"That must be hard"

I had some girlfriends over the other night, and we had some food, drank some beer... Talked about life, and everything. Of course our conversation topics rolled to this and that, and landed on food... somewhere in between boys and beer... The comment was made to me "That must be Hard" (to cut out eggs and dairy), and wouldn't I miss cheese?!


Honeslty, it hasn't been that hard, and I'll tell you why. I've been eating a mostly vegetarian diet for about 3 years now. And leaning towards vegetarian for about 5 years. So, my transition has been slow. I still remember the last steak I ate. It was three years ago, and I thought I was just craving the steak salad at Outback. I remember how something just switched, maybe it was because I was by the ocean and there were markets with fresh produce everywhere, and why with all the abundace of the tropics was I craving a genaric steak. My steak salad came to the table, and it was totally unappatizing. I would never eat steak again. Something bloody on top of fresh greens!! Yuck! Not anymore.


Before that, I gave up eating chicken and all poultry in general. Mostly what turned me off to eating birds was the really nasty, dirty conditions in which they are raised in. And I still have the traumatizing memory of whitnessing some friends chop the heads off chickens that they had hatched and raised. Their chickens probably had a pretty good life... well fed, clean, and got to peck around in the grass and eat bugs even. But seeing them run around without theirs heads... well... not very appetizing. I gradually cut the dairy out of my diet, because it made me feel awful. I'd get a stuffy head and have no energy. Basically I was some form of lactose intolerant. As we all are! OK... Yes, I will miss cheese just a little...but I won't miss the way it makes me feel.

Eggs, well, they always left a bad after taste in my mouth, and I was always afraid I would get some sort of food borne illness if I ate the cookie dough, or licked the beaters full of cake batter. I really don't miss them at all. The only thing that you can't make without eggs, is a good meringue. I can live with out meringue.

So, My commitment to go vegan gave me the opportunity to fully give up eating fish and seafood. Eating fresh fish... this, I miss the most. But honestly, it's not that 'hard'. Being vegan has only raised my awareness of what I put in my mouth, to feed and fuel my body. I feel empowered by my food choices now. And the feeling of "I can't have that..." is gone, and replaced with "I choose.."

In conclusion, being vegan is a journey, as is all of life. Feel good about your choices! Embrace your journey!
Lisa

Milk and Cookies...Really!

www.portaphotographica.com

Every once and a while you know how you just start craving a really good chocolate chip cookie?

Well then, I have the perfect recipe that I just have to share! I ran across this recipe online and tried it out quite some time ago...and fell in love.

It's simple and easy to make, uses no egg replacer, and is super super yummy!

Here is the recipe thanks to Dreena Burton!

For the wheat free version please click on the link above and scroll down to note.

Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies  -> -> ->

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup unrefined sugar

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

1/4 tsp blackstrap molasses

1-1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup organic canola oil(a little generous 1/4 cup)

1/3 cup non-dairy chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt until well combined.

In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup with the molasses and vanilla, then stir in the oil until well combined. 

Add the wet mixture to the dry and then add in the chocolate chips. Make sure not to over mix.

Place large spoonfuls on a baking sheet and then flatten a little bit.

Bake for 11 min, until just golden. 

Makes 8-10 large cookies.

I really love making these. They always turn out so yummy and are really beautiful cookies!

Making vegan cookies rocks....let me tell you why!

1. You can freely eat the cookie dough without any worry of getting  salmonella poisoning!

Fact: Every year, Americans suffer 76 million illnesses, over 300,000 hospitalizations, and over 5,000 deaths from something they ate, most likely from an animal origin.

2. You don't have to buy eggs. Eggs are part of a chickens menstrual cycle. Not exactly something that I would consider appetizing!

3. Eggs are extremely high in cholesterol which could be very damaging to your health!

4. OK, now my favorite reason why it rocks to make vegan cookies....you get to drink milk, not milk from a cow that has around 13 million puss cells per 8 0z glass, but all of the wonderful alternatives! Not just soy, but almond, rice, oat, and hempmilk. Not only are they wonderfully healthy for you in comparison, but they are so yummy!

Now go live your dreams!

Jessica*

To all you "Animal Lovers"

I want to share with you a topic that I am very passionate about because for some very odd reason it really never enters our minds.....I would like to call it survival of the cutest.

I'm sure you remember a time when you found a bird that broke its wing, or you experienced the family dog or other beloved animal pass away. You remember feeling love for that animal and rightfully so, we are truly beings that grieve and love and feel loss.

One thing that I have questioned in my own mind and would like for you to ponder as well is why do we chose to love some animals and not others? When we find the bird with the broken wing we want to take care of it, fix it, see it fly again. Our parents comfort us and help us to do everything that is possible to help. Then we sit down to eat our grilled chicken for dinner........Um, What!?

I wonder at times if we are just so accustomed to living this way that we don't really think before we act. I believe that there is no drawn line in the sand when it comes to being a compassionate person.

The animals that we choose to eat like cows, pigs, chickens, and fish are just as much animals as the family dog or cat. You may not have named them, spent time with them, or looked into their eyes with love. But what if you had? Just because you never make a personal connection with something does not mean it's not important.

So why are we choosing to eat some animals and not others? Is it because we find some of them cuter or prettier than others and so that gives them more value to us? Wait a second, isn't that called discrimination? Is that ok with us? Most importantly, does being discriminatory between one animal and another align with your values?

Some food for thought. I know that this is a pretty uncomfortable topic for most people. I'm not sure if that is because we are afraid of change, accepting a new truth, or if making a change is somehow an admittance of a previous wrong doing.

Whatever the case is, we are all here to learn and move in a forward direction, and hopefully to do so with integrity. 

Love Animals, Don't Eat them!

Jessica*

Why I Choose to be Vegan...A million reasons.

I thought for my first blog post I would explain why I chose to be vegan. This is a question that I am faced with so often and I still never know quite how to answer. The first thing that usually blurts out of my mouth when I make an attempt to answer that question is "for a million reasons!". That really is the truth, there are so many reasons and I find new ones daily.


The first reason is because I believe that living authentically involves aligning your actions with what your values are. I want to live with compassion, with an open heart, prepared to learn new things. I want to take care of what has been given to us(the Earth), and not take things for granted but live in a place of gratitude. I know that being vegan supports compassion, is the most environmentally positive change that you can make, I know that it is the healthiest decision I can make for my physical body as well. One of the changes that I never expected was having a clear conscious about what I was eating, knowing that nothing was harmed, knowing that what is on my plate are the best things that I could be putting into my body! The truth is there are no negatives with going vegan, everything is positive. It's good for me, good for you, good for the animals, and good for the environment!


One last thing, can I just encourage you to get educated about your own health. What we feed our bodies is so important. YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT! This is YOUR life And YOUR Health! Make no excuses!

I'm leaving you with a link that I highly reccomend you read! If you care about your health and the health of our planet READ IT! Its called 101 reasons why I'm Vegetarian By Pamela Rice

Live with Intention,

Jessica*

Day 5

So, it's been five days since making the commitment to be vegan. It hasn't been as hard of a transition as I thought it might. I don't feel like I've deprived myself of anything, I've only just cut out all the junk food.
The most encouraging thing happened though... Something I really never expected. A friend of mine invited me over for dinner on Sunday. She was asking me if I still ate fish, and I said, "Actually, my New Year's Resolution is to eat completely vegan..." She responded with "... oh, I don't know if I can do that. That would be really hard for us..."
I wasn't suprised with her response at all. It's what I expected. When you go against the norm, or do something different, there will always be some opposition. So I just said, "Don't worry about it, I would love to come for dinner, and I'll eat whatever you make me."
So, I showed up on Sunday night, walked in the door, (it smelled wonderful) my friend calls from the kitchen "... I made everything completly VEGAN!!! Come try the pizza!..."
The pizza was amazing! It had a white sauce... made with chickpeas, lemon juice, a bit of olive oil and almond butter (instead of tahini)... carmelized onions and grape tomatoes! And that was just the first course. Also... their family is allergic to gluten, so the crust on the pizza was not traditional, it was more like a cracker crust made from wheat free ingredients. She also made polenta and curry, which was really yummy! Her excitement was contageous, and she kept saying how it wasn't really as hard as she thought it would be, and that she was going to make a vegen meal for her family once a week. Kudos to creative moms with 3 kids under 6! Thanks to amazing loving friends! Wow.... I was totally suprised... Completely Encouraged!
This is what being vegan is all about...
Lisa