I love to cook, I love to eat, I love all things purple and I just happen to be vegan!
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The weather is starting to warm up outside and warm weather brings opportunity to BARBECUE!! During my first year of being a vegan I was always the outsider who brought containers of food with them to eat. I would be the person sitting in the corner eating a bowl of fruit or a leafy green salad. After a few years I wanted to be included in the barbecue festivities and went on the search for vegan recipes that were grill friendly. Today I am going to share a delicious recipe perfect for the grill!!!   Mix with olive oil and with your fresh herbs. Then let the flavors blend for about 15 minutes. The herb mixture will give the delicious flavor to the eggplant. Grilled Eggplant with Fresh Herbs
Fresh herbs are best with this recipe, but if you don’t have any on hand, you can certainly use their dried counterparts. Just use a pinch of each herb if you’re using dried. Ingredients: 1 eggplant 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 2 cloves minced garlic ¼ cup fresh basil, finely chopped ¼ cup fresh thyme, finely chopped ¼ cup fresh dill, finely chopped ¼ cup fresh oregano, finely chopped Salt and pepper How to Make It: 1. Cut the eggplant into slices and salt them lightly. Let them sit for about 15 minutes, so the salt can bring out the moisture of the pieces. Wipe them dry with a bit of paper towel. 2. Meanwhile, combine the oil, vinegar, garlic herbs, salt and pepper. Let site to absorb the flavors for about 15 minutes. 3. Brush eggplant with oil and herb mixture all over, ensuring that the herbs get distributed well. 4. Place on a lightly greased grill and grill for about 15-20 minutes, flipping half way through.
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 There are so many different types of "diets" and it seems like more pop up daily which can make it confusing to understand the differences between them. Despite there being so many different diets and ways of describing them the definition of veganism remains the same. Veganism and vegetarianism are not the same, although both are considered plant based diets. A plant based diet is a diet that consists of mostly plants. Even those who eat meat once or twice a week can still be considered as having a plant based or plant strong diet.
The primary difference between a vegan lifestyle and that of a typical person primarily is the lack of meat and animals products in their diet. However, many people believe that vegetarians will still eat dairy products and other similar foods. While this is correct, it is a major difference between vegetarian and vegan. People who are true Vegans do not eat any animal related products, they do not encourage the consumption of animal related products and they also do not wear any animal related products. This would include items such as milk, yogurt, butter, eggs, leather clothing and also anything that can cause harm to animals during production. Many people mistakenly believe that vegetarianism and veganism are the exact same thing. However, those who are vegetarian will consume animal related products such as eggs, milk, dairy, yogurt and other similar foods that do not particular cause the animals life to be in danger. Foods such as meat are still avoided though. This is a significant difference from vegans who do not consume such foods. In order to really determine which type of lifestyle is best for you and your family, you would need to look over your typical eating habits. Many people discover that vegan is something that is far too strict for them to abide by on a normal basis and instead opt for a vegetarian lifestyle instead. Choosing to live a vegan lifestyle is not always easy. People seem to think it is complicated when it is time to plan meals while it can be as simple as making beans with rice and a side salad! Adding variety may involve a bit more planning ahead since you will not be able to easily pull everything for meals straight from the freezer or a package. Although frozen veggies can be a saving grace in the vegan lifestyle as well as frozen fruits. By making some small steps and changes to your lifestyle you might find that working on a vegetarian lifestyle is much easier for you to handle initially. This can make a great starting point when you are working to move to a healthier vegan lifestyle for your entire family. If you are busy trying to ensure that you are fully aware of all of the benefits then knowing all of the differences between vegetarianism and veganism is very important. Working to improve your health as much as possible is extremely important and really is possible as long as you take the time to really study your options. A healthy lifestyle is possible, even if you are not comfortable with the idea of converting over to an entirely vegan way of life. I want to welcome anyone that is new to my blog! Thank you for joining us in our group detox. I will be posting everyday while we are on our detox so feel free to comment or contact me if you have questions. Everyone that subscribed has received an email today with our plan for days 1-3. Our first 3 days of our detox will be comprised of mostly smoothies. No one should be hungry, if at any point you are feeling hungry and you are not able to make another smoothie PLEASE EAT!! Feel free to eat and raw veggies or fruit until you can have another smoothie! Also be aware that most times when we think we are hungry we are really just thirsty so stay hydrated!! Drink plenty of water! So I went today to shop for Days 1-3. My grocery bill came up to $39.45. I am a budget diva and that was over what I would usually spend to do a detox but I want to approach this the same way others in The Purple Vegan community would, and if you are new to detoxing you will need more substance to get over the hump of the first couple days. So here is what my haul looked like:  I am usually in a position to make smoothies as needed during the day because I work from home several days a week. In order to keep this more realistic for those following along I went ahead and did prep for tomorrow. I made smoothie packs and put them in the freezer.  This is simple prep and took me less than an hour to wash and chop up ingredients. You put everything in your freezer bag minus the liquid and pop it in the freezer. I am actually going to blend up my morning smoothie tonight before going to bed and then in the morning I will blend up my lunch smoothie to take to go. I will do another post showing how I store my smoothies after I blend them. They keep best in glass containers so mason jars are idea. They will keep for around 24 refrigerated. If you have freezer safe glass containers you can even blend them and freeze them for up to a week. I also like to make sure that I drink at the very least 64 ounces of water while detoxing. One way I do this is by having a container that holds exactly 64 ounces in it in my refrigerator. I have my container filled with water and I have added lemons and cucumbers to it. Lemons help keep your body alkaline and also helps your body to flush itself out. The cucumbers are hydrating so you feel refreshed. When I detoxing I drink this throughout the day along with plain water.  Share what you are doing for prep with me! You can find me on Facebook, or use my hashtag on Instagram #ThePurpleVegan10DayDetox! Let's get it!!
 “Where do you find your confidence? A colleague of yours said that it’s out of this world and you’re either an alien or you have no idea what you look like.” An interviewer said this once to Gabourey Sidbe which she tells in an article she wrote for the June 2017 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine.
I could only imagine how Gabourey Sidbe felt when those words were said to her. You see I too have and still do deal with confidence that wavers every single day. The words of others cut like a knife, even things that other people say that are meant to be a compliment only feel like a dig at me in my mind. I am my own worst critic, so my mind uses comments from others to back up whatever negative dialogue I have going on in my head at any given time. As you can probably tell this has no direct connection to me being vegan. but this was just on my mind today. Keeping my self esteem in tact and building my confidence is something I work on everyday. The key for me is to be consistent in my actions everyday. I do believe one day I will walk with my head held high in confidence that is genuine and unwavering. I would like to share a few things that I do to help me in building my confidence: **Make a plan for your day and celebrate when you accomplish your goals for the day. (Don’t make a big deal about the things that didn’t get done, those will only make you feel bad about yourself.) **Meditate. Most people believe that meditation has to be done a certain way and that’s why they don’t do it. I am hear to tell you meditation is just about quieting your mind, finding that quiet space within yourself and listening to the calmness within. This can be done on your way to work (if you take public transportation of course, definitely don’t do it if you are driving!) This can be done in the bathroom in the morning sitting on the toilet or even while in the shower/bathtub. If you are one that has a hard time getting out of bed, try meditating while lying in the bed when you wake up in the morning by staring at the ceiling and focusing on your breath. I meditate sometimes while I am crocheting, the repetitive motion of moving the crochet hook is calmative and doesn’t require much thought which allows me to spend the time focusing on my breath and clearing my thoughts. **Saying positive affirmations daily. Even something as simple as affirming that you will go through your day being confident in all you do. You can make your own affirmations up as you go or use the good old internet to search for affirmations that pertain to confidence. **Listen to uplifting music. The song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams always puts me in a positive space. When you feel positive the positive energy helps your mind be more receptive to the affirmations you are saying for the day. **Be grateful. You may wonder what gratitude has to do with your confidence. Expressing gratitude makes you feel at peace with things whether those things are things you can control or not. Being more peaceful which helps put you at ease, this feeling of ease allows you to open up to yourself. Being more open and accepting will allow you to be confident in who you are right now at this moment. Here is an article that tells you 31 wonderful benefits from expressing gratitude consistently. Let’s take some time in this moment to be grateful that we have a chance to stop right now and say. “I AM CONFIDENT!” Make the rest of today great!  After fasting for a week I always feel like I can just keep on going, instead of continuing on juicing I an going to turn this into a 10 day detox and do the last 3 days eating raw vegan food. Days 6 and 7 were the weekend so I was running errands and doing grocery shopping so I kept it pretty simple. On Day 6 I just juiced a bunch of apples and carrots and drank about 32 ounces of apple-carrot juice along with water and tea. On Day 7 I juiced up most of what was left.
Going For The Green Yield: app: 40 ounces
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