Hey guys!
I had this post fully drafted for about a year. I noticed it just now and thought to myself: Why didn't I post this? Why didn't I follow through? Well, life happens. I got stuck in my ways, procrastinated, and now I'm back again. So I thought, why not just post it! You'll see that this was from early covid days which I sorta tweaked, but nonetheless, it should be posted. Hopefully moving forward, it'll give me a bit more content to provide you guys! So enjoy!
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Jeni's Tofu Yakisoba from Sushi Hon.
Now that my sister has so much time on her hands, she's been quite active on our sustain Instagram page. From posting about Earth Day to adding facts on what we can do during this crisis. We made a goal that by the end of this year, we'll gain up to 100+ followers with a lot more plans in mind for the future. She's been doing such a great job at it and it's insane how many people we impact when we post. I love being a part of the turnaround. The sustainable changes that our friends and family inhabited, and the amount of feedback we received thus far. That being said, I wanted to share my part of Sustain, which is what SUSTAIN.ABLE means to me, and how it ties in with animal brutality.
Humans all over the world have been impacted by this Covid-19 crisis. We've been told to stay home, to avoid human-to-human contact, and all non-essential stores have closed down to flatten the curve. Although it has been a setback for us and what we're used to, it has helped the Earth tremendously. Humans have tortured our Earth, tortured endangered animals, and have been the number one cause of unfortunate events. I am not a religious person but I do believe in faith. What it meant for humanity to be at a standstill while the rest of the world resets, while the beaches breath, the animals reproduce, and the air cleans itself. Faith. That at some point in time, we can still believe in change - Not from the changes we'll call the new normal, but the habits we learn from all of this.
There has been several articles I'm sure we've all seen. About what it may feel like for us now to be quarantined and only now seeing the bigger picture of animals that have been quarantined their whole life. That Zoo's are mainly for human entertainment and without noticing that the animals that are kept captive there have only so little to roam. There are articles about how endangered animals are reproducing since there is so little hunting going on, and that natural habitats are flourishing. But there are also remorse news that house animals are being thrown out of their homes because their humans are too afraid they can catch the virus. That the animals being kept captive are not being taken care of or not eating, because we are only looking out for ourselves. And that animals, such as dogs are still in small cages, stuck in their feces, left alone to starve to death if they aren't killed first because non-profit organizations don't have the funds to take over due to the virus. It's insane how little we think yet how much we impact the world around us.
I'm fully aware not all of us think the same. We neglect to look at the bigger picture because it scares us. We don't watch "those types of documentaries" because it ultimately opens our eyes to the unfortunate truth. I am also aware that although 95% of the people I know aren't vegetarian, it only takes that extra 5% to make the extra effort on understanding what that imprint means to our land animals. One person going vegetarian saves 25 land animals in a year. And according to google, we kill about 7.7 billion land animals each year. When you look at the numbers, 25 land animals doesn't seem like a lot. When I even look at it, I think, well damn! But in reality, that's all I could do. All I have to do is contribute to the 25 saved animals and let them accumulate as others follow.
I'm sure I've said this before. That you don't have to necessarily go vegetarian, but if you make the effort to go without meat 1 week per month - you're still saving them. You not only save the animals, but you're not contributing to the amount of water used, you're not contributing to the carbon footprint it takes to produce a single beef patty, and you're making a difference regardless. So I urge those reading to seriously consider it. Try it out, it's only one week out of the month, can you do it?
So when people ask: What made you go vegetarian? Well, that's really it. I also went back to eating seafood. And after doing so, I realized that we're all human. I'm not in a vegan cult of shaming those around me for eating meat. I also have to make choices when it comes to food due to being raised in a filipino household. Ron also still eats meat, and I am okay with that. I believe that being cautious of the footprint I contribute is more than enough to be imperfectly vegetarian, and that's what I want to show those around me. We can all make small differences, we can all choose vegetarian options from time to time, and we can all contribute to a healthier world lifestyle.
Vegetarian Holiday Lunch @ Work catered by Baan Thai.
Which leads me to tell you readers that I decided to do something fun on my blog. November 2021 marked heyitsmejree's 4 years. So coming up with new things to talk about has been quite difficult, to be honest. I've been sidetracked with work which actually took over my life for a little while there. And once I got back into posting, I realized how much I liked writing. I like being able to speak my mind and I totally wish I could just be doing this full-time! So why not do it? I'm not saying I'm going to quit my job to do this all day everyday. But if I'm so passionate about wanting to change people's lives by teaching them certain values I hold close to my heart, why not stay consistent? For the past 3 years, I've been quite active on google reviews. I post photos of our food and the majority of the time, I'll review the restaurant and post little comments if I feel it's necessary. I recently noticed how many people actually see these photos and comments because google will send me notifications of them which is honestly pretty cool. And although there are so many food bloggers out there - There aren't that many (that I know of) that post reviews on restaurants for their "Vegetarian Options". SO MANY restaurants will have maybe one to two options for vegetarians, and almost 90% of the time, the dish sucks. When people think vegetarian, they think VEGGIES ONLY when really, it's not.
The only vegetarian dish I was able to order from Gol's Lanzhou Noodle House.
So I decided to review restaurants for their vegetarian menu options. Whether they have any if not at all. I want to take photos, talk about my choices when at the restaurant, and of course the full-on review of my experience, the server, and the atmosphere of the restaurant. I think this will help you see what type of food there is out there without the need for meat! And if I could change at least one perspective or get you to try at least one vegetarian dish at a restaurant then I'll be one happy person! So follow along, join my subscription by getting e-mail notifications for when I post and let's make this fun! Looking forward to it, I hope you guys are too!
The beginning of our Family Sunday Lunch Adventures!
Jree.
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