Whats Cooking?..... Spring Time Barley, Spinach, Sweet Potato, and Edamame Salad!

1 Cup uncooked Barley

1 Sweet Potato (cubed)

1 Cup Edamame (deshelled)

1-2 Cups Spinach

3 whole carrots 

1/2 Cup Raisins

1/2 Onion 

Balsamic Vinaigrette ( or salad dressing of your choice)

1. Cube the sweet potato (I left the skin on) and cook it in a pan with a little bit of olive oil on medium to low  heat until cooked through 

2.  Cook Barely according to package directions until tender

3. Cook Edamame according to package directions 

4. Cut carrots

5. Cut Onion

6.  When everything is done cooking, combine the amounts of each ingredients you would like on your plate, top with raisins, and put balsamic vinaigrette over the top (to taste).  And enjoy.  The Barley, Edamame, and Sweet potato should still be warm.  ENJOY! 

I loved this simple spring recipe!  I hope you will too!  

Fabulous Food

I absolutely ADORE cooking!  One thing becoming vegan has enabled me to do is justify spending time in the kitchen trying new and interesting recipes!  I have made my own bread (which I've NEVER done before) I made cake from scratch instead of the boxed cake (never ever done that either), I've tried new foods such as quinoa, curry, coconut milk, and apricots, and it's enabled me to experience joy and relaxation while cooking, eating, and cleaning up a meal!  (pardon the crappy quality of the pics.... I only take them with my phone since I'm too poor to buy a nice camera :-P)

 Rice noodle soup with carrots,onion, and edamame. Need I say more?

 Macaroni and Cheez (with a surprise ingredient) even the boyfriend LOVED this one!  He went back for seconds.

 I didnt make this... got it from a local coffee shop.  This was probably one of the top 5 desserts ive EVER had in my life! <--- totally true!

 Ok... I didn't make this either..... got it from a local restaurant called Zanzibar.. holy CRAP was it good! like woah! I asked for it without cheese... got tomato,onion, red peppers, mushrooms, artichoke, olive oil... definitely going back for this!

 Vegan Chili with Upton's Natural Chorizo Seitan.... you honestly would NEVER know this is vegan.... (i might give it to my mom without telling her haha)

Lentil Carrot Burgers: I promise I wasnt covering up the taste of them with BBQ sauce.... i just LOVE BBQ sauce.  These were amazing on my homemade hamburger buns with spinach, tomato, onion, and BBQ sauce. DELICIOUS!

 Vegan Chocolate Cake (just call it chocolate cake.. because no one will know its vegan)

 Hamburger Buns!  They were soo tasty! I learned really quick that these buns don't quite have the same shelf life that most store bought buns do... next time i'll freeze the dough and just make a couple at a time.

 Thanksgiving style quinoa: quinoa, craisins, celery, onion, apricots, and vegetable broth. Tasted GREAT! even my anti-vegan friends loved it!  

 Thai Curry Soup: the recipe is on the can of coconut milk.... I skipped the shrimp and put baby corn, bamboo shoots, and snap peas!  amazingly easy recipe and tastes GREAT! 

Another simple simple simple recipe!  Literally... sugar, rice, coconut milk, and mango. The end.  SOOOOOO good!

So the moral of the story is........ Vegan cooking is amazing and non restrictive!  I have loved every meal I have made so far!  <3 Food is lovely!  

Kayleen

Fresh Start

I've always been a "healthy" eater, there's no doubt about that but about 4 weeks ago, I was exposed to what so many people attribute to their becomming vegan: Earthlings.  I thought I would watch it like I watched other "heartwarming" videos in the past, vow to make a few changes, and then quickly revert back to my old ways.  Well, first off let me begin by saying that Earthlings is ANYTHING but heartwarming..... secondly, my life was changed from the moment I pressed play. 

So let me go back in time a little bit here (and by little bit i mean... EXTREMELY recently)....I was a vegan hater.  I was the one who thought that Vegan views clashed with the teachings of the bible (yes i'm a christian), I thought they were overreacting to a nonexistant problem, and I thought their diets were EXTREMELY restrictive. Also, i thought it was unfair that they were wasting soo much time focusing on the treatment of animals and not enough (or any) time focusing on providing just wages to workers, fair trade, and other "people" centered causes. I was wrong. <-- mark those words in your calendar because they dont come out very often :-P. seriously though, I was incredibly WRONG! 

I watched "Earthlings"  and here is what happened: my heart broke.  Literally it broke in half.  I was conflicted!  I HATED veganism... thought it was bogus and now I was considering becomming one of them.  Ay.  Well, in addition to the struggle of "become vegan" vs "ignore the problem exists" I also found myself struggling with were I fit in as a Christian in all of this.  After about a week of INTENSE reflections... I found my place as a christian in the vegan tradition and lifestyle so here it is:

• I firmly believe that animals were put on this earth by God as a source of nourishment for the human body (except eggs and milk... I just dont think thats right).. I also believe that God EXPECTS and REQUIRES that we treat his people, animals, and land with the utmost dignity and respect.  If Earthlings taught me one thing, its that we are NOT treating the beautiful animals of this earth with dignity and respect.  Additionally, through factory farming we are not treating our earth with respect either (pollution from animal feces etc). While I believe that we are SUPPOSED to eat animals, I acknowledge that factory farming is not what God had in mind.  If we could go back to the days when Jesus was alive and fish and farm during those times.... heck, I'd be on board with eating meat.... but that is not the case.  We have polluted our waters, soil, and air.  I decided to go vegan not because of "animal rights" per say, but because of "animal welfare and dignity".  As the intellectually advanced creatures on this planet, we have an obligation to the plants, water, and animals we share the earth with.  We have an obligation to appreciate them, treat them with respect, and use them wisely and sparingly--> we do none of the above

•   So then, what about hunting and fishing you ask? I dont have a real reason for giving up venison other than just going black and white on the issue so as to not be called hypocrytical.  And fishing, i fricken love fish! .... literally, i could have LIVED on fish and only fish... but heres the deal: we RUINED our waters!  with water, humans have an "out of sight out of mind mentality"......our waters are so poisoned that we CANNOT EVEN EAT SEAFOOD WHILE PREGNANT.... im sorry, but if i cant feed it to my unborn baby seafood because a potential murcury poisoning.... i certainly dont want to feed it to myself. 

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
By contributing to the abuse and disrespect of God's creatures, land, and people and then consuming the food that comes from abused animals, and purchasing items made at the expense of human hands.... I am not Glorifying God... I am saddening him.  I believe that it breaks his heart to see us abuse the majestic creatures he placed here for our wellbeing.  By ingesting or wearing products that lived in hatred, were treated with hatred, and died with hatred.. we are NOT glorifying God through our bodies. 

So yes, I have officially become vegan! I'm excited and proud!  I've been vegan for a month now!  wow!  I've only had 3 dairy products and thats because I had them left from before I was vegan... and in my opinion, the only thing WORSE than participating in animal cruelty is wasting/throwing away foods that contain animal product.  In that way, not only are you NOT appreciating/respecting the animal in its life, but you are also abusing it in its death.  I am NOT judgemental of people who's opinions regarding this issue differ from my own.  I am willing to talk with anyone about my beliefs but will not impress those beliefs on anyone else.  This my own path and I am on it by myself (of course it would be great to get others on board).  I also refuse to see veganism as something totally seperate from fair trade, organic, etc.... I believe it is equally my obligation to respect and cherish human life and plant life as it is to respect animal life.  I have made decisions in regards to fair trade to shop predominantly for used clothes because once again.... the only thing worse than purchasing clothes may by sweat shop labor is WASTING clothes already made by the hands of sweatshop labor.  I will value my fellow human being by NOT purchasing items made in sweatshops fresh off the shelf.  I will recycle clothes that others have already worn so as to not contribute to the use of natural resources or continued sweatshop labor.  I will talk a little bit more about the specifics of my vegan lifestyle in my next post.  Thanks for reading!