I'm back! The State of Katelyn

Hello world!  It's been about three years since I've typed up a blog post and it feels good!  Things have been pretty good here.  I was working at Target until about February of this year and now I'm working at the auto auction that Peter works at part time, and I work for an app on the side.  It's not much but it pays the bills and I get to spend a lot of time at home with my beautiful angel animals.  I can barely describe the feeling of relief that I get when I go into Target knowing that I don't work there anymore.  I still make sure I'm not wearing red when I go in there,  just in case one of my regulars recognize me and ask me where something is at.  Here are some pictures of Peter, Marina and I so you know that we are all alive and well.

Additionally, I registered for my last three college classes (FINALLY).  I feel like I kind of have been putting it off because it signifies my entrance into the real world, but I just need to get it over with already and you have to get a masters to do pretty much anything anyways...

Much to the dismay of my parents, the only things that I feel truly passionate about are animal rights and animal liberation by way of veganism.  While I am vegan mainly for ethical reasons, there is no denying that it has numerous health benefits which I love to educate people about.  As much as it annoys my mother to hear how terrible cheese is for you, I will never stop being that "annoying vegan," because believe it or not, I want her to be her healthiest self and live as long as possible.  You don't NEED cheese and most Americans consume more protein than their body actually needs.

Does anything about this vegan burger look like it's lacking in protein?

This is purely anecdotal, but since I went vegan, my eczema and allergies have almost completely cleared up.  Since I was a child I was doused in Aquaphor and Eucerin and I was on basically every allergy medicine available to man with little relief, when all I had to do was give up dairy!

I know my family is sick of it and because I am an empathetic person, I can see why it would be troubling to see these very real truths about the cruelty that goes into things you eat every day, but the only way to do SOMETHING about it is to educate about it.  So if my "annoying" vegan posts inspire just one person to rethink that bacon with their eggs or the chicken in their salad, then I'll consider it worth it.

Since I've last posted on here, there have been a few mainstream documentaries to make the rounds!  They include:  What The Health, Cowspiracy, Before the Flood, Speciesism and Dominion.  Dominion is brand new and right now it's pretty much only offering private screenings.  There is one at the Pensacola Downtown Library on July 27 which I highly recommend checking out if you are truly interested in learning about the way animal agriculture operates.  You can RSVP for the screening here.  It's pretty much the Earthlings of Australia.  However, Earthlings really had me ugly crying and Dominion had me at a more tears streaming down my face kind of deal, so maybe Dominion wasn't so bad for me because I was prepared for it.  I encourage you to watch the other ones I listed in addition to Forks over Knives, Earthlings, and Vegucated. 

I've become involved with the Anonymous for the Voiceless chapter here in Pensacola and it has been so inspiring to meet so many individuals who feel the same passion and empathy for animals that I do and want to do something about it!  It definitely takes a toll on one's mental health when your cries for compassion are met with, "But bacon" or "What about plants rights?"

Banana nut cupcake w/praline frosting @ EOTL Cafe

Although I'm in Florida, they don't call Pensacola the "Redneck Riviera" for nothin'.  It's hard to find vegan options at more established restaurants, where it's a little easier at newer restaurants.  End of The Line Cafe, Skopelos, Single Fin Cafe and Nom Sushi are favorite go-to's for vegan eats and the fact that there are so many options in this small city is inspiring and motivating.  Skopelos even hosts these high class fancy 6/7 course wine and dinner nights and every Sunday night from 4-close they feature a different vegan menu called Vegan & Vino! I have a few friends in Columbus, Georgia (the second most populated city in the state) and there is not ONE vegan restaurant there.  Not one.  So I do feel very lucky.

Vegan miso ramen, nomaste roll & spicy veggie rolls @ Nom Sushi Izakaya

The main course of probably the best brunch I've ever had @ End of the Line Cafe 

ELT (Eggplant Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato) Sandwich @ Skopelos

If you're friends with me on Facebook, you may have noticed that my shares have become a little more vegan-centric.  That isn't going to change because I TRULY believe it is in your best interest, the best interest of the planet and the best interest of the billions of farmed animals bred into existence just to be slaughtered for food for people to know what is going on.  What you choose to do with that information is up to you!  I went like 15 years thinking that dairy cows HAD to be milked daily or they would get sick and die.  In reality, we impregnate the cows (forcibly) and take away her baby so that we can take her milk for ourselves.  Where do the babies go?  Veal or they become the replacement cows for their mothers.  So, as much as I tried to convince myself of it for years, nothing about dairy is ethical and all that is required on our parts as highly evolved human beings is to make a conscious choice to not support this cruel industry.

Also, the government subsidizes the you know what out of these industries when around 80% of people of Asian descent, 75% of people of African descent and 50% of people of Latino descent are lactose intolerant (source).  These subsidies go to profits, go to advertisements (propaganda) and in 2017 the USDA spent $20 million dollars buying up excess cheese that NO ONE WANTS.  Cue the Dominoes commercials advertising pizzas with 40% more cheese (insert eye roll here).  Dairy is making people sick and the government doesn't care, the USDA doesn't care, the "MyPlate" (aka the new food pyramid) doesn't care.  The USDA rejected the advice of its own panel to consider environmental sustainability when formulating the newest Dietary Guidelines (source).  Is that surprising when the meat industry contributes almost $900 billion in total to the U.S. economy and almost $2 million dollars to candidates for federal office (source)?

Choose almond milk instead of normal milk, try out a cheese alternative (you literally cannot tell the difference between Daiya American slices and Kraft American slices except that they're better tasting).  I'm sorry if the animal abuse graphics are too much for you, but that's the reality for the majority of the meat on your supermarket shelves.  The only way to change anything is to get people fired up!   You might say that we as a society have bigger things to get fired up about.  To that I say, the whole idea behind veganism is that one life isn't worth more than another.  From the mouth of Earthling Ed, "The root of all oppression and all evil is the idea that some lives are worth more than others.  As long as there is violence on our plates, we will always have violence on the streets as well."

Okay! End Rant!  It's good to be back and I can't wait to post more and share some new recipes that I've been working on.  Not going to lie, I have a lot of free time and about 35 vegan cookbooks, so I've become something of a professional.  Thanks for reading!

Ciao ciao!
Katelyn

Recipe Thursdays - Not actually spicy Peanut Butter Tofu

I hate eating peanuts.  Roasted, honey roasted, plain, I am just burned out on peanuts.  Not. A. Fan.  However, I am a fan of things that have peanuts in them.  Like pad thai and peanut butter and recently the peanut butter and chocolate Pro Bar.

I found THIS recipe on Pinterest (of course, where else?) from Kalyn's Kitchen and I knew I had to make it.  Usually I just browse through and pin stuff, but with this one, I knew I had to make it because 1) it looked ridiculously easy 2) peanut butter 3) soy sauce 4) tofu.

I tweaked it a little bit to fit my own tastes/also I didn't have all of the ingredients I needed.  Enjoy!  I made if a few days ago, and I really cannot wait to make it again!

Vegan Asian Peanut Butter Tofu
Tofu: 
1 block of extra firm tofu sliced into diagonal pieces
1 tablespoon of peanut oil
3 cloves of garlic sliced
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Sauce:
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
3 tablespoons of rice vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable stock
2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter (the recipe stressed to use natural peanut butter but all I had was jif.  Sorry I'm not sorry haha.)
1 tablespoon agave nectar
2 tablespoons of Sriracha or rooster sauce

Press your tofu to get rid of all of the excess water.  For a while I was pretty ghetto and I would just wrap my tofu in paper towels and place it in between two plates with some books on top.  Now I have my Tofu EZPress that I got from Amazon and it saves me a lot of time and paper towels.  I highly recommend it!!

Mix together all of the sauce ingredients!  Put in as much Sriracha as you would like!  I surprised myself and kept adding the rooster sauce until I was satisfied with the spiciness.  It took me a while to work up to medium salsa so this was not expected.  

Heat up a pan.  Throw the oil in there, then let it heat up a bit.  Then throw that garlic in there.  Let the garlic stay in the pan until it smells really strong.  Then take it out and set aside or throw away.  I personally set it aside to reuse in my next recipe because I felt bad throwing it away.

Now put the tofu in the oil. Cook until it is lightly browned on each side.  Then put the pan on low heat and add the sauce.  Cook until the tofu is coated and the sauce is getting a little thick.

Place the tofu on a plate and pour the sauce over it.  Garnish with green onions if you have them! I didn't think I had any but apparently my family has tons in the garden! I didn't find this out until after I ate it though.  Sooooo not cool.

When I was making this, my mother was cooking sausage for my dad right next to me.  Seeing my nice tofu cooking in this light, plant based sauce next to the sausage, which had gone from red to purple (how does that even happen??!) cooking in basically a mixture of water and its own fat was really interesting.  My mom was like, "Oh well I'd eat healthier if it wasn't for your father liking this food."  She also said, "We come from a different generation."  Not sure why being from a different generation is an excuse to eat junk and animal fat, but that's their prerogative.

ewwwwwwwwwwww

 I'm actually really glad that growing up my mother didn't let me eat sugary stuff and provided me with balanced meals before I was able to feed myself and was moderately supportive of my decision to become a vegetarian at the age of 12.  I just wish there was something that I could do that would help my family let go of what I can only assume is an emotional attachment to fake food.  There's some type of chicken product in the freezer right now called "Wyngz".  What? No. Stop.  Right now.  That's not a real word and those are not real things. 

I have a few non-recipe blog posts in the works except I haven't really materialized them yet.  I'm working on it! Haven't been doing much except working and being lame because Peter is in Barcelona but he comes back today yay! Doing spring cleaning today and I cleared out so much stuff that I don't need anymore! 

I'm going to bring it to our community flea market in a few weeks.  That's one of the biggest things I miss about being in the states (other than the number one which is obviously Target), when everyone can just get together and sell stuff in their yard.  In the community here, people either live in apartments on base or out in the Italian economy so it's basically impossible. 

I've been trying to get into some new music because I feel like I have been listening to the same stuff over and over again for the past few weeks.  I can't stop listening to Hozier.  I've been doing a lot of pet sitting and here are two of my new favorite little furry friends, Bella and Daisy.  Their cuddle game is on point. 

Ciao ciao! - x Katelyn

Recipe Thursdays (On a Sunday again) - HUMMUS

My blender is my best friend

 At potlucks or parties you can usually find the meat eaters happily munching away on some buffalo chicken dip or maybe some seven layer dip with ground beef. When I was a vegetarian with no cares in the world, I remember eating a dip that I'm pretty sure was basically just three different kinds of cheese mixed with mayonnaise. It was delicious but I probably consumed a day's worth of calories in ten minutes. Now my options are more limited. 

I was up late the other night and wanted a snack and I wasn't too tired so I decided to try to make some hummus. It was a solid decision on my part. The best thing about hummus in my opinion is that it's so easy to personalize. I don't think I will ever stop being obsessed with sun dried tomatoes so I threw some in my blender with the chickpea mixture and I had sundried tomato hummus! You can sub anything for the tomatoes. You like olives? Throw some Kalamatas in there! Add some extra garlic or some more lemon! You can even switch the chickpeas with some edamame for edamame hummus. 

I brought it to work and made basically everyone I know try it and it was loved by all. So here's the recipe and whip up your own.  I like to serve it with pretzel chips or the "Food should taste good" olive chips! 

"Whatever you want" Hummus  

1 can of chickpeas
1/4 cup tahini
1 clove of garlic
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoon olive oil (you might need to add a little more to achieve the consistency you want
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup whatever you want 

Add all of your ingredients together into the blender and blend until you get hummus.  Done.  

In the picture to the left you can see that for my "whatever you want" I used Italian oil-packed sundried tomatoes and a few sprigs of cilantro because why not? I also used 2 cloves of garlic because I really like garlic.

There's just something that makes me feel really accomplished about making my own hummus.  It's like, I used to spend about ten dollars a week on hummus and now I probably spend half of that and I MADE IT.  Granted, it was very very easy to make.  But still, I made it.  Go me.  You too can have this sense of accomplishment if you make your own hummus.  I highly reccomend it.  

I live overseas and do a lot of my shopping at our military commissary and the selection of vegan foods is very very VERY limited. As far as I can tell the only avenue to get them to stock more things that are vegan-friendly is to put in request forms, which I have done. I just want some tempeh mannnn. I'm dying here.  If you can think of anything else I should request, put it in the comments!  I already asked for Daiya products and tempeh.  We JUST got Earth Balance buttery sticks so props to the commissary for that. 

I promise that next week the recipe will actually be on a Thursday! My time management skills are not so hot but I'm working on it! I have the next three days off of work to get some stuff done!

YUM!

 Here's a bonus pic of a wrap I made.  Low carb tortilla, hummus, seitan, baby spinach, red bell pepper and balsamic vinegar.  I sprinkled on some chia seeds too.  Too delicious.  I can't even describe in words how tasty this was. 

ciao ciao! - Katelyn