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...

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 ...

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 ...

Last weekend my sister and I went to Victoria to try Virtuous Pie’s pop-up brunch , which was held on July 24 and 25.  It was 100% worth the trip there!  Virtuous Pie is always amazing, and their brunch menu was just as delicious as their regular menu.  Hopefully the brunch menu will become a permanent addition to the restaurant. To start, we ordered the Pineapple Orange Dreamsicle Soda.  The drink had pineapple and orange juice, mixed with vanilla soda.  It tasted like a creamsicle and was very refreshing.  Virtuous Pie donated $2 from each Dreamsicle Soda they sold to the Victoria Native Friendship Centre , which is an organization that provides a variety of resources to Indigenous people living in Victoria. We ordered a few food items to share so that we could try as many of the dishes as possible.  For the main dish, we tried the Huevos Rancheros Pizza.  The Huevos Rancheros Pizza consisted of a black bean sauce instead of tomato sauce, and wa...

   Today I am going to share with you some low-waste beauty products I’ve been using recently.  It can be difficult to know where to start when it comes to buying plastic-free bath and beauty products, so I am going to share some products to make things a bit easier. You may have read my blog post from a while ago:   What’s in My Vegan, Eco-Friendly Shower .  I still love all those products, but I also love to switch things up and try new products. All of the products listed below are 100% vegan and cruelty free, as well as palm-oil free! By the way, this post is not sponsored at all, this is simply my review on products I've tried recently. Unwrapped Life Shampoo Bar I have used Unwrapped Life shampoo and conditioner bars before, and they work great.  The shampoo is very sudsy and makes my hair feel clean.  This time I bought The Stimulator , which has a nice minty smell to it.  I actually was able to purchase it on sale from Well.ca, so it only...

What I love about this Creamy Pumpkin Curry Soup is that it is savoury, had tons of flavour, and is packed with vegetables.  This soup can be made in under an hour and is really simply to make.  Be sure to pair it with freshly baked biscuits ( my go-to recipe ). I think pumpkin season might be over now; however, it’s made with canned pumpkin, so you can make this anytime.  Pumpkin is good for you because it is high in vitamin A, so you really should probably eat this soup all year round! When I make creamy soups I usually use coconut cream, which is great for making things creamy, but sometimes you don’t want the coconut-y taste.  I started doing some research to see what I could use instead of coconut cream, and that’s when I discovered you can make cashew cream (and it’s surprisingly easy!).  I used this recipe , and the ratio was 1:1.   Creamy Pumpkin Curry Soup Prep time:  15 minutes Cook time:  40 minutes Makes about 4 servings Ingredien...