Reasons to Smile

1) I'm getting married in seven weeks.

2) Steve is officially vegetarian. Go Steve!

3) I just registered to participate in my first Walk for Farm Animals on October 3rd!

Wanna donate to my walk? Go here: http://www.firstgiving.com/lindsayalanawolf.

For more information or to find an event in your area: http://www.walkforfarmanimals.org/.

4) Yet another vegetarian restaurant has opened up in my area. Yay!

5) My cats are all healthy and happy (and lounging in the same room as me right now).

6) Two lovely new cookbooks have entered my life: Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan Brunch and Lauren Ulm's Vegan Yum Yum. Fabulous.

7) Christmas is only three months away (which makes this Christmas baby very happy indeed).

8) I finally have time to attend a Farm Sanctuary Activist Meeting (this is a year in the making).

9) Steve's mom bought us a Cake Maker set as a wedding shower gift, complete with a decoration kit. Domesticated bliss. :)

10) I have a roof over my head, food in my kitchen, clean running water, and a whole lot of love in my life.

A Modern Day Lorax

The Lorax was a book I don't remember reading as a child. I picked it up at the ripe old age of 24, when one of the kids I was babysitting at the time wanted to read a story before bedtime. As I paged through it, reading in funny voices to the little girl with wide eyes listening, I had no idea what was in store for me.

As it turned out, the Lorax would become one of my great personal heroes.

A scruffy little runt of a creature, the Lorax is a character who "speaks for the trees," as well as the animals and the environment. The Lorax fights the good fight of defending his habitat against "The Once-ler", a mysterious and greedy character who finds a way to make profit off of the natural environment around him.

As the Once-ler begins chopping down the Truffula trees that live amongst the Lorax and other inhabitants of the land, the Lorax desperately declares:

"I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues. And I'm asking you sir, at the top of my lungs - that thing! That horrible thing that I see! What's that thing you've made out of my truffula tree? "

As the story goes on, it becomes clear that the Once-ler has no intention of stopping his "work" - in fact, he does not cease the tree chopping until the final Truffula Tree is chopped to the ground. And once that happens, the Lorax has no other choice but to sadly leave the home he loves: 

"Now, all that was left 'neath the bad-smelling sky was my big, empty factory, the Lorax, and I. The Lorax said nothing. Just gave me a glance. Just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance... as he LIFTED himself by the seat of his pants. And I'll never forget the grim look on his face when he hoisted himself and took leave of this place, through a hole in the smog without leaving a trace."

The story ends with a quote that has stuck with me all the way until now. You see, the entire time, the Once-ler had been telling this story as a tale from the past to a young child. As he finishes, he gives a seed to the child, and explains:

" You're in charge of the last of the truffula seeds. And truffula trees are what everyone needs. Plant a new truffula. Treat it with care. Give it clean water, and feed it fresh air. Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack. Then the Lorax, and all of his friends may... come back."

It's amazing how children's books can inspire in ways beyond comprehension.

I just finished John Robbins' book, Diet for a New America, and he reminds me a lot of my hero, the Lorax. Like the Lorax, Robbins also makes a case for the trees, the environment, and the animals that exist in this world alongside us. Robbins' case is clear - we need to change our eating habits, or we will not be able to share our beautiful Earth with future generations.  The consumption of animal products is so high that we are beginning to lose the precious natural resources that keep us and our world healthy. Additionally, we are killing ourselves by overconsuming these products. It hadn't occurred to me that there could be a direct connection between diet and disease, but there is. It's simple really - eating a diet high in saturated fat and cholesterol significantly increases your chances of an endless list of diseases and illnesses. And what do meat, dairy and eggs all have in common? They are loaded with saturated fat and cholesterol. 

Robbins wrote Diet for a New America in 1987 - twenty-two years ago. It's baffling to me that we are still very much dealing with these issues today. I went vegan nearly a year ago because I could no longer be a part of a system that caused so much suffering. I had no idea that by going vegan, I would be choosing the healthiest possible diet out there. Vegan food has no cholesterol, and if you eat a balanced diet, you will definitely get in your daily quotient of protein and nutrients (as long as you're consuming a varied diet of fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and legumes).  Also - contrary to popular belief, a balanced vegan diet has more than enough protein in it (yet another truth that the food industry has muddled for us). 

Much like Food Inc, Diet for a New America also uncovers many lies the food industry has put out there to the general public about what is healthy and good for us to consume. It shocked me to learn that The National Dairy Council has been supplying educational materials to elementary schools for years now, and not as a way to simply show how healthy cow's milk is. The National Dairy Council cares about one thing and one thing only - profit - and by targeting a young group of people, they've been teaching young minds that buying dairy products is essential to growing up "strong and healthy".  My entire life, I always thought I needed milk - that without milk, my bones would not be "strong and healthy". I mean, come on - "Milk does a body good," right? But there are two major problems with cow's milk: 1) it's made for baby cows (who have four stomachs and are babies trying to grow as fast as possible), and 2) it is high in protein. So much protein that the calcium in cow's milk cannot be properly absorbed. After learning this, it was no surprise for me to learn that the countries with the highest levels of osteoporosis are the same countries that have the highest dairy intakes.   

Now, this is just the tip of the nutritional iceberg that makes up part of Diet for a New America. Robbins is so unbelievably thorough in his research - I counted almost thirty pages of footnotes - that by the end of the book, you really have no other choice but to confront the facts. Meat is not good for you. Dairy and eggs are not good for you.  Animal products are not good for our health or the well-being of our environment. 

Okay, so maybe you're thinking - now what? I've read all of this information from Lindsay's blog - what do I do now?  Well, there are a plethora of choices you have now. You can continue on your journey knowing this information. You can make a few choices here or there - jump on the country's bandwagon and have a Meatless Monday, look up a vegetarian recipe using a new food you've never tried before, do some research of your own. But don't let my words overwhelm you to the point that you don't do anything.

"Don't do nothing because you can't do everything. Do something, anything!"

- Colleen Patrick-Goudreau (vegan baker and activist)

As the end of The Lorax shows us, we need to be better to our world before we lose it. We need to protect it, to love it, to nurture it. Why not choose living in such a way that is not only good for the environment, but also good for you? It may seem like an arduous task at first, but the effort will be well worth it. You will begin to see a whole new world open up for you. A peace will come over you as you realize you are living in balance with the wholeness of the Earth, not against it. Your conscience will become clearer. And you will feel better - physically, emotionally, and maybe even spiritually.

If you ever have any questions about how to begin this journey, feel free to email me: wolf.lindsay@gmail.com. I am always happy to share more of my own experience with you. Because it was really tough for me to make such a big change in my life. It was scary and challenging and uncomfortable. But now, I feel the best I've ever felt. And it's all because I decided to eat in such a way that wasn't just for myself anymore. I was eating for the world as well.  

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better. It's not." 

 - The Lorax

"My dream"

Life has gotten into the way, as it always seems to. I had a plan to blog about California and give a glowing review of John Robbins' extraordinary book Diet for a New America, but the beginning of a new job, coupled with wedding stresses and having a new car in the city, have left me tired and not as focused as I had originally planned. So, in the place of my planned posts, I will leave you  for now with this passage today from Diet, entitled "My Dream":

I have a dream.

I see humankind understanding that the spirit which sings in our hearts sings as well in the hearts of other animals. I see us realizing that there are many kinds of intelligence, many kinds of souls, many kinds of suffering and striving. I see us knowing that all creatures are endowed with the same will-to-live which we possess. I see us respecting theirs, as we would like our own to be respected were we in the less powerful position and they dominant upon the earth.

I see us grateful for these extraordinary companions.

I see our lives rich with animals. I see us with many animal friends. I see our cities sprinkled with wild places, shorelines, parks, ravines and creek-canyones, where wild creatures can live. I see all life forms working together in harmony, cultivating the full potential of the planet.

I see us appreciating the different needs, different kinds of intelligence, and different responsibilities of the various animals. I see us sensing the unique ways in which they feel, they think, they suffer, and they love.

I see us learning to treat with respect those who are, in the greater scheme of things, but our younger brothers and sisters. I see us realizing they, too, are expressions, in their individual ways, of the universal life-force. I see us acting from the knowledge that it is the same God-Force that gives us all breath.

I see us realizing that all God's critters have a place in the choir.

Have a beautiful day everyone. I hope that if you were able to read this passage, that you can take a deep breath in to really open yourself up to it. It opened me up, and I'm already a lover of animals.

Fall Cleaning.

Steve and I just came back from a beautiful trip to LA (we're thinking of moving there next year), and the wonderful friends we were staying with, Joanna Wilson and Brian Leahy, happen to also be amazing photographers as well. The result? An awesome new main picture for the blog!

I'll be posting about our trip (I took plenty of food pictures) and also on my thoughts about John Robbins' extraordinary book, Diet for a New America, this weekend.

For now, please enjoy a revamped version of Kiss Me, I'm Vegan!

(And for more information about Joanna and Brian's photography, check out their website:

http://www.joannawilsonphoto.com/)

I love you, John Robbins.

One of the perks of working a summer camp job is that by the end of the summer, you get tips from parents. One of my tips was a $20 Barnes and Nobles giftcard, which I gloriously brought to the Union Square Barnes and Nobles tonight.

I proceeded to walk straight up to the third floor, where the "Vegan Cookbook" section was (yes, they have a "Vegan Cookbook" section!), and as I rode the elevator, thoughts of delicious new recipes happily swirled in my head. Until I passed by the "Diet" section and saw a few books worth taking a second glance at. One of them was a book that has been recommended to me for some time now - John Robbins' "Diet for a New America".

If you don't know John Robbins, you should - he was the heir to the Baskin Robbins dynasty. The interesting twist in Robbins' story is that when finally given the chance to take over the family job, he respectfully declined. Because Robbins' had another pursuit in mind - finding a way to create a healthier, more humane, more loving world. And "Diet for a New America" was born out of that pursuit.

I'm only past the introduction, and I am totally enamored by this book. Below is a quote that really spoke to me:

" The suffering [farm] animals undergo has become so extreme that to partake of food from these creatures is to partake unknowingly of the abject misery that has been their lives. Millions upon millions of Americans are merrily eating away, unaware of the pain and disease they are taking into thier bodies with every bite. We are ingesting nightmares for breakfast, lunch, and dinner."

As much as I love to devote my blog to cooking and baking and food lovin' in general, I am also interested in my own pursuit: promoting ethical eating. It's a credo I live by, and one that has become a spiritual guide for me as I learn more and more about the connection between our environment and what we put into our bodies. John Robbins wrote "Diet for a New America" in 1987, and if I hadn't known that, I would have thought it was written this year. The words are timeless in a way, because it's twenty-two years later, and we are still dealing with these issues. For better or worse, I'm thankful that I at least get to be a part of it all - and tonight, that's enough for me to want to keep reading this book.

Food for thought, I guess. (Pun intended.)

Food!

Sundays. I love them.

Especially when they involve sleeping in, brunch, and making wedding invitations...

I'm spending mine with Steve - we just finished a lovely brunch of tofu scramble (my first time making it!) and Autumn-spiced Buckwheat Pancakes.

The scramble was so much easier than I thought it would be. I just took a package of Extra Firm Tofu, pressed it for 10-15 minutes, and then crumbled it in a bowl. For the spices, I used about a teaspoon each of turmeric, onion powder, and garlic powder, about 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, and a dash of salt and pepper. I added oil to a pan, got it nice and warm, and then added the crumbled tofu and the spices. Once the tofu was cooked through, I decided to add a dash of thyme and all-purpose seasoning. And once I plated it, I splashed a little paprika on it for color. It was simply delicious!

The buckwheat pancakes were so yummy. I was in a fall/holiday sort of mood, so I decided to combine a few of my absolute favorite spices - Cinnamon, Cloves, Nutmeg, and Ginger - and just added it to the pancake recipe. The result was exactly what I wanted - a rich, delightful autumn treat. Next time, I think I'll try adding some pumpkin.

Yesterday, Steve and I were planning on taking a ZipCar to the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary upstate, but we lost our ZipCard (which is basically the key you need to get into the car). With no card, we had no way of getting to use the car, which bummed me out thoroughly. But, being the positive people we are, we decided to make a whole new plan, which ended up being really fun. The high point of the day was lunch at Blossom Cafe uptown (http://www.blossomcafe.com/). I tried their Fettucini Alfredo with Soy Cutlets, and it was quite possibly the most delicious vegan meal I've ever had.

Yesterday and today have been a running theme for me of trying out new ways of eating and cooking. I had never made tofu scramble, but with some creativity, I came up with a version that Steve and I really loved (and was actually better than any scrambled eggs I've had prior to going vegan). Trying a non-dairy Fettucini Alfredo for the first time since going vegan was a huge thrill as well. Both experiences showed me that you really don't need dairy and eggs to make a meal delicious. It reminded me of a meal I made a few weeks ago.

I was jonesing for some tofu curry, so I sauteed some tofu cubes, chickpeas, and spinach in a mixture of Coconut Milk and Indian spices (I found a pack of mixed spices at my corner deli), threw in some capers and lemon juice, and topped it with some chopped almonds. The result was a creamy, comforting dish that really hit the spot. And the best part? I just made it up based on what I was craving for dinner.

It's always nice to get imaginitive in the kitchen and take risks with making something new. Sometimes you end up with a complete mess, but sometimes it can be the best thing you've ever created. It's what I love about cooking and baking.

A few nights ago, Steve and I had taco night. In the past, we had always used soy-beef crumbles for the taco filling, which tasted good every time. But recently, I'd learned about yeast extract and how it could be connected to MSG, and I started checking my processed vegan products for the ingredient. Turns out, a lot of vegan processed food has the stuff in it. Now, I've never had a reaction to the stuff, but just as a precaution, I tried a new way of doing the tacos that night- using beans instead of soy crumbles (not a huge leap, but something new for me). I followed the directions on the taco spice packet, but used beans in the place of meat. It turned out so much better than I could have expected.

I'll end my post with a quote from one of my favorite Vegan Bakers, Mrs. Colleen Patrick Goudreau:

"Don't do nothing because you can't do everything.

Do something, anything!"