Gwen's Musings

Things That Make Me Happy:

1. I've been invited to a work Christmas dinner at a nice restaurant this weekend. Christmas, you say? Weird, I know, what with it being the second half of January. Anyway, a couple times lately I've gone to restaurants not of my choosing and ended up staring at a menu that contains virtually nothing I can eat. I mean nothing but a green salad. That's it. So I was pleasantly surprised – make that ecstatic – when I went online and googled the restaurant menu and found at least one vegan dish that actually looks good. Yay!!! It's the little things, folks. :)
2. A couple of months ago my other half bought me an Instant Pot. This is the greatest invention of all the inventions of mankind in the history of the universe. For those of you (and you are few) who don't know what this is, it's a pressure cooker, crock pot, saute etc., etc. cooking device that works wonders. I don't like cooking, but I can quite literally dump a can of tomatoes, some beans, some spices, maybe a handful of veggies into this gadget, turn it on the pressure cooker setting for ten or fifteen minutes and have a meal that is beyond amazing. It's almost impossible to mess up. Every person who doesn't like cooking and every person who does like cooking should buy one. No really.
3. I work in a hospital, and have for years. For most of this time I was a vegetarian. I've always been pleased that my hospital serves two soups every day and one of them is always vegetarian. I've recently discovered that the vegetarian one is usually vegan! This is a very, very good thing, folks. Nice to know that if I don't pack a lunch I won't starve to death!

Things That Annoy The Bleep Out of Me:

1. The other day someone threw the old “plants have feelings too” crap at me. The argumentative meat eaters have to do better than this. I cannot sit and have a discussion with someone when that's their argument. If you're going to sit there and tell me that a cow and a cilantro plant are on the same plane, then all I can do is call you bad names in my head. Surely you can do better than this. Try. I'll be waiting.
2. Oh look! I didn't have to wait long, here comes their second argument. All the vegans are going to die of a protein deficiency. What???? Really? Why didn't anyone tell me? I know! Because IT'S NOT TRUE! Nutrition 101: plants have protein – they have quite a lot. I know, it's hard to believe that not only are the lentil spouts not screaming as I chew them, but they actually have protein in them, and – wait for it – you may want to sit down – they have iron too. Eek!!! Who knew? I did. The other vegans did. Lotsa people did. We are not pale, skinny, sickly people. Trust me.
3. While I'm on a roll; my vegan dog is not wasting away either. He hikes four to six kilometres most days. He loves his food (he drools all over my kitchen floor while I'm getting it). He has boundless, annoying, bouncing energy, enough to gnaw on the cat and bark at everything that moves outside the window after he's already had a hike He's good. I promise. The dog and I aren't laying in bed, too protein deficient to get up and do stuff – we're probably laying in bed because we just went on a huge hike.

Ah. I feel better now. :)

Gwen