Stir Fry Heaven

Stir fry is one of my favorite meals. I make one at least once a week. I couldn't live without my wok! I love that I can throw in whatever veggies I have in the fridge and make a delicious meal. Below is one I made the other night. This particular stir fry had swiss chard, bok choy, mushrooms, onions, yellow pepper, purple pepper, ginger, garlic and tofu. I like to pre-fry the tofu, take it out of the wok then put it back in right at the end. I like CRISPY tofu.

Has it really only been 7 months?

I can't believe I have only been a vegan since January 1st. It feels like I've been one forever. I feel like I found my true self. Like this is how I should have always been living my life. The peace and calm in my heart is real. I think eating cruelty free is a beautiful thing. I wish I was better at explaining to others how awesome this is. I hate seeing people's defensives go up the minute they hear I am vegan. I don't even have to say anything pro-vegan and they are already throwing excuses at me.

Yesterday on Facebook, I posted something about the egg industry and battery cages and how Americans should be outraged. One of my old friends posted this in return: "Have you read Jonathan Safran Foer's new book? It's called Eating Animals. Friend of mine is now vegan & she liked it. I'm not quite ready to read it. I know what it will do to the way I eat and I'm just not ready for it. (does that make me a little selfish? sigh...i think so)" . I think it was a very honest statement. I think a lot of people know that what they are doing causes terrible suffering, unbelievable pain and agonizing death, but they just won't allow themselves to think about it. Because if they do, they will have no choice but to change the way they eat.

By the way, here is the information on the egg industry:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/weekinreview/15marsh.html?_r=1

And I haven't read Eating Animals yet, but it is on my list of must-reads. After I am finished Gene Baur's book "Farm Sanctuary", I'll go get Eating Animals. I'm a really slow reader, so I'll have to pick up the pace. Since we are cutting way back on TV, that should be easy to do.

And here is today's adorable farm animal picture (baby goat at Farm Sanctuary):

First Tomato Harvest of the Season!

We've been waiting (sort of) patiently all summer for our tomatoes to be ready. This 100 degree heat and no rain has been brutal to them. But today, we finally got our first "crop". The tops were a bit split, so we decided to roast them up and make some homemade sauce. So easy and so good.

We took the tomatoes and cut off the split tops. Sprayed a pan with some cooking spray and layed out the tomatoes, fresh garlic and an onion from the Farmer's Market. Drizzled some olive oil and added some salt and pepper. 350 degree oven for maybe 40-50 minutes and they were done. The house smelled soooo good. From there, I put them in the Vita-mix to blend them together. Transfered them to the stove and added fresh oregano and basil from our garden. Added some salt, pepper, more garlic (is there ever too much?), bay leaves and some red pepper flakes. I also added a little tomato paste to thicken it up. We fried up some vegan Field Roast Italian Sausage to add to the sauce and cooked up some bow tie pasta. Oh my, was this a delicious meal! And plenty of left overs for lunch tomorrow.

Here are the tomatoes before roasting:



And after:



Heirloom tomatoes are my new favorite food. I had an heirloom tomato tart for brunch at Moxie Bakery and Cafe this morning and this for dinner. I never want summer to end.

All of God's Creatures

I wish I knew where the whole "God put animals here for us to eat" theory came from. I'm assuming somewhere in the Bible someone found a passage that says it's ok. I'm not a religious person and I don't claim to know everything that is in the Bible. I do, however, know that there are people out there who "interpret" it support what they believe. All I know is that no God of mine would put a feeling, loving, sentient being here on Earth for the sole purpose of being food. To be subjected to pain, suffering and death just to feed us. If He did, why didn't He make it so they couldn't feel pain? What kind of cruel God creates a being knowing it will be able to feel love, joy, happiness, but then never let it feel any of those things. Why don't these people see the veggies and fruits as His gift of food? Probably the whole "forbidden fruit" story.

Here are some pictures of who some people think were put here for them to eat (taken on my visit to Farm Sanctuary:

Here is your lamb chop:


Here is your bacon:


Here is your hamburger:


These beautiful animals have all been rescued from the food industry. Please take a moment to get to know some farm animals. They will forever change the way you think about animals and why they were put on Earth with us.

Who's kitchen is this?

For someone who didn't even like vegetables when she became a vegetarian a few years ago, I sure do eat a lot of fruits and vegetables now! And this doesn't even show you what is in my fridge. I just can't seem to get enough this summer. And the Vita-mix has made eating them even better (tastier, easier, more fun!).

I wish I knew then what I know now. Before I became a vegan, I just couldn't imagine how much amazing food I would be eating. And knowing that it is cruelty free makes it taste even better.

It's here, it's here! The Vita-mix is here!

We finally broke down and spent the money on a Vita-mix. Wow, is this thing awesome. I used to be one of the people who wondered, "What's so great about it? How is it different from my blender?". Well, now I know. This beast could blend my other blender! When I tried to put greens into a smoothie in my old blender, well, lets just say, they didn't really blend. Now, I'm putting kale, cucumbers, anything in there and they are so smooth and yummy. What a great way to get kale in my body every day! And as my older post told , kale rocks. It really does a body good. And the Vita-mix does so much more than smoothies! Anyway, here is our inaugural smoothie in the making. We've since started adding a lot more greens to them.

Pitas love veggies too!

When we got home from work the other day, we both just wanted something lighter for dinner. I had picked up some gorgeous heirloom tomatoes (since ours just won't ripen out back) and a red pepper that looked so inviting. So we grabbed a cucumber from our garden and some really tasty sundried tomato and basil hummus and put it all together on some great pita bread. What a great, fresh meal. I loved it so much that I had it again for lunch the next day!