Like a lot of college girls, I had been a vegetarian about 15 times by the time I’d met my boyfriend. I gave up meat in high school to freak out my parents, and I gave it up in college to lose weight, then later to impress the chain-smoking anti-war coalition kids that I wanted to hang out with.

Despite my good intentions, however, it never really stuck. The cafeteria had zero veggie options, and I was lazy — not to mention a sucker for carne asada. To boot, I had a pretty superficial understanding of what veganism is; like a lot of people, I thought all vegans were misanthropic skinny kids with social problems. Then I met John.

He’s not skinny, nor is he a killjoy. In fact, he can eat an entire pint of (soy) ice cream in the time it takes me to find a spoon. He loves food, and when we cook dinner together, veganism is never a limitation to our creativity. Since we’ve been together, I’ve cut out all meat, eggs, and dairy — at first out of convenience, since we moved in together, and then, when I realized how incredibly healthy I felt, and how happy I was to cut myself out of the whole icky institution of factory farming, I kept with it out of conviction.

Sure, I occasionally get an itch for something verboten (and, like a lot of vegans, I “cheat” every once in a while — err, balance is important, after all), but not as much as you’d think. I used to think there was no way I could live without cheese, but I’m doing swimmingly without it.

The political side of it is really important, and it’s become a huge part of being vegan for me, but I’m not here to gross you out with pictures of de-beaked chickens, or to tell you that factory farming is the number one cause of global warming in the U.S. (whoops, too late!). You can learn about that stuff yourself if you’re interested — here’s an awesome, easy-to-read summary. Instead, I want to send you off with something way more fun: really cute vegan cook guys.

Alex Brown and Evan George are former line-cooks that live in Los Angeles. Apart from being dreamy, they’re incredible cooks, and they post all their inventions on their blog, Hot Knives: home-made seitan, beer-batter pancakes, deep-fried beets, and a veggie breakfast sandwich that will have you drooling before you even read the ingredients.

Got any other vegan recipes or questions?

It seems like 2008 was the year of the psychiatric breakdown. After the Britney debacle the other night, there are now reports that claim that Justin Chambers (the Grey’s Anatomy bad boooy) has just been released from the UCLA Medical Center after checking in for “severe exhaustion.”

Whatever that means.

The good news is; Chambers did not need to be strapped to the gurney for his hospital visit. Due to a sleeping disorder, Karev entered the hospital voluntarily to get treatment. I am not quite sure how a man with five (yes, FIVE) children has any trouble falling asleep at night, but what do I know? I could fall asleep on the treadmill if I was on there long enough….or I was listening to Enya.

Britney, on the other hand, has been classified as “Gravely Disabled” by the staff at the very same hospital. (Looks like Hotel Marmont is out as the place to see and be seen be these days. Perhaps Ms. Lohan will be booking a room here soon?) What does that mean, exactly? It means that the lovely Ms. Spears is unable to take care of basic needs, “such as the acquisition of food, clothing or shelter.”

I find that diagnosis a little extreme. I mean, Britney has been doing a wonderful job taking care of her basic needs. She has been spotted shopping at Hustler numerous times (clothing), sleeping with random men in hotels all around California (shelter) and sucking down the Starbucks Fraps (food) for a year now. How can anyone, especially a medical professional, see anything wrong with that?

Let’s just hope that Britney’s recovery can be as speedy and successful as Karev’s. The paparazzi are twiddling their thumbs with nothing to do and it is about time she came out of her trance and realized how horrific those mid-calf boots really are.