Plant Forward

Hello Santa Barbara (+ beyond)!

Life is starting to shift over here and it’s been some time since I posted on The Vine. I wanted to take a moment to reintroduce this friendly neighborhood plant-based enthusiast. :)

My name is Beth Skidmore, MSACN. This summer I completed a Masters Degree in Applied Clinical Nutrition ( with honors! I am a little bit proud :) ). With graduation, I’m now officially launching into a career centered around nutrition as a Whole Food Plant-Based Nutritionist. I won’t be immediately launching a practice - I have some goals and projects in the works, and I am super excited to keep you up to date as my new path starts to take shape.

For those of you who I haven’t met yet personally, I spent the first fifteen years of my career as a nonprofit and fundraising professional, helping to build community around shared missions and raise over $30 million for organizations I care about. Eleven of these years (and the vast majority of those funds-raised), I spent at the Santa Barbara Bowl (my happy place) as the development director for their foundation and part of a hard-working team that raised funds for the renovation and restoration capital campaign. If you’re local, you know how magical it is. :) And if you’re familiar with the organization, you can imagine what an incredible opportunity I had to grow and learn with some of the most committed leaders in our community.

Now, after three-years of studying and more than eight years of everyday real-life learning, I’m excited to be entering a new space where I’ll be combining my developed nutrition knowledge, my nonprofit background, and my experience raising a plant-based family as I officially launch into the growing field of evidence-based, plant-based nutrition (yes, it’s a field, yes, it’s grounded in research, and yes, it’s growing!).

While I’m on a heartfelt mission to share the science and every-day application of whole food, plant-centered eating, at the core of my drive is that I know others want what I’ve been wanting and working towards for my family - the very best chance at a long, happy, healthy life. I did not used to think that what I ate was such a large driver in my health. Now I know it is. I thought when we first experimented with a plant-based diet that it was temporary. Now it’s a purposeful life-long commitment I’ve made with my family.

Change is hard. Particularly when you have littles. When you’re used to making chicken everything, fish, or meat every night for dinner, and when you’re used to adding dairy-based cheese and butter to pretty much everything, it’s hard to imagine a plant-based life or taking foods that feel like a side to the main course. I know how hard eating more (or all) plants can seem because I made the transition to a plant-based life during one of the most challenging times in my own life - we made the shift in-line with the birth of my first child, so not just was our lifestyle was new, but motherhood was new, and being a working mother was new. But we did it, and I know it’s possible because we did it and we surely were not likely candidates for eating all plants. We shaped a new life where we put our health first and prevention became paramount and it was powerful, life-changing, exciting - the benefits outweighed the discomfort and work it took.

My goal here actually isn’t to convince you to go plant-based (as obvious as that may seem;)) but to help you understand how the foods we eat impact our bodies so that we can all make more informed decisions about the foods we eat and marry those with our health goals for our families. To whatever extent you incorporate plants into your life, I’m here to help you with ideas, resources, and support.

I hope when you spend time on Plant Based Santa Barbara or my pretty active @plantbasedsantabarbara Instagram account (and currently fairly inactive Facebook account ;) - @plantbasedsantabarbara), that you come to find that eating more plants (or all plants) feels less challenging and more fun and accessible. I hope it expands your view on how food interacts with our bodies and impacts how we live. I’m excited to bring more of the science to my work in addition to sharing my experience. We all deserve to understand the basics of nutrition science so that we can make the most informed decisions for our families. I hope you find my spaces to be opportunities to add to the conversation, ask questions, challenge some long-held thoughts on nutrition, and full of tools and inspiration for eating more plants with your families. And stay tuned - I’ll keep you up to date on what’s to come! I’m just getting started.

Lifestyle work is hard. But it’s so worthwhile. If you have ideas, questions, needs, etc., please reach out! I’ve paused a bit on my site while I’ve been finishing up school, but I’ll be picking back up on building content, the calendar, and more. I love making this the community resource I wish I always had and I’d love to hear from you on how I can make it even more applicable for your life and what would be helpful for you on your plant-forward journey.

Let’s keep the conversation going. Let’s keep moving together, plant-forward.

Wishing you health + happiness for you and your families!

Beth Skidmore, MSACN
Whole Food Plant-Based Nutritionist
Nutrition Educator
Public Health Advocate
+ Your Friendly Neighborhood Plant-Based Enthusiast :)

Quick Tips from My Pics!

I share a lot about what we eat at home and around town on Instagram. Following, find several of my favorite recent quick tips and resources that I’ve posted on Instagram for eating plant-based at home and loving it!

• Think of your plate as a quadrant - legumes in one corner, whole grains in the other, fruit in another, and veggies in the last. This is the Power Plate from PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) and it's a great guide for looking at meal to meal plant based eating, or how you eat over the course of a day!

• Remember to include a source of Vitamin B12! Here's a great article by Julieanna Hever on why it's important.

• You don't need recipes every day. Think whole foods. Go to recipes are helpful. But you can use the Power Plate to put together yummy bowls or plates filled with a grain and/or starch + legumes + greens + other veggies you love + fruit, if you like! And get a few sauces going to switch up day to day! We like some simple combinations of seeds or nuts blended with lemon, water, and herbs, garlic, and/or some kind of whole food sweetener like maple syrup. Nut butters + soy sauce + a citrus make awesome sauces. Or just top with soy sauce or teriyaki or regular old marinara (Trader Joe's has a great oil-free spaghetti sauce.) Keep it easy, keep it whole. Add some sauce. 

  • We love this go-to dressing for pad thai like pastas and stir fries, and this is one of our favorite salad dressings!

• Avocado replaces almost everything. Cheese, mayo, salad dressing, sandwich meat... so many ways to sub in avocados!  Guacamole or avocado are an easy way to chase out meats and cheeses and processed fats like oils. Here's a more in depth article on subbing in avocados from The Vine.

• Get your greens in early! Start getting in the habit of chopping kale for your breakfast. I sometimes lightly steam it and sometimes I eat it raw. Having it alongside toast, under oatmeal, or topped with lots of fruit and a nut butter helps me be sure I get a head start on greens. Also delicious topped with some heart healthy balsamic vinegar.

• Add a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar to a plant based milk for your pancake recipe to get a fluffier buttermilk type pancake. YUM! 

• You can easily cook dinners oil free. Sauté in water, vegetable broth, or soy sauce. One of our favorites is soy sauce with nutritional yeast!

• I've been loving this chickpea omelet recipe! And always great to have yummy go to tofu scramble!

• Fruit is an AWESOME snack! Don't overlook whole foods when you get the munchies.

• Try some store bought cream cheeses to replace dairy with healthy nut based options - look for oil-free Miyokos and Kite Hill at our local stores!

• Another product I love is the Whole Foods brand refried black beans and the refried pinto beans (get the one labeled "fat-free"). These are so handy for making quick dinners and snacks with the kids (and oil free!). You can also whip up your own by smooshing beans and adding a bit of veggie broth or "juice" from the bean can while cooking on the stove.

• Hands down one of the best cookie recipes out there - Lunchbox Cookies by Isa Chandra Moskowitz for Forks Over Knives.

• Here are my top five go-to recipe resources right now - 

  • DreenaBurton.com/Plant Powered Families Cookbook

  • The Vegan 8 by Brandi Doming (blog and cookbook)

  • Engine 2 Cookbook by Jane and Rip Esselstyn

  • This Cheese is Nuts by Julie Piatt cookbook

  • Happy Herbivore has been a long-time resource - lots on her website and a number of great books with super simple recipes.

  • Remember Kindle or iBooks are often great ways to get new cookbooks for a bit less!

Enjoy!! And let me know if you have any questions or wonderings! I hope you enjoy eating more plants as much as I do. :)

Eat More Plants in April with the First Annual Santa Barbara Vegan Chef Challenge!

Photo/Design Credit: Emily J. Hara / @grassmaven on Instagram

About a year ago I had the pleasure of meeting Beth Wettstein over coffee. She kindly reached out when I first launched Plant Based Santa Barbara and shared her vision and passion to encourage more plant-centered options in our local Santa Barbara-area restaurants. I was so inspired meeting her and am so happy for her and excited for all of us that she and her team have brought her vision to life with the first annual Santa Barbara Vegan Chef Challenge - and it’s coming up for the entire month of April!!

This is the time to eat out friends! Eighteen of the hippest local restaurants are participating in the challenge from Los Alamos to Santa Barbara and all the way down to Ventura. If you’d love to try new delicious plant-based foods, this is such a wonderful opportunity! If you’re already eating largely plant-based, please hop out to support local restaurants and help show Santa Barbara how much we appreciate having more options on tap. And get ready to vote on your favorites!!

So what is the Santa Barbara Vegan Chef Challenge? Here’s some background, straight from the challenge -

Inspired by the Sacramento Vegan Chef Challenge, Santa Barbara area restaurants are gearing up for the first-ever Vegan Chef Challenge in April. The fun, friendly competition is a month-long event challenging participating chefs to create delicious, savory vegan dishes for all patrons to enjoy. 

“Our goal is to promote awareness of the health benefits of a plant-based lifestyle while encouraging more healthful vegan menu options at local restaurants,” said Beth Wettstein, a vegan since 2010, and the organizer of the Vegan Chef Challenge. “We hope to encourage everyone, not just vegans, to try out a dish.”

To participate, restaurants must agree to provide a complete vegan dining experience. To be considered vegan, ingredients must be free of dairy products, eggs, cheese, butter, meat, fish, poultry, whey, casein, gelatin, and glycerin (unless vegetable-sourced). 

Restaurants are also required to offer at least three new menu items throughout the month that are different from vegan options found on their regular menu and are not available year-round. Oil-free, low-fat, and gluten-free options are also encouraged, but not required. 

“Too often, the vegan option at restaurants is a salad or a veggie burger,” said Wettstein. “We want people to see that going vegan doesn’t mean giving up exciting, flavorful food.” 

Participating restaurants include Satellite, Bibi Ji, Sama Sama Kitchen, Mesa Verde, Khao Keung, Uncorked Wine Tasting and Kitchen, Viva Modern Mexican, Chase Bar & Grill, Bella Vista at The Four Seasons, Opal, Mosto Crudo, Padaro Beach Grill, Black Sheep, Pico at the Los Alamos General Store, The Lark, Les Marchands, Tyger Tyger, and Sea Ranger Seafood Station in Ventura.

Categories include breakfast/brunch, appetizer, soup/salad, main entrée, and dessert. Awards in each category will be based on diner comments, photos, and the dining experiences of the Vegan Chef Challenge organizing team members. Chefs will be recognized at a special ceremony in May. 

To learn how to participate as a guest for this year’s challenge, visit www.theveganchefchallenge.com/santa-barbara. A voting system will be available online at that link starting April 1. 

Members of the Santa Barbara Vegan Chef Challenge organizing committee will not receive compensation from this event. 

About The Vegan Chef Challenge

Vegan Chef Challenge started in Sacramento eight years ago and has since spread to other cities, including Reno, NV; Davis, CA; and Bull City, NC. 

The Vegan Chef Challenge was brought about to not only show the community how amazing vegan food is, but to bring the non-vegan and vegan communities together to share great food. It is also a way to show local restaurants the monetary benefits of offering vegan food on their menus. The competition seeks to encourage chefs, in a fun and exciting way, to push their creativity when creating their menus.

About Vegan Outreach

Founded in 1993, Vegan Outreach is a 501c3 nonprofit organization based in Davis, Calif. working to end violence toward animals. Vegan Outreach seeks a future when sentient animals are no longer exploited as commodities.

Vegan Outreach focuses on reaching the people who are motivated enough to make changes now and to provide additional encouragement. By steadily increasing the number of vegans, the organization is laying the groundwork to more quickly reach a tipping point.

Top 10 Reasons to Eat More Plants: #7 It's Incredibly Freeing

You heard me right. Eating more plants can be incredibly freeing! Most people think of it as super limiting. Let me explain.

I used to think that eating plant-based was limiting too. Restricting even. But the moment I made a commitment to eating plant-based, it became a personal philosophy, and everything changed. Here’s my main reasons for feeling it’s a freeing way of life now. 

1)   It became an opportunity, not a restriction. Developing a plant-centered philosophy is actually super handy for staying focused on my health. It helps me prioritize myself and feeling good. And not just every other week and sometimes on Friday. Every day. When my family first started test driving a plant-based diet, I thought it was seriously difficult in public situations. It felt like it took a lot of extra effort and it felt unsettling. Like I stuck out like a sore thumb. Like I was always extra work. Like I could make a more mainstream choice but wouldn’t. Not couldn’t. I felt like others saw it as being weird and difficult. I don’t know why I cared, or if they did, but I think it was a part of being hyper aware that making vegan choices were typically viewed as being, well, weird and difficult. If there were treats in the break area at work or in social situations I had to ask about all the ingredients so I often just avoided it altogether to avoid the extra effort or seeming like an imposition by grilling the gifter of said treats with my list of vegan questions. 

This was when we were experimenting with a vegan diet. I had one foot in and one foot out. We were plant-curious but it didn’t seem like a long-term decision. But, when we made the decision, when I saw what an incredible benefit it had for my husband and started to experience super exciting changes myself, it became our new PHILOSPHY. A health and lifestyle philosophy. A commitment to myself and my family. And everything changed.

Eating plant-based then became an opportunity. As my learning and experience grew, and my commitment grew, I knew it was a good decision and it kept me from making unhealthy choices that I knew I’d later feel bad about. Not feel badly in terms of feeling guilty – rather, I came to know my body wouldn’t feel good. I knew at this point that plant-foods were making me feel so much better and it became so helpful to have made a personal commitment. If there were stacks of candy and baked goods in the break area at work or at social events, I knew that there were likely ingredients that wouldn’t serve me well because, well, most baked goods and social party foods aren’t plant-based and are filled with at least eggs, dairy, oils, and other animal based foods. It became easy to say “no thank you, bummer, it’s not plant-based - but thank you so much for sharing these! So thoughtful!” and make plans before or after to treat myself with plant-foods. I’m all for progress not perfection, but I have to say, when plant based eating went from intention to commitment, for me it made a huge difference. When it’s a philosophy, sure you can make exceptions, but it’s an opportunity to focus on what you know to be best for you and not worry about missing out. 

2)   It’s a relief not to eat animals. It’s a super big relief. It’s so freeing. I never felt right about it. I just tried not to think about it. Finding out that plant foods – and eating entirely plant-based – is actually the healthiest way to eat - Mind blown. Weight lifted. Animals live. Phew.

3)   Knowledge is freeing. The more plants I ate, the more I wanted to learn about the benefits of eating more plants. I became armed with tons of knowledge and knowledge is crazy freeing. It’s freeing to know that I have a great amount of control over my health and that it’s not all genetics leading me into fates of disease and chronic conditions. Learning about plant-based eating and nutrition quickly became a leap frog of growing resources at my fingertips. My experience matched what I was learning and the more I learned the more I could enjoy and appreciate my new plant-centered life. It made me want to keep learning more. Pre-plant-based-me loved research and news clips that reinforced my bad habits. Now, I love the research that reinforces my good habits and seek it out. 

All this researching and exploring led me to develop a whole team of doctors, health specialists, authors, organizations, and bloggers who became my go-to resources, who were on team me. I became adept at learning how to research and identify those who I trust. I learned how to read the research and how to look for bias and reductionist methods (methods that just examine the effect of single nutrients rather than examining the whole diet). I started taking classes. Signed up for way too many newsletters. I learned to listen to my body. And now I’m months away from graduating with a Masters in Nutrition. Something I NEVER saw coming but I’ve gone from just doing what I’d always done and only knowing what was right in front of me (primarily in the media or hearsay) to being able to read, research, ask questions, listen to my growing base of knowledge and intuition, and make my own decisions. DAMN freeing. 

4)   It’s incredibly freeing and empowering to know that my daily food choices are also choices that benefit the health of the planet and access to healthy foods around the globe. Eating more plants is not just a good choice for me personally. #8 and #9 in my Top 10 Reasons to Eat More Plants series will focus on these two areas, so I won’t go into much detail here, but I love knowing that we can make daily choices that benefit our global community. We are that powerful.

Developing a plant-based philosophy isn’t a restriction, it’s a way of life now and an opportunity to give myself the best chance at a happy, healthy life. Might I still get sick with an undesirable disease or condition? Sure. But hopefully I’ve kicked the can much, much farther down the road and I am confident that I am dramatically reducing my risk.

We’re all doing the best we can with the information we have. Developing a plant-centered way of life, and all the learning that has come with it, has given me a profound new commitment to myself and it has been the most enriching and freeing decision I’ve made. You can do it too. :)

Where to start? Build your toolkit of information on plant-based living. Explore my website! I share tons of resources that have helped me. A great first step is to check out my Nutrition Toolkit and see if there’s a book that resonates with you to dive into. I’ve never relied on just one source - these are all sources that I’ve grown to value. It’s good to start somewhere and see what you think. And check out the Recipe Toolkit too to see if there’s a recipe book that catches your eye. Most of these chefs also have websites, so you can google them and test recipes before you buy. Pick one and test it out. Expand from there.

Knowledge is freeing. Eating more plants can be freeing and an opportunity. You’re in the driver’s seat. Build your philosophy. Adjust as you learn more. Discuss. Experiment. Grow.

You’ve got this.

Top 10 Reasons to Eat More Plants: #6 For the Mothers

I began eating plant-based on the same day that I formally became a mom. A lot of my passion and perspective is wrapped up in how I’ve come to learn about plant-based eating as a mother. Family is an important reason why I’ve stayed plant-based all of these years. For my family and other families - including the animals’.

Admittedly, I hesitate to write this post, even though it is beyond arguably the most critical reason to eat plant-based. It’s certainly not my goal to make anyone feel badly about eating animals. I understand how deeply engrained it is in most of us and viewed as a very personal choice. I ate meat, chicken, fish, cheese, and/or eggs for most of my life. I never thought that I would become vegan. But I’ve had a learning opportunity that made me realize how deeply I must have felt about eating animals to ignore, or be conditioned to not care, that basically an animal a day died so that I could live.

I often feel how people tend to tune out or put up a bit of a protective barrier when the word vegan or plant-based comes up. They don’t want to be evangelized to or judged. It’s common for their thoughts to immediately go to a red flag warning for how extreme veganism is, how animal rights don’t apply to the food chain, or how sappy it is to care about the animals (pre-plant-based me has been there). I used to work in a career in popular music that everyone loved talking about. And now, as I have moved into a career focused on plant-centered nutrition, I can very readily feel in contrast the angst people often get when our vegan life or my career path comes up for fear my “extreme views” on animals may also come up, even though my rallying call is really about human health. Mostly, there’s just a mutual retreat from even talking about it. I don’t want to loose anyone here, because this topic is too important and I appreciate the opportunity to share it. So please, if you’re an omnivore, stay with me. Because, I get where you’re coming from. But this has been my unexpected experience.

Living in America, it’s likely you have been eating animals or their byproducts since you were one year old. And then there’s this weird food chain that we were introduced to in school that reinforces this, where we have somehow been stuck in at the top, even though we don’t have the teeth or constitutions of carnivores. I wholeheartedly believe, if each of us truly understood how dramatically better for us it can be to eat only plants - despite culture, tradition (“what we’ve always done”), any of it - most of us would stick to plants. That is why most of my site is dedicated to nutrition. Because whether you care about health, the environment, the animals, or are even just a bit plant-curious - whatever may be pulling you to learn more about plant-based eating, the only way it works is if we truly understand how much healthier it is for us.

And it is. So. Much. Healthier.

I think to some extent pre-plant-based me knew that. The information was always confusing though - I thought I HAD to eat animal protein to exist. But at the same time I also knew that there was this mysterious sweet spot where too much was also known to be bad. It’s necessary, but don’t go overboard. We’re told moderation is the key. The notion of moderation is actually super confusing because there’s no agreed upon clarity for where the line is. “Everyone’s different,” we’re told.

I don’t know about you, but I also could never bring myself to really think about how the animals got to my plate. I was on a “the less I know the better” basis with eating animals. My eyes didn’t truly open to the animal’s experience until the day my first child was born. And then the light really clicked when I experienced how awesome and healthful plant-based eating can be.

How We See Family

The day my son was born was the first day we decided to experiment with going vegan for health. We made that decision in the morning and, oddly, later that day, once he arrived, I immediately committed to go vegetarian anyway for the long-haul. Some of my first thoughts when he was born was of how primal the experience was of going through childbirth. How a part of nature I felt, even within the walls of the hospital. It was a different sense of life and the earth than I’d ever experienced. The world suddenly felt different. I had a new sense of the vulnerability of life and the power of birth and I instantly had this connection with this little soul that had mysteriously been growing and kicking inside of me - it was like nothing I can explain. I knew then there was no way I could eat meat again. There was no way the transformation and level of connection I felt was unique to being human. It’s too intense. There’s no way. You can’t grow a baby of any species for that many months - human, cow, sheep, dog, cat, lion, mouse, ape, any animal - and go through the wildness of birth and, in most circumstances, not feel totally and completely attached and head over heals in love. There are even biological processes that promote this kind of attachment.

Animals have to be just as bonded and transformed by birth. To take away their littles ones - and their little one’s life force, their milk - is absolutely gut wrenching to me now. And millions of animals are systematically loosing their young, their family, every day to the meat and dairy industries, paid to kill animals to feed millions of humans a day. Animals too have a mother.

My beloved cat of 12 years died this summer. It took the wind out of me. I still miss him. He was an important friend and part of my life and my family. It got me thinking about how we’re constantly defining family for ourselves and one another. Companion cats and dogs, family. We give birth to our family or adopt new loved ones. We ask others to help us build our families when we aren’t able to ourselves. We “adopt” friends as family as we build our tribes along the way. Blood or not, we have many wonderful, beautiful definitions of family. And then there’s the less beautiful side. The fact we try to define family for others in our society is mind-blowing to me. We are possessive of our families and what that looks like to us but we think we also have a right to tell others whether or not their family fits into our context of family. And furthermore, to feed our own daily living and growth, we’ve also decided for the billions of farmed animals that die each year that they aren’t a part of a family. They are born at our whim and exist briefly until it’s time for our plates. In America, we can choose our families. We choose animals to be a part of our families all the time. But animal families that are not commonly family pets, or are too wild, somehow don’t count.

This sense of compassion that we raise our kids with leaves out farmed animals - land or sea - except to celebrate them by nursery rhyme, in books, or on display. We wouldn’t likely expose them to how animals really live and die to get to the supermarket. None of these animals want to die. Can you imagine what their short lives must be like? I had tried not to think about it before. Because we can’t identify with their feelings or their fear or their sense of family, we’ve made a decision that their lives don’t count.

I did not go vegan for the animals. But, after becoming a mom, and once I had some space from eating them every day, this all began to rise for me. I remember reading in my studies the notion that the amount of stress an animal is under when it dies effects the quality of the meat. So the less stressed they are when they die, the better it tastes… Their stress is a problem for our taste buds. Not because they are living, feeling beings. It’s so ingrained in us, since birth, and in our health care system, that we need animals to survive. We condition each other to feel like we’re at the top of the food chain and animals deaths are just a part of the natural cycle - and anyone who isn’t eating animals is viewed as somewhat (or a lot) extreme. I no longer see it that way. And I am so incredibly grateful for that.

Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

Three resources that you might explore that can help you take a step to think about animal agriculture differently are Dr. Melanie Joy and her concept of Carnism, Mercy for Animals, and the Farm Sanctuary. I’ll give you light background on each here, but I urge you to step out of your comfort zone and dig into each of these sites. Growth isn’t always comfortable. Please be open, and see what you think.

Watch the Secret Reason We Eat Meat with social psychologist Dr. Melanie Joy!

• Carnism by Melanie Joy: Dr. Joy’s concept of Carnism "is the invisible belief system, or ideology, that conditions people to eat certain animals.” The concept explores how we are conditioned to see eating animals not as a choice, but something we have to do. Eating plant-based, there is nothing that I eat that a classic omnivore couldn’t eat (except for allergies or food preferences). Everything on my plate could be or is technically on your plate too. But there are foods omnivores eat that I don’t eat. Eating plant-based used to seem like the choice - and the way we are set up in our society it is a big decision when we make it. But as you can see, we eat all the same foods. Perhaps choosing to eat animals is the choice, and perhaps it deserves more thought, even if you’ve been doing it for 20+, 30+, 50+ years. Check out this video that describes Dr. Joy’s theory of Carnism. You can also go to the Carnism website to access a similar presentation that Dr. Joy gives via Ted Talk, as well as find her books Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows and Beyond Beliefs.

• Mercy for Animals: Mercy for Animals exposes abuses in animal agriculture and advocates for animals, helping the world to see the value of farmed animals lives differently. Their website is loaded with information + resources. And spoiler alert: animals raised in factory farms, are not treated well. They don’t live out happy lives and then appear on our plates. If you’re open to it, I hope you’ll explore their work and perspective on the lives of animals.

• Farm Sanctuary: Farm Sanctuary is a special place. They rescue animals from short, painful lives and offer them long serene lives on their sanctuaries. One of their sanctuaries is a little over two hours from Santa Barbara, down south, in the town of Acton. We road tripped there once and it was such a sweet experience. I can’t wait to go back. The pictures throughout this post are from our trip to Farm Sanctuary. They educate their guests on the lives of farmed animals and introduce you to their friends who call Farm Sanctuary home. It’s peaceful and lovely, and hard to imagine that billions of other animals haven’t been able to have this same lovely serene life where they are loved by humans, rather than raised for consumption in often truly terrible conditions. Their website is also a wealth of resources and you can learn more about their family of animals.

It’s Ok to Not Eat Animals

It’s ok to not eat animals. Sometimes I think, that simply, it needs to be said. It’s ok to care about how the animals feel. It doesn’t make you weak and eating plants won’t make you weaker.

Plants don’t have a living, breathing, feeling, loving mom. Plants are full of fiber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, carbohydrates, (and yes) protein, and healthy, wonderful fats. They are the best foods to sustain us day to day and in terms of long-term health.

I hope you’ll take some time to learn more about plant-based eating. I’m not writing this to make anyone feel bad about eating animals. I get it, I used to too. But I’ve had some space from it and I can’t help but think others might feel the same if they took some time and space from eating animals too. I share some wonderful resources that have helped me under THE BASICS, if you’re interested to get a picture of plant-based eating at it’s best. It can be simple. It can take some getting used to. But not long. And it’s so worth it.

This has been my experience. I stopped eating animals for health and now I also focus my plate on plants for all the animal mothers who deserve to hold tight to their little ones. Plants don’t have a mom, but animals do.

Top 10 Reasons to Eat More Plants: #5 Our Food Choices Aren't So Personal

I know we are supposed to say that our food choices are personal.  I have very often said this myself, especially in the first few years of eating plant-based. Anytime I sensed discomfort from others or felt it building up in myself when I discussed our family's lifestyle, I'd often follow with, "But what we eat is SO personal!" just to make us all feel more at ease. So here's the thing... When I think about how deeply I must have felt, as pre-plant-based-me, to believe that thousands of animals needed to die over the course of my lifetime in order for me to live - or how deeply I now feel to leave animals off my plate while living in an omnivore's world - definitely, to an extent food choices are very personal and attached to a deeply held belief. But for this post, I want to take a moment to share why I've come to think this "food choices are personal" business is only true to an extent and how important it is that we stop seeing our food choices as entirely personal. Because that's not the whole story.

“The primary reason diseases tend to run in families may be that diets tend to run in families.”

— Dr. Michael Greger, Nutritionfacts.org

Imagine your daily life for a second and think how often food is a part of your social fabric. You're a parent, a son or daughter, a grandparent, a friend, a boss, a colleague, a business owner, a volunteer, a member of a community organization, a coworker. You have patients or clients. You prepare meals for others. You dine with others. You plan your office parties or snacks. You give thank you gifts of food. You're a host. You have people who love you, who depend on you, who you may someday depend on for your own care and who your quality of life (and how long you are on this earth) truly matters. The choices we make include others, even when they seem personal. They may influence or impact others. We are so interconnected. We have the ability to make choices that improve or weaken the quality of our own lives but I think this also includes the lives of those around us. And so I'm just not sure how we can keep saying it's personal. 

I can imagine pre-plant-based-me reading through my website, and sort of skipping through parts, numbing out how this really relates to me. I'd likely feel like, yes, all of these things matter, but I have to eat animal foods to live - it's about protein, and there's a food chain, and our families and communities have taught us this since we were born basically. It's what we've always done. 

What I wish I'd known earlier...

Here's what I wish pre-plant-based me would have known. My husband has a chronic condition that I now suspect may have been avoided had we always been eating plant-based. It's a really hard pill to swallow to think that my way of life (and serious cheese habit) could have been a factor in nudging him towards a less healthy lifestyle and a chronic condition. But I think that's likely true. And I know for a fact it was light years easier for him when I went fully plant-based too. Caring more about what I eat improves my overall health and wellness and sets a new stage for my whole family. Our eating habits are now based around longevity, not based around an unfounded notion that we may all fade into the earth if we don't eat enough animal protein. Pre-plant-based me didn't have all the information and hadn't realized how intensely my lifestyle was also impacting my husband's (or could be limiting my own) - which is one of the very deeply-felt reasons why I now live plant-based.

I can remember a few things pretty distinctly about the moment when I realized that plant-based eating was now going to be a way of life for me. 1) The shocking realization that I might not have ever explored plant-based eating without someone caring enough to plant a seed and without chronic disease leading us there, 2) One of my biggest worries was socially how eating vegan would all play out, and 3) A need to completely understand plant-based living, especially in consideration of my kids - but how would I know who to trust/where to find resources?? 

Someone had to plant the seed. I had to be ready to hear it. And I had to find resources that matched up with what I was experiencing and offered me the right kind of information to give me the confidence to know I was making the best decision for my whole family. 

Making healthy choices together...

What we eat does matter. Food matters. Our health matters - and not just to us but to our loved ones. If  you aren't familiar with the work of Blue Zones, you should check it out. Here's the Blue Zones' mission, "Inspired by the world’s longest-lived cultures, we help people live longer, better lives by improving their environment." Dan Buettner and his team talk extensively about the benefit of plant-based eating and about how they've found our environments can either nudge us into healthier, happier lifestyles, or be a road block to health and longevity. Let's do more than nudge each other. Let's make it damn easy. As Santa Barbarans, we pride ourselves on living in a healthy community. Still, I think we can do better. Yes, let's build better hospitals and better clinics and specialty centers. But let's do more about prevention so that we can try to avoid getting there in the first place. We can't do it alone. We need each other to do better together. 

“The most meaningful piece of advice is to tell patients to make friends with people who eat a plant-based diet. Healthy behaviors are contagious.”

— Dan Buettner, The Blue Zones

We need to bring more plant-foods in to our homes. We need restaurants to make delicious mushroom dishes instead of the newest take on pork belly. We need kids menus with actual healthy veggie options so our kids learn young, even when they're out, to care about what they eat (and they're way more likely to try new foods out to eat, at school, or at a friend's house - at least that's our experience). We need community events to focus on healthy options to make plant-based eating more normal and to support the common mission of enhancing our communities' lives. We need our go to resources for food and nutrition to help us learn about the risks of eating animal foods, not just the perceived benefits. Because it's likely that 15 of the top diseases and conditions that lead to death and disability in the U.S. can be prevented, arrested, or reversed by diet. That's powerful. We need to help each other feel more comfortable making healthy choices by making them together. 

Getting started...

I share a number of resources within this site to help you learn more from those that I've come to count on and trust. I've never just trusted one voice, and wouldn't expect you to. You've got to do the reading and the research and determine who you trust and look at their background and the background of the research they rely on and make sure it's unbiased. Marketing dollars are driving a lot of the information we're getting. But the unbiased research and information is out there. 

Please consider this site and this post a love letter to you and your loved ones and my community. Perhaps this is your seed planted. :) Check out the Blue Zones and the resources I share to learn more about the science and practice of plant-based nutrition to discuss with your families, friends, and health care team (in my first post Start Anywhere, throughout  THE VINE, and in the TOOLKIT to start). And start to notice how your food choices may make you feel and impact your health and those around you. Start to imagine how can you help nudge others towards healthier and healthier choices. Because they matter and you matter.

If you feel the pull of your environment making it more difficult for you to make healthier decisions, you can do something about it. Think longevity, rather than taste to taste, meal to meal. It may be uncomfortable at first. But it can be exciting too! My husband did the research and took a chance, and our whole family is healthier because of it. Be the one to start make the healthier choices. Don't assume your kids can't grow to love beans + tofu. They're easier and cheaper (or just as cheap) as chicken + hot dogs and you can season them just as you would any meat - and they are deeeelish! Choose a veggie dish eating out with friends (or at least don't razz someone else for choosing it). Stock up your office snack zone with fruits and vegetables and plant-based treats. Do you run a restaurant or snack bar with a kids menu? Add more veggie options and maybe reconsider the chicken nuggets, burgers, hot dogs, cheese quesadillas, dairy based mac n cheese, and please please rethink how the french fries are prepared. (Bake 'em or air fry them please! Phew, I've been needing to get that off my chest. Even plant-based kids need healthier options.) When you're out, make a habit of asking about ways to eat more plant-based at your favorite places. Try a plant-based cookbook or meal plan or rotate in a new fruit or veggie every week while rotating out an animal food. Read the research. Start anywhere.

It matters how we live. Chronic disease doesn't have to be inevitable. If I've learned anything from all of my years spent researching and learning about the plant-based life, I've learned that. Make healthier choices for you because you matter to yourself. And to your kids. And to your parents, and your friends. We want each other to have long healthy lives. And we all worry about being a burden to others as we get older. Let's make it damn easy to live healthier, longer lives, not shorter more challenging ones. Our food choices aren't so personal, after all.

Plant-Friendly Hotspot: Ah Juice

Ah Juice
432 East Haley Street, Downtown
Santa Barbara
juice@ahjuice.com
Cafe Order Line 805-698-1032
Juice Ordering & Delivery: 805-698-5443

I recently checked out local juicery and cafe Ah Juice with one of my Little Earthlings - I can't believe we hadn't been there before! A friend had been telling us for some time how delicious and plant-friendly Ah Juice is - and she was right!

This sweet little, all organic cafe is full of light and you can spot it by the red umbrellas on the front patio - located just up from The Mill on East Haley Street. Just one peak at their website and you can see how thoughtfully they approach their food philosophy. Their menu is super fresh, locally sourced, and organic with lots of plant-friendly options.

Ah Juice, Haley Street

Ah Juice ordering. Super sunny! :)

Vegan options for breakfast and lunch include oatmeals, salads, sandwiches, and wraps plus an extensive juice, smoothie, and specialty drink menu (check out their menu here!). Their coffee menu is also organic, which is a fun find. While their menu isn't fully plant-based, there are many plant-based/vegan and easily modified options. Here's what me and my Little Earthling got at our visit + some to share with the family at home:

1. Kale Caesar Salad, add avocado and tempeh (delish!)

2. Vegan Coconut Thai Hummus Wrap (also super fresh and delicious)

3. Vegan Grilled Cheese Sandwich with red peppers on the side for the kids (With The Cultured Culture's plant-based cheese - my Little Earthlings enjoyed it!:))

Their food was light and not overfilling. Next time I'd pair our lunch orders with a smoothie - partly because I was still just a bit hungry (although I was pregnant at the time;)), and partly because their smoothies just sound so darn good. Since their menu is not entirely vegan, be sure to clarify that you're looking for 100% plant-based and they can easily guide you! Salads can be made with no-oil dressing if you're looking for no oil and some non-vegan items can be made plant based just by taking off the cheese or subbing in vegan cheese. 

I also found this little cafe to be super thoughtful. They took time and care in discussing their menu with customers and went into detail on the background of foods and ingredients as you order, so you don't have to feel rushed if it's your first time or if you're taking extra care to address dietary needs or preferences - or you just plain want to try something new. And after my visit I followed up with a few questions, and they very thoughtfully replied, including sharing the four tenets for which they base around their service. Here they are... They pay attention to:

• What they serve (does it nourish and taste good)

• How they conduct themselves as a business and how their actions affect others and the whole world-sentient and non sentient beings.

• What they can do better, more efficiently, as a business and as individuals,

• How they practice the highest level of sustainability.

Very cool. Overall, it was a very friendly environment, with yummy plant-based options including some nice options for kids, and a lovely back patio to gather at if you want a quieter spot to enjoy. Parking is all street parking so be sure to keep an eye out as you're approaching it. Enjoy! And thank you, Ah Juice!

Kaley Caesar Salad + Avo + Tempeh

Kids Vegan Grilled Cheese with Cultured Culture cheese & red peppers on the side

Vegan Coconut Thai Hummus Wrap

Lovely back patio @ Ah Juice!

LITTLE EARTHLINGS: Snackin' Crackers

Let's talk snackin'! Crackers have been a tricky snack for me since going plant-based. A lot of crackers, especially those that kids are drawn to, have dairy or oils and I'm always searching for oil-free, whole grain crackers for snacking. Here are our favorites:

• Jilz Crackers - These are our newest favorites. They are gluten-free (if you need that) made simply of almond flour + seeds and a few other wholesome ingredients and they are deeeelicious. We like the Cracked Pepper and Sea Salt, but there's a few flavors. These are softish too so the littler Little Earthlings can enjoy them. You can get these online at Amazon or Thrive Market, I've also bought them at Whole Foods and Lazy Acres, and the first place we actually tried them was at Martial Arts Family Fitness in their mini store.

• Engine2 Organic Crispbread - These are simple and yummy. Engine2 is only at Whole Foods and there are two flavors of these guys - Original and Seeds & Spice. These crackers are pretty hard so they are better for kids with a solid track record of established teeth for chomping. Good for topping with seed butters and such like mini toasts too.

• Lundberg Thin Snackers - These rice crackers are a great size for little hands and just enough cracker to hold some toppings or enjoy plain. Also gluten-free and come in a few flavors. I love that they make a smaller size, the original rice crackers are just a bit too big and make big messes with the littles, I've found. You can get these also at Whole Foods, Gelsons, and Isla Vista Food Coop or online at Amazon or Thrive Market.

• Mary's Gone Crackers - These are soooo delicious, and probably the best for a cracker that both kids + parents will enjoy. These are awesome with a plant-based cheese plate. They are seed based and there are several flavors. Super Seed Chia + Hemp is our favorite. We've picked these up at several places around town - here's a store locator with locations between Goleta and Summerland. Also on Amazon or Thrive Market.

One more cracker we like (not pictured) are Edward & Sons Brown Rice Snaps. They aren't all oil-free - you gotta double check the labels, but a few versions are and they are super simple, delicious, and Little Earthling-friendly. The main plain organic snaps are oil-free and so are the black sesame - those are the two we generally pick from. You can find these all over town too using this store locator as well as online at Amazon or Thrive Market.

So get snackin' on crackers with your Little Earthlings! Whole food, plant-based style. :)

Top 10 Reasons to Eat More Plants: #4 Maintaining a Healthy Weight Doesn't Have to be an Uphill Battle

There's no question that exercise is super duper important to our long-term health. I don't think I need to dig up any facts here to support that claim, it's something we all commonly know. But, I think many of us (or at least pre-plant-based-me:)) have come to think about exercise as necessary for maintaining a healthy weight. I remember as a kid looking at this beautiful picture of my grandmother and her sisters. All were so beautiful. And at this moment in time, all carried their weight in their hips. I knew someday I was destined to be a beautiful pear-shaped goddess just like them. I always thought genetics was a pretty big factor in our body-type/weight. And to a greater extent exercise. Sure, perhaps genetics play some role and of course physical fitness is important, but what I've experienced is that the biggest influence on how I feel and how much weight I carry is in the food I eat. It's (almost) all about the food. I now firmly believe that I can let exercise be for fitness, strength building, fun, meditation, flexibility - or whatever reason that most connects me to an exercise routine at a given time - by keeping the foods I eat whole food, plant-based. It doesn't have to be an uphill battle to maintain a healthy weight.

My Experience

Going vegan helped me loose some weight naturally. But, me oh my, shifting into a whole food, plant-based lifestyle (vegan minus the oil and highly processed foods) was a game changer. I have found that my weight is super dependent on what I eat. And it's not a "carb" thing. My two biggest roadblocks to maintaining my feel-best weight are 1) animal based foods (contributing to, as I call it, my "extra cheese layer") and 2) processed oils. In the past ten years, I have been soooooo many sizes, going in and out of three pregnancies and three different eating styles. Right now I am a bit of a pear coming out of my third pregnancy. And I'm loving it (for the most part;)) for the time being as it's an extension of a special journey that I've been on this past year - but also I know by sticking to my plants I can work my way back to my feel-good weight more easily. So here's been my experience.

Before and during my first pregnancy, I was a classic cheese-a-holic omnivore. I started at the highest weight of, maybe, my life. And to top that, I gained by far the most weight during that pregnancy (40+ lbs).... Oy. I shifted to veganism, literally on the day my first child was born, transitioning from vegetarian to vegan eating over the following few months, and then went from vegan to whole food, plant-based over about the next year. I reached my lowest weight since high school leading into my second pregnancy, and I felt awesome.

During my second pregnancy, oil began to make a regular appearance about half way through and I    definitely noticed a change in my weight gain later in my pregnancy as compared to the earlier days. And following that pregnancy, I shifted back to a primarily whole food plant-based diet, which brought me down to my feel good weight much, much quicker than before. Mind you, my weight gain came from using just a bit of oil on cooked vegetables at night and maybe in my salad dressing at lunch. When I shifted back to whole food plant-based, the pounds tumbled off waaaay more easily. And this was without a really crazy exercise routine. I walked. I tried to squeeze in yoga. As a mom with a new baby and working full-time, I was not super consistent. What I found is that my weight was mostly connected to what I ate. 

In my most recent pregnancy I gained just under what I gained in my second (about 30 lbs total), eating whole-plant based throughout. But just following the birth I found myself in birthday season where I indulged in some yummy (but surely oil/shortening-laden) cakes, vegan pizzas, and more processed vegan foods and I suddenly came to notice, once again, that these foods are super fun, but don't serve me in maintaining my ideal feel-good weight. I am confident as I make sure to stick to a 95-100% oil-free diet moving forward, I'll be back to my old feel-best self in no time. 

Whole foods! :)

No other eating style did for me what a whole food plant-based diet does. Taking out animal meat made a huge difference. Taking out cheese, dairy, and eggs made a huge difference. And taking out oil made a huge difference.

I don't want to confuse finding my best feel-good weight through what I eat with deprivation. I'm not limiting my portions. I eat until I'm full and high fiber foods help my body stay in better tune with my full queues. And I totally enjoy eating whole food plant-based. I especially love it because it makes me feel the best. Limiting foods like animal products and oils doesn't mean I'm depriving myself, it means I know what foods make me feel good and I focus on those foods as the foundation for a healthy lifestyle.

Experiencing a wide range of sizes, feels, and eating patterns in a relatively short amount of time made me realize how DIFFICUUUULT we make it in America to maintain a healthy weight. On the one hand, we learn that in order to be trim you have to exercise a lot, focus your diet on protein (particularly from animals...and definitely dairy, but be careful, it has to be just the right amount! Not too much. Not too little. But what the heck does that mean??). And yes, eat your veggies. But not white veggies. And don't forget to blame it on gluten. And sugar. Aaaand too much fruit and carbs in general will make us larger in life than we may like. And the family-style restaurants we gather at with our loved ones all have servings of heavy oily - animaly foods in triple the amount we really need (of any food) in one sitting. I remember pre-plant-based-me always feeling so confused about what to eat and constantly feeling guilty that I wasn't exercising hard enough to balance out my calories. So what's the deal? Why do we have to feel so guilty about our habits while the traditional guidance we're getting is so dang confusing and unclear? And doesn't serve us well? It's crazy-making. 

So What I'm Saying Is...

I don't think it has be so hard. We can make exercise about fun, health, stress relief, meditation, activity, longevity, or whatever moves you to move and by literally just focusing our plates on plant foods, as close to their natural forms as possible, we can take the guilt, stress, and mystery out of eating. 

When I was first learning about plant-based nutrition, I remember hearing that diet was 80% the driving factor in weight loss/management and 20% is fitness/exercise. I believe that. Once I shifted my plates to nutrient rich foods and away from calorie rich foods, everything changed. My main food philosophy is to eat 97-100% whole food, plant-based at home (all plant-foods, limited-to-no refined foods and oil) and when I eat out/take out, I try to maintain the same, but oftentimes some oil sneaks in. Sometimes a Crushcakes cupcake with my kids or Mesa Verde pizza with my husband is just soooo good. So I try to worry about oil a bit less when eating out, it's just the way of most restaurants at this point. But I'll almost always try for an oil-free option or at least limit oil where I can - and because oil-free options can be a bit more challenging (although not impossible!:)), I try to eat most of my meals at home so oil-rich foods don't override my diet. 

What I  eat is completely relative to how I feel - the more whole food plant-based nutrient dense foods I eat, the better I feel. The more animal foods and oils (calorically dense foods) I eat, the more weight I gain and the crummier I feel. Here's a visual from Forks Over Knives that paints a pretty good picture of filling up on calories from animal and processed sources vs plants.

Image Credit: Forks Over Knives

So where do you start if you're thinking of plant-based eating to find your feel-good weight? As you'll find on Plant Based SB, I'll share what I've experienced and a lot of what I've learned but also some resources that I've found to be super helpful and credible in their approach to nutrition because we all need trusted resources to add to our toolkits and to help build our foundation of knowledge. I share some great resources in BASICS and throughout THE VINE on plant-based eating, but to help make it super simple to start, here's what the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) says about what to eat for a healthy weight loss, to get you started (and check out the full article in the link):

• GRAINS - Eight servings a day, 80 calories = one serving.  At least six servings should be from whole grains. (i.e. brown rice, whole grain pasta, quinoa, oatmeal, whole wheat bread, etc.)
• VEGETABLES - At least four servings a day, 35-50 calories = one serving. At least one serving raw, at least one serving dark leafy greens. (i.e. leafy greens of all kinds, cruciferous veggies like broccoli, squash, root veggies like carrots, potatoes, and sweet potatoes)
• LEGUMES - Three servings a day, 100 calories = one serving. (i.e. beans of all varieties, lentils, soy products)
• FRUIT - Three servings a day, 80 calories = one serving. (i.e. berries, stone fruit, apples, citrus, etc. Focus on whole fruit rather than juices.)
• SWEETS - No more than one serving a day, 100 calories = one serving and limit to one gram of fat. (i.e. fruit, smoothie, sweetened cereal, baked fruit, etc.)

The Physician's Committee also recently came out with a podcast all about weight loss/management and plant-based eating. Yes! They cover everything. I super love PCRM. Find the podcast by clicking here - PCRM's Exam Room Podcast - Weight Loss on a Vegan Diet: How Going Vegan Causes the Pounds to Melt Away.

Enjoy what you eat. And eat so you feel satisfied, but make it nutrient dense foods, not calorically saturated foods. For healthy living and feel-good-weight, it's (almost) all about the food. :)

LITTLE EARTHLINGS: BYOT (Bringing Your Own Treats) Cookie Edition

I love being a plant-based mom. And now I am a plant-based mom of three! I've taken a bit of time from online postings to get to know and tend to our itsy bitsy Earthling born earlier this year, and now I'm back to some semi-regularly posting and planning to pick up more steam as we get closer to Fall. I'm super excited to be back though, and kicking off a regular blog series on living and loving being plant-based with kids, Little Earthlings!

As you know, treats are super important to kids (well, and adults;)) and a somewhat sensitive part of eating vegan. At nearly every birthday party, class party, and kids-focused outing there are treats. And usually they aren't vegan. Saying no to a treat is hard. We never ever mind bringing our own treats, even if it is a bit of extra work. I love knowing for sure that my little ones are happy with their own vegan option, and they've rarely been bummed about missing out on the group treat if they have their own special treat in hand. We aren't a perfect system, but do our best to have replacements ready to go at school or in their lunch bag or by bringing our own (you name it) to parties and get-togethers. Or we follow up with any missed treats later the same day or following weekend. As long as a treat promise is made, usually they're cool with that.

When our Earthlings have been super little, before they really understood what it means to be vegan and eat differently than some of their friends, it's been a bit more challenging. We always make sure to sensitively talk through with them why we can't have the treat at hand as it has ingredients we can't eat being vegan. We emphasize that it's ok though, because we have wonderful treats that we can still enjoy with wonderful ingredients that ARE vegan! I'd say two to three years old are really the most challenging years for these conversations when they want to grab everything and devour everything that looks delightful. But still, I remember around this same time is also when my little ones began to develop an understanding of what vegan meant, or at least could articulate that we eat vegan. I still remember the sweet sound of the first day my middle earthling said "beegan" for the first time. It was so sweet and I couldn't help but feel so proud that she identified (also proudly) that she was vegan! 

Here's what we do to bring our own...
vegan cookies!

This first Little Earthling post is an extra special post focused on bringing your own chocolate chip cookies! Internationally renowned (and local!) wellness activist and New York Times Bestselling Author Kathy Freston is generously sharing one of our favorite chocolate cookie recipes with you - Chocolate Chippers!! So kind! Thank you so much, Kathy!! Chocolate Chippers are from The Book of Veganish: The Ultimate Guide to Easing into a Plant-Based, Cruelty-Free, Awesomely Delicious Way to Eat, with 70 Easy Recipes Anyone Can Make (co-authored by Rachel Cohn). Kathy's work has been a super big inspiration for me personally. Her book Veganist was one of the first books I read when we realized how well a vegan diet was working for us and I wanted to understand it better. It was a particular turning point for me in understanding not just the health benefits of plant-based eating, but the ethical impacts of our food choices and offers ideas for transitioning to vegan eating gradually, emphasizing progress not perfection. The Book of Veganish is particularly great for families as it's specifically geared towards kids and young people with lots of simple and kid-friendly recipes. Kathy also has an awesome new book out, Clean Protein, co-authored by Bruce Friedrich, that is a really important read on the future and impacts of our protein choices. 

Ok, now back to the cookies. :) These Chocolate Chippers are so classically-chocolate-chip-cookie-delicious and so simple and quick to whip up. They are pure plant-based kid (and adult!) heaven! AND school friendly if your school is nut-free. Check 'em out:

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My homemade Chocolate Chippers - Yum! :)

CHOCOLATE CHIPPERS
by Kathy Freston with Rachel Cohn,
The Book of Veganish

Makes about 2 dozen

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon safflower oil
2 tablespoons plain, unsweetened nondairy milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup semisweet vegan chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly oil a baking sheet or line with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, stir together the brown sugar, maple syrup, oil, nondairy milk, and vanilla until well blended. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. 

Drop the dough by the spoonful about 2 inches apart on to the prepared baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Cool the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before storing in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

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We often sub the oil for 1 tablespoon of applesauce to make them oil-free and coconut sugar for the brown sugar for a less refined sweetener and these cookies are still wonderful with the minor adjustments. Our Little Earthlings love them, and I hope yours do too! :)

We have two other favorite vegan chocolate chip cookie recipes - one whole food, plant-based (oil-free, although not nut-free) and one that is vegan and gluten- and nut- free (but not oil-free). If you're looking for a few more ideas to experiment with, these are super yummy and our Little Earthling approved! 

Lunchbox Chocolate Chip Cookies by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (for Forks Over Knives) (whole food, plant-based, has nuts - can also be found on the Forks Over Knives recipe app!)

BabyCakes NYC Chocolate Chip Cookies by Erin McKenna (vegan, gluten- and nut-free - this is the recipe on the side of Bob's Red Mill's Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour bag! Also can be found in Erin McKenna's recipe book, Babycakes)

If you have no time to bake and are looking for vegan cookies you can quickly grab and go to an event with (or for any old day), Whole Foods and Lazy Acres (generally) have a vegan chocolate chip cookie in their bakery cases and, while they may not be chocolate chip cookies, Savoy Cafe and Deli has some amazing vegan chocolate mint cookies and vegan almond cookies in their bakery case, French Press has a yummy vegan snickerdoodle, and oftentimes Breakfast has a vegan cookie too!

For more on plant-friendly living with your kiddos, head on over to my page LITTLE EARTHLINGS, with more to come on THE VINE. Happy baking! :)

Easy Peasy Tip: Give (Non-Dairy) Cheese a Chance

Easy Peasy Tips are simple actions you can take to make small shifts towards more plant-centered eating that lead to big health gains over time. When you’re making changes, it may take a few times to get your taste buds shifted to new flavors, but once you’ve rounded the bend, it’s easy peasy to enjoy!

If you're like pre-plant-based-me, you really don't want anyone trash-talking cheese. Your love for cheese runs deep and giving it up pretty much seems like a dietary non-negotiable. This transition took a bit more education before I was ready to jump in to the wonderful world of non-dairy cheeses. But learning more about the health challenges dairy-based cheese can bring and experiencing the very real benefits of this seemingly undesirable transition - as well as experiencing how easy it actually was to transition out! - is super helpful in understanding how this can be one of the best foods to chase out of your diet to help you feel great and better support your long term health. 

This Easy Peasy Tip is about taking a bit of time to learn about the health implications of cheese. There are a lot of qualities to consider including casein, hormones, fat, sodium, and the addictive nature of this often favorite food. A lot of marketing money also drives the promotion of cheese products making it even more difficult to imagine a life without cheese as we've come to know it. I wanted to highlight this as an Easy Peasy topic because there a couple of quick, easy opportunities right now to learn more. Neal Barnard, MD, FACC of the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine is one of the best resources on this topic. He recently published a book titled, "The Cheese Trap" (a great resource, find it in the TOOLKIT!). But if you prefer the "cliff notes" version, there are two timely opportunities to learn more online. A recent Physician's Committee's Exam Room podcast features Dr. Barnard discussing the addictive qualities, health considerations, and institutional driving forces around cheese. Additionally, Forks Over Knives is hosting a free online webinar featuring Dr. Barnard titled "Cheese: How Breaking a Surprising Addiction Can Revolutionize Your Health" on February 22nd at 4:00 pm Pacific. I love hearing Dr. Barnard talk about nutrition. He's got all of the science on "food as medicine" at his fingertips and speaks to it in such a straight-forward, relatable manner. I always walk away feeling like I have a whole lot of rich, practical, evidence-based information to lean on and am better prepared for taking next steps.

Click here to go to PCRM's The Exam Room Podcast:
The Cheese Trap
(Image: PCRM)

Click here to register for Forks Over Knives Presents Neal Barnard MD online webinar on February 22, 2018 at 4:00 PM Pacific
(Image: Forks Over Knives)

While this is a longer-than-usual Easy Peasy post, I want to make sure to include a few easy cheesy ideas to get you started. Make a goal to try one this week! 

• Alternative Cheeses: Check out some alternative cheeses at your local store. Daiya is easy to find at almost any mainstream grocery store (and a Little Earthling favorite in our house!) and stores like Whole Foods and Lazy Acres have an awesome variety of vegan cheeses including Kite Hill and Miyoko's. Field Roast's Chao makes a great cheese too as do Follow Your Heart, Heidi Ho, Punk Rawk Labs and Treeline. Trader Joe's has their own vegan version too! You can get a local brand Cultured Culture at Ah Juice on Haley Street - pretty cool! (Plant-based note: Kite Hill, Miyoko's, Punk Rawk Labs, and Treeline all have oil-free cheeses but be sure to double check the labels, each flavor can be different.)

• Nooch: Nutritional Yeast is a fun topper for pasta, salads, veggies, and popcorn to give it a cheesy twist. Ground up with nuts is extra yummy.

• Recipe Resources: There are some awesome cheesy recipes resources. Check out my recent post "Top 10 Reasons to Eat More Plants: You'll Still Enjoy What You Eat (Seriously!)" for a sampling of plant-based and vegan recipe websites, many of whom have various vegan cheese based recipes. Additionally, there are a couple of books in the TOOLKIT that are all about making vegan cheese! Check out This Cheese is Nuts by Julie Piatt and Artisan Cheeses by Miyoko Schinner and Dreena Burton has some great cheese recipes in the back of Dr. Barnard's The Cheese Trap! So much fun to be had making cheese and cheesy recipes at home!

• Avocados: Also, be sure to check out my Easy Peasy Tip on Avocados for using this magical fruit as a cheese sub in so many recipes!

So consider letting the baby cows drink their mama's milk, check out Dr. Barnard's resources, and open your mind to some healthier alternatives. Give (non-dairy) cheese a chance! :)

Top 10 Reasons to Eat More Plants: #3 You'll Still Enjoy What You Eat (Seriously!)

Are you an omnivore? You may think eating plant-based sounds like a drag. It can seem like it. I know from experience - both as a former omnivore and now a sometimes-sympathized-for-vegan. Finding out someone only eats plant foods can bring up this kind of case of “FOMO” (fear of missing out). Particularly a fear of missing out on favorite foods. There are so many favorite foods in the standard American diet based on animal products that the idea of eating vegan can seem so limiting and extreme to a lot of people. People like pre-plant-based me. But rest assured, it’s really truly not a drag! Going plant-based can actually be really delicious and fun! 

There are a couple of points I want to discuss here in relation to enjoying food while eating more plant-based. So many delicious foods you're likely already eating come from plants - for those meals and recipes that are animal-centered, it's easier than you may think to make plant-based versions. I had often thought (and often still hear others say), that I want to enjoy my food and live it up, so by golly I'll eat what I want. And what I want is cheese. Bacon. Burgers. Fish. Fried food. Etc. But... how much are we really in the drivers seat controlling our food cravings and preferences? There may be more to our cravings than meets the eye. And ways to keep our taste buds just as happy eating plant-based. Let's explore.

1) THE SCIENCE OF CRAVINGS

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“…EVERY INSTINCT IN YOU IS TELLING YOU TO SEEK THE MOST PLEASURE FOR THE LEAST PAIN AND THE LEAST EFFORT…YOU’RE TAKING IN CUES THAT ARE FOOLING THE SYSTEM AND PULLING YOU RIGHT INTO WHAT WE CALL THE PLEASURE TRAP.”

— Doug J. Lisle, PhD

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Have you ever thought about how your cravings and food preferences are shaped? Much of this goes back to when we’re first developing our taste buds and developing our understanding of healthy foods and culture as wee little ones with our families. You often even hear in pregnancy that the foods you eat could be developing your growing little peanut's taste buds for life (oy the pressure!). But there are some really interesting biological considerations that I’ve learned about since being plant-based that make me wonder, 1) how much we’re in control of our cravings, and 2) how easy it could actually be to chase out those cravings and develop new ones for healthier foods.

Dr. Douglas Lisle, co-author of the book “The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force that Underestimates Health and Happiness,” has this great TedTalk describing how our bodies come to seemingly crave and prefer calorie (not nutrient) dense foods in a similar manner to drug addiction – so cravings can come on, not because it’s what our bodies are needing or are even craving from a taste perspective, but biological triggers for perceived efficiency and pleasure can cause us to crave certain foods. Dr. Lisle offers how we can start to rethink our cravings and encourage our bodies to develop and prefer healthier, nutrient dense foods by resetting our taste buds to healthier whole foods. You can check out the talk here, and in his book "The Pleasure Trap" in the TOOLKIT.

www.tedxfremont.com - One of psychology's most innovative and curious minds, Dr. Douglas Lisle is the Director of Research for TrueNorth Health Center and coauthor of The Pleasure Trap.

2) MAKING OLD TASTES NEW

PCRM's Ingredient Substitution Chart - CLICK TO ENLARGE

There are soooooo many foods that you already love that are likely naturally vegan or just a hop, skip, and a jump away. Easy modifications can help you enjoy foods that you already love in healthful ways. One food that always comes to mind as a natural whole-food favorite is a nice creamy hummus. YUM! And almost always entirely plant-based. Most hummus products and recipes don’t bring in any animal-based additions, you actually have to make an effort to make hummus not-vegan. Gotta love hummus. Creamy. Delicious. And vegan.

For animal-centric recipes that you are having trouble imagining plant-based, here's a great resource from the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) for some basic subs for cooking and baking so at the basic level when you're starting to visual shifts to plant-based options, you have a reference point to roll with. I found finding new ingredients that still kept our taste buds happy but that made our bodies feel better to be one of the most fun parts of going plant-based! Win, win! So much winning;).

The notion of veganizing good ol' American favorites can especially be a major turn off to someone who's not already focusing their plates on plants - such as the summer grillin', tailgatin' favorite, the hot dog. But have you tried Carrot Hot Dogs?? This always comes to mind as a seemingly-bummer-but-not-really-a-bummer plant-friendly food. With a little marinating (like in this recipe!) and grilling, carrots can actually taste pretty darn close to the real thing AND hot dogs have to be one of the (dare I say) scariest things I can think of to put in our bodies with all of their mystery ingredients and processing (check out this article by the Anatomy of a Hot Dog by PCRM - yikes!). Comparing the health benefits can make anyone feel better about a slight shift to these smoky-flavored veggies, even if at first it sounds a little ridiculous. But carrots, my friends, make some pretty tasty hot dogs. 

Luckily for us, there is a whole village of vegan recipe developers whose missions are to make old omnivore favorites vegan or plant-based in ways that you may even prefer the new tastes for sooooo many dishes! At this point, I am not quite whipping up my own extensive recipes in the kitchen on a regular basis, so this village has been huge for me.

A sampling of some of my favorite resources from over the years! Learn more about these resources and more in the list below and through the TOOLKIT!

So, who are these said magical vegan and plant-based creatives developing delicious recipes that can help us replicate our old tastes new? Oh my, there are so many. I’m going to list a sampling here who have blogs or sites that helped me find exciting new recipes. Also be sure to visit the RECIPE TOOLKIT for a whole range of recipe books you can check out! Locally, Chaucer's Bookstore actually has a great selection of plant-friendly recipe books too. And new sites and books are popping up all the time, so also get your Google going for "plant-based recipes" and be specific if you're looking for a specific old taste to make new. You'll be sure to have some fun recipe hunting.

I seriously bow to these individuals creating magical plant-friendly recipes. Recipe development is such an art and can be life-changing for those of us looking for plant-friendly resources that make our mouths, our bodies, and our families happy. They can help the most committed carnivore resolve an acute or chronic case of FOMO, for sure :). So now, instead of fearing that I'll miss out on my formerly favorite foods, I get butterflies excited when I finish making a new-to-me dish that checks off all my plant-based boxes and ignites my taste buds. See what you think! 

PLANT-BASED & VEGAN RECIPE RESOURCES

• Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Life (Vegan)
• Chef AJ (Plant-Based)
• Chef Chloe (Vegan)
• Dr. McDougall’s Health & Medical Centers (Plant-Based) 
• Happy Herbivore (Plant-Based)
• Happy Healthy Life (Vegan)
• Isa Chandra (Vegan)
• Engine 2 (Plant-Based)
• Forks Over Knives (Plant-Based)

• Fran Costigan (Vegan - Desserts!)
• Keepin’ It Kind (Vegan) 
• Oh She Glows (Vegan)
• Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine (Plant-Based)
• Dreena Burton (Plant-Based)
• Sweet Potato Soul (Vegan)
• The Vegan 8 (Plant-Based)
• UC Davis Integrative Medicine (Plant-Based)
• Vegan Richa (Vegan)

A couple more quick notes on cooking plant-based. Keep an eye on our community calendar POP UP for local and online cooking event opportunities! There are some really fun ones coming up, including through Farmbelly Cooking School and Women's Heritage that can help you build skills in different areas and expand your palettes and plates. Forks Over Knives also has an online cooking program in partnership with Rouxbe Online Cooking School - it's a larger time and financial investment, but if you're ready to roll, this could be a great comprehensive tool for you to dive into the world of plant-based cooking at your own pace! 

I could go on, obviously;). There are so many great resources for upping your plant-based game these days. It's an exciting time to go plant-based, and you don't have to be a trained chef or make intagram-worthy meals. Just explore, experiment, and enjoy! 

I hope this post gave you some "food for thought" and fun resources to explore. Transitioning to more plant-centered eating can seem full of barriers at first but, seriously, you can still enjoy what you eat! You don't have to choose flavors or cravings over your health. Reshape your cravings. Think flavor and delight as you normally would, but find a rainbow of ways to shift your cravings plant-based! Happy eating!  

Easy Peasy Tip: Choose Whole Grains

Easy Peasy Tips are simple actions you can take each week to make small shifts to more plant-centered eating that lead to big gains over time. When you’re making changes, it may take a few times to get your taste buds shifted to new flavors, but once you’ve rounded the bend, it’s easy peasy to enjoy!

Eating more plant-based isn't just about shifting to more fruits and vegetables, it's also about getting the most out of the plant foods you're eating by shifting to whole foods and those that are minimally processed. For this Easy Peasy Tip, start to keep an eye out for areas where you can make choices that are focused around whole grains rather than refined - like brown rice, rather than white. Or brown rice or whole wheat pasta, rather than white. Or steel cut or rolled oats rather than quick cooking. Or whole grain or wheat bread rather than white bread. You get the idea. Bringing whole grains to the top of your mind at the grocery store or when eating out can help you experiment with foods that give you more fiber and nutrients.  

When grains are processed down to their refined versions, you're getting a whole lot more of just part of the plant than you would naturally eat, rather than including more of the grain's super nutritious parts (and really a good chunk of the fiber) that bring more balance to the grain and more of what your body is looking for. Generally speaking, when you're getting more of just one part of a plant than may be natural in one sitting, the health benefits chip away little by little. So shift towards whole grains that are closer to nature!

Healthy You, Happy Wallet

Did you check out my previous post on "Top Ten Reasons to Eat More Plants - #2 Beans are Cheaper than Meat?" If so, you saw that focusing your diet on plant-based proteins can actually keep your grocery bill stable, and most likely will save you money! There are a few more considerations to be mindful of to help control a sneaking grocery bill when eating plant-based, particularly as you start to stock your cabinets with a few new ingredients and more fruits and veggies.

• Focus on whole foods. With omnivore eating, oftentimes, the more processed it is, the cheaper it is because there are generally fillers and such added. Not so much with vegan products. Oftentimes, the more processed it is, the pricier it is. The latest and greatest in specialty products like cheeses, milks, faux meats, and snack products can sneak up your grocery bill pretty generously. Make these occasional purchases, prioritize as you find your favorites, or find ways to make similar versions at home!
  

• Organic foods (if you weren’t already leaning organic) in general can up your produce costs and this can include foods beyond produce, like with nuts, nut butters, flours, and more. When you can, organic is always preferred, in my book, but here are a couple of great resources to help you prioritize what products to be sure to buy organic and which you could be more lenient on to save money:

  • Environmental Working Group's Clean Fifteen/Dirty Dozen

  • Food Revolution's How to Wash Fruits and Vegetables to Remove Pesticides

• Focus on the freshest food sources. Particularly from sources like the Santa Barbara Farmer’s Market and produce stands like Mesa Produce as they can be great ways to scope out some more affordable options and spend local! This can also help you separate out some of your fresh and shelf food shopping sources. By separating these out a bit, you have the opportunity to plan your more perishable purchases by weekly or bi-weekly buys and less perishable items as monthly stock ups from resources like Thrive Market or Amazon online or locally like Costco, or grocery store bulk bins where you can get more for lower prices to help you save some pennies. Trader Joe's is great too for stocking up on canned foods, for instance, because their prices can be so reasonable. Bulk buys can work well for products like beans, baking supplies, plant-based milks, grains, oats, cereals, nuts, herbs, spices, and condiments. It may take a bit of research and strategizing up front, but can be well worth the effort.
  

• Consider the cost savings of preparing meals and eating at home. You may see your grocery bill sneak up a bit as you transition to more home-cookin', but the more you cook at home, the less you spend eating out, right? I've found that we generally eat out much less eating plant-based for a few reasons:

  1. I can better control the ingredients.

  2. I enjoy cooking so much more than I did as an omnivore! 

  3. There are generally less options eating out. While there are many great options locally, there are still of course less options on the menus of most restaurants than for meat-eating folk. And sometimes it's just plain easier and more fun to find ways to recreate old favorites, plant-based style!

• Planning ahead can be a huge help. I totally understand that this is not always easy (this continues to be a personal goal of mine!), but building a list and prioritizing and planning your purchases can be huge as to avoid over-filling on foods you don’t need but just sound good in the moment. I’ve also found plant-based meal plans that are particularly mindful of cost. I’ve participated in meal plans like Meal Mentor by Happy Herbivore Lindsay S. Nixon on and off over the years and Meal Mentor in particular designs their menus with cost and efficiency in mind and to be shop-able at Trader Joe’s. There are several other options too and these can be awesome for building your recipe file in transitioning to more plant-based meals and help you keep a tighter handle on your grocery bill as you get a feel for what you like (note, most meal plans have a small monthly or annual cost associated). Here are a few to check out:

  • Meal Mentor

  • Forks Over Knives

  • Engine 2

  • Lighter (search by health or cooking guru – very plant-based friendly!)

  • Rich Roll

I hope these two partnered-posts on plant-centered shopping have helped ease some of fears you may have about overspending to eat healthier delicious plant-focused meals! Yes, you may have to pay a bit more for almond milk in your latte at your local coffee counter (although hopefully this will change someday!), but the health investment and general potential for cost savings make focusing on plant-based foods super worthwhile!

Easy Peasy Tip: Avocado, the Wonder Sub

Easy Peasy Tips are simple actions you can take each week to make small shifts to more plant-centered eating that lead to big gains over time. When you’re making changes, it may take a few times to get your taste buds shifted to new flavors, but once you’ve rounded the bend, it’s easy peasy to enjoy!

Avocados are an awesome substitute to up your plant power in so many dishes! They are particularly great for phasing out or reducing cheese and processed meats, which can be particularly hard on our systems, as well as oils, and replacing them with a delicious whole food. Here are some ways we like to use this wonder-fruit:

• In quesadillas or tacos, instead of cheese (or use guacamole - Little Earthling approved!)

• In grilled sandwiches, also instead of cheese (Little Earthling approved!)

• Atop your pizza (after baking) to go cheese-less or even vegan cheese free

• In sushi, instead of fish (Little Earthling approved!)

• In sandwiches instead of cheese, processed meats, and/or mayo! (Little Earthling approved!)

• In your pesto instead of oil

• Atop a salad instead of an oil rich dressing (or use guacamole!)

• Mixed in with pasta instead of oil or cheese (Little Earthling approved!)

• And of course on toast or bagels! (Little Earthling approved!)

If you're stumped on how to get more plant-centered with some of your favorite dishes and quicker kid-friendly recipes, or to find general substitutions when eating in or out, get creative with avocados! They can for sure save the day! What other ways do you like to use avocados? :)

Top 10 Reasons to Eat More Plants - #2 Beans are Cheaper than Meat

A pretty solid misconception about plant-based eating is that it’s super expensive. Sure, it can be if perhaps you load up on specialty products and pricier “super foods” and only shop at health food stores. But when you reflect on what your cart currently looks like at the grocery store with the cost of keeping stocked on meat, poultry, fish, dairy, and eggs, eating plant-based can actually oftentimes pretty solidly save you money.

Eating plant-based has never seemed to be the source of an unusually high grocery bill for me. Admittedly though, it’s been several years since I included animal-based products in my shopping list and my family has grown since going plant-based. I did a bit of consumer sleuthing at a local Trader Joe’s and Vons to see how switching from animal-based to plant-based proteins really compares, particularly at more mainstream stores.

Here’s what I found, friends:

Trader Joe's at Milpas Canned Beans Display

• Animal Proteins:  $1.99 - $16.99/lb (approximately)
  Vons meats (from non-organic, value-pack chicken all the way up to grass-fed beef and seafood) in general seemed to range between $1.99/lb to around $16.99 lb. At Trader Joe’s, their animal-based variety ranged from $3.49/lb - $14.99/lb. Specialty animal proteins like organic or antibiotic free started at around $3.49/lb at both stores.

• Plant Based Proteins:  $0.82 - $11.98/lb (approximately)
  On the other hand, canned beans at Trader Joe’s ranged from $.79 to $.99 for 15.5 oz cans (depending on whether the beans were organic). If you want to compare exact pound for pound, this is approximately $.82 to $1.02 per pound. Vons’ beans varied between $.99 for a 15.5 oz can for non-organic, club special pricing, and up to $1.99 for same size but organic. And these amounts could even go down if you choose to buy dried beans and soak them yourself. Tofu ranged from $1.49 - $1.99 for just under one pound and tempeh came to $3.98 for a total of one pound (two packs). If you want to compare more “meaty” alternatives, vegan Italian sausages were both $3.98/lb whether Tofurky or the Trader Joe’s brand (although sold in slightly smaller quantities). Vons carried a Tofurky Kielbasa vegan sausage that was slightly higher at $5.14/lb (also sold in slightly smaller quantities) and the Beyond Meat “The Beyond Burger” Plant-Based Burger Patties were the priciest at $11.98/lb (sold in 8 oz packages).

Infographic by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Cost of a plant-based diet can seem like a deterrent before you go for it, but it really depends on what your habits are now and what choices you make. In general, though, switching to bean based proteins should save you money. So great! This handy-dandy chart from the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine also takes a look at the difference between eating beans versus beef and goes a step further to demonstrate how nutritionally they compare.

Just to reiterate, this is purely my own consumer research, on this given day in time, but the healthiest plant-based proteins, those that I eat most regularly – beans, tofu, and tempeh - are all on the lower end of the pricing (but not quality!) scale and generally cheaper than most of the animal-based proteins. You can absolutely keep your grocery bill stable or see it lower eating more plant-based. Putting beans in your enchiladas or mushed into a homemade burger, scrambling your tofu or tossing it in your stir fry, roasting your chickpeas, grilling up some tempeh for your sandwich, or making your bacon from tempeh all bring health benefits and can also keep your pocket book happy. So load up on protein from plants!

And while the meat to bean transition is the primary focus here, it's important to keep in mind that protein is in soooo many plant foods! It's everywhere! If you're eating a calorically appropriate diet with a variety of plant-based foods, protein should not be an issue. And make your protein choices work harder for you. Rather than thinking about how your protein can get you protein, think about how your protein can also get you fiber and a host of other vitamins and nutrients. By increasing the efficiency and nutrient density of your food choices through plant-based proteins, you benefit from a range of health (and cost saving!) perks and don't have to worry about things you don't need like added cholesterol. I love this article by Plant-Based Dietician Julieanna Heaver that outlines why you need not fret about protein on a plant-based diet with ideas for thinking more broadly about protein sources, like broccoli, oats, pasta, brown rice, and more:

5 Reasons You Can Stop Pursuing Protein and Start Focusing on Food 
by Julieanna Heaver

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HEALTHY YOU FACT: 

DID YOU KNOW THAT YOUR BODY PRODUCES ALL THE CHOLESTEROL YOU NEED? YOU ACTUALLY DON'T NEED DIETARY CHOLESTEROL FROM ANIMAL-BASED PROTEINS IN YOUR DIET, WHICH CAN SEND YOUR CHOLESTEROL LEVELS INTO OVERDRIVE.
 
KEEP YOUR PROTEIN WHOLE FOOD, 
PLANT-BASED FOR HEALTHIER FATS WITHOUT THE DIETARY CHOLESTEROL!

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Hungry for more grocery tips? Keep an eye out for an upcoming post with a few more ideas for mindful grocery shopping to help keep your wallet happy while transitioning to more plant-centered eating!

Easy Peasy Tip: Give Oat Milk a Go

Easy Peasy Tips are simple actions you can take each week to make small shifts to more plant-centered eating that lead to big gains over time. When you’re making changes, it may take a few times to get your taste buds shifted to new flavors, but once you’ve rounded the bend, it’s easy peasy to enjoy!

Oat Milk Latte love from Breakfast on Chapala

Does anyone else dig the new surge in oat milk at coffee shops as much as I do?? If you haven't tried it, this is an easy peasy way to phase out dairy in your coffee or matcha for a super delicious alternative. Local coffee shops like French Press, Breakfast, and Handlebar all tend to serve up this delicious milk. To me, drinking oat milk is like drinking marshmallows...mmmm...lightly sweet and creamy but a health bonus about choosing oat milk is that it doesn't tend to have added sweetener like soy or almond milk often do! It's naturally sweet! Give oat milk a go!

Plant-Friendly Hotspot: Savoy Cafe and Deli (Downtown)

Savoy Cafe & Deli, Figueroa Street, Downtown Santa Barbara

Savoy Café and Deli is one the plant-friendliest go-to lunch, breakfast, dinner, snack, and dessert spots downtown. I love it! It calls my name a couple of times a month and when I discovered how plant-friendly they were, it seriously felt like Christmas. And honestly, it still feels like Christmas when I go into Savoy! We’re so lucky to have a number of restaurants in town with at least a couple of delicious vegan-friendly options on their menus, but Savoy has several. And vegan desserts!

I looooove their Vegan Breakfast Burrito which has a combination of quinoa, sweet potato, kale, tofu, and avocado with a side of pico de gallo (YUM). I order it cooked in water instead of oil, and often in a bowl instead of a wrap. It’s hardy and warm. Comfort food. Their El Cap Sandwich is another favorite which I usually get with a whole grain bread and hold the added the olive oil. It's a super delightful combination of portebellos, avocados, greens, and balsamic. But these aren't all of the options! Savoy truly makes it easy peasy to eat more plants in a not-so-vegan-focused restaurant environment. You can go and get multiple options no matter the time of day. So if you’re looking to up your plant-game or searching for a vegan-friendly hotspot in town, I hope to see you there. 

Here’s what you can find:

Vegan Breakfast Burrito (hold the tortilla), my fave

Vegan Breakfast (but really anytime) Burrito

Vegan Scramble

Wheat-free Hot Cereal and Irish Steel Cut Oats (with the option for fresh berries, nuts, and more!)

One of the happiest salad bars in town which includes organic tofu, dolmas, and dozens of plant-based options (many are organic!) - a variety of greens, tons of veggies, beans, nuts, and seeds. It's fun to shop this bar with your Little Earthlings so they can self select options yummy for their tummies.

A cold deli case with a few vegan options daily including a bright and varied fruit salad.

A daily vegan soup

Savoy Cafe & Deli Salad Bar (and it goes on!)

A hot deli hosting generally one to two vegan-friendly options.

Veggie Wrap

The El Cap Sandwich with portabello mushrooms

Or build your own sandwich! They even have veganaise if it suits your fancy.

Savoy Cafe & Deli Bakery Case
(The middle four items - cookies & cupcakes - are vegan!)

A vegan-friendly BAKERY! Savoy usually has one or two flavors of muffin/loafs a day, vegan cold desserts like “raw-nies”, vegan cookies, and vegan cupcakes! Everything I’ve had has been delicious and their chocolaty cupcakes are perfect for grabbing and going to a kids birthday party. Or order a whole vegan cake or tray of cupcakes or cookies for an event or class party! Their vegan and/or gluten-free cupcakes come with an extra charge, but it's exciting that you can order both (although you pay two separate add'l charges), making these the ultimate in people pleasing desserts. Ordering larger quantities can add up quickly, but for special occasions if you need a yummy premade option, or if you are in a bind, we’re pretty lucky to have this café ready to bake up vegan-friendly treats. You can even order a vegan pumpkin pie with dairy-free coconut whipped cream! 

Also check out their coffee bar for soy milk, almond milk, and coconut-almond milk options! They have coffee (including cold press live and in action in a slow-drip), espressos, loose leaf teas, and matchas! And steamers for the kids. Ooh and herbal lemonades. Swoon.

Be sure to double check that whatever you’re ordering is vegan, as you might with any restaurant when it’s your first plant-focused visit and as you’re getting familiar with a restaurant through a more plant-friendly lens. One more heart happy note - Savoy has always been willing to cook made-to-order hot items in water instead of oil. Amazing. This can be difficult to find in town!

So check them out and let us know what you think!

Here are the details, if you’re a Savoy Café and Deli newbie –

Savoy Café and Deli
www.thesavoycafe.com
24 West Figueroa Street
Santa Barbara

Parking lot behind or across the street off of Chapala or timed street parking throughout the adjoining neighborhood.

Happy dining!

Easy Peasy Tip: Perk Up Your Morning with Kale

Easy Peasy Tips are simple actions you can take each week to make small shifts to more plant-centered eating that lead to big gains over time. When you’re making changes, it may take a few times to get your taste buds shifted to new flavors, but once you’ve rounded the bend, it’s easy peasy to enjoy!

An easy way to work more greens into your diet is to think about them as an any-time-of-day kind of food. It helps me to get more of these leafy friends in when I start early with kale for breakfast and then I am sure to be mindful of including kale and other greens in lunch, dinner, or as a snack. Starting earlier also helps me feel like I have a head start on my daily dose of greens. Kale goes great in a tofu scramble or lightly steamed in a pan with a little bit of water to a bright green followed by a drizzle of balsamic. I add the lightly steamed kale straight on top of my oatmeal, as a side to pancakes or toast, or build a breakfast salad with fruits and nuts. I find the balsamic helps tie these sweet and nuttier flavors together. So don't delay! Get a head start on the day by perking up your breakfast with a handful of kale.

Build your kale-loving confidence with this fun video by Jane and Ann Esselstyn on stripping your kale! 

Video source: www.janeesselstyn.com

Easy Peasy Tip: Go Nutty with Your Breakfast Butter

Easy Peasy Tips are simple actions you can take each week to make small shifts to more plant-centered eating that lead to big gains over time. When you’re making changes, it may take a few times to get your taste buds shifted to new flavors, but once you’ve rounded the bend, it’s easy peasy to enjoy!

Experiment with nut and seed butters at breakfast time! Nuts and seeds are great whole food sources of healthy fats and protein for you and your Little Earthlings. These nutty butters can be great subs for butter on toast, bagels, or pancakes, and extra yummy on your oatmeal. Almond butter is one of our favorites, but cashew, walnut, peanut, or sunflower seed butters or tahini are great options too. Experiment!  See what you like. And most importantly, have fun!