Date attempted: 08/02/2013.

I tasted a sample of bute islands blue sheese and absolutely loved it, so decided I wanted to test it in a couple of meals today.

Brekkie: Cheddar style spread on cinnamon bagel

You can't go wrong with cheese spread on a toasted bagel for a quick breakfast, so would the vegan alternative live up to this standard?

Verdict:
I was rather disappointed with this. The first time I tried this spread I remember enoying it, but second time around it was just nasty, so far anything 'cheddar style' I've tried has been rather un-appetising. It has a distinct rubbery soya tatse that I really did not enjoy. Tesco's do other varieties of these spreads though, so may try something else next time.

Lunchies: Pear, walnut and blue sheese salad

This is something Ive enjoyed with real blue cheese at the hotel/resturaunt where my boyfriend works, the bath arms , so I wanted to see if it was just as tasty with the vegan blue sheese. 


Ingredients:

Mixed baby leaf salad

Bute Island blue sheese

Pear

Walnuts

Cider vinegar dressing

Salt and pepper

Simply mix together.

Verdict:

Yum yum indeed! I could eat this blue sheese straight out the pack! It has a very similar taste, not quite as creamy or crumbly, and lacking the distinct blue mould in normal cheese, but nothing you wouldn't miss! Very tasty indeed, definitely the best cheese alternative I've tried so far, and works lovely with the pear and walnuts in a salad.

Din dins: Broccoli and blue sheese soup, served with crusty olive bread

I've regularly made broccoli and blue cheese soup, so I had high hopes for this. I wasn't disappointed!

Ingredients:
Oil
Vegetable stock
Onion
Broccoli
Blue sheese
Soya cream
Salt and pepper

Method:

Heat oil in pan and saute mushrooms.

Add vegetable stock and broccoli and simmer gently.

Blitz with hand blender then melt in blue sheese, soy cream, salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with crusty bread.

Verdict:

I like my soup thick and creamy, and you can easily adjust the thickness by adding more/less stock and soya cream. It was sersiously creamy and the blue sheese gave it a heavenly taste. I liked this even more than normal broccoli and blue cheese soup. Even my boyfriend loved this! The blue sheese didnt overwhelm the broccoli at all, but worked lovely alongside it. I will definitely be making this again!

Blue sheese has definitely become a firm favourite, think it needs to become a fridge staple from now on. It has re-ignited my hope for vegan cheese alternatives after being let down by all the awful cheddar style options. Will definitely be trying more from bute island, shame its a bit harder to get hold of, health food stores and holland and barrett have some of the options.

Keeping fit. We all need to do it, but many of us don't, and I've been one of those people. As a child I did a lot of exercise, swimming three times a week, cross country running, badminton, kayaking, but it all dwindled out when I went to uni, and I never really picked it back up.

Ive attempted the occasional run, but I quickly get bored and don't bother again. I needed something fun to keep me entertained. For about 6 months I started zumba which was excellent fun, but that slowly dwindled out as well. So I decided to look into other options. I really fancied a martial art, but the lessons seemed to be aimed at kids, I would love to get back into kayacking but with our constant appalling weather it just hasnt been possible.

Then an offer appeared on groupon, pole dancing lessons. At first I turned my nose up, wasn't this the thing for strippers? I decided to research it a bit more, pole dancing had become a fun fitness sport, aimed at both men and women, I had to give it a try, and with my first lesson I was hooked. I've been attending since October now and have learnt spins, combos and even inverts. Yes thats right, I can actually hang upside down on a pole! Woop!

Pole is really great fun, and I feel so much stronger for it. On my first lesson I could only just about pull my weight off the floor, now I can swing, climb and hang on the pole! Yeehaw! Not only that but pole makes you want to do more, I started a flexibility course, hoping to do the splits! I've even started working out at home to the 30 day shred, the stronger I get the better moves I can do on the pole!

If you'd like to know more check out the Trowbridge School of Poledance facebook page here.

Back when I lived in Surbiton I spent every Monday for 18 months volunteering at Wildlife Aid, feeding adorable fox cubs, weighing prickly hedgehogs and releasing tiny mice, it was an amazing experience. I had to give it up when I moved down to Longleat, but then I had much bigger furries with teeth and claws to keep me entertained.

However, I soon realised that I missed the little ones, the tiny whiskers of a baby mouse, the noisy ca caw of a hungry magpie, and most of all, the little black nose and eyes of the cutest hedgehog. Working with big cats may have been something I'd always dreamed of, and will always be one of the most incredible experiences I've had, but I still missed getting close to our own wildlife.

But one hoggy changed all that. Whilst on a first aid course in December we found a tiny hedgehog, too small to be hibernating, desparately searching for food in the middle of a cold day. I had to do something, so we bundled him into a warm box and he came home with me. He eagerly tucked into some fresh food and I immediately fell in love, but he couldnt stay. I couldnt keep a hedgehog in my bedroom! So I hunted down my nearest wildlife rescue charity and after a couple of nights with me he went off to his new home.

The rescue, known as Wiltshire Wildlife Hospital, was a hedgehog haven, they had over 150 hedgehogs to care for over the winter. I got chatting to Marilyn, who ran the rescue with her husband and expressed my interest in volunteering. She was extremely lovely and even more animal crazy than me! So in January I returned to the world of volunteering at a wildlife rescue.

I now spend one day a week helping with mucking out the dozens of hedgehogs in their care, including the little fellow I brought in! He has really grown and its great to know he has made it through the winter. I have even been sent on a couple of rescue missions, I collected a bat and checked out an injured swan.

Its great to offer my time and help out with such a wonderful rescue. They are a dedicated team and Marilyn spends 7 days a week rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife. I thoroughly recommend volunteering at your nearest wildlife rescue, your time and effort is what can make a difference to these animals.

So I said I would be posting more regularly... so where have I been for the last few weeks? No I haven't given up on my cruelty free days, I've actually been busy studying and revising until the early hours of the morning. Have I gone back to uni? Nope. Taking exams? Nope....

I got a new job...VIP driver at a UK Safari Park. Yup, thats right, I've moved away from purely working with the big cats and now get to take guests on VIP tours of the entire safari, and I love it! The idea was sparked when I took my boyfriend around the safari early last year, as I happily chatted to him about all the animals he said I'd be great taking people on tours because of my passion and enthusiasm. Then, whilst working on the lion reserve I was trained to take people on the big cat tours, feeding tigers, getting up close with lions and I really enjoyed it. So I decided to take a step in a new direction.

But that meant learning about all the other animals in the park, from rhinos and giraffe, to bongo and vultures... what a mix! It was great to learn about all the new animals and after two weeks hard training I'm now taking guests on exciting tours! Its brilliant knowing I'm giving people a once in a lifetime experience, an adventure they will never forget. I got one little girl a beautiful sighting of her favourite animal, Anne the elephant, which she will cherish forever, another group of people got to watch monkeys destroying cars whilst theirs remained safe in the car park.

Most of all I enjoy educating people on some serious conservation matters. What better time to highlight some of the crucial factors behind rhino poaching, or to address the serious loss of habitat for our magnificent tigers. If I can get them to think a little more, then they might just go away and do something too. My passion can become their passion, so together we can make a difference, and what a way to do it. Watching people smile from ear to ear as they get to see lion cubs stalking, wolves howling and monkeys being mischievous, is a truly incredible job!

VIP tour by whatsthatpicture

Over the next couple of days I will play catch up with whats being going on in the past couple of weeks, so keep your eyes peeled!

I previously wrote that I wanted to try and remove dairy and eggs from my diet by introducing one day a week where I would go without them and find alternatives. Well today marks my first attempt.

Tofu is something I've wanted to experiment with, whenever I've cooked it before I've dumped it in a wok and hoped for the best, but its always turned out to be a tastless blob. So today I used it in a couple of recipes to try and master the art of cooking it.

Brekkie: Marmite tofu scramble on toast

I picked up this idea from the Vegan Dad blog, and it is essentially the vegan, tofu version of scrambled eggs. My boyfriend always added marmite to scrambled eggs, so I decided this would be a great way to add a unique twist to this dish.

Ingredients:

Firm Tofu

Marmite

Turmeric

Onion Powder

Garlic Powder

Mustard

Salt and Pepper

Oil

Method:

Heat oil in pan, drain tofu and crumble into pan, cooking gently on a low heat for a couple of minutes.

Add rest of ingredients except marmite, stirring to prevent tofu from sticking.

When tofu has lost its watery content add marmite to taste.

Verdict:

Pretty simple and easy to cook, although I had fun attempting to get the tofu out the box, ending up with a mushy mess in my hands!

It tasted pretty much identical to actual marmite scrambled egg and its texture was spot on too. I tasted before the marmite went in too, and while not an exact match for scrambled eggs it tasted just as good. Yum Yum. I may cook this for my boyfriend and see if he even notices the difference!

Lunchies: Basic Italian pasta topped with Tesco's soya mild cheese

 

I've cooked this before, an easy basic italian tomato pasta, but this time I added vegan cheese on top.

Ingredients:

Onions

Peppers

Tinned Tomatoes

Oil

Garlic Granules

Fresh Basil

Dried Pasta

Vegan cheese (Tesco free from mild soya aka sheese by bute island)

Method:

Heat the oil in a pan, add chopped onions and peppers and saute slowly over a low heat. 

After 20 mins when onions and peppers are caramelised add tinned tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper and basil.

Cook pasta according to packet.

Mix pasta and sauce and top with grated soya cheese.

Verdict:

You can't really go wrong with a basic tomato pasta, its easy to cook, satisfying, tasty and fills a gap. The soya cheese was slightly unusual, it didnt quite taste the same as normal cheese but it was still very tasty and definitely similar. This dish would taste great with a soya cream added to the sauce.

Din Dins: Broccoli and mushroom tofu quiche, served with a side salad and basil crushed potatoes

Now this would be adventurous for me. I can barely cook, and considering I've never even cooked a normal quiche let alone a vegan version it seemed I would be doomed for disaster. The idea came from here, with the addition of nutritional yeast to help give a cheesy flavour.

Ingredients:

Shortcrust pastry
Oil
Red onion
Broccoli
Chesnut mushrooms
Firm Tofu
Nutmeg
Turmeric
Basil
Soy Milk
Nutritional Yeast
Salt and pepper

Method:
Heat oil in a pan and saute mushrooms and onion over a low heat.
Part boil broccoli then add to pan until cooked.
Blend the tofu, nutmeg, turmeric, basil, salt, pepper, nutritional yeast and soy milk until smooth.
Mix tofu mixture and veggies and pop into your pastry lined flan tin.
Bake in the oven for around 30 mins.

Verdict:
I was suprised by just how easy this was to put together, I thought it would be much more challenging. I did have a bit of a fight with the pastry, I used jus-rol shortcust ready rolled and even though there enough, it was in a long rectangle shape so I had to squish it together and re-roll so it was round and covered the flan dish. I didnt have a rolling pin so I had to use a glass!
I was very excited about trying this, it looked great and I was hoping it tasted great too. I wasn't disappointed. The texture was just like normal quiche, you would never know this was tofu. It tasted great, although I found it was a touch bland, probably due to it lacking cheese. Next time I will season it a bit more and possibly add more nutritional yeast or a vegan cheese subsitute.
I served this with a baby leaf and watercress salad, dressed with cider vinegar, and basil crushed potatoes (boiled potatoes tossed with a fresh basil and olive oil dressing).


So far so good, I'm really pleased with all the meals I made today, if its this easy all the time then it won't be long before dairy and eggs are gone for good!