I had the pleasure of sitting down with Melissa Costello of Karma Chow (and her adorable, sweet dog Pumpkin), to discuss her new business venture and taste some delicious Karma Chow food. Melissa has been a private chef and educator for years after her training at Spencer Institute and the NHI (Natural Healing Institute) in San Diego. With the plummeting economy many of her clients couldn’t afford private chef services anymore and ask if she would start a meal delivery service. Three weeks ago Karma Chow Meal Delivery was born.

For only $15 a meal (plus delivery fee) you can have healthy, vegan meals delivered to your door. These meals use no processed foods, no refined sugar, 90% organic, and served in recyclable containers. If you become a regular I would suggest getting reusable containers that you wash and give back to Melissa each week. Delivery is now on Mondays and available for central and westside of Los Angeles (no Valley or east of Downtown at the moment).

I got to try the Moroccan Stew, which was the perfect blend of spices and sweetness, full of sweet potatoes, chickpeas, and tomatoes. I also tried the Kitchen Sink Vegetable Soup, which was a nice light soup jammed packed with different vegetables. I wish Melissa had more for me to try because those two dishes were incredible! Give the meal delivery a try if you are too busy to cook, want nutritious healthy food for a weight-loss program, or if you need to try a cleanse, Karma Chow 30 day Cleanse is starting soon.

Melissa and I share a similar philosophy: eat whole, unrefined foods that nourish your mind, body, and spirit. Follow a 90/10 or 80/20 rule. We can’t be perfect all the time, so enjoy yourself and don’t beat yourself up if you have something “naughty” every once in a while.

Don’t miss this event tomorrow if you live in Los Angeles!!

Spring Sweep Vegan Cooking Class

Thursday March 11th, 6:00p.m. – 7:30p.m.
Whole Foods Market West LA

Join Melissa Costello, owner of Karma Chow and learn how to make delicious spring detox vegan dishes to help cleanse your body! Dishes include lemony artichoke dip, spring veggie stir fry with ginger apricot sauce, raw kale salad with fennel in a miso vinaigrette and chocolaty crispy rice squares.

After you get your feet ready for summer at Plush Beauty Bar in West Hollywood it is time to put them in some great sandals.

Get up to 50% off Vegan Sandals at Alternative Outfitters.  This online store is becoming the source for great “fashionable leather alternatives and cruelty-free products for a compassionate lifestyle”. They have a large selection of spring/summer vegan shoes including flipflops, wedges, flats, and heels. All are super adorable and of the moment, but better yet, affordable! The sale sandals range in price from $14 – $40. You better run over there before they are out of stock!

If you live in Los Angeles, you can visit the showroom in Pasadena to try on their shoes and see all their cute t-shirts, wallets, purses, and accessories in person. That reminds me, I need to pay them a visit and buy some cute spring sandals!

Alternative Outfitters
408 S. Pasadena Ave. Suite 1
Pasadena, CA 91105

Monday – Friday: 11:00 am – 4:30 pm or By Appointment (626) 396-4972
(showroom hours subject to change)
Parking is FREE in adjacent lot!

You also want to check out Moo Shoes – a NYC based company.  Moo Shoes continually has a selection of the hottest, trendiest vegan shoes.  True, the price tag for these shoes can be anywhere in the range of $50 – $200, but they are high quality and will last you through many summers.

Some other great sites to find vegan shoes are:

Humanitaire – in Santa Monica for your locals. Check out this video review by Eco-Vegan Gal.

Vegan Collection – shoes and accessories for men

Vegan Essentials

Ahimsa Footwear

Raggazzi Footwear

Where is your favorite place to find sustainable and vegan shoes?

My roommate taught a Sushi making class at our house this weekend for our friends and for weeks I’ve been eating her practice creations. I came up with this recipe many years ago, but the constant flow of sushi recently and tons of leftover sushi rice and fillings made me revisit the Sushi Rice Bowl. It makes a beautiful side dish to any meal. Basically, it’s a sushi roll turned inside out in a bowl! If you throw in some tofu or tempeh you have a one pot meal.

Sushi Rice Bowl

1 cup long grain brown rice, washed
Filtered water
Pinch of sea salt
1 cup japanese cucumber, diced
1/2 cup red pepper, diced (optional)
1 cup each frozen corn and peas
1 cup pea sproats, chopped
2 tablespoons dulse flakes
3 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
3 tablespoons tamari
2 tablespoons pickled ginger, minced
1/2 cup cilantro (optional)
1 sheet nori, torn or cut into little pieces
Toasted sesame seeds, for garnish

Preparation

Cook rice according to packages instructions. When finished fluff rice and place in a bowl with all the ingredients. Stir well.

To serve, line platter with lettuce leaves and spoon rice in the middle. Garnish with sesame seeds & cilantro.

Yum!

Don’t forget today is Live Q&A day 12 PST. Join me on Ustream live, or watch the recording after.

Here’s a delicious and instructional video on how to make the Lemon Amasake Custard Spring recipe from my eCookbook The Blissful Chef: Cooking With The Seasons – Spring Edition. Grab your copy today for less than a meal! It’s already getting rave reviews from the blog-sphere from people with all types of diets. You don’t have to be vegetarian or vegan to love this food! I forgot to mention that almost all the recipes are gluten-free, nightshade-free, totally vegan, uses seasonal produce, and it’s full of love. For a full description visit here.

This is the perfect dessert for those who want a treat without refined sugar or baked flour. It’s great for diabetics and children too!

Since Vegan.com loved this video and recipe I’m offering the eBook this week for $5.99 for all my current and new readers! Grab it on sale while you can.

LifeFactory is a leader in environmentally friendly products that I discovered at the Go Green Expo. See this post about their amazing baby products. At the expo they were spotlighting their not yet released adult size bottle, which had me jumping for joy. I always carry my stainless steel bottle, but the idea of having a glass water bottle appealed to me even more, which I explain in the video. LifeFactory products are BPA-free, phthalate-free, and contain zero harmful chemicals.

After carrying it around for a week I’m absolutely in love with this bottle. And, I look awesome because this bottle is hot! What I didn’t show in this video is that I also made tea in it with lemon slices, which worked great. I now understand why the entry of the bottle is wider than most: you can easily clean it and put fruit, tea, and ice if you like inside. The design is super slick and smart. It isn’t actually that heavy for being glass and it’s super comfortable to carry around.

Every eco-diva and dude should get this bottle! At $21.99, it’s affordable and way more hot than Sigg and other brands. Check out this video and enter the giveaway! One lucky reader will get a LifeFactory bottle in a color of their choice! But, if you don’t win run over to buy one and you will not be disappointed!

To enter the giveaway here are the rules:
1. You must live in the United States. No PO Boxes.
2. Please subscribe to my blog and enter your email address so I can contact you if you win.
3. Tell us why you would benefit from the new LifeFactory beverage bottle.

Extra Credit

4. Become a Fan on my Facebook page
5. Follow me on Twitter and Retweet about this giveaway (@TheBlissfulChef)
6. Become a Fan of Lifefactory on Facebook
7. Add @LifeFactory to your followers on Twitter

Hint: Be sure to leave one comment telling me how many things you did from the list (for example say in one comment that you have 4 entries, if you already do the things listed you can count those to your total).

A winner will be chosen on Friday March 5th. Good luck!

P.S. Blissful Fridays!
You’ll be happy to know that as long as I have time I will be doing Giveaways every Friday! But these videos and blog posts take mucho time, so if you love these giveaways and this blog please hit the Donate button to the right and help keep this blog alive. I do not get paid by these companies, and I would love to keep this blog ad-free so donations are much appreciated.

Finally a nail salon tailored to moms (and mom’s to be)! Plush has come to the rescue. For the last 8 months I have been searching for a safe place to get my nails done – a place free of the obnoxious and brain cell killing fumes. The last thing I want to do to my unborn baby is to subject her to the toxins and fumes from the mixture of acrylic nails and chemicals. Then I found Plush.

Plush is a nail and waxing salon that provides mothers of babies and small children with high-quality services in a child-friendly environment. All nail treatments use low fume/low toxic polish (ZOYA nail colors to be exact). All pedicure basins have disposable liners to prevent the spread of fungus and infection. Basin liners, files, buffers, and orange sticks are never re-used. Metal implements are disinfected with a hospital grade anti-fungal/viral/bacterial agent between clients.

Plush’s services are done with babies/small children in mind. They can hang out with mom while she is getting her treatment or enjoy the well stocked nursery. All the while, mom is being pampered while drinking her complimentary tea.

When I went, I indulged in a mani and pedi. A week after getting a French manicure, the white is still on and looking great. The staff is incredibly friendly and warm. Offering a choice of high end tea is a perk that is always appreciated – I only wish there were more caffeine-free choices.

Plush is a sanctuary for the much needed pampering every eco-mom needs – without guilt or worry.

Plush Beauty Bar
7879 Santa Monica Blvd.,
West Hollywood, CA 90046
(323) 656-0030

Follow Plush on Twitter!

I don’t know about you buy I love the package Fakin’ Bacon you can buy at the natural food store made from tempeh. But it is SO expensive and a little too salty for my taste, so I decided to make my own. This way I can save money and use only the highest quality pure ingredients. This is a snap to make and is delicious!

I know many of you are new to tempeh and loved my Curry “Chicken” Salad recipe. Hope you enjoy this one too!

This is great for breakfast, served on a sandwich or in a pita, great chopped up on a salad or in a casserole!

tempeh bacon

8 ounce package of tempeh
1/3 cup tamari
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
Dash of black pepper

Slice tempeh in thin slices. Combine all marinade ingredients inside a Pyrex dish large enough to fit slices of tempeh in one single layer. Coat each piece of tempeh and marinate for 1 hour turning once. Drain most of the marinade from the tempeh and save, leaving a little at the bottom of the pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 375 degrees F, turning once halfway through. If it looks dry at the halfway point add a touch of the marinade to the pan.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with April Davila to discuss her new project called Month Without Monsanto. For the month of March she is trying to go without Monsanto products in her life. That means not ingesting GMO foods, not wearing cotton clothing, or using any skin care products that may have been produced with GMO or biotech ingredients. She’s got her work cut out for her, but I think she can do it!

I’m excited to follow her journey so I too can become a better consumer. I personally don’t want to support Monsanto in any way, so April’s blog will make sure I know my stuff when it comes to being a consumer.

Here’s a little video that will tell you more about April and Month Without Monsanto. More interview questions are after the video. I really hope that you will join April and follow her during the month of March. (sorry the video quality kept getting dark then light again)

The Blissful Chef: What are some horrifying things you’ve found in your research on Monsanto?

The thing I have found the most shocking so far is this quote from Phil Angell, Director of Corporate Communication for Monsanto:

“Monsanto should not have to vouch for the safety of biotech food, our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA’s job.”

The Blissful Chef: Do you think there’s any hope of fighting the agriculture-evil that is Monsanto?

To answer this question I need to step back and say that I don’t think Monsanto is evil. Monsanto is an agricultural company that exists to make money. They’re good at it. I’m not interested in raging against their attempts to keep investors happy.

What does get me excited is the idea that we, as consumers, have the power to accept genetically modified organisms or not. There is absolutely hope for our future. A recent report from the ISAAA stated that only 2.7% of all agricultural land was devoted to GM crops last year, and most of those yields went to feed livestock. Of the 25 countries that currently allow cultivation of GM crops, seven of them saw a reduction in the number of acres devoted to GM crops in 2009.

The Blissful Chef: What can we do to help you on your quest or help our families & friends go “Without Monsanto”?

The best thing we can do is get involved in the conversation. My goal with the blog is really to open up a dialogue and get people talking about what’s in our food. The more we know, the more we can shop with confidence and feel good about what we’re eating.

The Blissful Chef: Is it possible for the everyday person to go Without Monsanto?

I certainly hope so. Ask me on March 31st.

Thank you again April for sitting down with me and taking on this month-long mission to go without Monsanto. I will be right along with you this month and hopefully some of you will join her too! Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog Month Without Monsanto and follow her on Twitter @WithoutMonsanto.

As a follow up to my last blog, I’m all for parents raising their children vegetarian/vegan. The more parents we can get hip to plant-based diets we might be able to stop the epidemic facing the future of our race. Like I’ve been saying, it’s all about conditioning. And, even if you and your family are not plant-based you can move toward it and make small changes daily. Here are some cool blogs and website that I love to help you raise happy healthy veg kids! If I’m missing some please add to the list in the comments!

VegFamily – The Magazine for Vegan Family Living

Happy Healthy Life – The Lunchbox Bunch mission is “Turn ordinary kids into healthy eating, kid-chef superstars!” Cute website with recipes and ideas for every parent and child.

Spawn Better – A new kid on the block, but filled with good information.

Vegan Lunch Box – One of the most popular blogs around all about delicious kid-friendly food.

Vegan Health.org – Check out these vegan kids!

Green & Crunchy – Just found this blog and how great it is! Raising 5 kids vegan means you have great ideas!

The Vegetarian Resource Group – An amazing resource for all things vegan

Pure Mamas – Juli of Kookie Karma’s blog. It’s just awesome as I said in my previous post!

I forgot Vegan Dad! – Love this blog. If this dad can do it so can you!

For shits and giggles, I’m taking the Nutritional Science class at SMC to see what the California government is teaching the future of America about nutrition. Last week was my first class, and after raising a few points to the teacher I can already tell I know more than she does about plant-based nutrition. One thing that she did emphasis in her first lecture was the importance of eating plant-based foods. That made me very happy.

She is very into discussion and class participation. She asked the class “Why do you eat the things you do?”. Many answers were given: convenience, hunger, customs or religion, tradition (think Thanksgiving). I think many of the answers go back to our conditioning (see post a few days ago). We are conditioned from an early age to eat certain things, like animal foods for instance. We are told by our teachers, our parents, our government that we need meat for strong muscles and dairy for calcium and strong bones. As if! We have to break this conditioning in order to create optimal health for ourselves.

It got me thinking, why do I eat the things I do? After being vegan for 7 years I’ve devoted myself to eating things that nourish my mind, body, and spirit. I also eat things because I do not want to harm animals or the planet. I eat to share nourishment with my community, friends, and family. I eat so I can live out my true purpose in life and be the most true authentic person I can be. I eat to feel bliss (spiritual joy and extreme happiness)!

So I ask you, Why do you eat the things you do?

I had a great conversation with a friend who recently went vegetarian. He was telling me about a slip-up he had last week that left him feeling like crap physically and emotionally. I asked him why he fell off the wagon. He said he was really craving some soup and had 2 choices: this one Pho place that he used to eat at or another place down the street. I said to him, “You gave yourself 2 choices, when ultimately you had a endless number of choices that would have lead you to eating vegetarian.” Looking back, he realized that he made that choice out of convenience (i.e. laziness). He hadn’t clearly layed out the reasons for why he eats the things he does.

If we can all recondition ourselves and clearly state the reasons why we eat the things we do, we set an intention. That intention will stick with you when you are faced with important decisions about what to eat and how to nourish yourself. If your heart is committed to this intention than you are WAY more likely to stick with it and not let convenience, traditions, customs, or hunger take over.

As a side note, I’m all for parents raising their children vegetarian/vegan. The more parents we can get hip to plant-based diets the more likely we can stop the epidemic facing the future of our race. Keep an eye out for my next blog that will list my favorite resources to help you raise happy healthy veg kids!