Author: Jason

Vegan Cuts November 2019 Snack Box

Vegancuts November 2019 Snackbox Contents

In November I received an unexpected box. A new subscription box that my wife got me for Christmas. We didn’t know that we would get November’s box, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I wanted to create this post to remember what were my favorite things in the box. I’ve tried most things now.

Winner! Popchips, this is an easy one. I’ve had these before and I love them. I didn’t even get to eat the ones that came in the box, my daughter took them to school and poof, gone. When we see these in the store we buy them!

Endangered Species ESC One Puffed Rice Crunch + Dark Chocolate bar, this was very good. I wonder how much it would be by itself since it was small and contained just about every certification you can get on a food product. I won’t go looking for this, but I did like it.

Winner! JJ’s Sweets Coconut Sugar Caramels, these were very sweet. A lot softer than slat water taffy, and very yummy. If we see these at the store we will get them.

Winner! Unreal Dark Chocolate Peanut Gems. We have these at our local sprouts and will be picking them up occasionally. What a nice treat. The coloring is made from plant-based dyes, no red no. 5 here!

Cauli-Rice. I tried this with some vegetable korma on top for lunch yesterday. I found that the “rice” produced a lot of liquid when warmed up. It was still good, but be aware it makes your dish a little watery.

Winner! Four Sigmatic Chai Latte Mushroom Mix was fantastic. I would get this again! Very yummy!

Winner! Good! Snacks Birthday Cake Bar. This is the first time I have bit into a protein bar and been flabbergasted that it actually tastes like the description. This thing really tasted like birthday cake and we will be buying some of these from their website as I can’t find them in stores near me.

Tahoe Trail Bar Caramel Chocolate Chunk. This bar was just okay. Nothing wrong with it, but not a favorite of mine in the box. Lots of rice, for a good crunch and I, could taste the chocolate, but not the caramel.

IQ Bar. I haven’t tried this yet, so a place holder for later… UPDATE: No, just no. I took a bite and didn’t like it. I gave it another chance taking a second bit and immediately regretted it. The rest went into the trash bin.

Shanti Bar. This was a very small piece of coconut with other things in it. I don’t remember it well, because I didn’t care for it much. I won’t be searching this one out.

Winner! La Colombe Oat Milk Draft Latte. This product is the reason for this post. I don’t want to forget this. I’m going to look for these online and off. This was SO good. Still not sure if I opened it right, but I loved it!

Last one, New Chapter Complete Organic Plant Protein Chocolate Powder. I blended this with a banana and the 10 ouches of liquid (almond milk) as suggested, but I still tasted the chalkiness that most of these powders have. I didn’t love the flavor and I didn’t like the texture. This is in the no pile.

Review | New Minimalism: Decluttering and Design for Sustainable, Intentional Living

New Minimalism: Decluttering and Design for Sustainable, Intentional Living
New Minimalism by Cary Telander Fortin, Kyle Louise Quilici

I picked up New Minimalism by Cary Telander Fortin, Kyle Louise Quilici from my local library. The book describes a middle ground between “I live with only 4 things” and hoarders.

As you can tell from all the links and extra books listed I really enjoyed this book. I’m recommending it to my wife next. I think she will find some real nuggets that will help her.

I enjoyed the practicality. The tagline for the books is:

Your external space reflects your internal state. What does your home say about you?

Cary Telander Fortin and Kyle Louise Quilici

Some notes from the book that I want to remember are:

Philosophy books:

Websites:

Simple Wardrobes:

Environment:

Design Books:

Design Websites:

Cycling Without Fear

In this article, Dan Kois tells his story of living in the Netherlands for 3 months with his children but without a car.

In the Netherlands, only tourists wear helmets.

a country with more bikes than people, and we were eager to slip into the two-wheeled flow.

Even in optimistic American municipalities that have demarcated bike lanes on the street or paved a few bike paths, cars come first, and drivers rarely look out for cyclists. Drivers park and then swing their front doors wide; they make right turns without looking behind them; they pull out of parking lots and cut across bike lanes at full speed. Who can blame them? The system was built to maximize drivers’ efficiency, and anything that might slow them down is a glitch. [underlining, mine]

For cyclists used to being second-class citizens, watching bikes navigate the Netherlands is revelatory. 

Most important, drivers look out for cyclists, cede the right of way, and are rarely surprised by them. After all, nearly all those drivers are cyclists themselves. The eighteen million residents of the … more than twenty-two million bicycles. Dutch kids ride in child seats practically from birth, are on balance bikes by two, and are cycling unaided by four. Old people continue to cycle, too: when pedalling gets too difficult, they switch to battery-assisted e-bikes, which now outsell standard adult bikes in the Netherlands.

Dan Kois, How I Learned to Cycle Like a Dutchman, The New Yorker, September 13, 2019

Climate Apocalypse

What If We Stopped Pretending? The New Yorker By Jonathan Franzen
September 8, 2019

I just finished reading What If We Stopped Pretending? by Jonathan Frazen in the September 8, 2019 issue of The New Yorker. I think you should read it too.

Today, the scientific evidence verges on irrefutable. If you’re younger than sixty, you have a good chance of witnessing the radical destabilization of life on earth—massive crop failures, apocalyptic fires, imploding economies, epic flooding, hundreds of millions of refugees fleeing regions made uninhabitable by extreme heat or permanent drought. If you’re under thirty, you’re all but guaranteed to witness it.

Psychologically, this denial makes sense. Despite the outrageous fact that I’ll soon be dead forever, I live in the present, not the future. Given a choice between an alarming abstraction (death) and the reassuring evidence of my senses (breakfast!), my mind prefers to focus on the latter. 

To fail to conserve a finite resource when conservation measures are available, to needlessly add carbon to the atmosphere when we know very well what carbon is doing to it, is simply wrong.

Jonathan Frazen