Vegetarian Zen

Today we are excited to welcome Siovonne Smith, author of the book The 3-Day Vegan.   When we reviewed Siovanne's book, The 3-Day Vegan, we really resonated with the message. In her book, Siovanne gives you step by step suggestions, inspiration, and motivation to help you ease into veganism 3 days at a time.  Whether you're a vegetarian looking to incorporate some vegan days or, you're an omnivore...

As we are currently dealing with a global pandemic, it's essential that we are keeping ourselves healthy. One of the ways we keep ourselves healthy is by keeping our guts healthy. In this episode of the Vegetarian Zen podcast, we're going to talk about probiotics. More specifically, we'll be talking about vegan probiotics. We'll talk about what they are and the best sources.

There is no doubt that these times we are in are not like anything most of us have experienced before. Hopefully, it won't be something we will experience ever again.  With things so uncertain these days many people are feeling sad, angry, confused, and isolated.  Today on the podcast, we want to share 10 healthy coping mechanisms that you can use to help you during these uncertain times.

Back in episode 176 , we talked about the amazing benefits of fermented foods and one of the foods we discussed was miso.  This episode of the Vegetarian Zen is all about miso. This was something I had no clue about until I became a vegetarian. I didn't know it existed! This is a great example of where becoming a vegetarian expanded my food choices and experiences.

Today on the podcast, we are excited to welcome recognized expert and thought leader in the culinary, social, ethical, and practical aspects of living vegan, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Colleen is an award-winning author and hosts two podcasts, Food for Thought and Animology. Today, we'll be talking more in-depth about her latest book, The Joyful Vegan.

In this episode of the Vegetarian Zen podcast, we're going to be talking about the 3 terms often used when talking about waste. Those terms are: Reduce Reuse Recycle We're going to talk about the definition of each and provide you some ways you can help out our planet by participating in reducing, recycling, and reusing. Now before you start thinking, "I know what each of these mean. I'm good." St...

This episode of the Vegetarian Zen podcast, like many others, is a listener request. We've had several folks in our community contact us letting us know that they want to learn more about what it means to eat gluten-free on a vegan diet.   This is one of those episodes where we are talking about "a vegan diet" because, for the most part, cheese and dairy are gluten-free.   We're going to talk abou...

Cara Cifelli is a Certified Health Coach, Holistic Nutritionist, chef, author, podcast host, and avocado toast lover.  Cara passionately provides the tools to help women leave behind dieting, disordered eating, and body shame so they can show up more fully in all areas of their life.  In this episode, we talk to Cara about our own issues with disordered eating. 

Balloon releases have been around for decades but did you know that they are extremely harmful to our animal friends AND our environment?

In this episode of the Vegetarian Zen podcast, we're pleased to welcome Brighde Reed to the show.   Brighde is one of the co-founders of World Vegan Travel, a company that creates luxurious travel experiences for vegans and the vegan-curious.  Brighde is going to tell us all about World Vegan travel and then share some general travel tips for traveling as a vegan or vegetarian.

In last week's episode of our podcast, we talked about the top tools we're using to get healthier this year. One of those tools is an app called My Fitness Pal which we use to log our daily food intake. Using this app, we've gained some insight into our macronutrients and where we needed to focus in order to eat a more balanced diet. One of the macronutrients we had never given much thought to is...

In this episode of the Vegetarian Zen podcast, we'll be discussing the top 9 tools we're using to help us get healthier in 2020. We want to stress that you don't have to spend a lot of money to get healthy. Keep in mind that we've accumulated the kitchen tools we're going to discuss over time and they aren't essential. We simply want to share these with you today so that you can decide for yoursel...

In this episode of the Vegetarian Zen podcast, we're going to talk about seeds! More specifically, we're going to talk about 7 of the healthiest seeds you can eat to give you a nutrition boost. Of course, we can't talk about food without giving you some ideas and recipes so we'll be talking about some of those too!

Yes, we finally did it! We bought an air fryer!  Back in episode 259 of our podcast, we talked about air frying. When we did this episode, we didn't have a fryer of our own but asked for some input from our Peas and Carrots Society on Facebook about their experiences with air frying. Was it awesome or just a bunch of hot air? While the majority of our folks were really digging the air fryer, we we...

This episode of the Vegetarian Zen podcast is all about quinoa! Specifically we'll  be talking about: What quinoa is What are the health benefits Is it considered gluten-free? Is it Keto-Friendly? And last but not least, how to cook it!  We'll be sharing a few favorited recipes in our show notes at www.vegetarianzen.com/342 so be sure to head out and check those out after you have a listen!

We are knocking on the door of a brand new year and many people are thinking about New Year's resolutions.  "New Year, New Me!" is the rallying cry of many people vowing to take up good habits and ditch old bad habits. Well, most people know that the percentage of people who actually accomplish New Year's resolutions is very small. This year, instead of "New Year, New Me' we're going to offer you...

Whether you're a guest or hosting a holiday , being a vegetarian, vegan, or reducetarian can be a bit tricky to navigate socially.   In this episode, we give you 5 tips to help you navigate the holiday season as a vegan or vegetarian.

Tis the season for some hot comfort food and the one we're going to talk about today will NOT disappoint.  Today we're going to talk about instant pot vegetarian chili.  Now, we're from Texas so we take are chili VERY seriously!  So be sure to stay tuned as we discuss a great instant pot vegetarian chili recipe!

The perfect sauce can take a dish from bland to simply AMAZING!  Here are 8 awesome vegan sauces that you need to give a try!

Back in episode 275 we did an episode called T he Rise of the Vegan Athlete that talked about how many athletes were turning to a plant-based diet. If you listened to that episode, you might recall that I was particularly excited about this because, as a former athlete, I know there are a lot of stereotypes and misinformation about vegans being unable to get the nutrition they need to perform at t...

Who doesn't love a good piece of chocolate? I know we do!  In this episode of the Vegetarian Zen podcast, we're going to talk ALL about chocolate and more specifically, VEGAN chocolate. First, we're going to talk about  What makes chocolate vegan Whether chocolate is good for you or not Where you can buy vegan chocolate How to make your own vegan chocolate

When we first became vegetarians in 2013, the state of vegan fashion wasn't nearly what it is now. That was only 6 years ago!  Today, because people are starting to understand that we don't need to use animals for food and clothing, demand for vegan and cruelty-free products is WAY up!  One of those products is vegan leather. While vegan leather has existed for a while, the types of materials now...

Well just like that, we're already into the November and Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  I've mentioned in the past that Larissa and I tend to be "just the sides' type of gals. This year though, we're looking for a genuine vegetarian or vegan "main dish" that we can take to our family get together.  Along with some input from our ever-helpful Peas and Carrots Society (Private Facebook gro...

In this episode of the Vegetarian Zen podcast we're discussing a few (10) of our favorite things, just in time for Christmas!  Not all of the items or services we discuss today are necessarily vegetarian/ vegan related but these are things that have made life a little easier, or a little more fun for us this year. 

Dustin Harder is the host and creator of the original vegan travel culinary series The Vegan Roadie. When not traveling, he works as a personal chef, recipe developer, and culinary instructor. As a graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute, Dustin has been featured in such publications as Eating Well, VegNews, Vegan Lifestyle Magazine, and Paste Magazine. His second book, Epic Vegan, is the follow...