Vegan Granola Bars by Stefanie Zasyatkina

April 7th, 2012 by Dmitriy Zasyatkin No comments »

You can’t go wrong with this granola, even if you just loosely follow the recipe.

The Dry

  • 2 cups Oats
  • 3/4 cup Arrowroot
  • 3/4 cup Coconut Flower
  • 3/4 cup Coconut Flakes
  • 1/2 cup Hemp seeds
  • 1/2 cup Flaxseed or 1/3 cup of Chia seeds
  • 1/2 cup Pepitas
  • 1/2 cup Sunflower seeds
  • 1/2 cup Chocolate Chips (Coca Nibs)
  • 3/4 cup Raisins
  • 2 tsp Guar Gum

The Wet

  • 3/4 cup Coconut Oil
  • 3/4 cup Honey
  • 1/2 cup Tahini
  • 2 tbsp Water

The Work

Mix all the wet and all the dry separately first and then combine together. Pack into a 6×12 or similar size pan. Preheat Oven to 350 and then bake for 30 min. Cool it in the fridge to keep them from crumbling apart.

Hemp – I Love You

March 26th, 2012 by Dmitriy Zasyatkin No comments »

First misconception to dispel: Hemp is closely related to Marijuana, but it does not get you high.

So, why is the US the only develop country that has a ban on growing Hemp? It probably has more to do with the big lumber and cotton corporations, than with the DEA.

Hemp is a miracle plant that you can make almost anything out of, including cooking oil, paper, clothes, concrete and biodegrade plastic! In fact, Hemp seeds have one of the highest amounts of protein of any food.

There is no downside to this amazing product of mother nature.

You can do something to lift this draconian ban and help the American Farmer, American Economy and the Worldwide environment. Check out Vote Hemp for more information and contact your elected officials.

The Least that You Can do for a Better World

March 20th, 2012 by Dmitriy Zasyatkin No comments »
We all want to live in a better world, without wars, famine, pollution and cancer. But how much are you really doing to help achieve this?

Here is just my top 7 things that you can do to help make this world a better place for everyone to live in. They are in order of difficulty, starting at the easiest.

  1. Recycle
    Thats a no brainer. Its takes much less energy and resources to recycle a material, than to create a brand new one. You can freecycle your old stuff, like mattresses, that can’t really be recycled.
  2. Compost
    You would be surprised at how much food waste you produce when you start composting. Its not as gross as it sounds and as long as you add in enough leaves, grass clipping and baking soda, there won’t be any bad smell. We use this Exaco 3 stage composter thats really space efficient and can handle a lot.
  3. Eat Organic and Local
    To put it bluntly, eating organic foods is much cheaper than cancer. Its really sad that the US government allows corporations to sell us food thats so unsafe, its not allowed in almost all other developed countries. We now corn that produces its own pesticide, which means that you’re eating something thats toxic. This TED Talks by Robyn O’brien really sums it up well. At the very least, buy Organic Milk and Cheese.
  4. Vegetarian or Vegan
    There’a a lot more people becoming vegetarian or vegan, then vice-versa, because once you stop eating animal flesh for a while, it becomes really gross to have it again. There are a lot of strong scientifically proven links between cancer and consuming animal protein. And don’t worry about getting enough protein, you will get more than enough from even a good vegan diet. What the documentary Forks Over Knives for a compelling case to eat Vegetarian or Vegan.
  5. Watch Less TV
    Mainstream TV is all about advertising and consumerism. Watching News networks will make you very cynical, even though most people are good. Instead, we like to watch documentaries, especially the educational ones about animals, other cultures and the universe. 
  6. Buy Carefully and Don’t be Cheap
    Shopping at big box stores, like Wal-Mart or Target, is basically saying “I don’t care about quality, I will just throw this cheap made-in-China thing out in a couple of years.” Spend a little more and make an investment that will last for decades.
  7. Drive Less – Bike More
    Crude Oil and its derivatives are horrible in so many ways. From pollution to the funding of terrorism, there is nothing good about it. The sooner that we can kick our addiction to oil, the sooner that the world will improve in so many different ways. You can move to an area which has embraced biking and try to commute by bike at least a couple of days a week. It can be challenging at first, but there is a lot of gear out there that will help you live a biking lifestyle.

from the heart of Dmitriy Zasyatkin

Dmitriy Zasyatkin’s Granola Recipe

March 3rd, 2012 by Dmitriy Zasyatkin No comments »

You can follow this recipe loosely, but the keys are the peanut butter to make it all stick and enough honey or agave to dry-goods ratio.

This is a double-batch since you will probably eat it up so fast. This is also the best thing that I have to found for endurance races, like the 50 mile Southern Cross race I did.

tsp: teaspoons
tblsp = tablespoons

The Dry

  • 2 cups of Oats (grounded to flour in the blender)
  • 2 more cups of Oats
  • 1/2 cup of Flaxseed
  • 1 to 2 tsp of Salt
  • 1 tsp Cinnamon
  • 2 cups of Dried Fruit (Craisins and chopped dried apricot are my faves)
  • 1-2 cups of Nuts (Walnuts and Pistachios go well in this)
  • 1.5 cups of Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (really any kind but the really sweet will do)

The Wet

  • 10 tblsp Melted Butter
  • 1/2 cup of Honey
  • 2 tbls Agave
  • 1.5 cups of Peanut Butter
  • 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 2 tblsp Water

The Work

Preheat the Oven to 350.

Combine all the wet ingredients and  microwave for about 30 seconds to melt the butter and peanut butter, so they are easy to mix up. Mix up the wet and the dry separately, and then combine them by adding a third at a time of the dry to the wet in a large bowl or mixer.

I like to use 6×12 glass pans, and make the bars only about a half-inch thick, but you should experiment with pan sizes to find your ideal thickness. Coat the pans with Canola Oil, so the bars won’t stick as much. Use a non-stick spatula to spread and then pack down tight.

Bake at 350 for 30 mins. Be careful to not overbake; so take it out as soon as the edges are turning dark-brown.

Let them cool for about 30 mins and then use a pizza cutter to cut into squares. You want to cut them while they are still warm. I like the pieces to be at least 2×3 inches so they won’t crumble so much.

Chill them in the fridge to make them easier to get out of the pan, and also you might just like them chilled for a refreshing snack.

 

Colony: A Documentary about Beekeepers and Colony Collapse Disorder

September 29th, 2011 by Dmitriy Zasyatkin No comments »

Did you know that Bees are responsible for most of the fruits and nuts that you eat?

Without bees, the fruits would not pollinate.

Colony, a documentary about beekeepers and Colony Collapse Disorder, is as poignant as it is informative.

Basically, the insecticides were dousing our farms with is toxic to the bees and they are dying in huge numbers.

Insecticides = Poison, but the big corporations are insisting that its safe. Thats why Organic food is so much better for the world.

Watch the documentary and learn for yourself.

Gasland

September 1st, 2011 by Dmitriy Zasyatkin No comments »

There a hundreds of thousands of people all across America that are dying from water and air polluted by hydraulic fracturing, which is becoming the main way that gas companies are extracting natural gas here. Fracking  pumps tons of chemically filled water deep underground, which contaminates the surrounding land and water, the same drinking water that people rely on for their way of life.

The only reason that this is allowed by the US gov is because of whats called the “Cheney Loop Hole” in the 2005 Energy Act. Whats really appalling about this, is the huge conflict of interests; Cheney was CEO of Halliburton right before he was elected as vice-Pres, and the technology used in fracking is owned by Halliburton.

If you haven’t seen the documentary Gasland yet, please watch it, but prepare yourself to be shocked at how badly our environment is being polluted and how our government is so corrupt that it openly supports the oil and gas companies.

The Cove: Stop Japan’s Mass Dolphin Slaughter

September 1st, 2011 by Dmitriy Zasyatkin No comments »

Did you know that Japan is trapping and slaughtering wild dolphins by the hundreds? You probably didn’t unless you watched the documentary, The Cove, where a committed group of people risked serious jail time in order to secretly film footage of one of these killing sprees.

Once you see whats going on there and you realize how flagrant Japan is in its attempts to destroy the dolphin and whale populations, you will want to boycot Japanese imports until they change their policies. But boycotting will only hurt the Japanese people who are unaware of this large scale slaughter, because their government and media are covering it up.

Whats worse, the Japanese people are the ones who are suffering from this, because a lot of the dolphin meat is sold under the label of whale meat. (Dolphins are actually whales, look it up.) Dolphins are at the top of the food chain, and thanks to industrial pollution, this means that they have the highest levels of mercury.

Mercury is equivalent to Plutonium in its toxicity.  So, if you ate dolphin meat regularly, your nervous system would start to shut down, until you finally died. We don’t know how many people have really died from Mercury poisoning in Japan because their government is trying to cover it up, just like their real murder rate (read or watch Freakonomics).

You can do something about this, that doesn’t involve traveling to Japan and protesting. A dead dolphin is worth only about $500 in meat, but a live bottlenose dolphin can be sold for as much as up to $150,000. Everytime that you go to one of those “swim with the dolphins” or a Seaworld type of attraction, you are helping to support the slaughter and captivity of dolphins. If we boycott and protest these f-ing animal-prisons near us, then we can bring enough attention to it and make it un-worthwhile for the fisherman to trap and kill dolphins anymore.

So next time that you hear about someone talking about their trip to some animal prison (aka Seaworld), let them know that they are helping to support the slaughter and captivity of one of another being who is self-aware like us.

Vancouver, BC

July 23rd, 2011 by Dmitriy Zasyatkin No comments »

We just returned from a life changing experience in Vancouver, BC. A strong sense of belonging rushed in during the ferry ride from the Mainland to Vancouver Island, that would eventually get us to Victoria, a city so beautiful and welcoming that it seemed surreal.

An absurdly contextual TED Talks watched during a perfectly blissful moment while in the heart of Victoria reinforced my strong feelings for this majestic place. James Kunstler’s TED Talk about dissection of surbubia, had a profound impact that I now fully understood once I felt the heartbeat of a live city.

When we arrived in Vancouver, I first missed the energy we experienced in Victoria, but we were staying in the “suburbs” in Vancouver, as opposed to a ridiculously amazing downtown location in Victoria.

It was only after spending a few days in Vancouver, that I began to realize its extraordinary family life. Even the suburbs that we were staying in (28th St and Main St), had the pulsing life blood of an active community, with its endless walkers, joggers and cyclists. Even though the neighborhoods felt very cozy, like enclaves from the busy main streets, it seemed like you would always meet a new person, since so many people walk or bike everywhere.

Vancouver’s accessibility and family-friendliness really became apparent once we rented a pair of bicycles and visited over a dozen great parks in just a couple of days. With our bikes we could get to the beginning of the Seawall within 10 minutes, which is a very walker and biker friendly track all along the inner bay, and around the really cool Stanley Park.

Then there is always the beautiful mountains to the north that gobsmack you every time that you cross a road where they are visible.

Everyone who hasn’t been there, has the same 2 misconceptions about Vancouver, that it rains all the time and that it gets very cold in the Winter. Vancouver is basically a temperate rain forest, so it does stay overcast and drizzle at least a day, but they barely get any snow in winter and doesn’t get too hot in the summer. The plus side of the climate is how lush all the greenery is; the gardens in peoples front yards are a sight you have to see to understand.

The cost of living in Vancouver is ridiculously high, but I can see why and why so many people move there every year despite this.

Awesome Speech by Steve Jobs: How to live before you die

October 14th, 2010 by Dmitriy Zasyatkin No comments »

“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”

Geek of the Week at ServerBeach

October 11th, 2010 by Dmitriy Zasyatkin No comments »

I just found out that I am the Geek of the Week at ServerBeach! Its a real honor to be part of this great group of people.

Proof: http://www.serverbeach.com/aboutus/geek_of_the_week.php?id=39