Tuesday, December 26, 2017

How Do You Eat Vegan?

Two questions I get asked pretty often are 1) What kinds of things do you even eat as a vegan? and, 2) I have been thinking about going vegan, do you have any suggestions of how to get started? I wrote this post to explain how I feed myself on a vegan diet.

Breakfast

I start out each day with a large bowl of oatmeal, into which I slice 1-2 pieces of fruit (or 1 piece of sliced fruit + berries). I drizzle honey on top of that, then add a bit of almond milk.


I really like bananas; the optional second piece of fruit on my oatmeal varies with the season.

Lunch

I eat a quality PB&J sandwich. I use whole-grain wheat or multigrain bread, the kind of peanut butter that is just peanuts and salt, and jam or jelly that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup.


Snacks

I snack almost constantly for a couple hours before and after lunch. Some of my snacking favorites include carrots, mixed unsalted nuts, apples, oranges, and clementines.


Dinner

This meal gets a lot more variety than breakfast and dinner, but tends to follow a simple formula.
Starchy base + Veggies + Seasonings + (Optional Beans).
The foundation of my meal is a starchy base. I like rice, quinoa, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pasta.
Next, I cook up whatever veggies I might have at the moment--usually 3-4 different varieties, whatever is cheap. Some common favorites are broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, tomatoes, carrots, spinach, mushrooms, asparagus, and bell peppers. I usually either saute them with a bit of oil or vinegar, or oven roast them with a bit of olive oil drizzled over the top.


And that, my friends, is how I eat vegan. There are lots of recipes that are more intricate or complicated than what I've mentioned here, too--if you want to try some I'd recommend Pinterest.

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Variations on a Theme.

Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief.
Lord, I know; help thou my ignorance.
Lord, I feel; help thou my numbness.
Lord, I stand; help thou my faltering knees.
Lord, I strive; help thou my lack of effort.
Lord, I understand; help thou my confusion.

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Wonder Women

Guys.

I don't have any daughters yet. But when I do, I get to raise them in a world that has these awesome women in it.

Wonder Woman

Rey, from "Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens"

Jyn Erso from "Rogue One"

Isn't that so great?!?

I grew up with lots of kick-butt heroes of my own sex to look up to. The movies I watched were chock full of them. As a child, I got to relive the adventures of Han Solo, Aragorn, and Spider-Man over and over again. I also found awesome male heroes in the books I read.

My older sister was every bit as hero-loving as me. In fact, I probably got it from her. None of the kick-butt heroines that she idolized were from movies, though, because there just weren't any. Instead, she got her heroines from books. She had Eilonwy from Lloyd Alexander's "The Black Cauldron," Aerin from Robin McKinley's "The Hero and the Crown," and Cimorene from Patricia C. Wrede's "Dealing with Dragons."

So, awesome heroines have been around for a while, but not in movies. But things are changing now, and I find it delightful. I can't wait to help my daughter make a Rey costume for Halloween, to get her a Wonder Woman poster for her room, to show her all these examples of girls who are tough, competent, driven, self-sacrificing, and kick-butt awesome.

What a world to live in. What a life.

Oh, and go see Wonder Woman if you haven't yet.