As a vegan you realize you can't always easily grab a snack or bite to eat when your out and about. Packing food is a necessity when you're not sure what your options will be when it comes to meal time. I've noticed that bento lunches seem to becoming more popular, especially to blog about. I got into it a couple years ago when I discovered Vegan Lunch Box, which led me to the wonders of bento. Funny how when I was younger I was obsessed with anime and Japan (where bento originates) yet I discovered bento long after. To the Japanese packing a lunch box (or "bento") is much more than a pb&j with chips, its much more creative and thought out. Although I've had my fancy little bento lunch box for awhile now, I haven't been able to use it lately. The fact of the matter is, I have no real need to make lunches recently. I'm not usually out of the house long enough to merit packing a lunch, but I've missed packing my vegan bento's. So after an absolutely horrible day yesterday I decided to raise my spirits by packing a bento just for the fun of it. But now, I don't think I'll be able to stop. After all I am flying to California this weekend for my brothers wedding. But my amazing bento box has a freezable gel-filled lid which I doubt I will be able to bring on the plane. What a pity the airlines wont let me bring more than 3 ounces of liquid or "non-solid" foods. But I've decided that with my love for bento I'm going to start blogging my creations and posting them on this blog, along with my regular posts. After all they are always vegan and like I said earlier the concept of packing lunch is not only smart for a vegan on the go, but economical and environmental. While you can find some pretty amazing bento's out there, mine aren't usually that fancy (as you can see in above photo) but since I'll be trying to blog them from now on, I'll be trying harder. Hope you enjoy!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
I LOVE Bento
Posted by Pinky at 12:44 AM 0 comments
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Scott Pilgrim
It seems like veganism is starting to pop up everywhere in the media. Usually it's referred to mockingly, and I have to admit the fact that there aren't any cool vegan images in the media is what first made me wary when I saw Scott Pilgrim. Spoiler alert, if you haven't seen the movie don't blame me if you continue reading this and I reveal anything that you would otherwise prefer to learn on your own about the film. You are warned. Speaking of warnings, despite seeing the film with several people who had already seen it, I didn't get any warning for all the "vegan content." That is if you don't count my friend leaning over and saying "You're really going to like this part. . . . or not" which I don't. But I don't like spoilers so I'm glad no one spilled the beans about the vegan "evil ex" in the film. While I admittedly cackled at the vegan jokes, initially I was concerned about the portrayal of vegans. Like I said earlier, there aren't many positive portrayals and this was no exception. But I couldn't deny how hilarious the character was, granted I think I may have been the only one laughing in the theater at this point in the film. Yes, Todd "the vegan" is stupid and of course in the end thwarted by his own arrogance but he has SUPER POWERS, that is vegan super powers. Because in Scott Pilgrim's world abstaining from dairy, meat, and other animal products apparently grants you super powers, but you have to go to "vegan academy" and live in fear of the "vegan police" taking said powers away if you aren't vegan enough. I couldn't honestly take offense to this character, his stupidity and pretentiousness is over the top, but all of the characters are in this movie. Just like you shouldn't get your panties in a bunch when South Park makes fun of a specific religion or ideals because its not like South Park singles anyone out, everyone is put on the chopping block. So I couldn't help but think the whole vegan portrayal endlessly entertaining, as well as the rest of the movie for that matter. If you haven't seen it, I ruined some parts for you but you should still see it, its a riot all the way through. With that I'll leave you with a quote from the movie, "MILK AND EGGS BITCH!"
Posted by Pinky at 5:00 PM 0 comments
Wedding & Honeymoon
I know I haven't been blogging lately. I could say I've been busy out of my mind but lets face it, in reality I've just turned into a lazy slob who feels way too overwhelmed with school and future prospects to do anything important lately. (Still haven't legally changed my last name oops!) The big news since my last post was *suprise* I got married! (Hence above wedding photo) Honestly the wedding was amazing, I was really disappointed with the DJ my dad had picked (picked on the basis that he is a friend of my dad) but he played weird music, and even though I gave him a list of music to go with he didn't use it at all. Also it seemed like Greg's side of the family didn't like to dance too much but I had fun dancing with my family and the in-laws! The food was good but as most of my guests realized in horror, all the food at the wedding was vegan. The venue didn't allow for an outside vegan caterer so they made the vegan food there. And although I thought they did a pretty good job, I still wish we could have gone with a vender that specialized in vegan food like we did with the wedding cake. Ok, ok no one hissed and moaned (to me anyways) about it and from what I gathered from second hand gossip no one hated the food. I have to admit though I wasn't entirely convinced all of the food actually WAS vegan. I noticed that the food on the guests tables looked different than the food at the head table, but I wasn't going to make a fuss over something that already over and done with. I was distracted with other things anyways , which I'm not going to get into (*cough* someone had smoked pot in the bridal dressing room *cough*) because as to who did it is a mystery that will never be solved and I'm tired of being sore over it. Honestly though most of the night is a blur from all the rushing and running around from pictures to people, I barely had time to dance or eat.
Posted by Pinky at 3:40 PM 0 comments
Monday, May 24, 2010
VegWeb
There are a few things that I really relied on to remain sane as a vegan. I never grew up with a good background of cooking and food. So the sudden need to prepare vegan foods was a huge wake up call for me. Unfortunately the first vegan cookbook I bought was "Skinny Bitch in the Kitch" because of its rave reviews, but its not the easiest guide for the newly turned vegan. I couldn't cook to begin with, so using "chickpea flour" and "kelp powder" were too advanced for me, and I imagine a lot of other people too. I don't think I would have survived if I didn't have all the help from online. Not only are there tons of amazing blogs out there that gave me hope, but tons of great easy vegan recipes. There are countless websites I could list but one that I really love is VegWeb.com. Like everything on my blog I am not paid to say anything, I just appreciate the large database of recipes from beginner to pro. And although I've found some fantastic vegan cookbooks out there (Vegan Table is amazing) I still fall back on VegWeb because it offers something cookbooks can't; feedback. The comments on VegWeb have saved me from not adding enough of a certain spice, or to clarify what the heck some ingredients even are. Lately I've been in a bind because I don't have extra money to spare on anything, not even food. So I've been able to find recipes online that can accommodate my short supply. It always much harder to do anything alone, and thankfully because of the countless other people out there who have shared their stories online I don't have to.
Posted by Pinky at 12:46 AM 0 comments
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Super Morbidly Obese
I know its been awhile since my last post, but with finals just ending and the wedding right around the corner, I've been going a tad crazy. I'm not going to lie, no matter what I'm busy with, my vice has always been television. Flipping through the channels I started watching "Half-Ton Dad." At first I wanted to find another show, because honestly I was really disgusted. The man in the show is classified as "Super Morbidly Obese," and at the start of his medical treatments weighs in over 1030 lbs. I know that America is full of obese people, but shouldn't stories like this be a real wake up call to people? I've talked about the show Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution before, and love the fact that is shows that change is possible. But the change needs to happen, on more levels than just switching out sugar filled strawberry flavor milk for regular milk. The REAL problem is how we view food as a whole. If you look at a bowl of salad and groan, either you don't know how to make a good salad or there is a real problem with how we view food.
Posted by Pinky at 11:31 PM 0 comments
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Earth Day!
Posted by Pinky at 5:16 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
The Double Down
Posted by Pinky at 11:23 PM 0 comments