Five fun ways to be very, very vegan (and romantic) on Valentines Day…
1) Make your favourite person (or yourself) a delish vegan breakfast in bed. Pancakes and Valentines Day just seem to go together. Check out these delectables from one of my fave foodie blogs, VeganYumYum (I like to replace ingredients such as soy milk with freshly made nut milk, sugar with raw agave nectar, and salt with Celtic sea salt etc). Even if you’re your own valentine, it’s still great to whip up a gourmet breakfast and head back to bed to eat it! Also, check out Vegan Yum Yum’s new recipe book: Decadent (But Doable) Animal-free Recipes for Entertaining and Every Day for more romantic brekky and dinner recipes.
SLOW RISE PANCAKES
Makes 8 thick 5″ pancakes
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
2 1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast (one packet)
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp Sugar
1 1/2 Cup Soymilk (or other non-dairy milk)
2 Tbs Oil
1 Ener-g Egg, prepared (1.5 tsp mixed with 2 Tbs water)
1/3 Cup Soymilk, for thinning the next morning, if desired
Whisk all the dry ingredients together until well combined. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the 1/3 cup of soymilk) and mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Use batter anytime the next day.
Once you’re ready to make pancakes, remove the batter from the fridge and stir in up to 1/3 cup of soymilk to thin it if needed/desired. Let the batter sit out on the counter for 20-30 minutes. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat. Spray with spray oil and wipe out the pan.
Using a 1/3 cup measure, begin making pancakes. I added apple slices to the batter before it set:
You can add anything you fancy: blueberries, chocolate chips, bananas, strawberries, etc.
Once the top is bubbly and the edges are set, check to make sure the bottom is brown. Flip:
Cook on the other side for another few minutes until browned. Stack pancakes in a low oven to keep warm, serve with earth balance margarine and maple syrup.
2) A card (of course!). Recycling anything from cardboard to fabric can make for a gorgeous love token. See this how-to guide from About.com. For those who love a little graphic design in their Valentines Day, check out this sweet duo from Jeannie and Jewell.
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I’ve always loved cookies. Pre-vegan, they were my “can’t say no to” treats. If a cookie was on offer, I was there, no questions asked. These days, it’s easy to say no to any food that isn’t vegan. But that hasn’t stopped the love for my sweet old pal, the cookie. Nowadays, I’m in the kitchen trying my hand at baking my own recipes. So far, so good… but I also like to get a helping hand from Google every now and again.
My latest find is from Nourishingmeals.com. While not all of their recipes are vegan, some definitely are—such as these gluten free, vegan, flourless choc chip cookies…
Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
¼ cup raw agave nectar
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ to ½ cup mini chocolate chips (or cacao nibs)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a large cookie sheet with coconut oil.
Note: Quinoa Flakes are made from organic quinoa that is steam-rolled into a quick cooking quinoa flake.
Recipe and photo courtesy: Nourishingmeals.com
I started getting a few gray hairs in my late 20s. While it bothered me a little at first, these days, I’m a little less fussed. A little character never hurt anyone right?
Raw food pioneer Ann Wigmore says she rid her silvers by regularly drinking wheat grass juice. While I’m yet to do my own experiment with Ann’s findings, I have worked out a natural quick fix that turns my grays to a natural shade of light brown—particularly useful when I’m in between (organic) colour touch ups.
Organic black tea, in bags, is a great way to add some (brown) colour back to grays, even if it’s just for the day or until you next wash your hair.
So, here’s how you do it: once you’ve washed and towel dried your hair, simply pour a very small amount of warm water into a small bowl, dip in your organic (black) bag of tea and dab, dab, dab. Dry as usual. The less water you use, the stronger and more effective the tea will be.
While I’m not promising it will take away every gray hair on your head, it can definitely be a Godsend when you need a quick beauty pick me up or have a last minute job interview to go to.
That’s it! If you know of other vegan friendly, gray hair quick fixes from nature, feel free to share in the comments.
Photo courtesy: House Of Sims
There are so many good reasons to read the label on any cosmetic product you intend to buy. I used to think, albeit naively, that if a product was for sale then it must have been put through rigorous testing and deemed safe for human use. But alas, that wishful thought was just that—wishful.
Amongst the thousands of cosmetics brands on the market today, a good number contain chemicals toxic to our health. Just like food in the supermarket, if you can’t pronounce a word on a label, chances are it was brewed in a lab not in nature. Many of these ingredients are used as fillers; cheap additions that give the illusion of more product, without hurting the manufacturer’s bottom line.
Just because a lipstick, face cream or the like is expensive also doesn’t mean it’s any safer than the alternative $2 bottle in your local drug store or chemist. In fact, that cheap bottle may be a hundred times safer than the cream that comes in the fancy packaging.
With cosmetic safety regulations lacking in many countries, it’s up to ourselves to be our own judge and jury when it comes to what we’re willing to buy and then put on our skin—our body’s largest organ. Anything you slap on the outside ends up on the inside. If you’ve read this blog before today you’ll be familiar with the phrase: “if you can’t eat it, don’t wear it”.
If you’re starting to wonder exactly what chemicals are lurking in your bathroom cabinet, be sure to check out The Cosmetics Database.
In the book Natural Organic Hair and Skin Care, cosmetic chemist and herbalist Aubrey Hampton is quoted as saying: “Buyers in department, drug, discount and supermarkets don’t know anything about the chemicals that go into cosmetics, and assume their customers don’t know much either.”
These chemicals have only been proven safe with animal testing. If you put them in your product you rely on or accept those tests. Also, many of these chemicals pollute our environment because they aren’t biodegradable. This affects all species. You won’t know this if you don’t read the label.
Besides the cocktail of chemicals that make up many beauty products on the market today, there’s also the very real issue of animal testing. Just because a manufacturer didn’t test on an innocent being, doesn’t mean the manufacturer they bought their chemical ingredients from wasn’t tested on an unsuspecting monkey or rat. What it boils down to? Labels also lie.
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When you’re an eco girl who loves fashion, finding the right look can sometimes be tricky. While there are more conscious designers adding their collections to the market than ever before, there are also plenty that can leave the urban eco fashionista a little depressed. It wasn’t so long ago that the words “vegan” and “fashionable” simply couldn’t be used in the same sentence. But times, they are (thankfully) a’changin’.
I recently spied hot eco label Lav and Kush and fell completely in love with their pretty designs. Besides the fact they’re green, Lav and Kush’s designs are also stylish, functional with a sweet simplicity.
The clever Canadian designers also give away some of their profits to some great charities including The David Suzuki Foundation (www.davidsuzuki.org), PETA (www.peta.org) and Imagine 1 Day (www.imagine1day.org).
Check out the the complete collection at Lavandkush.com.
A few years ago, I was completely addicted to coffee. A soy latte here, a mocha chino there. But from the moment I became vegan I also gave up my love affair with caffeine and switched to health-boosting herbal teas. Now, I drink just about every herbal tea around, from dandelion leaf to sage. There are now loose leaf teas in my kitchen I’d never dreamed existed.
One of my favourite places on the planet to drink tea was Dr Tea’s on Melrose Ave in Los Angeles, until it temporarily closed its doors last year. The man behind the much-loved tea sanctuary Mark Ukra dared opened the tea garden in a city known for its countless Starbucks and loyal coffee addicts who frequent them.
So while the English swear by it and the Japanese cherish it, in the United States, Mark (or Dr Tea as he is affectionately known) says tea is one of the least favoured drinks, despite its documented health benefits.
Considering he comes from a family of Middle Eastern tea merchants dating back more than 400 years, it’s little surprise Dr Tea has become the unofficial spokesperson for tea in the United States. His book, The Ultimate Tea Diet, also showed that tea was good for more than just getting your daily dose of antioxidants.
I recently caught up with Dr Tea and asked him to share some interesting tid bits about the ancient beverage that comes in many varieties, yet is derived from just one powerhouse plant: the Camellia Sinensis.
SD: How can tea help coffee drinkers kick their habit?
DR TEA: I had this exact issue. I found that tea is essentially consumed exactly like coffee, hot and or cold. It can be placed in the same cup so you have the same feeling. They both have caffeine, albeit, tea has less as well as L-Theanine which counteracts caffeine’s harmful effect in the brain. Now taste of course is not easily matched although I sell a coffee tea, which is a tea I have roasted in a coffee roaster so it looks and smells like coffee.
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If you’ve not yet discovered Etsy, the site where all things handmade rule, some may well say you haven’t lived. Here, a few of the world’s artistically-talented souls gather to sell gorgeous wares, some of which are vegan.
Here’s a preview of some of my favourite Etsy fashion finds of the moment…
Cloche hat from Giant Dwarf
Made from recycled peony pink faux cashmere sweater, embellished with 10 hand-cut grapefruit and ginger fancy felt petals, assembled into a single flower. The over-sized blossom is topped with a hand-pressed button. $USD45.
Soft Cotton Bracelet from Eastern Sky
While these sweet bracelets above are made from vegan-friendly cotton, the shop also makes some of their pieces from Merino wool, so be sure to look carefully when choosing. $USD12.
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Even though I eat a mostly plant-based and raw diet, I still enjoy cooking up a warm meal every now and again. Sautéing a little tempeh, onion, garlic and miso is always a delicious addition to a kale salad.
But what happens if the pan you’re using to make your healthy masterpiece is doing you more harm than good? Case in point: Non-stick fry pans and the solid research that shows they’re detrimental to human health.
I cleaned out my kitchen cupboards long ago from chemical-coated cookware, after I did some research and found those fancy non-stick fry pans produce highly toxic fumes that leach into food causing cancer and other illnesses.
According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), after just two to five minutes of heating, coated cookware can exceed the point where the coating breaks apart and emits toxic particles and gases. At varying temps the coatings can give off at least six toxic gases, including, you guessed it, two carcinogens.
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I’ve always loved old Hollywood. There was always certain glamorous innocence that appealed to me, even as a child.
I still love the music, the actors and the acting. I’m all for stars bursting out in song or dance mid sentence. Girls with perfectly set hair, men treating women like ladies.
As I thought about watching one of my favourite oldies today, I wondered if there were any old Hollywood stars who used their star power back then to actively promote not eating animals. An olden day Alicia Silverstone. A Casey Affleck in black and white.
My never-fail Google search lead me to 1920s glamour girl Gloria Swanson, who became vegetarian in 1928. She was known as an early advocate of healthy eating—to the extent she even brought her own meals to functions in a paper bag. She had also recommended a macrobiotic diet to actor Dirk Benedict, after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Benedict had refused conventional therapies and later said his recovery was due to his healthy diet.
Swanson also used her Hollywood connections and her natural health know-how to help promote the classic health book, Sugar Blues, written by her husband William Dufty.
She only bought organically grown food and tap water wasn’t acceptable. In 1976, she told People magazine: “If you looked at it (water) under a microscope, you’d be horrified.” Instead of refined sugar, Swanson recommended natural sugar boiled off from organically grown raisins.
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About a year ago, a relative was diagnosed with bowel cancer. He was told bluntly by his doctor he wouldn’t make next Christmas. With those words, and not being prepared to hear them, everything turned to blur.
After one course of poisonous chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the relative changed direction and undertook a more natural approach, cleansing his body and replacing usual unhealthy meals with foods from nature. While he’s not in the clear, he has a new lease on life and has, in effect, become his own doctor, managing his own body. He has taken it upon himself to do his own research. It’s now likely he will indeed see next Christmas. Probably the Christmas after that, too.
So, the question remains: what gives another person the right, doctor or otherwise, to tell another human being when their approximate date of death will be? When did we make it part of the health “care” system to strip away a person’s hope? When did Western doctors become psychics?
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A bottle of Pom Wonderful landed on my desk the other day. A cute little rotund ball of juice, promising to bolster the body with antioxidants, relieve digestion issues, lower cholesterol and the like.
The first thing I always do, of course, is flip any product over and read the ingredient list. While many drinks are marketed as healthy, a considerable amount on supermarket shelves are loaded with all sorts of undesirable (and oft-unpronounceable) ingredients.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn Pom Wonderful is actually pomegranate juice, albeit made from a concentrate. It also tastes pretty great.
While I think it’s an option for those who lead a busy life and don’t have time to make fresh juice, I’m personally not a fan of the pasturisation process, which is typically used to extend shelf life. However, the Pom Wonderful peeps use a flash method. My question is, is flash any better than the traditional process?
According Sally Fallon, nutrition researcher, chef, journalist and author of Nourishing Traditions – The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and Diet Dictocrats the jury is still out: “flash pasteurization heats (the product) very rapidly and only holds it for a few seconds. So it’s unclear which is worse (pasturisation or flash pasturisation), whether there’s any advantage, nutritional advantage to one or the other. Both of the methods get rid of the enzymes and that is the test for successful pasteurisation.”
I had some questions for the Pom Wonderful company, which they were more than happy to answer…
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If you’ve ventured onto Diary of a Vegan before today, you may be wondering where all the colour went. Well, since 2010 is a new year, I figured it’s time for a fresh start. I’m planning to add more content, interviews, the occasional guest blogger, a regular newsletter and perhaps even a vegan giveaway or two. Oh, and a gorgeous new template.
But just as that city in Italy wasn’t built in a day, nor will my blog be. It’s a creative work in process and I hope you’ll stick with me as I build all of the elements into the site. I promise it’ll look pretty in the end. Besides, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?
I’ve been glued to my computer the past couple of days, working on a new project. But all this work has left time for little blog play. So I thought it’s a perfect opportunity to share an interview, and subsequent story, I did late last year with The Laugh Factory’s Jamie Masada (who is just a few fish away from being vege, btw).
Read on to see why it’s so important to bring laughter into your life, for health and for happiness…
I heard something about a swine flu the other day. And what’s this of a recession?
Sure, I have a television just like everyone else, but I’m very selective about what I watch. If a program doesn’t lift my spirits, positively educate me in some way or give me a good belly laugh, then I’d prefer the remote to stay tucked under a cushion somewhere, along with the loose change, thank you very much.
Daily newspapers and mainstream news websites have lost my interest too, thanks to their incessant reporting on war, crime, manufactured diseases and the like.
So why is it many of us glue ourselves to the six o’clock news for our daily fix of depression and fear? Is it that we’ve become so hypnotised that we no longer realize what we’re actually doing?
Jamie Masada, founder of the world-famous Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, thinks so.
“The problem is with every news you see its ‘so and so got shot, police killed somebody, somebody killed police’,” he says. “I one day want to do a Laugh Factory channel and make all of the news fun. Let’s give people good news!”
“You see people going out of their houses, they’ve got to wait in the traffic, then they go to the bank and line up or the post office and line up for a long time, then they go to work, then they want lunch they have to stand in line for half an hour … they waste their life. They go to the airport; they have to go two or three hours early to go through security. These things all cause people a lot of stress.”
If you’re not ready to part with your remote or the Sunday paper, there’s something you can do instantly to improve your emotional wellbeing, says the comedy king who works closely with comedic favorites including George Lopez, Bob Saget, Damon Wayans, Chris Tucker, Adam Sandler, Roseanne, Paul Rodriguez, Jamie Foxx, Richard Pryor, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock and Rodney Dangerfield.
“Laughter is the best medicine. It really is,” he says. “The government should open clubs like The Laugh Factory all over the country to help people forget about this recession.”
Jamie’s not the only one who is getting the word out about the benefits of a good giggle. Oprah also promotes laughter as medicinal and good for the soul. She recently featured a story about “laughter yoga” on her show, which is a complete wellbeing workout and daily exercise routine that combines unconditional laughter with yogic breathing.
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I was never aware of any particular recipes my grandmother held in her beauty arsenal. I recall a dusting of powder and a smattering of lippy on the odd occassion. She certainly didn’t have a bathroom cabinet full of fancy jars filled with empty promises. She lived simply and her beauty routine was no exception. If she worried about stuff like that, she never showed it.
She had few wrinkles, her skin was soft-as-soft. She never wore sunscreen or used a commercial cleanser. Her skin glowed, as she did.
I’ve often wondered what my gorgeous gran would have recommended if I’d inquired. While she’s no longer here to tell me, I’ve put together some more recipes (see earlier post here) that I’m sure she’d endorse, no animal testing or ingredients in sight.
Stretch marks — whip out the olive oil for an all-over body moisture infusion.
Pimples — mix a one half of a teaspoon of Celtic sea salt into some warm water. Soak cotton bud and dab. Repeat if necessary.
Hand & foot exfoliator — Celtic sea salt and olive oil, combined. Rub your hands together, or better yet, have someone massage them for you.
Eliminating Dandruff — rub white vinegar through your hair for about five minutes, then shampoo as usual.
Hair cleanser — baking soda and water works like a charm to rid the hair of chemical build up.
Tooth paste — toss your toxic paste in favour of the very effective, much cheaper and healthier baking soda. Who cares about taste, right?
Breath freshener — suck on a fresh, organic mint leaf. Super easy to grow in a pot!
Last night an interesting documentary caught my eye. Half Ton Son, from Britain’s Channel 4, told the story of Billy, a 19 year old boy who was restricted to his bedroom due to his chronic obesity.
His mother helped greatly to fuel his illness (perhaps initally at a sub conscious level) in order to keep her son close and dependent. Through her own lack of education about nutrition, she fed her son on elaborate helpings of burgers, fries and basically anything dead, deep fried and drowned in high fructose corn syrup-laden ketchup.
The doco followed Billy as he was admitted to hospital to undergo surgery to remove some of his fat stores, encouraged to exercise and adopt a healthier way of eating (see preview video below).
After leaving hospital at half his original weight, the first meal Billy’s mum served him up as a reward for his hard work was a hot dog. There’s certainly a lot wrong with this picture, no doubt. But who’s fault is it? Billy for eating in excess? His mother for feeding him toxic food? The education system? Or perhaps the big companies who market their deadly wares without concern for the consumer?
It made me think a lot about what we’re teaching (or not teaching) our kids in school. For years, the food pyramid that was taught to most of us was sponsored by the meat and dairy industries. Of course their products will come highly recommended as healthy and must-additions to the every day diet. But why did our governments allow such outright lies to be printed and promoted? Self-interests perhaps. The millions of dollars involved, quite possibly.
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Today I’m starting an eight week course in Ayurveda, the ancient Indian science of life.
The teachings of Ayurveda explain (basically) that humans are a mirror of the universe, with our bodies made up of the five elements: air, space, fire, water and earth, as well as the soul. A microcosm of the universe within itself.
It then applies healing principles to the body types—Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Vata is made of air and space, Pitta of fire and water and Kapha of earth and water. Certain foods are then suited to certain body types. As part Pitta, I should steer away from spicy foods for a start. No problem there.
For people who know about Ayurveda, they’ll likely wonder how the science can possibly fit in with the vegan lifestyle, considering some of the treatments include giving patients raw dairy products. Well, I’m of the mind that we can take something such as Ayurveda and apply it to a vegan lifestyle (just leave out the dairy bits, basically).
There are so many valuable lessons to be learned from other cultures and their holistic approaches to mind body medicine. Knowing that Ayurveda recommends dairy isn’t enough for me to not inquire at all. It may not be 100 percent vegan, but I am.
One of my fave raw food, vegan people, Dr Gabriel Cousens is guided by many of Ayurveda’s principles, as are others. It’s all about bringing the body back into balance and that, in today’s world, is a very good thing.
Some great (vegan) ways to introduce Ayurveda into your own life, according to a recent article, include:
1. Start your day slowly and quietly.
2. Eat properly. Only eat when you’re hungry.
3. Make time for some self-massage. Give attention to your head, neck, shoulders, face, temples and feet.
4. Laugh regularly. Adding regular laughter to your life can put you on the path to success and well-being.
5. Rest. Take time out to rest emotionally, mentally and physically. Resting is one of the best ways to recharge your mind, body and soul.
6. Don’t judge. Work on accepting things as they are. Not judgment is a great way to cultivate inner peace.
7. Stay active. Exercise, whether for fitness or fun, is a great way to get the blood flowing and rid toxins from the body.
8. Get up close and personal with nature. Walk on the beach or even in your own backyard. Spending time outdoors helps to balance the emotions and bring inner peace.
9. Get into a sleep pattern. Going to bed early and sleeping for seven to eight hours will help to recharge and give energy to burn.
10. Unwind at night. Night is for complete relaxation. Avoid stimulating your mind by watching television or spending hours on the computer.
Looking back at the last decade, it seems to me that looking after the environment greatly centred around driving a Prius and recycling. Both positive moves toward lightening ye ol’ carbon footprint. But with 2010 upon us and a dawning of a new decade staring us in the face, I thought it could be time to define what it means to be an environmentalist in the new age.
So, here are my top 12 attributes of the new age environmentalist, in no particular order… If you have some additions, please feel free to add them in the comments!
1. Not only recycles, but uses less waste material by buying less. Understands that buying more stuff means greater unhappiness and more suffering (check out the teachings of the Tao Te Ching for more insight into this). Lightening the material load clears the mind and allows for more quality time spent on the stuff in life that really matters.
2. Avoids processed and man-altered foods, including GMO, pesticide-laden produce. Knows that chemicals are not only bad for their own body, but for the planet and all of its inhabitants—plant, insect or animal. Grows or buys their own organic produce and helps to spread the word on this all-important action.
3. Doesn’t eat animals, consume or wear animal-derived products. Knows that they share the same consciousness as all living things, so to harm another is the same as harming themselves. Understands the many factual reasons as to why eating animals is also detrimental to the future of the planet.
4. Listens to their own heart and the hearts of others. Extends a helping hand whenever possible, knowing the greatest gift they can give is a selfless act of love toward another. Love without rules helps expand consciousness.
5. Is not concerned with their reputation, good or bad. Rather, the new age environmentalist marches forward in their life purpose, knowing their cause is much greater than themselves.
6. Meditates regularly. Maintains a close connection to source energy (or God) and the environment.
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