VegMoms

Monday It’s Vegan Night: This recipe is in our book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Vegan Eating for Kids and we can’t think of a better way to kick off warmer weather than eating a good bowl full of guacamole and some tortilla chips.

Easy Vegan Guacamole

(yields 1.5 cups)

4 ripe avocados (but not overly ripe)

1/2 tsp. cumin

juice of 1/2 a lime

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup frozen yellow corn or petite lima beans, still frozen (optional)

1 mango (peeled and diced)

1. Peel and pit avocados. Slice flesh into 1 in. slices and place in a bowl. Add cumin and lime juice, and mash together with a fork.

2. Add salt, corn (if using) and mango (if using) and mix well. Allow corn to thaw naturally in guacamole before serving (about 15 minutes room temperature) Do not heat corn before adding to mixture.

3. Serve with tortilla chips, in wrap sandwiches, or as a dip for raw veggies.

Wednesday’s Veg Kids … While researching my new book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Vegan Eating for Kids (available for pre-order now on amazon.com, on store shelves in February), I was surprised by how many vegan and vegetarian celebrities there are that teens, tweens and other kids seem to naturally like and see as role models. Some examples include: actor Elijah Wood, country singer Carrie Underwood, singer/songwriter Alanis Morissette, singer Moby, music mogul Russell Simmons, actress Alicia Silverstone, the list goes on to include athletes from nearly every sport, politicians and global activists.

Alicia Silverstone’s new book The Kind Diet is a fantastic book for anyone new to or even those of us who are old salts in the ways of meat-free eating. I just bought a copy recently and read it in a day. I can’t wait to try some of the recipes and check out her blog. It’s important for kids who feel motivated to stop eating animal products to see celebrities who are doing it. And, luck for us, it seems most celebrities who choose the meat-free life seem to be all-around together, creative people who don’t tend toward the darker sides of Hollywood life. Coincidence?