Saturday, August 28, 2010

Saturday Loot

What can you do with $15? You could:

  • Donate it to your favorite charity (mine is The Humane Society of the United States)
  • Buy a veggie burger and beer from your favorite local restaurant (mine is The Porch)
  • You could go to a movie, but probably won't get to buy popcorn unless you go to a matinee and get the smallest popcorn they have. 
  • Buy 5 gallons of gas, depending on where you live
  • You could even get 3 footlong subs from Subway!
$15 can buy you so many things, but this is what it bought me today at the Kootenai County Farmer's Market:

That would be: a quart of blueberries, 2 organic locally made dog biscuits, a watermelon that weighs the same as a year old infant, and 12 of the most beautiful farm fresh eggs that I know have come from happy chickens! Don't you just love the shades? There are even green eggs! I want to tell those factory farm, battery-hen, chlorine bleaching, cruelty and disease causing commercial egg producers to SHOVE IT.


Local blueberries. No idea where Laclede, Idaho is.


After spending my 15 bones at the farmer's market I went to Target. I really don't want to support Target as they have given charitable donations to homophobic organizations, but I just love Target so much.

Here is my loot from Target today. Highlights include: vitamins for Kobe, a notebook made out of banana leaves and recycled garbage, Franks Red Hot (the best sauce on veggie sausage and egg English muffins), and a crap load of cruelty free toiletries:


I also went to the grocery store and asked the bakery if they had any whole wheat, locally made bratwurst buns. Nope. Had to get locally made French hoagies that will have to do. I'm making veggie bratwurst today and can not wait! I also got some organic heavy cream for a recipe I'm going to make today. More on that later.


Right now I want to talk about those cruelty free toiletries I got at Target. For those of you who don't know, I recently became a member of PETA. Now, there are a lot of haters of PETA out there and they get a bad rap for a lot of the crazy shiz they do. But, they are one organization can get stuff done. Because of their extreme nature, they get a lot of attention and companies are not exactly thrilled about being under PETA's spotlight so it's an organization that has a lot of weight to throw around and I like that. They are bold, determined, and unfaltering on their beliefs that animals should not be ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any way. While being a vegetarian has not been easy, it is pretty straightforward. What I found to be hard is finding things that haven't been experimented on by animals that I use in my every day life. No one knows that Maybelline experiments on animals because they don't want you to know. Same goes for Lancome, Oxiclean, Crest, Colgate, Neutrogena, Tide, Spray and Wash, Aveeno, and lots of others. (Here's a question: Why the heck do we need to test laundry detergent on animals? They don't even wear clothes that need to be washed. Stupid.) Some companies that I find commendable because they DO NOT test on animals are Revlon, Burts Bees, Clinique, Paul Mitchell, Bath and Body Works, Tommy Hilfiger, Victoria's Secret, and lots of others. The good news is that the list of companies that DO NOT test on animals is a lot longer than the list of those that DO. The bad news is that a lot of the well known companies DO. Lamesauce. Anyway, I'm getting off my soap box and here are some products that I purchased today.











To find out if the products you use are used on animals, check the back of the container in the fine print. Companies that DO NOT test on animals are proud to state that fact and will usually have it listed somewhere on the packaging. It may be a symbol, sentence, or will just say "cruelty free." If you are unsure, go to this list and most any company or manufacturer will be listed.






Whew. I didn't intend to go into that so much, but there ya go. These products can be expensive, but to know that I'm not slathering product on my skin, body, or hair that has been put into helpless animals eyes or something, that's a-ok with me.

Now, on a more happy and cheerful note,  a sneak peek of what I'm going to attempt to create this weekend:




Look a little closer...


YUM.

5 comments:

  1. First off, I LOVE Farmer's Markets! All the freshness! Good post. I've caught myself spending more time (and money) in the natural/organic section of the grocery store. Not sure how truly label most of the products are, but it makes me feel a little better.

    I've been using cruelty free makeup for years, just because I like it better. I didn't realize how many of my other products (like hair products) are. You'd think salon brands would be doing their part since you are spending so much more.

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  2. I love animals, but here's something I watched a long time ago that made me not a fan of PETA:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0exLa6saV9o

    Still, it's awesome that you're finding all these products that aren't tested on animals! Love the point about animals not wearing clothes... weird!

    Btw, this is the second time I've written this comment. I think my first one was better haha. For some reason, blogger has like a 60 step process to make a comment and it gets deleted half the time - BLEH.

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  3. That's an interesting video because PETA actually promotes euthanasia and very rarely keep animals who are surrendered to them. They are aware that there is NO WAY all animals can be adopted by people who can care for them. There is just too many people who don't spay and neuter their pets, or who buy from breeders and pet stores instead of get their pets from animal shelters. Euthanasia is usually a better option to starvation, over population, and a miserable life.

    This video may have been made before PETA supported euthanasia as an option for over population.

    Oh, and PS I can't watch videos that show abuse of animals so next time please warn me before posting a video that shows people kicking pigs and hanging cows alive from their necks/ankles. K Thanks.

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  4. I hadn't seen that video in a long time and watched it again after I posted my comment - I totally forgot there was that graphic stuff in there - I'm really sorry. I had a hard time watching that tonight, too.

    After watching the segment again, the show definitely seemed to have it out for PETA and didn't seem very balanced. Wish it would've come off a bit less smarmy. However, there was some evidence in there that's hard to ignore.

    I'm curious: what does PETA do with the pets that are surrendered to them. If they don't believe in pets, then how can they put them up for adoption? I wonder what they do with them... It'd be awesome if there was like a ginormous farm they all got sent to where they could run and poo! Hmmmmm

    Again... sorry, Shan!

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  5. PETA believes in pets, they do not support breeders or pet shops, though. They are all about companion animals, but if there are too many to go to good homes, they also know that euthanasia has to be an option as the alternative is worse.

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