With each passing day, healthy living continues to get more and more attention. Be it a newly vegan celebrity touting the health benefits of their new diet to a slew of products coming to the marketplace for all sorts of special diets, it’s all very exciting.

Now pizza giant, Dominos Pizza, has joined the special diet fold by offering a gluten free pizza crust option! While they can’t guarantee that pizzas won’t come in contact with gluten products due the pizzas being prepped and cooked in close proximity to non-gluten free pies, the dough itself is 100% gluten free. Meaning that for highly sensitive sufferers of celiac disease, there is a small chance there could be some contact with gluten but for those who aren’t as sensitive, it’s a-ok!

It’s wonderful to see big chains listening to their consumers like Starbucks adding soy for Frappucinos, The Yard House rolling our veggie items nation wide and others, it’s only going to get better for all who follow special diets. Now Dominos, how about a dairy free, vegan cheese option? Pretty please?

No matter what, we all need gum sometimes ; )
Be it to help with air pressure on a flight, freshen up breath,
or as an attempt to stave off hunger,
gum is always a smart thing to have on hand.
But conventional gum brands are either full of chemicals
and nasty sugar or worse, the sugar free varieties
contain aspartame. All bad things to ingest.
However Pur Gum is all natural, sugar free and even diabetic friendly
as it’s made with plant based Xylitol.
Great tasting and better for you,
check out my video review below!

First of all, The Healthy Voyager loves Chef Cat Cora for a number of reasons.
Not only is she a great healthy iron chef, she loves The Healthy Voyager’s Global Kitchen Cookbook!
But seriously, she rocks and just released her awesome
new line of delicious and healthy products, Cat Cora’s Kitchen.
I absolutely love the high quality and incredible taste and I know
you will too!
One lucky winner will get to enjoy her fantastic Premium Organic Olive Oil,
Corfu Cooking Sauce and Lemon and Oregano Seasoned Black Olives Snack Pack!
How to enter our Cat Cora’s Kitchen Giveaway:

• Leave a comment telling us why you’d love to try Cat Cora’s new line of healthy goodies!
  Be sure to leave your email as well so that I may contact the winner.
• Please like us on Facebook
• Please Follow us on Twitter
  Winners will be chosen next Monday, May 21st by random.org.
  Deadline for Entering is 11:59 PM PST, Sunday, May 20th.
  Good luck!!
  xoxo
  **We do not share your email with anyone nor do we add you to our mailing list
  **Only entries from the U.S. and Canada are eligible to win**

I love road trips and I love popping into cool, small towns that I might not have had the chance to visit had I just stuck to big cities. New Braunfels is that kind of place just outside of San Antonio in Texas Hill Country. Settled by German immigrants in the mid-1800′s, this quaint Texas town is home to the insanely awesome water park Schlitterbahn, as well as some cool bars and shops. It feels all American with touches of old Europe and even some yummy and healthy vegan eats!

I’ll start with dessert! 2tarts Bakery is a hip bakery that offers up tasty treats for all sorts of special diet sweet toothers. Conventional baked goods along with vegan and gluten free offerings, 2tarts is a great place to get your sweet on and hang with friends. I love that they are open late, are in the heart of downtown and rock dessert like nobodies business! They even do catering and weddings! I had the good fortune of stumbling upon them and devouring a giant vegan chocolate peanut butter cup! Yumm!! Be sure to stop in and say hi to the baking sisters of 2tarts for a treat.

A really cool place, not far from 2tarts, is Liberty Bistro. Located in the basement of the old city hall building, this all American bistro serves up some neat dishes in a unique setting. Sit in an old vault while sipping wine or in the main dining room while checking out the old photos and don’t forget to delve into their menu. Lots of healthy salads and easily veganizable dishes, it’s a neat environment for a meal. I had a tasty pats with an even more tasty salad and then asked around about ghost stories! And yeah, I got an earful!

If you’re looking for a drink, some more history and some great food, The Phoenix Saloon is your place. Not only is the Phoenix the birthplace of chili, oh yeah, it’s been serving up drinks since 1871. The bar was the first in Texas to serve women and even had an alligator pit for unruly customers. While it graciously serves all kinds of people and unruly customers just get kicked out onto the sidewalk now, the Phoenix has great veggie options. Veggie chili (of course), veggie burgers and fun sides, this historic gastropub is a must visit!

On the lighter side, you’ll find Naturally. A fresh juice bar and bakery, you can grab a sandwich, salad or even a healthy kids meal there too. Lots of healthy options along with vegan and gluten free, Naturally is the perfect place for a light and quick meal or snack.

My time in New Braunfels may have been quick but the experience will last forever. I’m a sucker for history and it’s even better when wrapped in awesome food! Stop in for Schlitterbahn and stay for some food and spirits!!

We’re teetering on the boundaries of spring and summer so why not combine garden fresh vegetables with the grill? Perfect as a delicious appetizer or a fun afternoon snack, this veggie bruschetta is bursting with flavor and nutrition. Fun to make with kids, even better with a glass of wine, haha! Enjoy!

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small red onion, finely chopped
• 1 eggplant, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce, tamari or Bragg’s liquid Aminos
• 1 cup chopped artichoke (about the contents of 1 can)
• 3 large roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 handful basil
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 10 black olives, pitted and chopped
• salt and black pepper, to taste
• Loaf of french bread (or crusty bread of choice), sliced and lightly grilled, for serving

1. Saute the onion in a skillet with the oil (use vegetable broth instead of oil for a lower calorie dish)

2. Turn up the heat, add the eggplant and stir-fry until soft, approximately 10 minutes. Lower the heat, add the garlic, tamari, artichoke and tomatoes, followed by the basil, mustard, and olives. Gently saute for a further 5 minutes.

3. Season and serve on grilled French bread or crusty bread slices.

It’s mom’s special day so what will you do to show her how much you love and appreciate her? Well, if you’re stumped on what to get her outside of making heror taking her to a nice meal, here are some of my favorite gift ideas that will not only put a smile on mom’s face but also keep her healthy, happy and green!

Goodies and Gifts

• Heart of Haiti – Mom will love these handmade home decoratives, jewelry and other fun things that are not only beautiful, but help the people of Haiti thrive.
• Amy Kathryn Bags – Give mom a beautiful, eco and vegan handbag that is stylish and compassionate all in one!
• Elysian Organics – Mom will smell and feel like a million bucks with this delicious line of healthy, eco, vegan and organic body care products.
• Allison’s Gourmet – You can never go wrong with a box of sweet vegan treats!
• Cri de Coer Shoes – New shoes will make any mom blush, especially when they are green and cruelty free!
• H&M’s Green Line – H&M has delved into the green world so mom will love her stylish new green threads!
• 360 Cookware – Help mom cook her great food even healthier with this stae-of-the-art cookware.
• Alima Pure Makeup - Keep her beautiful face shining for years to come with this all natural, cruelty-free, organic makeup!

Services and Activities

• Gift certificate to Compassion Couture - Let her shop to her hearts desire the eco and conscious way
• Gift certificate to an organic spa – All ladies love a day of pampering, especially an uber healthy one!
• Gift certificate to a local healthy cooking class – Sure, mom’s cooking rocks but she’ll love a class to learn that specialty kind of cooking she’s always wanted to master!
• Gift certificate for a green maid service – Give mom the day off from the cleaning and have someone come in to green it up!
• Send mom to an eco bed & breakfast – With her man or her girlfriends, she is sure to love this little getaway, complete with a yummy breakfast in bed ; )

No matter what you gave mom, she is sure to love it. Enjoy your time with mom and don’t let Mother’s Day be the only day you remember to celebrate her! Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms of the world!

This Mother’s Day, show mom as well as Mother Earth
how much you love her by gifting her a pair of Chipkos sandals!
Available at the awesome Vshoen online store,
Chipkos Original Sandals are inspired by the classic Indian Osho chappal, which first became popular in the 1960s in the ashram scene of India.
In India, Oshos represent a a connection with the Earth, spiritual awareness, and mindful thought.
Chipkos are comfortable yet durable sandals that can be worn for urban dwelling or outdoor adventuring.
They are 100% vegan and are produced with low impact, environmentally friendly materials.
For each pair of Chipkos sandals that you buy, Chipkos will protect 100 square feet of an endangered rain forest.
And thanks to the wonderful folks at Vshoen, one lucky winner
will enjoy a pair of Chipkos to rock all summer long!
How to enter our Vshoen Chipkos Giveaway:
Leave a comment telling us why you’d love a pair of Chipkos!
Be sure to leave your email as well so that I may contact the winner. Winners will be chosen next Monday, May 13th by random.org.
Deadline for Entering is 11:59 PM PST, Sunday, May 12th.
Good luck!!
xoxo
**We do not share your email with anyone nor do we add you to our mailing list
**Only entries from the U.S. and Canada are eligible to win**

So in honor of Mother’s Day I thought I’d showcase
one of my favorite items for new moms!
The Baby Bullet is a one-stop-shop for all of your
DIY baby food making needs!
Totally BPA free with everything you need to make single servings
to a batches to last you the whole week long,
The Baby Bullet is a fantastic gift
or investment for new parents!
Check out my video review below!

My mom and I hammin' it up in 1982!

It’s the day we ask mom to stop, relax, kick her feet up and be pampered by the very people she pampers all year long. Be sure you shower her with gifts, take her to be primped at her favorite spa and finish the day with a lovely meal. Check out these healthy and vegan Mother’s Day recipes as well as last year’s brunch menu!

Pink Le-MOM-Ade

• 10 sliced lemons
• 2 cups raspberries
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 6 cups water
• 2 1/4 cups tequila (optional)
• Mint, for garnish

Combine lemons, raspberries, and sugar in a large pot. Pound the mixture firmly with a large wooden spoon, extracting as much juice as possible, about 10 minutes. Stir in water. Pour through a sieve into a large bowl. Press the solids until all juice is extracted. Discard the solids, stir in tequila and serve over ice.

Water-Cado Salad

• 2 avocados, pitted and peeled and cut into small chunks – about 1/2 inch
• 1 1/2 lbs. watermelon, seeded and cut into small/med chunks – about 1 inch
• 2 limes, juiced
• 1/2 red onion, peeled and sliced thin
• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste

Add all ingredients into a bowl and toss gently.

R & R Risotto

• 3 quarts water
• 1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 1 stick vegan butter
• 8 ounces mixed fresh mushrooms, such as porcini, chanterelle, and oyster, sliced if large
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 cups Arborio or Carnaroli rice
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup grated vegan Parmesan (recipe below)

Bring water, dried porcini mushrooms and peppercorns to a boil in a medium pot. Reduce heat, and simmer gently for 1 hour. Strain stock (you should have 7 to 8 cups); discard solids. Return to pot; cover to keep warm.

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook mixed mushrooms until tender and slightly browned all over, about 3 minutes; transfer to a plate.

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion until tender and translucent, about 5 minutes. Season with salt. Stir in rice, and cook until coated, 1 to 2 minutes. Add wine, and cook until almost completely absorbed, 3 to 4 minutes.

Ladle 1 cup reserved stock over rice, and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until almost completely absorbed. Continue adding stock, 1 cup at a time, stirring constantly and waiting for each addition to be almost completely absorbed before adding the next, until grains are al dente but not crunchy, about 30 minutes. (You’ll probably only use 6 to 7 cups stock. Add remaining stock to loosen the risotto, if desired.)
Remove from heat, and season with salt and pepper. Stir in remaining 2 tablespoons butter and the vegan Parmesan. Top risotto with sauteed mushrooms (reheat if necessary), and garnish with some more Parmesan.

Vegan Parmesan

• 1 cup soaked and dried Brazil nuts
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• ⅓ teaspoon salt
• Pinch nutritional yeast
• Pinch oregano

Place all ingredients in a food processor with the “S” blade on. Process until well incorporated and the consistency of bread crumbs.

Sweet and Spicy Sorbet Sandwiches

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted vegan butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup plus 5 teaspoons sugar, plus more for rolling and flattening
• 1 egg replacer
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped candied ginger
• 1 pint vegan strawberry sorbet
• 1 pint vegan lemon sorbet

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk flour, ground ginger, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves in a bowl.

With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in egg replacer, then add molasses and candied ginger. Reduce speed. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Wrap dough in plastic, and refrigerate until slightly firm, 15 minutes.

Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop, drop balls of dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Roll each one in sugar, and return to sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Using the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar, press dough to flatten into 3-inch rounds. Bake until edges are golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool completely.

Sandwich one scoop of sorbet with 2 cookies. Repeat, alternating sorbet flavors. Serve immediately, or freeze in airtight containers up to 3 hours.

While in Austin, I had the pleasure if attending 2 incredible events on the same day! The first part of the day, I spent at Austin’s first VegFest, eating great vegan food, jammin’ out to awesome local bands and meeting lots of Texas veggies. My next stop was at a locl farm that was also hosting a first time event, the Farms to Forks Immersion event, hosted by none other than Rip Esselstyn. Both were fantastic and a damn cool way to spend a day in Texas!

I’ll start with the inaugural Texas VegFest! Held on a lovely Spring day at Fiesta Gardens, this first time event sure didn’t feel like one! Run smoothly by local vegans, the event was bustling with excited attendees from the moment the doors opened at 11am.

The event boasted some great live music, popular brands as well as some newbies in the vegan world. I was super honored to be asked to sign copies of my cookbook, The Healthy Voyager’s Global Kitchen at the Helen’s Kitchen booth. They were sampling their new vegan ground beef while I signed the day away. Not a bad gig for a hot day!

I did get to check out some of the other booths an saw that some of my faves were there like Daiya Cheese, Vitamix, Whole Foods, Mrs. Meyer’s Soap, Herbivore Clothing and Food For Lover’s Vegan Queso. But I also got to meet some new goodies like the guys of NadaMoo Vegan Ice Cream, Qrunch Quinoa Burgers, Purrfect Pineapple’s Vegan Lingerie, Smirking Chicks Vegan Baby Food and Capital City Bakery. And the biggest surprise was seeing Miami’s own vegan food truck, Mac’n Food, dishin’ up goodies for hungry Texans!

All in all, Texas VegFest was a big success and I know that it’s just going to keep getting bigger and better in the coming years!

On a different side of the spectrum, I was delighted to have been invited to get a sneak peek of an incredible new event called Farms to Forks. The folks that brought you Forks Over Knives and the incomparable Rip Esselstyn, the man behind the Engine 2 Diet and upcoming line of food, have joined forces to create this “immersion”. An intensive weekend, in a beautiful farm setting, where 200 strangers are brought together to learn all about the health benefits of a plant storing diet. From in depth cooking demos to hearing experts in their fields (Rip and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, T, Colin Campbell, Jeff Novick and more) talk about all aspects of a healthy, whole foods, plant based diet as well as dining in nature over beautiful plant based meals, it is an experience like no other.

I had the good fortune to pop in during dinner and had the chance to dine with Rip, his mother and one of my personal heroes, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. The meal was nutritious, delicious and served in idyllic setting. All I could see was a sea of faces dining happily on what would be a life changing meal. Truly a sight to behold and I was giddy as a school girl to be witnessing it.

Farms to Forks will be holding immersions just like the one I was able to experience all over the country and farm settings, 4 times a year. be sure to catch one at a city near you, you won’t regret it!

And that’s a wrap on Austin eats and it’s cool events…for now!