Cruelty Free NZ!

Today I visited the The Cruelty Free Shop, conveniently located in St Kevin’s Arcade with my gorgeous friend Courtney, and got chatting to the wonderful woman behind the shop counter. In my excitement in the hunt for vegan goodies, I didn’t catch her name but did explain the purpose of my visit. I suppose I expected some kind of negative reaction, being that in a sense I’ve jumped on a bandwagon – the ‘vegan’ lifestyle becoming like the new wave of gluten free obsessives – but she was so charming and helpful, even offering to post about my blog on their social media pages…they’re on twitter if you didn’t know already!

After my friend Kenny, who is also traversing this journey with me as an octo-lacto vegetarian explained to me the previous evening that Il Buco offer a vegan pizza topped with vegan chorizo (main ingredient being wheat protein), and that this chorizo was available for retail purchase at The Cruelty Free Shop, I had to check it out.

I spent a long time discussing my confusion about these pseudo-meat products with the staff, hovering over the refrigerated goods. It’s confusing to me as someone who is both uninitiated and uneducated about veganism that a person who had made the decision not to consume our furry friends, would want to eat proteins designed to simulate the taste and texture of flesh or dairy. She explained to me that she often referred to these types of products as ‘transitional foods’, mainly designed for people who were making the change to a plant based diet. And that totally made sense – in essence, these products were designed for people like me.

With her guidance, I pored over the plethora of vegan, organic, sustainable products on offer, quickly finding the Gran Chorizo that I can come in search of.

This vegan sausage is produced by Wheaty, a company that offers a unique range of products based on wheat gluten, or its more commonly used macrobiotic name, seitan. Seitan is derived from the protein portion of wheat and is an excellent source of protein for vegans, being that gluten has a low sodium and extremely low fat content.

Whilst chatting, I apologised repeatedly and profusely for my ignorance as a carnivore. I asked what I thought were most likely questions frequent visitors to the shop would think were completely stupid about each of the products that piqued my interest, and she more than happily obliged by explaining the origin of each product, whether they were made locally, what particular items would be used for and how they would be best prepared.

I also grabbed a box of Fry’s Family’s Meat Free Chicken Style Strips, because I thought they would appeal to my son, Ethan.

I’ve yet to try them myself, but I hear from an excellent source that they taste just like chicken!

As I was checking out, she suggested that I might be interested in attending a Vegan 101 class, held by the Vegan Society of Aotearoa. After reviewing their website, I noted that the last event was held in December, so I plan to keep a dutiful eye out and head along to the next one!

Visiting the Cruelty Free Shop definitely made me a lot more excited about this journey. A lot of the vegans that I have been exposed to in my life have been almost, for want of a better description, elitists; almost as if their dietary choices made them members of a secret society that I could never be a part of – so this experience was uplifting and made me all the more curious and left me feeling inspired about the challenge.
Check out their website or better yet head on into the store on K’Rd and grab a meat analogue or ice cream sandwich!

Love,

Charli x

The Beginning of All Things To Come

I am a religious morning coffee drinker.
I would say that I’m a connoisseur, but someone who drinks mochas could hardly claim to be that. I don’t do espresso, short or long blacks but I do like a good, strong flat white.

I love Kokako beans the most, but regularly find myself drinking Sierra’s blend, mainly because their cafe is all too easily located on the first floor of the building I work in.

In short? It’s pretty obvious I love milky coffee. An obvious substitute for dairy as a vegan, soy from my understanding has always been a popular choice based on its accessibility.
I’ve never shied away from soy, being a fan of it’s naturally malt-reminiscent flavour, so the switch from traditional trim cows milk wasn’t and isn’t a huge stretch.

I ordered a syrup flavoured soy caramel latte this morning – and was disappointed. As I get older, the acrid taste of artificial sugars and flavours becomes more difficult to stomach. The sheer sweetness of the syrup, combined with the malt of the soy did nothing for me, except leave a bizarre taste in my mouth that remained for several hours, despite chewing gum and drinking a litre of water. 0/10 – don’t recommend.

Speaking of dairy, I came across a new term the other day, an expression I’d never heard before…’bovine secretion’.
This was a term used by popular YouTube vlogger Freelee the Banana Girl in a video her mother shot of her, during a visit to a farmers market, on the hunt for blueberries. A stall holder attempted to sell her some cheese, to which she responded, “No, we don’t need any of your bovine secretion, you can keep it”.

Here’s the thing – I think veganism is like religion. It appears to have its zealots and it’s hypocrites…like, an acquaintance I have that will happily smear a MAC lipstick across their mouths for a selfie, but then scream bloody murder at the guy on their Facebook feed enjoying a roast pork – that’s hypocrisy, much like Christians who preach ‘love thy neighbour’ – then vilify all of Islam for the acts of extremists in public forums.

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. is an American manufacturer and the parent company of MAC. A Google search will tell you that their public stance on animal testing is that they do not test their products or ingredients on animals, or ask others to test on their behalf, except where required by law. So, essentially all EL products imported to China must be tested on animals under legislation.

If you want to spread a message of positivity to convince people that your way of life is the truth, the only way? Maybe don’t tell them they lack morals and scruples because their dietary choices aren’t the same as yours.
Make the choice accessible to all! Don’t preach, it’s tiring. Enough.

I ate breakfast just before 10am, sharing the raisin & cinnamon bagels I picked up at the Avondale Sunday Market yesterday with my friend Fraser. I bought a four pack for $3, and whilst they’re not Ugly Bagels, for those of us who are committed to actually having savings accounts that don’t have a deficit, that’s pretty good buying.

Usually, I would smother a fruit bagel in butter or cream cheese and greedily lick it off of my fingers as it drizzled down my hands – but seeing as dairy isn’t an option, we substituted the butter with Loving Earth’s Coconut Chocolate Butter…don’t let the name fool you, the product itself contains only raw and organic ingredients – no dairy here whatsoever!

Very similar in flavour to coconut rough, this chocolatey Nutella-esque spread went down a treat! It was actually a gift imported by my aunt who lives in Queensland. Loving Earth is an Australian company, meaning their products are obviously far more easily accessible there. As a breakfast option, this I can highly recommend. It would be a delight over soy ice cream too, or as an alternative to ganache on an almond meal/raw cake.

To keep hunger at bay throughout the day, I chose to snack on Californian red grapes today, referring to them to everyone in the office who I offered them to as either ‘natures’ or ‘vegan’ candy!
Disappointingly, I noted on the packaging that they weren’t spray free or organic, however after a good hand wash in cold water felt better about eating them.

Also at the market yesterday morning, I came across an older Chinese woman selling tomatoes by the box load. At $3 for a 3 kilo box, I jumped at the chance to buy them and swooped in. Admittedly, it was pretty clear that the majority of the toms were on their last legs, but I figured I could turn the whole lot into some kind of low sodium pasta sauce, using oregano, cracked black pepper, Himalayan sea salt and loads of New Zealand garlic to pack in flavour, mushrooms, eggplant, onions and spinach.

I spent a couple of hours on Sunday night hovering over the stove in sweltering heat, chopping, sautéing, mixing and stirring – pasta sauce from scratch! What a treat! After it cooled, I bottled it for future use. I’d say I’m going to get my money’s worth out of that box of tomatoes.

I made fettuccine using this sauce last night as an accompaniment to dinner with my husband, and made sure to make a little extra for myself for lunch. I’m not ashamed to say, the pasta sauce the night after was delicious!

After work, I made Ethan the same pasta dish my husband and I had eaten the night before, again using the sauce – a dream for frugal folks like myself – which he devoured. After Ethan hit the hay, I popped out to Circus Circus cafe for – you guessed it – a soy latte.

The one thing I will miss wholeheartedly during this experiment is the carrot cake they serve at Circus Circus – I’ve eaten a whole tonne of places in this town and I swear black and blue – it’s the best damn carrot cake money can buy. Octo-lacto friends, you should check it out!

So goes my entire dietary consumption on the first day of my life as a vegan.

On a final note, for those of you curious about what cosmetic brands there are available to you that are cruelty free, vegan and not owned by a parent company that does perform animal testing of its products, check out the following links:

http://www.rovie.co.nz
http://inika.com.au
http://www.kesterblack.com
http://www.coverfx.com/ (LipFX treatment contains carmine and beeswax and Bronze FX contains carmine. All other products are vegan).
http://www.limecrime.com

Love,

Charli x

Preparation for D-Day

So, I started the weekend very well intended.

I was going to sit down and write out a concise meal plan for the upcoming fortnight in preparation for the beginning of the Vegan Challenge.

I was going to spend Saturday afternoon committed to household chores that I’ve been putting off for the last month.

I want to preface the story of what I actually did with the word ‘unfortunately’, however I feel like that would take the sheen off of what was an incredbily fulfilling weekend, despite the fact I did zero of any of the things I had planned to, being so very well intended.

It will be of no surprise to anyone that knows me well that the meal plan didn’t come to fruition. Instead, I spent Friday evening sitting on my porch with a group of my closest friends talking about – well, nothing – and eating barbecue.

For some reason, I’d convinced myself in the lead up to the Challenge that I was going to need to consume nothing but beef, chicken and pork over the weekend.

To be perfectly honest? The barbecue was underwhelming. I turned my meal into a sandwich and ate a sirloin steak stuffed bread roll whilst picking at a chicken kebab. I would go into great detail about the flavour, taste and texture – but seriously, it was nothing to write about.

The following day, we visited our friend Tucker at the Mount Albert Market. Tucker the Butcher is a larger than life character, a Welshman who pushes his Neat Meat wares of grass fed, free range, organic meats in a variety of cuts every Saturday at our local market, come rain or shine.

One of the many discussions my husband and I have had since we got married (3 months yesterday!), was around the commitment we have to building the foundations of our familial unit. Ethan, Christian & I have been a unit for six years, however in the last 12 months my primary focus shifted to organising, planning and funding our wedding. This unfortunately meant that our relationship as partners became more about business, financial transactions and managing timetables than about two people who were building a life together based on love, trust and friendship.

Anyone who has planned a wedding on a shoestring knows how all-consuming this can be, and the hangover that occurs in the months after the actual event has taken place. My ‘hangover’ has been huge, meaning that the pursuit for happiness is something that I’ve had a serious focus on over the last 3 months. What that looks like? Fulfilment? Contentment? I have no idea, but I’ll be sure to share it with you in the event that I do unlock this wellkept secret.

We decided that in 2015, we would renew our commitment to our family unit and create rituals that would solidify our relationships with one another. One of these rituals is visiting the local market in our neighbourhood every Saturday morning together, to sample cheeses, drink coffee and hot chocolates and really and most importantly – just to speak to one another, without any outside influences. What this does is remind us all of how much we value one another. Christian is constantly surprising me with tidbits of knowledge and is a constant source of hilarity (but don’t tell him, I’ve got him and everyone else convinced I’m the funny one).

One of the rituals that exists for us and always has is sharing a meal together at the end of the day – I am a firm believer that this simple act is a surefire way to ensure a great relationship with your children or spouse. It has always been hugely important to me, however again something that fell by the wayside last year during wedding planning.

After stocking up on goodies from Tucker, Christian dropped Ethan & I at L’oeuf, our local cafe. I love living in the suburbs and feel like we are incredibly spoilt for choice in terms of palatable restaurants, cafes and eateries in Auckland – L’oeuf was named as one of Metro Magazines’ Top 50 Cafés in Auckland for 2014, no mean feat considering these guys have barely been open for an entire year but seem to have easily developed a borderline cult following with their very small bespoke, Vietnamese fusion inspired menu.
With a focus on fresh ingredients and turning their nose up at the kiwi cafe traditional Eggs Benedict, my absolute favourite L’oeuf dish is ‘The Hunter’, their own take on mushrooms on toast. Delicious! The menu option is I believe vegan, however can be ordered (which is often encouraged by the wait staff) with a soft poached egg and chorizo.

After a short wait for a takeout coffee, we ambled back through the neighbourhood, talking on life and all such things through the eyes of a nine year old boy (which isn’t as naive as one might assume).

My weekend was spent enjoying my family.
My weekend was spent enjoying the company of my closest friends.
My weekend was spent in the spirit of laughter, community and consciousness.
My weekend was spent being embraced by the ocean.

So, unfortunately?
No, there wasn’t an unfortunate thing about it. In the immortal words of Jill Scott, I’m living my life like it’s golden.

Blessed!

Love, Charli

Let the tofu onslaught begin!

After making the incredibly limiting decision to forgo my usual decaf latte during a late night visit to a cafe and drink a 20oz Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks instead, I lay listlessly awake at 1am and had a crazy idea.

It’s not a new idea, as a quick Google search will indeed tell you, but friends – it was new to me.

As a prolific and avid user of social media and with friends in various communities throughout the internet, I am constantly being bombarded by horrific images and statistics explaining the detrimental effects that the meat processing industry has on our eco-system, the disgusting practices of mass pork production, the horrors of caged hen farming – usually this information comes in the form of an article shared directly on my Facebook feed, coupled with a video or image of this poor practice – reddit is a huge source for statistical information and BuzzFeed is sure to give you a quickfire education.

I am acquainted with a large number of people who proclaim to be either vegan or octo-lacto vegetarians. Mostly, they’re passionate people who are concerned for the well being of animals. And, that is totally cool.

But sometimes, it gets a bit preachy. I suppose that is why I take a lackadaisical approach to explaining my decisions to consume meat, poultry and animal byproducts. There isn’t a reason as to why I eat meat; I choose to because I think it is delicious. I am a huge fan of beef. I’m the guy cooking an entire eye fillet on the barbecue in the Summertime.

I do try to alleviate my guilt as a meat eater though as an apologist for the mass production of meat for my consumption, by purchasing meat, eggs & poultry from ethical farmers, local businesses to help booster the economy…but, I digress.

This intrusive thought I had a 1am? Well, I thought it would be a great idea to accept the Animal Liberation’s challenge to commit to a vegan diet for a 30 day period.

I know, I know. The general consensus is that I’m crazy. Most people have not been able to understand my motivation or reasoning for deciding to take on this challenge. To be perfectly honest, I’m not even sure why I want to do it, other than to be able to view the world for a short period of time through the eyes of my animal activist friends.

A concern that was highlighted to me over the past week also after socialising the idea with a few colleagues was that I would starve. I will make it implicitly clear that I am for all intents and purposes overweight currently, so there are some significant and positive health benefits that could also be realised through this experiment.

I think that there is this huge misconception about vegans, with people who are not acquainted with this ‘fringe’ of society (if you will), that they’re are this glum group of folks who subsist merely on flavourless tofu, almond milk and lentils. Funnily, during my search for meal plan inspiration I came across some amazing foodie blogs written by vegans, which shows that they are as passionate about dining as we carnivores are about a cut of beef actually being served rested, medium rare – if not more so.

I’m excited to be sharing my experiences through this process with you all. As a meat eater, obviously I am not trying to sway anyone in any direction – however as a curious person, I figured I would do some research on why choosing a vegan diet is a positive change. Check out the infographic below sourced from PETA.org – it makes for some pretty compelling reading!

Peace, Love & Chicken Grease,

Charli x