what I ate. Shame on me.

Thursday, 27/10/2011
breakfast: banana cake
lunch: spaghetti non-cacciatore
dinner: soup, 2 cups, with bits of zwieback bread, and another piece of banana cake :)

I made me spaghetti again because feeling a bit ill I don't have the will to cook anything that takes longer than heating up a liter of water. And such a meal takes about 10 minutes, so it's fine with me. It is however not fine with my behind. Chinese noodles with mock meat (wheat gluten mostly) and zucchini. And I don't know why I had to throw an extra egg in there, but I did. And some soy cream and tamari sauce, just because. I baptised it spaghetti non-cacciatore :) Cacciatore actually means hunter in italian (and the recipe does call for tomatoes, but who cares, right?), thus the title. And our dog is a hound dog (a beagle). And that's the only resemblance there is. Actually, funny story, the beagle has never hunted for real, but she is excellent for spotting mice in the cellar. Just bring the dog in and she'll show you right away.

Wednesday, 26/10/2011
breakfast: banana cake, me thinks
snack: apple
lunch: barley minestrone with a piece of bread
dinner: a whole lot of everything (grapes, zwieback bread with lactose-free dairy spread, some peanuts, probably some banana cake, too)

Keeping warm

Yesterday I woke up not feeling too good. It all actually began Monday evening, when returning from grocery shopping, I found myself having bladder problems. I don't know the medical term for it, but we simply say the bladded caught cold. It's a really nasty sensation of constantly feeling the urge to pee, although you just went and experiencing pain and burning while doing so. As I say, nasty. The only cure there is, beside antibiotics of which I do not approve, is plenty of unsweetened tea, cranberries and heating the belly with a hot water bottle.

So that's mostly what I've been doing the past two days. Yesterday afternoon & evening I felt good enough to cook me lunch and in the evening I even made me salad and baked a batch of banana bread with alterations, because I thought I'd be taking it to the office today.

My plans fell into deep deep water this morning when I woke up to the familiar nasty sensation and while I was packing my barley minestrone for lunch and making coffee, I went to pee like 4 times, that is I didn't pee much, I just felt the urge to.

So my plan of going to the office was cancelled, I heated up another hot watter bottle, made me a liter of cranberry tea and back I went to the couch, wrapped thight in blankest and working from home again. Today I'm taking it seriously and will just heath the belly all day long, because I need to be ok by weekend! I have to!

I've fallen behind on my menu and now I cannot recall the things I ate this paste days. I'll go backwards, it might be easier.

Tuesday, 25/11/2011
breakfast: bread & marmalade
lunch: delicious wine risotto with spring wok veggies & vegan protein burger, diced
dinner: large mixed salad
snack: a piece of my altered banana cake

You may recall the recipe for the simple banana cake, that has been a huge success in the house. Since I first made it, I've become quite bold in cooking, so much so, I rarely look at recipes these days, I just need meal ideas and I take it from there. So yesterday, while making the banana cake, I took it a step further, which my boyfriend simply called "cleaning the pantry". I took all the opened packages of nuts I could find, put it all in the food processor, blended it and added to the batch. I think there were almonds, pecans and macadamia nuts involved. Then, I went ahead and added cocoa to the batch as well, which really made it delicious! So now, we're left with a whole tray of yummi cake pieces and only two mouths to feed, but my boyfriend has taken this duty up to himself, mostly. Well, someone needed to.

Monday, 24/11/2011
breakfast: bread & marmalade
snack: blueberry soy yogurt, 2 carrots
lunch: lunching out, fried eggplants, grilled zucchini and pommes frittes
dinner: 1 cup of barley minestrone, few peanuts

Diet, anyone?

After the first week of my diet you might wonder, how I've done. Well, after the initial -1kg success the weight went right back to its steady point, where I've been the last few years, not counting the occasional drop that I always gained back. I'm beginning to think this weight, although I do not like it, is my "steady adult" weight. No, I will not accept it. I'd like to be able to wear tight skirts and mini jeans that today look ridicolous on me. And I know I'm not the fattest there is and I know heavier girls than me wear absurd wardrobe (and it always make my eyes pop; self-esteem is good, but everything has its limits), I'm just self-conscious enough to not want make ridicule out of me.

So, I reckon it's time for the heavy weapons. That is, taking this diet seriously, cutting the amounts, and going back to more raw foods and less carbs. And I still didn't do much about exercising.

Sunday, 23/10/2011
breakfast: fried egg with vegan ham&cheese, slice of bread (couldn't help it, woke up so hungry!)
lunch: soup with dumplings, gnocchi vegetarianese leftovers
dinner: pommegranate, pop-corn

*sigh*

Let it snow, I am ready

Whenever I manage to have weekend for myself (or better said, for ourselves), it's relax time. Just to not have to pack and go anywhere, no driving, no cursing the traffic, weather or whatever, it's a blessing. And this weekend came unexpected. We have alone time. Which means, we're sleeping, cooking, not doing anything.

Yesterday for lunch I made gnocchi by request.

Gnocchi vegetarianese, no meat in there.

I spent the morning peeling potatoes, cooking, mashing, kneading, cutting,...

No store-bought pre-made gnocchi can compare, not even close! I made quite a bit of it, just because it takes time and I like to freeze the extra for future use.

Lunch is served.

After lunch, we went shopping for new shoes. Boyfriend suggested, I'm still amazed, cause he naturally hates shopping, but knew I needed the shoes.

You see, I have this problem with winter shoes. Before I moved I almost didn't know what snow was, because it never snowed in my hometown. That is, I ski, and enjoy going skiing and similar, but I never had the pleasure of experiencing the snowy slush on streets after snowing. So the first winter caught me unprepared. It also didn't snow very much and I made through it using regular winter shoes, stilletos and tennis shoes.

Next winter, thinking the winter would be pretty much the same, I just bought some snow-shoes for show. Cost about 30 €. Of course, they were not waterproof. Into the garbage they went.

Third winter I had a plan. I went and bought some real snow-shoes. Cost me about 80 € too. I asked the salesperson about 3 times if they were waterproof, and 3 times she said yes. I also bought some fency Tom Tailor boots for show, cost about 50€. Both turned out to be inusable right after snowing with the all present snow slush. The snow shoes were great for walking on frozen snow, though. The one that stays when there's -15°C and the snow doesn't melt. They stay, for those rare occasions, the Tom Tailor's almost fell apart after 3 outings. Garbage.

So this year, my 4th winter in the capital, I bought the only thing that should assure me to prevent the slush of entering my boots and wetting my socks. I bought lined boots, that are a mixture of regular boots and rain boots, that is, the lower part is made of rubber, the upper is regular (I also have regular rain rubber boots, but they are way too cold to use in winter plus have a ridiculous pattern). This should allow me walking in about 10 cm of slush, which should be enough. And if there would be more that 10 cm of slush, well, you really have nothing to do outdoors, have you.

So, having snowed twice already, I am now ready for winter time. And I should be, the temperatures are already at freezing point.

Friday, 21/10/2011
breakfast: home-made bread with vegan margarine & marmelade
lunch: dumplings in tomato sauce, small bowl of salad
dinner: large bowl of mixed salad, cookies

Saturday. 22/10/2011
breakfast: 2 toast with vegan ham&cheese
lunch: gnocchi vegetarianese
dinner: large bowl of mixed salad

Mashed potatoes and snowflakes

Today I overslept my alarm and woke up at 8am, when I should already be behind my computer at work. Shoot. The rain was pouring, cats and dogs, it was cold and I just knew, before I managed to have my coffee, get dressed, get in the car in this weather and drive to work in traffic jam, it would be lunch-time.

So I put on the coffee, got me some breakfast, lay down on the couch, wrapped in my blanket, put the laptop in my lap and got to work, right there on the couch. Just as good, I needed alone time to do the work that had to be done. I texted my boss to let him know I'm working from home and awaited some quiet time alone with my word document. And then the mails started flying in, my gsm rang like wild and by 10am I have already answered about 20 e-mails. So much about quiet time to work in peace. I had a break for a yummi lunch:

Zucchini steaks, spinach & mashed potatoes

And then back to work. I finally said enough is enough at 8.30 pm! I worked for about 12 hours straight.

Also big news, during the day the rain turned to snow. It snowed for the second time this year! Luckily, as I only like snow while watching it fall through windows and NOT in my sleeves or shoes or frozen on the windshield or piled in mountains around the car before going to work, the snow did not stick! I'm saved for a few more day/weeks!

Thursday, 20/10/2011

breakfast: 1 slice of home-made rye bread, topped with vegan margarine & apricot marmelade

lunch: 2 zucchini steaks, spinach & mashed potatoes

dinner: 2 raw carrots, 2 zucchini steaks, peanuts

Holy goodness, bread and pasta

Yesterday I was feeling really great with myself. I took a chance at the weight scale in the morning and it already showed a minus 1 kg. Was so happy and motivated. Then, I went to work. And through the morning I got more and more hungry. I ate my soup at noon and by 4pm I was starved! So, when I returned home all I was craving was eggs and tuna! Oh my! And the cravings were really really strong!

I knew a poor salad would help nothing, I was starved. So I sighed, went ahead and made me what the body demanded. I took an egg, a canned tuna, chinese noodles, tamari sauce and some frozen wok veggies with a handful of fresh broccoli. Just because I love it.

Be damned. Today, +1 kg again! And not very vegan, is it.

While I was cooking I also decided to make some fresh bread, just because we ran out and was too lazy to go to the bakery. Plus, home-made bread is good!

Many people are scared of making bread, but there really is nothing to be afraid. Making bread is simple! I quickly put together the ingredients, rye flour (200g), wheat flour (300g), rolled oats (a handful), lots of various seeds and some dry yeast. I always keep it in the pantry for situations like this.

You just mix everything together roughly with about 0,5 l or a bit more of luke-warm water and let the batch rise in holy peace for an hour. Then you knead it by hand thouroughly and make a pretty loaf, put in the baking tray and let it rise for an hour again. So basically, you just knead and wait. That's all there is to bread-making :)

Then it's off to the oven with it and some 40 minutes later you find yourself shooing the boyfriend away from this freshly-baked home-made goodness.

Oh yum.

Wednesday, 19/10/2011
breakfast: toast sandwich with vegan ham & vegan cheddar cheese & wholegrain seed bread
lunch: 1 cup broccoli soup, 1 thin slice of bread
snack: grapes
dinner: wok pasta with egg&tuna. Damn. Some cookies afterwards, too. Shoot.


Have the weird feeling I forgot about a couple of meals :)

Chestnuts again

I don't count the obvious morning coffee, tea and other drinks. Obviously, it's a must. Way too few veggies today, got better on the bread thing. In the afternoon the hard mental work got the better of me and I gave in to some cookies instead to banana... regreted it soon after, as regular manufactured cookies are these days waaaay to sweet for my taste. It's amazing to see how much I have been addicted to sugar. I also cannot eat any regular chocolate spreads, chocolate bars and similar. Way too much sugar. I've cleansed my taste buds with raw foods during summer and I can now consume only home-made stuff that have almost no sugar in it and low-sugar products. Also coca-cola and similar. You can just feel the sugar stick to your teeth.

Tuesday, 18/10/2011
breakfast: 1 toast sandwich with vegan ham & vegan cheddar cheese & wholegrain seed bread, yum yum!
lunch: 1 cup broccoli soup, 2 thin slices wholegrain seed bread
snack: soy latte & some manner cookies
dinner: roasted chestnust, red wine, 2 raw carrots, some peanuts, some cookies again (I'm being brutally honest)


Since I've been avoiding all sorts of foods for the majority of this year, some may question my health and appearance. Let's me just tell you. You wouldn't say I'm almost vegan by looking at me, if you think vegans are walking skeletons with no soul and no passion in their eyes.

I'm glowing.

My hair & nails have never been prettier or stronger (ok, let's for a moment forget it's autumn and the hair is falling out as it does every year, but it's stopping now). I've always had problems with nails, since I couldn't grow them long before they broke. Now I have to cut them, cause they grow too long and I cannot type anymore. And still they wouldn't break.

My mind is, oh, so sharp! I have this passion for work as well, coming up with crazy ideas and getting more and more creative. I come home from work only to find myself longing for more and more projects, both personal and work-related.

I sleep like a baby. Not that I ever had much trouble sleeping, but still. Come 10 pm, I'm ready for bed!

My mom has seen the major change, since last winter she was seriously worried about me. I had absolutely no energy, just dragging and sitting around. Now I'm just going, be it walking, cleaning, cooking, walking the dog, running with the dog, doesn't matter. Bring it on.

Food is just so much more important than the majority thinks. I watch my partner stuffing himself with carbs & meat & dairy, sometimes going days without fresh veggies (well, not if I am cooking). And then having no will and being lazy. And me yelling at him for being lazy :-)

And then somebody dare tell me, vegetarianism/veganism is not healthy. I mean, just look at me. And I'll be doing it for as long as it will make me feel the way I feel today, which is simply GREAT with a very strong will to live and enjoy my life!! :-)

By the way, I simply had to Google it. Roasted european Chestnuts have an interesting nutritional data. 100 g provides 245 calories, but - what is more interesting - 43% of daily Vitamin C intake and 5% of iron intake! It contains only 3g of protein, but these protein are complete or high-quality protein. It also contains about 20% of daily fiber intake and a whole lot of other vitamins & minerals and even omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids! You can read more about it here.

So, roasted chestnuts are good for you. Enjoy them while they last!

Give us our daily soup

My "official" day one of diet, I already broke like 4 rules. But, why are there rules if not to be broken, huh? :)

Monday, 17/10/2011
breakfast: egg sandwich
snack: egg sandwich (yeah I made 2 of them and brought to work)
lunch: 0,5 l soy vanilla yogurt, 0,3 kg muscat grapes & not much of anything else
dinner: cup of broccoli soup, slice of bread, slice of apple&walnut strudel

Obviously, too much bread yesterday. I made some egg sandwich in the morning to take with me to work, since I rarely have the time to have a proper breakfast these days. Planned on having it for lunch, but then went hungry and ate it before lunch time. Then, I lived on yogurt and delicious grapes that kept me full until 8 pm. Afterwork went grocery shopping and again spent way too much money, but I doubt anything will go to waste.

I came home at about 6.30 pm and went to cook me some broccoli soup for lunch the next day, again. At this point my bf asked me what's with me and broccoli lately. Well, it's just I grew to adore it, plus it's healthy. So, why not.

Was so hungry, I ate some apple&walnut strudle (courtesy of Mom) while the soup was being cooked, then went ahead and served me a cup of it for dinner.

Went to bed by 10 pm! Hooray!
Snooch, how's your diet going? :-)

New year's resolutions, in October!

Just because I cannot wait New Year, can I.

This morning was my wake-up call. I had finally gathered the courage to step on my scale, which confirmed what I already knew. I have gained weight. Even being vegetarian (mostly vegan) doesn't help your waistline if you're not being careful. I'm back on my pre-vegan weight and I don't like it one bit. But the funny thing is, my measurements are still way off and quite steady. So right now, I'm not very sure what's going on, I've gained weight, but the meter doesn't say so.

It all goes back to my Corsica holiday, when I switched vegan for vegetarian, just because otherwise I would have almost nothing to eat. Oh well, I'll be honest. I gave in to cheese and croissants, just because I was on holidays. The menus were so abundant that even a midday fast didn't help, because then dinner would come, followed by croissants in the morning. In the end I had the feeling we did nothing but sleep, eat and sightsee at a leasure pace. No wonder it shows. Then, add some PMS time with a combination of freezing temperatures, hard mental work that DEMANDS chocolate and stress by being back at work and overloaded,... and there you go.

These past days there's been a lot of this:

 Tofu & Broccoli pasta in soy cream

 Banana cake, of course

Vegan pizza with plenty of veggies: zucchini, eggplants, bell pepper, corn & vegan cheddar cheese.

Red wine, too. Oink oink.

Some of this, too:

 Getting ready to cook, big style

Barley minestrone with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, potatoes. I ate this for 3 days straight, because I made a whole lot of it.

Well, it's time to stop.

I've decided I'm going back to some menu planning and a food diary, just to stay on track on the food I consume. It helped the first time back in February, so it might help me again. What doesn't help is the food I'm having is just simply delicious and before I know, I'm taking another spoonfull.

My diet started in fact Saturday, when I started documenting again. I think I've lost some grams since though, since I don't feel so bloated today.

Next, I'll be cutting my portions by a third, God willing. Instead of a whole plate of pasta, there'll be a third less. Yeah, uhm. In theory.

Next. No eating after 7pm. :=) Go to bed by 11pm. :=)

Drink WATER. Plenty of it.

Cut the whites. White sugar, white bread, white pasta. I generally don't eat white bread, but there's wheat flour in almost every bread. So I'll just try with cutting back the regular white pasta, stop adding sugar to tea, and such. I'll keep my 3g of sugar in my black coffee, thank you.

Enlrage intake of veggies. Is that even possible? :=) Well, try less pasta & pizza, more salads again & leafy greens, more rice, more veggie soups as a replacement to a meal.

Increase exercise, of course. Go for a walk or run everyday, or at least every other day. No need to do more, this will be just alright. Or maybe, if you're in the mood, do some push-ups at home. Really, that's all it takes. Just, you know, give a try!

And lastly. Seriously. If you're not hungry, truly hungry, just DON'T EAT. It's good to go hungry. You don't die if you're hungry for a couple of hours.


MY GOAL: Want to lose 7 kg :) By New Year, if possible, pretty please.


Saturday, 15/10/2011
breakfast: pancakes with marmelade (4 of them!!, couldn't help, they were soooo good and fluffy)
lunch: vegetable stock soup, 3 small grain burgers and a large autumn salad (salad, raddichio, chinese cabbage, green bell pepper, cucumber, carrot, pumpkin seeds, crostini, thousand island dressing for the first time ever ever)
dinner: roasted chestnuts & 1 dcl red wine

That's not all of the salad there was. There's a whole bowl of it next to the plate :)

Saturday I made pancakes for breakfast just because it's been a long time we were both home for a weekend and it felt a special occasion. I made pancakes with soy milk and they turned out so so good like I've never made them before. I saved some of the batch for Sunday as well. Waste not.

At lunch we were still a bit full from breakfast and I had many veggies to put to use or to garbage and I opted I'd make a huge salad with a side of mini burgers for me and some fried chicken for my partner. We were so full of fibres that after a whole day of cleaning the house, laundry, ironing and stuff come dinner time we were still quite full. So we went for an evening walk to the town, bought roasted chestnuts, sat down at a bar and ordered some red wine to go with the chestnuts. Walked also back home, glad for heating and soft linen! :)

Sunday, 16/10/2011
breakfast: pancakes, 3 of them :o
lunch: leek & potato soup, garden risotto with tomato, carrots and zucchini, some leftover salad
dinner: muscat grapes, a huge apple, some pistacchios and a few home-made cookies. Ugh, I almost forgot: a whole lot of wholegrain rusks (or zwieback) with a dairy lactose-free spread. UGH. Right. No wonder.

Sunday my parents decided to visit and I started the morning by preparing lunch. They arrived at about 11am and we immediately went for a walk to town, looking for the market that turned out to be closed. Just our luck! Had a nice long 2-hour walk with our beagle, though (and she was super good in the crowds!), just enjoying the last of the sunny warm days. I cooked lunch for all and my mom just couldn't believe the food and stuffed herself :) When they left me and my partner finally had the afternoon to ourselves and with the clothes ironed and the house clean, I could just stretch my legs and enjoy me some movies. It was M.'s time to do the dishes! :)

Household and shampoos

Today, I want to talk about products we use daily. I've been becoming more and more concious about what I put on my skin and into the water, too. I've been long using vegan cosmetic products, such as shampoos, face cream, hand cream and even toothpaste. I especially like the DM brand Alverde, that is mostly vegan and not tested on animals.

Since I've stopped consuming meat, any animal cruelty disturbs me enormously. Well, it had disturbed me before, too, but now I consciously think about it. For example: I am choosing shampoos and while browsing and reading labels with all the weird ingredients suddenly lab beagles I've seen in a documentary come into my mind. And since we do own a beagle, I immediately relate to the abuse being done to her, and I cannot see myself using a product that has harmed an animal in order for me to wash my hair. It's absurd. And if you need to test it in order to see if it's harmful or not, well, it cannot be that natural, can it. Natural ingredients shouldn't be harmful by definition.

The amount of bio, eco, vegan, and so on products expands by the day. Apparently, being eco is "in", as is being vegan and companies have started to realize this and supply accordingly. But just because something is stated as "bio" or "eco" or "vegan" it doesn't mean it has not been tested on animals. Plus, let's take into consideration the price of such products that is usually double the price of a "regular" product.

So I'm quite happy when I come across products such as Alverde, that are friendly to the animals, the planet, to me and to my wallet.

And the past weekend I've discovered a new brand for household products, Winni's. I found the products in an italian store (I do buy there regularly for italian brands, such as Lavazza coffee, Barilla products and so on), but I could almost have gone by it, never noticing.

Since the products were displayed among all the rest of the standard products, I've only noticed it, because mom stopped by to buy her regular washing detergent. And then I spotted the shy Winni's and it was the ECONATURA label that caught my eye. I stopped, picked it up, started reading. The products are based on plant sources, fully biodegradable, Nichel tested, and not tested on animals. And they cost just as much as any generic line, much less than brand products. For a 3 litre washing detergent I payed about 5,50 €, the fabric softener 1,5 €, the soap (can be used for clothes & body) about 1 € and just as much for the dishwashing detergent.

I bought the products on test (me and my mom both did), but next time I go there, I buy it again (and I'm sure mom will, too). And will  continue using it! The quality of the products is AMAZING, it smells wonderful and is kind to the skin, and apparently, to the planet as well.

The only thing that disturbed me is how easily could I have gone past the products in the shop and never notice them, since the shop did nothing at all to promote the eco friendly brand. And I think if people knew about it, many more would choose it over other products and thus make it more readily available, but I know about shop politics in general and I understand why that is so. SHAME.

So now I'm doing my best to promote the brands I love. And no, this is not a paid campaign, I do not work for this company not know them in any way. I'm just grateful they exist!

Work, sleep, work

I've been working like crazy. Yesterday I had a major project due at work and have spent many extra hours working the past month, and especially the past week (thus the blog silence), but the project was handed over yesterday and was, proud to say, well accepted and already in use today :) It is not done yet, since I need to make one more booklet for it, but our franchises can start selling! :)

In one of the rare moments of free time, I visited my parents the past weekend and snapped this photo:

That's a cherry tree blooming right there. In october!

The same day, it started snowing in other parts of the country and the temperatures dropped 20 degrees in half an hour!

It's been quite cold since, with morning temperatures of about 5°C. Time for ponchos, scarfs, soft knitted gloves, hot tea in the morning, roasted chestnuts and mulled wine. Also, after not eating chocolate for a whole summer (!) I've been eating it almost every day the past week, a bit due to temperatures, a bit to hard mental work and a bit to my PMS, surely :)

It's also hot soup season in wide spread and you'll be seeing many more lunchbox soups this autumn & winter :)

I'm full to the brim of ideas, both private and work-related, so much so, I can't find the time to realize them all and must make priorities. It's like I've been sleeping and now I'm awake. I'm sure my Corsica holidays helped, too.

Autumn and Chestnuts

Can you tell it's Autumn, wherever you are? Well, it's still Summer in my country, at least for today. Temperatures reaching 25°C and full sunshine. But the weather is to change tomorrow, with a serious temperature drop, heavy rain and even snow in higher places. I don't like that.

But I also don't like eating chestnuts (it's peak season here) in a T-shirt. You need to have freezing hands and be drinking mulled wine along with steaming hot freshly roasted chestnuts, right?

Well, lacking lower temperatures and armed with a kilo of fresh organic chestnuts straight from the woods, I didn't let something like warm weather stop me from consuming my fave autumn food.

ps: how do I know the chestnuts were organic? half of it was bad with worms! :)

So anyway, back to my chestnuts experience. I own a chestnut pan (with holes) that I use only to roast chestnuts. It's been stored away for a whole year and now it's back in business. Besides the pan, I also use a camping gas burner (something like this) for cooking, which comes in handy every once in a while (for camping,   roasting chestnuts and if you like, cooking badly smelling food outdoors).

So, I cut the chestnuts, put them in the pan, waited for the man to come home and check that the gas burner was ok to use because I didn't dare, then asking the man to please start the burner with a match and me hiding indoors in case there would be an accident, and then me coming out of my hiding, putting the pan on the fire and roasting away! A glass of red wine and some 20 minutes later, the chestnuts were done and we both (although HE said he wouldn't) dug in!

I had cooked the remaining half of the pile and is awaiting my arrival home to elliminate it!

Let the chestnut season begin!
How 'bout you, do you like chestnuts yourself?

Big Mac vegan style, of course

Since I've returned from holidays I've been grocery shopping every day. Partly, because I buy smaller quantities and then we run out of things like yogurt, be it dairy or vegan, partly because I'm running other errands, and while I'm there...

So yesterday during my shopping trip I got really hungry, what with eating soup and fruit all day and when I passed the alternative section I came upon vegan burgers. Oh, did my mouth water at the though of a big juicy burger! So, of course I had to buy it, and then some sesame buns, too and regular burgers for the man and my shopping bag was full again. Damn.

But then I returned home, my stomach grumbling and went straight to work:

Looks delicious, doesn't it. Like the real deal, doesn't it. Well, it's not the real deal, no meat there, no cruelty, no pig had to die for it. And still yummi and satisfying. Since I was really really hungry and there were 2 burgers in there... oh shoot, why not.

Assembling.

I proudly present you, my cruelty-free organic & healthy Big Mac. Yes I finished it all. ALL of it.

Soups

It's Vegan MOFO, y'all! If you, like me, have never heard of it before, that's The Vegan Month of Food.

Since I missed the inscription day and well, have been behind on my blogging, I sadly cannot officially participate, can I. The idea is to write about being vegan (or food or both) for each day of the month, but since I'm well pass the day-by-day food diary I'll just skip, thank you.

I also have been having computer troubles, since it has taken me a month or so to even install some Photoshop alternative freeware so I can tweak photos and stuff. Which reminds me I still need to do some work for photobooks and cookbooks and my oh my, look at the time fly.

I've also been away the past few, 10 days, on holidays visiting Corsica. I've only just returned home, full to the brim of junk food, unseasoned meals and the forbidden dairy products, such as fluffy croissants, butter, cream sauce, cheesecake, other cakes, and, oh my, cheese. Lots and lots of cheese & wine and some chestnuts, too.

Corsica wants independence, to be its own country, but if you just take a look at breakfasts (cafe' & croissant) and sidewalks (doggie poop alert!) you can rest assure that the island is as much french as Paris itself.

I might be posting more pictures on the topic in the following days, as long as my vaccant mind returns to work. In the meantime, since it's vegan MOFO and all, I have been cleaning up the junk with soups. Lots and lots of soups. Having my pretty purple lunch box helps a lot and the soup stays toasty warm until lunch time.

Right after returning from holidays, my partner got himself a bit of a cold, what with the AC and all, and I made him some Cauliflower & Carrot Soup that put him right back to his feet (and me, too).

Then for today's lunch I made Broccoli Soup, just because it's good, and I am having it tomorrow, too.

I started collecting vegan recipes for reference so I can make my own personal cookbook of favorite recipes and meal ideas. As I was listing down the Soups I actually counted so many, I could cook a different soup everyday for a month and more! How great is that?

Actually, I adore soups. They're filling, warm, healthy, easy to make & to store, you can put them in a lunchbox and eat at work and so on.

What's your favorite soup?

Day 220 & something. Not counting.