Some Thoughts on Baking Vegan

Here's a post from Morgan!

For me one of the hardest hurdles to overcome with becoming vegan is how to replace my desserts. I can do a lot of things when it comes to eating vegan meals because it is actually not that different from eating as a vegetarian but baking is always a challenge. There are several reasons for this for me personally, namely that I am a self-proclaimed “stress-baker.” It is exactly what it sounds like, whenever there is something going on in my life that I can’t cope with in my usual head-on manner I bake, a lot. Often to the enjoyment of my friends, family and co-workers, I also bake in great quantities. Unless you were raised by vegan parents (which I certainly wasn’t), you tend to understand baking as something that should include things like milk, eggs and butter. Normally one would think that my stress-baking would come in handy with finding vegan recipes for things like cookies, and brownies, and cakes…you get the picture. The problem is that I have found on various occasions that vegan baking is not always the same as the kind I grew up with and tends to taste like paste. This is a problem because I cannot eat great quantities of paste by myself and I refuse to feed it to anyone else (that would be cruel). I am not someone with a great deal of spare time but hopefully if anyone faces the same problem as me the trial and error experiment I am planning to embark on will be of some help. Basically I will be reviewing vegan baking recipes through trial and error whenever I get the chance and posting the results.

`I haven’t put a lot of research into this so far but I have found one recipe for brownies that is amazing. To see the original go to: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6640.0 but I have made some alterations to it based on personal preference and included some extra info in brackets that hopefully some will find helpful.

Ingredients

1. 2 cups flour
2. 1 cup water
3. 1 cup brown sugar
4. 1 cup granulated sugar
5. 1 teaspoon salt
6. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
7. 3/4 cup baking cocoa
8. 1/2 cup vegetable oil
9. 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
10. 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
11. 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat to 350°F and grease 11x7” pan (does not have to be this size, my 8x8” works fine, as long as it is similar in size it will work). For those who don’t know what works as vegan pan grease see note at the end. Boil water and ½ c of the flour over low heat and stir to remove any lumps of flour. The original says to just let it form a thin paste but I let it thicken and to me it tastes better so I will let you be your own judge of how thick you want your binding agent to be. (It also says to let it cool, it is not cool by the time I have to add it but that doesn’t make a difference). In a separate bowl mix ingredients 3-8. Add the flour and water mixture and stir it in. Add the rest of the flour and the baking powder and whatever optional ingredients you like (½ c is a recommendation as long as the combined mixture of your extras doesn’t exceed 1c it will still be a brownie, don’t turn it into a chocolate binding agent for various sugary junk). Put it in a pan and bake for 25ish minutes. Baking time varies depending on how hot your oven gets so just insert a knife at the 20 min mark and if it comes out clean it is ready, if not then try again for another 5 min etc. The consistency of your flour-water paste will also determine how hard it is to get the final mixture to fit in the pan like a brownie but that’s what spatulas are for!

Note: if you don’t already bake with spray-on pan grease you can try that. I have never used it so I can’t offer any insight as to how effective it is. What I do is take a piece of paper towel and cover the top of my vegetable oil with it, turn the whole unit upside-down for a second and then use the oily paper to grease the pan. If you find this solution odd try it before you knock it. 

I have come to the conclusion that this recipe is all sorts of fantastic because it is so forgiving of my style of baking, and probably various others. Also…there is an amazing chocolate goop that goes really well with this but I am currently lacking the recipe for it. I will pester until I get it so that should appear on the next post.

Gettin' Goin'!

Hey gang!
Well, we've had a couple meetings, got to know our new [active] members and made some plans for the year!
Any Calgarian who wants to be contribute to our efforts against ignorance and apathy send us an email safamru@gmail.com, let's meet!
We will post on upcoming events as they draw nearer! Those who are interested in The 2 week Veg*n Challenge (omni? go Veg! Veg? go Vegan? Vegan? find a unique way to examine your collusion with Meat, we'll help!), listen for word sometime in November!

Peace, Love and Tofu
Ben

New Semester!

Hello all!
The fall semester has begun, so let's get together and figure out what SAFA wants to do this year!
An email will be sent out shortly to SAFAites, but if you're not on our mailing list and wish to be, email safamru@gmail.com!

Peace, Love and Tofu,
SAFA

Learnin' don't stop.

Vegetarian/Vegan Challenge Literature!

Hello all! As promised on the Facebook page for the Challenge, here's some of the literature we distributed yesterday on campus!

This pamphlet was made by a member: (Thanks Morgan!)

 

We also distributed a couple abridged versions (thanks Alex!) of these pamphlets from Vegan Outreach:

"Why Vegan?"

"Even if You Like Meat You Can Help End This Cruelty."

We also had some other pamphlets describing factory farm conditions, the Vegetarian/Vegan argument and nutrition, but I can't seem to find links to them! They will be posted when possible!

We also distributed text-only hand-bills:

 Each of the three above had this on the back:

So that's what we were distributing (of course using any opportunity to talk about the issues). Comments and any suggestions for improvements are encouraged!

Vegetarian Challenge! Vegan Challenge!

Hello all!
So, we've finalised most of the details for our first Vegetarian/Vegan challenge!
We'll be promoting the challenge at the school on Wednesday, by the West Gate entrance to the main building, right by the Wyckham House connector! The challenge will officially begin on Monday, May 2nd (after paper and exams), with a kick off b-b-q/potluck/party on Friday, April 29th.

We will be encouraging students, family, friends and strangers to pledge to go Vegetarian or Vegan for two weeks, hopefully helping omnivores examine their consumption choices from a safe distance.
Vegetarianism and Veganism are often misunderstood, and we hope that participants will come to see the rich variety, taste, and healthiness of a Veg*n diet, instead of viewing it as inconvenient or restrictive. It is our belief that it is often difficult to see the forest from the trees, and similarly to how one shouldn't argue with an omnivore while they're chewing on steak, we hope some of the participants will find and nurture some insights on the arbitrarity of a Meat-centred diet as they experience more compassionate, healthier, and less environmentally destructive alternatives! 

...And, if I may, if you're unsure about the ethics of eating flesh cut from animals raised in abhorrent conditions, and killed in a state of terror (usually before the skin/feathers is/are removed from them) simply for your own dining pleasure, why would you continue your complicity while you make up your mind? In this case, it seems more reasonable to err on the side of caution--if indeed you decide Veg*nism is erroneous.

Over the course of the challenge, SAFA will provide recipes, nutritional information, sample meal plans, ideas for eating out, and, of course, food for thought. I hope that the frankness of some of our literature (this post included) will not scare you away, we are not judging or looking down on people, it's ideologies we strive to challenge. The vast majority of Veg*ns were once omnivores: we know the invisible trappings of the hegemonies of Meat consumption!

You are stronger than all the cheeseburgers, pork-chops and chicken nuggets in the world! You can do it!

To sign up, email your pledge (nothing fancy) to safmru@gmail.com, "attend" our Facebook event (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=206332676053250 or search for "SAFA presents: Vegetarian/Vegan Challenge"), or talk to one of our members! We will make sure you get our support!

Some thoughts on Veg*nism and identity.

Hello all! In this post I mean to explore some thoughts, by no means "finalised" or complete, on some of the less discussed aspects of our choices to oppose cruelty. I'm oversimplifying and leaving a lot of my thoughts out for the sake of readability, so comments, correspondence or, better yet, face to face discussion is encouraged! Come to a meeting, a pot-luck or email safamru@gmail.com to see about meeting up with one of us! I'll be using the term "compassionate consumerism" as an umbrella for Veganism, Vegetarianism or ethically slanted omnivorism! One last thing, I choose to capitalise Vegan and Vegetarian, but not the different terms I use for omnivorous approaches, not because I'm trying to imply Veg*nism is better, but because of issues regarding their use as a banner, which I hope will become clear in this post. When I capitalise "meat," it is to denote not it's specific incarnations (a steak, a roast chicken) but the social phenomenon that is Meat. For example, meat-eating refers to eating animals' flesh, Meat-consuming refers to the physical act of eating the flesh as well as the mental consumption of ideologies of Meat.

So lately I've been thinking a lot about what keeps me Vegan. Part of this has included thinking about societal perceptions of animal rights advocates and where they stem from. As any compassionate consumer knows, it's extremely complicated, as never is there a central position from which to understand it. We call ourselves Vegan or Vegetarian or ethical eaters, but even as we do so, we are aware that we are just humans making choices. We are humans who see the violence and suffering that is inextricably connected to the meals we watch our fellow humans eat every day. Each of us has a different relationship with "the cause," and is susceptible to a different degree to the pressures of the hegemony (or hegemonies) that enable and enforce the perpetuation of what among some people I call the meat industry, and among others mass murder. All humans, in all endeavours, must negotiate and renegotiate some degree of balance, unique to any given situation, between factors too numerous to notice and consider--whether we recognise it or not. And when we consider that even what we refer to as factors are not the discreet, finite things their handle implies, things get even more complicated.

So what makes me a Vegan? The word is at once a descriptor of an overarching dietary schema, a name for a strict set of "rules" and a political tool, among other things. In some mays, it might be more accurate to say "I am not really a vegan, I am a human who does his best to avoid participating in the practices of Meat production." But Vegan is more than a descriptor. I am a Vegan not simply because I don't like meat (or Meat) but because I want to actively oppose its existence as food: by reminding people there are those who think otherwise; by implicitly stating my kinship with these other like-minded people; and by calling on the knowledge, that I believe most have-- that killing and torture are wrong, that there are accessible and realistic alternatives -- that bobs just under the surface of a great many of my interactions with omnivores.

When I first "went Vegetarian," I insisted on downplaying the political and moral nature of my choice. "It's a personal choice for me," I remember saying on many occasions, and even colluded in the chiding of "self-righteous" Vegetarians. I have since come to see this as a reaction against the defensiveness that Meat-consumers often (and Veg*ns know I mean very often) display in the face of the inevitable moral challenge our choices imply. I was afarid of not being liked, of being called self-righteous, of being too individualistic. I wanted, initially, to distance myself from the perceptions of Vegetarians that I shared with those whose judgement I feared. I was afraid to commit myself to my own deeply held beliefs.

And there lies the understanding I wish to share today: I was afraid of committing my self. The self is important to all of us, as I think it should be to some degree. I think the great majority of our actions and beliefs exist within us both for the pleasure or necessity we perceive as the cause of their existence and for the role they play in defining our individual selves, for ourselves and for others. I have seen underneath and in between the words of friends and strangers that reaching, those clinging attempts to define themselves--as I have seen them reflecting on my own thoughts, words and actions. Compassionate consumption is far from immune to this: perhaps because it is situated as an oppositional identity, Veg*nism is especially vulnerable to definition. A Vegetarian or a Vegan has an awareness of how their choices are perceived, and thus cannot help but struggle to define themselves against a backdrop of pre-existing conceptions of what they are, be that struggle conscious or unconscious.

For some of us, it is easier than it is for others. We all know ex-Vegetarians, or people who are interested in aligning their consumption choices with their morals, but have not. I'm not suggesting that these people "failed," or are failing, but I think what this can help to show us is that there is a certain separation that often exists between our morals (what we want to truly believe in, to different degrees and in different situations, which often come as pre-existing packages) and our values (what we do believe in, what presently governs our reactions and stances to and against things, despite the little differences about us in different settings). I know people who despise oppression, and are sharp enough to spot it hidden under the most elaborate disguises, until you bring up Meat. I know people who will go to great lengths to decrease their "carbon footprint," short of addressing their collusion with the grossly inefficient, deforesting and pollution creating meat industries. I know people who get outraged at the idea of veal, yet can't imagine life without fancy cheeses. From my experience, when you challenge someone's identity (as a person committed to ending oppression, as an environmentalist, as a connoisseur or chef of "fine" foods, as a cynic who won't brook the idea of making positive change) critical thinking often slips out for a break, and unconscious defensiveness fills in the gap.

We can often see how wrong something is, or we can come to the conclusion through logic, or simply believe what we hear, but until we feel what we know, we cannot be our choices in anything but a functional sense. Many of us know Veg*ns who seem much more interested in their image as a Vegetarian or Vegan than the animals their cause is supposedly concerned with. Conversely, we may know people who seem as though their values align them with Veg*nism, but don't want to "put themselves in a box." Both of these situations describe allies, and I don't mean to criticise people, especially on anything like a personal level. But thinking about this lately has led me to believe that there is a very important key to "success" as a long term advocate of animals. If we haven't already--yet we "know" it's the right thing to do--we need to foster a deep-seated, internalised commitment to ending the suffering of animals at the hands of humans, on an individual level with our selves.

I think that the obviousness of this statement is what makes it so difficult to accomplish. Things that we hear often enough, we often don't think about as deeply as the things that we come up with on our own (there's that self again!). Every ex-Vegetarian hurts our collective cause, as does every flaky Vegetarian. I'm not trying to get up in anyone's grill, and I'm trying (and in my opinion, succeeding) to not judge anyone as a whole person, but I think I'm describing some of the necessary background work that is so seldom discussed. So, do our non-human friends a favour, and take a hard look at your own role in their oppression, and how you can negotiate it within yourself. Do it: you can.