Score One For The Home Team – Oprah Tries A Vegan Diet
Though we'd love to say we had some influence in Oprah's decision to go vegetarian for three weeks, we really can't. We sent email to the Oprah show alerting them to our petition requesting that she do a program segment on factory farming. We received the auto response alerting us to the fact that they (at the Oprah show) are very busy and may not be able to get back to us personally... Of course, we'll keep you posted if we do hear from them. But in the meantime much of America, indeed the globe, will now be exposed to the benefits of a vegan diet.
Apparently, Oprah was inspired by the book Quantum Wellness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Health and Happiness
Freston says "If you want to look and feel your best, you have to make the complete mind, body, and soul connection. That means you have to work from the inside out." From this she has devised her premise of the 8 Pillars of Wellness, which she says is the way to live an engaged life. Meditation may be the first pillar, but it is the second pillar, conscious eating, which is the pillar Kathy says should be observed above all others.
It doesn't only make a difference to our own personal health and well-being, but conscious eating means you stay aware of where your food comes from, how the animals are treated, and how the environment is affected by the foods that you eat. You take in the energy of whatever went into creating that food.
We are absolutely thrilled! This means Americans, and the rest of the world, will now be exposed to vegan eating and maybe even the issue of animal rights in a medium that a huge number of people are willing to pay attention to!
For further reading, you can click on this link to read more about the 8 Pillars of Wellness as previewed on Oprah.
If you'd like to follow her progress, Oprah has a blog. Here's Oprah's blog post from this week:
Well, I feel like I got baptized in Vegan Land today. Kathy Freston sent her chef, Tal Ronnen, to help me and three friends at Harpo who are doing the 21-day cleanse.
Wow, wow, wow! I never imagined meatless meals could be so satisfying. I had been focused on what I had to give up—sugar, gluten, alcohol, meat, chicken, fish, eggs, cheese. "What's left?" I thought. Apparently a lot. I can honestly say every meal was a surprise and a delight, beginning with breakfast—strawberry rhubarb wheat-free crepes. — Oprah
I predict this action by Oprah will do more for the cause than anything else to date!
Vegan Recipe Challenger Beats Meat
A few weeks ago we wrote about a new blog, Hezbollah Tofu. Their purpose, to counter Anthony Bourdain's anti-vegan bias by creating veganized versions of Mr. Bourdain’s “masturbatory, blood-oozing recipes.” Ultimately, they plan on compiling these recipes and selling them, with proceeds donated to vegan outreach organizations in the name of Mr. Bourdain.
In April, Endless Simmer ran a poll to find out who their readers thought fared better in a square-off between Bourdain's French Onion Soup and the veganized version of French Onion Soup. A whopping 87% of the 1,300 visitors to Simmer voted for the veganized soup!
Considering Endless Simmer is not a vegan blog, I'd say that speaks volumes. They don't even have any vegan recipes on their site! While a full-time vegan diet might not appeal to mainstream America, it certainly seems like there is an increase in interest in eating meatless, at least occasionally.
– We’re getting ready to close down our petition to Oprah, asking her to do a piece on factory farming. If you haven’t already signed, please consider doing so. We can all work together to make a difference.
Anthony Bourdain is NOT a Vegan
Well, it's obvious that Anthony Bourdain is not a vegan, at least if you ever had the misfortune to watch his show, which we did once or twice in our pre-vegan life. But Jane and I both found Mr. Bourdain to be a bit too pretentious. It's one thing to be sure of yourself, it's another to be waaay sure of your cool.
Anyway, thanks to a post on FoodEater's blog, I found Hezbollah Tofu, a blogging response to Mr. Bourdain's snide (and much quoted) comment:
"Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food."
- Anthony Bourdain, "Kitchen Confidential," p. 70
Their (Hezbollah Tofu) goal? To "fork" Bourdain for charity. They plan on creating veganized versions of Mr. Bourdain's "masturbatory, blood-oozing recipes" compiling these recipes and selling them, all proceeds will be donated to vegan outreach organizations in the name of Mr. Bourdain. What an excellent idea.So we challenge you to take up the call and send your recipes in to them at: hezbollahtofu@gmail.com.
As for my response to Mr. Bourdain... Not all vegans are militant, nor are we necessarily "an irritant to any chef worth a damn" as is evidenced by all the new vegan cookbooks out there, and the proliferation of vegan restaurants, at least in many urban centers.
Most people understand that our choice to be vegan, is simply that, our choice. If you factor in the benefits our way of eating has to impacts on the environment and the sustainability of life on earth, there really is no other way to eat. And if my opinion is of no consequence, here's a quote from arguably one of the most intelligent human beings to ever walk the earth, Albert Einstein:
"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."
Alltop — A New “Online Magazine Rack”
It’s not a vegan site, but this newly launched website can provide a great overview of favorite sites. AllTop has just launched. It's basically a news aggregator with a wide variety of topics. Jane and I really like the food and health pages, along with the stuff under "geekery" and "good." It's definitely worth checking out.
From their press release:
A good metaphor is that Alltop is an "online magazine rack" that displays the news from the top publications and blogs. Our goal is to satisfy the information needs of the 99% of Internet users who will never use an RSS feed reader or create a custom page.
We expect to use it all the time to get an overview of what’s going on out there in foodland and expect you’ll find it pretty useful too. Oh, and we're listed on the food page too!
Blogs About Vegan Eating
This is the inaugural issue of: Blogs About Vegan Eating. If enough of you like this, I will turn it into a regular (weekly?) series. I will present updates about some wonderful recipes and eating ideas that Jane and I have found on other blogs. So without further ado, here's issue 1 of Blogs About Vegan Eating:
Faux chicken caesar salad from Comfort Food Vegan looks delicious. I can't get enough of the Vegan Curry Chicken Salad from Whole Foods. This dish from Comfort Food looks like it may give Whole Foods' Vegan Curry Chicken Salad a run for its money.
Being a native New Yorker, I LOVE pizza. Since becoming a vegan, pizza's been the most difficult food for me to live without. (Yes, I know, I slipped a while back and ate pizza, once....) Vegetarians often say that they can't become vegans because they would miss cheese too much, and every vegan will tell you that vegan cheese isn't "real" cheese. It doesn't melt well or has a plastic texture (appetizing, eh?)... So is there no acceptable vegan cheese? Welcome Teese Vegan Cheese! Tesse claims to have created a vegan cheese that really melts! From their site, they indicate that the cheese:
- Melts Twice as Fast as the brand leader
- Has a Stronger Mozzarella Flavor
- Has Better Texture
- Has Better Shelf Life
Better texture? Melts well? I'm intrigued. So far they've only created a mozzarella version, but they indicated that a cheddar-type flavor is currently in development. We haven't tried Teese vegan cheese yet, and haven't found it in our local stores, so we don't have first hand experience with it. But, if it lives up to its hype, I imagine it'll become a staple in our household.
The women at Post Punk Kitchen have tried Teese's cheese on pizza and to quote them, "Teese forking melts!" They recently had a pizza party and most everyone there enjoyed it -- even a couple of (real) cheese eaters. They are vegan and New Yorkers, so if they liked this pizza, I have renewed hopes!
One of my favorite blogs for recipes and food photography is Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. Susan always has wonderful recipes a great vegan food "porn." This week, she offers up a Korean Noodle Stirfry. This dish looks sensational. It's made with buckwheat soba noodles, tofu, squash, and bok choy. The bok choy at the farmer's market this week looked great, so we may be trying this dish real soon.
WaffleParty.com is a website dedicated to waffles -- vegan waffles! I've been having a difficult time finding a vegan waffle recipe that I am happy with. This morning, I tried the Healthful Vegan Waffles Recipe from this website (which says the recipe is actually from fatfree.com.) These vegan waffles were delicious. (I opted to use two tablespoons of canola oil in place of two tablespoons of water, and added a splash of vanilla extract.) They tasted just like "real" waffles. I will definitely add this recipe to the rotation and try some of the other waffle recipes on this site.
What The Hell Does a Vegan Eat? is offering up an incredible sounding dish this week. Tofu Marsala over Fettucini, Hickory Smoked Eggplant sounds and looks incredible. I used to love marsala sauce. I haven't had any in ages. They also talk about hickory smoked eggplant? Now there's a recipe I'd like to see.
There are several wonderful recipes here. If you like would like to see more of these types of posts, or would like to be considered for possible inclusion in future issues of Blogs About Vegan Eating, please leave a comment at the end of this post.
