Fabulous Vegan Recipes

Hello and thank you for checking out my blog! I want to give you a little background about myself and how I found a career in health and wellness. My background is in social work; I have my masters degree in social work and I am a licensed social worker in Pennsylvania and New York State. I worked with individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families for 14 years before becoming a health and wellness professional. Read why I left my job to move to NYC here . I'm a 200 hour certified yoga teacher and blogger. I own The Yoga Collective NYC , a yoga studio in midtown Manhattan that is available for rent. We offer the entrepreneur a space to teach their classes, workshops and trainings and have a full list of classes. My passion is helping people choose healthy, plant based food. My recipes are designed to be simple and delicious with easy to find ingredients. I lead a Mindfulness & Meditation training at my studio and teach corporate meditation sessions. Sign up

I first heard of Jordan and her blog via Instagram when she would post awesome, motivational pics. Her account was one of the fist Instagram accounts that I relied on when I first moved to NYC a year and a half ago. I signed up for a Juice Crawl in August and she was there also; needless to say I was so happy to meet her! She was so nice and we chatted about our blogs for a little bit before we silent clubbed around the city with headphones on and fabulous dance moves (it was a silent clubbing juice crawl haha). I was soon reading her blog and feeling relieved that someone else felt the same way about the fast paced life in this city. On her blog , Jordan mentions finding your skinny and I can completely relate; I compare myself everyday to other women on the street and worry so much about how I look, it's exhausting and a waste of time.

  I am a part of a wonderful group of health and wellness bloggers on Facebook. We ask questions, ask each other for advice, share ideas and talk about different topics. It's a great community and I'm so happy to be a part of it! My guest blogger is Katie Bell, a fellow yoga teacher, blogger and wellness coach who I met in our group. Below is some information about Katie's business, where you can find her on social media and a post she wrote about finding what's healthy for you along with two vegan recipes! Thank you, Katie, for being my guest blogger today!

My wonderful friend Helena is back with another post about veganism and its impact on the environment! Did you know animal agriculture is responsible for more carbon emissions than all transportation combined?  Helena and I met when we both participated in the vegan pledge/mentor program at the beginning of this year. After Helena's post, I'm flashing back to my sushi recipe from December. 

I still don't know the answer to this question. According to the definition of veganism, honey is not vegan because bees make honey for themselves and we are essentially stealing their nutrition when we take honey from a hive. Eating honey is exploiting bees and interfering with their habitat. There are articles that say bees are killed during the honey gathering process and bees are stunned during the smoking process. Bees, however, are dying quickly because of pesticide use and other factors so are beekeepers saving the bees? Since becoming vegan in 2011, I went back to eating honey twice. Other than that, I replaced honey with maple syrup or agave nectar. Do I crave honey in particular? No but I went back to eating it last summer when a local beekeeper was selling honey at the Union Square Farmers Market. There are so many views on honey; most vegan websites say honey is absolutely NOT vegan. But are they basing their decision on the definition of veganism or have they read

I have another guest blogger today, on this wonderful Meatless Monday, a fellow veggie consumer and alum of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, Kelly Anne Monahan!  She recently published an ebook that focuses on healthy recipes and clean eating.  Kelly talks about her story, what led her down the path of health and nutrition and she gives some information about her book.  I'm so happy to post her story! After her post, I included a chocolate shake recipe for you, fat free, sugar free, made with whole ingredients.  Enjoy!

Another guest blog post from Helena, newly vegan and a fabulous new friend!  I'm so grateful for the wonderful vegan community we have here in NYC. It seems that becoming vegan is bringing up all sorts of questions—all the time!  Yet how to discuss this topic with friends? Some of the arguments for animal rights use such angry speech that all I want is to run and hide.   The question of Animal Rights is a big issue, often discussed in its own terms.

I recently had the opportunity to be a mentor for people interested in becoming vegan.  It was called the Vegan Pledge and it was sponsored by Collectively Free and Peace Advocacy Network .  My pledge, Helena, embraced the vegan lifestyle and tried new recipes over the four week pledge.  We went to Peacefood Cafe in NYC and talked about being vegan, we exchanged recipes and talked about the social aspects of being vegan.  I have loved meeting and getting to knowing her so I'm super excited that she is my guest blogger!  Below is an excerpt she wrote about veganism and mindful eating.  Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Helena! My name is Helena and I am new to veganism; Nicole is my vegan mentor.  She is kindly lending space on her blog, for me to hash out some of the thoughts that come up as I begin this journey. Yesterday, the book “Becoming Vegan” by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina, finally arrived in the mail.  I was eager to get started on this treasure trove of inf

On December 9th, I graduate from the Health Coach program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. We will be coaches for health and wellness and along with that title, we have so many other endeavors to choose from such as writing books, developing a health product, presenting workshops, running wellness groups etc...the possibilities are endless.  Kimberly is a fellow classmate of mine who wrote and published a book called The Small Change Solution: A 52 Step Guide to Getting the Naturally Healthy Lifestyle You Want.  The book focuses on small, sustainable changes that you can make for better health not only having to do with diet and fitness but also self care.  Kimberly's book is available on Amazon.com and at barnesandnoble.com.  I'm so happy for Kimberly on the publication of her book and I was able to see her on stage at the November live IIN conference when she introduced us to her book!  Kimberly wrote a wonderful post below on the importance of taking care of yo