I also made some nice food this past week. First off I want to show support for Tara - The Snowy Vegan. I made a spinach smoothie. It was yummy. It does have honey in it.
My thoughts on honey: I think big business honey is a major issue with regards to the bee industry. Millions of bees are killed for the grocery store honey. However, since extracting honey does not actually damage the bees, local honey is a different issue for me. If I am confident that the bees are not killed after each season and are allowed be wild, I do not see a huge issue with eating honey. On that note, when Jamie and I were in Florida, we found a little honey stand on the side of the road, with about 10 small jugs for sale. We picked one up. Disagree if you would like but I think that in a more primitive world, humans are scavengers and are likely to occasionally eat things like honey. Your thoughts? (now watch my subscribers drop off like bees in the corporate machine!)
I also made a quinoa pilaf with some shredded cabbage and carrots. It was light and refreshing. I generally cook heavy foods and this was such a treat. It always surprises me how well I feel after eating something as health as this dish.
We also made some Mac & Cheese.
This is what $0.99 worth of organic bananas looks like at my local farmers market.
5 comments:
That's a beauty of a smoothie! Thanks for your support!
To be honest, I'm a vegan who consumes honey and the occasional beeswax product, which doesn't make me a vegan in some eyes. I don't usually purchase them, but I don't freak out if I consume something with the products in them. I also think that because the world's bee population is in such dire straits that we actually need more sustainable, small-scale apiaries. It's a sensitive issue and I think that there are many sides to the discussion to consider. But I, too, am afraid that I might lose a few of my followers!
Wow! A buck bought you that much!?! Jealous! That mac and cheese looks delish. Is it nooch based? I'm still on the fence if I like it or not.
beautiful smoothie. i've been too scared to try one with spinach but i am so tempted. especially because i can't resist trying new things. i am obsessed with food!!
about honey: i think everyone is entitled to their own opinion about this. when i recently became vegan i decided to cut out honey because i felt like it would be more authentic. but really a label is a label...i suppose it could be argued that if you feel like that about honey, what about meat? i think there are people out there who eat local as much as possible and that's a great way to live as well. i'm not calling you out on anything or criticizing your eating habits/buying habits but i just wanted to say that. i'm done now.
that mac & cheese looks great!
Green smoothies: We have kind of a weakling VitaMix we got from a garage sale five years ago, and it can't handle crushing such tough things as greens unless you set it to UltraLoudSuperSonicScream setting for 10 minutes. So I am embarassed to confess that I use a very yummy powdered green drink mix that is at least produced in our state, along with organic apple/carrot nectar (from a bottle), a frozen banana, some of whatever fruit came in our CSA, and flax/sunflower/sesame oil.
In our case, I must confess that we function in the gray area of veganism in some ways, including honey, eggs and leather. Steve doesn't mind buying leather shoes as long as they are used (and he wears things until they are falling apart, including leather shoes and boots), and I am still in the process of phasing out leather, with some winter boots in the closet. And then there are the eggs from our companion chickens, which Steve eats. I avoid that as much as possible---eating chicken menstrual periods, yuck!!, plus eggs aren't very good for you, and I hate giving people the impression that it's okay to think of animals as food sources because it's such a slippery slope.
We got honey until recently from a beekeeping friend; now, he's moved away, so we bought one of his hives. We're planning to do it organically, and are doing everything we can to keep the bees alive and healthy. As long as the bees have plenty of honey for themselves, you don't use chemicals on them, and you consider their welfare as much as your own, I think beekeeping can be a good thing. No doubt that we need more local and sustainable food production methods, but how we accomplish that is an important consideration. It's a question of asking yourself if you're acting thoughtfully and out of compassion, and if you're considering the animals' needs as much as your own.
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