Sassy Vegan

I'm back....

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:34:00 +0000

Ok, well sorry to all of you who were looking forward to lots of dish about raw food. Kind of took the summer off! But, summer is over! And, back to blogging I will be. Raw food, vegan food, and all kind of other food related news.

Beginning tomorrow, look for new stuff.

Raw... 2 days out of the 30 day challenge.

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Mon, 04 May 2009 00:24:00 +0000

Ok, well the first two days of the thirty day challenge have been a piece of cake because all of the food was made for me by Alissa Cohen and her fabulous assistants! The past two and half days I've been at the raw food (or, rather, living food) boot camp.

I'm going to follow up with a much more detailed post when I am done with this session (one more day to go). Until then, here's a quick summary of my past few days.

Friday: Who knew walnuts and a red pepper would make the most unbelievable combination? Alissa's "Mock Salmon" was hands down one of my favorites of the weekend. Some other incredibly easy dishes she showed us: Collard Rolls (I have a new found love for Nama Shoyu), zucchini pasta with marinara sauce, portabello mushroom caps with a yummy avacado filling. All of these dishes took max 5 minutes to put together. Pretty cool.

Saturday: More food! Chili using sprouted barley, a KICK ASS onion dip, pizza!, an enchilada!
And, the MOST amazing thing---a date, filled with coconut, and dipped in a combination of agave syrup, pure cacao powder, and coconut oil. Unbelievable.

Sunday: We learned a lot about what it means to "go raw", the health benefits. Throught the past few days I've also learned a lot of detailed information about what raw means, what it involves. I'll save that for my next post.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Grezzo for a whirlwind 12 hour food fest, tour of the restaurant, and a total information dump from the head chef there. Can't wait!!

Raw...

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:42:00 +0000

Yes, raw, as in Raw Vegan. I'm embarking on an experiment. I'm committing to going raw for the next 30 days to see what it's all about. To kick start the effort, I'm doing a raw food boot camp of sorts. I'm attending the accelerated raw food teachers certification that Alissa Cohen of Grezzo is holding this weekend. I'll be posting at the end of each class telling you what I've learned.

Toronto, Transformers, and Tasty Treats

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:41:00 +0000

Two weekends ago, I went to TFcon Canada. I agreed to go with my boyfriend cause I thought um, maybe a transformers festival of sorts will be fun (?), and, well, it's Toronto, a known vegan hot spot.

Needless to say, the Transformers aspect of the trip was interesting, in full geek glory. I learned a lot more about Transformers than I ever thought I would care to know.

Lucky for me though, there are indeed tons of vegan places in Toronto, and we began our exploration the first night we got there. We drove from Boston, and got in late in the day, and by the evening we were tired, and just wanted food. We were not looking for any ambiance, so we ended up at Sadie's Diner on E. Adelaide St. Simple, simple, simple. No frills. The food was ok, but the notable thing about Sadie's was the Pez collection.

The next day we explored Toronto and for lunch we ended up at Fresh, on Bloor St. There I treated myself to a brilliant Liver Cleanse juice. Um, yeah, I know, Liver Cleanse sounds AWFUL, but it was a beautifully colored juice concoction with beets, and ginger, and some other stuff, and pink peppercorns! They also had this miso dip for french fries that was to die for.

The next day, for lunch, I just had to try this restaurant called the Urban Herbivore, on Oxford St. The plan was to drive into the city from the hotel where TFcon was happening, get sandwiches from the very funky vegan sandwich place, and drive back in an hour. Check on the first half of the plan: we managed to leave TFcon, get to the restaurant, get our sandwiches (a lovely selection of sandwiches, cookies, super relaxed environment, and obviously a popular spot), and get gas for the car. What we hadn't counted on was the jumper who was threatening to jump off an overpass of the Gardiner Expressway, closing off the highway in about 10 miles in either direction, and a major accident on another one of the major highways, and major work being done on another one of the major highways, all funneled traffic onto a few roads. Thus, our entire quick lunch trip took us about two and half hours. The cookie was fabulous, and the sandwhiches weren't bad, *almost* worth the hassle.

Our final veg destination was Fressen, on Queen St. W. I had heard so much about Fressen in the Toronto press; I had big expectations. Overall, it was...a little bit better than ok. They operate on a tapas style model, so we ordered 4 dishes: Mushroom raviolis, some sort of gourmet pizza, a mushroom and vegetable filled purse made from filo dough, and some asparagus. All were very beautifully plated, very delicately flavored, but we should have ordered 5 dishes. Then the kitchen staff apparently didn't realize the order for our dessert had been handed in, and we ended waiting almost an hour for it to come out. They were very gracious about the incident, and didn't charge us for it, and take off the cost of one of the dishes we got.

Back to the Transformers: I discovered during a viewing of an episode of Transformers Animated that Prowl, when turned into a human due to the machinations of SoundWave, he preferred to be a vegetarian, because, "don't you know? Vegetable fuel burns cleaner than animal fuel". Well said Prowl! He's my favorite Transformer these days.

Warm things.

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:48:00 +0000

The time has come again to figure out what to wear to keep warm during the cold, windy New England winter. As many vegans will attest, it such a pain to find a nice winter coat that does not have the following:

Feathers
Wool
Weird colors
that just off the ski slope look when you are, in fact, not even thinking about skiing

After a few too many days this season walking to work in bone-chilling wind, I got a coat from the North Face. It has no feathers, it is not wool, and generally is appropriate for what I need it most for, walking to and from work and other non-sporty occasions.

Muffins!

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:29:00 +0000

Tonight I made muffins! I couldn't find my copy of Veganomicon, so I found a basic recipe on the box of Ener-G Egg Replacer. Here it is:

1-2/3 C. all purpouse wheat flour
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
2 T sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp Ener-G egg replacer beaten in 2 T water
1-1/4 cups milk
4 T oil

Preheat oven to 400 F. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl. Combine wet ingredients in another bowl. But the wet stuff into the dry stuff, mix until combined, and put into a muffin tin lined with those cupcake papers.

Ok, now here's what I did to make these my own, and vegan:

1. I DOUBLED the recipe to get muffin tops!
2. I used white flour because that's all I had on hand.
3. I used Silk Creamer because I ran out of regular soy milk.
4. I added a touch of vanilla.
5. Here's the fun part: semi-sweet baking chocolate, about half a baking size bar, chopped into small pieces; handful of walnuts, chopped; handful of frozen strawberries, chopped! Add these ingredients last, to the blended dry/wet mixture. And, fill the little muffin cups to the very very top! My batch made 13 muffins, if you don't snack on the batter. :)

Yet another reason to not eat cow.

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 02:56:00 +0000

This article appeared on CNN today. 143 million pounds of beef (but, let's call it what it really is, cow) was recalled today. The reason cited was because:

"cattle that had lost the ability to walk since passing pre-processing inspections were slaughtered without an inspector having examined them for chronic illness -- a practice...[that] violated federal regulations and had been going on for at least two years."

The article goes on to say that around 37 million pounds of the cow meat went to school lunch programs.

Yet another gentle reminder to those of you that still eat cow--STOP! Not only are you contributing to the general miserable life and death of these beautiful creatures, but you'll be saving yourself the worry of catching some weird brain disease and you'll have yourself a healthier heart (less cholesterol to clog up your arteries).

Note: picture by foxypar4

From our friends at Vegan Soapbox

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:15:00 +0000

Read this post about pigs.

Ode to Broccoli

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 01:44:00 +0000

I love broccoli. It is by far my favorite vegetable. It's beautiful and incredibly good for us. It's also one of the simplest meals I know how to make.

Here are some stats about this wonderful superveggie, courtesy of WHFoods.org :

Just take a look at the nutrient per calorie punch broccoli gives us!

Here's my favorite way of eating broccoli (braised):

few garlic cloves, sliced or minced
OO
Broccoli (a usual bunch you would find in the store would be fine), chopped into whatever size you like--be sure to use the crowns, not the stems. The smaller you chop, the quicker they cook.
sautee or fry pan with top
salt
2 slices of whole wheat toast, with soy-based butter like Eden Soy Whipped

Put about 1 T of OO in the pan over medium heat, add the garlic. Wait until the OO sparkles a bit, and the garlic begins to look a tad translucent. Add the broccoli. Stir the garlic and broccoli a bit so no sticking to the pan occurs--let the broccoli sautee in the pan for about 2-3 minutes. Now here's the part--add about 1/8th-1/4 C. of water to the sautee pan, and put the cover on. Let the water steam the broccoli for about 3-4 minutes--really depends on how big or small your broccoli pieces are. When done, you shouldn't have that much water left.

TIP: Keep in mind that your broccoli will keep cooking a few minutes after you remove it from the stove, and in the bowl, so a tiny bit of crunch is ok when you do your last taste test. Pile as much broccoli as you want into your favorite bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and enjoy with your soy buttered toast!!! Scrumptious!

Note: Broccoli photo courtesy of kmilyun.

Eat less meat, save the world (sort of)

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:14:00 +0000

The New York Times came out with this article recently, entitled, Rethinking the Meat Guzzler. Today, a few co-workers came up to me at work and told me about this article, amazed at the argument the article was making: essentially, eating less or no meat will be good for the environment. This is by no means a new observation to most of us who are veg*ns. What is fascinating to me are these things:

A traditional, main stream media outlet advocating the almost anti-American sentiment of less or no meat consumption.

The deft way in which the argument is approached not from the animal rights perspective, but from the environmental perspective. The animal rights perspective is touched on as an added benefit of eating little to no meat, but the entire issue is framed up in environmental terms.

The use of data to bring home the point--the desired action is being argued for in terms of rational rather than emotional terms, seen here:

"To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius. Similarly, a study last year by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days."

Imagine, just 20% less meat would do so much to reduce energy consumption! Perhaps, put in these terms, those who cannot change their dietary behaviors for lack of identification with animal suffering, will do so because it has such a real and rapid impact on our environment and current energy crisis. It's not a call for veganism, or vegetarianism; but for now, it seems to be the most palatable call to action for mainstream America.

Note: Picture above was taken by foxypar4 retrieved from Flikr Creative Commons

Shoes.

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:54:00 +0000

I was trying to kill time this evening waiting for my order of broccoli and penne with garlic and oil from the little Italian place near my apartment when I walked into the new shoe store next door.

While browsing, I noticed that they were selling a pair of Simple Shoes, pictured left.
These are the Tomatoe, very cute actually. These particular shoes are not exactly vegan--they have a wee bit of wool on them somewhere. I chose to buy them anyways because in general, Green Toe is very environmentally responsible, and they do also make 100% vegan shoes. Truth is, if I had seen that there was wool on them at the shoe store, I probably wouldn't have bought them; but, I'm not sweating it now--there's more good in supporting a company like this than boycotting it because they used a bit of wool somewhere on the shoe.

The person selling me the shoes was surprised that I knew the brand--we got into a conversation about being vegan and buying shoes. Is it hard? Well, yes, and no.

In 2008, it's getting easier to find stylish shoes that are non-leather. Back in the day, it was a bit harder, and some of the shoes were just damn ugly.

But, here are some tips and tricks I've learned over the years about vegan shoe hunting:

A convenient place to find non-leather shoes that won't cost you a ton of $ is Payless. Target also has some interesting shoes from time to time.
Generally, companies that market themselves as vegan, or who sell vegan shoe lines, tend be better quality than what you would find in the discount stores, and also more expensive. Mooshoes is a good vegan shoe retailer that can introduce you to some of the best vegan brands out there.
Summer is great time to find vegan shoes, because many sandals and flip flops are made from synthetic (or natural fabric) materials. Fall is a great time for boots, especially the ones that go over the calf. Synthetic materials are stretchier, and so can go over those tricky calves better than the leather counterparts.
In general, when trying on shoes, make sure you pay attention to what the sole is made of: often times, especially in women's shoes, the upper will be synthetic/fabric/fiber, but the sole will be leather.

If you have any other tips, brands, or places to find veg*n shoes, please let me know.

NYC = Great Vegan Food

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Mon, 15 May 2006 21:51:00 +0000

This post is all about food-specifically, the fabulous vegan food I had on my most recent trip to the Big Apple.

This trip was all about walking and food. It was great--two of my favorite things in one little vaction.

On our first night, we met some friends at Gobo, located at 401 6th Ave (note, the F or V line stop at 4th St is the best stop to get to the place). We had some New England rolls for an appetizer that were just super yummy. We also got some fried mushrooms that I didn't like, but my boyfriend, M, loved them; our friends, who are not veg*n, compared them to fried calimari. For the main course, we shared some crispy seitan and a pan seared soy filet in spicy black bean sauce. Desert consisted of one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever had, hands down.

Our next day was quite the culinary adventure. First, quite a few bagel/deli places in Manhattan (particularly in the lower east side) have tofu cream cheese. We wandered into one, and split a nicely toasted bagel with vegetable tofu cream cheese. M was super happy about the bagels.

For lunch we went to Teany, Moby's tea and lunch spot. They have something like 98 kinds of tea, so if you are a tea lover, it's a great place to enjoy a cup. The sandwhiches are really good (and most of them are vegan, but all are vegetarian).

Right around the corner (kind of) at 248 Broome St is Babycakes, a vegan, and gluten and wheat free cupcake venture. We tried the gluten free chocolate cupcakes--they were ok, but not as good as I had hoped. The wheat-free carrot, as well as the wheat free lemon and vanilla versions were tasty. I was kind of disappointed that they didn't have bolder and more colorful decorations.

For dinner that night, we went to a place called Counter, which is at 105 1st Ave between 5th and 6th streets. It's a mostly vegan, organic wine and martini bar. The appetizer was yummy, some sort of mushroom ravioli. The dinner was good too--I had a vegan version of Steak au Poivre (a soy filet with fat french fries and a pepper sauce). The dessert was a too rich choclate tart--I got a bit goofy after a glass of rather strong sangria, so I had the giggles, making it a fun dinner :)

The last all-veg*n place we went to was Candle 79, located at E. 79th street by Lexington. This is a fancy vegan gourmet restaurant. The food was really good--I had some very succulent tempeh with garlic mashed potatoes. M had some really nice seitan. The chocolate cake was good, but nowhere near as yummy as Gobo's. The music also was not very peppy--it was very quiet classical heavy on the violins--it created kind of a somber mood. There was also a couple sitting next to us who were planning their wedding, and, we think, their rehearsal dinner to be held at Candle 79. They were continually curious about our dishes; probably ok though since I couldn't help but eavesdrop on their conversation about their wedding!

So, to my buddies out there planning on coming to NYC, do try one or all of these places. Also, Friends of Animals has a great restaurant guide for even more veg*n places.

Becoming Vegan

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 04:05:00 +0000

One of the first questions a vegan will ask another vegan is, "So, how long have you been vegan?" How long was it since you became a vegan. What's really interesting is that you just don't turn around one day and say hey, I'm a vegan!--you really actually become one.

I say this because in order to be a successful vegan, it has to be consistent with your ethics and outlook on life. You have to have some good reason to make you avoid a food you previously thought was great. The thing is, sometimes it takes a while to figure out exactly what your ethics and outlook on life actually are with regards to food.

Let me tell you the story of how I became vegan.

First, it's important to establish that I am an animal person. My entire family is particularly fond of animals. I grew up with three dogs, two cats, and a rabbit. I identified intensely with my pets, loved them as much as I loved my family. I never really did think about the meat that I ate though--my favorite sandwich was ham and cheese; Happy Meals were my nirvana.

I remember my grandfather. He would often speculate about how cruel slaughterhouses are, how sad it was that cows were getting shot between the eyes. I would listen with fascination, but still never really made the connection between the vivid images of death and dinner. But I was listening.

My parents often received mailings from the Humane Society of the United States, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. I remember when I first read those words, I wondered what that meant, the ethical treatment of animals. What was that? The more I thought on it, the more I liked the idea. Ethical...interesting.

Then one day I was reading a magazine, and read that some celebrity was vegan; that was the first time I saw what a vegan was--no meat of any kind, no cheese, no eggs, no milk. I remember thinking that I couldn't go vegan because then I wouldn't be able to eat any of my favorite foods. A thought later and I reasoned, well, I could go vegetarian--I'd still be able to eat lasagna. Then I forgot about it all in the rush of growing up.

When I was 15, I opened up a PETA mailing and there they were, the slaughterhouse pictures. I started reading. And reading. And something just clicked inside my head. When I ate Kentucky Fried Chicken, I saw the bones piled up on my plate and I thought how strange and weird it seemed, how caveman like. Then I had dinner at my grandmother's house, and she served a very rare roast. I couldn't stop staring at the blood on my plate. Meat stopped looking like food, and more like something dead.

I announced to my Mom one day that I was going vegan. She was a bit skeptical. I believe the actual words were something like, how can you go vegan when you don't even like vegetables? Good point. We hit on a compromise; I could begin by going vegetarian, and she would support my decision to go vegan only if I did more research on what it was exactly, and what to eat. So, I became vegetarian for about a month, and then I switched to being vegan (after reading Diet for a New America). That was just shy of 15 years ago, and I'm quite happy in my vegan world.

This is what's kind of cool about vegans--a hard-core meat eater today could very well be the militant vegan of tomorrow.

The Mighty Chickpea

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 17:32:00 +0000

Chickpeas are a great food. Much like the mighty soy bean, you can do a ton of things to them: mash them and combine with tahini to make hummus, falafel is made from chickpeas; you can eat them whole and baked, or in yummy stews. My dog especially likes chickpeas.

My favorite chickpea dish to date is a version of Chana Masala, an Indian chickpea dish. Real Chana Masala should have something called garam masala; I don't have an Indian specialty grocer in my area, so I sort of throw the spices all together, and I go heavy on the cinnamon.

Here's the recipe:

1 large onion (vidalia or yellow) chopped
8-12 fresh roma tomatoes (chopped) (if you can't find fresh, canned plum tomatoes that aren't packed with basil work fine--just drain and chop them up)
some garlic (I like to use a lot, ~8 cloves) chopped
tumeric (as much as you'd like. A few shakes to start would be fine)
cayenne pepper (as much as you'd like)
cumin seeds (few sprinkles)
ginger (I used dried, ground ginger, but you can use fresh ginger...A few tsps should do)
coriander (few shakes, but not as much as the tumeric)
cinnamon (use the most of this, it is SOOOOO yummy)
black pepper to taste
20 oz can of chickpeas
Olive oil (OO)
You'll need a pretty deep cast iron pan. The one I use is about 4" deep, has a handle and a glass cover.

Pour enough OO in the pan to cover the bottom; put heat to medium, add the onion and garlic. When the onion starts to get a bit translucent, add the cumin seeds. Stir. Then add the tumeric, cayenne pepper, ginger, coriander, black pepper, and cinnamon. Stir, and make sure you smell the the gorgeous spices!

Add the chopped roma tomatoes, and stir. Wait a bit for the tomatoes to break down and get saucy. Add the chickpeas with the water they are packed in. Stir, bring to a boil, then decrease heat to low and simmer for 30-40 minutes, or until most of the water has boiled off. Occasionally taste test to see if the spices are right--sometimes I add a bit more tumeric or cinnamon, maybe some pepper.

When the stew is done, it's best served in a cute little bowl with some basmati rice. This particular recipe will provide roughly 5 bowls, so it's great to make on a weekend and then eat during the week.

Bon Appetit!

Cow: It's what's for dinner.

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 14:19:00 +0000

Take a gander at this delightful diagram of a cow to the left. Who actually looks at a cow and says, ooooooooh, cut #1 up by the shoulder would be LOVELY for dinner this evening. Think they would say that if they were looking at a REAL cow? What about if they were sitting at the slaughter house watching their dinner bleed out? What if they were told that there was a chance their dinner was harboring the dreaded mad cow disease? Hmmm...not quite as appetizing now, is it? Indeed, just thinking a little too much about where meat comes from causes many people to just turn off their thinking caps and settle back into the comforting messages delivered to us through advertising.

The beef council, the dairy lobby, the chicken industry, and the pork industry have done an amazing job maintaining the public diassociation between the meat on their plate, and the animal it came from. Recall the popular slogans:

Beef, it's what's for dinner. (with the snazzy tunes of Aaron Copland's Rodeo: Hoedown playing)
Pork, the other white meat.
Got Milk?

Then we have the equally disturbing ads for the California Milk Advisory Board (the Happy Cows campaign), and Perdue. In these advertisements, the animals are shown, in the case of the Happy Cow ads, happy and content, with a sassy sense of humor to boot. (http://www.realcaliforniacheese.com/)

And then of course we've got the Perdue empire talking about how they feed their chickens marigold petals to make them that nice yellow color, and then showing rather strange footage of a chicken lifting weights . . .enough to make you think--those animals WANT me to eat them! Look how hard they're working!

What's ironic about many of these ads is that in today's world, the low-volume family farm is a rare find. In fact, the meat production industry has really followed the trends of mass prodcution introduced by Ford in the early part of the last century. The term applied to this type of "farming" is called factory-farming. It's prevalent in cattle, pork, poultry. The basic idea behind factory farming is to produce an animal that is as large as can be, at the lowest cost, and to "grow" them in as great a quantity as possible in the smallest space possible.

Imagine what will happen once the bird flu hits the US, or if the mad-cow disease will hit the cattle population in mass numbers. As with other countries, the US government would most likely insititute mass slaughter to contain the disease. How strong will the poultry and beef lobbies be both in limiting the negative press, and creating advertising that generates demand for a tainted product? If anyone could do it, these powerful lobbies probably could.

Someday, the veg*n concept will go main-stream. Until then, I'll happily be munching on my broccoli, and thank my lucky stars that I don't eat meat.

VegLove: Dating and Romance

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 00:40:00 +0000

Dating: it conjures for many people feelings of excitement, and often dread. It is the inspiration for movies, tv-shows, books, comedy, drama. Dating is hard enough when one doesn't have a lot of well, requirements, of the potential dating pool. But throw in a requirement or two, such as religion, philosophy, or some other random personal quirk, it gets ever more daunting:

I have a good friend who has decided relatively recently that she will be happiest if she dates only Jewish boys (she is Jewish herself).
I have another good friend who has decided that he positively cannot stand to date any girl who eats meat, the very thought disgusts him (yes, he is a vegan).
I have another friend who said once that she wouldn't be able to stand dating a guy who liked rock music.

In terms of vegan living, the question frequently comes up: Does it matter if your sig. other is veg*n? The answer is that it really depends.

Some points to consider:

There are a limited number of vegans relative to everyone else, so one is narrowing the number of fish in the sea considerably by restricting themselves to just other vegans.
I think there are probably more female vegans than male vegans...
Vegetarians are probably a good next choice in terms of expanding the vegan's dating options.
Veg*n/omnivore couples do exist, and some work out quite well.

That being said, there is something nice about being able to share core beliefs and philosophy with the person you are in a relationship with. It really means you have to work just a little bit less to connect in a meaningful way. All other benefits and headaches still apply.

The most recent VegNews magazine (March/April) devoted most of the issue to dating. One point brought in the issue were that dating non veg*ns actually educates the non-veg*n population about vegan ways. Although a valid point, it makes the romantic in me cringe. Dating to educate seems so, well, boring, and a bit insincere.

To the vegan thinking of dating a non-vegan: make sure you really aren't bothered by his/her meat-eating ways. If you think that you can transform someone into being a veg*n, good luck to you. You'll have a better chance of having a good relationship if the non-vegan is respectful of your veg*n ways, and YOU are at the very least tolerant, of his/her omniverous ways.

For the veg*n looking for other veggies. Sometimes the best place to find others are online; www.veggiedate.org is pretty good. www.match.com also has an option to search people based on diet criteria.

Grocery Nomad

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 01:40:00 +0000

Grocery shopping can be just a royal pain in the ass when you're a busy vegan. Up until very recently, in order to get all the groceries I needed for a week or two, I had to go to at least two places--the oh-so-boring grocery store, and the kind of weird, vitamin smelling natural foods store.

With the increased awareness of the health benefits of soy products though, the main grocery chains are starting to offer veg*n friendly items that make one-stop-shopping closer to a reality. Then there is Whole Foods, a veg*n actually could get everything for the week there, but for me, the nearest Whole Foods is a 45 minute drive away. What do to? I thought it would be an interesting exercise to compare the two.

Shaws

Overall, Shaws has a pretty well stocked natural foods, veg*n friendly section called Wild Harvest. A good selection of grains, frozen foods, pre-packaged foods (my favorite is macaroni and Chreeze), and soy milks and soy based products. It saves me a long trip to Whole Foods.

The problem with my local Shaws is that the produce sucks. I went in the other day to get some tomatoes for this yummy variation I have on Chana Masala, an Indian dish. There were no loose roma tomatoes that weren't shriveled up, so I looked at the packaged ones. I found a package that looked promising, and turned it over--low and behold, there was MOLD living happily in the crevices of the tomatoes. Yuck.

I read somewhere recently that people in general don't have the time to investigate the true quality of things like grocery stores, or doctors for that matter, so they use proxies to measure quality. For a grocery store, that proxy would be the quality of the produce--sucky produce, crappy grocery store. Such was the case with this Shaws, which, by the way, was a brand new location!! Needless to say, I find this grocery store is good only for the non-perishable goods. Good thing I live relatively near a specialty grocer that deals pretty much only in fresh produce.

Whole Foods

Generally, Whole Foods is just a fun place to shop, if only for the sheer variety of veg*n products offered. The produce is almost always super fresh, and just down right pretty. I don't think I've seen a rampant case of mold yet at the few Whole Foods that I've visited. Whole Foods also has a fun bakery, with some downright yummy vegan cookies.

There are a few downsides to WF though...Sometimes it's a bit hard to find the really basic products, say, like Rice Krispies. The ready-made food section has recently been slim pickings on the veg*n options..At least that's what I've found in one particular location. I wonder if market research showed that most pret-a-manger people were just not buying the vegan stuff...I'd be interested to find out.

My grocery shopping expeditions can be summarized by:

Shaws, or other main-stream grocery store (Hannaford, Stop n Shop):

Ok for basic staples, like tomato sauces, chickpeas, aluminum foil, peanutbutter--you get the picture. Shaws has a pretty good Wild Harvest section, which is good for basic non-perishable vegan foods.

Whole Foods:

Great when I can actually make a trip there. Good produce, good selection of odd ingredients that I generally need for my cooking experiments. The cookies are fun. It's a downright mediocre place to stop by for a quick lunch or dinner though for the ready made foods--there used to be a great selection of ready to eat vegan eats, but not so much anymore.

Other Vegetable Place:

When I can't get to Whole Foods, and there is mold on the produce at Shaws, and I have time, I'll stop by one of several little places relatively nearby that sell mostly produce--fresh produce that is.

One advantage, and disadvantage of being a vegan--by necessity, we become the nomads of the grocery world.

A comment on my last post asked for more information about veganism. Below is a short list of online and offline resources:

www.goveg.com

A site run by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), has some good recipes and facts about being veg*n.

www.peta.org

PETA's official site. Like it or not, they are a powerful force in the animal rights/veg*n movement.

www.veganfreaks.org

A cool blog/web site that has some interesting perspectives on being vegan.

www.pcrm.org

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine official website. Has some great information about the health benefits of a vegan diet.

Diet for a New America by John Robbins. I think every vegan I've ever met was heavily influenced by this book. A very logical and well written book about why being vegan is a good thing--all from the son of the Baskin' Robbins empire.

Vegan Planet my favorite vegan cook book.

VegNews magazine. A great magazine that is published quarterly. Go to www.vegnews.com for more info.

Food: who knew it meant so much?

noreply@blogger.com (cazmere) — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 18:03:00 +0000

I've been vegan for almost 15 years--and for the most part of that time period, I have often found myself the only vegan in a sea of omnivores. I find the unsolicited comments from omnis quite interesting (often kind of amusing), when my vegan status becomes known. Some examples:

"Wow, what do you eat?"
"I could NEVER be a vegan, I like cheese too much."
"I could NEVER be a vegan, 'cause when I get home at 2 am from the bar I wouldn't be able to eat my cheese pizza."
"I could never date a guy who was vegan, it's just too weird."
"Would you eat an animal if you were starving?"
"What if you were starving and the only thing you could eat was another person? Can you still be a vegan if you are a cannibal?"

The curiosity is understandable. After all, the great majority of the average person's life is saturated with animal products. In a sense, I think they are revolted by the perceived asceticism of the vegan lifestyle. Vegans avoid all animal products--no eating anything that walks, swims, breathes, feels; no wearing anything that comes from an animal. What kind of freak does that?

It's just another difference to add to the pile we all have to deal with in order to get along.

Vegans do give up much of what the main stream world considers essential, but it doesn't mean we deprive ourselves of anything. We can borrow from the foods of different cultures: Indian, Italian, Asian, Middle Eastern and mix and match with all the spices, grains, beans, and vegetables available. Also, ready-made foods are cropping up in the market place to cater to the busier vegan who can't cook food all the time. But, for some kick-ass chocolates, check out:

http://www.rosecitychocolates.com/

In terms of wardrobe, the vegan can actually be a snappy dresser. Faux-leathers and fabrics are being used to create some truly cool creations. Here are some of my favorites (mostly for accessories):

www.veganessentials.com
A great one-stop shop for a lot of vegan things--food, shoes, t-shirts, vitamins, etc. There site is well designed and really easy to navigate through.

www.mooshoes.com
A small vegan shoe store in NYC. They often have some cool shoes and bags.

www.viavegan.com
A very cool vegan company based in Montreal. Originally an accessories designer, they have expanded to shoes under the Matt & Nat brand name. Check out a sample of their creations.

www.lunaboston.com
A small bag shop in Boston that sells ViaVegan products.

www.casuari.com
This company has the cutest fabric lap-top bags.

To those vegans out there, be kind to your omni friends, answer their questions, be patient with them. If you chat with them, they will understand you better. To the omni's out there, vegans aren't a freakish as you think we are :)