The Honey Question

This is the honey question: Do vegans eat honey?

The answer is, it depends on the person - and it largely depends on their values and reasons for being vegan. People who are "proper" vegans do not eat honey, because they contend that the honey business promotes exploitation of bees. In the same vein, proper vegans do not wear silk (an insect product) or use pesticides. Other people may be vegan for animal rights related issues, but aren't concerned about insects - perhaps they use pesticides in their homes and recognize the hypocrisy of killing insects while protesting insect exploitation. Other people abstain from honey because they just don't want to eat honey, and that's fine. I personally don't think anybody should have to justify their dietary choices to anybody else.

That said, some vegans eat honey and some don't. Some vegan resources like Vegan Eating Out include food items with honey in their listings, but mark it so that those who wish to abstain are properly informed.

"Okay, but do YOU eat honey?"

Yes, I do. I'm switching to a plant based diet predominantly for health reasons, and also because I don't trust animal products made in America. (Hah! Regulating the food industry? What commie garbage!) And from a nutritional standpoint, hey, sugar is sugar.

What brings this up? A loaf of bread I made today (recipe to come.) The recipe calls for honey. For those of you who are non-honey-eaters, you can ALWAYS substitute maple syrup or agave nectar. Sugar is sugar and any of these syrups will work just fine.

Well, I'm off to eat my dinner - I'm counting down to the PCRM Vegan Kickstart, at which point I'll start posting (I hope) daily food snapshots and recipes.

Popcorn Magic!

Did you know that you can pop bulk popcorn in the microwave?


I heard about this trick a few weeks ago, and I had to give it a try myself.


What you need:


~1/4 cup bulk popcorn
A plain paper lunch bag

And that's it!

What you do:


Pour your bulk popcorn into the brown paper bag and roll the bag closed. Microwave for approximately 90 seconds. Don't forget, microwaves vary a lot in power, and microwaves don't heat evenly. You may be able to give it a little more time, or you may have to dial it down to 60 seconds to keep your popcorn from burning.

Just to warn you: A lot of your popcorn will probably remain unpopped the first time around. Commercial microwave popcorn bags have metallised susceptors to make the popcorn heat more evenly. Since our paper lunch bags lack that feature, the amount of kernels that pop will vary quite a bit. But don't worry, you can always put the unpopped kernels back in the paper bag and microwave them again.

So there you have it - plain, simple, cheap, no cleanup required, and devoid of bizarre chemicals but equally radioactive!


If you like your popcorn plain you can eat it plain, or you can top it with salt, olive oil, melted vegan butter, or whatever else you like. (Cayenne pepper?) Don't forget though, the oils are what make other toppings stick, so if you want your popcorn salty you'll have to add at least a little oil.

Enjoy!

Fake Meat and Things I Shouldn't Eat

Supposedly if you crave salty foods, it means you're under a lot of stress. That probably explains why I just went to Sonic and inhaled a large order of tots in about half a minute. There isn't really any good reason to go to Sonic. I was actually on my way to Sunflower to buy some spinach and baby salad greens (really, I was planning a soup and salad lunch), when I was suddenly overwhelmed by the urge to consume large quantities of potatoes dunked in grease and salt. Please tell me I'm not the only person who's susceptible to cravings like this.

In other news, can I please speak out in praise of Turtle Island Foods' marinated tempeh? In particular, the Smoky Maple Bacon flavor.

I'm still new to this whole veggie world. But after I tried this stuff (which is on sale at the Whole Foods on Academy, just FYI) I swear I will never miss bacon ever ever again. And trust me, when I ate meat I was a veritable bacon connoisseur. You don't ask someone in my family if they want bacon. You ask how many rashers of bacon they want. We take our bacon very seriously. It's like a religion.

For the uninitiated, tempeh is of course a soy product, so it's off the menu if you have a soy allergy. But if you're cool with soy and non-whole foods, it's awesome. So far I'm really not an enormous fan of fake meats (I'd honestly rather just eat vegetables, thanks), but tempeh has my stamp of approval. The Turtle Island tempeh bacon is vegan, too, unlike a lot of stuff from, say, Morningstar Farms.

Anybody have any insight on tempeh, fast food, or bizarre food cravings? Leave me a comment here or send me a message on Tumblr.




Now Playing: The Rabid Whole - Autraumaton Remixed

I know, I know, I've already posted once today. But I've shared the big change already, and what's the point of having a food blog if you don't plan to show your meals to an audience of random strangers?

One of my favorite winter dinners: Amy's vegan Alphabet Soup with crackers. I don't know what kind of crackers. Just something random I found in the pantry. Happy December, everybody.

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum...

I've been absent. Lack of inspiration, lack of time, plus I felt like a lot of my old posts just weren't... genuine enough, I suppose. This is my blog, not a professional cooking website. If you were familiar with my blog at all in the past, you may have noticed that I've deleted most of my old posts. There's an interesting reason for that...

This goth is going vegan.

I haven't made the full plunge yet, my living situation is a little unstable at the moment and I just haven't really had the wherewithal to jump all the way in yet. I've been vegetarian since September but at the moment I'm still eating eggs and occasionally dairy (I'm lactose intolerant so I was never a really big dairy eater.) What inspired this transition? A lot of things. But the point of this story is, I'm giving this blog a fresh start. I'm going to try to provide better pictures, better content, better everything. I'm not a great layout guru so if anybody wants to give me some design pointers I'd be happy to hear them.

So anyhow, welcome one and all to the new Gloomy Pantry - your new source for vegetarian and vegan inspiration!