PART TIME HALF-ASSED VEGAN NOTES - I came so very close

I had every good intention of eating full on VEGAN for dinner tonight, but the Vegan Bowl at Bolay (opened May 2017) has tomatoes and tofu.  I will rarely say yes to raw tomatoes.  As for the tofu, I just wasn't feeling it.  Tofu doesn't have the right "mouth feel" for a protein.  Maybe it's just me, but I know damn well what meat is supposed to feel like, and I feel (rather strongly) that a meat substitute should feel like what it's substituting or it's not convincing.  If I'm not convinced, how could I possibly be satisfied?

Still being game and thinking I could improvise this vegan thing, I opted to build my own bowl.  I ordered a small bowl with cilantro noodles and quinoa (pronounced keen-WAH) with sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts.  What I really wanted was their cauliflower because it's amazing.  It's so amazing that I wouldn't be surprised if a kid would ask for more, but cauliflower is no longer an option at Bolay.  I shed one tear and got over it.  The Brussels sprouts and sweet potato are out of this world, and I always LOVE the cilantro noodles!

Bolay makes ordering pretty easy.  Choose your size, choose your base, choose your veggies, choose your meats and then toppings.  On days when I allow myself the indulgence of protein, I really have to make a case for their shrimp.  It's plump and delicious and seasoned really well.

Then - and here's where I blew it and un-veganized my meal - I got the pesto sauce.  It contains dairy.  Diehard vegans will shake their heads disapprovingly, but I'm not even trying to go all out vegan.  I'm not even opting for all out vegetarian.  I just want to do it part time.  Half-assed.  Because I do love meat.  It's the chronic inflammation and cardiac arrest that I'd like to eliminate from my future.

Bolay is in Pembroke Pines at Hiatus Road and Pines Blvd. in the same plaza as Walgreen's, European Wax Center, Verizon, and Jared Jewelers.  For the guys, it's at the northeast corner of Hiatus and Pines.

Bo - Bowl
Olay - FUN!
Bolay!  Bolay all day!!

We start with quinoa and cilantro noodles

Quinoa, Cilantro Noodles, Kale, Baby Spinach
Bolay Pembroke Pines.
Photo by Mackenzie Littledale

Then add Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes

Finish with pesto sauce and Voila!  A half-assed vegan meal that tastes great!

RANDOM THOUGHT -Rewriting Adam and Eve to more accurately reflect human nature

Something about the Adam and Eve story - maybe a number of things - always bothered me.  Why would God ask them where they'd been and what they'd been doing?  Didn't God know, or was that just the first rhetorical question?  When Adam blamed Eve, God seems to take Adam at his word, like blaming the woman is a legitimate defense for stupidity.  This line of nonsense reasoning explains a lot about patriarchal society.

Why didn't God ask the obvious question: How could you be so stupid to believe a snake was talking to you?

So, I've rewritten a little portion of the story to suit myself for matters of believe-ability.

Eve was off by herself exploring the Garden.  Adam decided to pull a little prank on her.  He rolled up some banana leaves into a makeshift megaphone and threw his voice.  When Eve looked around to see where the voice was coming from, she only saw a snake.  When Adam saw her eating the forbidden fruit, he realized his joke had gone too far, but he was too far away from her, and he couldn't reach her in time.  

Adam loved Eve, and he'd rather die with her than live his life without her, so he, too, ate from the forbidden tree.

Doesn't that make more sense than what Moses wrote?

Personal Perspective on Abortion

Everyone's body is sacred, let's start there.  A woman's body has the capability of carrying the miracle of life into the world and that should matter to everyone who's been born.  Your dad didn't carry you to term.

According to scripture, God knew us in the womb, but it doesn't specify how early on during pregnancy the Almighty recognized we were there.  That's OK.  What matters on Earth in the USA is when does the government recognize two distinct human beings deserving of protection under the law?  This is where Roe vs. Wade gets tricky, but the Supreme Court decided that the law recognizes two lives at the moment the fetus can be a viable life outside the womb, generally agreed at the end of the first trimester.

I like the timing, but not the definition.  Here's why.

An abortion is a medical procedure and as such, should only be performed by a medical doctor.  Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, which dictates that first, they should do no harm.  It's that bit that makes the 1st trimester so important as a cutoff point.

The fetus has no developed nervous system, which means it can't be sensible of pain in the 1st twelve weeks.  If it can't feel, it can't be harmed.

To me, a woman who wants a SAFE abortion during the 1st trimester should have legal and affordable access to one - NO QUESTIONS ASKED.  Once the 2nd trimester starts, then other contingencies should be considered.

This is about as left of center as I get.

POETRY - Stray Lines #4

Stray Lines IV

This morning I woke up and all I could see

Was I need no apology, no pardon

In my reflection, all I could feel

Was the ecstasy of a butterfly in a garden

Mackenzie Littledale

6/19/2018

PART TIME HALF-ASSED VEGAN NOTES

I will not apologize for liking and eating meat and animal byproducts.  However, having said that, I've seen enough PETA and Mercy for Animals videos on Facebook to at least try to be more conscientious about how much meat I'm eating.  More important, I've been looking for cruelty-free foods.  Specifically, I've had great success with cruelty-free ice cream, and this has been important in the quality of my life.  I'll bet that I'm not the only omnivore with a conflicted soul.  I think God should have preferred Cain's fruit offering over Abel's slaughtered animal sacrifice, but I digress.

My pressing problem is a hereditary addiction to ice cream.  My whole family suffers (suffers?) from this affliction.  Case in point, my cousin Allen genuinely suffers.  His love for ice cream makes him part of the tribe, but he has a terrible dairy sensitivity that sets his sinuses on red alert in the middle of the night.  I'm guessing that it's a terrible strain on his marriage but they have survived over 37 years.  Anyone remember Felix Unger honking through his nose?

Being an empathetic person, not only to the plight of dairy cows with mastitis, but also to my human cousin's ice cream cravings that might jeopardize his life and marriage, I went in search of dairy free ice cream. The first brand I came across was Ben and Jerry's.  Logic dictated that these were experts in creaminess, so I trusted them.  Without sounding overly self-congratulatory, I have to say I chose wisely.

Once my search gained momentum, it was hard to slow down and today my freezer looks ridiculous, $50 richer in non-dairy frozen desserts.  Yes, 50 US dollars.

I fondly refer to non-dairy frozen desserts as fake ice cream.  These are some of my favorite brands in terms of flavors, sweetness and complete ice cream equality.

Today's haul:
So Delicious - Salted Caramel Cluster with cashew milk

So Delicious - Mocha Almond Fudge on a stick with almond milk.  This will be a new try, but I'm pretty confident I'll be happy.  I mean, look at the picture on the box!

Ben and Jerry's - Coconut Seven Layer, Chunky Monkey and Caramel Brittle

Talenti - Peanut Butter Fudge.  New to try sorbetto Alphonso Mango (I have no doubts)

Steve's - Burnt Sugar Vanilla with coconut cream

 (I tried this last one tonight with crushed Oreos - which happen to be vegan - in order to emulate McDonald's Oreo McFlurry with double extra Oreos because that's my thing.  It's.  Just.  My.  Thing.  On a tangential note, I have a hard time with different McDonald's getting my order right.  The other day, I was at McDonald's in Plantation and they nailed it so well, I called the manager to say thank you!  Honest to God, they deserved a thank you.  My McFlurry was BLACK.  He wanted me to go online and let corporate know, but I thought that was a step too far over a $4.23 purchase.  Although the next time a McDonald's puts hot fudge on my McFlurry instead of extra Oreos, I might complain.  That completes my tangential note.)

This has been my idea of a public service announcement.  You should care about the plight of the dairy cows.  They are gentle creatures and deserve better lives for what they provide humanity.  If you have a dairy sensitivity, or a sensitive soul, try FAKE ICE CREAM and your stomach and spirit will feel better.

RANDOM THOUGHT - on the Parable of the Talents

Christians are familiar with Jesus's method of teaching by parable.  There was one that really disturbed me as a child, the Parable of the Talents.  There had been a wealthy man who was about to go away on a long journey.  He called 3 servants to him.  To the first, he gave 5 silver talents. To the second, the master gave 2 silver talents.  To the third, he gave 1 silver talent.

The 3rd servant was afraid, for the master was a hard man and reaped where he did not sow.  After a long time, the master returned and asked of the 3 servants what they'd done with the talents.  The 1st came back and said he invested the money and now had 10 talents to give back to the master.  The master was impressed and invited the servant to the joys of his house.

The 2nd servant also doubled the money to four talents, and again the master was happy and rewarded him.

The 3rd servant (sniveling, I imagine), said he'd buried the talent and returned it to the master.

The master was furious and wanted to know why the servant with only a little talent didn't at least take the money to the bankers to earn interest.  Wicked servant!  The master banished him from his property to be left homeless and wandering aimlessly.  Whoever has much will get much more and whoever has little, even what he has will be taken away.

Matthew 25: 14-30

Now, that's what bothered me.  The 3rd servant didn't steal the master's money, so why was the master so angry and punitive?  Why would someone poor be made poorer?  What was Jesus thinking?  Where was His compassion?

Decades later, I learned that money has multiple values, including time value.  Over time, inflation eats away at the purchasing power of the dollar, so burying a talent in the ground actually loses money.  For example, today's dollar has roughly the purchasing power that a nickel had in 1915, maybe not even that much.

Interesting that the Hebrews and Greeks called their most valuable silver coin a talent.  Today, I realize that natural talent is God's investment in us, and when we develop it, use it and share it for others' benefit, the value of our natural talent can be converted to silver talents (money) and both investments grow.  If we don't grow God's investment in us, even what we have will be taken away.

My advice is this: listen to any motivational speaker you can if you need motivation to rely on your talents.  If you don't have a natural talent, keep searching yourself until you discover it.  You have it!  Find it! Love it!  Cherish it!  Invest in it!  Develop it!  Share it!  It would be tragic to wind up a wandering soul who dies completely forgotten.

POETRY - Stray Lines #2

Stray Lines II

So much ado about freedom

So little to do with me

Seems all I know about freedom

I learned in captivity

6/16/94

Mackenzie Littledale

NEW PLACES - Presto Coffee at Olivia in Circ Hotel, Hollywood, Fla.

Presto Coffee is OPEN for business inside Olivia's Italian Restaurant at Hollywood's newest hotel, Circ Hotel at Young Circle.  I had the coconut doughnut, but what really stood out was the coffee.  Koffee Kult is their supplier, and they happen to be local.  It was important to me that the coffee be excellent because Starbucks was across the street, and I've grown accustomed to great coffee, maybe even turned into something of a coffee snob.

Koffee Kult did not disappoint.  It was served hot, with a smile and an enthusiastic endorsement!  I'm sold, really SOLD!!!

When in South Florida, stay at Circ.  Visit Larry Knox at the concierge desk and he'll get you hooked up with the best in town, and your morning cup of Joe at Presto Coffee is guaranteed to get your day started on the right foot.

#CoffeeAddict
#CoffeeLover

RANDOM THOUGHT - On Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve were presented with two trees in the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life.

They ate from the Tree of Knowledge, knowing (instantaneously) all things good and evil.

However, later in scripture, in Proverbs, wisdom is called a Tree of Life.

If Adam and Eve had eaten from both trees, they would have had the ability to discern good FROM evil, but all they chose was knowledge without the ability to tell the difference.

In other words, when given the choice between knowledge and wisdom, choose wisdom (or both if you can).

POETRY (Stray Lines #5)

Stray Lines V

Green leaves cradle curved, white petals

As white as a virgin bride’s dress

Revealing a center, upright and straight

Reaching to give the sky a caress

6/23/18

Mackenzie Littledale

POETRY - Passarinho (Little Bird)

Passarinho (Little Bird)

Is there really a little bird in there?

It’s so small, that eggshell

Can passarinho hear my voice?

The little chick, safe and warm,

May wonder if there’s another world outside that delicate shell

Maybe at this moment, passarinho doesn’t care

When passarinho is ready for the biggest breakthrough of her life

She’ll just know to start pecking

Born with persistence, she will not stop

Though now she can breathe through the hole

Though now she can see through the hole

She will not stop until that tiny breakthrough gives way completely

And she will emerge hungry and demanding and unyielding

No one will tell her to stay hungry

No one will tell her to be quiet

No one will suggest she go back into her shell

When passarinho outgrows the hole through which she escaped

6/30/2018

Mackenzie Littledale

POETRY - About a Painter

About a Painter

I still think of him

As a mortal         As a god

Fondly, still

Still waters

Flowing, dreamlike, under the surface

Glowing, radiating

And, as always, I smile

I remember how free, how full my heart could feel

Bursting at unforeseeable moments

Just to remember a gesture of his hand

Or a kind and knowing inflection in his voice

A certain color on his brush

The movement across a canvas

A knowing so deep, he can’t touch it

Only let it find its own way out

Into the world for me to find and the let the movement within

Touch me.  Affect me.  Change me,

In a sanctuary within me so deep I can’t touch it

But let it find its own way in

3/6/97

Mackenzie Littledale