Last weekend, we went to The Big Welsh Wedding Show in the Depot in Cardiff and we went out to lunch afterwards with Tom’s family. We made our way back into the city centre and decided that we’d go to Mowgli Street Food.
This is not to be mistaken with Mowgli’s which is a restaurant on City Road in Cardiff.
Mowgli Street Food is a chain that has a few branches all over the UK. We walked in and the decor was lovely and atmospheric. There were fairy lights hung up, decorative trees and hanging lights.
The vegan menu was extensive with loads of options so we were in our element!
Tom and I ordered bits to share which included:
Fenugreek Kissed Fries
Temple Dahl
Calcutta Tangled Greens
Elephant brand Roti breads
Mowgli Basmati Rice
Fenugreek Kissed Fries
Calcutta Tangled Greens and Temple Dahl
The food was amazing. I would like to say now, don’t order a portion of rice each! 1 portion for 2 people is more than enough.
The Fenugreek Kissed Fries were delicious. The potatoes were crispy and the whole dish was delicious. I could have easily ordered another one. The Temple Dahl was warm and flavourful and the Calcutta Tangled Greens were surprising but really good.
Tom’s mum and dad ordered the Holy Chow, which I didn’t try but it did look amazing.
Holy Chow
I absolutely recommend visiting Mowgli Street Food. The service was excellent, the atmosphere was great and the food was fantastic. The prices are incredibly reasonable and we spent around £16 per person!
My sister found a recipe on a vegan Facebook group for bakewell slices that she wanted to try so we went to our local supermarket to have a go at baking it ourselves! We adjusted the recipe slightly to accommodate our tastes. I also made it for the bake-off we are holding at work which were a hit!
The first time round, we made it with a shop-bought ready made short crust pastry which was nice and easy. The blind bake was a little more difficult, only because we didn’t have the tools we needed but we made it work!
The second time round, I found a short-crust pastry recipe online which I used, which you can find here. It was a little bit more effort with the manual labour but it was the same.
Ingredients for the Frangipane Mix
120g self-raising flour
120g caster sugar
130g ground almonds
40g desiccated coconut
130ml vegetable oil
50ml plant milk
1tsp almond extract
Other Ingredients
Pastry ingredients/Ready-made pastry
Icing sugar
Flaked almonds and/or cherries for topping
Raspberry jam
Steps
Line your baking tin with your pastry (ready-made or from scratch). If you have a loose bottomed tin, you won’t need to line your tin with parchment paper, but if you don’t then I highly recommend it!
Blind bake this as instructed.
Mix the frangipane ingredients in a bowl. If it seems a little dry, add a bit more plant milk.
When your pastry is baked and taken out of the oven, let it cool.
Spread jam along the bottom of the pastry to your taste. I personally like a thick layer.
Put the frangipane mix on top of the jam.
Bake for another 30 minutes.
Take out of the oven and let it cool completely!
Mix icing as per instructions on the packet.
Pour over the bake as evenly as you can.
Spread flaked almonds over the top to set in the icing.
Let the icing harden before eating!
The bake went down a treat at work and everyone enjoyed it! It came out much better than I anticipated, but I do wish I had lined the bottom with more jam!
I took some home for Tom and he was impressed! I’ll definitely be making it again in the future.
If you try out the recipe, make sure you share your photos and I hope you enjoy!
So a more serious blog post this week… I’m going to share with you guys the reasons why I became vegan in the first place.
My vegan story isn’t your normal vegan story, but I’m sure many of you share a similar story.
I’ve been with my boyfriend, Tom, for nearly 6 years now and a year or so into our relationship, he started transitioning towards vegetarianism. This started with going pescatarian first (for those of you that don’t know, that’s eating only fish and no other meat) and the plan was to slowly move from that into veganism.
Before Tom went vegan, he was a big meat eater. He rejected salads, never tried houmous, and was a regular KFC customer. He abandoned his plan of slowly transitioning and went straight into veganism from pescatarianism. I remember when he told me, we were lying in bed and I cried. I told him it was an entire lifestyle change which he didn’t understand at the time but slowly realised.
My reaction was certainly over the top, but veganism wasn’t anywhere near as accessible as it is now. We went out for food a lot and I knew that eating out would become a struggle. Our supermarket shops took longer due to the research required into our ingredients lists, but we adjusted. We remained an omni household where I continued to eat meat. With Tom being the cook of the household, he cooked meat for me for a while until he said he didn’t want to anymore. From that moment, we became a primarily vegan household but I continued to eat meat outside of the home.
Tom had a knack for making people think. He didn’t do it on purpose, but he eventually got his entire family to transition to vegan. Even my sister went vegan before I did. In fact, we used to argue about the discussions we had and I asked him to stop speaking to me about veganism, which he did.
Documentaries started coming out such as What The Health and Cowspiracy. I still haven’t actually seen them, but the world started changing with the demand. More and more people were signing up to veganuary and with this demand, everything was becoming easier. Supermarkets and restaurants were offering more vegan options, veganism was finally becoming accessible!
I was sat on the sofa one day and turned to Tom and simply said, I’m going to go vegan. I wouldn’t say anything just switched, but I’d already made the majority of the way there with being vegan in the household. The only additional change at that point was to only eat vegan outside of the home which was really only at work.
With my clearer understanding of veganism, it just made the most sense. It may have taken me a few years to get there, but it was the best decision I’ve made. It’s not possible to argue with facts.
Veganism is better for the environment.
Veganism is better for your health.
Veganism is accessible.
For those of you who haven’t taken the plunge yet, or are planning to, make sure you educate yourself. I was fortunate to have Tom to help me and educate me, but it is an important life decision. You need to eat the right things to remain healthy and your journey will be eye opening.
Don’t worry about what people have to say either. This is your decision, not theirs! For those of you still with omni other halves, play the long game. They’ll get there through exposure, not pushing.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post and I hope it helps you.
I’m far from an expert on veganism, but if you have any questions or would like to know more about my experience, leave a comment!
A few weeks ago, my lovely friend Ella came to Cardiff to visit and we met up for some lunch. We were originally going to go to Yo! but the queue was long and we were incredibly hungry.
Pizza Express was only upstairs and I know they have vegan options so we settled for some pizza and doughballs!
To start, I had the Baked Garlic Mushroom. I’m a big mushroom fan and it was really delicious. The garlic flavour was perfect and not too garlicky (if that’s even a word!). The ‘cheese’ was lovely and being sat on a bed of rocket was a nice addition. My only criticism is that it was very oily, but I still enjoyed it.
For my main, I ordered a mushroom pizza which I don’t remember the name of. The pizza was as expected but I think I may have gone for overkill on the mushrooms!
I think the ‘cheese’ used is mozzarisella and it was lovely and creamy. The base was fine, nothing to shout about but it hit the spot so I most certainly can’t complain.
I didn’t order any desserts as I was so full but they have a few interesting options which you can find on their vegan menu.
It was a Saturday afternoon so it was quite busy but the service provided was excellent. They were quick and friendly and made sure we were well catered for.
If you’re stuck for options and just want an easy meal at a chain restaurant, I recommend Pizza Express. It’s not a usual place for me to visit as I’m normally at Zizzi’s but I enjoyed it!
A few months ago, I wrote about Who Cult in this blog post after Tom had brought some back for me. I finally visited the actual shop a few weeks ago so I’m writing again to show you the interior and more of their delicious donuts.
I’ve tried to visit on a few occasions but I usually try to catch them when they’re closed.
We went to pick up some doughnuts on the morning of Tom’s sisters wedding to treat the bridal party to some delicious treats!
Doughnuts, as before, were absolutely delicious and beautifully decorated. Everyone was a fan and loved them.
The interior of the cafe had seating for those who are planning on travel from further away or just want a break, but the decor spoke to me!
They also sell their own branded clothing which can be found in store and comes in a range of sizes and colours.
This was a brief post but I didn’t see the need to reiterate what I’d written in my previous post but I thought you guys would like to see the inside of Who Cult!
It did not disappoint, and Death before Decaf is my new motto!
I’ve written about Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Matte Foundation before which is now my go-to foundation and I highly recommend it! Blog post can be found here.
I convinced my friend Leah to treat herself to the foundation as she’d finished her non-cruelty-free foundation. While she was there, she also treated herself to the Match Stix Trio.
The intrigue got to me so I had a look. To emphasise here, don’t fall into the trap of buying the trio! On the FAQ, it states that only the matte match stix are vegan, not the shimmer stix.
What’s great about the match stix trio is that it provides you with an idea of your colouring based on your foundation colour. Mine is 230 so I sit within the medium colour range. So I bought the 2 matte match stix within that trio which were Bamboo and Mocha.
Each stick is a magnet so they stick to each other which is an interesting feature and likely to be beneficial if you have a lot of them.
As you can see one of them is a concealer and the other is a contour. Both are cream and incredibly easy to use! The product itself it’s very easily blendable with a brush or your finger and it creates the exact look and contour that I want. I’m far from a contouring expert but this makes it much easier. And for those of you who like a stronger contour look, this can be applied as heavily or lightly as you want!
At £21 each, they’re not the cheapest product on the market, but I’ve yet to find any contour set that comes close to matching in quality and perfect tone matching.
I’m incredibly happy with my purchase and they work great for me. I’ve read some reviews that they’re not great on dry skin so it may be worth doing some research and popping to your local boots to see if you can sample it but I love them!
I had the absolute pleasure of being invited to Tom’s sister, Kate’s, wedding a few weeks ago which was an absolute dream. Her and David got married in Coed Y Mwstwr Hotel in Bridgend which is tucked away in Coychurch, and conveniently only down the road from us.
I’m close to Tom’s family and love them like my own so I had the luxury of being involved in so many parts of the wedding, but with little responsibility!
In this blog post, I’ll write about all the little vegan bits that were thought about and catered for.
The Night Before The Wedding
We were invited to the hotel for a family meal before the nuptials the next day in the hotel restaurant. There was a vegan menu available and we were given the menus to peruse in the lounge area of the hotel.
We ordered and were taken into the restaurant when they were ready for us. We all ordered Tempura Vegetables to start, most of us ordered the Cauliflower and Pea Curry and Tom’s mum ordered the Chickpea and Lentil Roast for mains. To finish, myself and Hannah ordered the Vegan Chocolate Brownie and everyone else ordered the Grilled Pineapple with vegan ice-cream.
Vegetable Tempura
Cauliflower Curry
Chickpea and Lentil Roast
Vegan Chocolate Brownie
Grilled Pineapple
The food was lovely and the service was great. The Vegetable Tempura starter was a big hit with everyone and something that I highly recommend. It was a lovely start to the weekend!
Tom and I then headed home, ready for the next day…
The Wedding Day
Tom and I had a lie in as the ceremony wasn’t until 2:30! We were lucky to have an early check in at the hotel so we were able to check in at 12 so we started getting ready and packing some bags ready for the day!
On the way to the hotel, we stopped off in Who Cult Coffee + Donuts on Bridgend Industrial Estate on request of the bridal party, so it was impossible to say no! It was the first time I had actually gone inside so I took some photos but I’ll write another post. Here’s an older post from when I originally tried their doughnuts.
We arrived at the hotel and ran a few errands with Hannah, Tom’s younger sister and Kate’s maid of honour. We checked in and went straight up so that I could finish getting ready. Once I was ready, I spent the morning with the bridal party, taking photos and tearing up at the sight of Kate in her wedding dress. She looked beautiful.
The ceremony was lovely and there was so much love in the room. It was so clear to see that Kate and David shared so much together and were meant to be. It was an honour to be a guest.
After a drink and photos, we were seated fo the wedding breakfast. The favours were seeds to plant to help encourage bees, so we’ll be making sure we do that!
The wedding breakfast provided by Coed Y Mwstwr catered for both vegans and omnis. Kate herself is a vegetarian so she had the vegan option also.
The vegan option was: Vegetable soup, Black Eyed Bean Bourginon and Vegan Chocolate Brownie with ice cream.
For those who are curious, the omni option was: Leek and Potato Soup, Turkey Roast and Cheesecake.
Vegetable Soup
Bourginon
Chocolate Brownie
I didn’t rate the bourginon. The mashed potato was delicious and creamy and the veg was great, but the meat replacement I found to be plain and dry.
The vegetable soup was really delicious. I could have eaten a vat of it! Tom appreciated the croutons too. He said he’d never had croutons before which shocked me!
The chocolate brownie was the same as the previous night but was much nicer with the ice cream.
Remaining on the topic of food… Kate and David’s wedding cake was made by the incredibly talented Vic’s Vegan Bakes. The cake was absolutely stunning and was made of 3 tiers:
Red Velvet and Chocolate
Salted Caramel and Biscoff
Vanilla and Raspberry
Every tier was absolutely delicious. Everyone loved it and I don’t think they even knew it was vegan. Vic bakes amazing cakes and makes them look like an absolute dream! Check out her instagram for all the inspiration.
The evening buffet came out around 9:30pm and has various vegan options and a small section of the omnis too. I picked up a cucumber sandwich, vegetable spring rolls and wontons and potato wedges. Tom had spicy falafel which he loved and couldn’t stop eating.
In between all of this, Tom and I spent the evening dancing the night away, pulling out all of our best wedding dance moves and trying to get everyone we know up on the dance floor with relative levels of success.
The Day After The Wedding
We stayed the night at the hotel. The room was lovely but I didn’t find the bed particularly comfortable. I had very particular comfort needs but it was a nice stay and it was very quiet.
What I did love was that instead of a hanging door sign to indicate you don’t want to be disturbed, they had the cutest cuddly toy dogs! “Let Sleeping Dogs Lay”.
We were invited to join the bride and groom for breakfast at 9am. I never usually eat much in the morning so I only had a coffee and juice but there was lots of lovely fruit on offer as well as cereals. We were also provided with soy milk for teas and coffees. Everyone else ordered vegan breakfasts which from what I remembered had sausages, toast, hash brown and a grilled tomato.
A huge thank you to Kate and David for having us and making the day so special for everyone. Thank you for catering for us and including us in so much of your day!
It’s been a while since I posted a Self Care Sunday post so apologies! It’s been a busy few weeks but I was finally able to take a beat…
Here are the products I treated myself to this time.
Lush: Unicorn Horn Bubble Bar
I am a big fan of a bubble bar. Bath bombs are lovely and smell amazing, but bubble bars give you the same thing with all of the bubbles! I bought the Lush Unicorn Horn bubble bar a few months ago and finally got to use it.
The bubble bar was lovely and didn’t produce heavy amounts of glitter which is a positive for me as I don’t like coming out of the bath caked in glitter or shimmer.
It was lovely and relaxing, and as always, I highly recommending visiting Lush for all your bathing and bubble needs!
Superdrug: Dead Sea Purifying Clay Mask
I’m not sure if I’ve written about this face mask before but it is my absolute favourite face mask. It is so refreshing and great for my pores.
It’s a Superdrug own brand mask and costs only 99p. It’s clearly labelled vegan which is great too. Here‘s the link to the product.
My only criticism of this is the packaging. I find these disposable packs really inconvenient and quite wasteful. I feel like I end up wasting product. I usually end up emptying it into a small Lush pot that I have spare and lying around to try and get the most of it.
PIXI: FortifEYE patches
Finally, I bought a new product the other day and have been using these on a few occasions, usually just when I’m sitting around watching TV.
Everyone loves an under-eye mask and these ones are great. There’s lots of pairs in the pot, but admittedly they are a little pricey. I managed to get these on LookFantastic with a discount code so it worked out quite well.
The reviews were really good and when I finally got them I definitely didn’t disagree. They were really easy to use and left my eyes feeling really refreshed. I do think that they’re lifting and firming well and I’m noticing the bags under my eyes less and less.
Don’t forget to treat yourselves every now and then because you deserve it!
I know it’s early, but I’m going to mention the C word… Christmas!
I’m sure plenty of you (if you’re not vegan yourselves) have vegan relatives and friends that you don’t know what to purchase for.
I pride myself on being a good gift buyer. I pay attention to the people I love and note their needs for future reference. I won’t know your friends and families personally, but here are some shops and generic gifts that many vegans would be pleased to receive!
Holland and Barrett
H&B is a health shop that you can find on most high streets. H&B has so many vegan products available in their stores, including chocolate and snacks, as well as beauty items so it’s always worth popping in.
For Tom’s birthday recently, I popped in to pick up chocolate for him. They have a great range of vegan chocolate there which includes Vego and Nomo. He’s made his way through most of it now and loved it all.
My personal favourite was the Cocoalibre raspberry bar!
Lush
Those of you who are avid readers will know that I’m a fan of Lush. I usually stock up on bath bombs and bubble bars which I think make fantastic gifts for people during the holiday season.
Come Christmas time, Lush releases a whole range of Christmas gift boxes as well as individual items. Gift boxes are always a great gift as they usually give you a bit of everything. There are plenty of boxes to choose from so this isn’t specific to Christmas but I do love the Christmas boxes.
Another thing that Lush offers are knot wraps instead of boxes. This gives you the flexibility of choosing which items you’d like your receiver to have, including the design of the wrap.
Everything in Lush is labelled so make sure you pick vegan items. There is a clear distinction between the vegetarian and vegan items so if you’re not sure, ask the staff and I’m sure they’d be more than willing to help.
Ethical Superstore
When we start approaching the Christmas season, I like to take a visit to the Ethical Superstore online store. There’s usually lots of goodies and it’s really easy to filter for vegan items on their website.
My usual Christmas order will consist of chocolate for stocking fillers and there will always be some Booja Booja chocolates, usually for myself…
There are so many items available to browse and buy. Scented candles, clothes, bags, shoes, etc! Depending on who you’re buying for, there’ll be plenty of selection available.
Clothing
There are lots of vegan clothing brands that I’ve come across in my short time as a vegan with their appearances at various vegan events in Cardiff!
Viva La Vegan
Tom loves the Viva La Vegan range. There are plenty of t-shirts, hoodies and accessories to choose from. Their designs are simple and effective but here are so many designs and options to choose from that there’s bound to be something there.
I love that they also do badges, stickers and reusable items like tote bags and reusable cutlery! If clothing wasn’t what you were after, then these are great options too.
Wear Your Voice
Wear Your Voice have some truly beautiful designs for their clothing. It’s impactful but gorgeous. Their designs range from stunning animal drawings (which are designed by them and won’t be found anywhere else) to some more simple designs.
Eden Perfumes
We’ll finish this post off on Eden Perfumes. I’ve written about Eden Perfumes before in this blog post. They are based in Brighton and are completely vegan and cruelty free. They make so many different fragrances and there will be a cruelty-free and vegan version of your favourite there!
If you know someone who’s recently turned vegan or is transitioning over, Eden Perfumes will be a great alternative for their favourite perfumes. Lots of people forget about the need for cruelty-free and vegan cosmetics so this is also a friendly reminder, as well as a great gift!
If there’s anything you guys would like hints and tips on, please leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to help!
A few weekends ago, I visited The Alchemist in Cardiff for my not quite sister-in-law’s hen party!
I’ve heard many good things about The Alchemist. They’re renowned for producing interesting cocktails, with the full works, smoke and all!
We came for dinner and cocktails (booked at 7:15pm) and were sat in the restaurant area of the bar. I have a few criticisms of this area.
The tables were very close together which didn’t make it easy to get in and out when it was full. Especially with one of the party being over 6 months pregnant!
The music was incredibly loud, even though it was a separate and designated area away from the bar. I think they would benefit from lowering the volume to allow groups to hold a conversation without shouting.
They started dimming the lights half way through our dinner which I thought was really unusual. I understand wanting an atmosphere but sitting and squinting wasn’t what I was expecting.
Cocktails were actually quite a challenge to order. There was so many options and they don’t label things vegan here. There is one specific cocktail that was labelled ‘The Vegan One’ which made me wonder whether all the other cocktails were specifically non-vegan.
Generally, most spirits are vegan. It may be something you’ll have to research before hand if you plan on visiting because we were a little blind sided. The waitress, although lovely, seemed to be a little bit clueless on what was vegan or not. She advised that she thought most cocktails that didn’t have cream in them were likely to be ok.
I chanced it (which probably wasn’t the right thing to do) and I ordered a Lightbulb Moment which contained: TANQUERAY GIN, PIMMS, GINGER BEER, RASPBERRY, LEMON, MINT. It was served in a spherical flask with smoke pouring out of it.
Lightbulb Moment
We were a party of 10 and the service was great. They were very patient with us the entire time, especially at the end when we were paying the bill!
So let’s get started on the food. There were a few vegan options available here which was quite nice to see. For the mains, this included:
Chickpea Korma
Moving Mountains Burger
Cauliflower Katsu Curry
Poke Bowl
Seitan in a Basket
Not all of us were vegan, but between us, we managed to order the chickpea curry, poke bowl and seitan in a basket.
Chickpea Korma
Poke Bowl
I ordered the Seitan in a Basket and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of food. The seitan was very good and delicious. At first, I thought it was chicken and was concerned that I’d been given the wrong dish. I chose a larger piece and cut it open and it was clear it was definitely seitan. The fries were great and the coleslaw was lovely too.
Again, to be critical, they served the dish in one of those chicken shaped wiry egg baskets… Why? Why would you serve a vegan dish inside a chicken shaped basket? Even more sadistically, the actual chicken in a basket was also served inside the chicken shaped basket. I’m not sure which was worse to be honest.
Overall, the food was much better than I expected. I was really full afterwards from all the fried food, but it was worth it.
Seitan in a Basket
Seitan piece
They had a very small pudding selection which included a poached pineapple and 2 flavours of gelato. I ordered 1 single scoop of mango gelato as I was too full for 3 scoops, but it was lovely.
For all 10 of us, the total bill came to £176.80. The £45 deposit that we paid was deducted from this, but a £20 service charge was added which we weren’t expecting. We weren’t the kind of group to kick up a fuss so covered it between us and the service we got did deserve a tip so it wasn’t so bad.
If you plan on taking a visit to The Alchemist, I recommend planning well in advanced and deciding your cocktails prior to your visit so you can try to accurately gage which ones are vegan. Everyone raved about their food so that shouldn’t be a worry for anyone!
This Vegan Mum 