Alas! No pic tonight! This little piggy went to yoga, this little piggy came home, this little piggy had tempeh with Ashley, meh, enough of that! It's 11:00 pm on a Tuesday and I've been busy all day, hooray!
First, it appears that I have a fan--just one--but a fan nonetheless! That gives me a warm tingly feeling all over.
So, what has been keeping me so busy? I'm preparing to go back to work next week. I'm looking for other jobs for when my contract ends. I've been fully embracing my new vegan lifestyle. It is actually really fun! I never thought I would think that veganism would be fun. I've taken the sometimes mundane act of eating and turned it into an adventure. Now, I must truly think about my food, and I feel good about what I'm eating. I'll have to be careful not to start feeling TOO good mind you, this article from
the Guardian suggests I might become mean in other areas of my life if I get too righteous about my eating habits. (Yes, they seriously did a study on this.) Although, righteous isn't a word I would use to describe myself anyway, unless it's used in a retro 80s kind of way as in "He's a righteous dude!" (and kind of a dork).
So this week I finally wandered over to St. Denis to check out
Chi-Ming. It's a vegetarian food and mock meat store. I'll admit, they had less products than I expected, but the man working there (who happened to be the owner) was incredibly nice and we had a long chat about veganism and how to make it work. He's been vegan for 20 years and was very encouraging. I decided to buy a bag of mock chicken made from portobello mushrooms.
Now, let me take a moment for a word on mock meats (while trying not to sound righteous). I generally don't see the purpose in using mock meats. They seem to be the boon of uncreative vegetarians who want to have 'typical' North American meals that are based around a meat dish, just without the meat. Yes, one can be vegetarian by replacing meat with its mock meat imitation, and that is fine, but he or she misses out on so many other great culinary opportunities! A quick look at food from other cultures often offers up so many amazing vegetarian options. I prefer to think outside the 'Western cuisine' box.
Okay, so despite my opinions on mock meat, I decided to try the mock chicken anyways. It was a very interesting experiment. First, I found it a little too salty for my tastes, but the texture was so much like actual chicken that for a moment I had to fight an uneasy feeling. I had a moment of doubt as to what I was actually consuming! Now, the true test will be feeding some to my non-vegetarian friends to see if they can tell the difference. Actually, as an addendum to my mock meat rant, I would like to add that I understand how mock meat could be useful for someone making the transition from eating meat to being vegetarian. As well, it could come in handy if I have a dinner party and invite some of my vegetarian-wary friends. If it looks like meat, and tastes like meat, perhaps they will be able to pretend its meat.
This week I also checked out
Aux Vivres restaurant for the first time. I won't write a lot because there are so many reviews on the web. Today I had their vegelox sandwich and it was incredible. (Oh my! Is that considered mock meat as well, even though it was comprised of carrots?) All I can say is veganism makes me feel far from deprived!
On the non-vegan front, I recently read the
Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. It's a really intense book. To be honest, I thought it would be one of those self-help spirituality for dummies type books that you can read in a weekend and that includes an easy-to-use index:
Identity Crisis---------------------pg. 3
Insecurity and uncertainty----------pg. 9 (or maybe it was 10?)
Dealing with breakups---------------pg. 69
How to know god (or gods)-----------pg 777
But simple it is not! I really appreciate how Tolle emphasizes accepting what
is right now and how we can find happiness by realizing how much our egos run our lives and changing that. I've actually started reading the book a second time so that I can really understand its message. This was certainly a timely read because it has helped me deal with accepting a transition that I'm experiencing in my life right now.
Yoga? Veganism? Popular spirituality? Omigod, I'm turning into one of
those puppets. Ho-hum, so much for accepting what is! Now, where's that book?
*Sigh*
This little piggy says wee wee wee all the way home (to bed).
ttfn,
xx
P.S. Orange juice is my new best friend.
