It's nearly the end of January, our Indigo Herbs crew have been trying the vegan challenge for the whole of January with global campaign Veganuary! There has been a couple of struggles and some honest lapses but there have also been some wonderful highlights and feelings of change. If you missed out on how we coped in week one and two check them out here and here.
Read on to find out how the Indigo Crew got on in week three and beyond (tasty food photography included!)...
Elsie
Social Media & Marketing Coordinator
I can’t believe being vegan is coming to an end, I have to be honest I’m looking forward to it. Thinking about it logically, last year I had no control over my diet. I enjoyed fruit and vegetables as much as a rabbit but would then binge on a lot of unhealthy foods which completely cancelled it out and ate meat a lot. I couldn’t even cook that well, and have only since cooked Broccoli for the first time ever (crazy I know)!
I know my body and I’ve been feeling ill a lot more recently and constantly overtired, I’m not saying I blame the vegan diet for this but I think my body has just been in a bit of shock and because of this I’ve lapsed a few more times than planned. Despite that, I’ve learnt a lot – there are a lot of delicious vegan meals that I would never have thought of trying or learning to cook that I will definitely be demolishing in the future after January.
I really admire my fellow Indigo Herbs crew members who have achieved great vegan status this month and anyone else who has taken on the challenge. I’m also so happy that I’ve had the opportunity to use endless Indigo Herbs products to aid this month, I don’t know what I would’ve done without them! They bring such wonderful tastes and boosts to each meal. Chia Seeds are my ultimate favourite, along with SuperVital Powder in my smoothies, or Baobab Powder on its own and White Sesame Tahini for homemade hummus, Goji Berries as snacks, Coconut Oil for cooking, and Cacao Powder for a chocolatey taste as well as Hulled Hemp Seeds made into snack bars for energy.
(Above on the left is the vegan substitute for a roast dinner, which is a nut roast dinner with chilli sauce and vegetables, the second photo is my standard work lunch of spaghetti with spinach leaves, olives, gherkins, peppers, sundried tomato chutney and Indigo Herbs Sunflower Seeds. The right is from a lunch I had at the Rainbows End Cafe in Glastonbury, a vegan & vegetarian hub for locals. Absolutely delicious!)
I will definitely be sticking to a healthier diet, I promise! I have been more of a vegetarian this week, which I am personally proud of even though it wasn’t my aim. I’m realising it’s a more realistic aim for who I am at the moment. However, even though last week I was honest about having cow’s milk in my cup of tea – I’ve gone back to either Soya or Hemp Milk in my tea and will 100% be sticking with that. It tastes so much better! With my cereal, i'm finding it a lot harder. Adding nutritional yeast to dishes, makes it very creamy and actually vaguely taste like cheese – which was an interesting discovery!
(Above is a green smoothie I had after a hangover one day, it includes various greens with a pinch of Indigo Herbs Spirulina Powder, I love a cleansing Indigo Herbs Hibiscus Flower Tea in the evenings and I'm even more in love with Mango, a freshing wonderful dessert.)
Despite this, we stuck with our vegan dinner party night plans and it was my turn to host! I loved it! I chose the theme American Diner as I love America and had discovered there were so many vegan burger recipes out there and hadn’t tried any yet. I made Curried Chickpea Burgers from the Veganuary website (which were absolutely delicious! see below) and Zucchini and Pea Quinoa Burgers from Deliciously Ella (although the latter ones completely fell apart which really stressed me out, I realised last minute I didn’t have ground flaxseeds only whole and trust me that doesn’t work!) I made sure I purchased vegan buns and made potato and sweet potato herb chips for alongside. It was such a success and such a fun night!
I definitely think there will be a vegan streak left in me after this experience. Maybe I could call myself a vegetarian, occasional vegan. And bring on Get fit February (I just made that up but let’s all do it!) – I have just downloaded the Couch to 5K app….. So far so good!
Abby
Customer Service & Dispatch Fulfilment Supervisor
This has been a great vegan week for me, can’t believe we are so near to the end now!
An absolute highlight for me was Elsie’s American Diner dinner party. It was the first time all month that I felt we were being really naughty and pigging out on loads of food, yet it was all pretty healthy and vegan! Elsie made vegan burgers and potato chips, they were so good. The variety of dips that Tawny made to go with it were immense, and my vegan coleslaw went down a storm! The best thing of all had to be Claire’s vegan ice cream sundaes though, they were absolutely incredible – I couldn’t really believe that they were completely vegan! They could definitely fool any non-vegans. She’d managed to pack so many Indigo Herbs products into her dessert too, so exciting. We’ve definitely been achieving greatness with these crew vegan dinner parties, they have been so wonderful to show support to each other through this challenge.
I have learnt so much from being vegan. Including, as long as you stay away from all the processed stuff EVERYTHING is then fairly healthy! I’ve been eating around 15 portions of fruit and veg a day easily! It’s pretty amazing.
I’ve had quite a few vegan treat moment too, I feel as though I’ve deserved it and I’ve had the common cold too so needed it. In my books vegan comfort foods consists of chip shop chips with mushy peas, pickled onions and vegan mayo – it totally hit the spot! Followed by Booja Booja vegan chocolate ice cream. This dessert made me very happy even though I was a sneeze machine.
Yay! Vegans can have treat too.
I’ve been sticking with my Indigo Herbs infused smoothies this week and trying to boost my immune system by mixing up the herbal powders that I have been using. I feel very lucky to have so many amazing products close to hand at work that are aimed to make you feel better. The Indigo Herbs SuperGreens Powder Blend has definitely become my favourite this week! I love Cacao Powder smoothies, Moringa Powder smoothies and a shot of Indigo Herbs Echinacea Tincture alongside, will keep me feeling on top form! (see photos above)
My boyfriend made an amazing vegan roast dinner, this time I didn’t really miss the Yorkshire Pud!
My aim for the last week of January is to make a really delicious vegan cake or dessert that I can show off to my non vegan friends and prove to them, vegans eat amazing things and have fun too!
Faye
Kitchen Production Team Member
Veganuary week two has pretty much merged into week three without us even realising, which means all things animal-product-free are going well.
(Below is a variety of my meals from this week; tofu scramble with avocado and marmite on toast, tofu noodle dish and red lentil dahl with rice and green leafy goodness!)
So far, I’d forgotten to mention that I’d been invited over to a lot of my non-vegan friends houses for dinner parties too. It could have been an awkward situation however as its January and there are a lot of other people giving up things too – everyone has come quite accustomed to the fact it’ll just be a different one. I’ve had some non-awkward, incredibly tasty dinners at non-vegan houses who were more than happy to adapt their dinners to support my diet change and even enjoyed the challenge!
I was served with a delicious buckwheat and vegetable dish which was risotto-esque. It had a glorious texture! I also enjoyed another risotto with butternut squash cooked without butter, vodka instead of wine and optional vegan cheeses sprinkled on top. Coconut sorbet for dessert was insanely tasty too! So, yay for the modern kitchen, I think we’ve all come a long way from meat and two veg haven’t we?!
(On the left is my incredible red/pink lurgy juice; makes me feel better with just 1 sip it includes; carrot, beetroot, celery, ginger, lime, lemon and Indigo Herbs Turmeric Powder! The next image is a selection of ingredients I use for a morning cold-zapping juice and the next is a delicious tempah salad.)
I’m feeling very open and clear in my chest and consequently very strong and focused in my training. I’m open to this being down to a number of things; including my increased use of Indigo Herbs powders in my smoothies, such as Maca, Spirulina (which I have daily), Valerian Tincture to aid those occasional restless nights and I’ve cut down on coffee a lot too! I’m pretty sure the lack of diary is something to do with my new body feelings so it’s something I’m definitely going to consider sticking to after January. Although, I’m still missing eggs a bit. I made one read tofu omelette this week which was a complete fail and looked a lot like vomit (sorry)!
Cooking wise this week, I’ve had a lot of toast, trying to get in the B12 in yeast extract format. I’m still experimenting with polenta, A LOT! I was visiting Brighton this week and had to eat out a few days there, although I hit a wall in most sandwich outlets even the falafel based items all contained yoghurt or mayo, but there were some seriously good choices of vegan restaurants to make up for it (see photos above). My favourites being IDEYA, the LOVING HUT and small but oh-so-special HELMSTON café which was a regular for me when I used to live in Sussex, I have a huge love for Andy who works there who is a real vegan warrior and his coconut macaroons are to die for!
I've decided I'm going to take my fitness to a whole new level, but I will explain that next week in our final vegan Indigo Herbs crew blog.
Tawny
Website Coordinator
As the month is coming to a close, I am more and more looking forward to the 1st of February. I'm starting to get slightly irritated about the restrictions of my diet, I'm not going to lie. I would say that I'd prefer to do this sort of lifestyle as a choice, and allow myself to slip up if need be (such as when going out, or going to social events) because I'm finding the list of things to avoid slightly difficult to keep track of. Especially when things like crisps, have milk in… very unexpected.
Despite that, I'm still holding strong! I haven't slipped up as of yet. I'm not going to break it, although I am going to indulge on the 1st February. But I’ve definitely learnt a lot from this vegan challenge and I’m going to keep a healthier lifestyle, we're going to be vegetarian in the week and have meat on weekends from the butcher so it's locally sourced. Above is an avocado pesto spaghetti dish, Asain style noodle dish with lots of vegetables and a tagine sweet and sour stew.
(Above is my green goodness lunch for work it includes rice, Indigo Herbs Pumpkin Seeds, spinach, Indigo Herbs Chia Seeds, mushrooms, Indigo Herbs Black Tahini, broccoli and Indigo Herbs Sesame Seeds. It's similar to this Stirfry Superfood Vegetables recipe. And the furthest along is some Quinoa with Vegetables.)
I've been eating some yummy vegan crumpets with Vitalite. I'm continuing to mix Indigo products into our meals for an extra health boost. We stocked the fridge up with more greens and I'm starting to feel better but still have a cough (although it's just going around at the moment!). We've managed to stay away from our secret Christmas chocolate stash that’s locked upstairs... 4 days left! Not that I'm counting or anything.
Dinner Party - American Diner Theme
Bring a dish, drink and a smile!
Marketing team member Elsie hosted the third Indigo Crew Vegan Dinner Party, it was a brilliant success. The theme was American Diner. Elsie made two different burger recipes as mentioned above and purchased vegan buns and made sweet potato herb chips for alongside. Budweiser Beers were also supplied as they're very American and vegan friendly! While Tawny supplied the various different dips; such as Chili Salsa and Indigo Herbs Black Tahini hummus - which was very strong but an interesting taste! Abby supplied a tasty vegan coleslaw made with egg free mayo, and Georgie brought a salad. It felt like cheat day but everything was healthy and vegan too so it was a nice surprise!
Directors Claire and Steve have become the vegan dessert fairies this month and they brought the makings of American Diner Sundaes, yum! There were a range of delicious layers, and none of us could believe it was all vegan friendly, yet so tasty and such a treat! At the bottom lay rich chopped cherries soaked in Ameretto, above that was a homemade chocolate and walnut ice cream made using Indigo Herbs Walnut Butter, Cacao Powder, Vanilla Powder, Soya Cream and Maple Syrup, between was a shop purchased vegan vanilla ice cream and then frozen banana blended with more Vanilla Powder to make a wonderful banana ice cream... and to top it off, Indigo Herbs Cacao Nibs! Wow! What a way to end the dinner.
All full as full could be we then all went to a gig at a local pub to see our friends band play live. And try and dance away the fantastic food. What a night! Yes, vegans can have fun too!
Another lovely evening, celebrating Veganism with the Indigo Herbs crew!
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By Elsie Brockway
