Recipe 81 - What came first, the chicken or the egg?

The hens are angry...they want YOU to stop stealing from them.  You steal their babies, you steal their feathers, you steal their lives...
This is no good.
Have you ever heard about being hen-pecked?
Watch your eyes...





Once upon a time I used to see hens like this:

I wised up.  I'm a big fan of birds, and now-adays, I like my birds alive.
I don't need them to fill my belly.
Why?

Ah vegan science is a brilliant thing - but we'll get to that.
This is now how I see my hens:

And, if you click on the pic then you'll be directed to a group that is helping hens live out good lives!   We need more places like this.  Consider re-homing a hen!  Surely there's a place in your heart for these gentle creatures?  NOT on your plate!
Wanna know some facts about chickens and hens before we move on?

1 ) The chicken, Gallus gallus domesticus, is a domestic subspecies of the red junglefowl, a member of the pheasant family that is native to Asia. Genetic studies have found that the grey junglefowl also contributed to the chicken’s evolution.

2 ) This bird was probably first domesticated for the purpose of cockfights, not as food.

3 ) Chickens aren’t completely flightless—they can get airborne enough to make it over a fence or into a tree.

4 ) These birds are omnivores. They’ll eat seeds and insects but also larger prey like small mice and lizards.

5 ) Baby chickens are chicks. Female chickens are pullets until they’re old enough to lay eggs and become hens. Male chickens are called roosters, cocks or cockerels, depending on the country you’re in.

8 ) A rooster announces to a flock of chickens that he’s found food with a “took, took, took.” But the hens don’t pay attention if they already know that there is food around.

9 ) Roosters perform a little dance called ‘tidbitting’ in which they make sounds (food calls) and move their head up and down, picking up and dropping a bit of food. Researchers have found that females prefer males that often perform tidbitting and have larger, brighter combs on top of their heads.

10 ) Avian influenza (a.k.a. bird flu) is extremely contagious and can make chickens very sick and kill them. The highly pathogenic form of the disease can kill off 90 to 100 percent of birds in a flock in just 48 hours.

11 ) And which came first, the chicken or the egg? Well, all vertebrates have eggs, but the hardshelled variety first appeared among reptiles.

Ok,
So why all this talk about hens?

Down home cookin' by death.

Well, it's angry bird week, and we're going to make the angry hen a little happier! I'm about to veganize an old guilty pleasure of mine...
Cracker Barrel Chicken and Dumplings!
(You see their billboard on every major highway!  Fahgetabouttit!  They hate gay people and kill animals - I don't condone either activity).



Let's do a few numbers:

CB Chicken and Dumplings              Beyond Chicken and Dumplings
Calories - 390                                                  185
Total Fat  - 10                                                   6
Cholesterol - 45                                                0
Sodium -   1230                                               446
Total Carbs - 45                                               22
Fiber - 10                                                         6             
Protein - 29                                                     10.3                                   
WW Pts - 9                                                      4

The numbers don't lie!

And who's going to enjoy this with me?
Um... me.
And me.
Probably a cat.
I'm taking the day off on Saturday and making this for me.
(Oh did I say me?)
If I were to eat this the way I did back in the day, I'd moosh it with mac and cheese too - but I'm going to go a bit healthier and pair it with veggies instead.
For my dinner.
All mine.

Unless you wanna invite yourself over, I might be able to share a plateful. ;)
J/K no one visits me.

So - this takes place Saturday and I'll expect you to hang off my every cooking utterance instead of partying your Saturdays away.  In the mean-time - Don't get pecked by a hen!!


Music enjoyed while blogging:
Subsonic Radio

Current Craving:
Mashed potatoes

Current Motivation:
Feel good vibes to Bella.