Alternative meat in Czechoslovakia

I'm not a huge fan of the alternative meat simply because if I've chosen to not-to-eat meat, why should I eat fake meat instead? That's weird.
But the main issue a vegan meets in central-European country, far from the sea, often far from the sun, far from the healthy good environments which are dreams for us is that veggies and fruits are... what can I say without being offensive? Poor, bad, without taste, low in variety and I don't want to continue because I don't want to be offensive as here I always consider myself as a guest, although I work and pay contributes. I come from Italy and there the variety of veggies and fruit are higher (but it's still not the paradise for vegan..)

So, as I don't want to eat the same potatoes-zucchini-legumes-pasta-rice-cabbage-frozen spinach-cauliflower-apples-bananas-pear-peas, sometimes I eat fake meat, but what do I consider fake meat?
Probably you already know tofu, tempeh and seitan, the most famous "alternative protein": I don't like plain tofu, I prefer it with coconut milk and asian-style food. Seitan.. uhm... to much gluten for me  I prefer to eat it once per month. I hate tempeh, it's disgusting. Then there is soia like soia steak, granulated or morsel: I like to prepare italian ragù with granulated but I absolutely hate the hamster-food taste of the steaks.

Funny as hell there is a product here in Czechoslovakia (I've found it in SK and CZ so let me use the old name of the Country) it's Goody Foody.

There are different varieties, I've tried them all

• Good food steak with beef flavor
• Good Food SCHNITZEL with chicken flavor
• Good Food medallions with vegetables
• Good Food Gyros & Kebab with chicken flavor
• Good Food SMOKED with chicken flavor

and believe me they taste like meat, also the "structure" of the product is very similar to meat. So let's take a look at the ingredients (this is the chicken flavored one):

Ingredients:

vegetable protein (soy, wheat), rice flour, vegetable fibers, soy flour, wheat starch, egg white, whey powder, water, vegetable oil, lactose, salt, yeast extract, malt yield vinegar alcoholic beverage, flavor, garlic, dried , dried ginger, pepper

seems not bad, but it's also not vegan at all! Unfortunately I discovered this right now (stupid me! that's why I consider myself still "Vegan in training") so this would be my last meal with Goody Foody, last Sunday.

Another product I've found only here in Czechoslovakia is Robi maso (Robi meat).

This is Vegan and really really healthy, look at the ingredients, this is the plain one:
Composition:
blend of vegetable protein, beetroot, water, salt, 
natural coloring: HEM - 3595 - 30/04/04 - 11597th (Arpink red)
it's a very good product, hight in vegetables protein, low in calories

»Ener. value:  523 kJ / 127 kcal
»Protein:  20.8 
grams» Carbohydrates:  10.76 g
»Fat:  0.03 
g» Cholesterol:  0 mg»salt:  0.78 g

it has a big defect for me: I absolutely don't like it! It's chewy, chewier than seitan and it has no taste so to make it better you have to add other ingredients: you can fried it, add soia cream, add oil so the taste is better (there are also some ready to use different preparation here: Robi.cz , but I really don't like the "chewy effect".

Then there is Klaso, another Czechoslovakian product, which is a mixture of soia beans, wheat, flavors. But I never tried simply because it's not tempting for me: the smell (my husband ate it sometimes), the appearance...  I don't like.

In all bio shops is possible to find also different preparation soia based or legumes based like hamburgers, nuggets, wurstel, steaks: they are quite fine the taste is good but sometimes I'm quite scared about the ingredients.

Just to summarize my point of view: normally I prefer not to eat processed food, but the place where I live and the few time that I often  have to prepare healthy food don't allow me to eat how I would so I have to make a choice: sometimes I'll eat this kind of alternative meat in order to not going crazy.
Furthermore I really appreciate those companies as they are trying to give an alternative to meat to everybody (from today except Goody Foody!) and trying to save the planet (Please watch Cowspiracy).

Go Vegan!

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Quinoa Spinach Potato Burgers

Honestly I'm not a big fan of quinoa: it's too expensive and each grain is so tiny that I waste too much product around every time.
But it's a superfood (please visit this website if you don't know anything about quinoa: Quinoa superfood), it's healthy and good for our body so I try to eat it as much time as I can but every time combined with something else.
This morning I woke up very early and I felt like I need quinoa by the end of the day; I took a look into the fridge and I found few leaves of fresh spinach so I decided to prepare:

Quinoa spinach potato burgers for dinner!

(yes, it was around 11 am, but I like to be ready!)

Easy and nice to prepare, you need:
Spinach (frozen it's ok)
Potatoes
quinoa (I had the multi color one)
garlic
oil
breadcrumb

I did't write the quantity of the food, you can check in my picture to have an idea of the proportion.

First of all remember to wash everything before cooking especially quinoa. I cooked spinach with a little bit of garlic and olive oil, I steamed potatoes and cooked quinoa properly.

I mixed the three ingredients together (removing garlic), added a pinch of salt and pepper and the added the breadcrumb. I did't have the breadcrumb so I blended these crackers, they have sesame too.

I created a burger with my hands, put in oven 180° for 10 minutes one side and the 10 minutes the other side and they are ready!

Please visit my Instagram account tonight for dinner: I'll show you the entire burger with bun, vegetable and more for an amazing vegan burger!

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Home made Granola (Tropical mix version).

It's fall (really? I tough winter was already here as outside it's 4 degrees!) and for me fall means it's time to cook lots of comfort foods. One of my favorite comfort food is granola, in particular the home made granola as the industrial ones are full of sugar and scums.

I really like granola because I can create different combinations and the taste is always great. Today I made this almond plus exotic fruits, I'm going to tell you what you need.

for the syrup

-50 grams of agave or maple syrup

-50 grams of coconut oil (or any other seeds oil)

-50 grams of water

-half table spoon of brown sugar

main ingredients:

160 grams of oat flakes

120 grams of almonds

80 grams of dried fruits (I used tropical mix)

Prepare the syrup: heat and stir all the ingredients for syrup and let them cool down.

Mix all the other ingredients and then add the syrup; mix well and put the mixture in a baking tray then press to have everything at the same level. 

Cook in oven for 40 minutes with temperature 150-160 degrees, but remember to move and shake the mixture every 10 minutes (so for at least a couple of times) by extracting the baking tray from the oven.

Enjoy the solo-version or with your favorite vegan "milk".

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I can't vs I don't want

I can't see something like this:

here

Vegans can't eat this, Vegans can eat that? By the way the content is also switched.
Vegan is not a disease like diabetes, celiac disease or all the other diseased related with food, Vegan is a CHOICE. And as it's a choice, I choose not to eat something, I don't want to eat something, not I can't!

Modified by me 

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What I eat in a day. Sick leave-version #whatIeatinaday

I know, it's extremely mainstream, but as some of my readers are also my friends and usually people are worried about the "new stuffs" and as my friends are people, I want to show you what I eat in a normal day of the week, while I'm in sick leave as I have some problem with my gallbladder.
As I'm at home I have time to cook and prepare food, but I'll show you my #whatieatinaday working day version.

Breakfast was around 7 am, with 2 "melba toasts" (sorry I was not able to find the translation for "fette biscottate") with home made peanut butter (made with peanuts only) and strawberry+rhubarb jam and about 200 ml of unsweetened soy milk with a little bit of coffee.

all the  Nutrition facts available are above (in German and Slovak language)

Then I went to the doctor and I took with me a bar. Lots of people start to scream when the hear bar as the majority of them are completely unhealthy, but of course this is not the case:

Ingredients: bio dates, bio almond, bio raw quinoa, bio chia seeds,  bio coconut chips, bio hemp seeds, bio agave syrup, bio lemon juice, salt.

Everything bio, everything raw, vegan gluten free, no sugar, super food... oh I love it. And it gave me the right energy to go home and prepare the lunch. Normally I try to not eat bars, even if they are great like this one, because  I prefer to eat fruits and dried fruits, but if I don't have time or I'm in hurry I eat those kind of bars and I'm perfectly ok.



For lunch I ate:

Peppers stuffed with tomatoes and onion and under those vegetable there is a piece of bread prepared by my husbands so no scums inside.

Soup with: pumpkin, onions, edamame, peas, cabbage, carrots and buckwheat noodles so I had my carbs, my proteins (peas and edamame) and my vitamins for the afternoon.

Both peppers and soup are served with  olive oil to guarantee the intake of fats.

Break, I needed something delicious so I prepared a big "pancake" by blending 1 banana, oat flour, and soy milk. Then I cooked half apple in coconut butter and added spices.
Amazing!

ok it's not so great to see, I'll never post it on Instagram, but was good and super healthy!

For dinner I prepared Indian food: pumpkin and cauliflower with spices and coconut milk, served with Basmati Rice.

Below my favorite canned reduced fat coconut milk (Marks&Spencer's):

Around 10 I missed something sweet, so I ate this

Normally I prefer to eat fruit before going to bed and actually yesterday I didn't have so many fruits, but I'll eat more today.
Furthermore I didn't have so many proteins, that's why I'm already cooking lots of chickpeas!

See you soon!

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I respect the life of a cow.

I've always believed that suffering and be tortured are worst than be killed. I mean: when I think about the dead men walking for example I can imagine their freedom after death especially if they have been tortured during imprisonment.
This is the main reason why, as I already told you in my last post, I felt ashamed and hypocrite when I was vegetarian: better killed than tortured.
Unfortunately in our Era animals are killed after a life full of tortures which is absolutely the worse than worst.

Yes, you can believe in veganism or not that's true: you can believe that eating exclusively plants is better for your body or not, but you can't deny that eating animal products means eating someone who has suffered before.
Please open your eyes and start thinking with your brain: those happy cows you see in the advertisement at the TV are not happy, they are abused every day, even for filming that advertisement!
The funnt and acting stupid funny chicken you see printed in the boxes of your favorite nuggets is someone who lives (or probability now is dead) not a cartoon!
As the animal condition is really something you can't deny because it'sis in front of your eyes, then let's talk about it. 

Today I want to talk about the conditions in which cows live in the cow breeding farms.
I'll not show you strong and disturbing images as I feel very bad every time I see something like that, but I made for you some research in the Internet to help you to understand better the situation of the animals in the breeding farms. 
ASPCA
FarmSanctuary
and so on, please digit cow condition in breeding farms on Google for more articles about it.

Believe me: until 3 years ago I was sure 100% that cows produce milk automatically (?!?!?!?). And I used to live in the country so... Really... How stupid was I?
Mammalians do not produce milk automatically but they must be pregnant first! Sounds banal, but I'm quite sure lots of people around me think cows-sheeps-goats as milk producing robot. Not true.
A cow must be pregnant, then after 9 months she gives birth, but the puppy is taken from her (can you imagine a mother tired after the childbirth and a pregnancy without love and care and attention from someone and then staying without her son?) and she is used and abused just to produce every day milk which originally was for the baby, but now is for you, in your table in the form of a cheese?
And then, when she stops to produce milk, another pregnancy, another baby stolen.
And if the baby is a a male then is killed at the age of 6 months to give the white light meat so tender and tasty and/or his skin is used to create your shoes and your bags, so soft and luxury. But he is lucky, believe me. Because if the baby is a female she will be abused and tortured for some years to produce the milk that industries need to create the yogurt you need poo (when for that you just need to eat more veggies and fruits).

Stop thinking about happy cows: there is nothing happy in a life of a cow. May be you think that animals have no feelings? Have you ever heard the cry of a cow when her puppy is taken from her?
Make a research and listen.
This is pure violence and even if you think that eating beef is good for your body, that drinking milk makes your bones strongest, that eating yogurt is good for your intestinal flora because advertisement convinced you, how can you sleep easily and look at your face at the mirror every morning if you know that those products have been produced after lots of suffering and pain and horrible deaths?

You have no excuses now: you know, you saw, you listened and this is not something you can believe or not, it's something true which happens every day.
So you have a choice: keep eating suffering and pain of an animal giving you excuses (like it's good for your body, I like them, it's easy to prepare) or quit eating animal products and live in peace with yourself and with the creatures around you.

Let's assume that eating animal products is good for you body: are you really so selfish to want the pain and suffering of another creature in order to avoid the "likely" (as this is not sure) pain? And do you think you are better than a cow? Better in what? Do you think you are a God and you can choose to live by killing other creatures without any consequences?
Probably you don't believe that cows are creature? Really?

Yes, until 1 month ago I used to eat animal products but then I made a choice: to quit eating suffering violence and pain.
And yes it's something to believe, like a religion, but while there are no visible proof of the existence of Gods, there are tons of proofs regarding the violence on animals.
No excuses: you have a choice.

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Another Vegan Blog

Hi everyone and YES, this is another vegan blog.
But before talking about the blog, let me introduce myself: as most of you probably already know because of my previous blog, my InstraGram account and so on, my name is Laura, I'm Italian (so please forgive my mistakes with the English language), but I live in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. I like living healthy and healthy lifestyle and I also like cooking and then eating; I adore Indian food, spices, but also traditional Italian food and the key of the success in my diet is taking those traditional Italian foods or Indian-Thai-Chinese recipes and try to reduce the bad fats and calories in order to keep the same great taste, but absolutely guilty free.
Additionally, as you probably understand from the blog title, I'm vegan but I'm quite new in this choice.

Let me tell you briefly about my diet story:
after pregnancy I gained 15 kg so I decided to start Dukan diet: lot of animal proteins, low fats, low carbs. In 3 months I lose 15 kg, then I was completely sick of eating meat and fish and I became vegetarian. Of course my choice was not related exclusively about the sickness of eating animal proteins but I started to read about nutrition, diets, veganism, alternative diets and furthermore I felt very bad thinking that "I'm eating someone and not something". Animals have a soul, emotions, feelings: they suffer, feel pain, they are sad or happy; sometimes I took a look at my dogs and taught: why dogs NO and pigs YES? I'm not an extremist, I'm not the kind of person who likes to hug cows or pigs, I'm quite fussy and scared about animals but this doesn't mean that I have to eat them.
During my vegetarian period I felt hypocrite because I still ate cheese and cream and dairy products: how can I feel good with myself by avoid eating meat when I think that million and million of cows-sheeps-goats in the world are suffering right now because their baby are taken just to provide their milk to human beings? and they are forced to live in jail to give the products of their body to us when WE DON'T NEED them!
But I still was weak: I used to like feta, gorgonzola, asiago, ice cream, wipped cream, greek yogurt and I was not able to say NO. In the same period I was suffering from acne in my face, I tried tons of cosmetic products but nothing worked; then I tried to quit diary products as I red an article somewhere about the relationship between acne and cow milk and the acne disappeared; then I wanted to verify my theory and I started to eat/drink diary again and acne came back so I quit dairy products to have a beautiful and bright skin, but not completely: sometimes I allowed to myself some ice creams and small pieces of cheese because as I didn't eat meat, what else can I eat if can't eat diary also? (ironic question of course)
Last year I started to gain weigh again without any reason and I was scared, oh yes I was SCARED because I didn't want to; so I began to eat meat again, but only chicken and fish and sometimes beef. Can you believe me if I say that when after almost 2 years of vegetarianism I ate my first chicken breast crying? Yes I cried because I felt ashamed of myself, I felt selfish and stupid, but I kept eating meat and felt ashamed every time until my 39th birthday when I decided to make me a gift and quit all the animal products in my diet.
In my Instagram description is written "Vegan in training" because it's less than 1 month but do you believe me if I say that it was the most amazing month in my life regarding feeding? I love all the things that I eat, I don't feel guilty (only sometimes when I eat chips as I'm crazy for chips in bag ç_ç), I've started to eat lots of different kind of foods, never tried before, I can eat TONS of fruit, I prepare ice cream by myself, biscuits, cakes!! I put coconut milk everywhere, completely in love with coconut milk (the canned one, I mean). I get my proteins from legumes (usually I didn't eat so much legumes because, you know, if you eat them combined with meat or cheese it's a mess inside your stomach), from tofu (you don't like tofu, don't you? Me neither, alone it's awful! But have you ever tried tofu and zucchini with coconut milk? Coconut milk is too fat for your diet? Our body needs fats, the good fats and coconut milk is a good fat so.. enjoy!)
But this morning after an medical examination I had a bad news, ok, not SO bad, but quite bad: I have a stone in my gallbladder: almost 3 years ago I've started to suffer occasionally from stomachache, but was not so often; slowly the pain came often and often until last Tuesday when I woke up early in the morning and I started to feel pain but the pain was so strong during the day that I was forced to go to the hospital. Today, after one week, I did the examination and they discovered a stone, 1.7 cm in the gallbladder. It's not so bad, but why I'm talking about this right here, right now, in this context?
Because some of the causes related with this disease are due to my diet choices: Dukan diet first, then low fat and low carb diets later. It's not a big issue, but It sucks.

So, what's the point right now?
When I've started to think about the creation of a new blog, where I could talk about my vegan choice I said "Another one? There are so many other blogs about this, it's so boring to have another one with the same topic!" Honestly I don't care because the purpose of this blog, like all the other ones about veganism, is to inform you that you can choose: we have the choice to live better, to eat better and without any kind of violence.
Again: we don't need animal products, even if you think that we need and I don't care if you think that we need them because the doctor said "eat meat for iron, drink milk for calcium" and bullshits like that. Oh no, I'm not a nutritionist, I'm not a doctor, I don't have a degree in alimentation (?!?!) how is it called or something like that and I'm happy that I don't have it because I can think with my brain and make the right choices for myself, read all the kind of books that I want and take the right direction guided just by myself.

So I'm not here to tell you to change your ideas regarding foods but just to inform you that:

YOU HAVE A CHOICE

 you can change your habits and feel better with yourself and with all the creatures around  you.

Furthermore you have an additional choice: to follow this blog by using the button here somewhere around or not or to de-follow the blog if you already followed it, it's up to you. If you don't like the topic, if you don't want to change your habits because you are too lazy (or close minded), if you are not ready to be shocked by some of the words or images that I'll post in order to reveal the truth please leave it and don't be annoying. Last but not least: if you don't like me I don't don't like you so pà pà.
I have a weird conception of life and society in general so be ready to read lots of things you'll not like.



PS: at the moment the template of the blog is awful, be patient, it will be better, I promise!!!

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