There are very few food products out there that are as polarizing as tofu. Some people love it and others hate it vehemently. Among them, the debate over the health risks and benefits rages on. You may disagree with me, but I am a huge fan of tofu. For the love of tofu, read on.

Sue me, I love the stuff, and here’s why:

It is versatile.

Tofu comes in many different varieties: from silken to extra firm. Extra firm tofu has the least amount of water and it is generally used as a main component of a dish. It is sturdy enough to hold up to grilling, skewering, stir frying, dicing, and sautéing. Extra firm tofu can also be crumbled to make scrambles and salads. Silken tofu contains the most water and is (in my home) generally blended into both sweet and savory sauces. In Chinese and Korean cooking, you may also find silken tofu in stir fry and soups, but I prefer to use extra firm tofu for this instead.

It is a sauce master.

Tofu is also a neutral receiver of all kinds of sauce. You can lend any flavor to the tofu. Simple sauces like soy sauce, agave, and vinegar, rich sauces like green curry and coconut milk, and hearty roasted tomato sauces are all delicious with tofu.

It is probably good for you.

I’m ducking from the virtual stones I am seeing hurled my way. The jury may still be out on this issue because the data can be all over the place, but, in general, it is my opinion that tofu can be a healthy part of the human diet.

Tofu is packed full of isoflavones, and there is evidence to suggest that the isoflavones in soy may:

• Reduce the risk of breast cancer
• Reduce the risk of death from breast cancer
• Prevent free radical damage to the liver
• Alleviate hot flashes during menopause
• Reduce LDL cholesterol levels
• Reduce the risk of thyroid cancer
• Alleviate hot flashes during menopause
• Reduce bone loss during menopause

Among many other potential benefits.

But, I thought it mimicked estrogen?

Now, soy does get a bad rap because of the particular isoflavones that are also phytoestrogens. Phytoestrogens are molecules that can bind the estrogen receptor and may turn it on or off. Many worry that the food will have a negative impact on hormone balance.

But here is my question: when is the last time that you questioned how much estrogen was in the meat, eggs, or dairy on your plate? “Endogenous steroid hormones in food of animal origin are unavoidable as they occur naturally in these products.” In other words, you are ingesting full potency estrogens when you eat meat or drink dairy.

A lot of people counter this argument by stating that they use hormone-free meat; while you may be eating no hormone added meats, there is still steroid hormone in the meat or dairy product. Estrogen levels in processed meats may also be associated with declining sperm counts in men.

We spend a lot of time working to avoid endocrine disrupting compounds such as BPA, phytoestrogens, dioxins, and phthalates, but we miss one of the most common sources of sex steroid: meat and dairy. Even worse, animal waste from farming may contribute up to 90% of estrogens in the environment, including the water supply.

Tofu allows you to vote with your fork.

When selecting tofu, I strongly encourage you to choose non-genetically modified versions. You can look for the “non-GMO Project Verified” butterfly or for the organic label. Whenever I select an organic soy product, it makes me feel good to stand opposed to the work of Monsanto and the genetic modification of our food supply.

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Also, check out this recipe for Vegan Mushroom Lentil Burgers.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.

But the foods associated with Halloween can be quite unhealthy. From high fructose corn syrup, to sugar bombs, Halloween can be the start of a very unhealthy holiday season. Let’s mix things up a bit and create some healthier Halloween favorites.

Not gonna lie, these aren’t all gluten free, vegan, or even sugar free, but they are homemade with quality ingredients that you can feel better about than most of the crap from the store. So let’s all indulge a bit in Halloween Popcorn, Avocado Deviled Eggs, and Vegan Ranch Dip. Be sure to select dietary essential oils when used in cooking.

Get your party started with a glorious table scape!

Make your healthy Halloween spread look all the more inviting by decorating with spooky bats, black cats, or jack-o-lanterns.

Healthy Halloween Snacks

Zesty Vegan Ranch Dip

Ingredients

2 drops dill essential oil

3 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon onion powder

2 teaspoon parsley

1 ½ teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup almond milk

1 ½ cup veganaise

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until combined.
2. Serve with fresh vegetables.

Halloween Popcorn

Ingredients

½ cup unpopped popcorn

1/8-1/4 cup unrefined coconut oil

1 drop clove essential oil

2 drops cinnamon essential oil

2 drops orange essential oil

1 ½ tablespoons blue agave

Instructions

1. Pop popcorn in a brown paper bag or air popper.
2. Melt coconut oil over low heat on the stove.
3. Once melted, add essential oils and blue agave.
4. Pour mixture over the warm popcorn, and stir to coat.

Avocado Deviled Eggs

Ingredients

6 large eggs

1 ripe avocado, peeled and seeded

1 tablespoon lime juice

½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

1½ tablespoons veganaise

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 drop each black pepper and coriander essential oils

pinch chili powder 

Paprika or smoked paprika, for garnish

Instructions:

1. Place a pot of water on the stove over high heat, place eggs in water, and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling, turn off heat and set a timer for 12 minutes. Allow eggs to rest in pot, covered, until timer goes off. Once 12 minutes have passed, remove the eggs from the pot and place in cold water. Peel while still warm.
2. Once peeled, slice the eggs in half and scrape yolks into a medium sized bowl.
3. Add the avocado, lime juice, vegenaise, mustard, salt, pepper, and chili powder to yolks and mash with a fork to combine.
4. Stir in the cilantro.
5. Dollop the filling into the egg whites with a small spoon.
6. Garnish with (smoked) paprika, chili powder, or cayenne. Serve immediately.

Chocolate Dipped Sandwich Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups butter, at room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup dutch processed cocoa or dark cocoa powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1½ cups flour

Filling

4 cups powdered sugar

½ cup butter, melted and cooled

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Water

Instructions

Make Cookie Batter

1. In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla, and mix until incorporated.
2. Add half of the flour and mix. Then, add the remaining flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until you get a dry dough that is not sticky at all. Divide the dough into 3 balls and pat them together to form a disk. Cover the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350^oF.

Make Filling

1. While the dough is chilling, mix up the cream filling. Mix powdered sugar, melted butter, and vanilla extract together. Add 1 teaspoon of water at a time, if needed, until the mixture is a thick dough.
2. Divide the filling in half and roll it into a log that is about 2 inches wide. Roll the log in plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge while the cookies are baking.

Make Cookies

1. Remove plastic from one disk and roll your dough out on a lightly floured surface until 1/4 inch to an 1/8 inch thick.
2. Use a 2-inch circle cutter to cut out the cookies. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-9 minutes. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Place the cookies on a wire rack to cool.

Assemble Cookies

1. After the cookies are cool, remove the filling from the plastic wrap. Using a sharp knife, slice off a piece that is between 1/4 to a 1/2 inch thick.
2. Stack a cookie, cream, and then another cookie. Press lightly together.
3. Once cookies are complete, place on a sheet pan and put in refrigerator.

Cover in chocolate

1. Crumble 2 bars of your favorite chocolate (I like Peppermint-Almond Chocolessence) into a double boiler, and slowly melt chocolate over medium heat.
2. Once completely melted, remove cookies from refrigerator and dip half of the cookie into the melted chocolate.
3. Top with candy eye balls for an added treat.

Love these healthier halloween options? For all of my favorite vegan snacks, check out this blog post!

Halloween obsessed? Here are some Essential Oil Blends for Halloween you should try ASAP.

There’s no better way to celebrate freedom than with an Independence Day get together with friends and family. This year, why not have them over for an outdoor vegan cookout? Check out this epic 4th of July vegan menu!

The Salad

I am borderline obsessed with the unique flavors that come together in this Asian Rotini Pasta Salad. It is so flavorful and zesty and really compliments a variety of dishes. Your guests will love this salad so much, it may take center stage of your meal!

The Burgers

No 4th of July party is complete without a great burger. It took quite a bit of trial and error for me to perfect these Vegan Mushroom Lentil Burgers. They are hearty and delicious, and you can cook them on the stove or toss them on a grill.

The Fries

You can’t have a burger without fries, right? Try this recipe for the crispiest, most flavorful sweet potato fries ever! You may wanna make a double batch of these because they will go fast.

The Ice Cream

Finish off the meal with a dish of delicious, creamy Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream. Be sure to make this recipe ahead of time so it has time to harden in the freezer.

The Drinks

Last, but definitely not least, mix up a batch of Spiked Lavender Lemonade (and maybe an un-spiked pitcher for the kids). This unique recipe may just become one of your favorite cocktails!

Keep in mind that this drink is not totally cleanse approved! Make the “kid’s version” or treat yo’ self!

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Love cooking vegan recipes? Come check out my Clean Slate Cleanse Cookbook!

Plant based meats like Beyond Meat, Impossible Burger, and Field Roast are popping up everywhere these days. But with varying quality and questionable ingredients, are you eating something healthy or just crap? Let’s clear the air and answer 8 questions about plant based meat.

What is plant based meat?

Plant-based meat, or meat alternatives, approximates aesthetic qualities or chemical characteristics of specific types of meat. Plant based options include hamburger, chicken, pulled pork, and even shrimp or crab. All of the ingredients are fruits, nuts, grains, legumes, or vegetables.

This is distinctly different than lab-grown meat. This meat starts with animal muscle and then is grown to a larger size in a lab.

How safe is it?

Safety depends a lot on what type of plant based meat you get. Some are full of allergens, like soy, tree nuts, peanuts or gluten. However, no matter how unhealthy the plants, we know that animal protein is also arguably unhealthy, processed meat is listed as a class 1 carcinogen according to the World Health Organization (and this is the same rating given to plutonium, asbestos and cigarette smoking). All red meat is considered a class 2 carcinogen linked to colon, pancreatic, and prostate cancer.

Now the environmental impact of plant based meat versus regular meat is more clearly beneficial. 45% of global surface area is dedicated to raising livestock for meat, according to a 2010 Global Assessment of Water Footprint of Farm animals. 51% of greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock production.

What are some ingredients in plant-based meats?

As I mentioned, soy and gluten are common, but so too are ancient grains like quinoa, millet, and amaranth, beans and legumes like black beans, chickpeas, mung beans, and even potatoes, rice, and red vegetable and fruit extracts like pomegranate and beet juice to provide color. Pea protein is having a major moment as an ingredient in faux meats. This is the base of the spectacularly popular Beyond Meat.

There is another key ingredient making headlines and that is plant based heme in the Impossible Burger. This plant based heme comes from the fermentation of GMO yeast that contains the DNA of soy proteins that produce heme.

Do we have to worry about herbicides in plant-based meats?

For sure the care of the land matters, and it is always better to shift toward organic if there even is anything as organic anymore. You can also avoid genetically modified plants. Whether you agree that genetic modification is a threat to human health, glyphosate is regularly sprayed on genetically modified plants. We know from multiple studies that glyphosate disrupts gut bacteria. Some data suggests that it increases the risk of anxiety and depression.

But here’s the thing about gut bacteria. If worried about herbicides, consider what meat does to gut bacteria. When you eat a diet that is meat based, gut bacteria shifts to bacteria that are more likely to produce a pro-inflammatory TMAO.

When we eat a diet that is high in meat, we eat a diet high in carnitine and choline. Since we have lots of carnitine in our guts, we recruit bacteria that metabolize carnitine and choline. Gut bacteria convert carnitine to trimethylamine, and then the liver converts it to TMAO. TMAO then reduces the absorption of cholesterol in arteries and accelerates atherosclerotic plaque growth.

You also have to consider the concentration of toxins up the food chain. So if there is herbicide in the grass, and the cow eats it, it concentrates in the cow meat and the cow’s milk, and when we consume it, it concentrates in us.

Why is fake meat now becoming a craze?

Newer, cutting edge products that cook more like meat, taste and have the texture of meat, and even ‘bleed’ like meat mean that more people are willing to try.

There are prominent athletes, like Venus Williams, David Carter, Scott Jurek, and actors, like Woody Harrelson, Liam Hemsworth, Portia de Rossi, and Jessica Chastain, bringing awareness to the issue.

Furthermore, many documentaries, such as Forks Over Knives, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, Cowspiracy, and What the Health, have flooded the market touting the benefits of plant based diets, and also showing the mistreatment of animals, the governmental links between big agriculture, big ranching, and regulatory bodies, and the major environmental impact of animal consumption.

People motivated by the by health, the environment, or animal rights issues may convert to 100% plant-based eaters. But the craze is because of emergence of plant-based meats that are less hippie dippy and more approachable.

Why eat plant-based meat?

Some people want to try a #meatlessmonday for social media, and others make plant-based eating a key part of life. Eating plants helps:

1. Decreased body weight
2. Reduced risk of coronary heart disease
3. Decreased waist and hip circumference
4. Decreased blood pressure
5. Decrease in total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL, ‘bad’) cholesterol
6. Reduced risk of diabetes and metabolic syndrome
7. Increased testosterone in men
8. Improved erectile dysfunction

What major companies are backing this plant-based meat craze?

Big name investors like Bill Gates, Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers, and Twitter fund Beyond Meat. Tyson Foods purchased a five percent stake in Beyond Meat in 2016. Beyond Meat had a the best initial public offering of 2019. The stock price tripled within 3 days, and the company’s value at the time of this writing was $4.4 billion.

Impossible Foods has a total of $687.5 million in funding from backers including Bill Gates, Serena Williams and Katy Perry.

Does eating plant-based meat increase the risk of protein or vitamin deficiencies?

When you eat a plant based diet, the biggest vitamin deficiency risk is Vitamin B12. Studies suggest that vegans have lower serum B12, and up to 50% of vegans may be deficient. If you decide to eat a plant-based diet, taking a B vitamin supplement is quick, simple, and readily available. This ensures that you have adequate B12.

Protein deficiency is, in my opinion, a myth of not eating meat. I have never seen a study to suggest that humans require meat to get adequate protein. Only very impoverished areas of the third world truly need to worry about protein deficiencies. Studies conclude that even people who eat 100% plant-based diets over consume protein daily. Protein consumption is dramatically higher than recommended in boys and men aged 14-70 years old.

In the same study, vegans and vegans consumed significantly more iron per 1000 calories. Even better, the iron is the in non-heme form of iron that is less likely to cause iron toxicity.

I agree with the American Dietitians Association and Canadian Dietician Association. Vegetarian diets are healthy for people of all races, ages, and genders.

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Have you tried plant-based meat? If not, try this recipe for Beyond Meat Bolognese and Vegan Baked Ziti.