Susmitha, A Vegan in Bengaluru (Bangalore)

Susmitha is a passionate vegan in Bangalore. So many people are trying vegan food in Bangalore, because of Susmitha. Susmitha's blog Veganosaurus is brimming with an array of recipes for cookies, cakes , ice creams , Indian sweets and breads.  Recently, Susmitha did baking demo at Carrots - Bangalore's vegan restaurant.

Susmitha also makes cruel-free jewellery from clay, copper, fine silver and vegan pearls.

Thanks Susmitha for inspiring people to lead a vegan lifestyle .

Vegan Almond Cashew Burfi

I love Indian sweets. I often make burfis , so that I can relish it for a couple of days. I often visit
Manjula's kitchen

 Manjula's kitchen is an awesome food website. Manjula aunty has posted so many vegetarian recipes. If you like Indian food, you can find so many simple recipes in Manjula's kitchen.

On sunday, I made Almond Cashew burfi . It was really good. I used vegan sugar - sugar in the raw . If you have a sweet tooth like me, you will love this burfi.

Vegan Masala Tea, made with Trader Joe's Rice Milk

In my pre-vegan, I relished drinking masala tea, once in a while. Once I became a vegan, I completely forgot about it.

On sunday evening, it was raining, and I felt like drinking tea. Fortunately, organic unsweetened rice milk was in the fridge.  Within few minutes I made amazing masala tea with rice milk. The taste was so divine, it taste so much similar to tea made with dairy milk.  I have been relishing this amazing masala tea in the mornings, from past couple of days.

Vegan Masala Tea
Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:
2 cups Trader Joe's unsweetened rice milk
2 whole cloves
1/2 inch cinnamon
2 Tbsp sugar
1 whole cardamom
1/2 tsp fresh ginger , cut into slices (optional)


Method
1.Combine rice milk with spices in a sauce pan. Do not add ginger now. Bring it to boil.
2.Add ginger. Reduce the heat, and simmer for 5-6 minutes or until the color changes to orange.
3. Add sugar,  remove from heat. Strain and serve.

United Nations Advocates Plant-based Diet

According to the United Nations report - Livestock's Long Shadow , meat consumption  and dairy consumption causes 18% of man-made greenhouse gases. Meat industries and dairy industries across the world, is causing environment problems.

United Nations is urging people to eat less meat. Some research has shown that vegans have the small
carbon footprint. Thriving on a vegan diet is a great way to go "Green". I'm sure United Nations is pleased with "Meatless Mondays".

It's really so easy to be a vegan in United States. You can get everything from vegan icecreams to non-dairy milk and vegan chocolates to vegan butter.

Thanks to the internet, you can find great vegan recipes, vegan forums and vegan blogs. I often browse vegweb, vegan jains, vegetarian times , urban vegan , vegan richa and fat free vegan for recipes and news about plant-based diet - good for health and our beautiful planet Earth.

Vegan Kaju Katli, Indian Cashew Fudge

For a very long time, I assumed that Kaju Katlis were made only by professional cooks and chefs.
Thanks to so many Indian cuisine food blogs, yummy Indian sweets are floating around in Blogosphere. I saw Kaju Katli recipe in Saffron Hot blog and decided to make it.

I veganized the recipe, by using vegan raw sugar , from the company - Sugar in the Raw. You can find Sugar in the Raw at Costco. The Kaju Katlis were light caramel color, but the taste was out of this world!

I made this sweet, and arranged the Kaju Katlis in a plate. My four year old saw the sweets and ate few pieces. My husband and I eat few Kaju Katlis.

The next morning, I noticed there were only 3 pieces of Kaju Katlis. My son eats 2 pieces, and I stop him from eating the third piece. I tell my son that we should keep the Kaju Katli for his father. My son says, "There is just one Kaju Katli. I will make it into three pieces". He breaks the kaju katli into 3 small pieces. He pops 2 small pieces, before I could stop him . Now there is only one tiny piece of Kaju Katli. I pop this tiny piece of Kaju Kali into my mouth, as I did not feel like giving a small piece to my husband!

What's behind that glass of Milk?

Anusha Narian has exposed the pain and suffering endured by milk producing cows in this
article
The article - What's behind that glass of milk ?, shows the cruelty involved in milk production.

This article had 62 comments, and most of the comments inclined towards vegan diet. I'm sure thousands of people in India have read this article, and are looking for dairy alternatives.

The blogs such as Vegan India, vegan richa and Vaishali's blog holy cow will provide information
everything from vegan recipes to vegan friendly restaurants.

Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops

These days, whenever my son eats a lollipop, even I eat a lollipop. I recently discovered
 Yummy Earth Organic lollipops which are vegan. Yummy Earth  lollipops have been in market for many years, but I recently discovered  it.These lollipops are 100% vegan, and contain no artificial dyes. I have only tasted strawberry smash, and they are just yum, yum and yummy. I got these tasty cruel-free lollipops from Whole Foods Market, and I read in another blog, that they are available even in Marshalls.

Before discovering these yummy lollipops I used to cringe whenever my son ate a lollipop. The phrase "artificial color", and words like red 3 and red 40 on wrappers of lollipops caused me headache. I felt as if I was reading a wonderful poem, when I read the list of ingredients in Yummy Earth packet. Organic cane juice, Organic rice syrup, citric acid(from beet sugar), contain organic Black Carrots, Organic Black Currant, Organic Apple

I read in Yummy Earth's website that these great lollipops are available in 30 countries. I just hope all the kids around the world enjoy lollipos made with real ingredients, just like Yummy Earth's lollipops.