Veganning

Thank you Mayor Jennings!

2011-05-14T11:35:00.000-04:00

Earlier this month, the legislation to lift the ban on backyard chickens in the city of Albany passed narrowly in the common council. Yesterday, Mayor Jerry Jennings vetoed the bill. I applaud him. I am one of the citizens--one of people whose "will" keeps being overlooked whenever the Chicken Coalition folks characterize their position as "the will of the people"--who contacted Mayor Jennings and urged him to veto the legislation. I had also shared my concerns with my council member, but apparently he didn't care, as he is one of the people who voted in favor of the legislation.

Mayor Jennings has my full support for re-election. Mike O'Brien (12th Ward, Common Council) has lost my vote. The "chicken" people are gearing to go against Jennings for the next election. Meanwhile, they have some council members to bully, if they are ever to get the veto over-ridden.

This from the folks who characterize themselves as the kind, gentle, progressive, pro-sustainability types. And somehow they can't seem to be anything but nasty and dismissive about anyone who disagrees with them.

Albany Backyard Chickens Revisited

2011-04-15T09:41:00.001-04:00

It seems the Albany Common Council's law, buildings, and code committee took up the question of the proposed lift on the backyard-chickens ban. The proposal was passed out of committee without recommendation and will be taken up by the full Council, probably sometime in May. As an aside, I think it's unfortunate that I keep seeing cutesy, flippant descriptions of this issue: "pecking at the Albany backyard chicken issue"; "spirited clucking back and forth on the issue"; Metroland's tweet last night of "cluck or no cluck" and "I vote cluck."

Anyway, I will reproduce here an e-mail message that I sent to my Council representative back when I first became aware of the issue and leading up to the meeting that was held this past December, and which he was kind enough to forward to his fellow Council members:

I am a resident of the Ward 12, District 11. It has come to my attention that on 12/6, the Common Council will hear from people who are trying to change the city laws in order to lift a ban on keeping backyard chickens. The people who support lifting the ban cite "sustainability" and "teaching children where their food comes from" as motives for keeping chickens, while the only misgivings I've seen mentioned had to do with the nuisance of living near chickens--noise, smell--and a small mention of public-health concerns. What has been glaringly missing is any concern for the chickens.

Almost all of the chickens that end up in backyard flocks come from hatcheries. Hatcheries are unregulated and operate much like puppy mills. The breeding hens are kept in cramped, dark quarters where they are denied sunlight, air, and space to move around. Roughly 50% of their hatchlings are male chicks, and since these male chicks are unwanted, they are killed at birth--often ground alive. Additionally, sexing of the chicks is imperfect, and something like 20-50% of the chicks sent out actually turn out to be male. People often abandon them or drop them off at shelters that are ill-equipped to care for them.

The chicks are actually packed in boxes and sent through the mail. These newborns are denied food, water, and light for 24-72 hours during this process, and they don't always survive the trip.

People jumping on the "raise my own chickens" bandwagon tend to view these animals as little vending machines giving them free or near-free eggs. They are unaware of the cost of feeding chickens properly or paying for their veterinary care. Veterinarians who treat chickens typically charge $100 for one visit. Chickens develop serious health problems, including osteoporosis and ovarian cancer, thanks to their being bred to produce many more eggs than any wild bird ever would. Farm sanctuaries that rescue unwanted/abandoned chickens actually hard-boil, crush, and feed the eggs back to the chickens in order to restore their depleted nutrients. This is actually not far removed from their natural behavior, as wild chickens will eat broken eggs so they don’t attract predators. Chickens will also naturally eat their own eggs if they are calcium deficient.

In addition, chickens do not lay eggs forever. It is quite normal for their egg production to drop off or even stop when they are at or around 18 months old. I doubt most backyard-chicken proponents would want to continue to keep and care for their chickens once egg production had stopped. So they are likely to abandon the birds, unload them at a shelter or, worse yet, go from backyard coop to backyard slaughter. (I hope that at the very least our city will not allow backyard slaughter. Imagine young children in our neighborhood having to witness someone hacking off a bird's head next door!)

Another factor to consider is the cost of regulating backyard chickens. Municipalities are already over-burdened enforcing animal-cruelty laws when it comes to dogs, cats, and other common companion animals, as well as fielding dangerous-dog calls from the public. Having to enforce licensing laws for the keeping of chickens and addressing related complaints when we face budget crises at every level of government would represent a highly questionable added expense.

If you're still with me, thanks for reading all this! I cannot attend the 12/6 meeting and I hope that as my Common Council member you will take my concerns into account and perhaps share them at the meeting.

I don't know, what, if any effect I can have on this process, but I am hoping to at least get a different perspective out there.

Edit: I suspect most of the people weighing in on this issue have given little if any thought to the hatcheries that provide most of the backyard chickens. Please view the video below to see how hatcheries "process" the chicks that they send out.

Banana-Oatmeal Muffins

2010-12-12T08:00:00.001-05:00

I am a little proud of these because I made up the recipe AND got my seven-year-old's seal of approval. I use dates instead of sugar in these.

Here's what I did:

Banana-Oatmeal Muffins

1.5 c quick oats
1 c flour
1 T baking powder
1 T cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 T ground flaxseed
2 small banana, microwaved 1 minute and mashed until smooth
3/4 c dates soaked (about 5 hrs or so) in a bit less than .25 c water and food processed (dates and water) until blended
2/3 c organic soy milk
1/3 c applesauce

Preheat oven: 400 F. Prepare muffin tins (I greased mine lightly with coconut oil). Combine the dry ingredients and then fold in the wet. Mix until well combined and then drop into muffin tins--about 2/3 full. Makes 2 dozen.

VWaV "Best Pumpkin Muffins" FTW

2010-12-06T13:52:00.001-05:00

This past weekend, for a post-run breakfast I was attending, I made a batch of the "Best Pumpkin Muffins" from Vegan With a Vengeance. The recipe is available at theppk. I made just a few modifications, out of necessity. We didn't have any pumpkin puree, so I used squash instead. I subbed applesauce for the oil (using Isa's suggested conversion of 1/2 c. oil = 1/3 c. applesauce). I still haven't bought molasses, so once again I added a bit a agave just for the texture (but not the full amount, since agave is much sweeter than molasses).

Anyway, I had a ringing endorsement from my son. He ate so many muffins that they were all gone by Sunday night. Shortly before bed time, he said, "please make more muffins tomorrow." I explained that we were all out of puree, but maybe I'd do a different recipe. :)

Backyard Chickens in Albany, NY?

2010-11-30T21:40:00.003-05:00

Almost three weeks ago, the "All Over Albany" blog had an entry called "Changing Albany's Chicken Laws." A couple in downtown Albany are trying to change a nine-year-old law that bans the keeping of "farm" animals, including chickens, in the city of Albany. The couple in question had been keeping chickens in their backyard for ten years and had been unaware of the law until code-enforcement officers showed up at their house. The chickens now live at the Albany Free School, which is next door to the couple and is allowed to keep chickens under an "educational" variance.

The article lays out a "case" in favor of chickens and one against them. However, the "against" segment focuses only on the potential "nuisance" factor--neighbors who don't want the smell or sound of chickens next door. No one says a word about the ethics of animal use. In fact, one of the comments contains the following.

Owning domestic animals for the purpose of harvest is not like owning a dog or cat or ferret. The moral contract is different -- though no less solemn -- but not everyone understands it. Those hens will age and at some point need butchering. Do you know how to do that? Maybe there'll be a guy at the farmers market to help. Still, expect a Chickens' Rights movement. Really.

"Need" butchering? Really? And then he's incredulous about a "chickens' rights" movement. Oh, those wacky "animal" folks, caring about chickens having rights. Yes, as a matter of fact, I believe that chickens have the right not to be used or eaten. I believe that non-human animals are not ours to use.

I also saw a local-news feature on the couple who want to go back to keeping chickens. They seem nice; I'd expect them to be fellow travelers on lots of issues, such as sustainability. But this part distresses me:

For Jen and Mike, keeping them increases their own self sufficiency and helps teach their kids where their food comes from. "We involve our kids in cleaning the coop and getting the eggs. You know, people are so far removed from where the food comes from. The only thing they carry is salmonella, and all you need is a little education about washing your hands and washing the eggs."

It saddens me that they are perpetuating in their children the idea that animals are ours to use and that they need to consume animal products. (As an aside, I am glad that we decided against sending my son to the Albany Free School, which we had considered. I really hate that they keep chickens. Not only do I disagree with the message they are sending to their students, but as the parent of an egg-allergic child, I can only imagine the place to be a nightmare of cross-contamination.) I am teaching my son the opposite.

When I first read about this initiative, I did some searching online regarding advocacy against the backyard chicken movement. I found this from Farm Sanctuary*, but I was concerned that the message contained in their linked position statement was a little contradictory, in that it contained a part about adopting birds and making sure it is legal to do so in your area. Oppose the movement but make sure it's legal?

I wish the people pushing for backyard chickens wanted to keep them as "animal friends," as the wonderful Jay Wontdart of the "Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals" blog does. Just check the cuteness of his "chicken" videos.

A question that I've seen come up: If you keep chickens as companion animals, and they lay eggs anyway, what's wrong with eating the eggs? Here's the thing. Laying hens are mutants. They were bred to lay ridiculous amounts of eggs--more than any equivalent wild bird ever would. That output is terrible for them physically. They are susceptible to osteoporosis and ovarian cancer, among other problems. To help mitigate against such health problems, Farm Sanctuary feeds the eggs back to the chickens:

This dramatically increased egg production is very demanding on the birds’ bodies, using up a lot of nutrients, particularly calcium, which is used to build shells. At Farm Sanctuary, shelter staff collect eggs daily, hard boil them, smash them up (shells and all), and feed them back to the hens to help restore lost nutrients, especially the calcium, which is in the shells. Lack of calcium leads to broken bones, osteoporosis and formation of shell-less eggs (which can be fatal) so it is essential for the health of the birds, especially those rescued from factory farms, to consume the eggs. And, as Susie points out, “It sounds odd to a lot of people, but it is actually not far removed from their natural behavior, as wild chickens will eat broken eggs so they don’t attract predators. Chickens will also naturally eat their own eggs if they are calcium deficient.”

Can you imagine how fiercely the backyard chicken proponents would balk if the ban were lifted but included a stipulation that the eggs had to be fed back to the chickens?

On December 6, there will be a Common Council meeting where comments about this issue will be heard. I encourage Albany vegans to contact their Common Council members to share their anti-use perspective. For more information about Common Council, and to find your member, visit here. Update: In case you are not sure which ward you are in, ward maps are here. This page has a list of Common Council members listed by ward on the left-side menu.

*While I applaud the work Farm Sanctuary does in rescuing and caring for animals, I have misgivings about their support for single-issue "welfarist" campaigns--those that ultimately give a stamp of approval to certain types of use and slaughter, thus making people feel more comfortable with their exploitation. See the "Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach" site and the "Humane Myth" site.

Vegan MoFo 30th and Final Day: Chocolate and Persistance

2010-11-30T09:35:00.000-05:00

A week ago, I blogged about chocolate as food for thought--and specifically my son's belief that a dose of good vegan chocolate helps him think/get ideas. Well, he used up what I had left of the chocolate my wonderful yoga instructor gave us, so I made some of my own over the Thanksgiving break. I didn't measure out the ingredients, but the proportions were roughly equal parts Dutch cocoa, agave syrup, and coconut oil. Because the cocoa is roasted, my version is not 100% raw, but still pretty close. What I did was blend the ingredients in a bowl, pour the mixture into a chocolate mold that I have (it makes little heart-shaped candies), and pop the mold into the freezer. The results were tasty but not beautiful, as the chocolates did not come out of the mold cleanly. Clearly, I need to experiment more. Also, I think I'll try a bit less agave next time. You'll almost never hear me say (or see me write) that something is too sweet. I'm the girl who wants the corner piece of cake because it has more frosting and who finds the cake itself a bit on the bland side much of the time. But these were a bit too sweet even for me and my sweet tooth. But not so much so that I don't still like them. :)

So.... Last day of MoFo. I'm proud of myself for having blogged something for all but one of the days this month. Before signing up for MoFo, my use of this blog was sporadic at best, and now that I'm in the habit, I think I'll keep posting here fairly regularly (though probably not every day). I'm inspired by many awesome vegan bloggers out there who post thoughtful essays and beautiful recipes. I know I'm not in their league by a long shot, but they give me something to aspire to. Thanks, guys!

Vegan MoFo Day 29: Me and my food issues

2010-11-29T22:09:00.002-05:00

Being the only vegan at work, I find people tend to be curious about what I'm eating. I'm learning not to go into defensive mode when this happens--not to assume that as soon as I answer the "what are you having" question, my interlocutor will respond with an "Ew, gross." More often than not, people tell me that what I'm having looks really good.

So why do I get defensive and expect a negative reaction? Well, that can be traced back to my K-12 days. When my mother used to pack me a cheese sandwich on whole wheat, with alfalfa sprouts or mung beans (obviously this was long before my vegan days). Somehow, it would happen right after I had taken a big bite out of my sandwich, so my mouth was full and I couldn't answer. "What's THAT?!" ::sigh:: How I hated this. Chew, chew, chew, chew, chew. Swallow. Answer. Response, "EW!" Gah, I still get upset thinking back on this.

Adding on to the self-consciousness I got that way was a separate self-consciousness that came along with my getting extremely overweight. I hated to eat in public because I always felt as if people were watching the fat person eat.... Gawking. Judging. Sometimes they actually were (one of the things that sucked about being fat!), though a lot of the time, I was just being self-conscious.

So I have my "food" issues. Enough for a life-time subscription. And those negative feelings flood back into me when someone asks me what I'm eating. But I am learning to set aside the assumption that the person plans to criticize or judge. I am learning to relax, smile, and respond. And I am relieved at the positive responses I get. Which reminds me how important it is for vegans to be seen enjoying our delicious vegan foods. We're the ambassadors. :)

Vegan MoFo Day 28: Food You Can't Seem to Keep in Stock

2010-11-28T22:19:00.000-05:00

Is there a food that you can't seem to keep in stock in your house--no matter how frequently you buy it or how much you buy at a time? For us, it's bananas! I love them and definitely contribute to their erosion, but the family member who SLAMS them? Our son. Yup, the one who's seven. I sometimes watch in amazement at the way this boy puts away food. And the bananas--I just see them vanishing before my very eyes. Do you have a food like that in your house?

Vegan MoFo Day 27: My Lazy Lunch

2010-11-27T12:50:00.000-05:00

Lazy because it's just from items already cooked or available, waiting for me in the fridge. My typical M.O.! This time, it's cauliflower, collard greens, beets, olives, and brown rice. After snapping the pic, I added nutritional yeast and soy sauce and blending it all into a mish-mash.

Vegan MoFo Day 26: Experiment Later and Pudding Meanwhile

2010-11-26T14:16:00.000-05:00

When I'm feeling less lazy, I'll try my experimental squash pies I was planning on. I did make the pudding that I'd planned to use as a filling, but... well, I'm feeling lazy. Too lazy to run almonds and dates through a food processor to form crusts for my little pies. Yeah, I know, that's pretty lazy. So I'm just eating the pudding as pudding. Here's what I used:

1 15-oz can of pureed squash
1 can's worth of organic plain soy milk (filled the squash can after emptying out the squash because I wanted an equal volume of squash and soy milk)
.25 c. white chia seeds
.25 c. agave syrup
cinnamon, allspice, and ginger to taste
dash of vanilla
dash of salt

Mixed up in a blender and then poured into a container and let it set in the fridge for around 24 hours. If I make this again, I'll probably double the agave--I just tend to like things a bit sweeter! Anyway, it tastes pretty good. No picture, because it's kind of pale and disappointing-looking. ;)

Vegan MoFo Day 25: Pretty Food

2010-11-25T11:20:00.000-05:00

One of the things that impresses me about many vegan food blogs is the beautiful presentation. This is something I admire and, more often than not, fail at! This is my attempt to pretty up my vanilla chia pudding. :)

Vegan MoFo Day 24: My Next Experiment

2010-11-24T21:51:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about trying another experiment. I'll use muffin tins to make little pies. Crust will be an almond/date blend, and filling will be a squash-chia pudding I make up. It could be an incredible failure, but I want to find out. Tomorrow, I think I will. :)

Vegan MoFo Day 23: Almond Date Bars

2010-11-23T21:21:00.000-05:00

These are my version of Lara Bars. I've seen lots of similar recipes, but I've tweaked the proportions a bit to my own liking.

2 cups sliced, unroasted almonds
2 cups dried, pitted dates
cinnamon (to taste)

optional: dried, unsweetened coconut

Add the almonds to your food processor first. Sprinkle on cinnamon—I usually just do a thin band of it, about an inch wide, all around the top of the almonds. If using coconut, follow the same procedure adding a “coconut” layer. Process the almonds into a coarse powder, and then add the dates. Process until well incorporated. Remove the mixture from the processor and knead into a dough. Press into a foil-lined bread pan, fold the foil over the top, and use a flat surface (such as the bottom of a second bread pan) into the top to press and form.

Remove from pan, open the foil, and cut into desired size and shape. I either form into bars and wrap in foil, or cut into squares and drop them into a container. They can be fridged or frozen.

If you're in a chocolatey mood, you can replace the cinnamon with two tablespoons of Dutched cocoa. Sprinkle in some ground cayenne pepper if you like a little background bite to the flavor. Usually if I do the chocolate option, I find I need to add a very small amount of water to the mixture when I'm processing it. (Carob also works very well.)

Vegan MoFo Day 22: Chocolate as Food for Thought?

2010-11-22T06:56:00.000-05:00

Last week, I blogged about the raw vegan chocolate my yoga instructor shared with me. This past weekend, my son told me that the chocolate helps him think and get ideas. When I mentioned this to my husband, he said that there might be something to it. After all, after having had some of the chocolate Friday morning, our son had done exceedingly well on his math test. So maybe there's something to it. We'll try a small dose of raw vegan chocolage in the mornings and see if it continues to provied food for thought. :)

Vegan MoFo Day 21: Chili Recipe

2010-11-21T06:00:00.009-05:00

I keep meaning to post my husband's vegan chili recipe--promised days and days ago!

Vegan Chili
2 large onions, chunked, boiled until translucent
5-6 large portobello mushrooms
5-6 large red peppers
1 lb (dry) kidney beans, precooked (yields)
1 lb (dry) barley
2 large cans crushed tomatoes
Approx. 1/2 cup chili powder (we use unsalted)

Cook all the above on low heat until the barley is soft.

Vegan MoFo Day 20: I like big salads and I will not lie!

2010-11-20T13:10:00.000-05:00

Lunch! Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cukes, parsley, scallions, red peppers, artichoke hearts, green olives, beets, and balsamic vinegar.

Vegan MoFo 19: MacGyver Smoothie

2010-11-19T13:34:00.000-05:00

As I was approaching my office building this morning, it occurred to me that I had no idea what I would blog about for MoFo today. Then, as I was climbing the stairs to my floor, I realized with a panic that I had forgotten to pack my pre-run smoothie. Last night, I made a double batch, so I'd have one for last night's speedwork run and another for my noon "easy" run today. But when I packed up my lunch for today, I failed to pack my smoothie. ::sob::

We have a little newsstand/convenience store in my building, so I devised a plan for a replacement smoothie. I keep soymilk in our shared office fridge, and we have a blender in our kitchen. So I thought I'd buy a banana and also a trail mix so I could mine some dates for the smoothie. Then, a terrible thought as I approached the store: it's Friday! More often than not, they are out of bananas come Friday. And sure enough: As I entered the store, I saw there were no bananas. My next thought was that maybe I could find a replacement ingredient that would allow me to MacGyver a smoothie.

The shelves and the drink case were not promising. But then I thought of the frozen-dessert case. FrozFruit! Some flavors are vegan and some are not, so I hoped for the best and had a look. Luckily, there were strawberry FrozFruits. I checked the ingredients to be extra sure, and while it passed the "vegan" test, unfortunately it did contain HFCS. But the only other possible option was strawberry Italian ice--and that didn't even contain any strawberry or other actual fruit. So I decided to go with the less-than-optimal FrozFruit. Next, I picked up a tropical trail mix. Not only did it have dates, but it also had dried, shredded coconut--a partial replacement to my usual coconut oil.

So I mined some dates, coconut flakes, a few pineapple pieces, and sunflower seeds from the trail mix. I put them in a container and soaked them in my usual mix of soymilk and water (.5 cup of each). I tucked that away in the fridge and allowed the FrozFruit to thaw for a little over an hour and then stashed it in the fridge to avoid total liquefication.

Smoothie-making time arrived about 2.5 hours later. I assembled the ingredients in the blender, mixed them up, then added my usual four ice cubes and ground them in, as well.

The smoothie ended up tasting pretty good, though sweeter than what I'm used to. I did find that I was getting a bit of an odd aftertaste/repeating-on-me effect for maybe 15 minutes after having the smoothie, but that didn't last, fortunately. And my run went well, too.

That was more drama than I'd prefer to have surrounding my pre-run fuel, but the upside is that my smoothie for Sunday's long run is already made. Plus, I had something to blog about today. :)

Vegan MoFo Day 18: Raw Vegan Yogi Chocolate

2010-11-18T07:01:00.003-05:00

My wonderful yoga instructor, a vegan and Jivamukti teacher, does an annual Halloween class called Spooky Jivamukti. I didn't get a chance to go this year, but he was kind enough to share with me the leftover raw vegan chocolate he'd made for the class. He uses raw cacao, coconut oil, and agave. Some of the chocolates also have acai or goji berries, and some have a bit of cayenne pepper.

My son is a big fan of these raw vegan chocolates, and as soon as I came through the door after yoga last night, his eagle eyes zoomed in on the foil-wrapped choccies in the mesh side pocket of my messenger bag. He asked me what I'd brought home. It took me a moment to realize he'd spotted the treats and guessed what they were. :)

Vegan MoFo Day 17: Veggie Mix = What's for Dinner

2010-11-17T20:27:00.002-05:00

Steamed cabbage, carrots, celery, and onions + baked potato + brown rice + olives + artichoke hearts + nutritional yeast + soy sauce

Vegan MoFo Day 15: Chili = What's for Dinner

2010-11-15T18:00:00.002-05:00

My husband's vegan chili recipe. I'll post it later, when I'm not so hungry!

Vegan MoFo Day 14: Chia Pudding

2010-11-14T18:39:00.000-05:00

I'm semi-addicted to vanilla chia pudding. It's so quick and easy, it's nearly instant. I mix .25 cup of white chia seeds with 2/3 cup plain organic soy milk, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a bit of sugar, and vanilla extract in a sealed container, give it a few swirls, and let it sit for half an hour. Then, stir and enjoy. My only problem is that no sooner have I eaten it than I want to make more. :)

Vegan MoFo Day 13: Artichoke Hearts!

2010-11-13T09:15:00.000-05:00

My seven-year-old, an ardent fan of dill pickles, discovered just yesterday that he also loves marinated artichoke hearts. Now it's "artichoke heart, please?" Over and over again. :)

Vegan MoFo Day 12: Lentil Soup = What's for Dinner

2010-11-12T17:44:00.000-05:00

My husband's own recipe for lentil soup. :)

Vegan MoFo Day 11: Smoothie Fail

2010-11-11T16:12:00.001-05:00

Since I'm off from work today, I was able to run whenver I felt like it--which today turned out to be around three this afternoon. I couldn't make my usual pre-run smoothie because we're out of bananas. We have several mangoes, though, so I thought subbing mango for banana in my smoothie would be a good use.
You know when you peel a mango, and it's got that beautiful shade of orange, along with a silky texture and sweet smell that tells you you're about to have one of the best foods in the world? Well, this mango turned out to be almost the exact opposite of that. I don't know if I'm just no good at judging mango ripeness from the "give" of its skin or whether this was just destined to be a disappointing mango, but it was a stringy, pastel yellow with little flavor. Boo.

But I was not to be daunted. I followed the same basic recipe I usually do, but used 1 cup sliced mango instead of the banana, then increased the number of dates from 3 to 4 and the amount of agave from .5 T to 1 T, hoping to compensate for the blandness of the mango. It didn't work. It just tasted kind of--like nothing. I was originally planning to include of picture of it here, but it looked so pale and sad, I thought it would depress people. ;)

In any event, my run was not disappointing, so all was not lost. And if I can't get ahold of a banana for tomorrow's run, I'll use some of the frozen mixed berries I have in the freezer.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I also left the carob out from the smoothie, as I figured it wouldn't be compatible with the mango.

Vegan MoFo Day 10: Compulsive Recipe Tagging!

2010-11-10T09:12:00.001-05:00

I subscribe to a large array of vegan blogs via Google Reader, and whenever I see a recipe that looks good and whose ingredients and prep instructions are sufficiently non-intimidating, I tag the entry for later use. At this point, I must have at least a recipe-book's worth of recipes tagged. The crazy thing is I can count on one hand, with fingers to spare, the recipes I've actually followed through on. I clearly am more enamored with the idea of making all these great dishes than with putting the time and energy into actually making them. However, I keep telling myself I WILL, at some point, get my kitchen groove on.

But meanwhile, I confess, I peruse the blogs and get a vicarious thrill from the vegan food pr0n. I am especially partial to the cupcakes, brownies, and the raw desserts. In that respect, it's probably for the best that my follow-through is so poor. If I made and ate every beautiful vegan dessert that catches my eye and earns my "recipe" tag, I'd surely gain at least ten pounds!

Anyone else out there in vegan blogland who is more of a food spectator?

Vegan MoFo Day 9: Breakfast Club

2010-11-09T16:19:00.000-05:00

My son and I have a morning "breakfast" ritual my husband dubbed "the breakfast club" (though I'm not sure whether he had the 1980s John Hughes "brat pack" movie classic in mind when he did). We sit together at the kitchen table and have oatmeal, though ever since he saw Oliver Twist, my son insists on calling it "porridge." He finds it reassuring to know that if he wants "more," he can have it. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I make the oatmeal with nutritional yeast, ground flax, cinnamon, and applesauce.

Even in the summer, when he could at least in theory sleep all day, my son wanted me to wake him up when I got up for work, lest he miss breakfast club.

Vegan MoFo Day 8: Food as Fuel

2010-11-08T09:38:00.000-05:00

Something rattling in my head right now is the idea of viewing food as fuel. It's something that's inevitably come out of my training for distance runs/races, and I'm contemplating the difference in mindset from dieting/weight loss/calorie burn. Thinking of food as fuel leads me to consider what purpose different foods serve and how my body actually uses them. On the other hand, I'm still interested in dropping a bit of weight--a combination of "vanity" and "performance" motives. Objectively, I'm already slim--my usual clothing sizes are 4/6, depending on the cut. The "vanity" angle has me thinking my upper thighs still have something to give up. My butt could be slightly smaller, etc. The "performance" angle is simply that for each pound lost, I can at least theoretically shave two seconds off of each mile (at least as long as I don't drop into underweight, at which point losing more weight leads to weakness and slowness). Two seconds per mile per pound might not sound like a lot, but losing ten pounds = an almost nine-minute faster marathon time.

Sometimes when I'm creating my pre-run, during-run, and recovery drinks/foods, I have a nagging voice in the back of my mind wondering if I'm blowing through all of the calories I'm burning. Because I want it all: improved performance AND slimmer thighs.

Contemplating the fuel vs. calorie perspective, it occurs to me that when I focus on the "fuel" model, that can reinforce making the best, most nutritious choices throughout my day. The balance I want to strike is, of course, to make nutritious choices that are also delicious and satisfying. This is not to say I'd want to banish treats such as vegan cupcakes and cookies from my life, but that's not going to be my mainstay (not that it typically is, anyway). There are times when I'm so focused on the nutrition AND calorie angles that part of my mind rebels and it's like BREAK GLASS! ADMINISTER VEGAN CHOCOLATE! I think the trick is to satisfy the need for treats in a judicious way so I don't feel the need to rebel. All of which reminds me that my veganning is always a work in progress.

Vegan MoFo Day 7: Brief Update on Accidental Experimental Gu

2010-11-07T19:58:00.000-05:00

So, with my 15K today, I test drove the home-made Gu I accidentally made yesterday (instead of the intended Brendan Brazieresque Direct Fuel Bites). I'd say they were semi-successful. The makeshift Gu flutes I'd fashioned out of foil didn't work too badly, though I didn't completely avoid finger goop.

As my sports drink, I did the "basic" sports drink Brazier recommends if you're short on time--two parts juice to one part water, with salt to taste. I wasn't so much short on time as feeling somewhat lazy. (Only somewhat--I did do my smoothie and the aforementioned Gu.) For my juice, I used organic grape juice, only because we happened to have some in the house.

I finished in just over 1:24. I was a bit disappointed, because I was hoping for closer to 1:22. However, it was, for me, a course PR as well as a distance PR, so I'm not despondent. :)

Fortunately, I didn't have any "pain" issues during the race. My IT band, which occasionally likes to flare up, completely behaved itself today. Energy wise, I didn't do badly, but I wish I'd had more "kick" in my legs at the very end. I can't help thinking I need to tweak my fuelling. Meanwhile, I've generated a training schedule to prepare me for another 15K, five weeks from today.

Vegan MoFo Day 6: Failed Fuel Bites = Experimental Gu?

2010-11-06T17:13:00.000-04:00

I've got a 15K race early tomorrow morning, so I'm getting my drinks and fuel ready today. I've made my smoothie and was attempting to make my slightly modified version of Brendan Brazier's Direct Fuel Bites. His recipe goes like this:

5 dates
2 T coconut oil
2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp lemon juice
Sea salt to taste

You combine these in a food processor and then cut them into little rectangles that you can eat before and during exercise. The dates and coconut oil both provide quick energy.

In practice, I find that if I use those proportions of date to coconut oil, the coconut oil creates a kind of mayonnaisey texture. I usually do six dates to 1 T coconut oil. I also leave out the zest because I'm too lazy to deal with zest!

This time, working from memory, I goofed and did 2 T of coconut oil to 6 dates. Once I realized this, I added another six dates. But then I also accidentally did more lemon juice than I was supposed to--2 T. And I kept blending, hoping to get the consistency I usually do--which is kind of like caramel. This time, no matter how much I blended, I got something frothier. The consistency kind of reminds me of Gu (which I had for the first time during my first marathon last month!). So I'm going to try a little experiment. I'll try using this mixture as Gu. Instead of trying to cut this into squares, I'll make some little Gu flutes out of foil and see how that goes. Here's what the mixture looks like:

Vegan MoFo Day 5: Food Ruts vs. Habits

2010-11-05T09:41:00.000-04:00

Do you find that most of the time you're happy eating pretty much the same things every day? For longer than I can remember, my routine breakfast has been a bowl of oatmeal (1 cup, cooked), with 1 T ground flaxseed and .5 T nutritional yeast cooked into it and with cinnamon and applesauce added for flavor. I'm perfectly happy eating this breakfast every day and feel no desire to switch up to something else. (One exception is that if I have a race or long run early in the morning, I skip my oatmeal and go right to my smoothie [see yesterday's entry]).

I also fall into patterns for my lunch and snacks. I bring fruit and almonds to work with me to have as snacks and most days I've been having lentil soup for lunch. But a few nights ago, when it was time to pack my lunch for the next day, I found myself staring into the fridge and thinking I was tired of the lentil soup. Lucky for me, my husband had made chili, so I've been having that for lunch for the past couple of days. At the same time, I felt like skipping my almonds and brought in a small baked potato instead. Ooh, so much change! How can I stand it? ;)

So I don't know why I was feeling in a food rut for lunch when I've been having the same breakfast every day for longer than I was having lentil soup for lunch--but I suppose this isn't one of those logical things. Anyone else gone through the same thing recently, with a food rut?

Vegan MoFo Day 4: Pre-run Smoothie

2010-11-04T09:10:00.001-04:00

When I get home from work today, I am planning to do a five-mile tempo run on the ol' treadmill. I typically use the treadmill for tempo and interval runs because I suck at judging my pace and do not have a Garmin watch. Also, it's raining and yucky today, so I'd probably be using the 'mill anyway.

Before doing my run, I'll have a delicious smoothie. Here's what I'll use:

1 banana
3 dates
1 T ground flaxseed
.5 T white chia seeds
1 T carob powder
1 T brown rice, cooked
.5 T coconut oil
.5 T agave syrup
.5 c organic soymilk
.5 c water
4 ice cubes (added after the previous ingredients are well blended)

I'll whip this up in my blender and then enjoy the deliciousness. I started making these in the summer after reading an article about how drinking a slushie before a run helps fight off overheating during hot-weather runs. I really cranked up the ice for those summer smoothies, using 8-10 cubes for a super-thick, icy drink. Now, of course, overheating is not an issue (it's currently 43 degrees and raining--yuck!). However, I've really come to enjoy having a nice thick smoothie before a run, so I still include some cubes.

Another variation I sometimes use is to include a tablespoon of either hemp protein powder or raw hemp. Need to restock at the co-op!

Update: Here's a close-up--taken via webcam. :)

Vegan MoFo Day3: This Post Will Contain Some Whining

2010-11-03T16:46:00.000-04:00

A little over ten years ago, my husband and I decided to move to Albany, NY. We have no regrets. Since moving here, we both lost large amounts of weight, kept the weight off, and, of course, became the parents of our awesome little boy. We've lived in Philadelphia and Allentown during our time as a couple, and by far, Albany is our favorite place to live. But there is something that we gripe about.

Albany has NO vegan restaurants. None. We had one for a little while--a little place called Food For Thought. Sadly, it was not long for this world. One thing that really kills me? Philly is replete with vegan restaurants--somehow, when I wasn't looking, it became a bit of a vegan mecca. And when we lived there? We weren't vegan yet.

And having an egg-allergic child adds more complexity to our no-vegan-restaurants situation. The allergist who tested my son determined that he is allergic to all parts of the egg and advised that he needs to avoid anything produced in a facility that handles egg. Any restaurant that isn't vegan has to be presumed to be a facility that handles egg! So while my husband or I can order a vegan dish in a non-vegan restaurant, that's not an option for our son.

One of the best things about a family trip we took to New York City earlier this year was.... VEGAN RESTAURANTS. Many to choose from! We could barely contain our excitement.

Once, my son exclaimed, "Albany! You need to get a vegan restaurant!" We couldn't agree more. Even Syracuse has a couple of vegan restaurants, and they're not even as earthy-crunchy as we are. Albany? What gives?

One ray of light: neighboring Troy, NY has X's to O's Vegan Bakery. I cannot say enough about the yumminess of their treats. Check out the site, even if you are not local, as they also ship their yummies.

So--I hope X's to O's ushers in a new era of vegan eateries in my area. One can hope, anyway. Meanwhile, I am planning to run the Philly marathon next year, and one of my side thoughts is: "VEGAN RESTAURANTS!"

Vegan MoFo Day 2

2010-11-02T08:39:00.002-04:00

I didn't mean to end my first "mofo" entry so abruptly. Here I'll pick up where I left off....

When we got home from trick-or-treating, my husband weighed our little guy's "take" and then allowed him to replace it with an equal amount of parentally vetted, vegan candy. Kiddo had one pound, nine ounces of trick-or-treat loot. Well, minus the bag of potato chips he grabbed out of his bag right away.

On a related note, I received an e-mail message from his teacher last week, letting me know that two separate classmates were coming in with "birthday" treats that week, so that I'd have the chance to send in alternate treats for my son. I asked him what he wanted, and he opted for the very delicious pumpkin oatmeal cookies from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan With a Vengeance. He was even able to contribute to the process, as his class had visited a farm as part of a field trip earlier in the month, and everyone came home with a pumpkin. The little pumpkin yielded 1.5 c puree, so I did the entire recipe x 1.5. A couple of other modifications were: I used applesauce instead of canola oil* and used some agave instead of the molasses, which I did not have. I didn't sub for the whole amount, since agave is sweeter than molasses and I just wanted to account for some of the texture. (I used 1.5 T instead of what would have been 3T for my 1.5x conversion.) I also left out the nuts and raisins completely. Although my son would possibly enjoy the nuts and raisins independently, he would definitely have picked them out of the cookie--I guess he doesn't like his cookies to have "things" in them ("things" one can pick out).

Anyway, the cookies came out delicious and made a ton. I froze about 2/3 of them, and my little guy had one this morning. :)

*Page 222 of VwaV advises that 1/3 c of applesauce can sub for 1/2 c of oil.

Edit: And here is the glorious Vegan MoFo blogroll.

Vegan MoFo Go

2010-11-01T21:32:00.000-04:00

It's November 1st already? Wasn't yesterday supposed to last longer? We had a fun Halloween. My son is seven, and our system is that he goes out trick-or-treating and, upon coming home, swaps out whatever he got in exchange for vegan candies we've purchased.

Because he is allergic to egg, he has learned to be very, very cautious about any food that doesn't originate with us. Poor guy freaked out a bit at the first house we stopped at, refusing the chocolate bars the woman there was handing out. After calming him down and accepting lollipops instead, I reminded him about our swapping system (once we were on our way to walking to the next house).

Catch-Up: Alyza, Forks Over Knives, Vegan MoFo

2010-10-31T10:00:00.002-04:00

I am almost two months late posting about this, but the producers of the Rising Star movie ended their Alyza Challenge early because the results were so overwhelming: Alyza will be a vegan!

The fam and I attended the Forks Over Knives screening that was held at the Albany Vegetarian Network's Expo on October 2. The film is very powerful and I hope it is widely seen when it is in general release, starting March 11, 2011. Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and Ann Crile Esselstyn, featured in the film, were speakers at the Expo and also were present at the screening. I would have liked to have stayed for the Q & A at the end, but there are limits to a seven-year-old's patience, so we really had to book out of there once the film ended.

Finally, I've signed up to participate in Vegan MoFo 2010.

What Is VeganMoFo?

It’s that time of year again! Time to wear down your stove and your keyboard. Time to mow people down with your shopping cart. Time to answer the age old question: do lemon and chocolate taste good together? It’s time for VeganMoFo, the Vegan Month Of Food.

VeganMoFo was originally created on the Post Punk Kitchen, as an homage to NaNoWriMo. Because we do want to write novels, but sometimes cooking gets in the way. So why not combine them!

The idea is to write as much as you can all month, about vegan food. The blog entries can be about anything food related – your love of tongs, your top secret tofu pressing techniques, the first time your mom cooked vegan for you, vegan options in Timbuktu – you get the idea, right? If not, browse around on some of our round-ups and you’ll catch on fast!

There aren’t strict guidelines for how often to write, but the idea is to shoot for every weekday, or about 20 times in the month. If you’d like inspiration or would just like to whine about how hard it is, check out the MoFo forum on the PPK message boards.

As the world catches on that vegan food really is the best choice for animals (suck it, humane meat!), the planet (bite me, melting ice caps!) and people (piss off, heart disease!) let’s show them what vegan eating is all about.

To take part, simply sign up with our convenient form right here!

Happy MoFoing!

I've been very lax/lazy about posting entries here, so I am planning to use Vegan MoFo as an inspiration to boost my frequency. I'll aim for at LEAST one post/weekday--weekends, too, if I'm really feeling inspired.

By coincidence, my husband is planning a host of food experiments, inspired by having read Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.

Mainly, he is interested in cutting way back on fats.... Olive oil went right down the drain yesterday. Personally, I've not been big on adding oils to what I eat anyway, though I haven't been too worried about whole foods that contain fats: i.e., nuts, olives, and avocadoes. My big exception is coconut oil, which I use for a very targeted purpose: fueling my runs. I include it in my pre-run smoothies and in my sports drinks, gels, and direct fuel bites. According to Brendan Brazier, coconut oil, though a saturated fat, metabolizes quite differently from other fats--namely, the liver immediately uses it for energy during exercise.

Also, I know Ginny Messina came out with quite a different take on olive oil recently--I will have to show this to the hubs and see what he thinks.

Gary Francione Podcast

2010-09-04T11:35:00.000-04:00

Gary Francione has just released a podcast in which he very thoughtfully analyzes what has gone wrong with the Mercy For Animals campaign whose video I linked below (the "veal" exposé). MFA has followed up with an announcement that Costco has pledged to only sell "humane" veal. MFA is touting this as a huge step in the right direction. However, Francione points out that the counterproductive outcome is that people hear the veal at Costco is "humane" and feel more comfortable buying/consuming it. Ultimately, this will cause veal consumption to rise, and lost in the shuffle is the whole idea of going vegan--not eating, using, or wearing animals at all. Further, the veal producer whose calves were shown in the video has said that he was moving away from the small crates anyway. Francione explains that this move will ultimately save the veal producer money, with lower veterinary bills, while the calves that have slightly larger living space and co-housing with another calf will still living miserable, short lives that end in slaughter.

Francione also addresses that pervasive argument that since it's impossible to completely avoid animal use--i.e. if you use roads, computers, cars, telephones, and any number of other ubiquitous things that contain animal products--then you shouldn't even bother being vegan. He draws a very compelling comparison to white privilege. By the same logic, anyone who benefits from white privilege--especially white, male privilege, wouldn't need to bother fighting discrimination against people of color. What springs to mind to me, whenever I hear these "don't even bother" arguments, is "the perfect is the enemy of the good."

I'm still in the middle of the podcast, but I just wanted to write up something quick on this. Francione has a new book coming out, scheduled for November 2010 release: The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation?

I definitely plan on reading this when it comes out.

Bob Barker narrates Mercy For Animals "Hidden Price of Veal" exposé

2010-08-31T09:18:00.000-04:00

This video just makes my stomach clench.

The Alyza Challenge

2010-08-23T10:08:00.000-04:00

A film in development, Rising Star, might have a sympathetic lead character who is vegan or vegetarian. The filmmaker, Marty Lang, is leaving that decision up to a vote. I would love to see this character developed as a vegan. All too often, when I've seen vegans depicted in pop culture, the character is judgmental and annoying, and the characters that we viewers are supposed to identify with mock the vegan character[s]. How I Met Your Mother, I am looking at YOU! Oh, and I haven't seen Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but I have heard that the villains in the movie are evil vegans who are defeated when tricked into consuming half-and-half laden coffee. Not cool, if that's true.

I agree with the film's Sustainability Planner, Ali Berman, that this is a tremendous opportunity to create positive associations with being vegan. Vote "vegan" and give Ali a chance to run with this!

Hogwashing

2010-07-28T09:55:00.000-04:00

In one of my entries below, I proposed the name "humanewashing" as the happy-meat equivalent of greenwashing. I just discovered that the Humane Myth site has its own term for this: hogwashing. I kind of love that.

Vegan Hood TV: I LOVE this YouTube Show!

2010-07-13T11:55:00.000-04:00

I found out about this YouTube program from an entry at the Animal Rights and AntiOppression blog. I just love this! Some vegan guys in Brooklyn with an awesome DIY "vegan" show highlighting inexpensive, healthy vegan eating. I am definitely going to follow this program's subseqent episodes.

Averie's Vega Shake-and-Go Give-away

2010-06-04T19:12:00.000-04:00

Because I love Brendan Brazier so much, I can't resist posting an entry about this give-away at the Love Veggies and Yoga blog. I already love Brazier's Thrive recipes and would love to try these instant smoothies. Thanks for doing this, Averie. :)

I love you, Brendan Brazier!

2010-05-25T09:45:00.000-04:00

I haven't tried that many of Brendan Brazier's recipes yet, but I have been making and using his recipes for energy pudding, recovery pudding, direct fuel bites, sports drinks, and recovery drinks. The puddings have bananas as their base, so of course I'm sold. The drinks I've been using are the lemon-lime (though I've skipped the lime only because I didn't have any). The fuel bites are made from dates, coconut oil, and a little bit of lemon juice and salt. They are mostly geared for what Brazier calls "Level I" activities--those that last an hour or less.

Why do I love Brendan Brazier? Because I really notice a difference in my performance and recovery. I can go faster for longer and I bounce back--most notably from my long runs--faster than I ever have before. So lots of <3 <3 <3 to you, Brendan!

Humanewashing

2010-04-21T10:17:00.003-04:00

Something that's been rattling about in my head lately is a concept I'm calling "humanewashing." Just as "greenwashing" leads consumers to believe they are buying eco-friendly products, humanewashing is something designed to allow omnivores to feel virtuous about buying their meat, eggs, and dairy. They buy meat while reassuring themselves that it came from local, grassfed, well-loved animals that lived happy and productive lives until the moment they were painlessly killed in their sleep. They buy eggs while reassuring themselves that they came from happy uncaged chickens that can spread their wings, cluck and play while voluntarily producing eggs for their loving farmers. They buy milk while envisioning Bossie living an idyllic life of happy, magic lactation. I just wish more people would read Humane Myth instead of allowing Michael Pollan and his ilk to convince them there's such a thing as humane meat and animal products. If you have the mindset that animals are not ours to use, the whole myth falls apart. If I were allowed to live my life in a cushy, luxurious spa, with the catch that one night someone would kill me, suddenly and painlessly, that person who killed me would be as much a murderer as someone who tortured and violently killed his victim. Why in the case of animals do people think it's okay to kill them for food, just so long as they were raised for that express purpose and allowed to graze on a grassy field? Then, there is also the ugly truth behind the so-called cage-free eggs and happy cows.

I just hope more people begin to question the happy face being placed on the products. I saw Food, Inc. and was disappointed at its conclusions--namely that people need to get the "happy" versions of animal produce. No! Gah!

2010 already?

2010-01-01T08:39:00.002-05:00

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted anything since November of 2008. I was planning on posting something for my one-year veganniversary, but it came and went without my really having much to say about it. Here I am at two years since I started my process. Though I initially imagined it would be more of a process than it actually turned out to be. It now just feels normal to me to be vegan.

Since that last post in November, I've done my first half marathon and two more 15K's. This is going to be my year to do my first full marathon. W00t!

That holiday party I was worried about? It didn't happen. No one said anything about it, but I am guessing it was economy-related--everyone is cutting back on things like that. December 2008 AND December 2009 went by without that tradition. One less thing to worry about.

So, let's see--vegan goals for 2010. Try more recipes. Write here semi-regularly. Be a good example. :)

Skinny Vegan

2008-11-20T09:57:00.003-05:00

In early May, I found my weight had crept to the high end of the "healthy" range (I'm 5'7" and I was weighing in at 159.4 LBS). I cranked my running into high gear and cut back on eating veggies cooked in oil--loading up on steamed veggies/salad instead. Then, in June, I picked up Eat to Live and started doing a modified version of that (I don't abide by his "no snacks" rule--sorry, I'm active and I need to stay fueled!) So, between early May and late September, I went down to 133, where I've been ever since. The funny thing--to me anyway--is I've reached a tipping point of some sort, where people have gone from saying "You look great" to "You're getting too skinny!" Funny to me because I'm not even close to being underweight. I'd have to drop below 118 for that.

I'm now reading The Thrive Diet, which is awesome because it's written by a vegan triathlete, Brendan Brazier, and he actually gets the whole "needing fuel" thing and is all about meals + snacks. He's got some promising-looking recipes at the end, too, many of which are raw (though not all, and I don't see myself becoming a 100% raw vegan).

In related news, here is where I am with my running progress. In October, I did Race for the Cure, and my time was 26:47. Last year's was 30:28. Average per-mile time went from 9:49 to 8:38. Then, earlier this month, I did my first 15K (longest race I ever did, including high school, when I ran cross country and track). My first mile I did in about 8:42 and I got slower as I went, but I was still happy with my overall time. 1:28:11--9:29/mile average (so still faster than last year's 5K pace!).

My yoga practice has also been developing so that I can do things I couldn't do before and overall I'm stronger than I've been, maybe ever. It's so silly that people have a stereotype of weak vegans--I just keep getting stronger and faster and I've never felt better. 41 years old and I feel younger than I did when I was 21.

Vegetarian Expo

2008-09-16T16:36:00.002-04:00

This past Saturday (September 13), we went to the NY Capital Region Vegetarian Expo in Saratoga Springs. Despite the name, it definitely had a "vegan" slant to it, which of course made me very happy. We were lame and slackerly, so only managed to get our acts together to catch the tail end of Jeff Novick's talk and then T. Colin Campbell's talk. Fortunately, this last talk was the one we were most interested in attending. When he asked the audience how many people had read his book The China Study, almost every hand shot up. Later on, Dkat commented, "I'm glad he was treated a little bit like a rock star." :)

The downside to being as late as we were: The exhibitors were packing up once we got out of Campbell's lecture. I would have liked to have gotten the chance to check them out and gather literature. The upside to that is Boykat is only five, with limited patience. Though he was happy to see ponies and greyhounds--albeit briefly. Dkat had been hoping to get a chance to sample foods--which is another thing we'd actually have had the chance to do if we'd gotten there earlier.

Oh, well. Presumably, there's always next year!

Healthy Veganning

2008-06-26T20:58:00.001-04:00

Not every vegan vegans alike. There are plenty of foods that are vegan but also junky/fatty/sugary, etc. It would be so easy to live on vegan cupcakes, So Delicious frozen desserts, and entrees laden with oils. Of course doing that would also lead to being a fat vegan and an unhealthy one to boot.

Using The China Study and Eat to Live as our guides, we've shifted to consuming most of our calories from fresh fruits and veggies. We load up on salads, soups, steamed vegetables. Healthy fats come from nuts rather than oils (though a small amount of olive oil with a larger proportion of balsamic vinegar can go with our salads). We have beans and legumes, tofu, and some whole grains, such as barley, quinoa, or brown rice. The idea is to have the most nutritionally dense foods--namely produce. Most people don't realize that veggies are a high-protein food. In terms of caloric composition, many veggies are more than half protein. But it's necessary to eat them in large enough quantities to get a substantial amount of these nutrients.

Eating copious amounts of nutrient-poor food leaves the body looking for those nutrients--hence becoming hungry again and again. Conversely, we're finding ourselves less hungry even with fewer overall calories consumed. I've dropped 13 pounds since last month. Everything's fitting more loosely and best of all, I feel great! Dkat is also having similar results. We can hardly believe how energetic we feel. I know my running is improving.

But doesn't it figure I bought Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World? I didn't even get around to baking any of the cupcakes before we banned the flour and sugar from our lives. Maybe for Boykat's birthday next year, I'll make an exception.

The Family that Vegans Together

2008-05-22T10:00:00.002-04:00

Earlier this week, I checked The China Study out from the public library. Last night, when I got home from yoga, the first thing my husband said was, "After reading The China Study, I threw away the meat and cheese. No more animal products." Whee, I now have a vegan family.

This definitely offsets the vegan sadness I felt last month when I discovered that Food For Thought, Albany's one and only vegan café, was no more. I'd gone in intending to get a smoothie during lunch, only to discover that the café had morphed into a Little Anthony's pizzeria. Little Anthony's already had another location on Central Avenue, and Food For Thought was owned by the same family. In fact, when Food For Thought initially opened, someone who did a write up for the Happy Cow website insisted on referring to FFT as a "branch of Little Anthony's," while another simply wrote up that address as "Little Anthony's." And it came true, jinxers! No, FFT used to be a distinct, all-vegan café, with a menu that was quite different from what LA's has to offer. LA's, to its credit, offers vegan pizzas and calzones. But FFT offered much more. In any event, the guy who was working in there the day I found out this sad news told me that the café was just not making enough money to sustain itself. ::sob::

So now that my family is vegan, we have no place to eat. Well, we can get pizza from Little Anthony's, I guess, but we have no place that is 100% vegan and where we can be 100% confident that there will be no cross-contamination involving egg. That's a related issue. Boykat went to the allergist this week, who did a skin test that confirmed he's still allergic to egg, and the allergist said that he's unlikely to outgrow it. Complete avoidance of egg is the only way to go. Which, of course, having a vegan home supports.

Hezbollah Tofu!

2008-03-18T11:06:00.003-04:00

This site came to my attention thanks to a post at the "veganpeople" LiveJournal community.

The famed Anthony Bourdain has a hate-on for vegetarians and vegans. I've never seen his show Without Reservations, but he's shown up as a judge on Top Chef, which I do watch. This quote of hate comes from his book Kitchen Confidential:

Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food.

The "Hezbollah Tofu" blog quotes this nastiness in its first entry and offers the following message to Bourdain:

So we aren't just going to "enjoy" food, we're going to enjoy vastly improved, veganized versions of your masturbatory, blood-oozing recipes. And then we're going to compile them, sell them in zine form, and donate the proceeds to vegan outreach organizations and farm sanctuaries--in your name. Anthony, I have to say, I'm really looking forward to the great work we're going to do together for veganism.
This is an open call to vegan cooks of all stripes: professional chefs and bakers, cookbook authors, food bloggers, amateur cooks, and--perhaps most importantly--ordinary, everyday people who just want to live their lives and eat their dinners without unnecessary heckling from the heroin-addled peanut gallery.

I have to say I adore this idea. I've come across Bourdain's quote o' nastiness before and found it equal parts baffling and irritating. I can hardly wait to see what people come up with.

Isa and Terry's Books Will Take Over the World!

2008-03-09T17:46:00.002-04:00

My mom came up yesterday to celebrate my son's birthday. He's five! Because of his egg allergy, I got a vegan chocolate-cake recipe from the Post-Punk Kitchen site. Would you believe this was my son's first-ever taste of cake? In any event, he enjoyed its chocolaty goodness. Dinner was a vegan pizza of Dkat's invention, which Boykat happens to love.

My mom is a lacto-veg, so she was also happy to have a chance to eat cake without worrying about egg. I showed her Vegan With a Vengeance, and almost immediately she decided she'll have to buy a copy of her own. When I raved about the ease and goodness of the seitan recipe, she looked it over and immediately made a trip out to the coop to buy vital wheat gluten and nutritional yeast so she can make some of her own. She also perused Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. The Moskowitz/Hope domination is imminent!

In related news, I forgot to report here that I had success a couple of weeks ago with the chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon, which (almost tearfully) I had to return to the library after a scant two weeks, because it was requested. See, these books are taking over the world!

Seitan Success

2008-02-17T19:29:00.002-05:00

The seitan was a success. Shockingly easy to make (I love when that happens). We haven't made anything with it yet, though I had some in salad today. Dkat likes the taste and texture, so thumbs up.

I also made squash-oatmeal cookies. They're really supposed to be pumpkin-oatmeal cookies, but we only had two cans of pumpkin (which I've used) and the rest are squash. I left out the raisins because we didn't have any and left out the nuts because I forgot to put them in. I was going to use almond slivers instead of walnuts, only because I'm not a big "walnut" fan. The cookies are good in spite of everything, so they are going fast.

Miscellaneous

2008-02-16T14:43:00.002-05:00

Dkat made an awesome vegan pizza this past week, completely of his own invention. It was soooo good! He made a pizza sauce with veggies, spices, and tofu. Last night, he used his sauce recipe as a pasta sauce and we brought it to a vegetarian potluck. We are talking about hosting some potlucks of our own sometime.

Yesterday, my office closed to attend a funeral (husband of a co-worker passed away early Wednesday). I've only just started telling people that I'm off dairy and egg. A bunch of us from work were sitting together at the reception held after the burial, and someone asked me what I'd had from the buffet. I had put together a sandwich of lettuce, tomato, cukes, and a bit of baked ziti that, thankfully, was just pasta and red sauce. I mentioned that I was off dairy and egg, so no cheese. Naturally, someone asked where I was getting my calcium. This is kind of funny to me, considering that there are populations all over the world wherein people do no consume dairy, and we're really the only species that not only consumes the milk of another species, but does so throughout our lifespan. But anyway, I told her fortified soy milk, vitamins, and green leafy vegetables.

Another co-worker told me that she'd never be able to give up cheese. I told her that I used to feel the same way, but I am finding I don't miss it. This same co-worker asked me if I skip over baked goods if I know they have egg or dairy in them. I told her not only that, but I will skip over baked goods unless I know for a fact they they don't have egg or dairy in them. She sort of shook her head as if she were talking to a major head case. Then, to top things off? About 20 minutes later, she came to our table with a tray of cookies, offering them to each person there. And she offered them to me. Hello, what were we just talking about? ::boggle::

Though I can't harsh on her too much, I guess. Even Dkat, though he knows I'm veganning and he's supportive, will sometimes forget--like when he was in the hospital, he told me he'd had egg for breakfast and asked if I was jealous. This comes from our egg ban in our home, due to our son's egg allergy. Me: "No, I'm not eating egg anymore, remember?" "Oh, yeah." Same thing last night. He asked me if I'd had one of the [non-vegan] cookies. Nope. Still veganning. "Oh, yeah."

In related news, I have a pot of seitan cooling on the stove. I'm kind of excited since it's pretty easy to make. Will report on the results.

Odd and Ends

2008-02-09T20:26:00.000-05:00

Dkat had to spend a couple of nights in the hospital this week. When asked if he had any dietary preferences, he said that he eats mostly vegetarian at home, was interested in becoming vegan someday, but didn't expect to be able to eat vegan while in the hospital. The nurse told him, "Oh, we can do vegan!" They gave fruit and nothing else! After that, he didn't try for vegan or vegetarian again.

Yesterday, I made another dish from Vegan with a Vengeance, the Breakfast Veggie Chorizo. It's meant to be used as a filling for breakfast burritos, and features Textured Vegetable Protein. It turned out really good and Dkat loved it.

We had a family walk to our neighborhood food coop today and picked up a bunch of great vegan staples, like nutritional yeast, flax meal, sunflower seeds, agave syrup, wheat gluten flour (to make our own seitan--see p. 157 of Vegan with a Vengeance), and others I've already forgotten. My confidence in my cooking skills has definitely been boosted.

Awesome Pumpkin Loaf

2008-02-07T15:49:00.000-05:00

Since we have cans of pumpkin, I wanted to bake something pumpkinny. I was originally thinking pie, but then I found the recipe for "The Best Pumpkin Muffins" in Vegan with a Vengeance. Besides looking yummy, it's a simple recipe with non-exotic ingredients.

One hitch was that the muffin tray I imagined we have is probably a muffin tray that my mom has, and we don't have any of those little paper/foil muffin cups. So I resorted to making two little muffin loaves instead, using our loaf pans. Also, we don't have molasses, so I substituted 2T tahini for the 2T molasses.

The result? So much awesome! Mm. They are so, so gone and my husband LOVED them. :)

Veganning with a Vengeance

2008-01-29T09:10:00.000-05:00

I've gone on a binge of ordering vegan cookbooks from the library. True, I've only actually done one recipe so far, but I have a stack of potential.

Dkat borrowed from me Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan with a Vengeance and was so impressed he decided to buy it. In his words, it's got realistic, doable, tested recipes. He likes the fact that the recipes do not rely on all kinds of processed meat replacements and fake cheeses, but on fresh, whole foods. He's jonesing to try the falafel recipe and I'm very curious about the homemade seitan. I had no idea it could be made so simply (or at least it appears so from the recipe). I've also got her new book, Veganomicon, on order from library.

As a testament to the growing interest in vegan cooking, I found I was unable to renew Vive Le Vegan because someone else had requested it. Part of me thinks, "Harumph" but another thinks, "Go, vegan cooking!"

In other veganning news, I had a dream that I accidentally ate some butter cookies.

Veganning Dream

2008-01-19T08:07:00.001-05:00

I actually had a dream about the veganning. In the dream I had to attend a work-related dinner. The cook, I somehow knew, was vegan himself, but he provided an omni array of foods. Initially, I helped myself to a plate of pancakes, for some reason simply assuming they were vegan. But after taking a couple of bites, I realized that they probably had dairy and/or egg in them, and I decided to search for a vegan meal. One of my co-workers told me that she'd just had a delicious vegan entree. I asked her where it was, and she told me that another co-worker had the serving dish. I went over to where co-worker2 had been sitting, and I saw a serving dish next to hers. The entree looked delicious, and there was quite a lot left, but I felt I had to ask the co-worker before taking some. She was not there, so I tried to find her. After I'd been looking for her away from the table without finding her, I returned to the table and found her back at her seat. I asked her if I could have some of the vegan entree, and she told me that she'd eaten it all. I said something like, "Oh. That was the only thing here I could really eat because I'm vegan now." She said, "Really? I'm sorry."

A bit later, I found the chef, and I lamented that I was the only vegan there, yet others had eaten the vegan dish. He expressed regret, but told me, "Remember why you're doing this." And he gave me a carrot. An unwashed, unpeeled carrot. I thought this was pretty unhelpful, but I decided I'd find my own alternative. I put the carrot back in the refrigerator (somehow I was in the kitchen) and found a case of ripe mangoes. I took one and started to look for a knife so I could peel it. Suddenly, a co-worker (who was for some reason Judith Light, who plays Claire Meade on Ugly Betty, and I can assure you does not work with me) started to yell at me. She said, "You vegans talk about compassion for animals, but look at all the suffering you cause for your fellow human beings!" I asked her what on earth she could mean, and she went into a litany of people I'd frightened, to the point where someone called the police and I was nearly arrested (!). I'd apparently scared the bejebus out of the munchkins (this had become a Wizard-of-Oz themed party somehow), one of whom was a "new munchkin." I'd had no recollection of going into the angry tirade she was claiming I had perpetrated, and I told her that I had merely made some inquiries and had a very calm, quiet talk with the chef, but she contradicted me. Then I woke up. I felt the dream was sort of a caveat on how to present my veganning to others. Even if I don't think I'm being strident or judgmental, others might interpret what I say/do that way--they may be so reflexively defensive that they attribute to me motives and thoughts I do not harbor.

Funny thing--I'm already thinking of this annual holiday party my office participates in. We don't host the party, but we are always included, and it takes place at a restaurant that is not vegetarian friendly in the least. This past December, the only items that were vegetarian were the green salad and the bread. They were kind enough to prepare an alternate meal for me, which was a pasta dish--vegetarian but not vegan (I hadn't veganned yet). Assuming the party is in the same place this year (and it is likely), I am thinking I will need to call ahead or not go.

Supplies

2008-01-17T09:11:00.000-05:00

Dkat stocked up on soy milk yesterday. A couple of cases worth. Since apparently the price of soy is about to shoot up. (Same story for just about everything these days!) Boykat is drinking copious amounts, despite the fact that it appears to give him the farts. o_0

Skipped the lasagna last night

2008-01-16T09:12:00.000-05:00

Last night, when I came home from work, my husband (I'll call him Dkat), said, "You don't have to have the lasagna. There are leftovers from last night." This doesn't sound so great on the face of it, but "leftovers" were a delicious tofu/veggie stirfry, so I was happy with that option. The only downside was there wasn't enough for me to bring in for lunch today. But that gives me an excuse to go to the vegan café I mentioned below.

Dkat is still off of coffee and determined to continue, though the withdrawal has made him more tired than usual. This morning he said he finally felt energetic. I've actually cut back from my usual copious amounts of coffee. If I go off of caffeine, it's going to have to be gradual!

The idea of recipes

2008-01-14T11:13:00.000-05:00

I realize that I like the idea of recipes much more than I actually like following them. I have a pile of vegan cookbooks that I checked out from the library, and I was planning to try some new recipes over the weekend, but I didn't. I ended up mostly alternating between peanut butter sandwiches and microwaved frozen veggies with lentils, rice, and recaito sauce.

One reason that I like the idea of recipes more than the actual recipes is I just want to have everything I need. I don't want to have to shop for a recipe! Please note, I think our pantry is reasonably well stocked--wide array of spices, grains, etc. But I don't have tamari sauce or a zillion different types of miso. Just the soy kind from our Asian grocery. I forget what else we don't have that I see showing up in recipes. I confess--I'm prone to laziness, especially on weekends, which is when I actually have time to cook. Also, I don't like having to use our food processor, mainly because it's a pain to clean it up properly. We don't have a dishwasher. If you don't get all the little areas cleaned up, you get mold. Mold is bad!

To my credit, I did try a new recipe during my holiday time off between Christmas and New Year's. I tried the lentil pie from Vive Le Vegan (with some modifications; miso and soy sauce instead of vegan Worcestershire and tamari, for instance; also pan-fried all the ingredients before putting them into the food processor, and lentils pre-cooked in the slow cooker). My husband liked the results enough that he asked me to write out the recipe (with my modifications) on a recipe card for further use. This is a high honor, because he's got very exacting standards when it comes to food.

I've been meaning to check out Food For Thought, Albany's new vegan café, and might do so today during lunch. I brought a peanut-butter sandwich in case the weather fails to cooperate.

I took option #1

2008-01-10T19:50:00.000-05:00

I had the lasagna. It turns out I was mistaken about the cheese being one layer on top. It's pretty pervasive. And there are two different kinds.

::sigh::

See, I work M-F, 9-5 and my husband cares for our son and does the cooking. On weekends, we swap. I came home so hungry and I thought, "I hope he didn't make lasagna." And he had. He's had a really bad cold lately and had very little energy today, hence the "throw something in the oven" type option.

I didn't enjoy the lasagna. I used to love it, but it tasted too salty and heavy for me. And almost immediately I had a headache. I don't know if the lasagna is to blame or if it's coincidence (or maybe even psychosomatic). But I'm thinking I'll skip the lasagna next time it comes up. Maybe over the weekend I'll do a bunch of cooking so I have a backup plan.

How slowly am I veganning?

2008-01-10T09:07:00.000-05:00

Although I conceived my veganning as a process that would unfold during this year--and I did not have a definite date in mind for when I'd be completely veganned, I've found myself actually consuming a fully vegan diet since the first of this month. And now I don't feel that I want to go back.

Here's my dilemma (and I feel kind of stupid even stressing over it). My husband buys a frozen veggie lasagna from BJ's, and we use it for those "too tired/busy to cook" days. He bought four packages of this lasagna yesterday. Now, he knows I'm transitioning, but as far as he knows, I'll still have the occasional dairy-having lasagna during my transition. I feel kind of bad about the prospect of telling him I won't anymore. So I guess I'm down to:

Have the lasagna
Have the lasagna, but remove the cheese layer (it's strictly on top)
Don't have the lasagna

I'm sort of leaning toward #3, with #2 as a back-up position. Not liking #1.

Oh, well, I'll figure it out.

My yoga instructor has a t-shirt that's all black, with a star in the middle and "vegan" in the middle of the star. I've sort of been thinking "I want to be able to wear that t-shirt!" Which would mean nixing the lasagna. (Oddly, I'm not even sure I'm interested in actually wearing a "vegan" shirt--only being able to. Or rather eligible.)

Veganning in 2008

2008-01-08T09:25:00.000-05:00

I decided to make 2008 the year I transition from vegetarian to vegan. The egg part is the easiest, because my son is allergic--therefore we don't keep egg in the house anyway. Dairy is a bit more difficult, but so far, less than I thought.

I expect travel and restaurants to be somewhat more challenging. I have a business trip in April--I'll have to request vegan meals in advance. And pack snacks!