Happy New Year and welcome to Veganuary 2015

Happy New Year! You may remember that last year, I discovered Veganuary for the first time. As a non-vegan vegetarian, I often find I'm in the firing line from both meat-eaters and vegans, as to what my family eat and why we do so.  In case you don't know, I've been vegetarian for over 20 years, Mr O eats meat occasionally - but I won't buy or cook it - and both of our daughters have been raised as vegetarians from conception! 

As an ethical, rather than heath-led veggie, I am obviously aware that a vegetarian diet isn't perfect when it comes to avoiding cruelty to animals, but as a family we try to minimise our egg and honey consumption, leather and silk purchases, and avoid products tested on animals and animal-based entertainment (zoos/racing/circuses etc.). Our one big downfall is cheese, although I must say that since last January, I definitely buy less diary cheese than I did before.

 For those of you who haven't discovered Veganuary before:

"Veganuary aims to reduce the suffering of animals by inspiring and supporting people across the globe to go vegan for the month of January. For most, a love of animals is the catalyst. Some people want to feel better about themselves and the impact they make on the world. Others would like to set themselves a challenge, and many combine Veganuary with their ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ and see trying vegan as the healthiest start to the year. Whatever your reason, we’re here to support you. So try vegan for a month and discover a whole new world of taste and flavour. We guarantee that, by the end of the January, you’ll feel fantastic! Sign up today."

Although I didn't quite manage to stay completely vegan for the month last year, I made a concerted effort to reduce my family's dairy/cheese and egg consumption. I will admit that I found it tough at times, but it was a good experience, and one I am willing to try again. I currently have some cheese left over from Christmas to finish off, but after that has gone, I'm going to attempt a full vegan month. The rest of the family may have some cheese/dairy and the odd Quorn product, so I'll be keeping vegetarian options in my new Veganauary recipes.

I'm actually thinking of doing a 5:2 kind of meal plan for the family, whereby weekday meals are vegan and weekend meal are vegetarian or have a vegetarian option. That way if I fall off the vegan wagon, I know I can get back on the following Monday!

For anyone joining in with Veganuary, there's a great list of vegan pantry essentials for both the UK and the USA, which give dairy and egg-free alternatives to many common non-vegan cooking ingredients.

I you're thinking of joining in the Veganuary challenge, I'd love your support, so do drop me a comment either here or on Facebook, with your encouragement, tips, recipe ideas or questions.

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Anyone for shark fin soup?

One of my new year's blog-olutions was to focus a little more on animal welfare issues. In the past few days, I've read about about two shocking stories of greed and cruelty, which I wanted to share, to raise awareness. I know not all of you are vegetarian or vegan, but I hope that this doesn't stop you from joining me in outrage at these recent events.

Firstly, I saw these photographs taken by Gary Stokes (also see video above), of thousands of shark fins drying on the roof tops of Hong Kong. Although the trade in shark fins (for the infamous shark fin soup) is apparently in decline, there is still a high demand for the product in China. Incidentally, something I didn't realise before, was that the fins are harvested from live sharks which are then thrown back into the sea to die, as the rest of their meat is not nearly as profitable.

The second story was featured in the Daily Mail and involves the beautiful and undeniably intelligent dolphin. You may already have heard of the annual dolphin massacre at Taiji cove on the south coast of Japan? Well, those dolphins which are caught but not slaughtered for their meat, may end up being sold to aquaria for our entertainment in "abusement parks". 

photo courtesy of the dolphinproject.org

Whilst the UK no longer has any captive whales or dolphins, many UK holidaymakers flock to see dolphin shows or to swim with captive dolphins in other countries. Although many are now captive-bred, some including those in other European aquaria, may have been caught from the wild. Please do consider the plight of these amazing animals before booking your tickets to any zoo or aquarium which still has captive whales and dolphins.

Read more about the campaign to stop shark finning here. Read more about wales and dolphins in captivity here.

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Time to share - an update

You may remember that almost a month ago, I blogged about Charity called Deki. Well, the great news is that Leontine (the woman who I featured and chose to loan to), has now had her loan fully funded. This will mean that she can start to expand her business, and hopefully make more money to support her family.

If you weren't able to loan any money to Leontine, but feel you would like to contribute to another entrepreneur, you might like to consider Afi, who  makes and sells cakes on a street stall in Togo. Afi is 35 and is married, with two children. With the help of a loan from Deki, she hopes to be able to buy larger quantities of ingredients and eventually expand her business and employ others. 

© Image courtesy of Deki

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Britain's Got Salad!

©

I came up with this idea when I was ill and in a slightly delirious state a few weeks ago. I was in lying in bed, dosed up with painkillers and decongestants, listening to the TV with my eyes closed, when a trailer came on for Britain's Got Talent. As my ears were blocked, I misheard it as Britain's Got Salad and I thought that would be a great title for a salad talent show!!

Now, one of my favourite veggie bloggers (Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes) runs a monthly soup and salad challenge, so I don't want to step on her toes. This is therefore a one off event (or maybe an annual one) to celebrate and publicise National Vegetarian Week.

Since starting my blog and reading many others, I've come to realise that there are some fantastic salad ideas about that include an amazingly wide variety ingredients, so I'd like to encourage as many people as possible to get excited about salads!

Unfortunately after ordering a salad in most British pubs and restaurants, you'll be presented with nothing more than a bowl of shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced cucumber, some bullet-hard tomatoes and maybe a few raw onion rings if you're lucky...no dressing, no herbs, no taste! Obviously we have to import many salad ingredients throughout the winter months, but we have fantastic salad ingredients coming into season right NOW.

To enter, just link up your favourite salad recipes (that includes raw and cooked salads, plus dips) or any other salad-related posts (review, news, growing tips etc.). The only proviso is that your post must be related to salad in some way, and any recipes must be vegetarian/vegan or show how they can be adapted for vegetarians. It would be great if you would add my BGS logo to your post too, but it's not compulsory. If you want to add the list of entries to your own blog post, get the InLinkz code here.  If you're not a blogger, feel free to leave your recipes and tips in a comment instead.

So here it is...ladies and gentlemen...BRITAIN'S GOT SALAD; Unfortunately Simon Cowell et al won't be judging your entries and there's no cash prize I'm afraid!

Logo made with
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Have you got time to share with Deki?

Tots 100 have recently launched Time to Share, which aims to raise awareness of smaller charities, publicise volunteering opportunities and of course raise funds, by getting bloggers involved.

I've been paired up with Deki, which is the first UK person-to-person microloans charity; Instead of giving 'aid' they give loans to people from Togo, Malawi, Ghana and Nepal so that they can set up or expand their own businesses and access training and support - this allows people to preserve their dignity, as they are not receiving a hand-out, but a fair loan that needs to be repaid.

How does it work?
Anyone can lend from as little as £10. You can even raise funds as a group (e.g. a work place or school). It's is a very engaging way of giving because you can pick the person you want to support. Also your money goes to that specific person and not to an obscure charity pot.

Before they receive a loan, each applicant goes through a process of basic training and the testing of their business idea - it's in everyone's interest that their idea is solid. All being well, you'll get the money back, when the loan is repaid (although there's no guarantee of this) and you can then reinvest the money to help someone else. 

Watch this animation to find out more:


This You Tube clip shows some of Deki's success stories.

What sort of people need a loan?
Deki's website features many people who have started their own businesses and want to expand them. These include stall holders, food vendors, dress makers and many more besides. People just like you and I, who want to be financially self-sufficient and to provide the best future they can for their families.

It's been a difficult decision to make, but I've chosen one particular person to lend to, and I'm asking you to consider lending to the same person, to try and make a difference together. I've decided to support someone who despite living in very different circumstances to me, has a lot in common with me.
Leontine lives in Lome, Togo. She's the same age as me and like me, is married with two children. She sounds like a bit of a foodie,  as she used to be a fruit retailer but now has a little stall selling rice, yams and cooked food. She's asking for a loan of £390 so that she can buy stocks of oil, beans, rice and yams to grow her business. Leontine wants to provide her children with a good education and maybe one day have her own home.

If you have the Time to Share, please join me in raising money for Leontine's loan, by sharing this post and visiting her page on Deki's website.

Thankyou.

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Will you join Save The Children's health worker campaign?

Image courtesy of Save the Children

In the west, we take it for granted that we'll have caring, professional and qualified health workers available to monitor us during pregnancy, to deliver our babies safely and to provide health care, advice and medication when our children fall sick. In fact, we see it as a right.
My children were both delivered safely at home by 2 fabulous midwives who never questioned my belief that home birth was the best option for me and my babies.
When my children have been unwell, I've been able to take them to the local health centre or hospital where I knew they'd receive the care and medication they needed.

Unfortunately, not all women are that lucky...

"Doctors, nurses and midwives are vital to saving children’s lives. But there's a massive shortfall of health workers in the world’s poorest countries.  As ever, the poorest and most vulnerable are hardest hit. Half of the 8 million children who die each year are in Africa, yet Africa has only 3% of the world’s doctors, nurses and midwives."

On Tuesday, fellow blogger Chris Mosler from Thinly Spread and digital media consultant Liz Scarff will attend the UN General Assembly in New York (on behalf of Save the Children), where they hope to persuade David Cameron to take the lead in tackling the health worker crisis. There is a target of 60,000 signatures on the petition by Tuesday. At the moment, almost 42,000 have signed the petition - a shortfall of 18,000. 

Your help is urgently needed to meet that target before Tuesday. Let's do our best to make sure that Chris and Liz go on Tuesday, armed with 60,000 signatures.

What do you need to do?

1.  Firstly, sign the petition.
2. Then publicise the campaign to make sure everyone knows about it! Get tweeting @ChristineMosler #healthworkers, facebooking, texting...whatever you can do to help spread the word. 
3. If you blog, please think about joining in the blog hop below (the aim is to get 100 bloggers to write a 100 words about how accessible health workers are to them or about great health worker they have encountered*) 

It's not difficult and it won't cost you anything, so let's work together to make a difference.

Thanks to Michelle (Mummy From The Heart) and Gemma (Hello It's Gemma) for setting up the linky.

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It's the very first Fish Free Friday

We all know about Meat Free Mondays, but have you heard of Fish Free Fridays? It's the new campaign by the Vegetarian Society, which hopes to raise awareness of the fact that vegetarians don't eat fish (no, not even fishfingers!) and that the current commercial fishing industry is not sustainable.

If you want to join in and spread the word, visit the Vegetarian Society website

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