I have a new weakness. Well, I’ve always loved steamed veggies, but my new weakness is steamed veggies in 5 minutes. I was hesitant to buy these little microwave baggies– aren’t there issues with plastic leaching into your food? But an old neighbor of mine came to visit and she made the steamed broccoli and I was hooked. Now when I come home- I look forward to effortlessly heating a bag of veggies. The ones I buy are just veggies, Birds Eye brand. No added seasonings, but some of the veggies, like ones with corn and carrots in them, I don’t even have to add seasonings. They’re so tasty as is. They even have packages of corn on the cob you can microwave! Though I prefer them boiled, it’s still pretty neat. And if I want more than just veggies, I occasionally throw in some chik’n (that can also be microwaved) for a delicious meal.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an obsessive microwave user. When I have time I love throwing fresh veggies in my wok with seasonings and a little olive oil. But if you don’t have the time, you’re out of fresh produce, or you’re too darn tired to whip up a meal, veggie steamers are certainly much healthier than a bag of chips or cookies or whatever ready-to-eat processed goodies you have around. And supposedly the microwave bags are FDA approved to be safe, which I assume means we don’t have to worry about leaching. Which is nice.

Side note: I’m still a big supporter of the raw diet. I still eat raw about half of the time. I generally bring raw food to work and eat a cooked meal for dinner.

A while back I wrote about a wide array of sources for getting protein as a vegan. What I didn’t mention is that, as long as you’re getting a variety of healthy vegan foods in your diet, you’ll likely never have to worry about protein. Protein really isn’t something we need be concerned with. But we do need plenty of carbs. AND carbohydrates (complex carbs) are GOOD FOR YOU! Mind blowing, I know.

Here’s a really great excerpt from the book Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World , which I’ve been deeply engrossed in reading lately:

The diet that has sustained humans for centuries is optimally 10% protein, 10% fat, and 80% carbohydrates, nearly all from plant sources. Contrary to the claims of high-protein, low-carb diet fans, not all carbohydrates are bad for you. Carbohydrates, in their unprocessed forms add fiber and essential nutrients to our diet. In addition, they are the primary source for fuel in our body, especially the brain. Dr. Michael Greger explains in his book Carbophobia that when a body isn’t able to use carbohydrates as fuel, it thinks it is starving. By having to rely on fat and protein as fuel (as in a high-protein diet), the body produces chemicals known as ketones as a by-product, which are toxic and must be excreted through the lungs and kidneys (a state known as ketosis). Because the normal by-products of carbohydrate metabolism are not available, the body has no source of fuel to run correctly and thus no energy. Some side effects of this ketosis include bad breath, fatigue, weakness, headaches and dizziness, depression, nausea, and vomiting, not to mention the constipation, muscle cramps, and lack of sex drive from the diet.

This is why I’m so angry about the Atkins diet craze. It’s not a healthy way to lose weight. And since your body thinks you’re starving, it’s no wonder people balloon out as soon as they start eating carbs again. Starvation mode messes with your metabolism. Anyway, protein diets such as these lead people to assume that the only way to be healthy is by getting heaps of animal protein. But vegans win this battle. As a vegan, your cholesterol is much better, you don’t smell bad (not due to eating meat, anyway), you probably never have to worry about constipation, and the vegan diet, overall, is just much healthier than the Standard American Diet (as long as you’re not living off of Oreos and Twizzlers).

Stick with the majority of your diet consisting of fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans, nuts, lentils and legumes and not overdoing the processed foods, and you’re golden. Not to mention, vegan protein is easier to absorb, and therefore we don’t need to consume as much to get the allotted protein.

So next time someone grills you about getting enough protein, assure them that 10% protein is easy- it’s the 80% carbs you need to focus on!

They sell some cute creative veg/animal lover shirts.

http://www.threadless.com/product/1225/Murderer
http://www.threadless.com/product/887/Fur_Ladies
http://www.threadless.com/product/329/Vegetarians_are_Eating_the_Rainforests
http://www.threadless.com/product/1058/How_Hamburgers_Are_Made#zoom
http://www.threadless.com/product/982/What_Makes_It_Go
http://www.threadless.com/product/948/Skip_Dessert
http://www.threadless.com/product/32/Cowmouflage
http://www.threadless.com/product/166/Chick_Love
http://www.threadless.com/product/1220/Such_A_Great_Height
http://www.threadless.com/product/87/Odd_But_Cute
http://www.threadless.com/product/901/The_Emergence_of_the_Easter_Egg
http://www.threadless.com/product/868/Dulces_Vacaciones

http://www.threadless.com/product/380/Patterns_in_Nature

Check out their stuff if you’re itching for a new tee.

beware: they sell some pro-meat shirts as well

After my first attempt at making a cake using soy lecithin as the egg replacer and having it go horribly wrong, I decided to seek out a recipe that didn’t use eggs at all. This cake tastes a bit like cornbread which sounds odd but is incredibly yummy.

Great Vegan Cake (with a hint of lemon)

• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 cup sugar*
• 1-1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 3/4 cup soy milk/rice milk/water

Mix ingredients and bake at 375

My sister, who rarely eats meat, with the exception of fish, asked me why I am against eating fish. She believes fish do not have feelings because their brains cannot sense pain. And with the high amount of nutrients they provide and with the overabundance of fish like salmon, it is ok to eat them.

Naturally, this argument intrigued me, though I am highly skeptical of the notion that fish can’t feel pain. My immediate response was,”Well, even if the idea of eating animals didn’t totally gross me out, I don’t like the taste or smell of fish and I am a firm believer in getting nutrition lower on the food chain. We don’t need meat to survive so I see no reason to kill them for sustenance, even if there is the possibility that they can’t feel pain. It’s still cruel.” I choose not to shorten an animal’s life, regardless of their pain receptors. I think that fish would much rather be swimming freely out in nature somewhere, versus being stabbed with a hook, suffocated, mutilated, and set on my dinner table, if given the choice. And from what I’ve read, the jury’s still out on the “fish feel pain” debate. Ultimately, what they’ve narrowed it down to is that fish don’t feel pain in the same way that people do. But it’s very hard to determine exactly what that means or how they do feel.

I understand there are some people who have given up all meat except for fish. It’s valid… if it’s for health reasons only. But if you care about the pain and suffering of animals (and understand that your pet dog Toby and that cow about to be slaughtered are both sensitive living breathing creatures) and yet you still consume fish… or dairy or eggs, I’m sorry to break this to you but you’re being a bit of a hypocrite. Just like dairy cows are slaughtered when no more milk can be sucked out of them, and chickens are debeaked, tortured and ultimately slaughtered once they can’t lay eggs anymore, fish are also living, breathing creatures that are bred and killed and used as products.

We’d all love to go on living our ignorant lives, assuming that the dairy cow lives a full life in green pastures and the chickens reside at a quaint family farm, happily wandering acres of land. But the reality is that only a tiny percentage of these animals live long, happy lives. And it is a shame that vegans are still viewed as “odd” because we don’t eat the “standard” diet of mutilated flesh, embryos and mucousy milk. Just because meat has been standard food since the beginning of time does not mean it’s the right way to eat, nor does it mean it will always be this way. If we went off that assumption, we’d still be naked, mumbling savages with incredibly short lifespans. We’ve progressed so much with technology, science, medicine, and much more. It’s only a matter of time before a light bulb goes off in people’s heads about the horrors of the meat and dairy industries.

I am confident that eventually it will become standard for people to choose the vegan lifestyle and meat and dairy eaters will be the “odd” ones. Those of us who are vegan already are just ahead of the curve. We’ve made the connection between living breathing creatures and the meat department at the grocery store. We get that owning and loving a pet and wearing a fur coat are highly contradictory acts. And not only that, but we’ve decided to stand up for what we feel is right and have chosen not to participate in or support the meat industry. We’ve chosen not to hide behind the, “but I love steak and cheese” arguments. And for that, I thank you.

note: I do want to mention that, though I was saying some harsh things about dairy consumers, I do think that ultimately, the less animal products you use/consume the better and that vegetarians are already doing much better than meat eaters in that respect.

I finally got a colonic. Yup. Spring cleaning, if you will. It’s not so bad. Not so bad at all. It was less stressful than a typical doctor’s appointment. All I had to do was lay back and relax. And I chatted with the colon hydrotherapist, and before I knew it, it was over. I had it done shortly after my raw diet had ended so I really didn’t have a whole lot to get rid of since raw food is a great way to cleanse yourself. But it still felt great and my skin looks healthier now and my stomach aches are much less frequent. The first few days right after the colonic there was some cramping- but apparently that’s normal. Just my body adjusting to having been flushed out.

I think it’s a great idea to get one every now and again just to give your body a fresh start. There may be something hanging out in there that shouldn’t be. And some people flat out need to have them done because there’s so much blockage. And the longer waste stays in your system, the harder it becomes and the more difficult it is to remove. And before you know it you’re very ill due to all the toxins in your system. And it is possible to be so blocked up you can no longer excrete waste. Yup. Scary thought.

Your colon is essentially your body’s sewer system. All the stuff your body plans on getting rid of goes into the colon and then hopefully out of your body. But sometimes you need a little help with the last part. And chemical laxatives like Ex-Lax are not the way to go. Chemical laxatives, as I learned at my appointment, irritate your colon and dehydrate your body, when, in actuality, you need to add more water to flush out your system. Colonics are a very natural way of “cleaning house” without irritating your body or depleting it of its much needed water supply.

I also particularly liked this session because we talked about any issues I might be having- acid reflux, for example- and how I could improve such conditions naturally. Which I loved because I’d much rather take natural approaches to getting healthy versus taking medication. If you live in or near Salt Lake- I recommend getting your colonic at InnerLight Massage and Colon Hydrotherapy. The owner, Chad, made the session very comfortable and relaxing.

In summation: go see your colon hydrotherapist today!

Salt Lake continues to impress me with it’s vegan options. My new discovery is an amazing pizza place in Sugarhouse: Este Pizzeria. They have multiple vegan pie options: Vegan Cheese, Vegan No Cheese (extra pizza sauce, mushrooms, yellow & red onions, green peppers, tomatoes, black olives, and oregano) and Vegan White (olive oil, garlic, oregano, vegan cheese, tomatoes and red onions). AND you can add vegan cheese to any other pie they offer. And that’s not all. Wednesdays they sell vegan pizza by the slice. Which works out perfectly for me since I have my pole dancing workout class right next door on Wednesday nights. And I’m sure it tastes even better after an intense workout.

My boyfriend and I checked it out recently and the Vegan Cheese Pizza was delicious (and also amazing cold the next day). We also ordered their Homemade Garlic Knots, which are also vegan, and were not huge fans. They weren’t as tasty as we’d hoped. Kind of bland. Perhaps it was just a bad batch. Regardless, I highly recommend you check this place out if you get the chance. Este Pizzeria 2100 S. Windsor St. (840 E.) Salt Lake City, UT. 801.485.3699