Eco-Friendly All Purpose Cleaner

I have been using Parsley Plus All Purpose Surface Cleaner to clean almost everything in my home for years. It's totally vegan, and it actually smells good in a clean, non-toxic sort of way! The most important thing is, it works really well. I use it to clean my stove and countertops, and I can be a pretty messy cook. You can find it for about $5 in stores, or you can order a case of 12 from Amazon.com (see link at right of this page) for a little over $3.00 a bottle. That will last you a long time!

Global Warming

Flying to all of those snorkel-friendly destinations can really add to your carbon footprint. Tomorrow is Earth Hour, a global environmental movement started last year in Sydney, Australia. Basically, if we all shut off our lights for one hour, we can make a huge impact in the amount of carbon emissions we put in the atmosphere (which contribute to global warming). To participate, simply turn off all non-essential lights between the hours of 8:00 PM and 9:00 PM on March 29th. You'll be joined by cities around the world including San Francisco, Dublin, Copenhagen, and Melbourne. You can make a candlelit vegan dinner! Speaking of which, being vegan can make a huge impact on the Earth. The livestock industry is a major player in global warming. Vegan Outreach explains the environmental impact of being vegan.

Lavender Chocolate

Dark chocolate with lavender and dried blueberries...so weird but SO GOOD! Did you know that dagoba means "temple" in Sanskrit? I always thought that the people behind this brand were just super into Yoda.

Vegan Supplements

Though a healthy vegan diet will give you pretty much all of the vitamins and minerals your body needs, I like to take supplements just in case. I don't always eat enough leafy green vegetables or anitoxidant rich blueberries (though they are some of my favorite foods!). My favorite source for vegan supplements is Vegan Essentials. I usually take one DEVA One-a-Day Vitamin and Mineral Supplement, one Omega-Zen-3 essential fatty acid supplement (from algae, not fish), and one Freeda Super Cal/Mag calcium and magnesium supplement.

Favorite Blogs

I just added a list of blogs I like to this page. Super Vegan is one of my favorites because of the NYC restaurant guide. Vegan Blog Tracker is a great resource for vegans because it lists vegan posts from all over the web. Ecorazzi is fun, green gossip and entertainment news. Hezbollah Tofu is one my new favorites-veganizing Anthony Bourdain recipes! There's a lot more listed. Check them out if you're not already familiar with them.

My new favorite vegan cheese!!! Plus, a simple vegan pizza recipe.

The finished result...scrumptious!I've finally tasted a vegan cheese that reminded me of the real mozzarella I used to love about 15 years ago, before I went vegan. Follow Your Heart Monterey Jack is my new favorite vegan cheese! I actually liked it plain! I made a yummy vegan pizza with it last night. The bizarre thing with Follow Your Heart cheese (I've tried the mozzarella flavor before) is that it will not melt for me, even though it says, "it melts" on the packaging. My favorite vegan restaurant, Kaya's Kitchen, started using it recently. Apparantly, they are having the same problem because their vegan cheese no longer melts (but their vegan French onion soup is still amazing!).


The vegan pizza I made was delicious and so easy. I started by defrosting frozen, pre-made dough from Whole Foods. I prefer their whole wheat dough, but they only had white the last time I was there. I used Wegmans non stick canola oil cooking spray to prepare my pizza pan, then stretched out the dough to fit the pan. I covered the dough with Muir Glen organic tomato sauce, then liberally sprinkled some dried basil. Then, I added some fresh basil from my kitchen herb garden and half a package of Yves vegan pepperoni. After that, the Monterey Jack went on. I cooked it for about 15 minutes at 450 degrees. Yum!

Best Place I've Ever Snorkeled

Trunk Bay, St John, U.S. Virgin Islands

As you can see, the water was breathtakingly beautiful. Snorkeling here felt like floating in a giant, warm, sandy pool. The guide book I had warned us that this beach would be crowded, but that wasn't a problem when we were there (February). There is also an underwater snorkel trail with underwater signs explaining where to go and what you're seeing. There were shower facilities, a snack hut, and a snorkel renting station at the trail on the way to the beach. We brought luna bars and peanut butter sandwiches with us.

Vegan Travel Tip

Vegan Travel Tip #1: Try to stay in a room with a kitchen, or at least a microwave and a refrigerator. Many condohotels have this feature, resorts usually don't.

The last few snorkel-friendly destinations I traveled to were very different in terms of vegan foods available. Kauai was a vegan's dream, especially since we stayed in Kapaa. The vast majority of the vegan/vegetarian restaurants were in Kapaa, a short drive away from our hotel. The Safeway and even Longs Drugs had some vegan food for sale.

St. Thomas was another story. Luckily, our room had a full kitchen. While we had a delicious vegan dinner at Havana Blue, an expensive restaurant right on the beach about an hour from our hotel, we mostly cooked in our room.

St. John has the Starfish Market, a cute little grocery store that had soy milk and tofu. We also enjoyed eating at The China Shack, a chinese food restaurant located in the same complex as the Starfish Marlet. They had numerous tofu-based options.

Books to read if you're going to Kauai

Two travel books were very helpful in planning our trip. The first one is The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook by Andrew Doughty, and the second is Lonely Planet's Kauai by Luci Yamamoto.

Vegan Kauai

A salty tide pool filled with marine plants and animals:
It was a trip of a life time! Kauai's balmy winds, soft beaches, and salty tide pools were more than I could have imagined they would be. And the food! Our day typically consisted of waking up to fabulous Kona coffee with soy milk (check out Java Kai if you're ever out there), eating some sort of raw vegan breakfast pastry at Lotus Root, then embarking on some sort of new physically taxing adventure (kayaking, surfing, hiking), and ending the day with a ridiculously delicious dinner that was equally healthy. Our favorite restaurants were Blossoming Lotus and King and I (Thai).

Welcome!

I decided to start a blog after getting back from my recent trip to Kauai. I'm the type that likes to do a lot of research about a place before I go there for the first time, so naturally I searched the internet to find some websites that would tell me about the vegan Kauai experience (would there be anything for a picky vegan to eat?). I found some great information that alleviated my fears, but I realized later that my first hand travel experiences would be helpful to other vegans that like to travel to snorkel-friendly destinations. That being said, I can't afford the luxury of jet-setting to warm, clear waters as often as I'd like. So, this blog will also include random, non-snorkel related vegan and eco-friendly posts. I hope you like it!