I have recently read some interesting articles that link animal cruelty to family violence. Interestingly, I have worked with psychopaths and done a lot of research on psychopaths and one of the key areas of assessment is cruelty to animals. Psychopaths often start very early in life with harming and torturing animals. They grow up to become abusive as adults and often abuse their spouses and children when they have families. Psychopaths prey on those weaker then themselves, making many women, children and animals easy targets. They have no guilt regarding their behavior and often blame their victims for harm that is afflicted on them. They will blame a dog that is repeatedly abused for coming back them, stating that they must like being beaten or they wouldn’t come back. They are not nice people.

I have been doing some reading lately of some of the horrors that take place in factory farms. Some of the stories are remiscent of psychopathic behavior. I really don’t care to repeat the horrors, I am sure that many of you have read the same articles that I have, I just want to point out that these are not normal human behaviors. These psychopaths have cleverly found themselves a job where they can get paid for inflicting harm upon others. So to believe that their is a connection between animal cruelty and family violence is not something that is hard to do. I don’t know how many of you have watched scarey movies in which people are getting harmed, and then they hurt the innocent dog and it illicits extreme compassion and a feeling of violation. People who harm innocent beings are the worst kind of cruel. Because if you will harm an animal that has never done anything to you, you will harm anyone. This includes those that not only do their job of killing animals at factory farms, but ensure that they inflict torture prior to the actual killing. You know who you are and you are despicable antihuman beings.

If you would like to read more about Psychopathic and Anti-social behavior, I have taken the liberty of posting a couple of papers that I wrote that will give you more information.

If you come across a psychopath, put as much distance between you and that person as possible and whatever you do, do not let them near your animals, because they will exploit and cause harm to anyone in their path.

Frontal Lobe Neuroanatomy of Violent Behavior

Antisocial Personality Disorder: A Review of the Literature

Shall I give you the good news or the bad news first. Hmmm, let’s start with the bad news. I was so busy enjoying myself on Thanksgiving, that we forgot to take pictures of all of the delicious food, so my plan is to make one thing a week between now and Christmas from our dinner and post the pictures for all to see. The good news, I had a request for the recipe to my vegan Keylime (actually just lime) pie. It was super, duper delicious and I could eat it over and over again. It didn’t set quite as well as I hoped, but no matter, it was still delicious and cut a lot like a chocolate or banana cream pie.

Keylime Pie

Juice from 8 limes
2 tbsp grated lime peel
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup Maple Syrup
2 Packages Tofutti Cream Cheese
1/2 container Tofutti Sour Cream
1/2 cup Agave Syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 vegan premade pie shell
Cook pie shell according to package directions. In a saucepan, heat lime juice and water until it begins to boil. Pour into a glass measuring cup and set aside. Rinse out pan and wipe dry. Put in cornstarch and slowly pour in lime mixture, rapidly stirring the whole time. Turn heat to low and stir in maple syrup and lime peels. Cook for about 10 minutes, until mixture begins to thicken. Using a mixer, mix sour cream, cream cheese, agave syrup and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Add lime mixture and mix well. Pour into pie crust and place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. After removing from oven let cool before placing in the refrigerator. Make sure to refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Has anybody seen Fast Food Nation yet? I am asking for the book for Christmas, but have yet to see the movie advertised. Anyway, I saw this horrible review of the movie, written by an anti-organic person, who fills the article with lot’s of misinformation. Needless to say, I am sorry I read it and even sorrier that there are people in the world who will believe the horrible propoganda in this article. Anyway, have a read for yourself and let me know what you think. It’s called Notions for a Fastfood Nation. I encourage you to write to this person and tell him what you think of his article.

Rumor has it that Heather Mills McCartney is planning on opening a Vegan Fastfood Chain. I have mixed feelings about this. First, I can get plenty of vegan fastfood, it is going out to a nice restaurant that can be problematic. I would love to see a chain of vegan fine dining. Two, there is enough fastfood in the world. Vegan fastfood isn’t all that much more healthier than the nonvegan counterpart. Afterall, many (not all) french fries are vegan and they are one of the most unhealthy things a person can put into their bodies. On the other hand, it would be great to be able to go to a restaurant and order a vegan shake when the urge hits or a vegan hot fudge sundae. I can pretty much get vegan hamburgers in a lot of diners, but vegan sundaes, now that would be a novelty.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is taking time to enjoy the holiday season, now matter how you may celebrate it. I am looking forward to some Christmas parades and holiday wonderlands with my son. He gets so excited, which always brings a smile to my face. I am also looking forward to picking up a potted Christmas tree next weekend that I can donate after Christmas. I love decorating Christmas trees. We will make some hot cidar, put on Christmas music and spend some nice family time together. Hope you have some happy family traditions for this season.

HAPPY TOFURKEY DAY!!!!
I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I will be spending the day with my family and am hoping it is a nice pleasant day of eating good food and playing games. Tonight I will begin my cooking rituals and making a Vegan Keylime Pie and Vegan Spinach Dip. Tomorrow the real cooking begins, just after my morning workout. I love opportunities to make vegan masterpieces that everyone enjoys. I will bug my husband to take lot’s of pictures of the food to post this weekend.

Okay, we are about to enter that most busy time of year. For my family, the official shopping season begins the day after Christmas. Though I have put my foot down this year and refuse to go to Walmart. Told mom if she is going, I’ll meet her at Target. I really cannot fathom torturing myself with all of the noise, pushing, shoving, rudeness and crazy rush for the cheapest of the cheap. I will actually be doing quite a bit of shopping online this year. But I do enjoy Target’s toy section. This year, we are wanting to redo my son’s room. He is turning five in January and we want to give him a more grown up room. His room actually turned into everything exactly the opposite of what I wanted, a huge random toyfest that could rival any toystore. From bells and whistles to just downright insane. One day this month, while he is at school I plan on going through his toys and only keeping those things that he truly loves. I am going to buy him a chalkboard table, like the one below for Christmas.

I also plan on getting him some corkboard and a magnetic dry erase board. Between now and his birthday, I am hoping to get his room completely re-organized and redone. I want him to be able to enjoy his room, which he can’t now because it is so severely overrun with toys.

I don’t know if you have been on Amazon lately, but that have a tone of organic bedding on sale right now. This stuff is beyond cheap. I am wanting to pick myself up a pair of sheets because you can’t go wrong with these prices. Check them out:

This organic Jersey sheet set comes in Cream or Blue and is currently only $29.99. Yes, you read right, $29.99 for organic sheets. They are disappearing like hotcakes. Yesterday, when I looked they had a few more colors.

These Spa Life Organic Percale Sheets in Natural are also a great deal $59.98. When I have looked elsewhere for organic sheets they always cost over $100, so I was very excited to come across such great deals.

The other day, when we were in Palo Alto for my dad’s surgery we stopped at a diner for breakfast. I ordered a hash brown skillet with veggies only. They were great about making sure nothing had meat, butter or cheese and it was super delicious. So yesterday for breakfast I decided to make my own version. I grated up some potatoes and cooked them in olive oil making hashbrowns and in a separate skillet I sauteed onion, garlic, mushrooms and broccoli in vegan butter spread. Then I poured the cooked vegetables on top of the hashbrowns. The results, a delicious, savory breakfast that I will be cooking over and over again.

Hope everyone is having a great day and I will chat atcha soon.

I have had the great opportunity to try out some new things lately. Though I have been cooking too much original lately, I have picked up a few items at the health food store. First off, I picked up some Vegan Organic food bars. They are chalked full of healthy vegan proteins and at 300 calories are truly a meal replacement bar for those super busy mornings when you are on the go. I don’t necessary advocate eating these on a daily basis, I still prefer real homemade foods most of the time, but they do use cold processing and are 90 percent raw.

Next up, WHA Guru Chew in Cashew Almond. This is supposed to be a healthy snack bar and only has 170 calories. Honestly, what could be better than maple caramel covered nuts and seeds. These bars taste like a candy bar, but they are so much healthier. I could probably eat a whole box of them, which categorizes them in the dangerous food category for me, so far now I will treat them like candy and only buy one at a time, when I really crave something sweet.

While I was out of town last weekend, I was fortunate enough to stop into Whole Foods market and sample some of their vegan Coconut, chocolate chip cookies. If they hadn’t been labeled vegan and processed sugar-free, I would have sworn that they weren’t. But I checked the ingredients and reassured myself that there weren’t any animal products in them.

Has anyone ever tried Isle of Bute Scheese. This stuff is supposed to be good enough to eat straight and comes in different flavors such as Hickory Smoked and Cheddar with Chive. They were featured in this months VegNews as one of the Editor’s picks. They are a British product, but can now be found in the U.S. The website is scheese.co.uk. They say it is so good that even omni’s can’t tell the difference. If you have tried it please let me know because I am thinking of picking some up for Christmas if I can find it. If anyone knows where to get it in LA please let me know.

Well, this is about all the exciting things I have to say for today. I will chat atcha all soon.

Okay, everyone I am hoping to be back to blogging almost daily, though next Monday and Tuesday I may not get a chance to blog. I have been doing my dad’s job for him this week and next week while he recovers from surgery so that he doesn’t lose any income. I have missed everyone so much. I am really excited to be back to blogging and plan on doing some blog hopping this afternoon to catch up on what everyone has been doing.

Last night we went to New Frontier Health Food Store in San Luis Obispo. I have been there before, but haven’t been overlly impressed, but it appears they have changed things around and gotten in a lot of new (vegan friendly) items. I was most impressed with their deli case, which had several vegan options. I got the blackened grilled tofu (delicious beyond words), sauteed sesame kale (I definitely recommend trying this if you ever find it where you are at). Next we went to their bakery (I always have to take a peak), and low and behold they had several vegan desserts including vegan chocolate cupcakes, vegan lemon poppyseed cake, vegan mocha chocolate cake, vegan apple cranberry cake, and vegan strudels. I resisted the urge to try absolutely everything they had and settled on the vegan mocha chocolate cake. The frosting was heavenly, though the cake was a bit dry. But all in all I have it two thumbs up. I was good and only ate half my piece. I took the other half to my parents to share.

Isn’t that cake beautiful.

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is coming up next week. If you are like me, you already have menu planned. This year I will be making vegan green bean casserole, vegan bread stuffing, vegan sweet potato casserole and sour dough rolls. My sister-in-law was very sweet in that she asked what I might like for her to make. She said she wanted to make sure she made things that I could eat and enjoy, so she is working on vegan pie crusts. She also wants to make a spinach pie, that I told I would help collaborate on. She wants to make a nice vegan crust for the outside and I will help her with the spinach filling. I might try my hand at a vegan key lime pie, though I may just save that for Christmas, because it really sounds as if we will have enough rich foods. I will try to take lot’s of pictures of these beautiful dishes, but want to provide you all with the recipes now, in case anyone needed some great ideas for vegan foods.

Vegan Green Bean Casserole

3-4 cloves garlic
1 package mushrooms
2 tbsp canola butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cups rice milk
2 cups vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
4 cans green beans
French fried onions
4-5 potatoes
½ cup rice milk
½ cup vegetable broth
2 tbsp canola butter
½ teaspoon pepper

Cut up potatoes and put in water and bring to a boil. Cook potatoes until soft. Mash potatoes add 2 tbsp canola butter, ½ cup vegetable broth, ½ cup rice milk, salt and pepper and mash until smooth. In a iron or stainless steel sauté garlic and mushrooms in canola butter. Add flour and create a rue. Add rice milk, vegetable broth, salt and pepper and cook until the consistency of a cream soup. Open green beans, drain and put in a casserole dish. Add mushroom soup mix and 1 cup French fried onions. Top casserole with mashed potatoes and cook in a 350-degree oven for 25 minutes. Top with another cup of French fried onions and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Vegan Bread Stuffing

Bread Cubes
1 package sliced sourdough bread, cut into cubes
¼ cup vegan butter spread

Stuffing
4 tbsp vegan canola butter
1 onion
2 stalks celery
4 cups vegetable broth
All bread cubes
2 sprigs fresh sage, cut up
2 sprigs fresh thyme, cut up
½ tbsp salt
1 teaspoon pepper
½ tbsp poultry seasoning

Cut up sliced sourdough bread and let sit out overnight. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt ¼ cup of butter spread in a small saucepan. Brush bread cubes with melted butter spread and place in oven for 15 minutes. Chop onion and celery. In an iron or stainless steel skillet melt 4 tbsp butter and sauté onion and celery until the onions begin to become translucent. Place bread cubes in a large mixing bowl. Add onion and celery and mix in. Add vegetable broth and seasoning and mix lightly to make sure all bread cubes are coated. Place in a casserole dish and into oven for 45 minutes to an hour at 350 degrees.

Vegan Sweet Potato Casserole 

4 large sweet potatoes
¼ cup agave nectar
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ cup pineapple juice
¼ cup apple juice
2 tbsp canola butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
1 cup chopped unsalted cashews
4 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup maple syrup
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut sweet potatoes into smaller chunks and boil in water until soft. Let sweet potatoes cool and peel. Blend sweet potatoes until smooth with a mixer. Add butter, honey or brown rice syrup, maple syrup, pineapple juice, apple juice, nutmeg and cinnamon. In a skillet heat olive oil. Add chopped cashews and sauté. Add syrup and cinnamon and continue to sauté until cashews begin to caramelize. Top sweet potato casserole with cashews and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Here’s my recipe for Spinach Pie, though we will be serving a modified version of this recipe:

Spinach Pie 

2 packages frozen spinach
2 medium onions, cut into slices
1 tbsp Arabic Seven Spice
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
10 tbsp olive oil
6 phyllo pastry sheets

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put 5 tbsp olive oil in a skillet, heat and add onions. Cook onions briefly for about 1-2 minutes, leaving them slightly crisp. Add spinach, Seven Spice, salt and pepper and cook an additional 2-3 minutes. Put remaining olive oil in a small bowl. Open your phyllo pastry package and lay sheets flat, keeping them all together. Do not pull the phyllo sheets apart. Brush top phyllo sheet with olive oil and place in a glass pie dish. Brush remaining sheets of phyllo one at a time, pulling each sheet off of the remaining sheets only once it has been brushed with olive oil. Immediately fold up remaining phyllo sheets and place in the refrigerator. Spoon spinach mixture on top of the phyllo dough in the pie dish. Wrap the tops of the phyllo dough on top of spinach, closing it up like a pie. Place in the oven and cook about 15-20 minutes, until phyllo begins golden brown and crisp. Serve immediately.

Oh, and I almost forgot, no holiday would be complete without spinach dip. Here is my spinach dip recipe again with a pic to go with it.

1 cup veganaise
2 cups Tofutti sour cream
1 package Knors vegetable soup mix (still looking for a version of this without horrible chemicals)
1 package organic frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 sour dough bread loaf
1 box of triscuits

Mix veganaise, sour cream, vegetable soup mix and spinach together in a bowl, cover and let sit in the refrigerator at least four hours (over night for best results). When ready to serve, hollow out the inside of bread loaf and fill with spinach dip. Serve with bread insides and triscuits.

Here is another great some with some wonderful Thanksgiving recipe options. Check out Thanksgiving isn’t out of reach for vegans.

An interesting note, Joan Jett (for those of us to remember Joan Jett) has paired up with PETA to encourage people not to buy turkey for Christmas. She is a long-time vegetarian and is calling on Butterball hotlines to tell them that their is no good way to cook a tortured turkey. Interesting article, check it out at Joan Jett Talks Turkey on PETA’s Holiday Hotline.

I recently posted a vegan dessert in response to someone looking for vegan desserts on Yahoo!Answers and was chosen as the best answer. I was very excited. You can check it out at Yahoo!Answers.

There is also a great little interview with Joaquin Phoenix that I recently read that I would like to share with you. It talks about one of his first experiences of animal cruelty and how it effected it. It is a short read. Check out Fake Leather Please.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, with minimal stress. I am really looking forward to my very first vegan holiday, starting off my very first vegan holiday season. I may have to try to through a Christmas party with beautiful and elegant appetizers. I have many ideas that I am dying to try out.

I am getting ready to go out of town again for a couple of days. My dad is having his surgery on Friday and we are leaving for Palo Alto tomorrow night, so I did some cooking for my husband tonight so he could have some food while I am going. I made a big batch of my Spaghetti Florentine in White Wine Sauce. I made it almost exactly like the recipe, except I omitted the bellpepper (didn’t have any) and the vegan cheese. I didn’t even miss the vegan cheese, though the bellpepper always add a bit of extra flavor. It was still delicious and my husband should have a good lunch out of it.

I also made my husbands absolute favorite Vegan Tortilla Soup. He loves this dish more than anything else I make.

Vegan Tortilla Soup

1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3-5 serano chiles, chopped (use 3 if you don’t like super hot)
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1 large or 2 small tomatoes
4-5 cans pinto beans
1 can tomato sauce
2-3 cups vegetable broth
3 cups corn
salt and pepper to taste
6 tortillas
1/2 cup olive oil

Cut tortillas into thin strips and fry up in olive oil. Once cooked set aside for later. Sauté garlic, onion and chile peppers in olive oil. Then add cilantro, tomato, and dash of salt and sauté. Then add vegetable broth, tomato sauce, beans, and corn. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 20-25 minutes. Top with vegan sour cream and tortilla strips.

This is truly a great recipe. I probably won’t be blogging for 4-5 days, but hope to be back next Monday. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

So much to share. I am still trying to shake this unending illness. The worst of it is over, but I have still been running a low grade fever and can’t seem to get this horrible cough to clear up. I have been extremely frustrated. I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween. I did enjoy taking my son to a couple of Halloween carnivals. He was so cute and had so much fun. Yesterday I had to drive my dad to Stanford for his pre-surgery work-up. Next Friday he will be having his prostate removed and we will be spending three days up there. I will be trying to blog as much as possible until then. I think that is the last big thing I have coming up until the holidays, so I am hoping to be back to regular blogging again. I will spend some time over the next two days visiting everyone to catch up on all that you have been doing. I have missed you all so much. It is like being disconnected from family for a couple of weeks. I was sad to hear that Harmonia will no longer be blogging, but have been happy to receive regular emails from her. I know everyone has been extremely busy lately.

I can’t wait to check out The Vegan Lunchbox and was thrilled to hear that it had been released. That is so awesome. Hurray for Jennifer and little Schmoo.

I wanted to do something special for World Vegan Day yesterday, but as I said I was on the road the whole time. Hope everyone had a great day and made lot’s of wonderful vegan foods.

It appears another widely known company is being outted for animal cruelty. Butterball, the largest seller of Thanksgiving and Christmas Turkeys has been accused of horrific acts of torture towards turkeys in an investigation conducted by PETA. Don’t people realize that factory farms are just torture houses for animals and that those that run them are sometimes akin to serial killers. They often joke about the horrors they inflict. It is sad and disgusting. Anyway check out Feminism Love You to read more about this issue.

This next bit is for anyone who is thinking about going to college soon. Peta2 just came out with their list of the most vegan and vegetarian friendly Universities. Making the list University of California–Berkely, University of Arizona, Penn State University, University of Colorado, University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin, University of Florida, University of Texas, Indiana University and Iowa State. Go Vegan!!!

I came across a great website where you can give “Huggs” to your favorite green stories. It is hugg.com.

For anyone who loves sweets, you absolutely must check out Sticky Fingers Bakery. They are 100% vegan and are beginning to ship some of the delictable delights including brownies, cookies and sticky cinnamon buns. I have bookmarked this site. I will probably be ordering cinnamon buns for Christmas morning. They look delicious.

I came across a blog the other day that listed 80 ways you can help save animals. I think this list is definitely worth a read. Most of us already follow these practices, but there may be some that you haven’t thought of before. It is definitely a great list.

For anyone living in Portland, OR, the Vegan Holiday Festival is looking for volunteers. You get a free food ticket and free entry into a drawing for your efforts. Sounds like a great way to spread the cheer. Anyone interested check out: Vegan Holiday Festival.

This is your vegan buzz from the past two weeks. Lot’s of interesting and exciting articles and information.

This past weekend we celebrated my brother’s birthday and I made some great treats for the party. It was actually quite comically, because I was half delirious from fever while cooking, which is probably the only reason that I thought it was okay to cook as sick as I was, but the food turned out delicious and my nonvegan friends came back for seconds.

Anyway, I made a vegan spinach dip. I was impressed because to me it did not taste any different then the spinach dips of my childhood.

I made it with . . .

1 cup veganaise
2 cups Tofutti sour cream
1 package Knors vegetable soup mix (still looking for a version of this without horrible chemicals)
1 package organic frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 sour dough bread loaf
1 box of triscuits

Mix veganaise, sour cream, vegetable soup mix and spinach together in a bowl, cover and let sit in the refrigerator at least four hours (over night for best results). When ready to serve, hollow out the inside of bread loaf and fill with spinach dip. Serve with bread insides and triscuits.

I also made homemade macaroni and cheese:

1 small package of large macaroni elbo pasta
1 container Tofutti cream cheese
1/2 container Tofutti sour cream
2 tbsp vegan butter spread
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
1 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups rice milk
1 small package frozen broccoli
salt and pepper to taste
1 package white vegan cheese, grated
2 cups of vegan croutons

Cook noodles according to package. Melt butter in a pan and saute green onions for 3-4 minutes. Add flour and mix in well. Add rice milk and stir into mixture. Add cream cheese and sour cream and stir in well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Continue to cook until cream cheese has completely melted and is fully incorporated into sauce. Add frozen broccoli and cook until sauce becomes hot and slightly bubbles. Remove sauce  from heat and add cheese, stir until cheese is completely melted. Pour sauce over cooked noodles in casserole dish. Cook in the oven for 35 minutes. Top with croutons and cook an additional 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Hope you enjoy the recipes, my family did.