Mint Salad (Vegan and Oil Free)

This salad recipe is given in portions.   Make as much or as little as you like.  Portions are approximate, just estimate!    Except for the dried cranberries and lemon, I grew all the other ingredients in my indoor garden.   

One of my mint plants

10 parts romaine lettuce (cut into bite sized pieces)
3 parts fresh mint (doesn't need to be chopped)
A few pieces of chopped green onion
1 tablespoons lemon juice
About 10 dried cranberries

The salad

Wash and combine all ingredients. 

Helpful hint: Always grow mint in pots, away from other herbs as it sets runners and will take over! 




Blueberry Mint Pancakes

Cinnamon Apple Bread

Easy WFPB Pumpkin Cookies
Lime Flavored Rice
No Knead Basic Bagels

Paprika Hummus

Tomato stew with carrot tops
Veggie Crumbles Lettuce Wraps

                                      

No Knead Basic Bagels (vegan, option for WFPB)

Bagels can be problematic because store bought bagels often contain something called l-cysteine which has multiple sources which can include the hair and feathers of animals.   It also can be made from human hair which would probably make it vegan, but similar to animal hair and feathers still falls into the gross category.  It is also sometimes made from coal tar-not really something I want to be consuming either. 

Luckily it isn't as hard as you might think to  make your own and bagels often freeze well so you can make them in large batches and freeze some.   These actually come out fine without kneading.   It also doesn't require exact measuring and the recipe can be doubled, tripled, halved etc.   If you are going to double or triple you may need a very large bowl or perhaps multiple bowls.   You will also need a very large baking tray or multiple trays.   It is also helpful to have a deep spoon that is several inches deep or a basket. 

On another note the oil is not a requirement but does make the bagels a bit softer. 

Ingredients

About 2 cups warm (not hot) water

1 packet yeast

Optional: 1 Tablespoon oil

1/2 tsp salt

About 6 cups whole wheat flour, possibly as many as 8 cups

A separate 6-8 cups water (boiling)

1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup earth balance or parchment paper

1.  Add the yeast to the warm water and wait a few minutes.   

2.   Add the oil, then the salt, and then the flour until the dough is strong enough to hold a loose ball shape.   Let the dough rise for about one hour.   You may want to consider covering the bowl with a towel.   For those not familiar with the term rise, it basically means leave the dough alone for about an hour, preferably in a slightly warm location.   

3.   Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.   Combine the baking soda with the second set of water and boil.   Prepare a baking tray either with 1/4 cup earth balance or parchment paper.   Do not go light on the earth balance as the bagels tend to stick easily.     

4.   Divide the dough into portions and make into a snake shape.   Then combine the two ends to make a circle shape.   Make sure to leave a decent size hole as it will tighten during baking and boiling.   

5.   Be careful and consider using gloves here.   Once the water mixture is boiling place each bagel in a basket/deep spoon and lower one at a time into the solution for about 30 seconds each and then place on the baking tray.   Do not leave the bagels in for much longer than this.   

6.   Bake for about 45 minutes.   Check at around 35 minutes. 

Blueberry Mint Pancakes

Cinnamon Apple Bread

Easy WFPB Pumpkin Cookies
Lime Flavored Rice

Paprika Hummus

Tomato stew with carrot tops
Veggie Crumbles Lettuce Wraps

                                      

Blueberry Mint Pancakes

Ingredients

1.5 cups vanilla soy or other plant based milk (sweetened) 

2 Tbs chopped mint (could probably be omitted)

1 mashed banana

1 cup blueberries either frozen or fresh

About 2 cups whole wheat flour (could also used other flour)

Up to 1/2 cup earth balance

Optional: strawberry for garnish

Place soy milk in a bowl.   Then add mint, banana, and blueberries.   After that add the flour.   You want it to be thick but not thick enough to make a solid ball.  Note: When making vegan pancake batter you generally need the batter to be much thicker than with non-vegan batter.   

Place a pan with earth balance over medium heat and wait a few minutes for the earth balance to heat.    There is a lot of flexibility in how big you want to make the pancakes but I did about 2-3 inch circles.   Place the batter on the hot pan in circles.   Cook on each side for about 3-5 minutes.

Cinnamon Apple Bread

Easy WFPB Pumpkin Cookies
Lime Flavored Rice

Paprika Hummus

Tomato stew with carrot tops
Veggie Crumbles Lettuce Wraps

                                      

Jazzy Lily Heath Interview

This is the first interview of what I hope will be many I will do. Today, we feature Jazzy Heath a vegan musician.


Jazzy Heath is a pop singer, song writer, musician, producer and sound engineer. Jazzy's music is "raw and authentic" and "inspired by Owl City, Fickle Friends, and Betty Who". You can learn more about Jazzy Heath on Facebook and on Instagram. You can buy the new song below.

Question 1: When did you decide to go vegan and what made you decide to go vegan?


I was born & raised vegan excluding a few years in childhood where I went veggie due to social pressures. Being veggie back then was weird so being a vegan was basically the equivalent of being an alien. When I was 15, I came across Gary Yourofsky's famous speech on Youtube, & then Earthlings. Overnight I was vegan again & I've never looked back since.


Question 2: What advice would you give to parents who are raising vegan children?


That's a really good question aha!! I'd say that education is very important. Not in a way that means showing your child horrid videos at the age of 5 but making sure that a child knows the reasons for being vegan. For example, when I grew up, I was simply vegan because 'I loved animals'. I knew that the jelly my friends would eat was made of animal 'bones & blubber' (that's what I knew it as when i was younger), I knew from growing up with animals that they had unique personalities & I knew that they wanted to live as much as I do. It's in a childs' nature to love animals, It's only as they get older & realise their parent's have been feeding them dead animals that they put the blinkers on to the industry. If your child is really into sport, educate them on the health benefits of veganism & all of the Olympic athletes who are now choosing a plant based lifestyle. If they love animals, teach them why all animals are the same, not just the ones we consider 'pets'.


Question 3: In your video about the vegan festival in Japan I noticed you used public transit. Do you generally use public transit?


I usually travel on public transport or by bike. Having a car seems a bit pointless right now while other means are more convenient. Plus, it's much better for the earth


Question 4: Sounds like you live somewhere with great transit. Where do you live? What can other cities learn from where you live about creating cities where people choose public transit and cycling?


I live in Tokyo right now. I'm originally from England. It's a place that is famous for it's extremely well ran train systems. & there are many, many bike riders.If everywhere had a system like Tokyo, I'm sure everyone would ditch cars & go for public transport. After typhoon Hagibis, the trains were up & running within 12 hours. It really puts English public transport to shame haha!


Question 5: You were part of the backing choir for Fat Boy Slim. How was that experience and what was it like working with Fat Boy Slim?


That was an extraordinary experience! I became a huge fan of Fat Boy Slim a few years after I did the gig with him. His music was my jam throughout my entire 3 years at uni(university)! I played with him as part of his backing choir for his song 'Praise You' on the Main Stage at Bestival when I was 15 as part of a choir group I was in at the time called 'Resonate'. We actually won a television contest on CBBC which is how Fat Boy Slim/Norman found us I'm assuming! I'm attaching the song we won with for you to check out. I'm on the right holding hands with the tall guy at the start of the song. My hair was soo much longer then!


Question 6: If you make it super big what will you do with the money and publicity that come with making it in the music industry?


Honestly, I would buy a ton of land, rescue as many animals as possible & plant a forest! That's always been one of my biggest dreams since I was a little girl. I'm a minimalist so the animals & trees can have most of the land! I'll just have a little eco-tiny house/ bungalow in the corner!


Question 7: Would you by land in Japan or somewhere else? you buy land in Japan or somewhere else?


England is my home & it's the place I want to go back to to settle but Japan will always be important to me now. I guess I'd have the sanctuary in England in that case, but I would love to have a base in Japan so I could come back whenever I wanted! If it were possible, I'd have sanctuaries in both countries though... I feel that Japan definitely needs more places like that. If & when it happens, I will see what is most appropriate & just let the chips fall where they may!


Question 8: Is the vegan food better in England (UK) or Japan?


Food in both countries are so different so it's hard to say! I really miss the accessibility of vegan food in England, though the quality of the vegan food in Japan is just next level! It's really hard to say which is better since they're both so different. Though, I'm pretty jealous from seeing all of the new vegan foods that have come out in England since I've been in Japan! I'm very excited to go back & try it all!


Question 9: What is the most challenging thing about being a musician?


I think being a musician has a lot more challenges than non-musicians would see. Other than the obvious stuff like having to promote myself, getting gigs & all that jazz, my personal struggle as a musician is possibly just being too hard on myself... When I get writers block, it sucks so much but I've had to learn to accept that it's just part of being a creative person. Not every day is going to be my best writing day. I also struggle with that after-gig feeling, after I've performed, got off stage, socialized & go home to a quiet house with just myself & my piano. It's a very strange feeling. I get such a buzz from being on stage & the whole atmosphere after, being around other creatives & just hanging out. So going home to a completely quiet & peaceful atmosphere, I don't know why it affects me, but I've always felt strange about it, even when I first started properly gigging at about the age of 12. Being a musician is a roller coaster in that respect, but I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing, it's just a thing.

Question 10: Do you do other work in addition to being a musician?


I do online session singing/ piano / music making & run the blog & Youtube channel at helloveganbee.com (I'm also just about to start a Christmas & New Year series at Hello Vegan Bee all about how to have an eco friendly & vegan Christmas & then how to have a vegan, happy & healthy 2020)! I am also a Music & English teacher just outside of Tokyo


Hope you enjoyed this interview. If you think you are a good candidate for an interview please contact me via DM on Facebook or contact me on Twitter.

Simple lime flavored rice (vegan, WFPB)

Similar to many of my other recipes you can decrease or increase the portions of this recipe.   My preferred method for making this recipe is in a rice cooker, but feel free to try other methods such as the stove or even a microwave.   

Ingredients 

1 cup brown rice

2.25  cups water
Juice from 1 to 2 limes (depending on how strong you want the flavor)

1/2 cup green onions (or scallions) chopped

1/2 cup fresh mint finely chopped
Optional: 1/4 cup sunflower seeds

Combine all ingredients in a rice cooker (or pot). Cook on brown rice setting or follow the instruction on your rice cooker.   On stove boil briefly then simmer.   

Cinnamon Apple Bread

Easy WFPB Pumpkin Cookies

Paprika Hummus

Tomato stew with carrot tops
Veggie Crumbles Lettuce Wraps

                                      

Easy WFPB Pumpkin Cookies (vegan, no added sugar)

These cookies are actually really easy!   This recipe can be made in larger quantities by doubling, tripling, etc.   The original quantity makes about 6-8 cookies. 

1 banana mashed

1/2 cup fresh pumpkin either parts that are naturally loose and look shredded, shred yourself, or pureed (canned might work too)

1/2 to 1 cup flour

1/2 tsp pumpkin spice

Parchment paper if you want WFPB or oil/earth balance if you just want vegan 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.   Combine all ingredients adding the flour last.  Choice an amount of flour that makes the mixture hard to a consistency that it can almost be made into a ball.   Prepare a baking tray either with parchment paper, oil, or earth balance.   Break the mixture into balls and place on the tray.  Bake for about 40 minutes, but check about 30 minutes.   

Cinnamon Apple Bread

Paprika Hummus

Tomato stew with carrot tops
Veggie Crumbles Lettuce Wraps

                                      

Veggie Crumble Lettuce Wraps (Vegan)

1/2 bag of veggie crumbles (Gardein Groundless "Beef")

2 Stalks of a green onion slice thinly*

A little bit of oil or a non-stick pan

About 10 leaves of leafy green lettuce (I used home grown Black Seeded Simpson)

Sauce

1/4 cup orange juice (good quality is preferable)

2 TBS soy sauce (or more to taste)

1 tsp fresh grated ginger

1 clove garlic grated (carefully and will end up being less than a clove)

The first thing that you want to do is to make the sauce.   Start with the orange juice and soy sauce.   I like to just grate the ginger and garlic directly into the sauce using a small hand grater.  Give the sauce a stir.   

Heat your pan and add oil if needed on medium low heat (3-5).   As you can see below I did not use oil, as I used a non-stick pan.   Pour the sauce in first.   Then add the crumbles and then the green onions.   This all cooks pretty quickly on medium heat in less than 10 minutes.   

Cooking in the pan

Timing needs to be right on this recipe because veggie crumbles don't hold well once they get cold.   On the other hand you don't want to put the veggie crumbles in the lettuce too early either because it can cook the lettuce.   So you want to give it a few minutes to cool and then serve it right away. 

Many of my recipes can be easily doubled, however this one works better as is or cooked in batches because you need to have everything coat the pan in one layer to get the flavor in the veggie crumbles.

*I grow my own green onion.   If you are growing your own you don't need to pull up the plant.   You can get numerous (and I mean numerous) harvests just from cutting of a stalk and leaving a least 2 or even just one other stalk.    Keeps growing bigger stalks too!     

Other Recipes:

Cinnamon Apple Bread

Paprika Hummus

Tomato stew with carrot tops

                                      

List of vegan foods for school parties (nut-free)

With the help of the wonderful parents at the facebook group How Vegan Children Thrive, I came up with this list of vegan nut-free party foods. In other words foods that are good for school parties, as nuts are now banned at most grade-schools and preschools.

*Foods that are starred may not be appropriate for children below a certain age, especially below age 4 due to the risk of choking.  

Animal Crackers

Annie’s Bunny Cookies

Annie’s Fruit Snacks (other brands might not be vegan)

Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks (other brands might not be vegan)

Blow pops*

Boom Chica Pop*

Cracker Jacks*

Dollar Tree Chocolate Covered Graham Crackers (most graham crackers aren’t) and Sandwich Cookies

Dots*

Dum Dum pops*

Duncan Hines Chewy Fudge Brownie Mix if made without added milk or eggs (only this flavor)-some subs for milk would be soy or oat milk and banana or applesauce for eggs.  

Earth Balance Vegan “Cheddar” Squares or “Cheese” chips

Enjoy Life Cookies and other snacks (Any)

Fritos

Fruit by the Foot
Fruit (fresh)

Fruit Platter without dip (dip most likely will be dairy)

Guac (most and not mixed with other stuff such as in multilayer dip)

Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup (Regular Flavor)

Hippeas

Hummus (regular) with pita

Jolly Rancher*

Kettle Brand Potato chips (Sea salt, vinegar,jalapeño, or Sriracha flavors only)

Kinnikinnick K-Toos

Laffy Taffy*

Lays Potato chips (Classic or Limon only)

Made Good Bars and Granola Bites

Mary Jane

Motts Fruit Snacks

Nabisco Oreo 100 Calorie Thin Crisps

Ore Ida Tater Tots (Original Flavor)

Oreos (regular)

Popchips (original only)

Popcorn (plain or with salt and/or oil, and without butter)*

Pretzels (Most hard pretzels, check to make sure they don’t include whey, butter or milk)

Pringles (plain only)

Red Vines*

Rice Cakes (Original Flavor, check carefully on fancy flavors)

Ritz Crackers

Ruffles Potato Chips (original or tapito limon only)

Salsa (most)

Santitas

Skittles

Smarties*

Sour Patch Kids*

Sun Chips (Original only)

Sweat Chili Heat Doritos (purple bag, other doritos are not vegan)

Takis (original flavor only)

Tangerines or other oranges that are easy to peel

Trader Joe’s Inner Peas

Trader Joes Marshmellows (most other marshmellows are not vegan)*

Trader Joe’s Twelve Grain Mini Snack Crackers

Twizlers*

Unfrosted Pop Tarts (not frosted ones)

Vegan Rob’s Chips

Vegetable Platter without dip (dip most likely dairy)

Wheat Thins (original flavor only)

Open Streets DC shows how successful Georgia Avenue could be if it went car-free!

By: Rachelle Kafuman with photos by Noah Kaufman

For a few hours it felt like we had been transported to Oslo or Copenhagen.   But we weren't, we were actually in DC.   Where the car-free street flowed busy with pedestrians and cyclists.   

Giving it is DC, I was a little skeptical on how well the city would pull it off.   But the organizers, police, and other first responders did an excellent job of blocking off all the side streets and even garages to traffic making the event truly safe.   

Open Streets DC provided a unique opportunity for pedestrians, cyclists, strollers, and others to walk, run, and cycle through Georgia Avenue in NW DC.  Open Streets DC occurred on October 5, 2019.  The event was a very long street festival, covering three miles.  Many vendors and other entities had booths – the groups including the DC bike association (WABA), a community garden, beer vendors, restaurants, and numerous others.  Attendees had the chance to attend free fitness classes (including Zumba), run, or cycle.  

Families with young children could easily wheel their babies and toddlers in strollers or cycle with their children in all kinds of various bike carriers.   A day where families could enjoy taking their young children out without having to fear them being hurt or killed by selfish drivers who choose to do such reckless things as drive SUVs that are 3x more likely to kill or whom are texting and not  paying attention to the roads.   Also,  a great day for dog children too and we saw lots of cute dogs!   

Open Street DC included several musical acts.  For example, a steel drum band played.  Concluding the festival was including an outstanding the TOB Go-Go band with great beats, enthusiastic dancing, powerful percussions, drums, and vocals – very appropriate, as Go-Go is a musical style that starts in the nation’s capital.  TOB Go-Go band was so popular nearly the whole street plus the sidewalk filled with people watching them.   

For our trip, we arrived at the Georgia Avenue metro station and headed south.   This was our first time on Georgia Avenue and we enjoyed discovering more about this community!   We greatly enjoyed taking a quiz and learning more about urban gardening at the booth with DC community gardens.   We also had a great time at Bruce-Monroe Community Park which has a fun playground and on that day had special guests Washington Area Bicyclist Association who had a fun course and the Department of Parks and Recreation which had a special roller skating and scooter event.   Many of the scooter companies were also located in Bruce Monroe Community Park and had scooters available to try out.   We then got to try out the completely vegan restaurant Nuvegan Cafe.  We also saw the beautiful Ms. Wheelchair who demonstrated how everyone including the disabled benefits from car-free streets. 

The only downside was that the event was way too short!   After the event I saw so many  pictures of fun things I missed out on.   Please share with us what fun things you found to do during Open Streets DC (either in the comments below or in comments on social media)!

Paprika Hummus (Vegan and WFPB/no oil)

1 green onion (or scallion)

A few pieces of parsley

2 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup tahini

1 14oz can of chickpeas

Combine all ingredients in a food processor adding chickpeas last and process using puree.  If you want to make the consistency loser add more lemon juice, not water.   

                                   

Movies sorted by car-free, suv-free, and car centric

Updated: 5/17/2023

I actually started working on this a while ago and had several posts and would create new ones when I updated.  I now plan to simplify this into one post that I will continue to update.   One can only watch movies so quickly and I'm doing this all off my personal viewing, so feel free to send additional info and corrections.   Also, have included a few notes in regards to criteria at the end.   If you like this project and would like to help me be able to put more time into this and other blog posts, please consider purchasing my books or downloading them for free through kindle library or kindle unlimited here.

Movies without cars (* for top picks)

Alice in Wonderland (1951 Disney Version)

All Creatures Big and Small
Colette
Corpse Bride
Dances with Wolves*
Discovering Olivia De Havilland

Dumbo
Eragon

Ex-Machina

Hugo
Kinky Boots
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring*

Macbeth (2015)

Maya the Bee (2015)
Neverending Story (original)(Except in wide city shot, not specific to movie)

Noah

Solomon Kane
Space Jam
Swimming in Auchchwitz

Tangled
Ten Commandments
The Illusinist*

Movies without SUVs (*for top picks)

Airplane*

Alice in Wonderland (1951 Disney Version)
All Creatures Big and Small

Astro Boy (A little hard to tell though as it is a cartoon with cars that fly, but I don’t think they look like SUVS)
A Walk in the Woods
Bad News Bears
Blue Chips
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Capote
Colette
Corpse Bride
Dances with Wolves*
Dennis the Menace

Dumbo
Elvis and Nixon
Edge of Love
Eragon

Ex-Machina*

Gattaca
Hackers

Hugo

I’ll See You in My Dreams
Kinky Boots
Little Monsters
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Love and Mercy

Macbeth

Margin Call

Maya the Bee (2015)

Muppets Take Manhattan
Neverending Story

Noah
Pretty in Pink

Project Almanac (possibly none-hard to tell)
Raging Bull*
Rango
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky IV
Sea Level
School Ties*

Solomon Kane
Space Jam

Tangled
Ten Commandments
The Apartment
The Boondock Saints (with the exception of city shots that are non-specific to the movie)
The Illusionist*
The Score
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)

Movies with low use of cars

Air Force One
Airplane

Annie

A Walk in the Woods
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Dr. Zhivago (2000s version)

Elvis and Nixon

Everybody’s Fine

Hackers (I’m going to put it here because the good gal/guy Hackers use public transit, etc to get around)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (maybe none?)

Little Monsters

Muppets Take Manhattan (Spoiler Alert: Cars not in a good light.   Taxi driver hits Kermit and gives him temporary amnesia).   
Raging Bull
Rango (no real cars, just a few cartoon cars)

The Perfect Crime

Movies with low use of Suvs (or other gas guzzlers)

Air Force One
Aviator
Da Vinci Code

Dennis the Menace

Ghost Busters

If I Stay (Surprising less than one would think for a movie about a car accident and characters also ride bikes)

I Smile Back

JKF
Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)

Love and Mercy (I actually don’t remember seeing any SUVs in the movie, but oddly the vehicle on the cover looks SUV like?)

Men in Black
Pineapple Express

Project Almanac (possibly none-hard to tell)

Sea Level

Sliding Doors

The Big Lebowski

The Whistleblower

Valkyrie

Where Hope Grows (Seem to only be driven by unlikeable characters)

Wild Card

Wolf of Wall Street
X-men (original 2000)-they show an SUV with a group of cars, but it isn't driven.  Not sure about other X-men movies.   

Movies excessively promoting car culture/ car centric or aggressive driving

6 Souls

Aloha
American Beauty

Amy

Anchorman 2
Aviator
Bernie (2011)
Cape Fear (1991)

Da Vinci Code

Everything Must Go

Ghost Busters

Instellar

I Smile Back
Les Diaboliques (French)

Love and Mercy

Man of Tai Chi (By the way this movie is so terrible, I couldn’t even finish watching it.  I’ve done tai chi and the movie violates every principle of tai chi I’ve seen and is senseIess violence with a boring plot.  I gave up when he blew his earnings on a stupid useless gas guzzler which I’m sure he will them use to drive around an urban area). 

Men in Black

Mocking Jay Part II (note this movie gets knocked down not because of what is directly in the movie, but because of using the movie and its actors to do commercials for gas guzzling pick-up trucks)

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Mortdecai
My Fair Lady
Percy Jackson: The Lightening Thief
Pineapple Express

Room

Spiderwick Chronicles
Sunshine Cleaning

The Big Lebowski

The Captive

The Holiday
The Soloist

The Transporter Refueled

The Voices

The Whistleblower

Transformers: Age of Extinction

Twister
War Games (1983)

Where Hope Grows (Spoiler Alert: Drives me crazy he is using the cell phone while driving even after what happened to his friend)

Wild Card

Wolf of Wall Street
Wonder Boys

Z for Zachariah

Movies excessively promoting SUV culture (or other gas guzzlers) or aggressive driving of gas guzzlers

6 Souls

Age of Adaline

Aloha
American Beauty

Anchorman 2
Cape Fear (1991)

Instellar

Man of Tai Chi (By the way this movie is so terrible, I couldn’t even finish watching it.  I’ve done tai chi and the movie violates every principle of tai chi I’ve seen and is senseIess violence with a boring plot.  I gave up when he blew his earnings on a stupid useless gas guzzler which I’m sure he will them use to drive around an urban area). 
Mission Impossible: Fallout

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Mocking Jay Part II (note this movie gets knocked down not because of what is directly in the movie, but because of using the movie and its actors to do commercials for gas guzzling pick-up trucks)

Percy Jackson: The Lightening Thief
Room
Rules of Engagement
Seventeen Again (2000 version)

Spiderwick Chronicles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

The Captive

The Holiday
The Soloist

The Voices

Transformers: Age of Extinction

Twister
War Games (1983)

Z for Zachariah

I have found there are a few grey areas that can be challenging.   The first being any modern movie that includes wide shot city scenes due to poor design of our cities will almost always contain cars or suvs including when they are showing characters engaging in people and environmentally friendly modes of transportation such as walking, cycling or taking transit.   Unless there is a particular focus on the car or SUV I have decided to include these on my list of movies without cars or suvs.     

Another, grey area is old cars that are often SUV like in design.   I have decided in these cases to not include these movies on the movies without SUVs list, but also to not include them on the movies with SUVS list either.   

 This list is kept my Kaufman Green Books and Guides.   To support this list and the blog please consider purchasing a book or reading via Kindle Unlimited: Amazon.com: Rachelle Kaufman: books, biography, latest update

Carrot top and tomato stew

Not only vegan, but can also easily be made whole food plant based. 

Ingredients

Water, oil, or non-stick pan

1 large or 2 small onions finely chopped

Greens/tops of one carrot finely chopped

2 TBS chopped green onions chopped

3 TBS fresh oregano finely chopped

1 14.5 oz can pinto, kidney, or garbanzo beans
28 oz can of petite diced tomatoes 

A pinch of salt

Optional if you don't mind bitter and want a little extra nutrition-greens/tops from one beet

1. Place water or oil in pan if not using a nonstick pan or desired.   Saute the onions and carrot tops for about 10 minutes over medium high heat

2.  Add the rest of the ingredients, reduce the heat to medium low, cover, and simmer for at least 20 minutes, but preferably longer, even a few hours. 

                                   

Cinnamon Apple Bread

This bread has no added sugar, white flour, and the only oil is that which is used to grease the pan.  The apples help add a little sweetness.   

Outside of Bread

Ingredients:

1.5 cups warm water

1 packet yeast

3 Tablespoons flax seed (Recommended but not required)

1/4 tsp salt

2 apples coarsely chopped

3 tsp cinnamon

Somewhere between 3-7 cups flour-getting the texture right is more important than trying to measure an exact amount. 
Enough Earth Balance or oil to grease the pan.    

Inside of bread

1. Combine the water and yeast.  Stir and then allow to sit for a few minutes.   

2. Add the flax seed, salt, apples and cinnamon and stir.  

3.  Add flour one cup at a time and possibly slower at the end until the flour can form a ball that you can almost pick up.   

4.  Allow to rise for about one hour.  Half way through preheat the oven to 375 degrees.   

5.  Give the dough a quick knead.   That being said, despite many people saying kneading is an absolute must, I have a times skipped this step and things turned out okay.   

6.  Place in an earth balanced or oiled pan.  I prefer a fitted round baking pan to help give the bread shape.  Bake bread for about 50 minutes.  Check at 30 and 40 minutes. 

                                   

My car-free trip from Washington DC to Charlottesville

By Noah Kaufman

On June 7, I used public transportation to go from Washington DC to Charlottesville, VA to attend my 20 year reunion.  While the reunion was wonderful, memorable and exceeded my expectations (much like the UVA basketball team), the transportation was difficult and below my frankly low expectations. 

I took the metro to Union Station, which was fine.  The next part of my journey was by Greyhound bus.   I went to the bus area of Union station, which was on a top floor. The signs were a bit confusing, but I did get to my bus.  I took a bus to Richmond. 

After Richmond, I needed to get to a bus to Charlottesville.  The gap between buses was about a half hour, so I should have been fine.  After getting on the bus in DC, the bus driver claimed that the bus would get to Richmond 30 minutes early.  The bus trip was tolerable. The wifi did not work, which was frustrating.  We experienced heavy rain, so the bus was actually about twenty minutes late.  The bus driver stated that when we arrive in our station, we should pay attention to signs, and that we might miss our transfer.  The bus driver told us that he informed Greyhound of the late arrival; it would be reasonable to postpone some connecting busses (similar to connecting flights), but that did not occur. 

After I got to Richmond, I rushed to get to the terminal where my bus to Charlottesville was leaving.  The next bus to Charlottesville was many hours later.  The bus was about to leave, not making any delay despite the fact the prior bus (DC to Richmond) was late.   The bus driver asked why I was late, and I mentioned that the other bus was delayed.  The bus driver gave me a very hard time, though eventually allowed me on the bus.  Other passengers were also stressed and needed to convince the bus driver to let them on the bus.  The trip to Charlottesville was OK, though the bus driver had us wait several minutes for the bus driver to complete paperwork. 

In Charlottesville, there was no connecting bus, trolley or other form of transportation at the bus station itself.  I walked several blocks to a bus station, where several bus riders helpfully told me the proper bus to take to get to the UVA Campus (known as the “Grounds.”)  I then took the bus to the UVA Grounds, where I got a key for the room where I would be staying. 

Overall, it was a stressful and substandard experience.  Also, it was unnecessarily long, taking over six hours to take a trip that should take a bit over two hours. 

Getting back on June 9 was simpler, as I walked from UVA to the train station (about 1.5 miles – would have been difficult if I had any mobility issues) and then took an Amtrak to Union Station.   The train was smooth, had a mediocre wifi, and was spacious.  Still, the train only runs twice a day, and I would have liked more options.  

Noah Kaufman is the author of  Business Ethics of Our Fathers, Running Through Arlington History, and Lessons from the Wrestling Mat.   Noah has been to 45 out of the 50 states.