Fast Food Nation and Orange Scented Veggie Beef

Tonight for dinner Matt and I had Orange Veggie Beef. Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons chile-garlic paste (or 1 if you're sensitive to hot stuff)
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 pkg vegetarian beef (we get our's from our local Asian market, if you do not have one near you seitan will do nicely)
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 large onion, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1 lb broccoli florets

1. Combine 1/4 cup broth, cornstarch, soy sauce, marmalade, vinegar and chile-garlic sauce in a small bowl; mix well.
2. Add 2 teaspoons oil to the wok. Add ginger and stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Add onion; stir-fry for another 30 seconds. Add bell pepper and broccoli and veggie beef. Pour in the remaining 1/4 cup broth, cover and cook until the vegetables are crisp-tender, 2 to 4 minutes. Stir the sauce mixture and add it to the wok. Cook, stirring, until the sauce becomes thick and translucent. Serve with rice -- jasmine is nice but brown rice is good if you're trying to be super healthy.

After dinner we watched Fast Food Nation which was a really distressing movie that made us happy to be veggie. I have read the book, which is also horrifying but good, and have to say I have heard of more people going veg after reading it than any other catalyst. I wish it was required reading in for every high schooler.

I find it really hard to understand how people who are aware of the kind of terrible environmental and human rights (let alone animal cruelty) practices they're participating in by consuming these products can continue to do it. I am not normally too preachy about being veg (mainly because I find it pointless to bother) but I'm guessing if you're interested in this blog you're probably veggie too or at the very least you're reading a veggie blog so you are sort of asking for the occasional rant about vegetarianism. I guess most of the time I don't think of my own reasons for being veg as particularly altruistic and hippy'ish but watching a film like this makes me feel relieved that my consumer dollars don't support that industry and it makes me wish I did even more for humans and the planet than I already try to make a point of.