Sweet Earth Santa Fe Veggie Burgers.

To put it simply, there are A LOT of REALLY good veggie burgers on the market these days. Everything I have tried over the past couple of years has been a home run. From soy free to grain based, there are just so many options these days and I am loving them all 🙂

So with all that said, let’s talk about Sweet Earth and their Santa Fe Veggie Burger. Top Notch. If you are into the whole ‘Santa Fe’ thing, this will be your joint.

Made with black beans, sweet potatoes, green chili’s and flax seeds, this burger is .25 pound and it offers up an impressive 17 grams of protein. Those ingredients are rounded off with a ton of spices and some quinoa, barley and brown rice for good measure.

Add to all that these are non-gmo, have 6 grams of fiber, 70 % of daily Vitamin A needs, 25% of daily Vitamin C needs, 15% of daily Iron and 6% of daily calcium. Not bad for a bunch of plants. All this health clocks in at 230 glorious calories. Cholesterol free too boot.

I have seen these in the frozen foods section of grocery stores as well as in the refrigerated section. So keep an eye out next time you are shopping.

http://www.sweetearthfoods.com/

Stay Chizzle,

M.

Eat Here : PositiviTea

New Jersey has really been stepping up its veg game as of late. Which is good cuz in my humble, everything else about NJ is straight, half steppin as of late.

NJ is a crazy place, it’s just nuts. I guess you kind of have to live here to get the full on ‘Jersey Experience’ which is not all that fun at times and never for the faint of heart.

With that said, if you do end up in my state and manage to navigate your way around without having a heart attack or losing a rim, tire or suspension on one of our infamous pot holes…you must check out PositiviTea.

Nestled in downtown Verona, this little spot is truly a gem. Wraps, burgers, waffles, teas and soft serve make this the perfect place to eat till your vegan hearts content. Their burgers are black bean based, their wraps are made with a chickpea based protein and their soft serve in N’Ice Cream, which is off the hook.

Everyone that works at PositiviTea is nice and the place is always clean. Their produce and food are all top-notch (think Whole Foods produce) and everything is prepared fresh to order.

I have been going here almost once a week lately since it’s only like 5 miles from my house. The food is consistently good and I have navigated my way thru many of their meals but I will say their ‘Drunkin Chicken’ is my favorite. And since we all know I can’t say no to sweets, for dessert, I go with an ‘All Jersey’ N’Ice cream sundae.

So next time you find yourself in NJ do yourself a favor, stay of out of the left lane then head to PositiviTea 😉

http://iampositivitea.com/

550 Bloomfield Avenue Verona NJ 07044 (973) -239 -2020

Monday thru Friday – 11am – 9pm Saturday 10am – 9pm Sunday 10am – 6pm

Stay Chizzle,

M.

True Joy Sweets.

I figure why not chat about candy today? EVERYONE loves candy and if you don’t…send me some of that will power 😉

Today we are pimpin True Joy Sweets. All natural, vegan, non-gmo, Kosher, organic and gluten free, this candy company offers something for everyone.

I just learned about True Joy Sweets last week. I copped a box of their candy canes because for me, regular candy canes have too much garbage in them, including red coloring. I am very much against red food colorings. Not only are they usually petro or crushed bug based but they also give me an awful headache. Obviously I was psyched when I saw that True Joy uses fruit juice as the red coloring for their candy canes. Score one for this sweet toothed veg head.

Not limited to only candy canes, True Joy Sweets make fruit chews and choco chews. I have yet to see these in the flesh but when I do, you know I will be copping them.

So keep your eyes open for True Joy Sweets next time you are at your local natural grocer or your local Whole Foods. They are worth a try plus it is nice to support a small business like True Joy who on top of making organic vegan candies are also part of the 1% for the Planet organization.

http://www.trujoysweets.com/

Stay Chizzle,

M.

Dear ‘Ethical Meat Eater’, Just Stop It.

Dear ‘Ethical’ Meat Eater,

Does it matter if the dead animal you are eating was factory farmed or free range?

NO. SO JUST STOP IT.

What you are eating is DEAD. No matter how it was raised it was KILLED. So you could EAT IT.

SO JUST STOP IT.

Does that dead piece of bloody flesh care whether it got to graze in a friggin field or whether it was abused in a factory farm?

NO. SO JUST STOP IT.

That animal is already dead cuz of your blood lust so if you think you are all ‘ethical’ cuz it WAS ‘free range’…

JUST STOP IT.

Stay Chizzle,

M.

Earth Science.

Earth Science came on my radar a couple of months ago when I gifted a bottle of their Olive Oil and Avocado Hair Masque by the lovely woman who straightens and cuts my hair.

She is older and old school so I knew it was going to be a good product. But I was not prepared for how well my hair took to it. No residue, no harsh smell, nothing weighing my hair down. All around, all good.

Like my skin and my taste buds, my hair is picky. It happens to adore this hair masque and since it’s all natural, paraben free and not tested on animals, I have a feeling it is something I will be keeping around.

For over 30 years this still family owned business has been churning out high quality, cruelty free beauty care. I can’t stay I have much experience with this brand outside of this specific product I am currently using but natural and cruelty free are good enough reasons for me to share their 4-1-1 with you all.

http://earthsciencenaturals.com/

Stay Chizzle,

M.

http://earthsciencenaturals.com/

It’s A Queens Thing.

Queens, New York holds a special place in my heart, in fact I know for fact that I am who I am because I lived, worked, loved and breathed in Queens. Jersey made me but Queens molded me.

I LOVE QUEENS.

So when I read that PS 244 in Queens was the first public school in the US to go full veg, it made my lips smile and my heart sing.

What started as a 3 day a week experiment has now turned into a full-time situation. All meals served at PS 244 are vegetarian and the kids are down. In fact they took it from a 3 day menu to a 5 day menu because they noticed that the children where actually gravitating towards the vegetarian meals.

PS 244 is an elementary school that deals with Pre-K thru 3rd Grade. How rad is it that these little ones are being exposed to vegetarian eating at least once a day? At school to boot. I think this is very bad ass and I applaud everyone involved. Including these kids who have shown to have stellar taste in food.

The best part of this story is that once the vegetarian diet was implemented at school, amazing results followed. Not only did attendance approve, teachers saw a jump in energy and excitement in the kids, as well as better focus and attention spans. And just when you think it couldn’t get any better, their test results improved, all across the board.

In addition to their vegetarian lunches, the students of PS 244 also take weekly nutrition classes that teach them about healthy eating. In 1 semester the obesity rates of the children in the school dropped 2% and these days the children go home and teach their parents about healthy eating.

I cannot get behind anything more than I can get behind this. Beautiful all around.

Saving the planet, saving the children, saving the animals and saving some coin.

Principal Robert Groff is the mo-fo man.

And as L.L. Cool J said…It’s A Queens Thing.’

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/vegging-better-school-article-1.1486681

Stay Chizzle,

M.

 

Bold Organics Vegan Cheese Pizza.

I LOVE pizza. Adore it. But I have never loved or adored cheese. And now a days cheese does not like me either. So we have parted ways for the most part.

But frozen pizza is just so easy and I missed it. I tried many others but nothing ever really did it for me.

Until I was suggested Bold.

We have a winner.

Dairy free, egg free and gluten free. This pizza is also small and expensive but in the not-so-tasty world of frozen vegan pizza, it takes the cake.

The sauce is excellent, the crust is thin and the soy based cheese does not over take the rest of the pizza.

If you can find it, at least try it once, it’s worth every penny.

http://bold-organics.com/portfolio/gluten-free-dairy-free-vegan-cheese-pizza/

Stay Chizzle,

M.

So Does Coconut Oil REALLY Stop Grey Hair….

There is so much myth, magic and truth about coconut oil on the web and in the press these days. Some of the ‘miraculous’ claims seem too good to be true and I am sure most are. Or are they not?

Let me proceed…

Last year, almost exactly 1 year ago I decided to start using coconut oil on my hair every night as a leave in conditioner. Prior to this my hair was a brittle, breaking mess due to high mineral content in my new town’s water and not enough conditioning.

I also knew that I had 3 grey hairs, maybe 2. I do not dye my hair and at age 34 I know that (in the words of Robert Nesta Marley) ‘one day ‘da bottom gon drop out’ so I was curious to see if I could stop that number of greys right where it stood.

I have used coconut oil every single night for 1 year and these are my results…

Now a days, my hair does not break and I have not seen a split end in a year.

My hair grows 2x as fast as it did without coconut oil. My hair is growing almost 1 inch a month, no joke, I just measured my regrowth and I had 2.75 inches in 3 months.

My hair also feels really clean, even when it’s dirty it still feels cleaner over all, as does my scalp.

My hair never feels dry, is way less frizzy and it’s easy to manage.

And I can now safely say that yes, I have 2 grey hairs. No, they did not go away but I can say for 100% positive, I did not get anymore grey hairs in the past year (I will be 35 in June) and I am giving those props to a veg diet and coconut oil on the hair/scalp every night.

So how does one do this…

I simply keep a jar of coconut oil next to my bathroom sink and scoop out 2 teaspoons, mush it in my hands, glob it in my hair, massage scalp for a hot minute then comb through with wide tooth comb.

Sleep on it and then wash hair 2x in the morning to get rid of the oil residue.

Then I keep it moving.

Cheap, natural and easy.

This was simply my experience over the past year.

Stay Chizzle,

M.

Steve Martin On Being Vegetarian…

“When I see bacon, I see a pig, I see a little friend, and that’s why I can’t eat it. Simple as that.”

And Steve, that’s why you are the mo-fo man.

Make These : Easiest Black Bean Tacos Ever.

I am obsessed with this ‘I can’t believe it’s not a real recipe’ for black bean tacos. I don’t really like beans but I adore black beans and in this recipe they make the perfect ground beef replacement.

This recipe I just kind of made up, it makes about 6 tacos which serves 2 hungry adults. I get all my supplies for this recipe from Trader Joe’s because they have organic taco shells and organic black beans at really great prices and their taco seasoning mix is spicy which I love and their salsa is chunky.

For well under $10 you can have this amazingly healthy and tasty dinner in about 15 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 Package of taco shells

1 Jar of salsa

1 Packet of taco seasoning mix

1 Can of black beans

Directions:

Open beans, drain out the liquid and dump them into a pot which will be simmering over med heat

Open salsa and drain out excess liquid, add to beans in the pot.

Open taco seasoning mix, use about .5 the package, mix into pot then adjust to your taste preference.

Simmer over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes.

Toast the taco shells for 2 minutes in an oven set to 350.

Remove taco shells, fill with the goodness and then enjoy the easiest black bean tacos ever.

Stay Chizzle,

M.