"Paige" of Parchment

Ingredients: 

- 3/4 cup flour  - 1 mashed banana  - 1/4 to 1/2 cup of non-dairy milk - 1/4 tsp baking powder - Around 1/4 tsp vanilla, maybe 1/8 of a tsp - A dash of cinnamon  - 1/4 cup maybe a little less of brown or coconut sugar (or other) - A little bit of agave syrup because hey I thought it would work and it did

(Toppings: Chocolate sauce [just mix some syrup with cacao powder] and cacao nibs [usually too bitter but tasted nice here! They were absolutely disgusting when I tried them the first time but really you don’t taste the bitterness here!] and a banana on the side)

Instructions: 

Ingredients for the sauce:

- Ketchup - Soy sauce - Garlic powder

Optional/add-ins (when cooking): 

- Spring onion - Regular onion - Bell pepper/capsicum - Other spices or maybe asian-style herbs - Spinach or other leafy greens

Instructions:

1. Prepare your sauce 2. If you are adding onions, start sautéing them now on a medium/high. 3. Sauté your tofu or seitan in a little bit of olive oil, vegetable broth or water, depending on which you use until the tofu/seitan crisps up a little and turns a golden shade. When golden shade reached, turn down the flame to a medium/low. 4. Add your sauce and stir until everything thickens a little

(If you’re adding leafy greens)

5. Take the tofu/seitan out of the pan  6. Add a little water (maybe 1/4 cup, if you need more you can always add it!) or veggie broth to the pan 7. Put in your spinach/kale/other leafy greens and just let them cook with the occasional stir until they’re nice and soft! 

The degree as to how fake your social media is, depends solely on you, and the way you display yourself and your beliefs. It was Essena’s own fault that she decided to promote brands and companies she didn’t know anything about or didn’t completely agree with. Nobody forced her to do any of that, yet she still comes back around saying that she felt the pressure to be perfect. She put that pressure on herself.  The reality of it is that if you can’t handle some criticism and pressure you shouldn’t be putting yourself out there. Don’t set yourself up for failure. It will only come back to bite you in the ass. Too many teenagers these days want to be “social media famous” just so that others can want to look like them, tell them how beautiful they are, how genetically blessed they are. I’ll tell you right now that is selfish. That is greedy. That is what’s considered fake.  Maybe I did dress a certain way for this “photo shoot” I did with my friends, but that was just for fun, and I’m the only one who came with an outfit like this. I wanted to do a photo with this raw sort of feeling where you could see the emotion on my face like in this photo and I’ll admit I’m not photogenic like 80% of the time so I’m so happy we got this photo! But is it fake that I wore clothes I don’t usually wear because my friends and I wanted to play model for a day? No. Why? Because we did it for ourselves (or at least I did, I don’t know about the others). We didn’t do it for the approval of others, we didn’t do it to promote anything, it was just for fun. When you get to the point where you are doing photoshoots to make money and you don’t believe in what you’re promoting, that’s when it becomes fake.  People get social media famous because they are blessed with good genes, but they don’t do anything with their platform at the end of the day aside from celebrate themselves. And it’s really been bothering me lately.  So if you’re social media famous and you’re reading this: Step up. Make a change. Be different. Be controversial, unique. Nobody should be telling you “Oh you know your feed is similar to _____’s!” No. Don’t go stealing someone else’s message and promoting it as your own. Make your own message.  Too many vegan, social media famous people are telling other, younger vegans to spread the message. But how will that help if there is no real purpose behind their channel? I see too many teens with great potential wither away and burn out under the flames of someone “prettier” who doesn’t have anything to say but “buy this product, I’ll give you 10% off!”. 

Keep your product. I don’t want to buy it.

So this is where the part about me comes in:

I’m not here to tell everyone my life is perfect. It is very much far from it. But I am here to show you that if you live a certain way and maintain a certain mindset, it does get better. I may not be a mental health professional, but I’ve been through enough to tell you that when life knocks you down you shouldn’t give in to others’ opinions. I want to show others, especially young girls, that it’s positive to stand up for yourself and what you believe in. You don’t have to try and be like other, social media famous girls. I’ve always been the girl that doesn’t quite fit in one group perfectly. I talk to everyone, I treat others the way I would like to be treated, and I don’t change according to who I’m with. I am myself with everyone.  I want to send out the message of truly being yourself while still being myself if that makes sense. I want to show young girls and those that are already social media famous that if you need to practice what you preach.  And so, finally and therefore, I will continue doing what I love, which is 1. Promoting a healthy lifestyle and helping others to live ethically 2. Taking photos of people, nature, and animals and choosing to upload the photos that weren’t as posed or staged (with occasionally the posed one I took because I wanted to, not to promote something) 3. Posting original content that doesn’t go with the conventional way of thinking and 4. Encouraging others to practice what they preach and stand up for what they believe in. 

Be yourself, don’t value yourself based on the opinions of others. Confidence. Is. Key.  Integrity. Is. Key. 

Don’t let yourself fall down the rabbit hole, it’s dark down there. 

Ingredients:

- 1 cup of cashews (soaked overnight or for 4 hours minimum in water) - 2 potatoes - 1/2 onion - 2 medium carrots - Onion and garlic powder - Nutritional Yeast - Salt (Optional) - Black pepper

Instructions:

1. Soak cashews overnight or for 4 hours 2. Boil your potatoes for 2 minutes 3. Add in the carrots and boil for 5 minutes, start cooking pasta (I use corn pasta because it doesn’t bloat me) 4. Add the onion to the mix and boil for 7 minutes, save the broth 5. Blend cashews for around a minute or two on pulse in a food processor or high speed blender (ex. vitamix) 6. Use one of the spoons with holes in it to take the veggies out of the pot, and add it to the mix with some broth. Blend again. 7. When reached desired texture, add your spices 8. Pour the finished “cheese” onto your pasta

Ingredients:

- Cacao powder (unsweetened) - Almond milk (or other non-dairy milk of choice) - Syrup/Agave - Peanut butter

Instructions:

1. Mix your cacao powder with some syrup. The mixture should not be perfectly mixed together so you can still see cacao powder. 2. When that’s mixed, add the almond milk (or whatever non-dairy milk you choose) so that it mixes properly and you don’t have any un-mixed cacao powder. 3. Melt your peanut butter in the microwave for around 30 seconds (I’d use around 2 tablespoons maybe. I didn’t measure mine but I’d say 2-3 tablespoons is good).  4. Pour in the chocolate into some kind of cupcake holder (you can use paper or aluminum but I wouldn’t recommend an actual baking tray or anything like that). 5. Add the peanut butter then cover with chocolate. 6. Place in the freezer overnight (I’d say if not overnight you’ll need minimum 6 hours). 

This is a picture I took of my brother. 

It’s funny because we went out that day to take pictures of me in an animal rights t-shirt I got online, but I ended up hating all the pictures of myself and loving the ones he asked me to take of him in his pj’s (he wanted to see what he looked like).  But I just like the rawness of this picture. The fact that his hair is all tousled, his pjs are on even if he’s outside. There is nothing edited or modified in this picture, no planning, no thinking it through. Nothing. Just “Ok go stand in front of the wall.” He’s hardly even posing, too. 

I miss this natural feeling in the real world. We’ve got so many touch screens now but we’re losing touch. And that’s the point of this new segment. It’s called: “In Touch”. I want to post about things that keep me in touch with reality and make me not forget what it means to be human; what it means to maintain my humanity.  Let’s stay in touch.  It can’t just be me, the whole world has to stay in touch with reality. We can change this world it we try hard enough, and undo our mistakes in a progressive way. 

So let’s do it.  Let’s make a change.

Ingredients:

- 1 Frozen banana - 1 Non-frozen banana - Almond milk - Water (just a teeny bit) - Orange juice - Blueberries (I used frozen) 

Ingredients:

- Chili powder - Curry powder - Thyme - Onion/Garlic - Veggies of choice - Potatoes - Lentils - Coconut milk  - Water (instead of oil) - Tiny bit of sugar

Optional:

- Salt - Olive oil

Instructions:

1. Chop up all of your veggies and cook your rice and your lentils (prep) 2. Put the onions, garlic, potatoes and veggies (if they are fresh) into your Sauté pan and cover with the lid. Let it sauté for a few minutes in a little water on a medium heat.  3. Add the garlic, curry powder and coconut milk, and let it sauté some more. 4. When the potatoes start to soften add the lentils (and more water or coconut milk according to flavor and consistency). ** If you’re using frozen veggies, add those now too. ** 5. Turn the heat down to low and let everything soak and absorb the flavors for a few more minutes, add the rest of the spices (Thyme, Chili powder).  6. Serve on a nice, fluffy bed of rice!