One Full Week Vegan!

Hooray!

Things I Can Take Back With Me to the Other Side

I don't care if you're vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, omnivore, carnivore, flexitarian, fleximoron, you will LOVE LOVE LOVE coconut milk ice cream.

While blowing my dough over at Whole Foods grocery shopping last weekend I decided to hit up the ice cream aisle before walking to the check-out line to meet my financial fate. A treat for being true to my eating goals and for being too lazy to pick up the rest of my groceries at a regular grocery store like I had plan.

I had heard rumors of the frozen dream that is coconut milk ice cream, but I had never tried it. I picked up a small carton of Turtle Mountain's Purely Decadent Mocha Almond Fudge (100% vegan).

3/4's empty carton later (hey, Dave helped!) and here's what I have to say:

OMGMMJJFDS@#*()@(%@(**)MMMM%*@))*%NOMMY))((@BABYJESUS()*#)($*@YUM*()*#$HOLYMOLY(**MELTY)#)$LOVESIT!!)(*)#!!

If coconut milk was the original choice for making into ice cream, we'd all look like Jabba the Hut right now.

My interview on Outside the Loop Radio

I was on WLUW's Outside the Loop Radio this morning to discuss my one month vegan
challenge. Thanks to host Mike Stephen for inviting me on his show to discuss this topic!

Listen here:

OTL: Episode #224- The Vegan Experiment, Aldermanic Websites Analyzed, Project Onward Art Program

A Growing Movement

I was born and raised a meat-eating Texan. I love to tell people about my favorite way to finish off a t-bone steak as a child: grab it with my bare hands and dig into the remaining bites like a complete animal. I also used to put chicken skins on my face a la Hannibal Lecter to make my siblings laugh. I was goofy.

I ain't got nothing against people eating some gosh darn meat. But after reading several eye-openings books (Eating Animals and The Ethics of What We Eat, to name a few), watching a few horrifying-but-true videos, and just some plain 'ol soul searching I realized that eating animals just isn't for me...me, personally. I do have some strong opinions about factory farming which might lead me to get preachy, but I'll save that for a post I plan to write called "How to Be Vegan and Not Be Annoying." I try hard not to offend anyone with my new found passion for this subject.

When I first became vegetarian back in May, my sister make a few sarcastic comments about how I'd gone off the deep end. I met a few people who talked to me like I was an alien after declaring I don't eat meat ("How do you LIVE??!") I even felt discomfort at certain dinner gatherings when the host who invited me over discovered I was vegetarian and they hadn't prepared any non-meat options. I hate to inconvenience anyone or make them feel bad--I absorbed just as much guilt as they did.

I know I'm not the first person to dabble with veganism, but man! I can't help but feel something's different this round. When I posted my one-month vegan challenge to Facebook, I received nothing but positive comments (19 comments and growing), several personal messages, recipes suggestions, and encouragement to start blogging about it so my experience could be followed. My brother has decided to join me for two weeks and my sister completely shocked me by calling me to let me know the she and her boyfriend were going to try being vegetarian for one full week. To top it all off, my boyfriend is joining me for a month of veganism too...something I didn't ask him to do but he's doing anyway for the added support.

While I don't expect the majority of people will ever be true full-time vegetarians or vegans (and more power to those who are), it is very heartening to know that more and more people are waking up to the fact that maybe this country has gone a little overboard on the animal product consumption. Even just these little challenges, whether it be to have a vegetarian day every now and then, or be a vegan for a week or even a month, helps us see what a meat-crazed society we live in. The way meat is produced and consumed in this country contributes to our obesity epidemic, it pollutes our environment, it affects families who live downstream from factory farms, it wipes out farmers who are trying to make a living doing things the old-fashioned way but can't because high meat demand means get big or get out, and of course we can't forget the hundreds of thousands of animals who die a traumatic death--most of which never get the decency of living a regular, stress-free day in their life--just so we can have what we perceive to be a 'real' meal.

(That's me getting preachy again--yeesh!)

Even just a little consciousness of how much we're consuming goes a long way in the end, and I'm just plain grateful to personally know an ever-growing amount of people who have taken the time to think a little more about what goes on their plates each day.

Vegan Bran Muffins

Breakfast is a challenging time for a new vegan, I tell you what. It's been a long time since I've cared about bacon and I prefer Earth Balance to butter and almond milk to cow's milk. Eggs are tough, though. If you think about it, they're like *the* quintessential breakfast food.

What have my vegan breakfasts consisted of so far? Steel cut oats, lots of fruit, whole grain toast with aforementioned Earth Balance (so tasty!) There are many alternatives to regular cow's milk yogurt, too (soy, coconut milk, yummy Good Belly probiotic juice). Pancakes, waffles, and even french toast are easy to make vegan. You know what else is? BRAN MUFFINS. They've become my new breakfast delicacy.

I altered this recipe from one I found on vegweb.com, and you too can alter the ingredients to include what you want. What's the big whoop about bran? Well...

Bran is an awesome source of fiber but in addition to this it's also 'rich in omegas, starch, protein, vitamins and dietary minerals, making it a compact nutritional powerhouse. ' (linky)

Add the antioxidant properties of raisins and the omega-3s and vitamin E of walnuts and you've got yourself one mean multinutritional muffin.

Here's the recipe!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup wheat bran
1 cup soy milk (or almond, rice, hemp, whatever)
6 tablespoons applesauce (no sugar added kind)
2/3 cups turbinado sugar (or substitute agave, or sucanet)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
handful of raisins and chopped walnuts (or whatever you want--carrots, zucchini, cranberries, blueberries, etc)

Method:

• Combine wheat bran and milk. Let stand for 10 minutes.
• Beat applesauce, sugar, vanilla. Add to wheat bran mixture.
• Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
• Add wet ingredients to dry.
• Fold in raisins and chopped walnuts (or filling of your choice)
  

Bake at 350 degrees for 16-20 minutes

Serves: 12

Preparation time: 15 minutes prep

My advice: make these at the beginning of the week so you can grab one on your way out the door throughout the week. Also, experiment with the sugar amount. I personally put a bit less in and it tasted fine. Whatever you do, don't use regular white sugar. It's terrible for you and it sure as heck ain't vegan.

January = Vegan

As part of my new years resolution, I've decided to spend the entire month of January eating vegan--a decision I'm very, very happy with.

I've dabbled with veganism this past summer and I never felt better. I had tons of energy and woke up feeling great each morning. I actually got to a point where the smell of dairy repulsed me. I quit after Dave's family visited for over a week and I needed to cook more family friendly meals.

I've been vegetarian for 8 months with hopes of doing the vegan thing again on a more regular basis. It took reading Skinny Bitch over the holidays to remind me again why I wanted to try to eat a more vegan diet. It's a good book--really more of a vegan manifesto than a diet book. It is an incredibly easy read...a dumbed down version of Eating Animals or The China Study or Omnivore's Dilemma. My favorite thing about it is it's been able to reach a broad audience who normally would never pick up a book about veganism and helped them see the health and environmental hazards of a meat-heavy diet.

One of the people it reached was my brother, Sean. While making an epic trek from Tampa, FL, to Missoula, MT, together this Christmas, I lent him my copy because he had nothing to read. By the time we had landed for our layover in Minneapolis he was overly curious to see if eating vegan would help him lose a couple unneeded pounds he put on while finishing up his degree in Computer Engineering (and graduating with honors!)

So we started a bet on Fatbet.net that we'd be vegan for two weeks (although I'm planning the whole month). If I make it, Sean will buy me the African thumb piano I wanted but didn't get for Christmas. If he makes it, I will give him money equal to that of the thumb piano. If we fail we have to donate $50 to Kiva.org and still reward the winner if they go the full two weeks.

I was really surprised to see such a positive response on Facebook when I first posted about this personal "challenge" (challenge may not be the correct word; it's actually been really fun and easy). I received many requests that I blog about it so here I am. I'll try to get as many recipes on here as I can. Stay tuned!

2011 New Years Resolutions

I used to be one of those "my resolution is to make no resolution" type of people, but over time I've come around to the idea of challenging myself throughout the year. Last year my resolution was to leave work at 5pm everyday (more like, just realize the work will still be there in the morning and there's no point in staying until 7, 8, sometimes 9 o'clock at work) and to get more serious about being healthy. Both resolutions turned out to be great for me and so this year I've got a whole slew of ideas.

I'm not into the idea of setting myself up for disaster...no use in setting the bar so high you'll feel guilty if you can't accomplish anything. These resolutions are just the right amount of challenging for me. I want to put them down somewhere so I can come back to it at the end of the year and see how I did.

DB's Resolutions 2011
1. Be vegan the entire month of January.
2. Get a physical.
3. Really figure out my finances, pay off that last credit card, and start saving more money.
4. Bring my lunch to work everyday instead of eating out so much.
5. Spend every Monday night doing something creative (this started last month, but it's a good resolution to try to keep it going throughout the entire year).
6. When I book travel, start keeping frequent flier miles. I never do this! Bad!
7. Write more letters to my friends.
8. Perform really well at my job, try to accomplish my bigger goals for the station.

Easy peasy...let's do this, 2011!

Note

Things I can be on time to: zero. Zero things.

So long, October.

My favorite month of the year has officially ended, and as usual it did not disappoint. It started with a fun week at the Chicago International Film Festival where I saw some brilliant films from Argentina, the US, and Romania (of course). It ended with a screening of Rosemary's Baby at our friend Andrea's last night.

Other amazing things that happened:

• Dave, Bob, and I made a fatbet that we would lose 10 lbs in a month. Bob won, we lost. Ah well.
• I signed up for my first 5K, which I'm running next week. Completely unprepared at this point but we'll see.
• Dave, Jasmine, James, and I had a weekend getaway to our favorite little town in Wisconsin...Baraboo! It was there that the game "Steven Spielberg" was invented.
• Dave surprised me with a secret birthday trip to my favorite town in U.S.A...Boston, Massachusetts!
• I participated in a super fun 70's themed murder mystery dinner party as CHAKA MOON. Even better...I was the KILLER!
• Jasmine, James, and I carved some bomb ass (that's right) pumpkins.
• I had a lovely birthday celebration with friends over pizza and board games.
• Bob and Curt's Heaven and Hell themed Halloween party was a blast...after many years of being out of town on Halloween I was finally able to attend.
• Jasmine, James, and I put some gorey faces on and passed out candy to all the adorable Trick or Treaters in our neighborhood.

Thanks, October. You're the best.

hiking at Devil's Lake State Park in Baraboo, WI

Pumpkin patch ride

Loving the sunset in Boston.

Granary Burial Ground in Boston.

Twanky seven.

We had the right tools for the job.

Tea partier, Kim Jong-Il, and an evangelist. All very scary things for Halloween.

Things That Have Happened Since I Last Posted Here

1. Dave had six screws and a metal plate put into his wrist after breaking it.

2. I was t-boned leaving work and my beloved '94 Toyota Camry was totaled.

3. I started seeing a chiropractor for the first time.

4. Dave's dad passed away.

5. I became vegetarian.

6. I moved to a new Chicago neighborhood.

7. I visited Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle for the first time.

8. My sister started dating my good friend.

9. My sister moved to Chicago, within walking distance of my new apartment.

10. Dave's family visited us over summer and we went to Medieval Times and Michigan.

11. My best friend Bob moved up here.

12. I tried acupuncture for the first time.

13. I went to Baraboo, Wisconsin twice.

14. I finally watched all of Twin Peaks and Fire Walk With Me and developed a healthy obsession for Kyle MacLachlan and David Lynch in general.

15. I tried veganism for a few weeks, which was much easier than I thought it would be.

16. The radio station I manage did a live, 3-day broadcast from Lollapalooza.

17. My friends Haley and Jason had an adorable baby.

18. I lost about 7 pounds.

19. I went to TWO Cubs games.

20. Discovered the hardest part about moving wasn't finances nor the pain of packing, but losing our friends Tim and Ruth as neighbors.

21. I started driving a Subaru.

22. I launched headfirst into a nutrition and fitness binge with a pal and we ran a blog called Treadmillionaires. I had a personal trainer and everything!

23. I decided that after Chicago I'm going to live in Europe.