If you’re used to filling your day munching on junkfood, and you’re compelled to to start on a healthier path, start by swapping out your go-to inflammatory baked-good with a healthier option.

These brownies and bursting with fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals, and they taste like a fudgy oreo.

Want to avoid taking a sleeve of medications? Want to reverse diseases holding you and your kin back from your healthiest/strongest/kindest lives? Truly listen/read the doctor-lead resources I post, and have your mind opened to the reality that what you eat either heals you or harms us all.

The inspiration for this recipe actually comes from the first vegan that ever entered my realm. Chris had a radio show just before mine on our college radio station. We were “friends” from the start, but I was a complete jackass for the first year, because veganism was so counter opposite to my culture that my response was to be passive aggressively offended by his compassionate choice.

One night, Chris came to one of our boardgame-potlucks and whipped up a dish by mixing a can of vegetarian refried beans, a can of Rotel, cilantro, and lemon juice. It was simple, delicious, and swiftly convinced me I didn’t need to be buying the lard-filled bean can version ever again.

We’ve been making something akin to the Chris recipe for years now; and what follows is our bare-bones version, because I err on the side of simple-spinal-columns for posted recipes, and hope y’all will throw in whatever you want to make it your own (that’s what we do over here. Every batch is different, but the framework is the same).

We and our kin should mainly be drinking water. If you find yourself wanting to drink something sweet: make sure it is full of fiber, not empty/harmful calories. You want to be consuming something that will fill you with power and vitality, not lead you down a path of chronic disease and inflammation.

Want to dip your toe onto a new path of health and environmental kindness? Start with a simple smoothie. :-)

The cruelty of factory farming animals, and the impact of livestock on land, water, emissions, and other species is well understood as fact. Sadly, it seems those facts are easy to ignore (because if you’re still eating this stuff, you’re basically stating —like I once did— that taste is more important than any of the before-mentioned impacts); my wonder is whether knowing what animal products are doing inside of your body may shake you into wakefulness, or —most importantly— whether this knowledge will make you internalize how they are harming the souls in your care. That was precisely what compelled me to get my husband and son on board. Saving myself by sitting back in silence was selfish: saving my son and soulmate was imperative, hollering out to the rest of you is a compulsion in empathy and purpose.

After years of couch sitting and feasting on harmful foods, I’m now spending my free-time digging into new research and explanations of how our diet is affecting us all; and I’ll keep siphoning off time to relay this information to anyone who wants their mind opened and health bettered. Below you will find some purpose-driven mind-rattlers, but we’ll start with the most important.

Looking for a hearty, tasty, plant-based whole-food dish that’ll fill you up and maybe also spice up whatever is in your usual rotation? This was thrown together with items we had on hand, it tastes like an Ethiopian variant of jambalaya, and it is now a family fave.

We bought some organic, pink lady apples (our personal favorite) from Aldi’s 2 weeks ago and they were starting to lose their crispness; so yesterday morning we set to making them into some apple sauce.

If you’re in a similar position and looking to make use out of (not waste) slightly mealy apples, or if you just like apple sauce and have never made your own, here is a quick and easy way to use them up. ‘Twas also a fun way for Q and I to work in the kitchen together. He’s always looking for ways to practice knife skills and to generally be of help, and I’m always looking for ways to soak up that sweet soul’s light.

When you can: If you have an Ethiopian or Eritrean restaurant near you, treat yourself to some authentic mastery. If your budgets are like ours and you want Ethiopian food, but can’t afford to be eating out, this is my super inexpensive way to get some of those flavors on the cheap, with items I usually have on hand. (Because at this point, there has been berbere seasoning in this house.)

Aside from the berbere, the rest of the ingredients are pretty standard: water, red lentils, lemon juice, salt, garlic, and a medium sized onion. You don’t even need oil, because this is the whole-foods version: completely heart-healthy.

We all want robust immune systems (ESPECIALLY AMIDST A PANDEMIC!), eyes that see clearly, and well-grown babies, eh? If so, read on and see how you can use up a whole squash (seeds and all) and feast kindly.

Did you know that there is startling evidence that our CHILDREN show signs of streaky fats clogging up their arteries? It’s increasing their blood pressure, setting them up for heart disease, and giving them high risk of diabetes, cancer, autoimmune disease, etc.

Have you or someone you know suffered from: diabetes, cardiovascular disease, thyroid diseases (hyper and hypo), MS, breast cancer, fibroids, PCOS, infertility, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, Sjogren’s Disease, eczema, depression, gastrointestinal distress, or debilitating menstrual cramps? Have a stent? On a statin?

These three podcasts, the book by Dr. Neal Barnard, and the documentary “What the Health” will illuminate how the foods you eat are causing all of the above and how a shift to plant-based whole-foods can heal your body and the only planet we have.

It’s all about forward movement around here, so this is a good oatbar to end on for awhile. It is created with the most frequency, takes the tiniest amount of time to whip up, has the smallest environmental footprint, and is the product of streamlining my first two oatbar variants.

2020 is the year of moving beyond comfort zones and illuminating as many souls as possible; so I accepted an invite from our dearly loved Kathy Haendle, and this morning I summoned up the spine to give a speech at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Auburn.

It was titled “Environmental Kindness: How to Care for the Earth and Yourself”, and I came bearing a laundry basket of zero-waste examples, and a promise to post the text soon thereafter so they could see the links…and read sentences likely lost in the whirl and blur of my trademark rapid-fire-breathless-way of relaying info.

Afterward was a swirl of great questions, open discourse, a request to do more talks in the future, and sweet Q whispering how proud he was that I did my “first TED talk!” (<—Someday, kid)

There is so much to say, and I’ll be learning how to say it better and slower. 💚

This salad base is a boon on all fronts: it is zero-waste; it preps up quickly (there’s no need to “massage” the kale” because the warm quinoa and acids will do that for you: leaving you more time, which is the most precious resource on this earth); and it is packed with nutritional power that will fuel you through a day with health and environmental-kindness.

Ten years ago, I thought that quinoa was a bitter pearl of lesser-than-rice, and here I am propped in front of a computer at 6AM with the intent of mapping out how we buy it, cook it zero-waste, and why it is the perfect fuel to propel us through busy weeks.

Life is a dang wonder of growth and movement.

Oatmilk works in all binding (ie sauces, dredging things before coating them in a crispy coating, the inside of a potato pancake I’ll post soon!) and baking applications. You can buy a carton of it at the store, but if you also happen to have a lot of oats on hand this is a super quick, cheap alternative. We get our oats in bulk, and find this is a great way to get a lot of protein for super cheap.)

“Furthermore, oats also use 80% less land to grow than dairy milk. In fact, a glass of oat milk is responsible for less greenhouse gas emissions than soy milk or dairy milk.”

If you use this in your baking and cooking, you won’t miss the milk, but you’ll be helping the earth and being kind to your body!

Lentils live the dramatic life of being despised for their chalky, mealy mouth-feel, yet praised for their glorious nutritional profile.

While they are Ian’s dearest, I’ll admit that lentils are my least favorite of the legumes (Anasazi Beans own my heart): but I make sure to cook them often and find ways to sneak them into meals through the week. There are ways to eat lentils that range from pleasant-enough to downright-delicious, and I’ll be working through the week with this batch of lentils to show you some.

You know those delicious butterscotch-and-peanut-buttery rice Krispie treats sometimes slathered in chocolate? These are the energy bite version.