the conscious decision blog

Best Vegan Dark Chocolate Mousse

Erbaviva + Coyuchi

At Erbaviva we understand how important what we put on our bodies is. We also know it doesn't stop before we get dressed or crawl into our comfy bed. We have found a new friend in our quest for environmental solutions to create an organic "nest". Like Erbaviva, Coyuchi also born in California over twenty years ago. We are thrilled to introduce these leaders in premium organic bedding, sheets, textiles, and home goods to our fans and lovers of organic! Coyuchi's organic bedding, textiles, sheets and pajamas are not only stunning in their simplicity but allow us to sleep better at night knowing our loved ones are nestled in comfortable, healthy, organic bedding. The newest series of "Little Coyuchi" will be featured in several new Erbaviva + Coyuchi gift sets coming this holiday season. These are perfect gifts for the tiniest friends or parents to be. We are also happy to announce that we have two curated summer classics from Coyuchi available for a limited time.  BEACH PONCHO WITH SUNSCREEN 100% organic cotton Beach Poncho, grown and woven in Turkey. Inspired by the traditional fringed peshtemals of the Turkish bath, this organic cotton poncho is the perfect post-swim wrap, absorbent and fast-drying. BEACH TOWEL WITH SUNSCREEN 100% organic cotton Sutro Stripe Beach Towel, grown and woven in Turkey. It is a modern take on a traditional flatwoven towel found in every Turkish bath and home. It is super plush, absorbent, and perfect for a trip to the beach, lake, river or pool. Coyuchi and Erbaviva wish you luxurious lazy days at the beach!  We hope you'll join us in welcoming Coyuchi to our Erbaviva family. 

5 Tips for Eco-Friendly Camping

  An estimated 40 million people go camping each year in the United States. The scenic views, inspiring hikes and starry skies help us de-stress and reconnect with nature. Nature provides us with many benefits so it important that we give back and protect the environment. Enjoy 5 simple tips for more eco-friendly camping adventures: 1. Reusable Kitchenware - Pick up eco-friendly, unbreakable plates, cups, cutlery, washable dish towels and cloth napkins. Avoid disposable versions that leave behind excessive waste. 2. Used Gear - Choose used gear or rented camping gears or equiptment for a lighter carbon footprint. If you prefer a new sleep bag, try an eco-friendly camping gear option made out of recycled materials.3. Clean Soap - Remember to wash you dishes with natural, biodegradable soap. Harsh detergents will introduce toxins into to the environment. Waste water should emptied into dry ground, or as directed by the camping facility, and never into a stream or river. 4. Sustainable Sunscreen and Bug Spray - Keep your visit to nature chemical-free by using organic sunscreen and natural body bug repellent. Chemical sunscreens and bug sprays are toxic to the human body and to our precious environment.  5. Minimal Electricity - Leave electronics behind to connect deeper with nature and reduce energy usage. For flashlights and cameras use rechargeable batteries or bring along a solar charger. Keep your emergency cell phone powered up and stick to the essentials. 6. Bulk Water - Steer clear of plastic water bottles and choose sustainable camping gear instead. Bring along a BPA-free collapsible water container or gallon water jugs and refillable water bottles. Plastic water bottles create excess waste that can harm the environment and wildlife. Eco-friendly camping takes preparation and planning but it makes for a more enjoyable experience. Leave nature the way you found it and enjoy!!

The Four Best Essential Oils for Weight Loss

Summer is just around the corner and we can’t wait to head to the beach, plan outdoor workouts and have a few poolside cocktails (organic, of course). It is time to leave the sweatpants and hoodies behind and get ready for trail running and rooftop yoga. But before you get overwhelmed by the pressure to slim down and tone up for Summer try a few tips from nature help boost your transformation. Essential oils have been used in traditional medicine for mind/body wellness for thousands of years and they are fun and easy to use. Here are the four best essential oils that help with weight loss. Grapefruit Essential Oil:Zesty, bright and citrusy the aroma of grapefruit essential oil is said to work as an appetite suppressant, increase energy and inspire endurance. How to use it?Diffuse grapefruit essential oil in a steam diffuser during your morning workout for an extra boost. You can also add a few drops of grapefruit essential oil to your favorite carrier oil and massage onto troubled spots, while inhaling the benefits.  Peppermint Essential Oil:Another essential oil that helps lose weight is peppermint. The aroma is super fresh, herbaceous and of course, minty! Simultaneously energizing and soothing the aromatic benefits are said to reduce appetite and heighten alertness. It is also known to calm and elevate moods.  How to use it? Diffuse in the morning while getting ready for work, or before a weekend hike to inspire focus and a balanced mood. Try diffusing in a low temp USB diffuser in the car or at work to distract the senses and avoid over-snacking!  Cinnamon Essential Oil:Cinnamon is  wonderfully familiar aroma with its earthy, spicy attributes. In aromatherapy it is said to encourage self-confidence and emotional balance. Cinnamon has also been shown to suppress appetite.How to use it?Dilute use 2-3 drops of essential oil with a teaspoon of carrier oil and add to bath, relax and breathe in the benefits. Or diffuse in a steam diffuser throughout the day to distract the senses. Bergamot Essential Oil:Bergamot essential oil is similar to zesty grapefruit with more warm, floral notes. In aromatherapy it is known to have a deep grounding and centering effect. The aroma is also known to have an invigorating and motivating effect. How to use it? Dilute with carrier oil and add to bath, or use as a massage oil. For the aromatic benefits diffuse at home or work to support mood and balance. The deep grounding effect makes it perfect for meditation, or yoga. We hope you enjoy these tips from nature. Let us know if you have any weight loss tips to share and how these tips work for you!

Earth Day Week Challenge

  Let us plant a tree for you in honor of Earth Day! This week we will plant 1 tree for every dollar spent on erbaviva.com through Trees for the Future. Plus join us in the #BLocalLA 5 Day Earth Day Challenge! Earth Day was started on April 22, 1970. Million of people marched and rallied to bring awareness to the massive ecological problems facing the United States. Today, Earth Day is more important than ever. Every person on the planet is a witness to the mounting environmental issues.   This year Erbaviva is joining B Local Los Angeles, a partnership of B Corporations in Los Angeles, for a week long celebration of Earth Day filled with sustainable activities. We hope everyone will join us this week, try our Earth Day challenge ideas, and make a Conscious Decision to be more aware of our carbon footprint and impact on our world.  Meatless Monday  It takes a lot of water to raise livestock. Approximately 1,850 gallons of water is needed to produce a single pound of beef. While, producing a pound of vegetables only takes 39 gallons of water. Studies also show that meat production creates significantly more greenhouse gas than vegetables, including Methane and Nitrous Oxide. Show your dedication by going vegetarian for the day! Try this delicious recipe for Organic Chickpea Salad - protein rich, vegetarian, and tasty!  Transportation Tuesday   Transportation is a major contributor in global climate change. It accounts for almost 23% of the world’s total carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion.  As part of the Earth Day challenge, show your dedication by carpooling, walking, biking or using public transportation for the day!   Water Wednesday  Our global water supply is becoming more of an issue every day. Two thirds of the world’s largest aquifers have passed their sustainability tipping points. The situation is critical.  To show our environmental support we are participating in the #4literchallenge for Water Wednesday. Participants will only use 4 liters of water for the day, including: shower, cooking and drinking water. Reuse Thursday  Finding creative ways repurpose, reuse and upcycle old things saves money, helps the environment, and is aesthetically on-trend. This Thursday we encourage everyone to come up with innovative ways to reuse items around the home and office. Comment below to share your ideas with us!  The celebration’s grand finale will occur on Earth Day, April 22nd. We encourage everyone to find a local charity or Earth Day rally on this final celebration day! Make sure to tag all your efforts with #BLocalLA!  On April 22nd, B Local Los Angeles is partnering with Enrich LA and Do Good Bus to bring a garden to Kingsley Elementary in East Hollywood. With a student body that is largely low-income, the children can learn the benefits of planting their own garden and contributing to a more sustainable way of life. We hope the collective efforts of Abacus Wealth Partners, Align Impact, B Lab, Beautycounter, Dogeared, Falcon Waterfree Technologies, MaCher, Mark Leibowitz Photography, Place of the Future and Sustainable Law Group can amplify our community impact and use our businesses as a force for good.About B Corporations: B Lab is a nonprofit organization that assists a global movement of people using business as a force for good. Individually, B Corps meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, legal accountability, and aspire to use the influence of markets to solve social and environmental problems. Through the power of their collective voice, one day all companies will compete to be best for the world, and society will enjoy a more shared and durable prosperity for all.

Organic Chickpea Salad

Organic chickpeas are an excellent source of protein and taste amazing, especially when paired with roasted veggies and fresh herbs. This healthy organic chickpea salad recipe is a great lunch or dinner option. Hope you enjoy!  INGREDIENTS: SALAD 2 cups of chickpeas, rinsed and drained1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped3 stocks of celery, sliced1 clove garlic, minced 1/4 cup of fresh basil, finely chopped1 cup of organic dried cranberriesSea salt and freshly ground black pepper1 tablespoons organic extra-virgin olive oilDRESSING 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar3 tablespoons organic extra-virgin olive oil1 tablespoon Dijon mustard1 tablespoon honey1/2 teaspoon kosher salt   DIRECTIONS: In a small cast-iron pan add 1 tablespoon of organic extra-virgin olive and warm on medium heat. Sauté peppers, celery, garlic until soft. Combine sautéd veggie mixture with chickpeas, dried cranberries, salt and pepper. In a separate bowl combine dressing ingredients, whisk.Dress salad and enjoy.  

Interview with Amie Valpone | Author of Eating Clean

Amie Valpone, Writer, Culinary Nutritionist and Celebrity Chef, has written a new book ‘Eating Clean: The 21 Day Plan to Detox, Fight Inflammation, and Reset Your Body’. Eating Clean tells Amie’s story from chronic illness to empowered health. It contains helpful clean eating tips and 200 delicious recipes that are vegetarian and free of gluten, dairy, soy, corn, eggs, and refined sugar. Read this interview to learn more about Conscious Living with Amie Valpone!  What inspired you to write Eating Clean: The 21-Day plan to Detox, Fight Inflammation and Reset your Body?I want to show you that eating clean and living clean feels amazing. Not because you should do it, but because once you see life this way, you’ll never go back. There’s not an inflammatory white bagel or piece of candy in the world that I’d eat to give up for as good as I feel right now. When you figure out what works for you and makes you feel amazing, why wouldn’t you do that every day? Don’t you do what makes you feel good? Eating Clean steps the reader through your personal journey from sickness to health. Is there a piece of advice that may empower readers to take a similar journey?Getting healthy (and staying healthy) may take some serious shifts in your daily habits, but don’t worry about revamping your lifestyle overnight. These changes take time. Start when you feel ready and take a deep breath. My “aha” moment was getting chronically ill, but you don’t need to go through something that dramatic. Funny thing is that before I got sick, I cooked my own meals, brought my lunch to work, and never ate fast food. I thought I was eating healthy, but I had no idea how toxic seemingly healthy food could be. The fact is that nothing changed until I started to change my food, my environment and my lifestyle, which is what is outlined in this book with a huge section on how to detox your food, home, personal care products and beauty products. If more people understood what an important role they plan in their own healthy, they could change the quality of their life forever. I’m living proof.Your book provides a 21-Day Plan to Detox one’s life from food to personal care to household cleaners. Why do you think this holistic view is important?I never realized our personal care products (everything from our chapstick to our sunscreen to our body lotion, shampoo and conditioner) were lurking with chemicals and parabens. Why didn’t anyone tell me about this? Why wasn’t I taught this growing up? Why wasn’t anyone looking out for me? I was so sad when I discovered this. My parents didn’t even know about this. I had to educate them. Our skin is our biggest organ so anything we put on our skin gets absorbed into our bloodstream- once I cleaned up my personal care products- everything from my deodorant to my makeup- my liver enzymes started to normalize because I was lessening the body burden of toxins that were bombarding my body on a daily basis. It was fascinating.As a nutritionist what would you recommend as quick and healthy dinner option for those just getting started on a healthier track?I love the Millet Tacos recipe from my cookbook. It’s my favorite…it’s actually a breakfast recipe in my book but it’s just as good for dinner! Did you come across any new healthy discoveries while writing Eating Clean?The importance of balance. I was a work work work kinda-gal for many years and starting my own business I had to learn work life balance and that the most successful people in the world are those who have balance. It’s not about working all day to succeed. It’s about finding a balance that works for you and not worrying about what anyone else is doing. It’s about finding happiness within yourself. That’s what I found through writing this book. This book isn’t about me….it’s about my message to help as many people as I can. I truly hope this book changes lives. I’m ready to hand over the keys to someone else to help them navigate their life so they don’t have go through the suffering, trauma and exhaustion of chronic illness I went through for 10 very painful and expensive years trying to figure out how to be healthy in a real way.

Millet Tacos: Two Ways

Amie Valpone, Writer, Culinary Nutritionist and Celebrity Chef, has written a new book ‘Eating Clean: The 21 Day Plan to Detox, Fight Inflammation, and Reset Your Body’. When asked for quick and healthy dinner option for those just getting started on a healthier track Amie responded, 'I love the Millet Tacos recipe from my cookbook. It’s my favorite…it’s actually a breakfast recipe in my book but it’s just as good for dinner!” This is just one of the amazing, quick and healthy meal recipes in Eating Clean. All of the recipes are vegetarian and free of gluten, dairy, soy, corn, eggs, and refined sugar.  INGREDIENTS: 1½ cups cooked millet ¼ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice ¼ teaspoon sea salt 8 gluten-free whole-grain tortillas (corn-free) 1 recipe Butternut Squash and Swiss Chard or Portobello Mushroom and Red Pepper mixture 1 cup shredded red cabbage Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 large ripe avocado, pitted, peeled, and thinly sliced 4 scallions, thinly sliced Cumin Cashew Cream Sauce, optional Seriously Sensational Sriracha Sauce, optional   DIRECTIONS: In a small bowl, combine the millet, cilantro, lime juice, and salt. Stir to combine and set aside. Make one (or both) of the Flavor Options (See Below). To assemble, warm the tortillas on a baking sheet in a 350°F oven or in a dry skillet on the stovetop over medium heat. Place the warm tortillas on a platter or on individual plates. Divide the millet among the tortillas. Top each with either a Butternut Squash and Swiss Chard or Portobello Mushroom and Red Pepper mixture. Top with the cabbage, avo­cado slices, scallions, and salt and pepper to taste. Finish with a dollop of the Cumin Cashew Cream Sauce. And/or a drizzle of the Seriously Sensational Sriracha Sauce, if desired. BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND SWISS CHARD 2 tablespoons coconut oil, 4 cups peeled, seeded, and diced butternut squash (1⁄4-inch cubes), ½ bunch Swiss chard, finely chopped, ½ teaspoon chili powder, ¼ teaspoon sea salt, ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the squash and sauté for 7 to 8 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and cook until the chard has wilted, about 2 minutes. Keep warm. PORTOBELLO MUSHROOM AND RED PEPPER 2 to 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 1 large portobello mushroom, cut into 8 slices, 1 large red bell pepper, cut into long strips, ¼ teaspoon ground cumin, ¼ teaspoon sea salt, ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, Pinch chipotle powder, ¼ cup thinly sliced radish, for garnish In a medium skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium heat. Add the mushrooms in a single layer. Cover and cook for 4 minutes, then flip and cook for 2 minutes more. Add the remaining ingredients, cook for 5 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through, stirring often. Garnish with the radish. Keep warm. Text excerpted from Eating Clean, © 2016 by Amie Valpone. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

Irish Vegan Farmhouse Vegetable Soup

Join in the saint patty's day festivities with this nutritious, earthy irish farmhouse vegetable soup recipe. this vegan veggie soup is filled with irish staples like potatoes, leeks and carrots. Eat healthy by day and enjoy Irish spirits by night. The luck of the Irish to you!  INGREDIENTS: 1 large organic white onion, peeled and diced 2 large organic carrots, peeled and cubed 1 stalk of organic celery, peeled and cubed 2 large organic potato, peeled and cubed 1 organic parsnip, washed and cubed 1 leek, washed and sliced 2 bay leaves 1 bunch parsley, chopped 5 cups of organic unsalted vegetable stock 3 tablespoons olive oil sea salt and cracked pepper to taste     DIRECTIONS: Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan. Add the onion and leeks and sauté. Add the organic vegetable stock parsnips, potatoes and carrots. Bring to a simmer. Add celery, salt, pepper, bay leaves, 1/2 the parsley. Cover and cook for 25-30 minutes. Garnish with the remaining chopped parsley.