My oozing heart is full of love.

Help Bella. That's all I can really say.

This darling, adorable, lovely lil' puppy named Bella just happens to have two paralyzed legs. Because her humans couldn't handle that minor fact, they surrendered her to the vet to have her euthanized. Yep, that's a little bit heartless, don't ya think?

Imagine if your child's legs or arms were paralyzed. You wouldn't tell the pedietrician to euthanize your child, right? So, think about it: you get a puppy and find out her back legs don't work. Instead of giving up and putting her down, you deal with what you are given. And, you give the dog the life she wants and deserves. If she could speak human, she'd say "sure, my legs are faulty, but they aren't going to kill me, so please don't kill me."

If the fight for the life of one little puppy isn't enough, remember that it is the holiday season, which is the perfect time to be giving. Instead of buying one extra unnecessary gift for someone you barely know, give them a card and bake them some [vegan] cookies and use the money saved to help Bella and other voiceless animals that have full, wonderful lives to live.

Her story, progress, and ways to help:
Help Bella
Bella's Progress
Second Chance Pets
Healing Hearts Sanctuary

Unoriginal Favourite Websites post.

Although I have already shared a couple links with y'all already, I would like to compile a list of websites that I enjoy and/or find beneficial. Yes, really. It is going to be a list. Deal with it. Hehe.

The Kind Life (Site tied to Alicia Silverstone's book, The Kind Diet.)
Barnivore (Growing list of which alcohol is or is not vegan friendly.)
Peta and Peta2 (I'm not a guerrilla veggie, but hey, they have great info!)
Urban Decay Cosmetics (All of their products are cruelty free, and a good majority of their products are vegan friendly.)
Farm Sanctuary (An organization which has two locations that takes in rescued farm animals. Got the chance to meet the guy who founded it. Very sweet guy. And, actually responds to personal emails.)
Peta Kids candy reference (I often times get a sweet tooth. And, look, Mamba makes the cut!)
Vegan Action (An overview and support service to help educate about veganism.)
Compassionate Cooks (A local lady who has a great podcast, two cookbooks, and lots of great info!)
Vegan Lunch Box (Great blog for anyone who wants inspiration for their own lunches.)
The Post Punk Kitchen (Edgy, fun, and wonderful forum for hip veggies.)
Poopie Bitch (She kind of amusing, and she actually seems to list the nutritional info of some of her recipes.)
Urban Vegan (A lady who's cookbook I've been meaning to buy. Her food looks so yummy!)
Bay Area Vegetarians (Only because I am a Bay Area resident...)
Vegan Cupcakes (I just bought their book a little bit ago and cannot wait to experiment!)

I am sure I will be updating this list over the course of the next year, but this is a great start. It might just be a reference for me. But, I hope that any of you reading this will check out these site and enjoy them as much as me!

Vegan Beer & Wine.

'Tis the season to be merry. In the spirit of merriment, holiday parties are usually rampant - even in this tough economic climate. And, due to people needing to be more mindful about their spending, BYO-whatever is much more popular than it has ever been.

Many casual parties often have an unspoken BYOBeverage rule. So, why not use this to educate friends on the joy of cruelty free drinks, alcoholic and non?

A great resource is Barnivore. It offers a list of beer, wine, and liquor that are animal byproduct free. It also lists which companies are not vegan friendly or offer just a selection of vegan friendly options. I am glad to see so many common beverages fall into this list.

Some of my favourite brews (out of a rather extensive list):
Alaskan Brewing Company, Anchor Brewing Company, Butte Creek Brewing (I've been to the brew pub attached to the brewery), Chimay, Deschutes Brewery (Been there too), Dos Equis, Full Sail Brewing Company (Another favourite I've been to), Redhook Ale Brewery, Rogue Ales (they have a Honey Wheat and some cask beers that aren't vegan friendly), Sierra Nevada Brewery, and Speakeasy Ales & Lagers (w00t, a local!!).

And, a few of my favourite wines:
Big Sky Vineyard, Red Truck Wines, The Other Guys, Three Loose Screws, and any of the red (not including Rose) options from the Yellow Tail wines. The great thing about Yellow Tail is that they provide nutritional information on their website. This info includes whether or not the wine is vegan friendly.

When it comes to wine, it seems to be much more difficult to make vegan options. Some vineyards use fish byproducts to thin out the colour of white and rose wines. And, some vineyards use gelatin as a sweetener and/or thickening agent for red wines. With beer, some manufacturers use the same fish byproduct use in white/rose wines. Many manufacturers still use bone char as a filtration system, instead of the just as effective wood char.

So, for any of you considering bringing beverages to a party and want to play it safe, please consider Barnivore as a resource. It also has a section for liquor, but as I generally don't drink anything alcoholic other than beer and wine, I'll let you peruse at your own leisure.

In an upcoming blog, I will discuss vegan friendly soft beverages and great ideas for food items that one can bring to parties that have that BYOWhatever rule. :)

The Kind Diet & The Kind Life

I am currently reading The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone. She has a website linked to this book, entitled The Kind Life, which is a great tool to use for longtime vegans, as well as people who are reading the book and just getting started in the veg*n lifestyle. It has information about food, health, home style, fashion, and the environment.

Currently, the first picture I see is a bowl of Mac n' Cheese, one of my ultimate comfort foods. This is a post she made today sharing the recipe. I will definately be sure to copy this one down and give it a go sometime in the next couple weeks.

I highly suggest that anyone reading my lowly little blog takes a gander at The Kind Life. I appreciate that someone is using their fame in a positive light and are able to make vegan awareness and education that much more accessible...
...Not to mention groovy.

[Being part of a generation in which "Clueless" has been one of our staples, I have always been fond of Ms. Silverstone.]

Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal.

May I please say that Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal with a dash of Enriched Soy Dream milk is fantastic?

For the longest time, my mother was convinced she couldn't stand oatmeal. That spilled over to me and she told me I didn't like it, even though I don't really remember ever saying "ewh, I hate oatmeal." In fact, I used to sneak oatmeal as a kid. Like a kid in the cookie jar, I'd do my best to make sure my mother never knew I actually loved oatmeal. So, in my later years, when I started cooking and preparing food for myself, I'd proudly whip up a batch of Quaker Oats with some salt and margarine on a cold and rainy day. This always got odd looks from my mother, saying "I thought you don't like that stuff."

It was about a year or two ago, my mother discovered Steel Cut Irish Oats in Trader Joe's. She goes through phases where she'll obsessively cook things. Oatmeal was one of these things. And, she didn't just cook enough for one person to eat breakfast. Like any Irish woman from her generation, more is better. She'd make enough to feed a family for three days. Of course, me being the oatmeal fan that I am, I'd eat a bowl for breakfast and lunch. Hey, if it's there, I'm going to eat it. True story.

Today has been gloomy, grey, and wet outside. It is one of those days that makes people want to stay inside with sweatpants, a good book, and a bowl of something warm and tasty. I decided that oatmeal was the way to go. Sure, it was one of the few animal byproduct-less things in the house that is best served warm. But, even so, slaving over a pot of Dahl just didn't cut the psychology.

While I was diligently stirring the rolling oats, I decided to try something out. People seem to have their oatmeal swimming in [cow's] milk, right? And, often times oatmeal is prepared with milk, yes? I wondered what the oatmeal would be like with a splash of soy milk. I dropped some in as the oatmeal was still cooking. It looked a little bit unappealing. I like my oatmeal looking manly and rough, and this concoction looked a bit froo-froo for my liking. But, I knew that the oatmeal would continue to absorb the liquid, so when I poured the oats into my bowl, I topped it off with one more splash of soy milk. A few minutes later, when I was ready to dig in, I approached with caution...

And, it was the most exciting thing I have ever tasted. I've found another way to enjoy my oatmeal. Let's not forget I can be cool and American now, with my milky oatmeal.


So, here's what I used and how I did it:
-Half cup (dry) of McCann's Quick & Easy Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal;
-One and a half cups of water;
-Couple teaspoons of salt (I love my oatmeal salty, not sweet);
-Approximately 1/8 to 1/4 of a cup of Enriched Soy Dream milk.

I put the water and salt into a smallish saucepan and let it come to a small boil. Then I added the oats. For about 6 minutes, I gave the oatmeal a steady stir, with intermittent breaks. At about 5 minutes in, I added a splash of soy milk. After pouring it into the bowl, I added one more splash and gave it a good stir. A couple minutes later, it was perfect and ready to eat.

For those of you who have a Trader Joe's nearby and want to try this out (if you already haven't), you can get all of these ingredients there. No, I do not work for TJ's in any way, although, I should be given some sort of lifetime discount, because I am one of their biggest fans. [FYI, I have noticed that TJ's have the cheapest Tofurkey products in the Penninsula.]

So, I am off to read some more of Alicia Silverstone's "The Kind Diet" as I snuggle in bed with my cat Pushkin.

Hefty 2010 Goals.

Oh, jebus... Hello! And, welcome to the start of what could be the most important and exciting journey I have ever taken.

Okay, so that might be a bit of an exaggeration. While this decision is HUGE (and I do mean life altering) and very exciting, it is just as important as quite a few decisions I have made and are going to make at some point in my long life. [Let's hope for some longevity, and comfort too!]

Sure, I am alluding to this grand decision and you have absolutely no idea what it is. Don't you worry your pretty little head off. I'll totally get to what it is.


First, let me give you a little bit of a background:

This journey of mine dates back to a time when neon leggings were only just falling out of fashion and GAP was at the height of its preppy, yuppie, San Francisco chic fame. I can vividly remember the cute shorts my mother had bought me. They had mini black and white checks. I had already gone off fish by then. For some reason, as I was developing into a surly teenager, my taste for anything sea related had gone bitterly sour. Yes, at 12, I was an avid seafood protester. But, it was around this time of warm summer evenings, and fantastic after school social events on the soccer fields that horror stories of fish and various seafood offerings were told by my peers. These urban legends were the official end to my desire to be within 500 yards of anything edible that came from the sea. And, to this day, I still gag every time I have to walk past the seafood section of any grocery store just to stock up on bags of frozen edamame. It is such a joyful experience.
It was around this time that I slowly found myself going off all sorts of cooked animals. I found myself gulping down bolognase sauce just to avoid wasting food and to make my parents happy. I'd avoid eating turkey at holiday dinners and load up on vegetables. [Trust me, I was just as tired as everyone else. Potatoes have the same effect that turkey, apparently has. Quite frankly, I don't believe the turkey-tryptophan discussion. I believe that, in America, when a family has a large turkey dinner at any designated holiday, it's the overeating that makes people tired, not the turkey.] And, when any kind of pig selection was offered to me, I'd want to eat it, but chose not to. Why? I don't know why I chose not to initially. Then, after years of not eating any pig byproduct, I got violently sick the one time I did. Spending the better part of a day and into the night with your face in the toilet will put you off the cause.

So, over the span of seventeen years, I've basically been a lacto-sometimes ovo-vegetarian. It wasn't until two or three years ago that I stopped eating eggs and avoided as many foods as possible that had eggs in the ingredients. And, last year, I cut chicken (the last, very scarce amount of meat I ate) out of my diet. And, this year, my dairy intake has decreased significantly.


This decision, which I will explain momentarily, has been a long time coming. A large part of me is full of this nagging compassion. Even as a child, I felt a tiny amount of guilt every time I ate an animal. Lucky for me, my developing body correlated with my brain. My cheeks, taste buds, tongue, tonsils and throat all managed to get nervous and faulty when they'd come in contact with various animal products. My brain managed to psych them out.

So, my decision for 2010 is to attempt dietary veganism. Because I have lived so long eating a primarily plant based diet, I feel I am well prepared for this transition. Sure, it'll be difficult. I do have a weakness for milk chocolate. I also sometimes get a major jones for a slice of Pizza My Heart's cheese. And, yes, I will occasionally enjoy a Guiness, which is the only way you can get me to knowingly ingest fish byproducts.

Why, you might ask, did I say "dietary veganism"? Well, let me tell you this. All of the clothing I purchase for myself [I/myself] are animal byproduct free. I am a huge cotton fan. And, if someone else purchases me clothing and/or accessories, they choose animal byproduct free stuff, or I am just polite and accept the gift. Nobody's perfect, right? And, as far as my hair/skincare and cosmetics go? I always buy cruelty free, and do my best to buy animal byproduct free. But again, nobody's perfect.

With that said, I have always tried to do my best to be a saavy consumer with both food and non-food related items. I might end up buying something with beeswax in it. And, I often get snipped at for buying something with a lanolin ingredient in it. But, often times, a synthetic form of lanolin is used. Science is pretty forward moving these days. All those dermatologists and cancer researchers behind many skincare brands know ways of making synthetic forms of ingredients that once came from animal byproducts. And, with research, said scientists are finding that many plant based sources work just as efficiently as these animal sources. Hey, guess what? These plant resources are much more renewable and much cheaper to obtain! Wow! What a breakthrough!! Easier and cheaper to access! Whodathunkit?

This blog is going to journey the next year (and a bit) of my life. It will even include vegan friendly xmas meal contributions that I make to a primarily omnivorous group. And, I am even going to attempt vegan gingerbread. I've been jonesin' for some killer gingerbread for a couple months now. It will take a few attempts, as I've never made any kind of bread. But, it'll be worth it...

Please come back! Laugh with me! Or at me. Really, I don't mind if you do.
And, remember to love all living beings around you...
...Because Karma is a fierce creature.