April 25, 2013

Vegan Challenge: An Ode to Chickens



Run, chicken, run
With your head a none
It’s not much fun
Run, chicken, run

So keep your head
You’re not yet dead
Run, chicken, run

No cages around
To keep you bound
Run, chicken, run

One egg a day
Then out to play
Run, chicken, run

Grass and grain
No steroids or pain
Run, chicken, run

Feathers and plumes
Life’s not doomed
Run, chicken, run

Not very smart
But being chicken’s an art
So run, chicken, run



April 24, 2013

Vegan Challenge: Hosting Dinner

About once a week some friends and I take turns hosting each other for dinner.  We aptly call it “Monday Night Dinner.”  Some of our most stand-out dishes include Alaskan salmon, pho with thinly sliced beef, and most recently, steak and cheesy potatoes.  So when it was my turn to host during my vegan challenge, I was pretty nervous.  I almost hoped my friends would forget I was forsaking meat and cheese and I could just trick them into thinking this was just like any other meal.  They all came in with their vegan jokes, however, so I knew I wasn’t going to be pulling any wool over any eyes. 

Fortunately, I live in Boulder, CO: the land of dietary restrictions including veganism, gluten-free, and granola-loving hipsters.  It wasn’t hard to find some help.  A vegetarian co-worker, formerly a strict vegan, had a stash of favorite vegan recipes that he shared with me.  One of his favorites was a Rustic Bread and Eggplant Lasagna.  It has layers of tomato sauce, but instead of noodles in between, there’s sourdough bread, and instead of meat and cheese, you’ll find roasted eggplant.  Topped with breadcrumbs and fresh basil, it was a beautiful and tasty dish. 

Although it's called lasagna, I'm not sure we really missed the noodles and meat because the dish was so unique and flavorful.  Still, for my non-vegan friends, and to settle my dinner-hosting nerves, I had the Parmesan cheese and seasonings prominently displayed. 


They dabbled in the cheese (who wouldn’t?), but overall, we all really enjoyed it. 


I will say, the sourdough bread added quite the sour element, almost overpowering to me.  If I make this again, I might try it with another hearty herbed loaf.  Or I’ll just wait a couple weeks and use noodles and hamburger meat...who am I kidding? 


April 23, 2013

Happy Earth Day!

What better way to celebrate Earth Day than with a vegan earth day cake? View the full Earth Day post here.



April 19, 2013

Vegan Challenge: I Draw the Line at Yeast!

One week in and the vegan diet has been treating me well.  I unintentionally dropped three pounds, not necessarily due to not eating any cheese, but because I stopped snacking on junk food or doing late-night fridge raids.  While my body has been responding well, my sub-conscious has developed a snide side I never knew existed.  I feel like I'm constantly thinking of and being reminded of all the food I'm not allowed to eat.  It's like someone gave me a coloring book, but took away more than half the crayons.  Grocery shopping has been a little more exhausting because I have to read the ingredients of everything.  It took me 20 minutes to find a loaf of bread I could eat as well as afford.  Why do I have to pay twice as much for fake sour cream?  

I decided that during my 30-day challenge I was going to be a strict vegan when it comes to food (winter is almost over and I'm taking full advantage of my leather boots before I put them back in storage), so I decided to go as far down as bee's honey.  I got off my brew pub job early today so stuck around to order a new Braggot ale we have on tap, which is a hybrid of beer and mead.  My careful co-worker reminded me that the beer was made with honey, and then continued with the idea that since yeast is technically "alive", some vegans don't consider it on their animal-free menu.  She had me on the honey, but I draw the line at yeast!



April 13, 2013

The Vegan Challenge: Cold "Tofurky"

It all started with movie night at home.  I decided to forego my usual cheesy chick flick or horror cult classic (don’t ask) and choose something more educational, or in this case “vegucational” because I went with the documentary, Vegucated.  The movie follows three New York City omnivores through a six-week vegan challenge.  I did end up getting a mix of my favorite movie genres: there were plenty of gory images, literally involving chicks.  Less
How can you hate these little guys?
than 30 minutes in I was sobbing and calling my mother, blubbering, “Did you know what they do to cute baby pigs?  I’ll never eat bacon again!”  Her immediate response was, “Turn it off.”  So I did, but it only takes a spark to light a fire, right?


Even though I only saw a small part of Vegucated it raised a lot of questions, so I set to work on doing some research.  I always thought veganism was a newer, even trendy, concept, but boy, was I wrong.  The word “vegan” was first coined in the early 20th century, and it meant practically the same then as it does now.  Further research led to some jarring facts: factory farms bribe the government with millions of dollars a year to keep the animals we eat (cows, pigs, chickens) from being protected by law and treated more humanely; the most toxic form of the poison arsenic is used in chicken feed to promote faster growth; and the average American consumes about half a ton of cheese in their lifetime (America!).  Now, I had to take everything with a grain of salt because of course documentaries like Vegucated and other vegan-promoting resources were only going to tell me the benefits of eating vegan and the horrible things that can happen if you don’t.  It’s on the same line as sex education classes when we were younger: abstinence or STD. Eat vegan or get cancer. 

It’s not all so black and white.  As with any lifestyle different from the “American norm”, there seems to be a ton of controversy revolving around veganism.  Why is there so much judgment and misunderstanding spawning from what we’re choosing to put in our mouths?  This question led me to Jonathan Fields’ blog post "Belief Without Compassion".  In a nutshell, the post is a response to a notable figure in the health and vegan world choosing to return to an omnivorous diet.  Her choice to step out of the vegan closet was met with an explosion of reactions, positive and negative alike, but Fields’ point is that what a lot of us are missing is compassion.

I’ll admit that it’s extremely hard not to be judgmental when you encounter a belief different from your own.  I especially have a lot of opinions when it comes to food.  It’s difficult for me to immediately find compassion when people won't try new things, or refuse to look at the dessert menu, or order a small salad inside the greatest burger joint west of the Mississippi.  When someone would tell me they were vegan, I would always think, "Why?"  Not because I was interested in their choice, but because I didn't understand why anyone would want to limit themselves so extremely, which is how I've always thought about veganism: limiting oneself.

"Gourmet, Meatless, and Delicious!"
So now I want to “vegucate” myself and partake in a 30-day vegan challenge.  I want to see if it’s as limiting as I’ve always perceived it, if and how others find compassion in my choice, and if I notice any health benefits in the short time frame.  I’ve researched the healthy way to make the change and have been slowly transitioning for the past six weeks, but now I’m going cold turkey, or cold “Tofurky”, to be more vegan-friendly.  I’m not going to lie, I’m a little apprehensive, especially since I just brought up turkey, which coincidentally goes great with a slice of cheese, some bacon, and mayonnaise (is it bad that I’m already hungry?), but I think this is going to be a great learning experience!  

April 7, 2013

"Must Go Faster!"


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Last night marked an important event in movie and my history: my all-time favorite movie Jurassic Park was re-released in theaters in 3D!  For the past week I had been counting down the days until last night, and had been trying to find a way to make it even more special.  If you read my last post about The Walking Dead finale, you know that I love themed food.  So last night, I invited my friends to come over before the movie to pick out some movie theater candy, and this is what they saw:


It took about two hours of time to make, but I think the hardest part was not eating my weight’s worth in candy during the process.  My friends and roommates were pleasantly surprised and all duly impressed with the resemblance to the actual logo.



I reconstructed the 3D logo out of Red Hots, Lemonheads, marshmallows, and chocolate chips.  The best part: it was completely edible because I used agave nectar as glue. 


We all had a few pre-movie drinks around the masterpiece which led to this:


Unfortunately I underestimated the adhesive power of agave nectar, so some sections I’d done a day earlier were stuck pretty well, but it didn’t stop my friends from digging in and showing off their own amusing candy-art skills.



With jumbo sodas in hand and 3D glasses on, we thoroughly enjoyed Jurassic Park on the big screen.  I don’t usually condone talking during movies, but we, among others in the theater, whooped, clapped, and recited lines with the characters at our favorite scenes.  I’ve seen the movie 100 times, but seeing it in 3D in a theater with your best friends was like seeing it for the first time again.  It’s still my absolute favorite movie, and now even more will it hold a dinosaur-sized place in my heart. 


April 4, 2013

Braaaains! And Cupcakes

I love AMC's The Walking Dead, and if there's anything I love more than food, it's food with a theme.  In honor of my favorite show's Season 3 finale, and the graphic novel it's based off of, I decided to do a comic themed post to exhibit the "zombie treats" I made on Sunday.  Enjoy!
  

April 2, 2013

The Stomach Flu Woes


Oh, woe is me, too long from the blog have I been away.
I haven’t been gone, or on vacation, I hate to say.
No shortage of internet, or want of paper and pen.
My typing hands still worked, and my head was a ten.

The reason for my absence is much more internal.
Let me explain why I ditched my online journal.
The life of a food blogger relies on “gastro-creativity.”
So a bout of stomach flu severely limits blog activity.



No food for two days, warm broth doesn’t count.
Room temperature ginger ale is nothing to brag about.
Roiling and gurgling, crying out for my “mummy”.
I saw no reason to record this distress of my tummy.

On day three I followed some motherly advice.
And finally made myself a small bowl of rice.
I’ve never been keen on the grain, but let me tell you.
After two days of liquids, it was so nice to chew!

I felt fine, good enough to stand up on my feet.
But the rice wasn’t enough, I wanted more food to eat.
I wined and dined with friends, didn’t even think twice.
It never occurred that later I’d be paying the price.

Day four was a doosey, I was back to square one.
Only warm broth and ginger ale, and my pride was a none.
Roiling and gurgling, crying for mom once again.
She’d always be there to help ease the pain.

All of day five, I stuck to my mother’s first advice.
The only thing I ate was rice, rice, and rice.
Day six, rice for breakfast, some light juice for lunch.
Dinner was a treat, I was allowed toast to munch.

Day seven was perfect, but I still took it easy.
I didn’t want my stomach to again feel so queasy.
Today I'm complete, even better than before.
My belly and I made peace and ended the war.


If there’s one thing I learned from this stomach bug.
It’d be a lesson in greed, and being overly smug.
But above all of that, more so than the rest.
The main thing I learned is that mother knows best.