Updates

Hey veg-heads!

I want to apologize for my giant absence. I never meant to take a blogging break, but I just never had the time to sit down and post. Over the past few weeks I left my job at the doggy day care center, started a new job at a social media company, lived my dream of seeing Lady Gaga perform at Madison Square Garden, and lots of other things in between.

I hope all of you guys are still around, and I was just letting you know that I'm still here too. Hopefully once things setting down around here I can finally post the millions of photos and recipes that I have collected! Well maybe not millions, but just because I took a posting break, doesn't mean I stopped taking photos and collecting recipes for the blog.

I also wanted to let you know that I have updated the My Journey to the Veggie Side, and FAQ sections.

As soon as things calm down around here, I can finally devote more time to my baby! Sorry again loyal followers, I hope I can finally stop disappointing you!

What have you been doing over the past few months? What kinds of posts would you like to see in the future?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Happy Birthday Muffin!

Hey guys! Happy 1st day of April. Remember to say "rabbits rabbits" and try not to get fooled!

While everyone was celebrating Easter yesterday, I was celebrating my kitty's 14th birthday.  It makes me sad that she is getting so old, at 14 she's one old lady.  My lucky number happens to be 14, and when I turned 14 my mom told me that it was going to be my special year.  Well this message is for Muffin: I hope 14 is your special year too.  You have been there for me for the toughest times and the best times, and even my own 14th birthday.  For those that don't know Muffin's story, I would love to share it in honor of her birthday.

Ok, are you ready for a tear jerker? When I was young, around 8 or 9, I was allowed to get a kitten for my birthday.  Her name was Sugar and she was the sweetest cat.  I carried her around; my dad even took her to work to show his dental patients.  She was really my best friend.  When she was 9 months old she got very sick and it progressed to her brain.  And when she was 10 months old, I had lost my best friend.  I took her to the vet to put her to sleep, and I was crying and hugging her in the waiting room.  The vet took her and I said my last goodbye.  But he felt so bad.  He told me that a very little kitten, about 4 weeks old, was abandoned at the door of the vet with a broken leg.  He said that once she was healed and old enough to adopt, that I could have her.  I was still sad about losing Sugar, but I said yes.  A few weeks later, I picked up Sugar’s ashes (which I keep on my shelf) as well as my new kitty, that I had named Muffin.  She had a pin in her leg while it healed, and she was so small.  But very soon she became my best friend, and the rest is history.  Are you guys crying? Because I am!

She has taught me the meaning of unconditional love, and I don't know where I would be without her.

Since it was such a big birthday for her, I wanted to celebrate right!  Muffin loves to take nibbles from my cupcakes when my dad brings me home one, so I got her her own cupcake for her special day!





I made her a special cat food dinner, wished her a special happy 14th birthday, and then we enjoyed a vanilla cupcake. Only the best for my boo!

Do you have a special pet in your life too?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

A Vegan Update

Hello everyone! I hope you are all staying warm and filling up on soup and hot chocolate (with vegetarian marshmallows) this winter and keeping up with any resolutions you have.  I thought it would be a good time to update you on how my quest to veganism is going.

I started by attempting meat-eggs-dairyless Mondays, and that lasted...one week. Even for just one day, I found it extremely hard to get out every single animal product from my diet.  I also was ill prepared.  I was making my lunch to take to work, and I had absolutely NOTHING to take.  I ended up bringing an apple and peanut butter for my lunch, and a bowl of soup for dinner.  I was still hungry at the end of the day since I didn't have any substantial vegan food in the house.

So the first thing I learned was: get prepared.  It is impossible to make a dietary change without having the new diet available to you.  How can you say "I am going to eat healthier" and then look in your fridge and its full of junk?  I needed to stock up on vegan items, and do some research to find vegan food staples, brands, and recipes to have on hand.

I still found giving up every animal product for a full day to be hard.  It just seemed overwhelming and daunting.  I decided what was a better place for me to start was making better choices.  Make food choices with less eggs and cheese.  Now when I go out to eat I try to pick more vegan options, with out completely eliminating dairy and eggs all together.  Recently I went out to a burger place with my friends, and they had a veggie burger option and a vegan burger option.  I could had chosen either, but in trying to make better choices, I chose the vegan one.  Normally I order cheese on my veggie burgers, but I left it off.

After a few months I found that I would be having dinner, and I realize that the meal I am eating was completely vegan and I didn't even try! It just came second nature. The longer I do this, the more I find myself wanting to choose the vegan options over the vegetarian.

I might not be a vegan, or even able to spend a whole day eating vegan, but I find myself eating 2-4 vegan meals per week!  Which is more than I planned doing vegan Mondays.  I am buying more food brands and meals that are vegan (I have a few new products to post about soon!).  Just like when I gave up meat, the same principle of supply and demand applies.  If I am buying a vegan product over a non-vegan one, that's one more saved chicken or cow.  And it makes me feel good!  I feel good when I eat a vegan meal or buy a vegan product, and that's really what all this was about to begin with.

How did your traditions to veganism and vegetarianism go when you first started?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Mistakes

I have been a strict vegetarian for 12 years.  Next year that will mean HALF my life and a vegetarian.  I, like many others, started out rocky.  I was only 11 years old and uneducated about how most food was made.  I ate Jello and Sno Balls because who would think animals would need to die to make those.  One time my mom even told me that the Chinese food dish i was eating was tofu, when It turned out to be chicken. As I got older I made less and less mistakes.

Still everyone slips up.  As a long time vegetarian, I have set rules for myself in order to avoid mistakes.  I only eat yogurt if I can read the ingredients. READ READ READ!  I always read ingredients.  I made so many rookie mistakes just because I assumed something was meat free.

Everyone strives for perfection in the area that is most important to them.  I want to be the perfect kitty mommy,  the perfect girlfriend, and the perfect vegetarian.  Because, when it comes to being the perfect vegetarian, your mistakes don't just effect you, but they take the lives of helpless animals.



The other day I was grabbing a late night snack.  I reached for a bag of chips that I brought home from a restaurant.  As I was collecting my laundry from the dryer and munching on chips, I noticed a weird taste, but didn't think much of it.  Halfway through the bag I couldn't get over the taste, so I decided to check the ingredients.  Lard...LARD.



I felt sick to my stomach thinking about how I had a dead pig in there.  I know no one is perfect, and that everyone makes mistakes, and that I shouldn't beat myself up over an innocent mistake.  But all I could think about was that poor pig.

I am sorry little piggy.  I didn't mean to eat you.

How do you feel when you make a vegetarian or vegan slip up? Do you feel as bad as I do?

Bye from the Veggie Side

Thoughts on Veganism

Ah, veganism.  I have touched briefly on the topic in my FAQ's.  I have been a strict vegetarian for almost 12 years.  Wow, sometimes I am even amazed at how long that really is.  Also I am amazed at how old I am getting, with my 23rd birthday around the corner.  I gave up meat at 11 years old and have never eaten meat since (aside from a few mess-ups back when I was first figuring it out).  It has been the best decision I have ever made. Sometimes I just think about how happy being a vegetarian makes me.  Lately, however, I have been thinking about veganism.  That is a scary word to me.  I respect vegans more than almost anyone else.  It amazes me how much will power and commitment a human being can have, I sometimes strive to be like that.  When people would say to me "I would give up meat but I love it too much," I would say they lack will power.  But now I find myself hypocritical. I would be a vegan...but I love milk and egg products too much.



That's a lie.  I hate milk, it makes me sick, and eggs really creep me out.  But what do eggs and milk help create? Cake, bread, pasta, pie, ice cream, even so many of my favorite meat substitutes that I don't know where I would be without them.  As a New Yorker I live for bagels with cream cheese and real New York Pizza.  At what point does my happiness out way a life, the life of an animal?  I have been feeling that I need to practice what I preach. How can I tell people that meat is not as important as a life, when I eat cheese? With out the cheese industry, there would be no veal industry.

I have been on the fence about veganism lately. I want to do it SO BAD, I just don't know if I can.

Then I remember this "fad" that has been gaining popularity by perfect 4-person families, and girls that think they are models: Meatless Mondays. At first this made me laugh, kid of mocking vegetarianism.  As if to say "vegetarianism is great and all, but only worth 1/7th of my time."  However, thinking more, it is a great gateway.  Want to try something new? Baby steps. And I think I have come to that decision.  Meat-dairy-eggless Mondays, inst that a mouthful?



Who knows that the future might hold? Vegan Mondays might turn to vegan Monday through Friday.  I tell people all the time, just ONE vegetarian meal a week helps save lives, the same goes for veganism.  So here I come Vegan Mondays! Lets see where this takes me...

If you are a vegetarian, have you thought about going vegan? And vegans, what is some advice you have?

Bye from the VEGAN Side!

Hello!

Hello! My name is Jacquie and this is my blog:)

I am 22 years old and a recent college grad.  I love my cat, animals, painting my nails, and Lady Gaga.  But most importantly, I am a vegetarian.

As a kid I lived by two food groups: chicken and potatoes.  My dad doesn't eat red meat, and my mom is always on some diet or another.  But as a child, food isn't a concern in life.  I cared more about who I was sitting with at lunch, than what I was eating for lunch.  One thing I was from that start, though, was an animal lover.  I love my cats, the bugs outside, and the amazing animals at the zoo.  And even as a kid, I donated some of my allowance to animal shelters.  Until one night when I was 11 years old, eating my chicken fingers like always...

"Daddy, where do chicken nuggets come from?"

"Well, the chickens live on a farm, and then they leave the farm and get killed, and then they become chicken nuggets"

"So they DIE just so I can eat them?"

"Yes, Cookie"

"I am never eating meat again!"

And that was that.  Apart from a few mistakes, I have never eaten meat since then.  As I grew older I refined my views and reasons for not eating meat.  I learned about what happens at the slaughter houses and what eating meat does to the environment.  However, I never strayed from my first reason, I don't believe animals should give their lives to be food for people.

11 years later and I am still going strong and loving every minute of it.  Becoming a vegetarian has been the best decision I have ever made and the one I am most proud of myself for.  Vegetarianism is part of my identity and I can never see myself eating meat again. 

More about me:

Blogging has been an important part of my life since I started my first blog Claws Up, in November, which is primarily a nail art and polish blog.  However, I got thinking that I would love to share my thoughts about the biggest part of my life: being a vegetarian. 

I attended college in PA (not the most vegetarian friendly of places) and majored in Psychology, and minored in Biology and Anthropology, though biology is my true love.  My goal is to be and animal behaviorist.  I have been working at a doggy daycare for 6 months, and while I love the animals so much, I hate working at the front desk. I have live in NY my whole life, but my boyfriend of 3 years lives in PA.  I love him very much and can't wait to be together someday.  

I love my big brother more than anyone. A few years before I became a vegetarian, he gave up meat too. (Happy now? :-P Love ya)

More about my blog:

The goal of my blog is to be unlike the other vegetarian (and food) blogs out there.  I don't find much time, or energy, to cook all the time.  I will have some recipes, but what I want to highlight is the easiness of being a vegetarian.  I will show some very simple (but delicious) recipes, plus tips to becoming and staying a vegetarian with out too much effort.  I will show you guys the best vegetarian food brands, and most importantly, how to eat like a meat-eater without eating any meat.

I really hope you enjoy my blog, and that someone out there can read it and say "Wow, it is so easy to be a vegetarian, I think I am going to try it!"