Pigs, Chickens, feathers... school?

Let's go to school.  The Culinary school of Wisdom!
Where we're gonna learn what's really messed up in the world today via the stuff you eat.

Welcome my fine un-feathered friends, to Jumbled June!   (I know I know, techincally it's not June, but it's going to be, so let's improvise.)




Our word of the month is KARMA:
The sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate.



Now, pick up that piece of bacon, chomp into it.
You may not have been the taker of the life of the animal that gave you that morsel of food but - you've already assisted with it's murder.

Let's also take, for example,  the life of the pig that gave you that bacon.  Do you ever wonder what happened to it before it died?  Do you subscribe to the fact that you're eating it's suffering?  It's fears?
 
It's in you now.

So often I see so many angry people around.   Much of that is in the energy we put into ourselves.  If we fuel ourselves with something that felt pain and suffering, then why is it so wrong to believe that we won't feel this ourselves?

Ponder that and we'll talk about it more next week.

Now, let's get fun.
Jumbled June is all about mixing up things that we otherwise might not seem quite right, but really taste very good!
And our first mix up...

Well, ok.
You got me.

That's pretty silly.

If you put together the photo at the very top, with the photo right above this sentence, what do you think of?

If you said 'Chicken Cordon Bleu' I'll give you a dollar.

Now, from what I've read, CCB is French for - "you're going to wrap some chicken up in some ham with some cheese, fry it up and serve it with sauce"  (Actually the name is suggested as 'blue ribbon'.. so don't get tecchy on me)

Who thought to ever do that?

Now, I've never had it... although it looks pretty good, so it's time I have it - the vegan way


Let's do some numbers

Chicken CB                                    Vegan Periwinkle. ;)

Calories - 600                                           322
Total Fat  - 27                                            9.5
Cholesterol - 280                                         0
Sodium - 1018                                          524
Total Carbs - 5                                             5
Fiber - 0                                                       2
Protein - 81                                                  5
WW Pts -  15                                               3    

So, okay.. this is supposed to be what it looks like:

I'll be spending my Saturday doing so many things.   This will be one of them.  In between cupcakes, grape leaves, supporting the bff for her first yoga class.. 
I'll be a mix up all on my own!

So join me, if you will.. on a summer starter that will make you wonder 'what's next'?

Welcome, to 'Jumbled June!'


Music enjoyed while blogging:
Someone talking about nothing

Current Craving:
"Cheese" coneys.

Current Motivation:
Absonoda      

Recipe 87 - Pulled BBQ 'chicken'.

Easy peasy.

That's how I would describe my dinner on Saturday night.  It was only me, and well.. that might be sad, but who cares.  Me and the television set.

I was inspired to watch a tv show on 'best bbq in America'... I thought I'd take pointers.   The only thing (that they do to their real meat) that I didn't do, was cut my 'meat' after pulling it.. but no matter, I don't think it messed with the flavor any.


Let's start here.

This baby was going to 'slow cook'... y'know, how they do it with the meat that's giving everyone cancer, etc.  So I pulled out the ol crock pot, and the rest of my goodies.
I even made my own dressing!

I decided to use 'Beyond Meat' chicken strips, mainly because they seem to string out better when cooked, so it would give it that full 'pulled' effect.




It was the morning.. I'd had my breakfast, and I had a few other things to get done so this was probably a good idea.  I had 7 hours to waste. (And none of it was wasted).  I mixed up all of the ingredients in my crock pot and set the timer.

So, I left the confines of my kitchen for a while, only to come back and feel like I was right smack in the middle of  Disneyland's Big Thunder Ranch Barbeque picnic!  (I recall this smell from a couple of Springs ago when we waited for what seemed like forever to get a snippet of the most recent POTC movie behind the 'ranch'.)
It was a yummy smell.  Something you don't think as a vegan, that you'll ever bear witness to again.. but I'm tellin you, stick with me kid.  You'll eat everything you remember but you'll eat it compassionately.

Let's move on.
Time elapsed.  It was to the point where I was going to have to take this stuff out and shred it, and thicken my sauce.
I knew it wouldn't be super duper easy to shred something that isn't real chicken, something that wouldn't be so soft it 'fell off a bone' so to speak, so I had to let it cool for a 'spell'.  I attempted to shred with a fork, but it seemed that wasn't going to work for me, so it was time to dive in with the old nimble fingers...



After maybe two or three burns, I had what resembled pulled pork or chicken (you decide).

 

Here's where I tell ya, it don't quite matter what it resembled, youngin, alls I know was that it tasted good!

I threw that stuff back into the pot and let it cook for another quick half an hour and prepared my plate.

Whole wheat bread, veggie 'chips' and a big ol slice of daiya cheddar is what graced my sandwich.

Stuff was HOT!  (And I don't mean like an armadillo in the desert).  It was spicy! It made my nose run, it made my eyes water...

It was perfect.

Although I don't want to hear the word BBQ for a while now.  One sandwich and I usually have my fill.  This was no different.  I'm giving this one a steady vegan YEE HAW!

So,

we're moving on.. we have the rest of the summer together before we're done.  I've got some pretty special recipes on tap for the next 12 weeks.  We'll be mixing it up, visiting France and channeling our inner villains and princesses soon.  Keep it here for all the fun.

We'll talk about 'Jumbled June' here very soon!

Music enjoyed while blogging:

Nada

  

Current Craving:

A vegg salad sandwich

Current Motivation:

Stretching out my back.

Let's memorialize chickens... with a Barbie!

Good evening, friends...  it's time to talk about chickens.. and not the same ol', same ol', I drill into you about what terrible things they do to chickens before you eat them.  No, I'm still sticking with my original 'health issues' with eating certain things from an animal.

We're talking about chickens because it's one of the items I've not touched upon.
We touched upon milk and cheese, eggs and red meat, and even HORSE meat.

But - let me tell you what devastation awaits your body when you enjoy that chicken dinner.

Quite simply, chickens are the most abused animals on the planet. Chickens raised for their flesh are packed by the thousands into massive sheds. They are fed large amounts of antibiotics and drugs to keep them alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them. The antibiotics make chickens grow so large, so fast that they often become crippled under their own weight. This reckless use of antibiotics also makes drugs less effective for treating humans by speeding up the development of drug-resistant bacteria.

A USDA study found that more than 99 percent of broiler chicken carcasses sold in stores had detectable levels of E. coli, indicating fecal contamination. In other words, if you're eating chicken flesh, you're almost certainly eating poop. Consumer Reports states there are "1.1 million or more Americans sickened each year by undercooked, tainted chicken." Chicken flesh is also loaded with dangerous levels of arsenic, which can cause cancer, dementia, neurological problems, and other ailments in humans. Men's Health magazine recently ranked supermarket chicken number one in their list of the "10 Dirtiest Foods" because of the high rate of bacterial contamination.

Both the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization say that if the avian flu virus spreads to the United States, it could be caught simply by eating undercooked chicken flesh or eggs, eating food prepared on the same cutting board as infected meat or eggs, or even touching eggshells contaminated with the disease. Chicken flesh and eggs are packed with cholesterol—a 3-ounce piece of skinless chicken breast meat has as much cholesterol as beef, and just one egg has nearly three times as much! This cholesterol, along with a high intake of animal fats, blocks arteries and causes heart disease.

And you're still eating it.
Sigh.

So, this next dish is a summertime picnic favorite, and one that can be utilized with pork or chicken.  My choice is chicken.  Why?  Because they should be remembered on Memorial day.  The gazillions of chickens and baby chicks that die in the process of factory farming is disgusting.. and this memorial is for them.
But - what is it?

Barbeque!

I'm gonna slow cook this sucker to the peak of vegan perfection and hope that my deck stays nice, dry and warm so that I can pretend I'm at some cutsey picnic I made all for myself. :)

Let's do some numbers

Pulled BBQ Chicken                           Vegan BBQ Chicken
Calories - 300                                               115
Total Fat  - 8                                                    4
Cholesterol - 61                                               0
Sodium - 1058                                              485
Total Carbs - 32.4                                          12
Fiber - 0.3                                                        2
Protein - 23                                                      7
WW Pts - 8                                                      3


And there you have it.
I'm going to fire up the slow cooker on Saturday and let this baby simmer.  I'll probably pair it with some veggie chips and possibly a salad.
Sky's the limit.
Who else wants to memorialize chickens with me?
If not chickens, how about the people that died eating tainted chickens?
How does that rouse ya? ;)


Keep it tuned.. Saturday is the day.
(and with any luck, I'll have leftovers for Monday).


Music enjoyed while blogging:
My popopdeebop station (thank you Koop)

Current Craving:
Grilled 'cheeze'

Current motivation:
Getting ready to see my baby graduate preschool!!

Recipe 86 - Svegish Meatballs - IKEA style

Hello again my friends.. it's time for my next installation of my meaty May recipe concoction!

This past weekend I went all Swed on you and made meatballs.




So, my weekend started a bit like this:  I knew I had a ridiculous busy weekend ahead of me, (which actually ended up being not so busy - but we won't get into that).   I just got my hair cut on Friday afternoon (quite far from home, by my adopted neiceage Miranda) then had to go to the store.  My mom and I opted to peruse the new Jungle Jims in Eastgate - which was fine and handy because I wasn't sure I'd be able to find Lingonberry preserves anywhere else.  I'd been there before, but even so, I was still lost! 
Enter the fact that it was now becoming 5:30 pm and my cats had not eaten. (Usually that means they'll eat my face off when I get in).  I also had not done yoga (and that can render me waaaay off balance if I don't do it daily).    When I finally got home just before 6, and got the cats fed, and my yoga out of the way - it had almost turned into 8pm.  I was hungry, I knew if I didn't throw this together now I'd never get to it.. so, I made my best
'bork bork' and started cooking.

It was potatoes first, (because I'd decided I was going to MASH my potatoes, rather than boil as directed for a usual meal of IKEA swedish meatballs.  I even *shudder* peeled them! 

---takes a moment to breathe---



Then it was onto soaking bread and almond milk together to start the creation of 'meatballs'.  
This consisted of two different kinds of 'meat'.  Beef and Pork.  So, I improvised of course.   I did do half and half.  Mixed all the rest of the goodies into the milk and bread and started creating meatballs.

The recipe told me to make them 'rather large' - which sounded odd to me because the last time I had IKEA meatballs they were small, but whatevs.
I made them large.. they almost resembled silver dollar pancakes! 






Fried them up
Mashed the tatoes

Then started to create the 'gravy'... which didn't turn as brown as I feel it should have - but no matter, because if you asked me.. the GRAVY was the real winner in this dish.



When that was done, I piled my plate with potatoes, lingonberry preserves and my silver dollar meatballs and smothered them all with graaaavyyyyy!

What I ended up with was an amazing taste sensation, very much like the IKEA swedish meatballs I recall.

*I did the happy dance*
And although I look nothing like the Swedish Chef, I think that I have what it takes to be called 'the Vegish chef'.

:)

Meaty May is now on it's last rung and I'm about to bring something to you which you'll find at most picnics, which is well - fitting, considering the holiday to kick off the un-official start of summer is happening this weekend!


Stay tuned.  Details -- soon!

Music enjoyed while blogging:
Birds

Current craving:
More gravy

Current Motivation:
Sucking down dinner before bff yoga!

Yorn desh born, der ritt de gitt der gue, Orn desh, dee born desh, de umn børk! børk! børk!"

Let me introduce you to my horse.
This, is Shadowfax.  And yes.. Shadowfax is my horse.  (In my dreams). 
I'm telling you what, if there was a perfect horse for me, it would be this one.  Granted, I love all horses.. but how gorgous is Shadowfax?




Ok, ok.. I'm getting off track.
We're going to talk about horsemeat... if you remember correctly, we delved into it a bit in this blog post quite a while back when I made a burger from everything that horses eat.

Well, we're going to talk about why you SHOULDN'T eat horses!

First of all.. I'm not going to go into the whole thing about: "Well, it's the same reason you don't eat cats and dogs!"  Nawh.. I don't subscribe to that.  You shouldn't eat any animal.. AT ALL.  But what's so bad about horsemeat for our health?

For one:
Horse meat, particularly that from horses that were not raised solely for meat production tends to be tainted from the drugs and chemicals used to keep the horses healthy, this is why some countries are now banning meat from American horses from being imported as a food source. Ingestion of tainted horse meat can cause all sorts of problems the most severe of which is death of the consumer.

This considered.. it's also known as another 'red meat'.. and we all know the dangers of red meat:

 “red or processed meats are convincing or probable sources of some cancers.” A report says evidence is convincing for a link between red meat, processed meat, and colorectal cancer, and limited but suggestive for links to lung, esophageal, stomach, pancreatic, and endometrial cancers".

Fun...
NOT.

So, why are we talking about horses, and what's with the Swedish Chef and his oops in IKEA Meatballs?
Do you remember something about IKEA's meatballs having horsemeat in them a while back?  

WELL dear Swedish Chef lover....

We're going to revisit something that I bought for a dollar long before I was vegan after a long day of buying cheap Swedish items in a big fancy store.. and yes, I thought it was one of the most yummy things ever (cuz my tastebuds never died!)

Ikea's swedish meatballs, with potatoes and lingonberry jam.


MmmMm.
And I'm going to veganize it for you, world... on my boat house, in Sweden.

Just kidding.



Let's do some numbers:
Swedish Meatballs                      Svegish Meatballs
                         6 meatballs w/gravy
Calories - 190                                         85
Total Fat  - 13                                          5
Cholesterol - 65                                       0
Sodium - 370                                         146
Total Carbs - 5                                         6
Fiber - 0                                                  3
Protein - 16                                             8
WW Pts - 5                                             2


So, this weekend at whence point where I have nothing going on.. (does this time exist this weekend?)  I will be turning Swedish.. singing swedish songs, pretending I'm a natural sunkissed blonde instead of a dirty one.  (don't go there).  And rolling meatballs, mashing potatoes, spreading the lingonberries....

On my houseboat in Sweden, remember?


There are my victims right now! ^^ Gotta go!

och håll ögonen öppna my dear friends..

Until this weekend.
Be kind!

Music enjoyed while blogging:
Subsonic Radio - (Wildest ride in the wilderness!)

Current craving:
Vegan meatballs

Current Motivation:
Catching up on a soap opera.

Recipe 85 - The ever popular, 'Meat' loaf.

Bless you, my sweet vegan readers.  The reason I'm even doing this is to prove that we can eat what everyone else eats, deems to be gross, etc, and fall in love with it all over again - vegan style.


I had so many responses (many of them off the record) to my 'meat' loaf recipe that I was floored!  I personally can't recall ever having meat loaf (or at least too much of it) to miss it so much, but apparently you guys DO miss it!  And I'm excited to have re-created it for you, in a very yummy format!


So, without further ado.. let's talk about it!
I had a pretty busy weekend, and I knew it would continue to be as such, so I decided upon taking a rainy Friday evening and making this.  I had no one to share it with, so I halved out my recipe and went to town gathering up my items




I knew ahead of time I was going to pair this with some baked mac and cheese.  My recipe told me to turn my veggies halfway into the baking time (which was an hour or so) so I knew that by half an hour I had to start baking some mac.   Regardless, let's get started with the star of the show.



I took a shortcut and used the ground beef style gimme lean.  I'm kind of glad I did.. I've created fake meats before and it takes forever in a day.  I also initially considered making this out of quinoa.. but I changed my mind there too - OBVIOUSLY.   The closest vegan recipes to this used chickpeas... and while I love those - I still wanted to make this more realistic, so Gimme lean it was.

I threw that into my mixing bowl and started adding all the rest of the goodies.. the fun part was just about to come up.  I had to get my hands icky.  
Now, if you've ever used 'gimme lean' products, you know how weird of a texture they have.  It's sticky and almost just plain gross. No matter.. it still tastes yummy.
This was super easy.. mix, mold, fwap in my baking dish, cut veggies, pour tomato sauce..

OVEN

I waited.
Put the macaroni on for mac and cheese..
waited.
Mixed in my cheese
waited.
Then it was time to turn the veggies and put my mac in.. 
And I..
well you get the picture.

Finally, I was famished and it was done!
It cut like I imagined a meatloaf would cut, and was easy to remove from my pan.  Nothing fell apart. (Most of these things just crumble in your hands.. not this). 
It was also very 'melt in your mouth'.


I was impressed.
You guys seemed to be impressed with the pics!

Now, this isn't the first thing I'd make again because it's just not something I really ever crave, but if I'm going to a potluck, this seems like it would be a great addition!
SCORE!

So, Meaty May (and the edumacation part) continues on this week..
Our next stop - IKEA... (I need a bookshelf).

Stay tuned!


Music enjoyed while blogging:
Nothing

Current Craving:
Nothing

Curretnt Motivation
Nothing

(I'm really uplifting today, aren't I?)

What Would Mom Make??

Welcome back and happy early Mothers Day to all of you fine mothers out there.   I myself am a mother (to cats) and I'm wondering if they'll get me the same card this year as they've done the past two years?  (I think they keep sending Sabrina out for it, and she's old and forgets quite a bit).  No matter, I know my kids love me!


So, it being Mothers Day, I got to thinking about foods mom would make, (not my mom, I can't recall my mom ever making this dish).. but moms in general.  Like, you see moms on tv and such making this.   Regardless, I wanted to stay in the 'meaty May' spectrum and throw Mothers Day in somehow, and let's not forget what every mom does best?  Protects her children.

I'd like to see more moms out there go vegan and promote it to their children.. why?
Well, look at some of these statistics.. (And we're going for red meat here this time):

When it comes to the meat that we buy in the store and beyond, this might be, for you,  a lot of info to take in, but do.. it's important

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved several steroid hormone drugs since the 1950s. By increasing the animal's growth rate, these drugs promote high profits and lean meat. These steroid hormones are used in beef cattle and sheep. They include estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.

Since every type of meat is from the female animal, the meat contains synthetic female hormones that are given to the animals in order to make them develop faster and bigger. These synthetic hormones cause female reproductive area cancers in women and prostate and testicular cancer in men. By consuming synthetic hormones from an animal, the human's hormonal balance becomes disrupted. This can lead to several health conditions including the premature onset of puberty and development of children.


Red Meat

Red meats are particularly unhealthy and contain high amounts of saturated fats that raise blood cholesterol and increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other compounds that can promote cancer. In fact, red meat consumption has been known to increase your risk of developing colorectal, lung, stomach, pancreatic, esophageal, and endometrial cancers.

The by-product of meat consumption is uric acid, which causes inflammation and creates excess mucus in the body. Essentially, uric acid acidifies the body. If you consume meat, you are putting yourself at risk for catching Mad Cow Disease.

Frequent red meat eaters face a higher risk of developing colon cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and endometriosis.

Humans are not supplied with the appropriate enzymes for digesting meat, fur, wool, or feathers. Human beings are herbivores by nature, but society has crafted everyone into a meat-eating carnivore.

Consuming more of a plant-based diet can substantially reduce the risk of developing a chronic disease and dying prematurely.


Processing and Cooking

When cooked, meat produces harmful compounds called carcinogens. When animal meat is cooked at high temperatures, heterocyclic amines form because the amino acids and creatine react. Cooking red meat can release nitrosamines, increasing your risk of developing cancer.

There are six main treatments of meat products that apply to the various processing technologies.

    Fresh processed meat products
    Cured meat pieces
    Raw-cooked products
    Pre-cooked cooked products
    Raw (dry)- fermented sausages


Do we want this for the future leaders of our world?

I hope you said no!
Well, we're talking about red meat today because I'm about to veganize something you'd find June Cleaver in the kitchen making..
What's this, you say?  What could you possibly veganize red-meatish for us this time?

Meatloaf!


Honestly, I really don't remember my own mother making this, but maybe she did.

So, let's do some numbers on this gem, which I think I'll make mac and cheese with mine






Meat Loaf                                  Veganloaf
                     One Large Slice
Calories - 294                                  112
Total Fat  - 18                                     4
Cholesterol - 114                                0
Sodium - 596                                  122
Total Carbs - 10                                 4
Fiber - 0                                             4
Protein - 23                                        2
WW Pts - 8                                        1

There should be no convincing here.
My goal is to make things I make taste like the real thing.. but I really could use a victim.  Haven't had many as of late.  If you want to have a nice spot of meat loaf with me this weekend, give me a holler.   I'll have plenty!

In the mean-time, I'll be preparing for my own mothers day festivities... doing what?  I dunno.  ;)


See you this weekend, in the kitchen!


Music enjoyed while blogging
Subsonic Radio

Current Motivation
Nothing, actually

Current Craving
Mashed Potatoes, veganized, by my OWN mom (she, strangely enough can make them taste like the un-vegan ones I can remember.. why can't I?)

Recipe 84 - Cheezy Lasagna Roll-ups

Yum.

I'm not Italian, but one might think I was.  Two of these babies were more than enough for a meal, but do you think I stopped there?
No.
I had three.  :P



Hey, I had to carbo-load for the leisurely walk I took up and down the streets of Downtown Cincinnati waiting for my sister to finish the Flying Pig half marathon on Sunday.  You know, cuz I burned just as many calories as she did.  Ha.


So, I started with the noodles.  Nothing fancy.  I pondered making them, but decided not to.  I went and got rice noodles from the store (isn't it cool they sell them in lasagna form?! :) )  I boiled them 'al-dente' according to the directions on the box and then started working on the cheezy type filling.. or what omni's know as 'ricotta cheese'.  Only this was vegan, and so yum!


My vegan 'ricotta' was a mix of  tofu, herbs, oils, a little vegan parm and my favorite egg sub ever, The Vegg.
It was very ricottalistic, if I do say so myself, and didn't take long at all to make, however, I did have to prepare for the roll-out and get my 'meat' sauce made, so I'm glad it was quick.



Cooking the meat sauce was no huge feat in and of itself.  I ended up buying a jar of tomato sauce and adding in my own herbs and oils there too, and then I sauteed up some 'grillers' and cooked it through to it's beautiful red color.
At this point, I was preparing for the roll-out.  I'd pulled the noodles out and put them on the foil that I would use later to cover them to bake, and then it was time to start the layers.

Mmm....

So, the most traumatic part of this whole thing was rolling those to perfection.  I found, that if I talked to myself about the most inane things that I thought less about how perfect of a job I did and thought more about arguing with myself.  (This is what you do when you're single and your cats are sleeping).  Before you knew it, I had 8 perfectly rolled 'roll ups' for the oven!

I was beside myself because now they had to be covered in more 'cheese' and baked for 45 minutes!   45 minutes is a long time to wait when you're already hungry!    I you-tubed some Golden Girls episodes and waited it out.  After-all, I'm sure a dim witted, Rose Nylund story would help me laugh off my wait.

And so it did.. timer rung.

Time to remove!

 

Yay!   And I know I say it all the time.. but my craving for real tasting lasagna was met, right here, in my kitchen.

*does a dance*

So, what's next? 

It's Meaty May..  I'm thinking something befitting of 'mom'.   As in, WWMM?

What would  Mom Make?

Deep breath..

(Smells good!)

Keep it tuned, I have all the veganmeaty goodness coming up soon!

Music enjoyed while blogging and cooking:

Nothing.

Current Craving:

Cookies

Current Motivation:

It's so bedtime.

Rollin' rollin' rollin...

Happy May day to all you lovely folks out there.  Here's a flower for you!

(Oh yeah I did that.. I snuck Disney into it.  Did you expect any less?!)



So, we're moving on to what I want to call 'meaty May'. 
This month we're taking a twist on the old "save the animals" routine, and we're going to try to push on the HEALTH benefits that WILL befall you if you DON'T eat the animals and their secretions, while showing you the yummy stuff we can do without the yucky stuff.

Let's talk a little about dairy... I know, I know, it's not 'meat' but it is the second sister to the meat industry.. for those cows and goats, yes.. they'll be on your un-vegan table too.

You think your milk in a jug is coming from a cow right now that's doing this in a field.

Uh uh...

Let's go here instead:

Eventually, these baby cows, ripped from their mother will become meat.. 'veal' as they call it.  They're not drinking their mothers milk.
Why?

Because you are.  You're using it as a refreshing wash down with treats, or making cheeses out of it.
So sad.
But even more so for you.





Let's talk about why you SHOULDN'T consume dairy.. aside from the fact that this animal isn't your mother, so honestly - it's not NATURAL people!!

How about a mammal that drinks milk when full grown?  All mammals, other than humans, stop drinking milk when they reach a certain age.  So why do adult humans still drink milk?

Milk is fed to a mammal's young to help the young mammal grow.  Milk makes a young calf a big cow...Milk does the same thing to our kids.
Farmers give cattle rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone) in order to increase milk production.  This leads to an increase in IGF-1 (Insulin Growth Factor-1) which is found naturally in our bodies, but elevated levels are thought to be a concern for risk of cancer.

Milk also contains the protein Casein.  For most people Casein is not a bad thing, but there is some evidence that it can be a risk factor for cancer.  There is also a big portion of the population that is allergic to the protein

Look at these FACTS:

 -Exposure to dairy before the age of 1 is correlated with type 1 diabetes

- One of the proteins in dairy, casein, is associated with increased rates of cancer

- The sugar in dairy, lactose, is related to ischemic heart disease. Many, many people have trouble digesting this sugar.

- Milk consumption is linked to bladder, colorectal, prostate, and testicular cancers

- Dairy is the highest source of dioxin in the standard American diet, found in especially high levels in butter and cheese. Dioxin is a toxic chemical that can cause cancer.

- Consumption of milk protein can increase levels of IGF-1 {insulin-like growth factor} in the body, which promotes the growth of cells- both normal and cancerous.

- Dairy has been linked to a number of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, lupus, multiple sclerosis, Graves’ disease, and type 1 diabetes. {The proposed theory here is that some people’s bodies cannot distinguish the difference between cow’s milk proteins and their own proteins.}

- Dairy is “mucus-producing”- this can cause built up phlegm, acne, eczema, and psoriasis.

- Dairy products may contain hormones {even if “organic”} and promote increased level of hormone production in the body.

- Not only is milk not the only good source of calcium, but it does not prevent osteoporosis. In fact, the it can play a role in the destruction of bone due to the acid load and erosion of bone-building cells.

Not to mention.. what's in your milk?
 scientists analyzed 20 samples of milk—cow’s, goat’s, and human—bought in Spain and Morocco, and found a chemical cocktail of ingredients added to the animal’s diet prior to milking or contamination through feed or on the farm. Some of the contaminants found in trace amounts include triclosan (an anti-fungal), 17-beta-estradiol (a sex hormone), and florfenicol (an antibiotic).
(Let's also not forget blood, and hair).

Ok, are we convinced yet?

Let me go hurl for a moment.


Now that we're a little more educated on dairy.. let's discuss this week's recipe.
It's a cheesy one.. LADEN with dairy.

And I'm gonna fix it!  Cuz, baby, it's broken.



Lasagna roll-ups.. HELLO!
I'm going to make a cheezy sauce to go with it
DOUBLE HELLO!

Anything you can eat, I can veg-an-ize,  I can ve-an-ize really yummy food

yes I can!

Let's do some numbers:

Lasagna Roll Up                     LaVegan Roll up
                              One Roll
Calories - 305                                225            
Total Fat  - 12                                 4
Cholesterol - 63                               0
Sodium - 625                                 342
Total Carbs - 27                              16
Fiber - 2                                          2 
Protein - 20                                    12
WW Pts - 8                                      4

I'm stoked.  I've actually been craving lasagna for a while.. but in a handy dandy size.  I'm waffling with the idea of putting 'chicken' or 'beef' in them.. I'll keep you posted.

Obviously

And, I want you to do some homework for me.. and I'd love to hear your findings in the comments section!

So, something to think about this weekend is why on earth do you still want to consume dairy when you know what you know?
Let me be honest with you.. when I started to do my 'milk' changeover, it was well before I became vegan.  I went from skim milk, then to rice milk.. it was MUCH easier for me with rice milk because although it had a bit of a grainier taste, it still worked really well as a 'drinking' milk.  Now, I don't really drink any vegan milk all that often anyway, I use it to cook and bake with.  But if you're a drinker, and want to think about changing over.. try rice.  It's available everywhere now.  I've also attempted flax milk (which you have no excuse, it's at Wal-Mart, guys).  It's VERY similar to cows milk too.. with a HOST of health benefits.  
So - what are you waiting for?

Go - pick up some and just TRY it!

While you're at it, grab a wedge of Daiya and make a grilled cheese sandwich... you'll thank me later.

:)

Stay tuned!
Veganization begins, this weekend!

Music enjoyed while blogging
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Current Motivation
Getting you people to stop drinking weird things

Current craving:
A grilled cheese sandwich, now.