The Minimalist Vegan

I don’t do much baking, but when you have friends coming over for dinner, you put in the effort. These vegan chocolate brownies that also happen to be gluten and sugar-free as well as candida diet friendly, were an absolute hit! I served it with vanilla coconut milk based ice cream to Michael and our friends and I just had it with some coconut cream.

Considering that I was trying to make a dessert for a candida-friendly diet that I was on at the time that would also be nice for everyone else, the pressure was on. I was doing an elimination diet so that I could be de-sensitized to wheat and also detox. With my love for pasta, pizza, bread, you name it, this was a big thing for me. But only good quality stuff, none of the cheap, processed crap. However, every time I took a mouthful, I would look like I was six months pregnant and have other symptoms that gave me a lot of discomfort. With other things brewing that I can’t talk about just yet, being able to eat wheat comfortably was going to make a massive difference in my life. [continue reading…]

The concept of minimalism is keeping what is essential, what brings you happiness and eliminating the rest.

As minimalists, we mostly talk about how and why to eliminate, whether it’s possessions, negative people in our lives or commitments that no longer serve us. In this post, I want to focus my attention on the topic of getting rid of things. More specifically, how we get rid of things.

A lot of people think that by either donating, gifting the items to someone else that might use it or leaving it on the side of the curb for someone else to collect, is fixing the problem of unwanted belongings. But my question is, do people think about where that product will end up? Whose responsibility is it to make sure it doesn’t cause animals, humans and environmental harm? Do we care enough to ask this question? [continue reading…]

If you’re reading this post, it’s safe to assume that you have an email address. We use email universally to communicate and send messages to each other. Some of us are more dependent on email than others, frequently checking our inboxes for important updates.

I’ve used email for as long as I can remember. My first email address was set up on Hotmail with an outrageous username – mikey_mix05@hotmail.com and Maša’s was pink_cherry_lips@hotmail.com!

Establishing an email was my ticket into the World Wide Web. I could not only send messages to friends an family, but virtually every online service requires an email to sign up.

So when I first got my email up and running, it was such a novelty that I looked forward to checking my inbox and responding to messages every day. However, over time, as I signed up to more services and promotions, my inbox became a dumping ground.

All of a sudden I was overwhelmed with messages and I would lose time trying to find emails, amongst all of the trash and spam.

It wasn’t until I got my first corporate job as an accountant that I learned how to organise my emails. I used Microsoft Outlook to create inbox folders and subfolders for client information.

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I’ve been making this Maple Drizzled Crispy Vegan French Toast for breakfast for about four years now on our slow mornings and am feeling like it’s time to share it with you all. This recipe was in the free One Week of Meals Cookbook that we had as a download (which is no longer available) and we got lots of great feedback on it. I wanted to give it a bit of an upgrade, so here it is—in all, it’s simple, yet delicious crispy glory.

French toast is something that I grew up eating. Do you have stale bread? No problem, French toast coming right up! It’s such a classic dish and so many people love it for its simplicity and the fact that you can save some food. That’s a win in my eyes. [continue reading…]

The last few months I’ve been thinking a lot about the possessions that clutter people’s homes. In particular, the things that you would find in the bathroom. Looking at the products that I used to buy and know that others keep in the bathroom, brought me to one word. Insecurity.

As humans, advertisers pray on our insecurities – the beauty industry is a prime example of this. They market to us to make us feel like we want to be someone else. Like what we have right now is not enough, and we need that anti-wrinkle cream to make all our lines magically disappear or hair colour to hide our natural grey tones. It has taken me a while, but I’ve stopped dying my hair even with the most natural hair colours because I don’t feel like I need to cover up my truth. There is a difference between owning your ageing process or unique look and covering that up to what society deems as acceptable. 

We have a long way to go, but I believe that people are turning the corner. Slowly. But better slowly than not at all. [continue reading…]

We’ve been keeping some pretty exciting news from you, which we can finally share! And no we’re not having a baby. Read our thoughts on that in this post.

With the focus that we put on choosing our own path in life and following what feels right, we’ve made a big decision. We’re moving to Slovenia mid this year! As some of you may know, this is where I was born and where I spent the first eight years of my life before moving to Australia with my family.

Since arriving here, I have been dreaming of one day moving back. That time has come and I’m so lucky to have a husband that is just as excited and eager about the move as I am! When I took him there back in 2015, he fell in love with the city, in particular, the old town of Ljubljana. There is so much beauty and history there, it’s ridiculously clean and has a very eco-conscious community with farmers markets every day and even raw vegan cakes at pubs and bars! I mean, can it get any better than that? Well, it can.

The old town is also a car-free zone, so the pebbled stoned streets are only graced by feet and bicycles. The other stunning thing in that the old town has a forest with a castle. Fairytale anyone? This was my childhood and I wanted to experience this as an adult. Well, my dream is coming true. [continue reading…]

Yes, it’s that time of the year again! When most of us play Christmas tunes, decorate everything and go crazy over buying gifts and preparing for the big Christmas feast.

I personally don’t celebrate Christmas that much now that I’m an adult as my family isn’t into buying gifts for each other as we aren’t big on consumerism. Maybe this year try doing something a little different, make something instead of buying gifts or buy them an experience! Enjoy a fantastic vegan feast with family and friends.  [continue reading…]

My seven-year-old nephew, Isaac, loves to eat meat. His favourite meals are chicken schnitzel, barbecued sausages and toasted cheese sandwiches.

Isaac’s parents have explained why his Aunty and Uncle don’t eat meat, and he’s accepting of our values, sometimes even protective! However, he’s open as long as we don’t come between him and his meat.

So when Isaac comes over for sleepovers, it’s a battle to get him to eat our food. We’ve tried pasta with a simple tomato sauce, tofu scramble, spinach stew, baked vegetables, potato curry. You name it.

One thing he’ll always happily eat is Maša’s pancakes, because, vegan or not, which kid doesn’t love pancakes?

Knowing our food struggles with the little guy, we thought we’d take him out for dinner one time. We went to our favourite vegan Asian restaurant, which has a large selection of mock meat dishes.

Maša ordered the Eggplant Hotpot, and I went with the tofu satay sauce with rice. Isaac was to decide what meat dish he wanted to order. At least so he thought. In the end, he went with the “beef” Massaman Curry, which I thought was an excellent choice. [continue reading…]

How many of us could answer this question if someone asked us “What is your way of life?”

I wouldn’t imagine many people would have an answer, understand it or stumble their way through it. 

Many of us don’t have a way of life, well we do, but it’s not really a way. You have to choose a path in life, otherwise, if you don’t choose one consciously, someone else will choose it for you. 

This is largely determined by advertising agencies, social media and whatever other cultural trends are happening. Keep in mind that those don’t always have your best interest at heart. When was the last time you really believed that a product a large company was trying to sell you was for your own benefit and not for their back pocket? To be someone, companies believe that we need to own this thing, we need to buy their brand. By owning the brand, you are representing their tribe. The tribe that was created by them and made you want to feel a part of it.  [continue reading…]