While visiting LA recently, I found my mecca: Cafe Gratitude.

Each item on the menu is an affirmation (I ordered the I AM EXTRAORDINARY (meal) & the I AM WORTHY (juice). After each order, the waiter confirms this truth with a “yes, you are” or an “I know it!”.

I AM EXTRAORDINARY! …and DELICIOUS! Holy moly this was so good. My non-vegan dining companion was bowled over by how good the food was and it sparked a weekend of questions about vegan foods. If you’ve never tried any, I encourage you to be bold and visit your local vegan spot.

We know I am not the ‘take a photo of yourself in a bathroom on a camera phone ala myspace’ type of gal. But this bathroom? It had to be done. “I adore myself & everyone else.” Affirmations ON the mirror!

And then, the pièce de résistance, after we polished off our meals, this beautiful message was waiting for us on the plate.

Cafe Gratitude is really an experience to behold. Not only is the entire menu vegan but the staff are all beautiful souls with loving energy. There is a question of the day for your table to share with each other, support for local growers & community based donation meals where no one is turned away.

If you look very closely at the top of the menu, you will spy this sentence: “Our food and people are a celebration of our aliveness.” A celebration of our aliveness. How beautiful is that?

Give yourself the freedom to celebrate the beauty, joy truth of yourself today.

True story: I love dark chocolate. I like to keep a bar in my fridge for chocolate emergencies and the past few weeks I haven’t had any. I thought to myself: well, self, this will never do. Whole Foods to the rescue!

Enter in Moonstruck chocolate. 68% cacao & delicious. I plucked this one off the shelf from the many, many options because of the DESIGN. How could anyone resist this wrapper? It just got better upon opening the candy because the clever design team imprinted a cute saying inside while maintaining details (swirls & stars) from the front packaging.

(Does anyone else still check for a golden ticket when they open a chocolate bar?)

Find the little things that bring you joy & keep them in your life.

If you’ve been reading lately, you know I’m making a lot of big changes. Trying things that scare me. Pushing myself into unknown territory all for the greater good of truly living.

To me, a crucial part of living my best life is living a HEALTHY life. To that end (brace yourself) I have recently started cooking.

I’ll give my family a few minutes to finish up their hysterical laughter. Done? K, great, let’s move on!

For the past few years, I found myself struggling with food. In 2008, after 14 years of being vegetarian, I took it up a notch and went vegan. This led me to being unsure of what to eat - where dairy took up a large place in my meals, now I had no idea what to nosh on! Shortly after, I went on tour. Being on the road led me to being afraid I wouldn’t find food I could eat and struggling with the times where that was actually a reality. (True story: a friend and I once took a $50 cab ride to a Whole Foods in a town far away from where we were staying purely from being desperate for a good meal.) After that, food officially became a point of anxiety. I stood in my kitchen, fridge open, pacing, trying to think of what to eat. I went to the grocery store and paced the aisles, wasting hours, trying to think of what to buy.

Then, I recently got the great suggestion to begin to use cookbooks (or online recipes) and plan a whole week’s worth of meals in advance, do one large shopping trip and be done with it for the week. I’ve never eaten better in my life! By cooking, I’m paying attention to what I’m choosing to eat. By planning, I know that I’m eating balanced meals every day and excited about the meals I know are coming up. By researching, I’m learning new ways to eat favorite foods in a vegan way (hello, vegan mac ‘n cheese!) - plus, it’s seriously fun!

Dairy-free potato gnocchi and sautéed tomatoes is an easy and delicious dinner.

What’s your favorite thing to cook? Do you have any food restrictions or allergies that make eating in or out a challenge? Any awesome vegan recipes? Send ‘em my way and I’ll try them out!

While I was on tour, I made a morning ritual of hitting the gym right when I woke up and then after, heading to the local starbucks for a green tea and an oatmeal. Starbucks is just about everywhere in our country and became oddly comforting to me while I was traveling. I would walk into the closest location, breathe in the familiar scent of coffee, hear the folky music (almost all of the songs sound the same) and felt like I had unexpectedly run into an old friend. (Yes, I just compared Starbucks to an old friend.)

After this tour ended, I came home and found I couldn’t start my day without oatmeal. More than that, no oatmeal even came close to the delightful breakfast my dear pals at Starbucks prepared for me. Naturally, I’m aware I can’t go to Starbucks every morning (or CAN I..) but it never dawned on me to simply recreate the yummy mix of oatmeal, brown sugar and walnuts that I adored getting from my friends in green aprons. The other day I was griping about this to my mom who patiently listened (and by “listened”, I mean totally ignored me since this is a ridiculous thing to complain about) and the next morning I went downstairs to see she had left out the brown sugar, walnuts and packets of oatmeal. BRILLIANCE. Since then, I’ve been making my oatmeal with actual delight. (No one said my life was exciting.)

Breakfast can get boring so if you’re looking for something new to fill up your belly and even give you a little warmth as Winter starts to take over our lives, give it a go!

Add boiling water to a cup of oatmeal (or however much you’d like). Mix in a spoonful or two of brown sugar to taste and a handful or chopped walnuts. Stir like crazy and eat! Adding raisins or other dried fruit is also quite yummy or throw in a pinch of cinnamon. It may sound silly but I swear if I have a good breakfast, I get more work done and end up eating delicious, full meals the rest of the day.

What do you like to start your day with? xx