Cobbler and Cookies

Okay so I figure it's time for another food update.

One of my semi-recent adventures was making a blackberry-peach cobbler using this recipe.
However, rather than 3 cups frozen berries, I used 1 and a half cups fresh-picked blackberries (from bushes around town) and one fresh peach cut up. I think I also cut down on the sugar, maybe even halved it... that's a lot of sugar and it really didn't need it that much with the sweetness of the berries and the peach.

I ended up making extra cobbler dough at the end because the fruit mixture looked too liquidy and I felt like there wouldn't be enough cakey stuff to hold it all together. So I may have almost doubled the original first part of the recipe by the end... 

Here's a really bad picture of the finished product. It was yummy and took me forever to eat in between bouts of fighting off the colds in the air right now.

I also made cookies for the Harry Potter Club bake sale but I ended up forgetting to bring them, so there's still some in my fridge that need to be eaten... Here's the recipe for those. I used pecans instead of walnuts because they're way better than walnuts and less people are allergic to pecans. I also threw out the raisins in favor of dried cranberries.

Mine aren't as pretty as the ones on DVA because I didn't have any plastic bags to use as squirty-things to do the decorating. What I had to do was, after melting the vegan chocolate chips, I stirred my spoon around until a thin tendril of chocolate was hanging off it, then carefully laid that tendril down on the cookie, stirred until I got another little tendril, and so on. Thanks to Danielle for this idea, she was the one who figured it out. 

Here's the chocolate chips I used. I don't know how much they cost normally, since I got them at Deals Only which often cuts prices of specialty items in half or even in thirds. 

One warning about these cookies. They're kind of greasy... when we put them in a paper bag the oil soaked into the sides. No, vegan does not automatically mean low-fat. Just low-saturated-fat (unless there's coconut milk involved). Sure were yummy though.

The Trouble With Caring

Hi guys. I'm feeling kind of down today, so I thought I'd try to write and see if that cheers me up.

The trouble with being an activist is that it means being discontent. There are a lot of times when I just wish I lived in a different world, when I wish I could go back to the simple view of the world where everything was okay and all I had to worry about was whether or not I could convince mom to give me enough computer time to roleplay to my heart's content. When music and art, family, friends and church were my entire world, and the world was therefore a wonderful place full of magic. When there wasn't anything I was fighting for except preserving what I already had. I was content with life.

Sometimes I wish I could go back to that sense of peace, of sanctuary. I wish I could shut off the part of my brain that looks at every experience, every book, every conversation, every meal, as something which can be socially critiqued and dissected to show the state of the human mind at any given age in history. I wish I could go to church without thinking about all the pain and alienation which is propagated by some of the ways people think about and discuss the gospel... I wish I could just focus on my own spiritual life as if I lived in a vacuum and my actions didn't affect everyone else. I wish I could think of Thanksgiving with warm fuzzies, without thinking about all the animal deaths and suffering that goes into that warm and happy family time.

But I can't. Yes, I still have spiritual warm fuzzy moments, I still enjoy holidays and spending time with my family. But it's not the same as it used to be, when I was blissful in my ignorance.

Now that I have become aware of these things, I can't just ignore them. They never completely go away.

So by opening my mind to these issues, have I doomed myself to a lifetime of never being fully at peace? Well... now that very sense of pain is my motivation. People never seek to change something if they're happy with how it is. I think in order to become an activist, I had to realize that the world as it currently is, is not the kind of world I want to live in. Things could be so much better. So the only way I can be at peace is if I feel that I am moving the world, or at least trying to move it, in the direction of that better world, where these issues will finally be laid to rest. Where violence will not be commonplace.

I think a lot of people find their peace with the world through accepting things as they are. That's why it's so hard to get people to think about certain things--it upsets their peace of mind. But if nobody was ever upset about how things were, they would never change. If all women everywhere always accepted that their husbands had a right to beat them, women would never have asked for equal human rights, and to be valued the same as men. If all slaves and slave masters had accepted that their relationship through slavery was the natural order of things, slavery would never have been abolished. Basically, if no one had ever suffered by opening their minds up to the possibility that the world is in fact NOT the way it should be, we would still be in the dark ages.

Yeah, I get exhausted by having to force myself to speak out. I am not a naturally confrontational person. I HATE upsetting people, even if maybe it needs to happen sometimes. I also am not very confident and easily doubt myself. But there is something inside me that keeps pushing. "SPEAK! SPEAK! SPEAK!"

It's annoying, but I think it's because I know I will never be at peace unless I am trying to move the world forward. I wish ignoring problems actually made them go away, but I know that life doesn't work that way.

All I can do is hope that God carries me through and gives me the strength to keep going. Because it's a lot better to be riding upright on the horse, rather than dragged by the stirrup.

I Know God Loves Me Because...

Today at church we had the Primary Program. In the LDS church, Primary is the class for children under 12 years old. So, the Primary Program is put together yearly so that those children have speaking and singing parts in Sacrament Meeting, the main meeting of the 3-hour church block. It's usually really cute and stuff.

There was a part in today's program where all the children were saying why they knew God or Jesus loved them. Some of them were goshdarn cute, while others were slightly puzzling with their childlike logic.

Well, one stood out to me.

"I know God loves me because if he didn't, he never would have made me."

That's actually a really effective statement. First of all, you can feel good about yourself because you know, as one other person put it at church "God don't make no junk". Second of all, you can use that to look at other people and realize God loves them too (and so should you).

Third, you can use it to look at everything God has made, and realize that God loves all of it, or he never would have made it. So, that includes animals. Yes. Even snakes and spiders. God loves them. What kind of twisted God would make something he doesn't love? Our God is not like that. At least mine isn't.

I know God loves animals because if he didn't, he never would have made them.

Yay for kids. Sometimes it's good to look at things simply.

Does Intelligence Determine Worth?

I need to share some thoughts, so this might seem a little disjointed at first, but bear with me.

I ran into two articles on the internet today. One was on MSNBC about three people who were keeping four mentally disabled adults chained up in a basement with only a jug of orange juice and some buckets to go to the bathroom in. I think it said something about how the perpetrators might have wanted to use their victims' identification and other information to get money or something. In any case, looking at the 200+ comments on the article, people were pretty outraged and disgusted at this crime, some saying the criminals should be treated the same way as they treated their victims.

Once upon a time, the mentally handicapped were not so well thought of in society, nor so well protected. Once upon a time, limits on a person's mental functioning also meant limits on the worth of that person's life. It's wonderful to see that this is, for the most part, no longer the case. People see the mentally disabled as real people who deserve protection and love. Varying levels of intelligence have no real influence on our judgment of the worth of fellow human beings.We see what these criminals did as unacceptable, perhaps even more despicable because their victims were childlike and vulnerable... exploiting them for their own purposes is generally agreed to be wrong.

Will there be a time when the same can be said for animals? People justify exploiting animals because human beings have a higher intellectual capacity than other animals. Smart adult animals have about the same mental capacity as human children... probably roughly similar to what these adult victims have. Animals are vulnerable and childlike in many ways. But we see them as inferior because of having less mental capacity. So, it's okay for us to lock them in concrete or steel enclosures for extended periods of time, letting them live in their own waste, without regard for their emotional health, without regard for their physical suffering. Because they're not as smart as we are. And there's money to be made off them.

Why is it different? Because we're human, and they're not? Is it just because we only look out for our own kind? How is that so different from saying it's okay to enslave people of other races, because we're white, and they're not?

Well, some people get outraged when they see videos of abuse at meat, egg, and dairy farms... but they don't believe that this sort of thing happens all the time. They think it's just an isolated incident... they say the individual person beating the animal should be arrested, and this is often true, but there's more going on than just one case of a single psychotic farm worker. They can't see, or else choose to ignore the fact that it's the industry itself which is encouraging this abuse. It's the way we think about animals. As objects. As inferior because of intelligence, because of a different physical shape or color... or something.

I wish there were some way to open people's eyes, and get them thinking. What is the difference, really?

The other thing I read today was a post from the Action for Animals newsfeed on my facebook page. As much as I dislike bringing up the Holocaust.... It talks about how some people didn't want to believe that the concentration camps of the Holocaust were real, and that it was just individual, evil officers in isolated incidents of abuse. Looking back now, most people agree that the concentration camps were real, and that thousands of people died there, because they were seen as inferior. It was the way that people thought about the Jews, the mentally disabled, and other "Others" which brought about this black mark in history.

The beginnings of this kind of tragedy still live inside of all of us. Any time we think of another living being as inferior, as an object which can be disposed of at our whims, which has no inherent value in itself... we are echoing the root cause, the spirit of the Holocaust.

So I invite you to read it, and think about it. It's not very long. Just think about it. What is the difference? Is there one?

The Article: We Can't See The Truth Through Rose-Colored Glasses.

In This Beautiful World...

So, as a disclaimer, I don't mean to offend anyone with this comic. I just had to get some feelings out, about an experience I had while watching General Conference at the institute. This was the Saturday Afternoon session.
Also, the last two panels did not happen in reality, they're just a sort of "IF I said everything I thought, this is what might happen" thing, and my paranoia about how other people respond to my veganness. It's really easy to get called a militant vegan when really you're just... being a vegan. And not even trying to be vegan in anybody's face. It's just that everybody's being non-vegan in your face... yeah okay now I'm starting to sound all cynical like other vegan bloggers and I don't mean to be, this is just for fun!
Ironically, in the Sunday Afternoon session, no one was eating chicken, but one of the speakers talked about eating chicken as an answer to his prayer.... I'm still trying to digest that one (no pun intended).

 Since blogger shrinks the picture down so that you can't read it... um. Here's a link to a big one.

Creamy Lentil Soup

So I've been keeping up the cooking groove fairly well for the last couple of weeks, and yesterday I tried out this recipe: Creamy Lentil Soup (Dal Shorva)

The only changes I made was using half canola oil and half earth balance for the vegan margarine part... I omitted the pepper, and used ground cumin rather than cumin seeds. I also didn't shred the onion, I diced it instead... and I didn't blend the lentil stuff either since it boiled down to a mush pretty quickly and I saw no point. It was really good and simple to make. Of course, I put lots of cilantro on mine because... cilantro just makes everything taste better (well, not everything, but stuff like this). Here's a picture I took, so you can see the finished product (it made about 4 big bowls like this).

Ethics and Doctrine

I want to start this post by saying that I had a wonderful weekend once I got past that incident on Friday with the bird and the laughing guy. Me and Danielle cooked up a storm on Saturday, went to the Bellingham Farmer's Market, and walked home in the sunshine. Fast and Testimony meeting at church was really beautiful... everyone's messages really centered on Jesus Christ as a personal force in their lives, and how knowing that he loves us no matter what we do should help us to extend that same kind of unconditional love to others, and to be patient and trusting in times of difficulty. I felt the spirit really strongly. So, overall, I am feeling happy and at peace lately. I think that meeting also helped me to forgive the laughing guy. I understand that he is also a child of God--I can disapprove of his actions but still recognize his worth to God... or at least, I took a step toward that on Sunday, and it made me feel better, which is half the purpose of forgiving someone anyway xP in my opinion.

The sunday school lesson gave me some questions to think about though. The regular teacher of the class is the Bishop's wife... is very friendly and thoughtful, and has just the sort of personality where she is always direct and unapologetic in stating her opinion and understanding of things. This includes statements about the church. We were reading Hebrews chapter 5, verses 12-14.

Verse 12 says "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat."

I'm just going to ignore the obvious vegan thoughts I inevitably have about the use of milk and meat as symbols of spiritual growth... xP Besides it being based on the culture of the time so that the people then could understand it, there is a reference later to those drinking milk as being babes, so it's obvious they were drinking breastmilk, which is completely natural, healthy, and ethical for babies to do. Meat is also often used in the scriptures as a catch-all term for any kind of solid food. So it doesn't bug me.

So the basic interpretation of this verse is that Paul is telling the Hebrews that they should be the ones teaching doctrine to all the other Christians, but right now they can't, they need to be taught again the bare basics of it all, the most important stuff. In my opinion this means the plain facts of Christ and his teachings and purpose on earth.

Verses 13-14: "For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

This seems kind of weird to me... if the basics of the gospel (the milk) center on Christ and his teachings, then how does using that mean we're "unskilful in the word of righteousness"? I think those who focus most on Christ and his teachings are more likely to understand what true righteousness (right living) is, rather than those who get caught up in the appendages, the complicated details, the "strong meat". If strong meat is for those who "by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil", that suggests to me that it is those who have used the milky core of a focus on Christ and his loving nature to interpret the rest of the doctrine who are most likely to clearly discern good and evil. Therefore they are the ones who are skillful in the word of righteousness.

The teacher then spent a very large chunk of class time focusing on a Bruce R. McConkie quote. I will be honest and say that I have no great fondness for Elder McConkie, and I spent a very conflicted evening praying after an institute lesson in which he was cited as saying that the Catholic church is run by the devil and is the "great and abominable church" who is the "whore of all the earth" as mentioned in the Book of Mormon. (There is no way that I can believe this, after observing the Catholic church and its members firsthand. It also contradicts Moroni 7:13)

Nevertheless I listened to the quote since it is from a former Apostle and this is some of what it said:

"We are to teach the principles of the gospel. We are to teach the doctrines of salvation. We have some passing interest in ethical principles but not a great deal as far as emphasis in teaching is concerned. If we teach the doctrines of salvation, the ethical concepts automatically follow. We do not need to spend long periods of time or make elaborate presentations in teaching honesty or integrity or unselfishness or some other ethical principle. Any Presbyterian can do that. Any Methodist can do that. But if we teach the doctrines of salvation, which are basic and fundamental, the ethical concepts automatically follow. It is the testimony and knowledge of the truth that causes people to reach high ethical standards in any event....
"We should teach the gospel. We should teach the gospel only. We should teaching nothing but the gospel. Ethics are a part of the gospel, but they will take care of themselves if we preach the gospel. Teach doctrine. Teach sound doctrine. Teach the doctrines of the kingdom...."

Okay so... I am having difficulty with a few things in this passage. First is that we as Latter-day Saints should have only a passing interest in questions of ethics. I think that in our current state, many people are far more concerned with figuring out where Kolob is than trying to look into the unseen corners of their lives where they might be able to make some small change that will make their daily actions more ethical. There are many good LDS people who do use the doctrines of the church to enhance their consciences and explore the tough questions of life. But I guess what I'm saying is that we should all be careful what doctrines we focus on, and think about why those doctrines are important in the greater ethical scheme of things. Only then will ethical concepts immediately follow doctrinal learning as McConkie suggests.

In any case I do believe that people must experience a change of heart at some point in order to truly change their lives in a meaningful way, especially when it comes to veganism and a commitment to nonviolence. I know that was a spiritual experience for me, and I think part of that was that I connected it with my understanding of Christ, and yes... even allowed it to modify my understanding of his love and purpose for all that he has created. It has been and continues to be a strange and sometimes difficult road, but it is always rewarding. Things like this, concerns about statements like this spoken by General Authorities will still keep cropping up the further along I go, but I have to take them into what I know of Christ--I have to try to measure what they say against the God I have come to know. And continue to ask questions, and ponder.

Search, ponder, and pray, I guess xP

A day in the life: Good and Bad

This post is a small example of how an average day as a Vegan LDS person goes for me. It's a true story, and happened today.

So, for those who aren't LDS, Institute is where college-age LDS people go on weekdays to socialize with other college-age LDS people and sit in lessons having to do with church topics. The Institute next to Western Washington University (my college) has a thing called Friday Forum. It's where people can come on Friday afternoon for a free lunch and listen to a speaker or do an activity.

Last year I only came to Friday Forum intermittently because I never knew if there would be anything other than salad for me to eat. I'm the only vegan at the Institute, so I don't expect them to plan their meals around me. I would often eat something before coming, just in case. But it was also difficult for me to sit next to a bunch of people who were eating meat. Meat is something I have a hard time being around. Imagine being in a room full of body parts. That's a little bit of how it feels. Inevitably you start thinking about how those body parts were once a living thing that was then hacked up into pieces.

But, usually there isn't so much meat that I can't stand being there. This year, we have a new missionary couple who is really nice. The first day of the class I decided to go to, "The Gospel and the Productive Life", I was the only one who showed up. Thus, by a twist of fate, I got to tell them a lot more about myself than I've ever told anyone at the Institute. I was wearing a "Vegan Power" temporary tattoo on my cheek, and when they asked me about my major I started talking passionately about Cultural Studies and how important it is to understand the lived experiences of people who are different from us... and how that works into my approach to the church. Somehow the topic came around to veganism and how that tied in to that, because it was around when I became Vegan (while going to BYU-Hawaii, an LDS school) that I was also learning how to empathize with difference and what it was like to be a minority. I was a racial minority in the town I lived in, in Hawaii... I was a minority on campus because I was a vegan, and I was a religious minority in the rest of Hawaii which was fairly nonreligious, or at least nonChristian. Similarly I am a religious minority at Western and I am also still a minority because of being vegan....

So, we got off to a good start. Today I was very touched, because they went out of their way to make today's meal edible for me. They had previously asked me to give them a small list of meals which could easily be veganized (like spaghetti with two separate sauces, burrito bars, things like that), so I had, and included a little information about Earth Balance and Vegenaise. So, we were having Hawaiian Haystacks today and they showed me that they had bought a thing of Earth Balance, Vegenaise, and Coconut Milk (the pourable kind) just for me. I mixed them all together with the rice to make it creamy and it was much more enjoyable with the vegetables and pineapple than it would have been as just plain rice. I was really glad. This made me feel welcome and more comfortable in the group. It was a wonderful positive experience which connected positive LDS values with positive vegan values.

Afterward, I was hanging out in the couch/socializing area near the doors and having a pleasant conversation with one of the other girls about favorite TV shows, bands, and books. Suddenly everyone is crowding around the doors and I go over there to find out that a bird has flown into them and was lying on the sidewalk looking pretty dead.

Someone said "that is so funny" and I said "that's really sad, it's not funny at all!"
Then this one guy started joking about how he waxes his windows really clean hoping that birds will kill themselves running into them. I said "my respect for you has just dropped by 50 percent." Which was an understatement. He said "Good!" but then continued to make jokes about the bird.

But really, this type of comment is the quickest way to make me consider any future friendship with such a person impossible. It produces the same result of horror in me as hearing someone joke about child sexual abuse would produce for most normal people who have a conscience.

I went and got a paper towel so I could move the bird somewhere else, out of the way where it could die in peace. The girl I was talking to earlier was already out there with her gloves on, and she helped me put it on the paper towel and lay it over in the ivy. When we got back the joking guy said "I like how you just left the napkin under it" and I tried to explain that I was afraid to pull it out from under the bird because if it was only stunned and its neck or spine was injured that could make it worse. But he said something like "right, don't want to pull it out and send it flying--whoops!" and laughed again.

It is really difficult for me to not feel angry when someone speaks this way, so disrespectfully. Encountering someone like this at an LDS institute is really disappointing. I understand that the church is not a collection of perfect people... but I know that the root of this kind of behavior comes from a belief that certain things or being are not worth respecting. I find it very disturbing and sad. I could hardly stand staying in the same room with this person and as I am sitting here writing this his presence across the room is still making me uncomfortable.

I guess one thing which is an obvious lesson from this experience, one which I have already learned, is that the world is not divided cleanly into black and white. It's unlikely that one can walk into an LDS institute and find it full of people who only feel Christlike love and compassion for their fellow beings, and respect for the creations of God. Likewise, it's unlikely that one can walk into a gathering of Vegans and find them all to be perfectly applying the principle of compassion and nonviolence to everyone and everything they are involved with. There is a higher standard of ethics, morality, and love which transcends religious membership or particular diets, but which should ideally, certainly influence these identities. Thus I believe it is dangerous to assume that someone in a certain religious group is morally superior to someone without religious affiliation.

We all have a lot of growing and learning to do. I am staring out the window now at the still-unmoving body of the bird and wishing, hoping, that I was not the only one who was so disturbed and saddened by how its death was laughed at. I am so grateful for the true love which motivated Sarah to help me move its body, and which motivated Brother and Sister Mumford to buy vegan foods to make me feel welcome. I am conflicted about what to do in response to what I have experienced today. My gut response is to avoid the laughing guy if I should ever see him again, because being in his presence is too painful and makes me angry... and I don't want to be angry. I know it is my duty to forgive him, but I will need a lot of help to be able to willingly be around him again.

What the world might see as being worthless, God may value very much. The worth of souls is great in the sight of God.
Matthew 10:29

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

I'm learning... patience please xP

Okay, so I have recognized a few stylistic issues with my blog-writing lately. I'm still new at writing a purposeful blog... my usual blogs are much looser in topic (really just journals) and so I feel freer to just write however and whatever I want. Apparently, I might be trying too hard... since it has been brought to my attention that, in this blog, I am not writing completely like myself. I'm sorry if it seems a little forced right now. Hopefully as I get into a groove it'll be easier and flow more naturally.

I am also using the word "delicious" WAY TOO MANY TIMES OMG. I went back and read all my previous posts and was smacking my forehead going "okay way to be redundant and take the meaning out of the word delicious... now they'll all think you just think EVERYthing's delicious!" I'll confess... I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to food... but my use of the word was still excessive.

So anyway... I'll try to loosen up a bit. I guess I'm uncomfortably aware that if I do get people reading this blog, they will all come from a mix of backgrounds. This being a blog geared toward giving a positive impression of veganism (and encouraging people of faith toward reconciling some of the seeming contradictions between animal rights and Christianity) I am, naturally, pretty concerned about how I come across. But I realize that it's probably best to be straightforward and candid because then people can sense that I'm being real. I'm being who I am, which is a vegan, a Christian, an LDS person. A young person who is self-conscious about writing a controversial blog. So at least now I'm going to try to be upfront about that.

I'm new to this. And most importantly, I am not a perfect vegan, Christian, or LDS person either. I'm still learning what it means to be all three of those things... so I guess it makes most sense to acknowledge that--maybe it will help prevent turning people off by acting like I know what I'm doing when I'm still learning.

Soooo... give me feedback and I'll try to just be me xP 'kay bye.

Soup!!!

Now that the days are getting colder and wetter, I am relearning my love for soup. Today I had a delicious 3-mushroom soup from the school food people (it's not the cafeteria so I don't know what to call it o_0). I used to hate mushrooms but I have really come to appreciate them since I went vegan. Especially shiitake mushrooms, mmmm. I've learned that not all mushrooms are alike, too. Seems like they have different tastes and textures, and I think it also depends on how they're cooked.

Take a look at some of the nutritional benefits of mushrooms.

So I have been on a quest of sorts to find an easy soup recipe that is also delicious and satisfying. I try a lot of recipes from Vegweb because I can type a specific ingredient in the search and (hopefully) find a recipe that uses it, if I have a lot of broccoli, or kale, or zucchini or something. I can also look at reviews people leave and see if I think this will be the type of thing I'll wanna eat. So I saved a recipe for a garlicy apple and squash soup a long time ago and forgot about it. Well, Saturday Danielle comes home from the dentist in need of something to eat which does not require much chewing. Unfortunately I hadn't gone shopping in a while so all we had was crunchy stuff, except for a little squash and some apples. I pulled up the recipe and decided to try it out, and it turned out great!

Here's the original recipe.

I did have to adjust it a bit. We didn't have a butternut squash... we had a flying saucer squash. Since it didn't say in the recipe how long to bake it before slicing into cubes, I just cut it into quarters at first, and baked it until it was softer and was sizzling... about 20 minutes in the toaster oven on convection bake (the temp was probably 450). Then I cut it into smaller pieces. We also did not have green apples, so we used one gala and one fuji instead. And, we also did not have vegetable stock, but that was no problem because of a brilliant invention called Better Than Bouillon No Beef Vegan Base. It's a paste made from vegetables (the company makes real beef and chicken bouillon too so watch out) and other good stuff, and it's easy to use... all you have to do is mix a tablespoon and a half with a quart of hot water and you've got good-tasting soup broth! We usually have their plain vegetable base in the house but we ran out, so we bought some no beef and no chicken ones. I wasn't sure how the no beef would go with the other ingredients in the soup but it was good.

Instead of black pepper we used a dash of red pepper flakes. Finally, we didn't have lemon juice, so we added a small ice cube of lime juice to the finished soup instead. I think this helped add the tartness that was lacking because we used normal apples rather than green ones.

To make the soup thicker, we also added soup noodles near the end since they cook pretty fast. The kind we had were like... little short pieces of angel hair, as far as shape.

For how few ingredients this soup has, it was pretty flavorful. This is definitely going on the permanent recipe list. Wish I had a picture, but the picture that goes with the original recipe is close enough to what our finished batch of soup looked like. It made about 4-5 bowlfuls.

Vegan Staples

No, I'm not talking about the metal kind of staples (though I certainly hope most staples are not made out of animals). I mean the kinds of foods which I try to have at all times!

There's the obvious ones like pasta, rice, beans, plain ol' flour to make stuff with, and assorted fruits and veggies. But here's some more specific stuff that I eat really often. I am a happy vegan if I have these things around.

Silver Hills Squirrely Bread
This bread is made out of sprouted whole wheat, sweetened with raisin juice, and it's really good when you toast it--the sesame seeds on the outside really add something. It's hearty but not too intense. It makes great sandwich bread. It also has 5 grams of protein per slice! I know it's a little more at some other places, but our Co-op carires it for $2.99 a loaf.

Earth Balance Buttery Spread
This is THE best non-dairy spread around. It tastes great, spreads easy, and is not hydrogenated, so there's no icky trans fats or saturated fats. It's a win-win. Actually, a win-win-win since it's also vegan. Good to cook with, but we tend to save cooking with it for only a few things since it tastes so good on toast and baked potatoes etc.

Vegenaise by Follow Your Heart
Best mayonnaise replacer ever. It is better than mayonnaise. The taste is only very slightly different and the texture is less jiggly and more creamy. It is also made with solar power! Great with sandwiches, or mixed with Earth Balance and other good stuff to create creamy dressings or dipping sauces.
I like to make sandwiches with this on toasted Squirrely bread, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, a little bit of hoisin sauce and cilantro, and maybe some sprouts.

Trader Joe's Original Almond Milk
NOT the vanilla!! This is the best Almond milk we have found so far, and the best nondairy milk also. It has a nice creamy texture because they put a thickener in it (either tapioca flour or arrowroot flour I think). No weird ingredients. It has a mild taste. For those of you who are afraid it will taste like almond extract, it does not. Trust me on this. Danielle is very sensitive to the taste of almond extract and she loves this stuff. This is basically what we use to replace milk in cooking all the time... we put it on cereal and make hot cocoa with it also.

Cereal... I often stick with the basics like Cheerios and Rice Krispies, but once in a while I will get something fancier. I love Nature's Path Cereals especially Flax Plus and Hemp Plus. They're not too heavy like some granolas.

Rudi's Bread is another good one. This bread is a lot lighter and more like typical sandwich bread, but still made from healthy organic ingredients. And I'm fairly certain most of their main breads are vegan. I am sure their Whole Wheat is. It provides 4 grams of protein per slice.

Kale
During the summer I would buy a bunch almost every week. It's good in stir fries and we even put it in soup or chili. Once you cook it down and it's soft, it's just another thing in the mix but it gives a lot of nutrition: large amounts of Vitamin A, K, and C as well as manganese and, of course, fiber.

Onions, Garlic, and Ginger
I love fried or sauteed onions. They are just soooo good with black beans, chili, in curries, soups, and stir fries. Garlic too! Ginger is essential for a lot of Asian cooking so it's good to have around since Asian cooking lends itself well to veganism.

Peanut Butter
Don't really need to say much about this... it's one of my favorite foods. Good fat, quick sandwiches, amazing with apples or celery sticks. Trader Joe's carries it for a good price.

Coconut Milk
Some of the best soups in the world are made with this stuff. Don't buy cans of lite or low fat... the fat is good for you and the processing isn't. Nice to have in your cupboard on cold days. You can usually find it for fairly cheap at asian groceries.

Trader Joe's Marinara Sauce
As far as I can tell, this stuff is vegan, and it's delicious. Mix in a bit of earth balance for creaminess.

Trader Joe's Thai Vegetable Gyoza (Potstickers)
Okay so this isn't really a staple, but we get it often enough. These are great fried and dipped in a bit of vegenaise and hoisin sauce mixed together.

Hummus and/or Salsa
Hummus is made from Garbanzo Beans (Chickpeas) mixed with whatever else you want in there for flavor. So it comes in lots of varieties. It's usually not too hard to find vegan Hummus and vegan Salsa. Corn chips are typically vegan, and Wheat Thins go really well with Hummus too. As mentioned earlier, TJ's makes a killer Jalapeno-Cilantro Hummus.


The veggies we most commonly have in our house are:
Carrots, Lettuce, Spinach, Tomatoes (okay so they're a fruit botanically), Potatoes (sometimes yams or sweet potatoes), Broccoli (great in soups and stir fries), Cucumbers, Bok Choy and other asian veggies (cabbages, eggplants...), Onions, Leek, Zucchini.

I like putting Zucchini and other squash stew and chili because of the soft satisfying texture.... And Zucchini is usually plentiful in the summer, most places I've been (which, I admit, isn't a whole lot of places).

We had a lot of bananas, peaches, and nectarines during the summer, with some plums, grapes, or berries. We tend to eat a lot of oranges and apples in the winter and sometimes bananas because they're cheap (I know, I've heard you're not supposed to eat bananas in the winter... we're not always the best at eating things locally or in season, but we try).

Every once in a while we get Tofu, and use it soft in soup, or fried... also when we do adventurous things like vegan cheesecake. We favor Boca's Chick'N Nuggets  as far as faux meats go (but their burger patties suck), and try to get Field Roast dogs/sausages when they're on sale since they're the cream of the crop. When we can't get them but want something similar we may settle for Tofurky or Yves.

We don't use much nondairy cheese, since there really isn't a very good replacement yet. Daiya is preferred by many places because its melted texture is closest to real cheese, but the taste is a little lacking, though their pepper jack was okay. Follow Your Heart mozzarella has a good taste, but it tends to get a little soupy when you melt it, as we found out when we put it on our homemade pizza.

Clif Bars and Luna Bars are nice to have, because then I can stuff them in my backpack when I don't have any idea what to snack on at school. I especially love the raspberry chocolate Luna Bar.

Trader Joe's Goddess Dressing is just dang good. If you like tahini.

Brianna's Rich Poppyseed Dressing
O.M.G. Try it.

So this is turning into a favorite foods entry instead of a staple foods entry... oh well....

I think I'll leave it at that for now! ;P