Vegan May | Round Up

- Michael 4 Comments

Vegan Street Food

Now vegan month is all done and dusted I wanted to wrap it all up and talk through a few things that stood out, from the bad to the good. I want to talk through a few things I experienced and chat about generally how easy it can actually be to live vegan in 2017. It’s worth noting that I am usually a meat eater, and the idea of even being vegetarian as recently as a couple of years ago was something completely alien for me that I couldn’t even fathom, but now I eat veggie about 80% of the time. So without further ado lets start with a few points:
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Vegan Chocolate & Caramel Tarte

- Michael 1 Comment

Vegan Chocolate & Caramel Tart

I’m almost 3 weeks into Vegan May and so far, so good. Yeah, OK, I miss cheese a little bit, but having gone to Club Mexicana last weekend and eaten some of their Vegan Cheese Fries the craving was satiated slightly. We hosted some friends over the weekend for Eurovision and I decided to try and bake something for us all to share after we’d had a little bit too much to drink. Having tackled vegan cinnamon buns I wanted to do something else which usually relies pretty heavily on dairy, a Vegan Chocolate & Salted Caramel Tart. Caramel usually has stacks of cream and butter, a ganache filling is filled with cream and pastry, almost by definition, is crammed full of butter. Read more

Vegan Cinnamon Buns

- Michael 2 Comments

Vegan Cinnamon Buns

I’m 10 days into a Vegan month and so far it’s going pretty well. I’ve yet to find myself melting down into a puddle crying about halloumi. There’s still time, but so far, so good. One of the big ones for me when it comes to a month like this isn’t actually my meals, or even what milk to put in my tea, it’s the baking. I usually bake a couple of times a week, minimum, and most of my go-to recipes are full of butter and eggs. Cookies for instance are one of my favourite things to bake, but I’ve yet to find a vegan cookie recipe that’s matched up (if you’ve got one, please, please leave it in the comments below!). I decided to kick the month off with a batch of Vegan Cinnamon Buns though, to see whether I could make a completely vegan dough.
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Travel Diaries: Glasgow March 2017

- Michael 2 Comments

Glasgow Botanical Gardens

It was my Birthday in March and before I went gallivanting off to Florida for Wrestlemania and other parts of the UK to see family I went to Glasgow for a weekend to celebrate turning 29. It was a chance to further explore Glasgow after a similar trip last year, this time focusing on finding as much food as possible and then working out whether I’m still hungry enough for ANOTHER doughnut. We got the train up from Euston after I finished work on the Friday night, getting some cans (of gin) in for the journey up, and some disappointing (as ever) food from Leon. This was the journey where I finally finished Pokemon Sun, steamrolling the elite 4 with my Salazzle taking center stage. This meant sitting through the ludicrously long post game cut scenes and credits which lasted approximately half of the 4-5 hour journey (this may be an exaggeration, but oh man were they long). Finally, upon arrival we had to drag our bags through the night streets of a Glasgow that was in full party mode, before checking in to our room at CitizenM. Having booked the trip relatively last minute, and only a few decent places still being left on AirBnB we opted for CitizenM as it’s ever reliable and those giant beds just make it ever so tempting.
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Squash, Black Eyed Bean and Coconut Curry

- Michael 2 Comments

Squash, Black Eyed Bean & Coconut Curry

It’s been a little while, but man have I been busy. I’ve been to Glasgow for a birthday weekend, Florida to visit Universal Studios and finally attend the grandaddy of them all, Wrestlemania and after all that I’ve been to Scotland for my dad’s 60th birthday, Yorkshire to see my girlfriend’s family and finally Newcastle to see an old uni friend get married. It’s been incredibly hectic, and as such I’ve not had much of a chance to write anything, but I’ve got a fair few things lined up, including a bunch of words about the trips above, but I’m starting with a recipe for a curry I’ve been making almost weekly since the start of the year; Squash, Black Eyed Bean and Coconut Curry.
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