Go Vegan or Go Home

It's been a little over two weeks since I decided to "go vegan," and it's been such an interesting and surprisingly tasty journey.  It's also been an eye opening experience.  Here are a few things I've learned about food, society, and cooking.

1.  There are animals in foods you had no idea had animals in it.

Vitamins have animal by-products?  Get. Out.  I remember hearing these rumors throughout the years of all the things that have bizarre things in them but it turns out they are true, and I just never cared.  For example, gelatin is made from crushed and boiled farm animal bones and connective tissue.  Jello never sounded so good.


2.  I know next to nothing about how to cook some very every day items.

Here are a list of things that I had no idea how to do two weeks ago that I can now successfully complete without a Google search first:  stem and wilt chard, chop cilantro (Do you only use the leaves?  I think I knew this at one point but couldn't remember.  I decided the answer was yes.), use a blender for food processing and not margaritas, and bake without dairy.  Here's something I was ver rarely doing but is a must now: reading a label for ingredients rather than calories.

Don't get me started on the seasoning aisle.  I cannot tell you what a majority of the spices and herbs taste like, dried or fresh.  Basil - amazing.  Curry powder - love it.  Majoram - um, what is that?  Coriander - that's actually dried cilantro.  Mind.  Blown.  I have no idea what difference it makes in a recipe whether I use it fresh or dry.  There's a lot of ground to cover there still.

3.  Why wasn't I eating most major food groups before on a regular basis?

It's embarrassing how few types of leafy greens I can identify and recognize by taste.  I just had to Google where mustard greens come from or if they come from the same place as mustard seeds and what comes in a yellow container in the condiment isle.  I don't believe so.  I haven't tried to cook them yet, but that day will come.

What are lentils and what do they taste like?  I have a bag that I need to cook still and I will shortly find out.

It's intriguing that depending on how you are raised, your culture or family may not embrace certain foods and you may never receive exposure to them until you're almost 30 and trying to become a vegan.

4.  I like the idea of knowing exactly what is in my food.

Reading labels has opened my eyes to how awfully I was really eating when I thought I was being pretty good to not cook obviously unhealthy things, like fried chicken or mashed potatoes.  I was so quick to buy things in a jar or a can because they are easy to make.  I didn't realize how much this was hindering my knowledge of food and my cooking skills.

5.  Oreos are vegan.

I haven't purchased Oreos in about 5 years, but there's that nugget.

6.  There is so much meat on the menu at Morton's Steakhouse that the only item on a vegan menu is water.

Trevor has been great and decided to try the vegan thing with me and finally told his co-workers about this venture.  He had a work dinner at Morton's the other night and decided to eat salmon because there was literally nothing else on the menu that could work for a vegan diet without being "that guy."  Someone made a comment about him being "that guy" at dinner who has some crazy, whacked out order that makes the waiter roll his eyes and makes himself look like a total douche.  Or he could have made up this story to make it sound like he really hated eating that delicious maple-glazed filet of flaky goodness.

7.  I don't really miss or crave meat, eggs or cow's milk.

But I do crave dill Havarti and goat cheese.  Vegan cheese leaves something to be desired.  Especially on a veggie burger at a cookout.  A pizza topped with basil, sliced heirloom tomato and crumbled goat cheese sounds pretty swell.

8.  Fresh-squeezed orange juice is amazing when you squeeze it yourself.  It takes 6 oranges to produce one 12 oz. glass of OJ.

Here are photos of some other tasty things I've cooked so far.  (Disclaimer:  I'm aware that some OJ is vegan, as are some tortilla chips.  I actually just Googled this and it turns out some brands have fish oil for Omega-3s.  But I had a giant bag of oranges and a bag of tortillas from the chilaquile that I didn't want to go bad, so I improvised.  I was pretty proud of myself.  Also, because I know exactly where these foods came from.)



Rainbow Chard

Vegan Blueberry Muffins

Tortilla Chips out of Mission Corn Tortillas with a little bit of EVOO and salt...YUUMMM

Black Bean Chiliquile from the Moosewood Low Fat Favorites (Almond Cheese Does Not Melt!)

This is a black bean burrito with a bean dip mix from Ann Esselstyn:  Black beans blended with salsa and cilantro.   I had it for lunch but had cut up a mango and decided to mix in the mango with the dip, and I'm glad I did.  Had the bean mango dip with my homemade tortilla chips, and it was heaven!  This was also my first attempt at sautéing chard and the stems.  The stems are so good!  I just used EVOO and garlic on the fly, and the leaves were pretty bland.  I did some Googling and saw I should use lemon juice to perk up the flavor.

I look forward to trying to learn to cook new things, like eggplant and crispy kale chips!

Vegucated

Vegan.  No delicious grilled chicken.  No creamy cheese.  No salmon sashimi.  It's almost unimaginable.  But after I stumbled upon Vegucated on Netflix tonight, I can't bring myself to make my turkey sandwich for work tomorrow.  If ya'll don't know--I love me some sandwiches.

My back is really bothering me, so I picked this film to watch while I was stretching on a yoga mat in the living room while Trevor went to the gym.  When he came back, I turned to him and the following transpired.

Me:   "Soo.  Veganism."
T:  "Oh, Jesus."
Me:  "I KNEW you would saw exactly that.  I know you think it's ridiculous.  But, yeah.  Veganism."
T:  "Uuuuggghhh now I need to watch this damn movie!"

We are currently on the second screening of the evening.  The one loophole he's found so far in the logic was immediately addressed.  There have been far less comments since then.

Honestly, I think the hardest part of accepting even a trial of being vegan is giving up animal based clothing.  I have 4 different colors of the same leather flats because I love them so much.  They are by Bloch, a ballet shoe company, and they are elegant and sturdy.  What am I going to wear to work?  My other go to work shoes are Coach.

I recently contemplated changing Waffles' cat food brand because I read the label and investigated the ingredient "ash".  I felt like an awful cat mama feeding my favorite buddy something that I had no idea was it was made with!  I bought the Newman's Own organic brand from Safeway since I haven't had time to go investigate at Petsmart and now I'm wondering if I can help Waffles go vegan.

I'm not sure where I'm going to go with this information, but I think I'm having a meatless Monday.

Do Nannies for Cats Exist? and Other Ramblings

After we adopted Waffles and took him to the vet, we were instructed to start limited him to a smaller amount of food instead of just having it out because he weighed in at 17 pounds.  We were feeding him in the morning and at night, and he decided he was hungry at 4:00 AM and 6:00 AM.   He would insist on waking us up to let us know about this development.  After about a week, I'd had enough of that and solved that problem by buying a 5-serving automatic feeder. Ha!  Beat that, cat!  You will not get the best of me because you are nocturnal and eat at weird hours.

Mr. Waffles is once again meowing loudly while standing on me while I'm sleeping like he's climbing a mountain at 4 AM.   #@$@)#(*Q)@(*#)@*  WHY?   The first night this happened, I tried very hard to ignore him and let him carry on with the meows.  The Ferver method works on cats, right?  I felt awful when I checked his dish after I had woken up at a decent hour and showered and saw that the feeder had gotten stuck so only half of his food was showing!  Poor hungry, tubby kitty.  But for the last few nights that this meowyness has continued, there has been no apparent reason.  After getting about 3 hours of sleep last night (I never sleep well on Sunday nights -- or early, for that matter), I realized today that he's probably bored.  He wants us to play with him...at 4:00 AM.  

I totally get it.  I grew up as an only child and had to entertain myself against my will after my mom told me to get out of her hair for a while.  Mr. Waffles needs a buddy to hang out with and have shenanigans with at 4:00 AM so that we can sleep.  Or I would just have two cats attempting to climb me at 4:00 AM.  Can I have Supernanny Jo Frost come and teach Mr. Waffles how to soothe himself or teach us how to put him on a proper kitty timeout?

In other news, I was flossing today.  I need to stop there because this is an accomplishment.  My last dental visit came with bad news:  I have gingivitis.  Gross--I know.   I'm horrible at flossing (like, only when I feel food stuck in my teeth) but this is the only way to get the inflammation down before I start to lose bone.  Okay, the hygienist had me at missing teeth.  So I was flossing for the seventh consecutive day in a row today and these thoughts started meandering across my consciousness: "How much pollution is caused by floss production?  What did people do before floss was invented anyway?  Is this how people lost all their teeth in the frontier days because they didn't have the luxurious modern development of floss?  I should Google this."  I still haven't Googled it, but I figured ya'll didn't want to read an essay on the history of floss and dentistry.  Or do you...

Americans are Dumb?

This is news to me (insert sarcasm).  But if the statistics I read earlier while checking out Lisa Bloom's book, THINK, are true, then we are all in big trouble. Most people can't name one branch of government.  Collegians think we are at war with Egypt and Morocco. They can name more Kardashians than issues before their city council. Okay, the latter would be difficult for most, I think. I know more about DC than my actual city because the free newspaper I read on the metro to work discusses the most mundane issues like how much money the traffic cameras rake in annually. 

What is most depressing about this idea is that it highlights the consequences of this mentality. It's no secret that sex sells in our society. Ms. Bloom's research shows that women would rather be voted America's Next Top Model than become a Nobel laureate.  Sure, intellectualism isn't for everyone, but if every single woman was pressured by the media or decided to eschew the study of social issues and current news, just imagine the state of the world. The sedentary blobs floating around the spaceship in Wall-E come to mind, but just women. I would think in this scenario men would be able to easily convince women to leave Earth for promise of notoriety based on sex appeal somehow and continue to run Earth, but that's another can of worms. 

I know some women care about hot topics and are bright enough to recognize them as such. Why aren't we talking about them as often as our relationship problems? Why aren't more women empowered to find solutions to society's ailments? How do we start small and overcome the bystander effect? We as women cannot sit on the sidelines hoping for someone else to corral and conquer the world's problems. 

Journal Entries Circa 2005, Part Uno

I began purging my room of all things unnecessary today.  I am a weirdo and kept all my notes from every single class I ever took in college.  The above picture contains the flash cards I made for the whole semester for one class that I totally aced (I set the curve for both tests).  As I was sifting through these notes before throwing them out since I haven't touched them since 2005, and came across this gem from my Psychological Aspects of Death and Dying  course.  

The assignment was to write in a journal, identifying events in a day for which we were grateful and also recognizing character strengths.  This is now five years ago at 22, so it was interesting to see where I was then.  I felt compelled to re-type my entries and share them here:

April 12, 2005

I felt a general sense of prudence today.  I gave a 20-minute presentation in my History of Psychology class.  I was very nervous about it and I worked on it all weekend.  I turned down many plans to go out with friends because I knew I needed to organize my thoughts and get a good grade on it.  I've been turning down fun opportunities all semester, so it's getting harder to say no.

Not only did I work on this presentation all weekend, I studied for two weekends in a row for the test in the same class.  After my presentation, I went to my professor's office with some fellow classmates, and I discovered that I set the curve for the grade again.  I got the highest grade in both tests so far.  I really didn't think it would happen twice.  I finally felt like my intense effort and constant hibernation while studying paid off.  I definitely felt like my effort paid off even more later in the the afternoon when I visited my professor's office hours.

Earlier while my classmates and I had checked out grades, they had mentioned that out 12-page writing assignment was optional.  I already had all my research done and 20 books about Darwin in my room ready for me to scour through over the weekend.  I wanted to hear it from my professor's mouth that I did not have to write the paper.  I asked him his grading policy, and he informed me that he took our two highest test grades and our writing assignment grade and uses the two highest grades.  Obviously, it is impossible to improve my grade when I have the two highest grades in the class.  I was ecstatic!  Unknowingly, my self-regulation saved me from having to write the paper.

Self-regulation is central to my success this semester.  While pursuing a career in law, I realized that I needed to attain a 4.0 GPA (or strikingly close) to boost my chances of getting into my school of choice. I told myself repeatedly that I needed to really buckle down to study and not see my friends as much as I wanted.  This is the most I've regimented my study habits in my life.

Today I also felt a sense of perspective.  I overheard my roommate on the phone telling her friend that her heart felt funny after having a huge anxiety attack.  I immediately knew what she was feeling.  After she ended the call, I said, "I couldn't help but overhear that you had an anxiety attack and that your heart feels weird.  I've had anxiety for two years and I feel the same thing.  I've been there too.  I just wanted to tell you because I wish someone would have told me that when I first started getting anxiety attacks."  It felt really nice to help comfort someone with the peculiarities of anxiety because I've learned how to deal with them over the last two years.  By talking to her, I felt she really sensed my genuine kindness.  We normally don't talk that much, but I couldn't ignore her confusion when I knew I could say a few kind words to comfort her.

Gratitude:  Today I'm grateful for the opportunity my family gives me to attend school without the stress of working.  Without this luxury, I probably would not have been as successful this semester.  I'm also grateful for the discipline I learned from my dance teacher.  Without it, I would not have been able to turn down offers to go out with my friends.

There are other entries, but it's ridiculously late.  Monday always comes so quickly.  

Midge Squared!

We have a new-to-us dog!  This wouldn't be the first dog we inherited, nor will it be the last!  She's so cute!  And.........her name is MIDGE!  Just like me!  :)  The really weird thing is that my sister picked her as a puppy (she's a Terrier and Yorkie mix) and yet she looks exactly like my step-dad's dog Bear!  Bear was the first dog I'd ever had as a pet, and he was the best.  You could point your hand in a gun shape at him and yell, "BANG!' and he'd roll over and play dead.  He rarely barked.  He opened his own Christmas presents.  He even smiled.  When Midge was hanging out next to me today I just couldn't take my eyes off her because I felt like I was looking at Bear.  The image is so spitting that I cried.  I'm so excited for this new addition to our family.  I'm still curious how she and Chloe (our cat) AKA Ravioli will get along.  Chloe has not met a dog she has liked so far.

We recently rescued Chloe from a purebred shelter after the loss of my cat, Cuddles.

I picked her from her litter when I was 8 and she was a newborn.  She developed cancer in February and we put her down in April.  She was 18.  It was the first time in 18 years we had zero animals in our house, and it was bizarre.

My mom was set on getting an Exotic Shorthair and I was set on getting a rescue and not paying for a purebred.  I took to the interweb of tubes and found a website that rescues purebreds!  Ta da!  I found that this organization had recently rescued 99 Exotics and Persians from a hoarding situation.  She was very skiddish at first, but she had really blossomed here.

I'm sure she'll adapt and she and Midge will be BFF in no time  :)

The Rules of Dating According to Me

The term "dating" is such a misnomer.  "Dating" denotes simplistic get-togethers between two people interested in getting to know one another in various public or PG private settings.  When my mom was young, she had to accompany my aunt on dates or else my grandpa would not let my aunt leave the house.  What happened to these simple times?  Um, yeah, 1955 called and left a message that it's appalled at the state of dating these days.

Look, boys and girls, it's not that hard.  Finding a mate isn't rocket science.  Not only is it about luck, chemistry, fate, timing, or in juxtaposition, even pointed calculated effort, it's about being a decent human being.  Bottom line.

In this vein, I've had some thoughts percolating in my currently underutilized cerebral cortex and I've articulated a few rules that I think are basic tools for anyone trying to find one's soulmate.  "Here's a little bit of old school for ya, and it goes a little something like this. . . "  (One billion points to the first person who can name that song.  It will likely be one of four people whom I know that know this song who may or may not possess a vagina.)

Rule Numero Uno:  Be Honest.

For real.  Like, super serial.  Just be up front.  Dating these days is so complicated because of people's ulterior motives.  Some people are married or in a relationship and still date without your knowledge of their attached status.  This is disgusting, by the way.  

Just the other night I was out with my friends for a birthday celebration and we were approached by a man clearly wearing a wedding ring.  Not only did he initiate the flirting by complimenting me on my height, he proceeded to flirt with us for a solid 5 minutes before asking, "So who's married?"  To this inquiry I responded, "You," and he then proceeded to act as if his friend was his husband.  Hiding something, buddy?  I'm not saying that if you are married you have to live in a box and not converse with humans other than your spouse.  What I am saying is that you should not attempt to talk to others as if you are interested in attending the party in their pants.  If you are or have been guilty of this, consider yourself on notice.  If you are currently doing this, please divorce and/or break up with all other parties involved and lead a life of celibacy for, approximately, ever.  And consider therapy.  

If you are just looking for sex, then communicate this.  You shouldn't have to lie to get what you want in life.  That's my belief, anyway.  If you do so, you just might find someone else out there who is looking for exactly what you want.  Just don't settle until you find such a person even if it's just for sex.

If you are like one of my exes, and you are looking for someone to be barefoot in the kitchen making you pies and cleaning your house, then say so up front.  (Um, 1955 called again and it wants its stereotypical housewife back!  Eugh!  So.  Not.  Me.)  Particular tastes require particular people to fill those needs and thus need to be communicated.

Rule Numero Dos:  Technology is your foe.

Swapping texts all day long does not equal a date, folks.  Nor does talking about a date over the phone.  Man up and take your object of desire somewhere in person!

Why are people so much more honest in a text?  Texting and dating do not mix.  All the fun aspects of getting to know someone are lost on a screen illuminated by a satellite transmission.  You can't hear inflection, sarcasm or laughter in your inbox on your mobile device.  Oh yeah, and don't break up with someone via text.  It sucks.  Karma will kick your ass if you do so, regardless of whether you believe in it.

Oh, Facebook.  While there are a multitude of social networking sites, I think Facebook really has virtual stalking on lockdown.  I've not encountered a problem with stalking to date.  I'm pretty protective of whom I allow to see my profile.  Not only am I attempting to become a lawyer and am concerned about employers and the State Bar of California seeing what I do, I am also a fan of my civil liberties and enjoy my right to privacy and freedom of speech.  However, if you are a compulsive Facebooker like myself, you could potentially run into serious problems, especially with this new Places feature.  The site allows you to "check in" by posting your geographical coordinates via Google maps.  I am enjoying the novelty of this feature and get a thrill when I click on my current location.  Yes, I am a nerd.  Deal with it. I am curious to see how this feature plays out in courtrooms across the nation when people use Facebook to up their stalking game.  

One of my bffs, Partner in Crime (hereinafter PIC), ran into a problem with Facebook and the object of her affection.  She's known this guy forever, so clearly they are "friends" on Facebook (and if it's on Facebook, it has to be true, right?).  She saw that he had a birthday party and didn't invite her.  Ouch.  There's way more back story to this, but for her privacy, I will keep the reader informed on a need-to-know basis.  But that information smacked her around a little.  She now knows more than she cared to know because of his Facebook post.  While there are many factors to her situation, the bottom line is that Facebook can be dangerous so don't add anyone you wouldn't trust with personal information.  

Rule Numero Tres:  Know thyself.  

How can you know what you want in another person if you don't know what you need?  I understand that there are varying levels of self-awareness in the pool of singles, which is fine.  If you want to live in the dark, be my guest.  I'll just figure you out and then want nothing to do with you because that's not a fun situation for me.  I am not perfect, but I make an effort to evaluate the state of my personality and my weaknesses and work on them.  I also make an effort to find at least one quality I require from a partner when I break up with someone.  For example, I've dated several non-awesome people, and now I've realized I need someone awesome.  I had an ex who is probably one of the most selfish people I've ever met, and so now I know I want someone who is capable of putting the needs of others before his own.  I know that while I'm laid back about some things, I can be downright neurotic about others and I know I need someone who is laid back and calm all the time to balance out my neuroses. 

Rule Numero Quatro:  Don't sweat it.

For a long time, I thought that because I didn't have a boyfriend that I was not desirable.  This was mostly while in law school because, let's face it, law school induces depression and anxiety in the most stable of individuals.  I think it was a lack of confidence as well, at least inwardly.  BTDub, a lack of self-esteem and confidence is a sure-fire way to repel potential suitors.  Who wants to hang out with someone who doesn't even think they are awesome?  This leads logically to my point:  Why would you want to hang out with someone who doesn't think you are awesome?!  Just move on and find someone else.  You might be thinking, "Geez, don't you have feelings?"  Of course I do.  Do I get bummed when someone I thought was interested in me turns out to be uninterested?  Totally!  I'm awesome, so it sucks when someone doesn't agree with me.  But this is no cause to think you are any less awesome because someone doesn't agree with you.  It's awesomely simple.

These are just a few things I've noticed lately.  I hereby reserve the right to edit and alter the aforementioned Rules at any time upon due diligence and sufficient consideration of any further alarming dating trends.