Week 2

Week 2

French Toast, Vegan Sausage, Fruit Salad with toppings and soy yogurt, and Strawberry Banana Milkshake

- Tuesday’s meal was, of course, awesome.  Using cashew batter instead of the conventional egg wash was a great substitute for the French toast.  My favorite part of the actual meal, not counting the shake, was the vegan sausage.  As Michael said in the discussion, regular sausage is just bad cuts of meat heavily seasoned to make tasty.  Combing soy protein and sausage seasonings made for a really sausage-like tasting patty, one that you actually feel good eating.  The fruit salad buffet of toppings was an awesome idea and made the salad even better.  I’ve never tried soy yogurt before this class but found that it’s not too bad. 

Quinoa, Stir Fry Veggies, Teriyaki Tofu, Blood, Chocolate Mousse

I finally found out the secret to tofu—wrapping it in a towel to suck out moisture before cooking.  My tofu always turned out soft and mushy before.  This was one of my favorite meals we’ve eaten since I love tofu.  Desert was really good, I love the idea of using avocados and dates to make a healthy mousse. 

The readings and presentation really sparked my thoughts on the consequences of eating processed and unhealthy foods.  Those with vegan diets avoid many health concerns that relate to the kinds of foods people choose to eat: diabetes, high blood pressure/cholesterol, etc.  Many people do not realize the magnitude of health risks relating to food choices, but based on the way certain foods make you feel, it should be obvious.  Since the beginning of this course, my diet has changed a great deal.  I took Eco-eating last May term, so I’ve been aware of many topics discussed in class.  But after May term was long and passed my daily consciousness of health and nutrition went with.  After starting to make conscious efforts to eat healthy foods again, I’ve notice how much better I feel and the amount of energy I have.  The other day, I was curious to see if eating something super unhealthy would make me feel differently, and of course it did.  I was sold after that.  If some bad foods can make me feel like crap after eating it just once, the consequences of eating bad foods daily will only lead to disease and illnesses.  Not wanting to feel crappy after eating is good enough incentive to keep choosing good foods.

Reading “Bosshog” for the second time had the same effects on me as when I read it the first time, and I was definitely thoroughly disgusted.  The meat and livestock industries in the U.S. are terrifying to me, but being aware of such practices is essential to good health, both for us and for the environment.  I hate knowing that the quality of American meat and dairy are extremely poor due to the immoral practices of industry corporations, to the point that other countries like Europe won’t eat our meat and hate the taste of our milk.  On the point of milk: when people think of tofu, they always connect it to estrogen.  But the same people do not realize that milk, something that they probably all drink, is a natural hub for lots and lots of estrogen.  That was a good point made in our discussion. It was shocking to learn about the environmental consequences of conventional farming and feedlots.  The fact that the Smithfield Farms produces as much waste as LA blows my mind, and its all toxic pink sludge!  It also surprised me that the cost for Smithfield to mitigate their pollution equals their total annual profits of $11 billion.  There are absolutely no incentives for them to do anything about their waste--paying fines would most definitely be a lot cheaper than applying any cleanup strategy.  I wonder if the pink ponds can be deemed super funds....