Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Heroines for the Planet: Anna Getty

One could peg Anna Getty any number of titles — holistic lifestyle expert, author, entrepreneur, yoga teacher, heiress, and environmental activist among them. But each come in a distant second to her most cherished roles, that of mother and wife.

What I found infinitely charming about Anna is that she doesn’t care how she’s labeled. Her main objective is to be of service to others and the planet, and so long as she’s doing just that, she’s at peace.

I asked Anna about her latest endeavors, how she helps others live more consciously, and whether being an heiress to an oil fortune has affected her environmental activism.

Lindsay: What compelled you to leave the glamour of Hollywood to pursue an interest in cooking?

Anna: To be honest with you the life I was living as a struggling actress was not very glamorous at all. I was working as a yoga teacher, a messenger and in a catering kitchen while pursuing my career. I did get the odd job but it was not consistent. I felt very insecure about myself and my future and ultimately when I thought about what I was doing studying for auditions, working my way through hours of traffic across Los Angeles to get to auditions only to be analyzed by a bunch of strangers in a room, I personally had not felt that I found my service or my calling in the world. Although I pursued an acting career for almost ten years, the shift came very easily once I made the decision. My goal was not to pursue my interest in cooking. I wanted to help people make more conscious choices about their lives, what they ate, how they took care of themselves, their families and children and the planet. I continued teaching yoga, took part of what I knew and loved ( cooking) and started forming my career. I feel like I cut and pasted or collaged together the work that I have come to do. The acting training did however bring me the confidence to do public speaking or work in front of a camera so it was not for nothing.

LB: What was the inspiration behind your cookbook “Anna Getty’s Easy Green Organic?” What about the process of creating the cookbook did you enjoy most?

AG: It’s already a few years ago but looking back, I was approached to write the book by my publisher. I had not intended writing a book, let alone a cook book. I had been a freelance writer writing for a couple different magazines and had been working with various non-profits in the green and organic movement so it pretty much fell together. Writing the book was very challenging because at the same time, I was offered a second book deal to write an eco-Christmas book that needed to be finished within a month of the cook book. So I had double the work. The best part was recipe testing and developing, experimenting with flavors, picking through the fresh locally grown, organic produce at the farmer’s markets and building a recipe around what I came across. I loved having my friends over for taste tests. We would open a bottle of organic wine and eat what I had made and I would get notes from them. It was a very fun and creative time in my kitchen.

LB: Are you a vegetarian now? What was your relationship with food like growing up?
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Examine Your Foodprint: Resolve to Waste Less in 2012

Sometimes someone’s words really stick with you, whether it be a card, a conversation, a piece of sage advice, or even a tweet. A message that strikes a chord is rare in a time when there’s no shortage of opinions and no shortage of mediums with which to share them. In between our consumption of copious e-mails, texts, posts, tweets and videos, meaningful messages are few and far between.

That’s why you have to appreciate the gems when you see or hear ‘em.

I felt the weight of Maryam Henein’s words recently when she said this to me, “I think that we’re living in a time when we have an opportunity to raise our consciousness. When  people talk about 2012, it’s not really about the end of the world. I believe it to be the end of certain systems in place. Whether it’s big pharma, factory farming, etc., it’s all connected. These are outdated models that need to collapse. ”

Long after our conversation, I thought about Maryam’s thoughts on a changing landscape — the “systems” in place that aren’t lifting Americans up and the old ways we’re still doing things that are just so wrong.

I wondered: What’s the one thing we all have in common that we can change?
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NYC’s Little Cupcake Bakery: Eco Friendly Cupcakes with a Humanitarian Twist for FEED Japan

Cupcakes!

The Little Cupcake Bakery, located both on Prince Street in Manhattan’s SoHo and on Third Avenue in Brooklyn, has opened a “shop in shop” to benefit Japan. Recently I visited with Starre Vartan, Eco Chick’s editor, to try some cupcakes (delicious!) and support the bakery and it’s projects.

Take a cup of coffee like Eco Chick editor, Starre Vartan, while munching on some delicious cupcakes at the Little Cupcake Bakery.

An horrific earthquake hit Japan on Friday, March 11, 2011, reaching 8.9 on the Richter scale. It resulted in one of the largest tsunamis to date, both ruining and taking lives and wrecking homes. The FEED Japan bag was created to raise funds and bring support to the relief in Japan at such a crucial time.

The frosting must go on at The Little Cupcake Bakery.

But what does this all have to do with cupcakes, which seem totally removed from such a tragedy? Simply, it’s that the sweetest things in life should both be enjoyed, and do some good too.
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A Delicious Vegan BLT Recipe!

This is my version of my grandma’s traditional BLT.

When I was growing up, my grandma cooked breakfast and dinner pretty much every day, and made my school lunches too. She was a great cook, and having grown up during the Great Depression, was never into waste; almost no food went uneaten in our household. Chicken bones became soup base, uneaten dinner rice turned into rice pudding, and extra bacon became BLT’s, usually on homemade bread, with plenty of mayo, superthick slices of tomato, and probably too much lettuce.

I’ve been vegetarian since I was 16 and my grandmother passed away over a decade ago, but I just recently I finally figured out how to make a faux-BLT that’s almost like hers! The key is Morningstar Farms bacon strips, which cooks up just like the stuff from pigs (including the amazing smell, minus the slaughter of an animal as smart as your dog!). And since it isn’t made from meat, there’s only 30 calories per strip.

To Make:
I like to use four strips of the fakin’ bacon per serving
Toasted French Bread
Vegan Mayo
thick cut, ripe Tomato
crunchy, still-cold lettuce

After toasting the bread just a bit, slather with mayo, and layer the tomatoes first, then add the lettuce in the middle, and the hot bacon on the other side. Easy, fun and delicious!

Even with all those ingredients, this sandwich is only about 450 calories, max!

Heroines for the Planet: Cupcake Queen Chloe Coscarelli

Chloe Coscarelli is as sweet as the vegan cupcakes which landed her the winner on the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars. She truly is! At just 23, Chloe has baked her way to the top, and she’s helped veganism garner the mainstream media attention that it so deserves.

In between a mix of baking, cooking and writing her next cookbook, I chatted with the young vegan chef about “the big win,” her thoughts on America’s food industry and how she continues to refine her craft each day.

Lindsay E. Brown: You decided to go vegan in High School and you never looked back. What do you love most about your vegan lifestyle?

Chloe Coscarelli: I love everything about being vegan! It feels great to be able to look my loving dogs in the eyes and know that I am not eating any animals for lunch. I also feel great eating vegan food because it never leaves me feeling heavy or tired after I eat. I also find that vegan food tends to be more flavorful, colorful, and creative than foods that rely on meat and dairy for flavor.
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