Easy Ways to Start Eating Animal Friendly and still eat meat
Mama loves animals. Almost everywhere I go, I end up rescuing a furry little critter. Just the other day while visiting my parents, a straggly little dog came up to me and rolled over so I could rub his belly. After playing with him for a little while, I found his owner a few houses away.
One of the things I sometimes wonder about is eating meat. If I love animals so much, how can I justify eating them? Well, I have an animal friendly diet that includes meat. It sounds like a contradiction…but it can be done.
If you want to begin reducing meat in your diet in the hopes of supporting animal welfare, then I have some easy ideas for you for delicious meat substitutions. I promise, it will be quick and painless!
- Use Meat in Smaller Amounts. If you want to start reducing your meat intake, start by using smaller amounts in soups, pastas, or stir frys. Resist the urge to buy a 12 ounce rib eye steak (yum yum) for dinner.
- Buy Animals treated with humane conditions. Look for cage free and free range eggs, USDA organic meats, and Certified Humane labels on chicken, pork, or beef. These labels mean that certain standards were met and verified showing humane standards for the animals. What really goes on behind closed doors in the food industry is shocking, disturbing, and outright mean.
- Try Tofu. Tofu is a great substitute because it takes on the flavor of whatever you’re cooking, so you can scramble it as eggs, use it in a lasagna, add it to salads, try it on kebabs, the list goes on and on.
- Use Veggies as Main Dishes. You may be surprised to find out that there are many hearty vegetables that can be prepared as an entrée. Try Eggplant Parmesan, for example, or even grilled or stuffed mushrooms.
- Try meat substitutes.Nothing will ever completely replace the taste and texture of meat. But, adding meat substitutes to your meals will give it a new taste and will still fill you up.
Go out on a limb, try it.
- Mama
Mama’s Monday Favorite: Shirts of Bamboo
I love trying new things. A few months ago, Shirts of Bamboo sponsored our Earth Month Giveaway. Shirts of Bamboo gave us 2500 Bamboo Fiber Towelette to give away with our Eco-friendly tote bags.
My curiosity got the best of me…after I spent some time painting one of my canvases, I decided to put this little towel to the test and see if it could compete with my cotton towel I usually use to wash my paint encrusted fingers. Wha-la! The bamboo towelette worked wonders. Before I knew it, my little hands and fingers were clean, dry, and soft again.
- Mama
**Mama’s Monday Favorite is the sole opinion of Mama. No monetary compensation was received for the feature. If you have a product that Mama might absolutely love, send Mama one of your products. If she likes it, she might list it as a Mama’s Monday Favorite.
When Status Is Everything
This is just a quick note from your Aunt B to remind all of you sexy people to get tested for HIV. Today is National HIV Testing Day. According to AVERT, an international AIDS charity, there are approximately one million people in the United States living with HIV.
HIV is not a death sentence, and there is no better peace of mind than knowing your status for you and for your partners or spouses.
Don’t know where to go? Don’t want to be seen walking into a clinic in your home town? Your Aunt B understands. This website can find a testing clinic for you in the zip code of your choice or did you know you can buy a home testing kit? Yes you can. Check out this website for more information.
Get tested now! This is one instance when status really means something. Stay healthy!
- Aunt B
Michael Joseph Jackson 1958-2009
It’s one of my earliest memories, at the end of our family dinners at my grandmother’s house we’d end up in a circle dancing to the music of the Jackson 5. When it was my turn to strut my stuff in the middle, I’d do my best to dance like Michael, popping my head back and forth and moving my feet until I made them clap and shout, “Go Lil’ B! Go Lil’ B!”
He was my first superstar.
Maybe it was the intensity and honesty I heard in songs like “Got To Be There” and “I Wanna Be Where You Are” that made me play Jackson 5 music over and over again. And who can forget the bluesy sound of “Who’s Lovin’ You?” or the funky bass line of “I Want You Back?”
I mean, when he moved it was magic wasn’t it? How could you not watch his feet? Those hips?
My friends and I would choreograph steps to songs like “Dancing Machine” and charge neighbors a quarter to come watch us dance. With the money I made I bought every “Right On” magazine he was on the cover of.
Michael was brown and ours, and so was the Jackson family, and then came “Off The Wall.”
The understated tension and urgency in his voice became his sound. We couldn’t get enough of it or his sequined accessories. This razor thin whisper of a boy-man danced and sang his way into pop music history. His passion for perfection and creativity was unmatched. His music crossed cultures and borders. And then there was “Thriller,” he belonged to the world now. It was hard to give him up, that kind of fame costs.
And yes, there are dark the parts of his journey. There are the accusations, the name calling in the press, the comedians trying to joke away his predilection for plastic surgery… We held our opinions and loved Michael anyway. He was family.
The announcement of his final concert held an ominous prediction. “ Michael Jackson This Is It” flashing behind him, the pre-announcement video, a montage of his greatest moments, Michael saying, “ This is it, this is the final curtain call.” We should’ve known. Only Michael would try to throw his own going away party.
I heard the news just as my friend Serena arrived. We’d made plans to go out and instead we sat, unbelieving and aching.
“Michael wouldn’t want us sitting around,” I say, moving to the stereo, queuing up his music, starting with “Going Back To Indiana,” and “Never Can Say Goodbye.”
Then we got up and started struttin’ our stuff, dancing, singing, crying and laughing.
- Aunt B
Organic, Natural, Conventional…what this stuff really means.
Mama is doing her best to be healthy. I’ve gone a whole week without my precious doughnuts, I’m eating more organic food and eating out less. But I still get a little confused when I go to the grocery store and I see labels that say:
- “Free Roaming Hens”
- “Green”
- “Natural”
- “Cage free”
- “Conventionally Grown”
- “Non-GMO”
- “Locally-grown”
What does all this stuff mean? Each of these phrase mean different things to different companies. If conventionally grown, organic, and non-GMO sound like gibberish, the video below will help decipher the ’secret’ code of product labeling.
Organic Foods: Backyard Agriculture
Can’t afford Organic food?
Paycheck getting small and smaller?
Tired not being able to afford good, healthy produce?
Backyard agriculture could be the answer to some of your problems.
And What If They Are Cheating Pt. 2
The phone call confirmed something I didn’t want to know. He was having an affair.
Do you remember the movie “The Sixth Sense?” One of the final scenes is in flashback, and the director shows a series of moments, which should have been clues in guessing the outcome. When I saw this movie, the whole theatre had an audible ‘a-ha’ moment. After I sat the phone down, I watched the moments play back in my mind and felt a series of overwhelming emotions. I thought, how could I’ve been so naïve?
I felt jealous, betrayed, shamed, angry and so much more. I called him in a rage.
Wrong.
Even though it is healthy to have and express those emotions, don’t confront your partner in that state. You have the element of surprise on your side. Get angry somewhere else, vent with a trusted friend. You need to take a moment to reflect on what you want. For the best possible outcome you have to play your hand wisely. I can’t say this enough, know what you want. Do you want to continue? Are you ready to walk away? Do you have somewhere to go? Can you survive financially?
In a calm matter present your evidence.
Allow you spouse/partner to speak without interruption.
Don’t allow them to make you explain their behavior, often referred to as the Jedi Mind Trick.
If there is any abuse or violence you need to leave. Have a place to go.
Be prepared to hear about your faults in the marriage or relationship that might’ve caused the affair.
Remember that you can’t take back words. Choose them carefully.
Don’t look at this as a confrontation. This is an intervention.
This is not the end of the world.
- Aunt B
And What If They Are Cheating?
“Is this Aunt B?”
“Yes, “ I say, stirring a batch of cookies.
“Do you drive a red Mustang?”
“Yes,” I say again, the mixing has slowed. I’m standing at attention.
“Can you tell your husband to stop sleeping with my wife?”
I drop the utensils, mutter something into the phone I can’t remember, what I do remember is that a storm gathered and rain fell from my eyes while thunder and lightening lept from my mouth and throat.
Betrayal is hard to overcome. Trust is difficult to rebuild. Those things we know. Marriages and relationships can survive this, and when they do, they often come out stronger. This is where you go deep. You have to know what you want in order to get through and how you get through is sometimes one minute, one hour, one day at a time.
Before I confronted my spouse I had to know what I was prepared to do. Was I prepared to leave? Was my financial house in order? After the confrontation did I have a place to go? A safe space in case things went south?
I’d like to say I was calm, I wasn’t.
There are certain ground rules when it comes to confronting a cheating spouse. I’ll talk about them in the next post.
Let’s just start here.
Have your proof.
Think through the possibilities, have a plan.
Know what you want, ask yourself if you are ready to walk away.
If you think your partner is cheating curtail sex. You don’t know if they are playing safe and you don’t want an STD.
Is the internet bad for relationships?
- Aunt B
