Snow!

Well winter has well and truly arrived in the Arctic! Yesterday we were surprised with early snowfall. It has not stopped falling since and we are a blanket of white! It's really beautiful up here at this time of year. I've not seen the northern lights yet but I'm sure they'll make an appearance soon. Its such a shame however when such beauty is marred. I was admiring the scenery the other day only to see a sign in a cafe saying 'closed this week due to the Elk hunt'. Nice. Wonder if they'll be serving it up next week. I was listening to a podcast by Bob Lindon in San Fransisco the other day and it made me want to move! He was discussing all the good vegetarian and vegan restaurants in the area. I'd just be happy to get a vegan sandwich somewhere! Not a chance here. The sandwich spreads I ordered are not here yet and the shop is out of soya milk. It doesn't help that both of our cars are old and a bit useless which makes it tough to get out to work let alone thinking of where we need to travel to get ingredients! Thankfully the Sunday cooking day is really helping. I am at my studio and have just had the last of my mushroom and almond pate which was yummy, I was asked to add the recipe so here it is - note I don't measure things so apologies, you have to do a bit of guesswork!

Mushroom Pate:
2 handfulls of chopped or ripped mushrooms
1 handfull of sliced almonds (I guess you could use whole ones too)
1 clove of garlic
half chopped onion
Oregano or basil
Olive or rapeseed oil

Sautee onion and garlic in a little oil until soft. Add mushrooms and cook on a low heat for a few minutes. Throw in some herbs, mix and take off heat when mushrooms are cooked. Meanwhile toast the almonds for a few minutes in a hot oven, just until a little browned. Mix the two together and put in a blender (if a lot of liquid still in the mushroom pot then use a slotted spoon or mixture will be too thin). Blend to desired consistency and chill in the fridge before serving.

I usually make a batch and put in saved pots to take out when I go to the studio. Tastes great on flour tortillas with salad or on toast. Enjoy!

We also had homemade tofu burgers last night and they were good, good, good...much better than the substitute frozen burgers we've had before - that's another recipe for later and I can't take the credit, it was from a new cookbook!

I'm still without net access at home but we are due to get broadband in the next few weeks so really looking forward to that. I bet some of you are wondering why I live up here, especially now we are a vegan family with many frustrations, so I guess I'll tell you. This place is our sanctuary. We are lucky with our work and can survive working much less than we did in England with more time for our family. I am a theatre and yoga teacher mainly, working freelance with many projects. Right now I'm writing a children's television series. I trained for many years in the UK for little reward, not financial I might add but to feel like you are doing something useful and here I feel truly valued for what I do. I do wish that we lived in a more animal friendly place but then again maybe if I can use some influence here I may just change some minds.

Til next time x

Healthy living Seminar

I will soon be holding a yoga weekend here in my local town. I was asked by some of the girls I teach yoga to if I could do something over a weekend as they really love practicing yoga. I am the only teacher for some distance and it is a real compliment that I have a core group who are so involved. I decided that I should involve some yoga philosophy into the weekend and so during lunch on the final day I have taken it upon myself to give a talk and seminar on healthy living. Of course the philosophy of yoga involves living in peace with things around you...including animals...

Now, here is where I need to tread carefully. How to find a balance between keeping the enthusiasm of the students whilst not stepping over the mark where they start to resent me for my ‘out there’ ideas. I have already stated I am considered strange in my veganism. Infact i will say strange in my vegetarianism, most people I know here are as yet unaware that I no longer don’t eat meat but now don’t eat anything produced by them either. I have not yet been into my local cafe as a vegan as I know there is nothing I can eat. Every item on the menu contains the dead flesh of what used to be a beautiful animal. As a vegetarian I used to ask specially for them to make me a cheese baguette. Sometimes I was only charged half price as it seemed I was leaving out the main ingredient. Sometimes the kind owner would ask if I wanted egg in it as well to give it more taste. I am not being derogatory here, the people working there are truly nice but the whole concept of vegetarianism is not understood, that is the point I am making.

How then do I discuss healthy living without talking about my choices. That’s simple, I must talk about my choices but I must do so in a very careful way. If people I know well think I am insulting them by talking about veganism then people I don’t know so well may take much offense if I question the lifestyle they know. So I think the best way to go is to highlight facts about the health benefits of compassionate eating and not get over emotional about the issue. Work it into a shift in lifestyle based on improving the self rather than saving lives of innocent creatures. Of course, it is true that the health benefits are immense as soon as meat and dairy are minimised or eliminated if a healthy diet is followed but as a vegan it is really hard not to talk about why I am vegan, how unjust it is that humans are so arrogant as to believe animals are property and how upsetting it is to me every time I see someone eat a body part. Actually that is what I find the hardest of all. Watching people eating meat and now watching people drinking milk makes me so very sad. I want to run over and tell them ‘there’s another way, it’s a good way, it eradicates suffering and pain’ but I know I will be considered a freak, a mad woman, someone to avoid. So, one step, then another, careful, intelligent and honest.

It can be a challenge being vegan but the saddest part is that the food part is so very easy, it’s going out into the world and spreading the word that’s difficult sometimes, especially when it seems no-one wants to listen.

So thank you for your support and if you are looking for more info on support groups then please check back next week as I will be posting some links to some sites of interest.

On a side note, I am still without internet at home so am posting when I am at my studio, my kids forgave me for the interruption as I made my last post on the way home from a shopping trip, Heidi was hungry after her less than nutritious lunch and wolfed down a full bowl of pasta and veg followed by a soy yogurt and then ate half of my evening meal too (we try and eat as a family when we can but sometimes it’s just not possible). She used to dislike so many things but now she eats so well, she eats her own meals and some of mine, all the time, even if I’m just having cereal and soy milk or beans on toast. Now she thinks everything I make is gorgeous – didn’t she used to be able to taste anything with all the dairy I gave her in her diet...?

Feeling alone in the world!

Hi, just a very short note today to say thanks to everyone leaving comments on the blog, I really appreciate your feedback. I am writing this in the car sat outside my office using the wireless connection with my two children in the back getting frustrated at mum! This is because we are rebuilding the home computer and I have no internet access so just wanted to say I will be posting again soon but I may be a bit slow this week!

We've just had a day in Finsness, a small Norwegian town, to stock up on vegan goodies. My daughter kept picking up biscuits in the health shop and not one pack was free from animal products! Lunch consisted of bread as we I could find nothing else vegan in a hurry (Miller is still cranky with the arrival of his first tooth). So next time I know to make a packed lunch!

Better go!

God helg as they say here or 'have a good weekend'!

What do children think?

I often comment on what a bad memory I have. I don’t recall a lot about my early years. I have recently wondered how I easily accepted that eating animals was the right way to behave. I know people go to a lot of trouble to disguise what is being eaten and here are a few examples...


- Most people refer to meat so it bears little similarity to the animal being eaten e.g fillet steak, bacon, chops, mince.... No-one wants to say the name of the animal (notice ‘veal’ instead of ‘calf’). There are exceptions e.g. lamb, chicken wings but people are so desensitised it just passes them by. *
*On a side note I watched a tv program yesterday and a couple were having a first date. The man had cooked and when the girl asked what she was eating the guy replied ‘pigs hooves’ and ‘tortoise’. The girl was horrified only to be reassured that it was only ‘pork dim sum’ and ‘chicken wings’, whereby she hungrily tucked in.... Is it just me?
- Advertisements mislead us – see the happy dairy cows tucking into the grass that most real dairy cows never see, see the happy bouncing lambs in the fields. These creatures obviously live happy and full lives.
- Money. The amount poured into governments by the meat and dairy industries reminds me of the tobacco industries some years ago. We pay you, you promote us. Telling everyone something is good for us doesn’t make it so.


So back to my point. When did I discover that what was on my plate was a piece of rotting animal corpse? The answer is I have no idea. Have I always loved animals? Yes. I used to be a member of all sorts of charities and refused to go to the circus. I even refused to go to Spain on holiday due to the bullfighting culture. Yet all this I did whilst eating meat. I first became aware that I had a choice in my eating habits when I was around 12 and momentarily turned vegetarian, until my mum gave me a beef and tomato cup-a-soup by ‘accident’, then I somehow fell back into the routine. It’s hard trying something like that when you cannot eat with your family as they are all having beef stroganoff and you are having beans on toast. My family were big meat eaters when I was young. Every meal had meat in it or my dad wouldn’t be full. Now they are following a more healthy diet. Infact last time they visited here for a holiday both my parents lost a lot of weight and are trying to keep it off! My dad is constantly surprised when we make a vegetarian meal that is worth seconds! We’ve not seen the folks since turning vegan so keep your eyes out for my New Year posts from the UK!

I wish as a child I had more awareness of the suffering of animals for humans to gobble up their bodies without a thought, I wish I had a stronger character that had stood up for myself in many ways back then but most of all I feel sorry for the animals I ate, whose lives I took. I am truly sorry. Maybe I can make up for it a little by telling my children what the red lumps on the supermarket shelves, why we don’t have animals milk in the fridge and why we feel it is not our right to harm other beings for our selfish habits. Maybe if someone reads this blog and makes a change, making 99 less dead animals per year then my conscience will be lighter.

I believe children should have access to the truth, it’s unfair to them and to the animals to feed them food so far removed from its origin that they have no idea what they are eating. I’m sure fish fingers, sausages and beef paste would lose their appeal if the disguise was removed.

Take care of yourself and those you share the planet with x

Quiet Days!

Life is very different in Northern Norway compared to what life was like living in England. It took me a while to get used to the slow pace here, sometimes I even got frustrated with it. People take time to respond to emails and telephone calls, people are not interested in work outside working hours and life grinds to a halt at weekends and holiday times. Of course, there are many benefits to this lifestyle. Family is valued above anything else and sitting with friends over coffee is a huge past-time. When we first moved here I often forgot that the shops mainly close at 1400 on a saturday (I was used to taking a full shopping day on a Saturday back in the UK), I forgot that you cannot buy beer after 2000 hours. I forgot you can only buy wine at a governmnet outlet which closes at 1600 weekdays and 1500 on a Saturday. I forgot that nowhere except the odd petrol station is open on a Sunday. Compared to the UK where food stores are open 24 hours, Sunday is a day to travel to outlet villages for shopping trips or to go the the garden centre or DIY store. I wonder how much more frustrated I would have been in those early days as a vegan! I need to travel to a health store to get necessary items and if I forget I'm just stuck! So with a family it is important I know what I need, when I need it!

I have a local health food store now who I can use for limited items. I can get dried beans, organic rice, pasta, tinned veggie meatballs, veggie hot dogs and soya milk. I request things but it is so difficult for them as they tell me how much they throw away because people just don't buy it! They have kindly got in just for us, tofu and rice pasta and I'm trying to make a case for vegan sandwich spreads ('Tartex' and 'Tofutti' I can get if I travel for an hour and a half) and soya milk with B12. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

So, I find it is best for me to have plenty of raw ingredients at home so I don't find myself in a situation without food! Saying that I have noticed the huge benefits of a vegan diet is most things go into your cupboard and not your fridge and although I spend more on certain items, my food bill has come down.

Yesterday I spent some time in the kitchen. I have started to cook more and am really enjoying it. Heidi chips in too, she loves helping to kneed bread and stir casseroles. I had 2 new vegan cookbooks to hand and thought I'd try some new things. As you can't buy anything on a Sunday I was forced to adapt some of the recipes but thankfully things turned out really well. I'll not write down the recipes yet as I think I need to tweak them a bit to get them perfect but for a first attempt I was over the moon. The results were the most delicious soup I'd ever made (a Mediterranean tomato and veg soup), a variety of bread and a carrot, banana and walnut cake with orange topping. Heidi had a bit of everything and Miller had some bread and I made him some mashed potatoes with carrot and spinach. My husband Matthew commented on how impressed he was with both my cooking and my desire to do it!

So, now I am enjoying the quiet days here in Norway. I cook, I practice some yoga, I read or listen to podcasts - and yes I do actually have 2 children under 2 but when you are relaxed, so are your children...most of the time!

Signing off now as Miller wants to play!