Kimberly Steele's Blog, page 41
January 1, 2013
My Daunting 2013 New Year’s Resolution — Post Daily Vegan Lunch Recipes for an Entire Year!!
So this New Year’s morning I came up with yet another big idea (uh-oh) and that is:
I am going to post one new vegan lunch recipe on this blog for every day of the year!! Um, I’ll try, anyway.
Today’s menu:
Angel Hair Pasta with Lemon, Spinach, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
INGREDIENTS:
8 ounces capellini (angel hair spaghetti) or about 1/2 a box
water to boil
1-3 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and minced
2 cups organic spinach leaves
2 T. sundried tomatoes, I used the ones that come in a jar
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1 T. olive oil
salt and pepper
DIRECTIONS:
Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil on high heat. Break angel hair and drop them into the water, stir and turn the heat down to slightly lower. Angel hair will cook in two minutes or less, test noodles for doneness.
In a separate frying pan, sauté fresh garlic over medium heat for 30 seconds. Add spinach leaves and stir them until they are coated with oil and start wilting/shrinking. Add sun dried tomatoes and cooked, strained angel hair pasta to the frying pan and stir. Squeeze lemon juice over the noodle mixture and turn off heat. Finish by stirring in salt and pepper to taste.
The hair.
This is my hair after a few turns with a large-barreled iron — it is so giant when it is allowed to curl or wave, I feel like it looks fine in photos and too 70′s Boogie Nights bizarre for real life. Shortly after I took this photo, I straightened my hair because I just could not deal!!
December 20, 2012
Happiness Confidential — Things you can do right this instant to be happy
Ten tips on achieving real, lasting happiness from a former major depressive
1. Develop a profound appreciation for small things
I would estimate that billions of us, not millions, take most of the good things in our lives for granted. It is human nature to focus upon and remember the negative. We’re built to harbor sorrows, which in effect have replaced danger, in our evolution. Provided you are not one of the billion people in our world who goes without clean water every day, when was the last time you appreciated it? How about that fresh fruit you obtained from the grocery store? Ever given a thought to how much easier life is for you every day than it was for someone born in 1700? Yes, I am saying to truly relish that morning coffee that came to you from Sumatra and to luxuriate in the softness of carpeting under your feet in your warm house, even if it is old and stained.
2. Stop seeking immortality
Face it, you’re going to die. Perhaps you’ll go to heaven or hell; you might just blink out of existence. Start being cool with the possibilities that you won’t live forever, in name or in glory. If you never get famous, the world won’t care. If you do get famous, it will still eat you alive. If you think having children will make you immortal, just don’t.
3. Get off of ALL drugs.
The term ‘medical doctor’ these days is synonymous with ‘licensed drug pusher’. Drugs are expected to do things they were never intended to do, for instance, constant doses of antibiotics are now used upon farm animals to get them to grow larger, even when the animals are not technically sick. Drug use is so rampant that traces of antidepressants can be found in public water supplies. Except in rare cases of schizophrenia, I do not believe that anyone can medicate himself out of depression. The only weapon “they” seem to have against depression is the serotonin reuptake inhibitor, which tampers with nerve endings to make them more sensitive to a certain chemical in our brain. The consequences of this tampering have largely not been studied, yet having been on them myself (and having known many people on them) I can say that human guinea pigs exhibit these changes while on SSRIs:
inflated ego
out of control sex drive
bouts of extreme anger
antisocial or inappropriate behavior
weight gain
INCREASED suicidal tendencies
Even innocuous caffeine works horrors upon the human brain and body. In my case, caffeine is a crap shoot. Sometimes I feel a great sense of well-being or creativity while on it. Other times, I sweat profusely and have anxiety attacks.
Drugs are not entirely bad:for instance, surgical anasthesia or medical marijuana. Drugs are great: occasionally used as a last resort.
4. Go complex carbohydrate, whole foods vegan.
You knew I’d bring it back to veganism, right? I don’t see how a person who ingests suffering and death can expect something different for herself. Meat, dairy, and eggs are an addiction. Unless you break the physical and mental addiction irrevocably by excluding all sources of meat, dairy, and eggs from the diet, it is nearly impossible to completely heal from that addiction. Just as an alcoholic can’t go back to drinking a couple of shots with friends every weekend, a former animal foods addict should not expect to go back to dairy chocolate or a fried “free range” egg every now and then. No matter what the health benefits of eating a bunch of greens, fruits, and whole grains in the place of dead brown animal flesh and secretions are, the real benefit is knowing that you’ll never contribute again to the worst crimes a human can commit: the perpetration of an unjust war upon other species for no other reason save “they taste good”.
5. Stop caring so much about what others think of you.
Try this experiment: next time you’re in a crowded grocery store, do an Irish jig down the aisle. Make like you’re Michael Flatley doing a Riverdance. Can you do this without dying of embarrassment? I sure as hell can. I’ll sing “The Irish Washerwoman” at the top of my lungs while doing it too, and I’m not even certain I’m Irish. Because I truly no longer give a shit what anyone thinks of me. If they don’t like it, they don’t have to watch.
Michael Flatley doesn’t care what you think
I hated myself as a shrinking violet, afraid of sticking out or heaven forbid, embarrassing myself. I always assumed people were thinking of me (first wrong assumption) and that what they were thinking was negative (second wrong assumption). Realizing that it wasn’t all about me was one of the most joyful and liberating things I have ever done with my life.
The secret of good performances, whether they be in social situations or more formal ones, like acting or singing, is the ability to get outside oneself. The hallmark of a bad actor is a person who can never overcome his own self-centeredness enough to become the part he is trying to play. Truly caring what others think of you is a form of unconscious enslavement — you’re always worried about their perceptions instead of doing what you know in your heart to be right.
6. Read for 20 minutes in sunlight every day.
This is one of those Stupid Human Tricks. We need the sun to produce vitamin D, which in turn affects calcium and magnesium absorption. Magnesium is a strong antidepressant — however, it does much, much more and has roles in everything from metabolism to heart health.
7. Stop dreading getting older.
Our retarded society thinks getting older and *gasp* losing one’s looks is a fate worse than death. Just because everyone is stupid where this is concerned does not mean you have to join them. I’d rather embrace being a 4’8 half-Okinawan crone than transform myself into a Madam-doll muppet freak with anime chipmunk cheek implants and an eye lift so tight I no longer can produce tears.
8. Make the best out of the stuff you have.
Get rid of the TV subscription and turn the TV off. Cancel magazine subscriptions except for Free Inquiry and VegNews. Don’t bother seeing or renting the latest movies. Not only will you save a ton of money, you’ll stop receiving messages of inadequacy as you elect to drop out of vicious consumer culture. If you think you need a new pair of shoes, try repairing the old ones instead.
9. Adopt a shelter pet.
Not only will you fight the evil puppy and kitty mills by adopting, you’ll rescue a being in need of love and care who probably would have been euthanized without your intervention. Life is sweeter shared with a shelter animal!
Partners in crime with the best life ever!
10. Dismiss that which insults your soul.
There are no rules and there is no cosmic dictator in the sky waiting to punish or reward you after your physical death. You make your life what it is, therefore you can make it better. Push delete on toxic relationships, move where you want to live, and pursue the career you want even if it makes you poor. You don’t owe anyone anything (though conversely, they also don’t owe you anything) and that means you’re the grown up. No amount of weird, compulsive thoughts will bring magic into your life — it’s like the old Sting tune, Everything You Do is Magic, so you should live the life you want to, with fulfilling people and a feeling of purpose.
November 17, 2012
Vegan Crockpot Lentil Stew and Cornbread
Ingredients
2 cups brown lentils
2 chopped carrots
1-2 ribs celery
1/2 onion, minced
1 or 2 veggie broth cubes
2 broccoli stalks (optional) chopped into a sandy near-puree in the food processor. I use the food processor to chop the onions too.
salt to taste
Enough water to fill crockpot
Combine all ingredients in the crockpot and set on Low for 8-10 hours or High for 4-6 hours. Fill with water an inch from the top. The finely-processed broccoli adds a lot of flavor and turns soup into thick, hearty stew. It’s also a great use for stalks of broccoli which often go to waste. The soup is fine though without broccoli, it is just thinner and more brothy. You could also add a finely chopped potato instead of broccoli for the same thickening effect.
As long as you fill your crockpot with water to the brim, there is no danger of overcooking. I put the crockpot on and then go to work. When I get home, soup is done and we eat! Well actually, Kiki gets her food first, often before my coat is off, but that’s another story…
Vegan Cornbread
For my super low-fat cornbread recipe, click here.
Wet ingredients:
1.5 cups non-dairy nut, hemp, or soy milk
1.5 Tablespoons white, regular, apple cider, or rice vinegar
1/4 cup canola oil
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 425 degrees (218 Celsius)
Directions: Combine non-dairy milk and vinegar in a small bowl, set aside.
Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Then add the non-dairy milk, which will have curdled from the vinegar. Add oil and stir until just mixed. Pour into an oiled 9 x 9 inch pan or a seasoned 9 inch cast iron frying pan. Bake at 425 for 25 minutes or until a toothpick or knife stuck in the center of cornbread comes out clean.
November 13, 2012
September 15, 2012
September 14, 2012
Low-fat Vegan Cornbread Recipe
Low Fat Vegan Cornbread
Wet ingredients:
1.5 cups non-dairy nut, hemp, or soy milk (can mix 3/4 cup non-dairy milk with 3/4 cup water for super low fat version)
1.5 Tablespoons white, regular, apple cider, or rice vinegar
1/2 cup plain applesauce
Dry ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 425 degrees (218 Celsius)
Directions: Combine non-dairy milk and vinegar in a small bowl, set aside.
Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Then add the non-dairy milk, which will have curdled from the vinegar, and the applesauce. The resulting mixture will look like cake batter:
Pour the mixture into a seasoned cast iron pan or a 9 x 9 baking dish. I used a combo of my small cast iron pan and 7 muffin cups.
Baking times:
25 minutes for one big pan or 9 x 9 baking dish
20 minutes for 2 small pans or loaves
15 minutes for muffins
Test for done-ness by inserting a toothpick or knife, if it comes out clean, cornbread is done.
August 31, 2012
The Unintentional Carnism of The Hunger Games: Movie Review
I finally saw The Hunger Games on DVD with my mom last night. It was a good film and a solid, entertaining story in general, however, it was extremely carnist. To sum up the plot: in the post-nuclear war apocalyptic future, the masses are arranged in 12 Districts, each producing a commodity (coal, wheat) for an elite corporate central government. Every year, the central gov’t holds a lottery where two children between ages 12-18, a male and a female, are chosen from each District to compete in a game to the death. Out of 24 people, only one child will survive/win.
Carnism is a belief system that conditions and enables the believer to love one animal while murdering, abusing, and eating another animal.
Carnism is one of the founding principles of Western society: our way of life, capitalism, originated when ancient Middle Eastern sheep-herders greedily eyed nearby tribes with more sheep and decided to conquer those tribes through war. Animals became collectible commodities rather than companion spirits as these violent tribes formed herding religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) to dominate and stamp out Earth goddess worshippers who depended mostly on vegetables and grains for sustenance. Carnism enabled a violent, elite corp of males to control the vast resources of society, concentrating their power into small, warring cabals rather than sharing like the goddess cultures did. We live today under the same system of a violent, mostly male elite that wields power over “the rest of us” while conditioning us to believe that their system is superior than the alternatives, even though it is clearly not.
Back to the young female protagonist, Katniss Aberdeen, who is shown bowhunting in the forest in the opening scenes of The Hunger Games. She would happily shoot a deer in the heart and is supposedly quite good at it. As her family is depicted as semi-starving, I almost understand resorting to hunting, but the sad, sad thing is how Katniss’s hunting is glorified to the young female audience as part of her hyper-responsibility.
As for Katniss: Her dad died in a coal-mining accident when she was very small. She’s more of a mother to her little sister than her actual mother.
How tragic. In our male-dominated, violent culture, it isn’t enough that Katniss be depicted as a good nurturer and gatherer. Our society forces us to believe she cannot be a hero unless she goes out and kills other creatures in order to eat them. She’s always hunting, yet Native American cultures largely did the opposite, almost constantly gathering or growing food in the form of vegetables.
This could have been Katniss’s yard…*sigh*
Nowadays, using modern methods of intensive organic permaculture developed in the 1920′s, it is possible to produce a spare but adequate vegetarian diet for one person on only 1000 square feet of soil. That is a 20 x 50 foot yard or 1/43rd of an acre. (info from John Michael Greer, The Long Descent). Katniss, in all her hopped-up young person responsibility, was unable to generate a peaceful, abundant life for her beloved family by using KNOWLEDGE instead of violence. Instead, she goes into the forest and kills its inhabitants because she thinks she has to.
Mid-film, children are torn from their families and forced to compete for survival in a forest environment that is essentially controlled by humans. Meat eaters are so blind that they can’t see the irony of the human children being in the SAME EXACT POSITION as the little deer Katniss was readying to shoot in the beginning scenes. Children get picked off one by one, sometimes by other humans, sometimes by natural tragedy.
One scene has Katniss with a butterfly landing gracefully on her finger, then she’s eating a squirrel.
No, I didn’t make this meme. Obviously, I’m not the only one who thinks killing squirrels in every movie you’re in is kind of weird.
There’s also a recurring theme of mockingjays (birds) being important as a symbol and a means of communication. I think of the children who will watch this film, their bellies stuffed with dead birds in the form of factory-farmed, tortured, genetically modified chickens. Only the most intelligent among them will come to understand even a smidgen of the hypocrisy of equating one bird as a cheap food source and another with beauty and saving grace. Yet all will feel the torture of not wanting to kill sentient beings but being conditioned against their will to fit into our culture’s crazy parameters. Our culture definitely has rules and one of those is “eat meat or else.” If we dare question where that meat came from or the system that makes “meat” so common, the whole system shudders because the construct is corrupt and fragile. Those who go one step further and choose to stop eating animals are made fun of, called extremists, and pressured to eat animals, especially by our own families! It’s easy and healthy not to eat animals, which frustrates those who are still addicted to consuming animal blood and fat even more.
I believe that only the truest psychopaths, which is basically 5 percent of the world population, are truly okay with eating meat in their hearts. These are people like serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer who don’t really “see” the world around them, everything in the psychopath’s world is an object, a blank piece of wood, to be used or thrown away, including other people. The rest of us feel a terrible, soul-eating guilt over killing or exploiting animals, whether we choose to admit it or not.
Katniss is depicted as having great respect for nature because she hangs out in the woods and knows how to survive there, yet that connection is a false product carnist disconnect. Most of us wish we could be in nature more and hate the fact our industrial society is so divorced from the natural world. Deep down, everyone knows the only true respect for nature is to live while harming it as little as possible. As humans are essentially very intelligent monkeys, our way is that of our vegetarian ape ancestors, who live in the forest and swing from the trees without exhausting the forest to this day. Eating animals is completely unneccesary, which is why science is proving over and over we weren’t meant to do it at all. Carnists want to believe they’re the natural apex predators of the forest because of their tools (much of The Hunger Games deals with stealing or acquiring tools) yet without those tools, all would agree that humans are unable to obtain meat sans tools.
The Districts are depicted as full of acquiescent sheeple who rape the environment and can’t muster the energy to rebel against a system that cruelly steals their children year after year. At least the producers of The Hunger Games got that part right, without irony.
August 18, 2012
Vegan Quinoa Tabbouleh
Tabbouleh is a Middle Eastern salad that’s usually made with bulgur and mint. It’s absolutely DELICIOUS with quinoa and parsley instead. Quinoa is a funny looking, quick cooking grain that is the healthiest of all the grains, full of protein. Then there’s parsley. Did you know parsley counts as a dark green leafy vegetable? All vegetables of dark, rich color indicates are antioxidant rich. Studies show that parsley contains myristicin, a potent cancer fighter, as well as vitamin A, B, C, and K. Together, parsley and quinoa make a very yummy cold salad with a tangy fresh lemon juice and extra-virgin olive oil.
Ingredients
2 cups dry quinoa
4 cups water
2 cups finely chopped parsley (the more, the merrier)
half a lemon’s juice — put the lemon in the microwave for 20 seconds to get the most juice out of it
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons finely minced onion
1 clove finely minced garlic (optional)
Salt to taste
Directions
Cook quinoa by placing quinoa and water on a pot on the stove. Bring to a soft boil on high heat and stir, then immediately turn the heat down to Low and cover the pot with a lid. Leave lid on for about 20-25 minutes or until the quinoa fluffs up and soaks up all the water.
Salad is made by combining the cooked quinoa with the other ingredients.
You could now chill the quinoa and make the salad later.
Or just toss hot cooked quinoa in a bowl with all other ingredients, stir, and eat it if you can’t wait!
