Eggs?

I will eat eggs and dairy from time to time. (Although I don't buy them to cook with.)
However, I have to say after watching this video, I could never bring myself to purchase any type of egg product anymore, knowing that I'm supporting this.
For those of you that think that eggs are produced from loving farms where the chickens roam free in grassy pastures- think again.
I guarantee you will not think of them the same way again, unless of course you have literally no soul.
The video is below.


http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2009/09/modern-day-nazis/

And that is pretty mild considering the practices that go into meat slaughterhouses...

Like, I understand how people say things like "Oh well just because you don't eat it doesn't mean it won't still happen!"

Because yes, that's true. BUT- I have a choice I have to make when given a circumstance such as this. Will I continue to purchase and support such a horrific practice when I know what is going on, and be able to live peacefully about it? Or, will I make a stand and have a clear conscience with the food that I eat, and eat the foods that are naturally grown from the earth that are free of any harmful animal fats- rejuvenating, life-bringing foods in which nothing was harmed for me to eat?

I think I'll take the latter option.

I'm absolutely DISGUSTED by the meat/animal food industry as a whole, and it's because of reasons shown in the video above. Cruelty is not cool. No matter WHAT kind of animal it is. I think, personally, that people need to stop rationalizing animal cruelty and categorizing "farm" animals as different than their own personal pets. How would you feel if someone took your new puppy and threw him in a grinder because he wasn't able to make them money? Or someone took your cat and stripped his skin off of him while still alive in order to produce a nice juicy dinner?

They are all animals, have life, feel pain, and are intelligent. A a cow or pig deserves the same life that your treasured family pet has.

I choose vegan/vegetarianism not only because the health benefits are amazing, but because I cannot live my life peacefully knowing I'm supporting a practice which is causing thousands of innocent animals to have their lives taken in inhumane, horrible ways. I could never again look at a piece of meat on my plate and feel good about it.

People think that I am "sacrificing," or that I'm being some sort of martyr for giving up meat. When in reality, I would not eat it if you PAID me, or if you said that nobody would ever find out- I just couldn't do it. It's really disgusting more than anything, honestly.

Now that being said, of course I don't have an issue with people eating it around me of course, and I will not make any remarks about what they are eating and say "EWW MEAT," etc. That is their personal choice to eat it just like I make a personal choice to eat a black bean burger, or avocado sandwich, etc.

And I'm also not going to look down on you or make you feel guilty for eating eggs or egg products. I mean, it's not fair for me to push my personal dietary beliefs on people. People get really touchy about that sort of thing, you'd be surprised. So you know, I write my little blog. :)

If something I say on this blog is offensive and makes you feel guilty- you should know that's not the intent and secondly, you can only feel guilty about something that you know is not right to begin with. Nobody has ever felt guilty for eating an apple. Food for thought!

But mainly the reason I showed this video is to just let you know that this is what is going on behind closed doors. It's unsettling, but why should you blind your eyes to the truth? You need to wake up and see that everything is not all rainbows and cotton candy and YOU have the ability to make conscious decisions about what you do. Don't let the media and what is considered "normal" dictate your life.


That is all :)

New recipe!

Okay, so today I bought a bunch of produce from Marvin's Market ( my favorite place to get produce! 3 bags FULL of fruits and veggies for about $13! Can't beat that!) and I was thinking... hmm... what do I want to make? I haven't cooked a large dish in awhile, lately I've been eating alot of salads and sweet potato with kale/spinach sauteed with mushrooms/chickpeas. I guess that's "cooking," but to me, what I count as cooking is more like an art form. I love to just put things together and try to create interesting combinations of foods. It's like an experiment! Over the past year and a half I've become quite a good cook if I say so myself- I am able to not follow recipes anymore and I enjoy just coming up with my own types of things based on the knowledge that I now know.

Today I came up with something especially tasty so I thought I would share! :)

I'm not sure what to call it really- it's some sort of mix between a chili/stew paired with organic red quinoa that I got at the Fresh Market. (Quinoa, like I'm sure I've mentioned before, is a type of grain that is akin to rice that is an amazing source of protein- especially great for vegan/vegetarians!

But anyways this is what you will need.

1/2 cup Quinoa
1 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 green bell pepper
half a can of black beans
1 small onion
1 clove of garlic
2 roma tomatoes
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 tbs. cumin
1 tbs. chili powder
1/3 tbs. red pepper flakes
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
(I threw in some extra cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes bc I love some HEAT!)

To start,bring 3/4 cup water to a boil, then add the quinoa and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
While the quinoa cooks, sautee the onion in olive oil in a large pan on medium/high heat for about 5 minutes, then add garlic, bell pepper, tomatoes, tomato sauce, beans, and spices. Bring down to medium heat and let it cook for about 15 minutes. Continue tasting and add whatever spices you want. When it's done, you can either mix the quinoa and stew mixture together in the pan, or serve it by putting quinoa on a plate and putting the mixture on top. Either way it will be mixed together!

This dish is very healthy and very flavorful! It contains a ton of protein with the quinoa and black beans, and lots of veggies as well. It sure beats trying to swallow down mushy mixed veggies from a can. And it's pretty cheap to make- while a bag of quinoa may be around $4-5, it lasts for a long time and making this dish barely puts a dent in it. (This dish makes 3-4 servings, too!)

Black beans are cheap too, as well as the veggies. (I'm telling you, Marvin's Market is amazing. it's beside B. Merrell's on Veterans, close to Moon Rd.)

So there you go! I hope maybe someone out there in the interwebs tries this recipe! Let me know how you like it. I don't know how good I am at translating the things I just throw together into a calculated recipe haha.