Ciao from Bella Italia!
Hi everyone,
my name is Val and I'm a 35 y.o. German National, happily married to a US Navy man, mom to 2 kids and 2 Sicilian street cats we adopted. Tommy Boy (or Thomaso if we call him by his real Italian name) is about 3 and Minkus will turn 1 this coming May.
I've lurked for quite some time and thought it's about time to finally make a small intro! ;)
I've been vegetarian for almost 6 years until I finally made the switch and became vegan this past summer! So far I'm the only vegan in my family; both my husband and son (6) are omnis, though thankfully we rarely have any meat in the house and my husband loves (most of the time) my vegan meals! ;) My daughter (10) recently made the switch to being a vegetarian/almost-vegan.
I'm seriously addicted to vegan cookbooks and of course have all of Isa's books! Oops.. no, actually I don't have the last pie one.. but it'll join the collection eventually, I'm sure! ;)
We're currently stationed in Sicily, Italy, since almost 4 years now and have 1.5 more to go until we'll retire in Germany. And no, it's not as romantic living here as one might think! Especially not if you're a vegan for ethical reasons and see mistreated and/or abandoned animals left and right here!.. (Not to mention the trash everywhere etc.)
But things could be worse and I'm thankful for being able to get things from the US through our military mail; not only essential things like nutritional yeast and such (which doesn't seem to exist in this country and the store on base doesn't carry it..) but also books to support my addiction! ;)
Welcome! Hope you find some great recipes on here.
I have the same addiction for the books except mine are for not only vegan but also raw foods x)
Welcome to the club Val!
Connect 2 Your Angel
Calgary Angel Readings
Ramona Remesat
ramona@calgarySEM.com
www.connect2yourangel.com
Welcome to the club Val!
Connect 2 Your Angels
Calgary Angel Readings
Ramona Remesat
ramona@calgarySEM.com
www.connect2yourangels.com
Hi,
I guess it is no fun to be vegan in Italy, esp. in the southern part. Though, I think that the Italian cuisine can fit to a ovo-lacto lifestyle, my impression is that a lot is dependent on eggs and esp. on cheese (not to talk about vegan wines) I wish you good luck and I belive you will survive also the last year until you can return to good ol' Germany.
I don't know whether you will like it, but I have a nice cookbook (one for the addict ;-)) here, which is only available in German language called 'Cucina Vegana' from the Pala Verlag. I could easily purchase it from amazon.de. This could be supportive esp. if you would like to cook vegan italian dishes for friends. My wife and I really love it, when it comes to light summerly dishes. And the best is: almost all recipes are avoiding soy.
In D we have vegan webshops where you can get almost everything what a vegan pantry can consist of (also nutritional yeast). Maybe something comparable is also available in Sicily?
If this is not possible, we substitute yeast flakes with either Marmite (if Brits or Aussis are nearby, you will find this stuff easily) or Maggi Würze, which is of course not the same, but when you use nutritional yeast only to improve the taste and make your dishes a little bit more savory, then it will work satisfactorily. But don't even try to make Hefeschmelz with that, you will face a disaster ;-)
Wish you all the best,
Rick