Today I decided to change my extended project to be a dissertation on vegetarianism. Originally I was planning on making a vegan cookbook, however, I decided against this as I didn't think it would be as challenging or as skill-developing as writing a dissertation, considering that none of the subjects I study at AS-level require any essay-writing skills. Having had the idea of creating a vegan cookbook I thought that I would base my dissertation on an issue related to vegetarianism. After choosing the theme of my dissertation I wrote my rationale, explaining why I chose my project. This was successful as being a vegetarian myself I am very interested and aware of the impacts of having a vegetarian diet on health but am not so knowledgeable of its impacts on the environment or sporting performance. This meant I would find the topic engaging and it would hopefully expand my knowledge of something that forms such an important part of my lifestyle. I had a lot to write about explaining why I chose my project in the rationale, making it very successful. Next I will focus on creating a timeline for my project.

I began researching different vegan recipes to get an idea of the range of options available. This was beneficial as I learnt that there are products such as coconut or soya milk and cream cheese that can be used as alternatives to traditional dairy products. One recipe I looked at was banoffi pie which used both cream cheese, coconut milk and vegan margarine:

Ingredients

Filling:
1 tin full fat coconut milk, refrigerated overnight
½ tub Tofutti Cream Cheese Original (or Tesco or Sheese brand)
½ cup muscovado or other dark brown sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Crust:
250g vegan biscuits eg HobNob regular; digestives such as McVitie’s Light (not regular); Co-op; Dove’s Farm. Read the labels as some digestives contain milk (whey etc) while others don’t
6 tbsp vegan margarine, eg Pure, Vitalite, Suma, Biona, Tesco Free From

Topping:
2-3 ripe bananas
Vegan whipping cream, see below*
Good quality dark vegan chocolate, eg Waitrose Belgian Dark - make sure it is chilled in the fridge before using

(Resource: Vegan Recipe Club)

After looking at recipes such as the one above I was able to extend my recipe list as I knew I could replace any unsuitable products with dairy-free ones. This broadened the scope of recipes I was planning to include in the cookbook. Next I will begin planning how I will layout my recipe book so that the presentation is easily accessible for all potential users.

Our homework to complete before our first extended project lesson was to fill out the personal audit sheets provided by the sixth form. These had questions asking about our interests and what our hobbies are. The questions asked were aimed at helping us to focus on what sort of subject and form our extended project should take. In some ways this was unsuccessful as I participate in a wide range of activities such as sport, music and drama that it didn't help me in limiting the scope of my dissertation topic. But what was helpful was that it made me think through what the benefits of doing each type of project were, for example, beneficial for use in a degree or in the workplace. I gained the ability of being able to look forward and envisage what the most beneficial and challenging project would be. After completing my personal audit and watching several video clips with previous students talking about their extended projects, I thought about doing a project involving cooking. Being a vegetarian myself I appreciate the difficulties in making new and different recipes when the available ingredients are limited. So I decided that I would create a vegan cookbook as making interesting and unique vegan recipes is challenging as the variety of ingredients available is even more restricted. This would hopefully develop my knowledge of vegan recipes and challenge my cooking abilities. My next step will be to research existing vegan recipes to get some ideas.