Message from the director of The Future Of Food:

Skip the Meat Commercial

Joshua Rose, champion of the world.

Josh has his first battle of the bands tomorrow at his high school! I'm going to take photos and post at least one up later. I'm so proud of him. He practices the guitar for about 5 hours a day- I'm not even kidding. His other passion... skateboarding. Good kid.

Not Milk

Here's the real truth about what's in milk and why the f*@#! you should stay away from it. Make your own almond milk or cashew milk- easy!
Click here for another video about milk that should see

Soy Soy Soy

I'm allergic to soy and so are many of you without knowing it. Your skin may break out, you may feel bloated, have gas, cramping, digestion problems or feel tired after you eat. This is what I experience anyway. If you are going to eat soy products for health reasons and you are not allergic stick with fermented versions of it like tempe, (although I just stay away from it entirely... except when I really want some and I'm close to a bed for the aftermath).

I have talked about how soy crops are deforesting the planet and destroying the topsoil in another post here if you want to have a look.

Vegetarian or Vegan?... VEGAN!

This is a video from Vegan Freak Radio. It's really good at making us understand that being vegetarian has no effect on lowering the death and torture of animals. Only the Vegan lifestyle does, (although I applaud anyone who is at least slowly moving in the direction of vegan).

Raw Vegan Athlete Video Blogger

Durianrider is an athlete to the extreme and... he's a raw vegan. I love his video blogs of his travels and his logical, proof-positive way of getting the point across. Look for him on youtube.

Vegan Body Builder- Kenneth G. Williams

This is just one of the many vegan body builders and athletes out there that don't eat any animal products. So if you're one of those guys who have told me you can't go vegan because you'll get weak, or that it's not 'manly'...take it up with Kenneth ;)

Basil-Avocado Dip: Awesome.

I love this one! It's great in so many ways. Use it as a vegetable or pita bread dip, as a raw sauce to go over pasta or rice, or... as a wicked salad dressing. Here's how to make it:

in a food processor:
1 avocado (peeled and pitted)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds (raw, unsalted and shelled)
1 cloves of garlic
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon tahini (raw)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cup fresh basil (well washed)
1 1/2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice (not from a bottle!)

Let it process for a few minutes until it's really creamy and then do what you like with it! If you'd like to introduce more raw food into your diet this is a good way. You don't have to cook sauces to go over your pasta or rice (let whatever you put it on cool a bit before adding the sauce or it will cook it and lose all those amazing enzymes you were trying to get). It tastes the same as cooked, actually it's better, because you are using the real, fresh flavour of the vegetables instead of cooking it out of them, along with the fresh herbs and spices. And it takes a fraction of the preparation and clean up. Good in my books.

This is very well done. Watch it.

Edward Norton on Plastic Bags Bags Bags

Time to explore! Let's go!

Last summer we made a road trip to Thunder Bay, Canada and had an incredible time discovering just how beautiful different parts of our own country can be. Here is James with a new friend we made along the way. This summer we are planning a trip to Nova Scotia! I miss the ocean, and my family over there. I'm sure we'll be blogging about it. As for Claire, it looks like she will be traveling too. She'll be taking photos and reporting on people, animals and recipes she encounters on her adventures. I can't wait!

Interview from Art Bell with Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Part 6:
Part 7:
This is a good interview that you should listen to while you do something else- it's not very visual, but I put it up as a video anyway. Dr. Neal Bernard is a great speaker who is very good at relaying the importance of taking control of your diet. We aren't victims unless we say we are.

Processed People trailer

Fast Food Nation Film: (In English and Spanish Versions)

Here is the Link to watch the full movie in Spanish:
(You have to stream it for a bit, but it works :)

Below is the trailer for Fast Food Nation if you would like a preview. Awesome film.

xoxo

Lyn

Diet for a New America : Documentary

The quality of this one is not great but if you haven't seen it I recommend watching (or listening to it even!) I'll put all the parts up for you. It's based, of course, on the best selling book of the same title by John Robbins. It's been years since it was published, but still keeps on selling.
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Part 6:
Part 7:
Part 8:

Thank You Everyone! You are all making a huge difference!

We just want to say thank you to everyone who visits our blog. It means so much to us. It's just something that we're passionate about, and we hope to inspire change on this planet in some small way. It is clear to me now that the world is poised for a leap forward in evolution. And it is happening. People have been waking up in massive numbers to realize that what makes us so special, as a species, is that we have choice.

All of you who have sought out a vegan lifestyle, or are on your way to it, are brave warriors in my eyes. It takes courage to go against the grain and do something different. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart and from all of us here at beautiful vegan.

Go Raw Now movie trailer:

Ok the main guy in this movie is a little eccentric, just to warn you. I have debated on putting this up for a long time now because it's a little nuts, but the core of the message and the information is well done. Maybe you've seen this before- the end is the funniest (very Harlequin Romance).

Anyway it kind of does inspire you to go 100% Raw. I'm on and off all the time, but always feel soooo much better when I eat mostly raw. There is no denying that. It is absolutely true. And I've really got nothing to gain from saying that because I have developed hundreds of cooked vegan recipes. I've been working, lately, on a lot of raw ones though, to inspire myself and maybe some of you. Raw doesn't mean salad every day of your life. I'm out to prove that everything you make can be bursting with flavour and still retain all those beautiful life-giving enzymes!

Raw Vegetable Soup With Almonds and Sun-dried Tomatoes

This soup is so simple and absolutely delicious! Here's the recipe:

In a blender:
1 cup carrots
1 cup tomatoes
7 pieces of sun-dried tomatoes
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 a small piece of garlic
1 Tablespoon thyme
1 Tablespoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon agave nectar (optional)
4 cups hot water
1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Add after blended:
Chopped up finely:
celery
soaked almonds (soak in a bowl of water over night, rinse and use- keep in the fridge if you have extra)
fresh tomatoes
red onion (just a tiny amount)
more sun-dried tomatoes
(any vegetables you care to add really).


1. Blend until smooth 2. Chop up some vegetables like celery, red onion, red cabbage, tomatoes (whatever is in your fridge), and add it to the soup. 3. Chop up some raw almonds and more sun-dried tomatoes and sprinkle them on top with a bit of black pepper and olive oil (to make it pretty). Now eat it! Makes 2 large bowls.

Squeakers Toth and his brother James

Well... this is what we've been doing lately. I found this little baby squirrel in a blue recycling bin and we waited around a whole day to see if the mother would come. She didn't, so when it was beginning to get dark I took him home and read a whole lot on what I should do. Then I called a wildlife centre who told me they were all full up; so we have had him for a few days now and he seems fully recovered from dehydration.


James looks like he found his long lost brother. We're going to let the squirrel go when he's the right age (12 weeks, from what we can gather on the net). As for now he eats, plays and quickly falls asleep. So freakin' cute.

raw mushroom soup coming up!

I believe mushrooms are the key to creating so many different flavours and textures in vegan cuisine. I was brought up thinking there was only one type of mushroom, but there are loads of gorgeous geneses, each with their own unique tastes that will bring richness to your dishes. Dried mushrooms are absolutely fabulous because they are so versatile- you can put them in a food processor and make a powder that can be added to gravies, soups, stews, sauces, stir-fries and veggie burgers.

You can also reconstitute them in warm water and use them how you would use fresh mushroom, but you can have them all year long instead of when they are in season (for those of us who live in places where mushrooms are only available certain times of the year).

Here are some gourmet dried mushrooms you might want to try:

In a blender:
2 cups white cap Mushrooms (or your favorite mushrooms)
4 cups hot water
2 Tablespoon raw almond butter or 1 T natural peanut butter
1/2 of a small garlic clove (if you add more it will be too strong)
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons raw tahini

Garnish with paprika and little velvet shank mushrooms (because they're so pretty- they float like tiny umbrellas), or use what ever mushrooms tickle your fancy :)
To make it more creamy you can add half an avocado or 1/2 cup of raw cashews to the blender, but it's optional.

*Dried mushrooms should be soaked in cold or room-temperature water for a few minutes before you make the soup, and you can strain and use the mushroom water in your soup too. Dried mushrooms have a more condensed, strong flavour than fresh mushrooms, so a little goes a long way. Blend for a couple of minutes. And that's it! Makes 2 large bowls.

Mad Cowboy Documentary! Very Good.

Watch the rest of the parts on youtube by double-clicking on the above video :)

HOW TO TELL THE TRUTH AND GET IN TROUBLE:
"I am a fourth-generation dairy farmer and cattle rancher. I grew up on a dairy farm in Montana, and I ran a feedlot operation there for twenty years. I know firsthand how cattle are raised and how meat is produced in this country.

Today I am president of Earth Save International, an organization promoting organic farming and the vegetarian diet. Sure, I used to enjoy my steaks as much as the next guy. But if you knew what I know about what goes into them and what they can to do you, youd probably be a vegetarian like me. And, believe it or not, as a pure vegetarian now who consumes no animal products at all, I can tell you these days I enjoy eating more than ever.

 If youre a meat-eater in America, you have a right to know that you have something in common with most of the cows youve eaten. Theyve eaten meat, too. When a cow is slaughtered, about half of it by weight is not eaten by humans: the intestines and their contents, the head, hooves, and horns, as well as bones and blood. These are dumped into giant grinders at rendering plants, as are the entire bodies of cows and other farm animals known to be diseased.

Rendering is a $2.4 billion-a-year industry, processing forty billion pounds of dead animals a year. There is simply no such thing in America as an animal too ravaged by disease, too cancerous, or too putrid to be welcomed by the all-embracing arms of the renderer." 
Howard Lyman, Cattle Rancher gone vegan :)

Knowledge is everything. Love you guys!

Here is a video of Howard Lyman giving a talk about his transformation :)

Coconut Cornbread in a skillet! So easy!

I know this isn't raw (and I have been moving in that direction because it is the healthiest food), but I made up this recipe last night as a sort of comfort food. It would be really great to have once in a while. And it's absolutely delicious! Here's the recipe:

In a large bowl mix:

1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 1/2 cups water (or coconut milk if you have it)
1/4 cup olive oil (or vegetable oil)
1 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 400.
2. Pour into a cast iron pan (it will seem very liquidy).
3. bake for 30 minutes or so.

That's it! Let it cool a bit and eat it with an awesome raw soup like Spinach-Avocado!

Make your own mesh bags! Easy!

Here's my solution for using plastic bags for bulk food and fruit etc: Make your own bags in no time out of meshy fabric! They weigh almost nothing, can be washed, used over and over, and take up no space in your purse or nap-sac! And it only took me a few minutes to make two of them. I'm going to make more though. 1. Just cut out the size you want (one long rectangle works best so that you don't have to sew the bottom). 2. Fold the long rectangle in half so both ends are touching, and then 3. simply sew a straight line up both sides. 4. Finish them off with a zig-zag stitch over what you have already sewn to strengthen the bag, and leave the top unsown (doesn't need anything). Go for it!

You can also buy them from places like Grass Roots (in Toronto), and other eco shops if you don't have a sewing maching (or if you're a bit lazy), but they're a little pricy if you ask me. But then again you are saving yourself from using plastic bags that never biodegrade... ever.

Cancer Inc. The Huge Money Behind Cancer:

Here are some interesting things we found out about Cancer Inc. ...oops, I meant to say The National Cancer Institute:


1. The pink ribbon campaign was originally started by a woman named Charlotte Haley, who used peach coloured ribbons as a protest against the National Cancer Institute for only spending 5% of it's annual budget of $1.8 billion on cancer prevention.

2. "The co-founder and major sponsor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month is AstraZenica (worth £39.5 billion as of 23 December 2011), and formerly known as Zeneca, a British-based multinational giant that manufactures the cancer drug tamoxifen, the most widely prescribed breast cancer drug. Until 2000, the company was also a leading manufacturer of agricultural chemicals, including the carcinogenic pesticide acetochlor. When Zeneca created National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in 1985, it was owned by Imperial Chemical Industries, a multi-billion-dollar producer of pesticides, paper and plastics. The company was named in a 1990 lawsuit by the federal government for allegedly dumping DDT and PCBs into the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors. After buying up cancer clinics around the country, Zeneca merged with the Swedish pharmaceutical company Astra in 1999 to form AstraZeneca, the world's third largest drug company." (quotation from the book Not Just A Pretty Face, Not Just A Pretty Face Book and Website)

3. Here's the Vegan Connection:
Pesticide authority Lewis Regenstein writes:
"Meat contains approximately 14 times more pesticides than do plant foods; dairy products 5.5 times more. Thus, by eating foods of animal origin, one ingests greatly concentrated amounts of hazardous chemicals. Analysis of various foods by the FDA shows that meat, poultry, fish, cheese and other dairy products contain levels of these pesticides more often and in greater amount than other foods." (taken from the Diet For A New America Website). It has been shown time and time again, that meat and dairy increase your risk of getting many different types of cancers. So doctors may tell you to "Cut back on meat a little", but they will almost never tell you to go Vegan and cut it out entirely, and Dairy is such an untouchable industry that almost everyone still believes it is healthy, including uneducated doctors, and it's still taught in schools.

4. Nixon declared the War on Cancer back in the early 1970's. The National Cancer Institute has raised billions of dollars $$$ since then with their 'walks for cancer', 'runs for cancer', 'bike for cancer' etc. and yet cancer is a more massive epidemic than ever before.


So what we've learned here is that The National Cancer Institute has created the cancer-causing chemicals, runs the treatment centers, spends millions of dollars a year on ad campaigns to get people to "walk for the cure", which raises billions of dollars for them, they've got control over the studies, and they make a huge amount of money from the drugs they manufacture for cancer patients. A perfect full circle. 



Do you think they really want to find a 'cure' for cancer and get rid of this massive cash cow? There are some great books out there, loads of studies, articles and information on-line as well. These chemicals are in everything we eat and drink, and put on our bodies, so let's educate ourselves about what's really going on. Awareness is everything.

Mad Cowboy Author (he used to be a cattle rancher and is now vegan)

This is part 1 of his talk. He's a great speaker and has a talent for looking at things logically and with an open heart. This is something everyone has to watch. He wrote a book called The Mad Cowboy that is excellent if you have friends that are interrested in a really good reason to consider the vegan lifestyle.
It's very moving to see someone come so far from where they started out, and I'm grateful that somebody is mentioning Al Gore in this equation. Why doesn't Al Gore talk about the number one greenhouse gas emitting cause in An Inconvenient Truth?? Here's your answer my friends: He was raised on a cattle farm and he doesn't want to go vegan or actually make real change. He only offers expensive and mostly unaccessible ways of "going green". When you don't mention the easiest, most powerful, mass-population accessible, free method of saving the planet, then your motives are suspect at best. Watch the second half of The Mad Cowboy's talk here:
part 2

Need to get away from my computer.

This is a picture of my friend Nat and I in Costa Rica years back. I wish I was there right now, laying in the water where the river meets the ocean at low tide. We used to lay in the middle on the sand with the river washing over us from one direction and the ocean from the other. What a magical place. I've been spending way too much time inside. The computer is very alluring, but the lakes and forests win every time. (Photographed by Lila Rose). More of this series of photos are at this link:

Diet For a Small Planet

This book is an absolute must read if you haven't already. It's been around for quite a while now and is still a best seller.

Interesting contest for vegans: win an electric car and cash

I found this posted on youtube. It's a contest designed to increase awareness of the link between diet and the environment. Check it out.

Go Green, Eat Less Meat.

How much plastic is in the ocean you ask?...

This will help all of us understand exactly what we're talking about when we say PLEASE CUT BACK ON PLASTIC. Humans have gone through many different ages - The Stone Age, Iron Age, etc., well this is the Plastic Age. I'm not even kidding. Everything is made of it.

I failed on the first day of my challenge to go a week without buying plastic anything, as I had to get buns for Josh's birthday veggie burgers, and didn't want to put them in the basket because it was dirty. I always bring fabric bags to put the groceries in, but the owners might think I was stealing the buns if I put them in before I paying...I felt so stupid.

I'll go out and buy some see through small fabric bags that I can take to the store next time. They are sold at different places in Kensington Market, throughout Toronto at places like Grass Roots, and of course on-line. Or make them yourself if you can. Maybe I'll do that tonight.

Here is an incredible project that proves we can clean up the oceans in just five years!! What a great Ted Talk :))

how to make creamy caesar dressing!

In a blender:
1 cup water
1/4 cup tahini
1 whole lemon (juiced)
2 teaspoons rinsed capers
3 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar (or balsamic)
1 Tablespoon raw agave nectar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup soaked raw almonds
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Blend until smooth and creamy. That's it! This is my favorite dressing right now. It keeps in the fridge for a few days so you can have it on your salads if you are raw, or pour it over pasta to make a creamy sauce!