lazy tomato pasta

Vegan cooking is really easy once you finally get out of your meat and cheese sandwich rut. Here's a simple single-serving recipe I managed to throw together with a few ingredients I had on hand.


You're going to need:
- 3 tomatoes
- garlic
- sweet basil (or just basil)
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- oregano (totally optional)
- some kind of pasta (I used spaghetti)

The amount of garlic and basil you use is up to you. Personally I'm all for the school of "more is better," but you should experiment until you figure out what works for you.


Chop up the tomatoes and basil.


Drizzle some olive oil on a pan at medium heat. Add the tomatoes and the garlic (I used a spoonful). Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon.


After a while the tomatoes should start "melting". You can speed up the process by mashing the tomato chunks with your spoon.


When the tomatoes reach a nice saucy consistency add the basil and the oregano. Throw in two handfuls of cooked pasta (or one handful if you have big hands) and stir it all together. Season to taste with salt and pepper then stir it up some more. Serve immediately once the pasta is coated.


If you're feeling sexy, you can garnish your pasta with a cute little basil leaf.

See? Vegan cooking isn't hard at all. :)

fun fact #1

When it comes to reducing your carbon footprint, not eating meat for one day has the same impact as buying all your vegetables locally for the entire week!

Now you know. And knowing is half the battle!

soylent green

I suck at plot summaries, so here's what michaeldvd.com has to say about this movie:

"Set in the near future when the world's population has reached critical mass, Soylent Green is equal part detective story and futuristic adventure. The world depicted in the film is a nightmarish possibility. Overpopulation has forced millions to live on the streets where any food is in short supply. People are forced to live amongst the rotting corpses of starvation victims as they wait for the Soylent company to distribute their weekly supply of Soylent Green, a manufactured food product developed to feed the starving masses. Charlton Heston plays Richard Thorn, a detective assigned to investigate the murder of a high-ranking Soylent Executive. His investigation leads to a shocking discovery that could devastate mankind."

And what, pray tell, is this shocking discovery?



SOYLENT GREEN IS MADE FROM HUMAN FLESH.

I think of this movie every time I eat soy protein.

eat: sugar beat sweets (sf)

Let's cut to the chase: I love the cupcakes at Sugar Beat Sweets. Love, love, LOVE them. If they weren't so expensive I'd be cramming my face with mini cupcakes day and night.

Type 2 Diabetes?

TOTALLY WORTH IT!!

Right now you can only get the cupcakes via occasional bake sale appearances and online order (sugarbeatsweets.com) but a brick and mortar bakery is currently in the works. So if you're in San Francisco and craving something sweet, check out their website and hit them up. Your tastebuds will love you forever.

best fries in berkeley

I've ordered every type of fried potato you could possibly order in Berkeley, from the garlic fries at Smart Alec's to the tater tots at I.B.'s, so I know a few things about Berkeley french fries. OM NOM NOM.

The one order of fries to rule them all:

Belgian Fries
from Maoz on Telegraph
$2.50 + tax

Maoz has the best ratio of saltiness to crunchiness to oiliness out of all the fries in Berkeley. And that one chick named Monica is kinda hot. I'm not really sure what makes Belgian fries any different from French fries, but I think it has to do with the thickness of the fries and the dipping sauce options.

Honorable Mention goes to:

Cajun Fries
from Raleigh's (also on Telegraph)
$3.95 + tax

The Cajun fries are pretty amazing but the customer service kind of sucks. I really wish they had a takeout window because the fries really aren't worth the sit-down dining ordeal.

take a bow

Two more finals and one more video post. Let's talk about this music video by Madonna!


When I was going through the comments board for this video I was a little taken aback by all the hate flying back and forth on the issue of bullfighting.

I'm definitely not pro-bullfighting, but I want to point out that a lot of rabid animal rights activists seemed to miss the point of this video. While the cinematography and the song and the clothes (oh my gawd the clothes!) are all undoubtedly gorgeous, I don't think that the beauty of the video is necessarily meant to glamourize bullfighting as a sport. The video's plot centers around an abusive relationship between the bullfighter and Madonna, with the bullfighting scene acting as a visual metaphor for the physical and emotional brutality that this guy inflicts; so if anything, rather than saying "killing animals = awesome" the real message in the bull's death is that this fellow is a bad, bad man.

Can you see the running metaphors between the two instances of violence? Do you notice how the dying bull is pawing at the ground just as Madonna is running down the street with lipstick smeared all over her face? If you think that this video condones bullfighting, then you must also think that it condones domestic violence.

To be honest, I seriously love this music video. I think it's one of the most beautiful pop music videos of all time. Things kind of went downhill for Madonna after Ray of Light, but the 90s were undoubtedly the shining peak of her career.

Watch the video and come to your own conclusions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDeiovnCv1o&feature=channel

my vegetable friends

Finals are kicking my ass right now. No time to blog extensively this week. :(

So it looks like today's post is going to have to be a video:



It's a little stupid at first, but it starts getting pretty amazing right around O:56.