Great Crate Challenge.

I really appreciate this video. It demonstrates a very important point that most take for granted on a daily basis. It’s not something the FDA or government want people to be aware of. This is the reason I went vegetarian. Factory farming and Big Ag are unethical and should be eradicated and replaced by actual farms. If we implemented a natural form of farming, it would be better for the economy, farmers, animals, and the planet. In these factory farms and in GMO plants, completely unnecessary pollution occurs. On farms even animal waste is recycled into the soil as fertilizer and used to grow fruits and vegetables, whereas right now it is being dumped into the water supply. Gross.

I Just Love Food…

I can’t help it. I love food and I have a camera with which to photograph the delicious concoctions I come up with while trying to eat vegetarian in a house full of omnivores.

Obviously I’ve got to work on the timing, but delicious anyway!

I have been making a modified grilled cheese a lot for the past week or so and I think it’s pretty delicious and quite possibly share-worthy. I obviously haven’t gotten the timing down precisely as my bread got a little burnt this time, but it’s a really good way to use ingredients from your fridge in a tasty way. I used one large griddle-type pan for the whole meal. I sauteed some veggies from my fridge, I had chopped onions and red bell peppers left over from family dinner last night, but you can use just about any veggies that will complement your cheese, but not ones that will make it soggy like tomatoes. I used Pam cooking spray to grease the pan so it would have less fat and so it wouldn’t burn (and I managed to burn it anyway!). I think the reason it burned was that I used bread from the freezer and didn’t thaw it first because I’m impatient like that.

The only ingredients are bread, cheese, and veggies, but the combinations are limitless!

So, what I did was get out the mozzarella cheese, veggies, and bread. Then I sprayed the pan and turned the burner to medium heat. Since the bread was frozen and thickly sliced, I put that on at the same time as the chopped bell peppers. While the peppers are heating up, the bread should start to turn a golden brown then you flip it to the other side and add the cheese to both sides. At this point I added the chopped onions to the bell peppers (I added them last because they were chopped so finely that they would cook quickly; the order may change depending on the size of the veggies to be sauteed). At this point the heat should be turned off and when the onions are starting to brown at the edges, the veggies are then scooped up with a spatula and put onto the bread that now has mostly melted cheese and the two halves become a sandwich that is ready to eat. It is a quick, easy meal that has little prep and clean up time, and it’s tasty too, honest!

Quote of the Day.

Since I’m on a roll here, I will impart to you a quote that I read today and thoroughly enjoyed. I am in love with Psychology and actually enjoy reading my text books because they say things like this:

“Americans eat oysters but not snails. The French eat snails but not locusts. The Zulus eat locusts but not fish. The Jews eat fish but not pork. The Hindus eat pork but not beef. The Russians eat beef but not snakes. The Chinese eat snakes but not people. The Jalé of New Guinea find people delicious.”

–Sociologist Ian Robertson

…I don’t actually eat any of this as a vegetarian…

“Quote of the Day.”

Kristen Bell with a sloth as a birthday surprise.

“I have no desire to put on this face of perfection. I’m constantly striving to better myself, but that’s also maybe out of intense insecurities. Feeling like I went right from high school to Hollywood, it’s essentially the same dynamic. But I can admit, I don’t always have the best style. I trip a lot, I go to therapy because I make mistakes, I just try to be as real and as well-rounded as possible because there’s nothing really that interesting about perfection. It’s been done so many times before.”

~Kristen Bell

Going Veggie!

My version of kebabs-all veggies!

I know I haven’t updated this blog in a while; look at me with all these lovely ideas just uselessly swirling around my head and no inclination to write! I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately, but I’m going to try to start writing more. So I want to share with you my intent to go veggie.
And by veggie, I mean vegetarian! I’m making a transition to full vegetarian diet this year. By January 1, 2012 I will no longer be eating any meat at all whatsoever. It’s not a dare, it’s not a challenge, it’s a lifestyle choice. The reason for delaying it and transitioning gradually is so that I know that I can cook full meals for myself and be prepared with snacks and recipes and not be tempted ever again to eat meat. By then I shall know what to say and eat politely in social settings and be prepared because there are differences in the vegetarian lifestyle. I’m stockpiling good vegetarian cookbooks and attempting more recipes.
Here is a free verse poem I wrote the other night to explain my choice.

We keep them as pets,
we keep them as food.
Now, isn’t that just rude?

How do we pick,
how do we choose?
It’s dinner, which to use?

I start to wonder,
cats are friends,
dogs have been timeless trends.

Get chickens big a fat,
the cows are steak.
Thanksgiving turkeys get no break.

If it has a mother,
it’s too sad a fate,
and I don’t want it on my plate.