Alicia Silverstone's Blog, page 179

which vegan sneakers do you like best?

Since vegan sneakers seem to be so hard to track down I was excited to find this blog listing a bunch of vegan sneakers in a recent Girlie Girl Army newsletter.
 
If you've been searching for vegan sneakers here is a quick roundup of what's out there:
 
Brooks Silence Green see my previous blog about these

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Stella McCartney for Adidas Alkmene Runner

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Patagonia Arrant Gore-Tex®

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Scarpa Pursuit

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Terra Plana VivoBarefoot EVO II

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Have you tried any of these? I'm feeling the Adidas and Patagonia. Which one is your favorite?

superhero cooking classes!

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Macrobiotic chefs Karen and Laura are the best! This Spring they'll be hosting a series of cooking classes about everything from healthy soups to superhero desserts. I'm so excited as they don't do them very often. If you are in LA and you want to be a superhero this is the place to be!
 
Classes start March 9 in Studio City. Call Karen at 818.766.8804 for directions and reservations.

notes on my english brunch recipe

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If you haven't made the English brunch recipe from my book p. 198 you've got to try it – it's so delicious! If you've made it already here are some notes.
 
You can substitute kale for the spinach and use the ume vinaigrette from the bok choy recipe in my book p. 264 on the kale with toasted sesame seeds.
 
In my book the recipe says to pile everything on the toast but it should really look like it does in the picture with some mushrooms kale or spinach tomatoes a piece of cheese toast and one piece of buttered or plain toast on each plate. Then the baked beans go on top of the toast. The point is to make a full plate rather than pile it up like a sandwich.
 
What else would you add to this meal? Have you tried this? What did you think? I love beans on toast - it's so English and so easy! I wish that the beans didn't have sugar in them though. Can someone please create Heinz baked beans without any sugar? Oh gosh that would be nice! I suppose you could make them from scratch. But for a nice quickie effect they're so good. I grew up on beans and toast!

my crazy yummy salad!

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One Saturday a while ago I had no food left. I was planning to go to Farmers Market on Sunday but felt like a salad and had nothing!

 

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So I looked around the kitchen and threw together this crazy salad:
 
From my fridge:

2 radishes
5 sweet peas
Avocado
A little radicchio

From my cupboard:

Sundried tomatoes
Currants 

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From my garden:

Parsley
Basil
A few baby leaves of salad greens I had just planted – so I couldn't take much! Maybe just five leaves.
A few dandelion leaves
A few chives
Some wild arugula – just a little because it's super spicy
Little yellow tomatoes

I started by chopping the sundried tomatoes and marinating them in olive oil and lemon. Then I started adding everything else. I dressed the salad with more lemon and olive oil and added a tad of orange champagne vinaigrette with a touch of salt.

That was it! It was weird – not really a leafy salad but it was pretty good and satisfied my need for a fresh salad.

What  crazy concoctions have you made lately?

we now have 30000 kind lifers!

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Just last March I blogged about how excited I was that we'd grown our Kind Life community to 15000 members.
 
Would you believe that our numbers have doubled since then? We just reached 30000 members thanks to all of you spreading the word about how to live a kinder life! And we are sharing The Kind Life with thousands more people who come to the site every month - people who may be too shy to join but still get to see all the great info we post here!
 
I am so thankful and happy that all of you are here. We've accomplished so much this year from our kind success stories to lobbying for eco- and animal-friendly public policy. I am so proud of us!
 
The more we grow the bigger difference we can make in the world!
 
Here's to an even kinder 2011!

Win A 3-Pack Of Hurraw! Lip Balm Sponsored Post

I'm so glad that you have been loving Hurraw! balms! It can be hard to find a lip balm that is beeswax free all-natural and 100 vegan so I'm glad kinder lip balms like Hurraw! are becoming more easily available. In lots of yummy flavors too!

Hurraw! balms come packaged in adorable re-useable cotton tea bags and are shipped in super easy to recycle corrugated envelopes. Yay!

If you've been looking for a great vegan lip balm give Hurraw! a try and let me know what you think!
 
Take a look at what Hurraw! has to say:

Hurraw! balms are handmade from what we love: all-natural organic and raw ingredients that are ethically sourced and certified cruelty-free and vegan.

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Since we're in the thick of winter it's crucial to keep our lips protected from the elements. Hurraw! balms feel like silk going on and will give your lips a touch of gloss. The organic and raw ingredients provide long-lasting moisture and will protect your lips superbly. With zesty citrus flavors like Grapefruit Orange Lime and Lemon it will feel like Summer is just around the corner! And if you want to go a little glam be sure to check out the tingly Cinnamon and juicy Black Cherry flavors for a natural sheer red tint that comes from an infusion of wildcrafted plant roots. Also stay tuned for our new Tangerine Chamomile SPF 15 coming Spring 2011!

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Best of all Hurraw! is giving away a three-pack of Hurraw! balms to five lucky kind lifers! Just leave a comment below telling us why you want to try Hurraw!

recycled leather handbags...

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A lot of people have asked me for my take on leather goods so I just thought I would share. I had bought a used designer suede bag from a thrift store a few years back but every time I went to wore it I felt really bad about it. So I gave it away.

That said I am a firm believer in using what you have. So I don't throw away old shoes that I love and can still wear that happen to have some leather in them. But I also don't feel comfy wearing a leather jacket or pants. It's my own freaky thing. But an old pair of shoes or even a pair from a vintage store feels ok to me personally. A full-blown jacket feels a bit weird though. That particular purse was suede so it was very 'hello I'm suede' whereas some leather just looks the same as pleather or bags made from synthetic materials. In those cases I feel like it isn't advertising leather per se.

All that said if you have leather you love use it up. And just try hard not to buy anymore! Ya know? Whenever someone says to me 'I'm sorry this is leather' I just say in a super-friendly way 'it's ok - enjoy it. And you won't buy anymore right?' Just to plant friendly seeds.

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Anywho I saw these bags by Ashley Watson.

Yes they are leather and that sucks but they are all recycled leather and that's pretty great! I don't own one of these bags so I don't know if they would be comfy but I like the idea of recycling things that are already in the world. Maybe it can stop people from buying new leather bags.  

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And I feel like they are good conversation pieces; like if someone stops you and likes your bag you can tell them it's all recycled materials. No need to advertise leather but it's simply using and reusing which is good! I don't feel like these bags encourage the production of leather in any way or encourage people to buy more leather. It's just reusing.  

So that's my opinion and I'm not sure my idea is perfect but I like that these are made by a small designer who is doing something thoughtful. What do you all think?

the new food safety bill

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The new food safety bill that recently passed Congress was signed into law by President Obama on January 4 2011. It is an important if imperfect bill.
 
I'll outline some of the provisions then share the feedback from Farm Sanctuary and PCRM about the pros and cons of this bill.
 
An Overview of the Food Safety Bill
courtesy of the Huffington Post
 
Under this bill the FDA can issue a food recall without having to arrange a voluntary recall with the company in question. Companies that have a track record of recalls or safety violations may be fined for re-inspection. The FDA will also update safety performance standards every two years and distribute them to food companies.
 
In today's global economy much of our food supply is grown on foreign soil. Under this bill the FDA will begin establishing foreign offices and will work with foreign governments to conduct international food inspections to ensure foreign food producers comply with the FDA's standards. Of course if you eat locally-grown seasonal produce you don't need to worry about this!
 
The FDA will be able to access food company records to track food in the event of a public health risk. The FDA can also suspend a food production facility if a health risk is suspected. Food production facilities will have to notify the FDA of current safety hazards and include their plans for fixing them and the FDA will be inspecting food production facilities more frequently.
 
The FDA will create new standards for harvesting and growing fresh produce and will prohibit companies from including illegal chemical additives in foods umm...what does this say about the efficacy of existing laws???.
 
For those of you with allergies or children with allergies the FDA will be taking a more active role in controlling serious food allergies by creating a food allergy management system that will be available to schools and early education programs.
 
The FDA will work with the produce industry to create a more effective means of tracking produce to ensure it is recalled before the public can consume contaminated produce. Whistleblowers who report poor safety practices where they work will be protected. Health and Human Services will work with Homeland Security to create a plan for dealing with outbreaks of food-borne illnesses.

What Does This Mean For Animals?
 
All of this is good for consumers but how will it impact animals who are raised for food? It's unclear according to Farm Sanctuary who has this to say:

"We support the bill insofar that it is a grant of broader authority to the FDA to act in a manner to protect public health including increased inspection and recall authority but we are concerned the root of the problem is being overlooked when it comes to food animals: intensive confinement unsanitary conditions and poor animal health & welfare standards. The causes of food-borne illnesses resulting from animal product consumption have been linked to the conditions and treatment of animals on factory farms. Therefore we hope the FDA will use this new regulatory authority to begin addressing these inherent problems of modern agriculture.
 
So it is a potential step in the right direction depending on how FDA acts – they could regulate in a way that may make food 'safer' but in effect promotes intensive confinement antibiotic use unnatural conditions etc. but whether that is true or not depends on what the FDA actually does with this new power. The bill is just setting the stage for change."

Does This Bill Get At The Root Of The Problem?
 
PCRM agrees that this bill is far from ideal but does take a step in the right direction:

"The bill gives the FDA the ability to take quicker action when foods are tainted. That's a good thing. But the most important step is not part of the new bill unfortunately. That would be a trace-back provision to track down the source of food-borne illness. If spinach were found to be tainted with salmonella for example the question is where did those germs come from? Salmonella live in the intestinal tracts of chickens cows and other animals. And one of the nicest features of spinach is that it has no intestine! So when spinach is tainted with salmonella it can only have gotten there from fecal contamination of some kind. That could be through feces in irrigation water on the hands of farm workers or some other source but it has to be from somewhere. When plant foods carry disease-causing bacteria it is important to find the original source of the germs which is usually animal agriculture."
 
What do you think of this bill? Do you worry about food safety?

plastic - state of mind parody

I found this really great video on Tonic.com – it's based on the brilliant song by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys "Empire State of Mind." This version is all about how bad plastic bags are – here's a little snippet:
 
Ban bags made of plastic / Skip the bag the cup and spork dude / Convenience will kill you
 
Watch the video and tell me what you think! What other topics deserve these kind of creative videos?

happy valentine's day!

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I hope you have a nice Valentine's Day! I'm celebrating by going to partner yoga with my man - he didn't have to work tonight after all! Have a lovely day and just like every other day send love everywhere you go.

In honor of V-day here's a nice loving video from Farm Sanctuary:

How are you spending Valentine's Day?