It's cold, I'm in the mood for soup today, I'm lazy and I'm on a coconut kick. So....another can of Amy's soup comes to the rescue!
This time it's Amy's Tom Kha Phak or Thai Coconut Soup. To this, I add a can of Trader Joe's Light Coconut Milk - I like this kind because it's less calories and this brand is inexpensive. Then I throw in some frozen sugar snap peas, frozen mixed mushrooms (the greatest thing ever from Woodstock Farms) and Morningstar Farms Chik-n-Strips. I bring it to a light boil, serve some up and then season with kosher salt and pepper to taste and top with some fresh cilantro. I like things spicy, so I also splashed some Tabasco on top.
OMG good!
By adding the extra ingredients, I stretched the servings from 2 to 4, enhanced the flavors and textures, created more of a complete meal in one pot and cut down on the sodium content.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
What if McDonald's suddenly became vegan?
I have this fantasy that if all the McDonald's suddenly went vegan, no one would really notice the difference, or complain. No one goes to McDonald's to eat healthy food anyway, so as long as it was still fast, cheap and tasted good, I believe it wouldn't matter.
Now, I'm not examining the issues surrounding "fast food" and what that implies about our society's priorities; I'm only conjuring up a scenario based on our current habits. And recognizing that being vegan isn't really a matter of difficulty for a society, but only a matter of us currently having a fast-food, animal-product dominated, society.
I've often presented the question to others who still choose to eat animals and animal products about what they would do if suddenly there were no animals to eat. The answer has always been that they would no longer eat them - or they offer no answer at all. But the answer has yet to be "I wouldn't survive." (I imagine that would be a pretty ridiculous answer when the person asking the question is a thriving vegan!) Vegans are living proof that you don't need to eat animals and their byproducts to survive.
We all know the phenomenon where someone tastes something and declares it delicious, only to retract their assessment once it's revealed to them it is something they previously declared unappetizing. Some get angry, believing they have been deceived. But some realize through this exercise how their perceptions had been dictating their food choices, rather than actual taste. And I'm sure these scenarios would play out in a sudden McDonald's conversion. Now I know it's a stretch that you could replicate all the flavors in McDonald's products perfectly in vegan forms, but I imagine if they became the only options - either you eat this or stop eating at McDonald's - people would most likely be unwilling to give up the cheap convenience due to a lack of animal parts, if it was at least tasty.
At least that's what I choose to believe. That if there was no other choice, society would have no problem being vegan.
Now, I'm not examining the issues surrounding "fast food" and what that implies about our society's priorities; I'm only conjuring up a scenario based on our current habits. And recognizing that being vegan isn't really a matter of difficulty for a society, but only a matter of us currently having a fast-food, animal-product dominated, society.
I've often presented the question to others who still choose to eat animals and animal products about what they would do if suddenly there were no animals to eat. The answer has always been that they would no longer eat them - or they offer no answer at all. But the answer has yet to be "I wouldn't survive." (I imagine that would be a pretty ridiculous answer when the person asking the question is a thriving vegan!) Vegans are living proof that you don't need to eat animals and their byproducts to survive.
We all know the phenomenon where someone tastes something and declares it delicious, only to retract their assessment once it's revealed to them it is something they previously declared unappetizing. Some get angry, believing they have been deceived. But some realize through this exercise how their perceptions had been dictating their food choices, rather than actual taste. And I'm sure these scenarios would play out in a sudden McDonald's conversion. Now I know it's a stretch that you could replicate all the flavors in McDonald's products perfectly in vegan forms, but I imagine if they became the only options - either you eat this or stop eating at McDonald's - people would most likely be unwilling to give up the cheap convenience due to a lack of animal parts, if it was at least tasty.
At least that's what I choose to believe. That if there was no other choice, society would have no problem being vegan.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Easy Vegan Meal - Lentil Vegetable Stew
I'm an okay cook, but I definitely prefer the eating more than the preparing and tend to avoid following recipes. I've come to accept that I come from a long line of ancestors whose favorite things to make were dinner reservations. So, I look for shorcuts where I can.
I was really in the mood for stew yesterday, but didn't feel like making something from scratch. I had a can of Amy's Lentil Vegetable Soup (and I can't tell you how cool it is to see products with "(VEGAN)" heading the ingredients list) in my pantry, to use as a starting point.
These processed foods tend to have too much salt, so the first thing I do is add about a half can of water to start and then play it by ear, depending on how it tastes, to determine if I'll add more water later. Then I throw in whatever frozen veggies I have on hand - yesterday it was your basic mixed vegetables and cut leaf spinach - and maybe a frozen animal-product substitute, like the vegan Morningstar Steak Strips I used in this dish. (I just dump the frozen items right into the pot - they cook just fine.)
After bringing the soup to a simmer/low boil, I decided it could take some more water, and that I would then thicken it up with a corn starch roux (whisking the starch with some of the hot soup broth until it's a paste, and then adding it back to the pot). Then I added some garlic powder and a little Kosher salt, once in the bowl, to taste. And of course, I had to have some ketchup with my stew, as is my personal tradition.
It was delicious, hearty and satisfying, and SOOOO quick and easy! And by adding the water, veggies and strips, I turned a 2-serving, $2, fairly high-sodium can of soup into a healthier, 4-serving, multi-meal stew.
Today, I plan to have the rest with some leftover Basmati rice. Just the antecdote for a cold, rainy, winter day when you need a little comfort food.
I was really in the mood for stew yesterday, but didn't feel like making something from scratch. I had a can of Amy's Lentil Vegetable Soup (and I can't tell you how cool it is to see products with "(VEGAN)" heading the ingredients list) in my pantry, to use as a starting point.
These processed foods tend to have too much salt, so the first thing I do is add about a half can of water to start and then play it by ear, depending on how it tastes, to determine if I'll add more water later. Then I throw in whatever frozen veggies I have on hand - yesterday it was your basic mixed vegetables and cut leaf spinach - and maybe a frozen animal-product substitute, like the vegan Morningstar Steak Strips I used in this dish. (I just dump the frozen items right into the pot - they cook just fine.)
After bringing the soup to a simmer/low boil, I decided it could take some more water, and that I would then thicken it up with a corn starch roux (whisking the starch with some of the hot soup broth until it's a paste, and then adding it back to the pot). Then I added some garlic powder and a little Kosher salt, once in the bowl, to taste. And of course, I had to have some ketchup with my stew, as is my personal tradition.
It was delicious, hearty and satisfying, and SOOOO quick and easy! And by adding the water, veggies and strips, I turned a 2-serving, $2, fairly high-sodium can of soup into a healthier, 4-serving, multi-meal stew.
Today, I plan to have the rest with some leftover Basmati rice. Just the antecdote for a cold, rainy, winter day when you need a little comfort food.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
The Only Humans Most Animals Will Ever Know
Gary over at Animal Writings gets frequent responses to his rodeo posts, from apparent rodeo workers attempting to defend the treatment of the rodeo animals as being "humane" and "better than most people's pets". While it's obviously ludicrous that you could ever call jolting animals with high voltage, roping babies around their necks in order to drag them through mud and then slam them to the ground, subjecting them to flank straps and spurs, scaring them, jumping on them, leaving them to suffer when they break necks and bones and then killing them when they can no longer be exploited - "humane" - these people continue attempting to justify this heartless, cruel and unnecessary "sport". If this is what some people think is "humane", what does that mean for the animals?
Which got me thinking ... about the only humans most animals will ever know.
For instance, chickens at birth have their first introduction to our species when they get their beaks burned off. Then they are either confined in a battery cage where the only human contact for a year might be the occasional employee who comes around to pull out their dead cage-mates; or they are crammed into football-field sized sheds to live in their own excrement, where in a few weeks their next human interaction is being grabbed by their feet and slammed into cages (resulting in painful injuries and broken bones) while being rounded up for slaughter.
Both the egg-laying hens and the "broiler" chickens (free-range and organic included) will have their last human interactions at the slaughterhouse - after being trucked without protection from the elements or any food and water for hundreds of miles - where they will be killed with little consideration for their suffering, since chickens aren't protected under the Humane Slaughter Act (not that this act does much for any other animals included, since it is rarely enforced and there is never anything "humane" about killing animals bred for exploitation).
Now, the chickens could have other human interactions in their brief and tortured lives - humans screaming at them, stomping on them, kicking them, raping them, slamming them against walls, pulling off their heads, putting explosive devices in their mouths and rectums for entertainment, etc. These are all documented abuses of chickens by the humans paid to provide the public with eggs and "chicken".
These workers are the only humans these innocent, sentient beings will ever know. (For reference, approximately 14,000 chickens are slaughtered per minute in the US.) They will never know that humans can give them kind and comforting words. That humans can provide them with sunshine and grass and space to roam freely. That humans can help to heal their wounds and treat their illnesses. That there are humans who know exploiting them for their flesh is wrong. All they know is that humans exist to inflict pain and suffering.
If you support animal industries, you are complicit. If you are willing to spend your money on animal products or animal "entertainment", you are paying others to mistreat and kill animals on your behalf. As far the animals are concerned, you are just another one of these humans. Is that how you want to be known?
Which got me thinking ... about the only humans most animals will ever know.
For instance, chickens at birth have their first introduction to our species when they get their beaks burned off. Then they are either confined in a battery cage where the only human contact for a year might be the occasional employee who comes around to pull out their dead cage-mates; or they are crammed into football-field sized sheds to live in their own excrement, where in a few weeks their next human interaction is being grabbed by their feet and slammed into cages (resulting in painful injuries and broken bones) while being rounded up for slaughter.
Both the egg-laying hens and the "broiler" chickens (free-range and organic included) will have their last human interactions at the slaughterhouse - after being trucked without protection from the elements or any food and water for hundreds of miles - where they will be killed with little consideration for their suffering, since chickens aren't protected under the Humane Slaughter Act (not that this act does much for any other animals included, since it is rarely enforced and there is never anything "humane" about killing animals bred for exploitation).
Now, the chickens could have other human interactions in their brief and tortured lives - humans screaming at them, stomping on them, kicking them, raping them, slamming them against walls, pulling off their heads, putting explosive devices in their mouths and rectums for entertainment, etc. These are all documented abuses of chickens by the humans paid to provide the public with eggs and "chicken".
These workers are the only humans these innocent, sentient beings will ever know. (For reference, approximately 14,000 chickens are slaughtered per minute in the US.) They will never know that humans can give them kind and comforting words. That humans can provide them with sunshine and grass and space to roam freely. That humans can help to heal their wounds and treat their illnesses. That there are humans who know exploiting them for their flesh is wrong. All they know is that humans exist to inflict pain and suffering.
If you support animal industries, you are complicit. If you are willing to spend your money on animal products or animal "entertainment", you are paying others to mistreat and kill animals on your behalf. As far the animals are concerned, you are just another one of these humans. Is that how you want to be known?
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