Vegan Feast

AND it was gluten-free to boot! How'd the engaged lovebirds, Supermodel and Shug's BBF, handle this feat? Well, first off, they had to invite two of the most awesomest peeps in the universe over for dinner, *ahem* that would be us...don't laugh, we are awesome, ok, maybe not THE awesomest, but we hang out with people that could very well be considered "the -est" on many fronts, the engaged lovebirds, for example.

Then, they had to finish reading a veryimportantbook, Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. Not only has Supermodel touted this as a life-changer, BBF has gone from fast-food carnivore and carnitas taco-stand regular to 90% vegan. Yup, folks, that's no meat, no dairy, no honey, no refined sugar. Sound positively Puritanical? It's not.

The lovebirds made us an amazing dinner complete with gluten-free pasta with an almond cauliflower pesto, broiled tomatoes with a garlicy topping, and (for the glutens) a sauteed mushroom bruschetta that had been rubbed with fresh garlic cloves and olive oil. Vegan chocolate chip cookies rounded out the night.

Is your mouth watering yet?

They whipped this meal up while also preparing their week's worth of dinners. Multi-tasking and planning has allowed them to free themselves of the comforts of a microwave. They use their stove and oven to prepare their food and remain more connected to the process that went into making their delicious, healthy fare. While their move to whole, healthy foods may seem extreme to some, I think it's a conscientious and responsible decision. Take a look at a few of these facts if everyone in the U.S. ate vegetarian, not vegan, for JUST ONE DAY would conserve:

• 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months
• 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year
• 70 million gallons of gas -- enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare
• 3 million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware
• 33 tons of antibiotics kept out of our water supply and environment
  

The very best statistic is this: if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads. How easy it that to start making a difference?

If we aren't ready to go vegan, maybe we can be ready to eat vegetarian just one or two days a week. Shug and I are already trying to reach that goal and honestly we've been compelled to cut the meat and dairy out more...Do you have any ways you've been cutting back and conserving?

*Thanks to huntingforporkchops for the post inspiration and veggie stats here.