Lily's Vegan Adventures

Are you curious about going vegan this year, or cutting back on animal products, but don’t know where to start?  Switching to a vegan lifestyle is a great new year’s resolution. I went vegan in January 2016 and haven’t looked back since. For the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing a series of posts to help you get started. Why go vegan? Most vegans, including myself, choose to go vegan because of the pain and suffering the animals endure in various industries including animal agriculture, entertainment, beauty, and fashion. In my case, I was raised vegetarian, so my transition to veganism was a little easier. What made me go from vegetarian to vegan was when I learned about the horrific acts that take place in dairy farms. From learning about artificial insemination to the fact that the male babies are taken away at a young age to be slaughtered for veal, I knew I couldn’t support it any longer. I won’t go into detail about the animal cruelty in this blog post, but I encourage you to r...

It was my birthday last week, which means my weekend was filled with lots of good food and fun. Friday night, my mom made our family a beautiful build-your-own-taco spread. We had homemade corn tortillas, pan-fried veggies, refried beans, guacamole, salad, and quesadillas. For dessert, my mom baked a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and blackberry jam. The next morning, my partner and I drove to Victoria to spend the day eating vegan food and exploring. Our first stop was Fern Cafe and Bakery, which is one of our favourites. I was excited to see the pumpkin spice latte was back, so I ordered that with whipped cream. I also ordered their featured menu item, the “eggs” benny. Everything was delicious. The eggs were made out of tofu, and they were topped with tomato, cheese, and soy bacon, covered in a cashew hollandaise sauce. My partner ordered the fried chick'un and pancakes. Yum! After brunch, we drove to Hatley Castle in Colwood. The castle sits near the ocean on the Roy...

This cheese sauce is one of my favourite things to make. It tastes great as a mac and cheese or drizzled on top of cooked veggies. Or anything else that you enjoy cheese sauce on, really! Because I use it mainly for mac and cheese, this recipe is measured to mix with 500g of pasta. Why do I love this cheese sauce so much? It’s creamy. A couple tips I have found for making a creamy cheese sauce is to use a tablespoon of vegan butter, and use oat or soy milk. The vegan butter gives the sauce a bit of extra flavour and richness that you find in standard cheese sauce. Using oat or soy milk works best because these plant milks are a bit thicker than, for example, almond milk.  I haven’t tried using any other plant milk aside from oat, soy, and almond, but I found that almond milk was too thin for my liking. If you try a different kind of plant milk, please let us know how it worked for you in the comments below! It’s not made with cashews. Not that there’s anything wrong with cashews, b...

Tucked away in a quiet farmland neighbourhood is a trail called Nanoose Bay Loop. With a mix of old and new growth, as well as large clusters of trees, the loop made for an interesting variety of scenery. The first part of the hike reminded me of the Hundred Acre Wood with its plush, mossy ground and the towering tree we found. My mom took me on this hike a couple weeks ago. The weather was beautiful that day, with lots of sun shining through the trees. We lucked out with the weather that day, as Vancouver Island weather has been all over the place lately. There were a few small patches of snow on the trail, but besides that, it was nice and warm. Going further into the loop, we found a bike trail called Five Amigos. The name comes from the cluster of Arbutus trees that stand just off the side of the trail. As you can see from the second picture below, they were huge! (Please appreciate my parents' photogenic dog, Jackson) Further down the path, the trees grew sparsely, making the ...

Welcome to another What I Ate Today post, where I share the meals and snacks that I eat throughout the day. These posts are not meant to be taken as dietary advice, but more to give people some ideas on the foods you can eat as a vegan. This day includes some fun takeout food because we decided to do a mini road trip and explore Courtenay, BC. Breakfast I started my day pretty much the same as I do every morning: coffee with oat milk and toast. I wanted to change things up a bit by adding some mango, but as you can see, the mango was unripe and I ended up not eating much of it. My toast this morning was an English muffin with peanut butter and jam. I have to share the jam I used because it is so good: It's made on Vancouver Island, and it's delicious. Lunch #1 My partner and I decided to do a spontaneous road trip to Courtenay for lunch, but we wanted a snack along the way. We stopped at Cobs Bakery for one of their plant-based pizzas (it has roasted red peppers and Beyond crum...

Today I am going to share a super easy meal prep recipe that is perfect for the colder months: Vegan sheet pan sausage and vegetables. I didn’t realize this was already a thing until I Googled it just now, but here is my vegan version. I made this recipe because I didn’t feel like cooking one day, I needed to meal prep for the week, and I had a few veggies and vegan sausage that needed to be eaten. So, I chopped up the veggies and sausage, added some seasoning, and threw it in the oven on a baking sheet. This recipe is great because it takes hardly any prep time, and once you put it in the oven, you can walk away and do other things.  I added cubed tofu for extra protein. Make this recipe go a long way by adding a side dish such as rice, quinoa, or some fresh bread with vegan butter. My favourite side to go with this recipe is turmeric rice, which I will share in the recipe below. To start, preheat your oven to 400 °F. Chop the veggies, vegan sausage, and tofu into cubes. Throw th...

I found a new favourite hiking spot over the Thanksgiving long weekend, thanks to my mom, and I am excited to share it with you.  It is a great workout, but is still doable as an afternoon hike - the perfect balance! The name is pretty self explanatory:  Lantzville Lookout Loop.  It is located in Lantzville, BC, and at the top, you get a gorgeous view of the ocean and forest below.  You can also see Notch Hill, located in Nanoose Bay. We calculated the hike to be about 5.1 km, although Alltrails says it’s 5.8 km.  We took the shorter route, which is a steady climb for a good portion of it.  I recommend wearing proper hiking shoes and bringing lots of water.  I didn’t think to take any pictures of the trail, but I took pictures of some cute little mushrooms we found along the way. As you can see, the view is well worth the climb.  We stayed up there for a little while, and it ended up getting quite cold, so I would recommend taking a light sweater ...