The Purpose of a Dog

It appears that a dog was terribly mistreated during the filming of this movie - forced into a man-made rapids against its will.  Video has surfaced of the dog showing stress and trying to prevent itself from being placed into danger.

An outcry has developed because of this and there is a call to boycot the movie.  The movie will not be premiering as planned and there is an investigation into the situation.

People are outraged, and indeed this is a situation where outrage is warranted.

I just wish that people could save some of this outrage for all of the animals who are slaughtered for food, who are forced into the killing chutes against their will.

Why isn't the same outrage shown to animals who are killed to be food?  It's purely a question of selfish hypocrisy.  That's it and nothing more.  For all the people who say "but bacon" - shame on you.

Savoury Winter Pie

If you asked Mr. Downright Vegan if we ate out or ordered in too often he would say yes we do.  So we are making a concerted effort to cook more and eat at home as much as possible.  Plus, today is Sunday, and instead of going to my father's house for dinner as I usually do, where I have meals prepared by my vegan sister, I stayed home, so I had to cook.

I am always on the lookout for a good recipe, and when I'm reading mainstream magazines I like to consider how I would veganize a recipe.  The inspiration for this Savoury Winter Pie, as I am calling it, was in this month's Country Living UK magazine, only it was made with lamb - how utterly cruel. I substituted Gardein Beefless Ground, a vegan meaty substitute. This is a superior vegan product, in my humble opinion.  You could also use lentils and rice in place of these if you wanted to avoid vegan meats.

Ingredients

1 lb of Gardein Beefless Ground
1 medium butternut squash  chopped into one inch chunks.
1 large onion chopped into the size you like (i like larger pieces, but I know some prefer tiny bits)
1 large carrot chopped into the size you like
2 ribs of celery chopped into the size you like
3 cloves of garlic, chopped/minced as you prefer
Oil for the pan - I used Wegman's basting oil, which is simply cooking oil with herbs in it
I 300 ml can of fire roasted tomatoes
Sweet potatoes

Pre-heat your oven to 350 F

Put the cubes of squash into a bowl and drizzle with a little oil and the herbs of your choice.
Place the squash on a parchment covered cookie sheet and cook in the oven until tender, which takes about 30 minutes.  Set aside.



Place the chopped onions, carrots and celery into a frying pan with a little oil and cook on medium heat, stirring from time to time, until the onions are translucent and the carrots and celery are al dente.

Add the garlic and stir to combine.

Add the can of fire roasted tomatoes.

Add the Beefless Round to the pan.

In the meantime, while the veggies are cooking, scrub your sweet potatoes, and leaving the skins on, slice them in uniformly thin slices.  I tried using a mandoline but I was frankly afraid of slicing my fingers off even though I was using the pushing gizmo, plus I felt that the slices were too thin.  I ended up giving the too thin slices to the squirrels in my backyard.  Using a sharp knife, I cut the sweet potatoes by hand, about 1/4 of an inch thick.

Now increase the heat on the oven to 400 F

Put the cooked squash pieces into the bottom of a pie plate, making sure they are evenly distributed.

Add the contents of the frying pan, and then place the sweet potato rounds on top of this in a single, slight overlapping layer.  Brush the sweet potatoes with oil and season to your liking.  I used the wegman's basting oil and black pepper.

Cook until the sweet potatoes are soft.

A Mainstream Magazine with On-Purpose, Not Accidental, Vegan Recipes

The latest issues of Idées de Ma Maison, a French Canadian magazine, has an article about vegan recipes.  The recipes are good and look tasty.

If you don't read French, you can use the visual translating feature of google translate to take a picture of the recipe and translate it into English.

The muffins look particularly tasty!

This magazine can be downloaded from the Toronto Public Library.  It's worth taking a look at this.

I Feel Like No One is Listening

Sometimes being a vegan is a lonely business.

I do not like sitting down to dinner with my family and have them eating poor dead animals beside me.  I appreciate that I was once a person who ate animals, but I have seen the light, and i have acknowledged how cruelly animals are treated in the food industry and i am trying to make amends by writing this blog and no longer using animals in any way.

I can't stand the smell of cooked meat.

Last week i was out for lunch with a group of retired teachers and we were at a restaurant with only one vegan option, which I ordered.  One of the teachers asked why i don't eat free-range eggs because after all, they are allowed to wander around the farm at will.  Of course this is not true, but I only said, no I do not eat those eggs because of all of the male chicks that are ground up alive and because when the hen stops laying "enough" eggs (whatever that means) she is sent to the slaughterhouse.  I said there is no animal product that you can eat or wear that does not have the slaughterhouse at the end of it.

And then there is this article in today's Mercy For Animals email.  Read it, and weep.  And if you have not stopped drinking milk, perhaps this article will nudge you in the direction that you know in your heart is the right move to make.

http://www.mercyforanimals.org/heres-how-mfa-is-taking-on-canadas-largest