Tuesday, 31 July 2018
15-Minute Cottage Cheese Alfredo Sauce
I was grain-free for a long time (and generally still am) while healing my Hashimoto’s, but my husband is Italian so I knew I had to find a way to still have pasta. This creamy homemade alfredo sauce recipe is delicious over, well, pretty much anything! Alfredo sauce is typically thought of as unhealthy (all that butter...
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Healthy Energy Ball Recipes
Need a quick snack? These healthy, protein-packed energy ball recipes make the perfect snack all week long! All you have to do is throw your favorite energy ball ingredients into a food processor, blend, form into a ball, and enjoy. Check out our favorite energy ball recipes here, as well as a basic energy ball recipe that you...
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from Fit Foodie Finds https://fitfoodiefinds.com/healthy-energy-ball-recipes/
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Monday, 30 July 2018
175: When Natural Doesn’t Mean Safe – Creating Non-Toxic Homes With Green Design Center
There are so many decisions to make when it comes to choosing materials for home building and renovation: color, design, durability, and of course cost. But do we also need to consider whether or not the materials we put in our homes are toxic? Today’s guest Andrew Pace says yes! As a building materials expert he’s...
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Vegan Herbed Tofu Ricotta
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Chocolate Chia Overnight Oats
Get your chocolate fix for breakfast with these deliciously creamy (and healthy!) Chocolate Overnight Oats. This overnight oat recipe is made with rolled oats, chia seeds, maple syrup, almond milk, and a little Greek yogurt! You know what makes Monday’s worth getting up for? These Chocolate Chia Overnight Oats. Are they good for you, you...
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Sunday, 29 July 2018
Nourishing the Way: Feeding the Birds
Excerpt from The Magic Ten and Beyond by Sharon Gannon
The secret to wealth is to give generously to others. Whatever we give will come back to us many times over.
Remembering God and being kind to others is the most important job that any of us has in this life. Being kind to others is the essential ingredient to being able to remember God— to be able to see ultimate reality. Developing kindness and compassion toward others is the sure way to happiness. But how does that work?, you might ask: Doesn’t being kind to others in a charitable way only benefit the others? No. Kindness benefits both the other and yourself. Others do not exist independently; they have come from your past karmas. They only exist in your life because you see them as existing. The Hindu sage Patanjali explains this in the Yoga Sutras: vastu- samye chitta-bhedat tayor vibhaktah panthah PYS IV. 15. This can be translated to mean: each individual person perceives the same object in a different way, according to their own state of mind and projections. Everything is empty from its own side and appears to you according to how you see it.
When you are unkind to someone, you plant a seed to see unkindness. For example, you judge someone as a greedy person. As soon as you think or say that, you plant a seed that will ensure that greedy people will appear in your life.
When you see yourself as poor, as not having enough to be able to share and be generous to others, you plant seeds for seeing yourself as a victim of poverty, and that will become your reality as you continue to nourish that perception of yourself. You have a choice: you can see yourself as an enlightened being or as a victim, but you can’t have both. If you eventually want to see yourself as an enlightened being, then begin that process by seeing others as holy beings. How you treat others will determine how others treat you; how others treat you will determine how you see yourself; how you see yourself will determine who you are.
If you want to rid the world of greed, you must destroy the seeds in your own mind that cause greed to appear in the world. In other words, you must do your best to be kind to others— to take care of others as if they were your own self. Other- centeredness is the secret to overcoming the disease of self-centeredness. Put others before yourself. Be more concerned for the happiness of others than for your own happiness. This will dissolve otherness and reveal the oneness of being.
Kindness is the key to Yoga.
Without the development of kindness toward others, you cannot make progress in yoga. Taking care of others is a sure way to increase your own happiness. When we do things with the intention, first and foremost, of making ourselves happy, we only increase our identification with our small self— our body, mind, and personality. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali cites this identification as the major obstacle to Yoga, calling it avidya, which means ignorance or mistaken identity. The yoga practices are designed to help you drop your self-centered concerns and become more other- centered. Being more other-centered expands your sense of self and increases true self-confidence. If you observe unhappy and depressed people you will find that they usually are self-obsessed. The key to uplifting yourself is to do what you can to uplift the lives of others.
Why birds? When you feed the wild birds, you karmically assure that you will always have enough to eat and that wildness will not die inside you. Birds as well as other wild animals are having a hard time surviving in a world dominated by self-centered human beings. When you nourish wildness in another you keep it alive within yourself. Most people assume that birds, being wild, know how to take care of themselves, and feel that taking care of them should not be our responsibility. But the fact is, we have polluted with pesticides or destroyed most of the wild forests and fields where they might have been able to find an abundance of nourishing food. Birds require so little to live— a few good organic seeds and a couple of drops of fresh water— and while it may not be much, it can mean the difference between life and death for a feathered person.
THE PRACTICE Before you feed yourself— even before you drink a cup of coffee or tea in the morning— feed the birds. Fill up a bird feeder outside your window or at least put some organic seeds or bread crumbs on a windowsill. If wild birds aren’t nearby, feed your cat, dog, or other family member.
—————-
Editor’s note: Published by permission of the author.
from Daily Cup of Yoga http://dailycupofyoga.com/2018/07/29/nourishing-the-way-feeding-the-birds/
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Homemade Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Larabars
With just 4 real-food ingredients, you can make these delicious homemade Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Larabars. This homemade Larabar recipe is vegan & gluten-free and such a perfect on-the-go snack for the kiddos or…you! August is always a nostalgic time of year for me. I still have nightmares that I didn’t actually graduate college. It’s...
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Saturday, 28 July 2018
4-Day Boundary Waters Itinerary
Looking for an active 4-day itinerary for your Boundary Waters trip? This BWCA itinerary offers a base camp and active day trip paddles, fishing recommendations, and delicious healthy camp food recipes. Don’t leave home without this itinerary next time you find yourself headed to the BWCA! WHAT A TRIP. We’re back from our BWCA canoe...
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Friday, 27 July 2018
Why TED takes two weeks off every summer
TED.com is about to go quiet for two weeks. No new TED Talks will be posted on the website until Monday, August 13, 2018, while most of the TED staff takes our annual two-week summer holiday.
Yes, we all, or almost all, go on holiday at the same time. (No, we don’t all go to the same place.)
We’ve been doing it this way now for almost a decade. Our summer break is a little lifehack that solves the problem of a digital media and events company in perpetual-startup mode, where something new is always going on and everyone has raging FOMO. We avoid the fear of missing out on emails and new projects and blah blah blah … by making sure that nothing is going on.
I love how the inventor of this holiday, TED’s founding head of media June Cohen, once explained it: “When you have a team of passionate, dedicated overachievers, you don’t need to push them to work harder, you need to help them rest. By taking the same two weeks off, it makes sure everyone takes vacation,” she said. “Planning a vacation is hard — most of us still feel a little guilty to take two weeks off, and we’d be likely to cancel when something inevitably comes up. This creates an enforced rest period, which is so important for productivity and happiness.”
Bonus: “It’s efficient,” she said. “In most companies, people stagger their vacations through the summer. But this means you can never quite get things done all summer long. You never have all the right people in the room.” Instead, for two weeks — almost no one is.
So, as the bartender said: You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. We won’t post new TED Talks on the website for the next two weeks. (Though we’ll keep serving up great recommendations for talks you already love or might have missed across all our platforms.) The office is more than three-quarters empty. And we stay off email. The whole point is that vacation time should be truly restful, and we should be able to recharge without having to worry about what we’re missing back at the office.
See you on Monday, August 13!
Note: This piece was first posted on July 17, 2014. It was updated on July 27, 2015, again on July 20, 2016, and again on June 23, 2017, and yet again on July 27, 2018.
from TED Blog https://blog.ted.com/why-ted-takes-two-weeks-off-every-summer/
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FOR THE LOVE OF FOOD: The benefits of eating early, alternative milks lose their status, and the best time to exercise
Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.
This week the benefits of eating early, alternative milks lose their status, and the best time to exercise.
Next week’s Mindful Meal Challenge will start again on Monday. Sign up now to join us!
Too busy to read them all? Try this awesome free speed reading app to read at 300+ wpm. So neat!
I also share links on Twitter @summertomato and the Summer Tomato Facebook page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.
Links of the week
- When We Eat, or Don’t Eat, May Be Critical for Health – If you’re a late night eater or a breakfast skipper you need to read this whole thing. (NY Times)
- Los Angeles Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold dies at 57 – What a tragedy. If you aren’t familiar with J Gold’s work, it is worth taking a moment to read how he changed the food scene in LA. (LA Times)
- FDA Defends Decision To Reclassify Alternative Milks As ‘Nut Sweat’ – This is a joke. But only kinda. Another victory for the dairy industry. (The Onion)
- Should You Exercise in the Morning, Afternoon, or Evening? – FYI. (Quick and Dirty Tips)
- Worried about whether your child is eating enough? Some helpful guidelines and advice. – Helpful tips. (Washington Post)
- Several Snack Foods Recalled After Potential Salmonella Risk Identified – Jeez. Seems like nothing is safe anymore. (NY Times)
- Salmonella-tainted raw turkey has sickened 90 across 26 states, CDC says – This one is probably more relevant to you guys than the junk food recall above. (Washington Post)
- Eat less meat: more evidence from climate change and health – “The top 5 meat and dairy companies combined emit more greenhouse gases than ExxonMobile, Shell or BP.” (Food Politics)
- A 4-Day Workweek? A Test Run Shows a Surprising Result – Amazing. Not food related, but certainly relevant to making life awesome. (NY Times)
- Roasted Zucchini, Corn & Basil Salad – Summer in a bowl. (Foraged Dish)
What inspired you this week?
from Summer Tomato http://www.summertomato.com/for-the-love-of-food-the-benefits-of-eating-early-alternative-milks-lose-their-status-and-the-best-time-to-exercise
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Why to Avoid Energy Drinks (& What to Drink Instead)
We can all do with an energy boost sometimes, but store-bought energy drinks are far from the best option. The side effects of popular energy drinks may surprise you. Below I’ll show you how I use natural energy boosters, the scary side effects in energy drinks, and why you won’t see me with one in...
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What’s inside my makeup bag (cruelty-free)
from Oh She Glows https://ohsheglows.com/2018/07/27/whats-inside-my-makeup-bag-cruelty-free/
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Sweet Potato Smoothie
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from Running on Real Food https://runningonrealfood.com/sweet-potato-smoothie/
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Meanstagrams…you’re gonna wanna watch this.
The Internet is a crazy place sometimes. We have gathered some of the most outrageous comments that people have left on our Instagram, on the blog, or on Facebook. Yes, people say mean things all the time and we decided to turn lemons into lemonade. Check out the first edition of MEANSTAGRAMS. Have you ever...
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Thursday, 26 July 2018
Homemade Taco Seasoning Recipe (Secret Family Favorite)
I can get my kids to eat almost anything with ketchup or homemade ranch dressing on top… or if I season it with taco seasoning! In fact, I know many moms who keep taco seasoning packets on hand to use in the thousands of kid-friendly ways suggested by Pinterest. I lived in Texas for much of my...
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174: How to Save Money and Get Better Healthcare With SteadyMD
Today I am here with Yarone Goren who is helping pioneer the future of healthcare. If he has his way, the days of waiting in the doctor’s office (and waiting… and waiting…) should soon be over. Yarone cofounded SteadyMD to give people an on-demand and personalized healthcare option for quality primary care completely online. With SteadyMD...
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Blessing the Way: Giving Blessings
Excerpt from The Magic Ten and Beyond by Sharon Gannon
When we are at peace with the other people in our lives, we can be at peace with ourselves.
The other people in our lives exert a tremendous amount of power over us. Thoughts of them fill our waking and our dreaming life. We become sad, angry, jealous, or depressed by focusing on the faults and shortcomings of others. We dwell on the insensitive way they are treating us or have treated us in the past. We often blame others for why we aren’t succeeding or why we can’t achieve the happiness we deserve. We feel treated unfairly by others, unloved or not loved enough. We think that we deserve better. We often feel sorry for ourselves and long to be surrounded by loving and supportive people who think we are amazing. Right? And our excuse is always, “If only he would stop . . .” or, “If only she didn’t do . . .” We too often feel that other people are in our way— in the way of our happiness. The others in our lives are actually providing us with the way. But we must be willing to see them in that light.
To be free of all the nasty people in your world is possible.
Have faith in the knowledge that all the nasty people in your world can change. But don’t wait for them to change on their own, or you’ll be waiting forever! You must change them yourself. If you want someone to be a holy being, you must see him or her as a holy being. They actually only exist in your own mind anyway. They have come from your own past karmas and appear according to how you see them.
How you see anyone or any situation in your present life is due to your past karmas— how you have treated others, in your past. When the great saint Ramana Maharshi was asked, “How should we treat others?” he replied, in yogic fashion, “There are no others.”
We cannot escape our past karmas— the actions we have already done— but we can start now and do our best to plant the kinds of seeds we want to see grow in the future. Cultivating forgiveness, kindness, and friendliness toward others results in spiritual strength. So much suffering comes from seeing ourselves as a victim of others— as a repository for their selfishness, cruelty, greed, insensitivity, and so forth. We see the world as “out there,” coming at us, instead of taking responsibility and realizing that the world we see outside of us has come from inside us, from how we have treated others in our past. Others provide us with a karmic projection— a mirror in which to see ourselves.
The way of the yogi is to dive deeper. The nature of the eternal soul is joy, and this is the only true reality; everything else is temporary. When one realizes the nature of his or her own soul they discover the true Self— that which can never be harmed by anyone. Through the practice of giving blessings to others you come closer to the experience of the power of your own soul— the power of goodness.
When we hug someone we pull them toward us and hold them against our heart. We communicate that we want to be at peace with them, and that we wish them well. To hug someone is to bestow a blessing from the goodness of one’s heart.
It is a well-known fact that only saints give blessings. Well, how do you think a saint becomes a saint? Yes, it is through the practice of giving blessings. As the blessing comes through you, it changes you. By giving blessings to someone else you change the negative perception of that person in your own mind and you also change the perception of yourself as someone who sees negativity. Giving blessings is an anonymous way of changing your world— it can turn devils into angels. And it can all happen in the privacy of your own mind— you don’t have to “meet them for coffee” and talk it out. If you aren’t willing to see someone as a good person, how can you expect him or her to be one? The power is in your hands— well, actually, your mind. The question is, how willing are you to forgive, to let go, and to allow love to lead the way?
Compassion is infinite; you won’t run out, so don’t be stingy with your blessings— give your blessings to everyone— to the people you don’t like as well as the ones you do like. Blessing the ones you love and seeing them as holy beings ensures that they will remain holy, blessed beings in your life.
THE PRACTICE
Allow the image of someone you know to arise in your mind. As you inhale, silently say, “Blessings and love to—” and as you exhale, silently say the name of that person. Continue focusing on that same person or allow other people to float into your consciousness. As you give the blessing try to visualize the person filled with joy and surrounded by light.
—————-
Editor’s note: Published by permission of the author.
from Daily Cup of Yoga http://dailycupofyoga.com/2018/07/26/blessing-the-way-giving-blessings/
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Wednesday, 25 July 2018
Best Essential Oil Diffusers: Reviews & What I Use
I’ve posted before about why we don’t use scented candles and what we use instead. One of my favorite alternatives is to use an essential oil diffuser, and many people asked what type of diffuser I use and recommend. I’m not an herbalist or aromatherapy expert, but I have tried many types of diffusers and I wanted...
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Pad Thai Vegetable Noodle Salad
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Tuesday, 24 July 2018
Coconut Mango Popsicles (With Probiotics)
Making popsicles from scratch is always on our summer bucket list and now that the kids are older one they handle on their own. These popsicles have it all over the ones at the store, with real-food ingredients like coconut water kefir, coconut milk, and diced mango. They’re a cool and creamy summertime treat that we...
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Fresh Cherry Crisp Recipe
This Fresh Cherry Crisp Recipe is a healthy and delicious dessert that screams summer! You won’t believe how easy it is to throw this crisp together in no time. Grab your cherries, orange juice, oats, and a little bit of butter and you’re ready to make this healthy cherry crisp recipe! Happy Tuesday, friends! It’s...
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Monday, 23 July 2018
How to Plan the Perfect Vegan Wedding
This is the final post of our vegan wedding series sponsored by Wedding Wire! We used Wedding Wire to help us plan our magical wedding, and to discover and keep track of our favorite vendors. Now that the wedding is over, I’m excited to share more of our planning journey with you. Wedding photos by Hailley Howard.
It really has never been easier to plan and execute the perfect vegan wedding! Around the country there are plenty of vegan and vegan-friendly caterers, tons of options for bride and groom fashion, and growing awareness and respect for this way of living. It’s a beautiful time to have a compassionate wedding full of L.O.V.E for all beings!
Planning our vegan wedding was super time-consuming, but (most of the time..) we were able to see it as a fun challenge. Like many couples we were on a tight budget so we needed to get creative and find affordable ways to pull off the celebration. Hopefully this guide will make it easier and even more fun for you to plan your dream vegan wedding!
VENUE
We found our beautiful venue, The 1909 Topanga Canyon, on Wedding Wire. The mostly outdoor venue, located just north of Los Angeles, is everything we dreamed of. It’s surrounded by lush green trees, and has a beautiful interior space for getting ready and a large terraced banquet room for the party. We were shocked to discover that it was in our price range, and we even got an off-season discount.
One major thing that made this venue work for us was that they allow you to bring in any caterer to do the food and cake. This allowance is crucial when planning the perfect vegan wedding. So many venues require you to use their “preferred” vendors for everything from the flowers to the food. You’ll be hard pressed to find an amazing vegan caterer on these lists of “preferred” vendors, so look for venues that allow you to bring who you want.
Watch our wedding video to see more of our gorgeous venue!
CATERING
If you remember my blog post & video about vegan wedding catering, you know I wanted your vote for which caterer we should choose. The fan favorite (and our favorite) was vegan celebrity-chef Lauren Von der Pool, and oh my did she swerve that food! Our guests, only a handful of whom were vegan, got up for seconds and thirds. No leftovers to take home!
On the all-vegan menu was:
- Superfood Shitake Kale Salad
- Southern Fried Crispy Chicken served with Mumbo Sauce
- Caribbean Red Bean Stew
- Crispy Potato Salad topped with micro greens
- African Street Corn – Eritrean berbere spiced corn coated in a buttery garlic aioli
- Coconut Braised Greens – tender greens stewed in a buttery coconut milk miso broth
- Sweet Potato Purée – organic white sweet potatoes married to cardamom
- Chicken & Waffles
Everything was so delicious!
Serving dinner buffet-style was a money saver for us. Our venue required us to use their servers, so Lauren didn’t have to hire her own. The guests loved the buffet because it gave them an easy way to help themselves to more of Lauren’s incredible vegan soul food. During your caterer search be sure you understand pricing based on how the meal will be served. You should also keep in mind any serving requirements the venue may have.
In Los Angeles there are plenty of vegan caterers, but in some cities you may have to hire a non-vegan company to prepare a vegan meal for your guests. Make sure to schedule a tasting with each potential caterer you interview. Find out if they’ve done vegan weddings in the past, and ask for a referral from previous vegan clients. If you’re set on having a vegan company cater your wedding, but can’t find one near you, consider asking a vegan restaurant or food truck to cater.
CAKE
A wedding isn’t complete without the perfect romantic dessert! My husband Maxx and I wanted a beautiful classic wedding cake, and hired Krysten Littles of Baby Love Sweetery to make it. You met Krysten in our vegan catering & wedding video! She’s the sweetest, and so are her creations! For the wedding she made us a 2 tier chocolate salted caramel cake with pleated buttercream icing. Isn’t it gorgeous! My only regret is not saving myself a slice for the next day. Our wedding was nearly 3 months ago, and I still think about that cake almost daily.
If you cannot find a vegan cake maker for your wedding, you may have to ask a non-vegan bakery to make your vegan cake. Be sure to have a taste test, and get referrals from their previous vegan clients. Don’t forget to look at surrounding towns. Cake makers will often travel to deliver your cake, as long as it’s not too far away.
ALCOHOL
Though most alcoholic beverages are vegan, the process of making them may not be. This is especially true for wine. For example, though it doesn’t end up in the finished product, many wines are filtered with fish bladder. We wanted to make sure that all of our beverages were vegan too, so we relied on the website Barnivore to point us the right direction. Barnivore is a site that compiles a list of alcoholic beverages and whether or not they’re vegan. I admit, I cannot remember which white wine and rosé we ended up picking up. For red wine we went with Cocobon, a red blend from California. For champagne we chose Moët. We also served kombucha from Suja, and an alcoholic kombucha from Booch Craft (my drink of choice the whole evening because it never gives me a hangover).
Bringing your own alcohol will save you hundreds or thousands on your big day. Our venue allowed us to bring our own alcohol, but it had to be served by a licensed bartender. We hired a bartender through the website Tend, and they brought the ice. My dad picked up the booze, cups, and napkins a couple days before the wedding. The venue already had a bar area, but bartenders will bring their own if need be.
WEDDING PLANNER
We hired Michelle Newson of Onederland Events to be our wedding planner, and she was one of a kind wonderful! Since Maxx and I both work full time we really appreciated someone else keeping our planning timeline and agenda in order. She helped us make sure we had everything we needed for the wedding (including things like table linens that we certainly would have overlooked), and was there to coordinate on the day of. On our wedding day all I had to do was get ready with my family and walk down the aisle. I wasn’t stressed at all thanks to Michelle. I did a blog post to help you decide if you should hire a wedding planner for your vegan wedding. Read it here.
CLOTHING
Finding the perfect wedding dress and clothing-plus-accessories for Maxx was probably the most time consuming activity on our planning list. It was important to us that our clothing be vegan, but also affordable, yet still stylish and good quality. We also didn’t want to support the many unsavory practices that are prevalent in the apparel industry, from unethical labor practices to disregard for the environment.
Our solution? Second hand. I found my wedding dress on Poshmark (an online used clothing marketplace) for $230. It was in perfect condition, but was too long. My alterations cost $170.
For the vegan groom you should also consider buying second hand. Not only is it less expensive, but it’s the more sustainable, earth-friendly option. Maxx also bought his suit on Poshmark and then had it tailored to fit like a charm. All in all he spent less than $200. Men’s suits are often made with wool, so keep that in mind, vegan groom. Look for a suit that is made out of an animal-friendly fabric like cotton, linen, or something synthetic.
Read more about finding the perfect vegan wedding dress, plus clothing and accessories for the groom in my previous blog post.
FLORIST
Our lovely florist was Susan of Eventive Moments. What we loved so much about the venue was its natural beauty. Susan understood that and agreed we didn’t need too much extra brought in. She worked with our budget, and gave us great tips to save money on this very important decor.
Tip #1: Choose local seasonal flowers. Just like produce, local and seasonal is always more affordable. Plus it looks fresher and more alive! Rather than having specific flowers you must use, have ideal colors. Your florist can suggest flowers that are in season, and that fit your color scheme. Keep an open mind, you may discover your new favorite flower!
Tip #2: Rework your arrangements. During the cocktail hour our wedding planner and her assistant transferred the flowers from the arch and the aisles to the dinner tables and cocktail area. You can pay the florist to stay until after the ceremony to rearrange the flowers, or ask your coordinator to do it.
Tip #3: Rent your flower arrangement vases and vessels. You will probably save money, and you’ll also eliminate waste. Who needs 25 vases after the wedding? If you choose not to rent your vases, consider choosing ones you can give to guests as party favors when they leave. Choose eco-friendly containers that can be reused. I love the idea of using simple canning jars for this!
GOODIE BAGS
One thing I didn’t do a good job with was distributing our goodie bags. I was just so consumed with everything else that I forgot to arrange a spot where guests could grab them as they left the venue. Still, I managed to find some great goodies to share. Maybe I’ll save them for another event in the future.
Goodie bags are just so nice to give to your guests as they leave the wedding, or at a pre-wedding event. I gave out most of our goodie bags after the group hike we did the day before the wedding.
What was inside?
- Moisturizing lip balm by Shea Yeleen, a skincare company that makes fair trade and cruelty-free shea butter products in women-owned cooperatives in Ghana
- Bath salts by Peau Veoutee
- Suja kombucha and green juice
- Alter Eco coconut clusters
On our wedding day, it felt so good to see all of our planning come together, and I’m very happy to be able to say it was a 100% vegan event. Watch the video for more about our planning efforts, and if you’re planning a wedding yourself (or have in the past), let me know in the comments!
The post How to Plan the Perfect Vegan Wedding appeared first on Sweet Potato Soul by Jenné Claiborne.
from Sweet Potato Soul by Jenné Claiborne http://sweetpotatosoul.com/2018/07/how-to-plan-vegan-wedding.html
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Sushi Bowl with Vegan Spicy Mayo
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Ideas sparked by “What if?”: The talks of TED@UPS 2018
Juan Perez, UPS’s chief information and engineering officer, opens TED@UPS with a question: “What if?” (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)
The greatest ideas of our time will be sparked by a simple question: “What if?”
What if we had truly inclusive workplaces? What if we removed the inefficiencies that stand in the way of eliminating world hunger? What if we could deliver quality health care in the home? What if we took back our privacy online? At this year’s TED@UPS — held on July 19, 2018, at SCADShow in Atlanta — TED and UPS partnered for the fourth year in a row to bring remarkable UPSers to the stage to explore these questions and more. In a time of uncertainty, global evolution and rapid innovation, their ideas on how to solve our most intractable problems have never been more important to hear.
After opening remarks from Juan Perez, UPS’s chief information and engineering officer, the talks in Session 1 …
“The lessons we learn about diversity at work actually transform the things we do, think and say outside of work,” says Janet Marie Stovall. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)
Getting single-minded about racially diverse workplaces. Inclusion crusader Janet Marie Stovall asks us to imagine a place where people of all colors and all races are on and climbing every rung of the corporate ladder — where they “feel safe and indeed expected to bring their unassimilated, authentic selves to work every day, because the difference that they bring is both recognized and respected.” How do we get there? According to Stovall, companies must create an action plan that has three key components. The first is “real problems.” By 2045, the US population is projected to be predominantly non-white, and businesses that don’t mirror that diversity in their workforce and customer base are set up to fail. The second: “real numbers.” Businesses need to set specific diversity goals and commit to them, Stovall says. And if they don’t reach those numbers, there must be “real consequence” — Stovall’s third attribute. We spend one-third of our lives at our jobs, and if we can do so in inclusive, diverse environments, these benefits will be felt society-wide. “The lessons we learn about diversity at work actually transform the things we do, think and say outside of work,” Stovall says.
What we can learn from Marines and machines. Before he entered the business world, Drew Humphreys was a platoon commander with the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines in Afghanistan — in charge of 36 Marines fighting the Taliban and maintaining a vital supply route through Helmand Province. After commanding every convoy himself for months, Humphreys’ mission changed when the Marine Corps started pulling troops and equipment out of Afghanistan, forcing him to divide his platoon and give over some control to other commanders. The result: an unlocking of human potential. Humphreys defined success but allowed the Marines in his command to find their own solutions to the obstacles they encountered. But it’s not just the military moving toward this kind of decentralized leadership model — the same thing is happening in business, spurred on by innovations in machine learning. Humphreys outlines three lessons we can learn from this ongoing trend. First, emphasize purpose over process. “When you micromanage, you limit what’s possible,” Humphreys says. Next, encourage early and lifelong learning — the ultimate competitive advantage. And finally: have a bias for action. “Get comfortable with the decision that’s probably right instead of waiting for the elusive perfect answer,” Humphreys says.
New thoughts on gun safety. The slogan “Make America great again” reminds gun safety advocate David Farrell that gun violence wasn’t always rampant in the US. Forty years ago, mass shootings were a rarity in America. But in the 1970s, crime spiked, and the media went wild. By the ’80s, the NRA no longer touted guns solely as a tool for recreation — they were a means of countering fear. And when a gun becomes a tool to address our own fears, “it’s not hard to believe that somebody who’s troubled, angry or disenfranchised would then use a gun to solve their problems. And if you’re mentally disturbed, we’ve now made guns a rational decision,” Farrell says. He believes that fear should not be the reason people purchase guns. Responsible gun owners must insist that the NRA refocus on gun safety, and recognize that gun control does not equal infringing on gun rights. If we can stop being so afraid, we can “make America safe again,” Farrell says.
One of the oldest sounds in Chinese history. With a musical interlude, Yue Xiu Lim from UPS Singapore delights the audience with the riveting, delicate and harmonious sounds of the Chinese guzheng, a harp-like instrument that dates back to ancient times. She played two songs: “White,” a calming tune reminiscent of lullabies, and a twist on the pop song “Shape of You” made famous by Ed Sheeran.
Aparna Mehta reveals the unseen world of “free” online returns, which often end up landfills instead of back on the shelf. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)
Are free online returns really free? Every year, four billion pounds of returned clothing ends up in the landfill — the equivalent of every resident in the US doing a load of laundry and then throwing it straight in the trash. Why? Because sometimes it’s cheaper for a company to throw a returned item away than to make the effort of relabeling it and returning it to the shelf. Recovering shopaholic and retail consultant Aparna Mehta has the ideal vantage point to assess the scope of our online return addiction — and an ideal platform to do something about the waste it creates. Obviously, shoppers could take the extra time to decide what they truly need and purchase accordingly, but this is only a first step. Aparna has an idea to go a step further: “green-turns” instead of “returns.” “What if, when a person is trying to return something, it could go to the next shopper who wants it, and not the retailer?” Each unwanted item could be assessed electronically for condition, matched with someone who wants it and redirected accordingly. With the proper incentives built into the system to get shoppers to use it, “green-turns” could revolutionize the way we buy — and return — clothes online, Mehta says.
Simple, logistical steps we can take to eradicate world hunger. During a work trip to Uganda in 2016, food advocate Dan Canale was shocked to see how small inefficiencies caused serious delays to food shipments to refugee camps. For example, the lack of a forklift at one humanitarian organization’s warehouse meant it took three hours of manual labor to load a single truck. As a result of inefficiencies like these across food delivery systems, Canale estimates that nearly a third of the food produced globally ends up lost or wasted. That’s why he’s working to find solutions to shipping and delivery problems — offering action-based steps like diversifying the number of ports able to receive food and ensuring that food closest to expiration is shipped first. He encourages us to imagine: What if we used our most cutting-edge technology, like drones and military-grade aquatic vehicles, to deliver food to the hungry? By approaching these questions with innovation and zeal, Canale says, we can solve world hunger for good.
Global citizen Wanis Kabbaj shares some lessons for nationalists and globalists alike. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)
Moving beyond binary thinking. Why do we have to choose between nationalism and globalism, between loving our countries and caring for the world? Wanis Kabbaj has been grappling with this question for years — having lived in four continents, the debate between nationalism and globalism isn’t new to him. But the recent worldwide surge in nationalist fervor got him thinking: What if, instead of making a choice between the two, we took it on ourselves to challenge this binary thinking? He provides some interesting insights for nationalists and globalists. For those opposed to nationalism, he offers research showing how national satisfaction is more predictive of overall happiness than job satisfaction or household income. And for those who see globalism as evil, he provides compelling examples of how even national treasures like the Eiffel Tower, cricket or Italian home cooking are actually products of cross-cultural interaction.
Two poems on discovering and celebrating love. To close out session 1, poet Muslim Sahib performs two lyrical, humorous poems for the close-listening crowd. In his first piece, “The Coming Out Beauty,” Sahib weaves together religion, queerness, family and beauty, guiding the audience through his journey to self-love and encouraging them to recognize the beauty within themselves. In his second poem, “419 square feet,” he shares the bittersweet practice of finding love and building a home in what can be a restrictive world.
Musician and UPS package car driver John Bidden rocks the UPS stage with a performance of “Dry Bones.” (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)
To open Session 2, singer-songwriter and UPS package car driver John Bidden returns to the TED@UPS stage for the second year in a row, performing an electrifying, reggae-tinged rendition of “Dry Bones.”
In an eye-opening talk, anti-trafficking champion Nikki Clifton outlines three ways businesses can fight sex trafficking. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)
Businesses can help end sex trafficking. People may think there’s little overlap between the buttoned-up world of business and the criminal underworld of sex trafficking. But according to one survey, most johns — people who purchase sex — are employed, and web-based sex-buying tends to spike around 2pm. “These johns are likely buying sex in the middle of the workday,” says anti-trafficking champion Nikki Clifton. Businesses have a huge opportunity to reach the johns in their workplaces and to mobilize their employees and resources to fight against trafficking, Clifton suggests. She outlines a three-point plan, starting with the idea that businesses should state in their official employee handbook that sex buying at work, on company travel or with company resources is prohibited (and, of course, enforce this policy). Second, all employees should be trained to spot the signs of sex trafficking. For example, Clifton says, UPS teamed up with a group called Truckers Against Trafficking to educate its drivers about what to look for and who they can call for help. Third, businesses can figure out how they can use their special capabilities to combat sex trafficking. Clifton points to Visa, MasterCard and American Express — they joined forces and refused to process transactions from Backpage.com, an online sex-trafficking hub, which helped shut it down. “There are thousands of things that businesses can do; they just have to decide what to do to join the fight,” Clifton says.
Small business success: it takes a village. Nearly half of all US small businesses fail within their first five years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — a figure that got small business strategist Ruchi Shah wondering: Is there a new model for entrepreneurial success? After shutting the doors of her own startup, Shah looked for answers from one group of consistently successful entrepreneurs: Guatemalan small business owners. Why? Because Guatemala and other developing countries use a microfinance approach called “village banking,” in which local entrepreneurs join together to get the loans and support they need to run their businesses. (The village banking concept was pioneered by social entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for the idea in 2006.) Shah traveled to South America to study why village banks work, discovering three primary reasons: they give entrepreneurs a built-in team of advisors upfront; they adjust to customer needs; and they have a relentless focus on managing cash flow. Shah believes the idea of entrepreneurs having a vested interest in each other’s success can help build a strong foundation for any business, helping them weather the tough times with a diverse network of support. “Ultimately, it’s going to take more than our country’s determined entrepreneurs to improve our startup failure rates,” Shah says. “From what I have learned, it takes a village.”
Healthcare delivered at home. It’s time to fix our broken and obsolete hospital system, says healthcare futurist Niels van Namen. Beyond their general unpleasantness, hospitals present many logistical challenges: patients often have to travel long distances to reach them, especially for people living in remote areas, and many people avoid hospitals due to the costs, causing them to miss out on proper treatment altogether. For those who do get treatment, hospitals often make them sicker thanks to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that flourish in hospitals. “We have the opportunity to revolutionize the system,” van Namen says. “It is time to create a system that revolves around health care at home.” With recent innovations in medical technology (such as the at-home blood test), “homecare” presents a cheaper and more accessible alternative to hospital stays. In this setup, patients would receive treatment from the comfort of their homes and in the proximity of their families, while hospitals would become small, agile and mobile care centers focused on acute care. Homecare could also be a boon to rural areas, enabling a kind of sharing economy that matches people in need of care with someone who can provide a nearby home for treatment. “I am passionate to make the change and help ensure that patients, and not their diseases, are in control of their lives,” van Namen says.
Robin Hooker asks: What new ideas could budding creatives bring to life if there was a makerspace in every town? (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)
A makerspace in every town. While his friends were outside playing football, young Robin Hooker was in the garage with his dad, an Air Force mechanic, fusing iron with an oxyacetylene welder (and dodging the shoe-melting molten debris that would occasionally fly free). Hooker wasn’t just gaining a feel for design and learning his way around a workshop — he was learning that the world could be mashed-up, modded, repaired, reclaimed. Now he believes “we can transform the world by giving more people access to spaces like my dad’s garage” — what artisans now call “makerspaces.” Makerspaces are shared workshops that allow budding builders and designers to access the tools they need to create things — tools that otherwise would be prohibitively expensive. Perhaps more important, makerspaces offer inventors, hobbyists and tinkerers of diverse cultures, generations, genders and professions a chance to inspire each other to invent world-changing stuff. “What if entrepreneurs brought a makerspace to every town?” Hooker asks. “What new ideas could budding creatives bring to life?”
How to take back our online privacy. If someone broke into your house, chances are you’d take precautions to prevent it from happening again: new locks, a security alarm, increased insurance. Yet year after year, as massive data breaches sweep the internet, most of us have failed to safeguard our digital information. “We make the trade of online privacy for convenience,” says data privacy enthusiast Derek L. Banta. He’s working on a new way to protect people’s privacy called “anonymous commerce,” or “a-commerce.” Instead of giving your personal information to every website you visit, with a-commerce you’d give your information to a single, trusted third party. That third party would then secure your information and give you a personalized code to use when shopping online, serving as a kind of intermediary “avatar” between you and the brand. And what if the third party got hacked? The return on the hack would be less enticing, as hackers would only get access to one avatar at a time, instead of thousands of transactions. “In an a-commerce world, privacy is the business model,” Banta says. “We have an opportunity to hit the reset button on how we do business online. We can effectively disown the unintended consequences of being pioneers in the digital age.”
The dark side of disaster donations — and what you can do about it. In the aftermath of disaster, the world often responds with generosity and love, shipping thousands of boxes of resources to cities and countries healing from calamity. But what we’re not considering, says disaster relief expert Dale Herzog, is the logistical nightmare of receiving all of these donations. According to Herzog, the vast majority of disaster donations are destroyed — for example, a whopping 60 percent of donations sent to Haiti and Japan after natural disasters in 2010 and 2011 were thrown away. Herzog urges us to reconsider how we respond to disaster relief, suggesting that we replace that box of old clothes with a cash donation, and send an email or Tweet of support rather than mail a handwritten card. Instead of bogging relief organizations down with more stuff, we can donate in ways that help survivors recover and rebuild, Herzon says.
A silent national pandemic. In 2009, 11,341 untested rape kits — some dating back to the 1980s — were found in an abandoned warehouse where the Detroit police once stored evidence. When this scandal was uncovered, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy set a plan into action to get justice for the thousands of people affected, but she needed help to deal with the massive logistical challenges. In an eye-opening talk, Worthy explains how UPS supported her office and created a protocol to have these kits tracked and tested. As of June 2018, their partnership has led to more than 10,000 rape kits being tested, 2,600 identified suspects and historic state-wide laws being passed. But there is still a lot of work to be done — with more than 400,000 kits nationally that have yet to be tested and a rape culture that needs be fixed. The solution, says Worthy, will take inspired multi-industry collaboration.
from TED Blog https://blog.ted.com/ideas-sparked-by-what-if-the-talks-of-tedups-2018/
via Sol Danmeri