Cucumber Cooler

Half a cucumber, halved lengthways
3 carrots, peeled
3 celery stalks, tops trimmed off

Tip: Fruit juices are great for overall health. At first it takes a little time to get used to the taste, but eventually you’ll get there. Just think of all those health benefits! Another tip is to mix your fruit juice with a little natural apple juice (juice apples along with the veggies) to give it a sweeter taste.

Juice according to juice instructions and enjoy!

Apple Carrot Zinger

This is the perfect first time juice as it’s relatively easy to get used to the taste.

4 carrots, peeled
2 apples, cored and chopped
Sprinkle of ginger

Tip: Fruit juices are great for overall health. At first it takes a little time to get used to the taste, but eventually you’ll get there. Just think of all those health benefits! Another tip is to mix your fruit juice with a little natural apple juice (juice apples along with the veggies) to give it a sweeter taste.

Juice according to juice instructions and enjoy!

Fruit & Veggie Facts:

Carrots are rich in betacarotene which is good for the skin and eyes, as well as the immune system.
The pectin in apples may help lower cholesterol
Ginger can help with morning sickness, nausea and also migraines.Cucumbers are a strong diuretic and may help lower blood pressure. Perfect for when you’re retaining water.
Celery contains compounds called pthalides which helps regular blood pressure. Also a good diuretic.
Carrots are great for the skin and eyes.

(You may not reprint this article.)

Keep up with what’s happening at Mom’s Talk Network, by clicking here.

We all attend family reunions, weddings, outings, and other gatherings where food will be a star. When you are a vegan it is important to know ahead of time what to expect where food is concerned. This way you are not shocked when you arrive and see a meat buffet with no salad or fresh vegetables.

Eating out at a restaurant has become much easier for vegans. With healthy living taking front and center in America and more people jumping the meat ship, restaurants are now learning the power of meeting the demand for a vegan friendly menu. You can often go into a restaurant and find a section just for vegans or vegetarians. If you ask, the chef will often work with you in creating a vegan friendly meal. As a matter of fact my 15 year old son is the reason why our favorite Thai restaurants in Chicago now serves Bangkok Tofu. Chinese, Indian, African and other ethnic restaurants all have vegan menus.

The other option is to find restaurants that only serve vegan cuisine. Here in Chicago, there are many vegan dining spots and the same is also true of place like San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.

If you are going to an event such as wedding, ask ahead of time what will be served or if there will be vegan friendly dishes. It is not rude to ask and it will help you to determine if you need to eat before attending. Or if you are going to a more relaxed or potluck type of event you can volunteer to bring a dish or two.

What about the kids? If they are invited over to a friend’s house for a day at pool, how can you make sure that they will eat what they are accustomed to?

Rule number one is to always ask. The next thing you should do is volunteer to bring food that is similar to what is being served. This way your child will not feel like an outcast and may some of his friends will enjoy what you bring. It is also important that you explain to your child why they need to adhere to the diet they are used to. Explain the dangers of illnesses when we eat food that our bodies are not used to.

Eating out is not as difficult for a vegan as one might think. With all of the great vegan friendly products out there on the market, there are many vegans who can enjoy the luxury of being served every once in a while and leave the kitchen clean up to some one else.

LaTara Ham-Ying is owner of Vegan Family Living.

Keep up with what’s happening at Mom’s Talk Network, by clicking here.

I met my husband over the internet.

You never know what a person looks like, even after all the pictures and the phone calls. So when he told me he had been a vegan for over 14 years, the picture in an email he sent me went out the window.

That picture was of a chunky man of 5’9″ who weighed about 250lbs. I thought that maybe that picture was an outdated one. I had never met a fat vegan.

So when he came to visit me, I was shocked to see this chunky man get out of the car. How can that be if you are a vegan? What I found out was that my husband was a carb junkie and loved juice. That is why he stayed heavy.

He was eating chips, potatoes, French fries, and drank a half gallon or more of juice per day. Pasta was one of his favorites and it was not whole wheat.

He was a vegan disaster.

Sure he ate fruit and vegetables, but he still ate things that he knew he should not eat. He was full of excuses as to why he did it too. I just could not win when I tried to get him to see that the carbs and juice were not his friends. I knew this well because they were my weakness too.

After we got married, I made sure to take control of the grocery list and the basket. I wanted to lose weight and it was going to be too much of a struggle with all those junky goodies sitting in my face.

When I shopped I would not buy the bad carbs and I only purchased 100% juice. But my husband would stop at the store and get the sugar laden liquids and a bag of chips. Some nights he would even come in the house with fries doused in bar-b-que sauce from our favorite place. It was a nightmare for me and did not think he would ever get the picture.

But he did.

Today we don’t bring all the junk in the house. We are more organic and whole food eaters. My husband has lost 35 pounds since he got rid of the carb junk and he is looking good.

So if you want to be a vegan, please remember to pay attention to what you eat because Vegans can be fat too!

- LaTara Ham-Ying is owner of Vegan Family Living.

Keep up with what’s happening at Mom’s Talk Network, by clicking here.

When I was a little girl it always seemed like it took the women in my family all day to cook a meal. And don’t let it be a holiday; then it was a two day event. As the years went by and I learned more and more cooking techniques I started seeing ways to create shortcuts that helped cut my cooking time in half.

As a Vegan Coach and Cook, people are always asking for simple meal tip ideas. Quick ways to create healthy meals. Easy enough I always say!

My philosophy is the quicker the better.

You see all you need are a few key items to make quick meals for those busy days. I do it often because my days are precious to me and as much as I love to cook, I don’t want to be doing it all day long. We all need to find ways to make cooking fun without all the additional fuss.

So what do you need. Here is a simple list for some delicious mexican meals to get you going:

• Organic Canned Beans
• Vegetarian Chili
• Tortilla Chips
• Brown Rice
• Salsa
• Onions
• Garlic
• Celery
• Bell Peppers
• Boca Crumbles
• Canned Olives

With just those few items you can create simple quick meals that everyone will enjoy.

For example using chili, tortilla chips, salsa, onions, garlic, bell peppers and celery you can make a very nacho meal. Cook a pot of rice and open a canned of black or green olives to add to the plate. This meal will take you about 30 minutes to cook. If you want to do something different try a Mexican pie layering the ingredients between tortilla shells and cooking for about 20 minutes.

Or what about a Taco Salad. Take a can of beans, cook the crumbles with chili, garlic, and onion powder. Add some chopped onions and garlic to the crumble mix. Cook for about 15 minutes. Place the mixture on a bed of lettuce and top with meat mixture, beans, salsa, tomatoes, cilantro and olives.

There are so many ways you can use the ingredients listed to make a meal with a Mexican flair. And you can do the same for just about any meal you want to create. You can make Indian meals, Italian meals, southern favorites or even a smorgasbord of your favorite in less than 30 minutes.

It is really simple to create quick vegan meals. All you need to do is purchase some key ingredients and you have a few 30 minute meals. These meals are wholesome and healthy without the fuss and sweating in the kitchen.

- LaTara Ham-Ying is owner of Vegan Family Living.

Keep up with what’s happening at Mom’s Talk Network, by clicking here.

Although there are many vegan friendly products on the market, there are also many that claim vegan or seem to be vegan friendly; but are in fact hiding a wicked truth. That truth is that there are hidden animal products inside of them. So it is very important to be able to recognize what is in food before it is purchased.

A few tips and tricks for discovering hidden animal products in vegan foods are:

• When purchasing processed foods, look for the cholesterol level in the food. If it reads more than zero, then leave it where it is because it has animal product in it.
• Don’t buy anything that has gelatin because gelatin is made from pig knuckles and other animal bones. It is often found in some gums and even gel tabs. Always look for vitamins that are vegan friendly and whole food to avoid beef -gelled tablets.
• All natural does not mean vegan friendly. Natural products basically mean organic but that does not mean that there are no animal products in them. Think about many of the dairy items on the market. They are not vegan friendly but there are many of them that are natural or organic.
• Read the entire label because sometimes it will tell you that there are animal ingredients in the item you want to purchase.
• Be wary of the alcohol you drink as well because it too may contain animal ingredients.

If you are still confused here are a few of the most common animal ingredients lurking in foods:

• Animal shortening (Butter, suet, lard) – often found in packaged cookies and crackers, refried beans, flour tortillas, ready-made pie crusts. My husband, the vegan for over 20 years has purchased many items that I have picked apart and found these items hiding as hydrogenated something or the other.
• Albumin is the protein component of egg whites. Albumin is also found in animal blood, milk, plants, and seeds. It is used to thicken or add texture to many processed foods.
• Whey if the watery liquid that separates from the solids or curds of milks in cheese-making.
• Natural flavorings that do not say what they are made from can often times be from meat or other animal ingredients and are found in processed and packaged foods.
• Stearic acid (octadecenoic acid) is made from tallow (animal fats) and is found in vanilla flavoring, chewing gum, baked goods, beverages, candy, soaps, ointments, candles, cosmetics, suppositories and pill coatings.

It pays to be a smart shopper when you are trying to be health conscious. If you are vegan it pays to also know what foods may have animal ingredients in them. Now of course it is almost impossible to enjoy products made in the same plants as many products that do have animal ingredients. Hence making it hard to have everything actually be all vegan.

So the wise thing is to just read carefully, pay attention to what goes in your body, and aim for the healthiest vegan foods you can find.

- LaTara Ham-Ying is owner of Vegan Family Living.

Keep up with what’s happening at Mom’s Talk Network, by clicking here.