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European Premiere of Kick Ass held at the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square

Jamie Oliver has praised a fast food restaurant known for greasy burgers for its quality of food.

Come again?

Yes, McDonald’s is one of the biggest producers of cow patties, but, at least in the UK, they have made efforts to step up their animal welfare standards–as much as possible while still using the animal product.

“McDonald’s in the UK is very different compared to the US model – the quality of beef, they only sell free-range eggs, they only sell organic milk, their ethics and recycling is being improved and improved,” Oliver said.

“And I can’t believe I’m sitting here telling you that McDonald’s UK has come a long way, but actually, it probably puts quite a lot of gastropubs to shame, the amount of work they are doing at the back end.”

Oliver frowned upon factory farmed, processed meat delivered to the Huntington, Virginia high school where he filmed Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

The U.S. is often slow to catch on when it comes to animal welfare.

McDonald’s representative in the UK, for example, agreed long ago that battery cages were cruel and UK McDonalds banned this practice before it was outlawed there.

Similarly, KFC in Canada offers a vegan faux chicken sandwich and is working toward more humane slaughter practices while the U.S. has yet to budge.

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Vanity Fair Celebrates The 2010 Tribeca Film Festival

Martha Stewart‘s magazine Body + Soul, now known as Whole Living, treated New York city elementary school children for their efforts to bring awareness to Earth Day.

According to MNN, the magazine teamed up with the non-profit group PENCIL to sponsor an Earth Day poster contest.

Each school picked a poster from each grade to go on to the finals, where the children were rewarded with locally grown produce and dairy and eggs sourced from Stewart’s farm.

Last year Martha attended a launch party for Farm Forward, an organization that aims to move everyone away from factory farming and shift focus towards smaller, family farms that use more sustainable practices.

Martha allowed Access Hollywood to accompany her on her farm, which uses no pesticides.

“Everything can be picked off the plant and just eaten,” Martha says in the video.

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Stephanie Izard

Stephanie Izard

Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard received criticism from PETA for hosting a veal dinner in a series of meals titled “Wandering Goat.”

“We’re writing today because numerous individuals—including fans of yours—contacted us to let us know that they were shocked to see you promoting veal and even displaying a photo of a skinned baby calf—Guillermo, as you named him—on your Twitter. Please know that the veal industry is cruel and inhumane and will remain financially viable as long as influential people like you continue to refer to the meat from sick, malnourished baby cows as a delicacy. It doesn’t matter where you purchase the meat—if you support the veal industry, you are supporting cruelty.”

Izard responded to PETA’s letter on her blog, explaining she sought veal that was raised locally and by what she considers humanely.

“In the past I have rarely used veal due to the inhumane treatment of calves. However, I was contacted by a local farm that raises free range veal in a very respectable way. While many people shun veal, the greater culinary community will continue to have veal be a part of their menus. All I am trying to do is get people to look at these local farms as refuge from larger meat-processing plants.”

Although the Kilgus Farm in Fairbury, Illinois does let goats feed on the pasture in the spring and fall, switching to homegrown hay in the winter, the baby calves, of course, are fed mother’s milk before quickly being taken to slaughter.

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Paula Deen “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Cooks Non Pet Chickens (Video)

Written by Vegetarian Star on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 in Chefs, Not So Vegetarian, Videos.

Paula Deen was on Jimmy Kimmel last night demonstrating how to cook fried chicken.

A chicken that wasn’t her friend.

You see, Paula is an activist of some sort.

She has pet chickens that she calls “rescue chickens,” formerly sentinel chickens used to monitor diseases transmitted by mosquitoes.

She would never eat her pet chickens and said she loves opening her home to animals.

“I love anything with heartbeat to come into my house y’all,” Paula said while cooking the dead chicken.

“Okay. And now we’re going to fry something with a hearbeat,” Kimmel said.

“I don’t know them, and I don’t have a relationship with them. I’ve never scratched their ears,” Paula said in regards to the dead chickens.

Pet chickens= no food. Chickens you haven’t formerly introduced yourself to and scratched ears= fried chicken.

Sounds like Paula has a serious case of moral schizophrenia.

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Martha Stewart Meatless Recipes

Written by Vegetarian Star on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 in Chefs, Food & Drink, Recipes, TV Hosts.

Vanity Fair Celebrates The 2010 Tribeca Film Festival

Martha Stewart loves us!

She’s featuring almost 100 vegetarian recipes on her website to celebrate Meatless Mondays during Earth Week.

There are two slideshows.

Fifty fast meatless main dishes give instructions for cooking up creative dishes like Lighter Eggplant Parmesan, Sesame Noodles and West Coast Grilled Vegetable Pizza.

The 45 meatless comfort food recipes offer meat free ways to create old time favorites like chili using vegetarian black beans and tacos with portabello mushrooms and zucchini.

Martha, who’s Sirius XM radio  host daughter Alexis, is vegetarian, has been regularly featuring vegetarian friendly segments, from her meatless Thanksgiving ideas to celebrating National Soy Month.

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Mario Batali “Molto Gusto” Lets You Meet New Vegetables

Written by Vegetarian Star on Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 in Books, Chefs, Food & Drink.

Premiere screening of Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.


Remember when you tried a shiitake mushroom for the first time?

Different in taste and texture from the white button ones you consumed on pizza at the county fair, yet a great experience that hopefully led to many more.

Mario Batalis latest cookbook, Molto Gusto, may have you meeting new vegetables, according to The Buffalo News.

“Some of the vegetables in “Molto Gusto” are relatively obscure – salsify, cardoons, black kale, sunchokes – but the breadth of vegetable preparations in “Molto Gusto” is infectious. Armed with Batali’s suggestions, it seems, readers could tackle almost any vegetable they bring home.”

Let’s get to know these one at a time.

Sunchoke: Jerusalem artichoke
Salsify: A flowering plant, also known as goatsbeard. Described as having the taste of oysters.
Cardoon: May be used as a vegetarian source for enzymes in cheese production.
Black Kale: Member of the cabbage family nicknamed Curley or Dinosaur.

We’re thinking meeting them all in a big taste test would be awesome.

Kinda like vegetable speed dating.

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Jamie Oliver Says Real Men Shouldn’t Drink Pink

Written by Vegetarian Star on Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 in Chefs, Children, Food & Drink, Nutrition-Health-Fitness.

European Premiere of Kick Ass held at the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square

On a recent episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, Jamie Oliver is peeved whenever the pink milk he thought he sent packing from the school cafeteria in the town where he’s trying to change people’s eating habits showed up only days later.

Just like Jamie found out french fries count wonderfully as a vegetable, he learned pink milk, despite the sugar content, makes a good source of calcium according to USDA standards.

“Clever! I never thought that if you put sugar in everything they’d eat it more!” Jamie said.

If we only had more Jamies to challenge the dairy milk requirement in schools across the country, our students would be in better shape.

According to Healthy School Lunches, flavored milks such as strawberry or chocolate, may contain as much or more sugar than soda.

Not to mention the numerous studies that have linked cow’s milk to health ailments like constipation, obesity, anemia, ear infections, respiratory issues and cancer.

Pink milk will definitely not turn boys into strong men.

And to think it was soy milk and male boobs people were worried about.

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Ellie Krieger Pita Chips And Spicy Edamame Hummus Recipe (Video)

Written by Vegetarian Star on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 in Chefs, Food & Drink, Recipes, Videos.

Ellie Krieger says there are three things you need to know about eating well when there’s little time to prepare foods.

Have foods with a longer shelf life, foods you can easily grab and go and prepare foods ahead of time.

In this video, Krieger substitutes chips and dip for pita chips with protein rich edamame spread for a quick, healthy and delicious snack.

Dipping pita chips in an olive oil mixture with cumin, cayenne pepper and garlic give them a kick, which can be compensated by dipping them in a cool dip made with tofu and edamame.

“These are both different kinds of soy,” Krieger says about the tofu and edamame. “Which is kind of neat because soy has been shown to reduce cholesterol.”

All you need for making your own spicy pita chips and edamame hummus is to watch this video.

Enjoy!

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