Another rainy day here in San Francisco. Gruel made with vegan shepherds pie (lentils and mashed potatoes), Spanish right rice, my Christmas red and white beans with tarragon (finally breaking into the frozen tub of it), and the beautiful yellow soup my husband made with potatoes, carrots, spinach, and big white beans.
I wish I had taken a picture before I microwaved this, as you could’ve seen all of the different components very distinctly and compartmentalized. As it is, it looks like straight-up gruel! Not very appetizing. Oh well! This is just for me. It doesn’t need to look pretty. 😅 I didn’t realize how everything was going to melt together in the microwave.
I ate this hot microwaved bean-alícious vegan gruel while snuggling under the blankets. We still haven’t figured out how to fix our heater, and it has been more than a month. Thankfully, the temperature generally doesn’t get below 40° Farhenheit here at night (outside), not too bad. I think our house stays above 55° at all times, even without heating, just due to the insulation and such. And we do have a small space heater that we turn on occasionally.
While I was eating my “gruel,” it was very nourishing and good, but I thought it could use some sour cream, for a bit of zing and also to cool it down a little. I added a dollop of Tofuttj vegan sour cream in the middle, and it was just perfect.
I have to mention that I eat these nutritious, vegan meals as my normal thing, three means per day, 365 days a year, and yes, I pay extra for less nutritious products like Tofuttj vegan sour cream. I do that because I am all for completely shutting down the dairy industry and other industries that produce animal products because of the harm that they cause to animals. I figure, nobody is going to realize that people are actually OK with shutting down those industries until people are actually avoiding the dairy products and buying alternatives instead.
Also, it’s important to point out that I can afford to pay extra, and I’m healthy, so I can afford to have some less nutritious products like the Tofuttj sour cream once in a while. Plus, I don’t have any food allergies.
I would actually prefer to pay even more to (get a vegan plain unsweetened yogurt to use instead of Tofuttj sour cream (like Kite Hill protein yogurt), as it would be more nutritious. However, the Tofuttj vegan sour cream is what was available for me today.
That being said, although I’m all for shutting the dairy industries down (and note: I would prioritize shutting down industrial chicken meat, chicken egg, hog farms, and other more harmful industries first), I am also quite thankful to have seen the wisdom in being willing to eat animal products including dairy products, when it makes a lot more sense to do so. For example, if it makes life easier for people when I am visiting or if the food gets put on my plate by mistake at a restaurant, etc … The way I see it, it doesn’t help any animals to send food back and create more food waste. Also, it doesn’t help any animals to be seen as “difficult” when going to visit people or in a shared food setting at work or school.
Having a food allergy or being lactose intolerant sucks. Everybody knows that, and they feel very sorry for everyone who has that kind of problem, but they will do their best to accommodate someone who has those issues. Because everyone knows it wasn’t their choice, and it’s just a sucky thing they have to live with.
By contrast, if somebody is trying to help animals by choosing foods that don’t rely on animals being harmed, that’s great, and that’s what I do every day. However. I also see the lack of wisdom in making it seem like I have a food allergy. If one does that, then other people see that it sucks to live like that. If living this way is uncomfortable and an inconvenience, than most people are not going to want to do it.
Veganism has been around for about 75 years, and so far only 1% of the population has embraced it. For me, that makes a lot of sense because I believe that 99% of people don’t want to live as if they had a food allergy.
For me, the beauty of the “ish” in “veganish” is that I am flexible to go with the flow and eat meat (including fish and other sentient animals), dairy products, eggs, honey or whatever other non-vegan products that may be available and which may make more sense at the time, given the people I am with and other factors.
I realize that many people who are vegan (which is only about 1% of the population worldwide), feel that they need to be strict in order to make a consistent point in favor of animals. I understand that. Indeed, sometimes I will insist on vegan products also, to raise awareness and visibility for the idea that people are indeed looking for options like this.
However, if somebody is not willing to be flexible, I do feel that it makes a point very much against animals as opposed to being in favor of them.
If other people perceive that veganism requires this type of strictness, then it comes across that it’s just as severe as having a food allergy or other medical restriction. And, because people wouldn’t voluntarily want that for themselves, then avoiding animal products because one cares about animals (aka “veganism”) isn’t for them.
In my mind, that’s the anti-animals point that vegans make when they are very strict.
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Onward and upward!
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