All about RICE(s)

I went to a Catholic grade school, and sometime during the school year we had a 'rice' day. This meant that we were not allowed to bring a lunch to school, and the school did not serve any hot lunches to the kids. Instead, they served us a bowl of white rice only and allowed us a bit of soy sauce.

Now this was not to introduce us to any sort of Asian cuisine or even bring us any cultural awareness-this was to simply induce that infamous Catholic guilt about how lucky we have it here in the states while kids over in China are dining on THIS every meal.

While I understand now the fulcum of the message-be grateful for what you have and that yes, there are starving kids in the world we need to help-the message then as a kid was "Rice pretty much sucks."

And it did, to me. Perhaps it was the way it was prepared, but the bowl of rice we got in the school was a glop of a ball of rice, a sticky, gelatinous mess that was almost unpalatable if you didn't introduce the soy sauce on top. It completely turned me off to rice and I really just never ate it. My mother rarely if at all made it, if she did it was "Uncle Ben's Minute Rice" and luckily she usually incorporated it into some sort of casserole or slathered some sort of cheese sauce over it so I could usually scarf it down that way. Otherwise, rice was pretty disgusting to me. My attitude towards it did not change as an older child into adulthood-I passed it up every single time someone ordered Chinese or at any Asian restaurant.

About the only way I could deal with rice was Sushi. To me however, that wasn't really eating rice per se. And the thing with sushi rice is that it's supposed to be very sticky and they add other things to it-like vinegar to give it a tang, to give it a taste. Other than sushi-I didn't like rice with anything. Even fried rice found me picking out the pieces of pork or chicken and the veggies and leaving the rice part behind.

When I was married, my husband made some awesome Salmon and on the side he also cooked up some "Long grain and Wild rice", another fine Uncle Ben's product, and that I could stomach and liked. Yet it was so rare that we would eat it that I don't think it counts as having rice as a staple in my diet.

Time goes on, and the health benefits of brown rice made themselves known. Brown rice is white rice but simply still has the bran and germ of the rice still intact. So I'd force myself to add some brown rice to my meals-like when I made a stir fry-even though I still didn't care for rice. I could make it more palatable by using broth instead of water to cook it with, and even throwing in parsley or other spices, but I still really just didn't like rice.

 Even Spanish rice-the yellow rice with tomatoes and peppers often added or a Paella-while I tolerated it, I still wasn't a big fan. Red beans and rice had to have way more beans than rice for me to enjoy any of that, either. Just simply didn't care for rice- until now.

So what changed for me? Learning and discovering many different types of rices. Who knew? I sure didn't. In fact, according to the Trader Joe's website-there are over 40,000 different types of rice grown and consumed in the world. So in knowing that nutritious grains were going to now be a big part of my eating lifestyle, I set a course to turning myself on to some different kinds.

Now I didn't go all exotic and crazy-I just started making the rices that are the most popular amongst trendy food eaters, or those most commonly found in Asian and Indian restaurants. I'm not kidding when I said that I've only had regular ol' white rice found in a bag from the food pantry, or somebodies Uncle Ben, be it white or brown.

I've discovered that I love Basmati Rice. This is the rice most commonly used in Indian cuisine. I love it because the grains are long and it's not glutinous. Now keep in mind that the word 'glutinous' here does not refer to 'gluten' content. What glutinous here means is its 'sticky' factor. Starch content. I realize that I simply hate sticky rice. This rice stays separate, the grains are almost like a pasta in that respect (like Orzo) and that's what I really like. Basmati has a nutty aroma but tastes like rice without all the starch. Here's a picture of it.

It still looks like this after its prepared (If made right.) Unlike that stuff you get in the white containers from most Chinese take out( which could also act as paste imo)

Speaking of Asian take out, the rice that is mostly used in this cuisine is Jasmine. It is a close cousin to Basmati and isn't bad. I don't think its the same as what they give in the white containers though I know I've had some white container take out rice that I've liked (usually from Thai, not Chinese restaurants.)
 Jasmine rice has an almost flowery scent to it (hence the name) and its also long grain. It does however have more of a 'sticky' factor than Basmati so if you're into that, you'd probably like this better. It has a firm chew which many people (including myself) prefer, sorta an 'al dente' of the rice world. Here it is:

Brown rice as I wrote of is rice before Uncle Ben gets his bleach on. Since the bran and germ are still intact it is nutritional. The thing with the white rice-at least in the states-is that the nutrition is stripped right out of it, the rice then 'bleached' for looks and then re-fortified with the vitamins and minerals and stuff that are removed by this process. It's crazy, really. Brown rice come in different grain sizes, from short to long, and has a nutty taste. It also takes longer to cook, about 20 minutes longer if doing by stove-top steam method. I'm not a big fan of brown rice, to be honest but I will make it for a stir fry or throw it into a veggie soup. 

Black Rice-yes, there is a Black rice. AKA 'Forbidden' Rice. Not sure why that is its alter-ego, there's a Google question for ya. But it's actually really, REALLY good. The bran is also intact so its very healthy and nutritious. It turns a lovely purplish color once cooked, and its firm, not sticky. It has a slightly sweet and creamy taste, a little nutty like brown rice and its long grain (which I like.) I love it with black beans and mango. Its a great salad rice. 

And it looks like this cooked: 

This picture is from Ambitiouskitchen.com.

*a caveat: I steal pictures off of Google. I just type in what I'm looking for and pick an image. I am not meaning to infringe on anyone's copyright or intellectual property, though I think there is some weird internet clause that says if you put online-anybody can use it. In any event-if there is a source linked to the pic I will site it, otherwise, tough sh.......

And then there is Red rice. White, brown, black and red rices-just like people ha ha. The red rice I have tried is actually a Sprouted Rice. This is where the bran of the rice has sprouted. Its chewy, long grain, has a nutty brown rice-esq flavor, and is said to be super nutritious because of the sprouting (i.e. now has an amino acid profile.) This picture is from the Trader Joe's brand. 

And my final profile is Wild Rice. Wild Rice is not really a rice but it is a grass, and it's been harvested by Native American's around the Great Lakes for like, ever. It's firm and chewy, and sometimes the kernels 'burst' when cooked, showing it to be tender on the inside. I don't really like it on its own. As with the Salmon meal my ex would make, I much prefer it mixed in with a long grain rice. 

Now, you go to speciality stores like "World Market", health food stores, Trader Joes/Whole Foods type stores (And I'll be doing a whole thing on Trader Joes because LOVE)-and even in the 'organic' aisle of national chains like Publix and Albertson's and Jewel-you will find nowadays a number of 'blends.' This is where people are mixing up the rices together and also adding other ingredients-peas, lentils, barley, etc. If you've ever made "Rice-A-Roni", that is the O.G. of the grain blends, because a long with the rice there is the vermicelli-which is why the directions are to 'toast' in butter first til the vermicelli is brown. Vermicelli being a form of pasta.

Instead of paying out the beehind for the blends-make your own. Use rice, brown and yellow lentils and some green peas. Make your own Long grain and wild rice. Try the black and brown rices together. If you buy the rices in bulk, you save even more. Remember the jars? Store in there. And you needn't spend money on that-I also re-use pasta sauce jars, pickle jars, etc. 

There are many ways to prepare rice; some people have rice cookers, some cook in the microwave, and then the steam method on the stove, which is one part rice to two parts water, bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and let sit 25 minutes (white rices) to 45 minutes (dark rices.) Some say to remove from heat. Don't lift the lid because it's the steam that cooks the rice. If you want to really be impressive use a bamboo steamer. 

I personally like the pasta method of cooking rice-let the water come to a boil, add the rice and cook until all the water is absorbed. Experiment and see which ways work best for you. 

As far as 'quick cooking' rice, I don't know anything about it really in terms of the processes, of what they do in order to make the rice cook in 5 minutes. I could look it up but I'm lazy. I'm sure that I will read it's totally benign and not harmful and it's fine. But intuitively I feel that once again, they are doing weird stuff to the rice and as a result, the nutrition is compromised and then they have to re-introduce some synthetically, which I personally don't like the idea of. 

Also, I have tried in my lifetime some rices that come pre-cooked, directions to just microwave for a minute and one in particular that comes in a plastic bag. I literally gagged and threw it away because it had an overwhelming plastic-chemical taste to me. It was God-awful. So f convenience. Seriously.

 What's 45 minutes on a Sunday morning to cook up a batch of rice for the week? You can even freeze it. Use a slow cooker-pressure cooker. If you're that lazy or pressed for time, get a rice cooker, just put the rice in, set the timer and walk away. I really don't think compromising taste, nutrition and health is worth it. You make time for things that are important. Normal white rice takes 25 minutes. Is 20 minutes worth your health? Learn to manage time better. Put the rice on the stove then go meditate for 20 minutes. Go play with your kid. Seriously-utilize the extra rice-cooking time in a positive, life-enhancing way. Your taste buds, your health and your emotional well-being will thank you for it. 

Toys, tools, gadgets, techonology you need/don't need for this lifestyle

Sorry for the hiatus, I was on a little mini-vacation helping my best friend move back home from Kentucky.

 In what feels like a life time ago, when my children were still babies and I was still married, I was a stay-at-home Mom. I became quite domesticated for a time and part of this meant that I had to have every funky gadget and toy for the kitchen imaginable. So I did.

We had a waffle maker, a blender, a food dehydrator, a vacuum sealer, cappuccino makers, ice tea pot brewer,  a juicer, a mixer, a panini maker, a pan to make omelettes, a pan to make pancakes, a tortilla warmer, an electric frying pan, a deep fryer, a rotisserie oven, an electric grill,  crock pots and electric knives, food processors and stuff to cook things in the microwave like spaghetti. In short, we had a bunch of crap that mostly went unused after two or three times of trying them.

Unused, because it was either a pain in the ass to clean, or it didn't work as well as it did in the commercials, or because it was more cumbersome and time-consuming (the very things these gadgets were supposed to prevent, consuming time) than desired.

So I realized that less means more-especially in the kitchen. Sometimes the simple ways are also the easier ways. I also am not big on clutter and I tend to move a lot, so being bogged down with a bunch of gadgets and machinery didn't quite fit my gypsy lifestyle. As any trip to the Good Will will prove-many trendy gadgets crowd the shelves like the Forgotten Toys of the North Pole. (Bread maker, anyone?)

But I have found that a few items are absolutely indispensable to me and this life style of eating, and I'd like to share with you what they are. What triggered all of this for me was moving my best friend back. He openly shared that during a deep bout of depression accompanied by insomnia, he'd be sucked into late night t.v. informercials for magical and amazing kitchen products and subsequently, would whip out his credit card and buy them.

Since he was now going to be living with some friends until he finds his own place, most of these gadgets were headed to his storage until I asked him if I could try a few to see if I wanted them or not, or if they make my life any easier. He said sure. And so this post is born.

First up-a veggie dicer/slicer. Like a mandolin I guess. I watched a few commercial on the YouTube for this thing and it seemed to be pretty cool. In theory it is. But like everything else you see on TV or a menu picture-then there's real life. And in real life, it was difficult. I managed to get the onion chopped as you can see-but I had to experiment with onion pieces and that meant I still had to chop. Unlike the commercial where you put an actual half of an onion on the grill/grate/chopper metal thingy-yeah that didn't do a damn thing when you pushed down on it. So it really does require slicing and dicing. I would say that this thing is then worth it when you want these uniform perfect diced pieces, perhaps for a Pico De Gallo when you are entertaining. As for me doing this each time I want a diced onion-I don't know. I am going to take the onion I did dice in this picture and just freeze it. This way, when I am really super lazy or tired, I can just pull this out of the freezer. So it's my back-up for those times. This would also work for freezing onions ahead for soups.

There is a measuring cup attached which I found totally worthless, especially as most recipes will say 'one small onion' or 'one medium onion' and not so much cups of onion but whatever.

I still need to try some different veggies on it such as green peppers and carrots-I think maybe with some of the softer veggies it might be easier to use, and it also comes with a slicer which I will try with a cucumber. For me though, its just as fast and actually easier with a really good knife to just chop myself by hand. If you have excellent knives, cutting veggies is not that big of a deal. I'm thinking that using celery with this would be a pain in the ass, but again if you want decent aesthetics for your chopped stuff (dare I say chopped eggs for egg salad non-vegans) then this is the best thing- otherwise, I would not buy this. It's easy enough to clean on the top dishwasher rack and all but still. Takes up room in the kitchen when you really don't need this-unless you entertain a lot, really hate chopping stuff and/or take much better pictures of your food for your blog than I do and have them look more 'professional. '

Food Steamers.

I have used the metal steamer pan insert to steam my veggies for years. It's easy enough to use-just put a bit of water in the bottom of a sauce pan, add the steamer, add the veggies then put a lid on the pan and steam til done. Not only healthier but keeps the veggies 'al dente' (and makes broccoli a gorgeous color green.) Steaming retains nutrients and enzymes- unlike boiling veggies which leaches vitamins and minerals and tastes-and doesn't make them a mushy pile of yuck that is what has made most of us hate veggies as a kid.

Steaming also doesn't require the addition of oils or constant supervision the way stir-frying does. Personally I believe that steaming truly brings out the flavor of veggies more than any other cooking method (including roasting.) I ate dinner over a friends who had a steamer machine like this white one pictured, and she steamed potatoes in them. They were absolutely the best potatoes I'd ever had. I love baked potatoes in the oven with the skins all crispy and crunchy but the steamed potatoes had an incredible almost buttery taste in and of themselves. I was sold on the machine just based on that!

Yes, there are food steamers for the microwave. Out of all the kitchen appliances that there are, the microwave is easily the one I could live without. I truly only use it to re-heat coffee and some left overs. Otherwise, I don't like them. I know that the jury is out as to whether or not they are healthy for cooking or harmful, but I am erring more on harmful. I have nothing but intuition to really back that up-and the entire country of Russia, where microwaves were banned.

I don't think they were being paranoid. Granted they banned them in 1976 and the ban has since been lifted.

 They've had their share of fall-out what with Chernobyl and all so maybe yeah, they were leery of irradiating food-but they are not dumb people. So if they have banned the use of them then there is probably some sort of science backing that  up. Some political reason to lift ban.  (Since Europe has also banned many foods and food additives that the U.S. hasn't, I tend to think we are a little slow on the uptake when it comes to what we consume and what our safety standards are. )

For a list of the reasons why microwaves suck go to Microwaves are Sketchy

In any event, there is a shit ton of reasons why microwaves are considered evil for food consumption as well as arguments that they are fine and in fact preserve nutrients so you be the judge. Look up the information for yourself.

 I prefer to NOT cook in the microwave and at the very least, if you are going to use the microwave to cook foods, do not use plastic.

I do think that the microwave ushered in the terrible food relationships that we have today and it was the beginnings of processed chemical frankenfood hell, as people searched for easier, faster ways to cook and 'nuking' your meals became the preferred method. (It also made starting corporate restaurant chains easier as many meals could be 'prepped' at a major distribution facility then delivered by truck to the stores who then could simply nuke them when ready to serve and began the decline of food quality in fast-food joints)

 You get what you pay for and sometimes the easier softer way is the most dangerous. Between the food additives, processing, 'creations' and plastics the nukable foods come in-that coupled with any of the adverse effects on foods microwaves may have-I'd rather use a different method of steaming.

If you still eat fish then the steamer machine is a great way to steam an entire meal-you can put the fish on one tier, then veggies and potatoes on the other tray and have an oil-less but extremely tasty dinner (steamed fish is also delicious.)

The only thing it does not steam is rice. I have also used a rice cooker and I find that it's just another appliance not worth having as it's just as simple to put one cup of rice and 2 cups of water in a pot and watch the clock.

Immersion blender.

A must-have. I love split pea soup, black bean soup, cream of mushroom soups. I also found that transferring said soups to a traditional blender created a mess, was a burn hazard, and more than one time the blender top 'exploded' with hot soup leaving a mess and again a potential injury. Not anymore. This thing rocks. You simply stick it in the pot, turn it on, and it blends the soups into their creamy smooth goodness. It also comes with a whisk attachment which is great for beating eggs or mixing up batters if you are so inclined. Basically anything you'd whisk-gravies, sauces, puddings-this thing does even better.

Speaking of blenders-The Nutribullet is another 'have to have'. This picture is an older model but I still adore it.

You can also make soups and sauces and salsas and such with this and with ease, but its marvelous for smoothies and juicing. It leaves no pulp like a traditional juicer does-you get every nutrient pulverized into a juice. It also comes with an attachment for making your own flour-a great idea for those who don't want gluten and can make your own alternative flours and breads. I encourage people to go to YouTube and look up "nutribullet.' Not only will you see thousands of recipes but there's hundreds of testimonies on how using this blender to juice even one juice a day has helped people to lose weight, control their blood sugar and motivate them to make other healthy changes.

The classic crock pot slow cooker can still be used even when you no longer eat meats and/or are vegan. In fact, there's an even better pot for us-its a pot that is not only a slow cooker, but a pressure cooker as well. I am mentioning it though I don't own one yet. I have read the testimony and seen the recipes and blogs about this device and its a Godsend to veggieheads everywhere. It cooks beans-from the bag dried-in about 20 minutes and you can make entire meals-veggies with rice in about 10 minutes. It also cans foods, so those with a garden can really make out well owning this. I am putting a link for it, though I don't endorse (nor oppose) JC Penny's, it's just the first thing that popped up on search. It can probably be found on Amazon or Ebay for less or a different make/model.
Cool Ass Pot

My roommate has a drip automatic coffee maker but even that is something I don't really care about and don't own-I much prefer a french press.

Just put the coffee on the bottom, pour hot water in, let sit for 4-5 minutes, then plunge. What you get is a fantastically rich cup of coffee. Now some will argue that this is not that healthy because it does not eliminate the oils from the coffee like paper filters do. As a result its been said to raise cholesterol. It may or may not be the case but I think one cup of coffee in the morning this way is okay. Some will also argue that it keeps the antioxidant quality of the coffee more intact than a regular coffee maker so there's that. Just like some people say the 'k cup' coffee makers are really bad now because they harbor molds and stuff. Seems everything is a risk so go with your taste buds and moderation.

Last but not least-I do not own one and am having a hard time finding one outside of Asian stores where they are quite expensive, but a hot water machine. It's just what it says. Instant boiling hot water at your disposal. So if you are a tea drinker or an oatmeal lover-this is for you. Even for using in the french press. I won't advocate instant soups but it's great for them, too.....I really loved this thing when I worked in an office that had one. On a cold wintry day to have instant hot cocoa was great-even faster than microwaving a cup. If I remember correctly, the hot water heater that was in the office also had a button to de-chlorinate the water. (Our manager was Cantonese and got the machine in China.)

(incidentally, I believe that the science project of the girl and the plants and feeding them water vs microwaved water has been debunked but I dunno-seems other experiments have shown that microwaving water changes it also. So this too may be a 'safer' water. )

Smoke a Bowl

Smoked Paprika, that is. It's the 'trendy' spice thing happening it seems (but oh so good.)

I am a huge fan of bowls. The edible kind. Even before my heart attack, I enjoyed making them. And now that I have gone vegetarian (still crossing over to Vegan)-I am finding that they really are the best way to eat.

Panera Bread introduced some bowls (St Louis Bread Company to some regions) that I really, REALLY liked and are very healthy-containing kale and quinoa and spinach and stuff you wouldn't expect to find in a 'faster food' arena. However tasty they are though, they can be considered pricey-at least for everyday lunch eating or whatever. I found I can make twice the amount for roughly the same cost, so I set out to copy some of their bowls. Also in looking up plant-based recipes, I came across a plethora of bowl recipes. Seems I'm not alone in my love of bowls.

This here is a Pizza Bowl (and its vegan, actually.) I found it posted on the website, Blissful Basil. www.blissfulbasil.com

And here's another site with pictures of pretty food bowls: http://notyourstandard.com/superfood-bowl/

Here are 18 vegetarian bowls : Yummy bowls

And even more (incidentally, this website is a FANTASTIC resource for all that is vegetarian/vegan/green...hence it's name, I assume.   Hippie liberal website for green healthy stuff

Here's some of my bowls I've made over time:

 Pineapple Asian Bowl

 Mediterranean Bowl

 Veggie Bowl

(Yes, there was a bowl with chicken and cheese in it, as well as an egg, and some shrimp. Those were pre-heart attack but you can simply omit the animal proteins, they still have some sort of bean or grain as well. If not-add them then. )

So. While not all pictured, there are themed bowls, too. A Mexican bowl, which could house some vegetarian chili with some rice and pico de gallo and avocado, or a Greek bowl which could have artichoke hearts, black olives, penne pasta, spinach, a Thai bowl (and pictured here is a pad Thai bowl)-the possibilities for bowls are endless. You can have a complete protein/veggie/grain meal all in one bowl, and you can make extra 'bowls' and freeze them. After awhile, you'll have a freezer full of bowls that can just be popped into the microwave or put into a pot and re-heated.

Did I have recipes for all of these bowls? No. I made them up, for real. I realize not everyone can or wants to do that. But the basic foundation of bowls is pretty simple. What are you in the mood for?

If you are simply vegetarian then you may want to go for more 'comfort' food bowls once in awhile, like a macaroni and cheese bowl with broccoli, or even a goulash bowl made with ground beef substitution. From what I have heard (but haven't tried yet though for you all I will-the fake Italian sausage is really REALLY good. )

A great vegetarian comfort food bowl is the 'country' bowl-mashed potatoes, corn, mushroom gravy and cheese melted on top.

Just figure what you are in the mood for-is it Chinese? Lots of different bowl options there, using rice or noodles, is it more mid eastern or Indian? Curry bowls.

I've veered away from posting many recipes each day because in perusing the internet myself, I have stumbled across a MILLION. There are SO MANY vegetarian and vegan recipes online that I really don't know how to compete. I'd rather link you to them and have this blog become more educational. But I will post any recipe on request.

I find different intriguing recipes that sound great to me each day that are vegan. Or vegetarian but mostly vegan, such as the Sausage and Peppers recipe. Also I've learned of a sure-fire way to absolutely LOVE tofu which involves pan frying it and browning it using maple syrup(!), imparting a salty/sweet thing that pairs well with a number of things. So as I try these new recipes and products, if they turn out any good-I will happily link to where I found it from.

My next post will be taking a few steps back into 'healthy food knowledge 101.' There are a few staple items that everyone should have in their kitchens but may not know why or how to use. Things like chia seeds, hemp seeds, flax (ground or seeds) acai berries, goji berries, tumeric, nutritional yeast, etc. Some of it is 'trendy' but some of it truly should be spices and staples that you use to enhance the nutritional value but also act as 'agents'. What I mean by that is for example, chia seeds soaked in water create a 'gel' and can be used as a sub for butter and oil in baking recipes, while imparting a great deal of protein and nutrients. Stay tuned!

PS More on Mason Jar Salads......

Not only are they tasty, but they are really pretty to look at!!

I love my mason jars. I love them for salads

17 More Mason Jar Salads for YOU

But I love to make salad dressing and store in the jars, or cook extra beans and put in jar. I keep all my dry goods in the jars (pictures in previous posts) to keep out moisture and bugs (and it does look nice in the kitchen also). There are a ridiculous amount of uses for mason jars, including turning them into lamps that I also think you should look into that. But I forgot to include the link for the mason jar salads in my last 'salads' post, so.....there it is. Above this paragraph. Enjoy!

Sweet Potatoes-not just for Thanksgiving anymore

So if you haven't been living under a rock, you have probably heard that sweet potatoes are really good for you. Filled with beta carotene and antioxidants and vitamins and stuff to ward off cancer, it's a tuber that is far superior to its white cousin, the baking potato (and as I have established-you don't put vegan sour cream on one of those unless you make it yourself.)

In any event, the only ways I have ever eaten a sweet potato is-sweet. And twice a year. Once at Thanksgiving, where someone has mashed em' and then stuffed them in an orange rind then threw marshmallows on top then baked in the oven, and once again at a steakhouse nearby where you get a baked sweet potato as a side option, which comes with whipped butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.

So you could argue that in our culture, we utilize the sweet potato as just that-a sweet-and that it's more a dessert item than a meal ingredient. (Sweet Potato Pie, anyone?)

 My oldest daughter also warns that you do not want to take a raw sweet potato, dice it up and try and juice it. Apparently, my ex-husband did just that, believing that the health properties of the sweet potato would be a great addition to a smoothie and the results were disastrous. (I am pretty certain that sweet potatoes are one of those things that really can't be eaten raw.) Actually when I think about it-no potato is good raw, right?

Anyway, I really like sweet potatoes (not to be confused with yams.) Yams are a completely different thing. Sort of like the difference between a banana and a plantain-not super noticeable but totally different. Here in the states, we don't eat real yams. We eat sweet potatoes and call them yams, so the term in interchangeable here. But go to Africa and ask for a yam-you'll get a yam.

Anyhow-when using sweet potato use the actual potato. The canned 'yams' are over-cooked sitting in a syrupy mess of sugars and additives and there is no salvaging them from that.

In my research of recipes, I stumbled on a black bean and sweet potato recipe. For some weird reason, this combo sounded like it would be really good to me. I didn't bookmark it. So I Googled "black beans and sweet potatoes" and a number of things popped up-just not what I wanted. So I took matters into my own hands and created my own black bean and sweet potato dish, because experimenting is half the fun of this new eating lifestyle. Though I did borrow form a black bean and sp 'chili' recipe I found.

I took my bag of black beans and rinsed them, then brought them to a boil, boiled for about 2 mins and then took them off the heat, covered the pot and let them sit for an hour. Then I prepped the rest.

I took a large sweet potato and diced it. Then I sauteed onions and some garlic and added the sweet potato. I 'stir fried 'this for a bit, then added spices. I added some cumin, some smoked paprika, some salt and pepper, and a touch of chili powder. Then I threw in one chipolte pepper. After the spices coated the potato mix, I added some water to cover the potatoes and then covered the pot, letting them steam and get soft.

I then added some of the beans (about 1/2 the bag) and a can of stewed tomatoes. Not Italian Style stewed or Mexican, just traditional stewed tomatoes.  From there, I transferred all of it to my crock-pot and let it cook on low for about 6-8 hours.

Once finished, I squirted some lime juice and topped with some avocado, and it was all DELICIOUS.

You could easily throw this on top of rice or quinoa for additional protein/vitamin boost but I think it's great as it stands. Or even take a corn tortilla (non-GMO corn of course) and stuff all this in that. Hey-even use some of that HOMEMADE vegan sour cream to garnish. Again, as Auntie Fee would say, "It's your shit. Do with it what you want." But I totally encourage you to Google around for sweet potato recipes or sp as a main ingredient. Yes, they are 'sweet' but they pair truly amazingly well with 'spicy' as a result, also giving a hearty thickness to a dish while not being too heavy. As a nutritional powerhouse to boot, you can't go wrong experimenting with these things!

Rabbit Food - Er, I mean Salads

I'm super picky about my salads. The standard side salad leaves me cold-iceberg lettuce, a slice of crappy mealy tomato, a slice of cucumber with it's waxy skin still on it and maybe some sort of carrot shaving-with a plasticy ranch or neon-orange french dressing....you know the type.

But then the salads can get too 'trendy'. I do prefer a chopped salad, only because I don't like shoving a big ass piece of lettuce in my mouth. Some salads-its  alot of work to eat them. And I'm not a big salad 'garnish' person. Croutons, seeds, nuts, Chinese noodles, etc......naw.

I like traditional salads-a Chicken Ceasar, and a seafood salad with chopped egg and 1000 island-old school salads. Greek, the Wedge with the blue cheese-those types of salads. So now when I eat a salad as a meal-I don't mess around. I put a ton of stuff in.

Of course, I've had to forgo the chicken on the Ceasar, and lose the crab and egg on the seafood (so i don't even bother with that one) but Greek I can still do, and my favorite-Thai Beef Salad.

Minus the beef. If I am honest with myself-it's always been the dressing on that salad that has made me adore it. I found the recipe for the dressing and I will post it here. I make my Thai Now Beef-less salad with cabbage, and heirloom tomatoes, and mint and cilantro and basil and baby corn, but it's the dressing. It's ALL about this amazing dressing.

Asian Dressing

2 tsp brown sugar
juice of one small lime or 1/4 cup
1 1/4 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp of Sriracha (less if you want less spicy)

This dressing is a mix of sweet, tangy, salty, spicy and sour-every tastebud gets hit. To really bring an authentic flavor, use fresh cilantro, mint and basil ontop of cabbage mixed with lettuce. OYE so good!!!

Greek Salad...Omit Feta for Vegan. Cucumber, dill, mint, black olives, red onions, tomato and parsley. Can also add artichoke hearts. Squirt with lemon and Greek oregano. 

Garbage Salad. Let your imagination guide you! I have all colored peppers, zucchini, red cabbage, tomatoes, yellow squash, cucumbers to name a few!

Obviously, not all of these salads are 'vegan' per se. Some contain egg, some have some cheeses. Other's shown have tuna, or chicken pieces. But most are in fact, vegan. Though I will probably have to have my Tarragon Grape Chicken Salad once every 6 months. it's killer (hopefully not literally.) Fuck it it's a great way to go.

Rotisserie Chicken, shredded ( must. No other chicken will do)
Hellman's Mayo ( must. No other mayo will do.)
Tarragon, dried preferable.
Salt
Pepper
Red onion, minced
Red grapes, chopped
squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
Mix all, garnish with almonds.

*CLEARLY NOT VEGETARIAN or VEGAN but hey, I include 'treat' food also, because my kids-who are not quite vegetarian or vegan may want our family recipes. So F off. 

But the point is really, that even if you began to eat thse non-vegan salads as a meal-you are doing your body a great service. So many people don't eat salads like these-unless they dine out and usually at lunch-and then they eat the 'side salad' which is nutritionally anemic at most dinners. Of course iceberg lettuce is the worse as far as nutrition goes, and surprisingly, straight-up plain Roman is very nutritious. You can use greens, kale, spinach, spring greens-the possibilities are endless. Just create a lettuce or greens 'base' and store in fridge. Kinda like this :

Then, chop you little ass off of veggies-or let the food processor do it.

Think of the combinations that you really love. And for some people, the Mason Jar salads are really a thing, and great for them to take to work.

Stolen From Here:

I guess my point is, is that there are as many variations of salads as there people. YOU know what you like. Chopped, plain, with lots of crap, dressing ontop, dressing on the side. You know that you can add veggies to rice, pasta, quinoa, beans, grains of all sorts, and make it a 'salad'. There are 'hot' salads and there are 'cold' salads. But truly people should aim to eating at LEAST 4 big-ass salads a week as a meal. Not a little side dish, but as the meal, with a nice bowl of soup. For me, nothing is more satisfying than a hearty soup and a salad.

When you make salads with the grains or beans-like the Black Bean salad above, or the quinoa veggie salad, you are getting a complete protein meal to boot. We need to get it out of our heads that things have to be hot or contain meat to give us complete proteins and nutrition.

As far as dressings go-read your labels. I mentioned before that I like Kraft because they don't use HFCS. They do however use oils and sugars, and many of their dressings have cheese in them. I probably shouldn't hawk Kraft since they are allegedly part of the GMO system and I should rave about some sort of off-brand, private brand, local artisan brand, some Whole Foods brand BUT-this is LOW CLASS vegan. This is average, run-of-the-mill garden variety Joe Normal Vegan. You want fancy and hard to find (and expensive)-it's around. I think some of the refrigerated dressings in the produce sections might be okay, and Lord knows-there are millions of recipes here in the interwebs of salad dressings, from traditional to classic to totally vegan and even oil-less.

Don't be lazy but if you will be, for God's sake at least pick up a bag of salad that has stuff in it already. Some of it is already so pre-assembled that you get the 'antioxidant' blend, which includes even the freaking sunflower seeds and acai berries for your sloth-ridden ass. OK. I'd rather see people consume that, than not eat salad or God forbid grab one pre-packaged from the deli, which is filled with preservatives and other unsavory for you stuff. Usually like the 'chef's salad' with gross processed lunch meat ham and cheese. Yuck.

Eat like a rabbit, and you'll wanna do other stuff like rabbits! ;)

Vegan Baked Potato w/Store bought sour cream-I need therapy now

So for comparison I saw that they have sour cream -vegan sour cream-at the grocer's, so I thought "Ok, I should try it to see." I mean as posted previously,  I made some homemade and it was good, but maybe the company made store bought would be even better. 

I was very excited. Now I didn't stick to SOS-(no Salt, Oil or Sugar) because I did grease the skin of the potato with olive oil before baking in the oven. It's truly the only way I like baked potatoes, when the skins get crunchy-the microwave just doesn't cut it.

So I let it bake for an hour, then once done, I rolled the potato in some kosher salt. Kosher salt being the coarse salt so the salt crystals are pretty big. Typically you get a potato like this when you eat at a seafood restaurant or a steak joint, and it's the BEST.

Once baked, I cut open the potato, smear it with "MELT"-the vegan butter, then put a dollop of the vegan sour cream on top. I chop up some fresh chives and dig in.

AWFUL. First of all, the sour cream itself seemed 'grainy.' I don't know how else to explain it other than it was slightly lumpy. Now it did have a better consistency than the sour cream I made, but I screwed up and bought the wrong kind of tofu. They didn't have 'medium firm' at my store, so I bought the 'silken' kind which has the consistency of yogurt but once you add the vinegar and salt it became more like a smoothie. So that was my bad, and I know if I had the right tofu it would've been just like sour cream. Anyway........

I don't even know how to describe the taste of this 'sour cream' but I can assure you, it didn't taste anything like sour cream. It tasted like nasty soy. It tasted like it had a disease in it.

 It didn't even have a 'sour' to it, there was no 'tang' to it, no salt or anything. While the label had a bunch of ingredients, I am assuming most of them was to make the consistency that it has. However, the resemblance to sour cream ended promptly right there.

It was bad enough on top of the potato (and thank God I didn't totally smother the thing with this soy-ish weird ass paste) but when I tasted it off the spoon-just to make sure it was the sour cream and not something wrong with the potato, or maybe the mix of it with the "melt"- I damn near gagged.

Is it this brand, is there a decent store-obtained sour cream? I don't know and I no longer care because there is no way in hell will I ever buy it again. To add insult to injury-this shit ain't cheap. Sour cream isn't very cheap either, the average cost being around 2.00 but this stuff was 2.99 for a medium-sized. I mean look at the picture, it's 3.00 for that little container.

I was so pissed that I felt I had to salvage my potato. So I sauteed up some Portabello mushrooms and I did it in REAL butter. That's right, fuck it-REAL butter. Consider it the "10% badness" that I'm allowed to have in my diet. They, along with the fresh chives, turned a terrible potato into an edible one.

Yes. This shit was SO BAD that it set me into a 'relapse'. It made me passive-aggressive and angry that I ended up going back and sliding back into a slippery-slope animal fat abyss. Yes, I had a reaction to this. It wasn't logical, it wasn't rational, but the flash in my mind was if I had to eat this kind of terrible substitute to keep my heart healthy for the rest of my life, I'd rather have another heart attack and not make it. Ok that is extreme-but that's how awful awful this was to me. Just not even right. Not even CLOSE to sour cream.

I also don't understand why the Melt "butter" didn't taste all that great on the potato but it didn't. The stuff is good. I have spread it on bread and used it in other ways and it was as good as butter, but in this situation-hell to the no.

If you don't want to do butter I get it, I do-it's animal and that's ok. But I'd put some olive oil or something. I do have some Butter Buds but I'm not sure I want to go through this again. I'm sorta traumatized having a shitty baked potato. I don't think I've ever had a shitty baked potato in my life until now.

Clearly, some things just can't be replicated. The classic baked potato with butter and sour cream/chives is one of them. In my opinion. Now the homemade sour cream would work. I could probably handle that. So MAYBE-maybe I will make another baked potato and try it with the Butter Buds and with the homemade sour cream. But it'll be like 6 months from now, if not a year. I think I may need that long to forget about the taste of this gotdamn potato. Yeah so this sour cream was easily the Carob of sour cream. Avoid. At. All. Cost.

Homemade Vegan Sour Cream-it doesn't suck!!!

Vegetarian I figured I could do, as eating meat is not that big of a deal to me and in fact, kinda turns me off when I really think about the condition of the animals and all the stuff done to them and their meat. That said, the fear of Vegan really comes with my love for cheese and dairy products such as sour cream, coffee creamer, ice cream, yogurt/kefir.

I have found that the soy yogurts are a tasty substitute and I really can't tell much difference between it and regular yogurt. This makes me happy because I do want those 'friendly' bacterias to be in my gut once in awhile, especially as a woman.

I am still experimenting with vegan cheeses and I have reviewed the 2 already that have been posted. So far, it's not THAT big of a deal to not have cheese with everything, but I don't think I am alone in my love for it. Being at the grocery store this evening cemented that thought in my mind-not only is there a vast array of cheese in the deli section alone-at least 3 huge cases full-there is the regular ole' cheese aisle as well. We are a nation of cheese lovers-there is no doubt about that, and these days it's hard to find it not smothering something or sprinkled/added to foods.

This all said, sour cream is a weakness of mine. I used to make a dish called "Pollo Con Creama", which is a Mexican chicken dish made with a sour cream sauce. Of course all Mexican dishes for me are better with sour cream, and what is a baked potato without it? Not to mention that it was the 'secret ingredient' in my classic potato salad (a mix of Hellman's mayo w/sour cream) and I made a salad that was like a Greek Tziki sauce of cucumber, onion, vinegar and sour cream. Oh, and for salmon-a crazy good sour cream/fresh dill sauce that my ex-husband actually turned me on to.

And I mean, DIPS. Knorr Leek onion dip, veggie dips- how can you have dips without sour cream??

Needless to say-I can't get enough of it. Yes, I tried subbing with Greek yogurt to be 'healthier' but I've learned that yogurt is animal. I am really trying to eliminate MOST dairy. No small trick because mayonnaise is right behind sour cream as being my favorite condiment. (I'll be reviewing vegan mayo but I can already tell you-it ain't bad, either.)

So when I Googled for a vegan sour cream, I expected the usual onslaught of nut-based recipes that really sorta turn me off. I shouldn't knock until I try, but soaking cashew nuts and then churning them into some sort of cheese or sour cream in a weird vegan alchemy kind of a way was simply NOT appealing to me. Then I found this gem on the You Tubes.

VERDICT: It doesn't suck!!!! The first taste, did taste sort of 'soy-ish'. But after 2 more bites, it really started tasting more and more like sour cream. I'm almost certain, that like anything else once you are used to it, the actual original product will taste 'weird.' It's strange how we do 'accustom' to different tastes. I mean seriously-did you really like aspartame the first time you tried something 'diet'? If you did, weirdo. You are a weirdo.

You know what I love most about this? It's not pretentious. Its simple. Its easy. Its very, VERY accessible ingredients-hell, there are 3. Unlike this next video that I will show you simply for contrast:
This thing is exactly WHAT I'm trying to avoid. I'm sure she's a very nice person. I'm sure she's a great person. Ethical, 'mindful', loves the environment, the animals. She's very white. SHE IS THE STEREOTYPE ALL THE FREAKIN' WAY. All the way down to her hemp milk.

Hemp milk. Get the f*ck out of here, hemp milk.

"I prefer hemp milk." Oh, LOVEY. Sounds the same as some elitist " I prefer the Malbec wine."

Seriously. I need to keep it low-class. Because I'm not this chick. But I care about my health, my family and friend's health, and I don't want to see animals adulterated, either. I don't like GMO. I don't like the poison being peddled on grocery shelves-but I don't fit this mold. No offense to her, it's not her personally. I'll be showing more vegan videos of "what I eat in a day" and you'll see-young, white, very pretty and trendy girls, into outdoors, etc.

Anyway, here's the sour cream I probably will never try and make ^^^^^^

I haven't been to a Whole Foods, Marianos, Trader Joes or health food store yet-maybe won't be for a good long time-to purchase a vegan sour cream. So for now I will be making this simple one (the first video). It'll work. A baked potato, with the vegan butter "melt" and this homemade sour cream with some fresh chives-perfect for that baked potato craving. MMM. I may have to make tomorrow and report back! :)

Is food truly addictive, are there really food 'addicts'? HELL YES!!!

One issue that often is cited as being a reason for the morbid obesity of so many people is that our foods are now highly addictive. And not just the processed ones but ones also like cheese and meat and chocolate, that keep us coming back for more and also keep us from abandoning the ones that are 'bad' for our health, despite knowing that they are bad for our health.

Now first of all, most people agree that caffeine is addictive. If you don't believe that you are addicted to caffeine-try going without it for 24 hours and tell me how you feel. The ubiquitous migraine headache comes on, along with irritability, fatigue, and a real craving for it. For the taste, the smell, the feel of coffee (or soda pop) -whatever your caffeine delivery system is, there is a definitive craving for that item to get the caffeine 'fix.'

If you continue to go without it, your body will be achy, you will become depressed, your thinking foggy, your mind slower, your reflex's off, and your metabolism screeching to a halt. For a hard-core caffeine addict, it can take a month to feel normal. Until one day you wake up feeling refreshed and not needing anything to 'get you going'. You have natural energy and you no longer have the 'slump' in the afternoon where you reach for another cup of coffee or a pop and artificially boost your energy levels because you are playing with your flight or fight system now (Read: stress your body the fuck out)

I know all this, because I quit a horrible coffee addiction. I went 2 years without caffeine and I was so much better for it. It did literally take about a month to feel normal however. But once I was clean off it -everything improved. My energy levels were stable-I had no dips, I'd wake up fine, do my thing and then when I did sleep, I sleep soundly and deeply. My skin cleared up, I didn't need as many cigarettes (at the time I was still smoking) and I was no longer craving. (Caffeine incidentally, causes nicotine in your body to be excreted faster, and vice-versa. This is why people who smoke and drink coffee, do a lot of both. When you quit smoking, you need less caffeine, and when you quit coffee, you need less smoking. It's a synergy-an evil synergy but as an FYI, it helps when you quit one to do the other if you already do both. I drank a ton of coffee the first two weeks I quit smoking. Hell, I already had wicked insomnia from the nic withdrawal so who cared? It did help me pass the nic thru my body faster which meant withdrawal was shorter.

Despite what we thought, caffeine is no longer considered an antagonist of the heart, unless it is in crazy amounts or in combination with other crap, like energy drinks. Those ARE truly evil and should be avoided on many levels, but in any event studies are showing that MODERATE caffeine use in coffees and teas can be beneficial for the heart. I guess that's why up in ICU they kept letting me have it and didn't care, which I questioned (and subsequently discovered all this. So drink some for heart health, unless you have an arrhythmia or sensitivity in which it would be contradicted. You know, check with your doctor and pharmacist for any drug interactions with caffeine.)


Since my heart attack I've more or less quit again-I have only 1/2 of cup of caffeinated in the morning. I really don't crave or want much more than that. I also love my coffee with cream so I'm not really feeling the cream substitutes. I'd rather just not drink it. But there is no question that our coffees, with their milks and creams and sugars and flavors are very addicting and for many, the one 'treat' they allow themselves to have.

The other caffeine culprits of seeming addiction are of course soda pops. I'm from Chicago so it's hereby referred to as 'pop'. Frankly, I've seen more of my friends addicted to this crap than anything coffee, and I don't just think it's for the caffeine. Certain brands of pop in particular seem to turn people into fiends. Sorry, but I've never seen anyone drink just one can of Diet Coke a day. Or Mountain Dew-regular or diet but the people I know that drink Mountain Dew typically don't touch diet drinks. Even so, unless they are drinking a Mexican or a 'throw back' pop-they are drinking high fructose corn syrup.

Now without getting too in depth, I can only say that Aspartame, the main 'sugar free' additive in diet drinks of all sorts, and High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) which has substituted cane sugar in just about everything-these have been highly implicated in not only creating health issues-a myriad of them, but also in being addictive.

Books have been written for years about the evils of cane sugar- or fructose table sugar as it's known- for years. The book Sugar Blues comes to mind. It is true however, that we do not need sugar to survive. Our bodies convert sugar but it would convert other sugars such as in fruits to create energy and did long before sugar became a 'thing.'

I don't want to get into the biology here of the insulin cycle as it is bad enough we eat as much table sugar as we do. When we complicate it by then throwing our bodies a fake sugar that does not break down into glucose and the pancreas does not release insulin as a result but our taste buds keep craving looking for that energy hit-all kinds of trouble ensues and diabetes is it. So these foods become 'addictive' for a few reasons.

 Remember, there was a time when sugar was treated like it was a drug, a precious metal or commodity and only the very wealthy could afford it, and it was used as barter and trade.

One, the physiological effects of many food additives on the brain- like caffeine is a drug, sugar acts like a drug, the effects on the energy blood sugar cycle, and 2, the psychological associations with food which cannot be underestimated. The smell of bread cooking can remind one of childhood and if Grandma made you mac and cheese when you were upset, you will associate love and comfort and being cared for with that particular dish. But nowhere have I seen more circumstantial evidence of food being addicting than the heart attack support group I'm on.

I was on an online support group for heart attack survivors 55 and under. Many of us are unclear as to why we even had one, because we were healthy. No diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, maybe a few were overweight but not morbidly so-essentially, stress, maybe smoking and genetics is the axis of evil that have been implicated in our heart woes. No one says 'diet.'

However my cardiologist did, and urged me to watch "Forks Over Knives" which is a movie about why a plant-based diet is good for the heart. Not only good for it, but with the ability to reverse heart disease that already exist. Many are skeptical-except leading cardiologist from the Cleveland Clinic to Harvard. In fact, there is a 100 yr old heart surgeon who credits his longevity to a plant-based diet.

My cardiologist urged me to go vegetarian-vegan being optimal, even he says that he's a vegetarian. Yes, because it can be damn hard to forgo animal based foods like cheese and eggs.  But before I start posting the brigade of experts who extol the virtues of the diet, I still want to post a video for you on foods being addictive.

Going back to the support group, I saw one of the members type a post that stated she was going to INCREASE her intake of meat, cheese and butter. I was all 'whaaaaaa......? Increase?

Well yeah, because evidently there are also a few doctors out there who are advocating that. (WTF??)

In actuality, what is being said is that studies have shown that the saturated fats in bacon, cheese, butter-all the things we love-may not be a direct cause of heart disease. Rather it is now believed that the carbs and sugars are the real culprits. (is anyone confused yet? ) It is the substitutions of 'fat free' and 'sugar free' that are also lending a hand in hurting our hearts. So what the doctors are suggesting is that it is preferable to eat things such as bacon and butter- IN MODERATION- than it is to eat hydrogenated oils in margarine and trans-fats in fast food. It's not a green light to indulge in animal fat by any means.

But what is 'moderation', particularly when food is addictive? Can't nobody moderate addiction, that's the very antisis of addiction.

Not to mention that animal fats have still been shown to have a direct link to certain types of cancers and other illnesses beside heart disease. But try telling that to this group. These people would not hear it. They were angry, in denial,  they were defensive as to why it's okay ("I've been eating meat 3x a week since my heart attack and my cholesterol is only 130!") (Are you on a statin?) ("Well yeah of course")

Right. So it wasn't the statin that lowered the cholesterol-which is what its supposed to fucking do-it was that extra pat of butter on your dinner roll, right?

"No, its carbs that will give me a fat ass, not meat and dairy."

Right. I mean sure, white rice COULD, if you throw bbq pork on it, and potatoes COULD, if you throw sour cream on them, and sure, forget the spaghetti but pour Alfredo Sauce on your chicken-that won't gain ya no weight, yah okay sure fine. Incidentally,  in most cultures that eat rice and grains-they are NOT fat asses. Because above.

But they still wouldn't hear of it. I was lambasted and maligned to such a degree that I ended up just deleting them. It was essentially, addressing a roomful of addicts who were not willing to admit that maybe, JUST maybe, their CONSTANT intake of meats and crap pre-heart attack had something to do with it. And now that they've added some salad and maybe LESS meat and are watching the fat intake they think 'ok'-they simply refused to accept that all of the evidence both scientific and anecdotal for a plant-based diet could be remotely true. I even had one or two people post links to counter-opinions on why the plant-based diet and Forks and Knives in particular is a bunch of trendy bullshit. That it really was the paleo way that led to good health. It was the most asinine and counter-intuitive post I think I had ever read, and I only had 2 people inbox me who were also just as incredulous (but thankful for me speaking out) at what we were reading.

As I've stated here a bunch of times, I am a moderate. I don't fault or scold anyone for indulging in a cheese, or eating some chicken, or using that butter. I allow myself that stuff rarely also. What good is life if you can never eat what you love again, or at least take a few bites??

Yes, your farming grandparents ate cow and pig and churned butter and drank buttermilk and lived to be 98. Their shit was organic. They didn't have 100 cows crowded together in slaughter houses passing their bovine disease, being fed antibiotics and GMO corn feed and their chickens weren't being given growth hormones, and by the way we are genetically closest to the pig-not the monkey-so its almost cannable to eat pig but fine. Point being-our grandparents also didn't have microwaves with fast food, no boxed mashed potatoes, no 100 calorie cookie bags, none of that shit. They cooked, they ate it straight from the ground or tree. As I've stated in previous posts-they shopped at butchers and bakers and yeah. The argument that meat and cheese and butter must be okay since they ate that way and lived so long is now invalid, and it sure wasn't everybodies grandparents living that long.

It's not about deprivation, the plant-based diet and there are many misconceptions about it that I'll cover in a new post soon. A diet of just 10% 'bad' stuff is better than a diet of 30% 'bad' stuff. And of course for ethical reasons as well as health its just nice to always stay vegetarian.

 Many people do go 100% in the pool, never to eat animal or dairy again, even sugar and caffeine, and they are happy with it and claim no cravings at all. However, they did AT FIRST have cravings and that is something to be expected when switching from your addictions to foods.

I mean, not to don the tin foil hat for too long, but there is a bit of a conspiracy in that yes, certain foods seem completely designed to addict people. Is that really so far-fetched? Tobacco companies introduced ammonia into cigarettes, which acts as a 'freebase' for nicotine. This means that nicotine hits the brain and bloodstream stronger, faster and harder than it would on the legally allowed amount. So they essentially addict people that much faster than they normally would-and makes them smoke twice as much. Add to that faster-burning papers than 'back in the day'-I mean they are doing everything they can to keep people smoking since so many people are trying to quit, and we actually have nicotine replacements now  (many own by big tobacco, btw) and so fewer people are smoking that they got desperate enough to do something radical and of course unethical to stay relevant (and keep billions of profits coming in.) Considering the state tax on this, I'm really not convinced that the gov't, even with it's big blitz to get everyone to stop smoking-well moving on, doing the same thing to certain sects of the food supply would work in the same vein, yes? (BTW....the gov't which once exposed the use of ammonia in cigs has now retracted stating it is not shown to increase. I'll let you be the judge, its pretty interesting stuff.

For further reading if interested :  Big Tobacco Exposed adding 'crack' to smokes by gov

Gov't saying "Nah, no freebase" 3 years later

So yes, you could say I trust the FDA about as much as these guys above. And just why is it that so many foods we have on our shelves here are illegal and banned in Europe? But I digress.....

Addict people to fast foods, addict them to convenience foods, addict them to 'snacky' foods and certainly to beverages-you're money. So despite the billion-dollar diet industry, despite our addiction to body image and shaming, regardless of the research and science of health and vegans in the blogspear teaching you how to do it-if they make it almost impossible for people to want to give up certain food crack-including people who have already had heart attacks and strokes-well it's food for thought for me and should be for you as well.

The sad thing is just how much this has infiltrated to our children-the backlash the First Lady has gotten trying to implement healthy lunches in schools, and the news stories of kids smuggling salt into school-yes. Addicted. I'm pretty convinced and maybe after watching some of these, you will be also.

Food for thought. I'll get into the Monsanto stuff later because that also reminds me of addiction, I think they are the biggest pushers there are.

a bit longer but more informative

 And a 100 yr old heart surgeon on food: