Fried Green Plantains (Tostones)!

A personal favorite of mine. These suckers are tasty alternatives to the usual deep fried affair.

Pretty simple and straightforward to make. Even though a deep fryer would be ideal, I'm sure most of us (including me) don't own one.

So we're going to use a good pot or skillet and fill it up with about an inch or two of frying oil. I like a good canola, but any veggie-based oil will do.

Get a nice green plantain (make sure it's not the ripe ones). You can usually find them wherever they sell latin produce. Peel and cut it up into 1.5 inch pieces. If you are cutting ahead of time or have any pieces you're not immediately frying, soak and store them in cold water (refrigerate).

Fry the pieces on medium high heat until they're nice and golden, but not brown. You may have to flip them once if you use less oil. Then, remove them from the oil and place them between a nice terry cloth towel on a strong counter top. Soak the towel in water and wring it out beforehand, so that the plantains don't stick to the towel!

Now the fun part! Use something with a flat surface, like a pot or pan -- or a wooden mallet if you have one of those lying around -- to flatten or "smash" the pieces, but don't go overboard.

Then refry them until they are crispy. Remove and plate. You can season them with some salt and pepper, but personally, I like to eat them with some minced garlic in oil, plus some ketchup. Enjoy!

Love and Peace,
VG

Peanut Butter Jelly Time (with Strawberries and Blueberries)!

I'm sure you're familiar with the classic PB&J with banana slices (if not, give that a try too!), but how about a berry version? I mean, most jam comes from berries anyway, so why not use the actual fruit?

For a delicious snack or treat:

• 2 slices of whole grain bread, toasted (i used quinoa bread)
• 2 strawberries sliced
• 9 blueberries
• your favorite peanut butter (i used crunchy unsalted from TJ's)
• your favorite jelly (i used organic concord grape from TJ's) 

if your berries are rolling, use a bit of pb or j as glue

So hopefully, like everybody else, you are a peanut butter and jelly sandwich savant, and I don't have to tell you how to put this bad boy together. I will say that the tartness from the berries works well with the savory and sweet. enjoy!

a twist on a childhood favorite

Love and Peace,
VG

Smoothie Season: Mango, Strawberry, Blueberry

I love the summer for many reasons, but one of the best joys is drinking an ice cold smoothie on a hot day. A great treat or snack and very easy to make.

And the cool thing about fruit smoothies is you can really get creative and experiment. I decided to try some layering, instead of the usual blend-them-all-together approach. 

The bottom layer:

• 3/4 of a medium-sized mango (or 1 whole small mango), peeled and cut up
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 3-4 ice cubes

Middle layer:

• 4-5 strawberries, stems removed
• 2 ice cubes
• 2 tablespoons of water
• tablespoon agave (optional depending on tartness of berries)

 Top layer:

• handful (1/4 cup?) of blueberries
• 1 ice cube
• 1/4 cup of soy milk

I tend not to add sugar to anything, but a bit of agave is fine. Any non-dairy milk will work, but I prefer soy. These measurements will vary based on your fruits' size and sweetness (and your taste), so experiment for yourself and enjoy!

Love and Peace,
VG

Vegan Athlete Sighting: Arian Foster Goes Vegan

Houston Texans running back Arian Foster announced he had officially gone vegan, via Twitter last week.

Officially a vegan now. We'll see how this goes. But week one down. So far, so good. Feels wonderful.
— Arian Foster (@ArianFoster) July 6, 2012

And what do you know? He actually got a lot of support. Glad to see my fellow vegans sending him lots of thoughtful and encouraging tweets. Though I'm sure he also got a lot of negative feedback.

The guys at ESPN First Take debated whether or not this was a good idea. Their main criticisms were that Foster should've started at the end of last season to give his body time to adjust, and that -- surprise -- he's not going to get enough protein and is going to lose some muscle mass.

I typically like First Take and respect their arguments. And I do in this case, mostly, but they assumed that Arian Foster "waited until now" to go vegan. What if he didn't do it at the end of last season because it wasn't even something he considered? What if he just started thinking and learning about it recently? But even if he was thinking about it for a long time, it's not an easy decision. It takes a lot of consideration, effort and commitment. I'm sure as a star running back with an NFL franchise, fan base and millions of dollars riding on him, he thought about it long and hard. 

As for the lack of protein argument, that myth is always going to persist as long as "conventional wisdom" rules. I can't help but feel like every time an athlete (or anybody for that matter) goes vegan/vegetarian, people react like he/she's the first one. Everybody's different, but there are lots of vegan body builders out there, (have you visited veganbodybuilding.com?) as well as vegan/vegetarian athletes (some MMA fighters). So Arian Foster is certainly not the first and is in good company. He's a smart dude. He'll get it right.

But as Paul Kuhrasky writes in his ESPN blog:

Because of the NFL’s strict banned substances list, any protein powder Foster uses will be one he’s had looked over and approved by Houston’s training staff.

In the Twitter conversation Foster’s mention of going vegan set off, he mentioned that he and Roberta Anding, the Texans' nutritionist, follow each other’s accounts.

Atlanta tight end Tony Gonzalez is among athletes who have adopted a vegan diet, according to this recent ESPNW piece by Sharon Liao.

Foster is a disciplined and interesting guy. He wouldn't make this choice without researching it and knowing what he's doing. If it somehow negatively impacts him he'll change course, I'm confident.

Tony Gonzalez announced he went vegan back in 2008, but I read he occasionally eats fish and chicken? If that's true, I at least give him credit for trying. It's technically not vegan, but at least he cut down his meat consumption, depending on how often "occasionally" is.

And while we're talking about other athletes, I was intrigued when MLB slugger Prince Fielder went vegetarian, but disappointed when I found out it didn't last long. ESPN reported, "Fielder did want to debunk one thing: Back in 2008, he talked about becoming a vegetarian, but that apparently didn't last long after all the commotion.'I'm not a vegetarian,' he said. 'I was, for like three months.'"

But as for Foster, in one of his tweets, he mentioned that he did watch the documentary Forks Over Knives, so I'm assuming he's done his research. I wonder how strict he is going to be. Is he giving up leather and wool, etc? In any case, I wish Arian Foster the best of luck and am proud of his decision. Please prove to people once again that you can be a vegan athlete.

I leave you with this very wise and true quote from Arian Foster himself, which he probably tweeted in response to disapproval.

People feel so strong about meat and milk. I wish they felt this strong about peace.
— Arian Foster (@ArianFoster) July 6, 2012

Love and Peace,
VG

The Carb Conundrum

All calories are not created equally. In fact, which types of carbs we eat has a big impact on our weight and long-term health, according to a new study published last week from the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center of Boston Children’s Hospital.

The study was relatively small, following 21 overweight and obese young adults. The participants lost 10 to 15 percent of their body weight before taking up one of three diets for four weeks.

not considered a serving of veggies...

The three diets were the conventional low-fat diet (60 percent carbs, 20 percent fat, 20 percent protein), a very low-carb diet (10 percent carbs, 60 percent fat, 30 percent protein) and a low-glycemic diet (40 percent carbs, 40 percent fat, 20 percent). 

The low-fat diet emphasized carbs from fruits, vegetables and both processed and unprocessed whole grains. The low glycemic diet emphasized carbs from minimally processed grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes.  

The study results were pretty interesting. Those on the low-carb diet burned 350 calories more per day than those on the low-fat diet. Those on the low glycemic diet burned 150 calories more per day than the low-fat diet. Meaning where we get our calories does matter.

It also appears that the low-carb diet is the best for burning calories. And the low-fat diet, which has been the conventional choice, is actually the worst. But not so fast, the researchers said.

The low-carb diet raised levels of CRP (c-reactive protein), which is a measure of chronic inflammation, and cortisol, a hormone that controls stress, both of which are tightly linked to long-term heart disease risk and mortality, noted David Ludwig, study author and director of the obesity prevention center.

Furthermore, according to a New York Times blog:

[Ludwig's] conclusion, then? “The ‘Atkins’ diet gives you the biggest metabolic benefit initially, but there are long-term downsides, and in practice, people have trouble sticking to low-carb diets. Over the long term, the low-glycemic diet appears to work the best, because you don’t have to eliminate an entire class of nutrients, which our research suggests is not only hard from a psychological perspective but may be wrong from a biological perspective.”

Almost every diet, from the radical no-carb-at-all notions to the tame (and sane) “Healthy Eating Plate” from Harvard, agrees on at least this notion: reduce, or even come close to eliminating, the amount of hyper-processed carbohydrates in your diet, because, quite simply, they’re bad for you. And if you look at statistics, at least a quarter of our calories come from added sugars (seven percent from beverages alone), white flour, white rice, white pasta … are you seeing a pattern here? (Oh, and white potatoes. And beer.)

So what’s Ludwig’s overall advice? “It’s time to reacquaint ourselves with minimally processed carbs. If you take three servings of refined carbohydrates and substitute one of fruit, one of beans and one of nuts, you could eliminate 50 percent of diet-related disease in the United States. These relatively modest changes can provide great benefit.”

try some whole grains
(preferably unprocessed)

So what does this mean? If you're trying to lose weight and keep it off, watch the processed foods. Choose unprocessed whole foods, you know, things that don't come in shiny packages with labels on them. Cook your own food from fresh ingredients and -- for crying out loud -- cut the sugar and watch those empty calories! And yes, this includes pizza, sausage, hot dogs, cheese, soda, ice cream and pastries. 

I obviously will stick to veganism, extra fresh fruits and veggies plus good carbs please.

One last tidbit: The glycemic index measures how much carbs affect blood sugar levels. A low-fat diet has a high glycemic load. A low-glycemic diet has a moderate glycemic load. And a very low-carb diet carries a low glycemic load.

Sort of Vegan

and if you're lactose intolerant, that doesn't make you "sort of vegan." even more so if you're saying that to me while eating a chicken wing.

That was one of my first exchanges with a friend at a party when she asked me what being vegan meant. But she's a sweetheart and was just slightly confused or trying to relate. So I kindly explained that it was more than just not being able to digest lactose. Still, funny moment.

Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals Also Turned Me Vegan

Finally, we get to veganism. It only took me 2+ years since starting this blog. (laziness) Though I'm technically no longer a greenhorn, it's important to remember the roots of why I made this choice. (Or some cheesy line about how I'll always be learning new things about veganism)

Learning

Well I was vegetarian for about 5 months. Cutting meat out of my life was effortless and I was going pretty strong. But I still felt like I wasn't doing enough. Veganism was always the obvious logical progression. I knew I would eventually get there, but giving up all animal products entirely, including eggs, dairy, honey, leather, wool, etc, seemed too difficult.

But then I read Eating Animals, which as Natalie Portman said in her Huffington Post piece:

Jonathan Safran Foer's book Eating Animals changed me from a twenty-year vegetarian to a vegan activist. I've always been shy about being critical of others' choices because I hate when people do that to me. I'm often interrogated about being vegetarian (e.g., "What if you find out that carrots feel pain, too? Then what'll you eat?").

I've also been afraid to feel as if I know better than someone else -- a historically dangerous stance (I'm often reminded that "Hitler was a vegetarian, too, you know"). But this book reminded me that some things are just wrong. Perhaps others disagree with me that animals have personalities, but the highly documented torture of animals is unacceptable, and the human cost Foer describes in his book, of which I was previously unaware, is universally compelling.

The human cost of factory farming -- both the compromised welfare of slaughterhouse workers and, even more, the environmental effects of the mass production of animals -- is staggering. Foer details the copious amounts of pig shit sprayed into the air that result in great spikes in human respiratory ailments, the development of new bacterial strains due to overuse of antibiotics on farmed animals, and the origins of the swine flu epidemic, whose story has gripped the nation, in factory farms.

Both Natalie's piece and the book she describes are well-written arguments anybody can relate to. When I read Eating Animals, there was one specific account, which was not an exaggeration, of the "kill room" in an industrial cow farm. It brought me close to tears how these cows are hung upside down with their jugulars slit. The cows are supposed to be knocked out beforehand, being hit in the head by a steel bolt. But sometimes they are left semi-conscious, on purpose, because they bleed out faster if their hearts are still pumping. Sometimes they are fully conscious, not having been knocked out at all. Even worse, sometimes the cows are pregnant; one worker described a cow actually giving birth while she was walking down the "kill alley."

As Foer details, "No jokes here, and no turning away. Let’s say what we mean: animals are bled, skinned, and dismembered while conscious. It happens all the time, and the industry and the government know it."

not a sarah mclachlan commercial.

I felt so guilty. This story and all the countless other ones like it are results of our demand for meat. And it's not really our fault. Most of us grew up eating animals, not thinking anything of it, certainly not where it comes from or how it's "produced." To us, it's just food that ends up on our plates and tastes good. And part of the ignorance is because of the factory farming machine, which does a really good job of hiding their practices and transforming this sacred ritual of animal eating into a faceless, processed product that you buy in neat little packages with fancy price tags on them.

Choices

But once we learn the truth, that's where it really counts. Not knowing is one thing, but indifference is a choice. I'm not saying we should all be vegans overnight, but I can't help but frown upon a person who learns about all this suffering and chooses to ignore it. "Eating meat is natural," or "Meat just tastes too good," or the ever-popular, "You need a balanced diet," are not valid arguments. But ultimately, I don't preach or try to convert anyone. I believe in freedom of choice. It would be nice if it was an informed-choice, but that's probably wishful thinking. You don't have to do the whole vegan thing, but at least cut down on meat consumption (we consume more meat than we ever have in our entire history).

So I've been vegan for a little over two years. I feel great and am more conscious of my health than ever before. For me, it's not just about not eating animals, it's about watching my carbon footprint, as well as good nutrition and exercise. Because, let's be real, you can be vegan by eating nothing but potato chips and french fries (not fried in lard) all day.

oh the many benefits of fresh fruit.

I read that Natalie Portman stopped being strictly vegan when she was pregnant. I was a little disappointed, but I understand. Whether she went back to being vegan, I don't know. I also read that Jonathan Safran Foer started promoting "happy" chickens, which I don't support. Terms like "cage-free"or "free range" are ambiguous at best, but that's a whole other blog post. But in any case, even if Natalie and Jonathan aren't vegans themselves, their arguments are still sound. And I leave you with this excerpt from Natalie's piece.

I remember in college, a professor asked our class to consider what our grandchildren would look back on as being backward behavior or thinking in our generation, the way we are shocked by the kind of misogyny, racism, and sexism we know was commonplace in our grandparents' world. He urged us to use this principle to examine the behaviors in our lives and our societies that we should be a part of changing. Factory farming of animals will be one of the things we look back on as a relic of a less-evolved age.

I say that Foer's ethical charge against animal eating is brave because not only is it unpopular, it has also been characterized as unmanly, inconsiderate, and juvenile. But he reminds us that being a man, and a human, takes more thought than just "This is tasty, and that's why I do it."

Love and Peace,
VG