Here’s an old favorite, perfect for Super Bowl Sunday.

Pizza dough can often be purchased from your local pizza restaurant or bakery.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Stromboli
Yellow * Serves 8-12

1 pizza crust
1 package Gimme Lean sausage, cooked
1 package vegan pepperoni
shredded vegan cheese of choice

Preheat the oven to 350F. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle. Cover (to about an inch or so from the edges) with sausage, then pepperoni, then shredded cheese. Starting at one of the long ends, roll into a long log and place on a baking sheet in a U shape. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Access Hollywood Live: Three Things You Don’t Know About… Marilu Henner
Marilu Henner takes on Access Hollywood Live’s “Three Things You Don’t Know About…” segment. Which animal was she “deathly afraid” of for most of her life? Plus, what keeps popping up on the Internet about her that bugs her every time?

&nbps;

Access Hollywood Live: Marilu Henner Performs Magical Memory Tricks With Billy Bush & Kit Hoover
Billy Bush and Kit Hoover are blown away by Marilu Henner’s superior autobiographical memory when she recalls the exact date that Billy allegedly cheated her son out of money for a bet they made. So, did Billy ever pay her son the money?

It’s the Chinese New Year! Gong xi fa cai (gong-hay-fat-choy)!

This is the year of the rabbit *

… a placid year, very much welcomed and needed after the ferocious year of the Tiger. We should go off to some quiet spot to lick our wounds and get some rest after all the battles of the previous year.

Good taste and refinement will shine on everything and people will acknowledge that persuasion is better than force. A congenial time in which diplomacy, international relations and politics will be given a front seat again. We will act with discretion and make reasonable concessions without too much difficulty.

~ www.theholidayspot.com

We aren’t sure we need to hide away to lick our wounds, but it’s true that we want to be introspective this year – figure out what we need versus what we want, make our passion into our path, and live a more integrated life.

And if good taste and refinement are part of the package, that’s great! We could use a bit of an upgrade in the external part of that. Perhaps a new hairstyle, new makeup colors, and a few more nice outfits (and fewer days in jeans or sweats). Perhaps it means a few more outings to the museum and theater (and fewer nights in front of the television). Perhaps it means more beautiful, fresh meals that taste as good as they look (and no more fast food, or chain restaurants, or meals we just throw together without care).

We’d like to go through the year with that same sense of wonder and joy that we feel when we see a rabbit in the yard, too.

Here’s to a great new year! (And if you need a second start on your new year’s resolutions, why not start again today?)

Marilu’s Total Health Makeover® is easily adaptable for vegans, and many of our members here are vegans. But many are not – though they probably eat a lot less animal protein than they did before following THM®.

Yesterday on Oprah, Kathy Freston (author of Veganist) helped the staff and their families take the vegan challenge. Kathy said her husband calls himself “veganish” – which is a great word. So many of us are happy to eat vegan most of the time – but then big family celebrations or holidays or unwilling partners get added to the picture, and it becomes impractical (or the beginning of an epic battle), and it’s not worth that. So we are “veganish” – mostly vegan. Vegan at home, perhaps. Or vegan on our own. Or vegan most days of the week.

And that’s okay. The most important thing is to keep eating the best food available – fresh, organic, nutrient-dense, local, etc – and to choose your food consciously. Know what you’re eating. Learn the process of how it got to you. Prepare it with care.

If you naturally transition to a “veganish” diet over time, it’s likely (with your good choices) to make you healthier, too.

• If you’re looking for vegan recipes, click on our index tag over there on the right. All the recipes we post on Mondays are vegan.
• If you want to lose weight and get healthy, we have a great 30-day program with vegan recipes and meal plans, and daily personal coaching to answer all your questions and provide support. Join now to take the class (starts each Monday).

Shatner’s Raw Nerve
Saturday, February 05, 8:30 AM Eastern
Biography channel

Host William Shatner has a personal conversation with actress, Marilu Henner. Shatner and Henner discuss the death of her parent, motherhood and healthy lifestyles. Henner talks about an interesting condition she has called hyperthymesia, which gives her a superior autobiographical memory.

Did you know that plain water is just as effective at removing germs and pesticides from your produce as those special sprays and washes?

Yes, plain water.

To get ride of bacteria and viruses, use a solution of one part vinegar to three parts water, and scrub or soak the produce, as appropriate. Then rinse under running water for about 30 seconds. That’s it.

Use the cheap distilled white vinegar for this – very budget-friendly!

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, unveiled today, highlight the benefits of vegetarian and vegan diets, drawing praise from nutrition experts at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). The new Guidelines go farther than previous federal policies in acknowledging the power of plant-based diets for health.

The Dietary Guidelines—issued by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services every five years—are the blueprint for all federal nutrition programs, including school meals. The new Guidelines devote two full pages to vegetarian and vegan nutrition, and point out that these eating patterns provide nutritional advantages and reduce obesity, heart disease, and overall mortality. Vegetarian diets may include dairy products and eggs, while vegan diets avoid all animal products.

~ www.pcrm.org, New Dietary Guidelines Back Plant-Based Diets to Fight Obesity

There are vast improvements in the new dietary guidelines, but they still fall short in recommending eating less of certain foods. And in the 95-page document, there is no simple chart to help guide people in choosing what to eat.

We offer a couple of alternatives *

• The Power Plate (from PCRM) is a vegan “Basic 4″ guide to a variety of plant-based foods.
• The Healthy Eating Pyramid was develped by Dr. Walter Willett and the Harvard School of Public Health. It’s not totally THM-friendly, but it’s easily adaptable.