Vegan Girl Scout Cookies

Did you know that Girl Scout cookies are vegan?  Well, not all of them.  I actually looked into this a while ago, and found that the cookies were not vegan.  What I didn't realize is that there are two manufacturers, and only one of them offers vegan selections.  Shortly after I read about this, one of my students came up to me and asked, "Do you want to buy some VEGAN Girl Scout cookies?"  I looked at that order form, and sure enough, the word VEGAN was printed next to three of the cookie choices - Thin Mints, Lemonades, and Peanut Butter Patties.  I immediately ordered five boxes.  I haven't eaten a Girl Scout cookie in approximately ten years.  If you want vegan cookies, you'll have to find a Girl Scout selling from ABC Smart Bakers, and not Little Brownie Bakers.  I never enjoyed the camping and horse back riding aspects of Girl Scouts, but I had fun making jewelery with an elderly woman named Miriam at Rocking Horse Ranch and not riding the roller coasters at Hershey Park.  I now will enjoy vegan Girl Scout cookies, as well.  Good job, Girl Scouts.

Blogger's Soundtrack

Ellie Goulding - "Explosions"

Confessions of a Messy Eater

This is a vegan blog, but over time that has also encompassed other topics - tolerance, cats, and now, my uncanny inability to eat anything without creating a huge mess.  The impetus for this post came as I sat eating my quiona salad in a pita pocket, and before I knew it, the floor and couch were covered in my lunch.  This issue of mine is common knowledge with friends, since it has made for many hilarious stories over the years.  I never wear white, order a sandwich, or eat pizza without a fork and knife.  Clothing and furniture have been ruined and meals disrupted.  Maybe you can relate.  Hopefully you can get a good laugh out of my misfortune.

1.  While at The Frigid, an ice cream parlor, with my family, I ordered a gigantic cone with soft serve vanilla and chocolate ice cream.  I took one lick and all of the ice cream was on the floor.  I never ordered a cone again.

2.  Two incidents stand out from high school.  There was the time I spilled a gigantic bag of M&M's all over the auditorium during a fundraising event.  Another time while at Friendly's (with friends), I spilled a gigantic glass of soda all over the table and myself.  I had to go to the movies soaking wet.

3.  While in the college dining hall, half of my food usually ended up on my roommate.  She should have worn a poncho. 

4.  In college I really liked those yogurts with M&M's separately packaged in the lid.  While opening such a yogurt, the candy flew into the air and landed in the sink.  I should have never eaten M&M's.  Going vegan solved that problem.

5.  I cannot eat sandwiches.  I take one bite and all of the insides come out the other end.  If I have to order a sandwich at a restaurant, I end up using about twenty napkins.

6.  I once dropped a piece of chocolate cake onto the couch and then sat in it.  It all happened in one fell swoop.  It wasn't even my couch.  My roommate was asleep and I cleaned it up the best I could and then flipped the couch cushion over.

7.  I frequently look in the mirror and notice that there is food in my hair.  Sometimes I'll be sitting on my desk and notice a chocolate chip on my shoulder.

8.  I have banned myself from eating in my car.  My previous car had food stains all over the place. 

9.  I can only buy salad dressing with a squeeze top.  Otherwise I dump all of the dressing on my salad.  Every time.

10.  I can't drink water without spilling it on myself.  I try to take a sip and literally pour it all over my face and shirt.  I require a straw.


I amaze myself.

Blogger's Soundtrack

Of Monsters and Men - "King and Lionheart"

Vegan Lunch

I've got a snow day, I've got a snow day, I've got a snow day, hey, hey, hey, hey!  Someone was talking about The Little Rascals the other day at work.  That movie was a big hit when I was in third or fourth grade, with kids spouting lines from the movie all the time.

Speaking of third grade, I have been bringing one of four types of sandwiches to school for lunch since around that time.  When I was younger, it would often be turkey or muenster cheese.  Then it was peanut butter for a number of years.  Since going vegan, I've eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch every day (for four years).  It's not that I don't like other lunch foods, or that there aren't lots of other vegan options.  I just really like peanut butter and jelly.  Lately, however, I've been jonesing for a change.  I'm at school from 7-5, and the PB&J just hasn't been cutting it.  I end up eating lots of snacks that I don't even like, such as these dinosaur lemon graham crackers, which are always around the school building.  I also realized that I don't take a lunch break 90% of the time, which makes PB&J a convenient choice, but which also contributes to my general exhaustion by the end of each day.  So in addition to adding some variety to my daily menu, I've decided to take a few minutes for myself each day.  Crazy.

With that in mind, I whipped up a Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad this weekend in preparation for the week ahead.  The recipe can be found at the link.  It involves quinoa, tomatoes, cucumber, edamame, scallions, and chopped cilantro, and it's really delicious.  I served it with hummus in a whole wheat pita pocket.  Without the hummus I found it kind of bland, so it also tastes great if you mix some hummus in with the salad while you eat.  I purchased some single serving packages of hummus for work, and it's been easy to pack this lunch the night before.

For my next lunch, I plan on bringing black beans and sweet potatoes with avocado and tomato and a small tortilla.  It's also going to be great.  I generally cook my meals for the week on Sunday nights.  Now I whip up enough food for a week's worth of lunches on Sunday mornings.  It just takes a bit of extra planning.  Whether it's making a terrific lunch or taking a walk on your lunch break, do something for yourself each day!

Blogger's Soundtrack

The Temper Trap - "Sweet Disposition"

Book Review: Cat Sense

A few weeks ago I saw a review in the New York Times for John Bradshaw's Cat Sense: How the Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet.  This sounded like the perfect book for me.

I have two handsome cats, Seamus and Liam, whom I adopted while living in Phoenix.  My roommate Erin brought Seamus, a sleek black kitten, home from work one day during our second year of teaching.  He had been following students to school each day, climbing onto the roof, and proceeding to meow.  From the time Mr. Mus moved into apartment his personality was akin to that of Jekyll and Hyde.  One minute he was snuggling in your lap and purring voraciously, the next he was biting you or wrestling our first cat, Caisista, to the ground.  His moods could not be predicted, and it became a joke that every story involving Mus ended with "and then he bit me."  Since moving to Boston with me, Seamus' personality has not changed one bit, and probably has become amplified since the apartment is much smaller than the living arrangements in Phoenix.  Mus loves to curl himself up in a blanket, chase his laser pointer, and watch birds from his cat perch.  He is friendly towards guests and enjoys showing off his tricks, which include jumping into the air and using his front paws to hit a toy which has been thrown.  On the other hand, he frequently paces the apartment howling and pins his little brother down whenever he gets bored.  Oh, Mus.

Liam is a quite fluffy and  affectionate buff tabby cat.  He is very afraid of strangers and runs to hide under the bed whenever there is a knock at the door.  I adopted Liam during my fourth year in Phoenix after Casista and Erin moved out and Seamus became depressed.  Liam is a very vocal cat who frequently "talks" to me.  He loves sitting in my lap and licking my hand.  What a love bug.  He's a clever cat who knows how to play fetch and often takes my socks out of the laundry basket and carries them around the apartment.  Each morning he is captivated by the birds outside the window.  Although he is often the target of sneak attacks from Seamus, he can frequently be found snuggling with Seamus and licking his brother's head.  So sweet.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I read about animal welfare quite a bit.  I also have done a fair share of reading about cats, particularly because it bothers me that Seamus seems unhappy much of the time.  Last spring I did lots of research on the dietary needs of cats, hoping that making some changes in this area would help to calm Mr. Mus.  Besides that, I also spruced up my balcony when the weather was warm so that the cats could bask in the sun, as they had enjoyed doing in Phoenix.   I even hung a bird feeder outside my window, but had to remove it when approximately one hundred sparrows showed up on my balcony.  I figured Cat Sense might give me more insight on the psychology of my kitties.

I learned a few things from this book.  First of all, the personality of a cat is determined by a number of factors, including genetics and learned behaviors, but most notably the experiences the animal has within the first eight weeks of its life.  A cat that is not exposed to humans at the start of its life will always fear humans, for example.  I have always thought that Seamus' personality was largely shaped by his early experiences.  He was living on the street, so he had to scavenge for food and schmooze with people in order to survive.  He probably had to be a tough cat, as well.  We didn't adopt him until he was six months old, so he had plenty of time to experience fending for himself.  I don't know much about Liam's background because I adopted him from the Humane Society when he was four months old.  He might have been separated from his mom too early because from the time I adopted him he licked my hands incessantly.  It's obvious that the two cats had very different "kittenhoods."

Another part of the book I found interesting was a section that explored the purpose behind cats' playing.  The main premise of the book is that cats have not evolved far enough beyond their basic hunting instincts to be truly suited for a domestic lifestyle.  This definitely makes sense in terms of my Seamus.  If I put him outside at this point he would not have a fun time.  However, he is obviously restless and discontent at times, confined to the apartment.  Bradshaw explains that when cats play, they are mimicking aspects of hunting.  Apparently cats become bored with toys that do not change as they are played with, because this would indicate that there is something wrong with their "prey."  Cats like to play with toys that are small and which change, or come apart, as they are played with, because this is what would happen if a cat had caught a small mouse.  He recommends feeding your cats with interactive puzzle toys, which I plan on trying.

While overall my understanding of cats did grow from reading this book, I read a lot of it with a grain of salt.  I was really surprised that there has not been much research done in this subject - somebody get on that!  Some of the "research" was actually based on studies of less than ten cats done over the course of a few weeks, and since there is not much data in this field, a lot of the chapters seemed incomplete.  Also, some of the behaviors I have seen in my own cats contradicted the points Bradshaw was making.  He states several times that cats from different litters will avoid each other and that cats who are introduced to each other after the first eight weeks won't get along.  Sure, my cats wrestle, but I often come home and find them laying right beside each other on the couch.  Maybe Seamus and Liam have evolved further than the average cat.  I thought the book was a worthwhile read, but it seems like more research is required in the field to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of cats. 

Blogger's Soundtrack

Fitz and the Tantrums - "The Walker"

Book Review: Beg

I would say I do a decent amount of reading about animal welfare.  A few months back I read Rory Freedman's Beg: A Radical New Way of Regarding Animals.  Freedman's Skinny Bitch has long been regarded as a manual of sorts in terms of the health benefits of a vegan lifestyle.  She has a way of writing which is accessible while taking on a no-nonsense tone - otherwise known as real talk.  She portrays the loving relationship she has with her dogs while also providing graphic descriptions of the suffering animals endure at the hands of humans.  This dichotomy forces the reader to examine why a select group of animals deserve our affection while it is somehow acceptable for others to bear abuse, torture, and death so that we can make movies, look trendy, and eat steak.  This book delves into animal cruelty in many facets of society, covering the big topics like puppy mills, animals in the entertainment industry, clothing, and the food industry, while also addressing common practices like de-clawing cats, health problems in purebred dogs, and the abandonment of pets.  There are many parts of the book that are not easy to read.  What I appreciate is that by the end, you, the reader, feels empowered as an individual to make a difference with your new-found knowledge.

Freedman writes,

"Researching this left me sick, angry, and devastated."

"But this is real, this is happening, and you need to know.  So try to hang in there if your brain is slipping."

"For me, the V-word means compassion and a willingness to put principles above desires.  But I know that for many people, veganism and vegetarianism mean something else-- something weird and annoying and radical and fringe.  Veganism never hired a good publicist, so some people think it's lame, creepy, or miserable."


Whether you're an animal advocate and already consider yourself informed, or admittedly don't know much about this subject, you must read this book.  It will renew your passion for animals or open your eyes to their exploitation.

Blogger's Soundtrack

Phillip Phillips - "Home"

Veg-Life and Privilege

Something I often ponder is the relationship between privilege and the vegan life.  I guess there are two branches of this issue in my mind.  First, what about all of the other suffering going on in the world?  I disregard any commentary that says caring about animal welfare is an insignificant pursuit because animals aren't as innately important as humans.  Animals are defenseless against the harm inflicted upon them by people, and I generally don't engage in any kind of debate about that, because it boils down to personal belief.  So that's not what I'm talking about here.  What I am talking about is, outside the debate as to whether animal's lives matter, why focus so much energy on animal cruelty, when  poverty, violence, discrimination, war, and countless other problems plague communities, countries, and the planet at large?  Am I doing enough to impact real change through this vegan lifestyle?  I think my first answer is that I won't ever feel like I'm doing enough.  As a Women's Studies major in college, I became incensed by inequity - things bothered me at a fundamental level, and I wanted to stop reading, get out, and do something.  When I started teaching, I realized that Gandhi's words, "Be the change you wish to see in the world," resonated with me even more deeply.  My students faced many challenges, both in and out of school, and although my life experiences differed vastly from theirs, the best thing I could do was to exemplify empathy, perseverance, tolerance, and dedication every single day.  Similarly, being vegan is a way of embodying an ideal of peace and refusing to accept cruelty at an essential level, and it pervades the choices I make daily.  This lifestyle serves as a basic groundwork for what I will and will not agree to or participate in just because it's the status quo.  What I'm saying is, I believe the first step towards change is living out your values in a very basic way.  I love the line from Man in the Mirror- "If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change."  There are other ways I look to impact change each day.  As a teacher, I work to provide special education students with the same opportunities as their general education peers.  I seek to expose injustice to my students, while also promoting the idea that one person can make a difference, and leading students in developing their own activist philosophies and designing service projects dedicated to problems they care about solving.  Can I solve all of the world's problems?  No.  But I can live in a way that embodies certain values.

The second part of my inner monologue questions whether being vegan is realistic for the population at large.  A lot of what I write about - gourmet cookies, vegan restaurants, vegan beauty products - sometimes seems inconsequential when viewed through the lens of economic disparity.  I'm fully aware of the privilege associated with this sort of life.  I deliberately take a light-hearted approach to veganism in order to debunk stereotypes and to show that being vegan does not have to signify being miserable and deprived.  I do think about individuals who are living in regions where vegan-friendly foods are not as readily available, and people and families who are just trying to scrape by.  I do think that healthy eating is something our country needs to work on in general-- to me, paths towards eating more fruits and vegetables and consuming less soda and fast food are all in the same vein as the veg-life.  And those conversations are most important in low-income communities, where fast food chains are often the most widely-available food option, and healthy choices are harder to come by.  To me, it's another glaring form of inequity.  Do I expect everyone to become vegan?  No, but I do look for change that leads to a greater availability of healthy food choices.

My eighth graders always liked to say things along the lines of, "It doesn't matter if you don't eat meat.  There are plenty of other people who still do."  We could say that about any individual effort to impact change, whether it's participating in a 5K charity run or volunteering in a soup kitchen.  I choose to believe that the actions of one person do make a difference.  Whether or not that difference is immediately clear, the reverberations of our actions can never fully be known.

Notes from a Frigid Friday

It's currently 14 degrees here in Boston-- and 70 back in Phoenix.  Really, what was I thinking?

This was my day, in a nutshell:

Icy windshield in the morning.

Chef Chloe's vegan salted caramel cupcakes, from Chef Chloe's Vegan Desserts.

These were quite the hit at work.

Fantastic new water bottle sporting activist quotations arrives.

Time to bundle up and hit the gym.

Blogger's Soundtrack

 Alabama Shakes - "I Found You"