Meat Fried Meat with Meat Sauce

A Vegas buffet is very revealing about American tastes in food. Over 200 feet of edible products and it's not an exaggeration to say that there's some kind of meat in nearly every product! I know, because I had a very hard time finding veggie fare... so hard in fact, I had to resort to asking the chefs to make food fresh for me (which there were happy to do).

Turns out, the same chef who got me meat-free veggies also was the omlette chef. He sympathized, but thought I was being a bit hypocritical about eating eggs. "So, no meat except for chickens?"

"Huh? Chickens?"

"Yeah, you're eating eggs!"

So I explained to him that the eggs we eat were not in fact, chickens, nor would they ever be. Not chicken fetuses, not future chickens even, no, edible eggs are unfertilized eggs. Now, I admit, eating cooked fluids from the insides of a bird don't sound that appealing, but at least no animals were destroyed in making my omlette. That's like saying drinking cow's milk is like eating steak. Both are fluids used by mothers to nurture future animals, but we aren't killing the mother.

Of course, the living condition of these animals gives me pause, so we also try to limit intake of the products, but when I'm grazing in a place where animal meat excess is the norm, I figured it was okay to indulge in a little chicken uterus juice (mixed with spinach, red peppers, bell peppers, onions, and some cow breast juice).

When in Rome, right?

Besides, a good sushi roll might contain hundreds of unfertilized fish, so what's a few unfertilized birds among friends? Oh, and don't get me started on fruit being the sex organs of plants! ;)

Sustenance

Enjoying food is one of my favorite pleasures. People around here think you can't eat healthy and have good taste, but I completely disagree with them. Other people think you can't eat vegetarian and have a healthy diet; I disagree with them too! My diet is filled with delicious, healthy, balanced, and meat-free foods... mostly fruits, nuts, and veggies.

I'll make my meal choices based on what my body is craving. If I'm in need of protein, I'll pick a meal high in protein. Same goes for carbs and fat. There's not a lot of fat in my diet, so that means I can splurge whenever the occasion presents itself, hence the chocolate.

It wasn't easy creating a healthy menu in what feels like the fast-food capital of America, but after a while, I soon found all the healthy choices in the local supermarket, and this is what I came up with.

Breakfast:

• 8oz pressed fruit (from a selection of: oranges, bananas, apples, mangoes, pears, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple)
  
• 1 slice toasted cinnamon raisin bread

Lunch:

• Spinach salad (spinach, broccoli, carrots, red onions, cucumbers, currants, sesame seeds, croûtons, fat-free tomato dressing)

Snacks (one of the following):

• Red pepper hummus w/pita bread
• Jalapeño potato chips
• Mandarin oranges
• Peaches
• Pears
• Chocolate chip cookie
• Chocolate
  

Dinner (one of the following):

• Burrito (seasoned rice, black beans, hummus, red peppers, spinach), low-fat tomato tortilla
• Chat choley (garbanzo beans, veggies, tomatos), basmati rice
• Pav Bhajl (veggies, tomatos), basmati rice
• Steamed noodles, veggies (green beans, red peppers, water chestnuts, cashews), soy-ginger sauce
• Herbed veggies (broccoli, carrots), basmati rice, cashews
• Teriyaki veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots), basmati rice, cashews
• Szechuan veggies (broccoli, water chestnuts, sugar snap peas, red peppers), basmati rice, cashews
• Rotini pasta, spicy tomato sauce, garlic bread
• Spicy seasoned tuna, Ritz crackers
• Seasoned red potatoes, peas
• Minestrone soup, peanut butter sandwich
• Vegetable soup, Ritz crackers, cashews
  

Yes, cashews are my main protein/fat source! Dinner is obviously where I get the bulk of my variety. This may sound odd, but I find it comforting looking forward to the same meals for breakfast and lunch. Always have, probably because I grew up so often not liking what was served for lunch.

The average cost for breakfast is around $20/week, or $3/day. If I'm out, I'll spend that at McDonald's on a McSkillet Burrito (minus sausage, minus cheese) and an OJ. Average cost for lunch is around $14/week, or $2/day. Average cost for dinner varies but is around $5-6/day. Beverages are around $7/week, or $1/day. Snacks are around $21/week, or $3/day.

So no, it ain't cheap; around $15/day or $450/month. On the other hand, if you order by number at a fast-food restaurant, you'll spend $4-$8 per meal, which is easily the same amount per day. Or, you could just eat one meal a day at a nicer restaurant for the same amount.

I like my menu better. If I lived near high-quality, cheap sushi, I'd eat that 4-5 times a week for dinner, but other than that, I wouldn't eat out much. Maybe an occasional visit to the local Thai, Indian, Punjabi, Lebanese, Egyptian, or Moroccan restaurant, but they don't exist around here either, and anyway, I'd rather learn how to make those foods for myself.

Maybe you noticed that my diet is 99% vegan (non-animal, non-dairy), but I don't eat vegan, as most do, for moral/ethical reasons, rather I choose a vegan diet because of the long-term health benefits of doing so. (And so should you!) I'm not vegetarian (non-meat) or pescatarian (vegetarian+fish) either. I'll still eat a choice cut fillet mignon (cooked medium) at good steakhouse if I'm taken there, and I'll savor every bite. But save sushi, I rarely eat meat, and except for chocolate and ice-cream, I never eat dairy, even though I craved it while I was still growing bones!

How to Lose Weight

Look, as a human being, here is what you need, in order: air, sleep, water, food, shelter, clothing, love. Wanna maximize your life? Breathe the freshest air you can. Sleep in a comfortable place. Drink pure water. Eat the best you can (the topic of this post). Make your home (cave) comfortable. Dress first for function, then form. Love freely. I promise... you do these things and everything else in your life will improve!

Eating properly:

• Know and keep to proper portions for your food/meals
  Most people eat way too much. Go visit the sick or elderly in the hospital and note the food portions of their meals. You'll do some good in the process too!
  
  
• Control your urges
  If you're not already eating healthy, just accept the fact that you don't need sweets or desserts but once a day. Get your sugar buzz from nature's natural foods.
  
  
• Know what is good food
  Veggies are good, fruit is good... they don't need butter or salt, learn to enjoy the taste of pure food... once you get used to it, you'll find it's better than processed.
  
  
• Knowledge of BAD food
  You are what you eat! Literally! (You're also what you watch on TV, but that's another post!) Avoid high-fructose corn syrup, chemicals (eat organic), and anything that you don't know what it is. Hint... if it contains stuff that isn't a pure food (like MSG) don't eat it.)
  
  
• Walking (exercise). Walk to work. If you don't live close enough to do this, move or get a new job. (I hear you laughing, I'm 100% serious.) Your body (and the environment) will thank you.
  

How to Be Happy

Remember, it feels good to be alive! If it doesn't, you're doing something wrong! Fix it!

Stress feels bad, yes you can feel PRESSURE!

Tips for coping with a bad day
- already have a clean house (or clean it)
- shower (hopefully you're already groomed)
- scent (purfume, aroma therapy)
- comfort (fabrics, foods, friends)
- properly meditate (organics over synthetics)
- properly medicate (organics over synthetics)
- enjoy (repeat as necessary)

Back home again, in Indiana...

Back home again, in Indiana,
and it seems, that I can see ...

Um... lots of things. I've left California for now (more on that later) and have just arrived to the land of my birth. I was picked up at the airport by my uncle, who offered to take me out to dinner... bonus!

He wanted to go to Cracker Barrel, where they don't practice equal rights and where they put animal bits in the veggies just to piss off the vegetarians. (Seriously, check out the menu; lard (animal fat) in the carrots, bacon in the green beans, chicken stock in the soup & rice, etc., and who knows what they put into cornbread that makes it non-vegetarian.)

I politely declined, and I was able to talk him into Max & Erma's instead (it was the best I could do). How quickly I forget that this is the land of fat people and bad food. For example, I tried to order (from the menu) steamed broccoli, only to be informed that there is no way they can prepare it (or the other steamed veggie menu item) without butter. No way to do it!?!? WTF? I know healthy choices are not chosen here, but they can't steam veggies without drowing them in butter? Good greif, Charlie Brown!

My uncle teased me that there wouldn't hardly be any butter on them, and when they came, he offered up a floret. I chose one tiny piece and I felt like I was drinking melted butter from the tap ala Homer Simpson. Yuck! He could barely taste the butter, but then again, the restaurant put 1/2 a stick on his baked potato, so I guess after that, you wouldn't, would you?

I then looked around and noticed the percentage of obsese (not overweight, obese) folks around me, and I pitied them. Here they are, like my uncle, thinking they are doing the right thing by ordering broiled fish (broiled in butter) and eating veggies, but no... they might as well be eating a Snickers. Sigh.

On the inspiring side, it is wonderfuly warm and humid, such a welcome change from the comfortable, arid California air with it's freshly washed air from the Pacific. It is beautiful here, though not in a Big Sur kind of way, but in a "boy, the corn sure is 7ft tall" kind of way.