The Big Secret Behind the 10 Healthiest and Cheapest Foods

According to WebMD's "10 Healthy Foods Under $1," the following choices are your best bets:

1. Apples

2. Bananas

3. Bagged Baby Carrots

4. Canned Beans

5. Canned Tomatoes

6. Oranges

7. Pears

8. Dried Lentils

9. Pearl Barley (dry)

10. Yogurt

The article states, "many foods that are good for you are also cheap." What they neglect to mention is that, with the exception of number 10, which could either be cow's milk or soy milk-based or both, all of these foods just happen to be vegan.

All of the most nutrient-dense, healthful, and cheap foods are plant-based, whole foods. None contain animal products. The list represents foods full of fiber, vitamins, minerals, complex carbohydrates, and yes, calcium and protein.

Contrary to the popular myth, vegan foods are not more expensive and they aren't lacking in protein. Your wallet can never go wrong when you choose whole, plant-based foods.

For more information on the health and financial benefits of a whole foods, vegan diet:

Mutual Menu post, "Everyone Is A Little Vegan"

Vegetarian Food for Thought podcast episodes on:

Beans

The High Costs of Cheap Meat

Eat Your Vegetables

Skipping the Middle Man

Where Do I Get My Calcium If I Don't Drink Cow's Milk?

The Protein Myth and Vegetarianism

The Urban Vegan's "25 Money-Saving Kitchen Tips for Frugal Vegans"

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine's resource on the New Four Food Groups: whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes.

Trenton Avenue Arts Festival this Saturday, May 17

The East Kensington Neighbors Association (EKNA)--of which Brian is the secretary--will be holding its third annual Trenton Avenue Arts Festival (TAAF) this Saturday, May 17 from noon until 5 pm. The TAAF celebrates East Kensington's local artists, musicians, and restaurants. The festival helps EKNA raise funds for community art projects, which stimulate neighborhood revitalization efforts. The TAAF is held on Trenton Avenue between East Norris Street and Frankford Avenue at York Street.

There will be lots of food, beer from East Kensington's own Philadelphia Brewing Company, many wonderful vendors (I always get compliments on the earrings and bags I purchased at last year's festival), music, and, of course, the 2nd Annual Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby (KKSD), which is hilariously fun. This event is great for children and grown-ups alike.

One of the food vendors will be Viva Las Vegans, the University City-based, all-vegan food truck that Brian visits on a nearly daily basis. I'll finally get to meet the fine folks behind Viva Las Vegans and, if I'm lucky, will be able to help them out during the festival. So, if you come out and visit the truck, I may even be the one to hand you your veggie burger or chocolate soy milk shake.

Please come out and support the festival in general and the vegan truck in particular. If you can't attend but know anyone in the Philadelphia-area (especially hungry vegans and vegetarians!), please pass the word. Feel free to reprint this entire post on your blog or site word for word.

And the Winner Is...

Noemi at hermana resist! Noemi has won a copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway and has visited Mutual Menu. There will be another contest in the future. I'm thinking of giving away another vegan cookbook or vegan nonedibles like soap. What do you think?

Random Friday: Kristin Hersh, Satya, eggs, moms and more

* Please listen to Kristin Hersh's latest offering on CASH Music, "Krait." I've been listening to it all morning long. It's haunting and gorgeous. It sounds like the ocean. Like being under an ocean wave. Like drowning in an ocean wave. Kristin Hersh is pretty much the only singer, musician, and songwriter who can blow my mind these days.

* I read a few wonderful Satya articles this week. Here are a few: "Their Bodies, Our Selves: Moving Beyond Sexism and Speciesism," and "Fear of Feeling: Trauma and Recovery in the Animal Liberation Movement," by Pattrice Jones, and "Reproductive Autonomy: Crossing the Species Border," by Helen Matthews

* I started eating an egg for breakfast one morning after several weeks without them and it totally grossed me out and filled me with guilt. So I gave the rest to the dog. That's just what happened to me when I stopped eating meat.

* Ecco Bella mascara is vegan and it doesn't have a lot of funkyass chemicals that flake into your eyeballs either. It's just as good--if not better--than some of the other mascaras I've used. I ordered some from Pangea The Vegan Store and it arrived the very next day with only standard shipping. That's crazy!

* Sky of Eats Well with Others drinks a green smoothie everyday. My grandmother was an avid juicer and my mom loves her Vita Mix so I figured it was time to follow in my matriarchs' footsteps. I made a smoothie of chard; coconut water; frozen mango, bananas, and berries; almonds; flax meal; and agave nectar and it was delicious. Later on in the week, I made a smoothie of romaine lettuce, kale, sprouts, coconut water, banana, frozen mango and berries, agave nectar, flax meal, and trail mix. This one tasted a bit more green because of the sprouts and wasn't so much a green smoothie as it was a brown-dark purple one but it was yummy nonetheless. I've had a smoothie for breakfast everyday this week.

* It was around Mother's Day last year that I decided to be a pescetarian. What kept me from going completely vegetarian was the fact that I took my mother out to lunch to Origin Thai in Somerville, NJ and got the Pla Rad Prik--crispy fried whole fish seasoned with tamarind, chili, garlic and sweet shallot sauce --and, well, that dish is admittedly really amazing. So, I decided I'd just give up eating land animals and keep eating fish, which I only ever really enjoyed if it didn't taste like fish. Well, this year I'm taking my mom there again, this time with Brian and this time as a near-vegan (that whole egg thing and popping a mini muffin that probably had dairy in it into my mouth are reasons for the near part). Origin Thai is a great spot for a mutual menu because, while they don't have many dedicated vegetarian or vegan dishes, they will happily accommodate you and say so on their web site and menu. Happy Mother's Day!

Mutual Menu is giving away one copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. To enter to win and for more details, please leave one comment here.

Picture courtesy of CASH Music.

Last Chance to Enter Cupcake Cookbook Giveaway

Entries for our first giveaway of a brand new copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero will close on May 12, 2008 .

If you'd like to own a copy of this award-winning book full of delicious recipes and helpful baking hints, all you have to do is leave a comment in response to this post. That's it. We will pick one winner at random. For more details, please go here.

Luckie

Luckie with his sling.

A blurry Luckie eating lying down after spraining his back leg. He is much better now. He'll be 14 on May 29.

37 Wolves and Counting Murdered

From the NRDC Action Fund:

A mere 30 days after the Bush Administration stripped Yellowstone's wolves of their Endangered Species protection, the Northern Rockies have been turned into a killing field.

Thirty-seven wolves are already dead. Hundreds more are being targeted by Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, which have waited years for this chance to put their plans for extermination into action...

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) -- and 11 other groups -- filed suit this week in federal court to stop the killing and restore the wolf's desperately needed Endangered Species protection.The court action comes not a moment too soon. Eyewitness reports of the latest wolf-killing rampage have been heartbreaking to people all over the world who care about wildlife.

On the very day that these wolves lost their Endangered Species protection, a crippled wolf named "Limpy," one of the most photographed wolves in Yellowstone's famous Druid Peak pack, was shot to death when he ventured outside the park.

Another wolf was stalked for over 35 miles by snowmobile before being overtaken and shot.

Another was found dead on the side of the highway, his still-warm body torn apart by bullets. And, tragically, at least four female wolves have been killed just prior to the denning season, which could doom some of the region's wolf pups...

You can help by telling Congress to ban the poisoning of gray wolves and other wildlife.