Living Without Meat

Trader Joe’s sells a sweet with heat combo of peppers, corn, and onions that makes an excellent snack with blue corn chips. The Corn and Chile Tomato-Less Salsa would also mix in well with recipes any way that you would use salsa, or atop a bed of lettuce.

I haven’t tried it yet, but I want to try making my own based off of the ingredient list. In order, in incudes: corn, sugar, onions, red bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, distilled vinegar, spices, salt … and guar gum?

Making your own is not only more fresh and natural, but you can control the amount of heat (Trader Joe’s has more than a touch) and leave out the guar gum.

At the knitting class that I teach, the topic of dietary iron intake came up - clearly my students are advanced if we are already progressing to the part of “bitch” in our weekly lessons of stitchery. One newbie knitter is a vegetarian (a second one is too, but she eats chicken … yea) and was recently diagnosed by her doctor as being anemic. Thus, she thought to ask me where I get my iron. Since I wasn’t at once immediately able to rattle off enough sources to feel that I had satisfactorily answered her question, I promised a post once I further researched the matter. So, Miss Krissy, this one’s for you.

Anemia is when the iron levels in your blood system are low which causes your blood to have difficulty moving oxygen. It tends to be associated with vegetarianism because the most absorbable sources of dietary iron are red meats and fish. However, I was anemic when I was a meat-eater, and now am not.

Iron intake is important because our bodies simply use it as it comes - we can’t get rid of excess or store it for later (this is also why you can get sick from too much iron). Thus, our body keeps tight regulations on how much is taken in from what we eat.

Signs and symptoms of anemia include pale skin, weak nails, fatigue, weakness … gee, is this where people get all of their stereotypes about vegetarians?

But never fear! Aside from the animal-based or supplement-form (which should be kept far out of children’s reach as ingesting it is a leading cause of toxic death among kids!), here is how our bodies can get the iron that we need:

lentils
beans, seeds, nuts, chickpeas
leafy vegetables
tofu, soy products, tempeh
olives
black-eyed peas
potatoes with skin
whole-grain/wheat bread
tomato
seaweed
parsley, garlic
leeks
dried figs, raisins
mushrooms
rice

If you have a question that you would rather have me spend the time researching for you, and don’t attend my knitting class, e-mail it to me at livingwithoutmeat at gmail dot com! I love to help!

Can you believe that it has already been two months since the blood-stained gambling operation was found in NFL Atlanta Falcon’s player Mike Vick’s Virginia home?

I‘ve previously talked about the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal: first about the initial situation and cruel “sport” in general on July 19, and then a follow-up on July 24 about the NFL’s initial reaction and Vick’s defense statement.

But I have purposefully been staying away from the topic since, even disregarding announcing when he pled guilty, lost his job, and tested positive for marijuana. I figured this is this kind of story that is coming at you from all directions - especially if you subscribe to as many (or even half as many) veg*n and animal rights e-newsletters as I do. (But, if you do want to catch up, check out ESPN’s timeline).

However, you may have noticed that I love offering things for you to act on. So here, my virtual friends and family, is what the Humane Society found after the case broke:

The Humane Society of the United States analyzed all 50 state dogfighting laws. What we found was shocking.

Had Vick’s crimes been committed in the state of Idaho, he could have faced only a misdemeanor penalty with a minimum $100 fine and a maximum six-month jail sentence. And in Georgia, where Vick quarterbacked for the Atlanta Falcons, he’d be allowed to possess dogs for fighting and could even attend a dogfight — and law enforcement could do absolutely nothing about it.

So how can you act now? First of all, you can always look up your local laws and write to local legislatures, letting them know how you feel. Also, the Humane Society is asking that you sign their pledge to support stronger laws. If you do so, they will send you e-mail notices when they make advances on this campaign, including the creation of petitions that you can sign electronically.

Get to it! It hardly takes the lifting of a finger!

Are you excited for the holiday tomorrow? What? You don’t know what day it is tomorrow!? Why, it’s International Hug a Vegetarian Day, of course!

Offer up hugs, show how friendly veggie people are; break the guerrilla warfare, carnivore-hating, blood-throwing stereotype, and hug someone! … I accept virtual hugs if you can’t make it to Philly in time.

Oh, and if you don’t know, part of the day’s celebrations include taking pictures of yourself hugging people, and carrying signs or wearing shirts declaring the day and offering free hugs (but I don’t recommend doing so on public transportation, do you hear me Creepy McStaring Guy? No hug for you!).

You know what I miss most now that I am a vegetarian? I miss the eel.

I would take a stab in the dark and say that not many - if any - people have uttered that phrase before. But Chef Kevin Dunn, teacher of plant-based cooking at Heritage Restaurant at Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan, swears that you will love this mushroom-based recipe regardless of your affinity for (or against) eating eels.

Mock Eel

by Chef Kevin Dunn

Even if you don’t like the thought of eating eel, you will want to try this—it’s one of my favorite Asian vegetarian analogs. Try it as a garnish for other dishes. This is the best way that I have found to utilize the full flavor of the dried shiitake. Shiitake mushrooms originated in Japan and Korea. The stems are very woody and should be removed. But don’t throw them away—use them in a mushroom broth and save that wonderful flavor.

20 dried shiitake mushrooms
2 qts. peanut oil for frying
2 cups cornstarch
1 tsp. peanut oil
1/2 tsp. garlic, minced
1 tsp. ginger, minced
3 Tbsp. scallions, sliced thin on a bias
1/4 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup organic sugar

• Rehydrate the shiitake mushrooms in boiling water until tender.
• With scissors, cut the mushroom caps into earthworm-shaped strips.
• Heat the 2 qts. peanut oil to 375°F.
• Coat the shiitake strips with cornstarch and fry until golden. Let drain as you prepare the sauce.
• Heat a wok over medium heat and add the 1 tsp. peanut oil.
• Add the garlic, ginger, and scallions and cook, being careful not to burn the garlic and ginger.
• Add the soy sauce and the sugar. Adjust the flavor if too sweet or too salty.
• Add the shiitake strips and toss until well coated and most of the sauce is absorbed.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Read more about this recipe and Chef Dunn at the VegCooking Blog in their September 21 post Finding Umami in Mock Eel.

Track and field superstar athlete Carl Lewis - who now lives in L.A. and is pursuing an acting career - often credits his outstanding performance in 1991 with his decision to follow a healthy vegan diet, including fresh juicing. Read here an excerpt from the introduction that he wrote for Very Vegetarian, a cookbook by chef Jannequin Bennett:

I remember vividly making the decision in July of 1990 to become a vegan. I was competing in Europe and ate a meal of Spanish sausage on a Saturday and on the following Monday started eating vegan. The hardest thing for me was changing my eating habits from skipping meals to eating throughout the day–which is much healthier. I also missed salt and so substituted lemon juice for flavor.

In the spring of 1991 – eight months after beginning to eat vegan – I was feeling listless and thought I might need to add protein from meat to my diet. Dr. McDougall, however, explained that my listlessness was due to my needing more calories because I was training so many hours each day, not because I needed more animal-based protein. When I increased my calorie intake, I regained my energy. I was drinking 24 to 32 ounces of juice a day. I ate no dairy products. And I had my best year as an athlete ever!

If Carl Lewis can get enough protein, surely I can, and so can you. Lewis’s story just goes to show that regardless of your lifestyle, and the amount of energy (i.e. calories) that you excerpt throughout the day, you too can thrive - and even excel - on a vegan diet.

So if you feel weak or tired in your daily doings, take it from Lewis, and don’t jump to the conclusion that you need more meat-based protein. And if you are an athlete, you may need to do a bit more research than the rest of us when it comes to your diet, but wouldn’t this hold true even if you ate meat? So here, my endorphin-chasing friends (and really everyone interested in optimum health and nutrition), is an excellent place to start reading.

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Sometimes, a movie gets an aspect of life so spot on that it borders on scary. “Are they watching my life?” you might think, as you nervously laugh along. For me, Elijah Wood’s 2005 independent hit Everything Is Illuminated had a scene that left me wondering if Elijah had been studying me secretly for his character Jonathan.

With a plot line like this, from IMDB: “A young Jewish American man endeavors to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II in a Ukrainian village, that was ultimately razed by the Nazis, with the help of a local who speaks weirdly funny broken English”, there are certainly many topics that you may be guessing to be the one that I related to. However, if you watch the movie with a careful, vegetarian eye, than you will pick up on this scene in a Ukrainian restaurant between Jonathan and his hosting family in Ukraine:

Jonathan: I’m a vegetarian.
Alex: You’re a what?
Jonathan: I don’t eat meat.
Alex: How can you not eat meat?
Jonathan: I just don’t.
Alex: [to Grandfather, in Russian] He says he does not eat meat.
Grandfather: [to Alex, in Russian] What?
Alex: No meat?
Jonathan: No meat.
Alex: Steak?
Jonathan: No…
Alex: Chickens!
Jonathan: No…
Alex: And what about the sausage?
Jonathan: No, no sausage, no meat!
Alex: [to Grandfather, in Russian] He says he does not eat any meat.
Grandfather: [to Alex, in Russian] Not even sausage?
Alex: [to Grandfather, in Russian] I know!
Grandfather: [to Alex, in Russian] What is wrong with him?
Alex: What is wrong with you?
Jonathan: Nothing, I just don’t eat meat!

I watched; I groaned, and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the truth behind it. This entire conversation replayed almost identically immediately again when the waitress came out. And then, even more truth came. Elijah’s character Jonathan said he would be fine with just a potato, but the waitress replied that the potatoes only come with the steak.

To get the whole hilarious truthful nature of the scene, you simply must see this movie. Oh, and it’s a good flick, too.

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The Alicia Silverstone PETA ad made for TV where the 30-year-old actress talks about the physical benefits of vegetarianism as she climbs - nude - out of a swimming pool, has been pulled from Houston stations before it even aired.

The ad was set to air this past Wednesday, starting with Houston, Texas - one of the fattest, most unhealthy eating American cities - followed by Dallas, then other cities across the United States. However, after paying for dozens of 30-second spots, PETA was informed that the video commercial (print ads also accompany the campaign) was deemed detrimental to the public by Comcast, and thus will not be shown in Houston.

In her statement about the situation, Ingrid Newkirk, PETA president, doesn’t seemed fazed by the news: “[Viewers can] get an eyeful, not only of the stunning Ms. Silverstone, but also of our free Vegetarian Starter Kit – chock full of delicious recipes – that will make them drool for an entirely different reason.”

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Sizzling screen star Alicia Silverstone - whom you probably know best as Cher in “Clueless” - has long been an outspoken vegan, working with PETA to help spread the word about the animal rights and the health benefits of being vegan.

Now, she has a whole campaign focused around her including this PSA that is set to run on public TV, and was seen last night on E!:

On a page all about Alicia on PETA.org, she wrote a personal message; reveals her favorite recipes - such as Miso Soup with Dumplings; tells us which cruelty-free makeup products she uses - like Aveda’s mascara, and her vegan fashion must-haves including a Prada handbag.

Then, you can enter to win her favorite things! (And listen when I tell you about contests, because one reader just one $200 from a contest that I announced!)

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Joost Elffers (yes, this is someone’s name) spends a lot of time playing with his food: he turns carrots into ice cream cones and tops them off with a scoop of cauliflower. He sees a dog when he looks at a banana, but an octopus when it’s just the peel.

In his numerous books - such as How Are You Peeling and Play with Your Food - Elffers works alone or with other authors and photographers to create an imaginary world that both children and adults will fall in love with - in fact, you likely already have seen a picture or two of his somewhere.

Check out his cheery, appetite-enhancing, health-food-only, books at Amazon, or your local bookstore or library. It’s a great way to get your kids thinking about fruits and veggies!

Here’s a preview slideshow of a few of the pictures you’ll find within Joost’s pages:

What a perfect gift this would be for someone who loves fruit and veggies … just make sure you guys coordinate it with each other so that I, er umm…, I mean the recipient, doesn’t receive multiple copies of the same one.

It’s almost here! The Walk for Farm Animals sponsoring Farm Sanctuary that I mentioned back in June, and that it mentioned in my profile to the right, is finally here.

Farm Sanctuary believes in “rescue, education, and advocacy for farm animals” and is the organization that I raised over $100 for on July 28 and 29 during my 24-hour blogathon (which you can read in its entirety, tracking my increasing sleepiness, by clicking on the “blogathon” category to the right).

This time, I have set myself a goal of raising the at least the same amount. Can you help? Will you?

I have set up a safe and secure, online donation site at First Giving. Every dollar, every dime, is appreciated by myself, the wonderful people at Farm Sanctuary, and certainly by the animals living and surviving there.

If nothing else, please take the time at least to learn a little more about the Sanctuary.

On August 30, I wrote about changing the world with even the smallest action in With Every Beat of My Wings I Change the World. I brought up the theory of the butterfly effect, which plays on the notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. It was one of the best things that I had written in awhile; it came from a personal place that a lot of my writing doesn’t. And as I poured my heart out, I saw a picture: a creature beating its wings, propelling away from a tornado that was under its control. I saw my next tattoo.

And so this weekend I made it happen. I went to the parlor with my friend and we got tattoos. I love what this represents to me, and how the idea came to me. But to top it all off, and make it even more unique and special, the guy who drew the image for me inked it onto my left foot/ankle, is a vegetarian who doesn’t drink!

As he was working on my drawing, I noticed a sheep on the top of his left wrist, and I had a feeling that he was vegetarian, though I wasn’t sure why. We got to talking about the story behind my idea, how I am comforted by the fact that I am making a difference in the world even if I don’t see it. He immediately shared with me that he, too, was vegetarian and chooses not to drink. The sheep was a cartoon-ish black sheep from a album cover. On the album this little lamb is jumping sporadically in the opposite direction of an army of white sheep marching along as drones. His reasoning for his lifestyle was represented in this tattoo that caught my eye. I was excited that I picked up on it, and I was even more excited that a fellow veg head would be doing my work - and what fabulous work he did!

I love my new tattoo. It is a reminder that my little, dedicated, fast-beating wings may be causing a wind storm miles away. It reminds me that wherever I go, whatever I do, I can still make a difference.

A bonus from this experience? A reassurance that there are nice, vegetarian, non-drinking guys out there!

Emily Deschanel is quickly becoming a household name. If you recognize her, it is most likely as the star of the TV series Bones. But in no time, you will also think of animal rights and veganism when you see the face that battles David Boreanaz for screen time Tuesdays at 8/7c this fall on Fox.

InStyle recently had celebrities offer up their favorite recipes, and Ms. Deschanel gave a great vegan cookie recipe!

On September 8, she hosted Farm Sanctuary’s annual gala.

Even cooler than all of that, the Human Society spokeswoman went above and beyond and wrote an article for CNN about the Michael Vick dogfighting case titled .

Be sure to check out both her recipe and her writing, and also Watching Bones - the site that tipped me off to Emily’s outstanding activism.

Vegetarian Times, an excellent magazine (whom I would love to work for one day), has a multitude of great online resources to supplement their print material.

The most amazing of them all is their e-mail newsletter. I know it doesn’t sound fancy or different, but trust me on this one. Any other vegetarian recipe send out comes replete with cheese and eggs. While this may be fine for some, I don’t want to consume any animal products. Vegetarian Times lets you select when you sign up what you want to receive in your inbox and what you don’t. Enter your information, and choose one, some, or all of the following: Vegetarian, Vegan, Low Fat, Dairy Free, Internal Promotions, and Third Party Partners.

And know that when you receive an automatic e-mail “confirming your subscription to Vegetarian Times,” that you can trust me, and rest assured that they just chose poor wording. You have not ordered anything, only a free, sporadic e-mail.

PETA has a plethora of contests going on right now.

**First up, enter you veggie kids in the Cutest Vegetarian Kid in the Land contest. The winner will be features in Animal Times magazine, their local hometown newspaper, and will receive lots of animal-friendly goodies. All you have to do to enter is electronically send in your info with a picture of your child and a mini-bio on him or her. Don’t worry mom and dad - you’re off the hook. I already checked and PETA did specify that the kid has to be 12 or under.

**Living kid-free, or have ugly kids that won’t win a cute contest (just kidding!)? Try your hand a designing an online ad for PETA. Send in your simple or elaborate, professional or newbie advertisement by September 24 for a chance to be one of the top 10 finalists who will be featured on blogs around the Internet as well as PETA.org. The winner will receive an Apple gift card for $500, and the other finalists will all receive Apple gift cards for $20. Additionally, anyone who creates an (appropriate) ad should feel free to send it to me and I will post it here - just a leave a comment letting me know that you made one and I will reply to you personally.

**In the easiest-to-enter, just-fill-out-the-form contest, you can win a $25 gift certificate and a pair of one-of-a-kind PETA “Fur Free” tweezers, all from e.l.f. Cosmetics.

**Umm … and you can win $100 worth of Thomas the Tank Engine products for not taking your family to circuses with animals. I’m sure they’ll take the lead paint out before they send it to you.