A bit about me and the vegan lifestyle...

I've been putting this post off for a long time.

I've put it off for many reasons... One, I don't care to be labeled as vegan, however it is the closest word to describe how I choose to eat.  Two, I'm not 'vegan' for the popular reasons... I.e. I do not think it is 'wrong' to eat animals.  Three, stop looking at me like that.  If you are a vegan yourself you're giving me the shocked 'what the heck are you talking about?' look, and if you're a meat eating friend, you're looking at me like I sprouted a second head for preferring cucumber sandwiches to meatball subs.

But this lifestyle change has been a very big part of my life for the past six months or so, and it seems wrong not to share it here.

So, that said.  Please do not leave judgy comments telling me that I'm 'vegan' for the wrong reasons, or that I really ought to eat meat because it's good for my health, or that you disagree with everything I've said.  Keep your judgy to yourself and only send love and support to your fellow man.  I'll just delete you if you don't.

So about 6 years ago I began working in the veterinary field in the surgery suite.  It wasn't long after seeing a pet sliced open and bleeding and leaking intestinal gunk all over its insides that I decided I didn't need to be putting that in my mouth.  So I gave up meat.  I continued to eat fish, because one, yum, and two, seeing the inside of a fish is/was not nearly as freaky as the inside of a dog/cat/cow/whatever.  After giving up meat, I began to feel better... My moods were more stable, my head clearer, my body able to digest all of the other yummy foods I was ingesting.

I was a happy pesco-vegetarian, light on the dairy, up until last year when I began going to school with a major in Nutrition.  Really, milk is bad (or at least not as good as everyone says it is) for you? It causes congestion? It can cause your digestion system to slow? Stomach upset in certain people?  Putting two and two together, maybe I didn't like drinking milk (my entire life) because it made me feel icky.  Maybe the stuffy nose I've had every morning of my 25 years alive was because of dairy.

It didn't take long for me to realize that I am, in fact, lactose intolerant. Seemingly mildly, but when I cut out dairy for a two week trial run, when I added dairy back into my diet I felt awful.  Who knew?  So it seemed only natural to take the non-dairy plunge to the next level.

Now I'm a happy 'vegan' who only misses fish on occasion and milk and cheese even less. (A note about cheese.  I would never in my entire believe I could give up cheese until I did.  Do you know why people are so protective of their cheese? Cheese has a protein in it called casein. When you ingest this protein it is broken down into a compound called casomorphin. Did you catch that? Morphin(e). This compound is a histamine releaser which actually gives you a cheese high. No wonder people like their cheese!  I liked my cheese, too.  When I gave it up I had withdrawal dreams. Not kidding. I actually dreamed of McSteamy showing up at my door with cheesy pastries. But now that I've been without it for extended periods, only very rarely do I want it.  And usually I can eat something else to make the craving go away).

I do not believe that eating meat is wrong.  I believe that the meat industry is wrong and I'm very happy that me not eating meat has the happy side effect of not supporting this industry.  Same thing with buying leather... I don't believe we shouldn't use animals for warmth, I do believe we shouldn't torture them and ourselves in order to do it.

I gave up fish because it seemed like the natural thing to do. Maybe one day I'll go back.  I only ate it on rare occasions anyway, so it didn't seem that far of a stretch to say no thank you to eating my fishy friends.

I'm not super strict about eggs, because I don't feel they are good or bad for me, just there. Again, not crazy about the way we treat laying chickens so I try to buy locally.

So there you have it. A bit about me and this lifestyle I've chosen to follow. If it's interesting to you I'm more than happy to share more, if not, so be it.

Live and let live!  Everyone is different.

The world stopped...

Do you ever have those moments in your life where you finally feel complete again?  Where something is so right and perfect that it hurts your heart a little?

This happened to me yesterday.

Before I tell you why this happened, and what brought me to my knees in complete rapture, let me tell you that before I was a vegetarian/newly vegan, my favorite food in the world was hamburgers.  Thick, loaded up with every condiment plus avocado and cheese, juicy and hot off the grill, running down your wrists, lettuce and tomato sliding out the bottom, hamburgers.

Now, as a 'I don't eat cow' person, I find that my life has been seriously lacking in the hamburger department.  There are plenty of acceptable alternatives out there, my favorite being the In N' Out burger grilled cheese, which is exactly like a hamburger, but without the patty.  But.  Now I'm a 'I don't eat cows or things that come from cows' person and I CAN'T EAT IN N' OUT GRILLED CHEESE anymore!  So my alternative to hamburgers which was only acceptable (not fantastic) is no longer acceptable.

I tried the Morning Star patties, they were okay.  The local pub had a nice little veggie substitute, but it tasted like plastic. Even Saturn Cafe's patties were only barely passing for hamburgers... They sort of tasted like beans and zucchini.

So there was a hamburger sized hole in my heart.

Until yesterday. Yesterday was the most amazing day of my vegan life because I bit into a veggie burger from Betty Burgers in Capitola and it was so good I stopped chewing mid bite and widened my eyes and couldn't swallow because IT WAS THAT GOOD.  The patty was soft, but not grainy. Tasted like mesquite, but not barbecue sauce. Was obviously not meat, but obviously not tofu.  It was the most amazing veggie patty I've ever had.  I swear to you, real tears sprang to my eyes because of this patty. Lights were brighter. My boyfriend was sexier (he bought me the burger).  The onion rings tasted better.  I was having an existential crisis over this veggie burger... Why do they even bother trying anything else in the entire vegan world when this burger exists??

It was only a regular burger with condiments, lettuce, and tomato.

But it made me want to cry.


P.S. I wish I had gotten a picture of this burger but I was so moved that God (or whoever... Betty.) had brought this burger into my life that I momentarily forgot anything else existed. Even my camera.

P.S.S  I'm doing you a public service by saying take a break from the cow and TRY THIS BURGER. You won't regret it.

P.S.S.S. Right now, I physically miss this burger. It is all I want in the world.

The Grateful Project: Day Eight

Today I am grateful for Saturn Cafe.

When eating vegan (or at least a lactose intolerant vegetarian) it is super easy to get discouraged about the food in your fridge or the places you can go to eat. As I'm making the transition from cheese eating to non, it's important for me to feel like I'm not depriving myself, to feel full, to eat richly.  And let's face it, eating a bowl of green beans doesn't exactly cut it every time.  Luckily for me, I live in a lovely place where there are vegan/vegetarian restaurants in abundance and where I can get pretty much any kind of food I'm craving.

Even a bacon cheeseburger with barbecue sauce and onion rings.  And sweet potato french fries.  And a chocolate raspberry cupcake.  All vegan, all delicious.  Even the meat munching man of the house likes it at Saturn Cafe.

What are you grateful for today?

Update

Sometimes living on the coast has its downsides.  For instance, summer time.  While all my friends are walking around in tank tops and complaining about the heat, I'm sitting here bundled up in fleece and wool with a cup of steaming tea and a heating pad on my feet.  The lobster and I are heading up to the lake on Wednesday for water sporting and camp firing and playing cards by lantern light, but I'm really having a hard time imagining jumping into a chilly lake at the moment.  Even the kittens have taken a break from terrorizing and are curled up next to my feet!  Another downside... Tourists.  Let's face it, valley folks coming to Santa Cruz on a Sunday is not an original idea and therefore weekends here are ridiculously crowded.  Do I sound like a local?

I somehow feel vindicated when tourists come for a sunny day at the beach and get 55 degrees and foggy until 4:30p.

So anyway, it's been quiet around here, huh?  Here's what has been going on.

We have kittens named Adorable and Abominable.  Ironically Adorable is more abominable than Abominable.  Abominable is not more adorable than Adorable, though.

We set up the home theater dealio. (Forgive the cell phone camera picture.) Well, Sean did, anyway.  A few weeks ago we did a big shift in the house and moved the bedroom to the loft, the loft to the living room, and the dining room into the bedroom.  So now I have an office and the lobster has a television in the living room.  I like having an office, but hate having the tele on constantly.  You win some and lose some!

I sent out the first sock yarn club shipment and bitterly regretted not dyeing one up for myself.  I've also been experimenting with new lighting techniques for photographing true color.  It's a learning process.

I've been cooking up a TON of vegan recipes including Hot Rice with Tomato and Olives and Lemon, Vegan Peanut Butter Cups, and super yummy rice and bean salads.  I'm bringing a lot of vegan food camping because I can't imagine a worse place to eat something non-vegan and then be sick to my stomach for days.  My poor body has been spoiled the past few months and now violently rejects anything that contains dairy and surprisingly, wheat.  Besides, I want to show my non-veg family that being vegan is not about deprivation.

I've also been spending afternoons visiting bookstores and farmer's markets galore.  There's nothing like used books and a bowl of delicious cherries in the sunshine.

Okay dears, I'm off for a little while.  I'll be back Monday with lots of pictures to share!

Remember to take the road less traveled.

P.S. I'm leaving the shop open, but everything purchased between now and Sunday will ship Monday when I get back.  Be sure to keep an eye out for new merino/yak blends coming soon!

On food.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about eating habits and food in general (as is my custom when the weather turns warm and veggies fill my refrigerator and when I'm going to school for nutrition) and I've decided to make some changes.

First, I've been dabbling in the idea of giving up fish for about six months now and I've decided that this is the time.  I don't eat fish very often any more (basically only when we go out for sushi) but shrimp is a pretty regular part of our diet at home.  It's easy to cook and a good compromise between vegetarian food and the lobster's meat eating ways.  But in light of the tragedy happening in the Gulf of Mexico and the fact that Sean and I took a vow of no eating out for the month of June (more on that in a minute), no fish this summer.  I feel better knowing that I'm doing a very small part to help stop over fishing especially during this fragile time.  And, I've decided to donate 20% of every sale in my shop for the month of June to help clean up our mess down there in the gulf.  And then Sean and I will match the end total...  I hope this will be enough to save a few pelicans.

Second, the 'no eating out' thing.  When we eat at home we are very conscious of the food we're putting in our bodies, but the unfortunate fact is that Sean doesn't like to cook and I'm often beat by the end of the day and the last thing I want to do is stand in my (super tiny and uncomfortable) kitchen and be creative with food.  So we grab a sandwich, Chinese, a burrito from down the street.  Too much.  We've been eating non-home cooked meals about 3 days a week and not only is that not good for your health, it's not good for your pocket money or your waist line, either.  At the beginning of the year I cut out fast food (and have not had fast food since 2009 except for some onion rings in the middle of nowhere and for Sean's birthday dinner... bleh.) and so for my mid-year goal I'm going to be more aware of eating out habits.  So far so good.  Yesterday my brother and his adorable girlfriend (and Courtney and co.!) stopped by on their way to sushi.  How strong am I that instead of sushi I stayed home to make egg over pasta?  SO strong.

Third, the dairy thing.  I really don't eat that much dairy.  No milk ever (don't like it and I'll never go back after finding the nectar of the gods (read: Vanilla Rice Milk)) and light on the cheese, please.  Except that lately I haven't been so light on the cheese.  Lately Sean's been buying bagels and whipped cream cheese for breakfast and I bought the most delicious goat cheddar cheese and Trader Joe's has the most to DIE for extra sharp cheddar ever.  It seems I used up all of my foodie strength when I said no to sushi.  Now, the thing about dairy is that I'm mildly lactose intolerant so I get really uncomfortable if I eat too much cheese... That doesn't usually stop me from eating it.  But my new vow is to listen to my body.  If dairy is making me ill, I'll stop.  Promise.  Oh, and no butter.  I have a weakness for toast with butter but I'm hoping to find a reasonable substitute so as not to encourage my body to crave dairy products.

Fourth, I'm taking my cookbooks out of my cupboard.  I'm not sure where I'm going to put them, but since I put them in there to save space, I haven't taken them out once.  And the internet is sort of a poor substitute for flipping pages.

So there you have it, a healthier summer.  There's really no excuse for anything but the most amazing home cooked meals... Seeing as how in Santa Cruz there is a farmer's market almost every day of the week and they are filled to the brim with organic delicious produce.

Oh, and two words for you.  Bacon avocado.  Go, buy, die of amazingness.

P.S. I finished something lovely.
P.S.S.  Tutorial on the magic of blocking tomorrow.