Sometimes it’s hard to be vegan!
I must apologize for not posting for ages! I seem to spend a lot of time travelling or working and not being anywhere near a kitchen.
At the moment I am in Azerbaijan, in Baku, working. Not the touristy nice bit of Baku! The poor run down bit.
The down side – no chance of getting these people to be vegetarian, let alone vegan. Cant get soy milk locally, and certainly not any kind of meat substitutes.
On the good side, there are loads of small shops in the town selling fresh fruit and veg, and the local supermarket has dates, dried fruit and a great selection of nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, cashews) and raisins.
I managed to get our contractor to order me soy milk (has to come all the way from Dubai!), and I bought myself a cheap stick blender at a local shop.
I also brought over with me in my luggage a good supply of organic oats, wheatgrass powder, lucuma, maca, milled chia and flax seeds, protein powder, cacao powder, goji berries and dessicated coconut.
One thing about Azerbaijan, the fruit is amazingly cheap here- 1/2 kilo strawberries, 2 bananas, a melon and a lemon – 2.9 Manats which is about GBP 1.50!!
So my staple diet while I am here is a great big bowl of my homemade muesli, soaked in soy milk, and a large fresh smoothie every morning.
Just takes a little bit of effort!
And – which is great – I nearly have a convert! – My colleague just loves the smoothies, and he has stopped eating dairy, and guess what?
He feels so much better for it.
Little by little!
Bon apetit.
