Monday, April 30, 2012

Monday Morning Musings


Do you ever have it that things just seem to keep coming your way to push you in a certain direction or at least confirm your idea is a good one and to go for it?

I've been AWOL from the blog lately just from sheer busyness and lack of proper scheduling of my time. I've been thinking more this weekend about my financial plans for next year--while keeping my boss-free life. :D (I've been my own boss for 11+ years; I don't really want to change that now!) And then this article was in my Yahoo News feed this morning!


It feels like confirmation of really focusing on the things I want to do. I also was thinking about stuff as I woke up. I had plans of getting started this summer on certain projects and the thought came that there would be all kinds of busy stuff in the way and I felt disappointed. Then this inspiration came:

"There will always be busy things in the way. I have to just carve out the time I want."

And so, I will.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Animal welfare???

I just saw this video about Tim Hortons and their concern for animal welfare. And yet, while watching the video, I find myself horrified that they have these chickens living the way they are and "cared for", and they are checked to see how well they are "coping". Seeing all the tiny chicks running around in such an environment and away from the hens... I'm just appalled.

I wasn't sure for a long while if I was going to give up eggs. After reading Veganist and now seeing this, I will be living an egg-free life at some point.


Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Product Review--Larabar

After hearing about Larabars for sometime, I decided on the weekend to actually buy one. The price seemed a little much ($1.99 at Superstore), but I figured it would be a nice little treat. Was it ever!

This is the one I got:

(In Canada, it's just Coconut Creme.) It was a nice tasty little thing. A little sweet, but not too much. Lovely coconut taste. So yummy, I bought myself another one yesterday. :) The extra nice thing about it is this one doesn't say, "May contain milk." I'm finding as I pay attention to processed items more, that while many things don't have milk as part of the main ingredients, many, many say, "May contain milk," or "May contain traces amounts of milk ingredients." Many of the natural food bars in the same section had that little warning. I have had mild reactions in the past when I first realized that it was likely dairy causing some severe issues. I had cut out all dairy products to see and had immediate relief, but some days that first week I was having other mild symptoms. (I can't remember what now--I just remember having a mild reaction.) I checked some granola bars I'd been eating: "May contain trace amounts of milk ingredients." I cut those things out for a while, but after a bit, I was back to eating them and didn't appear to have any problems. I do wonder about that now. While I've eliminated a number of processed food items from my diet, even just some very basic things say that. Heck, I've seen Vega products with that on them. Of course, this just reconfirms my intuition that I ought to be eating a completely unprocessed diet. I'll eventually reach that point. ;)

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Favourite Vegan Cheesecake Recipes

I finally bought myself a springform pan today and have every intention of making vegan cheesecakes! I love cheesecake!

It even has a glass bottom! Not sure if that's
good or not, but it looks neat. :)

That said, I've only ever tried one recipe--one from How It All Vegan! It was good, but not quite tasting like cheesecake to me. I'll definitely make it again as a treat, but would love to try some other tried-and-true recipes, either just "regular" vegan or raw vegan. Please share! :D