The Vegan Student
May 2013
3 posts
You said you ate Burger King Onion Rings, was just wondering if they fry them with the oil with the fish products? I stopped eating there when I read that on one of their menus on the wall
On the nutritional information part of their website, it states that the fries and onion rings are fried in the same oil as the chicken and fish products. However, I’ve asked them more than once in-store what oil they use for the fries & onion rings and they’ve always told me vegetable oil. I always see that they’re cooked completely separate from everything else.
‘Tis a tricky one, so I’ve stopped eating from there because there is no clear answer.
Sorry I’ve taken so long to reply, I only got the chance to reply to my mails now! I hope this helped. :)
I'm a cheapskate college student too! What sort of lunches do you bring in when you can't afford to eat out or buy something there?
I tend to bring food with me wherever I go because 90% of the time, a vegan option won’t be available. I always bring fruit with me because it’s a convenient filler, or carrots & hummus (my favourite!) If I’m feeling slightly inventive, I might cook something like quinoa, lentil & veg and bring it with me in a lunch box. For snacking, popcorn or a cereal bar is always a good option. I’ve read from various sources that Cuisine de France’s apple lattice squares are vegan, so that could be a nice treat too!
April 2013
1 post
March 2013
2 posts
January 2013
1 post
It Must Be LURVE!
I had the absolute pleasure of visiting one of Dublin’s brand new 100% vegan cafés today. To say it was both a wonderful and delightful experience would be an understatement. It was magnificent!
Located on Mary Street (keep walking down Henry street away from the Spire), the quirky & pretty decor brings home-comfort & cosiness to a magical new level.
The staff are exceptionally friendly, polite & accommodating. Pretty much everything you could possibly ask for in a group of people running a vegan café!
This was the menu for this week:
They have a daily special for €10, which included spicy lentil & bean soup, along with a potato and broccoli burger with salad. My mother is not vegan & quite reluctant to try new food but after she tried this, she wouldn’t stop ranting about how delicious it was. That is an Irish Mammy for ya!
I had the mushroom & coriander burger on a sesame seed bap with couscous & pasta salad. I was too distracted by how amazing everything else was that I didn’t notice which two sauces hugged the burger but whatever they were, they were goooood.
I also got a slice of the mixed berry cake to go, which was so yummy that I forgot to take a picture of it. Trust me though, it was all kinds of happiness in one slice of cake.
Here’s the carrot cake which had a magical icing-type layer on top. I will probably need this in my life on a daily basis, now. So tasty.
They’re just starting out & need all the help they can get, so I recommend Dubliners & tourists alike to pay this wonderful café a visit.
The prices aren’t student-friendly, but they use fresh ingredients everyday, so you know it is quality food filled with Lurve!
It is the loveliest of lovely places to experience in Dublin. All I’m saying is, if they took over the world tomorrow…I’d be okay with that.
November 2012
3 posts
Perspective.
Hey guys!
This is yet another non-food-related post, but I feel it’s important and I welcome all thoughts & opinions on the issue (be nice!).
It has come to my attention that ‘Original Source’ shower gel, although it has the ‘Vegan’ symbol, is part of a larger parent company which test on animals (Pz Cussons).
Now, I know it’s all down to personal opinion. Some might say it’s hypocritical to use these products and I got some mails since posting about the shower gel stating how utterly wrong it is to use that. Yes, of course I agree. I don’t particularly want to fund these companies. However, as my blog title suggests, I am a student. I try my best to avoid all animal products & by-products to my wallet’s greatest extent. If it was acceptable to wash myself with potatoes, oranges and leaves…..actually, I probably wouldn’t do that, but you catch my drift.
As much as I’d love to buy all of my products from Lush or buy my shoes online from vegetarian-shoes.co.uk, it’s just not feasible for me. Since the day I decided to go vegan and withdraw myself as much as I could from the treacherous animal industry, I was under the impression that it was all about doing one’s utmost best to prevent animal abuse.
What about the shoes you buy? Do they all state and verify that the glue used to stick the materials together isn’t made from animals? Surely the whole vegan population of the world doesn’t only buy from vegan-certified (pricey!) online stores, right? Unless there is some sort of money-making scheme for vegans that I’m unaware of and have been living off 75c vegetables from the reduced isle in Tesco when I could have been sowing my own seeds in the hundreds of acres of land I could apparently own?
If you’re vegan, you want to make a difference. I don’t slate vegetarians for drinking milk and eating eggs because they’re still helping. They care and they’re still making a difference. There is so much negativity and little tolerance among vegans for anyone and everyone who isn’t vegan. Stop. You’re vegan because you believe in equality & because you believe that you are no better than any other sentient being.
Being on the defense and ready to attack each other doesn’t help anyone. I have a lot of respect for anyone who cares enough to help animals in any way, whether it’s spending an hour a week volunteering at an animal shelter, being vegetarian/vegan or even feeding pigeons your last bit of bread. Less hate, more love. (Christ, I’m a hippy).
Perspective!
<3
September 2012
3 posts
...And With Great Responsibility Comes.....Hand Soap. & Other Smelly Things.
HELLO! Sorry I haven’t been very active as of late, I’m currently in the process of skid-addling away from my parents’ house into my college house so it’s been slightly hectic.
Moving into a new house means becoming an adult, taking on more responsibilities and having to buy things such as…hand soap. Luckily, my vegan friend John informed me about this brand - Original Source. They have lots of vegan products - shower gels, hand-washes, and bath products. They had shampoos and conditioners but unfortunately, they have been discontinued…BUT! DON’T FRET! You should try out ‘Naked’ as they do many vegan shampoos and conditioners, blog post here. Original Source have been approved by The Vegan Society so there is no slipping through the cracks - these are legit!
CAUTION: This smells so good, you may want to eat it. But, don’t. If you happen to get some in your mouth in the shower well hey, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I blogged about Soap&Glory before and their ‘Clean On Me’ body wash - so amazingly yummy, it oozes loveliness. Realistically however, who has €7 to spend on keeping themselves clean? This OS baby is €2.69 in Boots…keep an eye out for special offers though! Vegan John also informed me a while back it was a mere €2(?) in Dunnes (for Irish folk!) so keep one eye open for bargains and BOGOFs!
Just a mini-post to keep my blog alive while I continue to shift my life (slightly but significantly). I’ve discovered some gems in relation to eating-out vegan style in Dublin so after I pay a few more visits, I will share my thoughts!
One question for any Irish reading this - what vegan toothpaste would you all recommend? How much would you spend on toothpaste & where do you buy it?
July 2012
6 posts
Hi, I was just wondering what uni you are at? I'm starting at Kingston in September, and apparently there are lots of vegans there which is just lovely. I've been vegan for 3 years now but I'll be on a much tighter budget soon!
Hi! I’m in Dublin City University (DCU), I wish I went to Uni in London. It’s a great place for vegans. Veganism is not a strange concept at all there, and there are so many veg*n restaurants and stores. I wrote a post about Vx (it should be somewhere below). I didn’t see many Tescos when I was in London, so you’ll probably be living in Sainsbury’s!
3 years - that’s amazing. Well done. :)
Yes that is what i meant :-D where generally do you tend to buy your foods from?
If you like, you can message me your name/go off anonymous and I can chat with you about it? :)
I buy pretty much all of my food from Tesco, it’s the cheapest. I buy my green lentils from Holland & Barrett because I never find them in Tesco. Tesco brand (I’m such a broken record) is the cheapest so I always go for that! It usually has less crap in the ingredients too, so it’s easy to tell whether or not the food is vegan. Hope this helped! :)
What's your favorite vegetarian meal to have?
Vegetarian? Um, I’m gonna assume you mean vegan?! :D
Probably a vegetable stir-fry (green beans, baby sweetcorn, carrots, chickpeas, bean sprouts, water chestnut, the lot!) with pilau rice and Nando’s tomato and basil sauce. :)
How long had you been a vegan? :)
I’m vegan just over 6 months. :)
What do you eat in a day?
Breakfast:
Bran flakes, almond milk, raisins and this omega-3 sprinkle I got in Holland & Barrett. Normally with a coffee, then I have green tea.
If I’m gonna be busy for the day and have less time to eat, I’ll have a smoothie too (banana, orange juice, strawberries, frozen mixed berries, Alpro soy yogurt & flaxseed!).
If I get peckish throughout the day I’ll have grapes, breadsticks with hummus, toast with soy butter, tea and biscuits (lots are vegan!)…it varies! :)
Dinner:
This varies a lot. Somedays I’ll literally have a mountain plate of vegetables (baby corn, carrots, mushrooms, butternut squash, green beans, broccoli, sprouts, cauliflower…lots of green. Green = calcium!)
Or else I’ll have the above with brown rice in a stir fry with some sort of sauce.
Or curry quinoa with veggies.
Or spaghetti bol with red&green lentils.
Some days I’m just not up for cooking, so I’ll have a tin of beans and Linda McCartney sausage rolls or something unhealthy like that! :/
In the evening, I’ll usually have tea and biscuits (not very healthy but I’m trying to phase out my sugar cravings!).
It varies a lot obviously, sometimes I’ll have a tofu pizza slice if I’m in town and hungry, or Burger King chips or onion rings after a night out, or Govinda’s! (YUM) So, it really depends on what I’m doing that day.
<3
Secret Society of LOVELINESS.
My love for London has grown so much ever since I discovered that there are vegan restaurants everywhere. I didn’t struggle, at all. It was so delightful to not have to live off bread and fruit.
I’m gonna start off by saying I fell in love with Vx, a vegan store on Caledonian Road that sells clothing, footwear, treats (including AMAZING cupcakes!) and savory food. I spent £50 here. I’m not even sorry. I felt like a kid let loose in a sweet shop. Words don’t describe this, so here are some pictures:
And since I am the world’s lamest person, here’s a picture of me clearly delighted with life outside their beautiful shop:
I don’t know how I fit everything into my mini suitcase, but I managed to smuggle coconut marshmallows home and ‘Trios’ (Oreos!). They didn’t last long.
So if you’re ever hanging about London with nothing to do, GO HERE AND PUT YOUR FACE IN EVERYTHING. Okay, cool.
This is completely and totally unrelated to veganism but you have no idea how happy this whole set-up made me. Magical.
June 2012
2 posts
Lazy. Broke. Sleepy.
My, oh my, it’s been a while!
So, I’ve been getting up at crazy hours for work so far this summer, so I can afford rent next year, and nobody wants to hear me making a smoothie at 7am with a very noisy blender. However, never fear!!
Bran flakes are here!
I never held cereal in very high nutritional regard. Well ladiez&gentz, I was wrong.
In 30g of Bran Flakes (roughly that ^ ), you get 30% of your RDA of each vitamin: B1, B2, B6 & B12. Everyone knows B12 can be a bitch to get a hold of sometimes when you’re vegan, unless you have a constant supply of nutritional yeast!
Not to mention 60% of your RDA of folic acid and lots of other good stuff are in this bowl of loveliness.
Aaaaand Tesco Bran Flakes are less than €2 (I swear, Tesco are not paying me for this).
I add raisins because they’re unreal (obviously), but they’re actually crazy healthy too.
They’re full of fibre, contain oleanolic acid (prevents cavities!), are a source of calcium and they treat anaemia. GO FORTH AND BUY YOURSELF SOME RAISINS!
I also sprinkle a mix of different seeds that contain omega-3, for the LOLs - sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, brown linseed, golden linseed & sesame seeds. You can buy the mix ready to eat at Holland & Barrett.
And of course, the magnificent almond milk by Alpro Soya. There aren’t many words for this, but trust me on this one, it’ll be the best €1.99 you’ve spent in a long time.
So there you go - quiet, quick & quite cheap! - Bran flakes, raisins & almond milk ALL for under €5.
See? You don’t need to spend big dollah to be healthy.
This is on a side-note, but I was curious if it happened to anyone else. I use a hit counter on my blog, and it went from 2,500 hits to over 90,000 hits overnight. Has this happened to anyone else? I guessed there might be something wrong with the counter, it was just a bit craaaaazy, anyone?!
