Category Archives: Sunday Reads

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Hey guys. Anyone watched and enjoyed the Super Bowl? I enjoyed the game and surprisingly enjoyed the halftime show (that’s is normally really weird, and Coldplay didn’t even have to play Yellow to please me). Oddly I do like Coldplay’s new single Adventure of a Lifetime but the video guys, I just can’t. Is it just me, but is Coldplay SOO positive and upbeat that it makes you go crazy? I personally like my music to be angsty and full of deep political messages… okay not all my music. I mean I do love me some Stupid Hoe. But I guess I am getting off topic.

So much has happened this week and I kind-of fell behind on various posts that I wanted to put up this week. Oh well. But I do have a few links to share this week. I hope everyone enjoys it.

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Judge John Hodgman Episode 245: Live at SF Sketchfest 2016

This is one of the funniest episodes of Judge John Jodgeman I’ve heard. It starts with a big bang with a case of a wife asking her husband to get his water collection methods under control. It is full of kombucha and fart jokes. What is there not to love?

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Why Women In China Are Obsessed With This Workout Trend

This is kind-of just a fluff piece, but it is nice to see changing attitudes in fitness in Asia. I love Asian culture and you might notice most women are stick thin compared to some of the Western female counterparts. Getting shape in some Asian countries involve pretty much starving yourself. Nope, not sugar coating it either. So hearing that some women are opting to go to the gym and focus on strength is probably a good thing, even if most of these ladies are trying to loose weight in the end.

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How This Black Woman Made Room for Herself in The World of Comics

I’ve heard some things about this coffee shop in other news articles, but I find this really cool. There are so many things I am digging about this location, the diversity, females, and this cool new movement in Philadelphia of pairing a coffee shop with another store idea. There is this location and cinemug, that is a video rental and coffee shop. Maybe Alexa and I will stop here tomorrow?

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The End of the Calorie

I’ve listened to GastroPod before, and they provide awesome podcasts about science and food. This one tackles the topic of calories. It is fun to hear about what they are, and the pitfalls of calorie counting. Some information I knew about in the past, but others were fairly new to me. It is great listen for anyone who has struggled with dieting, or want some more scientific backup about why counting calories is a load of shit.

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My LA Food Diary

My sister emailed me this wonderful article about daily meal plan of the owner of Moon Juice. Oh boy was that article a load of shit. You know, the kind of crap that makes you remember why people don’t want to try my maca milkshake. The whole article is pretty much a promo for overpriced sprouted rice protein powder from the company, so there’s been a lot of articles bashing it. This one is clearly the best one.


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Hello everyone! I can report that Alexa and I doing very well and are safe from the big blizzard. We never lost any power, and personally didn’t have any flooding issues. The storm was really bad for the coastline in South Jersey, with flooding that is worse than Sandy. Hopefully the response will be faster than Sandy was. I haven’t ventured out of the house much yet, and I have a feeling the snow distribution will be weird. There are so many mini snow dunes in my development, and one car is covered in snow, while the other is pretty much untouched!

So I put together some articles I found interesting this week, and hopefully you can agree. I didn’t have a ton of articles so I am reverting to my old school way of formatting with pictures and all.

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Why I Went Vegan

There really isn’t anything earth shattering, especially for vegetarians, and vegans here. But I was really excited to read an article on a major non-vegan platform- The Kitchn. There is a series of articles being published as well, like “what do I buy now?” and “what do I eat?” sort of posts. Hopefully this gives a nice transitioning olive branch for people who are thinking about going vegan. Sometimes us vegans and write and write and write but if we keep networking with each other, there is a good chance we aren’t reaching as many non-vegans. So I find this exciting.

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Buffalo Bills Just Hired Their First Female Coach

I think I’ve linked an article before of how the cardinals hired the first ever female assistant coach, Jen Welters. She was only hired for an “internship” and isn’t working anymore. And now the Bills hired Kathryn Smith, and hopefully she will stay around longer than a summer. But even still I’ve been noticing more and more females in football advertisements outside of hot chicks and cheerleaders. There are more women in the Play 60 commercials, which is great. I know my one cousin really liked playing flag football, but surprise, her mother encouraged her to play more “female” centered sports. Football might not be the perfect sport, but I do see positions that women can excel in.

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Long Thought To Be Extinct, Bizarre Tree Frog Surfaces in India

This is really exciting news, a revival of an extinct species. This isn’t the first time, as I love the story about the kakapo (which is like a cute chubby fluffy dinosaur, in my opinion.) But what makes this story super interesting is that scientists think that they never noticed this frog because their tadpole phase could go on for years. This is another case of how we have to much to learn about animals in their natural habitat.  Which brings me to the next article…

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Danes Say Zoo Dissections Fit With Country’s “Very Honest” Parenting

The Danish get a lot of criticism about their zoos, and I do feel a little bad. Zoos put animals to sleep all the time, they just aren’t coming out about it. I do think in someways it is good for the vegan movement. The public rarely sees an animal butchered, and therefore find it disgusting. But I think if you are going to eat meat, you have to stomach it otherwise you are a little hypocritical.I also take faith that kids do listen to their hearts, and even the reporter speculates that these dissections could spark interest with kids in animal activism. I think these dissections are examples of showing that zoos are not natural places for animals, and another example of humans creating new “animal” problems.

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Consoling Voles Hint at Animal Empathy

A new study shows that animals might be empathetic. Seems a little silly, but it is hard to determine different emotions objectively. So scientists construct really weird experiments to try and prove different emotions. Feel free to read, but this experiment does involve distressing and hurting voles.


Why Are Vegetarians Annoying? (An Exploration of a Cultural Rift)

Hank Green has done a few videos about vegetarianism, and I have to give some respect to him. Sadly the comments are full of the same ol’ same ol’ “how can you tell if a person is vegan” jokes. Basically Hank Green admits, he is a little selfish for eating meat, which I totally respect. Very rarely do people come out and say this. There are tons of excuses that give me a big roll of the eyes, bacon, its for my health, it isn’t natural, blah blah blah. And Green is right in saying that we need to draw a line sometimes in the things we do. I would go out of my mind if I questioned every single item I bought in order to live a guilt-free, cruelty-free, sweat-shop-free, lifestyle. I also look at this video as a way to try and live my life less judgmentally, even if everyone else is judging me (which seems likes like a pretty conceded statement, but man reading those comments, people do judge vegans.)


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Alexa is ready for the snow!

Hi everyone. I feel like I am failing blogging in 2016. The main two reasons is that one week I went to go visit my Grandfather in Florida. He hasn’t been in the greatest health lately, and even has been in a hospital for most of December with a bad case of clostridium difficile, which I read about in this article about feces enemas. Anyways, we booked a trip for the weekend to visit him once he got better. Let me tell you that trip was EXHAUSTING! I kid you not when I say it was non-stop socializing affair. It also was a humbling experience, I am so picky about the quality of my food but I had to take a deep breath and think about why I was there. I did NOT do any research about vegan friendly places. And I messed up. I eat out so little I forget what things are usually not vegan, like onion rings. But mistakes will be made, and I am just glad I don’t need to eat (crappy) salad again for lunch AND dinner.

All week I was trying to catch up on things from the previous weekend, and then the weekend after I went into NYC to celebrate Alexa’s birthday. It was tons of fun, except the karaoke bar that Alexa booked didn’t put in her reservation for the right day. So we had to book it to someplace different that wasn’t BYOB. Our bottles of soju got opened, and confiscated. No big deal, it was like $10. I was tipsy, and doing fine, then when we leave the guy hands me an open bottle of soju back… which was nice but I had no idea what to do with it. I was drunk enough to think chugging it would be a good idea. Uh… wrong. I quickly got super drunk, I am so glad Jon was with me because I don’t remember much from that night. And I had the worst hangover all Sunday, it even lingered into Monday morning. So let’s just say I was pretty frustrated with my very stupid decision. I should of asked that nice guy to just dump the stuff.

So I have a bunch of articles that I wanted to share over the course of several weeks. So sorry that the list is so long. But I need to break the silence on the blog. I hope everyone had a better weekend than me! I will also have some reviews on some restaurants from Disney and NYC.

Health

A cool study on the effects of ultra marathoners

Women’s health is being ignored because of fat-shaming

I have to agree with this article- don’t join a gym.

I was thinking about making an exercise post like this, but this person got it so right.

People are surprised that I am not anti-GMOs. This article kind-of breaks down why, it is hard to define GMOs.


Extreme health diets are not new. Not saying everyone doesn’t have a grain of truth to their statements, but always use your brain. There is a lot of room food various types of food in your diet.

Veganism

Gina from the Full Helping has some great tips on how to transition to a vegan lifestyle

Scientists Have Found Evidence That Fish Have Feelings Too

There is a Buddhist monk in South Korea making the most amazing looking vegan food

This is an interesting article about some of the not so great representation of veganism.

Other Stuff

If you already know that tardigrades don’t care, then you will find this article about tardigrade stealing DNA cool

I have totally forgotten to share this awesome blog post about ethical fashion by Annika.

Here are some badass women you probably didn’t hear about in 2015

This house is crazy awesome

Rolling Stones released this bizarro interview with David Bowie and William Burroughs


This video makes me so sad to see all this wasted food.


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Hi everyone! I decided to go back to the old set up for my Sunday Readings. At least for today since I don’t have too many different articles. I guess maybe it is because I have been more focused on Thanksgiving than news? Or maybe I’ve been trying to think about Christmas, which is hard coming up with stuff I want. Weird right? I guess maybe it is because I know there is a bunch of stuff I want that I can’t get (like a puppy) Anyways, I hope everyone likes these reads!

How Humans Saved Gourds

Apparently humans are the only reason why the gourd exists today. It is interesting to hear about the evolution of fruits and how they try to be eaten to spread their seeds. It is also nice to hear that humans saved something for once rather than killing them.

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Big in Israel: Vegan Soldiers

This is a quick little article about how Israel is handling the growing vegan community. It is a shame there is no programs like this for American soldiers but this article shows that society can adapt to the growing vegan demands. So saying it just isn’t how people do things is proving to be false.

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Your Gut Bacteria May Be Controlling Your Appetite

I love reading articles that further prove there is more to weight than diet and exercise. This one is talking about how what we crave might be controlled by the bacteria in our stomachs. This is probably a good theory since it might explain why people crave different foods once they change what their diet looks like.

Teachings Grown-ups How To Eat

I have a lot of beef with the “child obesity” debate. I know someone close with a child who they are trying make loose weight, which rubs me the wrong way. One of the major reasons is because they don’t change everyone’s diet, they just restrict their child’s. The article points out that we need to be more flexible about what we eat, and we are lucky, we are ominous, it is part of our nature to switch up what we eat. 

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Highways Destroyed America’s Cities

This article made me think about when I lived in Philadelphia and how roads shaped where I would go with friends. I remember hating some walks to movie theaters because it meant walking under highways, and certain areas were pretty much dead zones because of the roads. 


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Alexa hardly ever takes photos of Gizmo! Such a cutie!

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a good week. I had a pretty productive one, and I even squeezed in a sick day! It is weird because it has been awhile since I’ve had a “sick” day. I had stomach bugs, but never stayed home with a flu. Even still, I just felt dizzy Friday and left work early mostly because I didn’t feel comfortable standing up for long periods of time. Got home, slept for 3 hours and when I work up I thought MAYBE I should take my temperature. Nothing huge, 99 degree temperature, but it was kind-of a “oh I guess I should came home then.” I am fine now, heck I was pretty much fine by the end of the night. But I think the experience has given me the motivation to get my flu shot this year. I can’t remember the last time I got one, so I am not really looking forward to it. XD

I am also trying to get use to working out again. I think it was much easier to be motivated in my old apartment, it was so small that going out for a run was a joy (also the area was beautiful, not too thrilled about my new run) Now I am going up and down stairs a lot more, more space to walk, I chase the cat, more personal space, and we can control the temperature so we are constantly snuggling under blankets. So I think is hard to find the motivation to lift weights when a cat is snuggling on my lap. Well, I want to really try and run 3 days a week, and weight train 2 days of the week. Maybe I’ll write a post about it once a week, I don’t know.

I am also in the process of planning my Thanksgiving dinner! I am pretty excited about this. It is almost all vegan, my in-laws are bringing their own turkey, which is fine to me because I know turkey can be a hard symbol to loose for the holiday. This is Jon’s first Thanksgiving without eating turkey, so it should be interesting. I will probably post a menu outline of what I plan on making for the dinner.

The Mayo Clinic did some research to what an energy drink does to your body. Answer, just releases stress hormones.

This article made me stop and rethink my day. It is one of those “yeah we all know this” sort of fact, busy people aren’t productive. I feel like I have been having a hard time getting things done, and maybe I am just bouncing too many different things around. I really want to focus on just reading, or just writing a blog post, or just looking at facebook. I find that when I focus, the clock ticks slower.

Since I am talking about trying to run more, I found this article about why writers run interesting.

Another article in defense of wild bees. Many people defend honey in a vegan diet because OMG ALL OUR BEES ARE DYING! And that is true, but a lot of the problems are manmade creations that we could fix, like planting more native flowers, having various blooms during the season, etc.

Anyone else use their apple news app? I do, and I love it. I like getting a wide variety of article, many I might not find on vegan media platforms. This one is what happens when an Italian goes paleo. I like the conclusion and the breakdown of all the science, and how the author didn’t gush about how she felt amazing. I think a lot of special diets are placebo effects, and if you do feel any real effect, it might take months, or years to have any change, and you might not notice since the change is so gradual.

My husband loves bears, and I love these sculpture projects where there is one blank form that is decorated various ways. This one is a bear in Germany that just made me smile.

Alexa shared this article with me about how our housing situation shapes our friendships. We both struggle with friends living far away, and I even hear how people in New York City struggle keeping in touch since with public transportation it can take several hours to get to certain spots. We also prize privacy, which and keep us closed off from the world. I think we both feel like the most “interaction” we felt with our community might of been when we lived in cities. What do you guys think?


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It if funny reading blogs and hearing people be bummed out about the cooler weather. I am loving it. I love layering clothing, I like snuggling with blankets, and I love a big bowl of soup. Plus I am getting excited about the holidays since we are probably able to enjoy it a lot more this year. I am no longer working with retail, though the framing business does get a little more jobs during Christmas. So all the holiday planning is happening, which is a little less stressful. 

I am also starting to think about what to make for Thanksgiving dinner, which is stressful because I started to plot it in my head then my Mother In Law was like “oh I can make this!” and it brought my plans crashing down. Not because it is us competing to make food, but because I forget there are certain foods that people expect in Thanksgiving foods. Which makes me think, does anyone have any good carrot side dishes? My Father in Law LOVES carrots, but it is just cut boiled carrots, and no one wants them. I don’t think any of us like sweet carrots, so that rules out orange juice glazed carrots. If anyone has any ideas, please share!

Today is all about catching up on posts, and getting a few things done around the house. Yesterday was, ugh, weird. My husband had me buzz his hair and the machine kept making a painfully loud noise. Sure it was working but it sounds like it might explode mid-cut. This led to us fighting right before spending the day with his parents. This worked out in the end, but I think if our hair cutting buzzer whatever you call it breaks again, I am throwing in the hair cutting towel. I don’t know, it just seems wasteful if we have to buy a machine every three years to cut one person’s hair. Though I did get Jon to agree to cut his hair with me next time I make an appointment at Talking Headz. So that will get a post here at some point.

Food

What is neurogastronomy? A new branch of science is emerging on how to study food.

Some of you might of read a study that found animal and human DNA in veggie dogs. This article from Vox pretty much reassures us to not freak out

I would really like to make this black bean cake. It just looks so ooey gooey and yummy!

Apparently there is a growing demand for natural dyes. I have mixed feelings. Yes, natural coloring is better but at the same time it feels weird looking for plant sources for something superficial as coloring.

I am not huge on The Kitchn recipes since most are not vegan, but this one with beans and greens look pretty tasty.

I love gingerbread and pumpkin flavored things! So I am excited about these pumpkin gingerbread spice muffins! She uses a gluten-free mix, but I might do a blend of regular flour with other flours. 

Maybe since my husband and I have been watching the Great British Bake Off, we have been more interested in sweets. This sweet potato cake looks super nice, maybe something to make for a Christmas get together?

I love learning about movements for urban gardening. There are a bunch springing up teaching lower income family how to garden, teaching farming to at risk teens, and more. Bite Size Vegan does a quick video covering some movements that are more exclusively vegan.

Veganism

I found this article about how most coconuts are actually harvested by monkeys! It is an interesting read since the article basically come to the conclusion that isn’t enough information about the topic. I have to say that it doesn’t look like direct animal abuse, but then begs the question, are coconuts vegan?

There is a vegan soccer team? Okay that is a little misleading, more like a stadium that serves vegan food for a team.

Need another reason not to each chicken? How about adult diapers? Yup, this website is all about human rights for people working in the meat industry.

Health

I think I might of posted an article about how honey is just as bad a high fructose sugar, and now I have to bust my own bubble with this article. *sigh* I can’t argue with it because it is true, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about tests, and if anything the study just is proving that the SUGAR in honey is just as bad as high fructose corn syrup, which is still important I think. 

I’ve fallen behind on my workout routine, and this article about the connection between lifting weights in brain function gives me even more motivation to get my shit together.

I spent time when I should of been working (at work) reading about sports bras. It is surprisingly interesting.

Winter Coats

I know that winter coats that don’t have wool can be a hard task. Well, I was browsing on Modcloth an found some cute coats. I love coats, I would love to have 10 different ones to choose from but I know that is impractical, and I still many pre-vegan wool ones. I would donate them, but some have ripped lining or are too cute. I have one vegan winter coat, and it is actually just a blue version of this coat. I love how bright it is, especially when I lived in the city and everyone just had a black coat. Having a colored coat is cool since most of the time you can only see your jeans or black leggings underneath. There is a fuchsia coat by the same company that is vegan as well.

If you are looking for something retro try out this plaid cape! I am thinking about writing a post about getting hand-me downs and thrifting and how it falls in a vegan lifestyle. Sometimes cool throwback things get you to buy vegan.

Any EGL fans out there? Well there are three different cute coats you can get in the clothing style! I love the style but I am much too lazy to wear it, and too cheap to put together an outfit. This coat looks pretty cute, and it even has some little heart pockets! The winnipeg coat has a little bit of faux fur on it! It comes in a pastel blue with white fur or red with black fur. Both are cute, and I kind-of want one. Ugh! I want those and the yellow coat!


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I hope everyone had a happy Halloween. I think Alexa and I sure did. Alexa had to work but still got dress up as Ariel. Then changed for a spooky Halloween party. This year Jon and I wanted to the whole give away candy thing in our new home. We got a good amount of kids. While waiting we made vegan mummy dogs, brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes (scary to kids). We watched episodes of Simpson’s Tree House of Terror, seasons 2 to 7. When we finished we watched Ichabod Crane and The Brood. OMG, was The Brood good! I know who I’m going to be for Halloween next year- Nola!

Anyways, we have a big list of articles, probably because I’ve been all about Apple News. I’ve been reading so much more. I probably should take a break because some days I think I do feel a little overwhelmed by facts.

Food:

Not sure how many people will be able to read this, but New York Times wrote a profile on Smarties. I loved them since I was a kid but I love that they are vegan friendly. They also are based in New Jersey and Liz Dee is vegan herself! So I really try and support the company!

I really want to make these!

The New Yorker NAILS the almond milk versus cows milk debate. Okay not all the points! But brings up an important one about our food. We need variety, and we need to know how to handle our waste!

I first heard of savory oats from Oh She Glow’s cookbook with her red lentil oats. Now The Full Helping gives a lot of suggestions, which I should try taking up, especially for pre-run breakfast.

Two good videos from Eat Your Kimchi- one is a 3D chocolate maker! OMG gotta make these chocolates. The other is a dakgalbi recipe which makes me want to veganize it.

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Spoopy Reads:

The New Yorker profiles several different black cats.

Alexa and I were super happy to try these out! They are like creamsicles.

Veganism:

I love this article by The Atlantic talking about taxidermy displays. I feel a similar feeling about zoos. There is this weird contradiction that zoos and taxidermy isn’t helping the animals directly and can be cruel. But at the same time it sparks interest and gets the average person concerned about the well being of the animals. And there is the fact that animals are beautiful, and it is amazing to see an animal that isn’t native to your area and marvel at it’s existence. Anyways, I hope you enjoy that read.

Apparently parts of India are banning cow meat and it isn’t making vegans happy. They have excellent reasons why this is problematic, which is also a reason why I feel like if you ditch meat, you need to ditch dairy as well.

One of my husband’s favorite Simpson’s episodes is the one where Lisa becomes a vegetarian, here is an article praising it.

This episode of Bite Size Vegan made me really happy. She has been trying to document the history of veganism, and found that people have been making the same arguments over time. If you have the time, I suggest watching it. The quotes are really beautiful.

I love learning new “ethnic” foods that are made vegan. This one is a cinnamon spiced milk drink from Puerto Rico.

Don’t go to these type of wildlife attractions!

Health:

I totally back up the Body Positivity Movement. Yeah, I think there is a link between obesity and health, but I think it is more complicated than “I’m fat therefore I’m sick.” I don’t like when people just chalk it up to “dieting” because there are some health habits that we picked up on in the USA that might be BETTER for our health overall (for example we consume more whole grains!) So I was happy to see yet another study that supports that there is more to weight than calories and calories out.

There is an interesting study focusing on the amount of words spoken to a child, and how it effects their ability to learn.

 


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Hey guys. This week has been a lot less productive than I had hoped for. Part of the problem is you know everyday life. Whomp whomp. Then there is also this weird internet. It is find in the morning, then at night it disconnects every five seconds. Arg! It stinks but there are worse things that can happen in life. 

So I just want to point out how cute Alexa looks right now. She had a wedding coming up, and being thrifty me I was all like “NO DON’T BUY A NEW DRESS BORROW ONE OF MINE!” I LOVE this dress. I got it on sale from Ruche, it was originally something like $80-100 but I got it for $39.50. I’ve worn it to a bunch of weddings, luckily I had friends and family weddings that didn’t crossover with guests. Nobody caught me wearing more than once! Anyways, I’ve washed it a few times, when I wasn’t suppose to and it started to rip, but Alexa got it fixed so it might get worn a bunch more times. And if you are dying to have the dress, you can buy it for $96, which this is like super old out of stock. So no bargin hunting.

Also Alexa dyed her hair again, which makes me jealous. I want to dye my hair but my bosses are a little…. uh… judgmental about looks? And our clients are pretty old, and conservative so I don’t think it would be the best move on my part. Alexa wanted to dye her hair like her favorite wrestler Sasha Banks. Note- their all Alexa’s favorite. 

So I mentioned doing the Vegan MOFO Offseason thing, and there is the prompt of Pick 3, and she said to share any vegan articles. So I will make this week’s Sunday Reading in lists of threes. 

3 Recipes

CARAMELIZED BANANA & RUM SHAKE – I think I know what I should try and make next time Alexa and Ian crashed my place for game playing. I’ve been reading The Drunken Botanist, and it really helps make the connection that plants are booze, and it really a “vegan” food. It is exciting to see all the different herbs that are used in cocktails. My little liquor collection is growing fast, and hubby and I really need a cocktail cart for drinks and glasses.

HOMEMADE PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE WIHT SALTED PUMPKIN SPICE SYRUP – Okay so I’ve been making pumpkin spice lattes at home with a pumpkin spice almond milk that I bought. I’ve been lazy about making a syrup for myself, but this one sounds divine! I should make some and use it in my Spiced Pumpkin Carriage… or lattes. XD

3 Fun Stories

RESCUED RACCOON ORPHAN NAMED PUMPKIN – I am a sucker for any cute animal story. I think it does make veganism for relatable for most people. So I share them. This one is about a baby raccoon that was hurt and was nursed back to health. It is so endearing to see a raccoon snuggle with a puppy, showing that animals can connect with each other regardless of species.

BEHOLD THE ULTIMATE CROWDSOURCED MAP OF PUNNY BUSINESSES IN AMERICA – One thing I do know about vegans is that we love a friggin pun. I feel like there is probably a bunch more that need to be added, so check it out and add anyplace that you can think of.

WHAT HARAJUKU GIRLS REALLY LOOK LIKE – This “decora” style come about right when I fell out of Japan’s music culture. It is probably one of my least favorite street styles. But it is interesting to watch the video.

3 Letters

LETTER #1 – These letters have been buzzing around the vegan blog-o-sphere. If you aren’t up to date these are letters written by Miyoko Schinner, who has pretty much reinvented the vegan cheese scene, to Ryan Bethencourt, an entrepreneur and scientist that I know nothing about.

LETTER #2 – This is the response from Ryan, which focuses on how science is able to engineer products with science. It is fun and exciting, and talks about some cool foods coming out to the vegan community. He views veganism as a world of science and labs, which I can get behind, but I think most people find this anti-food. This view I think is more relatable to older generations who view processed foods as improved products from the natural ones, which sometimes they can be.

LETTER #3 – Miyoko responds back by taking the science away from vegan innovations and bringing it back to the home kitchen. And I love this. I love being able to say you can DO EVERYTHING in the kitchen. I think people are surprised at how easy some vegan food is, like nut milks. My boss was shocked when I said it is just essentially just water and nuts, then filtered. I think it is some sort of balance between science and homegrown food that will sell people to vegan food. It can be fake, but it doesn’t HAVE TO BE.

3 Shopping Finds

REST IN PIZZA SHIRT – I love this shirt as it seems super vegan to me. I’ve heard so many people say things like “Oh if you can’t have cheese I guess you can’t have pizza!” Apparently cheese is what makes the pizza to most people. But I love a good tomato pie, and I found pizza is a super vegan thing.

THE LONG ARM OF THE LOBSTER CARDIGAN – I use to love to eat lobsters, and I also think they are just a cool animal. I remember having them walk around the kitchen floor before eating them, which my husband thought was morbid. What can I say? I knew I was a murdering bastard at a young age. I dig this classy sweater which to me gives more of a nod that lobsters are cool and cute like any other trendy animal.

1960s GOLD METALLIC BROCADE WIGGLE DRESS – Anyone want to give me $140 for a new dress? I love fancy dresses, and I don’t go out as much as I should to put these dresses to work. But I love the light work of the metallic threads, so it isn’t overdoing it on the shiny aspect.


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What I wear to my local CSA, cat sweatshirt, stripped dress shirt, cloud leggings, purple striped socks, and super old docs.

Oh boy guys. I’ve been so busy with Vegan MOFO! I’m a little glad to be over with it, and I am also excited to sign up again next year! But for now there are lots of posts to catch up with that I want to write that were “Vegan MOFO themed.” And I’ve been collecting so many of these links that I’ve wanted to share with everyone! So sorry that it is a little long and overwhelming! Take you time guys. Oh! And I can start doing my Farm Haul again! The summer is pretty much done, so that insanely long shopping lists are done. And I get a little bit of break since some of the foods can be stored long term. So yey!

Farm Round Up:

What I got:
1 jack o’lantern
1 bag of stir fry greens
1/2 bag collard greens and kale
1 head of red cabbage
5 tomatoes
9 small potatoes
1 small butternut squash
1 red onion
1 yellow onion
3 big beets
5 small green peppers
4 small broccoli crowns

What I’m cooking:
red lentil dal (with onion and tomatoes)
black bean “chicken” and broccoli stir-fry
Pad See Ew
ginger, beet, and carrot soup
tacos with roasted peppers
collard and kale greens in shake

Food Links:

I need to try out these mango yolks. I really do miss the joy of popping a liquid orb on top of toast. 

So my husband has been pretty trying to get a waffle maker and I am not a sweet bread breakfast person. But these savory waffles? Uh hell yeah.

So I love Eat Your Kimchi, videos of a Canadian couple in South Korea. They recently did a video of making raw and vegan coconut oil chocolates. They give some nice tips, which makes me want to make some… maybe filled with cookie butter?!

Paleo vs Vegan! Such a heated debate. Even the whole protein thing, ugh. My Mom gave me “you brainwashed gurl” eyes during lunch when I told her she probably shouldn’t worry about protein going on a mostly vegetarian diet (especially since she is still eating chicken and fish occasionally, and eggs and dairy frequently). Anyways, I like this short story about how a guy switched from Paleo to Vegan, and nothing happened.

I am not sure why but I am mesmerized by this blue ice cream.

I love reading vegan travel blogs, because it makes me believe that traveling with my husband in the future will still be enriching. One of the things I miss after going vegan is the spontaneity about traveling. Trying the local foods etc. Travel blogs show that it still kind-of is. This post on Denmark on Oh Lady Cakes is getting me pumped. Now I just need several thousand dollars for the plane tickets. XD

Pumpkin Ice Cream is back at Franklin Fountain, hope they are still doing it vegan because the all vegan Great Pumpkin Sundae was THE SHIT!

There is a nitro infused black coffee in Philly? I need to try this out.

Ted Nghiem writes a great post about why food is exciting… and it isn’t just about trying the new hip foods. I love learning about the history and the story about the food sometimes more than the food itself.

I never knew there were so many vegan friendly places to eat in Cleveland. Roadtrip?

The other night I got asked by a vegetarian why I didn’t eat honey, and I had a few points of why it is bad, but a lot of my logic is that there isn’t really a NEED for honey. I mean it isn’t as culturally important as meat in the USA. I was also happy to read this article saying honey is pretty much as bad as sugar

I really want to try this squash, it’s seed was 800 years old!

Feminism and Human Interest

I am sure most of you have already seen this article- about emails sent out to and from trees.

I love animal skeletons. I said it. I know, it isn’t vegan. But I find skeletons so beautiful, human or otherwise. So I’ve been thinking about the ethics of being vegan and taking animal for decoration. Well, this blog post does a great job pretty much saying “ethical” taxidermy is bullshit. Although this person eats animals, I love her wording, there is no bullshitting and dancing around the issues here.

Is it nice to read something POSITIVE about climate change.


I’ve seen a few article talking about the horrors of “trigger warnings” in school settings. And I think there would be some good points, but most of the time it felt like rantings of someone who hates Millenials. I think this sums up how I feel about trigger warnings. It isn’t about trying to get out of doing the work, but more about setting up a discussion!


I knew that women had a pretty big part of the early film industry but rarely do people name names. So this was a nice educational video about Alice Guy-Blaché.

Health

I’ve recently taken some Orange Theory classes, like about 3 months worth. I stopped taking them for various reasons, but I started to learn why people like taking fitness classes. I think this article makes some great points that I didn’t really believe before taking Orange Theory. Like it is nice to have free hair ties and pads in the bathroom for emergencies.

This article by NPR is a little disturbing about the effects of not getting nutrition for young female athletes. Some of the effects will last into adulthood.

The science of body positivity.

Epigenetic is an important key in todays health. This article talks about a study that tries to compare adults who had troubling childhood experiences and their health conditions. It’s an interesting read. And if you don’t know much about epigenetic I would recommend watching this SciShow video that explains it.

Art

I need all these crowns.

These are beautiful machine that walk on beaches. With some cool videos of them walking around.

I don’t know if this is art but I want Glittery Rain Boots

I love these retro spoopy pins.


If you watched the video above about Alice Guy-Blaché, then you might want to see this video by her.

Science

Mental floss reports on cool glowing bacteria, the story is pretty interesting and show that you shouldn’t dismiss kids.

POOP CARS. Got you to click on that link.

And the future of toilets, which is again oddly interesting. What do I listen to when I poop? Nothing. I’m fast.


cornweb

My goodness this week was pretty crazy! Everything crept up pretty fast and then it became the weekend. I figured I need to spend more time working at settling down in the house than updating the blog, which is why I haven’t been that good at updating the 365 posts on Saturday anymore. Oh and because of the farm trips. It is peach season here so every single week has involved us going to our CSA, and then going to the orchard. This week we picked so many peaches that we made chutney. And I am thinking that we still have enough for jam. Wow.

Alexa and I are also busy for VEGAN MONTH OF FOOD! They have a list of prompts and we will try and stick to them. We have some good ideas planned, and some not so much. So we will see how it goes. Especially with the 365 idea. I am not sure how I will incorporate that into the posts.

Anyways, I might not be as active the next week or so while we try and get our ducks in a row for Vegan MOFO. We also may or may not continue with the 365/Sunday Reads posts during that month. But I guess only time will tell what will happen.

**Note: Sorry guys that this post originally just have URLs below and no descriptions or links! I have NO idea what WordPress’ problem is right now. It keeps messing things up.

Farm Round Up:

What I got:
1/2 pint sungold tomatoes
1 quart of yellow pear tomatoes
1/2 pint blackberries
1 quart ground cherries with husks
25 lb yellow peaches
2 lb gala apples
2 lb red plums
1 large cantaloupe
1 large yellow watermelon
1/2 lb green beans
8 lbs slicing tomatoes
5 lbs tomatillos
5 1/2 lbs cherry tomatoes
3 lb purple potatoes
1/2 bag of mixed asian stirfry greens
3 asian eggplants
4 green bell peppers
1 bunch of radishes with greens
6 red italia peppers
7 jalapenos
4 poblano peppers

What I’m cooking:
Tomato Sauce + Pasta + Beet Balls
Tomatillo and Berry Crisp
Tomatilo Tofu Tacos
Yogurt, granola, and ground cherry/blackberry bowls
Yellow Watermelon Tequila Cocktails
Side salads with sungold tomatoes and radishes
Eggplant Stir-fry with Green Beans and Cashews
Greek Kale Stuffed Tomatoes from Pure Pleasures
Spaghetti Squash Yakisoba Style
Peach Chutney

Reading for the Week:

Jon and I are planning Halloween already. Gonna watch 6 episodes of Treehouse of Terror on Halloween, and we will be watching plenty of horror films and Goosebumps (hubby’s choice) for the month of October. And since we are in our first home, I said we would buy halloween candy, and showed my husband this PETA list of vegan candy to show him that we won’t get egged. (because that wouldn’t be vegan either)

I always like to put in some film info on this blog, and I love soviet russian media! Especially film! So I have to share this super bizarro propaganda film. It is a mixed media animation that takes place in space. Very surreal. Very cool visually.

So Alexa and I missed Sailor Moon Appreciation Day?

This week we got a watermelon, which is perfect timing because I’ve been craving some after seeing this huge watermelon!

This hot weather is making me swoon over this matcha mint sugar scrub.

I love how Gina breaks down protein in this new post. She makes it pretty simple and easy to figure out how much protein you need in your diet, and gives some great options. And she makes me feel better for giving my husband whole wheat PB&J sandwiches- 15 grams of whole protein? Hell yeah.

Washington Post asks the question- why aren’t conservatives going after fertility clinics if they don’t want fetuses to die?

I know that this isn’t the most vegan all videos. A giant heart…. but I know that sometimes these are the types of things that really get people to connect to other animals. Hopefully it helps put things in perspective for you, humans are the center, or the best.

I love Healthcare Triage because they don’t pussyfoot around. Aaron lays down exercise for what it is- a lot less that what we expect but really beneficial! I am always telling people that you don’t need to run a marathon- just moving. Like to garden? Do that! Cleaning the bathroom? That is actually fairly vigorous activity.

Another Healthcare Triage video that I think is pretty interesting. It goes over what the fuss is about Flibanstein and talks about human trafficking.