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It was AWESOME!

I got to meet the turkeys

And even pet them:

This turkey’s name is Opal and she was rescued from a factory farm, barely alive. Her feet are mangled so she cannot walk.

And there were lots of chickens and roosters. This one was standing in the Thanksgiving dinner:

The pigs were awesome. They, like the turkeys and chickens, are very social:

I think she’s smiling!

And they were social with each other…

And they are curious…

Can you see how HUGE they are?
These pigs have been rescued from factory farms. They’ve been genetically engineered to grow enormous.

The cows were a little intimading.

But very tolerant of us.

He (she?) had the softest fur.

There were little piglets running around.

They’re fast little guys! It was hard to get one to stand still for the camera!

Visiting Poplar Spring was one of the best experiences I’ve had. I hope that everyone will get the chance to meet farm animals up close – they are  amazing. 

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Photo by Simon Howden

Well I have to admit that my little idea of refraining from eating sweets for a week has been a complete and utter failure! I think I lasted about one day!!

I have never been very good at deprivation! 

I’m not really that surprised at my lack of willpower, because after all it is SUGAR SEASON!

You see, Sugar Season begins Oct 31 with Halloween Trick or Treat.
It then continues through November with Thanksgiving pies.

Christmas cookies and candy are impossible to resist,
and then we’re into New Years Eve alcohol.
But it doesn’t end there!
Next we have Valentines Day chocolates,
and then – FINALLY – Sugar Season comes to its grand finale with chocolate Easter bunnies and jelly beans.

(There aren’t any major Sugar Festivities between Easter and Halloween, unless you count June wedding cakes!)

Photo by Maggie Smith

It’s just interesting, how Sugar Season corresponds with winter darkness and cold.
As if we are trying to sweeten life…?

And so it is.

If you are looking for me, I’ll be over at the dessert table!

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(By the way I think this is a really important book for EVERYONE to read. I mean, if you are interested in food, your health, and the world   )

Eating Animals is the end result of Foer’s three year journey to understand exactly what meat is. Motivated by his son’s birth and the reality of now being responsible for someone else’s life, Foer decided that he needed to get clear on where meat comes from, how it’s produced, and how the animals are treated before he could, with a clear mind, offer meat to his  son.

In the beginning of the book Foer presents us with a case for eating dogs. Yes, DOGS! His point is well made – we would NEVER think of doing to dogs what we regularly do to cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys. Why is that? It’s a question well worth asking. Reportedly, dogs are “quite tasty” and they’re relatively inexpensive. So why do they get to sleep in bed with us while veal calves languish in tight quarters while being shocked with electric prods? Why do baby piglets get to have their testicles ripped out without any anesthesia?

Anyway, Foer systematically walks us through four industries: fish, chickens, pigs, and cows. He visited both “family” and factory farms and reports back on what he found. I don’t want to ruin the book for you, so here is just a glimpse of some interesting, albeit sad, facts Foer reports out:

• Foer repeatedly sent letters to Tyson Foods asking to visit their facility so that he could see where his food comes from, and he was ignored. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to gain entry to ANY factory farm. Under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (drafted by the animal industry and signed into law by George W. Bush), you’d potentially be tried as a terrorist if you tried to enter into a factory farm uninvited. Why don’t the factory farms want us to see what they are doing?
• The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, in which 24 MILLION people died in just 24 weeks, was an avian influenza – bird flu. Scientists today argue that ALL flu strains originate from birds, which then jump to pigs, humans, etc. 99% of chickens eaten come from factory farms, which are filthy, disease-ridden environments – perfect influenza breeding grounds. Interesting note: did you know that the origins of the Swine Flu have been traced back to a pig factory farm in North Carolina?
• Due to overfishing, many scientists predict that our fish supply will be completely exhausted in less than 50 years. That’s REALLY scary.

Foer does find one nationally available brand that seems to have animal welfare in mind  – Niman Ranch. However since his research, Niman Ranch has forced out Bill Niman because they want to run the ranch “more profitably.”

Unfortunately we know what that means.

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I was excited to see her on The Daily Show last week. Ms Goodall spoke about her Roots and Shoots program, which fosters youth-driven projects that cultivate better conditions for both animals and people.

(And I just have to say it, Jane I wish you were vegan!)

xoxox

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Image by ulterior epicure via Flickr

I love it ALL.
I have a crazy sweet tooth.
And not only do I have a crazy sweet tooth, I also have a “fat tooth.”

See, I love ALL things sweet and fattening. Cookies, pies, cakes, ice cream, donuts, chocolate, etc, etc. If it has sugar and some kind of oil or Earth Balance in it, I’m all over it.

I know people who can have things like ice cream and cookies in their home and occasionally eat a small bowl or just one small cookie at a time. I have friends who have candy dishes full of mints or Hershey Kisses sitting out in their foyer.

Not me!

I simply cannot have any of that kind of food in the house unless I am prepared to eat it. All of it. I tend to think “I’m going to eat it all anyway so why not just eat it ALL right now? Why wait?”

Now I know that as far as vices go, it could be worse. Much worse. And I do get lots of exercise and eat as many fruits, veggies, and whole grains that I can so overall I feel my diet is OK. It’s just the sweets.

So here’s today’s throwdown: no sweets for one week.
Sweets meaning cookies, pies, cakes, ice cream, muffins, etc.
My thinking is that maybe if I rid my body of all sugar I’ll get over this craving I have?

Can I do it?

It will be challenging that’s for sure.

Are you in this with me?

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Image via Wikipedia

Tami over at Vegan Appetite hosts “Food Network Friday” – a call to cooks everywhere to “veganize” the chosen Food Network recipe. I was excited that I got to pick this week’s recipe: Loaded Mashed Potatoes by Paula Deen. Paul Deen, as you probably know, is the Queen of Cream…and Bacon and Cheese. So modifying her recipe for Loaded Mashed Potatoes, which was loaded with cream, bacon, and cheese, was lots of fun.

Paula Deen’s recipe uses Idaho potatoes. I decided to go a different route and use sweet potatoes as my base. My mom used to make that sweet potato casserole – you know the one with the mini marshmallows – and I had that in mind as I put this together.

(I learned it’s not easy to photograph mashed potatoes and have them look as good as they really are!)

Loaded Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients
Serves 6

• 4 medium sized sweet potatoes, cut into quarters
• 1/2 C So Delicious Coconut Beverage (OR you can use soy milk)
• 1/4 C Earth Balance natural buttery spread
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1 t freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 t vanilla
• 1.25 t salt
• 6 T packed brown sugar
• 1/2 C unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Directions

1. In a large stockpot, cook potatoes in enough  water to cover for 15 to 20 minutes or until tender.
2. Drain potatoes and return to stockpot. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth; adding all other ingredients except the pecans. With a spatula stir in the pecans if you are using them. Add more salt or other spices, if necessary. Serve immediately.

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Of course Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer has been front and center. Foer was recently interviewed several times, including on The Ellen Degeneres Show, and has written articles for CNN, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and more. I’m reading Eating Animals right now and it is excellent – for both vegans and non-vegans.

The Denver Channel 7 news just published an article by a Jennie Castor, a video journalist who decided, along with her carnivore husband, to embark on a vegan experiment to see if the change in diet would improve in their health. Well, their health did improve (!), and you can read about their ups and downs in making the transition to a plant-based diet on denverchannel.com.

Vegetarian kids were recently featured in an LA Times article, with reference to the American Dietetic Association position paper published in July that states “Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.”

More from California – the Oakland Raiders stadium just won the Most Veg-Friendly NFL Concession Stand award from PETA. Go Raiders!

And finally, I certainly wasn’t sad to find this in my reader this morning!

Tony Gonzalez, the starting tight end for the Atlanta Falcons (who was on my list of Vegetarian Athletes), and his wife October posing nude for PETA. Love it!

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Feijoa

Feijoa, aka “pineapple guava,” “fig guava,” and “guavasteen,” is apparently the big sleeper of  Fruit World. In the late 1800s it received lots of praise yet very little has come from that.

The Feijoa flower is quite beautiful, don’t you think?

The actual fruit isn’t quite as impressive:

The fruits bruise easily, and may overripen without it being apparent from the outside. So for those reasons the Feijoa is not widely exported. In the US Feijoa are grown in California and Florida.

The fruit has an extremely sweet smell that is apparent even before you cut it open. The taste is sweet with a somewhat gritty texture. I could see these being used to make a smoothie or a pudding. I ate it straight and while it was OK, I’m not in a hurry to get another one.

Pepino Melon

The pepino melon, aka “tree melon,” “bush melon,” and “mellowfruit,” is really cute!

I was not however, lovin’ the taste. It was OK – a light, mild melon/cucumber flavor.
After doing some research, however, I figured out that my pepino melon was not ripe. Here’s a ripe pepino melon:

Here’s what it looked like when I cut it open:

So…I was a little disappointed with my foray into unusual fruits today. I did pick up a few Hachiya persimmons today – I’m excited to compare them to the Fuyus I sampled a few days ago.

Have you tried any new foods lately?

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The Forerunner 405CX is an advanced sport watch that shows you time and distance, heart rate, and pace as you are running. D. got it for me for Xmas – yes it’s early but hey I’m NOT complaining!    Thanks honey!

I’ve been using it everyday since I got it, and I’m hooked! If you cycle, walk, or run, you MUST have the Forerunner! Here are five reasons why I love it so much:

1. It’s easy to set up. I had heard that it was challenging to get the Forerunner set up but that wasn’t my experience at all. And believe me, I am NOT a natural with gadgets!
2. The Forerunner display is big enough that I can see it while I am running. I like being able to just glance at my wrist and get the information I need.
3. The Forerunner’s “Virtual Partner” keeps me on track. The Virtual Partner (VP) is your running buddy that helps you set your pace. Before your run, you program the VP to run at a certain pace, and the Forerunner lets you know how far ahead or behind you are in both time and distance. There’s even a cute little picture on the screen of you running with your VP!
4. The Forerunner 405CX calculates calories burned based on heart rate, resulting in a more accurate reading than when you use a chart or estimate. This has been really eye opening for me as I see I am burning WAY fewer calories than I had thought. No wonder I’ve put on five pounds! 
5. All of your running data can be wirelessly uploaded to the Garmin website. There you can see your run mapped out, along with your pace and the elevation at each point of your run. You can share your Forerunner data with others too!

What’s your favorite workout accessory?

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