Earth Hour 2011, pourquoi ? Why ?

Article bilingue français/anglais. French/English bilingual post.

FRANCAIS

A vous qui pensez que Earth Hour est stupide et inutile. C'est avec des manifestations comme celle-ci que l'on éduque les enfants, que l'on rappelle aux adultes qu'ils sont sur une planète vivante (au cas où ils auraient déjà oublié les tremblements de terre, les tsunamis, le réchauffement climatique, la pollution marine, de l'air, terrestre...).

Earth Hour, c'est bien plus que d'éteindre votre télé et les lumières pendant 1 heure, c'est ce que vous ferez ensuite. Moi, j'ai envie de faire un hug à un arbre, de regarder les étoiles et que mes voisins différencient la poubelle verte de la poubelle jaune...

ENGLISH

To those of you who think Earth Hour is a stupid and useless thing. Here are the words of a mum:

"I have two daughters, 7 and 10, who look forward to this event and learn something every year we participate. THEY are the leaders of the future, learning from this moment and being inspired by global engagement. It may seem "meek and hollow" to us weather-worn advocates - but this is the stuff of dreams for our children.

This is the fuel and inspiration that plants seeds for bigger and bigger and bigger actions. I don't believe most anything done with good intentions is ever wrong. Point your criticism in another direction. It's about progress, not perfection." Janelle Sorensen

Bring On The Veggies!

I have been quite busy with my professional blog/website Vocalize (in French). But I have a new subject to talk about here:

I am going vegetarian, voilà, I said it!

I have never been a big meat eater and my meals were already including soja, soja milk, soja yogurts, tofu, tofu steaks, lots of nuts (almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, macadamia...), brown rice, whole weat pasta, cereals, vegetables and fruits.

But I grew up eating fine French food and that includes delicious stews, sausages... and I liked the taste of it a lot even if it was not on a daily basis.

So it took me a while (until now so quite a while lol) to reach that point when I can say I am going vegetarian. The trigger seems to be the animal killing I cannot bear to be a part of anymore. They don't show those awful videos on TV with the cows or pigs screaming like crazy...

It is like a new life starting now and a whole universe to discover. I will still eat dairy products for the moment, milk and eggs and maybe someday I will go vegan. My concern is to eat healthy and to avoid any lack (iron, proteins, D vitamin, calcium...) because last December my doctor said I was having anemia and prescribed iron tablets. And I would rather not have those tablets but eat healthy.

To celebrate the day, I had:

For lunch

• a fresh carrot and leek soup
• two cereals bread slices
• oatmeal with cinnamon and brown sugar

For dinner

• my first homemade dal with green lentils
• tender dried figs from the market
  

Here is the pic of my Dal With Green Lentils and Coconut Milk

1. Cook the green lentils (3 cups of water per 1 cup of lentils) for 25 min in cold water + add 1 tea spoon of baking soda
2. Diced 1 potato and 1 carrot and cook them (I microwaved them with water for 7 min)
   
3. Heat 2 table spoons olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, add 1 chopped onion, then 1 big tomato chopped bite-sized, 1 minced garlic clove. Add the potato and the carrot. Add spices (ras-el-hanout powder, fresh coriander).
4. Add the drained lentils to the mix, reduce heat and simmer for 10 min to blend flavors.
5. Pour some coconut milk and simmer for 2 min.

Et voilà, my non spicy Dal with Green Lentils, the pic is not as yummy as the taste of it :-)