Three Things
Plant based meat, glass jar toothpaste, and Freckles.
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I wanted to start writing more but I didn’t want to limit myself to writing about one topic. So I decided to just write three things. Anything from culture & food to sports & long thoughts. It’s open ended and that’s on purpose.
1. Beyond Meat Burgers — possibly the answer?
I’m always seeing people on Twitter saying they’d go vegan, but they can’t give up ice cream/cheese/In n Out/whatever, but recently, I’ve seen people say that you don’t have to give up everything to make vegan choices.
I have dietary restrictions due to the fact my body doesn’t process inflammatory foods at all like most human bodies do, so I try to enjoy what food I can have as much as possible. But the term “flexitarian” was created by a professor at Oxford University who studies environmental sustainability and public health. The term comes from the idea that in order to have better health and also save the planet, people should choose to eat meat and poultry one to two times a week. A WEEK!
My carbon footprint is something that I think about a lot, and look, I understand the people who scream into the void “giving up plastic straws are the hopes and prayers of the climate change argument.” It’s hard to feel like you’re making a difference when greenhouse gasses caused by giant companies are the largest cause of climate change, but I’ve learned that it’s as much legislation as it is consumers.
So when I crave a burger, which happens maybe once or twice a year, I try to make conscious choices. For the planet and for my inevitable stomach ache that follows. I’d been hearing about Beyond Meat for a while and I saw this as the perfect opportunity to try.
I can’t grill to save my life so I put a touch of butter in a pan, toasted up the bun, put more butter in the pan, seasoned the Beyond Meat burger with salt, pepper and garlic powder, and seared on each side for 3 minutes. I added cheese and let melt for another minute. I’m a sucker for mustard and pickles so I went all out since I never make my own burgers and I wanted to know what it tasted like 100% true to my favorite burger form.
Verdict: PRETTY DAMN GOOD! I would definitely recommend — for the vegan, the conscious or the curious — and would try it again. It’s not ~juicy~ like a burger or like the Impossible Burger, Beyond Meat’s competitor, but it cut my craving and was easy to put together. Shoutout to the future. If people stop eating red meat and start eating alternatives like Beyond Meat burgers, we. can. make. an. impact.
2. Toothpaste Bites — Next step in the plastic free crusade
A little over a year ago I gave up plastic straws, which lead to giving up plastic silverware, containers, cups, lids, jars, etc etc. While my kitchen is mostly plastic free at this point, or reused plastic, my bathroom is a place that could use some work. I use bar soap but I still use plastic shampoo/conditioner bottles, toothpaste tubes, lotion and deodorant. Bummer.
In 2019, because “eco friendly” is hip (and in some ways, thank god), there’s pretty much an alternative for everything. So to instagram I go! And that’s where I found Bite. Bite is, as they describe, toothpaste reinvented. It is made of actual ingredients condensed into a little tab that you chew up and then use to brush your teeth.
I understand if you’re nervous to try this product. And you don’t have to try it. But I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting. There’s two flavors, mint and activated charcoal. I tried both, and it is actually foamier than normal toothpaste. I feel really fresh and clean afterward. It works! It’s condensed so it’s easy for traveling, the packaging is pretty cool and most importantly, it helps eliminate the 1 billion non-biodegradable toothpaste tubes that are thrown into landfills each year. An easy switch. There’s lots of brands that are doing this, I enjoyed this one.
3. Lost spoilers — Kate never loved Jack.
There. I said it.
I’ve been rewatching Lost (the best show on television ever??) and each time I watch it, I learn something new. This time it’s that a central love story of all 6 seasons of the show is a HOAX!
The pilot episode sets the scene that Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) and Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) are the main love story of the series when he asks Kate to stitch him, talking her through it, and exchanging clear “we’re the hottest people on the island” looks. From there, Kate goes back and forth the entire series between the two main hunks: Doctor and savior Jack and bad boy exterior, sweet boy interior James “Sawyer” Ford (Josh Holloway). As soon as you accept that she loves one, it switches and she loves the other.
As the series unfolds, it’s obvious that Jack might love Kate than Kate loves Jack as she begins to start a steamy love triangle with Sawyer. Cue the most romantic scene in the entire show:
When Jack & Kate go back to the mainland in season 4 (spoilers) they get engaged, try to raise Aaron as their own (more spoilers) and eventually separate when Jack’s pill addiction becomes too much for Kate to handle (once again, spoilers.) In season 5, when Sawyer is trying to talk Jack out of blowing up the island (honestly, if you’re planning on watching the show and you haven’t, you should have just quit by now) he mentions that he has to do this because “he had her, and then he lost her” referring to Kate, who Sawyer lovingly nicknamed ‘Freckles.’
It really seals the deal in one of the most heartbreaking love triangle scenes in the show. In season 6, Kate follows Sawyer out of the temple and while he’s grieving Juliet’s death, he mentions that he was going to ask Juliet to marry him. It’s some of Holloway’s best acting in the entire series, but the anguish on Kate’s face when she finds out proves it was Sawyer all along.
It’s a classic case in my opinion. Jack is the safe option that loves her unconditionally but Sawyer…Sawyer is who she really longs for. She wants to be someone who ends up with someone like Jack, the dashing and loyal doctor, but knows that her hearts desire is someone more like Sawyer, the con man with the deepest dimples known to man.
Kate loved that Jack loved her, but she never ~loved~ him back. She always has been and always will be Freckles. (even though the best romance in the show in my opinion in Sawyer & Juliet, but that’s for another time.)
