Vegetarian Star

Jamie Oliver is still disappointed that french fries count as a vegetable in school lunches, but if the great Meat Free Monday champion Paul McCartney sits down for a snack of these with his daughter at NYC’s Serendipity 3, you gotta give them some credit.

As long as they’re not fried in trans fat oil and don’t contain any meat flavorings.

And while a plain old tator doesn’t make the grade “A,” a sweet potato contains more than enough of your recommended daily allowance of the vitamin.

In walks the sweet potato fry.

Alexia has a variety you can start with.

A balance of sweet and salty in the frozen foods section with 70% of recommended Vitamin A and only 5 grams of non-saturated, non-trans fat.

If french fries are the vegetables that will save the children, these must be the biggest lifeboats that hold the most thrown overboard.

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Credit David Shankbone on Wikimedia Commons

So you love the taste of a well done steak or a ham and cheese sandwich.

You don’t give a flying saucer about animals and their pain and suffering.

Why should you make an effort to eat less meat, especially factory farmed meat?

Well, you don’t really want everyone in the office (not even the co-workers you don’t like) to come down with Swine Flu next year, do you?

Jonathan Safran Foer, author of his book on factory farming, Eating Animals, has interviewed with Vegetarian Times in the May/June 2010 issue where he gives this argument for those who aren’t interested one bit in “animal” welfare and rights.

“We known where the flu came from: it came from factory farms in North Carolina. The link between flu pandemics and animal agriculture is not an opinion. It’s a well documented fact by scientific organizations that have no interest whatsoever in promoting vegetarianism.”

Swine flu, of which cases were seen in humans over the past few years, has traditionally been confined to outbreaks among pigs.

Like other viruses, it sometimes develops an affinity for a different host.

According to Wired, in 1998, scientists found a strain of swine flu in U.S. factory farms that spread quickly, and experts warned then it could one day evolve the ability to infect humans, resulting in a pandemic.

Bob Martin, former executive director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Animal Farm Production and a critic of factory farms, called these environments, “super-incubators for viruses.”

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Chrissie Hynde and Welsh singer JP Jones have collaborated to form JP Chrissie & The Fairground Boys and the group is set to give a benefit concert for Woodstock Farm Sanctuary.

According to Ecorazzi,the show will take place Saturday, May 29, 2010 on the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary headquarters in Woodstock, NY and tickets are priced at $20 in advance, $25 day of show, with all proceeds going towards the sanctuary.

Hynde has been consistently vocal about animal issues from zoos to McDonald’s and opened  up a vegan Italian restaurant in her hometown of Akron, Ohio a few years ago that is quite successful.

The Vegiterranean uses Gardein faux meat products in many of its dishes, including the Linguini Carbonara and Spaghettini with vegan meatballs.

Update: The event will be held at Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in Woodstock, NY. The previous version of this post placed the event at Farm Sanctuary, which has locations in Watkins Glen, NY and Orland, CA. Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary and Farm Sanctuary are two separate organizations and not affiliated with one another.

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According to a recent article in the Huffington Post, although Michelle Obama is gung ho about promoting her obesity campaign aimed at slimming America’s children down, it’s not all about whole grains and apples and she’s leaving room for some play time here and there.

The First Lady has agreed to let Twinkies get pass the security in the White House.

If you’re a health obsessed parent who’s decided to let your kids dig in on junk every once in awhile, congratulations.

It may very well save them from rebelling and stashing pounds of candy in the office drawers at work when they’re 35.

You can still take precautions during the wild ride on the sweet side and make healthier Twinkies without dairy, eggs or preservatives like the ones found at the grocery store.

Two recipes to get you started.

One, at Shmooed Food, involves barley malt powder mixed with vegan butter and sugar to get that cream filling.

The second calls for tofu, white chocolate and maple syrup to help form the gooey center.

Will your child be sharing Tofu Twinkies at the lunch table this week?

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Mayor Bloomberg’s Favorite Vegetable Is… from NYDN Brawl for the Hall on Vimeo.

New York city’s mayor Michael Bloomberg was recently out promoting vegetable gardens in schools.

He also promoted iceberg lettuce, which really shouldn’t have a PR staff, considering it’s got half of all the good vitamins and nutrients like Vitamin C, folate and beta carotene than other lettuces like romaine.

“It may not be fashionable, but it’s real American,” Bloomberg said of his lettuce preference.

Thankfully, with the help of Rachael Ray‘s Yum-o! organization, NYC students will get to plant more than iceberg lettuce in their school yards.

Yum-o! helps students either build a garden or connect to an already existing garden, as well as offer cooking and nutrition classes.

Of course, Bloomberg has other vegetables he likes.

Watch the clip to hear them.

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Rachael Ray recently went to Capitol Hill to spend four hours speaking with lawmakers on the need to make changes to the Child Nutrition Act, according to the New York Times.

Specifically, they need to put their money where the mouths are!

Ray called the reimbursement rates for school lunches “ridiculous.”

“How could you go to any state in the union and say you are not for an extra couple of cents to eradicate hunger, to make our kids healthier, stronger, better focused?” she said. “It doesn’t make any sense that you would even have to have a long conversation about that, to me.”

The celebrity chef known to incorporate many vegetarian entrees in her cooking repertoire has already worked with the New York City school system to create healthier changes, such as pasta dishes with whole wheat pasta instead of white.

New York senator Kristen E. Gillibrand wants an increase in spending by $.70 per child, while the current bill is aiming for a mere $.06.

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Scott Jurek. Photo: New York Times

Scott Jurek and Christian Serratos may have something in common.

No, he doesn’t spend his days running with vampires and unlike Serratos’ character’s friends in the Twilight series, this guy is vegetarian because he really doesn’t eat animals, not just restraining himself from the occasional, enticing human he encounters on a jogging trail (we hear the ones who eat meat are the slowest, thus more likely to get eaten).

Seen here on the table next to chef Jurek is what looks very much like a bottle of Sriracha sauce, a Thai hot sauce Serratos loves to add a dash to vinegar and oil when making her own salad dressing.

Compare and say what you think.

The distinctive green cap and fiery red color makes it look as if we’ve made the right call.

Is this something Jurek uses to light a fire to his feet for those 24 hour running marathons?

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Stupid For Movies is a weekly web streamed version of Ebert and Roeper reviews, with LA film critics Mark Keizer and Wade Major giving the lowdown on films in the theatres and DVDs to either “buy,” “rent,” or “burn.”

The Stupid for Movies guys enjoy food on the show, and when creator Mike Rotman is expected to eat, there’s always going to be something meatless to review.

“We have a different food each week,” explained Rotman to Tubefilter. “Jaime (Fox, head writer on Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show) brought pizza this week. I’ve made chili, we’ve done pasta. I’m vegetarian, so we stay vegetarian.”

Rotman revealed the secret to keeping his chili veggie is with Morningstar Farms Veggie Crumbles.

What’s your opinion on the substitute for ground beef?

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Buy it or burn it?

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