An Ode to a Vegan New Year: From a Modern-Day Lorax

 Hello beautiful KMIV-ers!

As I'm sitting next to Steve, about to enjoy our New Year with a lovely vegan dinner and time at home with our kitties, I am also hoping you are all celebrating the beginning of a fabulous, delicious, compassionate, KISS-WORTHY 2012! 

Steve wrote this poem for an upcoming article in a vegan-friendly magazine, and I would love to share it with you all. I think it really encompasses our purpose and passion here at Kiss Me, I'm Vegan, especially at the dawn of a very special year!

Here's to a 2012 filled with yummy vegan food, cruelty-free choices, stepping it up a notch with our activism, and realizing how very blessed we all are to live in freedom. Let us allow change and transition to be a natural part of our everyday experience, so we can really begin living our best lives. Let us remember how important it is to be the voice of so many animals in need, and let us speak up for them at every turn. Most importantly, let us speak from a deep place of truth and love this year and allow each action to reflect that truth and love. Speaking of love, I love you all, and am so thankful to have YOUR love and support. Cheers!

An Ode to a Vegan New Year: 
From a Modern-Day Lorax

By Steven Todd Smith | Ahimsa Life Coaching

Steve and Lila at Animal Acres.

I am a vegan

I speak for all beings

I speak for all beings for all beings don’t have a voice

Yet each of us humans each day has a choice

Unfortunately, usually one choice is had

A choice that, inevitably, is horrid and sad

For when any choice leaves one without life

There’s suffering, pain, there’s cruelty and strife

And, in the end, when one’s gone, one’s gone

A choice leading to that cannot be withdrawn

Each year in our country 10 billion land animals perish

For food which we eat and say that we cherish

That’s still leaving out about 50 billion more

That come from the sea and are stolen to shore

There are so many ways to help make a change

And none of them involve an unfair exchange

The first change to make is right with your diet

Vegan? That’s restrictive. Oh, really? Just try it!

In fact, there’s quite the multitude of food

With all the best tastes to put you in the best mood

There’s all veggies, all fruits, all nuts, and all seeds

Legumes and whole grains for all nutritional needs

You still can have pizza and nuggets you can make

Indulge in your ice cream and cookies and cake!

Just from different sources, from sources more pure

And from these alternatives comes life, that’s for sure!

So without any worry, you can ditch the meat,

The eggs and the dairy, and still have everything you eat

There are plenty of cookbooks and resources where

You can stay master chef in a kitchen with flair

You have everything to gain and nothing to lose

You just have to think, commit, and then choose!

The second change comes with your inner compassion

Opening your heart in dramatic fashion

For a person who cares, why a person who cares

Provides so many benefits than someone unawares

For your health, sure; but to keep others alive

In one year, each person saves ninety-five

Now think even deeper, about all that you’ve ate

Did you intend to control some animal’s fate?

Or was it natural and normal, necessity too?

In this day and age, though, none of those three are true

Do you truly condone what happens to these innocent creatures?

Of different dispositions but with similar features

For they walk and they breathe, they eat and they sleep

They can’t quite speak English, but they can snort and can peep

Also moo, neigh, winny, baa, and cock-a-doodle-do

They communicate and have families, not unlike me and you

Sure, we can’t understand exactly what they say

Do you think they’d give permission to steal babies away?

Or to confine them, or beat them?

Or maim them, or eat them?

We wouldn’t condone these things toward any others

So while non-human, let’s think of them as our sisters and brothers

To co-exist peacefully, as we progress

Living life to the fullest and to never oppress

The third change involves looking out for our Earth

Creating a powerful, beneficial rebirth

The effect on our planet would be quite dramatic

Since our current eating and farming is problematic

What sort of world do we want to create

For our children and grandchildren, when we’re ninety-eight?

Looking back down the line, we’d hope to get that far

But nothing’s for certain, if we’ve dug too deep a scar

I am a vegan

That’s something you can say

You can speak for all beings starting today!

You can have your best health, watch others have it too

Make strides for our home, and save lives while you chew

Connect with the consciousness of all that exists

For that’s of which a true Green Planet consists!

You have everything to gain and nothing to lose

You just have to think, commit, and then choose!

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot

Nothing’s going to get better, it’s not.” ~ The Lorax 

Steven Todd Smith, AADP CHC, runs a holistic health coaching practice, Ahimsa Life Coaching, www.ahimsalifecoaching.com, and is ready to create happy, healthy, balanced, and green lives for those in search of their best self!

The Christmas Blog

I’m flying high over the country right now in a big airplane, Steve asleep next to me. We’re embarking on our 10-day trip back East for the holidays. The next 10 days will be filled with family, celebration, and, of course, delicious food. Fortunately, this year, the food will be mostly vegan. Because nearly everyone in my family is either vegetarian or vegan as of today. 

With a new friend at Farm Sanctuary (Orland, CA)

This has been a long journey for me – one of many ups and downs. Having lived vegan purposefully and joyfully for the past three years, I have learned what it truly means to believe in something and stand by it, no matter what. I’ve gone through every awkward conversation, every confession from a friend trying to eat vegan who later “cheated,” every bit of sadness as I watch videos and read stories about animal cruelty that have broken my heart, every bit of peace I’ve found visiting each beautiful sanctuary I‘ve come across. I’ve failed more times than I can count in the kitchen with a dish I tried to perfect, I’ve learned my lesson every time I watch myself make excuses or laugh off living this way around a group of peers, and with each mistake or challenge, I’ve come out realizing how important it is to remain strong and loyal to what I know is right – that no animal, human or otherwise, should experience unnecessary pain. More importantly, I’ve learned that I do not want to be the kind of person who ever inflicts that pain by making an easy choice over a hard one at the grocery store, dinner table, or out with friends. As I’ve written many times before on this blog, I will, without a shadow of a doubt, honor the animals of this world, and this beautiful Earth, by living a vegan lifestyle. No matter what.

I’ve been in the Christmas spirit for some time now, holiday tunes ringing through my apartment, and my very kind (and very Jewish) husband smiling and lovingly allowing me this little luxury. I am a Christmas baby, after all.  So after nearly nine years together, he’s used to it by now. For me, the holidays and New Year are a time of deep reflection, celebration, and acknowledgment of the year past and the year to come. Tonight, my heart is focused on remaining present the entire time I’m home. And part of that includes consciously celebrating with lots of vegan food shared and received. 

Lindsay, sister Whitney, Mom Myra, and Brother Jon. All vegetarian!

I pinch myself thinking about how lucky a girl I am – I’ve held onto to my compassion these 3+ years, kept sharing all I learned with my family, and they have responded in kind with compassion. I had a feeling it would happen, but never at this level. So, to all of my readers who are struggling just to maintain your vegan lifestyle amongst your family and/or friends, I say to you: please keep going. It will get easier – I promise you. The best things in life always do.  To be honest with you, this world, at this very moment, needs you to live vegan – we just plain need more vegans in this world setting a joyful, positive example for others. We need more compassion, more awareness, and more respect when we sit down for dinner with family, especially at the holidays. Your loving example will change lives – please continue reminding yourself that when times get tough.

Take my dad, the “least-likely-to-go-vegan family member,” for example. My dad has been a blissfully unaware carnist his entire life. When my stepmom went vegetarian, he remained unshaken in his meat-eating ways. When my brother, mom, and sister all leaned towards vegan, he started perking up a little during our conversations, but held onto what comforted him. And then I took him to the Woodstock Animal Sanctuary in New York. And then he adopted a pig named Cromwell. No more eating pigs for my dad. And with every new rescued animal he’s adopted, he’s taken that animal off of his plate. And this past Thanksgiving, there wasn’t a single piece of a turkey on my dad’s plate. Does this mean he’ll change completely? I don’t know. But it’s a very, very good start. 

 At this time of year, it’s so easy to eat animals and their by-products. At every holiday gathering (unless it’s completely vegan, which is rare), there are countless party foods screaming out to us to enjoy. And, without too much thinking or effort on our parts, we grab. We say, “Oh, it’s the holidays,” or “I’m enjoying myself tonight,” or “I’ll start tomorrow.” Like trying out a fad diet, we give as much focus and willpower to eating vegan as we feel like – which, for most people on fad diets, is not that much. I wonder what our world would be like if we chose to value the human and animal connections we share in this world over a holiday snack food. I wonder what we would be like if we remained strong in our resolve to live compassionately (and healthily) while under the pressure of the holiday season. I wonder what would happen if everyone just brought one vegan dish to a party, instead of taking chances with what’s there. I wonder.

This holiday season, I ask you, my beautiful, kiss-worthy readers: please remember the animals. Please remember that while you are enjoying yourself at a party, there are so many in this world in desperate need of our help. The least we can do is remember them, and honor them, by abstaining from the cruelty inflicted upon them. It’s easier now than ever to do just that.

It’s almost stupid how many vegan holiday resources there are at this given moment. I’ll share a few below just in case you haven’t found them yet. I invite you – get your butt on google and find a vegan recipe for that holiday dish mom makes that you love. Veganize those cookies for Santa (and get the almond milk ready!). Pass some cruelty-free latkes at the next Hanukkah party. Give the gift of information to your sibling and place a copy of Forks Over Knives under the tree. Give your boyfriend a vegan restaurant gift certificate. Or adopt a rescued animal from a farm sanctuary in your child’s honor! Be willing to be reflective and present while you celebrate with those you love. Be grateful that you have a family to share your life with and the freedom to enjoy them, and that family can include whomever you choose – human or animal.

Eating a delicious vegan dinner in Italy. 

At the very least, please take some time to look back on this year and really evaluate the times where your actions reflected your values. And make a promise to yourself – and this world - to reflect them 100% next year. I can’t emphasize it enough – if you just say, “Yes – I will commit to living vegan” and choose it consciously, life will fall into place. You will get better at it, people will eventually either leave you alone and stop pushing their opinions about your lifestyle on you, or they will change for the better! 

This holiday, I promise to maintain my compassionate lifestyle, even if it means that I have to patiently answer the protein question another time at my Dad’s Hanukkah party. I will, with a big, fun smile on my face, inform the waiter that I’m vegan when I’m out with family. I will remain blissfully aware, committed, and present. 

Whatever holiday you celebrate, have a beautiful, compassionate, kiss-worthy one! And a very Happy New Year too!

A Few Compassionate Holiday Links: 

http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/Celebrate-a-Vegan-Holiday.aspx 

http://vegancuts.com/vegan-gift-ideas

http://allrecipes.com/recipes/everyday-cooking/vegetarian/vegan/holiday/

http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2010/12/vegan-holiday-recipes-2010.html

A Reason to Smile Today.

Cafe Gratitude's FREE Thanksgiving Menu in LA last Thursday...

"Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world, to make peace possible for the world, to make happiness possible for the world.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh, Teachings on Love

"Tofurky in one's belly is the seed of compassion planted." -me

Vegan on the Cheap: Meal Ideas for the Holidays

Enjoy this guest post by vegan blogger Melissa Corenne. A 25-year old vegan with a passion for cooking, Melissa has been blogging for three years. You can find her articles about food at the Blog Content Guild.

Vegan on the Cheap: Meal Ideas for the Holidays

Most vegans will tell you that holiday meals can be tough. Holidays usually mean time with family, but there’s always the possibility that some people won’t understand your vegan lifestyle and diet. The easy solution for those situations is to bring along your own delicious alternatives. But what about the times when you’re looking for cheap meals with a holiday theme for yourself? Read on for some tips about how to make vegan meals fit for royalty on a pauper’s budget. 

Freshen Up Your Spread

Vegan food can be expensive. Most of the time, however, the cost goes up when there’s an analogue involved. You know what we’re talking about: The dishes that look like “regular” food but are made with vegan friendly substitutes like soy or some other plant-based material. There’s nothing wrong with these foods, and many of them are absolutely delicious. 

Unfortunately, they can be more expensive than other options because of the extra work that goes into creating them and making them look like something else. You can avoid paying more for your vegan diet if you stick to fresh foods, which are cheap to begin with. If you buy fruits and vegetables that are in season, you’ll save even more money. Keep fresh food in mind and your wallet will thank you.

Be Adventurous!

If the most important aspect of holidays is family, then second is probably tradition. It seems like everyone cooks the same thing, year after year, because it’s welcoming and comforting. You remember all the great times and associate them with the food, so of course you want to eat the same thing every year! This year, you can start a new tradition of branching out instead of sticking to the old standbys. This holiday, why not replace turkey with Indian food? There are tons of vegan dishes to choose from, and you can bet it will be a meal to remember. If you’re not ready for that yet, at least choose a different centerpiece dish for your holiday meals. For inspiration, see the recipe below.

Pumpkin Centerpiece

Ingredients:
- 1 pumpkin, around 10 pounds
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt (divided)
- 1/2 cup buckwheat
- 1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
- 4 stalks celery, sliced
- 2 onions, chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 5 slices of your favorite bread
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 bell pepper (red or orange), chopped
- 1/4 cup toasted and chopped hazelnuts
- 1/3 cup hazelnut meal
- 1/3 cup raisins
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 2 tablespoons pomegranate syrup
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- Ground pepper, to taste

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cut the top off the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds and insides. Set the pumpkin in a large baking pan. Mix water and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the buckwheat, turn heat to low and cook the buckwheat, covered, for 15 minutes. Transfer the buckwheat to another container. Put the celery, mushrooms, onions, and olive oil in a skillet and cook over high heat for 8 to 10 minutes. Add the mixture to the buckwheat. Mix in the garlic, toasted bread, hazelnuts, carrot, bell pepper, raisins, hazelnut meal, cranberries, sage, pomegranate syrup, pepper, and the remaining salt. Put the mixture in the pumpkin and stick the lid back on top. Bake for an hour to an hour and a half, or until the sides of the pumpkin are soft to the touch.

Happy Holidays!

The 2nd Annual Terrific Thanksgiving Turkey Pledge!

Hello beauties - 

Well, Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and with that, the hustle and bustle of finding just the right food to display on the table for everyone to munch on. Stuffing! Mashed Potatoes! Cranberry sauce out of a can! Hey, you can take the girl out of New Jersey, but you can't take the New Jersey out of the girl...



This year, I am challenging you - YES YOU! - to a

TERRIFIC THANKSGIVING

TURKEY PLEDGE!!!

 

 

We did it last year with fabulous success - nearly 100 pledges on the blog!

Here's how it goes:

First: Watch this amazing video below my friend and fellow activist Ciddy Fonteboa made last year that rocked right into our hearts: 

Second: In the comment section below, I want you to make a firm commitment NOT to eat turkeys this Thanksgiving.  You can say something as simple as "No turkey for me!" or as long as "I would never dream of consuming turkeys because their too cute to eat, pass the tofurky please!"

I would love to see if we can get around 100 pledges by Thanksgiving this year. And don't worry - you can be a vegan, vegetarian, or meat-eater-slowly-transitioning-to-kiss-worthy-vegan and still post a comment below!

Here’s to a delicious, compassionate 

holiday season!

For vegan Thanksgiving recipe ideas, check out last year's holiday post.

Happy World Vegan Day!

Steve and one of the many rescued turkeys at Farm Sanctuary. 

From my little Los Angeles family to yours, a very Happy World Vegan Day to YOU! 

Celebrate this day, my friends, with delicious plant-based food and compassionate choices. Enjoy it, and allow it to remind you that the animals of this world need each and every one of you, yes YOU!, to be strong, kind, positive voices for them. More so now than ever. 

“Be passionate and follow your heart, which will encourage and empower yourself and others. And listen to your gut. It is shocking what happens on factory farms; it is not wrong to feel that people should know about it and want it to stop.” 

- Gene Baur, co-founder and president of Farm Sanctuary

A Reason to Smile Today.

Last night, I saw a vegan documentary that completely blew me away, melted my heart, and pumped me back into compassionate action. It’s called Vegucated, and it is the vegan baby of activist (and former blog interviewee!) Marisa Miller Wolfson. I will have more on this film soon, since we were VIP guests at the LA premiere last night (fancy I know!), but for now, this is an excerpt from Vegucated’s website. More importantly to note, these are Marisa’s words about the film, and they my biggest reason to smile today.

To me, Vegucated is about the shift that happens when you sit at one side of the dinner table, looking at the vegan on the other side with amusement, envy, or perhaps, slight horror. Then you receive some information or inspiration and suddenly find yourself on the vegan’s side of the table, seeing the dinner in a whole new light...

What we’ve ended up with is a watchable, accessible, honest, and, I believe, universal story about the challenges and the joys that come along with consciously putting one’s actions in alignment with one’s beliefs. It’s also a timely story as we stand on the brink of an “alternative lifestyle” becoming solidly mainstream as more and more people choose plant-based living and more and more media outlets position it as a viable, common sense, and enjoyable solution to some of the greatest challenges of our time...

My hope is that this film will further the conversation about our culture and our relationship to animals, our planet, and our bodies through our food. I hope people who have started down a plant-based path will share it with friends and family and create more peace and understanding at the dinner table. And, of course, I hope that people who are curious about vegan living will embark on their own delicious and fulfilling adventures.

To learn more about Vegucated, check out www.getvegucated.com.

Three Years.

Three years ago this month, I decided to take a leap and try living vegan. And life has been a daring, beautiful adventure every single day since. In three long and short years,

Photo © Joanna Wilson Photography

I've learned how to love new foods,

I've fallen head over heels in love with animals,

I've found peace in knowing that my daily choices honor the Earth and all of its inhabitants,

I've found a deeper sense of faith,

I've learned to be more compassionate towards people,

Photo © Joanna Wilson Photography

I've felt my heart grow bigger,

I've smiled more,

I've breathed more easily,

I've celebrated the knowledge that I am doing my part in this world,

I've witnessed countless other beautiful vegan journeys,

I've given pigs belly rubs,

I've been given cow kisses,

I've snuggled with turkeys,

I've learned how gentle chickens are,

I've learned how grave the situation is for the animals and humans of this world,

I've learned that there is much to be worried about,

I've learned that there is much to be grateful for,

I've looked at the world with new eyes,

I've held my cats closer to me and loved them a little more,

I've failed more times than I can count in the kitchen,

I've succeeded even more times,

I've watched this blog grow like a beautiful flower,

Photo © Ciddy Fonteboa

I've realized what I'm on this Earth to do,

I've realized that I will continue to live vegan for the rest of my life. No matter what.

Next month will mark three years of Kiss Me, I'm Vegan!,  and I couldn't be more excited or more ready for it. I will continue to share my journey with you guys and gals, and it is my sincere hope that this blog helps you on your own vegan journeys. Here's to three more years of compassionate living!

Risk! Care! Dream! Expect!

“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.” 

- Jack Kerouac

"If enough people are determined to stand up to an issue, you know what? It's gonna get solved. " 

- Chris DeRose

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” 

 - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"'When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,' said Piglet at last, 'what's the first thing you say to yourself?'

'What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?'

'I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?' said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.

'It's the same thing,' he said." 

- Winnie the Pooh

During breaks at acting class, I’m often asked questions about living vegan. It usually stems from an actor friend spotting the meal I’m eating or a vegan-friendly pin on my bag. Sometimes I get a little verbal poke about living this way - usually from those most curious about my lifestyle, but most afraid to ask about it genuinely. I play along to a degree, but in the end, I tell them honestly about my choice, because I know that more significant than my pride or my feelings is speaking up for the animals most in need of our defending and protection. 

And sometimes I get that look - that uncomfortable look from someone whose heart isn’t completely open to compassionate living yet. I get the person who says, “Oh, your story’s nice, but I could never eat vegan.” To them I say, “Never say never!” with a big smile on my face, risking that they may feel even more uncomfortable by my gentle nudging. Why do I do this? Because I’ve seen too many people in my life go vegan a year or two after they declared the same thing.

And then there was that time when I was doing a film shoot a few years ago, and, upon learning that I live vegan, my scene partner said to me, “Man, vegans scare me - it’s like you’re trying to take over the world or something!” To which I playfully said, “Oh yeah - deep down, we all have this evil notion of trying to brainwash the world into living with compassion and - wait for it - caring about people and animals! We’re awful, I know...” And saying this held the huge risk of turning this guy off to vegan living forever. But I said all of it with a smile on my face, with love in my heart, and with a sense of humor. And it made him laugh, instead of shut down. 

By the way, I added the Winnie the Pooh quote into the mix up there for two reasons. One - I couldn’t agree more with Pooh about breakfast, and two - I believe if we start living our lives with more purpose, compassion, and respect to every living being, even if it means we'll be unpopular, we can eat and live lovingly and with great excitement. 

Photo © Connie Pugh.

Remember grade school? Remember having that moment when one of your friends was being made fun of, and you had the choice - stand up for your friend and possibly get made fun of too, or just stay quiet? Today, I’m asking you, my lovely readers, to choose to be the kind of friend who doesn’t care about being made fun of. I’m asking you to not stay quiet. When the opportunity to be honest about living vegan presents itself, I’m asking you to jump in with both feet, throwing away that pesky fear of being disliked. Be bold, share your story, and risk being looked at funny. Rinse and repeat. 

Of course, all of this should be done with as much positivity, kindness, and openness as possible. If Colleen Patrick-Goudreau has taught me anything (and boy, has she!),  it's that we need to care as much about the person we’re talking to as the animals we’re talking about. But I think to be effective activists, vegans, and vegans-to-be, we need to stop caring so much about what others think of us. I think we need to keep the conversation about animal cruelty going, even if it means we may be looked at as weird, extreme, or crazy. I think the combination of living this way out loud and doing so with love and empathy for every being affected by our lifestyle (from the billions of animals being slaughtered for food each year to that friend/family member/domestic partner who doesn’t like you eating vegan, because it scares them) can lead to real change in this world.

Protesting Foie Gras cruelty in LA with APRL.

At the end of the day, you live with your own personal choices - the choices you make each day can either embrace compassion, or reject it. Why not end your day knowing that you did everything you could to live with more purpose, compassion, and respect to every living being? I’m asking you to take a leap and be bold for the animals, and in the long run, for yourself as well. Stop playing it safe. Playfully challenge that friend who keeps mocking your vegan lifestyle. Joyfully risk having one more conversation with your mom about why you gave up meat. Respectfully stand up for animals whenever possible. And know that, as difficult as it may seem to be that awesome friend who speaks up, you are paving the way for a better world. You are becoming the change you wish to see. You are the answer. 

And what could be more kiss-worthy than that?

With Winnie the Goose at Animal Acres.

"Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible." 

- Cadet Maxim