autumn in july

It's hard to believe that my first full day in San Francisco was a week ago!  What was harder to believe than that, though, was the difference between Philadelphia and San Fran, temperature-wise.  Mister walked me out to catch a cab at 5am.  In the midst of a serious heat wave, at 5am it was already 86 degrees with a serious amount of humidity. By the afternoon, temperatures would soar over 100 degrees, with a heat index of 115.  By the time that happened, though, I was pulling on my jacket and wrapping a scarf around my neck to protect my tender throat from the ripping wind and low-60s temperatures in San Francisco!

San Francisco?  Wait - did someone say Picture Parade?

After flying from one side of the country to the other, as well as remembering how mind-numbingly boring the Salt Lake City airport is and being amazed that Delta still serves complimentary snacks on their flights, I made my way through San Fran's public transit system, BART, and arrived at the bottom of the 4-block hill I got to climb to reach our hotel.

Here is our pretty (and yes, Jackie, tiny) room at The Chancellor.  I loved the hunter green accent wall.  I also loved the warning strategically placed on the floor of the bathroom.

There are two things of which I am certain: the first one is, if you're looking down to see that warning, you will probably notice that the surface is elevated.  The second thing I was certain of was that I would inevitably forget and trip into the bathtub - I'm still surprised that didn't happen.

How many hotels really provide a rubber ducky?

After settling in and hanging up some more wrinkle-prone clothes, Sister and I headed out into Union Square to see the sights.  We popped into Lush, but ultimately did not buy anything because it always feels stupid to buy stuff from stores I have here in Philadelphia - also, I'm not sure how well some of that stuff would travel.

We did need to grab a few items (oops - toothpaste is good to have) and there are two things on almost every corner in San Fran (from what I saw) Starbucks and Walgreens.  I was pretty happy about the first, but the second came in handy.  Additionally, they had these awesome vegetable chips so my sister and I got a couple of bags and headed out to the actual Square to do some people-watching.

Sister got Taro Chips, which tasted kind of like a cross between potato and sweet potato chips.  As Sister explained, this makes sense, since taro is a root vegetable.

I couldn't contain my excitement upon finding Jackfruit Chips.  I've seen Jackfruit as an ingredient in a few recipes I have and entrees at restaurants, but I've never actually seen or eaten Jackfruit.  With great anticipation, I tore open the bag and took a deep sniff - to discover that jackfruit chips smell awful.  They tasted great and had a satisfying crunch to go along with just the right amount of sweetness, but they sure did smell bad.

This ended up being breakfast on day 1 in Oakland

Never fear!  We had reservations at Millennium for dinner, so when we were finished munching on chips and watching a far more colorful array of people than those I've watched in Philadelphia (I'm telling you, there's something about California that brings out the crazy in people - it's like the whole state is one giant cocktail), we headed back to the hotel to shower, dress, and make ourselves up for a delightful dinner (generously covered by our Dad).

The restaurant was intimately set, with dim lighting and tables a bit closer together than I would have put them (then again, each additional table probably brings in at least $500 more a night).  It was darkly trendy with a waitstaff that was edgy and yet completely professional and well-versed in the etiquette of fine dining.

We started with a plate of Herb Marinated Olives, accompanied by bitter (in a good way) orange segments and caramelized onions.  As we picked at that, our server helped us select a nice, local Dolcetto to accompany our meal.

I'm pretty sure PA wine stores don't carry Urban Legend and that is a shame for many reasons.  First, it's a nice, easy to drink wine that went well with each course of our dinner.  Additionally, there is always something charming (to me, at least) about drinking wines that give a tip of their anthropomorphic hat to city life.

It was a nice, dry balance to the salty olives, but our appetizer was similarly complemented by this wine.

We shared a Black Bean Torte, laid over top of a ragout of savory veggies and cashew "sour cream."  I don't know if it always comes in two pieces or if they did that because I mentioned Sister and I would be sharing, but it was just the right amount for each of us.

Sister was so great about letting me photograph everything we ate before she touched a single shred of lettuce.  Here she is, posing with her entree, South Indian Cornmeal Crusted Zucchini.  She had such a hard time choosing between the two curries on the menu - at least I know what to cook for her when she comes to visit - I can make a pretty mean curry when I need to.  Ultimately, we enlisted our fabulous server's assistance in that choice, too.

While it was ineffably exciting to know that I could choose anything on the entire menu, I had little trouble deciding on my entree.  I can't remember exactly what it was called, but it involved a crispy, egg roll-like crust, filled with eggplant, grilled seitan and a bunch of other tasty things.  One thing it had was oyster mushrooms - since Mister can't stand mushrooms, I really haven't experimented much with them, so I figured I'd give these a try.

They weren't awful, but I'm still not a mushroom lover, no matter how good for me they are.  Something interesting that I noticed was how seafoody they tasted.  I assume that's how they got their name, but there was a remarkable sea-oriented flavor to these dirt-dwellers.

It was a lot of food - the portions here were a bit more generous than those served at Horizons, and I always felt that Horizons' portions were perfect.  Neither of us finished our entrees, having pigged out on the olives and had a good go with the torte, but we agreed to forego the last bites in order to save room for dessert.  I mean, really - you can't go to a renowned fine-dining restaurant of any stripe (much less the colorful zigzag of vegan!) and leave without dessert.

Especially when it looks like that.  We dwelt on the menu for a few minutes, briefly tempted by the Sweet Endings montage of cookies and truffles, but ultimately, could not keep ourselves from ordering (and sharing!) the Chocolate Almond Midnight: vegan chocolate and white chocolate mousses on a chocolate and almond crust laid on top of a generous squiggle of raspberry sauce and sprinkled with cocoa.  It was astonishing up to the very last bite which we each tried to pawn off on the other.

I won.  By that I mean, I ate the last bite.

After convincing our food-babies to let us stand up, we finished the last swigs of wine and headed out the door for an invigorating (if a little cool) walk back to the hotel.  I was so happy our hotel was only three blocks from Millennium - it felt like home!  Well, home in October.  We arrived back in time to redeem our Buy1 Get 1 Free coupon for nightcaps at the hotel bar and convinced the friendly bartender to take our picture.

Then we fell into a food-and-all-day-travel coma.

Waking bright and early the next morning, we headed down to the Mission District to check out the scene and take in what promised to be a fabulous lunch.

I'll admit, I may have been in the wrong part of the Mission district, but I cannot understand the allure.  It looked like straight up ghetto.  The only thing I can compare it to in Philadelphia is North Philly barrio/Kensington area... boarded up buildings, graffiti everywhere and not in the Philadelphia Mural Project kind of way.  It was not terribly charming.  Fortunately, all the creepy characters hanging out of dilapidated doorways were worth our lunch at Gracias Madre.

That's my Strawberry Margarita.  Apparently, tequila is not vegan (all Sister and I could come up with was the whole worm thing), so they make their margaritas with soju, a rice liquor akin to sake.  Sister felt a liquor closer to Japan than Mexico was not the best choice, but I liked my margarita just fine and isn't it pretty?

This, right here ^ is a plate of the most delicious Mexican food I have ever eaten in my whole life.  Seriously.  It was amazing.  I ordered Platillo de Legumbres which was just brown rice and black beans, accompanied by two side dishes of your choice.  My choices were platanos (plantains) and seasonal greens (as luck would have it, bright, beautiful, green kale was in season!) sauteed in garlic and olive oil.  If I walked out on to Mission Street after lunch and got hit by a car, I would have died a happy woman.  Sister and I were obsessed with the black beans.

Sister got Nopales, which is pickled cactus with cashew "cheese" over top, served with brown rice and black beans.  There was also a plate of warm, soft corn tortillas for us to share.  They had a texture unlike any I'd had before, probably because they were freshly made.  They didn't taste like much, though, and really didn't add much to the meal.  They did help scrape up any last trace of the black beans, though.

After lunch, we wandered around the Mission area a bit longer, then figured out a bus route that would take us to The Presidio to see the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was a heck of a ride - very crowded and then we hit traffic.  Just as I was about to go catatonic from all the people hanging over us (very glad we had seats), the bus stopped and let us all out.  Once we had a moment to breathe, we could appreciate the beauty of the bridge.

I'll be honest - I'm not a huge fan of tourist behavior.  I still remember going to Niagara Falls as a child - the first sight of the Falls is really quite exciting, but it wears off pretty quickly.  I think it was our third trip to the Falls when I said to my father, "Yup, it's still water."

Nevertheless, the only thing my sister wanted to do, out of the full itinerary I provided to her of what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go, was to see the Golden Gate Bridge.  So we hopped on the bus and put our hair into hasty ponytails while pulling our hoods tight around our faces to see a method for cars to cross a chasm.

I'll tell you what - it is magical.  I was awed.  The Bridge itself really wasn't all that exciting - I expected it to be bigger than it was.  However, the sight of the fog rolling in over the mountains was astonishing.  The only thing I've ever seen that was anything like that was when I watched the clouds sink into Lake Tahoe from the top of a 10,000 mountain I decided to climb at sunrise (don't think I'm too cool - we drove most of the way).

After enjoying the view from many angles and elevations, we walked along the bay to the Warming Hut, which conveniently had nice warm coffee (it couldn't have possibly been higher than the upper 50s at the shoreline) and a variety of novelties to poke at while our fingers and noses warmed up.  Coffee in hand, we plodded down the beach to our next goal: The Palace of Fine Arts.

Once again, quite magnificent.  And, with its usual great timing, my camera battery died while we were there.  Once we'd taken in the sights, we headed out to meet a returning bus.  This involved a serious leg workout as we walked up the steepest hill in paved existence.  I don't know how people live on those streets, but they are certainly fortunate it doesn't freeze there, because even an eighth inch of ice would trap them inside their homes.

We returned to the hotel and let my camera battery charge while Sister took a shower and I refreshed my makeup and debated whether to brush my knotty hair or go with the whole windswept look.  Eventually, I opted for the windswept look, but that only lasted until after dinner.

We met up with a friend of Sister's at Saha, an arabic fusion joint in the Carlton Hotel.  We had no idea what we were in for, just that it came recommended by a reader and the menu looked fun online.  We walked over and upon entering the restaurant, realized we seriously underestimated its popularity, a notion that was reinforced when a worried-looking hostess asked if we had reservations.  We didn't.

This actually ended up working in our favor.  She had two reservations for 2 tops, so when a third table with 4 seats became available, we got to sit in a luxurious little corner, complete with a fuchsia and tangerine curtain creating the illusion of our own little room.

Sister was quite pleased with our little corner "sofa" with a virtual harem of beautiful pillows and made herself at home quickly.  Once her friend arrived, we ordered a bottle of Malbec and our entrees.  The server, who was very attentive and friendly enough to make my sister decide he had a crush on me, brought us a basket of squishy Moroccan focaccia-type bread with a za'atar and olive oil dipping dish.  We housed that bread and he brought us a second basket so we could finish the dipping sauce.

Sister's Friend ordered Saha's Ravioli, which were stuffed with mushrooms served in a mango cream sauce, sprinkled with mint and red pepper.

Sister, always the adventurer, selected the night's Special, which was a round of eggplant, topped with tofu, topped with a ragout of sauteed veggies, served on a light saffron sauce with English peas.  She loved it and I quite enjoyed the bite I took.

I actually had a lot of trouble choosing because there were so many tasty options.  In the end, I fell in love with Spinach and Tofu served with chickpeas, noodles and a tomato vinaigrette, with harissa on the side.  I dipped the very edge of the tine of my fork in the harissa so I could test its heat....and nearly burnt my head off before I could chase it with a healthy gulp of wine while asking myself how on earth I cook with that stuff.  I can only imagine they have a more potent, home-made mixture than what I use.  My meal was absolutely delightful, but I couldn't finish due to the extraordinary amount of bread I ate before dinner.

Unfortunately, that also meant there was no room for dessert.  That is a complete and utter shame.  I found something I really wanted to order.

Slap Ya Mama???  Really?  I mean, seriously?  Creme Brulee, Paradisio, Gelato or Sorbet?  No, I want a Slap Ya Mama.  Can you really order that with a straight face?  I'm so sad I didn't get to try.  There's even a vegan version available!

Instead of dessert, we finished our wine and headed out to a speakeasy.  I'm assuming this is the West Coast reaction to the recent East Coast trend of drinking all the olde tyme cocktails.  As far as I know, we have only one "speakeasy" in Philadelphia, but I saw at least half a dozen in San Francisco.  The one we went to was Bourbon and Branch.  The doorman wore a fedora with a feather and a pin-striped suit with shiny black shoes.  My sister was very excited to give him the secret password along with her ID (I was just excited to be carded).

According to the House Rules, I wasn't allowed to order a Cosmo, so I reviewed my mental list of prohibition era cocktails (I studied before we went - I am OverPrepared Woman) and thought I was pretty hot stuff when I ordered a Stinger.  I was promptly mortified when the bartender said he couldn't make it because they didn't have creme de menthe.  So, he crafted something for me that involved brandy, bitters, vermouth, lime juice, and was topped off with orange peel.  It was strong and pungent and served in a martini glass - I was pretty sure this was how the Roaring 20s felt and I have often felt I should have lived in that time, so I was happy.

Another House Rule was that I wasn't allowed to take pictures, so you don't get to see my pretty cocktail, but it was probably too dark anyway.  I loved the ambiance.  I also loved the "hidden door" that masqueraded as a bookshelf.  You had to be super-special to get in there and we didn't have that password, so when we finished our drinks, we headed out for some karaoke.

As you can see, after being a bit crowded in the speakeasy, my hair found its way into a messy bun (though it never occurred to me to remove my scarf.  The karaoke joint, Pandora, is apparently one of the premier karaoke bars in the city - they had private rooms with bottle service, but since it was just the three of us, we stayed in the main bar area and got drinks from the bar.

By now, the liquid courage was flowing freely (helping with a bottle of wine, topped off by a nearly pure alcohol cocktail will do that), so a sip or two of my new drink merely wet my throat for a rousing rendition of "The Promise" by When In Rome, followed by "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn, to the DJ's delight.  The bar closed and we walked back to the hotel, at which point my sister let me know that we had just been in the red light district of San Francisco, known as Tenderloin.  I have no idea how it got that name, but I think its hilarious that we ended two days of delightful vegan food by visiting a part of the city known as Tenderloin.

I've been typing for nearly two hours.  I think we're going to have to split this into two parts - stay tuned for our Oakland/Berkeley adventures!

the B*tch is back

I need to wrap up this review before my mother disowns me.

But first, Dinner!

I am ridiculously excited about tonight's dinner.  As you can probably surmise from the picture, we had Tomato Pie with Greens and Beans from The Urban Vegan - hold your brains inside your heads, folks, I know that must have been a shock!

I couldn't find pre-made focaccia bread and I have a thing against yeast breads on work nights, so I substituted a faithful standby: mediterranean flatbread.  It looks cleverly enough like a real pizza crust, though, doesn't it?

I also didn't feel like devoting over an hour to letting Dynise's special marinara sauce simmer while I wandered stupidly around my constricting apartment, so I slathered on a generous portion of Bertolli Fire-Roasted Tomato with Cabernet Sauvignon marinara sauce instead.  It was perhaps too generous a smear, or maybe I didn't really need to sprinkle Mediterranean sea salt blend and garlic powder over it, but it was pretty intense.  I also wish I'd been a little more artful in my basil-scattering.

I served it with mixed olives and the Greens and Beans, using my favorite green - Kale.

It was perfect - the kale brought a dark, almost bitter, earthy tone to the otherwise very bright dish, so it became quite natural for Mister and me to pile bites of our greens-n-beans on top of our tomato pies to complement and calm the bright acidity of the tomatoes.

There was another thing that played with the flavors on our tomato pies: our first ever experience with Vegan Parmesan 'cheese.'

It smelled just like the "real thing" but without all the fat, calories, sodium, cholesterol, morphine, and rocket fuel. 

Rocket fuel?

Yes.  Speaking of great segues....on with the show!  We'll pick up with...

Chapter 5: The Dairy Disaster - if shock is what the authors are going for, they definitely get your attention in the first paragraph of the chapter:  Go suck your mother's tits.  Go on.  Suck your mother's tits.  You think this is ridiculous? It is.  Get ready to use your head.

One of the reasons to eschew dairy which has made sense to me for years (even when I didn't make any active effort to avoid cheese and ice cream) is that cows' milk is for baby cows, just like human mothers nurse their young.  In fact, to put that spin on it, can you imagine the contempt and controversy a woman would drum up if she nursed an abandoned baby kitten until it was ready to wean?  It's really no different - we are the only species that drinks another species milk, as well as the only species that continues to drink milk after we are "weaned" as infants.  That is a relatively well-known fact in the veg-community, but it bears repeating.  Additionally, this may or may not be news, but lactose intolerance is actually the body's willful adaptation to the weaning process - you are supposed to be lactose intolerant because you aren't supposed to drink cow's milk when you're "all growns up."

In case that information doesn't speak to the "buy in" of why you wouldn't want to drink milk - AKA lacteal secretions of a cow - how about some health reasons?

Despite the lies we've been fed...by the milk industry...consuming milk not only does not prevent osteoporosis, it can actually cause it.  The nations with the highest incidence of the disease are also the nations with the highest dairy consumption.

Cows are milked by machines, not people.  Machines don't care if they chafe the udders and cause infection, nor do they stop milking once the pus begins to flow.  In an effort to filter out some of the pus (yes, you read that right - some), the milk is pasteurized, which effectively kills all of the good qualities the milk once had, while not completely ridding it of the pus and pesticides that found their way in during milking.

According to the FDA, "virtually 100% of the cheese products produced and sold in the U.S. has detectable pesticide residues."   

Chapter 6: You Are What You Eat - put your helmets on kids, because we're about to go on the most traumatic ride in the park.  I will spare you a great deal of this chapter because I can't bring myself to look at the graphic accounts of cruelty described by slaughterhouse workers, and because I don't operate like PETA - I don't think that helps matters, it just makes you look like a lunatic militant.

The majority of this chapter is devoted to tales of horror from the stunning, bleeding, defeathering, and slaughter of the once-living creatures that now decorate plates across the states to the filth and contamination rampant in meat processing plants.  I will only subject you to short accounts of a very long chapter.

Here is a direct quote from a worker in a poultry plant: I personally have seen rotten meat - you can tell by the odor.  This rotten meat is mixed with the fresh meat and sold for baby food [seriously???].  We are asked to mix it with the fresh food, and this is the way it is sold.  You can see the worms inside the meat.  How much trust can you really put in an industry that is trying to give your babies salmonella?

The real "a-ha" moment, though is that after they describe all of this - the cruelty, the horror and grief felt by the animals as they're led to slaughter, the infected, pesticide-ridden, hormonally-altered "meat" - they play a game of pretend: Let's make believe that all the animals killed for human consumption are healthy, happy, free of antibiotics, steroids, and pesticides and are humanely raised and slaughtered.  Pretend you are eating 'perfect meat.'  Great.  But what exactly are you eating?  "Meat" is the decomposing, decaying, rotting flesh of a dead animal.  No matter how fresh your little package of Perdue looks and no matter what lies have been spread about "fresh" meat, please remember that with all creatures, the moment a being dies, it begins to break down and return to the earth.

Chapter 7: The Myths and Lies About Protein - This chapter is the longest, best answer ever to the perennial [and boring and offensive] question, "But where do you get your protein??"  Do you know who is suffering from protein deficiency?  People who are literally starving.  That's it.  Seriously.  According to the American Dietetic Association, a vegetarian diet still provides twice as much protein as a person needs in a day.  How much is that, you ask?  From as little as 18 grams to as many as 60 grams.  There is actually much more evidence pointing to the ill effects of diets that are overloaded with protein - for one thing, it can interfere with the absorption of calcium, leading to osteoporosis...because it is actually leaching calcium from your bones. 

Chapter 8: Pooping - This chapter provides a more tangible illustration of balancing calories in with calories out.  It makes sense, though - pooping is your body's way of expelling what's left after it picks out all the good parts of what you eat.  If you aren't pooping adequately, what's "left over" is just rotting inside your intestines until it can make its getaway.  How does waste escape?  By binding with fiber - if you're overdosing on protein at the expense of fiber, you run the risk of stopping yourself up, which isn't comfortable and isn't conducive to the healthy body you surely desire.

Chapter 9: Have No Faith: Government Agencies Don't Give a Sh*t About Your Health - I really think the title says it all, but if you've been following the thread of the book, I hope you're wondering exactly why the authors would say that.

More or less, they "connect the dots" where the dots are the people who are in charge of the milk industry, the meat industry, the sugar industry, etc, and are also the people in charge of the USDA and FDA.  There are tons of conflicts of interest going on, but the real reason you, the consumer, should not trust these people with your health and safety is this: The U.S. Department of Agriculture was not created for your interests; it was created to protect farmers.  It is their best interest in which the USDA is invested and their interests and yours may not coincide.

For example, if a farmer should volunteer to have their livestock tested for epidemic diseases like Avian Flu or Mad Cows Disease, that animal would be one of the .0005714% of food-animals tested in this country.  By way of comparison, Japan tests every slaughterhouse-bound animal.

When I was in high school, rumor had it that someone had seen the big cartons of meat delivered to the cafeteria kitchen, and they were marked "Grade F but Edible."  Apparently dog food is Grade D.  That may have actually be true, however, since the government uses our money to purchase surplus/unwanted meat from the various industries and then feed that meat to America's children through the "virtuous" National School Lunch Program.

P.S. We are the only industrialized nation that allows for the use of Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) in our dairy supply.

Did you forget about the Rocket Fuel?  I didn't - because of various government tests through the decades, a certain amount of rocket fuel has infiltrated the ground and feed of the animals milked and killed for human consumption.  According to the Environmental Working Group's research, every sample tested in Texas (in 1999) came up positive for rocket fuel, and most milk in California had 5 times the amount considered "safe" by the EPA.

Chapter 10: Don't Be a Pussy - despite the title of the chapter, this is actually a really long and very positive pep talk, meant to motivate and inspire the readers to take what they've learned and let it change their lives.  It also touches on fasting as a great way to distance yourself from previous vices and detox your body from the damage you've inadvertently done.  There are tips spread throughout the chapter to help the reader make a move and stay strong.  The chapter concludes with a comprehensive but accessible list of essential vitamins and how to make sure you have them in your diet.

Chapter 11: Let's Eat - as you might expect, the entire chapter is devoted to lists of "acceptable" grocery items as well as a very helpful 4 week guide to becoming a happier, healthier, and yes, skinnier you.

Chapter 12: FYI - a good umbrella for miscellaneous tips and tidbits about living the good life.

Chapter 13: Use Your Head - another peptalk, this one is less about building up your self-esteem and making you feel good about the choices you have presumably made to live a different life and more about empowering you to become everything you ever wanted to be.  This is like self-esteem on performance enhancing drugs (like juice...freshly pressed).

Thus finally ends my book review/tirade.  I will leave you with the same words our authors chose:
The preface from Old MacDonald's Factory Farm by C. David Coats:

Isn't man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife by the millions in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed.  Then he kills domestic animals by the billions and eat them.  This in turn kills man by the millions, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal - health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer.  So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases.  Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals.  Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently, and once a year sends out cards praying for "Peace on Earth."

common sense, b*tches

I've been teasing you all with the promise of a book review for a while.  In the meantime, I have read Skinny Bitch three and a half times.  And a half?  I started to skim through it a fourth time in preparation to finally share my thoughts with anyone who cares to know.

In a nutshell, this book is a brilliant, well-researched, boot-camp-blunt thesis on using your God-given brain to grow some common sense.  One of the reasons I was able to wanted to read this book over and over again was because it just made so much darn sense I wanted to memorize it.  For years (about 8, to be exact), I have tried to explain my choices with statistics and granola-hippie justifications about how much better the world would be if we all stopped eating animals.  I didn't want to look like a wimpy bleeding-heart, so I was clear to point out that my decision was unrelated to animal welfare; rather, it was based firmly on the devastation to eco-systems/the environment in general and the exploitation of the poor (in our country as well as the world) that the meat industry promotes.

I've learned something over those eight years.  That something has been reinforced by my work as a corporate sales trainer, which requires a person to get another person to "buy in" to what they are "selling."  Here is what I've learned: no one cares about the environment or poor, hungry people.

Sorry if that comes across as harsh, but it's true, at least where a meat/cruelty-free lifestyle is concerned.  There are a handful of people who give a crap about "everyone else," and those people are already card-carrying members of PETA, the SPCA, Compassion International, and a variety of other wonderful organizations.  I should clarify - there are a handful of people who give a crap enough to make a personal sacrifice.  What people don't realize is that it's really not that big of a sacrifice and it doesn't "hurt" when you believe in your reasons.

What Skinny Bitch provides is the "buy-in."  This book demonstrates quite clearly why we should care, and it has very little to do with the dreadfully inhumane treatment these creatures ("food") endure during their short time on earth.  All of the statistics and other information Rory and Kim provide are there purely so that you, the reader, understand exactly what horrendous things the average American's diet does to his/her own body, mind, energy levels, and lifespan.  If you choose to care about the effects your food choices will have on the rest of the world, they share enough information about that to make a "sensitive" person's stomach turn - Chapter 6, "You Are What You Eat" was so traumatic that in all four of my perusals, I have had to skip the middle section of that chapter, which provides graphic descriptions of the slaughterhouse floor from actual employees.

I really, really, really want you to go out, buy or borrow a copy and read it at least once, preferably twice.  I absolutely cannot imagine how a person could read this book and not at least consider a substantial change to their diet.  I can safely say that it has officially pushed me over the edge I've teetered on for the past year, to a fully vegan diet and lifestyle.  I want to whet your appetites for this book because you need to know more about what you're eating, and I'm really not referring to cute, fuzzy creatures...but refer to this post if you want to see what you're eating.

I'll go chapter by chapter, sharing the most notable bits, the quotes with the most impact, the things I need you to be aware of even if you never buy this book.  Also, the chapter titles are awesome :)

Chapter 1: Give It Up - Just in case you were concerned about Rory and Kim easing you into the book, this chapter will allay those fears.  The point of this first chapter is to "encourage" the reader to examine their "gross vices," recognizing that it is those things that prevent you from realizing your inner Skinny B*tch: smoking, drinking, soda, coffee, junk food, pills, to start.

Coffee??  And that reaction is exactly what the authors are writing about: the perception that we need coffee to start the day.  This really spoke to me, so it was the first "gross vice" in my own life that I confronted, because I was absolutely the person who said, "I can't function without coffee."  I learned something after a week of drinking peppermint tea upon waking - I don't need coffee to start my day, and furthermore, my day starts better with tea.  I still drink coffee, but not every day and I do not depend on it to wake me up.

A final note on this chapter: it reinforced and gave words to why I generally eschew medication (OTC).  Many years ago, I took a bizarre class in college about the nature of pain and suffering - it started at 8 am, and I couldn't help but think that tied in with the subject matter.  We read a book called The Gift of Pain by Dr. Paul Brand, a medical missionary who spent time with leprosy colonies in India.  When most people think of leprosy, they think of an infectious disease which results in the afflicted person losing parts of their body - an ear here, a finger there.  What most people don't know is that leprosy is a nerve disorder which causes numbness in the affected area(s), and it is actually the lack of sensation that causes lepers to have "rotting" body parts - a person who cannot feel their fingers burning will think nothing of repeatedly thrusting their hand into a fire to retrieve things or move logs around, not realizing that just because it doesn't hurt doesn't mean everything is okay.

Pills like aspirin and the like merely hide the symptoms of a bigger problem.  Rather than pop a pill to relieve my headache, I normally prefer to find the root of it - have I been squinting in the sun?  I'll lie down in the dark for a moment.  Am I dehydrated?  I'll drink some water.  Am I hungry? You get the idea.  By the way, an apple is actually a very effective headache "cure."  A short quote directly from the authors: "Every medicine comes complete with a list of side effects.  That means that taking medicine will make you feel better for the moment, but will f*** up something else in your body." 

By the way, my mother might have a stroke if I quote this book too liberally.  I'm doing my best to censor their in-your-face language.  Please read the book anyway, Mom.

Chapter 2: Carbs: The Truth - I love this chapter because I hate the Fadkins diet in ways I can't completely express.  Fortunately, Rory and Kim do a great job!  In this short chapter, they explain the difference between simple and complex carbs and why fruit is good for you.  They even propose it is the "perfect food," and explain that a Skinny B*tch breakfast is normally composed solely of fruit.

Chapter 3: Sugar is the Devil - I hope that by this point in our nation's history, it is not a mystery that refined sugar and the bedeviled High Fructose Corn Syrup are bad for you.  If you want to know why, the authors are glad to share with you.  Fortunately, they are also happy to share with you some alternative sweeteners: raw agave nectar and molasses, which are high in vitamins and minerals, as well as zero-calorie natural sweetener, Stevia.

They spend a few pages making very certain you understand why you should never consume anything ever that has aspartame in it.  I was fascinated by the history of this deadly toxin - it took 23 years and multiple corrupt VIPs to get this crap into our food supply.  Throughout the last 38 years, there have been a multitude of studies and reports showing that not only is aspartame not good for you, it is downright dangerous.  There are 92 FDA-identified side effects, such as: memory loss, nerve cell damage, migraines, reproductive disorders, brain lesions, blindness, joint pain, Alzheimer's, hair loss, and weight gain, to name a few.

Chapter 4: The Dead, Rotting, Decomposing Flesh Diet - How can you seriously not be at least a little curious to read a chapter with a title like that?  Obviously, it's about the stupidity inherent in the Atkins Diet, along with the hopeless justifications millions of gluttonous Americans made while on it (right before they gained back everything they lost and maybe more).  Really?  Common sense, folks - how good for you can a diet be when it prohibits fruit?

Within the chapter, the authors assert a fairly compelling argument for why we, as humans, are not actually equipped to eat meat and therefore are meant to be herbivores.  They provide a delightful image of a human trying to chase down their prey and tear it limb from limb with our fingernails (talons) and [not pointy] teeth.  In addition to the fact that no part of our physical anatomy is up to the task of eating an animal, they explain that carnivores have 10 times more hydrochloric acid in their saliva and stomachs than we do, and because of that, they are able to break down the animals they eat - we do not have the physiology to adequately digest meat.

Another point of focus for this chapter is the rampant use of antibiotics, steroids, hormones, and other drugs in meat.  Because half of the antibiotics that are produced in America are fed to the animals people will eventually eat, we have increased resistance to antibiotics and their ability to heal us when we are ill.  Due to pesticides being sprayed not only on the food the animals will eat, but on the animals themselves, the FDA has tested and found, "that bacon had 48 different pesticide residues, bologna and other luncheon meats had 102 different industrial pollutants and pesticides, fast food hamburgers had 113 residues, hot dogs had 123, and ground beef had 82 industrial chemical and pesticide residues, just to name a few."

Phew!  I think that's enough for tonight - my fingers are tired and with any luck, your brain is about to explode.  I'll give you a few hours to let that all sink in and will complete my review tomorrow.  Here is a sneak peek at the remaining chapters:

Chapter 5: The Dairy Disaster

Chapter 6: You Are What You Eat

Chapter 7: The Myths and Lies About Protein

Chapter 8: Pooping

Chapter 9: Have No Faith: Government Agencies Don't Give a Sh*t About Your Health

Chapter 10: Don't Be a Pussy

Chapter 11: Let's Eat

Chapter 12: FYI

Chapter 13: Use Your Head

See you tomorrow!

would you like some dichotomy with your detox?

I've been trying to detox a little since last weekend.  Every now and then I find myself feeling weighed down by crap that somehow infiltrated my diet (and by proxy, my body) and mind.  Generally, I eat very well, but just like everyone else, I have moments when I just want something completely unhealthy.  In an effort to clean myself up, I have abstained from coffee almost all week, choosing instead to wake up with a steamy cup of herbal peppermint tea, then popping over to Cups & Chairs for a Detox Tea (matcha and lemon juice) to take to work.  Throughout the day, I've been drinking water like it was going out of style from my pretty, new, blue water bottle and I've renewed my interest in eating fresh fruit, rather than trying to get my fruit servings in a conveniently wrapped bar. 

Finally, I abstained from alcohol through the entire work week, aside from Mr Boss and his Montepulciano on Monday.  That may sound like a pitiful thing to be proud of, but sometimes a girl copes with negative feelings in negative ways.  I felt like I could "cheat" a bit by Thursday, having been so "good" all week, so I had coffee (which I have recently come to take black) in the morning and was amazed.  Something I noticed almost immediately on Monday was how much lighter, more energetic, and more laid back I felt.  I started to wonder if coffee was having an affect on me that I hadn't thought of before - I wondered if it increased my aggravation as well as my alertness.  For lack of a better word, I was completely agro on Thursday, so I decided to see what exactly made my Detox Tea detoxy - in addition to a host of other benefits, there is something in matcha that actually makes a person feel happier and more peaceful.  I need to buy this stuff in bulk.  By the way, that is a very expensive undertaking.

In my curiosity, I found this great website about Matcha and its various health benefits.  I wanted to make sure I wasn't just swallowing a big green, lemony sugar pill and believing until I was happy.  That wouldn't be a bad thing by itself, but my morning matcha is not cheap, so if I can fool myself into thinking a less expensive tea would make me feel the way I described above, I was happy to let that happen.

Anyway, according to matchasource.com, matcha tea can benefit the body and mind in more ways than one; the website also allows you to link to information on these things:

• antioxidant protection
• detoxification
• weight loss
• cancer-fighting EGCg
• disease prevention
• mood enhancement
• energy

I am completely on board with all of those things, so I figure that [unlike milk] Matcha does a body (and mind) good.  I strongly encourage you all to spend about 5 minutes of your busy lives checking out the website (just ignore the high prices!).

So, in addition to feeling lighter of body and soul, my mind has been freer to wander.  That could also be the effect of a liberating four-day weekend (that I really really really don't want to end), but either way, I feel like I'm paying better attention and thinking more critically, but with less criticism (only slightly less, but it's progress).  That leads to the dichotomy.

I am more disgusted than ever about the state of nutrition in this country: two-thirds of the adult population in this country is overweight or obese.  Our standards for seeing someone as "fat" have become so screwed up that a person has to be well over 50lbs above their ideal body weight for anyone to feel comfortable admitting they are overweight, but by now, they're actually entering obesity!  I am appalled (thanks, Rory and Kim) that people eat gobs of meat, packing their guts with unnecessary calories, protein*, saturated fat, and cholesterol, and that this is considered acceptable behavior.  It is so "acceptable" that people like me look like freaks when we pass on 12 different kinds of meat.
*according to the American Dietetic Association, eating a vegetarian diet will provide a person with twice as much protein as a person needs in a day.  "Where do you get your protein?"  blinkblink.

My newly wide-open eyes observed two things within minutes of each other - one inspiring, the other horrifying:

• A woman at SuperFresh, pushing a double stroller (don't get me started on how bad an idea that is in tiny urban supermarkets), stopped near me to pick up some of the perfectly ripe stone fruits for her little family.  Her children couldn't have been more excited - every time she picked up a fruit to sniff it or examine it for flaws, her little ones reached toward her and asked, "bite?  bite?"  That woman is raising her children right.
• Walking home, I passed a horrific scene - there were so many things wrong with it, I can barely figure out where to start.  On the side of the street, just behind a parked vehicle, there was a "styrofoam" carry-out container, open, with its leftover contents spilling out on the ground.  Because ghetto-trash is classy like that (I'm sure you can imagine the residents of my neighborhood would not throw litter on the road), it was a bunch of half-eaten chicken wings, sauce, bones, and all.  Here is the really gross part.  You may need to read it twice to understand the full extent to which this is wrong:  a pigeon was pecking up the remains and eating them.

Did you catch that?  The pigeon (bird) was eating chicken (bird).  Avian flu, anyone?

My review of Skinny Bitch will be along shortly, along with yet another exhortation to buy or borrow a copy and read the heck out of it.  You need to know what you're eating.  Speaking of eating, here's my new menu!

1. Penne with Cannellini Beans and Escarole from Vegan Italiano.  Turns out neither Whole Foods nor SuperFresh felt inclined to stock fresh escarole, so it will actually be an odd mix of greens, but close enough.

2. Italian-Style Rice Casserole also from Vegan Italiano.  It's been a while since I've made this, due to my lack of confidence in my ability to cook rice in an oven, but the flavors came together in my mind and formed a mutiny, so I was really quite powerless to prevent this from being scribbled on my menu.

3. Braised Sweet and Sour Cabbage with Kidney Beans also from Vegan Italiano.

4. Gourmet Greek Salad from How It All Vegan.  Ssshhhhh!  Don't tell Mister, I have some [more] tricks up my sleeve.

5. Cousin Natasha's Rice and Bean Salad also from HIAV.  Something quirky and charming about Sarah Kramer is her bizarre way of crediting people who helped her with recipes.  I don't know this Cousin Natasha, and I would bet most people who have this cookbook also don't know her, but you just can't call it "Rice and Bean Salad."

product round-up: the good, the bad, and the ugly

A subtitle for this post could be: the Awesome, the Adequate-but-Mediocre, and the Straight-Up-Nasty.

I still have reservations about stating loud and clear for all the world, "I am vegan."  Although I eat a primarily plant/grain-based diet, there are still occasions, rare though they be, when I eat cheese or something made with eggs.  While I will choose a non-animal-product food/drink/thingy when they are readily available, I am not yet to the point where I eat egg- and dairy-free or not at all.

Nevertheless, I am taking my babysteps towards living a life of compassion and finding that it is not always as inconvenient as it may seem.  One of the subjects which has recently taken up residence in my mind is the great number of beauty products most people don't even realize contain [relatively gross] animal by-products.  We don't normally read the contents of our lotions, lipbalms, moisturizers, and various other salves other than to laugh at the multisyllabic and unpronounceable names of the ingredients, much less to probe into whether they are natural or synthetic, plant- or animal-based.

As I prepared for my trip to Arizona, I took it as an opportunity to try out some new beauty/body care products in carry-on-friendly sizes.  I started using a natural toothpaste a while back not out of any concern for any animal products that may or may not be involved in the production of popular brands but because I wasn't buying that the artificial colors and flavors were benefiting my dental health.

THE AWESOME

 
I picked up a trial sized bottle of Nature's Gate hand lotion a few months back and it got the gears turning in my mind about how vegan hand lotion compared to "normal" lotion.

With the help of blogs, search engines, and the magical, mystical internet, I found Avalon Organics.  Although living in an urban area certainly makes it easier to find products those in the outlying 'burbs and sub-rural towns might consider bizarre or exotic (at best), there still seems to be a separation between natural/vegan products one can find on the East Coast versus those available on the West Coast.  I remembered seeing Avalon Organics at Whole Foods, so I was excited to try.

I bought both hand lotion and body wash (another thing that wouldn't have occurred to me as non-vegan) in one of my favorite scents - Peppermint.  I am completely in love with them both.  The shower gel stimulates and cools my skin, which is helpful in waking me up in the shower and I imagine the cooling sensation will become more welcome as the temperature rises over the next couple of months.  I wasn't completely through my tube of Curel lotion when I made my purchase, so I was able to compare and had the most astounding discovery - the Avalon Organics lotion felt so clean, the next time I applied the Curel it felt gross and fatty.

THE ALMOST-AWESOME

 As I've aged (ahem), I find my skin in need of more moisturizing oomph.  I have hopped among a few moisturizers over the past few years (Neutrogena, Aveeno), but I always seem to come back to Ponds, despite its stupendously inconvenient pot design.  I can only scoop so much gook behind my nails before I start fantasizing about a squeeze bottle or at least a pump.

Either way, the pot of Ponds on my dresser was not small enough to make the trip out to Arizona.  Considering the state's name comes from "Arid Zone," I didn't think it was wise to go without any moisturizer at all, so I stopped in to the beauty aisles of Essene Market and found a travel-friendly squeeze bottle of Aubrey Organics moisturizer.

The Awesome?  It works.  I'm sorry - I just didn't know what to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised when it actually succeeded in its purpose.  The Almost? It smells edible and not in that "ooh, I smell like a sugar cookie!" kind of way.  It smells kind of like if I got tired of Ponds not really having a scent and decided to use up some of that terrifying Muchi Curry powder.  I don't especially like smelling like Indian food, since my first impression of the spices were how closely they resemble Body Odor.

Another find from Essene's beauty alcove was EO Hand Cream.  To be completely honest, by the time I picked this up, they had already made the intercom announcement to take your purchases to checkout because the store was 5 minutes from closing, so I didn't put that much thought into the purchase, other than that it was under 3.5 oz.  I have mixed feelings about this one.

First, considering EO stands for Essential Oils, I really felt like it should smell better.  I'll grant you, lavender is not one of my favored scents, so I may have better enjoyed the unscented variety or possibly the chocolate mint scent.  Second, and this is something I've noticed with almost all natural hand salves - it leaves "lint."  I'm sure that isn't the right word, but I don't know how else to describe the little specks of....something...that end up all over my hands after the moisture has been absorbed by my parched skin.

THE STRAIGHT-UP NASTY

I really wanted this to work.  After my success with Tom's toothpaste, I tried the brand's deodorant.  The consequences were nearly disastrous.  I think the saving grace was that I tried it on a day off from work, so I could apply another coat (of a different deodorant) when I started to stink.

I gave this poor puppy a real trial by fire by applying it right before Mister and I trolled 4th Avenue in Tucson.  It was an astonishing failure - I stunk after 30 minutes.  It was embarrassing.  What was worse was knowing it was the only deodorant I had with me.  I applied it 4-5 times each day just to prevent myself from knocking Mister out with the stench.  I tossed it in the trashcan the moment we got home.

  Hopefully, other veg-curious folks out there or even my beauty-inclined friends found this little round-up review helpful.  Stay tuned - there's some fun food stuff coming soon!

keeping the R in Random

I have been thinking all day, and now I sit down to type (with my new red fingernails) and I cannot put everything into a logical sequence. Forgive me if I flit from one topic to another without a meaningful segue.

I guess I'll start with dinner, then briefly revisit yesterday's post before ambling through my newest ponderings relating to veganism and the upcoming holiday season.

Actually, I'll start with this week's menu, otherwise you'll be confused about dinner:

1. Two-Broccoli Stir-Fry on Soba Noodles from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy. It looks fun, and justifies the purchase of two relatively small and useless kitchen tools - a zester (yes, I really don't have one) and a citrus juicer. I don't actually need the juicer, but it would make the recipe easier/more authentic.

2. Penne with Broccoli and Creamy Tomato Sauce also from VTF&E. I am still in awe of blender sauces, so you know where this is going.

3. Moroccan "Meatballs" and Couscous also from VTF&E. My current method of menu planning, homogenous and boring though it may seem, is to grab one cookbook and try to get as many recipes as I can out of it. The next week I choose another one. Last week was so insanely busy that I think I only had time to blog twice. If I take too long cooking and cleaning up afterwards, there simply isn't time unless I want to be more of a zombie at work than I am already sometimes, so I skip it. I don't want to do that, and I foresee this week being at least as busy, so I chose the two cookbooks that could get it done. And so, on to....

4. Seitan & Polenta Skillet with Fresh Greens from Vegan Express, my dear standby. I have skipped over this recipe looking for specific other recipes the last few times I've looked through this book, so this week, I'm making it.

5. Valencian Rice and Red Beans also from Vegan Express. I am absolutely intrigued by this recipe. There is a part of me that thinks it could really suck, but Nava really hasn't let me down yet, so I think I'm wrong. I'm looking forward to finding out!

6. Pasta Jambalaya also from Vegan Express. I will admit it: I sought this recipe out specifically because I miss the Tofurky sausages. I was determined to finish my search with a recipe that would use them, and this one was the lucky winner.

So, then, tonight we had #2 and it was delightful. It was also remarkably fast and easy...which I suppose is how it got into the cookbook, but still! I have made recipes from that book that most assuredly did NOT take under 45 minutes to prepare. I don't think it even took the 30 minutes the book told me it would - it was really fast. The pasta only boils for 10 minutes, the broccoli steams for 7, and it takes about 30 seconds to cut open the Mori-Nu package and watch that ambiguous white brick slurp out and into my food processor, and another 5 seconds to add the marinara. Oh, but let me talk about that for a minute.

I don't make a lot of recipes that call for prepared marinara sauce, and when I make pasta, it's a little too easy to make my own sauce to invest $3-$9 in whatever's on the store shelves. Ordinarily, since I know it wouldn't be the star of the dish, I just get the generic America's Choice marinara (which, by the way, IS vegan). Today, they were all out since it was on sale. However, a lot of the pasta sauces were on sale, so I took advantage of the opportunity to try Bertolli at half the price. I got the Fire Roasted Tomato with Cabernet Sauvignon (also vegan) and combined it with firm silken tofu in my food processor and it was one of the most convincingly creamy concoctions I have made yet! The flavor of the tomato sauce was outstanding, and I am still trying to figure out how the tofu didn't taste like soy. There is obviously a substantial difference between silken tofu and regular, perishable tofu, but it is very difficult to describe. I do know that leftover silken tofu makes a killer sandwich, though.

Anyway, dinner was really tasty - Mister was thrilled - he loves broccoli.
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I went to a baby shower. After the week I had, being in a small house with nightmare acoustics was not the most relaxing way to spend my first "day off," but it was great to see loved ones, so I wanted to share a picture and a funny story.

I think it was a Friday afternoon in mid-July. I was off from work and had finished my food shopping, so I decided to pick up a bottle of Riesling. I had located my favored brand, Hogue Cellars, and was at the register when I heard a voice behind me say, "Hello, Mrs. K___!" I turned and with pleasant surprise responded to my cousin-in-law with another hearty "Why hello, Mrs. K___!" We laughed, the cashier was confused, and after we had each paid for our bottles of Riesling (great minds think alike), I walked her home. That was the day I let someone else in on my ideas about starting this blog, and she has been there to encourage me along the way, so here's some cousin-love!

The Mrs. K___s

So, then, let's hippity-hop back down the bunny trail as the winter holidays draw near. I had intended to devote a lot more time and attention to this list, but here it goes.

Reasons I don't call myself vegan (amended from, Why I'm not vegan)
1. I haven't reconciled my feelings about wool, silk, and leather yet.
2. I love make-up and nail polish.
3. I love Godiva.
4. It takes too much damn effort and I don't know if I care enough to commit to it.

The list used to be much longer. October/VeganMoFo really opened my eyes and took away a lot of the reasons I had previously thought were valid. I did my own research and soul-searching and do not wish to consume honey any longer. I have thus far refrained from replacing my winter coat because it would just be my luck to start caring about wool right after making that investment. I used to swear I couldn't live without cheese, but that's not so true anymore. I'm not so hot on eating eggs in any recognizable form, but I'm not completely ready to dissect each and every food in which they could be hiding.

I've already spent a lot of time on #1, so I'm going to leave that alone for now. Numbers 2, 3, and 4 are rapidly being deconstructed by one seemingly simple choice I made at Whole Foods today. You know how all stores that have lines have strategically placed "upsells" that you can look at while you wait your turn? Movie stores have candy, popcorn, soda; Pharmacies have mints, candy, and batteries; Grocery stores have candy and magazines - Whole Foods sometimes throws organic, soy, vegan, gluten-free candles in there, too (that was a joke). Anyway, I'm really good at falling for that stuff, and even better when Mister is there to help me. Today, as I waited for my groceries to make their way down the conveyor belt to my bag, I picked up a holiday copy of Vegetarian Times. I flipped through it, remembered how many of their recipes involve dairy and put it back on the rack, feeling very responsible and proud of myself. Out of the corner of my eye, I spied VegNews and it was over, especially since it was the 2009 Readers' Choice Awards issue. I picked up a copy, plopped it down beside my broccoli and continued waiting.

After dinner tonight, I was looking through it and I had an epiphany. As long as you stay in a relatively metropolitan area, living a vegan lifestyle is barely even challenging! Brilliant strides have been made since I last waded in the waters of veganism (2003). Innovators and revolutionaries have spawned from the fibers of society to provide viable alternatives to non-vegan things like cheese (Daiya), marshmallows (Dandies and Sweet & Sara), and so on. There is a plethora of meat substitutes in various forms, for those who are into that - I know Mister would be sad to live a life without Tofurky. There is soymilk, ricemilk, almond milk, and even cashew milk; soy and coconut milk coffee creamers; soy, rice, and coconut milk yogurts and ice creams...the list goes on and on...

But what about Godiva? All of their chocolate has dairy. SO sad. But it appears there are so many amazing vegan confections, giving up Godiva might not be as tragic as I once thought. So, it looks like I could commit myself to a vegan diet, but what about the other things, like make-up and nail polish? Where do I draw my line? Do I care about bunnies and guinea pigs being sprayed in their eyes and living out their miserable lives in cages with no comfort or loving touch, just living in fear of the next time the humans come to visit? Yes, I do - that's a horrible picture, isn't it? Have I generally pushed that out of my mind when shopping for beauty products? Sad to say, yes, I have. It's really a denial thing, though, because unless I have vastly underestimated human nature, who could remember those things when they're shopping and still buy things from companies who exploit animals - human or otherwise?

Once again, VegNews to the rescue! Granted, this is kind of a "best of" issue, but it has worked wonders in opening up my eyes to a world of quality vegan products that really could replace things I use now. I haven't seen anything about nail polish yet, but one of their cruelty-free companies is Aveda, who is the "mother" company of my make-up manufacturers. This is worth a second thought, after all!

Conclusion? I'm not going to wake up tomorrow and call myself a vegan. Everyday, though, I will examine my choices more thoughtfully and feel good about the baby steps I'm taking towards a better me.