Hi Everyone,

As summer comes to an end, and life takes on new beginnings, I wish you all a wonderful journey in what ever you choose to pursue!

Life can be so busy and it’s easy for me to feel scattered, especially when I’m trying to do everything that comes across my desk, while balancing the rhythm of life’s ups and downs with family and friends. I am one of those people that can accomplish a lot in a day, but avoids some of the bigger projects that have been sitting on the back burner for quite some time. One of those projects is my book! I have been working on a vegetarian cookbook/memoir for years, but I have not made it a priority until now. I am clearing my calendar and taking it on! My book is not only for vegetarians, it is for everybody, especially the meat eaters out there! I want to help people transition to eating less meat, especially factory raised meat, because they know it is the right thing to do from a humane, sustainability, and climate change perspective. At the same time, eating a vegetarian, mostly plant based diet, has been proven to be a healthier way to eat, so it is a win/win situation. The only catch, is that those who eat meat, love their meat, and don’t want to give it up. They are afraid of feeling deprived and unsatisfied. So often, a vegetarian meal can feel like a bunch of side dishes that just doesn’t take the place of a main course. My recipes are not that! They are full of complex flavors and textures, and are substantial enough to satisfy even the heaviest of carnivores. 

I will also share some of my life’s experiences as a young women on a spiritual path, cooking for a college’s vegetarian meal plan, being a single mother and making ends meet on food stamps and welfare, raising my children as vegetarians, becoming a Waldorf teacher and incorporating Rudolf Steiner’s philosophy into the school lunch program, and starting my own vegetarian catering company. Stay tuned for excerpts as I go through this journey. I want to thank you all in advance for your love and support.

My guest this week on the Progressive Radio Network is Laura Shapiro, food historian and author of a wonderful new book called What She Ate; Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories. We often don’t think of food from a historical perspective, nor do we look at food as a lens to tell as story, but Laura Shapiro does, and she does it with eloquence and humor. Laura is also the author of three other award winning classic books of culinary history. Her awards include a James Beard Journalism Award and one from the National Women’s Political Caucus. She has been a fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, where she also co-curated the widely acclaimed exhibition Lunch Hour NYC. Laura was a columnist at The Real Paper (Boston) before beginning a 16-year run at Newsweek, where she covered food, women’s issues and the arts and won several journalism awards. Her essays, reviews and features have also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Gourmet, Gastronomica, Slate and many other publications. I am really looking forward to my conversation with Laura and hope you can join us!

Remember, my show is recorded live, every Thursday, from 10-11 am, EST.  To tune in, navigate to PRN.fm and click the “Listen Live” button on the left. Also try downloading the PRN mobile app, and take the station with you wherever you go! If you want to call in during the show with any questions for me or my guest, the call in number is 888-874-4888.

If you can’t tune in at that time, you can listen to the show in the PRN archives, or through a direct phone line to my archives. Just dial 1-701-719-0880, and you can listen to the past 5 weeks of shows! Of course you can also access the shows through my website, or through iTunes. Please “like” iEat Green’s Facebook page and feel free to rate the show and leave comments on iTunes and on my website. Thank you all for your support.

With love and gratitude,

Bhavani