This is great news!! Major strides in banishing this horrid blood sport.

According to Yahoo News: “BARCELONA, Spain – Lawmakers in Catalonia outlawed bullfighting Wednesday, making it Spain’s first major region to ban the deadly, centuries-old ballet between matador and beast after heated debate that pitted animal rights against a pillar of traditional culture.

Cheers broke out in the local 135-seat legislature after the speaker announced the ban had passed 68-to-55 with nine abstentions. The ban will take effect in 2012 in the northeastern coastal region whose capital is Barcelona.” read full article here

Hooray for famous people having vegan fare at their weddings! Chelsea Clinton, a longtime vegan, will be having vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free dishes at her wedding, according to Life & Style magazine. And, by the way, I haven’t seen a pic of her in a long time, and I must say, she’s looking lovely!

Why do I like famous vegans? Because they’re a wildfire of media promotion. So much of the world looks up to celebrities. The more vegan celebrities, the more popular veganism will become.

And, at the very least, more people will actually know what the word “vegan” means. Which saves us a lot of explaining, and others a lot of confused looks. It’s the little things.

Here’s the post on The PETA Files blog: http://blog.peta.org/archives/2010/07/chelsea_clinton.php?c=pfs

Oh! And if you haven’t taken my 2 minute interethnic dating survey yet, and you’re between the ages of 18 and 29, go here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K8VBKT5

And then go get yourself a vegan cupcake, you good little participant!
You deserve it! (pictured: Vabulous Chocolate Vegan cupcake from cupcakestation.com)

The survey is now closed. But you can still have a cupcake.

THE SURVEY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION!

This is such an abuse of veg power, but bear with me. I need your help. I’m in a research methods class this semester and we are in the process of collecting data for our study on interethnic dating. It’s a 10 question survey that will take around 2 minutes to complete. If you are between the ages of 18 and 29, I would greatly appreciate it if you would fill it out. Here’s the disclaimer:

You are being asked to participate in a study as part of a class project in a research methods course in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota. This is a survey about interethnic dating. If you choose to participate, no identifying information will be collected that will be traced back to you. If you choose not to participate, you may stop participating or withdraw at any time.

To take the survey, click on this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K8VBKT5

I only have a few days to collect data, so the sooner the better. THANK YOU!!!! Thank you with all my heart.

I swear, my next post will be so vegan… you’ll… you’ll have a vegetable garden growing out of your eye sockets!!

Kashi has a cereal on the market called Strawberry Fields. And I love it. No, not just because The Beatles are the best band ever. It also tastes amazing. It may be the best cereal I’ve ever chomped on. And I do mean chomped. It’s very crunchy. The calorie content’s not too bad either, at 120cal per cup. That’s way better than granola, which, though healthy, still manages to pack in a million calories per teaspoonful.

So what’s in this magical fruit and flake fest?
Organic long grain rice, organic evaporated cane juice, whole wheat, organic freeze-dried strawberries, sea salt, organic brown rice syrup, and organic freeze-dried raspberries.

Delicious both with and without milk. Fantastic with vanilla soymilk.

Based on internet ratings, which came from you, MY READERS, my blog has received the 2010 Top 45 Vegetarian Blogs Award! My blog is included, right there along with some of my favorite veggie blogs. To even be mentioned in the same place as Vegan Yum Yum is astounding to me. What an honor! Guess I better start living up to my name!

Online Nursing Programs

This morning I woke up feeling stressed out, short tempered, and negative. I woke up at 6am on a Saturday and was wide awake. So, I watched a couple of online lectures and did work for a class I’ve grown to passively detest. That did not improve my mood. I had no desire whatsoever to run, but thought it might make me feel better. It helped a little, but I was still just feeling drained all day. You know those days when everything just feels like too much effort? “Ugh, why do I have to clip my nails? Why do I have to use deodorant? Why do I have to prep myself every day? Why can’t our apartment clean itself? Gaaahhh.”

It dawned on me that I hadn’t had a good meal in a while. The hubs and I don’t treat ourselves by going out to restaurants very often. So, tonight I thought, why not? We ended up at a newer restaurant in the North East end of Minneapolis called Ginger Hop, which we’ve gone to a couple times. The wait staff is great, the restaurant has a a nice modern Asian vibe, and they have a wonderful selection of East Asian cuisine. The best part: they have several vegan options (even marked with a little “v” on the menu). I was craving Pad Thai. Like, GOOD Pad Thai, unlike the stuff we attempted to make for Valentine’s Day that looked great, but tasted like nothing! Seriously, no matter how much flavor we added, it tasted like noodle air.

So I ordered the Pad Thai with tofu (sans egg) and it was sooo good! Oh, it just really hit the spot. And I have leftovers now, which is, of course, another bonus. Sometimes I think it’s easy to take for granted the importance of a good meal in morale boosting. It gave me a second wind and now I’m ready to conquer the world! Or at least have a very relaxing, stress-free evening with my favorite person.

Side note: if you haven’t seen the movie Inception yet, you really should. It’s absolutely fantastic. Though, upon seeing it, I can’t decide if Chrisopher Nolan is a genius, or bordering on schizophrenic. Or both. But yes, go see it!! View the trailer here.

Ginger Hop
612-746-0307
201 East Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55414

Ahhh… what a perfect start to a Saturday.
Morning jog with the hubs, before getting too stiflingly hot out (we made that mistake last weekend), followed by a nice hot shower, and a vegan parfait.

Ingredients:

• blueberry soy yogurt
• strawberries, diced
• Bear Naked All Natural Granola, Fruit and Nut
• a few pistachios
• nectarine, diced

Layer and enjoy!

Next on the agenda: a fresh cup of coffee and some fiendish studying. But, perhaps less fiendish now that I’ve started the day off parfait!

Vegan Brandy Peach Parfait.  Photo by QuintanaRoo

Well you guys were totally awesome about telling me about your extraordinary packed lunches! Thanks for all the great ideas. I know, I know. I’M the one with the vegan blog. I should be the master of brilliant food ideas. But every “master” needs creative stimulation in order to thrive. And right now, I feel my creative well is running a bit dry. I’ll blame the busy schedule since it’s such an easy cop-out.

Speaking of busy, I’m in need of new, quick, wholesome, breakfast ideas. Something I can throw together every morning in very little time, that is both delicious and healthy. Something other than oatmeal, cereal, or a bagel. And something substantial enough get me through the morning. One idea I had was to just stock up on tofu and make tofu scrambles. But that can be time-consuming and it requires a decent amount of oil. My tummy doesn’t like too much oil. Especially in the morning. Does anyone know of a non-oily method of making a tofu scramble? These are days when I miss being vegetarian and having Egg Beaters with salsa every morning. So easy, proteiny, and low in calories. I wish there was a vegan version of Egg Beaters. Maybe I’ll invent them…

Another idea I had was to buy those big cartons of soy yogurt and make parfaits with granola and fruit. Or, if I can find vegan sausage links (the ones I’ve looked at all seem to have egg whites), I like to make pigs in a blanket. Take a sausage link and roll it up into a piece of lightly buttered toast (using vegetable butter, of course).

What do you guys think? Let’s get those creative juices flowing and inspire each other! Again!

Photo by Will Merydith

I mentioned in my last post that our friends Darcie and Matt recently bought an adorable house in Milwaukee. What I didn’t mention is that they’ve created their very own huge vegetable garden in the backyard! The hubs and I thought maybe we’d want to buy a condo downtown as our first owned place, but now I’m strongly considering a house. I want to grow my own vegetables in my own backyard! I want to grow fruit, too! And nuts! And herbs!

… I just zoned out for a few minutes in my cute little fantasy backyard. Am I drooling?

We’re considering finally buying a place next year. We’ve been renters for so long. There are plenty of pros on cons that we’ve been weighing. We love our current apartment’s lofted ceilings and warehouse style with great views of downtown. We love living right downtown and barely ever having to use our car. And though we’re getting a pretty great deal on our rent for where we’re located, it’s still more than we want to be spending on a one-bedroom apartment. It does get a bit cramped sometimes. Especially living with an artist who’s in need of his own studio space. And when people visit, there’s no guest bedroom. And they have to pay to park on the street. Those two are pretty important since so much of our family lives far away.

Additionally, we’re getting more serious about the possibility of  “family expansion.” Not immediately, but probably in the next couple of years. And a one-bedroom ain’t gonna cut it. If it was just a baby and no baby accessories, we could probably make it work for a little while. But apparently babies require baby things. Like a crib and crap. They’re so needy.

The housing market, however, does make me a bit nervous (and excited). I’m getting a kick out of the not-so-terrible houses we could buy for $20,000. No, I didn’t miss a zero. $20,000. Granted, the house would probably implode the moment we moved in. But it shows how desperate people are getting to sell. And I’m starting to feel like this may be the ideal time for us to buy. I mean, the economy’s gotta bounce back eventually, right?? Ugh. Nerve-racking. I know nothing about buying houses, other than what I see on HGTV.

All I want is an adorable 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom eco-friendly house in a fantastic neighborhood, within walking distance of wonderful things, with old trees in the yard, and a breakfast nook in my fantastic kitchen. Oh, and a magical wonderland of fruits, nuts, veggies, and herbs in my backyard. All for around $20,000. 

photo from junkgarden girl

photo by tunnelarmr

Well, I haven’t posted in a little while, and since I’m not doing the work I need to get done this evening anyway, I thought I’d say hello.

I’d venture to say this is the busiest summer I’ve ever had. I am taking three classes (one online), working about 25 hours a week, trying to study for my GREs ( I need to take the general one and the psychology subject test) and I’m getting outside whenever I can because it’s summer and it’s great! On my long days, I get to school at 9:30am and get home around 9pm (yikes!). On my shorter days, I get to school around 10am and get home around 4pm. On these shorter days, I like to walk home. When I walk home, I’ve calculated I walk at least 3 miles a day. I’ve managed to get pretty tan already this summer. Hooray!

Though I’m busy, I must say, I’m pretty darn happy. I’m in school, which I love. I’m working in the psychology department as a research assistant, which will look good on my grad school application. I’m making money (hello, old friend) and I actually like my job!

With such a wacky schedule, I generally pack a Zip-lock lunch every day. Unfortunately, my lunches are lacking in…zest. My go-to meal is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a thermos of coffee. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of the ol’ PB&J. Sometimes I switch it up and do a little bag of trail mix or maybe a granola bar and a thermos of coffee (I like my coffee). If I’m being naughty, my lunch is a vegan cookie by Alternative Baking Company from the Gopher Express quick mart. That place has a surprising number of vegan options for how small it is. And, yet, I consistently pick the item with the most sugar. Is a sweet tooth genetic?

Needless to say, my lunches are pretty shameful these days. But don’t worry, I take multivitamins every morning, and make sure to eat fruits and veggies when I’m at home.

I guess what I’d love to know is: what do you guys eat for lunch? What’s your favorite go-to meal? Even if you think it’s less exciting than mine, please, do share Lets pool our ideas together and jazz up our lunches! Hooray!!