This is a tough one! I love artichokes, leeks, kabocha squash, white-flesh sweet potatoes…honestly, the list is endless!

Farmers market.

Check out your area farmers market for great local and organic options (which are often less expensive and healthier than what you’ll find at your supermarket).

For something sweet strawberry smoothies, or almond butter and brown rice syrup – when mixed together they form something similar to caramel – delicious with apples or just on its own. When I want a savory treat, I toast some sourdough bread, spread with Earth Balance butter, and top with sliced tomatoes and a tiny pinch of salt. Yum!

Toasted sunflower seeds, pine nuts, and walnuts.

No way, Jose! But Field Roast makes the best “sausages” (the smoked and Italian are my faves). I also love Rhapsody’s Teriyaki Tempeh, and Health Times seitan. My books have a lot of great recipes that include these.

Farmers market.

I avoid words that are hard to pronounce – ingredients should be very simple to read, not an endless list! In general, try to make more real food and avoid the packaged stuff when possible.

Lemon, scallions, rice, kale, dried beans, mochi, brown rice syrup and toasted nori sheets.

Fresh, in-season fruit, brown rice syrup and carrot juice.

Earth Balance butter, veganaise and Rice Dream ice cream sandwiches, all as fun foods.

I try to opt for whole foods whenever possible, but when it comes to packaged goods, I always avoid animal-derived ingredients. I try to avoid any added sugars and any ingredient with numbers in it – that’s just bad news!

Dates at the market – they are seriously like candy! I also love Moo cheese (an amazing vegan cheese made from cashews) with crackers or a sourdough baguette.

Cloth.

Chocolate-dunked coconut delights in The Kind Mama or the chocolate peanut butter cups in The Kind Diet are my decadent treats.

Fat fried noodles, or sausage and sweet potato hash (both from The Kind Mama). One of the quickest, easiest and most delicious things to make is my baby bok choy drizzled with ume vinaigrette from The Kind Diet. Three to four ingredients, and less than five minutes!

Depends on the day, but my go-to dishes are immune boosting miso soup (The Kind Mama), steamed or blanched greens with ume vinaigrette (The Kind Diet), some kind of porridge, like sweet rice, amaranth, and apricot breakfast porridge (The Kind Mama), or mochi waffles (The Kind Diet), yum!

I love to eat! Nourishing, balancing foods (that also happen to taste amazing) have the power to make us feel like our best and healthiest selves.

Depends on the day. If I’m eating out, I’ll have an enzyme. If I’m not having my usual cultured fermented veggies, then I’ll do a probiotic. If I’m traveling and not eating as well, I’ll take a prenatal for breastfeeding. During high-stress times, or if I’m not out in the sun as much as I’d like, I’ll take vitamin D, and B12 a bit more regularly. But no matter what I take, I always makes sure to look for 100%-food-based, certified-organic, vegan vitamins.

My son Bear Blu, my husband Christopher, brown rice and vegetables and beans.

I love going to yoga class with my husband on Saturday mornings.

I love yoga; walking (with friends, with my son in his ergo carrier, or by myself) and, of course, dance parties with my son and husband!

Nori wraps of leftovers (The Kind Diet) – so easy and yum!

Brown rice, nori toasted sheets and dry beans.

Mochi.

Start moving away from dairy, sugar and animal foods, and instead, get cozy with whole grains and plant-based proteins and veggies. Everything is better when you do this! My first book, The Kind Diet, has tons of advice and recipes for how to do just that!

The Kind Diet, The Kind Mama, The China Study, The Food Revolution, Business of Being Born, Orgasmic Birth, Good Nights by Jay Gordon, Treatment Alternatives For Children, Shantaram, The Red Tent.

Macrobiotic counselor Warren Kramer and chef activist Christina Pirello of the Kushi institute.

My fridge is my medicine cabinet! These are my go-to healing foods:
Ume plums: Hangover? Feeling off? Getting sick? I use for cure-all tea in the Kind Diet.
Kuzu: Use for the ume sho kudzu drink from The Kind Mama, for all above as well.
Echinacea: When you feel something coming on, or if you already have the little bug.
Black elderberry: Same as above.

Avoid animal flesh completely.

Cut out animal foods.

We Care Spa, or a yoga retreat.

Stay in my heart and body more than in my mind. And I practice asking myself, “Is this helping me or hurting me?” to think whatever I’m thinking – and if it is hurting me, I practice letting it go.

Carrot cocktail: lemon ginger carrot little apple or just carrot. Or simple green juice: kale or romaine or both, apple, and lemon and ginger.