The Kind Life

Yesterday, my oldest daughter had a birthday party to attend.  I had time to kill before I could pick her up so I found myself at Barnes and Noble and while there I picked up Alicia Silverstone's book The Kind Diet. I started reading it last night, and got so caught up in what she was saying regarding our choices not only in what we eat, but also how our food choices effect everything in our lives, I ended up staying up half the night to finish it!


The book outlines how eating a plant-based diet can not only benefit your heath with weight loss, clear skin, extra energy, and smooth digestion, but she also speaks to how meat, fish, milk, and cheese contribute to the  escalating rates of disease around the world and damage the environment.

Of course not everyone is ready to give up cheeseburgers cold turkey and adopt a vegan lifestyle.  I try to live a vegetarian lifestyle, but do eat fish occasionally, and have a terrible sweet tooth, especially for ice cream. I al always looking for tips on how to eat better, and avoid those traps that make me reach for the Ben and Jerry's.

Ms. Silverstone gives great tips and advice on small changes you can make to your diet to start changing your health, and making you want to more forward into a more sustainable way to eat and live.  This book does preach, but rather gives practial tips on how to get started in changing the way you eat with recipes and advice on what to stock your kitchen and pantry with.  I certainly took away new ideas and tips I want to incorporate into my lifestyle.

She also has a companion web site, www.thekindlife.com with even more information, recipes, blog entries, and advice on making your house and diet as green as possible.  Check it out!

Here is a recipe from The Kind Life website, so you can see the great food you can indulge in while eating and living healthy:

Whole Wheat Lasagna with Italian "Sausage" and Peppers (From Alicia Silverstone's site, The Kind Life)

• 1 box of whole wheat or brown rice lasagna noodles
• 1 (16-ounce) box of frozen spinach, thawed, squeeze excess water out
• 2 (26-ounce) jars of vegan marinara (Morgan used a basil marinara)
• 4 vegan Italian "sausages" cut into cubes
• 2 green bell peppers, chopped
• 2 tbsp. of olive oil
• 1 handful vegan shredded cheese (enough to sprinkle on top only)
• 1 pound(s) of extra firm tofu
• 1 Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp. of nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp. of tsp sea salt
• 1 pinch of black pepper to taste
• 4 tbsp. of chopped sundried tomatoes
• 1 cup(s) of (a few huge handfuls) chopped fresh basil
• 1 tsp. of dried oregano

1. Press water out of tofu by wrapping in a clean towel, and placing a pot or pan on top for about 10-20 minutes
2. Crumble the tofu in a bowl, and add lemon juice, garlic, nutritional yeast, sea salt, black pepper, sundried tomatoes, fresh basil, and dried oregano
3. Using a potato masher, smash up the tofu really well until it resembles ricotta cheese in texture
4. Set aside until ready to use
5. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water with 2 T olive oil to a boil, and cook noodles according to package (the oil will prevent the noodles from sticking together)
6. Cook them for a few minutes less than suggested, so that they can finish cooking in the oven
7. When noodles are done cooking, drain and rinse in cold water
8. While the noodles are cooking, heat 2 T olive oil in a saute pan, and saute sausage a few minutes
9. Use a potato masher to help crumble the sausage into slightly smaller pieces
10. Add 2 jars of marinara sauce and 2 chopped green peppers to the pan, and let simmer about 10 minutes
11. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
12. In a rectangular pyrex glass dish, start layering your lasagna
13. Start by adding a little sauce on the bottom, then 4 noodles, then sauce, spinach, tofu ricotta, 4 noodles, sauce, spinach, ricotta,4 noodles, and then end with sauce and cover the top with shredded vegan cheese (you should have 3 layers of noodles) Cover top of dish with foil, and bake for 30 minutes
14. Uncover and cook an additional 10 minutes until cheese melts a little on top
15. Let cool 5 minutes