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.

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!

Hello everyone!

I hope your holidays were happy and filled with lots of laughter and good food. I feel like the weekend flew right by in a haze of wrapping paper and food but I have no complaints. 

My mom got me the most awesome VEGAN bag from a great line called Big Buddha. I’ve been searching for a line of bags like this for so long! I find that a lot of bags, shoes, clothing, etc that are Vegan are not exactly..well..cute. However, Big Buddha totally crushes that stereotype.

This is the bag my mom bought me and I love it! It’s large and spacious with lots of interior pockets but it’s also not gigantic and overwhelming (I’m kind of tiny so you can take my word on this). I love the extra strap to make it a cross-body bag and the detailed flowers that aren’t obnoxious the way some flowery bags can be (I’m from NJ so you can also take my word on bags that make you go ‘ohhh geeze’). The inside is silky and shiny and smooth and it honestly looks like a leather bag. So much so that I can’t wait until someone calls me out on being a vegan with a leather bag so I can turn to them and say “It IS vegan, sucker!”. I, um, mean.. I’ll politely correct them..

And here’s the beauty of buying leatherish looking non-leather (say that 3 times fast) .. it isn’t as expensive as real leather!!! Woohoo! Doing good things for the planet, saving an animals life AND saving money? Heck yes, people. Heck. Yes.

Check out their 2010 selection and get pumped for next year’s collection!