Go Vegetarian!

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” 

Mahatma Gandhi

Please go vegetarian! For the animals and for the Earth we all live on. 

Today's Vegetarian

“We should always be clear that animal exploitation is wrong because it involves speciesism. And speciesism is wrong because, like racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-semitism, classism, and all other forms of human discrimination, speciesism involves violence inflicted on members of the moral community where that infliction of violence cannot be morally justified. But that means that those of us who oppose speciesism necessarily oppose discrimination against humans. It makes no sense to say that speciesism is wrong because it is like racism (or any other form of discrimination) but that we do not have a position about racism. We do. We should be opposed to it and we should always be clear about that.” 
― Gary L. Francione

My beautiful little "lion" Wahkan Nobu (Wahkan: sacred, Nobu: vow)

Saturday's Vegetarian II

“Every time you drink a glass of milk or eat a piece of cheese, you harm a mother. Please go vegan.” 

― Gary L. Francione

Saturday's Vegetarian

We need, in a special way, to work twice as hard to help people understand that the animals are fellow creatures, that we must protect them and love them as we love ourselves.” 

― César Chávez

Today's Vegetarian

“I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.” 

― Isaac Bashevis Singer

EA's Wonderful Soup

My friend EA gave me this recipe as I have been in bed with bronchitis for quite some time now and not eating well enough. It is a lovely lentil soup with ginger, and as EA said: "The ginger is comforting when feeling a bit queasy". I quite agree.

1 onion, 1 leek and as much garlic as you like, all fried soft in olive oil or rapeseed oil

add 3 cm of ginger cut into pieces, some vegetable stock, a tin of crushed tomatoes, 200 ml of lentils (softened in water for a couple of hours before cooking), two stalks of celery cut into pieces (a little chili if you like) and water to make a nice consistency. Cook until everything is tender, add more water if needed, run in blender.  Serve with sprouts on top.

Enjoy!

Today's Vegetarian

“Something I've never been able to adapt to, to understand is how they can lavish such love and care on the animals and then see them sold for slaughter. I don't dare say anything about it, though. Richard and his friends would be down on me in a flash. But there's some kind of cold, unfeeling contradiction in that business.” 
― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

Today's Vegetarian

“The greatest discovery of any generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering the attitudes of their minds.” 
― Albert Schweitzer

(Eat vegetarian!:o) - among other things)

Today's Vegetarian

“The ethics of reverence for life makes no distinction between higher and lower, more precious and less precious lives. It has good reasons for this omission. For what are we doing, when we establish hard and fast gradations in value between living organisms, but judging them in relation to ourselves, by whether they seem to stand closer to us or farther from us. This is a wholly subjective standard. How can we know what importance other living organisms have in themselves and in terms of the universe?” 

― Albert Schweitzer

Today's Vegetarian

“By eating meat we share the responsibility of climate change, the destruction of our forests, and the poisoning of our air and water. The simple act of becoming a vegetarian will make a difference in the health of our planet.” 
― Thích Nhất Hạnh, The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology

“Being vegetarian here also means that we do not consume dairy and egg products, because they are products of the meat industry. If we stop consuming, they will stop producing. Only collective awakening can create enough determination for action.” 
― Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Fruitful Darkness: A Journey Through Buddhist Practice and Tribal Wisdom

Shopping Hiatus&Trying to Be Vegan

Breaks in the shopping hiatus has been a summer skirt and a gorgeous lip gloss that has a certain "eternal" appeal" - meaning I would not stop thinking of it, if not getting it. Much too expensive if trying to be prudent, but a real color kick. Do I mind? Yes, a little. I have quite enough clothes and make up. I'm seriously trying to use what I have. Consumption has gone down and I have mostly kept to utilities, but I can do better. Mindlessness hurts.

Dior Addict 854

I'm adapting more and more to a vegan lifestyle. The daily spoon of cod liver oil is not something I find easy to give up, but I do try to avoid meat and fish to a very large extent. It felt kind of crazy when friends popped over with spare ribs at my barbecue, I didn't know what to say, but they did like the carrot soup. For me, trying to be vegan is mostly about animal welfare. The lipgloss has very likely been tested on animals too, but then I do not want to avoid all pleasures. Balance is difficult when trying to be as animal friendly as possible, see that workers get a proper pay and leave the smallest possible garbage pile behind and still love glamor, well made clothes, fashion and art. Art is necessary to retain a joie de vivre and colours, clothes, materials, yarns and makeup can most certainly be art or artful. Maybe vegan lipgloss next time? Colours are my great weakness and give enormous pleasure on an everyday basis. Sometimes I honestly don't know what to do, but I might settle on using what I have until it is worn out, recycle as much as possible and only then get new things of decent quality. Use the shampoo, then buy a new bottle, preferably not tested on animals.

That means: hopefully no more shopping when it comes to non utilitarian items, even less non vegan food, less sugar, just foods that give real nourishment to body and soul (and even better sorting of the garbage).

(And I do adore the colour of the lipgloss)

The Land - one year shopping hiatus&trying to be vegan

Having time off feels pretty glorious, the land looks lush and I turn very grateful for everything that grows. With time off, there is the possibility to go to Ultra - a huge market - by bike in the middle of the week, and I did get some fun ingredients for cooking: gourmet lentils, anise essence, organic tomato puree and organic apple cider vinegar - and - oh dear - salmon burgers. I try to be almost vegan most of the time, taking cod liver oil every day and an occasional game dinner (game had a life, running in the forrest, not being raised to slaughter, nor being fed antibiotics) maybe once a month. I also eat the occasional organic, free range egg. It all makes me feel bad, a bit like it would feel to eat my pets. I do find it difficult at this stage to turn totally vegan, although I'm very likely heading in that direction in time, maybe with an exception of the cod liver oil. I think of it as a my contribution to keeping the Earth in a better shape, it being good for my body is an excellent bonus.

The shopping hiatus is almost working, I only buy food or utilities, but I did get a summer skirt. It was really a highlight, even if I'm shrinking and it being not very smart to buy clothes. I do enjoy avoiding "headless" shopping. My vow of only eating things the nourish my body (and soul) to a real extent is working. I also believe in keeping my consumption of food on the lower side on a daily basis, though having occasional days where I eat more, especially when taking the long, tough bike rides. I will look into essential amino acids to get sorted how to get all of them properly on a vegan diet.

Be Happy Lentil Soup

This one is nice, I just had two bowls and the truffle oil just made it nicer.

Canola oil for sautéing an onion, four cloves of garlic and a leek
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
400g brown lentils
2 tomatos
3 cubes of vegetable stock or to taste
0,5 teaspoon ground coriander
0,5 teaspoon ground cumin
filtered water (Anna mug is good) to cover the vegetables and lentils
1 tablespoon truffle oil
some nice, green garnish - and, by the way, I did put a little splash of white vine into the soup as well

Saute the onions, garlic and leek until tender, add the spices, then the rest of the vegetables (cut into pieces) and cubes of vegetable stock, let it all boil until tender, puree and add the truffle oil, taste to see if more salt, possibly some pepper or more spices are needed. It looks a bit brown, but is tasty and a green garnish livens it up. Maybe even serve with some good bread? Enjoy!

Based on a recipe in Color Me Vegan, a cookbook that has proved very enjoyable so far.

Bjørnson's Beauty Soup

This is a variation on Bjørnson's Beauty Soup - pureed vegetables in stock, with a dash of (soy) cream. Sorry for not posting recipes more often, Shannon. Bjørnson was one of Norway's most famous poets, by the way.

Start with frying onions and (plenty of) garlic in olive oil, add vegetables, anything will do, but I like orange ones like sweet potato and carrots for taste and colour. I always add some pear, which brings out the taste in the rest of the vegetables and some squash. Add vegetable stock. Cook until tender, puree in blender and add soy cream or just cream. Enjoy!

Chickpea and Coconut Cream Soup

1 medium onion in thin slices
3 table spoons of grated ginger
3 cloves of garlic finely cut
2 pieces of celery
1 carrot in thin slices
1 can of coconut milk (will check how it works with soy cream soon, not that delighted with the amount of saturated fat you find in the coconut milk, but coconut milk is tasty)
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can chickpeas
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
a little chili powder
salt or vegan stock
a little lime juice
some chopped parsley

fry the onion and the carrot in rapeseed oil, add the garlic, ginger and sliced celery, fry for a minute

add coconut milk, tomatoes and chickpeas, add spices while tasting, limejuice and parsley

boil for 15 minutes, if too thick add a little water, next time we actually decided to serve it as a casserole with couscous

enjoy!

From this web site, but with a few modifications: http://veg-veg.no/mat/middag/suppe_kikerter_kokosmelk