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'!!!