Vegan MoFo Day 13- Kitchen Tour

Yay! Another MoFo post I can actually take part in :-)

Last year during MoFo I went to Barcelona for a few days, and so I didn't miss out on posting for MoFo I did a very detailed tour of my kitchen, so I'm going to be really lazy and just link to last year's posts:

Kitchen Tour Part 1

Kitchen Tour Part 2

Kitchen Tour Part 3

So as not to appear proper lazy, here is a new picture of our fridge, we've probably acquired more fridge magnets than last time as people have started to get them us a presents when they go away. We now have a cow one that has a clip on it that's useful for keeping notices on. I also got a new postcard yesterday off my friend India (see her blog here) that says "No. I don't miss cheese". As someone who was never a big cheese fan anyway, I really identify with it.

Looking forward to seeing everyone else's kitchen, cos I'm nosey like that!

MoFo Day 12: Favourite Cookbook

I may not be officially taking part in MoFo this year, but I've been religiously reading everyone else's MoFo posts, so when I say today's theme of 'Favourite Cookbook' I knew I need to do an impromptu MoFo post.

As a self confessed cookbook hoarder, I LOVE cookbooks! It's a trait I get from my Dad, who is also a cookbook hoarder, and a new cookbook is always a safe Birthday/Christmas or Fathers Day present. My Dad and his fiancee (also a fellow cookbook hoarder) have an entire cabinet dedicated to housing their cookbook collection.

Unfortunately, I rarely get cookbooks as presents my collection limited to those I buy myself, but is still rather impressive.  As you can see in the picture below, I also have a lot of vegetarian magazines, and hidden between it all are little booklets like The Return of the Cake Scoffer (which I constantly think I've lost!).

I have to admit though, I tend to buy cookbooks and then rarely use a lot of them, some I've never used at all and I need to have a serious clear out at some point.

I do, however have some favorites, first up is my first ever vegan cookbook- Isa's Appetite for Reduction.

Firstly, as a Guns 'n' Roses fan, I love the name of this book, but not only that, it has some of my favourite recipes, as you can tell by how well worn this book is.  My favourite recipes include Ginger Mashed Sweet Potatoes & Apples served with Hottie Black-Eyed Peas & Greens, Veggie Pot Pie Stew with Sweet Potato Drop Biscuits, Mac & Trees (still the only mac and cheese I've made), Thai Roasted Root Vegetable Curry, Chickpea Piccata and a recent favourite Mushroom Tibs. I love how Isa suggests how to combine different dishes, the section on bowl and sandwich ideas, and as someone who has difficulty picturing a salad as something more than just lettuce, cucumber and a few tomatoes the section on salads is inspiring- I love the Sushi Roll Salad.

The downsides of this book are the lack of pictures for each recipe, however there is a section of a select few and this has been greatly been improved in Isa Does It, which is another firm favourite.  The other downsides are just generic problems of living in the UK and dealing with American cookbooks. I'm pretty use to using conversions and the different names for ingredients but it's the use of ingredients that are more common in America than here in the UK, for example the use of blue potatoes and chipotles in adobo sauce. However, these can easily be replaced with substitutes with a bit of research.

As Appetite for Reduction is Isa's take on a diet book, it doesn't have a dessert section, therefore for my second favourite cookbook choice, I've gone for Ms Cupcake- The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town! To be fair, although there are a few good recipes I use in this book (Snap Bars and Snickerdoodles to name two), my go to cake recipes are usually online recipes. The reason I chose this book is because it's such a good introduction to vegan baking- Melissa lists all the vegan brands of baking ingredients, both in the UK and for the USA and Canada, plus all measurements are given in cups, metric and imperial.  It also has a super useful section on vegan baking tips- for example working fast once the liquid ingredients are mixed with raising agents (they react faster than with egg) and the importance of tapping the mixture before putting it in the oven to remove air bubbles.  In addition, not only does this book have pictures of each recipe, but it has additional arty pictures that make it a perfect coffee table book (although not my copy as I've manage to spill red food paste all over the edges of the pages!).

The only downside with this book is the amount of icing sugar they use in their buttercreams- you'll get one lot of buttercream out of a 1kg box of icing sugar! However Melissa does point out that they do like things sweet and suggests you may need to tone it down to your own tastes.

The last book, I don't use that often, but it will always take pride of place on my shelf as it's the only signed book I have, and that is Rose Elliot's New Complete Vegetarian.  I met Rose when I volunteered in the demonstration tent at the Vegetarian Society's Meat Free in Manchester Event and Rose was holding a cookery demonstration and signing copies of the book.  Rose is lovely and I felt a bit star struck meeting her.

Although this book is vegetarian, most of the recipes are vegan or can be veganised.  I have cooked some of the recipes in the book (love the carrot and ginger soup) but the section I have permanently bookmarked is the guidance on cooking dried beans and pulses which is super useful and even includes guidance on using slow cookers and pressure cookers.

I hope that you find this blog post useful and I'm looking forward to reading about everyone else's favorite cookbooks, and hopefully finding new ones to add to my collection

A belated MoFo Day 8 Post: Make a new vegan friend

I wasn't going to do a post for yesterday's MoFo theme, but then I saw Caroline's post on Tea and Sympatico and it made me realise how becoming vegan has totally transformed my social life.

Before going vegan, I had a small circle of friends, not because I'm a difficult person to get along with (or at least I hope not!), but I'm quite shy and quiet as well as being an introvert. And like many of my friends I had just moved from living in Manchester City Centre to Bolton, whilst others had decided to also up sticks and move to Chester, Wilmslow, Lancaster, Cambridge and Warrington and even friends still living closer by have busy lives.

But then I became vegan, and despite never being one for joining groups, I went along to my first vegan meet up, The Cake Liberation Front, where I met Caroline of Tea and Sympatico (I'd been devouring her blog posts for a while- I remember feeling like I'd met a celebrity!), her lovely partner Matt and Anna who was also new to veganism. After stuffing myself with cake (really, my tea that evening was just cake!), Anna suggested I might want to come along to another meet up that weekend at a place called Pie and Ale.

The meet up at Pie and Ale turned out to be for another group called Vegan Manchester, where I met Andrea, of Chocolate and Beyond, Sophia and Gareth. I found out that Gareth was from the Bolton area, and there was going to be a meet up for the Bolton Vegetarian, Vegan and Animal Rights (BVVAR) group at The Kitchen on Great Moor Street the following weekend.

So, then I attended my first BVVAR meeting, where I met Rachel who ran the group with Gareth. And at some point I also went to my first Manchester Vegan Society meeting, where I met my friend Pamela.

Since my first few vegan meet ups, I've been to plenty more, and the groups have just grown and grown, and at every new meet up I've met someone new.  There are groups popping up all over the place, and I've been to meet ups arranged by Glossop's vegan and veggie group as well as the newly founded Warrington, Widnes, Runcorn, St Helens and Wigan Group.

It's not just at specific vegan groups I've made vegan friends- I met my friend Debbie at a job search workshop, she saw my Unicorn Grocery tote and immediately recognised me as a fellow vegan!  We got chatting and discovered that not only did we have mutual friends in common, but we had been to the same events and just not met- including the time Vegan Manchester completely took over Jaipur Palace Restaurant in Manchester.

I also have vegan friends I have never met face to face, but we've become friends through Facebook, Instagram or each other's blogs. And of course, you always end up bumping into the same people at the various vegan fairs, or in a pub in Sheffield- like when I met someone I knew from the Cake Liberation Front and proceeded to show her pictures of the cake I'd just had from Steel City Cakes!

The great thing about vegan friends, is that they TOTALLY understand your need to take a picture of your food before you eat it, usually because they're doing exactly the same thing. Also, you won't be the only one trying to take the leftovers away in a Tupperware box, thanks for introducing us to that idea Anna!

I would definitely say that the social aspect is the best part of being vegan, I've gone from spending weekends doing bugger all to having to actually use a diary to keep on top of things, and even then I've managed to accidentally double book myself. On various occasions, I've been faced with the dilemma of having to choose between two different vegan events that have been taking place at the same time.  Sometimes, it's hard to believe how far I've come from that first Cake Liberation meet up January 2014 to where I am now with a great bunch of crazy new friends, and still meeting more!

So in conclusion, this post is not about the one new vegan friend I've met, but dedicated to all my awesome vegan buddies and all the ones I'm to meet in the future.

The Healthy Indulgence Cafe

A couple of month's ago, a sign appeared on a vacant window in Bolton advertising a new cafe selling vegan and vegetarian food, which created quite a lot of interest in the Bolton Vegan and Vegetarian group (BVVAR). I watched whilst waiting for my bus home after work as the sign turned into The Healthy Indulgence Cafe.

The Healthy Indulgence Cafe opened in late June, and although it serves meat, they do cater for vegan and vegetarian diets and have received positive reviews from day one.

Apart from The Kitchen on Great Moor Street, and the Pizza Express that is hidden away down a back street, there isn't that many vegan friendly places in Bolton, so when a new place opens offering us somewhere else to eat, we all get very excited.  So we were all very happy when BVVAR arranged an afternoon tea in their relaxation room.

On arriving, I wasn't too sure what to expect, I was a bit wary of the word 'relaxation' room, I had awful visions of tie-dye and sitting crossed legged on a carpet trying to see through a fog of incense sticks. NOT that there is anything wrong with that, it just isn't me. But I was happy to find that the room was modern and we had chairs and bean bags to sit on and instead of incense there were candles and stylish statues of Buddhas.  In fact, it was more like a tranquil sitting room, and I immediately felt at home and relaxed.

After everyone arrived and was settled with their drinks, we headed over to the food table to fill our plates with various wraps, salad, cous cous and cakes (of course).

I don't know what all the flavours of wraps were, because as far as I'm concerned, as long as it's in a wrap, it's all good so I wasn't really paying attention to any signs.  However, there were a few with hummus and various types of filling, one with vegan cream cheese and one with vegan sausage. This is where the tie in to today's Vegan MoFo theme is- best sandwich ever.  My theory is, if it's in a wrap it's a million times better!

There were four different flavours of cupcakes (carrot, blueberry and two more that I forgot what they were) and two other desserts, which I think were flapjacks- one with chocolate and one without (note to self: need to remember to write down what things are instead of just diving in!) along with cous cous and impressive looking salad.

I ended up with a selection of wraps, a carrot cupcake, cous cous and one of the other desserts. Out of all the wraps, my favourite one was the sausage and I really enjoyed the cupcake, which turned out to be carrot and walnut rather than just a carrot cake.  I ended up having a blueberry cupcake as well that was left over, which was also really nice.

I really enjoyed the food at The Healthy Indulgence, and the staff were all very welcoming and friendly.  I will definitely be going there again to try their day menu, especially as I spotted that they were able to offer vegan milkshakes, and it's great to have a second option in Bolton town centre. Especially if you're out with omnis who are not too keen on going to a completely vegetarian venue like The Kitchen.

I also spotted that they are looking to open the cafe on Friday and Saturday evenings as a vegetarian restaurant, which is super cool :-)

Thank You to Rachel West and Chloe Woods for agreeing to let me use their photos.

Vegan Meal at the Coven

I've blogged about The Coven in Wigan before, when I popped in one day for a slice of chocolate goo cake and some Fentiman's Dandelion and Burdock, but despite there being good public transport links from Bolton to Wigan, I've not been since. So my friend, Rachel organised a vegan meal there for the Warrington, Widnes, Runcorn, St Helens and Wigan Vegan Group (phew! Long title! We need an acronym!) I thought it was time to pay a second visit.

Luckily, we had a rare visit from that bright thing in the sky, that I believe is called the sun, so all 18 of us got to enjoy our meals in their beautiful garden. This is an old picture, of my first visit, the plants have grown quite a bit since then, which gives it a lovely secret garden feel.

We all got to see the menu before hand and had to make our choices before the event, some had forgotten what they had ordered (which was amusing), but as soon as I saw bruschetta was a option for the starter, my mind was made up. The difficulty was choosing whether to go for the classic topping of tomato or the more usual asparagus or avocado. Despite the fact I've not had any asparagus this year, I opted for the avocado. Because, well, it's avocado.

This was delicious, and I didn't mind the coriander too much either! Other choices included a green vegetable soup, spiced plum and tostada salad, mezze and a raw tomato and basil soup.

Plum tostada

Mezze- the thing that looks like cheese is vegan mozzerella

Next up, were the main courses. Again, there was one option that stood out for me, which was the Chinese fritters on stir fried noodles.  This dish seemed to attract many admiring glances, as I was the only one on our table (maybe in the whole group?) that had ordered this. It looked freaking awesome!

The menu didn't explain what was in the fritters themselves, but I was pleased to discover it was a mix of vegetables and what I think was tofu. So as a tofu lover, this dish was a win!

Other options were lasagne, Tuscan bean stew with spicy polenta, lentil curry with saag aloo and poppadums, roasted peppers and raw sweet potato and beetroot spaghetti.

Tuscan Bean Stew

Spicy polenta, looks a lot like chips. May be chips!

Lentil curry (front), raw sweet potato and beetroot spaghetti (back) which also contained courgette!

Non of us knew what dessert would be, but there was plenty of choice. There was definitely a fruit crumble, a sundae containing a mix of everything for the indecisive, raw ice cream and chocolate goo cake both with and without soy, because no dessert menu is complete without chocolate cake.   The desserts also came with the option of vegan custard, cream, ice cream. For me, it was a no brainer, and despite my stomach's objections, I went for chocolate goo cake with ice cream (although the custard was tempting). 

This cake was pure delicious stodge, and I was glad I chose the ice cream to go with it as it was super refreshing. They use Swedish Glace vanilla ice cream which is super vanilla-y and a lot tastier than other ice creams. 

It would have been a great evening if it had just ended there, but Debra, who owns the nearby vegan and gluten free shop, Nooch was also at the meal and offered to open the shop for a private shopping experience for the group. I adore Nooch, and even though I don't get to Wigan that often (I intend to sort that out!) if I'm ever passing through Wigan, which is usually when I'm on my way to Liverpool via Wigan by train (£9 return!) I'll make sure I pop in to stock up. So the opportunity to visit my favorite vegan shop was unmissable.  Everyone always says never to go shopping when hungry, but you should also never go shopping when your absolutely stuffed either because it's so hard to imagine being able to eat ever again. Despite this, I managed to pick up some goodies that would usually mean a trip to Manchester. I mainly bought chocolate but I also picked up a jar of my favorite vegan pesto by Zest and my favourite vegan mayonnaise- Really! Not Dairy Roast Garlic mayonnaise.

The night was made even more epic when someone suggested that we go for a quick drink in her friend's new bar whilst we waited for our lift to arrive. The bar, Martland, Mill turned out to be two doors down from Nooch, and had a selection of vegan alcoholic beverages. 

There seems to be a little vegan haven starting to appear in Hallgate area of Wigan at the moment- with The Coven, and Nooch only a few doors down from each other and Martland Mill in Jaxon's square a minute's walk away. The fact that they're all very close to Wigan Wallgate station and across the road from the bus station makes it extremely tempting to do some vegan shopping in Nooch, get tea at The Coven, a cheeky drink or two at Martland Mill and then stumble to the train/bus station to get back to Bolton.  If you're feeling a little more athletic, I've been informed by my friend Andrea, that Wigan Central, tucked way underneath the railway bridge near Wigan North Western Station (across the road from Wigan Wallgate) also offers a selection of vegan friendly real ales and ciders. Hmmm, a day out in Wigan is sounding really tempting now... 

Massive thanks to Rachel, who provided the majority of the pictures of the food at the Coven. I suck at remembering to take photos. And also, a big thanks to those patient, hungry vegans that let us both snap away at their food before tucking in!

Mango, Wetherby

My Dad and his other half live in a little Yorkshire village called Tockwith, and their nearest town is a place called Wetherby.  Although Wetherby is a lovely picturesque town, it's one of those places that still think that vegetarians eat fish, however for some unknown reason, not only does the Morrisons sell Fry's nuggets and schnitzels (when the one in Bolton town centre doesn't) it has a vegetarian Indian restaurant called Mango.

I've been wanting to visit Mango for AGES but we just haven't got round to it, however last weekend we went to visit my Dad, and since I had just finished my Live Below The Line challenge I decided I deserved a nice vegan curry at Mango.

On walking in I was presently surprised, I'm so use to veg*n places either looking like canteens or looking a bit hippish, but Mango is well decorated and looks like a upmarket Indian and somewhere your everyday omnivore would feel comfortable in going and not feel intimidated by a load of "hippy Sh*t".  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the decor so just a imagine a modern looking restaurant with tasteful Hindu artwork.

Glancing at the menu, it didn't take me long to decide that why limit yourself to one curry when you could get a Thali, which included a starter, a main with three different curries, rice and bread and a dessert?! The Boy got a Mango Thali, which was bigger and came with five curries for the main.  I didn't go for that one as it didn't say there was a vegan option, I was kicking myself that when we ordered the waiter assumed he was vegan too and offered to veganize it- gutted!

Both thalis came with the same appetizer and starter which were served together.  The appetizer was a papad with a mango chutney, a bread made with black lentils and the starter was the the chef's starter, which was dhokra a kind of gram flour savoury cake.

It looked very fancy and I loved how they have formed the papad into a free standing cone, however the star was definitely the dhokra, which was like a very light cake but savoury.  I've never seen these anywhere else but I'll definitely look out for them next time I go for an Indian!

Next was the mains, little pots of three different curries- a daal, vegetable curry and my favourite, chana masala.  The Mango Thali has those three curries plus two more- a aubergine curry and a paneer curry, which obviously would be subbed for something else in the vegan version. This came with rice, bhatura, a kind of pomegranate chutney instead of raita, and what looked like puffed up poppadoms, which I've seen before and I'm sure has a special name that I can't remember!

My favourite curry was the chana masala, as always and I loved the bhatura, which looks like a naan bread and made of wheat flour, but is super light unlike a naan.  It was really tasty and it was great for dipping in the daal and because it was so light, I didn't feel like I'd just filled up on bread.

I was a bit worried about what the dessert might be, as although I love Indian food I don't really like the sweets, I was relieved that it was ice cream, especially since I was feeling pretty stuffed after the main and I find that ice cream is a good dessert when you need to something refreshing and not heavy after a big meal.  It was an added plus that they had vegan ice cream, which I'm pretty sure was just vanilla Swedish Glace, so nothing fancy but I happen to love Swedish Glace ice cream and the added chopped pistachios was a nice touch and gave it a bit of a boost.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the dessert.  Bu picture a small bowl of vanilla ice cream with pistachios and your there!

I was really impressed with Mango, and the presentation was stunning plus they were super clean- our waiter was wiping down the table after each course! I can't wait for the opportunity to visit again.

Vegan in Newcastle

I love a good accent, and one of my favourite accents is the Geordie accent, which developed from a crush on Dec of Ant & Dec fame in my early teenage years.  Although I am (mostly) over that crush now, geordies such as Si King, Ross Noble and Sarah Millican means that I still love a Geordie accent.

Therefore, it's always been a ambition to visit Newcastle, so when me and The Boy got a three day weekend together we decided to make a short visit.

Not only is Newcastle a amazing city to visit, there are plenty of vegan friendly places to eat too.

The first stop once we got off the train at Newcastle station was Scrumpy Willow and Singing Kettle, which is an veggie friendly place by day, but completely veggie in the evening.  If I was to change anything about our visit is that I wish we had planned where we were going better and gone to this place in this place in the evening.  Instead, both times we went here, we went in the daytime, and both times I forgot to take a picture of my food.  On the first visit I went for a falafel pitta, which was nice.  As they did vegan dessert, I had to have the chocolate passion cake, which is a chocolate cake with a hint of ginger, that I really enjoyed.  On the second visit, I went for the daal which was delicious, but really filling so I didn't have room for cake. I may not have pictures of the food, but I have a picture of the inside, which was homely and welcoming.

After lunch, we headed to our hotel to drop our bags off.  We did try to come to Newcastle on another occasion but were put off by how expensive the hotels are, however we now realise that this is because a lot of the hotels (even the Premier Inn!) have views of the river Tyne.  This time we managed to find a hotel room for £45 at Jesmond Hotel, which is a 10 minute walk from Jesmond metro stop (note: Newcastle's underground is cheap and efficient!).  We were both impressed by the hotel, the staff were friendly and polite and although our room was small, it was really clean and tidy.

After dropping our bags off, we headed back into the City centre to explore and cross the High Level Bridge taking in the sights.

After a good walk around, we headed for tea at Mama Mia's, a Italian with a separate vegan menu, as well as vegan wine.  I ended up ordering potato skins with garlic mayo and the Italiano pizza, complete with vegan cheese.

The skins were OK, but were more like potato wedges, however I really enjoyed the pizza, there were a few choices but this one had artichoke which I love.  They also had a butternut squash risotto that looked amazing, but I just couldn't pass on the option of a pizza with vegan cheese in a non-vegan restaurant but if we went again I'd probably choose that instead.  They also had vegan dessert options, but it was just some kind of crumble which was a bit disappointing, or maybe I was just being spoilt after the chocolate cake earlier in the day!

The next day, we headed over to Sky Apple Cafe, a vegetarian cafe for breakfast.  The nearest metro stop is Byker, so it offers a good opportunity to sing the Byker Grove theme tune if you wish to do so.

This Cafe is the second best decorated veg*n cafe I've been (first being C-A-L-F in Scarborough), I loved the cloud effects and the chandeliers, which looks a bit odd when the place is a cafe, but would make total sense if you went in the evening when it becomes a restaurant.

A running theme with this trip was that we seemed to go to places at the wrong time of day, as although this place did breakfast, the lunch options seemed a lot more appealing.  Especially since the most interesting thing on the breakfast menu, the breakfast burrito was pre-made and therefore couldn't be veganised which was annoying as it would be so easy to make vegan. So I ended up with a small vegan breakfast.

The breakfast was OK, I prefer the vegan breakfasts at The Kitchen on Great Moor Street in Bolton, however the meal was saved by spotting the array of vegan cakes.

Now, I go by the rule that if somewhere offers vegan cake, then it's the law to get some regardless of the time of day.  I'm usually a sucker for chocolate cake, but the strawberry cake looked too stunning to pass by.

This cake was good, I was a little resentful after The Boy, who decided he didn't want a dessert (as it was too early for cake?!) and would just have "a little taste" of mine, ended up eating half of it.  It was good cake.  I was gutted to discover on Instagram the week after our visit that they had opened a vegan deli next door.

After our late breakfast, we headed to the bus station and got a bus across the Tyne to see Angel of the North.

After more exploring of Newcastle, failing to find the Painted Elephant vegan restaurant in the rain and having a bit of a tantrum because I was too thirsty to think about food we headed to Scrumpy Willow and Singing Kettle again for tea.  Along the way I noticed a shop selling Tyne Cheases, which on closer inspection was the Far Place Rescue shop.  I was impressed to find that along with Tyne Cheases they also sell Go Max Go bars and other vegan snacks as well as other charity shop goods.  I tried the Tyne Cheases at The Great Yorksire Vegan Fair, and I really liked the ale and mustard flavour.  It was really tempting to buy some, but as they are cashew based, one chease was around £9 and as well as being aware that I'd already spent a bit too much I don't eat enough vegan cheese to make it worthwhile. But the shop was a great discovery, and I'd love to come back another time.

I really loved Newcastle, the people were friendly and I loved being called 'pet'.  We would definitely like to go back as it was only a flying visit and there was so much we wanted to do.

Live Below The Line Challenge

For the last few years I've been wanting to take part in the Live Below The Line challenge, which raises awareness of world hunger but I've never quite got round to it.

However this year, I've managed to sign up and will be starting my 5 day challenge tomorrow.

You can read more about the challenge, my experience and donate here.

The Great Yorkshire Vegan Festival

Last weekend I got the chance to visit The Great Yorkshire Vegan Festival in Leeds.

Disguising myself as a hardcore vegan, I arrived at the venue, Leeds Town Hall ten minutes before the festival opened.  I felt a bit like those teenagers that camp outside Manchester Academy all day waiting for their favourite band to show up, but only a bit- I'm much too old and wise to sit out all day. There was a method to my madness though, as usually at these events the first 100 (or so) people get goody bags, and the goody bag was well worth getting up at 6am on a Saturday.

After sussing things out for a while inside, I wandered outside to meet for my friends India of Let Us Go Fly A Kite, Pamela of FemVegGeek and Pamela's other half,  Adam. Whilst waiting I took the opportunity to sample some free Frys products at the entrance to the festival, on offer were the burgers, sausages, prawns, nuggets and schnitzels, I skipped the burger as I've had them before (I've also had the sausages before, but I just couldn't resist!) but tried everything else and was really impressed with the schnitzel, I will definitely keep an eye out for when Holland and Barrett have an offer on them.  We also met Miracle, of Miracle's Mission who we ran into throughout the day- I think her presence made this my favourite vegan fair so far this year, she was so friendly and was obviously loving all the attention!

After dragging ourselves from Miracle (eventually) and chatting to some familiar faces, I made sure we headed towards Deb's Pantry, a stall I had spotted earlier on and was desperate to go back to, as they were selling VEGAN LEMON CURD!!!!

I made the stallholders laugh when I did a little involuntary dance when I spotted this, and after tasting it, I was determined to go back to their stall and make sure I got one- I'm sure I was just on time too, as I think I bought the last jar, and even if I didn't, I was close as they sold out in two hours! This stuff is super tasty and I'm using the fact the instructions say to eat within 10 days of opening as an excuse to have it on toast every night.

The organisers of Veganuary were there, and were offering of Ten Acres crisp and popcorn in exchange for a small donation to the cause. I ended up donating twice and getting two packs of the chicken flavour ones, which I'm saving for a dirty crisp butty at some point. Although I was really impressed by their new Lime and Sea Salt popcorn.  Animal Aid were selling off short dated/just gone past their sell by date snacks, including peanut Trek bars for 50p- at that price it would be rude not to!

I also got a bit tipsy thanks to the lovely people at the cider stall who let me taste all their delicious ciders before I settled on a half a pint of their medium-dry.  I don't like beers or ales, so I often feel left out at festivals, but it was great to see a stall dedicated to vegan cider and a chance to try different types.  After browsing round the stalls and grabbing some food, we headed into Leeds town centre in order to visit Out Of This World, which is a local independent shop, which offers a array of vegan produce (although not a fully vegan or veggie).  Now that I no longer work in Manchester and don't have easy access to 8th Day, I take every opportunity I can to visit vegan friendly independent shops and came away with some Green and Black's dark chocolate and ginger, two cliff bars and a jar of my Zest vegan pesto (my favourite!).  We then headed to Costa for a sit and a drink, and me and Pamela amused ourselves by taking pictures of our new soft toys we bought/won at the festival in various poses.  Meet Caja the Pig and Bertie the Badger!

After finishing our drinks, we headed back to the festival to see what bargains were to be had, Pamela and India managed to get some good bargains, I settled on a new bag instead, as my kitchen cupboards are full to bursting point,

I'm not to sure of the name of the company who made them, but I've added myself to a mailing list for when they have a Facebook page and I'll update this post.  I love that her bags are made from recycled materials (so this bag was a pair of jeans), and I love foxes- blame a childhood growing up with Farthing Wood!

I really loved The Great Yorkshire Vegan Festival, and I hope to go next year.  However, I'd be tempted to get a VIP ticket for £10 and allows you to queue jump and includes a VIP goody bag, given what I got in the free goody bag, I have high hopes for the VIP one!

What to do in Madrid

I realise that when I do posts about trips to other countries, I concentrate mainly on the food, which is fine because its a vegan blog, but I do more than just eat on holiday!

Madrid is an amazing city, its one of those places that you could go back to several times and do completely different things.  In fact, it can feel a little overwhelming having so much to do in a short space of time.  Hence why I wanted to do a short guide on Madrid.

Madrid Metro
Starting with Madrid's Metro. The Boy is fascinated with both trains and underground network, so first thing he susses out when we book a trip is if they have a underground system, one of our dreams is to create a guide book of underground systems around the world and how to use them.  I've been on New York and Barcelona's underground systems which whilst the trains are air conditioned, the stations are not, and in hot weather it makes waiting five minutes for your next train feel like a year in the sweltering heat.  The great thing about Madrid's system is that BOTH the stations and trains are air conditioned.  This makes Madrid's metro my second favorite underground network so far- number one is Prague's metro, just for the crazily fast and super steep and long escalators and the fact that you can tell the train is approaching just from feeling a sudden gust of wind!

In terms of tickets and prices, there are basically three options for tourists, a single ticket for if you just want to make the one trip and don't plan on using the metro that often, a ten trip ticket for around 12,20 Euro that does exactly what it says on the tin and then tourist ticket that allows you to purchase unlimited travel on the metro for a certain number of days.  We went for a five day tourist ticket for zone A (City Centre and Airport) at a cost of 26,80 Euro, which works out around just under £4 per day at today's exchange rate. Zone A covers everything are that you want to see as a tourist, and I doubt that you could get as good a deal on London's underground, plus the tourist tickets include unlimited travel on buses and Madrid's train network within Zone A. In addition it includes the 3 Euro airport station surcharge.

Tourist Bus
The Boy's parent's really like the tourists buses that you find in big cities and we tried the one in La Palma in Gran Canaria and were massively disappointed.  However we knew that on the hottest day we were there, we thought going around on a bus might be a good way to keep cool.  The tourist bus ticket in Madrid is 21 Euro, and includes unlimited use for 24 hours, or 48 hours for around 5 Euros extra.  It was a lot better than the one in Gran Canaria, firstly because the ports you plug your headphones in to listen to the talk actually worked and also because it covers a massive area of Madrid, in fact there are two tour bus routes to cover all the various sites as well as extended tours for each of the routes.  It's definitely a good method to suss out Madrid and although we did the tour on the third day, its a good thing to do on your first day to help plan your itinerary.

Temple of Debod
I did try and do a bit of research on things to do before setting off and one of the things on my to do list was to visit the Temple of Debod, which is an ancient Egyptian temple that was given to Spain by Egypt, dismantled and then rebuilt in Madrid.  I've always been fascinated by the ancient Egyptians, and I really want to visit Cairo and the pyramids one day, until then, this was a great opportunity to see an real Egyptian temple.  We ended up stumbling on it completely by accident whilst walking through Parque de Oeste looking for the cable car. I was expecting to just be able to look at it from the outside, so I was excited to see that you could actually walk in it, and touch the inscriptions on the wall!

Cable Car
Near Parque de Oeste you can catch a cable car that gives you a birds eye view of Madrid and takes you to Casa de Campo park, Madrid's largest park. The views are stunning.

Metro Museum
Chamberi metro station is an abandoned station on Madrid's metro system and four years ago they converted it to a museum. It's free to visit and you get to step back in time and see how Madrid's Metro use to look before they modernised it.  Madrid's metro was apparently built around about the same time and London's underground, so the design of the platforms is very similar to London's with the patterned tiles and it also reminded me a bit of Victoria Baths in Manchester too.

The museum has very limited opening hours and is only open Friday 11am-1pm, 5pm-7pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am-2pm. Also last access is 30 minutes before closing time, so plan your visit carefully!

Parks
What Madrid lacks in beaches, it makes up in parks, and there are tons of them dotted all around the city!

Campo del Moro and the Sabatini Gardens, next to the royal palace.

Parque Juan Carlos I, which is a park full of various sculptures.

The Botanical Gardens, which is a hot house inside Atocha train station.

There is also Casa de Campo and Parque de Ouse that I mentioned before.  The park we kept on coming back to was Retiro Park which is one of Madrid's best known parks, and has a boating lake and two palaces that you can walk in- Palacio de Cristal, a glass palace, and Palacio de Valazquez, which is now owned by the Ministry of Culture and holds various exhibitions.

These are just a few of Madrid's parks and you can find a full list here.

This is just a taster of the things there are to do in Madrid, I hope you find it useful.  You can find more ideas at www.gomadrid.com/.