Orange, pear, apple and grape juice

3 oranges, peeled

3 pears (Conference)

3 apples (Royal Gala)

500g of grapes (half white, half red)

half a lemon, peeled

Live and let live

I have been vegan for over a year and a half now, after being vegetarian for over 10 years. So it's time for a few reflections.

I have to admit that at the very beginning I was a bit uncertain about how it was going to work. Don't get me wrong - I knew I was doing the right thing. Having been vegetarian for many years before for ethical reasons I realised that you cannot be against eating meat and at the same time continue to eat cheese, eggs or drink milk, it's just pure hypocrisy. The animal suffering involved in the dairy and egg industry is even more terrible, if possible, than the one in the meat industry, for the simple reason that the animals live and suffer longer. Most people still have this image of happy chickens or happy cows running around green fields and happily providing us with milk or eggs. Nothing more misleading, even if the 'product' is labelled as free-range or ecological. There are not enough people in the world to make sure that every single animal is treated in a 'humane' way (and anyway, what is a humane way of killing someone, which sooner or later happens to all of them, for example the dairy cows being turned into low-quality burgers, soups or pet food?)

What stroke me after I have made this decision are the various attitudes I have encountered when people learn about me being vegan. I would assume that making a life choice that doesn't in any way hurt other people shouldn't result in others being hostile towards this choice. After all I never attack people who eat meat or whatever they want, I believe we all should be able to make our choices. Yes, I can discuss it with anyone if they want to, but that's not an attack. But it doesn't always work the other way. After quite some time of dealing with various attitudes among my family, friends and complete strangers, I could put them into following categories, some of them funny, some irritating, some even scary:

- 'but you can't be serious' - people who seriously and honestly don't believe you can live without eating at least cheese. I mean, come on, pizza without cheese, what kind of freak are you? Well, it does in fact taste delicious, if you know how to make good pizza.

- 'you will grow out of it' - I kind of like this one in fact, it makes me feel like I'm 16 all over again ;) Well, I won't grow out of it, sorry.

- 'but how do you survive???' otherwise known as 'and what the hell do you eat???' - this one is difficult to understand for me, as I really don't look undernourished or starving (unless you have my grandma's standards of what it means to be healthy looking, of course ;). And here people can be divided into those who are in fact willing to listen and learn about all the 'weird stuff' that we vegans eat and those who just assume that we eat nothing but grass and so there's no point talking to us about it. The best way to deal with the 'what do you eat' question is always just cooking some nice food and letting people taste it. The chances that they will still think we eat nothing but grass are not too high. They usually come back for dinner ;)

- 'but you are going to start eating 'normal food' when you get pregnant/get a child?' - well, no, I'm not, because why should I? I believe that being vegan is not only right from an ethical point of view, but also that it is healthy. There are numerous studies showing than plant based diet reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, certain cancers, obesity. Why shouldn't I want what I consider best for my children, as all parents do?

- 'but you are so poor' - certain people, including some vegans, actually believe that it is a huge sacrifice to adopt this way of living. They see us as martyrs choosing to suffer for the sake of animals. They feel sorry for us because we cannot eat all the good stuff. Well, who says we cannot eat whatever we want? If I feel like it, I can eat a pig, I can eat a cow, I can eat a chicken or any other animal. But I don't want to. So how is that a sacrifice, not doing what you don't feel like doing?

These are just some of the attitudes I have encountered when telling people I am vegan. At the beginning it did feel a bit strange, because in fact most people don't know what 'vegan' means. And I don't blame them for that, there are not that many vegans out there. Not yet ;) But I don't see that as a problem. As I said before, I believe we all should have a choice of how we live. I respect other people's choices, but if they ask me why I live the way I do, I will explain it to them. And if someone doesn't like it or doesn't approve of it, well, it's not really my problem, is it? Live and let live, that's the principle I wish we could apply to all living beings, people included, and the world would be a much nicer place.

Summer sunset in winter or orange and carrot juice ;)

Oranges and carrots is a classic juice recipe and very good in itself. However I usually try to add something extra to make the flavour more interesting. Today I used the following (it makes around 1.5L of juice):

1kg of carrots

8 oranges, peeled

2 pears (conference)

ginger (2 cm)

a bunch of fresh mint

1 lime, peeled

Juice in any order, remembering only not to juice the mint or ginger at the very end (so follow with a few oranges, for example).

I love the bright orange colour of this juice, just looking at it might considerably improve your mood :)

Pineapple, apple and kiwi juice

This juice has two of my favourite ingredients - pineapple and fresh mint.

For approximetaly 1.25L of juice:

1 medium pineapple, peeled and cut into chute fitting pieces

2-4 kiwis, peeled

3 apples (I use Royal Gala, they give a lot of juice)

Half a bulb of fennel, green top and hard root trimmed, outer layer removed

Half a cucumber

A bunch of fresh mint

I tried leaving the peel on the kiwis, it's no problem for the juicer, but in prefer to remove it anyway. You can somehow 'feel' it in the juice a bit. In fact the kiwi flavour in this juice comes out quite strong, so I suggest trying with 2 and possibly adding more later.

Juice the pineapple, kiwis, fennel, cucumber, mint and apples. When using leafy vegetables or herbs, such as mint, parsley or spinach, it's important to follow them with some fruit or vegetable giving a lot of juice – this way you will get as much of the green stuff as possible into your juice.

Enjoy :)

Pear, orange and fennel juice

I have been making freshly squeezed juices for over three years now and I just cannot get bored with it. The only homemade juice I remembered from my childhood was the apple and carrot one. Still one of my favourites (with an addition of ginger and lemon or lime), but somehow the world of juicing was a complete mystery to me until I bought a few books by Jason Vale, otherwise known as the Juice Master – a guy with a lot of great ideas for juice recipes, even if he can be considered annoying by some people (like my husband ;) for his overenthusiastic attitude to juicing and life ;) So in fact I started with buying one of his books, Turbo-charge Your Life in 14 Days. I never followed the 'turbocharge' program, but I liked the recipes a lot (although I think his best book for beginners is probably Keeping It Simple: Over 100 Delicious Juices and Smoothies). Then I got myself a juicer he strongly recommended - Philips HR1861. I have to say I could not be happier that I got convinced to get this particular one – it’s been working great for a few years now, it’s easy to use and what’s even more important, easy to clean. You can put whole fruit and veggies into its chute – no need to peel carrots, apples, ginger, etc. Of course citrus fruit should still have the peel removed.

The great thing about juicing is that after you have been following recipes for some time, you start to ‘get it’ and you can create endless variations using your favourite fruit and veggies. The one below, for example, is something I had never thought of before, but it was a good choice ;)

It's a very simple and fantastically creamy juice:

6 conference pears

4 oranges, peeled

Half a bulb of fennel (or less or more, depending how much you like its anise-like flavour) - green top and hard bottom part trimmed, outer layer removed

Juice all the ingredients, that's it ;)

The above ingredients make over 1L of juice. I normally make juice in the evening and store whatever we don't drink right away in a tightly closed aluminium water bottle (I have a couple of SIGG bottles). This way we can finish it the next morning or bring it to work.

Pineapple and tofu curry with banana rice

Pineapple and tofu is one of my favourite combinations for a curry. Probably the best one I've had in Brussels is served at Anis & Vanille – a great Asian restaurant in Etterbeek, 5 minutes walk from my apartment ;)

I have been craving a nice hot curry the whole day today – as it happens often when I have a cold and when the weather is quite depressing.

Unfortunately I didn't have a yellow curry paste, which is the best for this kind of coconut milk based curry. Well, I used what I had to replace it or maybe rather create a new kind of yellow curry ;)

Here's what I used, it's a very simple recipe provided you have the yellow curry paste ;) It makes 4-6 servings.

700g of tofu, cut into cubes
1 medium pineapple; peeled and cut into cubes

450g frozen green peas (or fresh green beans, or carrots, or any other vegetables you think might go well with pineapple and tofu)

1 yellow and 1 red pepper, cut into 2-3 cm pieces

3 cans of coconut milk

Fresh coriander, chopped

Instead of the missing yellow curry paste I put the following in the blender (yes, much easier to remember to buy the paste next time ;):

2 cm piece of fresh ginger, minced

4 garlic cloves, minced

½ tsp turmeric

½ tsp white pepper powder

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp curry powder

½ tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp prepared lemongrass (available in jars in Asian supermarkets)

2 tbsp agave syrup

Coconut milk – just enough to let all the ingredients blend well

To serve:

Cooked brown or jasmine rice

2 bananas, sliced

Heat the wok, pour half a can of the coconut milk and let it simmer for a few minutes, until it starts to thicken a bit. Add the yellow curry paste and stir up to 1 minute, until fragrant. Add the tofu and vegetables, stir well until they are well coated in the coconut-yellow curry mixture. Add the remaining coconut milk, turn down the heat and simmer until the vegetables are cooked but still tender. Adjust the seasoning if necessary, add the chopped coriander and serve over your choice of rice. I add sliced bananas into the rice – they give an extra interesting flavour to the pineapple-tofu curry.