Oil Spill Kills Gulf Coast Shrimp Season; A Culture Hangs in the Balance
By Elizabeth Grossman, Author of Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry, High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden...
A Healthy Pet is a Happy Pet
By Allison Mowatt
Courtesy of Live Healthy Live Green
It's hard not to be aware of the numerous health benefits eating organically has on the...
Healthy Recipes For The Fourth Of July
By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
What says Fourth of July better than friends, fireworks, and good food? For a traditional celebration, not one of those three can be sacrificed. However, you can make healthier food choices without sacrificing flavor. Believe it or not, there are healthy alternatives to the yearly cheeseburgers and hotdogs dripping with grease, and that fattening potato salad. CBS News has shared with us some great recipes that will leave you and your friends satisfied and guilt-free to enjoy the fireworks.
Farmers Markets Promote Healthy Eating Habits and Seasonal Shopping this Spring
Shopping and eating seasonally from your local farmers market tastes better, has higher nutritional values, promotes healthy eating habits, reduces environmental damage from shipping foods, and can even be kinder on your wallet.
Farmers Market Eating Habits Seasonal SpringBy Hannah Canvasser, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
Shopping at your neighborhood grocery store, many don’t realize that most of the abundant supply of produce comes from thousands of miles away, and is picked before ripeness to give consumers what they demand. Who would have thought that we could have peaches in October and butternut squash in June! Although off-season and premature picked produce will color and soften on the way to market, taste and nutritional value will be lost. Understanding what produce is available during certain seasons, and shopping at local farmers markets can change these eating habits.
Here are a few reasons to stay local and seasonal with your eating habits:
Farmers Market Eating Habits Seasonal SpringTaste and Nutritional Value:
There are many products available at local farmers markets that will not only be rich in flavor, but high in nutritional value due to ripeness when picked and seasonality. Artichokes, asparagus, avocados, broccoli, mushrooms, spinach, corn, red pepper, green beans, peas, and beets are all great spring vegetable additions to your kitchen. Try a spinach artichoke dip as an appetizer or some tasty grilled portabella mushroom sliders to entertain with friends. Mango, pineapple, grapefruit, kumquats, lemons, oranges, tangerines, strawberries, cherries, nectarines, peaches, plums, melons, and lavender are very popular throughout spring and will enhance your eating habits. With your pantry now stocked, relax with a refreshing strawberry basil lemonade and fresh avocado grapefruit salad, or indulge with some lavender bread pudding.
Hats off to history on Derby Day
By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World
What's a hat got to do with it?
The Kentucky...
Seasonal Eating: The Best Nature Has to Offer
By Kerin Van Hoosear, LuxEco Editorial Assistant and author of Seasonal Cooking with Kerin
Before the advent of refrigeration, seasonal living wasn’t an aspiration,...
Antonelli’s Cheese Shop in Austin Texas is a real love story
By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World
"We've been asked many times, "Why a Cheese...
Le Meurice Paris is # 1:LuxEcoLiving’s Best Hotels in the World Series
By James and Nancy Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World
What a dream! We spent our Midnight in Paris and every waking...
Living the Good Life with Friends at Full of Life Flatbread Pizza in Los...
By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World
Los Alamos California population 1,890. Full of Life Flatbread Pizza Restaurant... the...
New Vegan Restaurant Serves Up Healthy Comfort Food
By: Lauren O'Neill, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
Los Angeles foodies can rejoice because there is a new vegan restaurant in town, Sage Organic Vegan Bistro on the corner of Sunset and Logan in Echo Park. Formerly raw food restaurant Mooi, the space is now a dream team of organic vegan delicacies: healthy comfort food from Sage, and delicious, dairy-free ice cream from the popular KindKreme desserts (also in Studio City and Pasadena). With the owners of Millie’s in Silver Lake and a former chef of well-renowned vegan restaurant Flore, it’s no wonder the food is so good that it will satiate the taste buds of vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike.
Easy Beet Hummus Recipe
Fight cancer, anemia and high blood pressure with this delicious hummus recipe.
By Brooke Rewa, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
Add beets to your farmer's market list this week and pull out your food processor, we're making beet hummus. Not only is this hummus recipe simple and flavorful, it's packed with all the benefits of typical hummus plus the added punch of nutrient loaded beets.
Want to Eat Tasty Vegan Food? Start with Cupcakes
By Jason Wachob, Founder of MindBodyGreen.com and LuxEco Advocate
Many foodies don't equate the word vegan with delicious, as a lot of recipes don't translate well without butter, eggs, and other animal products. But not when we're talking cupcakes... One of the most popular stories at the NY Times focuses on vegan chef, Chloe Coscarelli, whose vegan cupcakes beat out traditional cupcakes on the Food Network show, "Cupcake Wars."
Les Lodges Hotel and Spa Aix-en-Provence: LuxEcoLiving’s Best Boutique Hotels in the World
By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World
" Sitting in front of the mountain that gave birth to Paul...
The Exquisite Milestone Hotel London: LuxEcoLiving’s Best Hotels in the World 2016
"The Milestone Hotel in London was just voted the #2 city hotel in Europe and the # 1 World's Best Hotel by Travel + Leisure"
April Showers Bring May Flowers, Summer Drought and Seedlings Sprout!
By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
Granted, there is an abundance of vegetation that only thrives during the rainy season or in mild warmth....
Better Pet Food, Healthier Pets: What to Feed Your Four Legged Friends
By Jazmin Clark, Editorial Assistant
We all love our pets, and naturally we want what’s best for them. What better way to show them that love than to extend our own healthy eating practices to the food we provide for them? In today’s increasingly health conscious, green-evolving world there are plenty of organic, grain-free, and holistic options for pet food out there. But how do we know which ones are right for our furry friends?
What’s for Dinner?
It’s a question as old as campfire, and the answer is getting more and more difficult to produce: “Hey Ma (or Pa), What’s for dinner?”. The realities of mass food production in this modern age are out there, and perhaps the harshest light of all has been shed on the meat production industry in particular.
Organic Produce, Sustainable Farming and Earthbound Cooking: Myra Goodman
Leader in the organic produce business and in sustainable farming practices, Myra Goodman inspires us with eco-tips and organic recipes with her new book The Earthbound Cook.
organic produce sustainable farm earthbound cooking
By Sahar Ghaffari, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
Sustainable farming business woman, Myra Goodman is a popular cookbook author and co-founder of the organic Earthbound Farm, which she started in 1984 with her husband Drew. Her passion for organic foods has catapulted Earthbound Farm into the country's largest grower of organic produce. Myra and Drew's organic and sustainability initiatives have garnered them numerous awards and honors including Global Green USA’s Corporate Environmental Leadership Award and the Organic Trade Association’s Organic Leadership Award. As the author of two successful cookbooks, Food to Live By, and now The Earthbound Cook, Myra is spreading the message that fresh organic foods and produce are not only healthy and delicious, but vital to the sustainability of the environment.
A Review: The Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara is in a class all...
By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World
To B or not to B at the Four Seasons...
High Fructose Corn Syrup and Sugar Substitutes: The Truth Behind Artificial Sweeteners
How to navigate high fructose corn syrup and sugar substitutes to avoid harmful artificial sweeteners in favor of plant based alternatives.
By: Molly Cimikoski, Editorial Assistant
What if products that contain high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners, which are marketed to assist in living a healthier lifestyle, are actually the ones making us sick? As of 2007, American consumers were spending 21 billion dollars 21 billion dollars annually on diet, or low calorie, drinks. From the outsider perspective, this still seems like progress compared to the alternative statistic, with 64% of Americans qualifying as overweight or obese. But what if you found out that the sugar alternatives that many diet products promote are not only ineffective as weight loss methods, but are also dangerous to your health?
Captain Planet Seeds Students to Grow a Greener Future for Agriculture
By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World
Santa Paula California Limoneria Ranch
An Afternoon in the Orchard Celebrating Sustainable Agriculture
Not...
Nancy’s Organic Kitchen: Mad About Green Food
By Nancy Chuda, co-founder of LuxEco Living.com and Healthy Child Healthy World
Here in Nancy's Organic Kitchen at The Green Green Home Under The H, I am challenged daily by the special dietary needs of my LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child/Healthy World friends and colleagues.
There are so many variables when it comes to defining your plat du jour. At LuxEco, health is the main objective, so I’ve decided to help you figure out where you should look among the various choices within the food chain.
Travels with Journey: The Carmel Country Inn by the Sea is Pet Perfect
By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World
Carmel by the Sea at The Carmel Country Inn
Like the candy, Carmel...
To Own a Piece of History: The Old St. Angela Bed & Breakfast Monterey...
By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World
You don't want to miss the breakfast or the bed...
Sickly Sweet; The Truth Behind Artificial Sweeteners
By: Molly Cimikoski, Editorial Assistant
What if products that are marketed to assist in living a healthier lifestyle, are actually the ones making us sick?...
Anna Getty’s Tips For Eating Healthy With Organic Food
By Anna Getty, Author and LuxEco Adovcate
I have been addicted to organic food for almost 10 years. I know it is better for me, my kids and better for the planet. Studies have shown organic produce to be higher in anti-oxidants; vitamins and minerals (thank you to The Organic Center for your vigilant scientific research) and organic dairy, meat and eggs have fewer hormones, antibiotics and pesticide residues (yes, pesticides are found in meat because cattle are eating feed laden with them). It’s also true that organic farming is more sustainable; it uses fewer resources and encourages community. But above all else it tastes better. Try this experiment. Blindfold your kid and have him taste both a conventional and organic apple. You will see, he will pick the organic apple.
Elementary School Garden Inspires Health and Nutrition with an Organic Garden
By Kerin Van Hoosear, LuxEco Editorial Assistant and author of Season Cooking with Kerin
In a country where childhood obesity rates have more than tripled in the last thirty years, it is refreshing to see teachers like Mark Wagner combat that statistical nightmare. As head of the Organic Garden Club at Palmquist Elementary School in Oceanside, Calif., he’s getting kids excited about gardening and eating right. “I really wanted to promote nutrition awareness. That was my main goal,” Wagner says. When he arrived at Palmquist four years ago, the school garden was a fenced-in patch of waist-high weeds. Now it’s filled with ground crops and fruit trees that the students are not just excited to grow, but to eat as well.
Vegan Presidents and Action Heroes?
By Sahar Ghaffari, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant
In a recent interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, former president Bill Clinton announced that his recent 24 pound weight loss was thanks to a vegan diet. The 64 year old Clinton went on an “essentially plant-based diet” living primarily on vegetables, legumes, fruit, and protein supplements mixed in with almond milk in the mornings.
The Best Cheese and Wine in the World: Bridlewood Winery hosts Mons Fromager- Affineur...
By Nancy and James Chuda founders LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World
Santa Ynez California, twilight time
It's a marriage of two of the most celebrated...
Losing Taste, Redefining Creative Process
Photography: Lara Kastner for Metropolis
In each of our lives, we are given a unique set of gifts, challenges and even obstacles. ...
The Brothers Red Barn Brings Back That Lovin Feelin…Again
By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World
The Brothers know how to bring home the...
The Joy of Cooking (in a College Apartment)
Although friendship might not be included in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, I think we can all agree that a lot of our survival requisites could not be met without the help of our dearest friends, if only because we would be too sad to roll out of bed and get that vital glass of water. Food on the other hand is necessary by anyone’s standards. Just a few hours without eating, and I quickly regress from a twenty-one year old human into something more closely resembling an ogre. However, when we take the wonders of food and add that very special additive called best friends, the result is longer lasting than any typical meal.
Where is the Real Beef? I’m mad as a cow and not going to...
By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World
Cows have a voice too!
If you can stomach, actually bare...
Eating Well & Healing Yourself With Your Very Own Indoor Herb Garden
By Kerin Van Hoosear, LuxEco Editorial Assistant and author of Seasonal Cooking with Kerin
When I jumped on the gardening bandwagon, the first things I started to grow were herbs. I had really started getting into adventurous cooking, and it only made sense to grow my own herbs. If you go to the grocery store, you’re going to wind up spending a few bucks on a couple leaves of basil. Well, I don’t have a few bucks; but I do have a minute to snip off as much basil as I want from my garden, for free. And that’s really what it’s all about: saving time and money while bringing your food to a whole fresh, new level.
South Congress trailers in Austin!
By Grace Robertson, LuxEco Advocate
Keeping Austin Weird With…South Congress Trailers!
Austin is a great place to live because of its’ fun people, great music, and uniqueness. Its’ motto is Keep Austin Weird, which is a perfect name for this individualistic place. In my opinion, walking in downtown Austin is a whole different experience from walking in any other city.