Two Quick Dinners

First up is the spicy peanut noodles. We sauteed a bit of onion and garlic, then mixed in a little massaman curry paste (careful when buying pre-packaged curry paste--many have shrimp paste or fish sauce as ingredients). Then we chucked in some zucchini, carrots, purple cabbage, and mushrooms and let those cook for a few minutes. A few hearty scoops of chunky peanut butter, about 1/2 c. soy milk, and a handful of chopped peanuts for the top. Fresh coriander as a garnish would have been great, but we're having a bit of trouble growing it lately.

When I ate the leftovers for lunch, the purple cabbage had turned everything into a gray-ish blue. Not very pretty, but still tasty!



Last night's dinner was a salad full of local baby spinach, avocado, zucchini, carrots, tomato, sauteed onions, and pan-fried tofu. We first started making this on Tuesday for dinner, but found that none of the 6 avocados we got from the market were ripe. So the tofu marinated for about 3 days in a simple mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, and the juice of one lemonade fruit. For dressing, I mixed the leftover marinade with a bit of Australian mustard and balsamic vinegar. The salad was flanked by Andy's bruschetta--stale bread, toasted and covered in leftover spaghetti sauce, or avocado + tomato + black olives. This dinner was quick to put together, and left me feeling very full and satisfied.

1 year blog-iversary!

With a recent spate of blogging anniversaries around some of the blogs I read regularly, it made me think to check when I actually started blogging. Today's the day--one year ago I started this humble little blog. And it conveniently falls on the second public holiday of the Easter weekend--Easter Monday. So, I don't really feel bad about not doing work.

Though, I suppose that it's not really until tomorrow, or at least until later today, since it's still yesterday in North America, where I was when I started blogging. Anyways.

Let's commemorate the occasion with some more food from Easter Weekend....


All in all, it's been a very fat holiday weekend--especially Saturday. In my last post I posted a picture of the pancakes we had. When we got home from uni at 3 that same day, Andy and I mashed up a huge avocado with some garlic chives, salt, and pepper, and spread it onto multi-grain toast. Then, for dinner, I decided to try a recipe from an old VegNews, for Indonesian tempeh. I didn't follow the recipe very closely at all. If you want to see the original, you can try to find it on their archives or something, but this is what I did:

1 package of tempeh, cubed
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 or 3 T. fresh ginger, minced
1 chilli, minced
1 big tin of plum tomatoes, drained and chopped
1/2 red capsicum, chopped
1/2 green capsicum, chopped
1 handful greenbeans, chopped
1 handful baby spinach leaves, chopped
1 tin of coconut cream
juice from 1/2 a lemonade fruit (a slightly sweet, green lemon)
salt and pepper

Fry the tempeh and onion in some oil over medium heat, until they start to get brown. Add the garlic, ginger, and chilli, cook for a minute or so. Mix in the chopped veggies and tomatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes. Stir in coconut milk and lemonade juice, turn heat to low and simmer for a few minutes. Serve over jasmine rice.

This is what it looked like:
I thought the recipe itself was quite nice, if a bit heavy. But I am so disappointed with Australian tempeh. It's horrible! Instead of being nutty and full of texture, it's this uniform mushy brown cake of yuckiness. And, it's $4.50 for one package. The only reason we got this package is that we saw it for half-price at the grocery store. Gross.

Since I made dinner, Andy decided to make dessert. (Like we needed it after all that we ate on Saturday.) We got some So Good soy ice cream because there is a mail-in rebate offer going on this month. That, plus lots of hot cross buns, equals hot cross buns a la mode. I was expecting him to toast the buns and then just stick a scoop of ice cream on top. However, when Andy starts cooking, he tends to get super creative. First, he toasted the buns. Then, he put a teensy scoop of ice cream on each, and covered that with some dried mixed fruit and chopped peanuts. That all went back under the griller. When that ice cream was a bit melty, he took it all out and topped it with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, some little dabs of chocolate, and then... a scoop of peanut butter.
When I was taking the photo of mine, he started eating his and realized that peanut butter does not go on ice cream so well. "It's for aesthetic reasons", he said, and told me to eat the peanut butter separately from everything else. What a unit.

Sunday morning, before heading out to the markets, we had a typical Aussie breakfast of tinned spaghetti on toast.Though most tinned spaghetti has cheese in the ingredients, the home brands from both Woolworth's and Cole's have 2 varieties--tomato, or tomato and cheese. This picture shows Cole's brand. We like it best, because it's super saucy and the spaghetti is cut up.

Sunday was finished up with some candy (one of the chocolate bunnies is now ear-less), some hot cross buns, and some veggie burgers with chippies.

Now, I think it's time I start eating less crap!

Easter Weekend

I haven't celebrated Easter in ages. When I was little, we got baskets full of candy, as you do, and we had to find the hidden eggs, as you do. It was a bit of fun, a bit of sugar high, and that was it, really. In the past few years, Easter weekend has passed without me noticing--Easter eggs are so not vegan, and my parents stopped giving us candy, so I often forgot that it even happened.

Then I moved to Australia, and found out that Easter is a big holiday here. Starting just after Christmas, grocery stores and bakeries start selling hot cross buns. I read the ingredients of the Woolworth's bakery buns, and found out that they are vegan! They're ridiculously overpriced, so we wait till Saturday afternoon when they are marked down--$2 for 8 buns. For the past few weeks we've been getting a pack or two a week and taking them to uni for lunches and snacks and things. Yum. In addition to hot cross buns, you get a 4 day weekend. Now, neither Andy nor I believe in Jesus, but as Andy so eloquently put it, "I believe in public holidays!"

So, to embrace the spirit of the season, we're taking it easy this weekend. We went to the beach for Good Friday and I marvelled at all the people getting wasted on their front patios (it's illegal to serve alcohol on Good Friday here). We read a bit, and watched some movies.

This morning I made some pancakes, using this recipe from vegweb. I cut it in half, and found that the batter was WAAAY too runny, so I added another 1/4 c. of flour. Once I got that sorted, the pancake making went beautifully. They are light and fluffy, yet hearty because they are full of oats. They were a perfect vessel for my auntie's homemade maple syrup, which my parents sent over for me. The only thing I might do next time is chop up the oats in the food processor beforehand, or just use quick oats rather than rolled.

I love cooking pancakes.

First, one side browns and the batter on top gets dried out around the edges and bubbly all over.

Then you flip it. When it's done, put it on a plate in the oven (the lowest setting, obvi) to keep warm.

At the end, you've got a stack of hot brown pancakes, just waiting to be smothered in maple syrup. Accompanied by a nice pot of tea, they make the perfect breakfast for a lazy weekend morning.


And, my parents sent a package full of Easter candy that arrived on the doorstep on Wednesday afternoon. Some of it was not vegan (when will they learn?!), but half of it was. In addition to some vegan jelly beans, they sent these cute dark chocolate bunnies. Andy thinks he's going to get one. What a sucker.

Happy Easter/Passover/Sugar High, everyone!

Success!

Just last week I blogged about my mixed relationship. Over the weekend it got slightly less mixed. That's right, Andy has decided to fully make the switch to soy milk.

This is actually something that has been coming for a while--when I first got here, he admitted that he likes the taste of soy over cow when he's drinking milk for milk's sake. A few months ago he randomly decided to put soy on his cereal, but staunchly defended the cow milk in his 123957 cups of tea each day. In the past few weeks, however, Andy has been slowly transitioning to soy in his tea. He started out by mixing cow and soy, and then switched back and forth for a little while. We gradually bought less cow milk with every trip to the grocery store--from 6 litres a week (it's insane how much milk he goes through!), to 3 litres, to 2, and finally, this week, we bought 0 litres of cow milk.

On Sunday, a day after we went shopping, I told Andy how I noticed and appreciated the lack of cow milk in the fridge, and he said (somewhat frustratedly), "I don't like cow milk anymore. It's not beany enough." I couldn't help giggling, because that was the very reason he didn't like soy milk tea in the first place! Then later that morning we went out to a coffee shop, and he got a soy cappuccino.

So, while he hasn't committed to giving up dairy (I'm sure if he goes out on a dive boat, for example, he'll be drinking cow milk since soy isn't available), he has made a big step that neither of us really expected.

Three cheers for my soy milk guzzling partner!!

**Now, I need to find a place where I can buy soy milk in bulk. We're probably going to be going through about 10 litres a week!**

Vegan Voice

A few days ago I received a copy of Vegan Voice, an Aussie vegan magazine, in the post. It wasn’t a surprise or anything; I’d ordered it earlier in the week and had a few personal emails back and forth with the editor. I would have read it all in one go, but there was just too much—it ended up lasting me 3 evenings, in which I did nothing between dinner and bed but read this. It’s that good.

I am so glad I found out about this magazine. I’ve read VegNews, but knowing all the advertisers and products mentioned are based in the US was a bit disheartening. I have been craving a good vegan network here, and I found a bit of one in this mag. It’s not as visually impressive as some magazines, because it’s in black and white—but really, who needs colour when the focus is largely on the articles? Because that is where the focus lies. As Andy said when he flipped through, “it’s very text-heavy”. That is not to say that there were no photos—there were actually quite a few, especially some gorgeous photos of animals.

The March-May issue seemed to be centred on the theme of climate change, and many articles and news briefs focused on the environmental repercussions of a meat-centred diet. But, it wasn’t pushing veganism solely for its environmental benefits; rather, most (if not all) pieces highlighted the ethical and health implications as well. There were a few interviews with activists, a few book and movie reviews, and some news pieces about animal rights and veganism, among heaps of other things.

I would recommend a subscription to this magazine (very cheap, especially considering what you get, and compared with some other magazines!) even to people outside of Australia. I think it’s good to keep an eye on what is going on in terms of animal rights globally, as well as just in the US. But definitely, if you’re in Australia, pick this up.

Charlotte's Web

Last night I came home from uni in a bit of a cranky mood. Instead of trying to do more work in the evening, Andy and I decided to watch some TV shows or maybe a movie on his laptop. We watched an episode of The Office, the original BBC version and not the crappy American knock-off. That is a funny show. I was still a bit of a cranky-pants, so I got to make all the decisions about what to watch. It was getting a bit late, so I figured we would stick to TV shows rather than movies, but then I saw Charlotte's Web. It was only 90 minutes, and when I skipped ahead to see the quality, it was a scene where an adorable little pig is talking with some geese. I decided right then that we were watching it.

What a good movie. I've read the book ages ago, and I've seen the animated film many times (as recently as last year), so it's not like I didn't know the plot. But every time I see it I'm surprised at the vegan-ness of the message. The very first scene involves Fern (Dakota Fanning) telling her father that there is no difference between her and the pig--"The pig couldn't help being born small, could it? If I had been small at birth, would you have killed me"? I had tears in my eyes from the start (okay, mostly because I was in that kind of mood, but it was really good)--Fern loves her porcine friend and will do anything for him. But, unfortunately, her mum and dad get in the way of things. Her mum goes so far as to consult a doctor, finding it unhealthy for Fern to spend so much time in a barn and--*gasp*--to believe that animals can actually talk to her.

I think the message that should be retrieved from this movie is an important one: all animals are worthwhile for their own sake. Unfortunately, it takes a pig that can garner media attention for the Zuckerman farm to see this. But the beautiful relationships between Fern and Wilbur, between Wilbur and Charlotte, and between the rest of the animals in the barn were moving. Even Templeton, "the rat", is lovable for his seeming selfishness. The relationships really seemed to highlight the fact that all animals are beautiful, complex creatures--even an ugly spider.

So, although it was simplistic in its critique of animal exploitation, I thought Charlotte's Web was freakin' awesome. Of course it's simplistic--it's based very closely on a children's book. The movie was beautifully done, and I think that young and old alike will really appreciate it. Do yourself a favour--if you haven't seen it yet, watch it. If nothing else, it's a nice trip down memory lane.

vegan relationships

As many of you know, I am in a mixed relationship—that’s right, Andy is an omnivore. I know this is quite common these days, but it is still a hotly debated issue. Hell, I’m still sometimes torn over dating someone who can consume animal products. On the one hand, I haven’t always been veg, and not everyone progresses at the same rate. On the other, how is he okay with taking part in so much cruelty and exploitation?!

First, a bit of background on my situation. I met Andy nearly 3 years ago, when I was a mere vegetarian. We lived on college together (that’s Aussie for “in the dorms”), so what we ate was never really an issue—I got the veggie meal from the dining hall line, and he didn’t. When we went out to eat, we checked the menu before going to a restaurant to make sure there was at least one veggie option. Basically, it was not a big deal. Though I was vaguely aware of the ethical implications of not eating meat, it wasn’t something that had clicked for me yet (obviously, I was still eating dairy and eggs) and so I wasn’t bothered by his diet.

After a semester together, I went back to the US and he stayed in Australia. I had 18 months to finish my degree and whatnot, and then I was planning on coming back for grad school. (We didn’t plan on a long-distance relationship, it just sort of happened.) About 2 months after I got home, though, I went vegan. I think I told Andy about it, but it was never discussed heavily.

Fast-forward to last May—the first night I was back, when discussing what to have for dinner (and breakfast the next morning, and the rest of our meals), it really hit Andy that I am vegan. He realised how serious I was about animal rights and how committed I was to a cruelty-free lifestyle. It also really hit me that I was going to be living with an omnivore. I realised that, though Andy is compassionate and does care, he was not willing to commit to a vegan life.

Luckily, there was never much question of cooking separate meals or anything like that. No WAY was I going to be touching meat for him, and he didn’t expect that. He was willing to eat vegan meals so that we could eat together (isn’t he wonderful?). The only non-vegan items were milk in his tea and cereal, and sometimes poached eggs for brekky. And, whatever meaty dishes were offered when we went out to eat (which is practically never) or to a friend/family member’s house.

I must admit, it bothers me to no end that he is still not vegan. He’s read some of the books I have, he’s watched most of Earthlings, and he knows all of the reasons for a plant-based diet. He’s transitioned slowly to soy milk in his cereal, and now his tea as well, but he just “isn’t willing to give up his breakfast”. I try not to push—nothing is worse than a pushy vegan. I try to be patient and encourage him when he does make shifts. I try not to get pissy when he eats meat (imagine how hard this was at xmas, with meat at every meal). I try to convince myself that I am okay with his diet. I think that’s the best thing to do. He may never come around, but I will always hold out hope that, maybe, he’ll become vegan someday. And I always appreciate the changes that he’s made to accommodate me.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I hadn’t been partnered up when I went vegan. Would I limit myself to dating other veg*ns? Realistically, I don’t think it would even be possible. Plus, it would probably close doors on some very worthwhile relationships. Sure, dating a vegan would be easier, but then, what relationship is easy?

Mango Sorbet

I had some people over for dinner the other night. Andy and I made a green curry, and some mango sorbet from our frozen stocks. It. was. so. freakin. good. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures (the camera is still stupid, and I haven't gotten around to getting a new one yet), but this is what I did:

About 3 or 4 cups of mango, frozen. Cut it into blocks (with my handy Forever Sharp Knife that can cut through frozen items, tin cans, and even a hammer! Yes, that's right, a hammer! Order now and receive a free forever sharp paring knife...) and chuck it into a chopper or food processor and get it so it's roughly chopped. Then, I whipped it up with one block of silken dessert tofu (almond flavoured) and a leetle bit of soy milk. It could have been eaten on the spot, but I stuck it back in the freezer for about 4 hours and it was perfect. PERFECT! (However, the little bit that was leftover and sat in the freezer for 24 hours was hard as a brick, so let it sit out for a while if you make it too far ahead.)

Things I might do differently in the future: orange juice instead of soy milk; whip in some banana as well; use coconut milk instead of soy milk; add some shredded coconut to the mix. I think this is something we'll be playing around with for the next few months, especially considering the vast quantities of mango we currently have in the freezer.

International Women's Day

Thursday* was International Women's Day. Townsville had a number of different events marking the occasion, most celebrating the theme set down from on high by the Queensland government--Women at Work: Know your rights, it's your future. The only event that I attended was the march and rally organised by the Women's Centre (where I'm a volunteer) at the beach/city centre. There were speakers (most speaking about various forms of work: unpaid labour, an older woman talked about how things have gotten better but are still not great, a union representative talked about industrial relations), singers, Aboriginal dancers, and poetry. Somehow, despite my stagefright, they managed to convince me to speak at the rally. This is what I said:

I was born in 1984. The major struggles for women’s rights were over by then, either already won or forgotten by the public. I grew up in a household where both of my parents worked. There was never a doubt in my mind that women should have the exact same rights as men.

In many senses, my generation has been lucky. We can take the hard-won equalities of earlier generations for granted. But because of that, many of us suffer from a bad case of apathy. We didn’t have to struggle for things like reproductive rights or the option to work outside the home, so we don’t really appreciate how valuable they are.

These days, it seems like feminism is a dirty word—it’s the F word that makes people uncomfortable. I don’t want to be too negative; there are plenty of young women who do care, even if they don’t identify as feminists. But what I’m suggesting is that we try to remove the stigma that surrounds the F word. Because feminism is far from done.

We live in a country that pays women 83.5 percent of what males earn. We live in a world that ignores and sometimes condones violence. This happens in homes, on the streets, and between countries, and women and children are too often the victims. We live in a world where people are treated as second-class citizens if they aren’t the right skin colour, sexuality or gender, or if they don’t have enough money. We live in a world where we are judged based on our appearance, and where women are continually treated as objects. We live in a world where millions go hungry every day. This isn’t just some faraway problem of ‘over there’, but right here in Australia, in Townsville even.

So today, we’re celebrating the wonderful work that women are capable of. But we should also look ahead at the work that is in front of us. We need to stand together and demand a better deal, without worrying if people think we’re crazy feminists.

It isn’t radical to expect and end to gender violence, racism, and poverty. It isn’t out of line to expect to be valued as human beings rather than sex objects, or equal opportunities for everyone, no matter what. It isn’t shameful to think that women’s work inside the home should be recognized and appreciated.

All these issues are inseparable—racism, sexism, violence, poverty—to fix one, we really need to look at them as a whole. Because really, women’s rights are human rights.


To this list of isms, I would have liked to add speciesism, but I just wasn't willing to stand in front of a crowd of meat-lovers and bring that in. Call me weak, it's probably appropriate, but I don't think most people are ready to make the connection with various forms of human oppression and animal exploitation. But, I do think they are completely, 100% intertwined. Maybe next time I'll go there.

*I meant to post this on Friday morning, but, in a rush to leave the house, I left my keys at home. I couldn't get into my office to use my computer, and since I had a workshop for half the day I didn't bother getting someone to unlock it. I am an idiot sometimes.

**********

In other exciting news, today when I was walking from my office to the library, I saw a sticker on the bridge railing that said "Meat is Murder". It brightened my day, knowing that there are other people who care on the same campus as me!

The end of mango season

It's true, mango season is nearly over. Our mango man at the market said he picked the last batch off the trees 3 weeks ago, and he was hoping to have enough to last him till tomorrow at the markets. Other varieties have been a bit more prevalent, though I'm not convinced that they are as nice. Some are good, others are okay, relatively speaking, but regardless: they are all mangos, so they are all delicious.


I'll try not to repeat what I said about mangos here and here, which should be easy since we haven't bought Bowen or R2E2 mangos in a while.

This is a new variety of mango, and the mango man said they don't even have a name yet. Andy and I called them Piangos, because near the seed they taste like pineapple, and near the skin they taste like mango. The size was similar to the R2E2, though not quite as big as my head, and these were handsdown the sweetest, juiciest mangos I've ever eaten. The juice dripped all down our faces and arms, and the counter was covered with sticky sweet orange drips. This mango is one that I will be seeking out again next mango season.

This is the ngon-tan, a Thai variety with a small seed and non-stringy flesh. Yummy, but small and mild in flavour. Good, but not my favourite.

Dragon's tooth mango, similar to ngon-tan but a slightly different flavour.

Palmer mango, all frosty from the fridge. Better overripe rather than underripe.

Keat mangos. These guys were hard to tell if they were ripe or not, and they kept going half ripe-half underripe. We let some ripen fully, and then they were half-rotten. The same thing happened with the Palmers. Methinks that's why they aren't really for sale in stores. Bowen's are by far the most popular here (also called Kensington Pride), probably followed by R2E2 (flavourless in comparison), though I think the Piangos are where it's at. If you could buy stock in mangos, and if I had any money right now, I would invest heavily.

I'm very, very sad that tomorrow is likely our last day to buy fresh mangos at the market. After that, we'll have to survive on the hundreds of kilos worth we have in the freezer. Should last us about 3 weeks...