The Convenience Issue!

This post couldn't come at a more appropriate time.

You see, I am in the midst of a massive juggling act as I navigate the waters of life in Los Angeles as an actor, vegan blogger, and animal activist. What was once a weekly pastime for me - blogging on here every other day for you beautiful readers - has become something I have put at the bottom of the priority list, mostly because I've had to file "breathing" and "eating" above it. Bottom line, I am one busy girl!

I hate (yes, oh-so-positive Lindsay wrote hate, so you know I mean business!) to admit it, but this week, I reached a point where I even considered taking a long-term hiatus from Kiss Me, I'm Vegan!. Like my dad always says, I'm a hurricane with my passions in life - I either want to do them with 110% of me, or not at all. But, after hashing it out with the hubby, I decided to keep trucking along, even if that means my weekly posts may turn into bi-weekly posts. Such is life. I hope that you, my glowing, kissable supporters, will continue to truck along with me, and we can continue to growing together, all while allowing for the natural ebbs and flows of any good relationship. And of course, I have to share my reason to smile today - this month is the two-and-a-half year mark of this blog! I simply cannot stop now.

But, back to this post - convenience. I know I'm certainly not the only vegan in this community itching for ways to make the daily efforts of cooking, eating, buying, and living just plain easier. For many of us, the commitment to living vegan seems most daunting when it becomes inconvenient, which eventually happens from time to time. For vegans-in-training, when everything involved in living this way becomes too much to tackle, it's easy to throw in the towel, because (as I wrote above with my blog situation), we feel that if we can't do it right, why do it at all? 

So, today, I'm here to help you do it right, with a few fun suggestions to help make the transition to eating and living vegan as easy as cruelty-free apple pie. Lucky for me, I have some help. Namely these awesome, kiss-worthy publications:

Vegan in 30 Days 
by Sarah Taylor

The 4 Ingredient Vegan 
by Maribeth Adams (with Anne Dinshah)

My Vegan Recipe Journal 
by Mara Conlon

In Vegan in 30 Days, blogger and author Sarah Taylor masterfully breaks down the process of transitioning to a 100% vegan diet by giving readers a month of daily exercises to incorporate the elements they need to grow into a strong plant-based eater. Complete with success stories, tips, fun facts, and recipes, Sarah takes the mystery out of cruelty-free eating, and does so with ease, joy, and simplicity. Daily assignments vary from "Take a Tour of Your Local Health Food Store," to "Learn How to Say, 'No Thank You, I'm Vegan", to my personal favorite, "Meet Other Vegans," an essential for maintaining your strength and self esteem while eating vegan. Sarah even devotes an entire assignment to reading what I consider to be one of the all-time greatest books about veganism, John Robbins' Diet for a New America. Vegan in 30 Days is the perfect book for anyone looking to slowly incorporate veganism into their life, and it is definitely a convenient choice for those of us who need that little extra nudge to go vegan with our whole heart.  

Ever think to yourself, "I want to go vegan, but I don't know how to cook for myself"? Then Maribeth Adams' new book, The 4 Ingredient Vegan is the book for you! Maribeth provides us with delicious, and most important, convenient recipes to add to the vegan toolbox using, you guessed it, only four ingredients. Recipes include Ginger-Kissed Butternut Squash Soup, White Bean Nacho Dip, Stuffed Bell Peppers, Crispy Artichoke Hearts, and Vegan Fudge, which all happen to be the perfect kind of dishes for a dinner at home, a cruelty-free picnic, or a vegan potluck with friends. Whether you're looking to simplify your vegan cooking, add easy, quick recipes to your personal cookbook, or learn how to cook vegan food for the first time, The 4 Ingredient Vegan is just the right book to get you there. 

Finally, there's Mara Conlon's My Vegan Recipe Journal, a creation that I believe will change the way people view vegan cooking. Broken down into specific recipe sections, My Vegan Recipe Journal is a fun, informative, and easy way to keep all of your vegan culinary creations in one place. And it doesn't hurt that Mara also give you convenient (yes, I said it again!) and simple tricks to veganize all of your favorite recipes, along with space in the back for you to jot down your favorite grocery stores and vegan websites, along with Mara's personal favorite list (which happens to include Kiss Me, I'm Vegan! - thanks, Mara!) One of my favorite aspects of Mara's journal is that she has created more than just a space to place your recipes, she has also given you a mini vegan guidebook, making it impossible not to turn the process of cooking and eating delicious vegan food into a fun habit.

And now, for the most convenient part of the post - a GIVEAWAY! Book Publishing Co., the publishing company responsible for Vegan in 30 Days and The 4 Ingredient Vegan, is giving readers a chance to win one of their newest vegan titles. Just click here to enter yourself in the contest, and make sure to get over to Book Publishing Co. as soon as possible, since the contest ends on April 30th!

What are YOUR go-to tips for making vegan living convenient and easy? Share them below in the comments section!

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day, 

KMIV Readers! 

Photo © Post Punk Kitchen

" Compassion is the foundation of everything positive, everything good. If you carry the power of compassion to the marketplace and the dinner table, you can make your life really count."

- Rue McClanahan

On VegNews.

Why hello everybody!

I just got back from a wonderful, relaxing, week-long cruise with my family (more on this adventure soon!), and, although sad to be away from my KMIV community, I thoroughly enjoyed a nice break away from the internet. The only caveat? Coming back to Los Angeles completely unaware of the recent controversy that has been brewing this past week in the vegan community.  I don't know how in the loop you guys are about this, but just in case, here's a re-cap: VegNews Magazine, one of my (and so many other folks') favorite vegan companies, has been caught taking stock photos laden with meat, dairy, and eggs off of the internet, photo-shopping them, and posing them as vegan dishes in their bi-monthly publication. What's more is that when a reader recently commented about this on their website, VegNews immediately deleted the comment, thereby hiding the proof that they were indeed pawning off the meat-heavy photos as being vegan. After learning about this and reading through blogger Quarry Girl's public response to it, I became really concerned, for several reasons:

1) I've been an avid fan of VegNews ever since I discovered them back in 2008,

2) VegNews is the only vegan magazine around to date,

3) VegNews stands for something that this blog also stands for - sharing the positive, delicious, and joyful aspects of vegan living, and

4) It's been my sincere dream to write for VegNews one day. 

I'm still quite torn about how to respond to this situation. You see, living vegan has been the best decision I've ever made in my life, and getting to share my lifestyle with all of you on here has been a true gift. I like to think that blogs like KMIV work to create the same kind of world VegNews does - one where living vegan is celebrated, not criticized. Where living vegan is held in high esteem, not judged as being extreme. I also like to think that VegNews, like so many vegan blogs and publications, works to allow us to have a place where we can see veganism for what we hope it will become to everyone, everywhere - a mainstream, fun, and accessible way of living. I myself have looked up to VegNews as the standard for how I wanted my blog to be - a safe haven for those of us in this world who want to live as compassionately and mindfully as possible. 

VegNews did write a response to all of the backlash they received about the photos, and although well-written, it lacked something I was deeply hoping for - a much firmer commitment to find any means necessary in the future to not resort to meat-filled stock pictures in their magazine. This immediately made me think of the many talented vegan photographers I know of who would have happily jumped at the chance to submit photographs to VegNews - for free! - if asked. Which begs the question: why didn't they try this method if they were financially unable to pay for professional photographs? Quite possibly, they may have very well tried doing that, but for whatever reason, they chose to ultimately use the royalty-free photos, which they say is the industry standard.

I think why so many people are upset about this is because as ethical vegans, we work hard every single day to tread as lightly on the Earth as possible - even if that means spending extra money each week on organic veggies or cruelty-free beauty products. We are more than happy to make sacrifices in the name of compassionate living, and if that means we can't enjoy birthday cake at a non-vegan's party or have to work a little harder with a non-vegan restaurant to get a kinder meal, that's okay with us. We make the sacrifices because it is the least we can do to give back to so many animals and humans who have suffered at the hands of the meat, dairy, and egg industry (not to mention the other industries that exploit sentient beings). We all trusted that VegNews was working hard to remain as ethically vegan as we were, and to learn that they cut corners in this way has been truly disheartening.

As I always say, Kiss Me, I'm Vegan is a blog for the happy vegan in all of us. We do our very best here to bring smiles to our readers' faces everyday by sharing the uplifting side to living vegan. Although I'm disappointed that VegNews did not rise above industry standards, I can't completely abandon them as a reader. Why? Because until there are too many vegan magazines to count, there is only VegNews. Because I believe VegNews sincerely does want to bring veganism to the masses - and usually does so with great success. Because nobody is perfect, even a magazine that aspires to be entirely vegan. 

VegNews is so much more than their recently outed mistake, and, like the beloved ball-player caught taking steroids later in his career, they are running a huge risk now of being remembered more for their indiscretion than anything else they've accomplished, which would sadden me greatly. I truly feel that when any respected public institution has a slip-up of this magnitude, there needs to be a sincere and earnest apology for any wrongdoings, and they need to find a way to get back to the heart of why they do what they do - in this case, uplifting, inspiring, and connecting people to joyful vegan living.

I think the rest of my feelings can be best be summed up by today's reason to smile, which is a note I found online today by vegan activist, baker, and one of my personal heroes, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. In it, she writes:

" I just want to extend my heartfelt apologies to everyone who feels hurt and betrayed by their actions. Your sense of outrage and betrayal is valid, and your voice has been heard. For those who are standing by VegNews, your loyalty is admirable and understandable. I, too, want them to succeed. I think all of us do. Their success is the success of the movement. Their success is the success of the animals.

My hope is that those who feel deceived will continue to communicate their concerns but do so in a productive and compassionate way. We can be critical and compassionate at the same time; they are not mutually exclusive positions. For those who have expressed themselves, I’m so sorry you feel you have not been heard. I know how frustrating that is. My hope is that this will not be another splinter in a community already scarred by divisiveness. We all have the same goal of eliminating violence towards animals, and we don’t need more distractions from this purpose.

My hope is that the VegNews founders and staff will help heal this split before it becomes irreparable. My hope is that they will listen to and respond to the concerns of their readers and commit to a policy that reflects their own integrity and the integrity of the larger movement. Though it will take time, strength, and courage, trust can still be rebuilt, but the time to act is now. I hold out hope for them, for us, and for the animals."

Many thanks to Colleen for voicing what so many of us have been feeling, and I only hope that VegNews gets their hands on this and it fires them up to do more to respond. To read Colleen's note in its entirety, click here.

If you'd like to see more of a response from VegNews over this matter, you are not alone, and there is a way to voice your feelings. Just go to their contact page here. I only ask that if you do, try to be as kind and respectful as you can, and if you have solutions, by all means, share them. Maybe if enough people write showing a balance of support and criticism, positive change will happen at VegNews. And that will be something to smile about.

A Reason to Smile Today

Photo courtesy of Joanna Wilson Photography

"We are the movement and every one of us is so important. Without any one of us the movement is weaker and poorer for the loss. Without all of us the movement ceases to exist. 

Who will then care about the animals?”

- Barry Horne

Oldie, But a Goodie: One Thing I Know for Sure

It's April already! My, how time flies... 

As promised, here is the beginning of what I think will be a fun little leap into Kiss Me I'm Vegan's past - a series of posts I'll be doing in the next few months called "Oldie, But a Goodie." In this series, I'll be sharing old KMIV posts with all of you, and I hope you'll enjoy reading (or re-reading!) them as much as I enjoyed writing them. With all of the hustle and bustle currently happening in this vegan blogger's life, doing a series like this will definitely help reaffirm my love for all things vegan, and, most importantly, connect me with the reasons I wanted to create Kiss Me, I'm Vegan! in the first place.  

One Thing I Know for Sure  is a post from 2009 that talks about a theme all of us can relate to, I'm sure - finding strength and positivity in the face of challenge. As it was a mere month before my wedding to Steve and a time of great change in my life, I was feeling very downtrodden about what step to take next in life - and a not-so-surprising source helped me find my way back to smiling again, as you'll read below.

One last thing before we dig in: if you are a regular reader and would like to have a specific post shared again, feel free to say so in the comments below. Happy Saturday, my beautiful, animal-loving readers. Be sure to spread compassion and kindness wherever you go today!

One Thing I Know for Sure

October 4, 2009

  

Between the job hunting, the creative brainstorming for ways to make money, and random last minute wedding planning, I am completely spent. I'm sure all of you can relate to what I'm about to say - when life gets this hectic, when I have such little control over the future of things, it gets hard to want to keep going with it all. I find I'm so desperate that I'd be willing to take a toddler's time out if it meant I could just sit and breathe all the chaos out of my system.

Being a positive person means that when life happens, I try to adapt and find the "silver lining". Basically, I try to trust in something that I cannot control or understand at times.  But it also means that for me, when life completely overhauls all of my intended plans, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain my positivity.  Whether it's the universe's way of testing me or not, it doesn't change the fact that my life is not where I expected (or even wanted) it to be.

But being the positive person that I am means that eventually, I begin to come around.  I begin to think of reasons to wake up thankful each morning. I try to remember to breathe, and to know that just breathing is a basic privilege in and of itself. 

And then I think about the animals. 

A beautiful rescued turkey resting peacefully at Animal Acres.

I think of the billions of cows, chickens, turkeys, geese, and pigs who are forced to live a daily hell in factory farms twenty-four hours a day. I think about the baby cows who are ripped from their mothers shortly after birth so that they can both become a part of what John Robbins so appropriately calls "The Food Machine".   I think of animals who do not possess the voice or physical power to stop what is being done to them. I think about their unending pain, their fear, their loneliness and desolation. And then I think about the factory workers who have no other choice than to be a part of such an abusive system.

And when I think about all of that, it hits me. These animals need me to wake up each morning. They need my help. They need my voice. They need me. They don't need my selfishness. They don't need me to throw a pity party for myself, when they don't even so much as receive a moment to enjoy themselves.

So, now, I have a reason to wake up. I have a reason to be thankful that I am a human being with the free will to choose to live a vegan lifestyle. I feel empowered knowing that just my being alive offers me the chance to help a cause so much larger than myself. And that gives me hope. And that makes everything else - every little problem and inconvenience- seem so small in comparison.

I made some cupcakes yesterday and was planning to blog about that today. After this post, I fondly realize now that plans should always be subject to change. But it would be wrong of me to even bring up the word cupcakes without sharing proof of them, so enjoy. 

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Sprinkles

Apple Cider Cupcakes with Cinnamon Clove Icing

Thanks for reading my words today. I hope they help you find reason and purpose in your own lives if you're feeling lost. Enjoy a beautiful rest of the weekend, and expect a post from me tomorrow about my trip to the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary.