Comments (14)

By kilax, November 24, 2009 5:00 am

If you don’t already read the Well blog on the New York Times, I highly recommend you do. The blog is focused on health and wellness topics and updates a few times a day. I always find the articles interesting.

Yesterday, the author linked to an interesting article called “Food, Kin and Tension at Thanksgiving.” I recommend reading it. You’ll either find it amusing, or that it hits too close to home and makes you dread the upcoming holiday meals.

The article is about all of the family drama that happens during holiday meal times – people commenting on you eating too little, people commenting on you eating too much, people sneaking stuff into your food*, people telling you to quit eating so fast, etc. The article gives specific examples, some of which I find ridiculous, like this story:

A Long Island woman, who like others interviewed for this column didn’t want to be named, said she and her family traveled 12 hours by train for a summer vacation gathering with her husband’s family. When her husband asked for seconds, the sister-in-law said there wasn’t any more food.

“There was all this food around, but she had cut us off,” the woman said. “We were just really shocked we were being told you can’t eat any more after coming all this way. We found out later she really controlled food in the household.”

Whoa! Kind of unbelievable, but then again, kind of NOT! People get weird about food, especially around the holidays! I know I felt territorial in my kitchen this past weekend (even though I love love LOVED that my grandma made breakfast).

Food is just so personal, but then again, it isn’t. Everyone pays attention to what other people are eating (makes me crazy) and a lot of people love to comment on it. That’s just the society we live in!

So, do you have any crazy family food drama like in the article?

I bet most of my family finds my vegan ways ridiculous! But, that is why we are hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas, suckas!** I have had people watch what I eat and tell me to eat more. Or eat meat. Or slow down. Or not to use margarine. Or hey, that is the wrong kind of baking powder! Don’t use that salt! What?! You eat SOY?!

Ha ha. The article has a pretty humorous solution at the very end. My solution? Grin and bear it then bitch to my husband later!

*Well, I added that one, but it’s happened to me!
**Just joking here.

Comments (14)

By kilax, November 23, 2009 6:57 am

This weekend, while the boys were doing this,

Steven working on the Datsun

this,

Dad working on the Datsun

and this,

Data watching over us

my mom, grandma and I were doing this,

Visiting Millennium Park (and downtown Chicago)

this,

Since Christina couldn’t be there, mom talked to her on the phone while she frosted cookies.

this,

Mom wraps the gifts while Data watches

and this,

Posing for silly photos so we won’t lose our minds

with finished products like this

Sample plate of goodies
(We ended up making vegan sugar cookies, vegan chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter kisses, peanut clusters (some vegan), caramel popcorn (some vegan), butterscotch num nums, vegan chex mix, and (pre-made) toffee)

and this.

Mica’s Prize

And now it’s all over! I’m always sad to see family (or friends) go – it’s a fun change of pace to have more people in the house. But I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t looking forward to resting and sitting on my ass tonight!

It’s funny how spending two whole days with my mom and grandma really made our similarities and differences stand out. And you could say that about spending concentrated chunks of time with anyone – not just family. Take college roommates for example. After just a full day or so together, you realize whether or not you have the same methods of doing things and whether you were raised with the same values. It’s things as simple as how you clean, or how often you clean, and how you communicate about it.

Obviously, I have more specific examples from this weekend, but I don’t think it would be nice to talk about them here. It was just interesting to me to see which family traits (or values and methods) I’ve held on to, and which I have modified. Some of it has to do with food choices, like the on-going (for years) butter vs. margarine debate, and some of it had to do with conflicting personality characteristics – not conflicting because they’re different, but because they’re the same. Maybe I can write about that at a later date.

These last two paragraphs make it sound like I didn’t have a great time, when really, I did. It’s just that I don’t see my family very often, and I rarely get them all to myself, so I just feel like our interactions are more intense, because they’re so rare.

Anyway, have you had an experience with someone else that really made your similarities and differences stand out?

And now it’s time to tackle google reader and email. How long will it take me to read 340 new posts? Ha. I’ll get through them, but don’t be surprised (or offended!) if you see me commenting on posts a few days old. I haven’t logged in to reader since Thursday night, or even spent much time on the computer.

Comments (11)

By kilax, November 19, 2009 4:30 am

I finished reading Eating Animals a few days before last night’s reading of it by the author, Jonathan Safran Foer. Woo-hoo! It was stimulating to read a new book, and to listen to the author speak.

Eating Animals Review:

Overall, I found the book to be a gentle and easy read (despite all of the words I had to look up – I need to work on my vocabulary). I was surprised by it though. So many of the reviews I read of it made me think it would be this revolutionary, in-your-face expose pushing veganism. It truly wasn’t. Yes, it did expose gruesome details of the factory farming industry, but what it really did was encourage starting a dialogue to discuss eating animals. And it did it in a gentle way, hence the use of the word above. There was no unnecessary shock in his writing – just the shock of the statistics themselves.

Foer writes in a very relateable manner, telling stories of his childhood that most of us can probably relate to – I know I can. He begins by talking about the stories we tell about food, and how we justify eating the way we do. He goes on to do interviews of some of the more humane animals farmers. He talks about how their processes are much less cruel than those on factory farms, but how they also have their flaws (and are not extremely profitable).

In the end, Foer is just asking people to think about the suffering imposed on factory farmed animals, and to take a stand against it. He encourages vegetarianism, not because he thinks it is wrong to eat animals (that is the impression I got) but because he thinks it is wrong to make animals suffer so much so that we can eat them.

There is a lot more I could say, and I definitely took A LOT of notes, but I will leave it at that for now. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the book. It may be an eye-opener for you! I was familiar with a lot of what he was saying, but it also gave me a lot of food for thought.

Eating Animals Reading:

Yay for small blurry pics… not.

Foer’s reading and discussion enforced my review of the book – he mentioned that he doesn’t think the discussion should be about whether or not it’s right or wrong to eat animals, but whether it’s right or wrong to eat animals the way we’re eating animals. He mentioned a few times that he loves the way meat tastes – but there’s things he loves more. There are things he finds more important.

He reiterated that he want to get the discussion flowing – he wants to start a conversation. I wish there would have been more time to start conversations with the audience! The whole program was about an hour, with questions in the last half. I could tell the audience was very diverse. There were actually a few agriculture people there. One of them told Foer he was impressed with the book and thinks he got it right (This guy said he thinks the meat business is going to change drastically, because it is not sustainable, and that in 20 years, eating a hamburger will be like smoking a cigarette). Foer said he’s been getting a lot of great feedback from farmers. So it seems like it’s working – the conversation has started.

Again, there are so many great points I would love to share with you, but I’m not sure they’ll make any sense, and Foer explains them better than me. I’ve never been very good at explaining things (but let me know if you want to hear more!).

Again, I encourage you to pick up a copy of the book!

Side Note: Don’t forget to enter my Homemade Holiday Sweets Giveaway!

Comments (18)

By kilax, November 14, 2009 7:49 am

The Pharaoh

It’s too soon after posting these pictures, BUT I had been eying this Pharaoh hat at Target for two months. Imagine my delight when I saw it in the Halloween clearance section last week for 75%  off ($1.25 total – not sure if it’s even worth that!).

Doesn’t it look great on Data?! He didn’t like it so much. I had to bribe him with food to wear it so I could take a picture. (I think he deserves it after trying to wake me up for 3 hours this morning.)

Killer House Plants

We have a lot of house plants in our lower level – seven of them! Two of them, somehow from across the room, decided to band together and grow super stinky, killing flower pod things (not yet bloomed) this past week. I am convinced they are trying to take over the house.

The little flower pod.

Both plants are corn plants. We have had one for at least 8 years, and the other for maybe 3. It’s curious that they are blooming now, when they never had before! I’ll let you know what they look like when they open (I imagine there will be little daggers in there, which the plants will use to attach us in our sleep).

The whole corn plant.

Nutritional Yeast Fail

Why is my pasta naked, sad and lonely?

Because it is supposed to have this on it:

A Nutritional Yeast based pasta sauce.

But one bite of that made me want to throw up. Steven tried to fix it with spices and he couldn’t.

Most of the vegan websites I read talk about using nutritional yeast to make a pseudo mac n’cheese dish. I was intrigued so I bought some and was really excited to try it. I tried this recipe from vegweb.

I don’t know if nutritional yeast is a very acquired taste, or if my stomach was just too upset after my run, but this sauce made me feel nauseous, and I lost my appetite. I am hoping I just did something wrong, or it was the wrong recipe, because I have read SO MANY raves for this product!

I felt really bad for “ruining” dinner. I am pretty sensitive in the kitchen, since I am not a very good chef. I need lots of praise and good feedback to keep me going (ha ha). Luckily, Steven was not upset about it. But I think we will be making something “safer” for dinner tonight!

Comments (16)

By kilax, November 12, 2009 5:34 am

Oops, I am so used to saying “no thanks” to people trying to hand me things in downtown Chicago, that when a when a woman tried to give me a $10 Dunkin’ Donuts giftcard on Monday, I said “no thanks” without even thinking about.

My mother would be so dissapointed.

Even though I wouldn’t use it (I don’t drink coffee and I don’t believe they have vegan options), I am sure I could have found someone whould have (perhaps my donut afficionado husband?).

Oops.

Comments (12)

By kilax, November 4, 2009 6:02 am

I did something I haven’t done in awhile – brought an actual book with me to read on the train! Since I bought my baby computer back in March, that is really all I have brought with me for entertainment during the hour and twenty minutes (x2) commute. I use it to check emails, and surf the internet, but mostly, just to read blogs. I try to get all of that done on the train so that when I get home I can just chill with Steven, and leave the computer off.

I feel bad though! I have so many books at home (loaned to me), and here I am, choosing to read blogs during my commuting time, instead of books (to my credit, I try to read books at home, right now, it’s Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life). Blogs and books both keep me engaged and entertained, but is one better for me than the other? Hmm…

Anyway, that is not what I came here to write about today (on my commute, on my baby computer). Last week, I read on many blogs (ha) about the new book from Jonathan Safran Foer – Eating Animals. A small excerpt from the amazon description says, “Eating Animals explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits-from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth-and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting.” Check out the amazon site for a full description.

A lot of bloggers were writing about Natalie Portman’s post on the Huffington Post about how reading it made her vegan (if you have an hour or so to kill, the comments on that post are pretty heated and interesting). I was somewhat intrigued with her post, but didn’t think much of it.

But mention of the book keep popping up everywhere! Someone even pointed out that three vegan books, including this one (the other two are on my wishlist, wink wink), are in the Amazon Top 100 list. And yesterday, another blogger mentioned that the author of Eating Animals was doing a tour. I excitedly clicked over and saw that he would be in Chicago on November 18th, at the library that is two blocks from my office! (Event information is here).

I love, love, loved seeing speakers when I was at Iowa State University. I went to see Obama, Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock, and countless others. I miss doing things like that! Steven was really enthusiastic about going to the reading as well, so he picked up a copy of the book for us to read before (and hopefully get signed!). Last night, I told Steven I hope there are some debates in the audience – it will be interesting to see what people have to say about this book!

Whoops. That story ended up a bit LONG.

So the big question is, am I going to read this, or use the baby computer to read blogs? For this early morning commute, it looks like the book wins – this pos computer didn’t charge last night!

Comments (19)

By kilax, October 28, 2009 7:11 am

The interesting thing about the vegan diet is that if you let it, it can be FULL of variety. I feel like I actually eat a larger variety of food now than I did when I was a vegetarian, or even a meat-eater. This happens because you begin to look to different sources for the nutrients you need. You begin to try new things, and it develops a curiosity about food that keeps you exploring.

I have to admit though, it didn’t start out like this. I did my research, and I started a vegan diet on June 15th, but it took awhile to figure it all out. I’m still figuring it all out. In the beginning, it was really Steven who was pushing me to eat cups of spinach a day (only a slight exaggeration) and multiple servings of beans, among other things. Damn, can’t I just eat oreos, swedish fish, and wafers (all vegan)?

Now, I am really starting to get into researching vegan recipes (I have my eye on The Kind Diet and The Conscious Cook). I am really enjoying trying new things.

But here’s the problem – I am afraid of cooking. I love to research the recipes, but bringing them to life? That’s something I usually expect Steven to do. Which is NOT FAIR (even though he usually loves to cook).

A few Sundays ago, I really wanted to try a recipe from the vegan cookbook that Gina got me for my birthday – Vegan Italiano. I read through all of the pasta recipes, and found one that sounded appetizing and didn’t call for any ingredients that we didn’t have. Then, I showed it to Steven, expecting him to be excited to cook it and… he wasn’t! He was in the middle of working on something when dinner time came around, and he was worn out.

So I tepidly made my way into the kitchen, read the recipe about 6,000 times, and put all of the ingredients out on the counter. Oh no! I told Steven the recipe called for 6-8 garlic cloves and we only had two. He politely informed me that we had two garlic bulbs, not cloves. Ha! That would have been one garlic-y dish and I would have used those two “cloves.”

I made the dish, with minimal supervision, and it turned out really good! I was so pleased with myself. It encouraged me to think that I might actually be able to cook things on my own some day! I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to put a dish together without a recipe, like Steven, but there’s hope…

I forget the name of the dish, but it was a garlic-broccoli sauce! Edited to add: the breaded stuff is Boca Chik’n! Yummy!

I think that as a vegan, it is important for me to learn how to cook, so that I can take care of myself (duh), but also so that I can share these wonderful recipes with family and friends… and hopefully help them realize that vegan food is not “gross” or “weird.”

Comments (15)

By kilax, October 26, 2009 7:43 am

I distinctly remember spending the night at my grandma’s house as a kid, and having her ask me if I wanted butter on my food – my toast, my (plain) pasta, my pancakes in the morning, etc.

Because of this, I grew up thinking butter was healthy for you. I figured, with my kid logic, that you added it to your food because it contained vitamins that you needed. I mean, why else would Grandma be asking me if I wanted some?

I also thought that fresh broccoli could only be served with melted cheese. Because every time I had broccoli at her house, it had cheese on it! Who ever knew these two items could be served apart!

Of course, now I realize those meals were just treats! And my grandma loved to treat us! And just so I don’t tarnish her name, I will let you know that she always made us eat a salad before dinner (loaded with ranch dressing – my choice, ha!), and that the food she cooks now is actually much healthier… uh, sometimes too healthy.

I think of this story every time I hear someone say something like “I don’t know what foods are healthy and should be in my diet” or “I can’t eat carbs!” Because my immediate reaction is surprise that people don’t have a general idea of what is healthy to eat, and that they fall for food myths like “carbs are evil” and “you can never have treats.”

But then I remember – I once believed butter was a health food! So, we only really know what we are told or witness first hand as we grow up. Some people probably end up with really distorted views about food, depending on how they are raised.

And even as we do become adults and try to do our own research and live a healthy life, who really knows what source we can trust? It seems like different “findings” come out each week, contradicting one another. Get 2-3 servings of fruit a day versus Limit your fruit intake! Too much sugar is bad for you!

Even when you eat a somewhat healthy diet, there are people telling you to eat raw, eat organic, eat less of this, eat more of that!

I think we all just need to do the best we can, with the tools/resources we have. Sure, you want to nourish your body now, so you get the most longevity and comfort out of it throughout your lifespan, but food shouldn’t be stressful. Too much stress can be just as unhealthy as a bad diet!

Hmm, this post took a strange turn! I actually wasn’t planning on those last few paragraphs. That is what happens when you forget your filter. I just meant to ask – did you have any silly food beliefs growing up? Or even as an adult?

Comments (19)

By kilax, October 13, 2009 5:35 am

This cold weather has been making me hungry for something warm… like chili!

I found this vegan chili recipe the other day, so we* Steven made it on Monday night. We made the recipe as written, but added 1/2 teaspoon of dried jalapeños. Yum yum yum. It turned out SO GOOD**. I love chili with a lot of beans and this one did not disappoint!

Apparently, cornbread goes with chili? This was news to me, but when Steven asked me to find a recipe for vegan cornbread, I all of a sudden started craving it.

We used this recipe from vegweb, but used 2 tablespoons of milled flaxseed mixed with 3-4 tablespoons of warm water in place of the egg replacer. Oh gosh. Fresh, hot cornbread… drooool. It turned out really good. I am not sure how long the leftovers are going to last.

Do you have staple dishes that you make over and over? We often have soy burger sandwiches or salads for dinner, but once a week, we usually make one of “our dishes” – our “Pad Siew” or refried beans with rice. We end up making these dishes when our family comes to visit too. It would be nice to add chili to that list of “our dishes.”

*I was sent to pick up cornmeal and was in charge of opening the cans of beans when I got back.
**And it made the house smell SUPER GOOD!!!

Comments (8)

By kilax, September 16, 2009 4:07 pm

DC  is full of runners. I see them every where, no matter the time of day.

It’s making me sad. I really wanted to run here.

I just got done charging another classmate’s 405 (she forgot her charger), then I showed her a bunch of little tricks in the settings. We brought our 405. It will be used for WALKING. LAME-O.

Anyway.

Steven arrived here on Monday night and spent Tuesday exploring the Mall…

The White House

The Washington Monument & Reflecting Pool

The Lincoln Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Capitol

… while I was in class. My evenings have been more focused on the “culinary” side of DC – both good and bad.

Last night, we visited Sticky Fingers, an all-vegan bakery. There must be places like this in Chicago too! I just need to find them.

Sticky Fingers

We got a chocolate chip cookie, an oatmeal raisin cookie, a brownie with nuts, a brownie without nuts, and a white cupcake with strawberry frosting. I had a migraine and only ate part of the chocolate chip cookie (Steven ate some and the nut brownie). It tasted really buttery. I am looking forward to trying some of the other treats while I am here.

Vegan Bakery Selection

After we went to Sticky Fingers, we had to stop and get custard for my coworker who claims to not like any sweets except ice cream. WEIRD!

I don’t know how these food bloggers do it. Whenever I take a picture of my food, my coworker is asking why I am doing it (none of my coworkers know I have a website), so I tell her it’s to show to my mom. I can’t imagine taking pictures of every meal and having people constantly ask me that. Well, I can’t imagine taking pictures of my every meal for A LOT of reasons.

I feel like I have been all over DC and have a really good feel for the layout of the city, but I wish this wasn’t such an artificial trip. I think I would (obviously) enjoy it more if I was here on holiday, rather than business. At least I get to live vicariously through Steven!