vegansaurus!
05/18/2012
Social Kitchen and Brewery in the Inner Sunset has tasty vegan options! »
Social Kitchen and Brewery serves beer and has vegan options—that’s all you really need to know, right? It’s located in the Inner Sunset, which means even when it’s busy, it’s not like trying to find a seat in a Mission bar, feel me? I love this place ‘cause it’s close to my ‘hood, they always respond to my tweets, and there’s specialty crafted beer.
Vegan chili! So flavorful—I was very impressed!
Roasted Brussels sprouts chips! I loved these babies! 
French fries! Standard bar food, but look: They come in little metal pails and are seasoned to perfection!
They have more choices than I’ve shown, but since super-eater Sean Hugunin wasn’t with us, there was no need to order every vegan option on the menu.
Let’s not forget the beer! 
I always order IPA because it tastes the best. Featured is Social’s Easy IPA—delicious!
Social Kitchen and Brewery is located at 1326 9th Avenue, in the Inner Sunset. Let’s go, I’m free on Saturday night!
∞ posted at 11:09 by jennybradley 
Creamy Avocado Green Tea Popsicles from Munchin with Munchkin and it’s a really great, delicious blog and I totally thought its name was MunchkinMunchkinMunchkin until just now. Maybe it’s because when you look at the URL, THAT’S WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE! But I was fooled, it’s not. Anyhow, enjoy!
∞ posted at 09:51 by laurahooperb 
Beyond Meat: the new vegan meat that’s rocking worlds is coming to Northern California Whole Foods! »
I’ve been hearing about this Beyond Meat stuff for awhile and NPR’s blog has the scoop, which I guess is actually originally from Mark Bittman but the point is, apparently this stuff is insanely realistic (it shreds!?) and super tasty. I know someone who tried it and was so blown away that he invested in it. That’s commitment, people! Money where the mouth is! I really need to get rich so I can invest in wacky vegan shit. I’d so donate to your Kickstarter, I promise*.
Anyway, it’s supposed to be amazing (WE GET IT, LAURA, IT’S GOOD) and I want to try it and LO AND BEHOLD, it’s supposed to be at Northern California Whole Foods soon! Hot damn! Northern California Whole Foods are notoriously way shittier than most Whole Foods because our buyer is an idiot who doesn’t stock vegan stuff because a vegan probably dumped his dumb ass but the point is: WE’RE GETTING IT IN THE BAY AREA FIRST TAKE THAT EVERYONE ELSE. If you see it laying about at a Whole Foods near you, holler at us! We gotta try it! What should we make with it?? What will YOU make with it? What if it’s TOO realistic?? Are we gonna be all “mmmm so good” and then like, “puke this takes like chicken!” and then “mmm so good” again?? I’m developing an eating disorder just thinking about it!
Here’s a picture of Beyond Meat in a chicken salad from the NPR story:
*maybe
∞ posted at 08:33 by laurahooperb
Product review: You down with Omega-3? Yeah you know me! »
Omega-3 fatty acids are super important, and many, many Americans aren’t getting enough of them. Omega-3 deficiencies can present as depression, and a host of other crappy maladies, including fatigue, dry skin, mood swings, heart problems, and poor memory.
Due to recent increased attention to this crucial brain-healthy and mood-balancing fat, fish oil is selling like crazy at the health food store, and some poor, misguided individuals even fortify laying hens’ feed so their feminized animal protein, a.k.a. eggs, will pop out all omega-3’ed.
The truth is, there is absolutely no reason exploit animals to get omega-3s when good plant-based sources of the supplement abound. Most people can eat chia seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, and sachia inchi oil and seeds to satisfy daily omega-3 needs.
For those of us jonesing for a boost of omega-3, a great option is NuTru Omega-Zen, a highly purified omega-3 liquid and capsulated DHA. This vegan supplement is sourced from high-quality algae. It makes sense that golden algae is rife with omega-3—where do you think all those fishies got it from? NuTru’s version of Omega-3 comes with EPA and satisfied daily minimum of Omega-3 and similar EFAs.
NuTru sent me a bottle of their new formula, which contains EPA and tastes like hell—try not to use your tongue as you swallow the capsule. Then again, I’m still grossed about by “fish” taste, which is really just algae taste! Try the non-tasting way and the tasting way and see how you feel. Maybe it will satisfy a fishy craving for some people, I dunno. The Omega-Zen3 + EPA bottle boasts that it will bring you inner peace and tranquility. I have no clue if that’s true, but it’s worth a shot, since omega-3s have been linked to brain health, and y’all know vegans need to take care of our amazing brains/ Get it at various vegan online stores and in local Bay Area health food stores.
This is Vegansaurus raw correspondent Sarah E. Brown’s latest post! Read more by Sarah on Vegansaurus, and visit her personal blog, Queer Vegan Food.
∞ posted at 07:07 by Sarah E. Brown 
This ad is funny! You know me, on the ad beat again; and I gotta say, this is a cute video. And I totally learned the message: spay/neuter at four months. And that’s the point, right? To plant the message? They have another video that explains the majority of pet owners believe in fixing their pets, it’s just that many don’t realize their pet can get preggers so early. My vet said to spay my Mitsy at two pounds, but four months is a much more tangible deadline.
OMG Mitsy was so cute at two pounds! And she was a thug about her surgery. She came home from getting spayed like nothing happened and then totally ripped her pain-killer patch off. She was pulling at it and I kept trying to stick it back down, and then she just totally ripped it off, pulling fur out and all! She was like, “sheeeet, I don’t need no pain killers!” Straight thug.
Now we need a series that targets male pet owners who have male pets and have some weird hangup about snipping their pet’s nads. I’m like, dudes, grow the eff up!
∞ posted at 04:40 by youtalkfunny 
05/17/2012
Paul Shapiro presents: Is pork the new veal? »
It’s Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use! Yay!
Denny’s became the latest national food retailer to send shockwaves through the pork sector by jointly announcing with HSUS that it’s going to phase out pork from gestation crate confinement operations. Amazingly, the pork industry’s leaders still defend this archaic practice, leading to the question: Is pork becoming the new veal?
The latest HSUS gestation crate undercover investigation made headlines across the nation. While there are too many pieces to enumerate here, this Forbes story on it was particularly interesting. (And about a quarter million people have watched the video online in the first week since release.)
The NY Times’ Mark Bittman has a potent piece asserting that if you care about climate change, you really ought to be eating fewer animals. Check it out.
Video of the week: I’ve never wanted an iPad as much as now.
Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com!]
Bonus article of interest: Did you know cockroaches “form closely bonded, egalitarian societies, based on social structures and rules”? I didn’t either.
∞ posted at 09:47 by seriousmeaveness 
Open discussion: Veganism is a creed, and a creed is a human right! Right? »
Oh, Canada. Camille Labchuck, a Toronto law student, says that “a person’s right to live a vegan lifestyle … is a right that all people should have,” and therefore should be protected by the Ontario Human Rights Code, which is meant to “prevent discrimination and harassment” because of many reasons, including “creed (religion).”
Camille says “creed” is inexactly defined by the legislation, and so including vegan and vegetarian beliefs as protected under the OHRC is possible. I think that’s cool. San Francisco prisoners are supposed to get vegan meals, when requested, but where else are your dietary practices legally protected?
Considering veganism a “religion” makes me feel culty and uncomfortable. But if the legal definition of “creed” matched the dictionary defintion—“a set of beliefs or aims that guide someone’s actions”—I would be all right with that. Because yes, being vegan affects basically everything I do, and I would like my fellow vegans’ right to follow their beliefs protected under law. Even if it is only in one Canadian province (and Britain!). Today Canada, tomorrow the U.N. Human Rights Council!
What do you think? Should the rights of vegans to observe a vegan lifestyle be considered analogous to religious and political groups’ rights to exist? Of course, right?
Unrelatedly, did you know that Canada has a Vegan Danish Bakery?! Ô je t’adore, Canada!
[photo by cacaye via Flickr]
∞ posted at 08:21 by seriousmeaveness
Product review: Galaxy Nutritional Foods’ new vegan mozzarella shreds! »
Here ye! Here ye! There is a new vegan cheese shred contender! Galaxy Nutritional Foods sent me their new vegan shreds to try and last night I made English muffin pizzas with the mozzarella shreds.
They aren’t just dairy-free, they’re soy-, gluten- and preservative-free, plus they’re non-GMO. The color is not white, like dairy mozzarella; it’s a bit orange. But it smells like mozzarella, and as you can see from the picture above, it totally melts. Like, super-melts—it bubbles and stuff! Very nice consistency. As for flavor, survey says: yum! It’s good! I can’t really deal with Daiya mozzarella anymore so I’ve been off the English muffin pizzas. But now I’m back, baby!
They also sent me the Mexican shreds, so stay tuned, I should have a review later in the week. I’m thinking quesadillas? The mozzarella is so melty, I have high hopes for the Mexican shreds. Maybe quesadillas AND nachos?! Who can say? It’s my world!
As for where you can find these shreds, it’s limited:
They say you should encourage your local store to start carrying them, and you should, because this stuff is hella melty and a great alternative if you aren’t into Daiya. I’m excited for nachos!
∞ posted at 07:02 by youtalkfunny
Hold the mother-loving phone, what amazingness is this?! It’s a pear, raspberry, and vegan bacon grilled cheese sandwich from That Was Vegan? Dang, that sounds awesome times eleven! I want one of these in my mouth, stat!
∞ posted at 05:09 by youtalkfunny
05/16/2012
![This is a chart of the amount of advertising companies that sell meat products buy versus the amount of advertising anti-meat-industry organizations buy. It was put together by Harish of Counting Animals, using publicly available information (SEC filings, IRS filings, ad-to-sales ratios).
To quote Harish:
[E]ach red circle represents a meat-promoting entity, with the area of the circle being proportional to just the annual advertising or promotional expenses of that entity. Each green circle represents an animal advocacy organization engaged in promoting vegetarian eating or meat industry reform, with the area of the circle being proportional to the total annual expenses of that organization.
You should click over to Counting Animals to fully understand the amount of money each company spent on advertising. Like some of the little circles you can’t see are Mercy for Animals, which spent just over a half-million dollars on ads, or our nasty liar pals at the American Meat Institute, who spent $11 million trying to convince you to eat American meat. I like the idea that Tyson spent half a billion dollars on ads and the best thing they could come up with were those awful suicidal chickens.
As Harish puts it, with how small the anti-meat-industry organizations are, and how little they spend on awareness campaigns, the fear with which the big ag companies regard them is impressive. All those ag-gag bills? These companies hate and fear the Humane Society, because they know the more people see of the horrible realities of factory farms, the faster they’re run from conventionally produced meat. We hope.
Ten bucks from everyone’s next paycheck goes to HSUS or a similar organization, right? We may never be as loud as the animal abusers, but our message is stronger, because it’s the truth.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m42r7rGHhY1qzq14lo1_500.jpg)
This is a chart of the amount of advertising companies that sell meat products buy versus the amount of advertising anti-meat-industry organizations buy. It was put together by Harish of Counting Animals, using publicly available information (SEC filings, IRS filings, ad-to-sales ratios).
To quote Harish:
[E]ach red circle represents a meat-promoting entity, with the area of the circle being proportional to just the annual advertising or promotional expenses of that entity. Each green circle represents an animal advocacy organization engaged in promoting vegetarian eating or meat industry reform, with the area of the circle being proportional to the total annual expenses of that organization.
You should click over to Counting Animals to fully understand the amount of money each company spent on advertising. Like some of the little circles you can’t see are Mercy for Animals, which spent just over a half-million dollars on ads, or our nasty liar pals at the American Meat Institute, who spent $11 million trying to convince you to eat American meat. I like the idea that Tyson spent half a billion dollars on ads and the best thing they could come up with were those awful suicidal chickens.
As Harish puts it, with how small the anti-meat-industry organizations are, and how little they spend on awareness campaigns, the fear with which the big ag companies regard them is impressive. All those ag-gag bills? These companies hate and fear the Humane Society, because they know the more people see of the horrible realities of factory farms, the faster they’re run from conventionally produced meat. We hope.
Ten bucks from everyone’s next paycheck goes to HSUS or a similar organization, right? We may never be as loud as the animal abusers, but our message is stronger, because it’s the truth.
∞ posted at 15:14 by seriousmeaveness
