Walnut-Kale Potato Salad with Sweet Dressing

Potato salad

10 Yukon Gold potatoes, diced

1 cup shredded cabbage

1 cup shredded kale

1/2 cup diced carrots 

1 cup ground walnuts

1 TBSP salt (optional)

Sauce

3 TBSP agave nectar

1.5 TBSP peanut oil

1.5 TBSP sesame seed oil

Directions

1. Boil potatoes. Put the diced potatoes in water with the salt and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce to low & simmer for 20 minutes. 

2. While potatoes are cooking, cut all other salad ingredients into very small chunks. 

3. Whisk together all salad ingredients. 

4. Drain potatoes and put them in a bowl. Add the other salad ingredients. Pour the sweet sauce on and mix everything up. 

Makes 8 cups

1 cup contains 

319 calories; 

15 g fat; 

7 g protein. 

Typo {poem}

Period
End of statement
Now you’re done – why
isn't it an exclamation
mark for the shock
of the thirteen year old first
time finding affected
panties. The young lady
her woman just discovered
now questioning moods
and pain
and gender.

Or for the relief and delight
of the teenager afraid
that one night
has forever changed her life.

Name it for the terror
of the hopeful mother
another month now
with no children
for her own. A question
mark filled with fear
and the always unanswered
why why not when how who
and ever.

Quotations
One opened – one closed
an eternity lying
in the space between
free to interpretation
filled perhaps with
how to begin
and end
explain to parents
and lover.

A comma, a semicolon
because it is just part of what
you have gone through
and by no means the end
of the line.

A colon for the list of agonies
joys and anxieties.

Name it anything
that allows something
in the space after.

Instead, a period
ending the statement
of women’s use
and life
all final now
and we are
done
Period.

by Alexa Reed

Linger {poem}

The machine by your bed
bleeps to tell me
you are alive.

I would not know
any other way. 

You are not living.

You linger on and on,
neverendingly
in this place.

You were always
a free spirit. Nothing
could ever hold you
down. Until you became
tethered by machines
instead of love.

Your hand rests at your side.
If I held it, would you feel?
If I kissed your lips,
would you ever know?
If only one thing 

can ever reach you again,
let it be that you are still, 

and ever my love.

But this form
lying in your bed,
tubes and machinery
an extension of itself, 

this is not you, 

and it is not living.

It only lingers,
as does my heart,
every beat praying
that this machine
will break down
before I do.

Written by Alexa Reed

Raw Vegan Recovery Soup

I went to an all-Vegan potluck BBQ yesterday. Burgers, hot dogs, pizza, cookies, candies, fruit salad, salad (with beets, berries, and nuts!), potato salad, cauliflower with cashew blue cheese, and cheese & crackers. All Vegan and all delicious, but not all good for me. 

This morning, I found a recipe for a detox soup and modified it for what I had in the house. 

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cup water (start with 1/4 cup and add as needed)
• juice of half a lemon
  
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  
• 1-2 teaspoons agave
  
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp tamari or Bragg's Liquid Aminos
  
• 1 pear (de-seeded and cut into smaller pieces)
• 1 packed cup kale (or other leafy green) (chopped finely)
  
• 1 pinch sea sea salt
  
• half an avocado
• 1 apple (cubed)

Directions:

1. Put liquids in the blender first, then add the solid foods. (This makes the blades turn faster.) 

2. Combine all ingredients except apple and nutritional yeast.

3. Pour liquid into a bowl. 

4. Add apple cubes and yeast, then stir. 

The original recipe by Ilene Godofsky is here: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-10276/vegan-recipe-raw-detox-soup.html

Chile con Papas

I keep very few convenience foods on hand, but I did have a can of chili from Amy's Kitchen. It came in handy for tonight's dinner. 

2 sweet potatoes, cubed

1 can of Vegan chili

2 TBSP nutritional yeast (optional)

1. Microwave the potatoes for 8 minutes. 

2. Heat chili. 

3. Pour chili on top of potatoes. 

4. Cover with nutritional yeast and stir. 

(I saved leftovers for tomorrow's lunch, which makes that meal even easier.) 

(Served alongside a good bit of sautéed kale.) 

My Vegan Easter (2014)

Check out the food from the Vegan Easter/Passover/4.20/Whatever Potluck I went to in Westwood, MA!

Veganized Easter Potatoes

Stuffed Mushrooms 

Raw cashew cheese dip with fresh-cut veggies 

Easy Beansy (a dish with red kidney beans) 

A non-spicy chili

Baked ziti

Salad (aka token green stuff)

Easter egg cookies (decorated by the kids instead of decorating eggs) and lemon squares

A bunt cake 

And a chocolate fountain with strawberries, pineapples, and Sweet n Sara marshmallows

Not pictured: stuffed shells, a spicy broccoli dish, and  a chocolate cake. 

Good food, great friends, and no need to kill any animals. 

A Letter to the Trolls Who Called Me a "Pot-Smoking Militant Lesbian"

You label me a "Pot-Smoking Militant Lesbian Who Rescues Animals" as if you know anything about me.

I'm honored you think that I rescue animals. I adopted one cat and I do consider her a rescue, but I don't view myself as an animal rescuer. I eat and live as a Vegan and I know that means that fewer animals have died to keep me alive, but I don't view that as rescue. I run the Facebook page for an animal sanctuary because the people who do the actual animal rescuing are too busy rescuing and caring for animals.

I'm offended most by the "militant". I'm a pacifist. That's why I haven't gone to your Facebook pages and trolled you back. That's why I haven't written a comment in that online server where you all complain about me. Fuck yes, I deleted your comments. There wasn't a grain of truth to them and your lies were hurting dear friends, people so sweet and trusting that they believe in the goodness of others, even trolls. It broke their hearts to realize that no matter how hard they tried, you just wouldn't accept what they told you. And it broke mine to see that.

I'm offended second by the "lesbian" because I'm a pansexual and it's apparent you have no idea what the difference is. You think because I'm attracted to other women I'm a lesbian, but you exclude my attraction to men and transgendered people. I'm offended that you think "lesbian" is an insult, as if it's proof that I can't possibly be correct because I didn't even get my sexuality "right" so I can't know anything about anything else.

But the pot-smoking? That made me laugh. Your only evidence for that is that I watched Pineapple Express. Your allegation was funnier than anything in the actual movie. It actually made watching the movie worthwhile. I should have watched The Godfather so I could be a member of the mob.