Good Golly Gee Wizzz

What a busy day it has been. Kristin has been whipping up so tastee vittles left and right....I am the lucky taste tester :-) I've got our vegan friendly ETSY shop fired up and ready to list. We've decided to give a whirl with soapmaking, bath salts, and home products initially.

Today, I listed the inagural item in our shop, a magazine bowl. An upcycled Real Simple magazine that is pining to find a new home now. The inspiration came from A Little Hut's blog tutorial. I had been searching for a way to upcycle old phone books and this seemed to be a perfect fit! Though this one isn't a phone book, you get the idea. Tomorrow I'll post a phone book bowlie.

Anywho, swing on by our ETSY shop, Marge & Vina, as new vegan goodness will be added as often as we can crank it out! Some of you all might know me from Oso Azul Design where I sell me arts. No worries, I am still selling the arts over there....I am just working with Kristin to sell some homey goodness over here! Wanna check out my art bloggy....click here. nitey nite.

~elli

"Sour Cream Chick'n" Enchiladas, bitches!

I made these tonight. If I do say so myself, they were excellent. And being newly vegan, I think I especially appreciate that I could not tell the difference between these and omni enchiladas. I think I enjoyed them more, as I tasted the different veggies more, as they were not loaded down with sour cream, or cheese. My mother loved them. Dad didn't have any, wasn't feeling well. But I bet he will. Yes, indeedy. His opinion is the one I really wanted, as he is more of a meat-and-potatoes kinda person.

First, this recipe would actually make two pans of enchiladas. But I love the filling so much, that I made 1 pan enchiladas, and I am going to use the rest of the filling for quesadillas, and a tasty southwest chicken salad. Roasting or grilling the vegetables is a bit of extra work well worth the time. It gives them so much more flavor. The amount of poblanos depends on how spicy they are, or how much heat you like. The same goes for the chipotle. I made these for a dinner with the parents so I wanted them mild.

"SOUR CREAM CHICKEN" ENCHILADAS

INGREDIENTS

• 8 oz. package "chik'n strips" (I used Morningstar brand) , or equivalent frozen, thawed and drained tofu (not silken!)
  


• 1-2 poblano chiles, roasted, peeled and diced
  


• 1 zucchini, diced
  


• 1 medium onion, chopped
  


• 1 15 1/4 oz. can corn, or small bag frozen
  


• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
  


• 1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
  


• 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes , drained (I only used half a can), or fresh diced
  


• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  


• 1 tsp. oregano leaf
  


• 6-12 oz. Tofutti "Better Than Sour Cream", depending on how much "dairy" you like. I used 9 oz. or 3/4 of a container
  


• 1-2 T. chipotle in adobo, pureed or mashed
  


• salt to taste
  


• 1 16 o. can green enchilada sauce, or homemade if you aren't lazy like me!
  


• about 9 6" corn tortillas

1. Thaw "chik'n" or tofu. If using tofu, squeeze out all water. Dice it up.

2. Drain canned corn or thaw frozen. Toss corn, onion and diced zucchini with a very small amount of oil (just enough to barely coat veggies), broil or roast in oven at 500 degrees until onions start to brown. I actually like mine a bit burnt. You could also grill them.

3. Mix "chik'n" or tofu, chiles, onions, corn, zucchini, drained tomatoes, cumin, cilantro, beans, cumin, oregano, chipotle and salt to taste. At this point you could just leave out the "sour cream" if you want a less fatty enchilada.

4. Heat up a very small amount of oil in a pan and quickly saute each side of the corn tortillas, just heating through. If you do not want the added oil, you could just cover the tortillas with a damp paper towel and put them in the microwave.

5. Dip the tortillas in the enchilada sauce, stuff and put them in a lightly oiled pan. Top with more sauce. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. I topped mine with fresh tomato and green onion when they came out of the oven.

I used what I had at my house. Certainly fresh or frozen corn would be better. Fresh tomatoes, dried black beans and homemade enchilada sauce would also be good. But, HOT DAMN, these turned out swell. I am new to the vegan thing, but have cooked professionally for years and am happy for that. I think I know a few more tricks, and such. Elli is just finishing up the dog's new vegan muesli, wit

h some TVP, shredded carrots, parsley and celery. So far he approves of the sample he was given. Oh, and above is a picture of the tastee brownies Elli made. My mom snarfed them down. -Kristin

Beaver butt juice : - (

Here we are, Cyber Monday as it is known now in our spanking, new cyber world. Thanksgiving dinner is done, it was traditional as promised to the family, and I did have a few bites of turkey though I really didn’t want to and I felt bad for the little one….10 lb’er….light weight. Next year, we’ll experience some tofurky which doesn’t sound so absurd to me anymore.

Back to today, this is the designated drop dead *no pun intended* day for finishing/donating or tossing the rest of our animal/animal by-product edibles. On all the other animal stuff, like cleaners, leather, wool, etc, we’ve decided to use until gone or worn out. The decision to continue using certain items, such as the leather furniture that was bought last summer, has a lot to do with the fact that the damage is already done and it isn’t practical to flush these items without having a few thousand extra dollars to replace them immediately. Frankly, we are ok with this decision. I swear to all that matter that I will never ever buy these items again!

On the food front, boy oh boy have we been schooling ourselves on what all this lifestyle change encompasses and how we can fit it into our lives. Honestly, I feel like a need a class or two for certification! Perhaps even an Associates of Applied Science degree would be sufficient to induct one into the world of veganism. Don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled about the change, I am just a bit overwhelmed by the scope of product used in every-flippin-thing! Good lord! Who came up with this shit to begin with? Beaver butt juice makes a gives a lovely pungent bouquet for food??? WTF??? Who the hell figured that one out? ACK! Ok, I’ll settle down now.

Today I look forward to leaving my meaty and dairy delights behind….as I learn more and more about where they come from…the weight of it all makes them not so delightful after all.

~elli

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.
- Alice Walker, African-American writer & storyteller

Confused, at best.

Veganism (also strict or pure vegetarianism) is a philosophy and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose.[1][2] Vegans do not use or consume animal products of any kind.[3] The most popular reasons for becoming a vegan are ethical commitment or moral convictions concerning animal rights, the environment, or human health, and spiritual or religious concerns.[4][5][2] Of particular concern are the practices involved in factory farming and animal testing, and the intensive use of land and other resources required for animal farming.

Here is the definition of vegan on Wikipedia. It pretty much supports any other definition I have seen. I feel like I am, in a way, trying to be one of the "cool kids", if I can fit into the definition of a vegan, and that is confusing, and annoying, as well. I am trying to figure out if I can ever become a true vegan. Elli and I have leather furniture. It makes me sad that we bought it, but it has yet to even be paid off. I own leather shoes. I own wool sweaters. Other things of that nature. A few silk scarves. Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. And I smoke. I saw one site that stated that you can not be a vegan and smoke, as you can not eat and/or use anything that is tested on animals. Well, someday I would like to quit smoking, but giving up all that I am, and readjusting to it all seems like enough to me at this juncture. Can I just smoke Natural American Spirit cigarettes? I am positive that they do not test on animals. I think that might be adhere to the definition anyway. If a vegan can not use anything that was tested on animals, we might have a problem with much of anything.

And now I get to the bones of all of this......Do I really need to worry about if I can define myself as a Vegan or not? Or if someone else can? If I was so worried about keeping up with the Joneses (?) would I even be doing this? I am doing this because I am so repulsed by factory farming. And animal testing. Pretty much anything wherein animals are treated as something less than a creature that feels pain, joy, loss, fear, happiness, etc. Anyone that has ever had a pet knows that animals feel all of these things, and more. And anyone that really looks at what is going on with factory farming would be a liar if they were to tell me that they would not have a problem with their pet being treated in this way, that they are "just animals". So, I do not care if I am one of the "cool kids", I will still smoke, but I will also not eat anything with any animal product in it, to include certain beers, which I now understand to be filtered through BONE CHAR! Holy moly. I will not purchase anything with any animal product in it. I will keep what I have. I will use it til it is gone. Or until it is shabby, in the case of the furniture. I will no longer support the industry that is riding on the backs of animals. But to reiterate ad nauseum, I am keeping what I have. I have not come far enough yet, or am not ready to, or do not have the extra resources to do away with what I have. So be it. I am doing this for animals. Not for others to call me out on not acting or doing as a true vegan. I will have to just label myself as an animal lover.

Also, I have gone to different grocery stores and assorted other places to scope out what food options are open. I have never before spent so much time reading so many labels. And have never realized how much of everything contains animal products. Good Gawd. I will find an item that I love to eat, and I will scroll down the ingredients and I think that I am safe, I can eat this.....YES! And then, at the bottom of the list is something like "whey". Something I would not even have noticed before.....And did I mention the vegetarian cheese made of soy that I thought was safe until I read the ingredients? It is non-dairy cheese but has one little ingredient in it made from milk. Sonofabitchthatmadememad! So, out of the 10 varieties of cheese not made mainly from milk, there are two or three that are actually vegan.

Okay. Here ends the diatribe.

Why are we here?

We make no claims to innovation or brilliance. We just are taking the journey of becoming vegans. We like food. We love to eat. We even like meat though it doesn't have to be on the plate. We don't like the thought of how animals are cruelly treated from the womb to death in the industry. We don't like the testing. We don't want to give anymore of our dough to to an industry who treats these creatures so poorly. It is really really really disturbing. Also, we don't actually need meat in our diets to survive....though the meat industry pays loads of money to make us believe so. So we've decided to go vegan understanding that it is going to be a difficult learning experience. I mean, there is more to being vegan than meat. I personally LOVE ice cream. Bye-bye ice cream as I've known it. We are journaling it here just cuz...doesn't everybody blog all the random aspects of their lives nowadays? hee hee. There are two of us doing this. Its gonna be good :-) For simplicity and anonymity (sorry stalkers) we are going by the names vegan and schmegan. As I, vegan, have blahblahblah's enough already, I'll turn this post over to schmegan to record her fascinating thoughts now...

~elli