I am totally psyched to see your jambalaya recipe – I love me some cajun food! Can’t wait to see how you make it vegan!

I still do Lent even though I’m long past my Catholic roots, just because I think it’s a good discipline and it does help remind me to be thankful for everything I am blessed to have.

Happy VD Marissa, hope you and Matt enjoy it!

The other stuff, I was pretty much aware of but enjoyed the recap. The job thing, totally key for your sanity and self-value not to be working for free and/or going into debt.

All your recipes, awesome.
I make a no bake vegan protein powder enhanced bar that ive blogged about alot. It’s prob got more grains than you’d like though b/c it does have oats. However you could omit and sub in like quinoa or only coconut flakes, etc.

Anyway Marissa Happy Vday!!!!

Can’t wait for the carob energy bars. I’ve been making energy bars a la Brendan Brazier from Thrive and they’re delicious. He’s a fan of carob which I just don’t really like but maybe I need to give it another shot. I’m such a chocolate lover that it just seems like a cheap imitation, but maybe I have to stop thinking of it as being like chocolate.

Actually, this was really brought home to me recently. My partner teaches cooking to his third-graders every week. Last week, he decided to do some bread recipe, so he bought some “organic, cage-free” eggs from our co-op. He ended up not using the whole dozen, so he brought them home for us to finish. I didn’t know where they’d come from; we reuse eggs cartons, returning them to our friends and getting different cartons every time, so I thought it was just another carton filled with friendly eggs. I cracked an egg and actually kind of yelped out loud for how awful it looked! The white was weak, the shell was thin, and the normally bright, vibrant yolk was pale and just icky. And the flavor was so pallid. I asked Jeremy what the hell was wrong with our friends’ chickens that the eggs looked like this! He explained about the class project. I felt so horrible, looking at those eggs – I told him, what we’re looking at are the results of factory farming. These chickens don’t get outside. They don’t get exercise or sunlight or fresh air. They’re not fed their natural diet. It’s reflected in the quality of the egg. I wish people would get it. Don’t become a victim to an industry that will never have YOUR best interests in mind, much less the chickens’!