Surviving Easter on a vegan diet

Hi!
Happy Easter,
Okay Easter is a really hard time to avoid unhealthy food (especially if youre trying to lose weight for a holiday!  :@ )
Some people have been asking me what I do for Easter since I don't have dairy products... and it couldn't be simpler!
MOST supermarkets provide for people on a dairy free diet. Here is the Easter egg my parents got me along with 2 bars of chocolate! Kinnerton are a compant dedicated to bringing people dairy free dark chocolate confectionary and take special care to avoid cross contamination! If you couldn't tell already I've enjoyed over half of this egg. 

Another amazing vegan friendly brand is Moo Free who have an amazing selection of chocolate bars, buttons and Easter eggs! They have a load of flavours and are avaliable in a lot of supermarkets and online stores. 

Still struggling to find something at your local shop that's vegan? Sometimes people can't access supermarkets easily, and that's okay! Most corner shops sell Fry's chocolate cream, by cadburys. This chocolate is also vegan! 

That's chocolate out of the way... but there is something else a lot of people might struggle with, since most people have a large roast meal on Easter Sundays with a large portion of dead animal ( meat!). 

Vegans might struggle to find something to substitute the chicken, pig or cow on their families plates. There are so many vegan substitutes out there now, it's so simple! 

I recently bought myself a nut roast to try, they are really easy to make and serve up a pretty large portion! Vegan friendly and include a load of vegetables, a source of protein and is high in fibre. Only £2.49 at Tesco!

If you have a Holland and Barrett nearby, you should be able to find a lot of amazing vegan meat substitutes, 

VBites have one of the best ranges in the UK for vegan fake meats. They do a turkey style roast , a gammon style roast and beef style roast and LOADS more!

Anyway, if you don't like to have fake meats you can just ask to have extra vegetables instead... ;) 

Anyway, I hope everybody has a great holiday! Hoping to post more soon.

Rachel X

PETITIONS!

As usual please sign these to help animals:

1. Tell Curacao to stop cruel elephant rides: Curacao
2. Encourage Singapore airlines to stop shipping shark fins: Singapore
3. Stop the UK badger cull: Badgers
4. Demand animal rights in Iraq: Iraq

Rachel X

VOTE FOR SEAWORLD AS WORST COMPANY IN THE USA!

http://consumerist.com/ <<< vote!! Give them the only prize they deserve.
Keep checking back if they move onto the next round!!

Rachel X

Alpro Soy = love!

Hi,

I think living here in the UK we are pretty lucky and have a huge range of vegan food readily avaliable to us in local supermarkets! One thing that's pretty important for somebody getting into a vegan/cruelty free lifestyle are dairy free milks and yoghurts. Alpro has a pretty large range of things ALL of which are vegan and kind to the enviroment! Avaliable milks include coconut milk, rice milk, soy milk, oat milk and almond milk! Each of these also come in a 'light' version for those trying to diet.
Here are a few of the things I have stocked in my fridge right now:

 For somebody who has recently given up milk I'd reccommend they try either soya or rice milk. They both taste amazing! They are both pretty sweet, however so the 'lighter' options might go down better with other people. Also rice milk is pretty watery (much better than pus filled cow milk though imo!)

Soya yoghurts taste amazing and go down well as a snack or breakfast sometimes. Unless you're going raw vegan, it's important to get supplements in for your diet and to make sure it's balanced.

The milks I think cost a decent price, in tesco they are £1 a carton. The smaller milkshakes are just over £1 for 3 in a packet. The yoghurts are around £2 too.








Rachel X

Petitions this week (bit late)

Hi,
here are a bunch of petitions worth signing:

1. Tell Copenhagen zoo to stop killing healthy animals: Zoo
2. Tell south Africe to stop "canned hunting" of lions: Lions
3. Justice for starved to death dog: Justice
4. Save the pygmy rabbit: Rabbit
5. Protect penguins from climate change: Penguins
6. Tell Government to help preserve seals: Seals
7. Urge Japan to stop killing whales: Japan
8. Stop the Yulin dog slaughter: Yulin
9. Rakuten in Japan - stop selling whale meat and ivory! Rakuten
10. Help Canadian Grizzy bears: Grizzly bears
11. Ban Foie Gras in the EU: Foie Gras
12. Ban rodeos in New Zealand: Rodeos
13. Punish buyers of poached tiger parts: Tigers
14. Give companion animals in the EU protection: Protection

Rachel X

5 reasons to STOP eating eggs!

Another quick post from me, but I watched this video earlier and it summed up a load of pretty great facts and because I care about the health and wellbeing of any lurkers reading this, please watch the video! Be reminded I'm not trying to force my point of view onto anybody and it's your choice to watch the video or any videos that I will post on here. Freelee is awesome and you should watch her other videos if you enjoy this one! I'll do my own post on eggs eventually and why I stopped eating them and how I feel morally wrong to consume them or support their industry. Also I love chickens!
Enjoy..  :)

Rachel X

Sooo its been a while!

Hi!

Ive been pretty absent recently and I apologize! There are a few reasons why, first ive caught a few bugs this month and I cant cope well when im ill. Also it was my birthday at the start of the month and as a late present to myself I got a new samsung galaxy s4 which I am blogging from right now! Im sooo happy with it as my last phone was ancient and didnt even have the internet on it! 

 Last weekend me and my boyfriend decided to go to york, stay over and have a whole day shopping! It was awesome and I went out of my way to eat at Goji vegetarian cafe there... tasty isnt the word! They have so much vegan food including amazing vegan chocolate cake which I may have bought a slice of ;). I also got a vegan hot dog which was huge but so tasty! My boyfriend got sweet potato wedges which he seemed to enjoy. Unfortunatly it started raining and 20% of my hotdog ended up soggy buttt I ate it anyway! 

vegan hot dog!

vegan cake!

Another place that we went to in york was the milkshack, I found their website and discovered they offer vegan milkshakes and ice creams. We obviously went here and I got an amazing peanut butter shake yum! You couldnt tell at all that it was dairy free. 

So anyway im hoping now that ive got a new decent phone and the cold weather is being left behind I should be doing my posts more often again. I have still been petitioning, tweeting and keeping up to date with animal news via reddit and Facebook! Got a few ideas on upcoming posts so please visit again! :)

Rachel X

Petitions this week:

Sorry for no posts recently... Been busy busy busy! >.<
Anyway please take the time to sign these!...

1. Stop the spring bear hunt: Ontario
2. Tell Bindi Irwin to stop being an ambassador to Seaworld: Bindi Irwin
3. Pledge to stop illegal wildlife poaching: Poaching
4. Save Australia's bats: Bats
5. Protect pets from domestic abuse: Domestic abuse
6. Support stricter regulation of parrot trade: Parrots
7. Ban Halal slaughter in the UK: Halal
8. Stop baby animals being sold for easter: Easter

Rachel X

Post birthday Superdrug mini haul

Hi!
My boyfriend got me a new camera for my birthday yay!! <3 <3

me + Rob

Because I've got birthday blues after just having turned 21,
I decided I needed to cheer myself up by buying some stuff from Superdrug...
I actually did need some of these things so it's okay! I ordered them off the website and it all came to a little over £10, making me eligable for the free delivery! :)

What I got:

Whitening toothpaste 59p, Floss £1.79 & Mouthwash £1.23

I love love the whitening range from Superdrug (I don't really like the colour of my teeth...) and they all smell great, the floss is especially minty which is ideal for after food. Very happy with these! And at 59p the toothpaste is a steal! Of course everything is also vegan/vegetarian friendly and against animal testing yay! Superdrug, I love you.

I also got:

Vegan/veggie/cruelty free face wipes 99p each, B. energised eye cream £4.47

I had to get the wipes when I saw them, I was running low anyway but 15% of the money goes toward cancer care! Also, the eye cream is due to the fact that I get really bad dark circles underneath my eyes, I hate them! I couldn't pass up the chance to buy cruelty free treatment cream when I saw it. I'm gonna do a blog post about how/if it helped after I've been using it a while.

Superdrug is awesome, their own brand smells great, works great and is cruelty free. I reccommend everyone to at least try it!

Rachel X

Quick Post: Canadian Seal Hunt begins this month..

Hey,
just as the hunting season for dolphins ends in Taiji, Seals in Canada are now under threat from humans.
It is the largest commercial slaughter of marine animals in the world, with at least 300,000 seals both babies and adults killed, between 2003 and 2005 at least 900,000 seals were slaughtered.

WHY? Fishermen back up the justification of this as they are trying to help stop overpopulation of seals, who then go on to eat their fish. However these seals are worth money, their meat and furs are sold on meaning this is mainly a money making scheme. The fish in question, cod is not even a part of the seals' diet. Another reason behind this is because of an apparent demand for seal fur. Killing seals actually leads to pollution which is a trigger for fish deaths due to the bacteria coming from the corpses.

Luckily a lot of people still do not wish to eat dead seals or wear them, but clothing companies and medicines can use the bits in things like oils.

A big question that people have regarding this hunt is whether or not the hunt is carried out cruelly, whether the seals are killed before they are skinned and how they are treat by the hunters. The DFO claims that 98% of all the seals killed are not skinned while conscious and are killed properly, they also state the tool used on the seals skulls is a quick and humane death for the seals.

Clubs used to 'humanely' kill seals

The fact that this mass killing is legal says a lot, baby seals are meant to be protected but are still in some cases killed. However a mass amount of Canadians are opposed to this and try to make it illegal. I believe that by providing the real facts and debunking myths that this CAN become illegal if enough people speak out for the seals. It is a bloody massacre and surrounded by false truths and money making reasons to continue it. The facts are that the hunters do not carry out every kill humanely and the animals are sometimes alive and conscious while being skinned. The hunt doesn't even warrant enough money for it to be called good for the revenues.

If you want to help please sign this petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/stopthesealhunt/

and look out for more that I will be posting in my weekly Petitions to sign this week.

Rachel X

Petitions for this week:

Week starting March 3rd:

1. Stop testing and killing animals in UK lab: Testing
2. Send letter to companies that sell fur to stop: Fur
3. Boycott Canadian Seafood and fur for seal hunt: Seals
4. Stop the Canadian seal hunt: Seal hunt
5. Urge Canada to stop Seal hunts: Seal Hunt
6. Petition against Seal slaughter: Seal Hunt
7. Stop the Canadian Seal hunt: Seal Hunt
(Yes there is going to be a theme this month!)
8. Close Taiji harbor: Close Taiji
9. Close baby monkey lab in the University of Washington: Monkey lab
10. Save the water voles! Water Voles
11. Ban Temple elephant torture: Temple elephants
12. Boycott Africa travel: Africa
13. Help save rare horseshoe crabs: Horseshoe crabs
14. Stop feeding dead piglets to their mothers: Pigs
15. Stop the export of sheep for cruel rituals: Sheep
16. Ban fur imports! Fur
17. Introduce Vegan UK school dinners! School dinners
18. Help horses neglected, beaten and run over on Dublin housing estates: Horses
19. Help US become cruelty free in cosmetics area: Cruelty Free

Rachel X

Everyone who looks at my page needs to watch the Vegan Athiest + an update.

...His videos answer a lot of questions and criticisms that vegans get!



It's my 21st birthday tomorrow, so I might not be blogging as much... I'm getting quite a lot of new games and dvds! As well as other surprises:) I'll try to keep updating my petitions post though and I might post photos of what I get tomorrow at my birthday meal (I've booked a vegan pasta dish) Oh and I might post a birthday haul ;).
I really can't believe I'll be 21 tomorrow! I hope my year can be spent well trying to help animals and prevent cruelty and I hope that I can keep on top of this blog... it's nice having somewhere to write stuff down!

Rachel X

Cruel Britannia: Life and Death on UK Factory Farms

Hi!
Here in the UK, we normally hear a lot of good stuff about the reputation of our factory farms and how we treat our animals to eat their produce/flesh. Unfortunatly, what happens behind closed doors and the walls of slaughterhouses is just as cruel as anywhere else, we still have extremely cruel caged hens and pigs, animals are still mutilated and treated like dirt in some places.

I think it's important for people who claim to love animals to watch this video, also read the article on Viva!'s website: http://www.viva.org.uk/what-we-do/cruel-britannia-life-and-death-uk-factory-farms


Rachel X

Quick post: Hand Sanitizer!

Hi!
I woke up this morning and I couldn't breathe out of my nose, I have caught a cold. :(
I work in a school so it's not really a surprise... anyway that got me thinking about doing a post on what hand sanitizer I use at work since I'm always touching things that are covered in bacteria.
I use Enliven hand sanitizer as my go to...

100ml bottle, tends to last me a couple of months using it a few times a day :) It smells really fresh and like cucumber. Only costs £1 at most shops!

Another great hand sanitizer that I use occasionally is Body Shops, which is a little more expensive than Enlivens but comes in a larger range of smells including strawberry, mango and my personal favorite satsuma.

These smell amazing and I found these 60ml bottles do run out a lot faster than Enliven's. I still prefer to use Enliven at work as the smell is not strong for in my office and I find that it lasts a lot longer! I'm sure there are more cruelty free hand sanitizers on the UK market but these two I have found to be the most available especially nearby to me. Let me know what works best for you, happy shopping!

Rachel X

Important Petitions this week

1. Help abolish the use of Beagles for animal testing: Beagles
2. Make sexual use of animals in Denmark illegal: Denmark
3. Stop live bulls being set on fire in spain: Bulls
4. Tell congress that animal testing is not needed for testing beauty cosmetics: Congress
5.Save the Axolotyl: Axolotyl
6.End the Faroe Islands whale/dolphins killing festival: Faroe Islands Faroe Islands 2
7. Stop dog meat being sold in Nigeria Dog meat
8. Help goats at Santa Cruiz Biotech: Goats
9. Justice for Bryan, who was shot in front of his owners: Bryan
10. Tell South Carolina to stop using live animals in their pep rallys: Pep Rally Games
11. Ban cruel steel jaw leghold traps: traps
12. Keep wild animals out of the Circus in the UK: Circus 

Rachel X

An important video about Taiji, Japan

I could go on forever about how I feel about this killing cove, in the meantime I hope this short video helps educate someone...

Also, please watch the documentary 'The Cove', I'll address this subject better eventually.

Rachel X

Blackfish and why it is important

Hello,

as somebody that watches documentaries on animal rights and vegetarianism pretty frequently, I was introduced to the documentary Blackfish late last year. The documentary focuses on Seaworld and how they treat their killer whales, and how their killer whales treat them. 

Animals in captivity is always a tricky subject, but I have myself been to Seaworld in 2011 and did not think anything of the Orcas that were performing there. The instructors at the shows that I went to see where very clear that the animals 'love' to perform and that they are very happy doing the tricks that we see. I believe that this is an outright lie, and Blackfish also looks into this further. 

The documentary tells us how Seaworld begun as a smaller park, named Sealand of the Pacific and held Orcas there to do tricks for the public (back then, seeing a killer whale would have been a very new experience). To get Orcas, they have to be hunted down and stolen away from their families (they are very sociable animals) this is how one of the present Seaworld Orcas, Tilikum was obtained. Tilikum has so far been held accountable for 3 deaths at Seaworld, however there are no records of humans being killed by Orcas in the wild... The reason behind these deaths is pretty plain to see. He went crazy. And who can blame him? Every single day of his miserable life he needs to perform tricks for dead fish, in a tiny concrete tank, none of which is natural behavior for these animals. Seaworld can try as much as they like but they will never be able to give him a suitable home, like the ocean where he would swim hundreds of miles everyday.

Photo from SeaworldOfHurt

The tanks are shallow and the animals can get sunburn, the music and crowds are noisy and this is made worse for the animals under the water. Food can be given to them in rations if they do not perform to a proper standard, before the first attack at Seaworld trainers would stand on the Orcas heads and show them no respect at all.

No matter what Seaworld or supporters of Marine Parks can say, there are no good reasons why these amazing, intelligent and beautiful animals have to spend their entire lives entertaining US. They do not belong in captivity and it is time that keeping them for shows is made illegal, it already is illegal to keep them here in the UK which I'm glad about. It's scary how much Seaworld are going out of their way suddenly to call Blackfish propaganda and to call anybody sticking up for Killer Whales as extremists...

I love animals. I love them more than being sources of entertainment, they deserve better lives than circus acts. I am not oblivious, I know that Seaworld does a lot to help conservation and rescuing animals and I believe this is what they need to concentrate on doing, build a sanctuary with larger pools and let the Orcas that can no longer function in the wild live and be looked after there in peace. Watch Blackfish and Whale of a Business and make your own decisions, these are my own opinions.

Rachel X

Cruelty free office snacks

I work in an office, and I also get very peckish throughout the day, it's important not to snack on things like crisps or chocolate everyday and also try to avoid caving and eating your lunch really early. Here are some of my favourite snacks to have at my desk, enjoy!! :)

100% vegan Nakd bars and packets of flavoured raisins, avaliable in most supermarkets and also at: http://www.naturalbalancefoods.co.uk/

Small snack sized bags or berries & cherries, nuts and prunes are avaliable and pretty cheap at supermarkets!

Sunflower and Pumpkin seeds are great snacks, pretty filling too considering how small they are.

Of course I also enjoy fruits such as bananas, grapes and apples. :-)

Snacking at work is normally due to boredom for some people, especially a job in an office where you're not moving around a lot it's easy to bring unhealthy snacks to help pass time easier, plus when you're bored you will start to think about food more and how you're feeling hungry (even if you're not starving). By snacking on healthy things you'll definatly feel better about yourself and by snacking on cruelty free food, you don't have any guilt! ;)

Rachel X

Important petitions this week:

Hey!
I'll do this every week, adding to the list as I discover more petitions. :) By signing your name you CAN help make a difference for animals who cannot stand up for themselves.

1. Help free Tania the Elephant from suffering a poor life of solitary confinement: Tania
2. Prince Harry has recently begun speaking up against hunting, yet we demand him to explain this photo of him boasting a dead Buffalo he shot himself: Prince Harry
3. Protect animals from MRSA outbreaks: MRSA
4. Free Angel, the albino dolphin stolen from her pod who were murdered in Taiji. She is now stuck inside a filthy pool at the Taiji whale museum: Angel
5. Help stop circus cruelty: Circus
6. Send a letter to Japanese PM to stop Taiji Dolphin slaughter: Japan
7. No animals should be displayed at Washington DC Travel and Adventure show, tell Seaworld: Seaworld  
8.  Tell Rustlers to stop using live monkeys in their adverts: Rustlers
9. Air China, stop transporting marine wildlife! Air China
10. Stop animal testing at Queens Uni, Belfast: Belfast
11. Help poor Sunder the elephant who is chained and abused in India: Sunder
12. Shut down Seaworld Queensland, Australia Seaworld Queensland
13. Shut down the Surabaya City Zoo and send the animals somewhere better!! Zoo of death 
 

Rachel X

What to look out for regarding Make-up

What to look out for

First, as a rule of thumb I assume that any make-up product does test on animals if their label does not explicitly say so, however it it useful to do online research too :-) Below is a list of brands that I use which are against animal testing and some are vegan:

• Superdrugs B. collection. 
• Lush  
• Manic Panic 
• Montagne Jeunesse 
• Cute Cosmetics 
• Soap and Glory 
• The Body Shop 
• Viva! 

I believe that by buying cruelty free cosmetics, companies will begin to see that by switching to this method they could branch out to new customers and hopefully will release that there are other methods of testing make-up and cosmetics than just on animal subjects.

If you're out and want to check if your favourite brand is cruelty free, there are a few different logos which indicate this. The most common ones in the UK are below:

BUAV

Also, if you check your make-up and it says it was dermatologically tested this means that it was tested on skin, but that does not mean it wasn't tested on animals too!!

Rachel X

First post!

Hello!
I'm Rachel

Me and my Arpacasso!

As a 20 year old (female) living in the UK, I realise that cruelty free shopping is not on very many peoples minds... I believe it is important not only to be aware but to support companies which are committed to being cruelty free, this involves not being tested on animals mainly, but buying vegan cosmetics is important too! About me: I've been a vegetarian for 8 years, I made the transaction myself after I watched numerous videos on how meat is made and read various articles. Right now I've been vegan for a month and I'll explain reasons for my short term veganism in another post. I believe it was this video which really made me want to stop eating animals: (Not for faint hearted people!)

 

Okay so how I'm hoping to set this blog out will be with 3 main categories, beauty products (make-up etc), food and other information such as reasons to buy cruelty free and interesting things to read... :)
I really want to help other people! Please leave comments and share this blog around, I'd appreciate that.


Rachel X