Weekly Favorites.

Hello!

Today I wanted to share a few of my favorite things for the first week of 2017. I don't know about you, but I am actually excited about the new year and the opportunities that it presents. If I can survive my last semester of Senior Year than maybe it will end up being a good one!


First on weekly favorites are a couple of recipes, which are both veg/vegan-friendly. Trying to eat vegetarian can be fun but also frustrating, so finding food that is better than eating omnivorously is always fun😉

This is an easy pizza "recipe" that I concocted for lunch one day. We completely ran out of mozzarella so I went with gouda, thinking it would be better than nothing. Surprisingly the gouda was really good on the pizza, in fact I think I will be making this again when I need a good lunch idea. 

Another recipe I tried this week that turned out pretty good was this 3-Ingredient Vegan Crepes. This recipe is so easy to make it might as well be a boxed mix! I would not suggest, however,  trying to half (or if you're me, quarter) the recipe. (Hey, don't look at me that way,  I only wanted one crepe!) Although this made a good pancake, it was too stiff to call it a "crepe".  Next time I will probably not try to do that again😆 I have a feeling it was because it didn't have enough flax egg in it by the time I cut the recipe so much. Top with strawberries or whatever you like😊

My next favorite has to do with my ratties. Their cage has looked really drab lately, I just haven't been the greatest interior rat cage decorator of late.  I had a feeling I needed to get more toys for them- until  I looked in my stock of rat things and was surprised to find a LOAD of junk! Those rats must be rich because they sure own a lot of goodies🙄 So for the first time in a long time I took out almost EVERYTHING they had and stuffed it in their cage. Wow, what an improvement for the new year!

Sorry about how the bars cover up a lot of the pic, still can't figure out how to make my camera not focus on them🙄

Another of my favorites this week has been the Boom Chicka Pop! Kettle Corn. I got this in my Love Goodly Subscription box. (Go Here to see my Love Goodly unboxing post). This stuff is SO GOOD! And to think I wasn't even very interested in the stuff when I got it in the subscription! Fluffy popcorn, mildly salty with a very thin layer of slightly crispy sweet on top. This stuff vegan, gluten free, GMO free, and made with only 4 simple ingredients:
popcorn, sunflower oil, dried cane sugar, and sea salt. It's addictive. I've been saving the last few kernels in the bottom so I will still have some....


The last "favorite" of the week as to be the Warehouse 13 DVD's that my family got for Christmas. We used to watch this a few years ago until the newer seasons were not available on Netflix (you are evil Netflix!) and were crazed over it then. Because it dropped off though, we never saw the end of season 4 and were left hanging for dear life while some sort of orchid was about to destroy everyone on earth.😨 Why did we wait two years to buy seasons 4 and 5 so we could see what happened? who knows. Anyways, we are making up for lost time watching at least 4 at a time😜  but shhhh! we still haven't finished season 5, so no spoilers please!

Thanks for tuning in.

Peace. Love. Rats♥

-Messy Rat

Getting Messy. Going Cruelty Free

So considering that this blog is about rats I've decided to talk to you today about beauty. Because that makes sense. Right?😍

LOL. But seriously, I'm not kidding. 🐁

 I've decided over the last couple months I want to (try) and revert to all Cruelty Free cosmetics. I know rat people will be interested in this because the truth is,  rats are being tested on so we can use cosmetics (as are rabbits, guinea pigs and mice).  And sure, maybe we can't all go 100% cruelty free, I'm not sure I can,  but at least we can try to be more conscientious about what we are buying. Before I start ranting, I'd like to say I am in no way an expert on this subject. I have done a lot of research but am still learning and growing and trying to understand it all for myself.

If you're not clear on what cruelty free even means, most basically it is 'not tested on animals'; more specifically, it is products that were not tested on animals at any time in their production.

Testing on animals doesn't mean lathering a bunny with shampoo and seeing if it makes its fur either frizzy or soft. It can actually be quite painful to the animal and can lead to their death. For more info visit this chart. One of the worst things about all this is that animals don't even always react to the substances the same as humans would, which makes the testing kind of pointless. Also, the substances they are putting on these animals are WAY more concentrated than what we would put on ourselves.

So, maybe you now understand why I have this goal to become CF. Unfortunately this task has not been as easy as I thought it was going to be. The first reason I'm having a hard time switching over to CF is because saying your brand is "cruelty free" is not regulated by law. Many brands are actually getting away with animal testing even when they claim they are not. This is because of three main things:

1) China- China REQUIRES animal testing by law. If a brand sells to China they are essentially kinda throwing away all the hard work they were doing by not testing on animals elsewhere. This is because the company has to give China samples of their products to test on animals AND cover the cost of the testing themselves.

2) Parent Companies-  Some cruelty free brands are owned by larger corporations. An example is Carol's Daughter, which is owned by Loreal. Parent Companies are a big debate in the CF world. Some support them and some choose to refuse to buy from brands with non CF parent companies. Personally I haven't decided, but I would like to share a tidbit of info I found that seems sort of important in your decision. Recently Seventh Generation was bought out by the parent company Unilever. In a perfect world you could avoid buying from Seventh Generation and thus avoid Unilever. However, Unilever does not simply sell cosmetics. This parent company owns Ben and Jerry's, Lipton Tea, Hellmanns and Q-tips just to name a few (see full list here). To completely avoid parent companies a LOT more research has to go into this mess; making a very long list of food, cosmetics and hygiene products you must avoid.

3)  Unreliability- If the label reads "No Animal Testing" instead of "Cruelty Free" it simply means that the finished product wasn't tested on animals, the ingredients in the products very well could have been. Actually, "Cruelty Free" labels can sometimes have this problem as well (Shea Moisture is one of the companies who do not regulate where their suppliers get their products). With this problem, cruelty free brand lists are your best friend, ALWAYS check your list before purchasing a product. My favorite lists are the  Logical Harmony Cruelty Free List and the Leaping Bunny Cruelty Free List (there is also a Leaping Bunny App). These lists are super picky about which brands they include, and Logical Harmony updates their list weekly. Although Leaping Bunny is considered one of the best lists, be aware it does include some brands with parent companies.

Another reason I'm having a hard time switching over to CF is I'm EXTREMELY PICKY. On top of wanting my products to be 100% cruelty free, here are my other goals:

• Vegan-  I am personally not vegan, but am experimenting with vegetarianism. I would rather animal products not be in my makeup. Personally, I would feel hypocritical if I was using cruelty free make-up that had ground up animals in it. See this list for a little more info. 
• All natural- do you KNOW what you are putting on your face everyday? They say your skin is like a giant sponge. All those toxins are being sucked in through your face!
• Organic- just an added bonus on top of all natural.
• Environmentally Friendly- another added bonus. If the product was made in a factory that uses windmills or something, I'm going to choose that one over a brand that does not;)

Lastly, why I'm having a hard time switching over is because of money. Seriously, a few months ago when I first found out about cruelty free, I wanted to switch over THAT day. Unfortunately, I am not blessed with a cauldron-ful of galleons. My main priority is to not go broke while trying to feed my rats, so I slowly realized how thick I was being and started facing reality- its going to take a while:P 

Whatever your take on animal testing, cruelty free, parent companies or any of this junk in general, if you got this far and have now finished reading this post, thanks so much for sticking with my rantings! I hope you learned something. Seeing as you were so nice to finish this post you will be gifted with the knowledge that I will be starting to write some product reviews on this blog of the cruelty free cosmetics I have/will  try on my new quest of a cruelty free life. Thanks for joining in. 

Peace. Love. Rats. ♥ 

-MessyRat

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