Veganuary: Product Reviews

Another week means lots more vegan products to try, and I found some really tasty new foods to add to my vegan journey this week. Enjoy!

ASDA Roasted Veg and Houmous Pizza (£1.75)

Don't grate directly onto the baking sheet if
you don't want difficult washing up later

Perhaps I should have read the description more carefully, but I was very surprised when I went to cook this and found it didn't have any cheese on it. Pizza without cheese is pizza not worth having at all in my mind, so I topped it with some Violife mature cheddar before baking. This worked well and I enjoyed eating this. The houmous didn't really add much, but nonetheless it made for a very tasty, easy to prepare dinner.

ALDI Double Chocolate Cookies (£0.99 for 8)

Already took a bite sorry xo

When the only vegan biscuits on the market are often Oreos and bourbons, snacks can get a bit boring. So when I found these in ALDI, I knew I had to try them. They reminded me of Maryland cookies, as they're more like biscuits than cookies. The chocolate chunks were quite big and were not in short supply, and I'm pretty sure they were gone by the next day after opening. The cookies were also available in a flapjack version, which I'll be sure to try if I find them again!

Doisy & Dam's Dark Chocolate Ballers (£1.50 for 75g)

I read online that these were a good alternative if you miss Maltesers, so I was really excited when I found these on offer. However, I think I took this recommendation to heart as personally I don't think they do at all. The middle is much more like cereal rather than the malty middle of a Malteser, and quite a lot drier. I did manage to eat these (it is chocolate after all), but I don't think I'll bother buying these again- especially at full price.

This Isn't Bacon Plant-Based Rashers (£2.00 for 120g)

The last time I tried plant-based bacon was over 5 years ago when I first went vegetarian. I think the fact that it has been this long since I tried a new one says a lot. The Quorn bacon that I initially tried looked like the soles of shoes, and didn't taste much better either! Even before I cooked it, it smelt similar to bacon and frying it only improved it. The texture was slightly more chewy, but it still made a very good fake bacon sandwich. I'll be keeping it for special occasions as at full price it's quite expensive, but it's good to know that there's a tasty bacon alternative on the market now!

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Lockdown Baking Series: The 5th and final bake- Cinnamon rolls

As lockdown measures start to ease and we begin to return to some form of 'normal' life, it felt right to bring the Lockdown Baking Series to a close. But I wanted to end it on a (sugar) high, and what better way to do that than with cinnamon rolls? For years I've been using the excuse that recipes that use enriched dough (a classic bread dough with ingredients such as butter added) can't be made vegan and be just as good, because they wouldn't have the same richness that dairy and eggs bring. However, when I discovered these cinnamon rolls, I was proven wrong. I first discovered this recipe when I had a craving for cinnamon rolls during Veganuary, and I haven't looked back since. They're just as soft and light, and even with plant-based margarine, they still taste surprisingly buttery. Now I know that a lot of people think the only suitably topping for cinnamon rolls is cream cheese frosting, which of course makes them more difficult to make vegan. Howev

Almond milk: more harm than good?

Is your morning coffee costing the lives of billions of bees? There's no denying it- plant-based milk is everywhere. In 2018, there was uproar in the US as a shortage of the popular oat milk brand 'Oatly' broke out, due to sales growing faster than even the company expected. Demand for cow's milk is falling as people begin to choose alternative milks such as coconut, soya and even pea. However, this isn't without causing some controversy, of course. One plant milk in particular has come under fire recently, due to claims that its production is causing the deaths of billions of honey bees. Now, I'm not saying that we should just give up and switch back to drinking cow's milk. The 2018 University of Oxford study shows that dairy milk produces almost three times more greenhouse gasses than any milk alternative available. So whichever plant milk you choose, it's still so much better for the environment than dairy. But if you're an almond milk lo

DIY Plant milk seedling trays

Now the weather has warmed up, it's the perfect time to get gardening. Here's a simple idea for germinating seeds using materials you might already have in the home! Slowly but surely, I've been convincing my family to swap to plant milk. However, this means we're also throwing out a lot more cartons. Due to the mixed materials, cartons have to be recycled at a specific centre, which currently we only have one of- in Yorkshire. This plant is capable of recycling up to 40% of the cartons produced here in the UK, but an article by The Times found that only 10% are actually recycled. Considering many people swap to plant milk for environmental reasons, it's ridiculous that most of the time the cartons end up in landfill, slowly breaking down and releasing greenhouse gasses. You can make plant milk at home, and it's a great option if you've got a zero-waste shop nearby because then you can make it entirely waste free. I have tried making my own oat milk

Hannah's Veggie Lifestyle

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