Alicia Silverstone's Blog, page 116

Happy New Year!

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Happy 2013!

If you’re waking up to a hangover, here’s the recipe for my Cure All Tea. I know conventional wisdom says to eat greasy comfort food to ease a hangover, but that’s not going to help you! Drinking my tea and eating nourishing superhero food like miso soup, brown rice, and maybe a green juice will get you back to normal much faster.

I hope everyone’s enjoying the day off and looking forward to what’s to come. I’ll be sharing lots of superhero recipes this month. After a holiday season filled with naughty vegan fun food, I’m going back to being a stricter superhero. Who’s with me?!

I shared my goals for 2013 last week, in case you missed them!

What are your New Year’s resolutions?

Tell me in the comments below.

Photo source: flickr.com / Paparutzi

Bust Out the Bubbly, But Make Sure It’s Vegan

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Champagne is the traditional alcoholic beverage to serve on New Year’s Eve, and if you’re planning to imbibe, you may be surprised to learn that not all Champagne is vegan. Some Champagne is processed with fining agents, which can include products such as casein (milk protein), gelatin, and egg white.

Here is a list of five bottles of Champagne that are vegan: 

1.  Organic Champagne Fleury
2.  Domaine Ste. Michelle
3.  Korbel
4.  Veuve Clicquot (Thank God this one is free of nasty stuff! I can’t remember the last time I had a glass of champagne... it must have been years… but I remember loving this one.)
5.  Piper Heidsieck 

For an extensive list of vegan spirits, beer, and wine, check out Barnivore.com.

What will you be drinking on New Year’s Eve?

Photo source: flickr.com / Simon Cocks

Kick Off The New Year With Superhero Classes

 

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Warren Kramer is a really good macrobiotic counselor, and he’s returning to LA in January. You may remember Warren from my previous blogs about him and his wife Fatim and their superhero baby. If you live in LA, be sure to check out Warren’s schedule below, and if you don’t, you can book phone consultations with him anytime or find out when he’ll be in your area on his website. I highly recommend attending his classes or going to see him for a consultation him if you are having any problems at all.

These classes sound really great! I am definitely hoping to go to a few.

Have you ever seen a macrobiotic counselor?

Photo source: vegnews.com

Share Your Tips For Raising Kind Kids

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Recently, I asked all you kind mamas to share your stories about vegan pregnancy and natural childbirth. For part three of my kind mama Q&A, I’m asking you to share your kind parenting tips. Feel free to answer some or all of the questions. I may select some of your answers to appear in my forthcoming book, The Kind Mama!

1.  Did you hesitate to raise your baby vegan?
2.  How do you deal with naysayers?
3.  How do you talk to your kids about being vegan?
4.  What was your breastfeeding experience like?
5.  How did breastfeeding help you bond with your baby and learn about yourself as a mom?

You can answer in the comments below, by contacting me directly (by clicking the “contact Alicia” box to the right), or you can post your answers in this forum thread.

Thank you, kind lifers!!!

Love,
Alicia

Photo Sources: Anekoho via FreeDigitalPhotos.com, Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot via FreeDigitalPhotos.com

Preparing for 2013

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Now is a great time to start thinking about what you want more and less of in the upcoming year. My husband and I like to write in our journals on New Year’s Eve to reflect and get focused on what we envision for our life in the New Year. It’s nice to read your journal from last year and see what progress you have made with each idea and see how your needs might have or might not have changed over the course of the year.

My Vision for 2013

I want to balance my days better. So, less work time, more rest and alone time so that mama doesn’t get left out. It’s very easy for me to work too hard and to spend all my free time with Bear (which I love), but I’ll get too overwhelmed with work tasks that I have no time to myself. Don’t get me wrong. I love my work and my projects, but it’s all about balance and planning. So, I’m going to be very careful with what I say “yes” to this coming year.

This year, I hope you spend more time with people you love most and who make you feel whole and great and comfy and less with those who make you feel drained, uncomfortable, sad, or anxious. Let’s all spend less time working and less time on the computer or watching TV. Let’s spend more time reading, journaling, playing and just being.

Get clear on your life’s goals and rework your life around your priorities. Julie Morgenstern’s Organizing from the Inside Out is really helpful for creating the life you want with your actual schedule. It helps you define what you truly want in your life and then how to fill you’re your time with that instead of all the other stuff.  I read it about a decade ago and what an amazing change my life took when I cleared the decks of all the “other” stuff! I highly recommend this book… even though I read it so long ago I STILL use the concepts!

What are your goals for a kinder 2013?

Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas!

I hope you’re all having a relaxing holiday. I wish for all of you a very comfortable feeling of warmth and peace. I hope you are exactly where you want to be enjoying your precious holiday and time off from work (hopefully). You deserve it.

Thank you for everything that you each contribute to this amazing community. Your comments and help you give each other is so inspiring.

Also, thank you to everyone who, shared kind gift ideas and contributed yum holiday recipes to the kind recipe gallery this year.

Today is also my husband’s birthday, so we’re probably going to have a nice dinner. We like to keep it low key around here on Christmas. This year there won’t be any presents. We have all that we need: each other. We will enjoy a day with just the three of us, just like we do all the time, but today no one will have any work and we will treat Christopher extra special. He put in his request for the day: a little Laker game (we haven’t watched TV in 5 months except the debates). And to go see a movie.

How are you celebrating today?

Love,
Alicia

Photo source: Muffet / flickr.com

Tell Me If This Vegan Foie Gras Is Mind-Blowing

 

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I just heard about a food called misozuke (miso marinated tofu) that is being billed as the “vegan foie gras.” Now the concept of foie gras is a total appetite-killer, but misozuke is supposedly creamy and delicious and good on everything.

Have you tried it? Tell me what you think of miszuke in the comments below!   

Photos: Flickr / Andrea_Nguyen

Quick & Easy Snacks for the Holidays

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Happy winter solstice, everyone!

If you’re looking for some quick, easy, and veg-friendly snacks that you can bring to a holiday get-together, here are a few ideas:

For a quick and easy, but memorable dish, I like this festive veggie platter from Whole Foods magazine that my mother in law Candy Cope sent to me. She said she would make it with Bear next year!

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Just a little vegan veggie dip on the side and you’re good.

Some other simple ideas: 

•  A nice big bowl of fresh olives makes a sexy festive appetizer.

•  Dr. Cow cheese with Melba Toast crackers is always great.

•  Garlic hummus or some red pepper hummus goes great with celery and carrots for a healthy snack. Or, if you’re getting fancy, pair it with the Melba toast, olives, and some wine. 

Check out my Ultimate Guide to Kind, Healthy Snacking for some more inspiration.

You can also offer to be responsible for the libations. The ingredients for my Mulled Wine are easy to pack, then you just heat them up on the stove when you arrive!

 

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If you have a little extra time to put something together, I highly recommend my Artichoke, Mushroom, and Leek Crostini and the Artichoke Dip from page 205 of The Kind Diet. Both of those are always crowd-pleasers!

What are your easy go-to snacks?

Tell me in the comments below and be sure to upload your recipes to your profile.

Photo source: flickr.com / Stacy Spensley , Flickr.com / mar___ via  

Vegan Christmas Recipes

The kind recipe gallery is full of delicious vegan Christmas recipes. For those of you who are traveling this year, I also found this great thread in the forum with suggestions for vegan dishes to bring to your family’s Christmas dinner. Here are some recipes to try (this is just a selection – there are tons more to browse in the gallery!):

Side Dishes
Photo source: nytimes.com

 

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Wild Rice Cornbread Stuffing
Cuban Style Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Maple Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Oven Roasted Stuffed Tomatoes
Winter Squash Soup

Entrees

Photo source: gardein.com

 

Gardein “Chicken” Scaloppini
Seitan Medallions with Mixed Mushroom Gravy
Field Roast Celebration Roast

Desserts 

Photo source: flickr.com / Crystl

 

Dreamy Pear Trifle
Berry Pie (serve with Soyatoo)  
Chocolate Amaretto Mousse

Beverages

Photo source: yummly.com

 

Hot Apple Cider
Mulled Wine
(For more beverages, check Barnivore)

Of course The Kind Diet has lots of additional recipes that are perfect for Christmas dinner as well.

Be sure to revisit my book and browse the kind recipe gallery for more holiday recipe inspiration.

Happy Cooking!

GIVEAWAY: Recommit For 2013 with The Kind Diet

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It’s been a crazy year for me, and I’m definitely looking forward to restoring some balance to my life. Although the end of the year can feel hectic, it’s a good time to reflect and reset.

This time of year can be intense. The weather is cold, and we naturally want to be inside to think and grow, and kind of hunker down. That’s what’s naturally supposed to be happening, yet we’re being pulled outward so much at this time of year, to go out, party, go shopping etc…

With that said, it’s very important to allow yourself to hibernate if you feel like it. You really should listen to yourself and trust your instincts at this time of year. Don’t be guilted into going out if you don’t want to. You can be festive when you feel like it. Do what you need and want. Take care of yourself and be mindful of this reflective time of year.

Toward the very end of the year and in early January, the days start to get longer and our natural inclination to hibernate starts to wane. There will be plenty of time to celebrate in the New Year. So, right now, be festive if you want to, but if you feel like hibernating, let yourself do that too.

Recommit To Your Kind Principles

The New Year is a time to regroup, make new commitments and deepen already existing commitments – Maybe you have been flirting and you want to try going 100% vegan, or maybe you’ve been following a vegan diet and you’re ready to try on a more superhero lifestyle.

Now is an excellent time to reread The Kind Diet, or get a copy if you don’t have it. Wherever you are on your journey, I’d like to help. I’m giving away three signed copies of The Kind Diet to encourage everyone to start 2013 on the right foot.

To enter to win, tell me one commitment you are making for 2013 and how The Kind Diet can help you. 

• You must be a registered thekindlife.com member to enter. Learn how to sign up by clicking here.
• This contest is open to residents of the USA only. 
• Winners will ONLY be contacted via private message to their thekindlife.com inbox and by email. If our team does not hear back within 24 hours, a new winner will be selected in your place. 
• Limit one comment per entry. Multiple comment entries will not be considered. 
• This giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. PST on January 1, 2013.