Tuesday 16 March 2010

Irish recipes: St Patrick's Day vegetarian style (of course Guinness is involved)

I know it's really about Guinness and dancing but I thought I'd gather together a few traditional St Patrick's Day recipes - vegetarian style.

The vegetarian society website have a few good ones as well as other sites. I've never cooked for St Patrick's Day but I might try making the Guinness and Tofu stew.

- COLCANNON which involves potatoes and cabbage

- VEGGIE POT PIE> which is also gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free and vegan

- CHAMP which involves onion and (more) potatoes

- MOCK 'CORNED BEEF' AND CABBAGE this looks really tasty

- ST PATRICK'S SOUP which involves lots of veg and oatmeal

- BOXTY this has cooked AND raw potatoes involved

- VEGGIE SHEPHERD'S PIE bit of a complicated recipe but looks like it could be worth it

- IRISH COFFEE one of my favourites

- GUINNESS AND TOFU STEW I really want to try this one

If you've got any St Patrick's Day recipes send them to me and I'll add them to the list...x

Monday 15 March 2010

REVIEW: Aldo Zilli's vegetarian restaurant: Zilli Green

I blogged a couple of months ago about celebrity chef Aldo Zilli opening a vegetarian restaurant.

Well, it's open and I just read the Guardian review. Oh dear, things don't look good.

Guardian reviewer Matthew Norman wrote: "In so many regards is Zilli Green a total shocker that it's hard to know where to begin. "

However, after a bit of searching I found another review which describes the food at Zilli Green as delicious, superb and generous in quantity.

Sounds like you've just got to try it yourself.

Thursday 11 March 2010

Corey Haim in the midst of comeback before he died including film called "The Vegetarian Hunter"

Corey Haim was apparently in the midst of a comeback before he died.

The '80s icon, who starred in such classics as The Lost Boys and License to Drive, was linked to movies including The Vegetarian Hunter.

NYDailyNews.com say the film would have been about a hunter who goes to New York and falls in love with a vegetarian girl.

It also says of the film: "She does good things to animals that backfire" - I don't really know what that means.

Read the whole article here

Twlight Saga: Eclipse trailer with vegetarian vampires Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart



It's finally here!!! The first Eclipse trailer. I hang my 27-year-old head in shame as I admit I'm a closet age-inappropriate Twihard. I'm ashamed even to use the word "Twihard".

The story of my addiction is a sad tale and there is no hope of recovery.

I let the Twilight film pass me by completely when it came out all those years ago. I imagined a teenage rom com which would make me feel 100 years old. Here's the Twilight trailer (a little treat to break up this blog post)



Then my sister booked a "girly bonding" trip to the movies. She booked New Moon tickets and the rest is (a very sorry) history. I borrowed the Twilight DVD before going to see New Moon. I watched it. I watched it again (within two days.) Ouch. And then I went to see New Moon (the same day)...(double ouch.)

The vampire/werewolf/human love triangle tickled a giggly girly part of me deep down which remembered the Point Romance books I'd read 12 years ago (only girls will remember that series of books) and undeniably female things like that

I think that's part of it: it's a "girl thing". The cinema is full of girls....and more shockingly...many women. It somehow spans age (just like vampires and werewolves!!!!)

It's something you feel only girls can understand. Having two beautiful, buff, supernatural men fighting over you when you're so plain, boring...normal.

Here's the New Moon trailer to complete the set so far (thank god we still have the fourth book Breaking Dawn to come in movie format):



I'm relatively well read, I studied English literature for five years at university, I have bulging bookshelves but I have (shamefully) bought and devoured the Twilight books.

I wouldn't recommed anyone to read them. They are not books to pass down the generations. They are like drinking a whole bottle of wine. You really shouldn't do it and you would never advise anyone else to do it however sometimes, just sometimes, you can't help but do it (even if it kills brain cells).

Serious health warning: don't do it. (But if you do...ENJOY!)

Monday 8 March 2010

Vegetarianism and athletics: Baseball star Prince Fielder on being a veggie


I blogged the other day about winter olympics medalist Hannah Teter and how she was a vegetarian.

It seemed, from the comments I got back off people, they really enjoyed reading about vegetarianism and athletics.

As a result I thought I'd mention this article I saw on this dish is vegetarian.

The article is about baseball star Prince Fielder and how he changed to a vegetarian diet.

He appears to smash any myths about vegetarians being meek and lacking energy. Hooray.

Here's the article.

Friday 5 March 2010

Why Eating Meat-Shaped Vegetarian Food Is Like Having Sex with a Blow-up Doll: Anneli Rufus

I found THIS article. It likens eating meat-shaped food to having sex with a blow-up doll. Have a read for yourself (here). It's really long so I skimmed through the last bit but certain parts are interesting.

The whole blow-up doll/sex is a little gratuitous and probably designed to achieve more hits but it gets his message across.

I don't have a problem with meat-like vegetarian products. I use veggie mince, chicken-style pieces, sausages, burgers, chicken-style fillets, the lot.



I live with a meat-eater and these products make life so much easier. If he's having spag bol we use the same sauce but whack beef in his saucepan and veggie mince in mine.

Separate out the pasta and voila! Also works brilliantly with the chicken pieces making curry, stir fry, everything.

One of the most interesting "substitutes" I've had was aromatic mock duck pancakes at the Pacifica Chinese restaurant in St Helens.

On the menu it's described as: "Made from wheat gluten and deep fried until crispy, to be rolled in pancakes with hoi sin sauce and salad."

When it arrived I had to shread it like real duck. That bit felt unnecessary but it was tasty and full points to the restaurant for the veggie choice.

I think meat-shaped products are only a problem to vegetarians who are making some kind of moral (nobler/purer/kinder than carnivores as Anneli Rufus puts it) statement.

The rest of us just think of it as a convenient way to get some lovely protein. Attaching any kind of guilt to food is never helpful nor healthy.

Eat healthily and happily.

Tuesday 2 March 2010

Hollywood celebrity Drew Barrymore says being a vegetarian makes her a "picky eater"

BEAUTIFUL Drew Barrymore has said being a vegetarian makes her a fussy eater.

I absolutely and completely disagree with the idea that people are fussy eaters simply because they are vegetarians.

According to ABS CBN News she said: "I'm a bit of a picky eater, but that's because I'm a vegetarian.

"I'm like a typical American teenager when it comes to my favorite foods! I love peanut butter with bananas. That's my favorite. I like grilled cheese sandwiches and I love homemade macaroni with cheese."

I'm a vegetarian and I'm a million times less fussy than most meat eaters I know. I will eat anything but meat and fish.

Surely that makes me a very unfussy eater and I bet there are tons of vegetarians just the same.

Surely people who think of vegetarians as fussy have a lack of culinary imagination.

End of rant. Back to work.

Ps. Read the whole Drew Barrymore article here