Ramblings of a Vegan Traveler

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I have had so many people ask about what I put in my green smoothies I figured I'd put it in my blog so that if you want to try it, you can!  I'm to the point now where I just throw things together in my blender. But my original ideas came from the green smoothie girl videos on youtube and by trial and error. Start first with 1-2 cups cold purified water in the blender. If making it for one person or just one per day, use 1 cup, you can always add more.  Veggies: I usually use 3-4 different leafy green veggies per smoothie lacinato kale, aka dinosaur kale - Nugget Market by me almost always has organic lacinato kale so I use this type, but you could use curly kale also, just not the flowering kale type.   collard greens  (SOOOOOO good for you!) spinach (If I do spinach I tend to throw in an orange or some OJ since the iron from spinach is more available when adding something with vitamin C (it’s the oxalic acid thing that prevents...

Someone asked me recently what foods I include in my vegan diet that are considered superfoods , so I thought what a better topic to blog than my two favorite superfoods!  Hemp seed - I know I have said it before and blogged it before, but it truly is a superfood. Hemp is a high protein seed containing all nine of the essential amino acids that the human body requires.  Hemp is a good source of omega fatty acids and fiber.  Hemp seeds also contain vitamin E and trace minerals.  Hemp seed has a balanced ratio of omega 3 to 6 fatty acids, about a 1:3 ratio. This won’t help correct your omega fatty acid balance if it’s off, but it gives you the right balance to start with.   The protein content of the hemp seed is very digestible and therefore it's a great protein powder to use instead of whey or soy. It really doesn't cause bloating or gas, like whey or soy protein powders can.   Hemp seed does not contain phytic acid (soy does). High amou...

You are what you eat, sounds familiar right? No offense to Q'doba, but if I have one more naked burrito with grilled veggies (hold the cheese and sour cream) at the airport in Seattle, I am pretty sure I will turn into one!  So I decided to go to Anthony's where I used to always eat in my pre-vegan days. Nothing there is vegetarian, let alone vegan. So I ordered the shrimp mango salad, hold the shrimp, hold the bacon and hold the blue cheese please! Seems like I should get a discount on that salad doesn't it! It was actually delicious! But those are the difficulties vegans face. I try not to get picky about it because I really don't want someone adding a special "yellow" seasoning back in the kitchen when I ask for things slightly differently!  Airports are the worst for vegans, wait, I take that back, the worst place is the cafeteria at the VA hospital in Seattle! The choice there is brownish iceberg lettuce, ick! At least the coffee cart does soy latte...

So it has officially been 8 weeks since going Vegan and I am loving this lifestyle. The funny thing is, it is moving me more towards a totally natural life style. Gone are any toxic cleaners, replaced by earth friendly and/or homemade safe cleaners. I even bought Soap Nuts for laundry. Soap nuts, what the heck? They are from a tree and they really do clean your clothes. I got them through www.greenvirginproducts.com . If I'm putting better things in my body, I might as well take it further and make sure that toxic crap is not going down my drain! My dogs are vegan now too! They are eating Natural Balance Vegetarian dog food. They actually love their food and are getting in better shape after being overweight. They even help me eat some of my leftover veggies. Shadow likes veggies more than Truman, but once Truman sees Shadow eating it, he usually joins in. My cats aren't vegan and will not be going the vegan route as they are carnivores. Although Mondavi loves bananas (as lo...

What's new? hmmm...I didn't post my hemp milk journey on FB so if you missed it it's below this blog entry. Still going strong on my vegan journey. It's really not hard and no, I'm not starving all the time. Veggies are really filling. I can't get enough collard greens and kale, I think they are my two favorites now. What do people think or say? Don't really care. Has someone said "you're crazy" - yep, heard that.  So then my question was "why"? Why would you say someone is crazy because they don't eat meat, drink milk or use butter. Personally I think what is crazy is people going through the drive thru at a fast food restaurant several times a week when so much is known about how bad fast food is for you. Why is it crazy to eat wholesome food, but not crazy to eat crap that is soaked in oil, deep fried, full of salt, sugar, etc? I personally don't think it is and to be honest I was a little annoyed by the "c...

I made homemade hemp milk. Now don't freak, it's free of THC...so no, you can't get high from hemp milk! It's really good, much better than the store bought stuff.  Hemp is an extremely nutritious food.  Hemp was first cultivated in China more than 6,000 years ago, and was used as a food source long before soy foods. Hempseed is considered by leading researchers to be one of the most nutritious super foods on the planet — packed with protein, vitamin E, Omega-3, and GLA. Hemp contains pure, digestible protein, with a good balance of all eight essential amino acids. Hemp is not only delicious, but comprised of smaller-chain edestin and albumin protein, making it the gold standard of plant foods. Hemp has three times the vitamin E of flax and twice the iron and magnesium (a key mineral often depleted by industrial agriculture) contained in flax. Strains of Cannabis approved for industrial hemp production produce only minute amounts of this psychoacti...

  Science based, not just me pushing the "vegie" lifestyle. Forks Over Knives – The Official Movie Website

So the question of course comes up of "what do you eat". It may seem strange or too strict for some to grasp and that is totally fine by me. My reasons for going vegan are for me and me alone. While I would love to see more people give up meat and focus on a plant based diet, I am not trying to convert anyone. If anything I post or publish is intriguing, feel free to ask questions. If anything makes you go "huh?" then just ask. It's been an adventure learning and figuring this all out and I'm still learning, reading and investigating more.  As I figured it would be a bit more difficult to be vegan on the road, but I have tried really hard to stick to it. I strayed a bit due to choices available, but not by choice, more by lack of choice. I am not willing to starve myself for this if faced with being vegetarian or vegan. Some places are just not vegan friendly. It was easy, of course, in Portland (the most vegan friendly place in the US). I had a great ve...

I had leftover azuki beans with butternut squash, quinoa and made Sicilian collard greens with raisins and pumpkin seeds (recipe in "the kind diet" book) . First time I ever made collard greens and they were SO good. I think they might be my new favorite veggie!  And for dessert I had just a few spoonfuls of Tempt mint chocolate chip ice cream (it's made with Hemp Milk) which surprisingly was so very tasty!  Ahhh...so far so good!

So what started me down this path? Dec. 1, 2009 I started an exercise program that has changed my life. Literally changed my life. I am addicted to this workout and would shout it from the rooftop if I could, but I really don't want to fall off the roof! I feel so good, so strong and if I miss a workout, I feel bad. The workout is called Chalean Extreme.  In a nutshell it's doing slow paced weight lifting to fatigue within 10-12 reps (you use weights that make you fail by the 10th - 12th rep) and then waiting 10 seconds and doing 3 more very slow reps. That's 3-4 days a week and then the other days are intense cardio, either intervals for 2 minutes following by muscle endurance for 2 minutes (in 45 minutes) or fat burning anaerobic cardio. And so far 15 inches gone, I feel so good, have so much energy and just feel like my body needs clean, fresh foods. I have been doing GREAT with this workout and after about a month in, my eating habits changed. I felt the need to ea...

Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin. The truth about sugar/fructose, etc.

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change?