Vegan Junk Food

I watched the health care speech earlier today (I would have watched it yesterday, but I was far too exhausted). I thought about writing about it, but I'm not in the mood to think about such things (I really don't need to feel depressed again). So I decided I'd write about a much lighter topic: vegan junk food.

Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I have a huge sweet tooth. Back when I wasn't vegan, I'd consume large quantities of ice cream and such. I've been known to eat far too many donuts. Cinnamon buns, etc. But ice cream was always my favorite. In fact, when I thought about being vegan (not seriously entertaining the idea yet) for the first time, the main reason I didn't consider it further was that I didn't think I could give up ice cream.

Luckily, though, there's vegan ice cream! Very luckily. Some of it is better than others, but there's definitely good vegan ice cream out there. The Rice Dream brand was pretty awful. There was another kind that I didn't like, but I can't think of what it was called. My favorite brands are Tempt (this one appears to be hard to find, but if you find it it's good), Tofutti (much easier to find), and So Delicious (a newer favorite). The good thing about So Delicious is that it has more flavors than the others seem to. At least, more flavors that are easily procured. Vegan ice cream sandwiches I would say go by the same brands.

I technically haven't yet sorted out the vegan chocolate dilemma, but I'm close. I just don't like dark chocolate. I mean, it's better than nothing, but I much prefer milk chocolate or white chocolate. I gave dark chocolate another try, but it really wasn't going to do it. So earlier today I looked up vegan milk chocolate (I figured it had to exist. Maybe soymilk chocolate or something). Luckily, it did exist. Lots of people seem to like the Terra Nostra Rice Milk Chocolate. So I'm planning on procuring some of that if possible.

Then there are a few things I haven't figured out yet, but which I can go without if necessary. For instance, whipped cream. I did like to occasionally have my ice cream with a large mass of whipped cream. Maybe more than occasionally. I seem to be the best in my family at spraying out the whipped cream. The trick is to have it COMPLETELY vertical. Completely. Anyway, I still need to see if such a thing as vegan whipped cream exists.

The other thing is cookie dough. Mostly cookie dough ice cream. I'm not sure if I'll have any luck with that. If I do, though, it would probably be at least marginally healthier than regular cookie dough due to the lack of eggs...

One thing I really do need to find is vegan cinnamon buns. So now I'm going to continue my research (...on trivial matters, but still research).

Results: Ha ha! Vegan cookie dough ice cream does exist! Brands include Wheeler's, Purely Decadent, and Temptation. Vegan whipped cream, too, exists. The main brand seems to be Soyatoo. My cinnamon bun search was slightly less successful, but I did find about a million recipes. So it's not hopeless. Hah! And going vegan's supposed to be hard!

Links

Well, I figured since yesterday's post was so depressing (...in a different way than usual), I should write about something else today. Of course, I couldn't think of anything. So much for that bright idea. But I did think of something I could post. I'm going to post a series of links to websites/blogs that I frequent. I may make a comment or two about their contents. We'll see.

First up is Jezebel, which is basically an online magazine. At the moment, some of their articles that strike my attention address topics such as health care, the creation of gender roles, and lead in lipstick. Not that that last really affect me, but whatever.

So then there's a blog called... Alas, a blog. Not one of my very favorites, but I do like to visit it occasionally to see if anything interesting is going on. The most recent post, which qualifies as interesting (although frightening) in my opinion, is about Pat Buchanan's defense of Hitler.

Next (I am skipping a number of bookmarks, but if anyone's interested I can include them in a later post) is one of my favorites: Echidne of the Snakes. It's one of the first few I found and I recommend it to anyone even slightly interested. I suppose I should recommend some posts but they're pretty much all brilliant.

Another one I like is Feministe. No posts particularly catch my attention today, but when I see a particularly interesting post I'll try to link to it. Jump off the Bridge is pretty cool too. Don't ask me what the deal with the title is. I feel sure it's explained somewhere on the site, but I can't remember what the reasoning was at the moment. Again, right now I'm not finding any really exciting posts, but I'd still recommend checking it out.

Another great site is Sociological Images. I'll let that site speak for itself.

Now this next one is definitely a favorite, although it's a newer find for me. Womanist Musings has to do to some degree with the intersection of sexism and racism. It's wonderful.

So those are some of my favorites from that particular folder in my bookmarks. Tell me if you want some more links, because I could definitely do that.

Blog Posts

I have to leave to practice parallel parking soon, but I thought that before I left I'd leave some links to some recent blog posts I found interesting. So here it goes:

Healthcare It's Personal from Womanist Musings is about how people misrepresent Canadian healthcare.

Obama on the Gates Arrest from the same blog is about exactly what the title suggests.

On Gendered Language from Finally, a Feminism 101 Blog has some connection to my last post.

I have to leave now, but I might post some more links later.

Edit: I'm back. Now I'll look for more interesting links.

Bechdel Test Roundup from Female Impersonator is about the portrayal of women in movies.

Stay Classy, Electronic Arts from Unapologetically Female is horribly depressing.

This post about Limbaugh from Think Progress is kind of amusing.

I think that's good for now. Feel free to post your own links in the comments.

Miscellaneous Details

I haven't posted anything this week, mostly because I've been extremely busy. My camp started (I'm basically a CIT) and it runs from 8 AM to 5 PM. Plus the bus ride takes a while. So I haven't had time to do much of anything else. Now it's the weekend, though, so I have more free time.

So this morning I was catching up on the news, etc, and I found it interesting that I didn't see much of anything about the whole prosecution thing. I think I'm taking that to mean that there definitely isn't any real investigation of the Bush administration about torture going on any time soon.
However, there's been a lot of work on healthcare that I was mostly unaware of this week due to my busy schedule. I've been having trouble finding too much detail on this, other than all the ridiculous claims the Republicans are throwing out. (Like this, for example). There may or may not be some willingness to just pass it without worrying about the Republicans, which would be good. I'll have to look around for more information later.

Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings have started. Apparently they have gone pretty well. It looks she'll be confirmed.

I seem to be unable to say anything much so I'll just link to some things. Think Progress points out that Obama should just issue an executive order preventing the further application of Don't Ask Don't Tell, which is a very good point. I don't understand why the Obama administration is acting like it can't really do anything. This piece of news about how the conservatives don't think civil rights leaders are important enough for students to learn about bothered me. This, about some of what Obama is doing with infinite detention, was troubling. This (about Obama's faith based initiatives thing) upset me, too.