Friday, March 02, 2012

Vegan Fried Egg - This time it's Real

Are you vegan but miss the taste of fried egg in the morning? Try the Vegg | MNN - Mother Nature Network

As we are only a month away from April Fools Day I thought I better tell you about this quick lest you think I'm pulling your leg and tricking you again but like yah! This time it's really real the vegan fried egg called vegg is a eggy eggless veggiefied plantastic reality. Honest. I really am sorry about the Sunny side up thing, i really did think it was for the best as it would inspire Redwood Wholefoods to hurry up and get it together. In fact the makers of the Vegg do actually credit our April Fool as their inspiration - so actually ? You have us to thank. Now you can all get genuinely excited. I'm tempted to do a double bluff and do an April Fools day press release about the Vegg and the Vegan Fried Egg on the 31st March - would that be cool or cruel? Votes on a postcard to @plantarian ;-)



OMG Vegan Omelette? No It's a vegan Fried Egg called Vegg

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Childrens Nutrition, Ingredients, McDonalds Happy Meals

Healthy Eating & Nutrition News: McDonalds Spotlight by Frugal Dad

Do you think McDonalds are responsible for the health crisis of heart disease, diabetes and obesity? Do you think McDonalds should take responsibility to teach the next generation to avoid our sickly fate?

mcdonalds
Source: http://frugaldad.com

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Marmite Smoothie Trends in Google?

Innocent drinks - a blog about our smoothies and some other stuff

Innocent Marmite Smoothie ?
So it all started with Innocent Drinks blogging and tweeting about Cucumber and marmite. Then there was some idle innocent exchanges between @InnocentDrinks and @Thisismarmite on Twitter. Then either @Plantarian or @Omega3DHA put 2 and 2 together and made 5 suggesting that a Miso style Marmite Innocent collaboration smoothie with some vegan omega 3 DHA and EPA in it might be just the very donkeys! So then @Nutritionistw1 and a whole heap of other twitter people including Captain Plantastic tweeted that a Marmite Smoothie would be a 'Smashing' idea. Meanwhile Lady Gaga Twitter fans and Madonna Twit fans were slaying each other in a new twiitter trend war proving once and for all that the world needs more Vegetarian Omega 3 DHA before we all degenerate into a race of morons.

@omega3DHA got fed up with waiting for a reply from @thisismarmite and @innocentdrinks and posted a 'recipe' but it was basically just mix a smoothie and a spoonful of marmite together.

We, well I , thought you deserved better so here you are. The definative new National Vegetarian Week Marmite Smoothie Recipe. That's what I do after all hey? So I thought of all the things I like that go with that Miso / Marmite Umami savoury taste - Cucumber, apple, Tofu, seaweed, lime and then a traditional Japanese flavour such as Ginger. You could add some wasabi horseradish in if you like that kinda thing....

 National Vegetarian Week Omega 3 Marmite Smoothie Recipe

1/2 fresh cucumber
1 generous teaspoon of Marmite
1 handful of chopped curly Kale
1 small slice of fresh ginger
Juice of 1 lemon or limI
80g fresh bean curd / tofu
1 sheet of nori (sushi) seaweed
1 Kiwi, apple and Lime Innocent Smoothie
2 capsules of Vegan Omega 3 DHA / EPA (400mg DHA)

Whizz together in a blender with a couple of ice cubes.

Someone suggested that The Innocent team relive their founders first steps with a two bin voting system at The Bristol National Vegetarian Week Vegfest . Legend has it that the Innocent boys had one bucket with "yes" (give up our day jobs and make smoothies) and "no" (don't give up the day job) bin for empty bottles. The Bin with the most bottles won and the rest is history. Well that whole idea sits quite well we thought with the whole Marmite Love / Hate thing anyway. Bristol Vegfest the finale of The Vegetarian Society's National Vegetarian Week seems the perfect place for Innocent drinks and Marmite to give a Marmite Smoothie a trial run.

If you think that is a good idea then please tweet Marmite and Innocent Drinks, two of the UK's most prestigious and succesful vegetarian brands, to tell them you want a Marmite Smoothie and message them on Facebook too.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Is £200k Test Tube Burger Vegetarian

BBC News - Lab-grown meat is first step to artificial hamburger

So is this Dutch test tube lab grown meat vegetarian? It would probably pass as vegetarian but not vegan or plantarian.

Most food scientists believe that current methods of food production are unsustainable and this method of meat production is alleged to have a 60% lower environmental footprint.

At the cost of £200,000 per burger we can't see BurgerKing, MacDonalds, Wimpy or Wendy's putting it on the menu just yet.

Probably a little more appealing than the Japanese sewage burger though?

The UK Vegetarian Society are debating whether they would give this test tube lab burger it's Vegsoc seedling symbol sought after seal of approval.

London nutrition expert Yvonne Bishop-Weston asks "If it's grown without sunlight in a sterile lab I guess my question would be will the meat have any essential omega 3 fats, any Vitamin B12, any vitamin D?"

Plantarian / Vegan chef Tony Bishop-Weston says " We already have lab grown vegetarian meat - it's called Quorn!"

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Vegans, Sex Gods and Tantric Porn Stars?

Controversial PETA ad claims going vegan may make you so good in bed | Mail Online

Once again PeTA get veganism onto the national news agenda.

I'm not sure equating vegans with porn stars is a good thing , but it's perfect fodder for the Daily Mail readers who love a good rant and will no doubt spend the day starting up conversations about veganism all over the place. You never know their rant may be countered with "Actually my nephew is a vegan body builder and he has muscles in places you can only dream of fat bloke!" .

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when The Daily Mail reader starts with "I eat meat and cheese and it's never done me any harm" - to be met with the reply "Oh really Bill, so what are those pills you take? are they for your high blood pressure or your heart disease, are you not worried about a stroke?"

"Real men eat meat!"

" You mean real men like beef eating American footballers who have the lowest life expectancy of any popular American profession? or real men like President Bill Clinton who used to eat meat, got heart disease and now eat vegan plantarian food to get well?"




No one seems to want to talk about the health benefits and the environment, the world seems obscessed with sex, porn, teenage girls, videos.

Everytime PeTA show a nearly naked PeTA employee or a nude celebrity PeTA patron stripping off naked to reveal their breasts and bottom PeTA get headlines.

It matters not that people like PeTA or not, it matters that PeTA's cause is on the news agenda. Peta also argue a link between animal abusers and violent people abusers and committing domestic abuse which would be a logical response to criticism of this safer sex campaign.

I'm sure Peta would much prefer it if all they had to do was present scientific facts to get healthy eating on the agenda.

But how many headlines do PCRM or the Cancer Project grab compared with PeTA? - you can empathise with why PeTA do what they do.

So should we thank The Daily Mail's editor for running this story?

It sounds like the Editor of The Daily Mail Paul Dacre needs to follow in Bill Clinton 's plantarian vegan footsteps, if he hasn't already - The Observer reports "The relentless nature of the job takes its toll (on the Daily Mail editor) and there has been intense speculation about Dacre's health. Friends say he has simply lost weight after a heart operation and describe him as 'robust'"

Nutritionist London

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Pus in Milk Costs 40% Dairy Farmers

Milk cheque payments affected for 40% of chronic somatic cell count herds - 1/31/2012 - Farmers Weekly

A total of 40% of herds have more than 15% chronic somatic cell count cows, increasing their chances of having their milk cheque penalised to 92%.

Sometimes you just gotta love the fact you don't drink milk. For White stuff read pus. Cows with mastitis produce a lot of pus but hey - it's creamy, it's the same colour as milk, what the heck.

So yeah - bless the Farmers Weekly who reported 40% of Dairy herds have about a sixth of the cows producing gallons of pus

Reading University's advice is
" if you keep the proportion of chronic cows to below 10%, the chances of being penalised are reduced to 9%."

Hurrah!

If farmers are caught with too much pus in their milk then it used to get confiscated and turned into milk powder and fed back to the cows ("Doh!") but they are not supposed to do that anymore. Trouble is Government inspectors are very busy and we wonder how often pus laden milk slips through the net. Judging by the statistic that 40% of UK herds have over 15% pus producing cows there doesn't seem to be that much incentive for the poor dairy farmers to bother about it.

"If it ain't broke don't fix it. Folk wouldn't know a pus rich pint if it landed in their porridge. Probably think it were gold top" seems to be the motto.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Runner's World Find Truth Hard to Chew?

Fiona Oakes

Fina Oakes - Wonder Woman? or Masochist?
It seems that Runner's World found the truth about Fiona Oakes ( Leading UK Marathan runner who runs Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary) a little too hard to believe.

Runners World have run a photo feature about Fiona in their latest edition but her incredible results and track record got edited to 'in her age group'. Now to look at her you may think 'well whats the problem with that?' . The trouble is despite her youthful, straight out of the packet, must be photoshopped good looks, she is in reality no longer the spring chicken she resembles. Her Secret? a healthy plantarian / vegan / strict vegetarian diet and lots of hard work on the farm.

It's changing, but we still suspect that despite Vegan Fitness , Vegan Body Builders, Vegan Runners, Mike Tyson, Gorillas, Elephants, Rhinoceroses there is this pervasive idiotic idea that you can't build muscle without meat (sic), you need milk for calcium (sic) and eggs will give you a competative edge. Not true. Foods for Life Nutritionist Gareth Zeal is vegan and used to be a champion weight lifter, he would regularly lift far heavier weights that weightlifters double or treble his size. Power is more important than bulk and plant protein helps you take advantage of that.

So did Runner's World find it a little tough and hard to swallow that a vegan was faster and tougher than over 99.9 % of their meat eating readership, perhaps.....

Fiona Oakes has been selected for a place in the Marathon de Sables 2012 Through the Sahara said to be 'the toughest footrace on Earth, claimed as suitable 'for lunatics and masochists' (see website)
It covers 243km/151 miles (in sections similar to 25, 34, 38, 82, 42, 22 km) run over 6 days (7 for some) - equivalent to 5 1/2 regular marathons. That's a speed of between 3 and 14 km an hour for competitors aged between 16 and 78). In addition to that, competitors have to carry everything they will need for the duration (apart from a tent) on their backs in a rucksack (food, clothes, medical kit, sleeping bag etc). Water is rationed and handed out at each checkpoint.

Fiona needs to raise a minimum amount of donations to qualify to be subjected to this mental and physical torture so please donate to one of 3 charities below and make the whole dangerous, torturous, crazy thing worthwhile as well as supporting this amazing vegan supergirl / wonderwoman. Please Donate Now

Friday, January 27, 2012

McDonald's Removes "Pink Slime"

McDonald's Bows to Pressure From Chef Jamie Oliver, Removes "Pink Slime" From Burgers

Now see here's the thing, I looked at the ingredients of a big mac and pink slime is not listed. They've agreed to take it out so it must have been there.

So my questions are thus

1) What else is in a McDonalds Burger that is in it but not declared?

2) Why the freakin barking hell do they use vegetarian cheese? It's a DEAD COW BURGER! What kind of vegetarian says "well i don't mind a bit of ground up cow armpit but I'm not going to buy it if the cheese is made with cow sick!"???

Here's the ingredients for a big mac

Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate riboflavin, folic acid, enzymes), water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar Lettuce, Pickle Slices, Onions, minced beef and fat, Vegetarian Cheddar (51%), Water, Butter, Vegetarian Cheese (9%), Whey Powder, Milk Proteins, Emulsifying Salts (Trisodium Citrate, Citric Acid), Natural Cheese Flavouring, Salt, Preservative (Sorbic Acid), Colour (Natural Carotenes, Paprika Extract), Anti-caking Agent (Soya Lecithin)., soybean oil and/or partially hydrog- enated soybean oil, Salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, wheat gluten, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, sodium stearoyl lactylate , datem, ascorbic acid, Azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides , monocalcium phosphate enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide, soy flour, calcium propionate (preservative), sodium propionate , soy lecithin, sesame seed., oil, diced pickles, high fructose corn syrup , sugar, vinegar, corn syrup, salt, calcium chloride, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate, spice extractives, polysorbate 80, distilled vinegar, water, egg yolks, high fructose corn syrup, onion powder, mustard seed, salt, spices, propylene glycol alginate, sodium benzoate (preservative), mustard bran, sugar,garlic powder, Mono Sodium glutamate, caramel colour, extractives of paprika, soy lecithin, turmeric, calcium disodium EDTA

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Happy Burns Night!

Vegetarian Haggis Piper
Vegetarian Vegan Haggis Recipe from Scottish Cookbook

Happy Burn's Night! - Vegetarian Haggis Recipe

How to have a vegan, vegetarian, plantarian Burns night supper in honour of Robert 'Rabbie' Burns

So once you have caught, bought or made your plantarian / vegan / vegetarian Scottish Haggis then you'll need
  • Some Edinburgh Crystal glasses
  • Some Scottish single malt whiskey
  • A piper or Bagpipe music
  • Some neeps, tatties and plenty of gravy
  • Lots of friends
The haggis should enter the dining room on a silver platter and then sliced open with a silver Sgian Dubh (small ceremonial silver knife or more often these days a letter opener) Before you eat it you should address the Haggis thus;


Fair full your honest, jolly face,
Great chieftain of the sausage race!
Above them all you take your place,
Stomach, tripe, or intestines:
Well are you worthy of a grace
As long as my arm.

The groaning trencher there you fill,
Your buttocks like a distant hill,
Your pin would help to mend a mill
In time of need,
While through your pores the dews distill
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour wipe,
And cut you up with ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like any ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm steaming, rich!

Then spoon for spoon, the stretch and strive:
Devil take the hindmost, on they drive,
Till all their well swollen bellies by-and-by
Are bent like drums;
Then old Master of the house, most like to burst,
'The grace!' hums.

Is there that over his French ragout,
Or olio that would sicken a sow,
Or fricassee would make her spew
With perfect disgust,
Looks down with sneering, scornful view
On such a dinner?

Poor devil! see him over his trash,
As feeble as a withered rush,
His thin legs a good whip-lash,
His fist a nut;
Through bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit.

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his ample fist a blade,
He will make it whistle;
And legs, and arms, and heads will crop
Like tops of thistle.

You powers, who make mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill of fare,
Old Scotland want no watery ware,
That splashes in small wooden dishes;
But is you wish her grateful prayer,
Give her a Haggis!

Proper Old Scots version here
 
Or you could just cut to the chase with a vegetarian Selkirk Grace whilst toasting the Haggis with a wee dram (large glass) of whisky

Vegan Selkirk Grace
Some hae meat and canna eat
an Some wud eat that want it
But we're replete and eat nae meat
An sae the lord be thankit

With apologies to descendants of Robert 'Rabbie' Burns by Capt James Tea Cook ex Taigh Na Mara, Lochbroom, Nr Ullapool