Thursday, December 28, 2006

2 veg-friendly articles today

Nice to see this popping up in Michigan ("Dropping meat from diet not difficult") and Ohio ("You can ease into vegetarianism"). If you're so inclined, especially if you live in the area, it would be nice to send a thank you letter to the editor.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Matzo balls and cookies

What food is better for Christmas than Matzoh Ball Soup? For those of us who don't celebrate Christmas, it's a nice day to relax at home. I decided to try out recipe for vegan matzoh balls from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's book, Vegan with a Vengeance. The recipe is also posted here on her website.

I will admit that it seemed daunting at first, but the matzoh balls were actually really easy to make and they went especially well with some leftover vegetable soup. From a nice Jewish girl who was raised on good traditional knaidlech, this recipe gets two thumbs up (incidentally, knaidel was one of the words in the recent Scripp's National Spelling Bee)

I also made my two favorite kinds of cookie; shown below are Gigantoid Peanut Butter Oatmeal and Sparkled Ginger cookies, both also from VwaV

Happy New Year to all!

Tags: vegan cooking | vegan cookies | vegan matzo balls

Thursday, December 21, 2006

More + press: Vegan and vegetarian eaters

ArgusLeader.com: Article, hosting tips, recipes

Friday, December 15, 2006

Don't eat horses is good, no?

Will Peta stop at nothing to get the message out there? The animal rights group have a very creative campaigns team, that's for sure. Their latest trick is for two female members to parade around the freezing streets of Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan, wearing just bikinis made from lettuce leaves, and urging people to go veggie. The Kazakhs, god bless them, were bewildered by the whole affair - vegetarianism not being very common in the central Asian nation. On top of the publicity surrounding the Borat film, they probably thought it was some more foreigners poking fun at them. Still, if it did work, then good for the Peta girls. Look out for a surge in vegetarian restaurants in Almaty in 2007.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Nuts to protein scaremongers

We vegetarians have made and heard countless arguments as to why a meat-free diet is healthier, and here is another one to throw on the pile. It's all very official and quite good at reposting those who fall lazily back on the not-enough-protein line. We need protein to grow big and strong and aggressive, of course, but how much? Meat eaters are always fondly recalling the days when we used to roam the earth with spears looking for animals to kill. But how many did we actually kill? I don't know, but I doubt there was roast on the cave menu every night. So we had sharp teeth, granted, and we ate meat, granted, but not all the time. Anyway, time we moved on from the Stone Age, don't you think?

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Vegan pizza

Two words one doesn't hear together often enough: vegan pizza. Every once in a while, my wife and I will splurge and buy a vegan pizza from a little Los Angeles dive on Fairfax called Damiano's Mr. Pizza. They're open late and, though very much not a vegan joint, they offer vegan pizza, made with Follow Your Heart's mozzarella alternative. I like to add artichoke hearts, mushrooms and, on nights like tonight, vegan pepperoni:


Looks good, doesn't it? It is. Bear in mind the cost (with one Samual Adams Oatmeal Stout): $31.66

Yee-ouch! But thanks to the fact that there's zero cholesterol in this pizza, you don't have to worry about having a heart attack from sticker shock. This pizza is worth the cost once in a while, let me tell you, especially if you're incapable of making something like this at home.

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Tuesday, December 05, 2006

NYC health board bans trans fats at restaurants

NYC health board bans trans fats at restaurants - CNN.com

Not strictly vegetarian, but it does set a precedent for banning foods that most people see as a personal choice...

Counting animals and, hopefully, votes

I’ve been a bit slow reporting this, but yesterday a political party was launched in London dedicated to the plight of animals. Needless to say, vegans, and some good vegan grub, were in abundance – along with plenty of animal-friendly discussion (I wasn’t actually there, I’m lifting from the BBC report). I’m not sure of the potential success for a political party that doesn’t address human issues, (I can’t see them winning power), but animal rights definitely needs some mainstream representation and as such this seems like a good idea. Hopefully it can bring animal rights groups back from the brink of terrorism and into the arena of reasonable public debate. Despite the understandable anger many activists feel, a more measured approach will achieve a lot more. At the moment it’s too easy for politicians to dismiss animal rights as the domain of long-haired loonies. So, yeah, vote Animals Count.