VeganMOFO!!!

From Views from the Carrot Condo by Trista Cornelius

October 6, 2011

For the month of October, 700 of us are blogging every weekday about vegan living and eating. I think this is the 5th year of the event, and it’s my first year taking part. Blogging every day has been a challenge but fun, and reading others’ blogs has been inspiring.

You can find information and a list of all bloggers here: Veganmofo.com.

My blog is here: All But The Kitchen Sink

(I had to use my other blog because I could not figure out how to do the blogroll and the banner on my Culinate blog.

James McWilliams’s Just Food

From Views from the Carrot Condo by Trista Cornelius

April 27, 2011

I just listened to James McWilliams give a talk related to his book Just Food. Upset by current food writing that is “puffy, not critical, celebratory, and rarely delves into complexity,” he investigated common beliefs about food:

Local is not necessarily the best way to lighten your carbon footprint. Instead, we should do two things. One, grow food where it grows best naturally (where the water and soil and temperature are right) and ship it by truck or train (not air) to other places rather than dipping into underground aquifers to grow food in the desert. Two, eat no meat or at least less of it. He said individual Americans eat 260 pounds of meat each year; that should be cut to none or to 12 pounds per year (one pound per month). This, more than anything, lightens your carbon footprint.

Continue reading James McWilliams’s Just Food »

Sour Month Part 6

From Views from the Carrot Condo by Trista Cornelius

March 31, 2011

My sour month is nearly over, but I’m not sure what to do. I don’t want to go back to sweets, not yet. One more month? Or, am I just delaying the inevitable? I don’t want to cut sweets all together. I’ve done that with caffeine with great effort and equal reward; I’ve done it with meat and dairy with ease and joy. Sweets, however, are my ingredient to learn and practice moderation. Still, I don’t feel ready to “go back.”

I just had this thought as I made tea in the kitchen: When I remember who and what I want to be in the world, I know exactly how to eat: whole, fresh, plant foods, no indulgences or sweets, just contemplative balance that radiates health. Right. Not realistic. I have a career, writing and art goals, a family, a house to tend. There will be days, probably a few in a row, when I don’t get enough sleep. I’ll crave sweets. I’ll give in. I’ll wallow in chocolate and chips. Then, a few days later, I’ll pull myself back together and happily munch kale and roasted beet wraps for lunch, oatmeal for breakfast, whole grains and veggies for dinner.

Continue reading Sour Month Part 6 »

Sour Month Part 5

From Views from the Carrot Condo by Trista Cornelius

March 24, 2011

My sour month is not going much better. It’s not as hard as it was two weeks ago, but I have this ache, like something’s missing. I miss sweets…no, I miss chocolate, like you might miss a really good friend, someone you talk with regularly who is now camping in some remote back country for a month and incommunicado.

Last week, after one particularly stressful day in March, I came home and made a chocolate smoothie. It’s fruit-sweetened, so I wasn’t cheating, and it makes a rich, thick, frothy mug of chocolate. After one sip, I kid you not, I felt soothed and more at ease. Two more sips, I was smiling, relaxing on the sofa, and sure once again that I could face another day.

Continue reading Sour Month Part 5 »

A Sour Month Part 4

From Views from the Carrot Condo by Trista Cornelius

March 15, 2011

End of week two, beginning of week three…

I swear I don’t eat that many sweets, but going sweet-free is so hard! Like last March, it’s taking me about three weeks to stop craving dessert. Week two was particularly hard. I’d rationalized some great reasons why I shouldn’t do this, but before I finished explaining my reasoning to my husband, he cut me off with an understanding but firm smirk. I’d been explaining that maybe my metabolism, my lifestyle, the unique nature of my being require that I eat sweets regularly, that going sweet-free could actually be damaging me… It sounded logical in my mind, but even I could hear how weak the argument was when I started saying it aloud.

Continue reading A Sour Month Part 4 »

A Sour Month Part 3:

From Views from the Carrot Condo by Trista Cornelius

March 7, 2011

Near the end of week one…

While my husband ordered bland vegetarian options at business meetings and passed up the open-faced turkey sandwich at his favorite lunch counter for the first week of Meatless March, I munched two cookies on Wednesday, made a sugar-free but super-sweet chocolate smoothie yesterday and today (it’s sweetened with Medjool dates), and have started talking about my life and diet in terms of restrictions rather than embracing my sweet-free challenge with the adventurous attitude Meatless March is supposed to be about.

I am just not committed to this idea of no sweets for March. I thought it would be easier this time around. When I became veganish (I still eat the occasional egg), people said my diet seemed too restrictive. I joyfully explained how I’d experienced the exact opposite. The removal of meat and dairy opened my life and palate to abundance and diversity I’d never experienced before. Now, however, I focus on what I cannot have: no muffins, no cookies, no jam on my almond butter sandwich, no agave in my tea, no eating after 7pm… (I have no idea where that rule came from, but I broke it Saturday night with a piece of toast and a smoothie. Rebellion is sweet.)

Continue reading A Sour Month Part 3: »

A Sour Month Part Two

From Views from the Carrot Condo by Trista Cornelius

February 28, 2011

I feel disgusting. I ate a piece of thickly frosted cake from Dovetail Bakery the size of an unabridged dictionary after a three-entrée dinner shared with my husband. It’s not yet March, so the cake is not verboten, but that’s not the issue. The issue is that I feel horrible—like a day’s worth of food is sitting in the top half of my stomach so over-packed it can’t be processed. I imagine this is what it feels like to have that surgery where your stomach is banded to the size of a walnut and you forget and go and eat an entire vegan club sandwich. It hurts. Plus, the sugar effect has me sweetly tired and I want to go to bed, but if I can’t lie down. I need gravity to help me keep this all inside.

Continue reading A Sour Month Part Two »

A Sour Month Part One

From Views from the Carrot Condo by Trista Cornelius

February 25, 2011

Nine years ago, my husband and I started a tradition we call “Meatless March.” During the month of March, every year, we eliminate meat from our diet to launch us out of food habits and into the adventure of exploring new foods and recipes. We loved forging new gastronomical territory together and bonding over successes and failures.

However, five years ago, I committed to a nearly-vegan diet; now I eat meat-free year round. My husband continues to eat meat, but he also continues to observe “Meatless March.” We experimented with ways I could re-join him in the adventure, and last year, he came up with a plan that proved to be a mighty challenge for me. While he gives up his beloved chicken every March, I must give up all sweets: no sugar, no sugar substitutes, no agave, brown rice or maple syrup, etc.

Continue reading A Sour Month Part One »

Constance Cobbler

From Views from the Carrot Condo by Trista Cornelius

September 1, 2010

It’s only a little after seven, but it’s already dark enough outside that we turn on the dining room light, a nostalgic feel after long, bright summer days. It happens so fast, the shortening and darkening of the days. I try not to think about it and turn my attention to our dessert.

My man leans back in his chair, curves his right hand around his bowl, and with his left hand holds his spoon straight up in the air. He closes his eyes. The back of the spoon faces me, reflecting in miniature a woman, elbow on the table, chin leaning into hand. She looks like a Modigliani painting sort of stretched and swerved, languid. Behind her, warped by the spoon’s reflection, floats an image of a large etching of a poppy flower framed in blue.

Continue reading Constance Cobbler »

Harmonious Hummus

From Views from the Carrot Condo by Trista Cornelius

August 18, 2010

It had been an adventurous and full weekend, so by Sunday night, I ached all over and looked forward to sleep. After a long overdue grocery run, I put away our stock while my man finished where I had left off grooming the front yard, another long overdue task. It was 97 degrees outside and 80-something in, so I brainstormed what to make for dinner that would require no heat.

Spike and I were happily gnashing ingredients when my sweaty man came in from the yard.

“The symphony’s playing in the park,” he said, “The neighbors just left.”
“Our park?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“How do people know about these things?” I exasperated.
“The paper. It was in the arts section,” he said.
“I read that section!” I huffed and then gave in, “When does it start?”
“I dunno. I’m sure not for a while. They’re early risers getting a good seat,” he said about our perpetually organized neighbors whose order I envy on frequent occasions.

Continue reading Harmonious Hummus »