Satireday on Eco-Crap

Make you Fink on Friday

While I’m not a vegetarian and certainly not a vegan, there are some things that I like that qualify… not many, but some.

Found today a dish that I’d like.

Quinoa fried rice stuffed tomatoes (Dairy Free)

This Dairy free recipe contains Ripe juicy tomatoes are hollowed out and filled with quinoa stir fried veggies. Quinoa is sautéed with stir fried veggies and sauces; Stuffing can be personalised as per the taste.

Health Benefits:

Tomatoes act as an excellent source of the strong antioxidant, vitamin C, potassium and choline content in the tomatoes all support heart health.

Image: Chitra’s Healthy Kitchen

Fried rice using quinoa instead of rice as its high in protein and fantastic wheat-free alternative. Quinoa is a tiny grain that cooks up like rice and has nutty flavour and light, fluffy, texture similar to couscous.

This makes a fantastic vegetarian main course as it is stuffed with quinoa.

Source for what you need and what you do and how you do it: Chitra’s Healthy Kitchen

Hey, Vegans & Vegies… Mexican!

Like the look of this?

I think it’s vegan, if not certainly vegetarian.

::Whole Wheat Tortillas::

::Tomato, Corn & Zucchini Salsa::

::Black Bean & Pepper Filling

::Cashew Cheese Sauce::

::Guacamole::

Full recipes and instructions on: http://shineonbeutiful.com/

I’d like it!

 

Change the World Wednesday – 16th Apr

Oiling Brazil’s internet

The internet needs oiling, had trouble loading this page this morning, kept sticking.

All oiled and running smoothly again.

Now it’s 3:30am (making graphics takes time), do I need coffee or do I need more sleep?

Sleep now, coffee later.

I woke at 6am, still too early.

It’s now 9… Boy, did I sleep. I need more coffee.

Clorinha is not ‘green’. She likes plastic.

Clorinha thinks clear plastic is fun

She also likes boxes and empty bottles, they are so wonderful to roll around the floor.

After admitting on last week’s CTWW that I used a squirt of air freshener, I saw the suggestion of orange peel in vinegar as an alternative air freshener on another blog, Living Simply Free, I am trying that. I have the first orange peels in a small jar of vinegar. I have perforated the lid, hopefully during the process it will allow the smell to spread.

Small jar of orange peel and vinegar in the corner

I will have to buy a small spray bottle to try the full effect of the infused vinegar as suggested.

So another example of how blogs can change habits.

Click the banner for the full post

On with this week’s CTWW.

A health issue this week. One that I didn’t know about.

Small’s CTWWs are often full of surprises.

This week, for at least one full day, go vegan. That means no animal products … no beef, chicken, pork, or fish … not even milk, cheese, eggs, or honey.

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OR … If you are vegan or find this challenge too easy, please share a recipe with your readers and encourage them to try meatless meals … for their health and for the planet.

 

You’ll have to zip across to Reduce Footprints for the preamble to know that we are specifically talking about kidneys…

Wanting to know more, I googled it, and found a site that confirms Small’s preamble, although I rejected what the site said about saturated animal fats, which more recent studies have debunked. Natural fats are good for you, it’s the trans and hydrogenated fats like margarine and vegetable cooking oils (canola, soya, etc) that are the killers. But that’s another story, already posted on here.

Animal protein does make the kidneys work harder, a lot harder.

So the suggestion is to go for a vegan diet to avoid the risks.

I have in the past written that I am a carnivore, and I still am. Meat is a major part of my diet, although I have reduced my beef intake dramatically not because of my health, but on discovering that beef takes more natural resources to produce than other meats.

Animal protein also features high in my diet. I eat half a dozen+ eggs weekly, I drink at least a litre (nearly a quart) of milk daily, my cheese intake would be higher than most people’s, I use butter and I use lard or dripping for cooking.

Now, my health is generally good, albeit that I am a little overweight due to my sedentary life style inflicted on me through a motor accident. Touch wood I have never had kidney stones or any such thing. The only malady that I can attribute to animal products is gout (high uric acid because the kidneys can’t process it all), in my case not serious, manifesting slightly at times and going again.

So, I thankfully consider my lot. For those who don’t know, I am 62 and rapidly (all too rapidly) heading for 63. So health-wise, I haven’t fared too badly.

I would no more think of a vegan diet than fly to the moon. Although, occasionally, unconsciously, I do eat vegan meals. Not because they are vegan, but that’s what I feel like eating. I am more likely to eat a vegetarian meal like yesterday, curried beans on rice.

Some observations: Do vegans use margarine instead of butter, being under the illusion that it is inline with a vegan/healthy diet? Do vegans use vegetable cooking fat or oils (canola, soya, etc) for the same reason? I don’t know, I am asking. If you do then you are far more at risk of heart disease and obesity than using natural fats. These products are amongst the most dangerous in the western world, if the governments weren’t so cowardly (quivering at the feet of the corporations), they’d ban them. Having said that, the US government is taking a close look at new research results.

I don’t consider vegan to be the whole answer.

Nor is it the answer to saving the planet because meat takes too many resources to produce. The problem there is simply too many people, that’s what we have to look at, over population.

We are living on a dirt ball that can support 500 million people, and we are stretching resources to feed 7 billion; we are 13½times over capacity.

Therein lies the problem.

Vegan is not the solution.

 

 

Make you Fink on Friday

Going ‘green’ is more than shopping at Whole Foods and driving a Prius

Environmentalism in the US today has come to simply mean buying the right products. What if you can’t afford them?

Fresh produce at Whole Foods. Photograph: Damian Dovarganes/AP

As environmentalism goes mainstream, corporations are marketing the word “green” as a panacea for the world’s climate crisis. Today the word describes a set of prescribed, mostly consumerist actions: buy local, organic and fresh; go vegan; eat in season; skip the elevator, take the stairs. “Green” has come to mean shopping at Whole Foods and possessing a Prius. Meanwhile, leading corporate polluters like BP and ExxonMobil place commercials on CNN advertising their “green” practices.

It should come as no surprise, then, that “green” lifestyles don’t resonate with low-income communities; being “green” involves a set of behaviors that are financially or culturally inaccessible to millions of Americans. This presents a major problem for the environmental movement. If it is going to be successful, environmentalism simply cannot afford to be demographically segregated or isolated from the pathos of economic disparity.

The environmental movement needs to do a better job of connecting issues of race, class, poverty and sustainability; in short, it has to become a broader social movement. And people of color need visibility in the movement. By that, I don’t mean Barack Obama presiding over environmental policy from the White House or Lisa Jackson heading the Environmental Protection Agency during Obama’s first term. I mean the recognition that sustainable survival practices in poor communities are just as significant as solar panels and LED lights. Ultimately this is where the citizenry of the planet can and must come together in order to move forward.

Read more

 

Satireday on Eco-Crap

Change the World Wednesday – 9th Oct

Rolls round fast, doesn’t it?

CTWW again.

First up, an update.

Remember those little red chilies from the week before, well, here they are again. This time picked and in olive oil. There are a lot more to ripen and add.

I should get two jars like this from one bush, and there are two more bushes coming on.

Oops, the photo is not the best, but you get the idea. Maybe the photo feels like me this morning… a little out of focus.

Must need more coffee.

The tomatoes are all but finished; I think only three more to ripen, and that’s it. The bush gets pulled for the compost heap.

Click on the banner for the full post

This week’s CTWW.

A vegan kick.

This week prepare at least one vegan meal. Vegan means no animal products … no chicken, pork, fish, beef … not even milk, cheese, or eggs. I encourage you to consider whole foods and avoid processed items. If you’re feeling ambitious, go for a whole day or even a week … make a switch for a month and you’ll be my hero!

 

WANT MORE? HERE YOU GO … If you’ve embraced this challenge, or have already made it a lifestyle, please share tips and ideas. Leave a comment on this post or use the link-up below to share vegan recipes and/or articles about incorporating plant-based foods into your diet. Posts can be your own or your favorites from around the blogosphere.

Recipe on La Cocina de Anita I leave out the egg

You all know that I am not a vegan, not even a vegetarian. Various meats and all dairy produce are a part of my diet. I will participate though being a beefless week. Today for lunch I had already planned Gnocchi with a homemade tomato and herb sauce. I think that qualifies.

So, while I am a confirmed carnivore, I do have meals occasionally that are vegan or vegetarian. For me that is normal.

Update:

Lunch was awesome.

I have also added a link on Reduce Footprints for a vegan meal that I sent to Small.

Change the World Wednesday – 3rd Oct

Oh dear, this week is not a good week.

Only yesterday, I had decided that my next computer keyboard would have a “Bacon Button”, and then I discover the theme of this week’s CTWW, right after I put a slab of rump steak on the grill for lunch.

You see, I am a carnivore, although I did the last time this theme came around try, once, but failed.

Vegan is just too difficult for me; vege, I can handle, vegies aren’t too hard, but vegan…

Somebody hates me; I just threw a R$5 pieces of rump steak down the back of the stove while I was turning it over!

This week prepare and enjoy at least one vegan meal at home. Try to use locally grown, seasonal foods and utilize cooking methods which are Eco-friendly (the right sized pot for the burner being used, crock-pots, table top appliances like toaster ovens, etc.). Serve your meal in reuseable plates and utensils … and avoid any waste associated with the meal.

 

Or …

If you’ll be eating out this week, choose at least one vegan meal AND focus on being as Eco-friendly as possible. For example, choose a restaurant which uses real plates and utensils (versus establishments which use single-use, disposable items … yep, that leaves out fast food). Consider bringing your own utensils. Accept only the water which you’ll actually drink. Try to order foods which are local and in season. And if you’re feeling very ambitious, do a little research and choose a restaurant which employes sustainable operating methods.

 

And then …

Once you’ve chosen an option above, plan to enjoy your meal at a time when you can fully appreciate it. Don’t eat on the run or without thinking about it. Make time for this meal. Pay attention to the taste of the food and how it looks and smells. Savor each bite. In other words … “Eat like you give a $%#@”.

For me to eat totally vegan has already been a failure, everything I try has at least eggs in it, if not meat or animal derived products.

I do plan to eat out this week. I love eating out; no dishes. And, I certainly don’t eat ‘gobble & go’. There are no plastic plates where I eat, but they do have these annoying salt sachets, because here that’s the law, no salt shakers, toothpicks each individually wrapped too. Here I add that the Councillor who proposed the law was a relative of the company that does the wrapping. That’s the way things work in Rio.

The restaurants in this part of town (remember we are 85kms from the city centre) aren’t known for their sustainability practices, even though they charge Five Star prices. This part of town is a little bit like the Wild West, yes, some parts even have street shoot outs. You may have heard on the news we have an election this weekend for mayors and councillors, the military is here to protect the people from the militicias trying to bully voters into voting for their candidates.

So even with research it would be difficult to find a suitable place to eat.

Certainly when I do eat out, I go to enjoy the experience and don’t eat and run. I tend to do that more at home. Often I don’t sit for a meal, but eat standing at the counter. Whenever I eat, be it at home or out, I follow my inclination as a chef to enjoy what I am eating, flavour, texture, etc are important to me.

Oh, you remember that piece of rump steak… I salvaged it and washed it (no detergent) and put it back on the grill with a dash of olive oil. I waste nothing.

 

Monday Moaning

How ‘vegan’ are you?

Come on, really…

Just look at this chart, how can you escape animal products completely in today’s world?

You can try, but I don’t believe you can. Oh, and that’s just cattle… what about the pigs and chickens?

Monday Moaning

It tastes like chicken… But it isn’t chicken!

I read yesterday that PETA has offered a $1million prize to the first person that can ‘make’ chicken.

A synthetic chicken.

Same texture, same taste, even look like chicken.

Race to serve up artificial chicken for a $1m prize

Dutch scientist Mark Post displays samples of in-vitro meat, or cultured meat grown in a laboratory, at the University of Maastricht. Photograph: Francois Lenoir/REUTERS

Dr Frankenstein

This is just straight out scary.

This is a poultry version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein…

This is Chickenstein!

This is scarier than Scooby Doo!

It’s all very well for animal rights groups and vege/vegans to be concerned for animal welfare; you are not alone there, many of us carnivores and mere mortals are with you. The conditions that animals, particularly chickens are kept are generally horrific and truly a sad indictment on the human race.

But one must ask the question, is it the consumers or the producers (corporations) who are at fault?

My answer is resoundingly the latter; with the caveat that the consumer has the power to change the methods.

Mechanically separated chicken used by all fast-food restaurants to make chicken nuggets and patties

But this is not the essence of my moan this morning. I am asking the question, what are we looking at in this artificial ‘solution’?

More chemicals by which we slowly poison ourselves, subject ourselves to illness and cancers, genetically modified gunge with which to assuage our collective conscience.

It is bad enough to eat the crap pictured, but what comes next I believe is the next stage in degradation.

There is no way that you’ll ever convince me that meat, chicken or otherwise, that is grown/created in the laboratory like a bacteria or a virus remotely copies the properties of meat, regardless of how it looks, feels and tastes.

This is another example of man running amok, playing God; and I don’t agree with it.