Eating Consciously

These oatmeal cookies are not only super sustaining, but super-healthy as far as cookies go. They're a good source of healthy fats, high in protein, and moderate in sugar making them sweet, but not too sweet. Great for breakfast, or with soycream! The blackstrap molasses provides an almost buttery flavor and beautiful color. Super Oatmeal Cookies 2 TBS flax seeds (ground) 1/3 C water 1/2 C canola oil 1/4 blackstrap molasses 1 C brown sugar (firmly packed) 1 tsp vanilla 1 C whole wheat pastry flour 3/4 C whole wheat flour 1/2 C shredded coconut 3 C rolled oats 3/4 tsp baking soda 3/4 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1 C dried cranberries (optional) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flax seeds and water until frothy. Add oil, molasses, sugar, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together pastry flour, flour, coconut, oats, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cranberries (optional). Add dry to wet ingredients and stir t...

Today was a great day to break out the novelty textured-soy meats. My partner and I enjoyed a quick, vegan Memorial Day meal complete with cookies and ice cream! Check out what we had: Tofupups sizzling over some caramelizing onions! All the condiments! Voila! It wouldn't be complete without cookies and cream soycream and a homemade oatmeal cookie! Don't worry, I'll be sure and post the recipe for those Oatmeal Cookies tomorrow!

I submitted this as an op-ed piece to the Philadelphia Inquirer, after reading a recent published article about happy meat, called the Humane Factor. I'll let you know if it gets published. "As a nutrition student, I understand how deeply rooted and engrained our eating practices become over time. Yet recently, I have also noticed that many people are making a conscious shift towards humane animal products. After speaking with various individuals who purchase these products, the general consensus seems to be that the humane label takes back some of the guilt involved in consuming food derived from animals. According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, humane is defined as marked by compassion, sympathy, or consideration for humans or animals. Most of us would agree that killing another being for any purpose other than survival, regardless of how it was treated during life, is hardly considered compassionate or sympathetic. When we hear humane as it relates to animal pr...

I always hear people make the argument that eating locally grown meats are just oh, so good for the environment. Yet, how far the food has traveled is almost irrelevant when you factor in the nitrous oxide and methane produced by raising livestock. Not to mention the amount of unnecessary energy used to produce animal products. According to a recent study in Environmental Science and Technology, a completely local diet is the equivalent to driving 1,000 miles less per year, but a vegan diet is the equivalent of driving 8,120 less per year. Imagine if we were vegan locavores! So, the next time your criticized by an "earth-saving" locavore, it may be useful to remind them that their actions are not particularly coinciding with their beliefs. Is eating local helpful? Absolutely. Is it a means to an end? Absolutely not! Go vegans! Read the full article here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11662.cfm

Two years ago, I would have never thought that today I would be a vegan, or actively participating in animal activism. But I am. I can remember eating animal products as a child and I can also remember when I was about 10 deciding to take red meat and pork of my plate. To this day, I cannot explain what really prompted me to do that and although I was still consuming poultry, dairy, and sea animals, for some reason I never looked backed on red meat and pork. About two years ago, my partner, who was an omnivore at the time, began sifting through information on the internet and one day told me that we was going vegetarian. Of course, once I looked at the information he had discovered, I too gave up poultry and called myself a vegetarian. We were still both consuming fish and dairy. Six months to a year later, we began researching even more information and it became obvious that our eating habits did not reflect our moral and ethical beliefs. We needed to go vegan. I remember the...

Incase you missed it, I wanted to mention the article about the Veggie Pride Parade published in the New York Times today! My friend, Lisa Melian, has a quote in the article too. There's a picture of her in my post from yesterday, she and her boyfriend dressed in fabulous cow costumes! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/nyregion/19pride.html?scp=1&sq=veggie+pride&st=nyt Now for the food! This is a lunch I make often because it only takes about 20 minutes from start to finish! Today, I went the extra mile and made a quick guacamole and sour cream. For the tacos: 1 can diced tomatoes 1/2 C water 4 cloves garlic (crushed) 1/2 C TVP 2 C frozen bell pepper strips 1 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp chili powder 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper salt and pepper (to taste) This is so easy, just throw everything into a pan and cook over med-high heat for about 10-15 minutes until everything is hot and the TVP is soft. For the guacamole: 1 ripe avocado (diced) 1/2 small onion (diced) salt and pepper Mix toge...

Today marked the first annual Veggie Pride Parade in NYC and it was GREAT! I went with my partner and some fellow friends to celebrate our vegan lifestyle and raise awareness as we paraded the streets with signs, costumes, and chants. We marched from the meat packing district to Washington Square where we had vegan food, exhibitors, live music, and speakers such as Karen Davis, founder of United Poultry Concerns. Most importantly, Viva Vegie Society of NYC coordinated the entire event, mostly by Pamela Rice, the group's founder. Please feel free to send her an email to thank them for this important event she constructed @ pamela@vivavegie.com. Here are some photo's from today's events! I'm on the left!

Okay, so maybe it's just strawberries over vanilla cake with soy whipped cream, but it's to die for! Even if you're not going to top it with strawberries and whipped cream, this vanilla cake recipe can be used for anything. I just experimented with this cake recipe last night and it's probably the best vanilla cake I've ever eaten! I'm not just saying that because I made it either. Also, if you can get your strawberries organic, this is one of the places I try not to skimp since strawberries rank at number 89, only second to peaches on the 100 point pesticide rating scale. Better yet, grow your own! Strawberry "Shortcake" 1 TBS ground flax seeds 1/2 C water 1 C sugar 1 3/4 C soy milk 1/2 C canola oil 1 1/2 TSP vanilla extract 2 1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour 2 1/2 TSP baking powder 1/2 TSP salt 1 LB strawberries (quartered) 2 TBS agave nectar Soy Whipping Cream (I usually only whip enough to serve, that way you're not wasting an entire package...

I think as we move forward and stay true to our commitment of not exploiting animals, we sometimes begin to accept it as our way of life and tend to forget those things that really got us moving in this direction. I can remember being a vegetarian and not seeing anything wrong with eating fish and cheese. I can also remember when I began to discover the horrors of animal exploitation in all areas that they can be used as products. That was when I made a conscious effort to eliminate all animal products from my life because I knew my actions needed to support my ethics and values. I vividly remember the first time I saw Earthlings. For me, and many I know, it was a life-changing film. I know it's hard to watch for many people, but for those who need to touch base with that surge of energy that sent them into a vegan lifestyle in the first place, watching that film definitely does the trick. In my opinion, it's our most powerful visual tool to show others if they're wi...

I know, it's been 11 days since my last post! I apologize, but I've been extremely busy with finals and my new internship. My internship is at a nursing home of all places and you would be mortified to see the stuff they feed these people. Fried foods, pizza, burgers, veal, jello with cool-whip, and anything else you can imagine that would be detrimental to your health. I'm sure this is thanks to government subsidies, but enough with my rant on that. Since I've been running low on time, I really need some quick, delicious meals when I get home late at night. The less clean up, the better obviously. Here's a spectacular dish that incorporates everyone's favorite food, Brussels Sprouts! Okay, that was obviously sarcastic, but seriously, these brussels sprouts are amazing. If you think you don't like them, try them roasted, they take on an artichoke-type texture. If you really don't like them, use broccoli. To keep this recipe as quick as possible...

These cookies are very rich and moist. Feel free to swap out the whole wheat flour for whole wheat pastry flour and also feel free to swap out the brown sugar with white. 1 C whole wheat pastry flour 1/2 C whole wheat flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 C soy milk 1 TBS ground flax seeds 1/2 C canola oil 1/4 C blackstrap molasses 1/3 C sugar 1/3 C brown sugar 1 TSP vanilla 1/4 TSP peppermint oil 1 C vegan chocolate chips Combine the dry ingredients and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk the flax seeds and soy milk until thick and creamy. Add the canola oil, molasses, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and peppermint oil. Mix thoroughly. Add dry to wet ingredients and mix to combine. Ass the chocolate chips and stor to incorporate them evenly. Put into a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool on cookie sheet for an addition 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.