Veganuary

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snack
1/1/19	Cucumber, lettuce, dark chocolate bubka, chocolate almond milk, orange juice, apricots	Pita, hummus, salsa, cabbage, falafel,	Mushroom burger, croutons, tapenade, avocado	Pringles, sunflower seeds,
2/1/19	X	Toast and hummus	Tomato soup, corned beef, rice	Homemade vegan cupcake, raspberries, croutons
3/1/19	Toast and hummus	Burrito bowl (without cheese and sour cream)	Falafel, hummus, miso soup, salad	Bubble tea
4/1/19	Bagel and hummus	Falafel wrap, salad, nachos	Rice cake, hummus, squash, roast potatoes	Miso soup, homemade vegan cupcake, raspberries
5/1/19	Grapes	Meatless cholent, lemonade	Avocado maki, cucumber maki	Crisps, vegan brownie, raspberries
6/1/19	X	Falafel burger, salad	Vegan pad ti, falafel	Blackberries, vegan cupcake
7/1/19	X	Jacket potato, baked beans, banana	Pasta, tomato sauce, soya yogurt with lotus	Falafel,hummus,croutons
8/1/19	X	Miso soup	X	Croutons
9/1/19	X	Pumpkin Katsu, vegetable gyoza	Vegan fish fingers, guacamole, tortilla	Bubble tea
10/1/19	X	Jacket potato, baked beans	Vegan sausages, kale chips, Salad,	Lotus with yoghurt
11/1/19	X	Spring roll, lettuce	Aubergine, beetroot, lotus soya ice cream	Croutons, mini bagels
12/1/19	X	Lentils, vegan sausages	Sushi	Vegan Colin caterpillar
13/1/19	Blueberry vegan pancakes, lotus	Avocado on toast	Sushi	Croutons
14/1/19	X	Pasta with tomato sauce	Fishless fish tacos	❌
15/1/19	Bagel	Jacket potato with baked beans	Stir fry	Tomato soup
16/1/19	X	Veggie sausages, Peas, Apple	Salad, jackfruit pastry	Nachos with avocado and salsa, coconut
17/1/19	Bagel	Bruschetta	Salad, vegan sausages	Avocado, hummus,
18/1/19	X	Jacket potato, baked beans	Jackfruit pastry, hummus, challah, roast potatoes	Aquafarba meringue, hummus, pita
19/1/19	Challah, hummus	Avocado maki, cucumber maki, pumpkin katsu, aubergine salad. Avocado taco	Burrito bowl, nachos guacamole, sweet potato Cubes	Popadom, hummus
20/1/19	X	Avocado, toast hummus, seeds	Mushrooms, hummus, bean and sweet potato burger	X
21/1/19	X	Jacket potato, beans	Cauliflower and tahini	Coconut chips, yoghurt
22/1/19	X	X	Soya sausages	Apple
23/1/19	Bagel	Squash soup, apple	Pasta with quorn	Pancakes
24/1/19	X	X	Vegan mac and cheese	Vegan cookie
25/1/19	Bagel	Vegan hot dog, apple	Vegetable soup, pita, hummus	X
26/1/19	X	Soup, salad, jackfruit pastry	Falafel	X
27/1/19	Pita, hummus	Sushi	Veggie burger	Olives
28/1/19	Pita, hummus	Falafel, flatbread	Noodles	Olives, vegan cookie, hummus in pita
29/1/19	X	Banana, salad	Jackfruit pastry	Popcorn, olives, smoothie
30/1/19	Vegan cookie	Banana, squash soup	Quorn and rice	Toast, hummus
31/1/19	Vegan cookie	Celeriac taco	Sushi vegan based	Toast, hummus

I’ve done it!!!!

I have completed vegan January. I said on my Instagram page I would pot a table of all the foods I have eaten at the end of January and here it is.

As you can see there is a huge amount of hummus, falafel and olive (very Mediterranean, I’m aware.) however I have also enjoyed a range of foods I would not have tried if it wasn’t for me being vegan. I now LOVE bean curd after trying it at a sushi restaurant last week.

My best bake of Veganuary was definitely my vegan butterscotch cookies. The recipe is below. I think I enjoyed the recipe because they genuinely taste like normal cookies. I learnt that being vegan does not always mean eating vegetables only.

Lottie’s vegan butterscotch cookies: (makes 20)

·         1/2 cup (112g) Vegan Butter

·         1/2 cup (100g) White Sugar

·         1/2 cup (100g) Brown Sugar

·         1 tsp Vanilla Extract

·         1 cup (125g) All Purpose Flour

·         2/3 cup (56g) Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

·         1 tsp Baking Soda

·         1/4 tsp Salt

·         1 Tbsp Soy Milk (or other non-dairy milk)

·         3.5 oz (100g) Vegan butterscotch chips

Method:

1.       Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2.       Add the vegan butter and brown and white sugar to an electric mixing bowl and cream together. Add the vanilla and mix in.

3.       Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and mix in the baking soda and salt.

4.       Add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing in by hand until crumbly.

5.       Add the 1 Tbsp soy milk or other non-dairy milk and mix into thick cookie dough.

6.       Add the butterscotch and mix in. Your cookie dough will be very thick, but sticky enough to easily roll into balls.

7.       Roll into small balls and space evenly on a parchment lined baking tray.

8.       Bake for 10 minutes.

9.       Enjoy!!!!

However as well as having some good bakes and foods to try there were also some failures. We can safely say tofu is not my thing. Although I enjoyed the “Waitrose fishless fish fingers” I do not think I would ever have anything else containing tofu as the texture does not taste right for me I also think the eggless spring rolls were not the best. They were a little dry and I would be happy to not have them again.

 I think the thing I missed most was definitely the dairy products. I am used to having cheese and milk for breakfast most days so to suddenly cut that out totally wasn’t the easiest. Although I did not mind missing out on eggs most foods that you may not think about actually contain eggs which limited me more than I would have otherwise realised. Although I did not miss fish too much, it was difficult going into my favourite sushi restaurant and not ordering salmon nigiri. For me Friday night was also very difficult. We always sit together as a family and have chicken and roast potatoes. Having to watch me family eat chicken whilst I could only have the potatoes and vegetables was definitely a struggle.

However although it wasn’t the easiest of tasks I am very proud of myself for managing. Therefore I have come up with 7 tips for becoming and being vegan

1.       Don’t think about it- I planned 12 hours before I would be vegan meaning I didn’t have chance to think about how crazy I was being

2.       Plan meals in advanced- I planned all my dinners for the week on a Sunday meaning I did not have to spend hours checking if food was vegan or not

3.       Drink lots of water- because if you snack less you will get very thirsty

4.       Eat different foods everyday- this way you won’t get bored of the same food and won’t give up

5.       Apart from checking that it is vegan, don’t worry about what you eat- you are already limiting so much food that it is not important to count the fat or calories.

6.       Have an end in sight- if I had said I would go vegan forever I wouldn’t have managed, an end in sight made me feel as though I could do it.

7.       Enjoy it- being vegan and trying new foods is actually one of the most enjoyable food challenges I have ever completed

If you have any ideas about a new food challenge I could do then I would love to hear about it so please comment below.

Instagram- @Eat.Teen

Unicorn Freak-shakes

Many of you that read my blog will be familiar with ongoing food trends. Food trends such as charcoal ice cream or chocolate pizza are a great for marketing businesses who want to put there café or restaurant on the map. However the unicorn milkshake trend may have to end. 

Unicorn milkshakes also known as freak shakes can contain up to 39 teaspoons of sugar which is almost 2 glazed donuts. On top of that the unicorn milkshakes also contain food colouring and marshmallows ago give it that magical touch. Freak shakes that are served in mason jars are also coated in sugar to give it a shiny effect. This leads to the overall shake having up to 530 calories which is more than a quarter of your daily intake. Furthermore, many people do not realise just how much this is as many do not look at drinking calories but just eating them. Although having this once in a while will not affect you having a treat like this more than once a week could eventually lead to diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Food trends should be about showing off food that is not only fun and cool without hiding the fact that they are actually very very VERY bad for you. 

Although it may seem like I am against freak shakes I actually think the product is a very good idea. Girls and young adults all over the world are obsessed with the unicorn trend and rainbow coloured food at the moment so treats such as rainbow cake and unicorn milkshakes are a great market. However there must be some way to make sure that they do not cause you the unnecessary harm that they have the potential to. This is why I have been searching for a freak shake recipe that does not cause you the harm but still has great taste in. Obviously it would be hard to get one that is calorie free, sugar free and still tasty and not bad for you but I tried to find one that is more simple and doesn’t have the secret extra calories, normal unicorn milk shakes do. 

Lottie’s strawberry and raspberry unicorn milkshakes:

Ingredients: (serves 3)

350ml milk

1 banana 

75g raspberries 

75g strawberries 

100g of yoghurt (any flavour you think will work)

Method:

1.    Place everything in the blender

2.    Dip the rim of the mason jars in milk chocolate and then cover in sprinkles 

3.    Pour into the  three mason jars 

4.    To decorate add a couple of marshmallows and sprinkle with a crushed Oreo to each one. 

As you can see there is no secret food colouring or sugar in the milkshake. In order to give it a magical feel you obviously have to add a couple of marshmallows to decorate it which isn’t too bad if there isn’t any bad sugars in the actual milkshake. 

As you can see there are plenty of ways to keep trends fun, magical but also not to unhealthy. If you have any trends you think should be healthified or ideas on how to make fun and still healthy trends then do not hesitate to comment in the box below. I will definitely read and find out more if you do. 

Lottie X

Instagram @Eat.Teen

Chewy Caramel Chip Cookies

As said in my video the recipe for these gorgeous biscuits is below.

Chewy caramel chip cookies (makes 24) (the biscuits done in the video is half the amount which is why the measurements are different)

Bake time: 10-12 mins
Bake: 175'c, Gas mark 4

• 200G softened UNSALTED BUTTER 
• 125G BROWN SUGAR 
• 150G WHITE  SUGAR 
• 1 TEASPOON VANILLA EXTRACT 
• 2 TABLESPOONS MILK 
• 1 EGG 
• 300G PLAIN (ALL-PURPOSE) FLOUR 
• ¼ TEASPOON BAKING POWDER 
• ¼ TEASPOON BICARBONATE OF (BAKING) SODA 
• ¼ TEASPOON TABLE SALT 
• 150g caramel and butterscotch chips, ratio is up to you!

The method for the recipe is said in the video. You may need to pause it along the way.

As you can see this is my first video, therefore I would really appreciate feedback in the comments box below. i would also love for people to comment recipes they would like to see videos of, which may be useful for you if you do not understand what parted of the method actually means. Just send me the recipe and if I like the sound of it I will happily post it 

Lottie X

Instagram- Eat.Teen