The Vegan and Vegetarian Secrets Blog …

People look at me as a vegan and conclude that since I stepped on a snail or because the vegetables I eat resulted in a tractor death for a squirrel somewhere in Paraguay that somehow vegans are hypocrites, which of course they’re not since perfection is an unattainable goal and is something to be driven towards, never actually achieved.

The difference between you and the vegan standing next to you is that while you’re both going to step on a bug tomorrow, they’ve decided to dedicate their lives to do as little harm as possible, completely independent from what you do. So in no way does the protozoan life form they step on negate your responsibility for the lamb you’re paying a stranger to cut tomorrow. And falling 1% short of an unattainable goal is really good when you’re standing next to someone who won’t even try.

~ Shelley Williams

The following quotation as seen on Facebook somewhere, can’t remember who wrote it but I thought it was a Classic!

Dear non-vegans, When engaging in a debate with vegans about veganism, please PLEASE refrain from mentioning the following…

1. Plants feel pain.
2. Humans have canine teeth.
3. Lions kill and eat other animals.
4. It says in the bible…(or any other ‘holy’ book).
5. Humans are at the ‘top of the food chain’.
6. Our ancestors ate animals.
7. Milk is good for our bones.
8. We need animal protein to live.
9. If we don’t eat cows we would have too many of them.
10. I only eat ‘organic’ and ‘free range’ animals (animal products).
11. I don’t eat much meat anyway.
12. I don’t eat meat. Only chicken and fish. (???)
13. I honor the animal who ‘sacrificed’ his/her life for me.
14. Humans are the superior species.
15. I have tried a vegan diet but got sick.

I’d love to ANSWER all your QUESTIONS! But PLEASE, spare me (and other vegans) with all your knowledge and opinions. You might be unique, however your statements are not. They are verbal torture… ASK and LISTEN. But please stop explaining and defending. Trust me, I know. Not only was I you in the past, I’ve heard it all a million times over. I thank you.

Do you think you can’t afford to live a vegetarian lifestyle? It’s a common misconception that vegetarian diets are costly or hard to maintain, but not if you know how to shop, cook, and eat smart.

The costs of eating meat are high – both at the grocery store and paying for the doctor’s bills later in life for diabetes and heart disease. Not to mention the moral cost of killing animals for food. These 12 secrets to living vegetarian on a budget will help you to keep more cash in your wallet and healthy vegetarian meals on your plate at every meal.

Secret #1: Cutting Back on Eating Out

It sounds like a no-brainer, but restaurants take a major hit on most people’s budgets every month. If you can’t completely eliminate lunches and dinners that you eat out at restaurants, consider cutting back. Just a few less meals at restaurants each month can work out to hundreds of dollars in savings.

Secret #2: Avoid Vending Machines

Not only are many vending machine foods unhealthy, they are also wildly overpriced. Instead of buying a snack, bring your own from home. Instead of buying bottled water, invest in a nice water bottle and carry your own H20 with you wherever you go. Doing so will be more environmentally friendly (you won’t be throwing away all those bottles) and will save you money.

Secret #3: Avoid Prepared Foods

It’s silly to buy things you can make easily on your own with a little foresight. Vegetarian items like pancakes are simple and very cheap to make from scratch. The cost of a bag of microwave popcorn is literally hundreds of times more expensive than a bag of dry kernels, and a 99-cent bag of dry beans contains about 15 servings (much more than a single serving can of cooked beans that costs the same amount.)

Secret #4: Avoid Frozen Meals

While we’re on the subject of cooking, make all your meals at home yourself. It’s very cost-ineffective to buy prepared frozen dinners – not to mention higher in preservatives and other unhealthy additives to prolong shelf life. These foods may be lifesavers on occasion, but they shouldn’t become a way of life.

Secret #5: Buy Large Quantities

In general, the larger the package the cheaper the price per pound will be. You’ll also need to make fewer trips to the grocery store if you stock up on vegetarian staple food items. Just make sure that you can use all of the item before it expires – if half of it goes bad before you can use it, you’re not saving money.

Secret #6: Stock Up on Sale Items

Don’t be oblivious to store specials, coupons, and other deals when they are there to be found. When you find a good price on a food you eat often, stock up on it! Foods can be frozen to extend their life span, or you can plan carefully to use them before they reach the expiration date.

Secret #7: Shop at the Regular Grocery Store

Many vegetarians focus on specialty health food stores because they want the full nutritional content – but there are plenty of options for wholesome organic foods right in their grocery store. Items at the grocery store are often better priced than foods in a special market.

Secret #8: Shop at Ethnic Markets

Don’t forget to look in the phone book to see if there are any ethnic grocery stores near you. It’s worth a trip just to check out their prices. Many carry vegetarian staples and organic fruits and vegetables at astronomically low prices. Hispanic, Indian, and Chinese groceries are some of your best bets.

Secret #9: Buy Organic Store Brands

Now that organic foods have become such a mainstream line of products to buy, there are store brand organics in addition to name brand ones. Many of them may have identical ingredients list. You can’t tell a difference in taste, but you’ll definitely see the difference in price.

Secret #10: Grow Your Own Produce

This is obvious, but many of us fail to do it because we’re intimidated. Even if you’re not a master gardener, you can still have great success growing strawberries or tomatoes in containers on your windowsill. If you’ve got more space, experiment with vegetables that take a little more space, such as broccoli, watermelon, and spinach. Plant a fruit tree in your yard, and in a few years you will have shade as well as a season of free fruit. Learn to can so you can enjoy the fruits of your harvest all year long.

Secret #11: Shop With a List Based on Sale Items

Watch store circulars for the markets where you regularly shop. Note the items that go on sale each week, and devise a weekly meal menu based on the sale items. Are green peppers on sale? Then think of ways you can incorporate them into bean tacos, vegetarian stir-fries, and pasta dishes. Planning your meals around the sale prices of items makes a big difference in your total at the grocery store checkout.

Secret #12: Focus on Cheap Vegetarian Staples

Many people wrongly believe that eating vegetarian is expensive, when in reality the vegetarian staple foods are some of the cheapest around: rice, pasta, and dry beans. Large bags of these staples cost next to nothing, enabling you to create meals for pennies. When you build your meal dishes around these inexpensive staples rather than an expensive cut of meat, your vegetarian meals are actually much cheaper!

Eating and living vegetarian on a budget is actually very easy, when you take the time and effort to do it conscientiously and carefully. A little work on your part pays off in substantial savings at the grocery store, not to mention that it pays off in a healthier diet. Shopping at the right stores for the right money-saving items and knowing to avoid costly food purchases means massive savings for you.

Coming soon… The TOP 7 Mistakes New Vegans & Vegetarians Make and How to Avoid Them Report.

First they came for the Communists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for me — and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

~ Martin Niemoller

Raw Foodie Key-Lime Pie Recipe

Ingredients For The Crust

(This will make a 9-inch pie)

• 2 cups raw almonds
• 1/4 cup fresh dates (about 4-6 dates pitted) 
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• pinch of salt

For the Filling…

• 1/2 to 3/4 cup fresh lime juice (depending on how strong you like the flavor)
• 4 medium avocado (approx 8 oz)
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 1/4 cup fresh coconut milk (*see below)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons lecithin (ground)
• 1/2 cup raw unscented coconut butter

To Make the Pie Crust…

In a food processor fitted with the ‘S’ blade, process the nuts, vanilla and salt until crushed. Next add the fresh dates and process until combined together.

Press the crust into a 9-inch pie pan and refrigerate whilst you make the filling mixture.

To Make The Filling…

Blend all ingredients except the coconut butter and lecithin until smooth in a processor. Taste test to see if you need more salt or agave, if so adjust this to your tasting. Next add the coconut butter and lecithin and blend a further 1-2 minutes until it’s all combined and smooth. Get the pie crust out of the fridge and pour the filling mix into prepared crust. Set it in the fridge (or freezer if you are in a hurry) until it’s firm. Once set, you can decorate with lime slices, berries or Cashew Whipped Cream.

* To make fresh coconut milk – Crack open a fresh small ‘baby drinking coconut’, pour out the milk into a blender and scrap out the meat from the inside of the coconut with a spoon. Add the meat to the blender also and blend on hig until smooth. (make sure you clean any bits of shell from the meat with a peeler first). Use this in the above recipe.

 ~ Enjoy

Steve Wynn, Russell Simmons, Bill Clinton and a comparable cast of heavies are now using tempeh to assert their superiority. A look at what gives …

By Joel Stein

It used to be easy for moguls to flaunt their power. All they had to do was renovate the chalet in St. Moritz, buy the latest Gulfstream (GD) jet, lay off 5,000 employees, or marry a much younger Asian woman. By now, though, they’ve used up all the easy ways to distinguish themselves from the rest of us—which may be why a growing number of America’s most powerful bosses have become vegan. Steve Wynn, Mort Zuckerman, Russell Simmons, and Bill Clinton are now using tempeh to assert their superiority. As are Ford Executive Chairman of the Board Bill Ford (F), Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, venture capitalist Joi Ito, Whole Foods Market (WFMI) Chief Executive Officer John Mackey, and Mike Tyson. Yes, Mike Tyson, a man who once chewed on human ear, is now vegan. His dietary habit isn’t nearly as impressive as that of Alec Baldwin, though, who has found a way to be both vegan and fat at the same time.

It shouldn’t be surprising that so many CEOs are shunning meat, dairy, and eggs: It’s an exclusive club. Only 1 percent of the U.S. population is vegan, partly because veganism isn’t cheap: The cost comes from the value of specialty products made by speciality companies with cloying names (tofurkey, anyone?). Vegans also have to be powerful enough to even know what veganism is.

>> Read The Full Story HERE

A shocking number of manufacturers of personal care and household items still test their products on animals, despite the availability of alternative methods for evaluating product safety. Here is the most recent list of these companies and their associated brands, with some of the biggest shockers in bold. This information was gathered from the vegetarian site.com and original sources are referenced on www.allnaturale.org. Please choose all-natural products to help put an end to this insane animal cruelty!

    * Allergan, Inc.
    * Arm & Hammer
    * ArmorAll
    * Arrid
    * Axe
    * Aziza
    * Bain de Soleil
    * Ban Roll-on
    * Banana Boat
    * Bausch & Lomb
    * Benckiser
    * BenGay
    * Biotherm
    * Block Drug Co. Inc.
    * Bounty
    * Boyle-Midway
    * Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
    * Cacherel
    * Carpet Fresh
    * Carter-Wallace
    * Chesebrough-Ponds
    * Church & Dwight
    * Clarion
    * Clairol
    * Clear Choice
    * Clorox
    * Commerce Drug Co.
    * Consumer Value Stores
    * Coppertone
    * Coty
    * Cover Girl
    * Crest
    * Cutex
    * Dana Perfumes
    * Dawn
    * Del Laboratories
    * Desitin
    * Dial Corporation
    * Diversey
    * Dove
    * Dow Brands
    * Drackett Products Co.
    * Drano
    * EcoLab
    * Eli Lilly & Co.
    * El Sanofi Inc.
    * Elizabeth Arden
    * Erno Laszlo
    * Faberge
    * Fantastik
    * Fendi
    * Final Net
    * Finesse
    * Flame Glow
    * Garnier
    * Giorgio Armani
    * Givaudan-Roure
    * Glade
    * Glass Plus
    * Helena Rubinstein
    * Helene Curtis Industries
    * Huggies
    * ISO
    * Ivory
    * Jhirmack
    * Johnson & Johnson
    * Johnson Products Co.
    * Jovan
    * Keri
    * Kimberly-Clark Corp
    * Kiwi Brands
    * Kleenex
    * Lady’s Choice
    * Lancaster
    * Lancome
    * Lava
    * Lever Brothers
    * Listerine
    * L’Oreal USA
    * Lubriderm
    * Lux
    * Lysol
    * Matrix Essentials
    * Max Factor
    * Maybelline
    * Mead
    * Mop & Glo
    * Nair
    * Naturelle
    * Neutrogena
    * Neutron Industries, Inc.
    * Olean
    * Oscar de la Renta
    * Pantene
    * Parfums International
    * Pearl Drops
    * Pennex
    * Pfizer, Inc.
    * Pine-Sol
    * Plax
    * Playtex Corporation
    * Pledge
    * Polident
    * Ponds
    * Post-It
    * Prince Matchabelli
    * Proctor & Gamble Co.
    * Quintessence
    * Raid
    * Ralph Lauren Fragrances
    * Reckitt Benckiser
    * Redken
    * Resolve
    * Richardson-Vicks
    * Sally Beauty Supply
    * Sally Hansen
    * Sanofi
    * SC Johnson & Son
    * Schering-Plough
    * Scotch
    * Scott Paper Co.
    * Sensodyne
    * Signal
    * SmithKline Beecham
    * SoftSheen
    * S.O.S.
    * Stanhome Inc.
    * Sterling Drug
    * Suave
    * Sun Star
    * Sunsilk
    * TCB Naturals
    * Tegrin
    * 3M
    * Tide
    * Tilex
    * Unilever
    * Vaseline
    * Vichy
    * Vidal Sassoon
    * Visine
    * Vivid
    * Warner-Lambert
    * Westwood Pharmaceuticals
    * White Shoulders
    * Whitehall Laboratories
    * Windex
    * Woolite

**For Reference to this post please CLICK HERE