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

Palafox Market, Around Pensacola and my fave stir fry recipe!

Yes I know I haven't written a blog post in a while.  My intentions are always good, but I never end up writing one or never write enough to constitute a full post.  This week I have finally done it! I have accumulated enough experiences to share with whoever reads my blog!

In the past months I've had two weekends off, which is nice because it gives me time to do actually fun things.  It's bad because I'm poor and I would like the hours, but I make the most of it! The first weekend Peter and I planned on going to the farmer's market to just see what was up but we didn't make it out of the house before it closed at 2:00.  Instead, we went to walk on the beach because I have never stepped on it before.  We held up the line at the toll on the bridge because neither of us had $1 and the toll man didn't take cards.  He was not interested in my 63 cents that I scrounged up from the bottom of my bag and waved us through and told us to give him $2 next time- which I thought was nice of him.

The sand was SO WHITE and so soft! The last time I was on a beach was the heroin needle and condom scattered beach of Lago Patria.  This was a nice change of scenery.  I wish I didn't wear shorts because it was still pretty chilly but it was beautiful.  There are a lot of things that Pensacola does not have but what it DOES HAVE is a bad ass beach.

We decided to go to End of The Line cafe which is the only vegan restaurant in town other than Sluggo's.  Peter's sister Anne said it was good and it shows up on the Happy Cow app on my phone, and people rave about it.  We had a hard time figuring out what to order and Peter ended up getting a vegan Reuben sandwich and I got a caprese sandwich and it was pretty amazing.  It's nice not having to worry about what I'm eating.  

Peter's was better.  The portions were really good for what we paid and we went there again last weekend.  It's like right across the street from the Convention Center where coincidentally, Pensacon was going on.  It was like nerd central but some of the cosplay we saw walking around outside seemed pretty cool.  No one famous was there (which basically means no one I recognized) except Loras Tyrell, Gendry Baratheon and Podrick Payne from Game of Thrones.  ANYWAYS. This time I got a "Knuckle Sandwich" and Peter got the special which was this sub.  His was better again.  They have a cooking class every Sunday for $25 that I am really interested in signing up for.    

Knuckle Sandwich

Sub!

One day I'm going to have to try their coffee and baked goods but this time we had to just go with the necessary.... sandwiches.  I love sandwiches so much.  As a kid... and part of the way into my adulthood, I could not eat sandwiches.  Something about them just grossed me out.  One time we ran out of hamburger buns so my mom tried to make me eat my veggie burger between two slices of bread and I was like, "Hell no, that's gross."  Sometime between then and now something has changed and I eat sandwiches basically every day.  This isn't great news for my bikini bod, but my stomach is happy.  

We finally made it to the farmer's market this past Saturday.  I was hoping it would be like the one I went to in Santa Rosa when I was visiting my Aunt Maggie in California and it was! It was actually bigger!  It's called the Palafox Market and all of Martin Luther King Square was lined with vendors selling all sorts of stuff! There were farm fresh veggies, fresh milk, mustard, so much salsa, jewelry and all sorts of arts and crafts.

  

I especially liked this one artist who used recycled steel to make these pretty flowers to put in your garden or yard or wherever.  She also had a few pieces of really beautiful metalwork on display.  After searching a little bit, I found out her name is Amy Hines and HERE is her website.  I bought a red flower that spins and we put it in my garden. I feel like it really brings it to the next level.  

  

We made it to the end of the market at the corner of Palafox and Wright Street and made our walk back.  We were stopped by this little old man who asked us if we liked to read.  At first I was a little scared that I was going to be sucked in by this old man's cuteness and then suckered into buying one of his books.  But this man, Frits Forrer had a really interesting story! As a child, he lived in Holland when it was occupied by the Nazi's for five years and endured bombings almost daily and then once the Americans took over he decided he wanted to become a fighter pilot for the US military and that's exactly what he did.  I didn't have any cash on me to buy his book, but I hope he's there the next time I make it to the market.  His website is HERE.  He's also written a bunch of other books, but the one Peter and I were most interested in was his account of being a Dutch boy during World War II in Five Years Under The Swastika.  

There were SOOO many things I wanted to buy so I know I need to save up for next time.  There was especially this one artist who made paintings on old windows of wine bottles and other things.  Obviously I liked the wine bottle ones the best.  I didn't take a picture because I am a terrible blogger and I've been trying to find his name but I'm working on it.  During my search, I found The Blue Morning Gallery (link HERE) which looks like somewhere I need to check out.  They do classes and stuff too. 

Okay, last but not least! I have a recipe that I made up! I make a stir fry about twice a week.  Ever since Peter got me that wok for my birthday, it is basically a crime not to use it every week.  Over the past few months I have been tweaking my stir fry sauce recipe until I perfected it.  This is the result! It only takes like 30 minutes from start to finish and it's so good! 

Peanut Butter & Miso Stir Fry 

Ingredients: 

For the Stir Fry 

8 oz of rice noodles or udon noodles

A handful each of vegetables of your choosing - I used carrots, broccoli, green onions, red peppers and mushrooms.  I also add spinach at the last stage.  

One package of extra firm tofu, pressed and cut into cubes

One tablespoon of sesame oil

For the Sauce

1/4 C Rice vinegar

1/4 C soy sauce 

2 tbsp agave nectar

2 tbsp peanut butter

2 tsp asian chili paste

2 cloves of garlic 

1/2 inch section of ginger

1 tbsp light miso paste

1 tablespoon of corn starch dissolved in 3 tablespoons of water

Combine all of the ingredients for the sauce in the food processor or blender and pulse until smooth.  If you don't have miso paste, you can omit it, but I feel like it really makes the dish.  I got some from Amazon.com for like 11 dollars.  Here's one HERE. 

Boil water for the rice noodles.  Once the water is boiling, remove it from heat and then add the noodles.  Let them soak for about 3/4 minutes.  You don't want them to be completely softened.  Drain them and then immediately rinse with cold water and set aside.  

Heat the oil in a wok and when shiny, add the tofu.  Stir fry for about eight minutes or until it reaches your desired fried-ness.  Then set aside.  

Add all of the vegetables and stir fry in the remaining oil until soft.  I like to add a little bit of water to the stir fry to steam it a little.  When all done, take off the wok and set aside.  

Then add the noodles into the wok and push around and stuff.  Add the sauce and stir fry until the noodles are soft.  Then toss with the tofu and vegetables (and add the spinach) and cook a little more until heated throughout.  

I like to garnish with crushed peanuts and cilantro but you could really choose whatever! Enjoy! 

yum yum yum