Summertime cravings include ice cream (or soy cream), smoothies, iced sun tea, lemonade, barbecue meals, cold crunchy salads and crisp, cold sweet watermelon. However, as good as watermelon can taste at its best, there are a few tips and thoughts to remember if it is a watermelon craving you are trying to satisfy. I'll even include one recipe for Minted Lime Watermelon juice, that may sound appealing, but turned out to be not so pretty in watermelon pink...

Watermelon: The Good.

There are many reasons to love this striped, green-rinded summer melon. It is low in calories and incredibly hydrating.

One cup of watermelon contains only 46 calories and about 20% RDA of vitamins A and C.

One cup also contains 5% RDA of potassium. Watermelon is sweet, yet mild. Hydrating, yet big on chew appeal. Seedless watermelon is available and you can even find mini watermelons in an easy-to-carry round shape and smaller size.

And really, watermelon is awesome because you can just dive into it and eat as much as you really want and not feel stuffed. Perfect on a hot summer day when you are thirsty, yet don't want to just chug some water. Dive into watermelon instead!

Recipe Ideas. Watermelon tastes great plain, or chopped up in a summertime fruit salad. I love it frozen and then added to smoothie. My favorite is probably my watermelon frosty.

Frozen watermelon..

Frosty..

You could even add a pinch of coconut sugar, salt and squeeze of lime, pinch of cayenne and you have a complex flavored snack or treat.

Tips: When choosing a melon, knock on the rind with your fist. A hollow sounding knock means the inside is nice and firm-good sign. Never buy a watermelon with a soft rind or too-yellow color.

Watermelon: The Bad.

There are a few not-so great things about watermelon. First, seeds can be a pain. While seedless is available, sometimes the seedless varieties have less color and flavor. Secondly, watermelons can be huge! And heavy. And transporting the melon can be another pain. And lastly, flavor can be an issue. It is hard to tell if your melon will be perfectly crisp, bright red and sweet or bland, white and grainy.

Now for the Ugly...

Watermelon: The Ugly.

Watermelon in itself is beautiful. So, I decided to try juicing a watermelon with some lime juice and fresh mint. Sounds refreshing and delicious right??? Well my good intentioned recipe didn't turn out to be as pretty in pink as I had expected. In fact, the juice came out brown! I guess mixing pink and green isn't the best idea, but even the juiced water melon wasn't as bright pink as I expected. Here's the recipe...although I don't really recommend it for its looks...

Not-so-Pretty-in-Pink
Minted Lime Watermelon Juice

half a mini watermelon, chopped
1 lime
handful fresh mint

Juice ingredients and pour. It's OK, in my opinion. But the ugly color really kills it. I'm sticking to fresh melon...not juiced.

Good luck!

Here is the not-so-pretty in pink juice...

Ironically, it's the simply phrased questions that really get me thinking.

This simple question from a blog reader was asked of me via the comments section of my Belgium "Veggie Day" post:

Q: How healthy is a vegetarian diet?

It's an honest and fair question to be asked. So, here's my plain and simple answer. I'll call it my sixty second beauty pageant answer. It comes from my heart and is a summary of what my brain knows and what my body has experienced...

Q: How Healthy is a Vegetarian Diet? -Mike

A: Mike,

Simple question right? But not so simple answers twirl and swirl through my head. There are so many reasons I could give for eating a vegetarian diet, but here is my sixty second 'beauty pageant' style answer. Simple, from the heart and coming from a place of experience on this issue. Fifteen years of first-hand vegetarian experience to be exact.

You asked this question in regards to a post about Ghent, so here is my answer in context: A "vegetarian diet" day, aka "veggie day" in Ghent, Belgium, is not only meant to voice the health benefits of a vegetarian diet, but also the green healthy planet benefits of a vegetarian culture. As mentioned in the post, the farming industry (livestock) is incredibly harsh on our environment. "Eighteen per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions that we produce come from the production of livestock – that’s 4 per cent more than from transport. Read: http://tinyurl.com/ypfdk7

Healthy for You. But to answer your main question, which I would assume would focus on how healthy a veg diet is for you...

A vegetarian diet helps the planet and helps you. By abstaining from meat, a person's intake of healthy foods like fruit, veggies and whole natural grains, healthy monounsaturated fats and lean vegetarian proteins will likely increase greatly in their diet. Eat less of the 'bad stuff' and you'll have more room for the 'good stuff'. Vegetarian foods that come from the earth in whole food forms contain wonderfully high doses of vitamins, minerals, fiber, live plant enzymes and phytochemicals. The more healthy nutrients in your diet, the better! Animal products and meat are much higher in saturated fat that most alternatives. And a diet high in saturated fat can lead to cardiovascular problems as well as other health conditions. Many meat/dairy products also contain hormones and steroids that have been given to the animals. While organic, free-range grass-fed meat is a better alternative than traditional methods, the pure cruelty of farming animals for food is the main reason why most vegans and vegetarians abstain from meat.

Long Term Veggies. A vegetarian diet is indeed about health benefits for me and you. And those health benefits might make a person curious about changing their traditional meat eating diet, at first. But a big picture approach, involving a love of animals, a quest for a healthy cruelty-free lifestyle and a desire to help 'green' the planet, is usually the reason why a person would become a lifelong strict vegetarian or vegan.

What a feeling. If being a vegan didn't feel good, I wouldn't do it. I once had a health professional tell me that some people can't skip animal proteins. I don't believe that. I think the people who go veg and 'feel like crap' are not properly educated on how to eat a sensible, nutrition-loaded, protein-rich vegetarian diet. Those people were probably eating a lot of processed foods and not embracing plentiful amounts of whole foods and proteins like tempeh, seitan and tofu. All of which are delicious and incredibly protein-dense. A vegetarian has no choice but to be educated in nutrition. For example, any smart vegetarian knows that vitamin B12 is a rare find in non-animal product foods, and so supplemental or foods fortified with it is a good idea. I find that most vegetarians and vegans are more educated on nutrition issues, mostly by circumstance of wanting to go veg the right and healthy way. This is a good thing. So the last reason why it is healthy to go veg is the way your body will feel once you do it correctly: alive, energized and cleansed. Plant foods are foods of the sun and foods of the earth. They are alive and contain nutrients that are still alive. The term 'dead' vs. 'living' food is thrown around often in vegan/raw food/vegetarian diet talk, and for good reason.

Yes, that was longer than sixty seconds, but when you are passionate about something it's hard to stop. I guess would've been DQ'd in the beauty pageant answer session...Oh well.

I hope that helped,

~Kathy

Got a Question? If you have any questions for my Q and A posts please add them to the comment section or feel free to contact me via email. And you can also @ reply or direct message me on twitter.
This image is of my recipe for Ginger Mandarin Rice and Cashew Tofu. See the recipe here: http://healthyhappylife.com/2009/04/recipe-ginger-mandarin-rice-with-cashew.html

Most schools, offices or cities will practice a "veggie day" or "Meatless Monday" once a month or once a year. But the BBC reports that one city in Belgium has taken it to the next level by announcing an official "veggie day" to be practiced once a week...

Travel Side Note: The photo above is of the Ghent Belgium Festival, the Ghent Festival, it springs to life every July...so if you are in town or that side of the world, you might want to grab your veggie map and take a few days off...

The announcement: "Starting this week there will be a regular weekly meatless day, in which civil servants and elected councillors will opt for vegetarian meals."

Ghent, Belgium Loves Vegetarians. Clearly Ghent is a veggie-lovers paradise. Not only do they publicly embrace the diet of vegetarianism, but they are practicing it as well. Promoting it. The city says that it is starting weekly "veggie days" because:
"Ghent means to recognise the impact of livestock on the environment. The UN says livestock is responsible for nearly one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions."

and

"It is hoped the move will cut Ghent's environmental footprint and help tackle obesity. Around 90,000 so-called "veggie street maps" are now being printed to help people find the city's vegetarian eateries. "

I love mushrooms and spicy things. And so does my husband. So I decided to take our two favorite things and combine them into a sizzling spicy appetizer dish. Sometimes it's nice to have a hot first course that isn't a soup. This dish is perfect!

Hot and Cool. My Spicy Mushroom Blossom Bowls combine black pepper braised mushrooms with a spicy red saute. Fresh herbs, garlic, citrus and bell pepper accent this dish. And it's served in a beautiful endive blossom bowl-with crisp cool pea shoots on top. Want to perk up your first course...and your senses? The recipe ahead...

Easier than it looks: Yes there are a lot of little ingredients in this dish. But I promise, once you do it and get the idea of the "spicy blossom bowl" you will be able to whip this dish up in a snap. It just may become a rotation favorite, especially if you are a mushroom lover like me. It really doesn't mater which mushrooms you use because the flavors of the harissa and ingredient accents will be first to hit your taste buds. The mushrooms are adding the delicious texture. They are the perfect ingredient to soak up all the flavor in the saute and transport it to your mouth!

Spicy Mushroom Blossom Bowl
vegan, serves 2-3

2 2/2 cups mushrooms, sliced (hearty textured: white button, shiitake or baby bella)
1 cup exotic mushrooms, sliced (I like bluefoot, hen of the woods or oyster mushrooms)
½ cup vegetable broth
1 small orange, juiced
6 grape tomatoes, halved
5 garlic cloves, chopped roughly
1 small red bell pepper, diced
½ small white onion, diced
1 tablespoon agave syrup
2 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 tablespoon Harissa (spicy red mixture of chilies, sun dried tomatoes and spices)
*I buy my Harissa from Le Pain Quotidian.
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
Bowl Assembly:
½ cup chopped pea shoots (or another spicy sprout/micro green)
1 large endive head
20 crisp rice crackers
¼ cup chopped parsley
Optional: Tempeh! This bowl tastes great with a bit of tempeh. Saute the tempeh first-to a crispy edge. Set aside. Then re-saute with the finished mushrooms.

To Make:
First, set up the serving bowls (2-3):
Place 6 rice crackers in the bottom of each small deep bowl.
Split endive head into separate leaves. Set aside 4 endive leaves for each bowl.
Set aside a large pinch of pea shoots and parsley to top each bowl with.

Veggie prep:
Chop the onion.
Chop the bell pepper.
Squeeze the orange.
Clean and slice the hearty mushrooms into strips.
Slice the exotic mushrooms.
Slice tomatoes in half.
Chop the garlic, roughly.

Stove top:
In a lidded pan, add 1 tablespoon oil, orange juice and 2 tablespoon vegetable broth.
Turn the heat to high and wait for it to start sizzling.
Add in the onion, bell pepper and garlic.
Saute uncovered for a minute, until slightly browned and liquid is absorbed.
Add in mushrooms, agave, salt (as needed) and remaining 1 tablespoon oil and remaining vegetable broth.
Toss ingredients well and cover pan with lid.
Turn heat to medium and allow to braise for a few minutes.
Shake the pan to avoid burning.
Remove lid and check mushrooms for doneness.
Saute for a few more minutes, uncovered until all liquid is absorbed.
When done, turn heat to low.
Add in harissa, black pepper, tomatoes, thyme and toss well.
Saute on low heat for another minute-to heat the fresh ingredients.

Serving:
Pour mushrooms into center of bowl-On top of rice crackers.
Add four endive leaves to each bowl-arranging them into a circle/blossom. Top mushrooms with chopped pea shoots.
Serve sizzling hot!
A few slices of crusty bread help soak up the sauce.

Notes
* If you cannot find harissa, use a combo of sun dried red chilies, sun dried tomatoes, salt and olive oil.
* If you cannot find bluefoot mushrooms, substitute with another exotic style mushroom like oyster, portobello or french horn.

There's a new coffee shop on the block in SoHo NYC. New location, old and highly acclaimed brand. They supply coffee beans to Michelin Starred restaurants like Le Bernardin, but they do not offer a soy milk option in their cafe locations, as I recently discovered first hand. And they seem to be quite proud of that. Who is it?? Click ahead for my 'review' and to find out who the new coffee snobs on the block are...

We Don't Do Soy. About a week ago I stumbled into a brand new coffee shop in SoHo NYC. I am always excited to try a new cafe in hopes that they will reinvent the wheel when it comes to a 'really good latte' or even an exotic creative chai latte. I don't mind paying a few bucks more for a high quality beverage, despite current trends to 'cheapen' cafe beverages, a la McCafe and DD. So, after hearing some amazing press about this new outpost, I excitedly went. The interior design is beautiful: Sleek concrete floors, cool silky wooden bar, natural light and incredibly minimalist furnishings. No menu-anywhere. It's simply order what you'd like. Or so it seems.... "Soy Latte please." I ordered and the barista looked at me like I was nuts....
"We don't offer soy." he replied...

Who are these coffee purists?
La Colombe Torrefaction

My review: Well since they won't make a soy chai or latte, I can't review. My husband tried a small cappuccino and thought it was very good. So good that they have to be soy snobs? I doubt it.

Soy Milk Snob Trend? There are definitely the coffee shop snobs out there who cringe when they smell Starbucks and think drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee is unimaginable. I get it. I'm a quality snob too. But what is so horrible about soy milk? So buy really high quality soy milk. I know perfectly well that it's harder to froth soy ilk. But it's not impossible. My Le Pain Quotidien soy lattes are always thick and frothy and delicious.

La Colombe Torrefaction, good luck shunning dairy-free-ers, but if this were Los Angeles, you wouldn't survive a day.

Snobbery is unnecessary. There are a lot of very high quality coffee shops in NYC that, gasp, do offer soy. A few I love are:

Think. Coffee
Gimme Coffee.
9th Street Espresso
Joe.
Ceci-Cela

Those are just a few, I know there many more. But the point is....you can offer options for vegan dairy-allergy folks, and still produce your dairy-milk 'perfect purist' lattes.

You are only losing customers and in this highly competitive cafe industry, is it really worth it? I ask you to sit in Starbucks SoHo location and listen to the number of beverage that ring up as "soy". I think you'll be surprised by the high percentage of soy drinkers.

...But as for me, I have plenty of options in SoHo for a delicious soy chai or latte. And sadly, La Colombe Torrefaction won't be one of them. Too bad because that interior design is so refreshing!

What do you think??? Are they coffee snobs, coffee purists or both?

Here's one more thing to love about the award winning, globally-successful master chef Jean Georges. His breakfast of choice as he sits in his SoHo, NYC office and sips cappuccino? Almond buttered whole grain toast with sliced banana. He ate it four days in a row! His explanation: "It’s so good." A simple, healthy, satisfying way to start off any award-winning chef day.

"I Want to live Forever." Jean Georges wants to be puttering around the kitchen for a long time, and he knows that the only way to 'live forever' (or close to it) is to eat a healthy diet. Jean Georges was profiled in the recent post of NY Diet in New York Magazine. Click ahead to read a few of his long-life healthy eating tricks and rules. And to JG, healthy eating is a serious business...

Jean Georges NY Diet: Interesting Finds.

Here are a few of the fascinating tidbits I read in NYMag about JG, his diet and his successful restaurants:

* JG says he never eats butter before dinner. Ever! He says: "I changed the sauce because no butter for me at lunch, ever. "

* Despite the state of the economy, JG is opening ten new restaurants this year as part of a partnership with Starwood Hotels.

* JG says: “I want to live forever,” says the chef “I’m very disciplined for lunch and breakfast, and loose at night.”

* JG loves breakfast, he 'discovered' it in America: "I flew to Washington for my daughter’s graduation. Before that I started my day with some instant oatmeal — Quaker Oats — with a little milk, a little brown sugar. I love breakfast. I discovered breakfast in America. When I grew up in France, it was just yesterday’s bread, toasted. I have coffee in the morning."

* After a decadent celebration brunch in Washington DC, JG hit the gym. Nice.

* JG likes to go to his restaurant Matsugen every Sunday night and enjoy a healthy meal of sushi and soba.

* At his office in SoHo, NYC, JG enjoyed a simple, healthy and vegan-friendly breakfast of almond butter toast, on whole grain bread, ith some sliced banana. If that was a soy capp. it would be vegan! He ate this breakfast four days in a row, his explanation for the repetition: "It’s so good."

* JG goes to his restaurant Jean-Georges whenever he is in NYC.

* JG eats healthy, simple meals for lunch like: "I had a piece of arctic char at Jean Georges. When I’m in New York, I’m there every day. I steam it in a CVap at a very low temperature, 180 degrees, for five to six minutes. I ate that with some sautéed artichokes and a piece of lemon."

* JG is not a snacker, but never misses his meal times: "I don’t snack, but I never miss a meal. I always have breakfast around 9 a.m., lunch around 3, dinner at 9:30 or 10."

Jean Georges is awesome. He is an amazing chef who seems to be respected and loved by everyone. From the James Beard crowd to celebs and business people like Donald Trump, to the vegan gourmet foodies (like me) to the everyday joe who happens to try one of his restaurants. He understands that at the core of the best cooking is high quality ingredients and treating those ingredients with subtle flavor accents and treatments during preparation. He is a big advocate of raw foods. Not necessarily the vegan kind, but he loves raw fish etc. I applaud JG for being such a shining example to how an award-winning chef can embrace fruits vegetable and spices and not simply brag about all the amazing meat and heavy cream sauces that might be on a menu. He is a healthy meal advocate! What a great thing. If you've never tried a JG restaurant, I suggest you do. I have been to many, and they always accommodate my vegan diet. My faves are Spice Market, Mercer Kitchen, Jean Georges and Matsugen.

Read more about JG at his website.

Read this article in its entirety at NYMAG.COM

I love thick chewy peanut butter cookies. My Nutty Peanut Brown Butter Cookies (say that three times fast) have a brown crusty color, a hint of natural vanilla, raw natural sugar and of course a bold natural peanut flavor due to the heaping spoonfuls of organic crunchy peanut butter. Nothing overly processed, no artificial flavors or refined or bleached flour. Just 100% hearty peanut butter cookie goodness.

The Nose Knows Peanuts. Sniff your peanut butter. If it doesn't knock you over with the aroma of freshly toasted peanuts, start looking for another brand. Or better yet, find an in-store grinder and grind the peanuts yourself. Whole Foods Markets usually have a 'fresh peanut butter station'. Find out how these vegan cookies get so fluffy, chewy delicious by clicking ahead for my recipe...

Simple Ingredients, Complex Peanutty Flavors. These Peanut Brown Butter Cookies include natural vanilla, raw brown sugar, heaping spoonfuls of organic crunchy peanut butter, maple syrup, cinnamon and even some toasted oats to add an extra hearty texture.

Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies. You may like your cookies crunchy, but I like mine chewy with big chunks of organic peanuts. So my trick for getting that cake-like fluffy texture is to use a few dashes of Vital Wheat Gluten. I also like to use whole wheat flour because it has a richer texture and adds a lot more protein and fiber to the cookies. Who says peanut butter cookies can't be healthy? Not me....

Here's the recipe...

Nutty Peanut Brown Butter Cookies
vegan, makes about 15 cookies

2 cups whole wheat flour, high quality brand
1 cup organic evaporated cane juice sugar
¼ cup sugar in the raw, thick cut brown sugar crystals
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ cup whole rolled oats
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup plain soy or hemp milk
6-7 heaping spoonfuls of organic crunchy peanut butter
1 tablespoon canola oil or softened vegan buttery spread
3 tablespoon vital wheat gluten, or another vegan egg replacer
1 tablespoon natural vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
optional: ¼ cup raw coconut flakes, unsweetened

To make:
First, tend to the oats. Lightly toast them in a high heat skillet for a few seconds. You can even add in a sprinkle of sugar and salt to bring out the nutty oat flavor. When the oats start to darken and send an aroma into the air, they are ready. Set aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, vital wheat gluten, baking soda, salt, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and optional coconut flakes.
Slowly add in the liquids, at room temperature: milk, oil, vanilla extract and maple syrup.

Mix well by hand or using a mixer on low.

Then stir in the peanut butter and toasted oats.

If the dough seems a bit too dry you can add in more milk. If the dough isn't thick enough, add more flour.

On a baking sheet, place spoonfuls of the dough. Take your ¼ cup of raw sugar and roll each formed cookie in it, or sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar on top of each cookie. I like to roll my cookies into balls and then roll them on all sides in the sugar.

Place the baking sheets in a 350 degree preheated oven. Bake for 18 minutes. Cookies will harden as they cool. Try not to disturb the cookies as they are baking-this may interrupt the rising process. We want fluffy chewy happily-risen cookies.

I actually like these cookies the best on the second day. I will even store them in the fridge or freezer and they get extra chewy from the cold air. But of course, right out of the oven these cookies are divine. Warm chewy peanut butter cookies with whole oats and whole wheat flour. Tis a happy and healthy treat to nibble.

Wait, So What's the Name About? So first off I love the name of these cookies: Peanut Butter Brown Cookies. The first dessert I ever learned to bake by myself was Apple Brown Betty. I always loved that dessert name. So awkwardly sticking the word 'brown' into these beautiful brown cookies seemed like a nice choice. I didn't call them Peanut Butter Brown Kathy Cookies though. I held back.

Last week I got my hands of the new healthy eating restaurant guidebook Clean Plates NYC, a guide to the healthiest tastiest restaurants in Manhattan, written by Jared Koch and Alex Van Buren. The cover slogan says that it's a book for "vegetarians and carnivores," and vegans, I might add. And this cute powder blue travel-sized book has more in its pages that simply restaurant reviews. The first 75 pages are filled with practical healthy eating tips, ingredient facts and dining out advice. Click ahead for my review...

Clean Plates NYC, Book Review

Shelf Appeal: I love this cute little powder blue book. It is soft, flexible and easy to stuff into your purse or to-go bag. The format is incredibly easy to read, and each review has quick-reference icons to help you identify what qualities the restaurant has. Icons include: vegan menu, price ranges, flexitarian, meals for 1, vegetarian menu, primarily meat-based menu, macrobiotic menu, raw menu, gluten-free options, naturally sweetened desserts, critics pick.

Price: $13.95

The Good: The moment I picked up this book I had to pounce into the pages to make sure all my favorites had made the cut: Blossom-check. Caravan of Dreams-check. Josie's-check. Candle 79-check. Babycakes-check. Counter-check. Viva Herbal Pizzeria-check. Chipotle-shocked check. Liquiteria-check. Pure Food and Wine-check. Teany-check. Le Pain Quotidien-check. Spring Street-check. But not making the cut-Morimoto, Kitchen Club, and a few neighborhood favorites. But all in all, my faves did get well represented. And the best part was that I discovered a plethora of restaurant options that I had never thought of before. But besides the reviews, I was very impressed with author Jared Koch's first 75 pages of wellness tips, eating advice and dining out information. He covered everything from food categories, beverages, common ingredient questions and myths and even one of my favorite tips about drinking coconut water to replenish electrolytes. I suspect that health-minded NYC residents will love this book. But other people who will love this book: foodies who visit NYC, health-minded foodies and eating out gurus, healthy chefs and restaurant industry folks and anyone who wants to delve a bit deeper into the components that make a truly "clean plate" beyond simply old-fashioned criteria like 'low calorie' 'low fat' 'vegetarian' etc. Just because something says it is light, natural, healthy or even vegan doesn't necessarily mean it will be a healthy 'clean plate' and what a great lesson to come away with after reading this book.

The Other: I was very impressed with this book. I admired the authors to have the restraint to cut the picks down to only 75 restaurants. It makes the standards quite high-good for a true healthy eating guide book. My only slight critique is that, like many NYCers who read this book, a few of my fave restaurants didn't make the main list cut. One of them being The Kitchen Club. Kitchen Club did get a mention on the supplemental list, but it still bummed me out. It may be confusing for some to figure out why certain restaurants that have a 'clean plate' item on the menu don't get the stamp of approval, but I also understand that the authors had to make cuts somewhere. It can be explained by another favorite of mine-Cafeteria. I know, it's filled with greasy meat-filled foods...BUT it has an amazing vegan veggie burger! Optional green salad on the side instead of fries. But since the veggie burger is the only vegan item on the menu I can easily see why Cafeteria wouldn't make the list. So goes my critique of this book-a few clean plate orders in NYC might not be at a Clean Plates approved restaurant...fair enough.

Last Word: For $14 you get online access and a handy cute book with a lot of awesome healthy eating info that you may or may not already know, but since it's presented in such a fresh way you'll want to read it again and again. Makes a great weekend read-sunshine approved.

...Read it all-cleaned my plate of this book!

www.cleanplatesnyc.com

You can even check out Jared Koch's twitter account here: http://twitter.com/jarkoch

Russel Simmons is an entrepreneur at heart, yoga-lover, music and fashion mogul (brand Russell Simmons Argyleculture), meditation fiend, strict vegan, party hopper and an all around creative nice guy. Russell Simmons, UncleRUSH has been tweeting on Twitter since March 25th, 2009. He currently has 572 updates and over 50,000 followers. He tweets about his entrepreneurial lifestyle, daily meditations and thoughts on various issues, people and happenings. Always high energy and never afraid on controversy, RS is a creative soulful guy who tweets without hesitation. My favorite RS tweets:

I'm so jealous: "La got coffee bean vegan chocalate soy moccha shakes. Yeahhhhhhhhhhh!" 8:10 PM Apr 1st from TwitterBerry

I so agree: "I wish my hero hadn't given america KFC. We are overweight and suffering from poisen these fast food co,s serve the planet and the people"3:54 PM May 7th from TwitterBerry

Great advice: "What are u passionate about. What do u love ? Be couragious. Choose to work on what u love." 11:34 AM Apr 18th from TwitterBerry

Click ahead for more of my favorite Russell Simmons tweets...

Celebrity Tweets from Twitter: Russell Simmons

"No greater teacher than pain.. Learn to smile with pain.. Then learn again..Health is greatest gift /take care of yourself" about 15 hours ago from TwitterBerry

"Had a close call, life is short. No one knows...had a close. Love life today, tomorrow is not promised." 11:09 PM May 12th from TwitterBerry

"Nelson george and rhonda here. Talking about giving away veggie burgers." 11:22 AM May 11th from TwitterBerry

"New adventure. This is real. Need vegan yogurt cause the # of antibiotics crazy" 11:01 AM May 10th from TwitterBerry

"I wish my hero hadn't given america KFC. We are overweight and suffering from poisen these fast food co,s serve the planet and the people" 3:54 PM May 7th from TwitterBerry

"I don't know if she wants this out but oprah gave 100g to me a few days ago to sponser our kids art programs I love her .." 3:30 PM May 7th from TwitterBerry

"In bed watchin game. People actually tryin to get me to go out hahhahaha. I could miss a party" 11:58 PM May 6th from TwitterBerry

"..some snarky journalist asked if I dated anyone but models. I said actresses are so difficult :-)" 7:27 PM May 4th from TwitterBerry

"So. Missed 315 class goin to 4. Rainy slow day in nyc. I noticed older people respond to messages about prayer or meditaion?" 3:04 PM May 3rd from TwitterBerry

"in bed with computer. Really enjoy running this company. Love that its growing so fast" 11:13 PM Apr 30th from TwitterBerry

"Can't believe I'm sitting here twisted !! Just took 4 advils keeping Foot up with ice. Computer in my lap" 1:22 PM Apr 26th from TwitterBerry

"My boolk is abourt spiriual principles that mke u "really rich" and yes attract money too but money ois a biproduct!!!" 5:31 PM Apr 23rd from TwitterBerry

"What are u passionate about. What do u love ? Be couragious. Choose to work on what u love." 11:34 AM Apr 18th from TwitterBerry

"Now I'm rosebar bunch of drunk models. Everynody laughing but me. :-)" 12:45 AM Apr 18th from TwitterBerry

"It is actually more fun to be joyful work hard and give!!! Practice these principles!! They set u up for the enlightened state." 10:50 AM Apr 17th from TwitterBerry

"happy and joyful and bursting with love!!" 1:08 PM Apr 15th from web

"Deepok chopra is here in my office :-)" 2:50 PM Apr 14th from TwitterBerry

"Dinner party.? Even the spinach got meat. And the bread already got butter? No vegan nothin :-)." 11:15 PM Apr 11th from TwitterBerry

"had people over love them but they wouldn't leave" 2:51 AM Apr 11th from TwitterBerry

"Nobu. Is dope restuarant very little vegan food though. Any how signing off" 10:42 PM Apr 8th from TwitterBerry

"Good morning. When u sit still. U can watch your thoughts and not react. when u are still u can gain courage to love" 8:33 AM Apr 6th from TwitterBerry

"Help I'm addicted to twitter" 1:59 AM Apr 4th from TwitterBerry

"Silly me. instead of goin home meeting friends @ rosebar :-)" 12:44 AM Apr 3rd from TwitterBerry

"remember the poor but keep smiling" 11:30 AM Apr 2nd from TwitterBerry

"La got coffee bean vegan chocalate soy moccha shakes. Yeahhhhhhhhhhh!" 8:10 PM Apr 1st from TwitterBerry

"This mornings meditation "abundance"" 10:36 AM Apr 1st from TwitterBerry

"Preparing to meditate light candle, recite mantra, rememeber .. Relax into perfection" 12:09 AM Mar 30th from TwitterBerry

"People pissed I mised fashion show last night in miami.. Kids first" 3:32 PM Mar 29th from TwitterBerry

"My Kids all dressed ready for kids choice awards. Excited" 5:56 PM Mar 28th from TwitterBerry

"La Morning meditation ,stillness promotes grattitude" 11:09 AM Mar 26th from TwitterBerry

First Tweeting day: "Hahahaha I'm here uncle russ last but not least!!!2:24 PM Mar 25th from TwitterBerry "

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Sometimes the best culinary creations come by pure accident. Enter my new Fresh Strawberry Papaya Coconut smoothie. This was a "throw in some of this, add a little of that" recipe invention gone terribly right!

"Good" Ingredients. First tip in creating a new smoothie recipe: use high quality ingredients, and half your work is done. I used organic strawberries, a splash of organic lemonade, organic soy milk, high quality papaya chunks and other no-skimp ingredients. So here is the recipe for this OMG-amazingly dreamy creamy, must-try it, vegan Fresh Strawberry Papaya Coconut Smoothie.
...It's my favorite smoothie (of right now)...

Papaya Coconut Smoothie. I must admit that my favorite go-to smoothie in NYC is Liquiteria's Papaya Paradise. It is blended with papaya, soy milk, coconut and a few more ingredients. I adore it with a scoop of spirulina blended in. So, I had intended to try a at-home version of their masterpiece drink. But, as I usually do, I strayed off the straight path and decided to get a bit creative. I added in some fresh beautiful organic strawberries, a bit of fresh lemonade and a few more surprises. I didn't know what would pour out of this light pink frothy blender, but it was pure bliss! Bright red specks of the fresh strawberry in each sip really hit this one out of the park and around the corner! It's almost summer..I can use a silly baseball line.

Fresh Strawberry Papaya Coconut Smoothie
vegan, serves two

1 cup soy milk
¼ cup lemonade
1 cup frozen papaya
6 coconut water or cashew juice ice cubes
1 ripe banana, not mushy
1 pinch sea salt
1 teaspoon agave syrup
2-3 tablespoon unsweetened coconut, shredded bits
6 medium fresh strawberries, de-stemmed

Directions:
Blend all ingredients together, leaving out the fresh strawberries and a few ice cubes.
When drink blends smooth, add in strawberries and remaining ice cubes and blend on low for about 10-20 seconds.
Serve and love it.

Suggestions and Notes:
Use organic ingredients.
Get frozen papaya from Trader Joe's.
Too thick? Use more soy milk.
Too icy? Add some plain yogurt or another banana.
Too thin? Add more ice cubes or frozen fruit.
Dessert smoothie craving? Add more agave syrup and/or a scoop of vanilla soy cream to the blender.

A Press Updates section has been added for this blog and for Lunchbox Bunch news. It includes news and website links, blog mentions and other media posts of interest. Check it out! Press inquiry? contact/email: Kathy at lunchboxbunch dot com

When I'm in the kitchen, I always remember to keep an open mind about the foods I am cooking with and the recipe I am referencing. Sticking to a recipe salt grain by salt grain will only lead to disaster somewhere down your culinary road. Cook outside the lines once in a while, you'll learn a lot more than if you habitually take the straight and narrow recipe path. Improvisation, substitution and experimentation are three key qualities that separate the recipe followers from the chefs. And you never know what new food creation you may accidentally invent! Here is a list of ten foods and recipes that were created by accident or experimentation. I hope it inspires you to push your printed or book-bound recipe to the far edge of your kitchen counter and really start cooking with your own eyes, ears, nose, mouth and hands...

In my research for this post I found about thirty or so good examples of accidental food inventions, but these are my top ten favorites. They are recipe, kitchen or food inventions that were made simply by accident, experiment or a "whoops" moment.

Baking and Creativity Note: Yes I know that 'baking' as opposed to cooking is more of an exact science in measurements and procedures. But even still, changing up a recipe is always my advice to every chef or baker out there. Allowing for creativity in the kitchen is what is bound to keep you in the kitchen.

The top ten list...

Ten Accidental Food Inventions

1. Chocolate Chip Cookies.
You may have heard the story of how chocolate chip cookies came to be-by accident. One day in 1930, Toll House Inn's Ruth Wakefield was out of baking chocolate, she used a smashed up semi-sweet chocolate bar instead. To her surprise, the oven had not melted the chocolate into the dough, but rather kept little chunks embedded in it. Her Whitman, Massachusetts inn soon became famous for this chocolate chip cookie creation.

2. Potato Chips.
Back in 1853, a customer at Saratoga Springs' Moon's Lake House began requesting a crisper chip-sending a potato dish back again and again. The chef, George Crum, finally got so angry that he deep-fried the taters into oil and sprinkled them with salt to serve. The customer loved them! And chips were a new menu hit.

3. Saccharin. (boo this possibly cancer-causing invention, but it's still a fascinating story.)
In 1879, Johns Hopkins University researcher, Constantine Fahlberg spilled a chemical on his hands right before lunch. Neglecting to wash it off, he tasted the super sweet chemical on the bread he was eating. He was issued a patent in 1884.

4. Raisins.
The Egyptians back in 1490 B.C. found dried grapes on the vines. Many thought they were old and inedible. But those who ventured to taste them found them to be sweet and delicious. Raisins are mentioned in Egyptian writings to be used as food, medicine, sporting contest awards, tax payments and even temple decor.

5. Iceberg Lettuce.
One lettuce season back in 1920, a crop of Crisphead lettuce was a bit paler, sweeter and crunchier than normal. Instead of being a wasted crop, this new breed of lettuce was desired by shippers because of its ability to stay crisp and fresh longer than the traditional lettuces. Farmers decided to breed these traits into future plantings of lettuce.

6. Tofu.
AOL food says: "While it's impossible to pinpoint the particulars, one popular origin story maintains that in ancient China boiled, ground soybeans were accidentally mixed with impure sea salt containing calcium and magnesium salts, causing the slurry to gel. Another legend has it that a different Chinese cooked mistakenly dropped nigari, a natural coagulant, into a pot of soybean milk, resulting in a surprisingly edible curdle."

7. Ice Cream Cones.
Classic story, at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, a n ice cream vendor ran out of cups. A nearby pastry vendor, Syrian Ernest Hamwi, decided to help out by wrapping his waffle pastry into cones. It was a hit. However it is important to note that even though the Fair made headlines for cones, a patent for an ice cream cone was actually filed earlier in that year by Italian immigrant Italo Marchiony.

8. Cornflakes.
In 1894, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his brother Will, both Seventh Day Adventists, were searching for wholesome foods to feed patients on a strict vegetarian diet. Will accidentally left boiled wheat out, it went stale. They sent it through rollers hoping for dough, but they got flakes instead. They toasted the flakes, which were a big hit with patients, and patented them under the name Granose. Interestingly, after Kellogg's was formed, Will would not join his brother because he refused to add sugar to the recipe, thus lowering the healthy benefits.

9. Popsicle.
In 1905, Frank Epperson left a mixture of soda water on the back porch overnight with the stirring stick still in it. It froze solid, and the next day Frank had a stick of frozen soda water. He showed his creation to his friends, who loved it. Thus began the Popsicle.

10. Veggie Patty.
So I'm sure a 'veggie patty' was created long before Garden Burger founder, Paul Wenner patted one together, but you have to hand it to him for making it a worldwide success: "GardenChef Paul Wenner™ created the Gardenburger® Original veggie patty in 1981 at his vegetarian restaurant, The Gardenhouse, in Gresham, Ore."

Read more inventions on How Stuff Works: http://science.howstuffworks.com/9-things-invented-or-discovered-by-accident1.htmRead all 20 food accidents on AOL FOOD: http://food.aol.com/invented-by-accident

This isn't your grandma's cabbage slaw. One of my favorite uses for Napa Cabbage is to chop it up into a raw vegan slaw. Light flavors of ginger and citrus give this dense tender cabbage variety a bright zesty flavor. Instead of going heavy on dark soy sauce or a heavy helping of vegan cream, this slaw recipe stays light and palate cleansing. It makes a perfect side dish for a sunny day meal...

Light Ginger Citrus Napa Slaw
vegan, serves 4
3-4 cups Napa Cabbage, chopped into thin 2 inch strips
1 small yellow bell pepper, diced
¼ cup red wine vinegar
2 teaspoon olive oil
2 teaspoon black pepper
½ cup orange slices or mandarin segments
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoon Vegenaise
1-2 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
2 teaspoon agave syrup
1 teaspoon paprika
dash of salt as needed
optional add-in: ½ cup chopped flat parsley

Directions:
Add cabbage, bell pepper and citrus slices to large bowl.
Add vinegar, oil, vegenaise and agave syrup.
Toss well.
Add in salt, pepper, ginger, paprika and lemon juice.
Toss well again.
Chill until ready to serve.
A few hours in the fridge will assist in marinating the cabbage.
*for a creamier slaw simply add more vegenaise.

Serve as a side dish or salad.

More optional add in ideas: cayenne, garlic, sliced almonds, pea shoots, sliced fennel, cold snow peas, bean sprouts, toasted sesame seeds.

Cabbage. It's another one of those produce section items that can scare a good intentioned chef off- like a giant melon or a spiky artichoke. Cabbage certainly isn't winning any prizes when it comes to shelf-appeal. It's incredibly heavy, large, resembles the 'hated' iceberg lettuce at times and it has a rubbery almost plastic-looking exterior. Cabbage can appear unappetizing at best to a newbie cabbage buyer. But a seasoned cabbage-lover will know that there is really nothing to fear. And in fact, there are many varieties of cabbage available in that dark cramped cabbage corner of the produce section. Napa Cabbage is one of my favorite cabbage varieties. Click ahead to learn more about Napa Cabbage, it's nutrition facts and my 5 ideas on how to use this hidden produce gem...

Napa Cabbage Looks. In my modest view, I think Napa Cabbage is the most beautiful of the cabbages out there. It is long and oval shaped-not round. And it has beautiful white veining throughout its light yellow-green ruffled leaves. The inside main vein becomes very wide and smooth. Almost like little plates. Though Napa Cabbage is heavy-but that is a sign of high water content. Great for people watching their weight and trying to control their appetite.

Napa Cabbage Nutrition Facts. You may be surprised that cabbage has any nutritional benefits at all! The similar looking iceberg lettuce is quite absent of many nutrients, but cabbage is a heartier item that will actually have a few healthy surprises in store for you. Here are a few stats:

Napa Cabbage
1 cup raw shredded
calories: 20
Vitamin C: 46% RDA
Vitamin A: 26% RDA
Fiber: 1 g
Protein: 1 g
Phytochemicals are another area of nutrition we must look at. Phytopia.com says, "Cabbage: A cruciferous vegetable. Indoles, dithiolthiones, isothiocyanates, flavonoids, organosulfides, glucarates, coumarins and other phenolic acids, terpenes, selenium and vitamin C. Chinese (Napa) cabbage is relatively high in absorbable calcium."
How Stuff Works.com says: "The phytochemicals in cabbage, called indoles, are also being studied for their ability to convert estradiol, an estrogenlike hormone that may play a role in the development of breast cancer, into a safer form of estrogen -- powerful incentives to add cabbage to your diet."

Cabbage is low in calories and high in chew-appeal. You can eat a lot and chew a lot and the calories will stay low, while your tummy feels full. Also, the Vitamin amounts of A and C in Napa Cabbage are surprisingly very good!

Now for my Top Five Napa Cabbage Uses....

Top 5 Uses for Napa Cabbage

1. Wrap it Up! Use the large outer leaves of the Napa Cabbage to make Napa Cabbage wraps! You can roll just about any filling inside the large, flexible leaves: rice and beans, soy chicken salad, salsa, seitan, tempeh, corn salad, soy cheese...the list goes on! Just think of the leaf as a tortilla or wrap and let your creativity go! You can secure the wrap with a toothpick for presentation purposes. Plus using a cabbage 'wrap' instead of a flour or corn wrap will save on calories and boost your veggie intake.

2. Soups. Napa Slaw is a crunchy bright and summery veggie. Soy you may forget that it will be delicious cooked! In a soup it keeps a nice meaty tender texture and absorbs flavors very well. Slice into thin strips-as large pieces in a soup would be difficult to eat with a spoon!

3. Napa Cabbage Slaw. This is my favorite way to eat Napa Cabbage. In a crunchy, creamy, zesty slaw! In fact I'll post my recipe later today...

4. Stir Fry Gem. Napa Cabbage sautes very nicely. The edges get a bit caramelized and those nice curly leaves add some great texture without adding calories. So you can fill you stir fry bowl with some light Napa Cabbage and some thick chunks of hearty and protein-rich tofu.

5. Plating Whiz. Napa Cabbage is an excellent leaf for plating a dish. Place a large leaf on the bottom of a salad or entree plate and you have already made your meal appear healthy and appetizing. The fresh green color will accent colors beautifully. Lay two leaves across a plate, or even a shredded leaf on the bottom of a plate and your guests will swoon over the beautiful leaf. And yes-eating the cabbage is part of the deal! Napa has such a tender hearty texture that your guests can slice into the 'plate accent' and as I always love to encourage-eat the garnish!

Have fun with Napa Cabbage. And look for my Napa Cabbage Slaw recipe later today...

Warm weather is here and that means beach travel. One of my favorite beach side wellness destinations is a hotel called the Delano in South Beach, Miami Florida, part of the Morgans Hotel Group. It's a modern, edgy, celebrity-haven hot spot with a classy Alice in Wonderland twist on it's style. Fantasy dreamland meets creative minimalism. Turquoise water meets white sand beach. And wellness rejuvenation meets high-energy late-night celebrations. But can the Delano's wellness efforts meet my high standards for vacation bliss and vegan dietary needs? Find out as I tell My Delano Story...

You say De-lano. I say Del-an-o. I still don't know how to pronounce the name. But that's OK. I was thrilled to begin my stay at the much-buzzed-about Delano. My husband and I threw together our minimally packed luggage and departed for a whimsical first class adventure.

Part Two. In the Lobby. We sank into the low-lit Delano lobby. Dramatic white columns and airy long white drapery covered an ethereal long hallway. The lobby was decorated with modern mis-matched chairs and couches. We were both speechless. Silenced by the tall ceilings and echoing corridor, long and lean. I couldn't wait to prance my high heeled shoes down the walkway and explore whatever was behind those wide white columns. But first, we had to check in. Checking in with the staff was a pleasure of customer service dream, blissful, easy, discreet.

The Room: White Summer Land. Entering a Delano room is like entering a winter white wonderland--only it is probably 80 degrees outside and the cool ocean breeze is just a cracked window away. Though the hotel is constantly updating it's design features, it is always like stepping out of the messy, chaotic and scratched up grit of reality and stepping right into a fresh clean slate world where anything can happen because everything in fresh, new, pure and untainted. Perfection awaits-whatever that may mean for your vacation desires. And that adorable green apple on the wall with a silver plaque that reads: "An Apple a Day..." immediately stole my fruit-loving heart. They had me at the apple...

Food at the Delano. I'm vegan. It's always an issue-as any 'special diet' is. But that's OK with me. Will there be vegan options for me at the Delano? YES! Here are just a few of my favorite vegan things I ate at the Delano: Garlic Hummus and grilled pita bread with an iced tea (delivered to my lounge chair on the beach). A garden salad avocado wrap with a veggie-whole wheat tortilla. At the awesome in-lobby sushi bar called Blue Sea I had some of the best vegan vegetable sushi of my life! But warning there are only about 12 seats total at the sushi bar...so arrive early or expect a wait. And lastly, the in-room dining provided some amazing fresh fruit and fresh bread breakfast with coffee and tea. Healthy eats bliss. And oh yeah, my fave is also the frozen grapes that they serve by the pool. And don't forget to order a frozen lemonade as you lounge poolside.

Agua Spa. The last part I want to indulge you with is the spa. I have been to the Delano spa three times, and I had a poolside foot massage. I had two wonderful massages and one facial. And I have to say that the facial was in the top three of my life (and I have had a lot of facials.) Delano has amazing spa services and they have even recently renovated their penthouse floor spa, Agua. I have not been since the renovation, but I would bet that it is fabulous.

Now, here's my official Delano review...

My Review: Delano Hotel, Miami FL
Category: Wellness Travel

Shelf-Appeal/Decor: Delano is a feast for the eyes with a minimalist style. You don't enter a hotel, you enter a new world. One of giant lamp shades, white everywhere, giant chess boards, poolside lounging, top-notch service and hospitality, fun, wonder, luxury and bliss. I entered Delano and I was giddy with childlike excitement.

Service/Hospitality: Delano remembers you and hopes that you remember Delano. The staff is amazing. They are on-the-ball, discreet, professional, engaging, intelligent, fun and most of all well-trained! In all of my visits I have never had any problems with the staff. And when we return they say "Welcome back!"

Food, Healthy Eats: The Delano has several in-hotel dining options. I love sitting outside on the back dining porch for a dinner or late lunch at Blue Door. I also love getting my beach side eats delivered to my lounge chair-yes they have on-beach waiters, and I love the lobby sushi bar Blue Sea. I'd pass on the Sunday brunch. It's set-up indoors and just doesn't suite the warm weather and fresh light eating that I like to enjoy there. But for a fab brunch, try the in-room dining is pretty darn delicious. The breakfast in bed is a must-have experience. There's nothing like eating fresh fruit, steamy coffee, and crumbly crusty toast in a white-sheets bed. Can't do that at home.

Wellness Features/Spa: Delano may not pin itself as a wellness hotel, but there is no doubt in my mind that you could make this a wellness vacation. If you are all about spa-ing, head to Agua. Or if you are like me, spending a day beach side with the sun on your skin, cool salty breezes combing your hair and the aqua blue ocean just a few feet away is the ultimate in wellness bliss. There aren't tons of healthy vegan options available (but the ones they do have are fabulous.) The pool is lively, so if it is peace and quiet you are seeking you may want to choose another hotel. Or simply find a quiet corner of South Beach to chill on, however on south beach, quiet and tranquil is a pretty tricky request. But amidst the high energy Delano crowd and lively South Beach surroundings, I always leave the Delano feeling revived, relaxed and refreshed. So, maybe peace and quiet isn't the path to tranquility after all.

Price Check: OK, so the one downfall is that the Delano is on the high end of the price scale. So, let's discuss: how can you make it happen? Well, if you are in Miami for a vacation, spend just one night at the Delano, and the other nights elsewhere. It will be worth it and you'll have plenty of time to get the Delano-Glow. Or instead of a week at brand X hotel, stay for a weekend at the Delano. I'd rather have a taste of something five-star than seven courses of so-so. And watch for the Morgans Hotel Group specials on their website.

Last Word: The Delano is a must-visit. Put it on your travel wish list--I recommend that it gets top placement.

www.delano-hotel.com
www.morganshotelgroup.com

My recipe for this Double Fruit Enzyme Smoothie is called the P3B2 Smoothie. Here's why:
Papaya, Papain
Pineapple, Bromelain
Banana
Fruit Enzyme Power. This smoothie combines the best of two fruit enzymes: papain from papayas and bromelain from pineapples. It has double the enzyme power to revitalize your digestive system...

I love my bold Pineapple Enzyme smoothie.
And my creamy Peach Papaya Smoothie is dreamy bliss.

So now I combine the two for the ultimate in fruit enzymes smoothies. Here's the recipe...

Double Enzyme Smoothie
serves 2, vegan

1 cup frozen papaya*
1 cup fresh pineapple (not canned)
1 large banana, raw or frozen
½ cup coconut water ice cubes
1 cup soy milk
½ cup liquid of your choice (apple, cashew, orange juice or soy yogurt)
*using half fresh/half frozen papaya is also a great option-if using fresh papaya, simply add more coconut water ice cubes and/or a tad less liquid)
optional: dash of sea salt, 1 teaspoon agave syrup

To make:

Add all liquids to blender.
Add frozen fruit.
Add ice.
Add fresh fruit.
Blend until smooth.

Delicious add-in: raw unsweetened shredded coconut.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has a passion for more than 140 character tweets. He is a strong supporter of vegetarian school lunch options for kids. In fact, he is lobbying Congress to add vegetarian lunch options to schools, reports the Huffington Post. Click ahead for my thoughts and to see a video of a celeb-kid lobbying for vegetarian friendly options in her school...

All Kids Gotta Eat. As a former child who used to reject meat options at school, I found myself eating all the fruit, veggies, chips and other 'junk food' veggie snacks around. Wow, what a difference it would've made if I were offered some brown rice and veggie bean tacos, a pizza with natural whole grain crust and all fresh organic veggies on top or even a yummy tofu lasagna instead of the mystery beef lasagna I remember. Kids are going to eat. And if you forget about their individual needs and food restrictions, they just might fill up on foods that are much worse than smart schools could offer. And yes, veggie options are healthy for all kids-not just the vegetarians...

Extreme Measures. I recently spoke with a Pennsylvania middle school teacher who said that they do not allow ANY outside food in schools. None. They are trying to implement a wellness food program and outside food is simply not allowed. She wanted to do a lesson on foods from around the world, but was prevented to do so because of the strict school laws. I am very supportive of school wellness programs, but sometimes common sense interventions should be allowed. If a teacher wants to discuss foods and cultures in a lesson plan, I think they should get a green light. Food is culture, is society, is life and is part of learning about the world around us.

visit www.healthyschoollunches.org for more on this cause.

Woo Hoo! Today I participated in the Tofu Takedown at the Highline Ballroom in NYC. The fabulous Matt Timms was the host and the turnout was amazing! This event was pure TOFU FUN. Lots of tofu-fans trying dishes from about 20+ chefs. I did my Tofu Lemon Bars which I re-named: Lemon-Aide Tofu Cups. My award: "Best Disguise of Tofu!" The judge who awarded me my title said she loved the dish and it reminded her of Key Lime Pie. So true. What a fun day and fun event. Click ahead to get the recipe for my winning recipe and see a few more photos from the event....

First the recipe, then the event photos!

My Lemon-Aide Tofu Cups were a twist on my Zesty Lemon Custard Bars. Here is the award-winning recipe:
Zesty Lemon Custard Bars
vegan, makes one batch of bars-around 12 squares

1 container silken tofu, medium firmness
6 small lemons, squeezed
2 teaspoon lemon zest
¾ cup vegan dry sugar (I use Florida Crystals /minimally processed brand)
2 tablespoon Arrowroot powder (substitute for cornstarch)
¾ cup powdered sugar (or any vegan dry sugar will work here.)
2 teaspoon sea salt
1 ¼ cups soy milk
1 vanilla pudding packet, (I use Dr.Oetker brand)
1 tablespoon canola oil, for shine and texture (may omit if desired)
8 large plain graham crackers or vanilla cookies, any crumbly vegan variety will suffice
a few thin lemon slices for garnish
Tools: blender, 8" or 10" brownie or cake pan, soup pan.

PHOTOS below....

In the cab on the way to Highline Ballroom...lots and lots of tofu cups in our cooler! Good thing I had a fabulous helper:

Lifeguard Lemon (my recipe mascot):

My Lemon-Aide Tofu Cups Station:

one tasting per taster!

Me at my station:

Me and my prize and Lifeguard Lemon Sign:

Me on stage with the other chefs, accepting my "Best Disguise of Tofu" Award:

I participated in the TOFU TAKEDOWN COMPETITION today at Highline Ballroom in NYC. And guess what? My Lemon-Aide Tofu Cups won the "Best Disguise of Tofu" Award! Yay!

more details and photos later tonight...

The Wall Street Health Journal reports on a few foods that are frequent offenders when it comes to fooling consumers into believing they are 'healthy'.

The question: What's really 'healthy and what's really marketing.

The food items in question may surprise you, and you probably have them in your kitchen right now...WSJ Health Report: What's Really in a Lot of 'Healthy' Foods.

1. Salt substitutes. I don't know much about salt substitutes, but the WSJ reports that they may contain potassium chloride, which can be a weary item to intake if you are on various drugs or have certain health conditions. These 'substitutes' may not be healthy options.

2. Artificial Sweeteners. Less calories. Taste included. But are they healthier than their sugar-laden originals? Sorbitol acts in your body as a laxative. Consuming a single pack of gum or mints can cause severe digestive distress. Another interesting point: Some diabetics find that such sugar alcohols, which are sweet but have few calories, can raise their blood sugar.

3. Trans Fat. Products labeled zero grams of trans fat can have up to 0.49 gram of fat per serving. So sticking to fresh, unprocessed foods seems the best way to avoid any small amounts of trans fat per serving that can add up quickly in a poor diet.

4. "Wheat bread." vs. Whole Wheat. Most of us know this already, but you must buy bread labeled 'whole wheat' to get all the fiber and good nutrients. 'Wheat Bread' is simple brown bread, and does not necessarily contain any more fiber or nutrients than processed white bread.

5. Added Fiber. A lot of products are adding fiber in the form of powders. There isn't much evidence that "isolated" fibers like inulin, maltodextrin, oat fiber and polydextrose have the same effect as natural fibers from whole fruits, veggies, grains and cereals. The nutrition label does not distinguish between types of fibers. It's kinda like saying you ate 100 calories in gumdrop sugars compared to 100 calories of apple sugars.

6. Yogurt. Super yogurts are a big seller these days. And the WSJ reports that there may be more hype than health in these products. Some claim to lower blood pressure, but the reason for that is potassium in the yogurt. There is more potassium in a banana or coconut water than in these yogurts (only around 325 mg usually). However, probiotic yogurts have been shown to be helpful in people taking antibiotic medications.

7. Super Water. You know, the Rescue, Energy, Revive's of the beverage aisle. They taste good, but are they lying to us through their flashy labels and high-flying claims. Government surveys show that most Americans aren't deficient in many of the vitamins supplied in these drinks. If you consume more than you need, the excess gets excreted.

8. Omega 3. Many of the foods fortified with the trendy and healthful nutrient Omega 3 do not actually have that much of the nutrient. You can most likely get a lot more high quality omegas from eating real food. You's have to drink around 45 eight-ounce glasses of omega fortified milk that is fortified with 32 mgs of omega 3 to equal the amount in 3 oz. of salmon-2130 mg of omega 3's. Of course, if you are vegan like me and don't eat salmon-you could eat walnuts which contain 2565 mg of omega 3's in just 1 ounce. Yes, walnuts have more omega 3's than salmon. And interestingly enough, walnuts have a significant amount of omega 6 as well. Even much more than the salmon. Go nuts for walnuts!

To see the complete article visit: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124148395729085669.html

This nutty party guest that should be on everyone's invite list: tempeh!

Easy Cheesy. Everyone needs a few absurdly quick and easy snack recipes to use in times of need. And a little vegan cheese brightens up any festive gathering with friends. Cold veggie sticks move aside! My recipe for Cheesy Party Tempeh makes a great party appetizer. Monterey Jack vegan cheese, simple tempeh and a few flavor accents. Instead of wine, cheese and crackers, this could be wine, cheesy tempeh and soy crisps! Your vegan and non-vegan guests will be shocked by how quickly you prepare it and how delicious it tastes. This is tempeh?! Wow, it's really good. ...They'll say. The recipe and photos ahead...

Nutty Party Guest: Tempeh. Tempeh is an amazing vegan protein made from fermented soy beans. It's got a nice nutty flavor and isn't 'creamy ' like tofu or chewy like seitan. It's hearty like a grain cake. It's got a complex bitter flavor that I love.

Here is the ultra easy recipe for my Easy Cheesy Party Tempeh...

Easy Cheesy Party Tempeh
vegan, makes a party size portion.
Quarter recipe for 1-2 people

1 block plain or multi-grain tempeh,
slice into think strips.
2 tablespoon agave syrup
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoon citrus juice (lemon or orange)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup sliced vegan monterey jack cheese (cheddar works too)*
*I use Follow Your Heart brand because it melts well!

Place tempeh in a microwave safe dish. Lay flat side to side.
Drizzle olive oil and citrus juice over tempeh.
Drizzle agave syrup on top. Add garlic powder, pepper and salt on top of tempeh.
Microwave for 90 seconds.
Add cheese. Layer over tempeh and cover entire surface.
Microwave for 60 seconds.
Remove from micro. Let sit for a minute and slightly harden cheese.
With a spatula, transfer tempeh to serving dish.
Add a sprinkle of pepper and dash of citrus to top.
Garnish with greens and fresh veggies (Iused a chopped organic tomato). Plate with crusty bread, soy crisps or crackers.

Five minute appetizer...not bad.

'Better' Option: Yes, you can do this without a microwave. The tempeh will taste better and have a better texture-but not by much and this dish is really all about the cheese! If you do the stove top option simple saute the tempeh with all the ingredients, add the cheese to top of cooked tempeh and melt it over low heat.

With a block of silken tofu in hand I set out on a quest to perfect my recipe for Zesty Lemon Custard Bars. I wanted a burst of fresh lemon zing in every bite! Like summer lemonade in your mouth. I have memories of those super sweet, powder-sugar dusted, plastic translucent textured, fluorescent yellow colored, sticky sweet lemon bars from my childhood. But I knew the eggs, processed white sugar and artificial flavors and colors simply had to go. So after much recipe trial and error, here is the end result. It's no-bake and super easy. I think you'll be pleased after one zesty lemon, creamy bite...lots of photos ahead...

Zesty Lemon. Creamy Tofu. I tried this recipe with both extra firm and medium (silken) tofu varieties. I found that the extra firm came out ultra grainy and not a bit 'extra firm' as I had hoped. Once I finally settled on accepting the creaminess of the silken tofu bar batch, I fell in love with it! Nothing beats the zestiness of real lemon juice combined with the subtle vanilla-flavored creaminess of tofu and vegan pudding.

Real Fresh Lemon. These are lemon bars. And you have to use real fresh-squeezed (organic) lemons for this recipe. The pre-bottled plastic bottle juice will not do. If you use that stuff, you can pretty much call these Zesty Not-Real-Lemon Bars. I'm serious when it comes to fresh vs. packaged lemon juice. What is easier than squeezing a few lemons with a hand press? And you might notice those pretty holes in my bars. That is from fresh drops of fresh lemon juice that I splattered on top. So pretty and it really adds that zesty zing of lemon flavor.

Here's my recipe....

Zesty Lemon Custard Bars
vegan, makes one batch of bars-around 12 squares

1 container silken tofu, medium firmness
6 small lemons, squeezed
2 teaspoon lemon zest
¾ cup vegan dry sugar (I use Florida Crystals /minimally processed brand)
2 tablespoon Arrowroot powder (substitute for cornstarch)
¾ cup powdered sugar (or any vegan dry sugar will work here.)
2 teaspoon sea salt
1 ¼ cups soy milk
1 vanilla pudding packet, (I use Dr.Oetker brand)
1 tablespoon canola oil, for shine and texture (may omit if desired)
8 large plain graham crackers or vanilla cookies, any crumbly vegan variety will suffice
a few thin lemon slices for garnish
Tools: blender, 8" or 10" brownie or cake pan, soup pan.
Notes: You may use less sugar if you'd like. The amount shown above makes a nice sweet bar. But less sugar would also make a divine lemon bar.
As stated, you must use silken tofu and not extra firm grainy varieties. The smoother, the better!
Tip: Add a few sprinkle of cinnamon to the cookie crust. It adds a nice hint of layered flavor.

To Make:
Prep serving pan.
Crumble your cookies/crackers into very fins powder.
Lay flat on the bottom of you serving pan. Spray bottom of pan with canola oil spray.
Stove top:
In a sauce/soup pan-
Heat pudding mix and 1 cup soy milk over medium heat.
Stir continuously.
Once pudding pack has dissolved and mixture starts to thicken,
add it half of lemon juice, salt, oil and lemon zest.
Stir continuously.
Add in arrowroot powder, gradually. Be careful of clumps.
Add in the sugar.
Once mixture is bubbling nicely, add in the tofu in loose clumps. Don't worry, the blender will smooth everything out in the end.
Stir well. Let tofu heat a bit with the mixture, about two minutes.
Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly for a minute.
Stir in remaining lemon juice, but leave out about a spoonful for garnish.
Transfer soup pan contents into blender.
CAREFULLY, blend on low.
Heated blenders may explode, so never aim towards face and always blend with extreme caution.
Once the mixture is 100% creamy and smooth-no clumps, transfer liquid into pan.
Slowly pour the mixture onto the cookie crusted pan.
Lay two thin lemon slices as garnish in center of dish.
Take your last spoonful of lemon juice and gently splatter the bars with a few random drops of juice-creating nice lemon hole in the top.

Place in fridge and allow to firm-up for at least 3 hours. Preferably overnight.

NEW!
Firm up tips:
add more silken tofu, less milk, or both.
(Use 1 ½ tofu packs and a bit less soymilk)
Also, drain water from tofu, then set tofu on paper towel for 20 minutes to soak up water.
Chill longer-overnight in fridge.
Use more arrowroot powder.
Use more cookie crust-will soak up more liquid.
Use 1 ½ pudding mix packs.
Allow to bubble/boil longer.

It should firm up if you use these tips.

Serve with a glass of lemonade. (Just kidding...) Maybe some chai. yum.

Celebrity tweets are fun to read. I posted fellow NYC tweeters Sarma and Moby. Time to check in with another NYC celeb, Martha Stewart's twitter account. Martha caught on to twitter early, her first tweet was Feb 19, 2009. She tweets about her charmed life of horses, gardening, hosting her show, tweeting (at 7 A.M.), lots of gourmet food and her two doggies Francesca and Sharkey. She even twitterpic's photos a lot. My two favorite Martha tweets:

"the snow is paralyzing new yorkers- they are a bunch of wimps" 10:26 AM Mar 2nd

"just got home from travels- went to the stable where the horses and donkeys were all cozy and friendly- the dogs and cats happy too...nice" 9:57 PM Apr 21st
Click ahead to read my favorite Martha tweets...

Meet Martha! She tweets a lot and it's all fun, informative and personal.

Martha Tweets:

"i am about to go riding,to garden,and to care for the many animals here on the farm- no time to stay in bed!" 7:13 AM May 3rd

"we had a great dinner- after the mint juleps,shots of pea soup with green apple,asparagus with fried poached eggs,arctic char,ramp risotto" 7:10 AM May 3rd

"just returned home from Barnard College's annual scholarship dinner/fundraiser honoring helene kaplan, one of my favorite barnard people" 10:50 PM Apr 29th

"yes twitter is cool- but the question is what is next?" 9:56 PM Apr 28th

"i just noticed that we are close to 500,000 foloowers! wow! what a great way to communicate. instantaneous,quick,effective, brief, smart" 3:56 PM Apr 28th

"just got home from travels- went to the stable where the horses and donkeys were all cozy and friendly- the dogs and cats happy too...nice" 9:57 PM Apr 21st

"i am writing my own tweets who could i get up at 7 a.m. on sunday morning to do this for me?? some of us rest/sleep in" 7:05 AM Apr 19th

"i am shaking in my booties" 11:07 PM Apr 15th

"ellen has more than 760,000 followers with 61 updates i have 357,000 with 179 updates" 1:13 PM Apr 14th

"we are almost finished with our kmart contract look forward to other partners go to macys and see the great stuff we have there" 10:23 PM Apr 9th

"just got home from a two day full immersion in palm springs-architecture and nature joshua tree is the most beautiful place!" 12:44 AM Apr 6th

"the dogs are fed, getting their baths now, the horses,donkeys etc turned out even in the gentle spring rain. the cats are hiding,bath time!" 10:37 AM Mar 29th

"i arranged a screening of a new film,Food Inc.last night.my entire food dept came. the main message? buy organic,only organic" 1:43 PM Mar 27th

"today we celebrated bunnies on the show-lop eared,dutch,lion's head and others- they are so cute,trainable and make good pets" 11:20 AM Mar 25th

"F&S are still upstairs in bed snoring- they got home at 1:30 a.m. and are exhausted" 7:26 AM Mar 22nd

"i had lobster ravioli,fritz had skate,hillary scallopsn rose the beef tartare now dessert yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm" 8:30 PM Mar 19th

"tweeting is like texting- not much attention paid to punctuation" 9:29 AM Mar 19th

"Francesca and Sharkey blogged today http://bitly.com/163JD3 those silly girls!" 7:26 AM Mar 16th

"yes this is the martha between chores checking email,phone messages and twitter i really am gardening,planting peas and going riding" 10:45 AM Mar 15th

"the pussy willows are plump and glorious- we are trying to pick enough to make a meaningful arrangement salix is another name" 10:28 AM Mar 15th

"rinze-the horse of the day-is one of five black friesiangeldings in my stable- they are like giant dogs- he did trip three times-pure lazy" 1:24 PM Mar 14th

"i just looked at the flor carpet tiles in the studio-they are FABULOUS!!!! it is freezing cold but i am going riding nevertheless and you??" 10:56 AM Mar 14th

more....
"thanks perez for your amusing interpretation of my idea of twittering" 9:43 AM Mar 12th

"got home the dogs were skunked for fourth time today- the kitchen stinks as do the dogs they were washed with new deskunker- did not work" 11:04 PM Mar 6th

"sharkey and francesca are in the studio today preparing for a segment at lion brand yarns- they want to learn to knit!" 9:16 AM Mar 5th

"lunch with ludcris was great fun- just charming- he is in town preparing for tomorrow on jimmy fallon- he loved lunch-esp choc cake" 2:08 PM Mar 4th

"@snoopdogg Yo snoop, check out MY doggies new doggie blog http://tinyurl.com/baeoat" 9:47 AM Mar 3rd

"My doggies are now blogging, very cool. http://tinyurl.com/baeoat" 8:37 AM Mar 3rd

"i am not all gloom and doom by the way- i am the eternal optimist but when snow keeps people away i get to thinking" 10:37 AM Mar 2nd

"the snow is paralyzing new yorkers- they are a bunch of wimps" 10:26 AM Mar 2nd

"Using Twitter for the first time!" 10:50 PM Feb 19th

Follow Martha Stewart on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/marthastewart

Today I stumbled upon a product, endorsed by Lance Armstrong, calles FRS or Free Radical Scavenger. The product slogan is "healthy energy". A main active ingredient is the phytochemical quercetin. Naturally, quercetin is found in apple skins. FRS says that you'd have to eat 40 apples to equal one can. So it left me curious, what is quercetin and why does Lance Armstrong need so much of it?...

FRS. Free Radical Scanner. The main active ingredients appear to be 100% RDA of seven vitamins including B's , A and E. Then a hefty dose, 325 mg, of quercetin. And some green tea extract as well, 85 mg, about a cup of tea or half cup of coffee. Each 11.5 oz can has 25 calories in the low-cal option or 130 calories for the regular sugar option. So I get the B vitamins, but what in the world does so much quercetin do for your health?

Phytochemicals are a big sector of food science and nutrition gaining a lot of speed and research funds, so discovering the uses of phytochemicals like quercetin has always interested me.

Quercetin. FRF says that quercetin is "one of nature's most powerful and abundant antioxidants. It helps provide sustained energy and supports improved fitness levels."

I don't really know what supporting improved fitness levels exactly means. What is an improved fitness level? Anyways, let's see what the American Cancer Society has to say about Quercetin...
The ACS on Quercetin:
Sources of Quercetin: Apples-the skins, onions, teas, red wines, and other foods.

What does Quercetin do? "Quercetin appears to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. It has been promoted as being effective against a wide variety of diseases, including cancer. While some early laboratory results appear promising, as of yet there is no reliable clinical evidence that quercetin can prevent or treat cancer in humans. "

My Thoughts: I haven't tried the FRS product, but it may be one to look into. I don't think I would be able to eat 40 apples in one sitting. But you know what? I could easily juice 40 apples and drink the juice containing active and all-natural quercetin over the span of a few days! Or drink one can, but I believe that all natural sources of nutrients and phytochemicals are usually better. But that is just me. However, I'd still like to try FRS eventually to see what all the fuss is about. If I do, you'll be the first ones to know...

Read more about quercetin on the ACS website.

Read more about FRS on the FRS website.

Today it was headline news on the web that Prsident Obama and VP Biden stopped at Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington Virginia for a Burger run, $7 burgers, they paid cash. But this wasn't the first time a US President has stopped for lunch at a hole in the wall hamburger joint for a bite to eat. So I have to wonder: where did this presidential tradition get started and why is it always a hamburger. Will Obama make headlines for the first ever Presidential Veggie Burger Run??? Let's take a look back at the history and future of Presidential burger eats...

Need a Veggie Burger Recipe? My Backyard Burger Vegan Recipe is here.

A Look Back: Presidential Burger Runs

In December 1991, President Bush stopped in at Cafe 121 in Dallas Texas, to munch on burgers with several construction workers. Article Link.

Obama's first meal on Air Force One? A burger. Duh. With veggies and fries on the side. Article Link. Do they have a veggie burger on the menu?

President Bush was also very fond of Otto's BBQ joint in Houston, Texas. He often stopped in for a burger or barbecue plate. There is even a dish named after Bush. Article Link.

Even Al Gore was known to stop in at burger-serving luncheonette's while on the campaign trail. And it was widely reported how in his sophmore year at Harvard, he spent his time, "shooting pool, watching television, eating hamburgers, and occasionally smoking marijuana." Article link.

Mike Huckabee reportedly ate a hamburger cooked by his new mother-in-law in between photos, on the day of his wedding. Link.

Reagan's hamburger history: "When president, Ronald Reagan would head to Camp David for meetings, summits and important measures of state. When asked what he wanted to eat, Reagan would abandon the formal and request would a burger.

With Reagan, burgers also became a political statement. When Reagan ran for his second term as governor Jerry Brown promoted an initiative limiting the amount of money lobbyists could give politicians. Brown suggested $10 a month which he stated would be enough for two hamburgers and a Coke. When Brown later went to meet the newly elected Governor Reagan, Ronald (no relation to the Ronald of McDonald's fame) had a hamburger and a Coke ready for Brown."

And of course we all know President Clinton's love of burgers and french fries. Good thing he went on a health crusade after he started to tip the scales and was advised by doctors to get healthy and halt the junk food habits.

I also found an awesome web article with a long list of presidential burger quips. Read it here.

Now the future....
Burger Future...

I hope President Obama makes headlines for being the first President to stop in for a vegan veggie burger lunch bite. GoBo and Caravan of Dreams in NYC have awesome veggie burgers. I also love Cafeteria's vegan veggie burger. And it even comes with fries and a zesty pickle. Or how about a vegan veggie burger on Air Force One. I hope that those who embrace the environment and our planet with their words will also embrace our earth and the creatures on it with their forks and plates and "hamburger runs".

After my discovery of Trader Joe's frozen papaya chunks (my review), I was thrilled to blend up a few light and creamy tropical papaya smoothies. This one is low in calories and rich in antioxidants and healthy digestion probiotics. My Peach Papaya smoothie recipe ahead...

Peach Papaya Smoothie
vegan, serves two
1 ½ cups frozen papaya
5 frozen strawberries
½-1 container peach soy yogurt
5 coconut water ice cubes
1 small banana, fresh or frozen
1 cup soy milk
¼ cup fruit juice (pineapple, mango, orange, apple other)

To make:
Add liquids, yogurt, frozen fruit and ice.
Leave out a bit of the liquid to add slowly mid blend.
Blend ingredients.
(Any raw ingredients like the banana should be added at the end of the blending process-then blend on low.)

Notes: It is optional to add 1 teaspoon of agave. Using a ripe banana will aide in sweetness.
*Adding the whole yogurt container will make your smoothie creamier rather than frosty and thick.
*Adjust the liquids to get your ideal thickness consistency.
*Frozen peaches can also be added to this smoothie in place of or in addition to the strawberries.
* If using a raw banana, add it at the end of the blending.
*If using a frozen banana, let it thaw just a tad so it is not rock hard.
*optional ingredients: shredded raw coconut, wheat germ, spirulina powder, raw almonds.

Healthy Smoothie
*Since frozen papaya and strawberries are both only about 50 calories per cup, this is a light and diet-friendly smoothie. Make it lighter by adding unsweetened or plain yogurt and/or light soy milk and remove the fruit juice. However, as is, this smoothie is high in nutrients and packed with healthy foods.

*Add some green super food powder or spirulina powder for an extra nutrition kick. The color will change, but the taste won't if you use a high quality brand of green food.

I hope you're not stuck in a rut of rotating your salad greens between romaine, iceberg and spinach. Yes spinach is extremely healthy, but you're bound to suffer from salad boredom in flavor, texture and taste. Wake up your salad-hungry senses and start inviting a new list of greens and crunchy shreds into your salad bowl. Here's my top ten list of healthy greens to try (and what taste, texture and color they have). ...Much more than just lettuce...

Try Mache. I don't have a favorite green. But if I were to convince you to try at least one new green: try mache, also called lambs lettuce. It's incredibly healthy: high in folate, vitamin C, A, K. Iron, fiber and more. Plus it has a tender nutty flavor that most kids and adults love. And I've found that many people have never tried it! I have posted several photos of mache in this write-up.

Ten Healthy Greens, Leaves and Crunches.

1. Mache. Taste is nutty and grassy. Texture is tender, like velvet. Color is deep green.

2. Arugula. Taste is spicy. Texture is delicate. Color is deep green.

3. Radicchio. Taste is bitter and bright. Texture is creamy and chewy. Color is deep purple and white marbled.

4. Endive. Taste is bright and lemony. Texture is crisp and firm. Color is white-yellow.

5. Fennel(as slaw). Taste is licorice essence and spicy. Texture is crunchy, hydrating. Color is lightest green to white(bulb).

6. Butter Lettuce. Taste is mellow. Texture is creamy, buttery and tender. Color is light green to bright green.

7. Watercress. Taste is zesty. Texture is hydrating, crunchy and crisp. Color is dark green.

8. Cabbage. Taste is mild to bland. Absorbs flavors well. Texture is crunchy to chewy. Color varies.

9. Boston Lettuce. Taste is mellow and nutty. Texture is creamy, tender. Color is green to bright dark green.

10. Frisee. Taste is bitter, tart. Texture is chewy, frizzy and stringy. Color is light green to white.

Any foodie knows who the Michelin Star awarded chef Eric Ripert is. He leads the fabulous team at Le Bernardin in NYC. From watching Eric on foodie/chef TV shows like Top Chef and No Reservations, you can easily get a sense of how incredibly skilled a chef and warm and 'cool' a person he is. And Eric's website rocks.

Cinco De Mayo Recipes a la Eric. Eric is hosting a Cinco De Mayo recipe feature and contest on his website. Prepare his special Cinco De Mayo Party recipes, take some photos and win a prize. But, since not all of the recipes on Eric's menu are vegan, I decided to "veganize" them. It would make for a vegan fiesta with some Eric Ripert flair. The recipes and my Le Bernardin experience ahead...

My Le Bernardin Experience. I dined there last year and was pleasantly amazed when Eric's kitchen or wait staff didn't blink an eye when I requested an all vegan meal. It was one of the best vegan meals I have ever had. Vegan salad on seasonal fresh ingredients, amazing vegan pasta and marinara sauce, mushrooms and even some amazing sorbet. My husband enjoyed his "Surf 'n Turf" non-vegan dish immensely as well. Le Bernardin is a spot-on special occasion restaurant. It made me an Eric Ripert super fan.

My Veganized "Eric Ripert" Cinco De Mayo Menu.

Here is Eric's menu:

Avocado Salsa Verde with Sea Salt and Black Pepper Chips
Sangrita Shrimp Ceviche
Jicama and Watermelon Salad with Mint
Achiote Steak Taco "Cones" with Roasted Corn and Chipotle Salsa
Dulce de Leche Ice Cream Sandwiches
cocktail: The Guava-Agave Cooler

My veganized version:

Instead of: Avocado Salsa Verde with Sea Salt and Black Pepper Chips
Veganized: My Avocado Salsa Verde Recipe (or Eric's)
I already posted my delicious recipe for a similar recipe. You can use my recipe, or go with Eric's.
Serve with blue corn tortilla chips with fresh black pepper grinded on top
This one is easy.

Instead of: Sangrita Shrimp Ceviche
Veganized: Citrus Braised Tofu with Chilled Citrus Cilantro Mango & Pineapple Slices.
Eric's shrimp dish is a citrus marinated cold dish. Shrimp is a protein, so I wanted to keep slightly in tune with Eric's menu flow.

Instead of: Jicama and Watermelon Salad with Mint
Veganized: Jicama and Watermelon Salad with Mint
Same! No need to veganize! This recipe is 100% vegan and sounds delicious. A bit of spice, a touch of tequila and a lot of healthy flavor! We love jicama!

Instead of: Achiote Steak Taco "Cones" with Roasted Corn and Chipotle Salsa
Veganized: Achiote Seitan Taco "Cones" with roasted corn and Chipotle Salsa
Another easy one! Eric's recipe sounds delicious. So all we need to do is substitute the steak with seitan-a very similar protein in texture. This one sounds divine and flavorful. Perfect with some of the salsa verde guac.

Instead of: Dulce de Leche Ice Cream Sandwiches
Veganized: Cinnamon-Agave Soy Cream Sandwiches
This one is actually pretty easy. You can either bake your our vegan shortbread cookies or simply buy some at a place like Whole Foods. Then simply add in some vegan vanilla soy cream. I think it would be fabulous to mix in some agave and cinnamon into the soy cream before smushing it between the cookies for a sandwich. Yum.

Cocktail: The Guava-Agave Cooler, vegan and sounds divine. Yippee.

So those are my Veganized versions of Eric's suggested Cinco De mayo Menu.

You can read his full original menu and read about how you can enter the contest on his website: http://aveceric.com/2009/04/23/cinco-de-mayo-dinner-social/

Fresh blueberry frosting and banana bread cake cupcakes are yummy. From Babycakes Bakery in New York City. Just a reminder that vegan cupcakes are creative, delicious and wait for it....healthier than non-vegan! Click ahead to see something pretty cool from Babycakes...

Babycakes Viral Video. This is Babycakes Viral Video for their new cookbook. I love it. Pretty cheesy, a little kooky and very silly. Like I said, love it. Vegan cupcake bakers in cook aprons rule the world...

BabyCakes, the Book of Recipes: It's Here (Almost)! from BabyCakes NYC on Vimeo.

www.babycakesnyc.com

ps full foodie blogger disclosure section: I'm just a big fan of Babycakes, I don't get a drop from them, except fabulous cupcakes when I buy them... FYI.

Thirsty for a light, hydrating and energy enzyme infused drink? I was. Today I skipped the smoothie and definitely skipped any pre-packaged juice and I made myself a frothy.

Yellow Fruity Frothy. My ingredients: tart white grapefruit, zingy lemon, sweet bosc pear, spicy ginger and a creamy ripe banana. But the secret to making a frothy is not just in what you put in it, but how you make it...

Frothy Secrets. A frothy is not a smoothie and it's not simply juice. It is somewhere in between. First, you choose a healthy blend of juicable ingredients. Juice the ingredients and pour them into a blender. Then here is the fun part. Add in a whole ripe banana (or another sweet mushy fruit like mango or papaya) add a few coconut water ice cubes and blend on low. Instant frothy gratification.

Yellow Fruity Frothy
serves two, vegan

1 white grapefruit, peeled, chopped
½ lemon, peeled, chopped, no seeds
1 bosc pear, chopped
3 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled, chopped
1 ripe banana
5 coconut water ice cubes
1 small orange, peeled and chopped

To make:
Juice the grapefruit, lemon, ginger, orange and pear.
Pour the juice into a blender. Add in banana and ice cubes.
Serve immediately.
Garnish with fresh fruit and for extra spice add a dash of cayenne.

Health benefits and more frothy-licious pics below.

Frothy Health Benefits
Banana adds potassium and fiber
Citrus adds a lot of Vitamin C.
Ginger kick starts your body with it's spicy flavor and warming characteristics.
Pear adds an all-natural sweetness for immediate energy boost.
Coconut water ice cubes are hydrating and add additional potassium, magnesium, calcium and manganese nutrients.

*Plus juicing these foods fresh assures that you are drinking plenty of fresh enzymes and alive and active nutrients. Drink juice right away for the more nutrients.

Ooba. You may have seen this new beverage on the shelves of say, Whole Foods. Clever curved bottle, fun name. But what is Ooba? Quite simply, it's hibiscus! The flower. Ooba is a sparkling sweet drink made with hibiscus flower extract. It's high in Vitamin C. It's a bright cranberry-colored pink. And I found a perfect use for this drink. ...My sangria may never be the same! My recipe and full product review ahead...

Ooba. Thoughts. At first taste I wasn't sure if I would have much of a use for this beverage. My hydration activities are already pretty packed to the brim with drinks like coconut water, green tea, chai, acai juice, fresh-juiced blends and sparkling mineral water. But one drink that I am incredibly passionate about is sangria! And at first sip of this yummy carbonated beverage I knew it would be a perfect addition to my classic sangria recipe!

But first, here's my Ooba review...

Ooba Beverage Review

Shelf-Appeal: Love the bottle, fun appearance. Looks fun and different on shelf. And it is!

Label Check: 90 calories in 8 ounces. Not bad at all for such a sweet carbonated clear beverage. It's high in Vitamin C and hibiscus has been known to have other heart-healthy benefits according to the Ooba website. Sweetened with can sugar. Simple ingredients. No chemicals.

Taste Test: Refreshing, tastes a lot like cranberry juice. Also has a sweet red herb tea flavor. Tartness compliments the sweetness. I like the flavor options: lime, mandarin, blackberry, original and more.

Price Check: Around $2 a bottle. I found 12 bottles for $21 on Amazon.com. Prices may vary where you live. You get a generous amount per bottle: 16 ounces. That's more than a Vitamin Water which can also be priced at up to two bucks.

Last Word: I am loving this as a Sangria recipe ingredient. Perfect for that 'sparkling' element. If you like cranberry juice. Try this. It's a bit like a more tropical sparkling cranberry juice. ...with flower power.

...and now for my awesome OOBA Sangria recipe...

My recipe ahead...

Ooba Citrus Sangria
makes 1 pitcher

1 bottle Ooba beverage lime or original flavors preferred
4 sweet juicy oranges or tangerines
2 limes
2 shots good brandy
¾ bottle Spanish red wine
1 teaspoon natural sugar
1 small green apple, diced
1 teaspoon salt

To make:

Clean all fruit well.
Juice the limes, leave three round slices out.
Juice two oranges and slice the third orange into rings.
Add diced apple, orange juice and lime juice to pitcher.
Add sugar and salt.
stir ingredients around well.
Add in a dash of Ooba.
Mix around again.
Add in citrus rounds.
Add in brandy shots.
*brandy will loosen the fruit flavors in the apple and citrus rinds.
Mix around well.
Add in wine and stir well.
Add in the rest of Ooba, to taste.
Chill in fridge until ready to serve.
Serve over coconut water ice cubes.

You can also substitute the orange juice with apple juice if you like sweeter lighter sangria taste. The citrus makes for a heavier zesty sangria. I love it.

www.oobabeverage.com for full product details

The results are in from my "Is Honey Vegan?" online poll. And you all had a lot to say! The largest percentage of votes - 41% - went to the "I am vegan, and NO honey is not vegan" segment of the voters. Full results ahead...

Great Comments! Loved all the comments, even the kooky ones. A few of the my faves:

Funniest: "..bees are tied to wherever their nest is. They do not flit about and have raves every evening at different nests. " -Anonymous
"How about tapping a maple tree? ... [I'm not being a jerk, I'm really asking.]" -KT_

Good Points: "I believe we shouldn't farm animals or insects no matter how small" -Sarah
"As humans we are often trying to fit ourselves into a box of standards based one what the "collective" has decided. I know many vegans who don't eat honey simply because they are told it's not vegan, but will stomp on a spider without hesitation should one crawl across their bathroom floor." -Erika

Most Passionate: "... I am personally offended by individuals who consume honey yet refer to themselves as vegan." -Adam

Click ahead for more chosen comments, and full poll results. And find out what I think on this issue...

Why the Poll? I ran this poll because like many people, the issue still conflicts me. Early on in my blog I would add agave/maple and/or honey options in my recipes. And I got a lot of emails saying that honey is not vegan. I never knew how passionate the non-honey eaters were about the issue until I started this blog. So being incredibly curious, I decided to post this poll. Not a scientific poll by any means, but I find the results interesting. But the comments are amazing, thoughtful...and entertaining.

My View. I love agave and maple syrup, so I really have no need for honey, but I will admit that I haven't banned it from my diet. If I'm in a restaurant ordering tea and it's between bleached white sugar, pink packets or honey-I will go with the honey. Although, I greatly respect any vegans who believe honey is not vegan. And yes, honey is technically an animal product (or insect product), right? , so does that make me not-vegan for eating it? Or do we need another term for vegans who do and do not eat honey? Beegans? Ugh, labels labels labels...

The Results:
(note the poll is still live and so votes are still being counted.)
total votes at review: 283
Yes Honey is vegan: 39%
No Honey is not Vegan: 61%

Broken down by vegan/nonvegan voters:

41% Vegans: honey isn't vegan
20% Vegans: honey is vegan
19% Non-vegans: honey is vegan
20% Non-vegans: honey isn't vegan

Now let's look at the entertaining and thought-provoking comments section...

Your Comments. My Faves. These are blog-reader comments that I thought everyone should read, but I don't necessarily agree with all of them...

"As humans we are often trying to fit ourselves into a box of standards based one what the "collective" has decided. I know many vegans who don't eat honey simply because they are told it's not vegan, but will stomp on a spider without hesitation should one crawl across their bathroom floor." -Erika

"Most vegans do eat honey, even though it's not technically vegan. I agree with Gregor--the honey issue makes us look foolish. There are good reasons to not eat honey but it should not be a prerequisite for being vegan if we want a vegan world."
-Anonymous

"Response to anonymous from tangerine: anon, yeah it does make us foolish, b/c honey is the easiest thing to give up out of all animal products- and yet some won't for some reason. " -tangerine

"I love this debate. Some have told me I am not a vegan because I occasionally use honey! I buy only raw honey from a local producer that is super nice to the bees. I have needed honey for the antibacterial properties while I lose weight and heal my body. Sorry anti honey vegans 🙁 " -VeganWoman

"I agree with VeganWoman. I really don't consider honey an animal product. Yes, I know - bees are insects - insects are animals but I never consider honey as being non-vegan. That's my opinion. "-Ina

"I don't think being honey-less is a rule within veganism, but it's more a matter of choice. "-Erin

"My not eating honey or any other animal product has nothing to do with the cuteness or icky factor.

Bottom line is: honey is an animal product, produced by the bees for the bees. Humans have no place in this equation. It is an animal product, just as much as milk and eggs are.

Additionally honey isn't vegan according to Vegan Society, that coined the term. I might sound picky, but hey I cant really tell anyone what to eat, but the sensible thing would be not to label ourselves something we're not. I don't understand why some fish & chicken eating ppl call themselves vegetarians. Or why some so called vegans eat eggs... It's really making it more difficult for the rest of us when ordering veg*n in a restaurant. So please lets use proper labels or for those of you who find these labels inadequate- feel free to come up with new ones!"
-Tangerine

"Bees are disappearing at an alarming rate today, and we don't know why. Without these honey bees the plants we love to eat wouldn't be able to survive either! So I support local honey, which supports maintaining our bee populations and our local agriculture!"
-cinnamonapple

"Response to Cinnamon Apple from tangerine: "Cinnamon: beekeepers are not in the business of supporting nor maintaining bee population. In theory you could build an artificial beehive if you really were worried about the bee population and then let the bees take care of the rest. But in practice the beekeepers exploit these creatures and take whats naturally theirs- honey - and then feed them sugared water. If I were a bee I'd be pissed-" -anonymous

"By definition honey is not vegan...Vegan is not a slang term and I am personally offended by individuals who consume honey yet refer to themselves as vegan." Adam K.

".....you are stealing this honey from the bee. Do not make the mistake in thinking honey is a waste product or that these insects are not killed by the masses for their energy product." -Adam K.

"I believe we shouldn't farm animals or insects no matter how small" -Sarah M.

"How about tapping a maple tree? ... [I'm not being a jerk, I'm really asking.]" -KT_K

"...if I were cooking for a group of Vegans, honey would definitely not appear on my ingredient list. " -Erika

"I love honey, but don't eat it very often. Back when I first became vegan, I googled honey to find out what atrocities were being inflicted on the poor bees. Couldn't find much, except that they were being fed sugar water to replace their honey. I also read that bee keepers are quite fond of their bees, and take very good care of them. They (the bees) are also free to roam wherever, and return to their comb. In the spirit of veganism... maybe we could make an exception??" -DJ Karma

"Honestly, how many vegans do you know who care about the well being of arthropods? I don't lose sleep at night over tenting our house for termites. It's as simple as that." - Sherrilee

"If you eat honey, then your not a vegan (veganism = to the furthest extent limit exploitation of ALL animals - hence, honey isn't vegan).
Your just as the ovo-veggies calling them self vegeterians" -Karpasz

"For the argument that bees are somehow mistreated by not being allowed to 'fly free' I offer this: bees are tied to wherever their nest is. They do not flit about and have raves every evening at different nests. Therefore orchestrating where they could set up a nest (it is ultimately their choice as we have seen with the recent accounts of bees abandoning their nests) is not cruel." -Anonymous

"it is not vegan. I don't know why this is so hard for some people to figure out - an animal is an animal is an animal. Just because it's an insect and not a cuddly piglet doesn't mean it's not an animal. Sorry - sometimes a lifestyle choice is hard but if you consume an animal product you're not a vegan. Deal with it." -Anonymous

See the original Is Honey Vegan Poll post here.

I love perusing celebrity tweets on twitter. Plus it makes for some entertaining blogging. I previously posted tweets from Pure Food and Wine's founder, Sarma. Today I stumbled upon the tweets of music artist, DJ and vegan, Moby. I like Moby, he has a dry sense of humor that actually works. And he is a deep thinker with a mild yet very passionate communication style. He also has an active online blog. Plus we seem to hang out and live in the same downtown NYC hood because I've spotted him out and about more than a few times.

Moby Tweets. Moby tweets about his life as a globe-trotting in-demand DJ/musician, his life in NYC and all things random-which I enjoy. My favorite Moby tweets are:
"Summertime dusk in nyc is perfect. The air is soft and humid and the light is like filtered gold. And suddenly its summer." 7:22 PM Apr 27th
AND
"Nothing says 'cool' like hobbling through soho with a cane and a fractured ankle. Eesh. Maybe I'll start shaking my cane at the young people" 12:47 PM Apr 21st
Click ahead to read more of my fave Moby tweets....
Celebrity Tweets: Moby

Walking through chinatown in the rain. Glamorous except for the floating garbage.
10:23 AM Apr 15th

Carpenter bees. Discuss. Big huge scary aggressive bees that can't actually sting. Kind of like tough guys in hummers.
4:03 PM Apr 17th from TwitterBerry

I just had chocolate with ginger and wasabi. It was very nice. Plus I fractured my ankle. Less nice.
10:13 PM Apr 16th

Nothing says 'cool' like hobbling through soho with a cane and a fractured ankle. Eesh. Maybe I'll start shaking my cane at the young people
12:47 PM Apr 21st

guten morgen. 'Guten' is a great word, like gluten v rootin'. Every morning I awake to the dulcet tones of trucks at the vegetable warehous
8:22 AM Apr 22nd

I'm at a fancy dinner with robert deniro and I'm wearing sandals because of my broken ankle. Oh, I also have a geriatric cane. Glamorous.
11:52 PM Apr 23rd

Either I'm around a lot of tall people or I'm shrinking. What if I'm really shrinking? Maybe I'll shrink til I disappear. That would be ok.
4:32 PM Apr 24th

Boy, driving across the brooklyn bridge listening to leonard cohen with a perfect blue sky everywhere sure is nice.4:34 PM Apr 24th

Summer in nyc. Finally. No more socks. The swallows return to capistrano. The pigeons return to chinatown. Well, they never actually left.
10:36 AM Apr 25th

Summertime dusk in nyc is perfect. The air is soft and humid and the light is like filtered gold. And suddenly its summer.
7:22 PM Apr 27th

I saw bill murray at dinner last night. Just him showing up and doing nothing is funny. Ok, that's it. Have a nice day.
10:58 AM Apr 29th

-Tweets by Moby

Read all of Moby's tweets on twitter: www.twitter.com/thelittleidiot

One of my favorite food pairings is a hot plate of Lemon Pepper Tempeh and Mashed Sweet Potatoes. It's a mash made in vegan heaven! Soon to be right up there with veggie burgers and fries, peas and carrots, beans and rice and salsa and chips. Mark my words!

My easy Sweet Potato and Tempeh recipes to make this combo in your kitchen tonight!...

Sweet Potatoes. I love sweet potatoes with just about anything. I've pretty much mastered my Kathy's Famous Sweet Potato Mash. And now I've found the perfect food pairing for it: Lemon Pepper Tempeh. And quite frankly, I eat this combo least 3-4 times a week! I love it.

Lemon Pepper Tempeh. One of my favorite ways to prepare tempeh is to lemon pepper it. I've got an easy recipe that you can prepare in just a few minutes. It's zesty, nutty and satisfying.

You can use the super easy recipes below, or reference my Lightlife Lemon Peppered Tempeh and Kathy's Famous Sweet Potato Mash recipes.

First, the Lemon Pepper Tempeh:

Lemon Pepper Tempeh
serves one

½ block of tempeh, about 1 cup, cubed.*
*in this dish (photos shown) I used SoyBoy Multigrain tempeh.
1 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon (a drizzle to grease the pan) olive oil
3 tablespoon veggie broth
1 teaspoon agave syrup
1 teaspoon sea salt, optional-veggie broth adds salt
Mixture of fine black pepper and fresh ground black pepper (LOTS of it, to taste)

Directions:
Turn heat on med-high
Add olive oil to pan.
Add lemon juice and veggie broth to pan.
When pan is sizzling, add in tempeh.
Saute for a few minutes, uncovered.
Add agave and a few dashes of fine black pepper.
Saute for a few more minutes, brown all sides.
*tip: cover for a few minutes and toss in steam. 'Fluffs up' the tempeh for a moist bite.
When tempeh looks done, turn off heat.
Add salt and a lot more pepper.
Stir tempeh around(still in hot pan)
Plate tempeh and grind a bit of fresh black pepper on top.

Now for the sweet potatoes half of this pairing...

Sweet Potatoes
See Kathy's Famous Sweet Potato Mash here.
or a quick mash recipe:

Quick Sweet Potato Mash
serves two

1 medium organic garnet yam.
1 tablespoon vegan buttery spread
⅓ cup chopped parsley
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
¼ cup finely chopped white onion
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 dash cayenne

Directions:
Cook sweet potato in microwave or oven.
Mash all ingredients together by hand using fork.
For thinner potatoes add a bit of olive oil and/or veggie broth.

Plate the pair together.

Garnish with fresh lemon slices and parsley

...and enjoy my fave vegan combo.

It's a Mash Made in Vegan Heaven.

Does a yummy, good-tasting green superfood powder exist? If you're like me, you love the health and nutrition benefits of green superfoods like spirulina and wheatgrass, but you are a bit turned off by the 'green powder' taste.

Quest for Green. So on my quest to find a great tasting and easy to love green nutrition smoothie powder, I pulled three random brands of sample-sized green food powder packets off the shelf of my Whole Foods and decided to do a side to side taste test comparison. And because to me, it doesn't matter how healthy something is, if it doesn't taste good, I'm not going to use it. Click ahead to see my taste test of the three brands (and my winning brand)....

Green Nutrition Powder Taste Test

For the taste test, I blended up a classic Soymilk Acai smoothie. Here's the recipe:

Acai Soy Smoothie

1 frozen acai smoothie pack by Sambazon
1 cup soy milk
1 raw banana, ripe
1 cup blueberries
6 coconut water ice cubes
½ cup acai juice

Blend.

The Brands

The three random Green Powder brands I chose and their main health claims and ingredients:

1. Amazing Grass Green Super Food.
Premium blend of Superfoods. Supports body alkalinity, boosts energy and immune system, gluten free and vegan.
Main ingredients of interest: 5722mg Green Food Blend includes organic spirulina and organic wheat grass, among others.
30 calories. 100% RDA Vitamin A. 50% RDA Vitamin K. 25% RDA Vitamin B12.
Other ingredients: energizing herbs, digestive enzyme and active culture blend, fiber blend and antioxidant blend.

2. Macro Greens Nutrient Rich Super Food Supplement.
Surpasses the raw food nutrition of five servings of fruits and veggies.
Main ingredients of interest: 600mg of Spirulina.
Other ingredients: Nutrient rich superfoods, barley grass powder, antioxidants, probiotic cultures, adaptogenic and metabolic herbs, fibers, harmonizing and supporting herbs, plant enzymes.
667% RDA Vitamin C. 334% RDA Vitamin E.

3. Vibrant Health Green Vibrance.
Probiotics (25 billion) organic greens, restorative, concentrated superfood, version 9.0.
Main ingredients of interest: 1500mg of spirulina and wheat grass. 25 billion probiotic cultures from 12 strains.
Other ingredients: nutrient dense greens, cell and membrane support ingredients, high fiber foods and probiotics, antioxidants, adaptogens, immune support, sea veggie complex, probiotic blend, enzyme complex, phyto-minerals, tonics, sketetal support, flavor enhancer: mango.
Vegan, gluten-free.
Low carb, gluten free. 50 calories.

So I mixed a sample of each powder into three separate cups of the same Acai smoothie. Here are my tasting notes...

TASTING NOTES for Green Superfood Powders:

1. Amazing Grass Green Superfood:
Dark green color. Thin powder. Taste essence of hay, oats, slightly milky. Grassy. Perky flavor assists in palpability. Zesty yet milky taste overpowers any grassy bitterness.
TASTE RATING: 7/10
NUTRITION RATING: 6/10
Notes: Love that every ingredient is organic. Easily dissolves in smoothie.

2. Macro Greens Nutrient Rich Superfood:
Light colored powder. Very fine powder. Taste essence of mango, very fruity, citrus. Tastes like a children's vitamin pill. Nice and zesty, no bitterness.
TASTE RATING: 9/10
NUTRITION RATING: 8/10
Notes: This tastes pretty great! I love the fruity rather than overly-grassy flavor. Actually enhances the flavor of the smoothie. I wish it had a bit more spirulina, but the taste is so light and yummy that I an pleased.

3. Vibrant Health Green Vibrance:
Dark powder. Dark green and a bit grainy. Thickest powder out of the three. Taste essence is less astringent than the other. Grassy bitterness is overpowering. Deep, strong 'green' flavor. Milky undertones.
TASTE RATING: 6/10
NUTRITION RATING: 10/10
Notes: Darn! This stuff is packed with a lot of excellent nutrients including a nice 1500mg of spirulina. But the taste is not as palpable as the others. The grainy texture even effects the smoothie a bit. But the nutrient label is very impressive.

Taste Test Results Overview: So I can definitely say that the best tasting powder is the one by Macro Greens brand. The worst tasting was the Vibrant Health. Although, the best nutrition rating also went to vibrant health. Tricky! So it depends what you can stomach I guess. If you are all in it for the nutrition, try Vibrant Health. If you need the best tasting, like me, go for the Macro Greens and give Amazing Grass a try. If you don't like a fruity flavor, try the Amazing Grass brand. However, I must say I was impressed with all three brands. Not nearly as ill-tasting as green powder's I remember using say five years ago.

My rankings:

BEST TASTE: Macro Greens brand
BEST NUTRITION: Vibrant Health

Ranked:
First Place: Macro Greens
Second Place: Amazing Grass
Third Place: Vibrant Health

...I love the nutrition in Vibrant Health, but for me personally, it has to taste good. However, I know a lot of you love the green food taste and might contest y personal rankings.

If you have another green food brand you love please leave a comment! I'd love to taste test more.

Websites:
www.macrogreens.com
www.amazinggrass.com
www.vibranthealth.us

Read more about the green superfood spirulina.

UPDATE: Amazing response, the first 5 good answer responses have been chosen. This Giveaway has closed.

I love Crofter's Superfruit Spreads. The exotic superfruit ingredients and the yummy fresh taste and thick gooey texture blew me away. You really have to try these jam-aisle gems for yourself. You'll be hooked too. Read my complete review here: Crofter's Superfruit Review.

Giveaway! And the wonderful folks at Crofter's want to let five lucky giveaway winners try their spreads too! Click ahead for the details about how you can win a generous giveaway pack from Crofter's Superfruit Spreads....

To Enter this Giveaway:

Simply send me an email to: [email protected]
Subject: Crofter's Giveaway.

And the answer to this question:

Q: Crofter's contains several exotic and healthy superfruit ingredients including Maqui and Yumberries. What is a yumberry and what is a maqui? Name one health benefit of each!

THE PRIZE: The first FIVE entrants to give me a good answer will win the amazing giveaway packs which include a full sized sample of each of the four spread flavors including: Europe, South America, North America, Asia.

Good Luck. Check out the delicious Crofter's photos below and read my review here.

I finally got my hands on some fresh wild California Ramps, on sale at Whole Foods. And after my indulgent ramps photo shoot, the white truffle essence hovering in the air was making me woozy for a delicious ramps tasting. Since I was a ramps newbie I wanted to keep the flavors clean, crisp and simple.

Ramps and Shrooms: A Perfect Pair. I decided to add a bit of shiitake shrooms to my tasting recipe, ramps and shrooms go hand in hand. Come along for my ramps tasting experience and my simple recipe ahead...

How Do I Cook Ramps?

Ramps look a lot like scallions, but must be handled more delicately. Ramps have delicate wispy spring green leaves shooting out of the crisp white and purple root stems. I didn't know exactly how to chop the ramps up for cooking. A few recipes I found online instructed to chop them up pretty harshly and add them to a saute dish for some all around flavor. But since I was doing a tasting I wanted as little chopping as possible. I wanted to really taste these ramps!

Here's my ramp tasting process:

1. Clean the ramps. Pull off any dead or wilted layers around the bulb.

2. Chop off the rooted bulb. Just a tiny slice because a lot of the ramp flavor is in that tiny white bulbed end.

3. Do a 1 inch rule. Chop the ramp into about 1 inch strips starting with the white bulb. I liked keeping the white bulb slice and the purple stem slice separate so I could taste the differing flavors of the ramp.
4. That's it for prep. Now onto the recipe:

Simple Wild Ramps Tasting

Here's the ingredients:

5-6 small wild ramps, chopped as stated above.
1 tablespoon olive oil
5 shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and sliced thin.
3 tablespoon veggie broth
1 garlic clove
½ teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper

Prepare the ramps:
In a hot skillet, add the oil, veggie broth and garlic.
When liquid is sizzling, add mushrooms.
Saute for 1-2 minutes uncovered.
Add in a pinch of black pepper and the thick ends of the ramps (white bulbs and purple stems, leave out the green leaves thus far.)
Saute for another minute on med-high.
When the ingredients look just about perfect, add in the green ends of the ramps and cover pan for about 30 seconds. The steam from the pan should cook the ends very quickly.
Uncover and do a quick stir with your spoon to mesh all the flavors together.
Turn heat off.
Sprinkle a dash of salt and grind some fresh pepper on the dish-still in the pan.
Toss salt/pepper with the dish.
Plate in small servings dishes while still steamy hot.
The smell will be divine!
Serve with some crusty bread and small forks.

Let the ramp tasting begin.

I don't know what it is about ramps, but they fascinate me. Maybe it's the fact that they are in-season for such a limited time. Maybe it's the fact that trend-setting chef's like Tom Colicchio of Craft NYC likes to add ramps to the tasting menu and at the same time wild ramp seekers are foraging through the woody wilderness collecting these treasured green sprouted roots. High brow, gourmet, earthy and wild all at the same time. Oh yeah, and the fact that they have a flavor reminiscent of white truffles doesn't hurt either.

Wild Ramps from California. I had never tasted or even seen a ramp! So when I spotted wild ramps for sale at my NYC Whole Foods Market, I was thrilled, excited and ready for a veggie photo shoot....

My Ramps Photo Essay. Here are a few of my ramp photos. I wanted to get every beautiful inch of the lovely green leafed, purple stalked, white bulbed, rooted ramps. But I'll let the ramps speak for themselves...

(and yes I will be posting my ramp tasting recipe in the next post!)

A new report from the American Lung Association has ranked the most polluted cities in the US. Cities are rated on three criteria: ozone, short-term particle spikes and long-term particle averages.

Healthiest Cities. These included mostly cities in the wide-open spaces of America's heartland, far from heavy industry. Healthy rankings went to cities such as: Cheyenne-WY, Santa Fe-NM, Honolulu-HI and Great Falls-MT.

Click ahead to see some of the unhealthiest cities which include Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and more...

More Report Findings:

The Worst: The ALA found that the worst places to breathe are: Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Visalia, all in California, for ozone pollution; and Bakersfield, Pittsburgh and Visalia in terms of average particulates.

Pittsburgh recorded the highest number of particle pollution spikes, which are jumps in the number of particles in the air that can last for many hours or even days.

Beware Los Angeles residents: "Los Angeles, which has a lethal combination of heavy traffic, sunshine and heat, had 195 days last year in which the ozone levels were high enough to be unhealthy for sensitive groups. On another 55 days, it was unhealthy for anyone and on 11 days, the ozone in the air was judged as very unhealthy."

More of the Best: The lowest, nearly non-existent, ozone levels, were found in cities like Billings, Mont., Carson City, Nev., and Fargo, ND. Only two eastern cities were on any of the three least-polluted lists. Portland, in heavily forested Maine, had among the lowest spikes in particle emissions, and Port St. Lucie, on Florida's Atlantic coast, had among the lowest ozone levels.

Improvements: New York, Charlotte and Washington have succeeded in reducing pollution dramatically over the past 10 years. California is introducing cleaner diesel fuel for everything from trucks to boats.

Why it Matters: Six of every 10 Americans - 186 million people - live in places where their lives are endangered by the air they breathe, according to Stephen Nolan, the American Lung Association National Board Chairman.
"Air pollution is a major threat to human health," he said in a prepared statement. "When 60% of Americans are left breathing air dirty enough to send people to the emergency room, to shape how kids' lungs develop and to kill, air pollution remains a serious problem."

Read the report on CNN here: full report.

Smoothie of the day! A simple banana smoothie gets a tummy-soothing makeover in my Calm Tummy Banana Smoothie. I even added a new smoothie technique to this recipe and one of my new fave ingredients...

Soothes Three Ways: Chamomile tea, ripe banana and cashew juice.

New Technique: Tea Ice Cubes.

Tea Ice Cubes. The first ingredient I knew I had to fit into my Calm Tummy Banana Smoothie was Chamomile tea. I planned ahead and made 2 cups of strongly brewed chamomile tea, sweetened it with agave syrup and froze it into ice cubes. Yes, I used my coconut water ice cube technique for tea!

Calm Tummy Fruit: Banana. Next was a large ripe organic banana. Bananas are known to be easily digestible and are the only fruit item in the BRAT diet. The BRAT diet refers to easily digestible foods recommended when people (especially kids) are having 'tummy stress'. BRAT is an acronym for: Bananas Rice Applesauce Toast or Tea. Yay bananas. Studies have shown that bananas even stimulate the stomach to increase the mucous layer of the stomach lining-which has an antacid and soothing effect on the stomach:
"A flavonoid (meaning class of plant secondary metabolites known for their antioxidant activity) in the banana, leucocyanidin, has been found to significantly increase the thickness of the mucous membrane layer of the stomach"-source

Cashew Juice. Again. Next, I added in some of the delicious Cashew Juice that I just discovered from O.N.E. brand. It is such a flavorful smoothie liquid and some studies have shown that cashew juice is excellent for calming a stomach. And with more Vitamin C than an orange, and a much lower level of acidity, it is a great calm tummy Vitamin C substitute.

Smoothie Blend. The end result is a delicious and easy to digest smoothie that is fabulous when your tummy is not feeling so calm- and even when you want to keep it feeling calm!

Here's the recipe:

Calm Tummy Banana Smoothie
vegan, serves 1-2

1 cup Cashew Juice, O.N.E brand
1 large raw banana, black-spotted ripe (1 ½ small bananas)
7 Chamomile Tea Ice Cubes
¼ cup soy milk
1 cup frozen fruit (combo of mango, banana, papaya and/or peaches)
1 teaspoon agave syrup
1 dash of sea salt

Blend all ingredients, leave out ½ of the raw banana and a few tea ice cubes.
Add last half of raw banana and ice once smoothie is fully blended.

Drink ASAP. Enjoy. Have a happy tummy.

Notes:
*Customize it! Want a thinner smoothie? Add more juice or soy milk. Thicker? Add more frozen fruit. Frostier? Add more ice. Creamier? Add more soy milk and less juice. Sweeter? Add a bit of agave syrup.
* My favorite frozen fruit for this smoothies is a papaya banana blend. Although, frozen papaya is hard to find. You may have to freeze it yourself. Also, papaya has an enzyme called papain which assists in digestion-for a happier tummy.
*I love this smoothie extra banana-y. So I really do add an entire huge banana-with black spots so it is ripe and sweet-and I'll even add in a bi of frozen banana too.
*Why the black spots on the banana? This is very important, actually. The riper the banana the more black spots will pop up. This indicates that the banana flesh has turned to mostly sugars instead of mostly starch. And sugars are much mores easily digested by the body than starches. Starches are more complex and sugars have been broken down a bit already. So make sure you use ripe bananas.
*Cashew juice can be found online or in stores like Whole Foods. I like it because it is sweet, and has a mellow mandarin/peach/apple cider flavor. Plus something in the cashew juice may have an extra calming effect on a stomach. Cashew Juice is commonly seen in Brazil. O.N.E. brand sells Cashew Juice.
*Other additions? You could also add in a raw mango or raw papaya. Just use more frozen ingredients or less liquid ingredients if you up the raw ingredient amount. Especially papayas-they can make a smoothie watery very quickly-that's why I like my papaya's frozen.
*Tea Cubes. Use a strong brewed tea, melt in a sweetened are freeze it into cubes. You could even try this technique with other teas. But for a calm tummy stick to chamomile. The flavor is also very mellow and blends nicely with the flavors in the smoothie.

Links:
Tropical Pink Cashew Juice Smoothie
One Natural Experience O.N.E. website (Cashew Juice brand and info)

Score one for the gluten-free advocates. Starting May 5th, Starbucks will offer a gluten-free pastry called the Valencia Orange Cake......but what about the vegans?

Starbucks will offer a gluten-free pastry starting May 5th. The Associated Press reports:

"The pastry, called Valencia Orange Cake, will be made with seven ingredients which are all 100 percent gluten-free, the company said. The cake will be sold in individually wrapped packages for $2.25 each."

Customers Heard. This comes after a large cry from gluten-free Starbucks customers requesting a gluten-free option.

Gluten-free, on the rise: Blogs like Karina's Kitchen feature gluten-free recipes. The Celebrity Apprentice TV show recently featured a gluten-free frozen meal in one of the celebrity challenges. Elisabeth Hasselbeck on The View wrote a best-selling gluten-free diet book called The G-Free Diet. And now Starbucks is catching on. Many of the people who need gluten-free products, like Elisabeth Hasselbeck of The View, have Celiac Disease.

My Plea? Hopefully Starbucks is working on that vegan dairy free soy shake Frappuchino I keep requesting!!

Read the complete news story here: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/04/17/ap6305750.html

One of my very best friends back in California has an obsession with Ranch dressing and dip. She's not vegan, but since her husband is an awesome chef, she loves trying new foods and recipes. So maybe she'll try out this one. It's Cool. Creamy. Zesty. And vegan.

Zesty Ranch Memories. Recalling my favorite elements of a good ranch dressing: I love the mellow cool sweet flavor, creamy dippable texture and that slight zing of fresh herbs. My recipe is lovely, and just in time for spring and summer salad season. Click ahead for the recipe and more photos of my vegan Ranch Dressing and Dip...

Ranch Dip and baby Carrots. That was the go-to snack for all the veggie loving Cali moms back in my 1980's childhood. It was the Hidden Valley Ranch craze. Cool, creamy but definitely not vegan! So, after one afternoon of watching one too many of yummy-looking Hidden Valley Ranch commercials I decided to embark upon Vegan Ranch Dressing/Dip. With cucumber slices, carrot sticks and plenty of creamy vegan ingredients in hand, I began my recipe creation.

Ranch 101: Recalling my must-have qualities-creaminess, zestiness, sweetness and fresh herb flavor, I used some vegan creamy bases of sour cream and veganaise, added in some lemon flavor, fresh herbs and voila! My cravable version of vegan ranch dressing was born.

Vegan Ranch Dressing
vegan, makes a good tub-ful for dipping and drizzling
1 heaping tablespoon Veganaise
1 ½ heaping Tbsp's Vegan Sour Cream
2-3 teaspoon agave syrup or honey
2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
2 teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon black pepper
dash of paprika
dash of garlic powder
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
optional: dash of cayenne (spicy flavor addition)

To Make:
Simply whip all the ingredients together with a fork or whisk.
Chill until ready to serve!
Yum.

Notes:
*The ingredients are loosely measured. You may want to add more or less of a certain item to reflect your personal Ranch cravings and tastes.
*both veganaise and Sour Cream were Follow Your Heart brands.
*there should be enough salt in this recipe. But you can always do a taste test and tweet certain ingredients as you desire.
*for a thinner dressing, substitute some of the sour cream with a fruity olive oil. and more vinegar.