Verdant food

SO I have not posted in such a long time, which is strange as I have had so much to say on the subject of living verdantly this month!!

But here is the deal, I have gone one whole month without eating any animal meat. Yes, for real, starting on January 1st I stopped. I don't think I have even cheated once, although it is possible I had one or two bites of something that Ashok was eating. But overall I have kept to it.

I have even given up MOST dairy and egg products, but there have been a few more cheating episodes when it comes to that.

And guess what, when it comes to eating I have LOVED every thing I have eaten this month!! I have cooked more than ever and have enjoyed and savored so many new foods.

So the first thing I want to share about this journey is a book that firstly clarified WHY I wanted to do this and then gave me tools to make it possible for me to succeed.
This book is called the Kind Diet. It is a book about the benefits of becoming vegan as well as a recipe book. There is also a website/blog/forum that has been really helpful too. Visit it at www.thekindlife.com.

So what have I been eating? Well here are a few pics of some of the great food. I can send you any recipes that you want when you see the deliciousness!! Two of these were cooked by my friend who is doing the vegetarian thing as well.


This one is radicchio pizza. I had never had radicchio before...It is kind of bitter, but when I added some onions it gave it good flavor and cut down the bitterness. Pretty yummy! Rebekah also made this with Asparagus on the side.


This one is rustic pasta...basically pasta with cabbage and celery and onion. Mix it with marinara and soy sauce and viola! HArd to believe it would taste good with that description, but again, surprisingly good. Never knew I liked cabbage until this year. It is good and cheap.


Isn't this meal beautiful? Succotash and sweet potatoe fries. One of Ashok's favorites!


And what would life be without dessert!? These are vegan peanut butter cups...They are amazing and amazingly easy to make!! Yummmm...

Hope you are getting hungry for some vegan food!!

Greenwashed?

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/sweet-dreams-with-a-sprinkling-of-greenwashing.html

This is an interesting site with an article on Greenwashing...which is defined as basically a false claim that a product is "green". So many companies are claiming that their items are "natural" "organic" "green" "eco-friendly"...etc...but often the truth is that there is a shell game going on, or only certain ingredients are natural, or that it is all a marketing scam. So what do we do about it?

The best advice I have seen out there is to remain suspicious, read labels, and don't "buy in" to things that are too good to be true. Do research and stick to items you can trust. Also, don't over spend on items based on these claime. But also, don't get too bent out of shape when the "Green" product you bought turns out to be a rip. Just determine to do better the next time.

I feel cheap...but in a good way...

So I have committed to a homespun Christmas, and the crafting has begun. But as Christmas approaches I find my temptation to shop has also increased. The twinkle lights are up in the mall and the Christmas music is finally welcome to me, although it has been playing for about 3 weeks. And I am in the mood to shop. But I have decided not to, so I am stuck. And I think this brings us to a crux of living verdantly...it is not always comfortable. It is a decision to look temptation in the eye and say "No". Not because one has to (although my committment not to shop is based on some real budgetary limits). But the choice to live verdantly has to do with making some honest choices about life and taking a path, not being swept along where ever the cuture takes you.

So this past Friday I did a little bargain shopping at Gabriel brothers and stopped at Target for a little look, but I did not do the massive spend that I have in previous years. And it felt strange.

So here is a question for you all. What brings you real joy. Because that is my goal this Christmas...less stress and more joy. So what brings you joy?

Family is an obvious one. Loving each other no matter what...even when we don't agree.


Accomplishment also. Setting goals and meeting them.

What else...what do you think?

(I love this picture...there is something so US about it!)

Meat Three Times (On the Ceiling if You Want Me)

Meat Three Times Update: Entering Week 3

The good news: So far, Meat Three Times has been a smashing success. I've been keeping rigorous track of my meat consumption, and besides one day where I stretched it a little by eating meat for dinner, and then also eating meat at the cast party that followed dinner (which technically is Dinner 2, so doesn't count as another meal??? or maybe it's dessert, and I ate meat for dessert - gross??), I've been very successful. I decided quickly not to count chicken stock as a "meat" - I put a star by that meal in my calendar to keep track, but seriously. I'll probably buy some vegetable buillion soon though, just to take care of that issue.

However, as week 3 dawns bright and I have already eaten 1 meat since Sunday Breakfast (my first meal of the new week), I'm looking down the line and realizing we have a problem: THANKSGIVING. Yes that great meaty holiday with all of its temptations is clearly visible on the horizon. One can't help but feel that for a non-strict non-vegetarian to make a fuss about meat over the Thanksgiving weekend could be construed as a little humbuggish. So what's a 3-timer to do? I think right now I'm going back and forth between making a good faith effort, basically knowing I'll fail but trying to keep the meat way down, and/or keeping good track and making up for it with a very spartan week next week. The other option - and one that I'm rejecting but that, let's face it, is tempting - is just to dive head first into the meat as soon as I get to Grandma's and then not emerge til Sunday. I trust in my fellow bloggers to hold me accountable.

Delicious no meat foods I've eaten in the past two weeks:
Egg and cheese croissant - sooooo good
More hummus and pita bread
More felafel
(Most of my foods have been very unhealthy this week due to evening commitments and a household flea problem - heavy cleaning = light cooking - so I'll submit more yummy and healthy vegetarian suggestions next time I post. But California Pizza Kitchen 5 cheese pizza with tomatoes is also good!)

Global Population Data

This is my favorite presentation on YouTube. Just the first 5 minutes is pretty impressive.



The world really has changed both in population and wealth/poverty relationship.

BRD

Meat Three Times a Week?: The Experiment

In college, it was the chicken nuggets. Now, we are not talking about good chicken nuggets. These were not homemade-from-golden-bird, chick-fil-a, or even McDonald's quality chicken nuggets. These were college cafeteria nuggets, grade E but edible meat, chicken lovingly referred to within our group as "sponge chicken." Yet this sad, spongy, piece of hyperprocessed meat leftovers was the thing that, over and over, kept me from my goal. That goal was to be a vegetarian.

Maybe the badness of the nuggets was the reason they were so appealing. If you're talking about a delicious, well-made chicken wrap on a spinach tortilla with dressing and fresh tomatoes, I mean, that makes you think about food. What could I do to capture all the fantastic qualities of this sandwich, but still skip the meat? Would a meat substitute work? What about a veggie patty? Felafel? Hummus? Or maybe it would be almost as good - just as good? - with no substitute at all. Just a few extra veggies and a good dose of dressing and maybe you've got the perfect wrap. Right?

Thinking about food is fun - and in fact, one of the most appealing parts of attempting vegetarianism for me is imagining new ways to cook foods both familiar and unfamiliar. How do you make a fritatta? What can I do with asparagus besides boil it? And how many of the million and one things you can do with a chickpea have I tried? But the point, my friends, of a chicken nugget is the EXACT OPPOSITE of this. A chicken nugget is not about thinking. It's about not thinking. It's about pulling up to a drive through window, taking the box of meat that the cashier gives you, and popping meat round after meat round into your drooling little mouth. Sounds gross, right? But oh no - it's so good.

Later in college, it was boil-in-a-bag chicken tikka marsala (I got that in England - you can't get the same thing in the states). Don't think, just boil - soooo good. (It really was.) Then after college, it was burger king at my work cafeteria; sure, you could get the veggie patty there, but it's so easy (and delicious) to just say, "Number one with cheese." In later life, it's been the ease of sticking something in the crockpot or oven or george forman grill - pot roast, chicken breasts, meaty steaks - they're all a lifesaver on a busy evening, and so effortlessly they transform from frozen blocks to delicious meals. You don't have to look up recipes or pick up produce - sometimes you don't even have to chop an onion. You just stick it in, pull it out, and it's done.

But the trouble is, once you start to think about your food, it's hard to stop again. This is what got me moving (slouching, crawwwwwling) toward vegetarianism in the first place - I was sitting, unsuspecting, in a science class one day and learned that our current system of meat production is environmentally unsustainable. Just like that - like it was nothing - I learned that our meaty way of life cannot be sustained. It fills the environment with methane; it destroys the value and the loveliness of our land; and, of course, it causes the lives of countless animals to be cruel, brutish, and short.

But it's not just that kind of thinking that keeps me trying to be a vegetarian. I also think about the great foods I never, ever would have discovered had I not been trying. I recently had a Hempnut burger at Jack of the Wood in Asheville. Would I have ever tried a food by this description were I not trying to be a vegetarian? Would anyone? I gotta say, I doubt it. But it was not only the best non-meat burger I've ever tasted, it was, for me on that day, better than a burger ever would have been. It was delicious. It was great. That's the kind of slightly scary discovery that can happen when you start to think about your food.

So, starting this week, I've set myself a goal of eating meat three times a week - the equivalent of one day of meat per week. Is this doable for me, the chicken nuggets queen? I'm not sure yet - but it's easier than going cold turkey. And I think if I can do it, and if everyone could someday do it, we might suddenly find that we've moved from a meat industry where sustainability is impossible and cruelty is a way of life, to one where sustainability and harmony are natural and cruelty unnecessary.

I'll keep the blog posted on my progress.

Those reusable bags that are piled in my trunk....

OK, so another fad in green living is the reusable grocery bag. You know the ones that sit at the ends of the grocery isles. And the ones you bought that are sitting in your trunk that you remember as you come to get in line with a full cart...and then you feel guilty and think about buying a whole new set...

And they are not just at the grocery store. They are everywhere. You can even get them with the name of your favorite sports team. I just bought one for my sister at my favorite LOCALLY OWNED retailer, Lily Jane. It is made by Bungalow 360 and is a great sturdy bag. Much sturdier than the cheapies at the store (with a price tag to reflect that). There are even silk shopping bags for the stars with a very hefty price tag of $943. Yikes!

So how much good do these little numbers do? Well just as you suspected, one or two bags do not end global warming...and if they sit in your trunk they do no good at all. But if we use them, do they do good? NPR had an interesting story on this. One thing that really stood out to me was a statement that in the end, only 1% of the environmental impact of a grocery trip is in the bags. About 7% is in the packaging of all the other items in the basket, and 90% of the impact is in products themselves.

So the bottom line is, yes, use reusable shopping bags. They are good for you! But every now and again skip 'em so that you don't have to buy bags to scoop the kitty litter in or to put in your bathroom trash can. Also, if you do use bags, make sure they make it to a trash can or preferably a recycle bin. Don't let them float around and get stuck in a tree somewhere...that is so tacky! :) And if you spend big bucks on them, don't think that this is money invested into the environment...a silk shopping bag is all about the look. But a sturdy canvas bag will actually last longer, so it may be a good investment.
THis one is a little number I made from an old t-shirt. Not so great to look at, but works well and is the ultimate way to repurpose something old to do something good.

Reduce Reuse Recycle Repeat!!