Category Archives: compassion

Hi!! My name is Chicken.

Posted on by Chicken Marie
2

My name is Chicken. That is as much meat as I gets.

My full name is Chicken Marie. Marie is my middle name. I doesn’t has a last name.

Me and my person are both vegan. Some people think my person is mean, for not giving me meats. They say that is what I would eats naturally, or that is what I wants to eat.

What my awesome person tells them is that there is nothing natural about processed dog food out of a bag, and that what I wants to eat is food out of a bowl. That really is my favorite kind of foods. Especially from another dog’s bowl.

I has 2 vegan dogs that lives with me. Grandpa Bailey and Uncle Hendrix. They are vegans too. My favorite foods is actually foods out of Hendrix’s bowl. I will eat his foods first. My second favorite foods is foods off the floor. Then foods out of my bowl. Carrots, apples and organic almond butter are my favorite treats. I has my people trained to give them to me whenever I wants.

In conclusion, I am a Chicken. And that is as much meat as I need.

I like them apples.

::::Top 10 Places to Go Veggie from LA to North Bay::::

Posted on by Chicken Marie
5

I know there are TONS of vegan restaurants all over the place. Unfortunately, I don’t have time or resources to eat at all of them. These are some of my favs.

1. Cafe Gratitude- (Los Angeles, San Rafael, Oakland, Berkeley, Healdsburg, San Francisco, Cupertino) Wide selection of raw vegan and cooked vegan foods. Served with love, you will leave feeling great. Cafe Gratitude is not just a restaurant, it is a mindset and a lifestyle. Embrace it. Try I am whole, I am cool, I am transformed, I am hearty. Also try I am awakening- the best key lime pie EVER!!!

2. Jyun Kang Restaurant- (City of 10000 Buddhas, Ukiah, CA) Get the vegetable squares. They are actually circles and they are sooooo flippin’ good. All of their house specialties are also off the hook. Vegan food made by monks?? How can you go wrong??

3. 33 degrees/The Fix for Foodies- (Nevada City, CA) Ok, so maybe this place is run by Masons (I asked them, they had a story, but basically the grandpa is a 33rd degree mason), but the food is amazing. It’s raw vegetarian, so if you are a vegan, make sure you specify when you order. The pizzas are bomb and the vanilla durian shake is sooooooo good.

4. Follow Your Heart- (Canoga Park, CA) This was my very first experience at a totally veggie restaurant when I was 16, and I have been hooked ever since. A little restaurant inside of a little natural foods market that has been in the same location for decades. The melted cheese sandwich is awesome (get it with onions and bacon bits) and the nachos are super yummy. Another vegetarian restaurant, so if you are vegan, just let them know! Almost everything is vegan optional.

5. Real Food Daily- (West Hollywood, Santa Monica) Not only is it awesome organic, vegan food but it’s a hip joint in the middle of LA, prime for celeb watching. I personally have seen the likes of Steve-O, Tobey Maguire, Amanda Peet, Mike White, Matisyahu and some others that I just can’t remember right now. They have the best waffles I have ever had on Sundays, and the Real Food Burger with the works is amazing. Get a mutt juice too and be sexy with all the celebs.

6. Wildflower Cafe- (Arcata, CA) A cute vegetarian restaurant with some awesome french toast in the mornings and delicious tempeh tacos in the evening. It’s vegetarian, but almost everything is vegan optional, so vegans speak up!!

7. Kind Kreme- (Echo Park, Studio City) I was so happy when I discovered this place. I think it was founded by the daughter of one of the owners of Cafe Gratitude, and you can tell. Both places share a happy loving vibe, but all Kind Kreme has to offer is ICE CREAM!!! Amazing delicious raw vegan soft serve ice cream!!!! And it is so good. Oh man. So good.

8. Sun Power Natural Cafe- (Studio City, CA) Delicious raw, vegan food, literally right around the corner from Kind Kreme. Make it a one stop deal, hit them both up. Pretty much everything here is amazing. Also get a box of their cookies to go. I like the fruit burst flavor.

9. M Cafe- (Hollywood, CA) This place is macrobiotic, so that means it is totally vegan and mostly gluten free EXCEPT they also serve fish. Other than that, everything is vegan. They have a great selection of foods from the cold case, like kale salad, soba noodles and veggie sushi, as well as great stuff off the regular menu, like the California club sandwich. They also have amazing French toast on weekends, and really yummy juices. For dessert, the crumb cake is amazing and the cupcakes make me want to punch someone they are so damn good.

10. Rahel Ethiopian Vegan Cuisine- (Little Ethiopia, CA) This place is so good, and the owner Rahel is amazing herself. I come here for the lunch buffet before 3:00 pm, or the millenium special. The bread, which is called injera, is really yummy but can be very filling, so I usually get my meals with rice instead of the injera. My favorite items are the red lentils, whole lentils, pumpkin, and cabbage. So amazing.

Ok I know I said 10, but there is one more place I almost forgot….
11. Inaka- (Los Angeles, CA) This place has the best japanese food I have ever had. It is another macrobiotic place, so they serve fish but everything else is vegan and gluten free. I like to get the Inaka plate, which has a little bit of everything. Also the veggie combination lets you pick your favorites like hijiki, daikon, kabocha, gobo and lotus (my picks :) ) They also have really cool literature here from the Happiness Science Temple, so pick up a free leaflet while you are there and read it. It’s just some cool uplifting stuff.

Change your diet, change your thoughts, change your life. Be happy, be grateful, be sexy. Life is love.

Gracias, Madre….

Posted on by Chicken Marie
1

Part of being healthy, sexy and vegan is being thankful for all those things. It is important to remember to count our blessings every day, and be thankful for that which sustains us.

I am thankful for the sun that shines and helps our food grow.
I am thankful for the fresh water to drink and nourish and hydrate plants and all living things.
I am thankful that this wonderful planet Earth has given me a home, and provided me with food, water and oxygen.
I am thankful for my bicycle, so I can show Mother Earth that I am grateful by being nice to her resources that she has shared with us.
I am thankful for all my friends and family, and everyone who reads this, because you have given my life a purpose.
I am thankful for my spry, young and vibrant body, with all its perfect imperfections.
I am thankful for my mad dance skills. :)
I am thankful for everyone who believes in me and my visions and dreams, you are all an integral part of them.
I am thankful for my mommy and daddy, who grew me up into this rad human being.
I am thankful for my Chicken Marie, who gave me her life.
I am thankful for this computer, which is a vessel for me to transport my thoughts and ideas to so many people around the world.
I am thankful for the possibility of helping to improve people’s lives all over the globe.
I am thankful for organic vegan restaurants.
I am thankful for my education, Peter Sellars, WAC, and Emmanuelle, for being with me at that turning point in my life (even though you may not have known it).
I am thankful for the LBC, because without it none of this would ever be possible.
I am thankful for my connection to the divine light that shines within each of us, because it connects me to you.

Gracias. Danke. Shoukran. Merci. Mahalo. Grazie. Arigato. Thank you!!!!

What are you grateful for?????

Can you dig it?

Posted on by Chicken Marie
1

Chicken sure can… I have caught her more than once in the middle of the garden shredding a cabbage or pulling peaches off the tree. She also ate ALL my bell peppers this year.

Chicken likes to help me dig in the garden.

Chicken really digs planting vegetables... and eating them...

Chicken also digs the beach...

A lot of people tell me Chicken wants to eat meat… They obviously haven’t seen her in my garden. She’s definitely diggin’ those veggies.

8 Simple Rules for Dating a Vegan Blogger (or The Lean, Green, Vegan Machine To-Do List)

Posted on by Chicken Marie
2

1. Bike, walk, skateboard, rollerblade or run to wherever you can, whenever you can. If you drive an SUV, it better be a hybrid, or you better actually need it.

2. Always carry your own mug to get coffee or tea or whatever. Paper cups with heat sleeves are soooo last year anyway. Also, a reusable water bottle is a must, and for vegans, size does matter. The bigger the better. Mine is 40 oz. How big is yours?

3. Eliminate packaging and trash from your life. That means you better know your three R’s and how to apply them (and I ain’t talkin about reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmatic).

4. Conserve water and energy. Nuff said. Droughts and parched environments are not sexy.

5. Learn how to cook amazing vegan meals. Especially if you live in a not-so-vegan-friendly area. I have yet to find a vegan restaurant that is open past 10 pm and sometimes I’m hungry at 10:04. Or 2:30 am.

6. Use recycled and environmentally friendly products in your home. Rags, recycled tp, and Dr. Bronners. I don’t even know what a paper towel is anymore.

7. Plant an organic garden. Compost. Use it in the garden. Such a turn on.

8. Buy organic, fair trade and/or locally grown and produced food and products. Support farmers markets and small businesses, not corporate paychecks.

Genki Banana!!!

Posted on by Chicken Marie
2

I learned some stuff from this sweet japanese pamphlet about bananas.

Did you know that the little brown freckles on the bananas make them more “genki”?? That’s japanese for energized healthy and full of life!!

Check out this banana! He’s genki!!

So I made some sweet organic t-shirts to show off these genki bananas…

and on the back it says…. genki banana!!!!

Eat bananas! Get genki!


Vegan Peep Show

Posted on by Chicken Marie
Reply

Being vegan and staying this sexy requires a certain amount of preparation and planning. Stocking your cupboards with basic essentials can make a funk of a lot easier to whip up delicious super vegan meals.

Most of these items can be found at your local natural foods store, and whenever possible I buy items from the bulk section to cut down on that trash factor, cuz you know… trash sucks (click here if you are not sure why trash sucks). I am lucky enough to have two natural foods stores within biking distance, one of which also carries bulk herbs and spices. This is what i generally keep in my pantry:

Pictured from left to right, top to bottom: rice flour*, cocoa powder*, dark chocolate buttons**, raw coconut palm sugar*, cornstarch, vanilla extract*, baking powder, baking soda, himalayan crystal salt, braggs liquid aminos, lecithin granules, wild rice*, quinoa*, soba noodles*, dry chick peas*, sea kelp sheets, flax and sesame crackers*, wakame flakes, nori sheets*, flax crackers (hickory and paprika flavor, they taste like barbeque yum yum yum)*, mesquite powder*, basil*, ground ginger*, cumin*, cinnamon*, nutmeg*, 2 more varieties of himalayan crystal salt, ground dulse,  yacon syrup*, brown rice syrup*,  raw coconut oil*, raw agave syrup*, maple syrup*, hemp seeds*, rolled oats*, raw almonds*, raw cashews*, curry cashews*, tamari almonds*, raw brazil nuts*,  goji berries*, quinoa flakes*, dried blueberries*, golden hunza raisins*, various supplements including MSM, kava kava, immune support, niacin, white willow bark, vegan b12, sea vegetables, food based multi vitamin, sun chlorella, magnesium powder, melatonin, various teas including kava kava*, chamomile*, ginseng*, rosehip*, barley.

Not pictured: dry pink lentils*, paprika*, chili powder*, tumeric*, parsley*, ground onion*, ground kelp, extra virgin olive oil*, balsamic vinegar*, e3live*

*organic

**organic and fair trade

Not all of these are what you might consider “basic” essentials, but once you start being a sexy vegan, you build up a pretty sexy arsenal pretty quickly.

Add a few perishable essentials, and get sexy.

Always keep on hand: bananas**, avocados*, oranges*, strawberries*, lemon*, lime*, garlic*, ginger root*, onion*, sweet potato*, yam*, kale*, carrots*, beets*, cucumber*, zucchini*

My fridge is rather bare, and my freezer contains only ice, and occasionally leftover nut pulp that I am saving to make granola with.

In the fridge I keep only fresh fruits and vegetables that require refrigeration, and a few other perishables like liquid chlorophyll, ground flax seeds*, nutritional yeast, tempeh*, raw miso*, occasionally a kombucha*, and freshly made nut milk*.

I don’t really believe in leftovers except for in the case of some raw items like chopped salad, nut milk, fresh hummus, and baked goods. After three days, I personally wouldn’t eat it…. Stay fresh and stay sexy….

Vegan Chicken

Posted on by Chicken Marie
Reply

Did you know that dogs are not carnivores? They are scavengers. They will eat what they find.

Did you know that dogs evolution and humans evolution are closely intertwined? They will eat what we eat, what we leave behind, what we drop.

Did you know that most pet food companies use the lowest grade animal products not fit for human consumption in their products? These remainders have very little nutritional value.

Did you know that in order to supplement the lack of protein and nutrients in pet foods, most companies use vegetable protein sources and synthetic nutrients because they are cheaper? Most pet food protein is vegetable protein.

Did you know that vegan dogs will live longer healthier lives on a vegan diet? The oldest living dog lived to be 28, and was vegan.

Did you know that vegetarian dogs have healthier temperaments than meat eating ones? This is due to the decreased amounts of norepinephrine in the diet which stimulates flight or fight response.

Chicken Marie, vegan all the way. The sweetest cutest and prettiest puppy ever. Be kind to your loved ones, be kind to the earth.

 

Sources:

-Obligate Carnivore, by Jed Gillen

-http://dogsinthenews.com/issues/0209/articles/020918a.htm

-http://www.globalanimal.org/2011/03/25/vegetarian-dogs-your-questions-answered/32436/

Compassion is Sexy

Posted on by Chicken Marie
2

Did you know?

60 billion animals are used to produce meat and dairy every year.

38% of all grains are fed to animals.

18% of green house gas emissions are from rearing livestock for human consumption- more than transportation.

In other words: a vegetarian driving an SUV is more eco friendly than a carnivore riding a bicycle.

Try being a vegetarian or vegan for one day a week, and help someone else do the same!

Go veggie!!

Sources:

http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html

http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/animalwelfare/GlobalWarningExecutiveSummary1.pdf