My gratitude this Thanksgiving and a vegan recipe treat for you

For obvious reasons, Thanksgiving is not an easy holiday for me to celebrate.  I have cried thousands of tears feeling the horrifying pain of what the animals are put through and I can't even think about it because as an empath highly sensitive gentle Soul, I literally feel sick from it.  I am very deeply thankful for being a devoted healthy, organic, herbal, vegan and sticking to my passions and maintaining a small carbon footprint.  I'm very deeply thankful that I am able to save many beautiful animals' lives.   Every year, my dear husband and I enjoy a wonderful, delicious, organic, vegan Tofurky feast made by Turtle Island Foods.  We enjoy it with all the traditional Holiday extras, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, apple pie, stuffing, and delicious baked desserts.  The best part about our celebration is that it's entirely vegan.  No animal had to suffer for us to enjoy this meal and our carbon footprint is small, which is important and wonderful for Mother Earth.  Another reason why our feast is wonderful is because all the extra dishes that we eat with the Tofurky are homemade by me.  I've enjoyed being an organic, herbal, vegan chef for 20 years and now, I'm going share my delicious, culinary, organic, vegan art with the world.  The photo attached to this blogpost is a sample organic vegan dish I make every Thanksgiving and my family enjoys it every year.  It is delicious, creamy, vegan mashed potatoes and I'm sharing the recipe here.   It's on a plate with Tofurky slices and vegetables.   I'm working hard now everyday to finish my cookbook and I look forward to its launch and publication for the week of Christmas 2014.  I am very excited and thankful to be creating such an important wonderful cookbook that is filled with love, peace, and compassion and I am very thankful to be sharing it with you.  Enjoy a peaceful celebration and remember, peace and love begin on the dinner plate. 

Delicious Creamy Vegan Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
8 medium size organic Russet potatoes, ends and skin removed, rinsed, cut in 1/4 pieces
4 heaping tbsp. vegan Earth Balance Buttery Spread
8 tbsp. Bragg Liquid Aminos
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder

Instructions:  Bring a medium size stainless steel pot of filtered water to a rapid boil and fill it with 4 inches leeway space from the top.  When the water reaches a rapid boil, reduce the heat to medium and pour in the potatoes.  Stir gently and allow to cook for 25 minutes.  When the potatoes are soft enough to mash and eat, turn off the burner and thoroughly drain the water.  I like the pour in all the seasonings and mash it into the potatoes because it makes the potatoes creamy and softer and easier to mash, but whatever works best for you.  Mix thoroughly and evenly until all the seasonings are evenly mixed.  Serve and Enjoy!

My Gratitude to all the dedicated earth stewards

This special blogpost goes out to all the devoted hard-working activists who educate the public and raise awareness to help protect Mother Earth and all her beautiful wonderful creatures. I want to express my sincere heartfelt gratitude for everything you do to maintain a small carbon footprint and vote with your wallet to make healthy organic choices.  I'm very thankful for all the personal choices I make to keep my family healthy and well and maintain my own small carbon footprint.  It makes me feel wonderful to know that my homemade nontoxic detergent is safe and does not make my family sick and it does not cause any toxic pollution to the groundwater or air.  I'm very thankful that every healthy delicious vegan meal I make saves the lives of thousands of animals and uses very little of the earth's natural resources.  I'm very thankful that I can appreciate simple natural beauty and I am happy to know that the personal care soaps I use are gentle and healthy for my skin and keep me well and healthy and are gentle to Mother Earth.  

 (My friend shared this beautiful image on Facebook.)

I want to thank all the devoted organic earth stewards for making healthy sane choices that keep the earth healthy and green today and will continue to keep it healthy and green for future generations.    I also want to thank all the holistic herbalists and naturopath healers for helping your patients and clients empower themselves to make intelligent healthy choices and stop their dependency on toxic big pharmaceuticals.  Word of mouth is a very powerful form of education and we can all see the evidence that it works and it continues to work.  We are all human beings and we all have feelings and needs and it's often difficult to persevere when the going gets tough.  But when we see the positive results of our hard work, we can take heart in knowing that what we do does matter and we are all making a wonderful positive difference.  I have to remind myself of this everyday.  I have moments when I feel discouraged, but when I see my friends making great strides to help the world, this gives me profound hope and I feel better.  Thank you to all the beautiful sweet caring Souls who care enough to persevere.

If We Want Peace and Love We Need To Learn Kindness

Peace and Love is not just about showing compassion and kindness toward one another.  It's the 21st Century and life has become more complicated and stressful and with all the toxic petrochemicals being used everyday and all the meat consumption, tensions get more strained, which creates more conflict and division.  When people wear chemical fragrance and a chemically sensitive injured person suffers because of it and the fragrance wearer is insensitive to the sufferer, that is a lack of compassion, which creates conflict.  “Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” quoted by Gandhi  We all have our differences, including opinions and points of view, but when we each make a choice that hurts another person, especially when it makes another person sick, this also creates conflict because we all get caught up in our "personal right to do what we want"; which in turn causes tremendous conflict.  It's true.  We have freedom of choice and we all have the right to make our own choices and decisions.  

However, if our actions extend beyond our personal space and hurt another person, be it toxic chemical fragrance, loud thumping heavy bass that is no longer heard, but felt, causing physical pain in someone's body, especially a sensitive autistic child, it is no longer acceptable to behave in such a manner.  This is a basic need to keep our personal choices and activities to ourselves.  The worst problem with all of this is that when one person makes an effort to communicate with the person doing the offensive activity, if he or she is unreasonable and allows their ego to get in the way, communication no longer works and conflict arises.  This is the number one reason why we have conflict in this world.  Politics and religion do play a part, but ultimately, regardless of the subject matter or issue, it's all about ego.  The "don't tell me what to do, I can do whatever I want" mindset is more than selfish, it's self-destructive and reflects a mindset of a person thinking he or she does not share the world with anyone else.  

If we could all just take a momentary step back and breathe and pause and be silent, we'd stop listening to our ego, realize we are all human beings who need love and gentle caring kindness and we need to show each other respect and courtesy.  No one wants to be told what to do, but there is such a thing as the Golden Rule, which says, "do unto others as you would have done unto you."  It's a basic rule of kindness, consideration, respect, and courtesy and if we all practiced this more, we might just listen to each other more, and be more loving and compassionate and less combative.  If we want our children to grow up in a more peaceful world and we want them to learn to be gentle peaceful loving beings who show kindness and love and respect for another person, then, we need to walk our walk and live by example.  Please think about it.  Thank you.

Delicious Vegan Pasta Veggies Mashed Potatoes Recipe

My dear friends, please enjoy this special gift treat recipe from my kitchen to yours, as you patiently wait for my delicious vegan cookbook to be published... ;) xoxox <3 br="">
Whole Wheat Noodles, Vegetables, and Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
1/4 pkg. whole wheat angel hair or spaghetti
6 medium size organic russet potatoes, peeled and ends removed, rinsed, cut in 1/4 pieces
1/2 C broccoli
2 tbsp. organic zucchini, ends removed, rinsed, chopped
1 tbsp. organic carrot, ends removed, rinsed, thinly sliced
2 tbsp. sweet yellow onion, ends and peel removed, rinsed, chopped
4 large baby portabella mushrooms, rinsed, chopped
4 tbsp. sunflower oil
6 tbsp. Bragg Liquid Aminos
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
4 tbsp. organic flax oil
4 heaping tbsp. Earth Balance Buttery Spread vegan dairy-free margarine

Instructions:  Fill a medium size stainless steel pot more than half way with filtered water and bring to a rapid boil.  When the water reaches a rapid boil, pour in the whole wheat noodles and reduce the heat to medium.  Allow to cook for 25 minutes or until soft and tender enough to eat.  When it's finished, drain thoroughly in a colander and set aside.  Fill a medium size stainless steel pot with filtered water almost half full until the water covers the steamer just above an inch.  Cover the pot and bring to a rapid boil.  When the water reaches a rapid boil, reduce the heat to medium and pour in the carrots and broccoli stalk.  Cover slightly but allow a tiny bit of steam to escape.  Stir gently so the vegetables are evenly spread around the steamer and can cook evenly.  At the same time, bring a 2nd medium size stainless steel pot half full of filtered water to a rapid boil.  When the water reaches a rapid boil, pour in the potatoes and stir gently and reduce the heat to medium.  Add the zucchini to the vegetables and spread it around the steamer gently for balanced space.  Check the broccoli and carrot to see if it is a little softer and then cover again and allow the vegetables to cook for another 5 minutes.  The vegetables should now be soft enough to eat.    When the vegetables are finished steaming and cooking, turn off the burner and drain thoroughly into a colander.  Set aside.  Allow the potatoes to cook for 20 minutes or until very soft.  The potatoes should be soft enough to mash.  Now, pour 6 tbsp. of sunflower oil into a nontoxic nonstick fry pan and cook on medium heat.  Pour in the chopped onions and stir gently and evenly.  When the oil begins to sizzle, squirt in 3 tbsp. of Bragg Liquid Aminos and continue stirring evenly and gently.  When the onions begin to soften and brown lightly, pour in the chopped mushrooms and continue stirring.  Once the onions and mushrooms are good and brown and soft, they are ready to eat and you can now turn off the burner.  Mash the potatoes good and evenly with a fork or potato masher until they are very soft.  Now, add the Earth Balance and remaining seasonings, except the flax oil.  The flax oil is the last ingredient you add.  Mix thoroughly and evenly until the seasonings are mixed well and the potatoes are wet, creamy, and delicious.  Now, pour all the ingredients into the fry pan together, including the organic flax oil, and mix thoroughly and evenly.  It's a bit thick and sticky so you may need to put in a little extra elbow grease to make it mix well.    Continue stirring and mixing until the entire dish is creamy and blended together.  Serve and Enjoy!

An Offer For My Delicious Organic Herbal Vegan Cookbook You Cannot Refuse

Hello everyone who has expressed interest in my upcoming cookbook, "Wise Mama Delicious Organic Herbal Vegan Cookbook." I'm really excited to announce that I will be finishing it very soon and it will be coming out Thanksgiving week 2014.  I know many of you are excited and just can't wait and some of you have said that you are going to tell all your friends and as much as I would love to give copies away and get my message to everyone, I can't do that.  But I have come up with a win/win idea and I've tossed it around and I'm prepared to give copies away to everyone who has expressed interest, but there is a catch.  You tell 5 or more of your friends and family and I will add them to a waiting list.  When I release the book and they have made the purchase and I have verified their purchase, I will give you a FREE copy! Fair enough? Let me know what you think and if I get enough responses, I'll do it!