The no-new-grocery challenge

Budget- and mental health-wise, I hope the days are behind me of eating chips and leftover s’mores ingredients from an old camping trip for dinner.

But I’m still a writer trying to make rent in Seattle, where the cost of living and taxes are high (I love you so much Seattle, but you hurt me sometimes).

I got paid on Friday, but after going over my budget, I realized that I’d still have near-nothing left by the time my checks for rent, my CSA and a health insurance thing clear.

Not wanting to swim in more credit card debt (which is where I put my car repairs and birthday presents to loved ones), I challenged myself to not buy any more groceries until I get paid again June 13.

Aziz Ansari on meat

Last week I watched Aziz Ansari’s Madison Square Garden special on Netflix.

I anticipated his feminist commentary because of the media coverage it attracted (and I read tons of feminist blogs), but the part that excited me the most was something that, afterward, I couldn’t find much coverage on at all.

He lampooned the meat and egg industry.

He starts by asking the audience to clap if they don’t eat meat … and then clap if they don’t eat meat because they read books or watched documentaries that turned them off of meat … and then to clap if they don’t eat meat because they saw factory farm footage that fucked up their ability to eat meat.

Then he continues:

Clap if you saw that (factory farm footage) and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, that’s disgusting, it’s cruel, it’s inhumane, the government definitely needs to properly regulate the meat industry, there’s no excuse for this – the government definitely needs to properly regulate the meat industry … but, in the meantime, I kinda still gotta eat meat, because I don’t wanna feel weird and hungry all the time.’

Isn’t that so frustrating? Because no one wants to support that stuff.

This is where most people I know are at. Like, they inherently know meat comes from a fucked up place, but they exist in willful denial because they don’t think they have the willpower to give up meat or they think humans were built to consume meat and so we should or they have no idea what they would eat in the alternative … whatever.

Vegan and dating

For the first time in my life, I’m vegan and single.

When I went vegan, I was in a long-term relationship with a man who didn’t really understand my transition, but supported it, anyway. It was all I could have asked for. We made it work. He kind of despaired when I moved miso and tofu into his fridge, but he let it happen. And I got him hooked on nooch.

Once I asked him if he’d have gone for me if I were vegan when we first met. Not sure if he was joking or not, but he expressed doubt that he would have continued pursuing me if I were vegan right off the bat.

Then again, he said he was only gonna give this chick who lived in Mount Vernon one date and end it, but I won him over with my charm.

Now I navigate the single life with this lifestyle. I don’t think it’s an integral part of my personality in that it’s something I’m going to talk about or use to rule out potential partners. It’s not important to me that I date another vegetarian or vegan because there are perfectly good people who can share the rest of my values and perhaps learn from what I have to bring to the relationship. I have ruled out a man whose dating profile read, “If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, I don’t understand you because you’re missing out on a lot in life.” I just ask for open-mindedness and in exchange I won’t try to convert you to my team.

Food and depression

Some people reach for food when they’re sad, stressed, grieving or depressed.

I starve.

I suffer from depression. It’s totally under control and has been for a couple years now. But once in a great while it can still come creeping back, with or without a trigger.

When I was in the depths a few years ago, I lost between 20 and 30 pounds. One of my great loves – good, wholesome food – was rarely interesting to me. I had no motivation to cook. I was also poor at the time. Dinner would be tortilla chips or graham crackers. Anxiety drove me to throw up what little I could choke down.

Knowledge = power

Today’s reading:

Milk: still bad for you – or at least not good

Healthy diet :: healthy environment

Healthy diet :: healthy environment :: healthy sex

Making it work

Traveling/being on the go/dining out with friends must be navigated more conscientiously as a veghead.

But I’ve come across some nice options and accommodations during my recent hectic few weeks.

First: Safeway is actually pretty all right.

I don’t often shop at Safeway anymore except for its gas station. I feel I find more options that fit my needs at local chain markets. But maybe I haven’t looked in the right places.

When a vegan loves an omnivore

I love Grist‘s Ask Umbra.

Today she gives relationship advice for mixed-diet couples.

I went from omni to vegetarian to vegan, all while with my bacon cheeseburger-loving boyfriend. He can’t comprehend the vegan life, but he’s sensitive to my desires and supportive, which is all I can ask.

And sometimes we have stir fry or salad nights together. He knows it’s BYO meat and cheese.

Are you in a mixed-diet relationship? How have you reconciled your veggie interest with the omnis in your life?

What I’ve been reading for the past, oh, month

In case you need more reasons to stop eating meat

WTF why the Field Roast hate, Canada?

’10 things I wish all Americans knew about the meat and dairy industries’

Is Thug Kitchen cultural appropriation? This writer says, ‘yes’

Moby with some great talking points on meat for the next time someone debates you

NY Times: Enforcing the legal rights of animals

The world’s first vegetarian city – is this the right approach?

’10 things that would fix the food system faster than GMO labeling’

Do herbies have to be perfect? (I’m so big on Lindsay Nixon’s positivity – it has made my herbie transition possible)

Awkward moments every vegetarian understands

For the next time someone asks you, ‘But where do you get your protein?’

Mark Bittman: Two rules for a good diet

This is gonna be a thing!

Profile of plant-based badass T. Colin Campbell

SEATTLEITES, THIS EXISTS

Happy vegan-iversary to me

I mark the first day of this blog as my vegan-iversary.

I wanted a food blog for awhile, but I didn’t want to do it unless I knew I was committed to being a full-time herbivore.

It was just a couple months earlier that two of my best friends and I challenged each other to go a whole month vegan and we all failed. I failed on the first day, which also happened to coincide with the first day of a new job in a new city. I wandered around looking for places to eat. I found a sandwich shop and ordered the eggplant. They were out of eggplant. So I got the turkey. I felt bad.

Since then, I’ve nooch-ed and miso-ed my way through a life of full-time veggiehood and I have loved it so much.

Veggie news to use

Vegetarians live longer and have a much smaller carbon footprint than omnivores

Yep, they do

Toronto: home of the veggie butcher shop (everything looks delicious)

Another vegan food truck coming to Seattle!