I did consider joining in Veganuary, but realised that it didn't feel right to me to do so.
Generally I feel best when I eat fish, seafood, meat with salad and vegetables.
And I'm fine with that - we're all different and I think it's good knowing what feels best to you.
The only exception for me is if someone was to say they feel best only eating packaged, processed food ... that would test my belief a bit!
I also didn't want to sign up to something that I would then feel I HAD to stick to even if I wasn't feeling good about it ... yep, an over-strong sense of responsibility sometimes here (like Tamagotchis - remember them? I couldn't have one as I'd have felt so much responsibility!).
But I was definitely curious and have decided to just kind of participate in my own way, which is to experiment more with vegan and vegetarian food and recipes.
Today I had a lot of vegetables that needed eating, including a few Brussels sprouts, half an onion and a few carrots - these were the ones that really needed eating ASAP!
So I thought I'd try a vegan vegetable stir-fry for brunch and it was really good ... I also feel good and light after eating it, even though it was a lot of vegetables :)
To make this, you’ll need:
rice (cook it first and it can keep warm while you cook the stir fry)
any vegetables of your choosing
plus onion, garlic, chilli, grated ginger (I much prefer grated ginger to sliced as I find it a bit over-powering).
For the sauce you'll also need:
1/3 vegetarian (vegan) stock cube
light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 lime
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil.
Heat a non-stick frying pan, add a little oil (I use a few sprays of my spray oil plus a little splash of water) and then add the onion, garlic, chilli and ginger and stir-fry over a medium heat for about a minute - add a little more water if it looks like it's going to stick or burn.
Crumble in the stock cube with some more water - I like to make it with quite a bit of sauce but how much is up to you.
When it's simmering, add the vegetables (I added all except the courgette as I'd julienned it and it will cook pretty much instantly) and stir fry again for about four minutes - half way through this add the soy sauce and the sugar.
Then add the julienned courgette (if using), squeeze in the lime juice and add the sesame oil. Stir to combine thoroughly and remove from heat.
And that's it! I added some chopped fresh coriander but this is optional - I know a lot of people don't care for coriander and that's fine too - it's your food and it should be exactly as you like it!
