Month: December 2014

The Christmas foods

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The past few weeks I’ve been spending a lot of time wading the internet trying to get to some perfect dishes to bring to the three different Christmas tables I was going to join. All three dinners were with my family, but in slightly different compositions. I am the first in my family to go vegan and even though they’re quite supportive, they do find veganism difficult and they are slightly skeptical about everything I cook. So I had to carefully find my way. Here’s a selection of the things I made. The criteria for putting them here were basically that I managed to take a picture in which it looks tasty, he-he. Enjoy! Maybe you find some inspiration for your New Year’s Dinner. Christmas Eve Roasted Chickpeas No, the dried cilantro didn’t get burnt – does it look burnt to you? It’s just the light and the contrast. I’m a perfect cook. It’s totally awesome how chickpeas get all crispy when you cover them in oil and leave them in the oven for some time. …

Winter Wishes

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And as a bonus for the upcoming days: Merry Christmas! 🙂 Young Peary caribou, based on a picture of Jim Brandenburg which appeared in the National Geographic 100 best wildlife pictures edition of January 13, 2003. The background is snow, as you can see.

The Best Resolution

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Thinking of resolutions and new beginnings, reminded me of this poster. There’s so much truth in there and it’s so soothing to read those words. I would love to see it hanging in my room, but I don’t fully see where it would fit. I need more surfaces in my life. You can order the poster here on Holstee.com. The print also comes as postcards – those would make awesome presents! But don’t forget to keep one yourself.

Veganuary – try vegan this January

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From the category resolutions, do you have ‘try vegan for a month’? If not, you may consider getting it, for January is the perfect time to practice! People from all over the globe are signing up for the second edition of Veganuary and pledge to try veganism for the month of January. If you do so, aside from experiencing the benefits of veganism itself, you’ll get extra, special support via the Veganuary website, in the form of lots of information, directions, ideas, inspiration – Veganuary also comes with their own Facebook page to keep you happy and motivated. In case you’re asking: ‘why vegan?’ Veganuary sums up the reasons: animals, health, nutrition and environment. They know pretty well what they’re talking about! You still don’t? Check out their website and go to ‘WHY’. Still not convinced? Go check out their recipe section. That’s always a good idea. It contains recipes from all over the world, for example in the categories French Cuisine, Greek Cuisine, Turkish and Middle Eastern Cuisine, Caribbean Cuisine and as much as …

On gift giving

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In case you haven’t yet noticed: TIME IS FLYING! Next week we’re celebrating Christmas already and a week later we’ll be shedding tears for another year has passed and we still hurt. I know I will. On previous blogs I’ve already spent numerous words on possible gifts for your favorite people. I quote myself: ‘For the ones who have no idea what they should get their friends and family: I am here to help! I am not claiming that I am a star in getting gifts, but I really enjoy putting thought into it so therefore I’d like to share my ideas.’ (You better start quoting yourself early.) It’s nice to see how I didn’t get more organized over the past three years, since back in 2011 I wrote my post on gift giving already in late November. Right. Furthermore, I didn’t get much better in gift giving either. Or in writing … Must. Save. Tears. My vision on gift giving Receiving presents makes you feel special and loved. Well, it does when people give …

Mineral salt as a deodorant

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Sweating is a completely natural process, but why-oh-why does it have to be so wet and stinky in some areas? Well, there’s many sweat glands over there! For some reason or another. Anyways, I do know that the widely advertised chemical perfumed deodorants don’t appeal to me, for multiple reasons. The most important being that I definitely want one that hasn’t been tested on animals and it turned out years ago* that most of them don’t meet that criterium. So I went on trying all the cruelty free and affordable deodorants I could find, finding that most of them only worked for a short period of time, a few weeks or months, after which the skin of my armpits ‘got used to it’ and got sweaty again. Bummer. Mineral salt deodorants Then I found out about deodorants made out of some mineral salt, by reading this article of Dutch beauty blogger Mascha on her website Beautygloss (actually no, she’s Russian). She writes that she started using a mineral salt deodorant of the brand Crystal Spring, because of the horror …

What’s on your Bread, Vegan?!

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Long before I went vegan, I was already having troubles with having bread. I don’t even mean digestive problems, but just handling the ever returning question: what do you put on top?! There’s so many options. I mean, go to the grocery store: even if you have already proudly decided on something like chocolate sprinkles (what we Dutch folks call ‘hagelslag’ and put on our bread, indeed), you’ll find yourself having to choose between over ten different types. Just imagine the things that could possibly happen when you would end up making the wrong decision… This is a serious problem. However, that is not what most people worry about when it comes to vegan, preferably healthy bread toppings. This conversation has fastly become a classic in my repertoire: ‘So, if you eat vegan, what do you eat?’ ‘Yes, well, that’s everything except animal products. That’s a lot of food.’ ‘Okay… So, for example: what do you eat in the morning? On bread?’ My communication skills can be a bit lacking sometimes. Okay fine, oftentimes. So …

My Dream

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The world can be completely overwhelming. There are so many things going on. My mind gets blurry trying to deepen this thought. What kind of things are happening at this very moment? All kinds, most likely. The world is a big guy – or gal, or what you prefer. There’s happy things, there’s sad things. Many confusing things. Right now, how many people do you think are having an orgasm? That’s interesting things. (And that’s a reference to your favorite movie Amélie. I wouldn’t want your very first thought on me be that I might be a pervert.) Something that happened a few hours ago, to give another example, is that I suddenly got a vision. I had been planning on starting this page, but I didn’t know how to name it. Because what exactly am I going to do here? It’s hard to name something unknown. But today, while cycling home, it suddenly came to me and a few hours later Munching on a Dream was being born. Now it has opened its eyes and is …