Hope you enjoyed my extremely creative title there.
As you might have guessed, I am now 2 weeks into Veganuary! After spending most of week 1 in a part of London known as Enfield with my parents, I spent most of this week 300 miles away in Edinburgh, where I’m currently doing a PhD and live most of the time. Turns out Edinburgh is quite a good city for vegans. Maybe too good as I have spent way too much money in restaurants this week, as you will find out.
So I’m keeping to a similar blogging format to last week with some lists, but I am not doing a list of snacks as most of the snacks I’ve eaten this week have been nakd bars and I’m planning to review them all soon (get hyped) once I finally manage to get through the myriad flavours. I’m also not going to mention any of the three (yes three) pizzas I have eaten so far this week as I’m going to write a pizza themed blog post soon (supposedly).
Top 3 Vegan Meals of the Week (Excluding Pizza)
3) Tomato and Aubergine Pasta. For someone for whom a primary reason for doing Veganuary was because I like cooking, I haven’t been doing nearly enough of it recently (blame my newfound intense social life). However I did manage to cook a few things this week after my traumatic Vegan-Steak-Bake-less trip to Cameron Toll Aldi (Fun fact: Cameron Toll is the oldest out-of-town shopping centre in Scotland). The best thing I cooked was this pasta, the recipe for which can be found here on Jack Monroe’s blog. It involved my first ever usage of our hand blender which was an enjoyable experience.
2) Aubergine Steak. Continuing the aubergine theme, I had an aubergine ‘steak’ (basically just half an aubergine with nice stuff on it) at Ransacked Black Oven (their menu has FIVE vegan options). Veganism seems to involve a lot of aubergines for me – I really wanted to cook this recipe for Sweet Chilli Peanut Aubergine this week, but our oven’s been broken for a few days. However, I have received word today that it is all working again now, which means that Future Beth will be happy and full of aubergine.
1) PANCAKES. Permanent and passionate vegan friend was here for the weekend so on Saturday morning we went to Seeds for the Soul for brunch and had the pancakes, which were amazing. Better than most non-vegan pancakes I have eaten. I think they had coconut in which as I’ve mentioned before is a must if you are vegan. My vegan friend liked Seeds for the Soul so much that we went again on Sunday for burgers, and then some of my PhD friends went again on Monday because we had been planning it for ages. I then had a massive Middle Eastern Bowl which probably contained more vegetables than I have eaten during my entire PhD up until now. I have a feeling they recognise me there now since I became part of the furniture. If you’re ever in Edinburgh and want some vegan food I definitely recommend giving it a visit.
Hardest Vegan Moment of the Week
Cake Catastrophe. This week has been full of cakes – first two birthday cakes which I had to say no to as they were not vegan, then a journal club where the guy presenting brought cakes which no one ate due to the sheer number of people doing Veganuary there, and finally a nice-looking cake at the first lab meeting I have ever had with my new lab (“You’ve picked the wrong lab to join in January” I was informed.) These experiences were somewhat (but not completely) redeemed by a Biscoff vegan birthday cake which my friend Mia brought for one of our other friends on Friday.
Overall, it’s been a fun week and I’m still finding veganism easier than I anticipated. One interesting moment was when me and my vegan friend went to talk to a woman at the Vegan Information stand in a park near where I live. Apparently I don’t count as vegan, only temporarily following a plant-based diet because veganism is a whole lifestyle based on justice. Also Veganuary is an evil conspiracy funded by venture capitalists. Oh dear. It must be challenging for people that have been vegans for decades with all these new temporary ‘vegans’ coming in, but surely they prefer us to people who eat meat for every meal?
Anyway stay tuned to find out if I continue to find veganism easy for approximately 2.5 more weeks, how I cope with my day off veganism this Saturday, and also whether I manage to give up beer for the rest of January as I’m currently attempting to (my stomach hates beer but the rest of me quite likes it).
Much plant-based love,
Beth
P.S. I am not sponsored by any of the restaurants I’ve talked about in this blog, but I wish I was because my bank account is looking sad at the moment.
Beth Tries Veganism 
Hi Beth
Thanks for your awesome comments, we are really pleased you enjoyed it and that you are taking part in Veganuary 🌱 plus spreading the word through your blog. If you make it through the rest of the month( I’ll forgive your day off 😊) then come back to us on the last day of Veganuary 🌱 and you can have a meal on us 💚🌱🌿
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Thank you so much, I love your restaurant (as I hope I made clear in this post!) I’m not actually in Edinburgh the last day of January but would be happy to take up your kind offer in February (if that’s allowed 😊)
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