Vegan.com pointed out this great article from the Detroit Free Press: Hungry for Vegetarian: Vegan lifestyle satisfying. It’s an unusually positive spin on veganism, showing that it is a reasonable way to live and raise a family, if it’s done right. I smiled when I read the seven-year-old daughter’s comments about kale: “I don’t think anyone in the whole school knows about kale, and they should. It’s soooooooo good. The water goes into the kale when you cook it, and when you eat into it, it ruuuuuuns down your face. I love it! It’s great!”

If only everyone could be so enthusiastic about eating their vegetables!

This past weekend my wife and I tried Amy’s Kitchen Roasted Vegetable Pizza, a no cholesterol, cheeseless, vegan pizza using a number of organic ingredients. We were both very pleased with the pizza: the crust was tasty and the onions, artichokes, roasted red peppers, shiitake mushrooms, and garlic made for a very unique flavor. It definitely didn’t taste like something from the freezer section.

However, I came across an interesting fact online: Amy’s “No Cheese” Pizza (which seems to have been renamed as the Roasted Vegetable Pizza) was marketed as vegan but contained honey. It appears that the company was responsive, though. A quick look at the Roasted Vegetable Pizza confirms that it is indeed vegan, with no honey. However, their Soy Cheeze Pizza contains milk derivatives and their non-dairy pot pie contains honey. Perhaps if enough people contacted them, they would consider veganizing these products as well.

Amy’s web site does a great job pointing out which products are and aren’t vegan and now defines vegan as “products [that] contain no dairy or honey.

Barbecued Kitten Value Menu

An excellent article (written by a non-vegetarian, presumably) that talks about that horrible kitten barbecuing incident and asks the question: why is that worse than what happens to thousands upon thousands of farm animals every single day? This will make you think, no doubt. (Vegan.com)

Recall of Contaminated Beef Expanded to 18 Million Pounds

Stories like this remind me again why I don’t eat meat. Of course, if the slaughterhouses weren’t so dangerous, their workers so overworked, and the cattle so mistreated and pumped full of antibiotics, this might not happen.

Then again, maybe it would.

I’ve been meaning to welcome new Veg Blog readers from Nava Altas’ In a Vegetarian Kitchen. The Veg Blog was featured as the “Site of the Month” in her most recent newsletter. That means a lot to me… Nava, as you may know, is an author of a number of vegetarian cookbooks and writes reguarly for the VRG’s Vegetarian Journal. She’s been a great supporter of the Veg Blog and it’s always fun to chat with her on e-mail. If you haven’t checked out her site, take some time to do so. She has some great recipes and tips for new vegetarians well worth checking out.

On an unrelated note: the Vegetarian Resource Group has redesigned their web site! I was really happy to see the clean new look, as I’ve always thought their site was about five years behind the curve in terms of design, which was a shame because of the wealth of content. Check out their new site and browse their extensive archive of information.

A new feature article has been posted: BK Veggie Experiences, recounting my first two (no-so-great) experiences with the BK Veggie.

In March, Burger King debuted the BK Veggie, a vegan burger served on a nearly-vegan bun (there are trace amounts of dairy). Burger King promised that the burger would be microwaved by request for those that didn’t want their burger grilled with the meat burgers and that the low-fat mayonnaise could be left off. It was the first move by a national fast food chain (other than Subway) to offer a healthier, vegetarian product for their customers.

A day or two after the burger debuted, I stopped by a Burger King for the first time in years to show my support and do my duty as a prolific (hah!) vegetarian web site host. I had read on Vegan.com that some people had trouble getting their burgers microwaved, being downright refused by some Burger King employees, so I crossed my fingers when I placed my order. “A BK veggie with no mayo, and could you microwave that instead of grilling it?” There was a look of confusion on the employee’s face as we struggled back-and-forth to communicate. I was served my burger and was pleased to see that there was no mayo. The burger itself was good, but I noticed that it had grillmarks on it. I figured that the burgers shipped that way, with faux-grill marks to make it look more authentic. I was wrong: Erik Marcus told me that his BK Veggie burgers had no grill marks. Apparently, I received a burger that was grilled and then microwaved. Plus, I found out a month later that the Burger King fries, which used to be vegetarian-safe, now contain chicken flavoring.

Not exactly a successful first outing.

Last weekend, though, I gave it another shot. My wife and I were on the road past 11pm and were looking for some food. Burger King was the only place open at any of the rest stops, so I decided to give the BK Veggie another shot, figuring that a few months after the product launched, employees would be well-versed in its preparation. This time around, they microwaved it (no grill marks!), as I requested, but they fumbled by putting mayo on, despite my request otherwise. I took my burger back up to the counter and they redid it for me but, unfortunately, simply threw away the other burger. To top it off, the employee had no idea how long to microwave the burger. The discussion I heard in the back went like this: “He wants it microwaved instead of on the grill.” “Microwaved? How long do you microwave one of these things?” “5 minutes, I guess.” “5 minutes!? Are you kidding me?” I hoped that they’d figure it out—apparently one minute will do the job—but they didn’t: the burger was an overheated hockey puck.

While I haven’t exactly had a lot of success with my own ordering of the BK Veggie, I still support the idea of a veggie burger at fast food restaurants and I like the fact that Burger King continues to prominently advertise their BK Veggie alongside their other burgers. McDonald’s now offers a vegan burger on a whole wheat bun in Canada, and hopefully they will follow Burger King’s lead in making a vegetarian option available to their American customers as well.

I eat fast food extremely rarely, but I think that tasty vegetarian options at national fast food spots can do only good in advancing the cause of healthier eating and vegetarianism. Lord knows we’d have a healthier country if everyone ordered a BK Veggie instead of a Double Whopper with Cheese.

Related Links

BK Veggie Nutritional Info:
with low-fat mayo
without mayo
(for comparison: a Double Whopper with the works)
Some nutritional comparisons to blow your mind.

Burger King Launches First-ever Veggie Burger with the Great Taste of Flame-broiling
BK’s press release.

My First BK Veggie
Vegan.com’s Erik Marcus discusses the surreal experience of his first meal at a fast food restaurant in 15 years, and more specifically, his thoughts on the BK Veggie burger.

Vegetarians Have It Our Way at Burger King
PETA’s promotion of the BK Veggie.

The Salt Lake Tribune has an interesting story titled “Meat Eaters Try Martian Fare and Learn to Like Lentil Loaf,” which discusses a Cornell University experiment where researchers were looking to create a diet for the first human inhabitants of Mars. The diet was dairy and meat free (and presumably egg-free as well), consisting largely of beans, grains, and setian. All of the participants were omnivores who lost weight, but steadied at their new weight, on their new vegetarian diet. Not surprisingly, they returned to their previous weight when they returned to their normal diet.

Though the article doesn’t really present anything we didn’t already know about vegetarianism’s health benefits, it takes a look at the issue from a unique perspective.

TIME Magazine’s cover article this week is “Should You be a Vegetarian?.” Of course, my answer to this thought-provoking question is “Hell no! Why would you want to do something like that?” :)

Their look at veganism, unfortunately, will do nothing to erase the misconception that you’re vegetarian if you eat chicken or fish, but otherwise is a relatively balanced look at the issue. One quote I like: “It takes constant vigilance and a thick skin.” Yeah… especially when reading quotes like this: “We would never have evolved as large, socially active hominids if we hadn’t turned to meat.”

Overall, a good take on things. One thing I would like to have seen more of: a discussion of the better vegetarian, vegan, and raw restaurants and a few recipes for newbies to try.

And a final interesting note: on the site’s poll, 3/4 of the takers believe that a “well-balanced vegetarian diet” is healthier than a meat-based diet.

July 8th-14th is National Vegetarian Week, proclaims the The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom. Now’s the chance to try making a change in your diet, if you already haven’t… and if this is the type of thing that would inspire you to do so.