Two days ago, I was in the car asking my friend “Do you think we will ever have a vegan president?”
“Ha! No.”
I was quiet. That made me sad.
Yesterday, I was at work, and a different friend of mine said, “Hey! Did you know Bill Clinton is vegan?”
I smiled. That made me happy. Then I read this article. I watched the video included, and felt nostalgic for Bill Clinton being the butt of so many jokes. So many good jokes.
Anyway… Thanks, Bill, for being the most influential vegan in the world.
This is a new segment inspired by Sam, Lunchbox and Dylan (and Hansol, too!)
I was at work and just happily working away when I heard someone call my name.
“Hey, Meggan! Is this vegan?”
I turned around to see who was asking me and assumed it to be the beginning of a joke, like perhaps they were holding up a picture of a dog licking another dogs butt. But there sat a group of my favorites, looking bright eyed and oh-s0-innocent holding up a can of Kern’s nectar or Goldfish pretzels or lollipops or some other random food item.
“Let me see the ingredients,” I replied.
After examining the slightly disturbing list, I paused, deliberating over how exactly to deliver my answer.
“Well…. it is technically vegan, but I still wouldn’t eat it.”
“What? Why? Is it because it’s not organic?”
“Yes… But also mostly because of these 2 words: natural flavors.”
Dude, natural flavors are far from natural. Those 2 words can contain 28 or more different chemicals, compounds and fragrances.
“A natural flavor,” says Terry Acree, a professor of food science at Cornell University, “is a flavor that’s been derived with an out-of-date technology.” Natural flavors and artificial flavors sometimes contain exactly the same chemicals, produced through different methods. Amyl acetate, for example, provides the dominant note of banana flavor. When it is distilled from bananas with a solvent, amyl acetate is a natural flavor. When it is produced by mixing vinegar with amyl alcohol and adding sulfuric acid as a catalyst, amyl acetate is an artificial flavor. Either way it smells and tastes the same….
A natural flavor is not necessarily more healthful or purer than an artificial one. When almond flavor — benzaldehyde — is derived from natural sources, such as peach and apricot pits, it contains traces of hydrogen cyanide, a deadly poison…. Natural and artificial flavors are now manufactured at the same chemical plants, places that few people would associate with Mother Nature.
-Eric Schlosser, in his book Fast Food Nation.
Either way… Eating something that has added flavoring, “natural” or otherwise, indicates you are eating a highly processed food…. Which as a level 10 vegan, I just can’t do.
Everyday I wake up and put on that vegan swag. Homemade shirts, recycled skirts, hand me down pants, yard sale shoes, thrift store jackets. Pretty much everything in my apartment from what I wear to what I sit on was purchased for under 20 bucks at a yard sale. It’s true, you cant buy everything used (underwear, socks, toothbrush unfortunately you have to buy some things new) but everything I can, I buy used. I decorate my pad with vegan swag: mellow, peaceful and full of love. That’s what vegan is. Vegan swag tells the world how much you love and care about this planet and every living thing that dwells on it.
I put on my vegan swag everyday, knowing that it carries a message, and chances are someone is going to ask me about my swag. And each time that happens, it is an opportunity to share with people how rad vegan swag is. From my vegan puppy with an organic hemp leash to my recycled vegan shoes and yard sale t shirts, it’s all about vegan swag, reducing your impact and leaving a tinier footprint. It’s not often that case that bigger is not always better, but when it comes to vegan swag, less is more. Less stuff, less chemicals, less ingredients, less shopping, less green house gases. Only buy shit new if you have to. Don’t buy shit if you dont need it. Don’t buy shit that is comes wrapped in shitloads of plastic. Get a water bottle and use it.
Stay fresh. Eat your vegetables.
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This right here is my swag. On next level vegan swag. This right here is my vegan girl swag! Reduce demand, vegan girl swag We shop swap meets, vegan girl swag Yard sales my street, … Continue reading
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.
Just over the last week or so I have been asked twice about the cost of being vegan. Over the last few years, I have been asked innumerable times “Isn’t it expensive to be vegan?” Being the fucking smartass that my dad raised me to be, I usually answer back something like “Isn’t a triple bypass expensive?”
But what it really comes down to is, no. Being vegan is not expensive. There are things associated with being vegan that can be expensive, like eating out, buying prepacked vegan meals and buying organic produce at farmers markets. Yes, those things can be expensive. But you know what is not expensive? Rice. Beans. Most of the world subsists on these completely. What else is not expensive? Carrots. Lettuce. Tofu is significantly cheaper per pound than meat.
Learning how to cook is one of the best things you can do for yourself, for your wallet, for the earth. You can make a healthful meal at home to take with you to work or school that costs significantly less than it would cost to eat out. Not only that, but bringing meals from home in reusable tupperware rather than disposable to-go or delivery meals lowers your carbon footprint. It’s like giving mother earth a hug.
You do begin to see a rising cost when you start shopping for organic produce and vegan “meats,” but there are ways to shop smart and to stretch your budget (I will talk about this in a later blog). I think the real cost for many people is not the actually financial cost that comes with being vegan, but the social cost. Once able to enjoy the late night chili cheese nacho runs with your friends, now afraid to sit out, alone, with a stick of celery, assuring everyone you much rather prefer this over the pile of nachos. There is fear of being ostracized for being different, and feeling left out of certain events, places, whatever. That I understand, and to those people I say, confidence is everything, but if you are not ready to face the world armed with carrot sticks and hummus, then consider your other options, like being vegetarian. You can still enjoy pizza and nachos and In-N-Out grilled cheese with the rest of the gang, and make a positive impact in your world.
Another thing to consider is where you are spending your money, and put a real value on it. How much do you spend on your television bill every month? New clothes and shoes? Movies? Is it worth it? Can you put a value on your health and the health of the planet?
I love being vegan. Life is pure joy. I don’t even care that my pants don’t fit anymore. Every time I bend over or sit down, the buttons pop open and the fly slides down. My mom would probably tell me to get some pants that fit, but I’m just too sexy for these vegan pants.
I’m rad. You’re rad. Lets eat banana bread.
1 3/4 cups brown rice flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp nut pulp (or additional flour or almond meal)
3 small mashed bananas (2 large)
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup nut milk
2/3 cup raw coconut palm sugar
Preheat oven to 350. Grease loaf pan or baking dish.
Mix dry ingredients in smaller bowl.
In large bowl, combine sugar and oil, then add bananas and milk. Mix.
Add flour mixture to banana mixture, stir until just mixed.
Pour into pan. Bake until golden brown and knife or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 30 mins.
It comes out with a slight crumble effect, because it is gluten free. I like to pour some milk over it and eat it with a spoon.
Bananas are sexy. You are what you eat.
So aside from the obvious, like meat and dairy, here are 10 things I don’t really eat. It’s not that I would NEVER eat these (I am vegan, not crazy), but I try to strongly limit them in my diet for good reasons, which I will explain.
1. Packaged/canned foods. If it comes out of a package from a factory, then it is not really food. Sorry. Even raw, organic, natural foods that come out of a box or bag are highly questionable. How long have they been sitting in this package? What unknown longterm effects are caused by the preservatives? Do I really know what potassium sorbate is? Packaging itself contains a number of glues, chemicals, lining, dyes and other miscellaneous additives that are too close for comfort. Of course, I will make a few exceptions. Eden Organics canned foods uses a BPA-free lining, so I will keep a can or two of beans around for quick hummus or dip. Also, if I happen to be traveling for a length of time I will bring some packaged chips, crackers or cookies, especially if I know I am headed to a not-so-vegan-friendly area. As general rules of thumb, if it has less than 5 ingredients and/or I know what each ingredient actually is, go ahead and enjoy it.
2. Tofu. Another packaged food, and a highly processed one at that. I feel it is best to eat foods that are as close to their natural state as possible, and tofu is about as far as you can get from that. I still eat plenty of soy products, such as edamame, roasted soynuts and tempeh. They are closer to their natural state and much more nutritious than their more processed counterparts.
3. Pasteurized foods. Many bottled “fresh” juices contain some small lettering somewhere on the back that says something to the effect of “pasteurized for your protection.” Huh? This basically means that whatever is in that packaged was blasted with heat/steam at extremely high temperatures in order to kill any harmful bacteria that may have gotten in during the packaging process. In doing so, many of the living enzymes and nutritional value of this once delicious fresh squeezed Florida orange juice (for example) have also been destroyed. What you are left with is essentially an orange drink, and this is before it is even bottled or packaged (see 1 above). What are they really protecting? Probably their asses from a law suit, because its definitely not your health.
4. Vegan “buttery” spread. WTF is that? If you have questions, read number one above. Consider replacing with some real food item, like any kind of oil. Coconut is great for baking, olive for stir frys. Use cold pressed, extra virgin and organic whenever possible. Toxins are stored in fats so this is especially important for high fat foods like oils.
5. Peanuts. This one may come as a surprise. Peanuts are actually not that good for you. They cause inflammation in the body, they are highly susceptible to cancer causing molds, and they are also known to cause arterial damage. Try some organic almond butter or tahini instead. You will feel better.
6. Nightshade foods: eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, tobacco. I am not a smoker, so that last one is not difficult for me, but the others are found in abundance in some of my favorite foods (like, all Thai food!). A few years back, I was experiencing a lot of joint pain and itchy skin. My physical therapist mentioned that I should stay away from foods that cause inflammation and incorporate more foods that are soothing an reduce inflammation. After doing some research, I found out that the same foods that were irritating my joints were the same ones irritating my skin. I have pretty much cut these all out completely (with the exception of the occasional tomato) and have noticed a significant difference both inside my body and out. There are other common foods in the nightshade family, but these contain higher levels of toxic alkaloids than others.
7. Alcohol. Most people do not know that many alcohols contain some derivative of milk, blood, bone, or some other part of an animal. Besides that, it will make you fat, ugly and dumb, and it will also kill you. But, if you like to enjoy a drink, have some organic wine or beer, preferably from a small, local brewery or vintner, not a giant corporate whore, and make sure it contains no animal by-products.
8. Leftovers. What?!?!? I know. Spaghetti tastes the best the next day. But the older food gets, the more bacteria and unwelcome visitors grow in the food. Notice if you get a runny or stuffy nose after eating leftovers. You probably do. In general, food more than three hours old has started to decay, and therefore lose nutritional value. Of course, for the sake of practicality sometimes leftovers are necessary (and friggin’ delicious), but try to limit them as much as possible, and when cooking or preparing meals, try to make only as much food as you are going to eat at that sitting.
9. Refined sugar, salt, flour, rice. Use the whole, brown, natural stuff. In their natural states, these foods contain lots of essential vitamins and minerals. Once upon a time, not that long ago, someone or a few someones discovered that food was fluffier and looked more appealing when it was whiter in color, and also that by refining it they could reduce spoilage and thereby increase the shelf life of these foods and their profit margins. The funny thing is, is that after the refining process is complete, manufacturers add synthetic versions of the essential nutrients they just stripped away to the refined foods, now making them “enriched” (or in the case of salt, iodized). Manufacturers have gotten tricky though, and if you pay attention you will notice things like “sugar in the raw” (not raw at all!!) and “enriched wheat flour” (still refined!). Use things instead like turbinado sugar, sea salt, whole wheat flour and brown rice.
10. Overcooked or microwaved foods. I’ve said it a million times already, but in case you missed it, too much heat is not good for your food. Cooking or steaming vegetables should not take more than about 2 to 3 minutes. Watch your broccoli next time you cook it. It will start to turn a very bright green, and then if you keep cooking it, the brightness of the green will begin to fade. That moment when it is bright green and delicious looking, that is when it is ready to eat. If the bright green has faded, you went too far. As for microwaves, I know the subject is controversial, but I just don’t trust them. Besides, anything that needs to be microwaved is probably packaged (see number 1) or leftovers (see number 8), and you already know how I feel about that.
Sources:
Mostly my brain and my experiences, but if you need verification of these things, here are some online resources.
1. http://www.enviroblog.org/2008/03/your-bpa-questions-answered.html
2. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/10-things-to-know-about-tofu/
3. http://www.energydrinktruth.com/pasteurization.html
4. http://nutrition.about.com/od/askyournutritionist/f/processedfoods.htm
5. http://www.herbalist.com/wiki.details/458/category/12/start/0/
6. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=62
7. http://beeradvocate.com/articles/279
8. http://vegancampus.com/2007/09/17/the-ayurvedic-view-on-energy-foods-grains-vegetables-and-fruits/
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.
