Good Tips
Cool Recipes to Beat Summer Heat
With much of the U.S. wilting under a heat wave, who feels like cooking? Not I. And I always feel like cooking. Case in point: Last Fall, I came down with COVID a few weeks after my husband had recuperated from his latest bout. My case was mercifully mild (thank you, Moderna). I called my doctor, primarily to learn how long I’d be contagious. My first question: “Will I give my husband COVID if I cook dinner?”
My doctor’s response: “You probably have the same strain he had, so you will not reinfect him, but if you have COVID, and he doesn’t, don’t you think he should be making dinner for you?”
The Plant-Based Nomad: 8 Top Dining Travel Tips
“Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have been the two most beautiful words in the English language,” Henry James wrote in Portrait of a Lady.
I couldn’t agree more. Summer afternoons come in all flavors, from lazing around the backyard reading, to combing the streets of a new city in search of lunch. Whether you’re going to a local beach, a far and distant land, or anywhere in between, I’ve got you covered.
What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking
An insane amount of my brain’s real estate is devoted to food. My internal food-chatter is relentless — while I’m walking my dog, watching a not-very-engaging TV show, or at 3 a.m. trying to fall back asleep. Should I turn my fresh kale into maple-sesame chips, or use it to make Meera Sodha’s luscious Tuscan kale saag? What should I make for the dinner party I’m throwing three weeks from now? Do I have enough dark chocolate chips to make another mousse? Yes, I’ve tried meditation and yogic breathing. Neither works. I’ve come to accept who I am: A woman who loves thinking about, discovering, and cooking creatively flavored plant-based suppers. There are worse habits.
The Shift to Plant-Based Soul Food
Did you know that Black Americans represent the fastest-growing plant-based demographic in the country?
The Pew Research Center reports 8% of Black Americans eat vegetarian or plant-based diets, compared to 3% of the non-Black population. Much of the recent growth is attributed to COVID. Black people were disproportionally affected by the epidemic, due to higher incidences of COVID risk factors like heart disease and diabetes. As a consequence, there’s increasing recognition, within the community, of the relationship between food and health.
Cooking Made Easy: The Ultimate List of Plant-Based Recipe Websites
Every day, I scour the internet in search of plant-based recipes that inspire healthy and flavorful eating. Some websites are culinary goldmines, others, well, less so. I’m excited to refresh my list of top picks and share these culinary gems with you.
All About the Sauce: 5 Simple Saucy Suppers for More Flavor in 2024
January is a big month for making resolutions. Most require us to quit something we find pleasurable. The increasingly popular Veganuary campaign admonishes you to stop eating animal products. Similarly, Dry January demands that you stop drinking alcohol.
This approach has never worked for me. As soon as someone tells me, “don’t eat that!” I crave it even more. Now that we’re a few weeks into 2024, I bet more than a few Veganuary and Dry January participants are chiding themselves for not sticking with their admirable resolutions. Read More
My Road to Climate Change and The Greener Plate Challenge
Over the last dozen years, my husband Max, various dogs, and I have driven from Cambridge, MA to California four times. Last year in California, we felt as if we’d been dropped into a dystopian movie, Climate Change Ground Zero. Read More
10 Tasty Plant-Based Gifts for Every Foodie’s Wishlist
Last year, when my husband Max and I took off on an extended road trip, we rented our house to another family. Which meant we had to empty everything out of our kitchen cabinets, bedroom closets and drawers, the office desk drawers — all of it.
Take a moment to reflect on what that would be like in your home. What did I learn from the experience? We had way too much!
The 7 Best Vegan-ish Cookbooks of 2023
It’s time to update my list of favorite vegan cookbooks. This year, I’m not kicking any of last year’s recommendations off Good News Veg Island. They’re Evergreen Treasures. Some of my new additions have been around for years — it just took me a while to find them. Two are vegetable-forward, not 100% vegan. But both are so good, I had to include them in my list.
Eat Your Values: How Food Can Reduce Your Environmental Footprint
Donald Trump eats meat. Bill Clinton does not.
As a political activist who has attended more gala fundraisers than there are lawsuits against our former Orange President, I often wondered, as my comrades and I were served over-cooked chicken and tough fillet dinners, how can all of these kind-hearted, generous people, who care deeply about alleviating suffering, and the health of our planet — be eating animals?
Good News Veg is a preach-free zone, so I will educate and advise. Want to calculate your carbon FoodPrint?
3 Questions for a Stress-Free Dinner Party
Think about the last time you hosted a dinner party or an extended family meal. At what point while you were cooking or setting the table to be perfectly “just so,” did you think, Why the hell did I decide to do this?
My friend Patti says, “If you don’t hate your guests by the time they arrive, you haven’t worked hard enough.” Dinner Party Hosting Anxiety (DPHA) is a thing, experienced by even the most seasoned host. I blame Martha Stewart.
2023 Guide: 10 Essential Kitchen Tools for Plant-Based Cooks
Last year, I debuted my first annual Essential Cooking Gadgets list for the vegan kitchen, inspired by my friend Jan’s wisdom that the right kitchen tools make all the difference. After trying her velvety New York-style cheesecake (made with her KitchenAid Mixmaster), I was sold. Although I’ve not eaten cheesecake in some time, I have held on to Jan’s advice, and assembled a group of reliable gadgets and appliances that make cooking easier and more fun.
Just Say No! to Cold Turkey
January 1st kicks off yet another Vegan Holiday, this one a monthlong celebration, Veganuary. (We’ve barely had time to recuperate from World Vegan Day, celebrated a mere two months ago!). Vegans are considered by many to be joyless and dour, yet we certainly have busy holiday calendars.
Veganuary is intended to make our New Year’s resolutions lists, up there with Dry January.
I’ll say it loud, and I’ll say it proud: I’m vegan, and I’m anti-Veganuary.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’d be thrilled if hundreds — even dozens — of Good News Veg readers went vegan this month. A good place to start would be the Epicurious 5-Day Comfort Food Meal Plan. Or, read why chef J. Kenji Lopez-Alt (who unapologetically hunts, cooks and eats meat) decided to take the 30-day vegan challenge, how he felt about it halfway through, and the 60 Great Vegan Recipes he created for the task.
Why am I against Veganuary?
My 10 Favorite Cookbooks
In the early days of my learning-to-cook journey, (before Al Gore invented the Internet), I was a sucker for just about any cookbook that had “Vegetarian” in the title. My library was impressive. It took a cross-country move (i.e., packing) for me to realize I didn’t cook from most of those books. Some had a couple dog-eared pages with smears of dried sauce, signifying my go-to recipes. But the rest? Inspired writing, and hunger-inducing, air-brushed food photography do not always translate into useful cookbooks. I gave many of them away. (Today, I’d deposit them in my Little Free Library, but those weren’t invented yet, either).
Now, here’s how I buy a cookbook.