Getting Married

I'll be largely out of commission the next two weeks, as I'm headed to the east coast to get married.

For those of you interested, here's some information on planning our vegan wedding and our eco-friendly wedding invitations.

Talk to you all soon!

The Answer to Conserving Resources Lies on Your Plate

I've had enough of all the recent bashing of biofuels. I drive a biodiesel car and do all I can to reduce my carbon footprint.

Here's a snippet from the article:

But with growing fears over biofuels stealing from dinner plates to fill gas tanks, people are starting to wonder: How green are biofuels?

The media is looking for a scapegoat, someone to blame for rising crop prices. Their plan: bash biodiesel and other biofuels. I was unaware that going to war for oil, killing innocent people, and transporting that fuel all the way back to the U.S. was more eco-friendly. I must have missed that.

The biodiesel I run in my car is grown right here in Washington state, produced in South Seattle, and sold at a station a mile from my home. That's not eco-friendly? Sure, it takes resources to produce anything; however, nearly all electricity in Seattle comes from renewable energy, which is wonderful. That set aside, it still takes far less resources to produce my biodiesel than it would to buy oil dug up across the world and shipped here. (Not to mention the CO2 gasoline puts into the air.)

Anyway, my point is this: if you want to conserve resources, go vegan! Adopting a vegan diet is the best thing you can do for your health, the environment, and other life on this planet. Years ago I wrote an essay on my reasons for going vegan. I'll locate the paper and post it on my blog in the near future.

Eating lower on the food chain requires less resources. Makes sense, right? Instead of wasting so much agricultural land growing crops to feed to animals, why not just eat the crops directly yourself? Here's a visual comparison of the resources involved to support omnivore and vegan diets:

Omnivore: Raising crops -> housing animals -> feeding crops to animals -> slaughtering animals -> shipping animal byproducts

Vegan: Raising crops -> processing crops -> shipping crops

Note: you can also cut on the processing phase by buying whole foods and supporting your local farmers.

Consuming animals in today's society is completely unnecessary, and it's actually harmful to your health. So, if you decide to consume animals you're doing so based solely on taste.

I'll leave you with a final question: is eating animals worth wasting all those resources and contributing to the degradation of our planet?

Tip for Making My Vegan Cookies

I've updated my post on my Vegan Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip Cookies to include a very helpful tip for placing golf-sized dough balls onto cookie sheets.

I'm making my cookies today for a vegan party tomorrow night, as everyone seems to love them.

New Vegan Cream Cheese Hits Shelves

Follow Your Heart, makers of the delicious Vegan Gourmet Cheese, have released Vegan Gourmet Cream Cheese!

The new vegan cream cheese hit store shelves not long ago. I was shopping at PCC, my local co-op, a few days ago and noticed the container right next to Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese. Tofutti is in for some fierce competition!

Here's how they compare:

Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese

Ingredients: Water, expeller processed natural oil blend (soybean, palm fruit and olive), maltodexterin, soy protein, tofu, nondairy lactic acid, organic sugar, blend of natural gums (locust bean, guar, cellulose, xanthan and carrageenan), vegetable mono and diglycerides, salt.

Price: ~ $3.50

Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Cream Cheese

Ingredients: Filtered water, org. palm fruit oil, org. soybean oil, inulin (chicory root extract), org. soybeans, soy protein, org. agave syrup, sea salt, org. soy protein, lactic acid, org. rice starch, org. lemon juice concentrate, natural flavor, org. locust bean gum, xanthan gum.

Price: ~ $3.50

Notice the organic ingredients in Follow Your Heart's product. The Vegan Gourmet Cream Cheese is 76% organic.

The taste is very similar, though I think I may slightly prefer Tofutti because I've been eating it for years and am used to it.

Here are the reasons I'll be switching to Vegan Gourmet:

1. Vegan company


2. Organic ingredients


3. No need to worry about hydrogenated oil (Tofutti currently sells one version with hydrogenated oil and one without...stupid)


4. About the same cost

I highly recommend trying the new vegan cream cheese for yourself. Tofutti is not a vegan company and does not make the healthiest products.

If you can't find it in a store near you, you can buy it on their website.

I welcome Vegan Gourmet Cream Cheese and will be using it as my cream cheese substitute from now on.

Best Way to Store Veggies?

After many frustrating years of produce not lasting as long as I'd like it to, I'm seeking your help.

What is the best way to store vegetables in the fridge?

The best method I've found so far is using plastic bags, but that really isn't all too great for the environment. Granted, I reuse the bags, but I'd rather not use plastic at all.

I'm sure some of you out there have some great tips. I'd love to hear them.

Thanks!

Green Festival Report

The Green Festival was great. I spent about three hours there on Sunday.

I met some of the guys from Temptation vegan ice cream. I found out that not only are they vegan, but they're also drug-free! I had a ton of fun just talking with those guys. I hope to meet up with them if/when I'm in Chicago again.

I also went by the VegNews table. My fiancee and I entered their raffle. Two days later we received a package in the mail. She won the huge basket of vegan cookies! Thanks VegNews!

The Green Festival was full of so many cool booths: biodiesel, solar power, eco-friendly home furnishing, etc.

Also, on top of it all, we got in for free. I scored some free coupons at the community center in my neighborhood.

On a More Personal Note

Today marks the one year anniversary of the shootings at Virginia Tech.

UPDATE: Here's a story about one of the survivors.

This really hit home when it happened, as I went to Virginia Tech for college. My brother did as well. Seeing pictures and footage of the campus and students was very upsetting. Blacksburg was my home for over four years. I loved that little town. I have a lot of memories there.

It's crazy to think that something like this happened at Virginia Tech. Blacksburg is an extremely safe town. I'm thankful my brother had graduated. I had a friend still in town and made sure she was alright.

The end of 2006 to the beginning of 2007 was a very tough time in my life. Those five months were the worst of my life.

In November of 2006 my fiancee's mom died suddenly. On New Year's Eve my best friend's mom died of brain and kidney cancer. In February of 2007 my mom died of leukemia. Then, in April the massacre at Virginia Tech happened. Everything happened at once. I was on emotional and depression overload.

I miss everyone so very much. Linda, Joan, and Mom: I miss you all every day.

I treasure my life and my loved ones. Life is very special. Enjoy your time with the ones you love. You never know what each day will bring.

An Awesome Vegan Cake

Katie at Chocolate Covered Vegan has blogged about an awesome vegan cake she made.

She poses a question in her post: why are guys so fascinated by cars?

I was never interested in cars until I bought my 1999 VW Jetta TDI. It's a diesel so I run it on biodiesel. It's clean-burning (78% reduction in CO2), I get 41 mpg city and 49 mpg highway, it's renewable, and it's domestic (no war required).

Maybe I should do a post about biodiesel.

I'm excited about going to the Green Festival tomorrow!

Green Festival Coming to Seattle

The Green Festival is happening next weekend in Seattle! This is the first year it will be held here.

The event takes place on April 12th and 13th at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in downtown Seattle.

I'm really excited. I've been to the Green Festival twice, both times in Washington, DC. The last time I went I had three acai bowls. It's dangerous when Sambazon is there.

For those of you going and interested in avoiding the $15 entrance fee, the Phinney Neighborhood Association has free passes on the table inside.

Has anyone else attended a Green Festival? Are any of you planning on going to this one here in Seattle?

Cheezly Vegan Cheese

Have you tried Cheezly yet? If not, you definitely should!

It melts pretty well (better than Follow Your Heart).

It tastes really good. It sort of reminds me of dairy (it's been over six years though), but not enough to gross me out. I think I'd say I like it more than Follow Your Heart, although I do like Follow Your Heart as well.

You can't buy it in stores yet, but you can buy it on Vegan Essentials. However, if you live in or near Seattle, you can buy it in person at Sidecar.

Pros: Taste, melts, non-hydrogenated

Cons: Price (about $8/pack), not organic

Have you tried Cheezly? What do you think?

The people who make Temptation soy ice cream have created a vegan cheese: Teese. I'm thinking of ordering a sample. I've heard good things.

UPDATE: I just ordered two pounds of Teese!

What is your favorite vegan cheese?