In the cold months, I love to have two to three cups or nice hot herbal teas. Herbal teas have many additional health benefits. They are best when sweetened with stevia or other all natural sweeteners. All of the following must have teas can either be purchased as tea bags, or you make them yourself by simply adding the natural ingredients to boiling water. When you make tea it is best to boil the water first,  turn off add your herbs and allow it to sit for about 15 to 20 minutes for optimum benefits.

Here are 5 must drink teas for the winter!

Dandelion Tea: This is a great tea for cleansing the blood and liver. It also helps to ease constipation and bloating. Women may find that it helps to alleviate the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, it is also known to be good for sufferers of gout.

Fennel Tea: Great for bloating and eliminating gas, this tea is also known to be very good for IBS sufferers. Fennel also makes a great mouth rinse as it freshens breath naturally.

Peppermint Tea: A great tea for alleviating nausea, headaches and calming the digestive tract. In addition it can help with bad breath.

Lemon Tea: Lemons are known to cleans and stimulate the liver and kidneys as well as easing heartburn and bloating.

Ginger Tea: A brilliant tea first thing in the morning as the slight bite of ginger will help to wake you up and keep you alert. Also known to help with upset stomach, nausea, soothe menstrual pains, ward off colds, and help to reduce soar throats.

You can also make tea blends for specific health blends. Every winter I make sure to keep my immune booster and spiced blend teas. This month I want to share those recipes with you.

Immune Booster Tea Blend

Ingredients
32 oz pure water
2 tbsp echinecia
2 tbsp rose hips
2 tbsp hibiscus flowers
1 lemon sliced
10 to 20 drops elderberry essential oil (optional)

Directions:
Heat water until boiling. Turn off. Add herbs,lemon, essential oil and allow to sit for 15 to 20 minutes before draining and drinking. The tea can be refrigerated.

Spiced Tea Blend
32 oz pure water
4 cinnamon sticks
1 1/2 tbsp cardamom seeds
1 1/2 tbsp cloves
1 1/2 tbsp allspice
1 whole organge sliced

Heat water until boiling. Turn off. Add herbs,orange, and allow to sit for 15 to 20 minutes before draining and drinking. The tea can be refrigerated.

Costa Rican (spicy) Guacamole

1 -2 large ripe Florida/Caribbean avocado, peeled, halved, and pitted
OR
4-5 California avocados, peeled, halved, and pitted
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup fresh diced tomatoes
3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
2-3 large serrano chilies seeded, chopped
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

Mash Avocados until smooth. Add remaining ingredients, mix and chill or eat right away.

Plantain chips:

2 large green plantains (peeled)
vegetable oil
salt to taste

Mojo (garlic sauce):

1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup onion (finely chopped)
6 garlic gloves (minced)
1/2 cup lemon juice

Directions

Peel plantains, slice into 1/4″ chips and place in a bowl. In a frying pan or deep fryer, pour 1/4 inch of expeller pressed oil and heat at medium-high. Add enough chips at a time to leave a little space between them. When approaching golden brown in color, remove and place in bowl with double lining of paper towels. Lightly sprinkle with sea salt to taste.

Using a 2-quart bowl add onion, garlic, and lemon juice.. Heat olive oil over medium-high until frying hot (about 2 minutes), when hot, pour olive oil into bowl. Be certain to pour with one hand while holding a spatter screen between you and the bowl with the other. Whisk ingredients, then pour into single bowl or dipping cups. Some prefer to spoon the mojo over the chips while others prefer to dip. 6-10 chips per serving.

Greetings, everyone!

Lately, we have been working to focus our efforts on the specifics of healthy living, in general. As the name Vegan Family Living implies, we will also begin to address our ongoing transition of lifestyle as we learn more about healthy living. Even though the vegan diet has become a cornerstone of our household, we are discovering that healthy living involves so much more than just what we eat. In fact, most of us spend only 8% or less of our day for mealtimes. That combined with the roughly 63% used for sleeping, working, and commuting, leaves us 29% of our day in which we can focus on choosing “healthy alternatives” that would benefit “the rest of our life”.

While we are concerned for the physical well-being of our bodies, an equivalent amount of energy must be focused on other contributors to our health besides what we eat. For example, the best of food can only do so much good if we are stressed out, disorganized, and over-worked. Also, there may be some of us (myself included) who are more or less physically challenged for various reasons and would like to discuss alternative and additional approaches to improvement.

For the next few months we will be featuring recipes and insights from my favorite Mexican vegetarian chef, Bolivar Gomez. He has spread the virtues of a healthier lifestyle throughout the southwest Chicago Hispanic community and beyond. I have been literally “blown away” by the authenticity and consistency of his dishes. I hope that you will be as inspired by his input as I have been by his work of promoting tasteful, yet healthful cuisine. Additionally, if time allows before our relocation, I’m requesting a video and podcast from him. Hopefully, we’ll get both.

There are many other “goodies up our sleeves” for the upcoming year that we hope will begin to round out the experience of eating as well as living vegan.

To your blossoming health,

Rupert.

I make many of the same meals my mother made but I adjust the ingredients a bit. For example my mother always uses meat in her greens and beans. Of course being married to a man who is 100% vegan,  I can’t do that plus that just adds extra cholesterol to the dish.

What I do is use nutritional yeast, butter, and Chinese mushrooms for that down home taste of my mother’s greens or beans. For every three bunches of greens I make a roux of sorts by cutting up some onions, bell peppers, and garlic and saute them in 2 tbsp vegan butter for about 2 minutes. I then add about 3 tsp of nutritional yeast and stir the mixture really fast for about a minute. I mix in 3 cups of water and let is simmer for 3 to 5 minutes before adding my greens, seasoning and vegetable broth or water. When I season I use a little chili powder, paprika, granulated garlic, onion powder, and some smoke.

Now making macaroni and cheese started off as a bug challenge but I have got it together now. I make a Kraft mac and cheese boxed version and then I have my low fat soul food version. You can find the recipes for these dishes here:

Soul Food Version Macaroni and Cheese

Soul Food Version Macaroni and Cheese 2 - This one has vegan sour cream in it.

Boxed Version Macaroni and Cheese

I even make a vegan version of sweet potato pie that I call Cynthia’s Sweet Potato Pie - Vegan Style. It is pretty yummy, if I must say so myself.

Making a traditional soul food into a vegan meal is not that hard. Yes I make dressing, hoppin’ john, and more soul food  into delicious vegan dishes. And yes, many meat eaters have tried my dishes and loved them. I was a meat eater for 35 years of my life and I still do eat some on occasion, but mostly fish; so I know what it should taste like. I have gone back to the drawing board a few times to perfect my recipes and there are a few that I still am trying to perfect.I just want to encourage you by saying that you don’t have to eat fat ladened, cholesterol high soul food. You can create healthier versions of your favorite Soul Food Dishes and skip the bad stuff.

1. You will save money. Replacing meat with more vegetables and fruit is estimated to cut food bills by an average of $4,000 a year. That’s a family vacation a year or some other type of fun.

2. You are saving your heart. Heart disease is running rampant; not only among adults but children as well. Children as young as age 3 who are raised on fast food and junk food show early signs of heart disease, according to the Bogalusa Heart Study done at the Louisiana State University. Cardiovascular disease is found in one in nine women aged 45 to 64 and in one in three women over 65. The average American male eating a meat-based diet has a 50 percent chance of dying from heart disease. So heart disease is now targeting everyone in your family.

3. Longer life. According to a study done by Loma Linda University, vegans live about 15 years longer than meat eaters. I don’t know about you but I look forward to living and enjoying life as long as I can.

4.  You can eat the cookie dough raw and not worry about salmonella. Now that is a plus for the kids and well, maybe the adults too. The one thing I love about preparing vegan meals is the option to taste before I cook to make sure that it is just right.

5.  For the children this one is a biggie. You can help save animals. I would demonstrate this by watching Animal Planet, going to a nice zoo, or just talking about it because kids love animals. If you have a pet that helps as well. Tell your children that by going vegan you are eliminating animals and that going vegan will help save them. Ask them if they want to see their favorite animal killed and eaten.

There are many reasons to become vegan. What you have to do is decide which ones are best to share with your family. Visit vegan and vegetarian sites like Vegan Society and GoVeg.com and allow your family to learn more about becoming vegan. You can even order their free Vegetarian Starter kits to share more information with your family.

In my experience in working with vegan families, I have found that the adults tend to be more resistant than the children. So in the event of a spouse or other adults in the house, I suggest that you gather the research and plead your case.

If you have a hard time convincing your spouse to go vegan seven days a week, see if he will be okay with eating vegan a few days of the week. If he challenges that the kids will not get the nutrients they need, then show him the “Get Your Nutrients” section of this e-book and direct him toward the Physician Committee for Responsible Medicine where he can read about a group of doctors, (not quacks, but real doctors), who encourage the vegetarian/vegan diet and provides information and resources for those seeking to know more.

For the life of me I will never figure out why it is so hard for people to accept change, but it is. Being a vegan is no different than being a meat eater. Meat eaters do not get their proper nutrients just because they eat dead flesh. It is the live food that matter most.

Of course you can share that as well.

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This article is an excerpt from Transitioning Your Family With Ease. For more ideas and advice on moving your family to a healthy vegan diet, including a sample meal plan, recipes, and planning tools. check this e-book out today.