I had another blog post to publish, but I had so much fun today that I’ve put that aside and written a new one. What was so much fun? I made my first trip to the new Melbourne Cruelty Free shop in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, and then followed it up by taking Vegie Bar takeaway over to my mum’s place to share for lunch.
About 13 months ago, H (my daughter) and I (sort of) decided to try being vegan “for a month or so, just to see how we go”. It was pretty much the same way I went lacto-ovo vegetarian about 20 years ago, and it had the same result – we never looked back.
We can’t actually remember the date of either declaration because, at the time, we didn’t realise they were going to be the start of anything big, but we’re pretty sure we went vegan in January 2013. Unfortunately, in January 2014, H was nursing a very sore mouth after her wisdom tooth surgery, so it wasn’t until this weekend that we finally got our Veganversary celebration.
I’d never had a lot of luck browning tofu…or tempeh or burgers. I usually seemed to leave half the tofu stuck to my ‘non-stick’ pan when I flipped it over with my thick plastic spatula – so when I got Isa Does It, and read that Isa recommends a cast iron pan for frying tofu, I was itching to give it a try.
Vegans in the northern suburbs of Melbourne had barely dried their eyes following the closure of the Radical Grocery Store when a new vegan grocery store opened its doors in Thornbury. H and I made a visit to Mad Cowgirls a couple of Saturdays back and found some exciting stuff – including the cookbook everyone’s talking about – Veganissimo!
A note before I start: I’m back and feeling almost normal! Thanks so much for all the get well messages. Of course, I wasn’t on the computer to read them until today, but it was a lovely surprise to come back and see that someone had noticed I wasn’t here. 🙂 I was writing blog posts in my head while I was lying around last week, even though I couldn’t write them down. So here’s the first…
You know what (for me) is the hardest part of being a vegan blogger? It’s not thinking of topics for posts. It’s not even writing the posts (although that can sometimes be tricky). The hardest part for me is to remember to take pictures of a meal BEFORE I dig in and make a mess of the dish! Our visit to the new Northcote Loving Hut a couple of weeks ago was a prime example.
The Lentil Institution 