Turkey Love

I had to share this video with you all, as it is perfect for this time of year. Share this with as many people as you can, it will make you smile all while informing you of how loving turkeys can be.

 

Oasis Cafe – Riverside’s Best Kept Secret…That Isn’t a Secret At All.

When invited to Oasis Cafe for lunch, I had no idea that we were about to be treated like vegan royalty. Don’t be fooled by the unassuming location, this place is anything but reserved when it comes to quality vegan and vegetarian food.

So…of course I am partial to my Orange County..but this place makes the drive out to the I.E. absolutely worth it.  Oasis Cafe is a family run establishment and the love that goes into this food definitely shows.

Although under some menu reconstruction, I am going to do my best to showcase the incredible food this place has to offer.

We started with a ‘steak’ wrap which about knocked me over, it was that good. The same goes for the steak burger. This ‘steak’ isn’t what you are used to when it comes to faux meat. That chewy, contrived texture isn’t there which really lets you enjoy what you’re eating. The steak may be so good because it is one of the many things made in house at Oasis. The people behind the scenes at the cafe create the faux meat  by washing the starch out of gluten, leaving only the protein to cook, season and shape.

Although the steak was my favorite - how often do you hear a vegan say that by the way ;)- the Pupusas are not to be ignored. They are a grilled corn masa filled with beans and mozzarella Daiya in the middle, so good. The last entre we tried was the portabella wrap which was again, so good. I was pretty disappointed in myself that I was out of room to keep eating part way through it!

The nice thing about the entres at Oasis is that each meal has its own tastes. So often I find that all the dishes at a vegan restaurant will look different, and have different names, but taste really similar to each other. Everything I tried here had a different taste as well as texture.

Lastly I have to note the desserts. After seeing the carrot cake and tiramasu we made sure we had a little room left to try them. All good, and of course all vegan.

After dining here I was sure I had found the IE’s hidden gem, the holy grail of vegan and vegetarian food to go. Turns out my little secret wasn’t a secret at all. Google Oasis and you will find endless positive Yelp reviews, Facebook check ins and likes, and an overall love for this little cafe.

With future plans of opening locations in Orange County, San Diego and Los Angeles, Oasis is certainly on its way up. I have my fingers crossed that the OC location is the next to open, because I for sure would be a regular.

If you ever find yourself on the 91 headed east, make the trip to Oasis and see what I am raving about for yourself!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/OasisVegetarianCafe

WWW.OasisVegetarian.com (Website will be up and running soon)

Oasis Vegetarian Cafe

11550 Pierce St.

Riverside, CA 92505

(951) 688-5423

Angel’s Stadium Adds Vegan and Gluten Free Options.

I am big on the notion that being vegan really doesn’t prohibit me from doing any of the things that I love, it actually has made everything I love to do even better. I talk a lot about my cruelty free choices in fashion, and beauty products…and while I love those things very much…I also love baseball. I love being outdoors at the games, I love the energy of the fans, and I also love that it is the one sport that I actually understand. Football for me is a lot of looking around and cheering when everyone else does…but baseball, I get.

So, being a born and raised Orange County-an of course I’m an Angel fan.  A few years ago they added a California Pizza Kitchen with a chef salad which is a noted step in the right direction from hot dogs and pizza…but still not an option for a vegan or even a vegetarian. So while I love going to the games, it isn’t something where I could sit and get into some stadium food with my fellow fans…untill now.

This year the stadium debuted a welcome addition to the line up of eateries called Melissa’s Harvest. Among the vegan and gluten free options are a black bean burger, hummus, veggie dog, veggie wrap, sweet potato fries, and a market greens dish which I’m guessing was a salad. They also have gluten free nachos which would of course be vegetarian but not vegan. I went right in for the veggie dog on a gluten free bun. The veggie dog was great, bigger than the well know Tofu-pups we buy at the grocery store….but the bun was a different story. Take a thick piece of bread with a cakey consistency…cut it in half and put the veggie dog in the middle.

 Very strange.

Mind you, I ate the whole thing…so it couldn’t have been that bad. That really isn’t saying much as I have yet to meet a piece of bread I didn’t like, but I felt all too full the rest of the night. I can’t really figure out why they chose that kind of bun to go with such an awesome veggie dog. I don’t avoid gluten though so I am trying to take into account that there may be some Angel’s fans who are really appreciating the gluten free aspect of the dish.

Regardless, I can’t help but feel a little hopeful when I find something like a major sports arena offering healthier, and of course more humane, options in the food courts. If there are enough people requesting something, it will inevitably be an option. Simple supply and demand.

All in all I am thrilled to have the vegan options there and I suggest everyone give them a try next time at a game. Enjoy

27 Wrap Up

So I’ve officially been on this earth for 28 years. Seems weird because part of me still feels really young, and part of me feels like I should probably be celebrating my 60th birthday by this point. 27 was good to me, very good. I  began my second year of being vegan, found an apartment that really feels like home, stood at the forfront of many animal rights rallies, put some real elbow grease into the local shelter and got some animals into good homes, laughed (alot), got my health on track, pushed forward in my career, loved, lost, and learned to let go of a lot of things that just couldn’t come with me into my 28th year…and I did this all along side my amazing friends and family.

I rock climbed in Joshua tree this year…..

I learned how to groom a street dog so that he could get adopted this year….

I protested a rodeo with the biggest sign you’ve ever seen this year…..

I did a 5k where I ran through mud and fire this year…

I celebrated the babies in our family…not being babies anymore this year…

I got to see Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepard Conservation Society speak, twice,  this year…

Viewership of this website went from hundreds to thousands this year….

I rallied at the circus to let people know how cruel Ringling Brothers is this year….

…and I wrapped up my very last day of 27 with the Sea Shepard Conservation Society at the Sea No Evil Art Show….

 I did a lot of stuff this year, and I can’t wait to see what the next year brings.

Orange County Animal Care Events!

So many awesome events are coming up at the Orange County shelter! Summer is a great time to adopt a new pet considering most of us have a little play time during the summer months.

 

Saturday June 25th we will be offering 15$ microchipping to the first 100 customers! This is a great deal, and the BEST way to help your pet find his way home if he ever gets lost…is with a microchip. (Cash Only)

Also Saturday June 25th OC Animal Care will be having a big 2011 Pet Fair! Food, fun, pets and demonstrations. Fun for the whole family and admission is free.

Rethinking Dairy

It is quite troubling to me that these investigations keep exposing the absolute horror that goes on at these dairy farms and people continue to dismiss the ever growing evidence that what you see in the “Happy Milk Comes From Happy Cows” adds are complete bullshit. When people learn that I don’t consume any dairy they of course inquire why and I have no problem simply saying I don’t want anything to do with the mistreatment of animals in dairy farms. 99% of the time I get some sort of reply that people are just sure that cows are not mistreated at dairy farms, after all they aren’t slaughter houses. If I refer someone to the you tube videos of the Mercy For Animal’s Conklin Dairy Farm investigation where a worker on the dairy farm was caught beating the crap out of a baby cow with a pitch fork…they say that you can’t base judgment of all dairy farms off of one bad one.Well what about when Land O Lakes was busted when it was exposed last year that they had cows living in disgusting conditions, covered in mold, sick and so tightly confined they had fused to the barn doors? ( click here to read more https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2515 )

People dismiss and avoid these clear pieces of proof because it is easier, or…they just don’t care that this is what goes on so that they can poor milk in their cereal in the morning. Well…. here is yet ANOTHER scandal exposed by the wonderful Mercy For Animals group exposing what horrors routinely go on at dairy farms. Here is the link to the website http://www.mercyforanimals.org/calves/ but I will warn that the video is quite heart breaking. If you wish to skip the video, I will sum up the facts here:

(per the website)

MFA’s hidden camera reveals:

• Workers bludgeoning calves in their skulls with pickaxes and hammers – often involving 5 to 6 blows, sometimes more – before rendering the animals unconscious
• Beaten calves, still alive and conscious, thrown onto dead piles
• Workers kicking downed calves in the head, and standing on their necks and ribs
• Calves confined to squalid hutches, thick with manure and urine buildup, and barely large enough for the calves to turn around or fully extend their legs
• Gruesome injuries and afflictions, including open sores, swollen joints and severed hooves
• Ill, injured and dying calves denied medical care
• The budding horns of calves burned out their skulls without painkillers

Upon reviewing the undercover footage, Temple Grandin, PhD, animal welfare advisor to USDA, declared: “It is obvious that both the management and the employees have no regard for animal welfare.”

The owner of E6 Cattle required his employees to bash in the calves’ heads with a claw hammer, forcing them to condemn calves to a prolonged and horrific death. As Debra Teachout, DVM, asserts, “They feel every blow until they become unconscious.” The American Veterinary Medical Association condemns the use of blows to the head as a means of killing young calves.

Promptly following the undercover investigation, MFA alerted law enforcement authorities to violations of Texas anti-cruelty law at E6 Cattle, and presented a detailed legal complaint and meticulously compiled evidence of such violations to the Castro County District Attorney and sheriff. The evidence demonstrated an ongoing pattern of torture, unjustifiable infliction of pain and suffering on animals, and a failure to provide necessary medical care.

As MFA continues to expose the unconscionable cruelties of animal agriculture, and to diligently pursue justice by aiding prosecutions of animal abusers, consumers still hold the greatest power of all to end the needless suffering and death of calves – and all farmed animals – by adopting a compassionate, vegan diet.

Next thing I hear often, “..but where will I get my calcium if I don’t drink milk or eat cheese?” Things like spinach, almonds, tofu, beans, artichokes, calcium fortified orange juice, sesame seeds….the list goes on and on. Studies show that if you substitute non dairy forms of calcium and stop with the animal products your cholesterol drops as well.

If you aren’t a fan of soy milk (as I am not) try almond milk, it seriously can sub as cow milk in anything and you wouldn’t know the difference. By the way, your body can only absorb about 300 mg of calcium at a time, so subbing in little bits with each meal is ideal…and skip any soda while getting your calcium as it prohibits your body’s consumption of it.

I didn’t really want to write anything about this because in all honesty, it stings a little to see so many people learning the facts about what goes on at dairy farms and continue to support this industry. As more and more farms get exposed, I just feel like I need to spread the word. This isn’t a couple animal rights people exposing the mistreatment of cows at one dairy farm….this is numerous groups going in undercover to countless farms and reporting horror stories from inside…over and over again.

I can’t even bring myself to post any pictures on here of the workers punching, kicking and strangling the baby cows….I just hope that people reading this will rethink dairy after being given the facts.

Miyako

My new obsession is veggie sushi in soy paper. I had tried sushi when I was a meat eater and it was disgusting, I had never liked fish. Then as a vegan I tried vegetarian sushi and that was gross too! So, recently someone coerced me into trying the veggie sushi again but with soy paper instead of sea weed and that was it! I found a new love. It was the seaweed wrap that was reminding me of a gross fishy taste. So, being the devout Orange County-an that I am…I set out to find some good veggie sushi close enough to my office that I could go get some on my lunch break.

So far Geisha House in Santa Ana has the BEST, but really isn’t conducive for a quick lunch break. Next, Tokyo Love in Garden Grove….long story short the atmosphere is a bit creepy and the wait staff is horribly unfriendly…I won’t end up there again. Today I tried Miyako in Garden Grove and loved it. The miso soup is not fish based (as some are) so you are safe to consume vegan or not. The atmosphere is cute, clean, well lit and quiet enough to enjoy during my few minutes away from my crazy office. Prices are super fair as well, I think most cut rolls are around 7$, hand rolls like 4$.

Miyako – 9877 Chapman Ave # E
Garden Grove, CA 92841-2734
(714) 534-8980

Stand. Speak. Act.

I’ll be at CSUF this weekend whooping it up with other activists at the Social Justice Summit.

“The Social Justice Summit provides a forum for people to exchange ideas about improving the state of our communities, offers space to dialogue about the obstacles to creating effective change, provides effective tools for social action, and offers tangible grassroots solutions.Learn about human rights issues, environmental concerns, inequality and oppression on a local, national and global level.” – per the website’s description.

Want to know the best part? We will listen to Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Jamie Kilstein of Citizen Radio speak.

http://www.fullerton.edu/deanofstudents/volunteer/VSCProjects/summit.html

Harmony Valley

 

It was an absolute pleasure to meet with the people of Harmony Valley at the Natural Products Expo this year in Anaheim. There was always a buzz around the booth and every time I walked by I heard at least one person say something like, “This is vegan?”…and really only a vegan knows how satisfying that statement is. I can’t say enough how easy it is to be vegan once you realize that you don’t miss out on anything. 

I won’t mislead you and say that sometimes it doesn’t take a little elbow grease. A lot of what I eat is big vegetable and tofu concoctions that take some prep, but sometimes after working a really long day I need something a little quicker that falls a little more into the comfort food category. Harmony Valley sent me home with a package of the Hamburger Style and Sausage Style dry mix. The perk of the dry mix means no quickly arriving expiration date and if you only want to make half of the bag if you are cooking for one (ahem..) you can split the bag up into portions.

So each of the products instructions start out the same, mix the dry product in with an appropriate amount of water and let sit in your refrigerator for about 15 min so that you end up with a completely moist batch of what really emulates a ground meat substance.

First I’ll share with you my Tofu Scramble success with the Sausage Style product. 

 After mixing and rehydrating the product I put some into little patties and cooked over medium heat just long enough for each side to brown.

While the patties are cooking I had some drained and crumbled Nasoya Extra Firm tofu cooking over medium heat in another pan. Once I have the tofu at a nice, not too wet texture I throw in some bell peppers, tomatoes, onion and garlic, and spices. Let this all simmer together for a few minutes then crumble the browned ‘sausage’ patties and simmer everything together. Then…you’re done! Such a good Saturday morning breakfast and I get a really good reaction with this dish from both veggies and carnivores alike.

Ingredients for Harmony Valley Tofu Scramble:

* one block drained, extra firm tofu

* half package Harmony Valley Sausage Style Mix

*one green bell pepper, one red bell pepper

* half an onion, chopped

* one clove garlic

*two chopped tomatoes

*spices (I used cumin, paprika, turmeric, salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic salt but you really can do this to taste)

Next up is what I did with the Ground Beef Style mix. Remember Manwich as a kid? Or maybe you guys called them sloppy joes…either way I remember them being so good as a kid. Not the nasty mystery meat ones they served at school…but my mom would put these together for us with her own little touches that made them really good and super memorable.

What I did was prepare the Hamburger Style style crumbles with the water…in the fridge (like the sausage mix) then I put a little oil in a skillet and browned it. The mixture doesn’t really change to a dark brown, but after about 10 minutes you can tell that most of the moisture is out. Then I added the onions, tomato paste, seasonings and a little water to let simmer together for about another 10 and you are good to go. Find some hamburger buns that are egg/dairy free, toast them a little and put together your Harmony Valley Sloppy Joe with some pickles and bam, you are in 3rd grade again…but a whole lot healthier. I threw some kale chips on the side for a pretty balanced comfort food dish.

Harmony Valley Sloppy Joe:

* one packet Harmony Valley Hamburger Style mix

* one onion, chopped

*3 tbsp tomatoe paste

* spices (I used bbq sauce, salt, pepper, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder and all spice but you can get a packet of ‘sloppy joe’ seasoning at the grocery store to make it easier on ya)

Harmony Valley products are soy based, vegan and kosher certified with a good amount of both fiber and protein so you are not only eating kinder…you are eating healthier. Find more on this awesome company here http://www.harmonyvalleyfoods.com/ and keep an eye out for both the products mentioned here as well as the new humus mix coming out soon.

Peace Out GoDaddy

 

The story about Bob Parsons killing the Elephant in Africa broke early last week…and yet I am really just writing about it today. The reason being I have been absolutely lost for words on the subject. I’m horrified that such disgusting behavior and complete disregard for life exists out in the world. As a vegan, I deal with this uncomfortable feeling a lot…but it isn’t everyday that I realize that I am a patron of it. Bob Parsons owns the company GoDaddy which WAS the host for the domain of this little website you are reading right now. Ooops. The vegan and animal rights community is a huge presence on the internet….and a good portion of it is smacking their foreheads just like me and wishing I hadn’t gone with this company. PETA is among the many of us that is now leaving GoDaddy. How were we to know though? The important thing is that we switch our domain hosts asap and spread the word never to pay this company another dime.

Incase you hadn’t heard about the GoDaddy drama, I’ll recap it for you. Bob Parsons was over in Africa recently and murdered an elephant claiming that he is a hero now because he rid the locals of something that was ruining their crops. Mind you, the whole thing was video taped and narrated like the guy was Indiana Jones. After shooting the Elephant, the video shows locals hacking at the elephant carcass and eating the flesh…all while wearing GoDaddy hats. Gross.

The flip side of this is that the Elephant was accused of eating the locals crops and the people are hungry. That being said there are many other suggested ways of guarding crops such as fences and relocation. Regardless of what the issue was, the gore of the whole process is appalling. When someone is breaking into our house, are we revered for taping ourselves shooting and dismembering the burglar? No, that would be disgusting. See the relevance in the comparison?

If Parsons truly had wanted to help these native Africans, there are countless other way he could have helped them out. If you want to perform a charitable act  then do so by stimulating the economy in some form. Maybe help to maintain crops somewhere that the elephants aren’t already living or invest in a fencing system to keep the elephants from eating the crops now…and in the future.

Upon returning from his trip Parson publicly boasts this murder as a triumph and builds himself into a savior. Hey Mr. Parson, I have a news flash for you…you are an aging man with an ear-ring and something to prove who used an automatic weapon on a creature  that is known to be docile and only attack to defend itself when provoked….a creature who is threatened by extinction…an animal who’s mourning process mirrors how humans grieve a loss…you are not heroic. Parsons showed extremely bad judgment, insensitivity and disregard.

I got pretty nervous at the thought of switching my domain host, but this motivated me to dive in and make the switch. Surprisingly, it was quite simple. I went with NameCheap.com because it isn’t pricey and as far as I could research…isn’t owned or affiliated with any Bob Parson company. If you have a domain with GoDaddy, my suggestion is to click the following link and follow the very easy instructions http://mikerotman.tumblr.com/post/4228710476/leavegodaddy I found this link on www.EcoVeganGal.com and it made my life a whole lot easier. If I can do it…you probably can too.

Something I learned from Bob Linden of www.GoVeganRadio.com is to vote with your dollars. I am vegan, I protest rodeos and boycott the circus….but being an informed shopper is just as important.

I truly hope that in light of Bob Parsons’ true colors showing through, he loses a lot of business. The savage killing and documentation of this elephant shouldn’t be praised, but should be a wake up call to GoDaddy patrons that it is time to make a switch like many of us already have.