Seitan

So, I've cut out animal products for a few weeks now (not long). I've been hearing around the internet about something called seitan (pronounced like "satan," or so I've read). It's the gluten from wheat flour. It's supposed to have a meaty texture and be healthy (provided you have no gluten-related health problems).

I researched how it's made, since it's ridiculously expensive in stores and online. Generally it's done using vital wheat gluten, which is in flour form. That's also very expensive. The cheapest place to find it is online, but then when you tack on the shipping costs, it's about as much as in the store unless you buy in huge quantities.

Where I live, there's no one who sells big bulk items like vital wheat gluten. Ha, no way. And the vital wheat gluten is too expensive for me to buy regularly (I got a little to try, but I'm afraid I'll love it and not be able to afford it anymore - it's the lot in life for a poor grad student). 

Then I looked up how to make it myself. You can do it with wheat flour, aparently, though it seems to be way more work that way. But I cannot find how much seitan, say, a 5 lb bag of wheat flour would produce. If it's like 2 servings, it's so not worth it. If it's more like 10, then it might be worth it. 

So I may be picking up some wheat flour to try that. I need to find someone to talk to about this stuff. No one I know is vegan. I know one vegetarian. Who the heck can I ask about seitan?

I wanted to share a couple things.

First, Michelle Pfieffer has gone vegan! Cool. I always liked her.
http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/04/michelle-pfeiffer-why-i-became-a-vegan/#comment-810944

And second, this video of an auction house's treatment of animals. I haven't even watched the whole thing yet - I started crying to much. I've always had animals growing up, and they were like family (my mother literally called them my siblings), and whenever we'd find a rabbit or dog or anything injured in our backyard, we would do what we could for it. I don't even kill most of the bugs in my apartment. I let them outside (unless it's like, y'know, super poisonous).
http://www.mercyforanimals.org/auction/video.aspx

I'm still on some shaky ground as far as my beliefs and convictions about animal treatment, but I know what's being done in that video is just plain wrong. If you're an atheist, try for some camaraderie with the other living things on the planet; if you have a god, then be respectful of what he put on this earth for us. You don't have to value animals above or equal with humans, but they have a lot of value as living things. That's what I believe.

And now I'll get down from my soapbox. The air gets thin up there sometimes. ;)

And...Go

I'm going to be a touch cliche and start this blog with an explanation and a quote by a famous guy. Bear with me, darling.

“Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.” 

― Henry James

That quote is responsible for the title of this blog. And it's also my explanation of progressing into veganism. When I did some research on how they treat the animals I ate, I was horrified. I sobbed my way through PETA videos and undercover reports of animal cruelty. I don't usually cry - but cruelty takes it out of me in a big way.

I want to be fair with anyone reading this. I don't think it's immoral to eat animals or their byproducts (dairy, etc.). But I believe that if an animal is going to be born, live, and then die for us, we should give them the high level of respect and care that that deserves. We don't do that, no even close. So, basically, I quit the animal foods industry.

I'm starting with major food products. I'm not moving on to other things (clothing, shoes, etc.) yet because this is a big step for me, and I've done it nearly cold tofurkey. I didn't eat much meat anyway, but cutting out dairy was big for me. It's been okay, but there are days I crave eating cheese, yogurt and mayo like a Beverly Hills Housewife craves implanting herself with silicone.

But my conscience was too much for me. So far, it's winning. And I'm new to this world of cruelty-free food, so I'm learning. But I really like what I've found so far.

And I know, a lot of vegans don't count people as vegan unless they consume ZERO animal products ever. I'm working toward doing that, one step at a time. But "vegan" is easier to say than "completely plant-based way of eating," so I may use and slightly abuse the term. 

This is my journey - I haven't hit the destination quite yet.