Musings, Falafel, and Salads

I came across a quote from the amazing Colleen Patrick Goudreau and I wanted to share it." There is no rule book for being vegan. Just let your compassion guide you" Is she the smartest or what? There are so many representations of vegan eating, and of course there is the plant based movement. I've said it before that I'm glad I didn't own a computer or have much interest in the interwebz when I went vegan. I think the transition would have been much more confusing, and even scarier. As it was, I just made the switch and educated myself on what foods were safe to eat. Needless to say I read a million and one labels back in those days. I remember being shocked at how many things had animal products in them when they weren't really needed. I pretty much ate the same as before, just no animal products. My cooking has vastly improved since then, and while I have learned a lot from the webz, I'm still glad I had that time to let my compassion guide me. Overthinking anything makes it seem impossible. I know because I've over thought my way out of lots of things in my day.
This isn't really a resolution, but I guess a hope of mine for 2016 is to be the year where judgement in the vegan community kind of fades away. There's enough going against us, we live in a McCulture, and there are so many antiquated stereotypes out there, we don't need to judge and fight each other. I don't care if you live on bananas and dates, or vegan junk food, or somewhere in between. And although I am an ethical vegan and relate to other ethical vegans, I don't care if you are vegan for the animals, or plant based for your health, or the environment. All I care about is making the world a better place for animals. Working together makes so much more sense than all of the bickering and fighting, and meanness. I really feel like there is more of an interest in veganism than ever before. People are thinking about animals, their own health, and the environments. Facts are facts, and the facts are in our favor. Hopefully 2016 is the year that we run with the momentum.
Now, I will take a sharp turn towards the food! I have been craving falafel, and I had all of the ingredients on hand, including pita bread, so I decided to make my own. I always fry my falafel not a deep fry but a shallow fry? Anyway, I decided to experiment yesterday and bake my little balls. I made them a little flatter, more like miniature burgers than round. It turned out pretty well. Baking isn't going to get that true, crunchy exterior, but the flavors were still there. I loosely followed this  recipe, but I used a little regular old flour for binding. Just a little. These were super garlic-y which I love. I served them on a warmed pita with Romaine shreds and some garlic tahini sauce and of course sriracha sauce!

I also had the tastiest salad for lunch. I added some diced celery which I never do, and it really added extra texture and that fresh taste that I love. I used Follow Your Heart's amazing Blue Cheese, because vegan blue cheese!

This also had some shredded carrot, red onion, and croutons which I never use, but randomly had some. I have to say that it's really worth the extra minute or two to add a lot of chopped veggies to your salad. It really makes it so much more than a bowl of cold lettuce. I'm guilty of just eating plain salads sometimes, and it's fine, but when there are different colors, textures and flavors it's definitely more satisfying.
I'm going to try to sleep in my bed tonight. Ever since Dylan passed, I have not even been able to be in my room for more than a few minutes, let alone sleep in my bed. I don't know how I'm going to do it to be honest. I'm able to get through majority of my day now without like crying on the bus and such, but my heart still hurts, and my apartment feels empty even though I am not alone. Dylan was my spooning buddy for seventeen years. Whether it was the couch, the floor, a bed it didn't matter, we were cuddling. I'm going to wash my bedding and try to just make my room as inviting as possible. I'll see how it goes from there. All you can do is try, right?