Meat is For Pussies - the book

I already posted here the first promo videos of John Joseph's new book, Meat is For Pussies, and the release will be on April 15th. Here's the new video:

John Joseph "Meat Is For Pussies" - dropping on April 15th, 2010 from Polygraph Productions on Vimeo.

Well, I'm a huge fan of him and I got in touch with him a couple of months ago and got an interview about the book for my paper zine, Ouspoken. I've been writing and editing this zine in Brazil since 1998 and now it will have its first edition also in English and I couldn't be more excited! I need to find some free time to finish the last details and print it, but it's almost done :)

PS. I am not an organized person, it was hard for me to admit it, but it's true. So, I missed the celebration of the 1st year anniversary of this blog (that was in fact in August of 2009). But I decided to celebrate now, 8 months later and I'm preparing my first give away!

"I'm raising them vegetarian!"

Happy Vegetarian Day!
And GO VEGAN :D


Ice Age 3 - I M Raising Them Vegetarian - Funny bloopers R us

"That's how you become a cro-mag!"

I saw two amazing videos at the blog After The Storm about the new John Joseph's new book "Meat Is For Pussies" and I need to share them with you. For those who don't know hardcore is really important to me and I love Cro-Mags.

It's really cool to see a man with 47 years old that is still on hardcore and that is still vegetarian. If these two things are important to you too, listen to what he has to say:

John Joseph New York City Urban Warfare Cro-Mag Training from Polygraph Productions on Vimeo.

John Joseph on what's really going green from Polygraph Productions on Vimeo.

PS. Franz, my friend, this post is also for you ;-)

Broccoli is the reason

Rice, beans, potato wedge and broccoli

There are some kinds of food that I just started to eat and like after becoming vegan, mainly vegetables. Broccoli is one of those. I really enjoy cook them and love all recipes that have them in.

This week we're having more time to cook and broccoli are in a lot of meals, so I decided to write a little bit about them. And I saw an interesting information about them at Brazil Nut, that I'll translate here: “The infection caused by the bacterium H. Pylori, the leading cause of stomach cancer, can be fought through increased consumption of broccoli, shows a study done in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine with 48 people. After eight weeks, the levels of infection were significantly lower in a group that ingested daily 70g of broccoli sprouts, compared with the volunteers who consumed alfalfa.”

Other benefits: their nutrients include vitamin C, vitamin A, folic acid, calcium and fibre.

Potato, onion and broccoli soup

Try to add broccoli to some of your meals, it's delicious and healthy!

Some amazing vegan recipes with broccoli:

- Pesto Pasta Bake (Lunch Box)

- Sweet and Hot Pepper Tofu - Asian Style (Vegan Appetite)

- Broccoli Tempeh Pizza and Broccoli / Apple / Lentil Quiche (Toffu Party)

- Stir-fry noodles with broccoli (The Post Punk Kitchen)

- Chickpea Cutlets with Mushroom Gravy / Garlic Mashed Potatoes / Roasted Broccoli (What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway)

Em português, as minhas duas favoritas do Brazil Nut: Quiche vegano de brócoli com alho poró e Risoto de brócoli e cogumelos

Enjoy it ;o)

Fruit salad days

I'm pretty sure that I never wrote about fruits here. I like them. I love some of them. I just prefer when food or drinks with fruits come ready because I am a little bit lazy to prepare it. But in this my new life doing nothing all day full of inspiration in the kitchen I started to wrap up more fruity stuff!

So in these last days I'm preparing fruit salads for me and Matteo in the evening. It's a delicious way to eat at the right times (remember, it's always good to eat every 3 hours). One of the fruits that I love are strawberries. They're delicious ever and ever. And here it is easy to find them because of the cold weather. I didn't use all the fruits of this amazing picture that I found in the Internet to make our fruit salads. Just apple, banana and strawberry and it was enough. Well, to Matteo I added sugar and soy cream but I ate just the fruits.

Also with fruits, it is good to pay attention to the colours in your plate to guarantee vitamins. And here we go with some minerals and vitamins the fruits we ate this week have:

Apple: potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, selenium, vitamins A, C, E and folic acid (important during pregnancy).

Banana: potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, selenium, iron, vitamins A, C, B6, E, niacin (B3), pantothenic acid (B5) and folic acid.

Strawberry: potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, selenium, iron, manganese, vitamins A, C and folic acid.

Did you eat any fruit today?

Taking care of you and of the planet

Living in Brazil is a little bit hard to find cosmetics of companies that do not test on animals. It's not impossible but it's not that easy and most of the times when you find an option, it costs more. Now, in Dublin, we have lot of options and it's really great to have the chance to choose and have no need to pay a lot for it.

Some vegetarian/vegan people still use one or another product from companies that test on animals. I am not here to judge anybody, I think that you have to think what you can (or want to) do and do your best, step by step, day by day. But if you have the opportunity to buy cosmetics from the cruelty-free companies you will be doing something great for you, for the animals and for the planet.

Here there are some tips of international companies we buy cosmetics here in Dublin:

* The Body Shop: they have a big list of products that includes body care, body oil, deodorant, body wash, soap, vegan make up brushes, fragrance, nail care, hair care, etc. “We were one of the first to make a stand against animal testing in the cosmetics industry, and through The Body Shop Foundation, we continue to fund organisations campaigning to end the needless suffering of animals.” (The Body Shop values). IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE BODY SHOP (comment of Andrea, thanks again!): "Alert to all: be careful about buying from The Body Shop. I used to buy from them a lot - really like their products - but a few years ago the company was sold to L'Oreal. Yes, THE L'Oreal who TESTS on animals. That generated a lot of complaints at the time and L'Oreal/Body Shop keeps it quiet until this day for obvious reasons. I don't know how much of the Body Shop philosophy has been compromised by this merge, but I don't trust it anymore and therefore don't buy from them."

* Lush Cosmetics: they have the best fragrances ever. Not all the products are vegan (some have honey) but the vegan options are identified and they don't test on animals. They used to have some branches in Brazil but I'm not sure if they're still there.

* Original Source: they're a great British company. Most of the products are vegan (I'm not sure if all the products are, but everything I saw until now is vegan) and they do not test on animals. They work closely to the Vegan Society and the products have the label 'vegan' and also the information 'this product is not tested on animals'. They have bath care, hair care, shower gels and more. The products are awesome and I'm very happy to use them.



Check out the Peta list of international companies that do not test on animals.

Aos amigos brasileiros: confiram a lista da PEA de empresas brasileiras que realizam testes em animais.

Duas dicas de marcas brasileiras que não fazem testes em animais e que lembrei depois de escrever o post (que estava usando em BH antes de me mudar):

* Éh Cosméticos: ótima opção de produtos para o cabelo. Se não me engano, os produtos trazem a informação de que a empresa não realiza testes em animais.

* Ecologie: oferece produtos para os cabelos, corpo e rosto (femininos e masculinos). Informam no site e nos produtos que não realizam testes em animais e que também não utilizam "matérias-primas proveniente de sacrifícios de animais, solicitando de nossos fornecedores garantia dos mesmos". No site também há algumas dicas de consciência ecológica (trocar o plástico por outros materiais, reciclar o lixo, etc).


IMPORTATE: pela primeira vez o veganismo está em pauta no Senado brasileiro. O senador Expedito Junior é o responsável pelo projeto de lei que propõe que as etiquetas dos produtos (alimentos e roupas) contenham informações clara sobre a presença ou não de ingredientes de origem animal. Na Europa e nos EUA trata-se de uma prática comum, assim como a informação de que a empresa não faz teste em animais, mas no Brasil é raro que isso aconteça. Apóie essa iniciativa, clicando na imagem que está do lado direito, logo abaixo da frase "Veganismo em pauta no Senado".

(Thanks Andrea, from Brazil Nut, for the list links!)

Choose to walk or to go by bicycle

I don't like to do some things, as everybody. And one thing that I don't like and wasn't used do to is to walk when I have to go out. I was used to take how many bus it was necessary to go everywhere and after I got a car, just use it. But I know it is not the best choice when you think about the planet, about live in a better world. And as I always try to remind here, being vegan is also to care about a better world.

So I decided to try to reduce the use of my car when I was still living in Belo Horizonte. It's not easy because it's a city in the middle of the mountains, so it's not that good to go to some places walking. But I started with small distances. And after coming to Europe I am doing it more often. In Italy, Matteo's family lives in a small town, so everybody is used to walk or use the bike. And there I started to ride a bike too. It works to me just because it is a small city, I'm afraid to ride a bike in big cities (even knowing that it's safe here because everybody respects pedestrians and cyclists). Well, I'll try it here in Dublin some day in the future because I really enjoyed to ride a bike again after so many years.


After moving to Dublin, I started to walk again. Dublin is a flat city and our house is close to the city centre. Fifteen, twenty minutes walking. I have to confess that to me it is still a long distance. But it's worth it. Now we know that there is a bus with a stop close to here that take us to the city centre too, but we try to keep walking. And as I can see, most of the people here do the same every day. We can see a lot of people walking or riding a bike to go to and come back from work. It's something cultural too. In many cities of Europe people do that. And the most important, drivers respect them. Regardless of laws, is also a matter of education.


It's awesome to see this habit here. It is healthy and environmentally sustainable. And it is easy to do. Everybody can try it. If not riding a bike, walking. Good for you, better for the planet.

All about... colours!

It's usual to read that a healthy and balanced diet can be noticed by the colours in a plate. We always try to cook different vegetables here to make our meal full of colours. Try to consume, every day, at least one dish with these different colours: red, yellow and orange, purple and dark blue, green and brown. It's not that easy but you can get better day after day.


Here some example of food by colours:

Red: tomato, red pepper, watermelon, cherry, raspberry, blackberry, papaya, guava.

Yellow and orange: carrot, mango, orange, pumpkin, peach, corn, apricot, banana.

Purple and dark blue: grapes, plum, figs, beets, eggplant, cabbage.

Green: leafy vegetables, broccoli, green pepper, spinach, parsley, herbs, asparagus.

Brown: Nuts, oats, whole grains.

To me the hardest food colours are purple and dark blue because I really don't like some of them. I like grapes, but my husband hates them. The only one I learnt to like in the last years is eggplant. But I can't eat figs or beets. I remember that in Brazil I used to eat beets cooked with beans, but it's not good anyway...

And about you, how many colours has your plate?

My way to eat salads

Most of the people thinks that all vegan and vegetarian people love salads. And it is not like that. Some do, others don't. I grew up without eating a lot of vegetables. My family hadn't this habit. We used to eat vegetables like potatoes, carrots, broccoli, just cooked with other food, never in cold and traditional salads. So I just started to try to eat salads after becoming vegan. So when someone asks me "But does vegan people just eat lettuce?", you can imagine my face (and answer)... I think even after becoming vegan, I could count the days in my life I have eaten salad.

I am definitely not the kind of person that asks for salad in a restaurant. I just do that when I really have no other option. So, you may be asking, what do you eat? The rest of the food! I love all kind of pasta, risotto, lasagne, rice and beans, everything cooked with potatoes, salted pies... and the list goes on.

But my life is changing. In November I decided to start a diet. I won some extra weigh after turning on the 30s and it's time to say goodbye to them. So I talked with one of my best friends, Clarissa, who is vegan and is almost a nutritionist. And the first part of this diet is about change some habits to have a healthier and more balanced diet. Yes, I still can be healthier! So she asked me to start eat more vegetables, with salads, not with the food. So I did it. It's not that easy and it's not that good too. But I am eating green salad and tomatoes every single day.

These last days, I decided to add some fried red tofu to the salad. I know that everything fried is good but not healthy. But you don't need to use oil to fry the food. Just let it in the pan for some minutes (around 8) and it will taste a lot better. So this is the (best) way I figured out to eat salad! Yesterday I did the same with vegan sausages. I know I won't do it every day, but it's helping a lot to keep the new (and good) habit.


And the other great option is eating tomatoes and lettuce with the sandwiches at night! This is really amazing. Vegan cheeseburger is better like that. You know, we don't eat food at night, just have a meal with sandwiches (the opposite of Irish people that eat sandwiches at lunch time and food at night).



I can say that I am starting to enjoy the salads and I'll try more options. This is an habit that I will keep (we'll keep because my husband is eating too)! Thanks, Clarissa, for the great job. I am doing my best here!