How-To Be a Vegan Gamer

Speaking of art, I was scrolling through an old file of Draw Something screenshots and it totally derailed the other post I had just begun to write. If you're vegan, do you notice how your lifestyle inevitably creeps into even the games that you play? My oldest son used to try to win survival mode on Minecraft while remaining totally vegan (yes, it's possible). A game of Cards Again Humanity at a vegan party/potluck last Friday night ended up with vegan house rules about the term "bullshit." Even my six year old's Bananagrams ended up containing the word "nondairy." And one of her favorite board games is the cooperative kids' 1980 German produced Harvest Time.

Vegan.com reviewed Mark Middleton's vegan apps, including the game Farm Rescue. Like tofu and zombies? Or maybe being a Vegan Vampire is more your style. I enjoy a game of WazHack myself (reboot of Moria and Hack... remember, where if you accidentally kill your dog you can eat him, and if you go through the dungeon as a vegan instead of gorging on homunculi corpses, it is inscribed post-mortem on your tombstone. I hated eating "screamer slices" in the old Amiga2000 dungeon crawler Dungeon Master). You can always resort to playing Fruit Ninja... no animals harmed, but I sure hope all that slashed fruit gets composted, haha.

OT, you need veg emojis too. Just sayin.

And perhaps some vegan sticker swag for your laptop.

How-To Create Transient Activist Art

I prefer the term "activist art" because it is positive, versus "protest art" or "social protest." There is nothing wrong with a protest, I participate in plenty, but if you can give something a positive label I think it is more effective and optimistic.

Is there an artist movement for your cause? Check here to see. I enjoy the Deviant Art gallery for inspiration. Don't forget Google image searches. While attending protests and actively engaging people to change issues is effective, often more passive communication can invite people to stop and think without causing intense emotional reactance and defensiveness. And at the end of the day, it wipes off, washes away, or disappears into the recesses of your social media feed.

In an effort to respect the environment, some forms of transient art are greener than others. It's also fun to invite children to participate in these activities. Here are some ideas:

• Chalk grafffiti
• Sand sculpture/writing
• Rock painting
• Snow art (use spray bottles of food coloring to write/paint on walls of snow)
• Draw with crayons on paper tablecloths at restaurants
• Use your finger or a sponge to write/draw on dirty/foggy vehicles and windshields
• Body art such as henna or temporary tattoos
• Change your avatar
• Create photo memes
• Hold a bake sale showcasing beautiful vegan cupcakes with a message, etc. 

Avoid anything violent or destructive. Don't:

• Carve trees or remove copious foliage/bark
• Permanently deface property
• Perform graffiti without permission
• Remove wet rocks from rivers/lakes for sculptures (there are tiny creatures that live on/under these)

Any other brilliant ideas? What have you had success with?

How-To Buy Vegan Shoes

Sometimes, we complicate things. Like over-thinking footwear. Okay, you can tell I'm not a shoe horse... or is that clothes horse? And where did that saying come from anyway?? It doesn't sound vegan to me! (I am compiling a list of sayings like that for a future post... should be fun.)

A clothes-horse was actually a frame used for drying or airing out clothing. It evolved to mean someone who really likes clothes or is fashionable. So should we further evolve the saying to be vegan-friendly? Call it a clothes-frame? Call a person who loves clothes a clothes-fan? IDK. You tell me. At least shoe trees must be vegan, haha.

Shoes. You can buy vegan shoes almost anywhere, whether it's a handsome men's dress shoe from Alternative Outfitters or a pair of cheap summer flip flops (which I get caught wearing in winter too, if I'm wearing shoes at all). Here in Boston, we have a local vegan shoe store, Sudo Shoes. But you can find vegan shoes everywhere, at any price. I even found a cool pair of canvas sneakers at the craft store last week for $3.33. Not even the thrift shop has deals that good!

No leather. No feathers. No fur. No alligator skin. No emu nostril hairs. Wait, do birds have nostril hairs?? Perhaps, nostril fluff?

How do you know a shoe is vegan? Simple:
Look for "All Man-Made Materials" stamped somewhere on the shoe or tag.
Done. You can now purchase this shoe. See? That was easy.
Not labeled? Ask, or don't buy it. (Hand-me-downs will be a topic for another post!)

How-To Make A Vegan Rainbow

If you're not seeing rainbows behind your eyelids by now, you're not paying attention. I'm anti-marriage of any kind personally, but I do believe that if one person should be allowed to make that mistake, then everyone should, lol. Seriously, marriage benefits discriminate against single folk, and yes, there are people who choose to remain single, and they shouldn't be penalized for it. Until it's as quick to get divorced as it is to get married... well, anyone who's been there knows what I'm talking about!

But yay for people being allowed to love each other and express it however they choose. I'm all for that. And rainbows. And rainbow unicorns. And married rainbow unicorns are fine too.

Being vegan is about recognizing every animal's right to choose how to live (humans are animals too). Also, once viably alive, every individual has a right to stay alive (yes, I am avoiding big topics like abortion and capital punishment for now). Enough of the social politics... we want vegan rainbows!!

It's often said that a healthy diet means eating a rainbow. Hmm. Not too many blue foods out there in nature. Most lean towards the violet end of the spectrum, or, once chewed or squished on your white t-shirt, turn into the color of a blushing albino rhinoceros. Smurfberry Crunch and that hideous Gatorade that looks like windshield washer fluid don't count.

Almost 7 years ago, I posted a list of rainbow-colored vegan foods. I was often creating colorful bento lunches for my children, as were others like Jewelmaker and Bentoriffic. As cute as some are--like this breakfast cereal bento by Start Happy--I try to avoid artificial coloring and sugar overload. Once in awhile, especially on birthdays, I throw those guidelines out the window.

Here are some ideas if you want to skip the food coloring:

• Top a cake with stripes of rainbow-colored fruit, ie. strawberries, mandarin orange slices, sliced bananas, kiwi, blueberries, and purple grapes. 

• Use similar fruit to create a dessert pizza or raw nut-creme pie topped with circles of fruit. 

• Make rainbow fruit skewers (I've got my own recipe for this fun project in my upcoming cookbook). 

• Freeze some rainbow fruit popsicles.

Share and enjoy!

How-To Eat Milk & Cookies

For those who think going vegan means giving up comfort foods, after-school snacks, and midnight munchies like milk and cookies... Think again.

There are probably a dozen commercial types of vegan dairy milk alternatives. My personal fave is unsweetened plain almond milk.

If you don't like one, try another. You're not limited to soy-based products any longer. Nuts, seeds, grains, and rice of all different types and multiple brands and flavors of each type make dairy substitutions in recipes stupid easy.

Or just pour yourself a glass and dunk away.

Oh, the cookies? Those are mint chocolate Newman's O's sandwich cookies over there. But yeah, Oreos are an option too, as are MANY store-bought brands, some way healthier than others (I personally avoid anything hydrogenated or made with high fructose corn syrup... unless I am traveling, starving, drunk...or all three, haha).

Vegan cookies aren't difficult to make. There are thousands of recipes online, and some fabulous cookbooks you can purchase or check out from the library, such as Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

Here is the Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe in the above cookbook from the Post Punk Kitchen. I add an additional 1/3 cup flour when I make mine so they don't spread so much.

Nothing beats this classic for a lunchbox treat or stocking the cookie jar (if they even last long enough to be cool enough to put inside!)

Ahhh, you're gluten-free, you say? You don't use soy products? You don't want heaps of sugar in your cookies? Yes, you still have plenty of vegan options. From raw refrigerator cookies made from literally a few whole foods ingredients, to the yummy gluten-free soy-free vegan double chocolate chip cookies I made from Oh She Glows using coconut "sugar" instead of cane sugar... just seek the web and ye shall find. And raw cookies are equally delicious. One of my 8 year old's favorite bedtime reading books includes drooling over the food porn in Rawsome Vegan Baking.

Whether you're baking with kids or indulging on the go, being vegan won't stop you.

How-To Order Vegan Pizza

Pizza is my favorite food. In high school, I would eat some permutation of it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner... days in a row. Depending on how you top it, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Naturally, when I switched from mostly vegetarian to vegan at age nineteen, I needed to rethink that staple in my diet.

With the huge increase in folks adopting vegan diets recently, I've had the opportunity to answer a lot of how-to questions. What might seem obvious to someone like myself who has been vegan for over two decades, isn't always so simple for a newbie. Whether it's embarrassment at being "different," a desire not to inconvenience restaurant staff, or simply not knowing what to ask, ordering out as a new vegan can be intimidating.

What do you need to know to order a vegan pizza?

• Crust - A basic hand-tossed crust is usually vegan. It's always good to ask once to double-check, but most individually-owned establishments use a pretty basic recipe. Surprisingly, some doughs contain peanut oil, so be aware if you have a nut allergy. At chain restaurants, go for the thin and crispy or hand-tossed crusts, and definitely avoid any stuffed crusts!

• Sauce - It's not meat that you'll need to avoid in most red sauce, but cheese. Parmesan or goat cheese is a common addition in sauces. Ask for marinara sauce. Often restaurants can whip up a quick custom vegan sauce using their base ingredients, and it'll likely be tastier than their standard sauce with additional fresh herbs and spices. Make sure to thank them and spread the word! Instead of seeing your request as a burden, they'll appreciate the free advertising.

• Toppings - Here's where it gets fun. All pizza places have a list of veggies to choose from, some more comprehensive than others. My kids' favorite trio is spinach, mushrooms, and black olives. I like an offensive combo of tomato, onion, and fresh garlic. If there is a suggestion box at your local pizzeria, ask them to add Daiya as an option, or faux pepperoni, etc.

That's really all there is to it! If you're ordering your pizza for delivery or to-go, open the box before paying to make sure they got your order correct and didn't accidentally add dairy cheese, etc.

Some places keep a vegan pizza or two prepared to purchase slices. Whole Foods stores that have pizza ovens do this, plus they will happily make a custom vegan pizza with any toppings from their salad bar if you're buying an entire pie. Be on the lookout for an Uncle Maddio's opening near you with tons of build-your-own vegan pizza options.

How-To Protect Your Skin From Too Much Sun

Sun is actually good for you. In the right amount. Every day. The minutes or hours you can or should spend in the sunshine varies based on your skin type, geographic location, and whether you already have a bit of color in your skin from previous exposure. That color is caused by melanin, a pigment that gives skin (and hair and eyes) its color.

Exposure to sunlight causes the body to make vitamin D (which isn't really a vitamin, but more of a hormone). This is great news for vegans, since dietary vitamin D can be tricky to obtain except via supplementation (though omnivores are equally deficient in vitamin D in higher latitudes).

So we need to revel within the Goldilocks Zone of sun exposure. Sunscreen manufacturing is a billion dollar industry. It's up to you what kind you choose. Chemical sunblocks have not been adequately tested for safety in my opinion, so given the alternatives, I'll choose a titanium dioxide variety that creates a physical barrier. Confused about types of sunscreen? There are many articles like this one from the Wall Street Journal that explain the basic options.

Which sunscreens are vegan? Here is PETA's list, some more popular options rounded up at One Green Planet, and this list from The Vegan Woman that covers the US, Europe, and Australia. I'm not uber-brand-loyal, I just look for a "vegan" or "cruelty-free" label. I've liked Green Screen Organic and right now I've got a tube of this California Baby sunscreen in the car with a very mild lemongrass scent (they also make a fragrance-free super-sensitive variety).

There are other ways to limit sun exposure without copious sunscreen usage. If I am taking the kids to the beach for the day, or I know I will be out in the surf lineup for a few hours, then I don't hesitate to slather on the goop, especially on my face (most of the year I'm reasonably covered by a wetsuit). Long-sleeved rash guards are awesome swimwear accessories. Sunglasses protect your eyes, but sun hats can reduce or eliminate the need for sunscreen on the face, ears, and upper neck. I even wear a sun hat on a leisurely swim (look for one that dries quickly, has an easily adjustable strap to hold the hat on, and doesn't contain any leather embellishments).

Timing outdoor activities on normal days to coincide with non-peak exposure is also a helpful strategy. Try aiming for before 10am and after 4pm, depending on the time of year. Also, wearing light-colored light-weight long sleeves or pants may be an option depending on your climate and comfort.

How-To Make Vegan Bacon

Bacon?? As an inaugural post on a vegan blog? Yes. And I'll tell you why.

Americans are ob-freakin-sessed with bacon. It's become the culinary cocaine of the masses. Label anything "with bacon," "bacon-flavored," or "X-covered bacon" and you've got yourself a marketing win (don't believe me? Check out LateJuly's popular bacon habanero tortilla chips. They're vegan.) There are cooking show episodes devoted to the topic, a #baconweek on Twitter, and enough bacon-touting t-shirts and paraphernalia to fill a mall boutique. Sorry, but loving bacon doesn't make you a foodie. As Gawker begged over three and a half years ago, enough already: It's time for everyone to shut up about bacon.

But we haven't. So why the love affair with bacon? It's not a specific craving for dead animals. It's something called the Maillard Reaction, explained here at the Republic of Bacon. Vegan or no, we all require protein, made of amino acids, in our diets. Almost every food we consume contains protein. But that smell that everyone loves? Nope, it's not specific to dead pig. It comes from the amino acids reacting with reduced sugars under heat, mixed with fat.

The other things we humans seem to enjoy about bacon is the smoky taste... and the salt. If you've ever had pancetta (salty, but not smoked), you've learned that not all bacon contains the same flavor portfolio. You can give almost any food bacon-esque properties if you flavor it right.

So how do you do that? Easy. And it's vegan. Really, I have had people show up to the kitchen door who I've never met before and start drooling, complimenting me on the smell of cooking bacon. /Smirk. Here's how to create compassionate smoky umami goodness without the environmental degradation, saturated fat, or cholesterol.

You need to create the qualities we crave in bacon. Protein, fat, sugar, salt. Pretty basic, yes?

• Protein: Everything's got protein (honest), so just choose your fave, whether it's a packaged faux meat, a traditionally fermented tempeh, or a head of cauliflower sliced into slabs reminiscent of an MRI brain scan.
• Fat: While you can create a reasonably analogous result without excessive fat, we do need fat to function, and our bodies know that. You want the washing machine repairman salivating over the scent of your bacon-broccoli? You need fat to complete the equation. Choose what you will: cold-pressed olive oil, coconut oil, walnut oil, avocado oil, Earth Balance (I usually go with the soy-free variety, reducing soy-overload in my diet). 
• Sugar: What?? Why sugar? I don't mean add processed cane sugar to your cooking (though this is a trick many meat products and restaurants actually use regularly, since plain meat doesn't contain sugar, and sugar enhances flavors and gives it a further addictive quality). Many meat analogues contain sugar, either naturally or added. Baconizing a vegetable or grain is going to contain some natural sugar already, so you can skip adding it... you're already a step ahead.
• Salt: Yes, we need salt. Not tons. Not heaping teaspoons. We can obtain most of our sodium needs naturally. But if you're after something that tastes like bacon, you need more. I default to soy sauce/tamari/shoyu for this task. It adds a bit of additional cooking liquid, and can be obtained gluten-free if you have someone with celiac disease in your midst.
• Flavor: Some liquid hickory smoke and a touch of garlic powder round out the seasoning. Experiment with additions like a touch of sriracha or a splash of cider vinegar.

There you have it. My secret "baconize anything" formula. The photo above contains:

• Earthbound Farms baby arugula
• Yves Veggie Canadian Bacon sauteed in soy-free Earth Balance, Colgin liquid smoke, Trader Joe's reduced sodium soy sauce, and a few shakes of garlic powder
• Annie's Homegrown Lemon Chive dressing

Stay tuned for future vegan bacon posts with recipes, reviews, and how-to videos!