Greg finished the 2014 Boston Marathon safely – I managed to see him both in Wellesley at the halfway point AND at mile 25 near Kenmore station, and we even got to enjoy post-marathon beers with some of his coworkers at a post-marathon party in town.  (It’s pretty inspiring to be in a room with that many dedicated runners!)

The T was packed, the streets were packed, the race was packed… it was a BIG FAT SPECTACULAR Marathon Monday… and it was safe.  I’m so grateful to the men and women who worked so hard planning, managing, and working the event to make it as safe as possible while welcoming even more spectators and runners than ever before.  It was truly incredible.

Greg’s off!

You can track Greg today by going to http://www.baa.org/individual.html and typing in his bib number: 29516 – he starts in wave 4 at 11:20 and should finish in under 3 and a half hours. If you’re on your mobile phone, this is a better link:http://www.baa.org/2014/cf/public/pg_MobileAthleteTrack.cfm

If you want to sign up for text messages, text his bib number to 345678 to subscribe and get 4 updates with his splits & finish time!

I hope he has a wonderful race – what an incredible race to be running.

Wishing everyone in the 2014 Boston Marathon a fabulous race!

Animal welfare isn’t a light, happy, optimistic or fun topic… which is usually where I try to focus my blogging.  I know that what we eat is personal, and I’d rather share my success stories as a recent vegan than criticize what anyone else is eating.  After all, I used to eat and enjoy it, too.

That being said, Easter is on Sunday, and for many people, it’s a celebration of life.  That’s why it makes me feel sad to see so many people dyeing hard-boiled Easter eggs – they’re doing something that should be creative, fun, and a celebration of life… but behind the scenes it’s anything but.

Male chickens don’t lay eggs, nor do they grow into good chickens for eating.

That means that millions of male chickens every year are killed a few days after birth by the egg and chicken industries.  I’ve seen video footage of them being thrown away alive in trash bags and dumped alive into meat grinders.  It was a sight I wish I had never seen.  When interviewed for an article by the Huffington Post, The United Egg Producers said this:

“There is, unfortunately, no way to breed eggs that only produce female hens,” said the group’s spokesman, Mitch Head. “If someone has a need for 200 million male chicks, we’re happy to provide them to anyone who wants them. But we can find no market, no need.”

Using a grinder, Head said, “is the most instantaneous way to euthanize chicks.”‘

Unless your eggs are coming from a small farm that keeps and feeds a rooster for every chicken, those eggs cost some day old male chicks their lives.  Makes them seem a little less vegetarian, doesn’t it.

I know that not everyone is going to eliminate animal products from their diet, and I know that I’m lucky to have the time and energy to learning to cook in a different way, and the money to afford the wonderful plant products like chia seeds and acai that keep me confident that my family is getting the nutrients it needs.

But knowing what I know about the egg industry, I would urge you not to use them for something optional like a craft.

Let’s make construction paper eggs, instead.  Or maybe paper mache’ eggs using little balloons, that you can keep and pull out again next year.

I’m not a Christian myself, but I think avoiding unnecessary death and suffering would be in the Christian spirit.

I’ll post more uplifting messages in the future… I promise!

And Happy Easter, to anyone who celebrates!

I joked on twitter the other day that I’ve been buying cook books like they’re going to do my meal planning for me… which of course hasn’t happened.

That being said, I’ve found two cookbooks that are ABSOLUTELY worth investing in.  One is the “Oh She Glows” cookbook, by Angela Liddon, and the other is the “Thrive Energy Cookbook” by Brendan Brazier.

These two cookbooks are amazing, because every recipe in them is comprised of plant-based, whole foods ingredients.

When we first started transitioning to a plant-based diet, I went out and bought some of the top name vegan cookbooks.  Veganomicon, Vegan with a Vengeance, Vegan Slowcooker – etc.  There have been some fantastic recipes in these cookbooks, and they’ve been instrumental in teaching me how to cook (and bake!) without using animal products, but I still found myself flipping past a lot of recipes because they called for things I didn’t really want to put into my body.

I don’t like using fake meat products, fake cheese products, processed foods, more than a touch of refined oil, or refined sugars.

That’s when I discovered that there are cookbooks out there that focus on using only ingredients I recognize and feel good about eating – real, whole foods!

My Thrive cookbook just showed up today – but Brendan Brazier is a well respected name in the vegan and whole foods plant based world… plus, he’s an athlete who specializes in plant-based food for ATHLETES.  I’m an enthusiastic jogger, not an athlete, but hey… I love food that’s designed to give me energy and help me recover.  Not to mention that my husband actually IS an athlete, who can throw down over 20 miles at sub 7:30 pace and deserves some darn good nutrition for fuel.

My Oh She Glows cookbook has become a joke in this house because I literally have been cooking from it EVERY NIGHT.  And most mornings.  We’ve been eating Vegan Overnight Oats, Broccoli and Cashew Cheese Quinoa Burritos and all sorts of amazing, whole foods based meals that taste so incredible I sometimes tear up when I try the first bite.

I’m not joking.  I’ve actually shed a few tears over how good some of this food is, because it feels so darn amazing to have food that tastes THAT good and is THAT GOOD FOR YOU.

With all the scary chemicals in our processed foods, and all the links being found between animal products and disease, it feels so calming and empowering and amazing to sit down to a meal that I feel confident is going to be good for me and my family and taste good.

I would say more, but I am going to go sit on my couch and flip through the Thrive cookbook with some post-it notes… after all, perhaps I could start cooking “Oh She Glows” every OTHER night.  Just for a while 😉