Weekly diary #112: Visiting National Park de Hoge Veluwe

Hi there, welcome back into my personal weekly diary. In this diary I try to show you what an eco-positive lifestyle looks like on a daily basis. The daily decisions I make which determine whether I live within the earth’s capacity. Besides that, I want to create as much positive impact as I can. The past week I bought tickets for Sziget 2020, went to the Vegan Junk Food Bar and donated some plasma! Want to read along? Here’s weekly diary #112.

Thursday

Big day today! The ticket sale for Sziget has started! My friends and I are planning on going to Sziget again in the summer of 2020 and my boyfriend is going too. Last time was so much fun that we decided to do it again. Even though it’s the same festival, I reckon each time is going to be different since the artists and the terrain is different. Last time I went, I wrote about my experiences and sustainable lessons in this blogpost. Back then I went by plane and this time I’ll go by train, that makes such a big difference! I told my future self in that blogpost that for the food on the terrain I need to bring something. A big lunchbox or a plate. And also I didn’t fully succeed back then in eating 100% plant based, which will be a piece of cake now! This holiday is going to be very sustainable. Below are the items you’ll get if you’ve ordered tickets in the first 24 hours. It did get more expensive this year, 299 euros where it was 250 euros last time. 

Friday

After class we went to the Vegan Junk Food Bar in Amsterdam with a group of classmates. I had organized it because I had been wanting to go for a while. They now had vegan sashimi and I had been wanting to try that for ages. So today was the moment of truth. And to be honest, it was a disappointment. It was not that good. It wasn’t tasty at all. I struggled with the texture. The taste was good, very fishy and all. But the structure, no. Anyway, I am happy that I tried it. Along with it I also ordered Kapsalon, a Dutch dish with fries, shawarma, sauces, salad and more. It is a mixture of good things basically. The traditional dish is never vegan but obviously this one was. I thought it was amazing, a 10/10.

Saturday

Today I managed to make my own tempeh for the first time! I had bought the tempeh last week since I got a card from Albert Heijn with which I could buy free groceries. The last time I made tempeh I only used ketjap (something Dutch again) and it was not good at all because I used way too much. I wanted to try it again today because I had heard that tempeh is very good if you bake it with some soy sauce. I had cut the tempeh in blocks but we had run out of soy sauce. Instead I used a little bit of ketjap and Maggie (a Dutch salty thing for garnishing). It turned out delicious! No need for buying pre-marinated and cut tempeh any longer.

Sunday

My boyfriend is trying to eat more plant based, so as we had breakfast together this morning, he had bought something new. Vegan cream cheese from Violife (which is available at Albert Heijn) and it was honestly so good. I’ll definitely buy this again, it’s vegan and palm oil free. I ate it with a bagel and avocado and spring union hmmmm. Afterwards we went to National Park de Hoge Veluwe, a big nature park in The Netherlands. We drove there with car, which is not sustainable. But it’s quite expensive with public transportation and my boyfriend has a lease car and so that’s basically free for us. It’s something to improve in the future. The Park was very beautiful! We had to pay 9,95 entrance fee each and 3,85 for parking but I think it was worth it. You get a free bike with that with which you are able to see the entire park. I would really recommend and will write a blogpost about it soon. At night we went out to dinner with friends at a Mexican restaurant. They did not have fajita’s which was a disappointment since it is my favorite Mexican dish, but in the end I had a pretty good vegan burrito salad.

Monday

Today I went to school and my dad had given me carrots to bring with me. I bought some hummus to eat with it, basil and tomato flavor. They didn’t have any discounted hummus, which is the most sustainable option. So I went with this basil and tomato which I think is my new favorite flavor! At night I donated some plasma again at the blood bank. My blood pressure and haemoglobin were very good and I donated 450 ml in 21 minutes. Very fast! I helped someone and got some me-time. Win-win!

Tuesday

Today when I went to school I brought some soy yoghurt as breakfast and leftovers from dinner for lunch. A great zero waste hack since you save food waste! It does not look that delicious on the photo, but is was quite good. Another plus for me is that when I eat leftovers I usually eat vegetables instead of bread. I think it’s important to eat diverse and not bread every day.

Wednesday

Today after school I went to my boyfriend and we baked some vegan cookies together. I like baking, but I had never baked vegan cookies yet. We made vegan chocolate chip cookies and they were delicious! We also used a baking mat instead of baking paper and so we reduced waste!

Yours sincerely,
Romee