vegans

Today I was scrolling through Huffington Post and found an article from a vegan about what do vegans eat. So then I thought, I don't actually eat half of those things. I know, everyone is different and people eat different things, but for some reason I am finding that I don't eat the usual things that most other vegans eat. My friends always laugh at me when they ask what I had for dinner and I will say "potato" or "baked apple". This isn't entirely true: I don't just eat plain potatoes and apples, if I did I would probably be as skinny as a twig. I just don't ever feel like elaborating on my (sometimes) very complicated meals, consisting of many parts. I am trying to balance eating healthy, eating my favorite things, eating cheap and most importantly, always eating a strictly vegan diet.
So for example, when I say I had a baked potato? That's code for: I stuck a potato in the microwave for 8 minutes, made a spinach-tomato-some other vegetable salad and my own dressing; then I cut up the potato and put either olive oil and salt, or if I need some protein, top it with chickpeas or lentils and salsa. Then I eat all of that. Then I make tea or coffee and eat a fruit with it, or if I'm feeling more cheeky, something sweeter, like chocolate if I have some or anything of that kind.
If I say I had lentils for lunch, this usually means: I made lentils for lunch for work, but at work I am actually usually eating lentils, some vegetable (broccoli, mushrooms or peppers are the usual), a banana, an apple or an orange. So, it's not actually that boring.
When I said I had baked an apple that one time, what actually happened was I ate a vegan sausage (yes sometimes I like to eat processed foods, big deal!), lots of celery sticks and had a beer. Then I baked an apple, but before I stuck it in the oven I cut out the core of it and stuffed it with oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, chocolate chips and baked it, and then ate it as dessert. It was goddamn delicious.
When I say I make tacos, I stir-fry garlic, green pepper, black beans until cooked. Then I puff up corn tortillas in the microwave. Then I put together the best tacos: my stir-fried stuff, spinach, tomato, salsa and guac that I make myself also. Guac consists of avocado, onion, tomato, lime juice, salt, pepper and a secret ingredient that I won't tell anyone.
When I make oatmeal, right now my favorite things to add are: quinoa flakes, chia seeds, coconut sugar, cinnamon. Sometimes I add chocolate chips if I want something sweeter. How do you make your oatmeal?
Sometimes I like to make more elaborate things that are hard to find in vegan versions, like for example spicy Thai noodle soup type of thing I made last night: great for when it's cold out and it's so heart-warming. I use coconut milk, lemon grass, hot red pepper sauce type of thing, jalapenos (fresh), tofu, lots of vegetables, ginger, noodles, soy sauce and vegetable stock. It is absolutely to die for!
I also make lots of stir-fries, stews and salads because they are all incredibly easy to do. The other day I made watermelon curry from the vegan stoner website, and it was a bit bland but hey, at least I am trying new things all the time! Also recently I've made a baked sweet potato with steamed kale and spinach and olives and mushrooms. THAT, my friends, was amazing.
I like to make a lot of "Indian" foods too, like spinach-chickpea thing, or chickpea-tomato thing.
Everything I make is incredibly easy to do and usually takes no more than half hour preparation and cooking. I like my food as fresh as possible, so I try to leave as many ingredients as fresh as possible. If I stir-fry veggies, I only leave them on the stove until they are hot and then immediately take them off. If I make salad, I try to use all ingredients fresh. If it's soup, I use pre-made stock, and everything else I add just for a few minutes before the liquid starts boiling.
Fresh food is the best food. Eating correctly is of the utmost importance. It's your body, which you need to live in for many decades, why don't you take better care of it? It's really not that hard. I taught myself how to cook properly around the same time I made the transition from vegetarian to vegan. Now I get excited to try new things, even if they contain things I don't like. I actually legitimately taught myself to like oatmeal, and now I absolutely love it! I am not a big fan of beets, and I made a salad with beets about two months ago. Unfortunately, I still don't like beets, but at least I am trying, all the time. I make the most unlikely combinations of foods, and most of the time they turn out amazing! The other day I made tomato soup (from a can) with rice and lots of spices, but it was missing something. So I added brown sugar. Weird, I know! But the taste turned out just exactly right. One thing I won't ever eat: anything that tastes like liquorice. So no fennel or anything similar. Or mint! I like mint gum, minty toothpaste and Mojitos, but that is it. But if I read an incredibly interesting recipe with mint, I would most likely try it!
All I am saying is, people are so dumb when it comes to food. There are so many options and yet you end up eating paste and red sauce, just like in that Huffington Post article from that one vegan. I mean, I have nothing against her, but I am just saying.. come on! Make your life more exciting.

Money and other personal matters

Let's talk about money.
First of all, I hate when people talk about money. I hate when people compare how much they make, how much they spend. I hate when people ask how much is my rent, or how much I get paid, or how I am surviving living in the city with a part-time job that barely pays anything. (as a side note, obviously I talk about those things with my close friends, but this post is about other people.. people I don't know so well).
I mean, think about how personal those questions are! Whichever way I answer the question about how I am surviving financially, I will get judged for it. For some reason, any financial situation of any person, unless they have a good paying 9to5 job, is up for scrutiny by other people. Whether my parents support me, my partner supports me, I have inexhaustible funds of a deceased relative, whether I save up all my money and eat ramen and carrot sticks every day, whether I rob banks... Whatever the answer, I will get judged for it. Apparently in this day and age the only suitable way to live is to make your own goddamn money and flaunt it in front of everyone. Well I got news for you - not everybody wants to sit at a desk and file papers or count baseball caps or make spreadsheets for a living. Some people have bigger dreams and sometimes that requires a struggling financial situation. So stop worrying about other people's money and go buy yourself a nice tie.
Secondly, I hate that money exists, I hate that it structures our lives, I hate that sometimes commodities cost more than useless crap, like a loaf of bread versus lollipops. I am not going to start a rant about unfair food prices and materialism, I just want to say the simple truth that crosses everybody's mind once in a while: money is evil, but without money we wouldn't survive the way we do now. It's a no-win situation either way. 

"Warm Bodies" - Proving undying love, literally

Every time I go to the movies, it rains. I seem to choose all the wrong days to shuffle down  Chicago streets soaked to the bone in anticipation of the next big feature. Not that I watch movies very often, but once in a while a trailer sparks my curiosity.

That’s what happened with Jonathan Levine’s “Warm Bodies” with the incredibly gorgeous and well-known (in the UK) actor Nicholas Hoult. I remember when he played a cocky heartthrob in the British teen drama “Skins” for the first two seasons, and how he appeared on Nevermind the Buzzcocks with Simon Amstell still hosting the show. Those were the days of Nick Hoult being innocently evil, sugar-coated in flirtatious teenagery and killing his female generation’s hearts with a crooked smile. Now having put all that behind him, he stars in a zombie movie. If it was anybody else, I would be skeptical and never end up leaving my house for some romantic zombie movie in the middle of a Chicago rainy winter. But there is something alluring about Nick Hoult, helped by the fact that apparently he’s got another movie coming out, and as I sat in the movie theater waiting for “Warm Bodies” to start, I saw a trailer for “Jack the Giant Slayer” that he also stars in. Good for him, since not a lot of British actors make it out to the big world of cinema (aka movies they show in the United States).

I am going to be honest: I loved it! “Warm Bodies” is a combination of everything I love to hate about current commercial cinema, with its overly simplified characters and a somewhat alluring plot line. John Malkovich portrays an annoyingly skeptical father figure wielding guns and severe justice in the form of “shoot first, ask questions later”. He is probably the weakest link in the entire hour and half of action, although without him there would be no twist toward the end.

It didn’t hit me until about three quarters into the movie that there is a catch: her name is Julie, his name starts with an R. Her wannna-be nurse friend is Nora. There is a balcony scene. Yes, it smells like Shakespeare and that smartly weaved-in idea tarnishes the movie just a tiny bit. However, I probably should mention that if somebody hadn’t pointed it out to me, I would not even have noticed. The subtlety of this gesture to our all-time favorite playwright makes the movie seem more intelligent and upscale instead of cheap and vulgar.

The main premise of the movie is a clever twist on an otherwise overused story of zombies versus humans. What if zombies came back to life, again? What if underneath all the dead skin and the grunting and the slow shuffle there are still feelings and thoughts left? What if they can be turned back to being alive, with actual blood pumping and hearts beating? Of course the soppy solution is falling in love, but we are talking about a romantic movie after all. The scene with Julie’s and R’s first kiss was ingenious because it almost made me scream out loud: death breath, dead teeth, gross!

What makes the movie really lovable are the characters, especially Nick Hoult’s lovely portrayal of an intelligent zombie in love. He is so sweet that we somehow forget that at the beginning he eats the brains of Julie’s boyfriend and manages to manipulate her into liking him partly by having her boyfriend’s memories. We also turn a blind eye to the many questions that arise, such as: how did the zombies appear in the first place, why is R different than the others and why do the “Boneys” run so fast whereas your ordinary zombie is slower than a turtle?

It’s not the most thought-provoking film out there, I will admit. But the sincerity of the story and the brilliant portrayal of zombie feelings left me with a warm feeling and a positive outlook on any future upcoming zombie apocalypse. This movie manages to make you fall in love with actual walking corpses, and to root for their survival even though they feast on human flesh. That, in my opinion, is quite an achievement.

P.S. Funny ending to my story: when I came home, my roommate was watching “The Walking Dead”. Coincidences don’t just happen.