Denver’s getting it’s own full-time vegan store! Take that, Bay Area!
I already told you about our monthly pop-up, Neat Market, where I got my hands on my first-ever bag of soy curls. They’re so good I risk marital disquiet by picking them out of the stew whenever we cook with them.
Well now Joshua LaBure, Denver’s resident over-achieving vegan (he started Neat Market and Chomp! and I should probably interview him soon), has inked a deal on a storefront and hopes to open the place by July. He’s planning a Kickstarter campaign, so look for an update on that, and read more if you want on Westword’s blog.
Meanwhile, in other Colorado vegan news: Reliable sources tell me Native Foods is opening in Boulder on May 29; Trader Joe’s is coming to Denver and Boulder within the next year; the Boulder farmers markets are in full swing and the Denver ones start this week; and on Friday, May 18, the Vegan Van will be parked in front of Sweet Action Ice Cream, serving something amazing and top-secret that may involve waffles and me fainting.
I love Colorado.
I effing love these Beyond Skin flats that Compassion Couture has! So effing demure.
That is all.
[video]
Chia seed pudding! Doesn’t it look awesome? It’s super-easy and healthy too. It’s the best idea, I can’t wait to try it. I put chia seeds in my oatmeal every morning but I haven’t graduated to making it into dessert! The “recipe” is more like general instructions so you can get creative. Just soak your chia in yumminess (like almond milk), add whatever spices you want, and soak it overnight! BOOM!
Try it and tell us if it’s awesome or if the author’s just good with Photoshop! Also, why are there vegan recipes on a psychology blog?
You probably already know about this but if you’re in L.A. this weekend, you better be drinking all the beer and eating all the food at Los Angeles Vegan Beer & Food Festival! It sounds INSANE and so you must go for me and live for me because clearly anyone who is not at this tomorrow is basically dead inside and everywhere else. LIVE OUT LOUD FOR THE REST OF US!
(Source: quarrygirl)
It’s happening! At Mission High School on Saturday, May 12 from 11am-3pm! There will be all sorts of food and vendors and good fun, so go and say it loud and proud and I don’t know where I’m going with this but I’m sleepy and just trying to get something down on paper over here. The first draft, if you will. A first draft I won’t revise because I write for a living (SURPRISED, RIGHT??) and my hands and brain AND SOUL are tired. So tired. But not too tired to eat everything this Saturday! See you there!
You guys! There’s some really exciting news from the East Bay Express about new vegan soul food place in Oakland’s Chinatown, Organic Soul Live! And it’s omnivore restaurant reviewer approved!
From the write-up:
Vegan readers, feel free to call me out on this cliché, but if Joy had told me the dish was made from real cheese — not a mix of commercial soy- and rice-based “cheeses,” plus a cream sauce he makes out of nutritional yeast — I wouldn’t have blinked. He had me fooled.
Sounds damn good! Here’s a photo from EBX!
Should we call him out? It IS a total cliché but it’s pretty great that he called out his own shit. I hate that the ultimate compliment for vegan food is that it, “you wouldn’t know it’s vegan!” You KNOW when plenty of stuff you eat is vegan, and it’s STILL hella good. No disclaimers or comparisons needed! Still, hard for me to get all up in arms about this shiz because I do it all the time FUCK IT I’M ONLY HUMAN. Just a vegan trying to hustle in an omnivore world!
Anyway, he loved the shiitake bacon and massaged collards and the whole thing sounds prettttty delicious. Let’s all go! It’s open every day from 12-9pm and is located inside the Tutti Frutti frozen yogurt shop at 388 9th Street in Oakland. Which means that you can eat VEGAN FRO-YO with your soul food. Seriously, life is getting pretty damn fancy for vegans in the East Bay. Something bad has to happen, right? It’s going too well! Oh wait, there’s the total collapse of the economy, looming environmental destruction and the fact that I STILL don’t have a network sitcom based on the double shenanigans of me and my dog.
Lots of vegans were vegetarians before they went vegan. I was. I was vegetarian because I was pretty ignorant—I didn’t even know (or think) about factory farms, I just didn’t like the thought of eating animals. It’s gross, right? We all know one or two animals who we love or at least recognize as sentient beings. The thought of putting dead animals into your body kinda skeeves you out, and so you don’t do it.
Veganism, however, seems a bit extreme, and a little difficult. It’s for obnoxious activists and people who hate food, you’re not about to bomb a lab or eat a twig casserole! But here’s the thing: That’s not what veganism is about! It’s for you! It’s totally for you! You already love animals so that’s the first step, now it’s time to access that place of compassion and go vegan.
When you buy cow’s milk, or cheese, or chicken’s eggs, you are directly contributing to the slaughterhouse, and even worse, the constant suffering of billions of animals. Just because you’re not eating the actual carcass doesn’t mean that you didn’t directly contribute to that death. Female dairy cows live an unnatural life of horrendous pain to create milk and cheese—their babies are taken away and either suffer the same life, or are sold for veal. Purchasing dairy is basically like buying veal. It’s true. Even those organic, natural, happy dairy farms sell their male calves for veal, we’ve checked. And what happens to dairy cows when they can’t produce any longer? It’s straight to the slaughterhouse, and that’s true of ALL cows, no matter where they’re from.
Egg-laying hens have it probably worst of all: Their lives are nightmares and then bam, it’s off to the slaughterhouse when they can’t produce any more. That’s true for those organic, free-range hens, too. And male chicks? Most likely destroyed in the easiest way possible. The only exception is maybe backyard hens, but those come with a whole other set of issues, and I wonder how many people are well equipped to keep them safely for their entire lives.
Vegetarians should think about why they’re vegetarian, and today should be that day. You know, ‘cause sometimes you need a push! I know I did! If it’s for ethical reasons, you should go vegan right now. Or at least start working toward it, maybe with an end date in sight. You’ll most likely find that it’s so much easier than you imagine, especially if you live in an area where vegetarianism is possible. I know that’s not everywhere but I bet it’s the majority of the people reading this. Go vegan, be vegan! Check out our handy list of 11 tips for new vegans! Have a question? Ask a Vegansaur!
But really, go vegan. Make a real stand for animals by withholding your hard earned ca$hola from ALL of the evil industries that abuse animals because, in the words of Megan Rascal, “Being vegetarian isn’t very vegetarian.” From one former vegetarian to some others, today is the motherflipping day you go LEGIT. See you on the other side, friends! I’ve got a batch of vegan cookies in the oven for you, let’s EAT.
You all saw the Time cover story, right? It was basically the front page of the internet yesterday. Um, I don’t think my terrible Google Drawing fully demonstrates what I’m trying to say here but it’s basically: COWS! They love their babies, too! SOMETIMES A LITTLE TOO MUCH.
Don’t let this finger be a gun!! Photo by Furryscaly on flickr.com
Hunting: Not as terrible as factory farms on the spectrum of evil, but still not the favorite thing of we, the vegans. Hunting in National Parks where it’s been heretofore prohibited? SO NOT A GOOD IDEA.
But there’s a bill in the Senate right now that could open a bunch of national park lands (especially the weird ones, like “national historic parks”), to hunting. The National Parks Conservation Association is asking us citizens to contact our senators and tell them to fix it!
Here’s the thing: the NCPA is only worried about the national parks. They want the senators to just change a few words to make sure the parks are clearly excluded from this new hunting law. I’m on board with that, and it seems a battle they might actually win if they get enough people to call.
But they’re not opposing the Sportsman Heritage Act as a whole. Which is something you might want to consider. It makes it OK to import dead polar bears from Canada, and helps support hunting on other federal land. Either way, give a call/write your leaders so they know not to let people kill squirrels at the Frederick Douglass Memorial, so f-ed up!
Okay, don’t click through because it’s not a recipe and I’m not even sure if the photo is vegan but it gave me (and a million other on Pinterest) the idea to serve up a giant glass of almond milk with COFFEE ICE CUBES WHAT?! It’s the best idea there is outside of mixing Kahlua with the coffee before you freeze it WHAT?! Or what about, okay, a little coffee, a little hazelnut syrup and a little Kahlua and then you freeze it and then you serve it in coconut creamer!? The possibilities are endless and if we can be fat enough and alcoholic enough, we can try them all! It’s the American way!