I love getting questions from my readers and one of them wrote me asking how she as a vegan can live in harmony with her carnivorous man. Today, I am answering her question.

Folks, for me, it is all about respect and truly caring about each other’s well being. It’s also about bridging the gap and not making life too complicated and making a bunch of different meals. For starters, when you are deciding what to make for dinner, get a basic idea of what kind of meal you are making. Let’s say you are making a stir-fry. Great. You got your brown rice steaming up, you got your broccoli, snap peas, carrots, etc. in the wok…the foundation is set. For the vegan half, the meal is done. For the carnivorous half, you might have sauteed a little chicken or shrimp in a separate pan that you can then add on top of your stir-fry. Basically, it is the same meal but with a small difference. Do you see how in this example both parties are working together to make it work?

Let’s talk a little more about respect and caring for each other’s well being. You need to really respect where each other is at on their health journey. Take me for example. Not so long ago, I was 100% vegan. Now I eat fish a few times a month and some goat cheese here and there. 90% of the time, my meals are vegan, which makes eating with my man Mike super easy (he only eats some goat cheese here or there…the rest of his diet is vegan). But on the days when I do have some fish, we find ways to add it in to my plate without having to make a completely different meal as I explained above. Sometimes when we go out to eat, I might order fish and Mike might have a totally vegan meal. In either case, we never talk down to each other or make each other feel bad. We respect that we each are doing what is right for our bodies at this time, knowing that our needs might change and that is all good. Respect also means not forcing the other person to cook or handle something that is not aligned with their values. I would say that if your significant other is vegan, it’s not really fair to expect them to handle and prepare a cut of beef, unless of course they are cool with it. In most cases, I would say that the meat eater might want to handle the prep of their meat.

In terms of caring about each other’s well being, I think that aiming to have the highest quality of food at the dinner table is a must. This means trying to have organic,local, and sustainable food at every meal, with the foundation of the meal being plant based. If you are going to have meat, make sure it is organic, free-range, and sustainably raised. Make sure your fish is low on the mercury scale and also sustainable. Don’t make meat/fish the center of the meal; treat it like a condiment. Michael Pollen gives us this very important tip in his widely popular and user friendly Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual.Even if you are not the one eating the fish or meat, being educated on where your loved one is getting their meat/dairy/fish is essential. After all, don’t you want the best for the one you love? Maybe you are saying, “But Anita I know that having them eat a 100% vegan diet IS what is best for them?” Or maybe you are saying, “But Anita, I know that if they were eating meat they would be sooo much healthier!” Honestly, that is not your call to make and surely hitting them over the head with your beliefs will not make them see your side of the story. Focus instead on getting high quality, organic and sustainable food on your plates and let them decide on what feels best for them at this time.

Lastly, I would like to say that food is a form of love or rather what you eat is a form of love. What you choose to eat on a daily basis is a good measure of how much you love and care for yourself, and what you choose to feed the ones you love is also a reflection of the love you feel for them. You want to give them the best foundation to be happy, strong, balanced. You can help to do this through what you serve at the dinner table. Make it less about combatting food dogmas and more about how you two will show love by nourishing each other with the best possible food available. Think about what your goal is; is to love and nourish each other or is to undermine each other’s health with toxic food and/or toxic emotions? If there is tension around food prep and cooking, that tension will go straight into the food you make and into your body. It mind sound cheesy, but you can feel the love (or the hate) that is put into every meal (that’s why home cooked food at Grandma’s is always extra good…the love ingredient is unlike any other!) Always make love and true nourishment the top priority of your meal time together and I promise you, it will go a whole lot smoother.

Do you have a different eating style/dietary restrictions than your mate? How do you make it work?

For as long as I can remember, pizza has been one of my favorite foods. That crust! That sauce! The toppings! Oh my! I don’t do pizza too often but when I do, I like it good and I like it high quality…and I like it best if it can fit my dietary restrictions. Going vegan a few years ago presented a challenge in the pizza department but going gluten-free really made finding good pizza a challenge!

I was lucky enough to come across some great places like Pizza Fusion and Fresh Brothers that offered gluten-free and vegan options (though I do eat goat cheese now if I can trust the source!) for my pizza. Still, I really wanted to be able to make my own pizza at home because 1) I think it’s kinda fun to dress it up the way you want and 2) I like saving some serious dough (no pun intended!).

Lucky for me, I came across a yummy gluten-free crust from Nature’s Hilights at my local co-op. It’s just made of brown rice and potato….I like it when I can read and recognize all the ingredients. So now when I have the urge to splurge on pizza, I can make my own yummy creation using their crust and my own toppings.

For my gluten-free pizza in today’s video, I used:

• Nature’s Hilights pizza crust
• Seeds of Change Marinara Sauce (I cheated and didn’t make my own)
• 1 1/2 cups of sauteed crimini mushrooms (sauteed in olive oil, garlic, and a little garlic salt)
• 1/2 cup sundried tomatoes (softened in hot water and a little olive oil)
• 1/4 cup (maybe less) of a mixture of feta and chevre goat cheese from Soledad Goat Cheese Farms. You can make this vegan by using a good quality vegan cheese substitute like Daiya or skip the cheese altogether and just use extra veggies!
• A little dried basil and Italian Seasoning for your sauce and/or to top your pizza
• Fresh parsley on top of your finished product!

To make:
1. Follow the heating directions for the pizza crust
2. While that’s heating up, warm up your sauce and sauteed your
mushrooms.
3. Take out your crust, add the sauce, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, and cheese. Put your pizza back in for another 8 minutes.
4. Take out your lovely pizza, top with fresh parsley or whatever else suits your fancy! Enjoy!

What’s so fun about this is that you can really get as creative or basic as you want! Plus, Nature’s Hilights gives you 2 crusts in the box, so you could do 2 different pizzas and please different palates.

Now, I will say this crust is not the chewy, doughy yum of traditonal pizza. But I like it. It’s crispy, easy to prepare, and helps me get my fix without a bunch of crazy ingregiendts I can’t pronounce. Will I ever have the real thing again? You betcha….next time Mike and I get back to NYC, I’ll make sure we go to Brooklyn and down to Spumoni Gardens and splurge!

This pizza would go great with the yummy Italian salad I taught your guys and/or the Vegan Tomato Garlic (Gluten-Free) Soup recipe as well!

What’s your favorite way to top your pizza? How do you satsify your pizza craving and still keep it healthy?

Who doesn’t love a little B.O.G.O or Buy One, Get One action? I for one love a good bargain. If I’m going shopping and I can get those cute black pumps and the comfy flats without overextending my resources or spending one extra dime, I’m going for it! The way I see it, you can apply the same principle to your everyday life when you are looking at your long to-do list and wondering how you are going to fit in some time for fitness. Do you have to choose between the two? Maybe not!

When planning how you are going to tackle your weekly errands, look carefully for obvious and hidden opportunities to squeeze in a little exercise. For example, I usually go to the Tuesday Culver City Farmers’ Market to do a lot of my weekly grocery shopping. Now that the weather is getting warmer and the days are longer, I am biking to the market instead of driving, thereby getting my food shopping in and getting at least 40 mins of quality cardio on my bike. By doing this, I am tackling my to-do list, saving money on gas, helping out the environment, having some fun, and helping out my backside. Now that’s some B.O.G.O for my booty, my wallet, my mood, and the planet! And did I mention that my man Mike and I usually go to the farmers’ market together? Now I’m also fitting in some time with someone who is important to me and makes me smile; this is key to a quality lifestyle!

Here are some other ways you can combine your to-do list with exercise:

• Walk to your local post office to drop off mail.
• Park your car as far away as possible from the entrance when going to the mall, grocery store, etc.
• When meeting a friend for coffee/tea, pick a location that you can walk or bike to or make your meet-up fitness centered. Go to a yoga class, go for a walk/run, or a hike. (Big tip: Making time to cultivate and nurture your personal relationships SHOULD be on your to-do list!)
• Taking your kids to the park? Why not run and play with them instead of just simply keeping an eye on them!
• When heading out to do errands, try whenever possible to wear clothes and shoes you can easily move in. This will allow you to walk further and faster, thereby getting your heart rate up.
• Gotta clean the house? I love to turn on my favorite music and make it as fun as possible. You might catch yourself shakin’ your azz in front of the same mirror you’re cleaning. Cleaning is actually a big calorie burner so it can actually kill two birds with one sponge!
• Make a day of it! Whenever possible, I like to load up my backpack, hop on my bike and hit up as many places as possible on my to-do list. Try returning that shirt, picking up your photos, and stopping by the bank all in one day/one trip.
• At the very least, take the stairs whenever possible and maybe climb a couple of extra flights while you are at it.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to have an all or nothing approach to exercise. You might not always have an hour to work out but you can definitely find 10 minutes to squeeze in some fitness. By combining exercise with your errands, you might weave in a 40 minute workout or a 10 minute walk. Either way, you are making time for an essential component for living a life of wellness. This might not be enough to bring about weight-loss or a good sweat, but it is certainly a step in the right direction and all those steps lead you to a better end result! As you looked over my list of ideas, I hope you also noted that some FUN was built in! Playing with your kids, walking with a friend, feeling the wind in your hair while biking, dancing around your apartment while getting your clean on, and just feeling your awesome beating heart should add some fun and pleasure into your everyday life!

We live in a fast paced world and we are all pressed for time. With so much to be done in any given day, it’s always nice to find ways to get those errands done and squeeze in a little movement as well. A little B.O.G.O. never hurt anyone! Plus, by making time to move daily, even if it is for a short amount of time, you will feel more alive, feel more energy, and make those errands a bit more fun!

Now, look at your to-do list and see where you can add in exercise while getting your errands done. How will you start to incorporate this B.O.G.O. philosophy into your weekly to-do list?

So the last time I was in the kitchen, I showed you guys how to make a yummy Italian salad. I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite dishes to have along side a salad is a yummy bowl of soup. Keeping with the Italian theme, today I am sharing with you a recipe I learned from Chef Tanya when I visited her Culver City Native Foods Restaurant and checked out one of their free cooking demos last month.

I changed the recipe a little bit from the original one to meet my individual needs and taste preferences. One of the biggest changes from the original was that I made this soup gluten-free by using toasted gluten-free bread instead of “old crusty bread, torn in 1″ pieces.” I also used a little less oil and simply added garlic to my homemade veggie stock instead of making her Garlic Stock. By the way, it’s ridiculously easy to make your own homemade veggie stock. My boyfriend Michael shared our secret stock making tricks in a post on his site. Of course, if you have no time for making your own stock, a nice organic brand will fit the bill…just add a few cloves of garlic while simmering and you’ll be golden.

Vegan Tomato Garlic Bread Soup (Gluten-Free), adapted from Chef Tanya’s original recipe over at Native Foods

What You Need:

• 2 tbs. olive oil
• 1 red onion, 1/4″ diced
• 5 garlic cloves (crushed) to go in your veggie stock
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 3 lbs. fresh tomatoes, chopped in 1″ chunks
• 4 slices of toasted, crunchy gluten-free bread
• 3 cups veggie stock
• 2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 cup basil chiffonade (or as I refer to it in the video, Basil Ribbons!)

What To Do:
1. In a soup pot, heat up your veggie stock with crushed garlic added.Keep this simmering pot of stock separate from the other ingredients until step 3!
2. In another soup pot, heat the olive oil in a soup pot and add onion and then add the sliced garlic. Saute until transparent and lightly browned. Add salt.
3. Add tomato and bread and saute about one minute.
4. Now add in your stock to the same pot as the bread/tomato/onion/garlic mixture, add black pepper and let simmer about 40 minutes.
5. Garnish with the basil chiffonade (simply stack the basil leaves, roll tightly, and cut at an angle…there you go..there’s your fancy topping!)

I really loved the soup and all the garlic flavor. I will be honest; I found the bread to get a little too mushy for my liking once the soup was fully cooked. I might not have let the bread get old and crusty enough or maybe it was because it was gluten free. When Chef Tanya did it, this did not happen and her bread was not gluten free. I’ll have to experiment with it again. You could also omit the bread and try something like quinoa or brown rice (cooked ahead of time and thrown in the soup later) for some texture. This would also keep the soup gluten free.

Chef Tanya mentioned that you could also top this with a little bit of pine nuts and add a little agave to the tomatoes if they are too acidic. The great thing is that tomatoes are coming back in season, as is basil, so you should be in business! Another great idea is adding some chevre goat cheese on top of your individual soup bowls if you are not a strict vegan and/or adding in some cooked cannellini beans if you are looking for more protein/texture.

This was an amazing soup that I will try again and can easily vary my ingredients to try on different flavors and textures.

What kind of different variations can you think of to add to this soup or another favorite of yours? Do you have a favorite soup recipe that just warms your heart?