Vegetarian Star

Michael Franti is the musical creator of Michael Franti & Spearhead, a band that blends hip-hop with funk, jazz, reggae, folk and rock. Franti’s Say Hey (I Love You) reached #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was featured on the Showtime series Weeds and during the opening credits of the 2010 film Valentine’s Day. Franti is an outspoken proponent for social justice and will perform a live acoustic version of his upcoming September 21, 2010 album release, The Sound of Sunshine, at the 12th Annual Power to the Peaceful Festival in San Francisco.

In an exclusive interview with Vegetarian Star, Franti addresses the issue of raising children vegetarian, Meatless Monday, John Mayer and more.

You have children. What’s your take on raising children vegetarian/vegan? Should parents force it on them? Or wait until they’re old enough to decide?
I feel when you raise a child, you raise them with whatever circumstances you live in. If you take an Inuit family in Alaska, for example, they eat fish year round and there’s no choice. They don’t have an option so the kids grow up eating fish and never think otherwise. Whatever you choose to feed your kids is your decision and in America we have a lot of choices. You’re not forcing your child, you’re just choosing to eat a certain way. But I do think as kids get older, just as they want to play video games, sports, watch TV or whatever – it’s their own choice and we have to respect the choice of others. My oldest son decided to become vegan when he was 14 and that was on his own accord. He’s now 23 and still predominantly vegan. My 11 year old son eats chicken from time to time but he’s never wanted to have any kind of beef or pork or anything like that.

Between tofu, tempeh and seitan, what’s your favorite?
Tofu. Because it doesn’t give me gas and the others do. I like the flavor of tofu. Some people don’t like the flavor of plain raw tofu, but I love it. I toss it into just about everything – salads, smoothies, shakes, everything.

(more…)

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Chef Tal Ronnen is the author of The Conscious Cook, a hot new cookbook being snatched off the bookshelves by vegetarians, vegans and food lovers in general. Tal is the chef who helped design Oprah Winfrey‘s meal plans when she went vegan for 21 days and has worked with Chrissie Hynde‘s restaurant, The Vegiterranean. He’s been a vegetarian for 19 years and a vegan for 11 years. Tal took a few moments away from braising tempeh to give Vegetarian Star an exclusive interview.

Tofu, Tempeh, or Seitan:
It depends on the application. I think my personal preference for home is definitely tempeh. It’s a less processed product. It’s fermented so it’s got nutritional benefits from the fermentation process. With that said, it has to be cooked properly. People will just cut tempeh up and sauté it or stir fry it or something like that. [But] Because it’s so dense, it’s hard to get any flavor to penetrate. Tofu just acts like a sponge, it just sucks up all the marinade. [With] Tempeh, the best way to get the flavor in there is to braise it. So cook it in a flavorful liquid and the flavors can change based on the dish that you cook. So if you’re doing something like Tex Mex or South of the Border you can braise it in a stock that’s got chilies and peppers. If you’re doing something like Asian, it can have soy sauce or ginger. When you’re cooking it in a broth, you’re able to penetrate tempeh. After it’s cooked in a broth, you start cooking with it. So I can grill it or sauté it, but the first step for me whenever I work with tempeh is to braise it.

On Guest Chefs in The Conscious Cook:
We wanted to have a really broad view of what professional vegetarian cooking looks like. And [we did this] by bringing in people who have influenced me or I’ve influenced throughout the years. All the chefs that are highlighted in the book are people who’ve been a big influence in my culinary career or someone that I’ve worked with very closely. And by doing that we’re able to really show different perspectives in the book, not just my perspective with vegetarian cooking.

Favorite recipes from The Conscious Cook:
I love the celery root soup. I love the Gardein scaloppini with the shiitake sauce. And the banana  rum cheesecake I think is really great.

Learn how Tal got a school district in southern California to put veggie burgers on the menu after the jump… (more…)

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Julian Winter

Julian Winter is the male winner (along with his female counterpart, Mimi Kirk) in PETA’s Sexiest Vegetarian over 50 contest. for 2009.  Julian is 51 and resides in the Framingham Massachusetts area.

VS: What led you to go veg?
JW: The first one involved shooting a deer. I grew up in an agricultural community and hunting is pretty common. I was young, I think I was 13 and I shot my first deer. It was kind of dramatic because it wasn’t a clean kill and we had to take care of it by hand, which wasn’t fun.

And ironically, it was sort of a bit of cosmic trickery, the following year we were out pheasant hunting and I got shot by another hunter. I was lucky I got out of that. That turned me off to hunting and at that point too I was just sort of considering [it]. Where we lived-I’m not disparaging agriculture-I grew up with the slaughterhouses. I know how animals are dealt with, I’ve watched it all the time-cattle and pigs and chickens and sheep. When I got old enough I kind of decided it was a choice. I didn’t have to eat that stuff. I was 17. Senior in high school. I’ve been vegan since ’99. The longer you’re a vegetarian, you just sort of keep going that way [toward veganism].

VS:Life changes since winning Sexiest Contest
JW: I actually take more grief from my daughters now. They’ve always liked to make fun of dad-old geezer according to them. I grew up, if you were 50 you’re over the Hill. I’ve got four daughters, I’ve never made it any kind of a mandate, but two of them are [vegetarian].

Food Voyeurism
JW: I love Morningstar; they have these veggie cakes that I eat. I love those. I usually have one of those a day in a sandwich. On a regular basis, I’m going to eat salad probably daily. Every type of vegetable I can get my hands on. I eat a lot of fruit. The Ezekiel Bread too. They make one with seeds and sprouts-it’s really good. There’s one dish that’s really good too. You take sprouted soy beans and sauté it, put sesame oil and soy sauce on it and sesame seeds on top. It’s really simple. Doesn’t sound like much, but it tastes so good. They’re some nice vegetarian and vegan restaurants in the Boston area, but I haven’t been there a lot because I work a lot and it’s hard to get out.

What’s on Julian’s wikipedia page? Find out after the jump… (more…)

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Photo Credit: Clarke Tolton

As if you really need another reason to enter our contest to win a copy of Erin McKenna’s BabyCakes cookbook as part of our one year anniversary giveaway. Isn’t the picture of the cupcakes on the book cover enough?

The lovely lady who founded the New York city bakery that is so popular among celebrities and mere non Hollywood mortals like ourselves answered a few of our questions about herself, the bakery, and some of her favorite recipes from her recently published cookbook, BabyCakes : Vegan, Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York’s Most Talked-About Bakery.

How did you determine which of your recipes to include in the BabyCakes cookbook?
I chose the recipes that people seemed to favor. I wanted to offer a collection of the greatest recipes.

What are a few of your favorite recipes from the cookbook?
I think my favorites are the volcanoes and the macaroons for sure.

You used to work in fashion and you said the one thing that really relieved stress at the end of the day was experimenting with baking and that prompted you to change careers. What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs who may still be stuck in a day job and want to get out and have a successful business?
I would tell them to live fearlessly and go for what is in their heart. It will work out and nothing beats doing what you love for a living. It’s what life is about.

There are several celebrities that have their personal stories in the Baby Cakes cookbook like Natalie Portman and Pamela Anderson? What was either your first or most memorable experience learning a celebrity was so fond of your desserts?
The first time a celebrity made it known how fond he was of BabyCakes was Jason Schwartzman. He came in once by himself the first time and then brought a whole gang of friends with him and had an eating contest in here. He was going crazy over everything–it was really fun!

Guess how many siblings Erin has? Four, five, six, seven? Higher than that! Find out after the jump… (more…)

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Photo: Phil Cavali

Leilani Munter is an environmentalist and race car driver who races in both Indy Lights, the development league of IndyCar and ARCA, a development league of NASCAR.

Is anyone else in your family vegetarian?
As far as family members go, I have two vegetarian nieces right now. All three of my sisters have at one time been vegetarian and my sister Natascha was vegetarian throughout both of her pregnancies and during breastfeeding, which is interesting, because those are my two nieces that are now vegetarians. She told me that she had read that whatever you feed a child from zero to three is what they will crave for life. So she did not feed them meat and both of them are vegetarian by their own choice. Also, when I was a child, I never craved sweets, my mother told me that I always would refuse cookies and ask for parsley instead and to this day, I don’t crave sweet foods.

Is Craig (Leilani’s husband) vegetarian too? Did you have any eco features about the wedding?
Craig is not [completely] vegetarian but I would say he is about 95% vegetarian now. I honestly can’t remember the last time I saw him eat meat and we never, ever bring meat into our house. We had a small seaside wedding in New Zealand (where Craig is from) and we had an eco conscious cruelty free vegetarian meal. Our wedding invitations were printed by Green Field Paper on tree free paper that you can plant and wildflowers will grow!

You volunteered at a wildlife rescue and rehab center in college. What were some of the best parts about working with these injured animals?
The best part was when we were able to release them back into the wild, where they belong. Nothing is more magical than giving an animal its freedom. It is a truly beautiful moment.

In the future, do you see yourself being just as active and public with vegetarianism as you are with environmental issues?
Yes, I definitely would like to be just as active with promoting vegetarianism as I am with speaking out about environmental issues. They go hand in hand. [When] I give speeches on a regular basis, I am often discussing the environment and I always talk about the fact that the meat industry contributes more greenhouse gases into our atmosphere than all the planes, trains, cars, trucks, ships, and all other forms of fossil fuel based transportation in the world. Besides the obvious animal cruelty issues, going vegetarian can do wonders for our environment and for world hunger. Vegetarianism is one of the most important issues that is not talked about nearly enough. We hear a lot about alternative fuels and clean energy, but we need to be talking a lot more about our meat consumption. I know that it’s not realistic to think everyone in the world is going to become vegetarian, but if everyone could just start by reducing the amount of meat they consume, it would change the world for the better.

Learn about Leilani’s Eco-Dream team and her love for cooking with fake meats after the jump… (more…)

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Nellie McKay is basking in the glory of being a mom these days. Best of all, she didn’t go through hours of labor to take the credit. She simply went to her local shelter and adopted a pit bull named Bess, who she was walking during our exclusive interview with her. 

On her new bundle of joy
Her name is Bess. I’m on an email list that lets you know when animals are about to be put down at the local shelter. I never took in an animal because I travel so much. It didn’t seem fair to them and it seemed kind of impossible for me. But I just couldn’t say no to her. They had pictures of her still lactating. She had just given birth. They [former owners] had taken her puppies and dumped her. She was a throw away mom.

At first she pretended like she didn’t know how to sit. It turns out she just needed the incentive of a treat. She was pretending and she knew all along. She’s the greatest thing that ever happened. She’s the light of my life. She makes life worth living.

On the Obamas not choosing a shelter dog
I think he definitely made the wrong decision. The pressure should be on them for the next animal they get. All this pure-breed stuff…We should all be going after mutts. There are hypoallergenic mutts as well as breeds. We have to get rid of the whole breed mentality. It’s animal racism. Just don’t go for it.

It isn’t hard. The hypoallergenic dogs are available as we speak. The Humane Society and other animal rescue groups offered to help with that search. And the argument that it’s a personal decision-well, so is meat eating but it hurts others.

This seems like something that could have helped so many animals. It could have drawn attention to the plight of so many animals in shelters. They are so influential. It could have saved so many lives and made so many lives better for animals that are just languishing there waiting to be seen, let alone be adopted. I’m disappointed and I just hope that their second dog or cat they will get from a shelter.

Learn why Nellie loves Kevin Eubanks after the jump… (more…)

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Rory Freedman got a PETA package in the mail in college that prompted her to go vegetarian, then vegan. She and co-author Kim Barnouin have already transformed the diets of thousands of women with their popular Skinny Bitch series. Now they’re out to give men a spanking for eating meat, dairy, and too much sugar with their new book, Skinny Bastard.

How did you go about tailoring Skinny Bastard to create a more manly appeal?
The language is written in a way to cater to men more. I’m from New Jersey, so I have a naughty streak in me when it comes to the way I talk. The language is really bawdy and irreverent. There’s a chapter called “No Girls Allowed.” We talk about prostate cancer. We also talk about erectile dysfunction. And how what you eat can affect your performance in bed and it can affect your Johnson. There are a lot of fun euphemisms- a lot of fun to be had.

Some people continue to stereotype vegan or vegetarian men as being wimpy or lacking testosterone. Do you address these issues in Skinny Bastard?
We do address those issues. Basically, we talk about professional athletes who are or have been vegetarian or vegan. And how they’re at the top of their game and they’re high performers. There’s certainly no shortage of manly men who are living a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. We talk about protein and how there’s a myth that you need as much protein as you think you do. How vegetarians get plenty of protein and they can still be strong and manly. And also we address the animal issues and how’s there’s nothing manly about contributing to the slaughter and torture of animals.

Learn what new vegan cheese Rory can’t get enough of after the jump. (more…)

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Lauren Bush is an ethical fashion designer, model and the niece of former President George W. Bush and granddaughter of former President George H. W. Bush. She’s best known for being the CEO and co-founder of Feed, and designing those cool reusable FEED shopping bags you’ve seen at Whole Foods. Lauren spoke to the Veg Star about her latest fashion collection, future fashion plans, and ordering food in too much instead of cooking.

For your Lauren Pierce collection, you’re partnering with a different women’s group each time a new collection is launched (Spring, Summer, etc.). You’ve recently partnered with Women for Women International, working with women from the Democratic Republic of Congo. What made you decide to partner with this particular group? Can you give any hints as to what organizations you might be working with in the future?
I’d heard about all the great work they’ve done around the world-their job training for women in the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] Africa, specifically, and in many post-conflict regions around the world. So I kind of wanted to focus on the DRC.  And the fabrics they [dye]-the end product is wonderful. It was the perfect partnership in a way that I could support them by buying the fabric as well as 10% of the profits go back to them.

The one for my Fall Collection I worked with is called the Artisian’s Association of Cambodia and then 10% of the line goes back to benefit this amazing women’s charity called the Somali Mam Foundation. It was started by this amazing Cambodian woman named Somali Mam and she created these centers, safe havens for women who are involved in the sex trade and human trafficking.

When did you decide to go vegetarian and why?
Since I was four. So for about 20 years now. I was so young. It wasn’t a fully conscious thought out decision, but once I realized what meat was, I couldn’t really bring myself to eat it anymore.

If you had to pick a member of the Bush family that would most likely go vegetarian in the future, who would it be?
I’d have to say my little sister Ashley only because she did try it when she was little.  So I can see her maybe eventually being swayed back into being a vegetarian.

So you couldn’t see Laura or Jenna…?
A lot of my family’s pretty Texan. I don’t know if that would work.
Note to self: It can happen. Send Tofurky sausages and Boca Burgers to win over George, Laura, Jenna, and Barbara.

Find out what Lauren’s new favorite vegetable is after the jump. (more…)

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