Me Be VeG

Archive for October, 2009

Ok, I’ll be the first to admit I’m not he most confrontational person. In fact, there have been many times I’ve run from things I should have faced head-on. But I would like to think as I get older, I’ve learn to deal with things and learn to move past them. It isn’t always easy (actually, usually it’s a pain in the arse) but it’s better than avoiding life all together.

Sometimes, however,  it isn’t in my control whether or not to deal with something head-on. Or from the side. Or at all. And since I know it is out of my control (well, not entirely but the alternative would have some nasty consequences) I just need to be patient. Again, not something I am very good at but I am getting better at it with age.

So what am I doing instead? Well, I’ve started Twilight again. Yes, I know I said it was like heroin and I could never pick it up again because it would trigger the addiction. But at this point, I will take that happy, fake feeling I have when reading this series. It just makes me happy. I can escape into a world that doesn’t exist but where everything works out in the end. So what if it’s not real. At this point, I will take it.

I will also be attempting to make bread and vegan pepperoni. I miss pepperoni pizza, and since I’m getting much better with pizza, I need my pepperoni fix. (I also need to add veggies.. but I feel like it ruins the pizza by making it healthy! Sick, I know…). I did find vegan pepperoni online, but it is so damn expensive, I decided to try to make my own. If I fail, then I’ll make the purchase. Who knows, maybe my homemade stuff will be amazing!

As for the wanting to deal with stuff but feeling like I’m idling, well, let’s just say I’ve been through worse. I’ll take the idling…

I spent the weekend (or at least a good few hours) watching online vegan cooking shows. There is no cable TV in my house, and even if there was, I don’t know of any vegan cooking shows. So I like to watch them online. I found a great website, EverydayDish.com, which has a number of fantastic cooking episodes with a few different hosts. Great stuff with totally yummy food.

So about this peanut sauce. There was a great episode with a very easy and tasty sounding recipe that you can find here. I made a few changes, like using rice noodles, cauliflower, carrots and peas. This is my lunch for the week, and first day conclusion: delicious!

Bonus photo: Doc, my love.

I’m not a huge fan of pain. In fact, I usually try to avoid it. This is a difficult thing since I’m not the most graceful person and tend to bang, bash, scratch and burn myself on a pretty regular basis. I also have two animals who keep me bruised and bleeding more than I’d like to count. But I love them, and they aren’t hurting my on purpose. And the truth is the few bruises and scratches I get from them aren’t anything I can’t handle.

But I do not seek out pain. I don’t have a tattoo (yet) because I hate needles. I tend to walk slower to keep from tripping and falling. I’m generally a careful person so as to avoid pain.

I also hate to hurt other people, and I will usually take on the pain to avoid causing another person pain. I try not to put myself in situations when I have to do this, but when I have to, I do. And I don’t usually think twice about it.

The animal industry is pain, from start to finish. Ignoring it doesn’t make this untrue. Choosing to believe the lies on TV about happy cows and free-range chickens doesn’t make it true. It’s a lie. I’ve seen behind the curtain and there is no going back. And I don’t want to, no matter how much pain I feel knowing about, I would rather know and avoid it than NOT know and be responsible for that pain.

Choosing to not consume animals was a very personal choice. I understand why people would want to ignore it. I understand why people look the other way and cover their ears when they hear about the conditions of the animals. If I eat beef, chicken, eggs, fish, milk, cheese or any other animal product, I am supporting an industry that thinks it is ok to lie and hurt and manipulate for money. So I CHOOSE not to support it.

Consuming animals is like ingesting their pain. It is completely unnecessary (humans are not carnivores) and completely avoidable. This is a pain I will never accept.

These past few weeks have been… stressful. Not the worst I’ve ever had, more just a lot of information to take in and not understanding any of it. So I go over and over and over it in my mind. Ahh, nothing I want to bore anyone with, just a lot to take in.

I have a TON of photos on my camera of things I’ve made these last weeks that I want to get out there. Mostly, though, I’ve been living off vegan burritos and homemade pizza, bananas and oatmeal. I think I’m getting over my pizza cravings I’ve had over the last 2 years (since going veg). Dough has never been my strong suit, so the fact I am now making edible pizzas with edible dough, that’s says something! I will have to do a post on this.

Otherwise I’m been spending super amounts of time with my babies, Bella and Doc. I don’t know what it is, but I feel this need to just absorb them as much as possible. I know I am so fortunate to have these two in my life. I’m an animal lover through and through, and I’d love to meet someone who loves the animals as much as me.

So instead of uploading photos, I think I’ll go snuggle with my Doc for a little while. He “helped” me haul some brush earlier today and is exhausted. And by “helped”, I mean I would construct the piles to haul, and he would do his darnedest to deconstruct them and scatter across the back yard. Wow, I love the pooch!

I’ve never had chili (that I can remember) in my life. Ever. It always just seemed gross to me, chunks of meat and tomatoes and oily sauce, never seemed very appetizing to me. Plus, I was a super picky eater growing up, so even if it was amazing, I’d never try it. Truth is, my mom was a pretty good cook and usually found a way to make something I would eat.

Today, I have to do my own cooking, so whatever possessed me to want to make a dish I’ve never actually eaten, I don’t know. Maybe because it was cold for a few days and felt like Fall, a time to make warm soups and bread and comfort foods all snuggled up on the couch.

So I happened upon a recipe that looked promising and thought “why not?” and got the ingredients. Everything in the chili I liked (or at least LIKE when mixed together), and it turned out quite well. I mean, I have nothing to compare it to, but the fact that I ate it says something.

I used this recipe as a starter, and also added some peppers, cherry tomatoes and quinoa to make it my own. The quinoa made it thicker, which I really liked (rice would probably also work), and the pepper and cherry tomatoes were used because I have a plethora in my garden I wanted to use them fresh.

I took it to work last week and ate with crackers. It was really good! For my first attempt at chili, I’d say it wasn’t too shabby.

Yes, I’m a gardener now. The woman who always HATED the outdoors and bugs and gardens and the sun. I now have a tan, tolerate the bugs, and have a full-fledged flourishing garden I can call my own. And… I love it. LOVE IT! I love to go out in the garden and just walk through it, looking at how the plants are growing, little peppers turn into huge peppers. Teeny tiny tomatoes become huge red tomatoes (if I can get to them before the birds or whatever it is that likes to take bites out of my tomatoes!).

For all those people who say this has been a terrible growing season, I have to disagree. Here’s two separate pickings from last week alone!

I’ve been busy chopping and blanching and freezing and cooking and eating all the wonderful bounty I’ve gotten from my first garden. I think I’m hooked.