Monday, October 06, 2008

Vegan MoFo Days 4-6: I heart cruelty-free lists

Cravings for cheese: Abundant. But I'm still not whining.
Weekly food budget: $7 tops. This is not a good month to get all crazy creative with the culinaria.
The number of soy products in my life has: Drastically increased. I'm not sure how okay I am with this. More on this later.

THE TOP TEN THINGS NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT VEGANISM:
10. Living off of chips and salsa, oatmeal, and/or PB&J gets the job done. Not that I'd want to or have been, but those two items have saved me in a pinch more than once already. And I'm sure they will again. Guac, too. Mmm.
9. I don't really feel like I'm better, smarter or more ethical than anyone else. I just think about food constantly. So much for the "smug vegan" trope.
8. Earth Balance is damn expensive! Granted that I'm on a serious budget* but come on!
7. Soy yogurt should never, EVER be eaten at any temperature other than straight-outta-the-fridge cold. The tapioca associations are too much for this girl.
6. Rennet. Why don't people tell me these things when I am eating cheese? That's filthy!
5. Evidently it's common for most vegans to graze all day AND eat major meals.
4. Veganism isn't always a sure-fire weight loss plan, but the golden triad of veganism, biking as a sole form of transportation, and having no money seem to do the trick. Explains why Portland is full of skinny-skinnies (in skinny jeans).
3. Gluten-free vegans who opt not to eat soy are the most hardcore people alive, dietarily speaking.
2. Animal rights is really not an issue that politicians ever talk about, unless it's the city counsel going on about pit bulls. And that's crap.
1. Absolutely NO ONE told me that - how to put this? - my GI tract would kick into high gear. I kept a pretty high fiber diet before, but now!

TOP TEN THINGS ABOUT VEGANISM THAT I'D BEEN TOLD AND THIS WEEK CONFIRMED:
10. Nutritional yeast makes damn near everything taste better.
9. It's just a dietary choice. It's only an identity if you make it one.
8. Soup is the simplest thing ever to make vegan. I have big plans to alter a matzoh ball soup recipe. Mmmm. Seitan dumplings.
7. Coffee is universal, amazing and essential no matter what your breakfast looks like.
6. Being more attentive about what and how you eat is immensely rewarding. Why would anyone want something unidentifiable in their meals? That's silly and gross.
5. Vegans are not necessarily picky eaters. There are worlds of foods omnis would never touch that vegans embrace. Most omnis in my circle are tofu-tolerant or even pro-, but other synthetic proteins scare the hell out of 'em. To say nothing of exploring the full extent of the bulk section or anything with "sprouted" in it's name. Really, there are more edible plants, grains and legumes on this planet than are dreamt of in omnivory.
4. Portland is a ridiculously easy place to go vegan.
3. It's not horrendously rude or out of line to ask what the french fries were fried in.
2. Tofu scrambles are best served frequently.
1. Nutritional yeast. Again. Seriously.

*I'm saving money pretty aggressively so I can move out. My rent is too damn high, and I don't want to pay to heat this big, under-used house (our landlord won't let us add more people despite the extra room, so we're locked into way too much rent mo-nay) all winter. Plus, everyone I know lives in a different part of town. Granted that I'd be further from the vegan mini-mall, but closer to just about everything else. So that's that news. I haven't informed my roommates, but this will likely go down around January.

2 comments:

Meg said...

One of the only things I would disagree about is that it's just a dietary choice. I mean, I guess it can be. But in my (and I think a lot of cases), it's an ethical choice. I guess it started as a dietary choice back when I was vegetarian but as the animal rights aspects of veganism became apparent to me, I had a change of thought.

erica said...

You're right. I mean, I'm coming at this very food-focused rather than looking at the crux of animal product-free living.