The Veg*n Challenge

"If every vegetarian nets one more vegetarian in the next five years (and most of us can do a lot better than that), we should have a vegetarian country by then (there are about 10 million now, so in five years there will be 20, and then 40, 80, 160, everyone)."

 ~ Bruce Friedrich, PETA VP and co-author of The Animal Activists' Handbook

I was catching up on my reading of old VegNews magazines several weeks back when I came across a short interview with Bruce Friedrich. about the future of veganism.  The above quote comes from his responses to the ten quick questions he answered.  And, were the words that mulled about in my head for a week or two before I came up with a fabulous challenge for myself.

I've mentioned the challenge to a few people already, but I feel as if i should share it more openly with every one.  Perhaps, by sharing my life with you, I can inspire you ... which is the premise of this challenge.

For most of the seven years of my journey in vegetarianism, I have been the token "vegetarian/vegan" (veg*n) in most groups I socialize in.  In the last three months, as I've become more involved with the Vegetarian Organization in my community, this has changed.  And, it's not just because I spend more time with the vegans, raw vegans and vegetarians I have met through my work with VVOA.  I feel like the more veg*nism I fill my life with, the more veg*ns are drawn to me.  Or (in a more hopeful tone), veg*nism is just becoming more mainstream.

Regardless of why I keep meeting more veg*ns, I have realized that I want to inspire more veg*n trends in the lives of people that I have met in the past, or meet from now on.  So, inspired by Friedrich's quote, I challenge myself to inspire a veg*n change in the lives of 12 people every year.

Of course, as per usual, I will remain open to all walks of life and not pressure anybody into doing something that they haven't chosen on their own.  But, I want to inspire people to live a better life.  In my opinion, veg*nism is a better life, and I support any steps taken towards living more compassionately.  The person does not have to become a hard-core, card-carrying vegan overnight. It took me five years to go from "no factory farm" vegetarianism to "the occasional omnivorous baked good" vegan.  As such, I feel like I will have made a difference in the world if I can at least get people started on their own veg*n journey. 

It does have to be more than just going meatless once a week, though.  I think that's a great step that every omnivore should do, for their health AND finances.  But, being a vegetarian at home is a great first step.  Becoming a pescatarian is also great. (i existed there for eighteen months after my year as an anti-factory-farm vegetarian.  Even an ova-lacto vegetarian is great.  )If you manage to "give up" cheese, though, your colon and I will love you!) I have a friend who is currently a vegetarian, and she's going to try veganism for a month this summer.  That definitely counts.

One person in five years just seems too easy...so, I've challenged myself to twelve people a year.  I feel like inspiring a small change in a person's life every month is completely reasonable!  However, I don't want to feel the pressure every month.  Some month, I may convince a couple of people to reduce the amount of animal products in their life, and some months I just might not. 

The goal for this year - 2011 - is twelve.  We'll see how successful I am.  So far, this is my list:

• This January, a long-time best friend of mine began a blog about an omnivore trying to be a vegetarian.  This made my month!  She's been friends with me since before my first month of "trying" veganism.  Last fall, we had a few great conversations about the politics behind meat as well as her family's obsession with the social meanings behind the amount of meat they consume.  (Think My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but in Chinese.) The fact that she is still managing to eat vegetarian at home, living in the same building as her family, makes me very proud of her.
• One friend texted me on a Saturday morning in early March with a, "So, I've decided to become a vegetarian!"  We met up the next weekend to find her first vegetarian cookbook and talk about the logistics of being a vegetarian.  I lent her a few copies of my old VegNews for further inspiration and have answered a few "dining out" questions for her since then.
• more to come!

If you've been inspired by me, please comment!

Giving Up Cheese

I tend to hear a lot of excuses about why people could never possibly go vegetarian, let alone vegan.  It's okay, you don't have go full-hearted at it...especially at first.  Those people who can go cold tofurkey are people I have a lot of respect for, but I also understand how difficult it is to change your life suddenly.  So, I advocate for any baby steps taken towards the greater cause of eradicating all animal by-products from one's life...

When it comes to cheese, giving it up altogether is the BEST way to deal with ending the addiction, in my opinion, of course.  Vegan Soapbox has a few more helpful hints, in case you're struggling with ending the addition...

Check out their tips:

Vegan Soapbox's helpful hints

As for me, I went cold cheezy sauce on the dairy cheese.  My first month of veganism - January 2009 - I focussed on ridding my diet of cheese and chocolate.  Chocolate remains my weakness...but I NEVER miss cheese...it just happens to be in a lot of vegetarian dishes that become my "only" option sometimes. (I'm getting better at politely telling people that cheese is not okay in my salad/entree/etc. ... more on Dining Out later...)  Of course, the more I make my nooch cheeze sauce for people, the less deprived they think I am for no longer indulging in such an addictive food.  That's right...once you give up an addiction, you realize how little you crave it...

Mmmmmm...gonna go make me some nooch sauce now....so yummy...

Helping or Hoarding? and a Tangent on Slumpets

A few weeks ago, I began to scour the immense amount of information on PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)'s website.  Among the many treasures, I found this article commenting on the animal cruelty involved with hoarding:

Helping or Hoarding?: "Many of us have had a peek into the bizarre world of hoarding courtesy of reality television. Accumulating piles and piles of household junk is…"

If you live in Edmonton, perhaps you remember hearing about that house in Terwillegar that had over 300 rabbits in it.  I believe that was last winter when the SPCA (or some other organization) confiscated the animals. 

I think the house was even condemned because of the remaining condition of it after having way too many living beings in it.  It was the slum of the rabbits. Which is even worse than the slums of humans.  Don't get me wrong, I know that people who live in slums have little opportunity to get out of the slums, whether through financial burdens, health problems or their own fear to leave the only home they've ever been it (that's the worst fear of all: the fear of the unknown).  But, in our society, those people living in slums are given much more respect than the animals forced to live in slums.  And, in our society, those people have the freedom to leave their situation.  There are numerous social programs to help them out.  Education, I will always believe, is the path to their freedom - and there are libraries in every major city in the world. Fear can be overcome. Health problems is a difficult one, which always makes me thankful for living in Canada, where you can receive free (or at least discounted) crucial health care needs.  For those animals, though, there is nothing.  They are forced into these domestic cages, unable to live the life they feel such a strong desire to live - a life of freedom.  Who speaks for the beings without a human voice?  Who will give them the respect any living individual deserves?

This is why I'm vegan.  This is why my cat is my best friend, not "my" pet.  This is why I am filled with so much joy when I come across a rabbit in the river valley.  This post is only the tip of the iceberg on my thoughts about this topic.

I know I've hit a few different points, but I want to hear your reactions to it.  Argue with me! Tell me I'm wrong...if you actually think I am.  I want this blog to be a doorway to a dialogue I have been meaning to have for the last seven years.  Please, share your opinion with me! Oh, and read the article on PETA's site.  It's an interesting topic that spawned a lot of ideas inside my head.

Thanks!

"Ethical" Meat

"I don't have a problem with eating meat, just the ethics behind it."

The above statement was said to me during a "foodie" talk about curry.  I full-heartedly agreed with the individual and support her decisions 100%.  And, for that reason, many vegans are going to disagree with me... Many vegans disagree with me frequently, I just need to get used to it.  I'm already used to the fact that I make many people still eating meat uncomfortable...

Will I ever meat again? No.  Like the true-blue animal-rights vegetarians mentioned in the article below, I have developed an ethical opposition to the consumption of another animal.  I believe in speciesism, and hope for it to one day be as politically incorrect as racism, sexism, and all other prejudices in this world.  In the meantime, though, I want to support any baby steps away from the horrible and disgusting abuse that happens in every single factory farm, where speciesism is at its worst.  Like the feminist movement that has gone before it, the animal rights movement needs to focus on making violent rape/and torturous mercy killings illegal before we elect a cat for leader of the free world.  It's all about the baby steps...

As such, I support Meatless Mondays.  If everybody gave up eating meat for a day at least once a week, just imagine how many lives could be saved!  As long as you don't go on about it to me, I'll even be okay with you eating a steak the next day.  I'd prefer if you didn't...but if you know the producer, and you choose that over a factory-farmed chicken (who, by the way, I think need more protection than cattle in this country), I'll appreciate you're baby step.

I'm a farmer's daughter, and always will be.  Giving up meat was my single act of rebellion as a teenager, and I've always maintained a level of respect from where I've come from.  But I also have an idea for where we're heading...especially if we don't do anything to stop not only the abuse of animals for our mere pleasure (not nutritional benefit), but also the obesity epidemic and environmental consequences of over-production.  These are all points that I'll cover in the future...

After the "foodie" conversation, I made my way home and found this article on a Vegan Mainstream's facebook page.  Like many vegans I know, this article upset Vegan Mainstream.  It didn't paint rainbows of happiness across my heart either, but I can appreciate parts of it - especially the honesty.  Having profitted from the life of a farmer as a child, I do support "seeking out and paying a high premium for meat."  It should be a luxury - not a daily occurence!  In the same respect, fresh vegetables should be a daily occurence and not a luxury...and so I support local vegetable farmers.

Today I had a separate discussion with somebody whose sister had been a vegan for two years.  The reason for her to stop identifying as a vegan was because it was "too hard." She found herself deprived when going out with friends (to KFC...I'll hold back my comments on friends like that...) and following a strict diet too difficult.  This is exactly why I advocate for "cheating." I'm human.  I make mistakes.  And I'm not going to lose sight of the greater good just because there is milk ingredients in the bread I bought this week because I ran out of time to make my own.  As a fellow vegan pointed out, "an environmentalist doesn't stop calling themselves an environmentalist if they throw a pop can in a garbage can rather than the recycling bin."  So, to make the die-hard vegan police (who-don't-actually-exist) happy, I'll acknowledge that I'm a "Cheatin' Vegan."  For those who find life as a vegan or vegetarian too difficult for them, I'll be here to guide you in the right direction.  I won't, though, like the ex-vegetarian in this article, ever slide back into eating meat...and I mean that.

All that being said, I'm sure you're thoroughly confused about my point by now.  So, now's the perfect time to read somebody else's point of view.  There are some interesting points here, which inspired the above tangents, etc.  Check it out: "Why Vegetarians Are Eating Meat" in Food and Wine Online magazine.

Okay, so I am slightly sad that the ex-vegetarian started eating animals again, but everybody is entitled to their own choices.  Just as vegetarians and vegans concerned about the "questions being raised about meat replacements derived from soy and wheat gluten" have the choice of a HUGE variety of other vegetable protein sources out there.  And that's my favourite part about being a vegan right now - they just keep multiplying!  After seven years of not eating meat, I can honestly say that the times I have gotten my protein from ONLY soy or "omnisub" fake meats has been rare.  Maybe, if you add it all up it would be two servings a day for two months.  Out of 84 months, I'd say that's pretty rare.   Just think about the rise in popularity of the nine protein sources currently in my cupboard: quinoa, lentils, millet, white navy beans, brown rice, almonds, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), barley, kidney beans.  It definitely makes the choice of beef, pork, chicken or fish boring in comparison. And that's just what's in my cupboards right now.

So, if you're currently on an omnivore diet, I hope you at least try to chose more "ethical" meat.  Better than that, I'd be thrilled if you committed to giving up meat completely, but once a week is still good.  Otherwise, well, there's always more room over here in the veg*n room!

(I often joke around about my problem of food hoarding.  When there are also talks of disasters striking, though, I take comfort in - and comfort my cat with - the knowledge that he'll eat me before I eat him...which won't likely happen for six months after being trapped in my overstocked apartment.  Even in the worst disaster, I'm sure we'll be able to sneak out into the river valley for some vegetation by that time...)

Meatless Monday in the Workplace

Meatless Monday in the Workplace: "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals"

My Meatless Mondays in My Home have been so successful that I'm struggling to find the time to write about them!  I should have a few more posts up this week, now that VVOA's Gluten-Free Cook-Off has wrapped up.  In the meantime, check out PETA's article on Meatless Mondays in the Workplace.  Could you start something like this where you work?

Alicia Silverstone Not 'Clueless' About Vegan Health

This video is a bit older, but still fairly interesting. I know Alicia Silverstone and her book, The Kind Diet, have not been in the news as much lately, but she's still very relevant! In fact, among all of the information I picked up at VVOA's presentation on "Becoming A Vegan" on the 1st of March, the mention of Alicia Silverstone was almost a highlight for me. I ran into the girl who mentioned The Kind Diet again tonight. She's been vegan for nine days now, and feeling great! ("I've lost five pounds," she told me, with a surprised grin on her face.) Silverstone's book is the only vegan cookbook she has, but I think she got a lot of ideas from the potluck we were at!

The Vegan Song

So, this music video is a little out-dated, but it's still pretty nifty. I'd say circa 90s rap scene...but I think it may be more from the early 00's.



Now, I don't advocate the eating of potato chips and such, just 'cause they're vegan, but a lot of their other points are good. You know, things like being more compassionate to pick up chicks...and thus the rise of "he-gans" out there... :-D

Vegan TVP Sauce and Cheeze

"How is that vegan?" is what you're probably thinking right about now.  "It looks like meat sauce, noodles and shredded cheese!" 

That's exactly what one of my friends who follows an omnivorous diet said when he tried a similar dish back in December.  At that time, I had made us a "meat" sauce out of Yves' veggie ground, which I don't have very often, but that I enjoy.  Not quite sure what to eat last week, I was inspired by that memory.  This time, however, I decided to try my hand at TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) rather than Yves' veggie ground, and make a simple vegetable sauce to compliment it rather than using a jar of the home-made tomato sauce I made with my sisters last fall.

TVP is a high-fiber, high-protein "meat analogue" or "omni-sub" as I prefer to call them.  Made from defatted soy flour, a byproduct of extracting soybean oil, they are dehydrated flakes of protein.  Once rehydrated, they resemble ground meat.  And, like tofu, they absorb almost any flavour you soak them in.  It's not my favourite thing to eat in the meal, but it is an interesting soy product worthy to try out.

TVP Sauce, Noodles and Cheeze

This recipe serves four and freezes really well!  Do not freeze with the cheeze, though.  I just had leftovers of it last night!  YUMMY!

Ingredients:

Noodles, enough to serve four (I used organic rotini from my local health food store; depending on your strictness to a vegan diet, check the ingredient list for eggs as this can be a common ingredient.)

1 cup TVP granules (these can be found in most grocery stores; check your health food aisle.)

1 1/8 cup boiling water

1 Tbsp Tamari sauce

1 Tbsp canola or other vegetable oil

1 onion

3 - 4 medium carrots

7-8 mushrooms

1 can tomatoes, chopped coarsely

1 Tbsp Italian spice (or a mixture of oregano, basil, thyme and cumin - 1 tsp each)

Cook noodles as per package instructions. (Boil water, add noodles, reduce heat, cook until desired tenderness.)

In a small bowl (your average soup bowl), place 1 cup of TVP granules.  Pour 1 1/8 cup of boiling water over top of the granules.  Cover with a plate for about ten minutes (while you prepare the vegetables is fine).  Splash tamari sauce over top of the granules, stir and let sit for another five minutes or so to soak up the flavour of the tamari.

Heat oil over medium heat in a medium sauce pan.  Chop onion to desired size (I always aim for the smaller the better in sauces; longer and leaner in stir-frys) and add to the heated oil.  Stir occasionally to avoid burning.  Chop carrots to desired size (I chop a full carrot in half, then cut each half lengthwise into quarters.  From there, I can get a smaller-sized carrot as well.) Once onions are translucent, add carrots to sauce pan.  Chop mushrooms to desired size.  Search through your fridge for any other vegetables that you may also find delicious in your sauce. (The joy of cooking vegetable sauces is that you can put almost anything that is almost past its expiration date into the pan and they are yummy and nutritious! If I had had leftover brocolli, I would have put that into the sauce in a flash as well!)   Add mushrooms or whatever else you have found to the carrots and onions.  Let simmer for a few minutes until vegetables are tender.  Add chopped tomatoes (if they're in season, definitely use fresh.  In the winter, I tend to avoid fresh tomatoes so that I can more fully enjoy the first ripe tomatoes of the spring!) either from a can or from  your fridge.  Bring to a gentle boil.  Reduce heat.  Add Italian spices.  Let sauce simmer for another five minutes or so, for the flavours to all co-mingle.  Add TVP granules to the sauce.  Again, more simmering to allow the TVP to soak up more flavour.

Place noodles on plate.  Scoop or pour sauce over the noodles.  (As this is a vegetable sauce rather than tomato sauce, it will be runnier than you may be expecting.  To avoid that, you could always add tomato paste to thicken it up, and run it through a food processor to make it creamier.  Add TVP after running it through the food processor, though, to maintain that texture pictured above.) Sprinkle with my current favourite non-dairy cheeze, Daiya.  (Unlike most other earlier vegan cheezes, Daiya is made from arrowroot, and is able to melt more like the cheese you may have grown up with or that you eye with envy as you pass the local pizza shop.  It is scrumptious!  And produced by a Canadian company!)

Check out some photos of the process:

After adding the TVP to the vegetable sauce.

A close up of the sauce.

On my plate, before adding the Daiya.

After adding the Daiya!

Daiya, in its package.  Absolutely delicious!!!

Vegans Have Feelings, Too

I've written about this before, but I was fairly brief at the time.  And, since then, I've gained a bit more focus on the issue and some personal awareness of why I can be so easily offended by what people say about vegans.  So, here I go again...

In an act of compassion (as many acts done - or left undone - by vegans are), I invited my numerous Facebook followers and friends to a home-cooked meatless meal.  I'm doing this as part of my contribution to March Meat Out, and I explained the whole process in this post back in February.  The response has been fantastic!  And I'm very excited for the friends I get to cook for, and catch up with in the crazy month ahead.  There was one response, though, that keeps hurting me, and I've been torn about how best to handle it, so I'm asking for your advice.

An old colleague of mine posted on the wall for the Facebook Event page: "thanks for the invite but I'm breast feeding and I need as much protein as I can get seeing as my blood tests came back saying that I'm not getting enough for both ... My dr said I'm to eat lots of beef." I'm sure she meant nothing by it, as most omnivore's comments about not getting enough protein on a vegan diet go, but it still really cut me down to my core.  It's not anything new, it's just such an old myth about veganism that it's become an insult!

There were several responses that I wanted to reply with:

• "Oh, gee, your doctor should read the China Study.  And you should probably watch Food Matters.  It's really a shame that so many practitioners of western medicine continue to understand so little about nutrition!"
• "That's funny, I donate plasma (the yellow substance of your blood that contains dissolved proteins, glucose, clotting factors, mineral ions, hormones, etc.) once a week.  As a precaution, they have to measure my protein levels every time.  Frequent plasma donors are at a higher risk for depleting protein levels and these tests are more for my health than the health of my blood, just like the iron tests they do with all blood donations.  I haven't eaten beef in seven years, get my protein mostly from whole grains, beans and the occasional tofu product (less than once a week), and there isn't a single problem with me donating as frequently as I do - weekly.  And, my iron continues to increase the more blood I give.  I don't donate blood to monitor these levels of iron and protein in my blood, because there is never any doubt in my mind that I am getting enough of those nutrients.  I donate because I never had a disease as a child that is deadly for babies in the first several months of their life.  As such, my blood doesn't carry the antibodies to that disease that could pass the disease on to the babies.  So, if your baby ever needs blood, you can thank me for donating my vegan blood - 100% beef free!"
• "I'd be careful with that beef!  You never know when you'll pick up Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease.  Apparently there was a case here in Edmonton back in December that was never reported to the media.  Well, the lack of media attention to that is not so surprising here in I (heart) AB Beef country, but the lack of numerous diseases you are more likely to get from eating beef are not: heart disease, cancer, obesity, etc. Not to mention all the extra hormones and antibiotics in over-manufactured/ factory-farmed animal products  If I were breast-feeding, I'd want to be a little bit more careful about the risks I'm passing on to my baby."
• "Weird!?! You never really hear about protein deficiencies, but you sure do hear about nutrient deficiencies.  I'm also training for a 10km run in June, and still getting enough protein.  The only extra thing veg*ns have to be aware of (more than meat-eaters) are vitamins B12 and D, which are found in fortified foods.  Are you sure you're eating enough vegetables and whole grains?  And calcium?  The acidity of animal products actually depletes the stores of calcium in your bones, making them weaker and more prone to osteoporosis.  Vegetables such as broccolli, kale, and bok choy, as well as plant proteins, such as almonds, white, navy, Great Northern and soy beans are great sources of calcium.  and your body absorbs them better than animal-derived calcium sources." 
• "Did you know that a steer loses 95% of the protein it consumes in the building of its flesh?  I can't believe your doctor would still advocate that lack of our natural resource.  Especially while talking about the future generation, your son!"

You see, it's not the lack of information I possess, but the right tact to provide this information.  As I read all of these fact-based responses, I feel as if they are attacking her right back.  Which is, of course, the reason I thought all of the up.  I felt attacked when she said she could only get protein from beef.  I may not have four feet to walk on, or four stomaches to ruminate with, but I am a compassionate person.  I feel empathy for the millions of animals who have their lives sacrificed every year not of their own free will, but because the animals with the power in this world - us, humans - have decided that their flesh will provide us with the best nutritional value out there.  This thought didn't appear over night, and the solution won't come as quickly as the problem did, but continuing to think that you can only increase your protein levels through the consumption of another living being won't work to eradicate all the suffering we support in this world.  So, yes, my words are attacking the words she posted on that wall.  I want those words to die!  I want those thoughts to no longer exist in our current society.  So, perhaps my tone is a little insulting as well.

I want everybody I talk to about veganism to actually understand that protein is not the most important thing in the world.  Like me, though, most people do not respond well to confrontations.  I was convinced of my choices over a period of years, not by being yelled at about how we all need to change, but because I have looked into the eyes of chickens, pigs, cows, and later sat down at a table to eat them.  I may never have felt comfortable doing this, but this was our life.  We treated our animals with respect, and kindness and we were good small-scale farmers.  We could respect the animal we put in our mouths.  It was looking into the eyes of a picture of a pig (the image is forever imprinted in my mind) that had lost that respect that made me change.  It was knowing that there were so many animals - living beings - out there that were treated like pieces of meat rather than individuals who even feel pain or suffering that made me stop supporting that industry immediately.  And I think there are many other sensitive souls out there who feel like I do and will only come around to vegetarianism if we can provide them with love and support on their journey rather than our violent opposition to the status quo. 

I ate meat from my family's farm for the first eighteen months of my life as a vegetarian, and I don't regret that part of the journey. My family was able to adjust to my changing diet at a pace that was much better for our long-term relationship.  It was finally getting violently ill after a Christmas dinner that made my family realize that I couldn't eat meat any more.  My body rejected it.  Four months later, I tried veganism for the first time.  It lasted only a month, but it made me more aware of how much I still supported the factory-farming industry.  I've baked vegan since becoming vegetarian, and people have always loved my baking.  After my fifth anniversary of the beginning of my journey, I decided to go all the way.  I lasted a month and half before having eating a baked good somebody had purchased for me that I knew had milk ingredients in it.  At first, I felt terrible.  After a few months of this occasional "cheating," I stopped beating myself up about my falterings.  In social situations, I decided, it would be okay to be only vegetarian.  Then, it became a battle of my will power to remain true to my ethics.  This is a battle I continue to face every day.  I know people who have stronger will powers than I do, who are much healthier as a result, and have been vegan for much longer than me.  I know I won't be a cheater one day.  But, for now, this is part of my journey.  At in this leg, I want to help as many people up the ladder as I can.  I was born to be a leader, and helping people on their journey helps me succeed on mine as well.  Nobody is perfect, and many people struggle to follow a strict diet.  I'm here to tell you it's okay.  I welcome the guilt these days as it is a way of reminding me where I want to be someday, but I also congratulate myself on how far I've come.  Ninety-five animals a year are saved because I have come this far on my journey.  Imagine how many more I can save if I help more omnivores reduce their consumption of meat, let alone stop it completely.  Even taking out one meal a week will help.  And slowly, over time, there won't be the need to attack comments like "my doctor says I'm to eat more beef" because doctors like that won't be tolerated in our society.

In the past month, I have had a major wake-up call about how to talk to people about veganism.  I hit rock bottom on my anger scale one day and felt like my life was going nowhere.  I've done a lot of things since turning 25 to improve my life and finally get started on a better path to what I want to do with my life: change the world.  In my transitional financial stage, I have returned to a more relaxing work environment, where unfortunately I serve gallons upon gallons of mammalian lactations (cow's milk) every single day.  At the time of my major break with anger, I was reading Joseph Keon's Whitewash:The Disturbing Truth about Cow's Milk and Your Health.  Searching for an outlet, my anger directed itself at the consumers of the mammalian lactations. 

As I later explained to my family in the first re-telling of this transformation, it angers me so much that the people we trust with the most important thing in life - our health - continue to contribute to the lies that have become indoctrinated into our culture.  We have been so brainwashed by the big food companies, meat producers and dairy producers that we never even think to question who is sponsoring those healthy eating food guides that our government - an institution that is supposed to protect us and govern us (just think of ALL those checks and balances that are supposed to be happening!) - supports as well.  (I will have to go into this tangent later on, but if you want to read something now, pick up Paul Robert's End of Food, which explains how our food system has been corrupted over the past century.  Also invaluable is Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemna.  I'll get into my opinions on the issues later, I'm sure!)  It angers me so much that money is so often put before something so much more valuable - health!

The next day, I attended my first of many inspiring meetings of the last month.  The topic of the meeting was "Professionalism."  Now, we all think we know what "professionalism" is, but what would a list of "professional" characteristics look like?  As we went through the list, I realized that allowing my anger to even bubble under the surface while at work was not beneficial to me, and definitely not beneficial to the hundreds of people who currently consume the mammalian lactations.  Instead, I could be helping those people.  And so began my quest to find the most professional way to do just that!

My journey to conveying my message more professionally has stopped me from replying at all to this post made on the wall of a compassionate event.  My biggest contribution to the list of professionalism was "How To Deal With Conflict."  If it's affecting your life to such a point that the conflict has to be resolved, resolve it.  Remember, though, to respect that we all have different opinions on the world. Rejoice in this fact as it is the only way "new" ideas are born; and social change requires new ideas all of the time! Once resolved, release the anger involved with the differing opinions.

I'm not sure which answer would have been best for dealing with the conflict.  I want to respect the fact that many people still hold true to their opinions on nutrition. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear!  Everybody must come in their own time. So, this post is my Release of the conflict.  Some may call it being "passive aggressive," but it's my blog.  I discuss my challenges, my feelings, and vent every once in awhile, too.  I don't mean to offend anybody with discussing my own journey within veganism, but rather highlight the problems that come up on any path to a better life. I do hope I've shed some light for the people who make the comments on what it's like to be on the other end of all those "protein" comments.  After some contemplation, I must say: Pretty healthy, thank you!  And I've never looked better either.

Also, as I recalled the story about the "my doctor says I'm to eat beef" to a current coworker, she pointed out that I'm asking people to join me for one day without meat.  Your body is an amazing machine that stores nutrients over a period of time, not just 24 hours. In fact, if you are eating meat, it'll take more than 24 hours for your body to actually digest what you're putting into your mouth!  Don't even get me started on cheese!  And, on a personal note (which I'll get into when we know each other better), I blame my history of meat-eating on my most chronic health problem - GERD - for this very reason.  Sadly, that's a condition that does require surgery to correct, not just a change in diet.  So, take out the beef, insert the grains, whole foods and vegetable protein, and you'll be able to absorb so many more of the nutrients in your food!  Ah, if only her doctor was smarter!

Thank you for reading my venting!  I hope you learned something!  Also, please feel free to comment.  If you're a vegan I know you`ve had to deal with the protein issue before.  What did you do?  If you're an omnivore, which of my responses do you think would have been best received? What would have offended you the most?  What do you want to know more about?  I welcome your comments! 

Thanks!

Vegan Video

For anybody who grew up reading the funny pages, you've probably heard of the Bizarro comic before. If not, you missed out on some strange humour as a child...I'm sure you'll love it as an adult! Check out the website.

If you did grow up reading the website, you may not have realized that the artist was vegan. I didn't either up until a few years ago. I was reading my new addiction - VegNews magazine - when I came across a familiar name: Dan Pirraro.

"Hmmm, I thought. Didn't he do those Bizarro comics?"

Turns out he did! And he had also been advocating for animal rights for several years, too. I read his column and fell in love with his sassy vegan style. (Although today I wouldn't adopt many of the clever comebacks he has provided me with, even if utterly offended by the omnivore world. I just don't like confrontations. ;-D)

Anyways, you should watch this video, 'cause it's clever, and it's packed full of vegan philosophy...you know, in case you needed another reason to MARCH Meat Out!

Funny Vegetarian Quotes

For the month of March, Im trying to profile vegan music on my music blog.  In my search today, I came across this funny music video that has some great quotes.  I don't agree with all of them, but you might find them all funny!

Ending Animal Testing

There is always differing levels of commitment to a cause.  I call myself a 'Cheatin' vegan because I know many more vegans on a much stricter level of commitment than I am.  My general philosophy is, though, that I'm always working towards being a better vegan.  Not supporting companies that themselves support non-vegan practices (such as vivisection, or animal testing) is just one more step at becoming a better vegan.

Education is the key to many successful things in life.  PETA does a fantastic job of educating the world on some atrocious things that happen in our world, like vivisection.  Below is the link to an article they posted about Lipton, a major tea company, and their end to animal testing.  I never would have thought that tea would be non-vegan, but I'm glad that PETA does their research and has ended this horrible practice!

Victory! Lipton Ends Cruel Animal Tests: "We are thrilled to announce that after more than 40,000 supporters of PETA and its affiliates around the world sent e-mails urging Unilever to stop…"

Tonight, my vegan knowledge grew even more!  I went to a presentation performed by two of my fellow board members for the Vegans and Vegetarians of Alberta at the library downtown.  As always, my two colleagues were a wealth of information, and I think the presentation helped convince interested parties in the ease of transitioning to a cruelty-free lifestyle.

As part of my vow to become a better vegan, I'll share with you the information I learned tonight over the next month, or probably even longer.  For now, while on the topic of vivisection, I thought I would share a link to another group that is doing what it can to stop animal testing in medicine.  They are called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and you can find out more about them here!

Meatless Mondays for March Meat Out

A week from Tuesday, it will be March...

If you're coming here from the always-growing online vegan community, you probably already know that March is a great month for living compassionately.  Not only is it (in most places) the beginning of spring - the rebirth of nature, herself - but March is also Meat Out Month!

As such, I am launching my very own Meatless Mondays!

I've always had an "open door" policy to my kitchen.  If you're hankering for some yumminess, help yourself! I love to cook for family, friends, and even just random people - especially the veg-curious! - and I love to have people over to my house.  So, this year, every Monday in March, I will host a different person or couple in my home, where we will eat a delicious home-made meatless meal, and enjoy fabulous conversations about whatever strikes us as entertaining: the latest Oscar buzz, what's wrong or right with Edmonton, how much we'll miss winter, vegan substitutes for your favourite foods, new exercise programs, the latest plot developments of your favourite sitcom, etc.  (If lost for something to talk about, I'm sure Jito, my orange tabby cat, will bite somebody's toes and then entertain us by chasing his red laser around the apartment. :-D )

So far, March 7 has been claimed, but that leaves three more Mondays - March 14, 21 and 28 - to fill!  If you're in Edmonton, or surrounding area, email me at jodi_carlson@hotmail.com and I'll book you in!  I'll work with you on dietary preferences (aversions to bean, soy, omnisubs (omnivore substitutes), etc.) and allergies, but in the meantime, I've compiled a short list of a few things to spark your interest:

Roasted Vegetables & Rice Pilaf
Savoury Shepherd's Pie with Mushroom Gravy & Yorkshire Puddings
Baked Mac and Cheeze
Mediterranean Chickpea Wraps
Red and White Cauliflower Bake
Vegetarian Lasagna (with Daiya cheeze!)
Lentil Loaf

These recipes will eventually make it onto this blog, don't worry!  And, this list is nowhere near extensive...

If you're outside of Edmonton, but still interested in being a part of March Meat Out, please drop me a line. (I love hearing from people!) If you're in the city during March but not a Monday, we can probably still arrange something; or if you're in Edmonton and Mondays and/or March don't work for you, the same thing goes!

I'm offering these meals out of friendship, kindness and compassion for the world; however, food has a monetary value.  If you are one of my guests and you were completely satisfied with your meal, I would appreciate a tip to offset the cost of food and the time and energy I put into making it for you.  I won't bring this up at any other time than right now, and the price is only what you can afford.  Keep in mind, though, that if we were to go out for a meal, it would probably cost us between $15-30/each.  At a restaurant, the chairs would probably be more comfortable, so do only pay what you think it is worth!

Vegan Community - or Some People I've Been Meaning To Thank!

The meal above is brought to you by just a few of the many vegans I admire.  Two of the new vegans I admire, in fact!

Veganism is one of those things that really needed the internet to grow to the popularity that it is today.  I can't imagine how lonely it must have been to be a vegan in the 80s, or even the 90s without all the wonderful vegan blogs, recipe sharing sites and general support a vegan finds over the internet these days.  Of course, I owe my veganism to the people who paved the way before all that support, so I know it was possible: Thank you Sarah Kramer, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and your tables, and Bob and Jenna Torres, whose vegan freak podcasts were the guns pointing at my conscious telling me I needed to change my life.

Of course, with a blog like Cheatin' Vegan, you know I'm not always perfect.  None of us really are, as Melisser Elliott points out in her book, The Vegan Girl's Guide To Life.  Every week, it seems, there is something added to the - in the words of Bob Torres - NOT VEGAN list.  The biggest thing we can ever do, though, is be as cruelty-free as possible.  This year, writing about my veganism, I feel the pressure mounting to cheat less.  And this weekend, I succeeded.  Rather than saying, "it's the weekend, let me eat honey!" I cooked myself a vegan feast! 

And now to dish out the compliments of inspiration for that:

The Lentil Loaf (on the right) comes from a fabulous vegan blog I've been following since its beginning this January: The Chubby Vegan.  He highlights many fabulous recipes, and always has lovely pictures to match!

This is the first recipe from that blog that I've tried, but its success has encouraged me to try many more!

Now, I was talking with my sister this afternoon and she mentioned trying new recipes out this evening as well.  (We're a family filled with awesome cooks!)  Like the rest of my family (and possibly the rest of the sane world), she likes to follow new recipes EXACTLY as they are written.  I, on the other hand, RARELY follow recipes exactly as they are written - new or family favourites I have memorized.  In my culinary past, this has resulted in very few screw-ups (corn on pizza was a good idea, but I should have spread it out more evenly so as to avoid the nickname of "Conehead Pizza" for months afterwards.), so I continue to live dangerously.  For example, I used mustard in the Chubby Vegan's lentil loaf rather than the ketchup suggested.  When I used to make Meat Loaf for the fam, I always used mustard powder, so I figured it would be a better combination for me.  Mmmmmm, it was!  But, thus, my loaf looks different from the wonderful pics on his blog.  Also, I was impatient - those pieces of loaf were still warm, steamy, and falling all over the place...especially into my tummy - YUM!

On the bottom, you see some lovely orbs of cooked dough smothered in a greyish substance.  This image probably makes you wonder WTF just a little bit...

I first heard about Melisser Elliot last November, while shopping in a bookstore in Saskatoon.  I adore viewing the vegan section in EVERY bookstore I visit, and I stumbled upon her new book, The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life.  It was magical!  Living on a TIGHT TIGHT budget, though, I couldn't buy it that weekend... I put a request on it from my local library as soon as I got home, though.  Two months later, it arrived on the library shelves and I was sent an email IMMEDIATELY.  It was one of the most exciting days so far this year...

I'll review her book in the next few days, but for now, I'll tell you this recipe for Vegan Biscuits and White Gravy come from it.  And they are delicious...although, I would recommend following one important part to the gavy recipe: use unsweetened "milk."  My vanilla flavoured almond milk just didn't quite reach that savoury taste one wants their gravy to have...

Check out Melisser Elliot's blog "The Urban Housewife" for more info on her book, and her lovely life as a vegan.  Just one more hero for me to have!

The carrots, of course, come from my omnivorous days... A time some people like to refer to as "pre-gan" days.  I like the new term, almost as much as I like carrots....yum!

The Best Part of the Super Bowl ... and it never aired on the tv ...

So, there was this big sporting event today.  As I once explained to a friend, "I could never be bothered to remember sports stats or even register things like that in my head, but I am obsessive about Canadian artists and I'll tell you all about them!"  Now, I've also picked up vegan stats to obsess over!

For any one else who "doesn't really follow sports," but enjoys the REAL highlights of the game - the commercials - here's a great link for you.  Check it out!


Banned PETA Super Bowl Commercial


I love PETA!  So outrageous, so revolutionary, so all about the cruelty-free propaganda!  And, yeah, I've been waiting a long time for the Brocolli Farmers of America to put out something like this - it's about time we get some REAL facts in our advertising... :-D

The Talk

I found this on the PETA website, along with many other videos I'll be sharing in the next few days. At first, I thought this was going to go in one specific direction...but then it went on to cover a completely different topic that needs exposure as well. Well done, Peta! Well done!

Grandma Carlson Day

Last summer, my paternal grandmother passed away. She was diagnosed with Frontal Lobe Dimentia several years ago. If, like many other people, you have watched a parent or grandparent suffer with this disease, you may understand the peace involved with her passing, more than the sadness. Of course, we are all sad to have lost such an amazing woman, but there is relief in knowing that her suffering is over. She has now returned to a God that she loved very much.

As for me, I feel like true bonding can now occur between the two of us. In a sense, we were from different worlds - her a teacher, farmer and mother; me a writer, vegan and spinster - but, in the same sense, we are also the same person.

In preparation for her funeral, I researched her life. This woman kept immaculate records on everything that happened in her life, and to her family. She was the geneologist in our family, and I am trained in history. This fact is one of the reasons her children have allowed me to look through her records, and why I am the first grandchild to ask to see them. She surrounded her life with animals, much like I do. She also wrote articles for the local papers, which is something I did in my youth. Heavily involved in 4-H, both her and I. And knitting, too! But, she never did learn to crochet...and I have little interest in learning how to quilt - as much as I adore the beautiful quilts I have that were made by her. The greatest thing we have in common, though, is our SWEET TOOTH and our love for baking...

As I type this, I am enjoying a cup of coffee in one of her "Souptime" mugs she always drank her coffee from. It is the fifteenth hour in Saskatchewan, her home, and that means it is "Coffee Time" at Grandma's! Every day, as a child, we would rush across our yard to Grandma's house, where we knew she had either the crunchiest chocolate chip cookies we could ever love OR one of her famous chocolate cakes - either sour cream or zucchinni. With that memory flooding back to me today, I made my favourite of those three: Chocolate Zucchini Cake, minus the chocolate chips ('cause I can't keep those in my house!) and veganized from her original recipe. I'm sure that all of my cousins reading this our drooling at this point...and perhaps a bit concerned about sharing this family secret?!? No. I don't think they'll be concerned about that. Grandma was always the first to share her recipes in community cookbooks and at family reunions. And so, it continues, my similarities to her...

Janet Carlson's Chocolate Zucchini Cake, Vegan Style

1/2 cup soft margarine (I use Earth Balance shortening or Buttery Sticks)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I substitute 1/4 cup of this with applesauce, if you are looking for something less fattening; either way it is still GOOD)
1 3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup applesauce (which is replacing 3 eggs)
1/2 cup sour "milk" (like non-vegan bakers, I just add a tsp of vinegar to whichever milk I have in my fridge, either soy (best for baking) or almond, my favourite)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour
6 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups zucchini, shredded
1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional, unless my father is coming over)

Cream together margarine, oil and sugar. Add applesauce, vanilla and "milk." Beat well. Sift in flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda. Mix until well combined. Stir in zucchini and chocolate chips. Bake at 350F for 45-60 minutes.

Below, I have included (almost) step-by-step photos of creating the cake this afternoon:

Mixing together Earth Balance shortening with sugar.  It looks like fluffy snow!

After adding the oil, but before the applesauce, vanilla and milk...

I always sift flour when I bake vegan...and cocoa, too.  Sifting flour gives your baking more of the fluffiness that you lose when you take out the egg whites.  This handy little sifter came from Ikea years ago, and cleans up really well!  It has a hand pump, which makes sifting ten times faster!

I put all of my dry ingredients into the sifter.  A good rule of thumb is to put the sifter on a plate to do this step.  If not, you lose precious flour before you get the sifter over the bowl!

A close up of the marvelous spices being added to the cake...and the levening agents

and flour, underneath it all.

 After mixing in all of the dry ingredients, but before adding the juicy shredded zucchini, this looks more like brownie batter than cake batter.  I would know as I am a PRO-BROWNIE-BAKER!

The juicy shredded zucchini.  I grew up harvesting zucchini from our family garden in late August, shredded it at that time and freezing it in 2-cup containers for this recipe specifically!  As an adult, I'll buy one or two of these squashes - always extra large - in the fall and run them through my food processor...and freeze them in 2-cup containers, for this recipe specifically!  What else can you do with zucchini..I mean, except stir-frys and the like...

I got to the pan part and realized that I don't have a metal 9X13 pan! :-(  I normally use my 9X13 pyrex pan, but Grandma never used Pyrex for this cake...so I had to use metal today, too!  Luckily, I have two 9x9 brownie pans that worked nicely...

This is the second pan!

Halfway through the cooking - I rotate.  Some people might cringe at the thought of looking at your cake halfway through.  Sadly, I've burned more cakes due to faulty ovens than had cakes fall.  I always rotate! 

First pan done!

Um...I guess the batter wasn't evenly divided between the two pans.  The other one took another ten minutes to finish...

The finger-touching test!  If it bounces back, the cake is done! 

Well, in theory.  I always preferred the toothpick trick instead (stick a toothpick in, if it comes out clean, the cake is done).  Sadly, I do not have toothpicks!

Okay, I was in a hurry to have a piece, that's why it's crumbling...

This is the quintessential picture of Grandma Carlson - coffee (served black, always!) and a sweet!

I love you, Grandma!

Even more than I love this cake! :-D

Now that's steep competition!

Love, Pain, the Whole Vegan Thing

Oh, man! I just got back from seeing John Robbins and this post will probably confuse the heck out of you, I'm so pumped! And so chill! It was a fabulous web-lecture,* complete with a question and answer period, and even a few comments from the other side, which is what I hope to address tonight. Trust me, I have loads of inspired posts to come from the mere two pages I filled with notes in the hour, and I hope they're all a bit more cohesive. Yes, one more apology - before I begin - on the helter skelter nature of what is about to spew forth from my fingers...

Okay, so, I understand that there is this scary stereotype out there of a vegan carrying around a bucket of red paint, just in case he/she comes across a person wearing fur. Ingrid Newkirk (PETA founder) went to many lengths to get her point across, and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) also continues to go to great lengths to counteract the speciesism that runs rampant in western culture; however, we are all not the radical. In fact, many of us are calmer now that we've stopped consuming all of those hormones, adrenaline and other toxins found in the meat omnivores still eat. So, it just floors me when we're having a peaceful discussion about how we can take small steps to improve our world and somebody in the back row has to get all defensive and start defending the practices that aren't supposed to happen...but that we all know still do. You know, you smell something funky on campus shortly after four on a nice day like today and you think, "yeah, it's illegal, but ppl still do it..."

See what I mean about all over the map tonight...and I've only had two coffees today...been awake since four, though, so the creative juices are screaming to get out rather than allowing me to structure this "properly." It's okay, though, I told you this blog wasn't going to be perfect. I'm not perfect...that's why I'm a cheatin' vegan ;-)

For the record, I just want to say that John Robbins is an amazing role model. He's got all the facts, but he doesn't overwhelm you with them.(I was in a roomful of people who have heard these facts a dozen times already, also, which may have been why we weren't overwhelmed.) He has made a significant impact on hundreds of people's lives, yet he remained so humble through the entire broadcast, even through the interruptions of applause. He filled the room with peace, and addressed things that were important to our city: starting with a question about the weather, bringing up Tad Hargrave's name, mentioning local organizations working towards what he advocates - locavore movements, etc. And he admits that he's not a saint. This is a big thing. It's a whole lot easier to believe you can follow somebody when the person is so humble about. Did I mention that he was extremely inspiring?

The lecture was a reflection on the livestock industry and it's use (or abuse) of our depleting energy sources. Now, I'm veg#n for other reasons, but the environment is important to me as well. I don't - and do not plan to in the immediate future - own a vehicle that has more than two wheels and is not powered by my own fuel. I walk, time permitted, rather than even take public transit. And i even recycle my toilet paper rolls (not the paper, tho...but I always try to use less than four squares...). So, the environment is important. And, it's important to talk about the environment in a peaceful manner. Anything less would be a disservice to its tranquility. John Robbins was a success in this department.

Following his talk, there were a few questions related to articles he had mentioned, his thoughts on things related to the topic (BSE, etc.) and then there was a comment before the question. Now, as the lecture hall did not have a portable microphone, and the comment was not repeated by the facilitator, I hope that not everybody felt the anger - the defensive anger - coming from this girl's comment.

As a veg#n living in Alberta, I have developed coping mechanisms for this defensive nature. I'm not perfect at it, and sometimes even poke the fire myself, to try to be heard. Over the last three years, and with some advice from fellow vegans in the blogosphere, I've learned that the best way to be heard is through my actions. I'll talk openly to any omnivore who is veg-curious, but I try not to ram it down their throat (except for the good friends I invite over for delish vegan meals...and there's no forcing involved with that!). Another one of the best ways to deal with defensive anger, though, is by recognizing it, stepping back, and allowing that person to have their say. Now, of course, if they want to hear my real feelings on whatever they have just said, they'll have to wait until i get to that point in this blog. The more you rant to me about how wrong the decisions I am making to live a more compassionate life are, or even how "traditional" or "natural" it is to not change, the less likely I am to continue to have a conversation with you. I do not like confrontations. I do not like to insult people (blog-venting notwithstanding, apparently) or be-little them. But I do believe a lot of people are wrong. And, as I get older and more confident in this belief, I am working out the best way to let them now this...this blog stands as an exmaple.

But, where was I? Oh, yes, the defensive comment...

Robbins had just described how BSE is most commonly spread (the feeding of "downer" animals with BSE to other animals in the herd). The comment, then, was that "it's illegal to feed animals to other animals..."

Alright, of course, I feel like I already made my point with the 420 comment above. However, there is a bit more to impact in that statement.

Is it really "illegal" to feed animals to other animals? If so, when can we all go arrest the supermarket clerks for ringing in those "I Heart Alberta Beef" Steaks for the BBQers last summer? Or would it be better to go straight to the source and arrest the farmer who's only trying to make a buck, too? Humans are animals. Perhaps you like to think that we're a bit more civilized because we clothe ourselves in the skins of other animals, tote around other animals for entertainment, try out our cosmetics on animals with different biological make-ups than us, and can use our intelligence to separate and segregate our own species into different categories that we can then also make ourselves feel better than.**

You know, it doesn't even matter. Few people will have been more affected by that one girl's attempt to make a counterpoint that the hundreds of people who have been affected by John Robbins' case. It just irked me that somebody would bring that anger into such a peaceful environment.*** And for what? Just to make a counterpoint? Was she THAT cut off from the possibility of making just ONE small step towards eating less beef that she had to defend her decision to remain EXACTLY the way she is for the rest of her life - just to prove that she's right?!? Does her family and/or loved ones benefit directly from the livestock industry and so she felt she had to protect them? Was she a spy from the "I Heart Alberta Beef" campaign placed in this lecture to make some ridiculous claim about about beef being the ONLY way we could feed all the people in the world? 'Cause her question re:food shortage would imply that this was the argument in her head. And, if that's the case, then maybe we should just let her remain ignorant. Hmmm...perhaps that's the wrong word. She was informed - she knew we have a food shortage problem on our hands - but she was only looking to the past for the solutions to the problem... And so, perhaps we should just feel sorry for her. Somebody who is so trapped in this notion of "tradition" being the only solution is surely somebody who should be pitied rather than rejected out of the conversation. Poor girl, I hope she reads more on food security until she realizes that 16 for 1 is not better than 1 for 1...

Okay, I'm rambling on a completely different tangent than what my intent to ramble on was, but it's all good. I warned you that this post was going to be all over the place. So, to conclude it, I just want to ramble through the thoughts filling my head as I walked back from the university tonight...

We - the vegan movement - have not murdered hundreds of our opposition. At most, we have caused you financial pain, which is only superficial. Yes, ALF let loose a bunch of animals that scientists were testing on, and they lost a small fortune in that investment. But, those scientists were torturing the beings in our movement that had no voice to protest with. Perhaps your fur coat has been ruined by some red paint thrown from PETA's supporters. But, the animals used to make that coat were possibly skinned ALIVE - or at the very least murdered through an anal probe. In comparison to these horrors - and the more publicized horrors of factory farming - what vegan activists have done fails in comparison. And we don't want to "measure up" to that side of the debate. We don't aim to bring more violence, more anger, more defensive but pointless arguments to the table. For the most part, we're hippies - we're looking for peace. And, as the saying goes: fighting for peace is like screwing for abstinence.

One more point from John Robbins that I may un-pack in a future post, but that just made me SO HAPPY to hear tonight was his description of the scale. I've painted this picture for so many of my friends, now - in peaceful conversations, of course - that it made me hum inside knowing that the leaders of the movement feel the same way. On one side of the scale you have the people we need to get rid of, like Sarah Pallin, advocating we go shoot us some grub 'cause we're not human if we can't blow another animal's brains out with a rifle. (I apologize to everybody from Alaska ... for having her as your leader.) Then, on the other side of the scale, we have the hard-core vegans/activists/raw pure "only air" consumers/fruitarians. As Robbins pointed out, it makes sense that the further from the vulcrum, the more impact your weight has on the entire scale; however, if you're out there in your radicalism, WHO are you talking to? The solution, then (and OMG, any talk that discusses solutions more than problems is a winner in my books!), is to try to convince more people standing there on top of the vulcrum to shift their weight our way. Oh man, and he is so right! And, also, it'd be kinda crazy if the whole world were vegan...I'm okay with some people coming to visit, but I don't want it to get too crowded...if you know what I'm saying ;-)

* That's right, James Cameron, somebody who cares about the environment and their carbon footprint set up a lecture via the internet rather than flying to Alberta from California to inspire people to live more environmentally-friendly. You would think somebody as tech savvy as yourself would have thought of that, too...but, then again, you would think that somebody who had as much pull as you do to make a difference would also realize that it's the bovines contributing the most to our carbon gas emissions rather than the Oil Sands....but, well, that's a good argument for an entirely different post. I just wanted to get a little bit of steam off my chest...and, yes, sadly it's targetted at a member of the movement rather than the outside, but I think I've ostracized them enough in the rest of this post...

**Now that's a theme i will have to unpack in several other posts. It took me two years of being open to the idea of equality among all of nature's creatures before I could wrap my head around speciesism. I'll try to lead you down that path when I've had a bit more time to turn my creativity into a thorough argument.

***Frankly, though, it irked me to hear pop cans opening up at a lecture about food... Apparently, we all have differing opinions on how we're going to get ourselves out of this food shortage pickle we've gotten ourselves into.

And, after all those footnotes, I wanna finish up with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, just another one of my heroes:

The Future depends on what we do in the Present.

Veggie Soup is Soooooo Easy!

More often than not, I refuse to make pre-packaged "meals." Even as an omnivore (I've been cooking for loved ones since I could boil water), I disliked ripping open a package of dehydrated noodles, vegetables and spices. Of course, when I was younger, that was what I was trusted to make. This was not ALL due to the time I put corn - the entire can - on pizza. (It's a fond memory for my entire family; if only because I failed to spread the corn over the whole pizza! Instead I left a large mound of yellow kernels, still cold, in the middle of the crusty tomato-covered bread. But that's a story for another post... Corn on Pizza = Yum!) As a busy family, we needed meals to be done quickly, which was one of the reasons why the youngest was making the meals. (I also LOVED to cook the most! Who would chose doing dishes over making the meal?!?) Still, it never takes that long to chop up a few veggies, saute an onion or two and cook noodles out of a box (hey, I'm not superwoman, nor a homemade noodle maker!).

With all of that being said, it IRKS me that so many people eat bad food just because its "convenient." Yes, I'm a foodie, tv dinners are my enemy! Leftovers, on the other hand, is a staple of mine! So, I encourage you to take the time to cook your own meal. It might take more than a minute in the microwave, but food tastes so much better after you've had your hands all over it! To start, try this SIMPLE SIMPLE SIMPLE veggie noodle soup:

I whipped this soup up at the end of last year, while suffering from my post-holiday sinus cold. I needed something light, filled with veggies and those cute little noodles necessary to make any broth soup complete! Plus, everybody always says the best cure for a cold is ______ Noodle Soup :-D

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion
2 medium carrots
4 stalks celery
any other random veggies left in your fridge
1/2 cup any kind of frozen veg you have in your freezer (I LOVE peas in my soup)
2 tsp veg. soup base
5 cups water
1/2 cup small (vegan) noodles

Dice onion into cm-cubed pieces. Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onions. Saute until soft, about five minutes.

Meanwhile, chop carrots into larger cubes (but not too big, either, as this is soup). Add them to onions, once onions are soft.

Chop celery into cm-cubed pieces (I slice the stalks once or twice length-wise and then chop horizontally). Once carrots are soft, add chopped celery.

Feel free to add any other left-over veg you have in your fridge at this time.

Dissolve 1 tsp of veg. soup base in 1 cup water.* Add to vegetables. Simmer for a minute or two on its own, then dissolve the rest of the veg. soup base in the other four cups of water and add to cooking vegetables. Bring to a boil.

Feel free to add any more frozen veg at this time, but then you will have to wait for it to boil again.

Add 1/2 cup small noodles of your choice (I love little bow-tie pastas!). Let them cook, approximately ten minutes, then enjoy your soup!

Makes four servings.

All done in less than a half hour!

*And, if you make your own veg soup base ice cubes, it won't have any of those gross additives you find in those "five minute" soup mixes. Next time you're cleaning out your vegetable crisper, just put everything into a big pot. Boil the "less than perfect" veggies in water, with your favourite soup spices. After about a half hour or so, filter out the larger veg pieces and pour the broth in freezer-safe containers. Freeze until necessary. Alternatively, freeze in your ice cube tray, storing your home-made "veggie cubes" in a freezer bag until necessary. Voila! So Easy!!!

Hey, it's your body - you deserve to give it 30 minutes out of your day!

Peanut Butter Barley Casserole

This recipe has been adapted from Alicia's Silverstone's Barley Casserole in The Kind Diet. If you haven't read that book, I highly reccomend it! She has such a peaceful approach to veganism. She's one of my heroes! My version features less organic ingredients, and not as much tahini. (Tahini is a fabulous source of calcium, but also quite high in fat, which is something I try to avoid. With the peanut butter, I found I could reduce the amount of fat...and with almond milk, I'm still getting calcium. Adding kale would be a great calcium-boosting idea!)

3 cups barley
6 cups water
2 medium onions
4 medium carrots
1/2 - 1 cup frozen peas
2 Tbsp peanut butter
1 cup "milk" (my favourite is almond, but you can use soy or rice, just avoid the flavoured ones)
1/2 cup soy sauce

Cook barley in water until soft (about 40 minutes). Saute onions in 1 Tbsp oil. Dice carrots to about 1 cm; add to onions. Cook until just cooked (still crunchy, YUM!). Add frozen (or fresh, if in season) peas. Add all vegetables to barley once water it fully absorbed. Melt peanut butter in sauce pan. Slowly whisk in "milk." Once all of the milk has been added and the mixture is once again smooth, add soy sauce. Once smooth, again, pour over barley and mix well. You can serve this as is, or - to allow the flavours to soak in even more - cook at 350F for about thirty minutes. Enjoy!!!

New Year's Resolutions

Nearly two weeks in, but the New Year's Resolutions(NYRs) are still on my mind. Actually, I think it's better that I'm two weeks in and still hashing them out. It wasn't planned like this, ... But as I learned last fall, the best things in my life have been well-researched but poorly planned!

It's time to stop the research, though, and just jump in - start researching through experience rather than through the books. (Ironically, one of my NYRs is to read more: five minutes minimum every night.) And so, here goes:

This blog may not be perfectly designed yet, but one day it will be. It's not getting any better designed with my sitting on it. Time to share it with you!

Which brings me to NYR numero uno: Cheat Less, Vegan More!

The justification for being a cheating vegan is that I come off as more approachable to people who are interested in hearing about the vegan lifestyle. Or, well, at least I ostracize less of my family as they attempt to accomodate my "difficult" life choices. But, in the process, I've lost a lot of the reasoning in why I am VEGAN and not VEGETARIAN, which is becoming more of a problem for me.

This is something that matters to me. I've been on this journey - openly - for seven years. I've been a "vegan" for the last two, but I've always cheated, just a little bit...

So, this year is different. I understand that mistakes happen. Cheating is inevitable, but it shouldn't be allowed everyday. So, like many other successful "diets" out there, I'm devoting a few days a week to cheating, and being STRICT STRICT STRICT during the week. I have, in essence, become a "Weekday Vegan / Weekend Vegetarian." And, no, I will never eat meat...probably ever again... (but I never like to say "never")

I want to maintain my approachability:

If you are a die-hard vegan, I commend you! You scour ingredients lists, make most of your food from scratch and probably devote a fair chunk of your hard-earned money to a growing niche market. Your hard work has made it possible for me to be a cheating vegan! Without you, I wouldn't know how to use applesauce in my Grandmother's Chocolate Cake rather than eggs! I would have stared at my noodles and tomato sauce, wishing for a creamy alternative forever! I may even have continued to eat real CHEESE - the most addictive thing in the world!!! Because of you stronger vegans, I don't have to do that. You probably never hear it enough - and never from the animals that mean it the most - so, THANK YOU!

Are you vegetarian? Fabulous! You have made one of the best decisions in your life by giving up the eating of flesh. I was among your rankings for several years (and, in certain crowds will retain this title, if only to appease the judgemental identity nazis). I hope you find some recipes on here that will inspire you to at least bake vegan (it's the easiest way to progress!). And, in time, maybe you'll be so tempted by my killer "Nooch Cheeze Sauce" that you'll cook vegan too! It's all a journey, and I'd love to be a part of your inspiration to continue! :-D

If you're an omnivore, I completely understand! I'll give you some great recipes to try and suggest some meat substitutes for you. I've been veggie for seven years, and lived with omnis for six and a half of those years - I know how to fool you! ;-) And I also want to encourage you to make small steps towards compassionate living. Whether you decide to try "Meatless Mondays," or even stop buying those horrible, antibiotic-laden, sodium-filled, mass-produced, cruel white blobs the supermarkets call chicken breasts and opt instead to purchase ONLY from your local farmer (who you speak to weekly at the farmer's market), I want to support and inspire you! Thanks for coming here!!!

This blog is to keep me honest, and to start the journey for others. I want it to be interactive, so please comment! Chide me, if you like, for not being strict enough; ask me questions if your vegan-curious and I'll give you my opinion. When possible, I'll try to provide some solid facts, but I'm a pretty big believer in opinions mattering more than those facts that can be easily manipulated. (But we'll get into philosophy after we know each other a bit better! ;-D)

Oh, ok, this isn't a perfect welcome, but it'll have to do! No more procrastinating...let's get this cheatin' goin'!!!