Food for love

Food has always been very important part of my life. My father who passed away a while ago loved cooking passionately. Kitchen was his place to rebel when there was family to feed and take care of. He made his own spice mixes and had secret recipes, something I never inherited from grandparents. He thought us food is to be shared and enjoyed and you must taste everything before you can say you don't want to eat it. So, after ten years of eating sausages and loving them I said I had have enough of them for the rest of my life and everybody in my family were okay about it. When I told my family January 2013 I was going to try pesco vegetarian lifestyle they were quite okay about it. Not worried if I would get enough nutrition and not even interested why I wanted to try it out. Since then I have eaten some meat. My boyfriend is omnivore and I still like to taste new things. When eating small amounts of meat I rarely get my stomach hurting I do get this heavy, stuffy feeling I don't like. Also, my sense of taste has improved quite a lot, which I find interesting. I have found bananas after years of avoiding them (just didn't like the taste) and pickled garlic is from heaven.

Today I'm eating new potatoes, Pirkka vegetarian patties and tomato-salad with pickled garlic, tomatoes, red onion, black pepper and some feta cheese. And every time I will taste something fresh, smell spices or light up the grill I will remember my father and how he loved and relaxed in the kitchen. 

Vegetarian burgers

Vegetarian burgers with sweet potato "fries"

Best burgers I have ever made! Filled them with salad, tomatoes, onion, cheese, dressings, fried egg and zucchini patties. I sliced the zucchini to nice thick patties, rolled it around egg+spice mixture, then bread crumbs, fried in hot oil. Fries are just baked sweet potato strips baked with oil, salt and herbs. Quick and tasty.

Still meatless January

21/31 to go! After realizing I have been eating lots of ready made meals I need to start making my own. I normally don't eat much of that "just microwave" -stuff but somehow cooking vegetarian meals hasn't been in my schedule right now. It has been hectic couple weeks anyway. So today I'm going to make vegetarian wok with chanterelle. One of the reasons I stopped eating red meat is because it tends to give me heart burn, I haven't experienced any after skipping it, so that's good. I have also been super stressed but not bloated and zombie tired like I usually am. I'm not sure if it's because food or not, but it's still a positive thing. Once or maybe twice I have had a huge craving for mettwurst. Guys were having it on breakfast table and the smell was SO GOOD, mm... It was quite easy to resist the temptation anyway.

Meatless January

Inspired by this Lihaton tammikuu / Meatless January I ended up thinking what I could do to feel better. I have been feeling tired and a bit down for a long time now and though the idea of skipping red meat and chicken for a month wouldn't be too big change for actually sticking into it. "For a month" doesn't necessary mean a month, it's all about feeling good for me, not so much about saving animals.  My fridge hasn't looked this sad and empty for a long time. :(

This is the fifth day and so far I haven't experienced any cravings. I have eaten only food I'm familiar with but next week I promised myself to try out some new recipes. I'm trying to write about the experiment and my feelings and document what I have been eating. So far...

- chinese take away: shrimps and vegetables with rice
- tuna-leek pie
- McFeast with vegetable patty
- fish sticks with mashed potatoes
- onion rings with mayo
- pasta salad
- creamy veggie curry
- vegetarian nuggets
- caesar salad
-Zarillo's vegan burger

Salaattia seitsemänä päivänä

Rakastan salaattia. Syön erilaisia salaatteja ehkä kerran pari kuussa. Tämä korjattakoon, siis seuraavan viikon aikana valmistan ja syön erilaisen salaatin joka päivä. Aion kokeilla uusia reseptejä (vinkkejä ja ehdotuksia saa laittaa kommenttiboksiin) ja opetella tekemään jotain mitä en ole aikaisemmin tehnyt.

Tämän päivän salaatti on oikeastaan jämäkasa kaikenlaista: jääsalaattia, kirsikkatomaatteja, punasipulia, kurkkua, kananmunaa ja vuohenjuustolla täytettyä herkkusientä. Oli hyvää vaikka näyttääkin ehkä vähän epämääräiseltä. Ja unohdin salaatinkastikkeenkin.  Vuohenjuustoherkkusienet olivat pettymys, eivät maistuneet oikein miltään. 

Ps: Se tunne, kun kaivat hyllystä levyn jota exäsi nimitti "intialaiseksi ulinaksi" ja tajuat että voit nyt luukuttaa sitä niin paljon kuin haluat. Terveisiä vaan A:lle jos luet tätä :)

Vegfest 2010 + Mahdollisuuksien tori

Tänä viikonloppuna Tampereelle järjestetään Vegfest, tapahtuma jonka tarkoituksena on "tehdä kasvissyöntiä ja veganismia tunnetuksi, lisätä ihmisten tietoutta kasvissyönnin tarjoamista mahdollisuuksista sekä vähentää kasvissyöntiin liittyviä yleisiä ennakkoluuloja." Itse en ole vegaani enkä edes kasvissyöjä, mutta hyvän ruoan ystävä olen ja eläin- ja kulutusystävällinen elämäntapa istuvat hyvin ajatusmaailmaani.

Menin tutkimaan tarjontaa lauantaina muutaman ystävän seurassa.
Käsitöitä myyvät kojut houkuttelivat eniten, mutta oli tarjolla myös
runsaasti erilaisia maistiaisia yms. Illan viiletessä lämmin
lautasellinen riisiä, vermiselliä, soijasuikaleita ja kasviksia
maistui. Suosittelen lämpimästi poikkeamaan jos Tampereen keskustan
tuntumassa liikut!

Samaan aikaan järjestettiin Finlaysonilla Mahdollisuuksien tori, jossa kiersin myyntikojut läpi ja kuuntelin jonkinaikaa afrikkalaista rumpumusiikkia. Tarjolla oli erilaisia käsitöitä ja järjestöjen infopisteitä, työpajoja yms. Mukaan tarttui nahanpalaan maalattu kirjanmerkki ja kangaskassi. Ai joo, ja pinkki ilmapallo!

Today I visited Vegfest and Mahdollisuuksien tori, which both I enjoyed. I'm not a vegetarian, but I do like good food and animal welfare is important thing for me too. To me Vegfest was about delicious food and small stalls selling handmade clothing, jewelry etc. Mahdollisuuksien tori is not really connected to Vegfest in any way, but since they both are held in same time and both sell handmade things and represent cultural openmindness they seemed to attract certain type of people. I found a nice tote and a bookmark (tiger painted to piece of leather) there and got a balloon. Any place giving people free balloons is nice!