On Sunday I went with a couple of friends from the Mountaineering Club to West Dumbarton for a cold and windy bouldering session. We didn’t have a pad, so it was effectively soloing stuff, but we still managed to get some decent climbs in, and had fun despite getting seaweed on our climbing shoes…

Climbing usually makes you very hungry, and we were out all day so I came prepared with another baguette and an awesome vegan snackbox!

My snackbox had bananas (a climbing staple, vegan or not), a tangerine, a pear, and three different types of vegan energy/cereal bar: Sesame snaps, my favourite thing in the world! They are so tasty. 9bar, which have loads of seeds (pumpkin) in and the top is a weird but tasty chocolate-like thing made from carob. And peanut brittle, which is just peanuts and sugar. Its important to eat nuts and seeds when begin vegan, as they are a good source of protein and fats/oils.

After climbing we went to a pub for a pint (and tried not to get stabbed since Dumbarton was playing Rangers and the town and pubs were full of footy fans), then got the train home. I was starving after all the exercise and a pint, despite eating a reasonable amount through the day. I was a bit worried by this, but its not that unusual for me. I had a sandwich with avocado (absolutely the best thing in the world), my hummus, and salad on some surprisingly good sourdough loaf from Morrisons. I washed it down with some Alpro Soya Chocolate milk (which I am in love with, Alpro please send me free milk!).

For dinner that evening I had the sauce with tagliatelle again, with some corn on the cob which I generously coated in dairy free butter. I accompanied my meal with some broccoli, probably my favourite vegetable (My housemates know this, as I very drunkenly declared it one night last year. Everyone else was sober. It was 8pm. On a week night. What am I doing with my life). I was starting to get a bit tired of the pasta sauce, which was annoying since I had loads left and was itching to try a few ideas I had brewing of what to make next.

A note on dairy free butter: I’ve used Pure before, but don’t really like it that much, and its quite expensive, despite it seeming to be the vegan standard. I was surprised to find an alternative in Morrisons: Vitalite which I absolutely loved! It was much tastier, had the saltiness and colour of real butter and was much more satisfying. It was also only £1 for a 500g tub! Its great on vegetables and toast, I’m yet to see how baking with it goes.