ARZone Podcast

Well hello there! 

Just thought I'd let you all know that I'm on the most recent ARZone podcast. 

Carolyn Bailey and Tim Gier asked me some really great questions about my essay in Confronting Animal Exploitation and about vegan parenting in general. I also give a really long answer to "The Ronnie Question," which basically lays out my entire vegan history. 

This is the second podcast I've been on now, and I actually quite enjoy it. I'm amazed again at how coherent and knowledgable I sound. Sure, I'd change some things if I could. But for the most part, I'm happy with how it turned out. It shouldn't go without saying that Tim's editing skills likely have a lot to do with how pleased I am at the result. 

So click here and then choose a way to listen to it. And let me know what you think! 

Also, if you've read my essay in Confronting Animal Exploitation, I'd love to hear any feedback you have. I'm so used to the internet where people can tell me if they like or dislike what I've written right after reading it. It feels odd to have put such a substantial piece of work out there and for people to have no direct and immediate way to let me know what they think of it. So humor me if you can, m'kay? 

Until next time...

Midwest Vegan Radio

Anna and I were interviewed for the most recent episode of the podcast, Midwest Vegan Radio. In it, Anna talks about being a five-year-old vegan and I talk about being a vegan father.

You can listen online here.

The episode is also listenable on Vegan Mainstream.

Or you can download as a podcast on iTunes here (that link will open iTunes for you).

You can visit the MVR blog here (you can also donate to the podcast while you're there ... because podcasts aren't actually free, folks).

And 'like' MVR on Facebook here.

So yeah. Give the podcast a listen. I'm super happy with out it turned out. I don't come off like an asshole, I can understand most of what I say, and I make some points that I think are worth making. Feels like a 'win' to me.

Thanks a ton to Dallas and Ryan for asking Anna and me to come on the show. Anna enjoyed it as much as I did, I think.

And if you haven't listened to MVR, I suggest checking out some (actually, all) of the old episodes. It's great.

Minnesota Parent Article

Greetings to anyone coming here after reading the story in Minnesota Parent about raising vegan kids and the vegan parenting group, VegKins! Welcome to my sporadically updated blog. Feel free to have a look around. A few of my favorite posts are here:

Stats: a post about the health of my children.

Cat on the Playground: on Anna's reaction to kids chasing a cat on the playground.

Flabbergasted: about Anna's reaction upon hearing that a lot of people care about dogs and cats, but not other animals.

My Daughter the Monkey Eater: on pretending to eat animals.

We're All Made of Meat: on explaining what "meat" is to Anna.

Happy Feet: a review of the movie.

This is Not a Post About Milo & Otis: on Anna trying to understand others who aren't vegan.

The Life I Did Save: about a squirrel I brought into a rehabilitation center.

Anna's First Correction of "It"

And just for the hell of it, here's Anna singing a medley of tunes from Annie at a talent show. And here's Liam doing the same ... but not at a talent show. 

Please feel free to post a comment here or send me an email if you have any questions at all about being vegan or transitioning to being vegan. I'm more than willing to answer any and all questions you have. Even the stupid ones (kidding!). 

Now that I think of it, I should tell you that if you think you want to go vegan, you should check out Vegan University, which helps people transition to being vegan. We do mentorship (I'm a mentor), vegan shopping tours and workshops. And we're on Facebook, if you want to like us so you can get tips, tricks and reasons to be vegan dumped straight into your news feed. 

Activism of the Waffle and Educational Kind

The Global Vegan Waffle Party is nearly upon us. The Animal Rights Coalition is putting it on again this year, and if it's anything like it was last year, it'll be awesome.

The event will take place from 10-12 at Fuller Park on 48th St. and Grand Ave. (indoors at the little rec center there) in Minneapolis. The Facebook invite for the par-tay is here.

But maybe you don't live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Check out the Global Vegan Waffle Party page here to see a list of parties across the world.

And check out this collage they have on their site:

Anna's there in the far upper right corner. She is now famous.

I'm of the mind that having community pot-lucks and parties like this are a great way to open people up to delicious food that doesn't involve the oppression of other animals. It's a legitimate form of activism.

Events like this also foster community within the animal rights movement, which I think is important. Almost all of us want to belong to a community of some sort. The reason for that (at least in this instance) is not to insulate ourselves from the outside world, but instead to get our bearings, get refreshed, share ideas and commune with those who have, in their own time and way, come to view the world as we have. It's not essential, but it's damn close.

---

Speaking of the Animal Rights Coalition, I've been volunteering for them for a while now and I keep meaning to write about how I came to do that, but never get around with it. I won't it in this post, either. But soon...

---

After the waffle party, I'm co-facilitating a workshop called Help! I'm going vegan! with Dallas Rising, ARC's program director. We've done this once before and it went really well.

So now we're doing it again as part of ARC's Vegan University program, which includes these workshops, grocery tours and ongoing mentorship for new vegans and people who are transitioning to veganism.

Cool logo, huh? 'Like' the Vegan University page here if you've been wanting to find the vegan you.

The workshop will be on May 28th from 1-3 at Ethique Nouveau, ARC's store where all proceeds from sales go directly into their animal advocacy programs.

Anyway, this is the type of volunteering that I simply adore: Helping people go vegan. If I could do nothing but this all day (when I'm not taking care of my kids and cooking, going out with my wife, etc.) I totally would.

The Life I Did Save

I saved a squirrel today.

Well, I don't know for sure that I saved him. He may have lived without my help, but it didn't look like things were going that way. And I'm not sure of the gender, but in my head the squirrel is a "him," so that's what I'm going with until I find out differently.

Anna carpools to school with our neighbor. It was their turn to drive, so I watched Anna as she crossed the street, but then I looked down toward my neighbor's house and there they were, Anna's friend and her mom, standing on the street with a cat and a squirrel.

It's important to note that the squirrels in the Twin Cities are not fans of humans. When my wife and I were in San Francisco, at Golden Gate Park, squirrels walked right up to us, stood on their hind legs and basically begged for food. I assume it's like that in some other metropolitan areas as well. But not in the TC. Squirrels cannot run fast enough from humans. If I look in my backyard in the summer, I'll usually see a couple squirrels running around, but when I go out there with the kids, they are nowhere to be seen. So it's a big deal that this squirrel was just walking slowly around two humans on the road.

I walked over there with Anna and checked it out. The cat was just following the squirrel around. Not swatting at him or trying to eat him, as far as I could tell. She was just watching, probably weirded out as we were by the fact that he wasn't running away.

The squirrel seemed to be limping a bit, and after a while we noticed that his hands (or at least one of them) were swollen and red and he had a large lump on his back. Anna and her friend got really close to him and I was worried about rabies, what with our bat experience in the fall. (Holy crap! I forgot to write about our bat experience! I should totally do that.) I suggested they stay a bit further away, but I couldn't blame them for wanting to get close. He was cute and squirrels always run away. Hell, I even wanted to pet the little guy. But instead I ran to my house, got our recycling bin and a piece of an apple. (Do squirrels eat apples? I don't know.)

I was sort of expecting him to run away from me when I approached, but he just sat in the middle of the road and didn't move a muscle. I put the bin on its side on the road and asked him nicely to get in. He didn't. So I moved it right up to him and gave him a gentle pat on the butt with my boot. He crawled in and cowered in the corner. He didn't make an attempt to climb out or anything.

The cat watched all of this from the side of the road.

I brought him into my porch and gave him a little piece of bread, just in case he wanted some carbs. He just huddled in the corner of the bin, scared shitless.

He almost didn't even look like a squirrel to me, he was so still. I went inside and called the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. They said to bring him in, so I did.

On the way there, I kept glancing in the rearview mirror at the recycling bin, scared of two things happening:

1. The squirrel dies en route.
2. The squirrel, refreshed by the heat in the vehicle, jumps out of the recycling bin and starts tearing shit up.

Luckily, neither of these happened. I brought him into the WRC, they said they'd take a look at him. While I was there a woman came in with a box. "Squirrel?" I asked. "Duck," she said. I filled out a form and left.

Here's how I felt: Heroic.

You'll hear vegans say they save lives just by being vegan, but that's not really accurate. We reduce demand, but that doesn't mean there are animals on farms who won't be killed because of someone's vegan choices. Instead, the reduction in demand that vegans create would ideally cause a lessening in demand, thus lessening the amount of animals bought into existence for the sole purpose of being used as a resource. Unfortunately, animal consumption is still on the rise, so the 1% or so of the US population who are vegan don't actually create a net reduction in animals brought into existence for the sole purpose of being used as a resource. It's less of more of the same, instead of less of an equal amount of the same.

I don't feel, on a day to day basis, like I'm saving lives. And I'm not. So bringing this squirrel in has created a much different feeling in me. I'd imagine it's similar to what those involved in open rescues feel when they free animals from farms. "You were going to suffer and die, but because of my actions, you have a much better chance at living a longer life with less suffering."

It's gratifying and alluring. I also feel that it's also sort of ... I don't know. If we're serious about respecting animal interests, then I think the best thing we could do right now is to challenge speciesism on a daily basis with our every-day actions. If we want to built a serious movement, then we need to show that a life without animal exploitation is possible and help people to take the view that animals are moral persons to whom we have obligations, chiefly among them the obligation to not use them as as resources.

This is not to say open rescues and wildlife rehabilitation aren't important. Indeed, to the lives they save, they are the most important thing (since they result in the lessening of suffering and the continuation of life). I guess I'm just trying to say that as long as we live in a society which so routinely devalues non-human animals and treats them as things instead of beings, we probably need to place most of our focus on educating others that, as Joanna Lucas from Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary (an organization that saves lives and educates the public on veganism) has said, "The value of a sentient life is not measured in its utility to others, but in its immense, irreplaceable value to the being whose life it is."

Another angle of thought that this all brings up: I've had a problem in the past with fully supporting wildlife rehabilitation. There's a part of me which thinks that if a wild (or to use a term more accurate: free living) animal is harmed, then that's just part of the life cycle and some predator somewhere will be better off for it. I have felt that by interfering, even to save these animals, we potentially harm ecosystems.

But those thoughts sort of flew out the window when I saw this little squirrel who was obviously injured. I just wanted him to be OK.

I brought this point up to one of the people at the WRC and asked her how she felt about it. She said that there are cases where it's obvious that we shouldn't interfere. She said someone once brought in a mouse that she saved from a hawk who was attacking him/her. But, she said, when a rabbit is hit by a car, or a squirrel is injured by a cat (which may well have been the case with the squirrel I brought in), the injury is due to our interference. By trying to save these animals, we're negating a very small portion of harmful effects our presence has already created.

Because we kill squirrels all the time. About four years ago I ran over one with my car. I can still feel the crunch of his bones. Last year a squirrel died after falling into our chimney. I still remember the smell of death when a nice man came out to remove the carcass (we found out about it because we heard a grinding noise when we turned on our furnace ... and yes, I've since wrapped chicken wire around our chimney). We're responsible for so much unintentional harm to animals. When we have the opportunity to save one of those animals, even when we don't know how they arrived at the injured state they're in, I say go for it. 

I'm even thinking of keeping a box in my car in case I come across any more injured free-living non-human animals. 

And in case you're wondering, I'll post an update on the blog once I find out how the squirrel is doing. I hope to know next week. 

My Last Name

Nowatzki. That's my last name.

If you're a close reader of this blog, you may have come across my last name before (not that you'd remember or care). A couple of the things I've linked to in the past (the essay I read on Minnesota Public Radio and a story about blogging stay-at-home dads in the St. Paul Pioneer Press) have included my last name. But that's about it.

I've been reluctant to put my last name out there, for some reason. There's a vague notion about the need to maintain privacy that I've been clinging to and I'm not sure why. I suppose part of it has to do with the fact that this blog isn't just about me, it's about my family. It's one thing for me to make the choice to put my life out there for all to see, but to make that choice for my kids is ... another thing.

But parents make choices for their kids all the time.

I think another reason I haven't come out with my last name is that I've wanted to keep my personal life separate from my vegan activist life. This doesn't seem practical to me anymore, but it did when I started this blog.

These Little Piggies Had Tofu is my vegan activism. Sure, it's a blog about my family and not every post is about veganism, but the original intent of the blog (and one that I keep in mind every time I write a post) was to show that here's my vegan family and we're all healthy and happy and here are some things that we deal with and conversations we have as a result of being vegan.

So yes, Al Nowatzki. That's me. Google it, sure. You'll find my photography site, a neglected MySpace page, some crappy columns from my college newspaper days and some other stuff. Seriously, don't google me. It's mostly crap.

Anyway, I'm on Facebook and Twitter.

Here's me on Facebook:

Al Nowatzki

Create Your Badge

If you read this blog regularly then I'd love to be your friend on Facebook if you'll have me. Just add a short note to the friend request to let me know who you are.

And I'm on Twitter, too, as Al_Nowatzki. I don't tweet that much, but I could see that changing soon.

All of what you just read was meant to be a lead-in to an actual topic, but I think I'll just stop typing now and leave it at that.

Veggie Nugget #32

"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted."

-Bertrand Russell

I came across this quote over at Dan Cudahy's excellent blog Unpopular Vegan Essays, in his post On Chance, Choice, and Character.

And, by the way, I have shared that post via Google Reader.

Just in case you haven't noticed, there's a box in the upper right of this blog which contains items I've recently shared. These are other peoples' blog posts that I think are great. Not whole blogs, just individual posts.

Feel free to take a look every once in a while. You can also view my Shared Items page here, and, if you're feeling so bold, subscribe to the feed in your reader.

One more thought: I firmly believe the above quote should be applied across the board. I've been vegan long enough that it's something I take for granted now. It helps to occasionally question the foundations upon which my veganism rests. It's a good exercise. One that I think we should apply to every aspect of our lives.

This doesn't have to mean constant questioning of ourselves, of course. I think that's why Russell chose to include "now and then" in his statement. Constant self-questioning would drive anyone crazy. Even philosophers.

To the Future!

These Little Piggies Had Tofu has slipped into stagnation. A spurting feed of photos of my adorable, adorable kids.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure you all love my adorable kids. But it's not what I envisioned when I started this blog.

Part of the stagnation is due to the simple fact of having two kids. Part of it is because of the time-suck that is Facebook.

So here are the changes that I'm making. Anna Wednesday and Friday Liam are going to become Anna First Wednesday (to be published on the first Wednesday of each month) and Last Friday Liam (on the last Friday of the month).

This will hopefully prompt me to write more substantive posts and not rely on the twice-weekly photos of my adorable, adorable kids. I want to post more recipes, photos of food, animal rights-based arguments and thoughts, and stories about raising my kids vegan.

My 2010 resolution is to get back to a quality over quantity mindset. This means less overall posts, but more posts of substance.

I'm also, in the near future, going to create a fan page for the blog over on Facebook. All the cool kids are doing it.

I am also open to suggestions for topics. What do you, dear reader, want me to write about? Anything about vegan parenting you've always wanted to know? Is there an argument for or against veganism that you'd like to see addressed? Hit me up. I'm pretty insightful when I want to be.

That is all. Here's hoping you all have a happy 2010!

Uber

Hase over at Vegan Macht Glucklich gave me this award:


I'm flattered. And I'm positive that her blog is awesome, but I can't read German. I took a year of it back in high school, but I've lost almost all of it. Danke, Hase. (I remember that much, at least.)

I'm passing the award on to Half Pint Pixie, whose blog is consistently informing, entertaining and engaging. She's vegan, a proponent and practitioner of attachment parenting, and Irish. She was one of the first vegan blogs I started reading and probably one the first people to read my blog (thanks to the Vegan Freak forums).

So, depending on what language you speak, there are two more blogs you should read.

The Shorn Identity

When Anna was three months old I quit my job to stay home with her. That was two years and three months ago. I started growing my beard the day I quit my job.

I never let it get to long. It got shaggy now and then, but 5 minutes with a scissors and a razor took care of that.

It looked pretty good from the front.


But it never really did fill in.


And from certain angles it just looked plain creepy.


Seriously, isn't that the grossest photo you've ever seen?

And now Liam is due to arrive soon and I've gone and shaved it all off.


It's my birthday present to him. You gotta figure a newborn, someone who has known nothing except for the smoothness and fluidity of the uterus for these last nine months, would probably rather not have a scratchy hairy face kissing his cheeks over and over again.

I brought Anna to the bathroom with me and let her watch me shave it off. She was pretty freaked out, but not in a scared way, just in a "I've never seen this man in my life" way. She got used to it pretty quickly. I let her put lotion on the places where hair used to be.

Today I'm watching a couple friends' one year old and Anna told her, "Look at daddy, Ella! It looks funny! Daddy's face is funny!"

I said, "Daddy's face is going to be like this for a long time, Anna. You'd better get used to it."

"Yeah," she said, "Liam will like it."

I don't know if I'll grow the hair back again. I do know that I miss it already. I've forgotten what my face looked like without hair, and I have to say I like it better with. I feel significantly less cool without the beard. Not that being cool is something I tend to concern myself with ... usually.

But it also feels really nice to be able to wash my whole face now and not have to scrub my beard. And kissing my wife, daughter (and soon-to-be son) is ten times better without hair.

So, happy early birthday Liam, from your uncool dad.

7 Things You Probably Didn't Want To Know

Things have been busy here and dammit if I just forget to blog for weeks at a time. Luckily, Liz at Food Snobbery Is My Hobbery has tagged me yet again. Thanks Liz!

Rules:
Link the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links.
Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. Ever since I was in high school I started thinking that I would die in a car crash before I was 30. This was probably because I didn't feel comfortable driving in any town that had a stop light. Since then, I've become a pretty good driver. At any rate, the odds of this actually happening are, of course, decreasing with every passing day. And this January the odds will drop all the way down to zero. That's right. I'm turning 30 in January. I suppose that could have been a point in itself, but the car crash thing was more interesting.

2. I cannot go to sleep in an unmade bed. Ask my wife. She used to laugh at me when I'd make the bed right before we got in it. That laughter eventually turned into a groan and now it's more of a silent spite. Especially when she goes to bed first and is asleep or nearly asleep when I come to bed. Yeah ... I'm sort of an ass. I've also slept in the same pair of shorts for about three years now and refuse to wear anything more, no matter how cold it gets. Before my current pair of pajama shorts, I had worn a previous pair for roughly 7 years before the elastic essentially disintegrated.

Am I actually admitting to these things?

3. I bite my fingernails. I have ever since this one day at a football game. I think I was in sixth grade and this kid and his brother (one and two years younger than me) asked me if I bit my fingernails. I said no. They said it was fun to do and then showed me how to do it. So I started doing it. And here I sit, eighteen years later, biding my time for just the right moment to exact my revenge on them.

4. I've never lived in an apartment. I moved from home to a dorm to the main level of a house that I rented with friends during the post-dorm college years, then to a basement in Saint Paul and then we moved into our house. I wonder sometimes what it's like to live in an apartment. I sometimes wish I had that experience under my belt. But for the most part I'm thankful for the way things turned out.

5. I drank a lot of Mountain Dew in high school and college. On average, probably two or three 20 oz. bottles a day. I was addicted. Then one day, after my wife and I had dated for a few months, she was talking about preparing for her friend's wedding. She was a bridesmaid. She said she might go tanning just a little bit so she wasn't so pasty. I said that that shit gives you cancer and no amount of it is healthy. She said, "Well neither is drinking Mountain Dew." I agreed and proposed a deal, she'll never tan if I give up Mountain Dew. She agreed. She later felt bad for me and told me I could have one now and then. But still, I've only had two bottles since then. That was over 6 years ago.

6. I'm enjoying writing this, but I also can't wait until I'm done so I can turn on the Wii and play Super Mario Bros. 3 which we just downloaded last week. I have never played a Mario game that I didn't instantly adore. And I'll kick your ass in Mario Kart 64 if you ever want to play.

7. I shop at 5 different grocery stores because I'm frugal and each place has something that none of the other places has. Target has 2 packs of Silk Soy milk for under $5.25. Cub has the only kind of frozen diced potatoes that I like. Whole Foods has cheap meat and cheese analogs. Mississippi Market Co-Op has great produce, bulk and deli. And Shuang Hur Supermarket has cheap, cheap tofu. Of the four, the only one I actually enjoy going to is Mississippi Market. Well, I like going to Target too, but that has less to do with the food and more to do with the toy aisles ... and the video games. What can I say, I'm a big kid.

I'm tagging:
My good friend Kris at I Believe In Everything.
Bex at How to Feed a Vegan.
Neta at Vegan Fun.
Vegan Noodle at Walking the Vegan Line.
Whichever sister wants to do it over at The Sister's Vegan.
Isil at Veggie Way.
Cristy at In A Garden ... Somewhere.

Vegan MoFo Day 23 - Lazy Links

I spaced the MoFo today, so here's a round-up of food posts/recipes I've done since starting this here blog.

A bunch of food I made last New Year's Eve.

Grab Bag o' Food.

Punjabi Chhole in 17 Seconds.

Anna munching on an tomato.

My recipe for Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter, Chocolate and Marshmallow Rice Krispie Bars.

I review a couple restaurants in the Denver area.

A post in which I am enthusiastic about a fully vegan cafe opening in Fargo (still haven't been there, by the way).

Better than Cinnabons!

Recipe for Down-Home Upper-Midwest Vegan Potato Salad.

Mocha-Vanilla Soy Cream With Chunks of Chocolate Covered Pretzels in it Right There, See?

Pee-Soaked Cloth

No, this isn't a VeganMoFo entry. Ewwww. You're gross for even thinking it could be. Or maybe that's me. Either way, eww.

I just threw our first batch of cloth diapers in the wash. We've been doing disposable diapers for Anna for over two years now (since she was born) and we've decided that, for our second kid, we're going to go with cloth diapers.

We've been practicing on Anna with the one-size-fits-all Bum Genius diapers (they fit kids from infant to 30-some pounds ... though honestly they seem a bit snug on Anna and she's not quite 30 pounds).

She runs around naked a lot, since she's potty training, so we don't go through a lot of diapers nowadays. So I just put three day's worth of cloth diapers in the wash and - phew! - they're stinky.

It has been about 25 years since last I smelled pee-soaked cloth (if you don't count those few times in college when ... um ... on second thought, never mind). My parents diapered all six of their kids in cloth and now, thanks to the urine of my daughter, I distinctly remember the smell of my little brother's diaper pail.

Eww.

VeganMoFo Day 1: I've Given Up Nothing Not Worth Giving Up!

I love food.

I've always loved food. Growing up, I fondly remember my mom's meatloaf (though not the salmon loaf). I remember her cabbage rolls, which I would always have without the cabbage. I remember the rare treat of lasagna (the noodles cost more and my mom was/is frugal ... a trait of hers I wish I had more of).

And mashed potatoes. Holy shit. I loved mash potatoes.

So now I'm almost 30 years old. I'm a stay-at-home dad, so I spend most of my days thinking about food, cooking food, eating food and reading about the animals and animal products that I no longer consider food.

All of the old favorites are still there for me, but now they're vegan.

I always have ingredients for vegan meatloaf when I use Jennifer McCann's Magical Loaf Studio for the recipe. Here's one of the many loaves I've made (note: I double the recipe and cook it in a single bread pan).


I made cabbage rolls with a friend of mine last fall using Gimmie Lean "sausage". And my mom will be thrilled to know that I actually ate the cabbage too!

Lasagna was one of the first entrees I made when I went vegan six kick-ass years ago.

Mashed potatoes are still a favorite.

I have given up nothing worth keeping when it comes to food. I've gained everything. I've gained an appreciation for vegetables. I used to LOATHE vegetables.

My dad has a couple small fields he calls gardens at home and I never appreciated them until I went vegan. Now when I go home in the summer I'm in heaven. Strawberries and raspberries for the picking by the handful. Asparagus! Peas off the vine (actually, peas are the one thing out of the garden that I liked growing up). Cucumbers! Tomatoes! Pumpkins! Onions! Corn! Way more stuff!

What the hell was I thinking? How could I have not liked this stuff as a kid and teenager and even as a young adult? I was missing out on a world of food while chowing down on my microwavable spicy beef and bean burritos (seriously, I had one for breakfast every morning for a year in college), frozen pizza whose texture could only be accurately described as cardboard topped with slime, and Taco Bell's Grade J beef. Where was my head?

I was lazy, for one. I didn't want to cook. But the main reason I ate shit (quite literally, in the cases in the above paragraph) is that I had no reason to think about where my food was coming from. I didn't think about what happened to my food before it hit my plate. A meal wasn't a meal unless 75% of it was meat and/or cheese. I had a tall glass of cow's milk with every meal, even at restaurants.

Six years ago that all changed when I met a guy named Alex at my work. He told me he was vegan and I was intrigued. I wanted to know more. I never said, "Don't tell me. I'd rather not know."

On the contrary, I kept asking him for more and more information, eventually asking to look at a Why Vegan? pamphlet he had. By the time I finished reading it I had made the decision to go vegan. It didn't take me long before I was eating Fantastic brand vegan sloppy joes and chili and microwaving an Amy's black bean burrito every day for breakfast.

A month or so later I showed my girlfriend Meet Your Meat and a few seconds after that she was vegan as well. A couple years later that girlfriend became my wife. Then a year or so after that we had a daughter, Anna. She's the one at the top of this page (though she's a year older than that photo now).

And in January we'll have another. A boy. Liam.

Anna eats like a champ. Her current favorites are frozen peas and frozen blueberries, smoothies and peanut butter sandwiches. And today she chowed down an Aloo Gobi-type dish I made last night. Sweet.

Veggie Nugget #22

"Daddy makes supper really good."

Anna, a couple minutes ago

You Can Quote Me On That

Is it just me, or does it seem like whenever I say I'm not going to blog for a while I write more than I usually do?

Anyway, I linked to that Pioneer Press story about dads who blog (I refuse to type the phrase "daddy bloggers" because it just rubs me the wrong way for some reason ... oh shit, I just typed it) a little over a week ago in my mammoth "why you should go vegan" post.

I have to say, it felt really good to write that post. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get any comments from non-vegans on there, but oh well. I consider it a lesson in the insignificance of print media (apologies to my brother, who is a reporter for said print media).

The quotes in the story were taken from an interview that I gave the reporter over the phone. Here's the part about my blog with comments and critiques:

AL NOWATZKI

thislittlepiggyhadtofu.blogspot.com

Bio: Nowatzki, 29, is a stay-at-home dad from St. Paul who is living the vegan lifestyle with his wife and their daughter, who is almost 2.

Why he blogs: "I want to show that very normal people can be vegan and raise their daughter vegan," Nowatzki says. "I want to show that it's a healthy lifestyle choice and that we're a happy, normal family, we just don't eat animals and animal secretions."

Oh my. How embarrassing. Did I really say "normal" two sentences in a row?

I'm actually really happy with this section. It's almost exactly what I wanted to say. If I could add anything it would be that we also don't buy leather or any other products made from animals. Actually, I think I did say that in the interview, but I suppose she had to cut it down quite a bit.

Also, I almost included "chickens' menstrual waste" after animal secretions but figured that might turn too many people off. After all, I wanted them to visit my blog.

A middle ground: "It's nice to have a hands-off way to inform people about veganism because when you get into a conversation with someone about it, it can escalate to hostility pretty quickly — food is pretty personal to everyone. Writing about it in a blog is more detached, and people can chose if they want to read it."

Right on. Though that's not to say that we as vegans shouldn't talk to people face-to-face about veganism. But when it comes to friends and family, it's nice to have a way to let them know how I feel about things without it escalating (or descending, as it were) into an argument about whether or not plants feel pain (the answer is no).

Why it might seem like more stay-at-home dads blog: "I really think it's still a new social experiment, to be a stay-at-home dad, ...

I have to say, I don't really remember saying that stay-at-home dadding is a "new social experiment," but who knows. I may have. It doesn't feel like something I'd say. I suppose it's sort of true, but I think it belittles the stay-at-home dad experience. To call it an experiment is to say that the outcome is unknown, that we're gambling with the lives of our children just to see how it will go. That's not how I feel at all.

...and it almost seems like the stay-at-home dad creature needs to justify his existence with a blog," Nowatzki says.

Huh. I'm almost certain I didn't say that. I said, and I quote, because this is something that I have said several times in several places to several people, "The stay-at-home dad is a creature that needs to justify his existence." Period. She may have asked me about why stay-at-home dads have blogs and I gave that quote somewhere in my answer, but I never said the combination of words that were put into quotations and then printed on several thousand newspapers.

Oh well, I know you always run a risk when you're being interviewed. Rarely does the quotation match exactly what was said.

All-in-all it was a well put together piece and I'm happy with it. I didn't come off as an ass, which is what I was afraid of.

This Old House

My housework is going into overdrive starting today. I get to pressure-wash the old paint off our stucco for the next few days. Yay!

So blogging will be light.

It feels weird to do stereotypically manly things. I'm used to taking care of my daughter, doing the dishes, doing the laundry and cooking meals. It's like I don't even know who I am when I do manual labor. I tap into a part of myself that reminds me of my dad. I mean, reminds me A LOT of my dad. When I wear a respirator while scraping the lead paint off our trim, I can smell my breath ... and it smells like my dad. Weird.

Also, I can totally see now why my dad went to the bar for a couple drinks after a hard day of painting in the summer. I really want to as well. But by time I'm done working and then done eating it's time to go to bed.

Speaking of my dad, I meant to write something near Father's day about him. About how I feel like I'm taking on certain aspects of his personality and mannerisms. Also, how he planted several seeds of animal rights in my brian at a young age. My dad is faaaaar from a vegan or vegetarian, yet he taught me to respect animals. There are a few specific examples. I'll write about them later.

Welcome to My Blog

I'd like to extend a warm welcome to everyone who came here after reading The Pioneer Press Father's Day story about dads who blog. I'm glad to have you.

First off, let's get this out of the way:

"The American Dietetic Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics agree that well-planned vegan and vegetarian diets can satisfy the nutritional needs and promote normal growth of infants and young children."

-American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition, 1998; Messina & Burke, 1997

There, now that we've answered whether or not a vegan diet is healthy, you might be wondering what exactly it means to be a vegan.

The commonly accepted definition of vegan is this, from the Vegan Society:

“A vegan is someone who tries to avoid - as far as is possible and practical - all forms of exploitation of animals for food, clothing or any other purpose. This is for the benefit of people, animals and the environment. Vegans eat a plant-based diet free from all animal products, such as meat, animal milks, eggs, honey and gelatin. They also avoid animal products like leather, wool and silk for clothing or other purposes.”

Simple enough, right? We humans do not need to exploit non-human animals. We can live just fine without causing fellow sentient beings harm and suffering. In fact, we can live better!

I used to eat a lot of animal flesh ("meat"), drink a lot of animal secretions ("dairy") and eat quite a bit of chickens' menstrual waste ("eggs"). But after I learned what happens in order to get those things on my plate, I could no longer choose to participate in the unnecessary suffering and exploitation of animals.

My family is happy, healthy and compassionate. And my wife and I aren't the only parents out there bringing our kids up vegan. There's a whole bunch of kids these days being raised to respect animals and oppose cruelty. Check out a sampling of awesome vegan kids here.

The reasons for choosing a vegan diet and lifestyle are numerous.

FOR THE ANIMALS

The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another, even the lowliest creature; to do so is to renounce our manhood and shoulder a guilt which nothing justifies.

-Albert Schweitzer

For more information on the cruel treatment of farmed animals, check out this website.

And for a great film about the exploitation of non-human animals by humans, check out Earthlings, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix (yes, the guy who played Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line"). Here are links to Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of Earthlings.

You may watch those videos and then feel helpless. But you're not. You can go vegan. Yes you. About five years ago, I couldn't imagine my life without fatty, artery-clogging animal flesh either, but here I am, healthier and happier than ever!

FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

“A kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home.”

-National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba, Japan

Do you consider yourself an environmentalist? If so, you probably want to look into going vegan. According to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations report, Livestock's Long Shadow:

"The livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2 equivalent. This is a higher share than transport….Livestock are also responsible for almost two-thirds (64 percent) of anthropogenic ammonia emissions, which contribute significantly to acid rain and acidification of ecosystems."

For a recent local example of the environmental damage, check out this story about families in northern Minnesota who had to be evacuated from their homes because of fumes rolling off a dairy operation. Yuck.

More information on the environmental devastation caused by animal agriculture can be found here.

FOR YOUR HEALTH

We've already covered the fact that a vegan diet is healthy for infants and toddlers with that American Academy of Pediatrics and Dietetic Association quote above. For information on vegan diets for children, check out the Physicians Committe for Responsible Medicine's information pages here and here.

For health benefits for adults, see this page.

We don't need milk for calcium. We don't need meat for protein. We don't need to eat any animal products to live a healthy life. In fact, studies show that removing animal products from your diet actually reduces your chances of getting heart disease and cancer. It can prevent and even reverse diabetes. It can lower your blood pressure.

I ingest zero cholesterol. A vegan diet is a diet free of cholesterol. The cookies I make? Free of cholesterol. Homemade vegan cinnamon rolls? Free of cholesterol. The "cheesey" potato casserole I made last week? You guessed it - free of cholesterol.

Which brings me to another question someone unfamiliar with veganism might ask: What do you eat?

The easy answer: Everything that you eat, and probably much more! Do you like bratwurst straight off the grill? So do I! Tofurkey makes amazing vegan brats. Do you like chocolate cake? Me too! Google "vegan chocolate cake" and you'll find a ton of recipes, from simple to gourmet. Do you love tacos smothered in cheese with a side of sour cream? Hot damn! I do too! Except I use vegan cheese and vegan sour cream! Zero cholesterol! Zero animal exploitation!

I could go on and on and on. The point is, I'm not starving. I didn't have to give up on food when I went vegan. Quite the opposite, I have discovered more food in the 5 years I've been vegan than I ever thought possible. Going vegan closes the door on meat, dairy and eggs, but it opens every other window in the house. For me, it knocked down walls I didn't even know I had.

Sorry about that. I tend to take metaphors too far.

If you are at all curious about veganism, I urge you to order (or view on-line) a free brochure from any of these sites. At the very least, you'll get some great recipes out of the deal. 

Why Vegan?

Try Veg

Vegetarian Starter Kit

For more resources and reading on veganism I suggest checking out these sites:

Vegan Outreach
Veg Family

Animal Rights Coalition (a home-grown Minnesotan group)
Compassionate Action for Animals (also Minnesota-based)
Fast and Furless (a vegan boutique in Minneapolis)
Veg Guide (a Twin Cities based restaurant guide for vegans and vegetarians)
Minnesota Voters for Animal Protection
Anima Naturalis (en Espanol)
An Animal-Friendly Life
Vegan Soapbox
Creature Talk
Animal Emancipation
The Abolitionist Approach

And for something completely unrelated to vegansim, I want to give all parents of pre-Kindergarten kids in Minnesota a quick little link to the Minnesota Early Childhood Education (ECFE) site. ECFE is an invaluable resource in parenting. From the Saint Paul ECFE website: "ECFE works to strengthen families and enhance the ability of all parents to provide the best possible environment for the healthy growth and development of their children."

There is a very small fee for the classes, but cost is based on income. Those who find it unaffordable are not forced to pay. In other words, you can get top-notch early childhood education and screening for potential problems for cheap or free.

You can find an ECFE program near you by going here.

And finally, a little shameless plug from yours truly. I'm a stay-at-home dad, which means my income is pretty close to zero. But I take wedding photos on the side! So if you know anyone who's getting married and wants their wedding photos taken for under a thousand dollars, feel free to point them toward my photo site.

Finally (for real this time), to reward you for reading through this whole post, here's a video of Anna being silly the other day.



Oh, and one more thing! If you have any questions about veganism let me know in the comments section and I'll do my best to answer them in a future post. If you don't want to leave a comment, but still want to ask a question, you can email me at: thislittlepiggyhadtofu @ gmail . com (delete the spaces).

Have a look around the blog. Stay a while. And feel free to come back any time. All are welcome at the Piggy house.

Excellent!

Isil over at Veggie Way and Pixie at Half Pint Pixie have both given an award for excellence to This Little Piggy Had Tofu. Thanks Isil and Pixie!


So here are the rules:

By accepting this Excellent Blog Award, I have to award it to 10 more people whose blogs I find Excellent Award worthy. I can give it to as many people as I want, but I'll award at least 10. Thank you out there for having such great blogs and being such great friends! You deserve this! If chosen, you agree to the same information above. If chosen, also feel free to award people who have already been awarded…

So, here are eleven awards, in no particular order:

1. What I Killed Today - I recently discovered this blog and every new post gives me pause. It's written by a vegan veterinarian who has to sometimes euthanize companion animals. The writing is minimalist, sad, bleak, and yet somehow touching.

2. Britta Trygstad's Photo Page - Amazing photography from my friend Britta. An onion has never looked cooler.

3. The Joyful Vegan - This blog is full of real accounts of real everyday people (like you and me!) going vegan. It's inspiring and makes me proud to be vegan (or, more proud, I should say).

4. By Other Means - Vegan home education in the UK. There are a bunch of great photos on this blog and fun posts about their home education adventures. Makes me want to home school.

5. Veggie Way - A great blog about vegansim, parenting and vegan parenting.

6. Half Pint Pixie - Another great blog about veganism, parenting and vegan parenting. I believe hers was one of the first blogs I ever subscribed to, and it was the first blog to ever link to mine.

7. Mindy Does Minneapolis- And now for something completely different, the sometimes-sordid, sometimes-mundane, always-funny exploits of my friend (and recent veg*n!) Mindy. Always good for a laugh.

8. The Sisters Vegan - I love the design of this page. They just started the blog less than a month ago and it's already one of my favorites. Good content will do that, I guess.

9. Read My Mind - Speaking of content, Elaine Vigneault is one of the most prolific bloggers out there. I swear, she has ten posts a day. And they're almost all enlightening (and the ones that aren't are at least entertaining). She writes a lot about feminism and veganism and rights and the places where those meet (everywhere, in case you didn't know). I suggest perusing the archives on this blog. There's a lot of great stuff. She also writes for Vegan Soapbox, which is very cool.

10. Kris Kerzman for President in 2024 - My friend Kris Kerzman's blog. His welcome blurb says it all: "You've decided to waste your time reading about a guy who wants to be president in 17 years, so he started this blog in order to drum up support for himself, which would eventually lead to the amount of legitimacy needed to be seriously considered for the presidency. Congratulations."

11. The Friendly Humanist - Insightful posts about Humanism, atheism, science and, yeah, there's one post where the author realizes that dining on animal flesh is morally indefensable. I have to quote part of that post here, because I found it so refreshing to read:

"My Humanist values draw no neat lines to box out that which is superficially different. My right to be free from torture derives from the fact that pain is an evil. Humans are not the only animals that experience pain. My right to liberty derives from the fact that I have consciousness, a will. I cannot pretend that my baby daughter has consciousness but an animal with whom I might communicate (for now) more readily - a trained pig for instance - has not."

Yay!

I could list another eleven or twenty blogs worthy of an award for excellence, but I'll leave it at that. Feel free to pass on the award if you'd like. Or not. That's cool too.

Vegan Food Survey

Here's a lovely little survey that started over at Food Snobbery is My Hobbery and is already making the rounds on the vegan blog circuit. Fun stuff.

1. If you have to choose between locally grown or organic, which do you usually choose?

Local (but luckily, we split a Community Supported Agriculture share in the summer with some friends and that way we get local and organic.

2. Favorite way to prepare potatoes:

In curry with bok choy, carrots, and rice. Or fried with tofu, Gimmie Lean mock-sausage and peppers. I can't decide.

3. Do you press your tofu before preparing/cooking it (if you eat soy)?

Always, but not very throughly.

4. Name your favorite recipe that is a tradition in your family:

Tater-tot hot dish! Easily veganized, believe it or not.

5. Any food allergies?

No. Thank genetics!

6. When you want to go to a fancy dinner, where do you go?

The Ecopolitan in Minneapolis.

7. When you have a cold, what do you crave?

Amy's No Chicken Noodle Soup ... and to be left alone in my misery.

8. What kind of water do you drink? (Filtered, spring, tap, etc.)

Either out of the tap or the Britta pitcher.

9. Name a flavor of soda you'd love to see:

Chocolate peanut butter (I'm not saying I'd like to drink it, but I would like to see it).

10. If the recipes you ate as a child were compiled into a cookbook, what would the title be?

One Hundred and One Ways to Prepare Meat and Potatoes

11. If you were allowed to grow one food that can't grow in your climate, what would it be?

Bananas.

12. Favorite type of mushroom?

Portabella, but I'm not a huge shroom fan.

13. Most frustrating part of your kitchen?

Pots and pans! Pots and pans everywhere! So, the fact that it's impossible to be organized given our cabinet set-up, I guess.

14. Last food you burned?

A-J Mish-Mash (recipe to appear in an upcoming blog post)

15. Usual response to a veg*n's favorite question, "But where do you get your protein?"

There is protein in almost every food. I'm getting enough. Most Americans get too much (hello osteoporosis!).

16. If you were baking your own birthday cake today, what flavor would it be?

Chocolate mint with caramel and vegan Heath bar shreds on top.

17. Favorite brand of chocolate chips?

Whatever Mississippi Market sells in bulk.

18. You have $200 of your tax return reserved for Williams Sonoma- What do you buy?

New knives and/or a cast iron frying pan.

19. Do you plan your menus in advance? Any tips to share?

Depends. We try to keep a grocery list that includes ingredients for a few favorites and maybe a couple new dishes out of cookbooks. Mostly though, I just decide while I'm at the store and go crazy with buying waaaay more than what's on my list.

20. You have 3 minutes before you have to leave the house and you're starving- What do you eat?

Chips. Probably bring a LUNA bar with me on the way out. (I don't care that LUNA bars are marketed as "The Whole Nutrition Bar for Women". I'm secure in my manhood. Also, I just found this on the LUNA website: "Men too can enjoy LUNA bars! There is nothing in a LUNA bar that is not good for men. However, LUNA bars are specifically formulated to provide women with the nutrients that are often harder for them to get." So take that, voice in my head!!)

21. If Martha Stewart, Paula Deen, and Rachel Ray got into a fight, who would win and how?

The American people, because the three might be off the air for a couple weeks to recuperate.

22. If you eat oatmeal, what do you add to it before serving?

I don't eat oatmeal.

23. If you got to travel to one country and learn all the traditional dishes there, where would you go (ignore commitments in your current place of residence)?

India.

24. Favorite late night snack?

Peanut butter on saltines.

25. Favorite springtime food?

I'm drawing a blank. Peas? Maybe fresh peas, straight out of the pod? Are those considered springtime food?

26. Favorite food-related magazine?

I don't read food magazines. Does Herbivore count? The title suggests it's about food, at least.

27. Which do you prefer: shoyu, tamari, conventional soy sauce, or Bragg's Aminos?

Tamari, though I don't have much experience with shoyu.

28. What vegetable or fruit do you dislike the most?

Cabbage (though if prepared right, anything is edible).

29. Name a holiday food you look forward to all year long:

Mashed potatoes.

30. If you could convert anyone to veganism with your magic wand, who would you convert?

Oprah.