And they’re giving stuff away. Doesn’t get any better than that.

http://www.dedemed.com/

She also sells spice mixes if you’re looking for an expert short cut. I made her Lubya and served it over my version of her brown rice recipe — instead of plain vermicelli, I used whole wheat thin spaghetti broken into small pieces and browned. Served the Lubya over it and it was heaven in a bowl. Dave even liked it, surprisingly with the cilantro. So I have a new dish I can make for everyone with the meat on the side.

2. http://ohsheglows.com/

Vegan recipes and (a little too much for my taste) musings about life, family and body image. A few links are wrong, which is a bugaboo for me, but I’m roaming around this site nevertheless.

Boy, am I glad I got that one wrong!

It was maybe three or four days into eating completely vegan — no cheese (WUT?!?). no meat, no cheese, no milk, no eggs and did I mention no cheese — that I realized I felt fantastic! No gastric reflux. No general yuck feelings. My arthritis a little less painful. Four days to make a difference. So it got me thinking that maybe I could and should just go vegan forever.

Now, I am doing this mostly for health, but I am also very aware of the animal rights issues. I don’t think there’s anything outright wrong with eating meat. I believe humans are genetic omnivores. But our food production system requires that animals be tortured and poisoned merely for profit. That’s where I have issues. Big, big issues.

Some people will argue that vegan diet is not natural. I don’t see what that matters. What we have done to this planet in terms of making it toxic and radioactive, what we do to animals to serve them up in plastic wrap on styrofoam … that sure ain’t natural, either. To me, a vegan diet is a reactionary diet. And I have no problem with that whatsoever.

So that’s the mission statement. From time to time, I might post stuff that’s political or about cats, pretty much the things that keep me going these days. But I will try to focus mostly on recipes, blogs, collections of information, nutrition, etc…

Feel free to visit me on Facebook — I may start a page soon, dedicated to vegan recipes for one, since I don’t expect my family to give up meat unless they want to. If not, just look for Janet Naylor Vandenabeele and send me a message. I’m happy to friend just about anyone, but beware, I may send you a basket of cranberries or a cow if I think you’re one of my hundreds of gamer friends (mostly Cafe World and FarmVille these days).

http://www.facebook.com/TheTiniestTiger

And Gracey the Investigative Journalist did a lot to bring me back around to using Iams again, which has been very good for my cats, esp. Spooky, whose coat is like silk these days. Lots fewer mats, lots fewer hairballs, lots less puking. That alone is a good thing!

Anyway, Gracey has invited everyone to help Iams with its annual holiday program to help find homes for 1.5 pets who don’t have them. There are also lots of easy opportunities to do stuff and Iams will donate food to needy pets.

You can find out more here.

If you are here, I hope you like offbeat crafts, cats, flowers, herbal medicine, twisted humor, cats, alternative religions and religious tolerance and lest I forget, I really hope you like cats.

To get you started, here is a cat. I have more. Lots, lots more … You’ve been warned.

Cute. It’s the new Evil.