At this point, a look back seems in order, to sum up my 2011:
- in february I went vegan for 10 days, and stayed mostly vegan since. I have not eaten any meat since, but for the occasional tuna can, like maybe once or twince a month (I'm cutting on that now, too) and the occasional eco-egg that my aunt supplies. I mainly don't eat dairy, because I'm still intollerant to it, but when there is no other option, I'll take dairy over meat.
- I found being purely vegan in today's society it's extremely difficult, at least in our country. Eating out is a nightmare! So I try to cook my own meals whenever I can, although working all days doesn's make it any easier.
- I went to 2 weddings, one of which was my brother's!
- I became first-time aunt to my niece Karin.
- I started a running trening and dropped it. My excuse is bad weather all year long.
- Visited Paris and Corsica.
- Got a Kindle and bought a whole lot of vegan cookbooks (regular, not kindle cookbooks)
- Learnt what happens if you spill your notebook computer with drinks.
- Realised I really LOVE cooking and have even started dreaming about making my own cookbook, although I lack motivation.
- Did a whole lot of cool things at work and started liking my job again :-)
- Got my first blender and fell in love with smoothies.
- Discovered broccoli, cabbage, radicchio, pumpkin, and a whole range of other veggies I never particularly liked before.
- Discovered the importancy of a vegetarian diet & lifestyle on the impact on our planet through a series of really good documentaries. Education is important!
- Learnt that even if you're vegan, you can still be fat. Plenty of junk food is actually vegan. Think potatoe chips!
Much of my holidays the weather looked like this:
Not much of motivation to go out at all, but rather to sneak below a warm and fuzzy blanket on the couch. Well, I did try and did some baking:
My main motive for this was the desire to bring my own gifts when visiting family. That said, I made a bunch of sweet cookies and wrapped them in packets.
Must say, people were much more happy recieving this simple cookies than they would be if I spent any money on trivial things. And, while spending a whole day baking 3 different kinds of cookies, I remembered why I hate making cookies in the first place. It's boring waiting for each batch to be baked and preparing another one, one after the other, the whole day. My back hurt like crazy and by evening I just wanted to throw everything through the window and be done with it. In future I'll rather stick with cupcakes:
During the holidays I made 2 vegan grocery discoveries. One was an italian vegan mozzarella based on rice, that they lovingly named MozzaRisella that has its own webpage, too, so I guess you can find it internationally. I can't say I was hugely impressed by it, but I did use it on salad and on pizza.
The other product I found left me quite literally speechless. That is, my mouth was pretty much stuffed with it for the rest of the holidays! I was always sad with the choice of vegan ice cream in our stores, what with them mainly offering Valsoia products, that are alright, but I try to limit soy-based products in my menu. So, when I spotted this gem in the refrigerator area, I was quite thrilled, but I didn't allow myself to hope too much. Rice products usually don't impress me.
Well, I needn't worry. This ice cream was a revelation! So much so, even my partner, who usually isn't keen on my vegan products, indulged happily! This 100% vegetable based ice cream is produced by Ingman (Finnish company) and tastes just like the real deal! It's creamy, light, delicious and vegan! The price is reasonable for a vegan product. There is only one drawback: when I visited the store again yesterday, they did not have this icecream anymore!!! So I hope it was just a coincidence and next time I will find it on the shelves again and I trully hope it was not one of those once-in-a-lifetime-just-for-christmas-offers!
Damn! >:(
In cooking news & pictures. This was some of our holiday menus.
Our christmas lunch:
vegetable stock soup with tiny pasta shells & fresh veggies (carrots & zucchini)
A whole lot of everything. Hey, it WAS christmas! Mashed potatoes, spinach, salad & seitan burgers. The man had a salmon filet and no spinach. We licked the dishes!
I wish I photographed the lunch I prepared for my so-called mother-in-law when she visited. It was Christams lunch no.2.
appetizer: salmon spread on crackers
soup: veggie cream soup with leek, broccoli & zucchini
main: oven-roasted potatoes, peas in onion creamy sauce & zucchini burgers with walnuts
dessert: egg-less tiramisu'
She's not a vegetarian, but since I was hosting the party, I made lunch my way. Everyone was thrilled about the menu and I'm happy to report, not much was left over, but for some tiramisu' and a small cup of peas.
I saved the peas and added them the next day to my kamut pasta:
On New Year's I decided it was time for diet, of course :) So, to recover from partying, staying up late and a bit of drinking, I made my regular barley minestrone (with sausage for the man), to which I added some leftover tomato sauce (from the pasta).
It was so yummi that, dieting aside, I had 2 servings :) On New Year the weather finally turned sunny and while my spelt bread dough was rising, we took a walk around the park, feeding the birds and squirrels with walnuts.
So, if what you do on New Year's you'll be doing the whole year, this is what 2012 looks like for me:
- sleeping late
- no breakfast
- barley soup all year long
- sunshine all year long
- delicious food!
- no work what so ever
- just chilling and having fun! :-)
Sounds good to me.
What I will try to do this year is:
- stay mainly vegan
- improve my diet by eating less junk, more greens and cut on my portions
- lose 5-10 kilos ( I wish!)
- start running & hiking again, please
- finally take the time to make my photobooks!
- travelling some more would be good
- and move to a more appropriate dwelling, be it renting or buying a place of our own, finally.
Other than that, I'll let life surprise me. For the better, I hope!
Did you make any new year's resolutions?
