vegansaurus!

Vegan Hacker on Tuesday night! Bake some vegan Twinkies!   »

Is anyone signed up for this event? It looks like fun, but I cannot go, as I am the self proclaimed Twinkie Queen of San Francisco—it simply would not be fair to the other hackers!

If you’ve never heard of Vegan Hacker, let me give you the lowdown: You reconfigure non-vegan recipes to make them vegan. Got it? And Tuesday night is all about vegan twinkies! This is the recipe you’ll be using, and the ingredients will be provided. However, you can bring whatever you want to spruce it up. Creativity is encouraged. LEMON twinkies with raspberry filling? Chocolate twinkies with mint filling? Pina Colada! Raspberry Mocha! Banana chocolate! The possibilities are endless.

If you need any help or baking tips, let me know in the comments! I do this five days a week at Source. Vegan twinkies are my livelihood!

Vegan Hacker: Twinkie Times is on Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 6 p.m. at Noisebridge (2169 Mission St.). It’s FREE! Email to RSVP or ask questions.

Vegan Divas makes yummy vegan desserts in NYC!  »

Guys, your friend Megan is super fancy. Or at least I kind of was on Thursday! I went to a fancy dessert tasting in Manhattan thrown by Vegan Divas (heads up: the homepage has music. But it’s kind of the greatest song ever). They are an upscale vegan dessert company in New York and I got to try a wide array of their offerings. 

Vegan Divas is very much focused on health so their desserts are preservative free, their cookies are fortified with fiber and they substitute spelt flour in place of regular flour. However, they do this without sacrificing taste and presentation. Look how pretty:

Fernanda Capobianco, the owner of Vegan Divas and a vegan of fifteen years, was at the party, as was her husband François Payard, renown pastry chef. François made a pretty funny speech with zingers interjected by Fernanda. An interesting thing François said was that he’s learned that you can better taste the flavor of food when it’s made without butter. He said butter coats your mouth and without it, there is no barrier between you and the food. Interesting! Fernanda then said her piece about the many health benefits of a vegan diet. I was like, OK, but do the desserts taste good?! Well let me tell you, they do! 

The chocolate cake pictured above was rich and delicious. In fact, everything chocolate was really good. If you like chocolate mousse, you have to try theirs. It’s made with tofu and I think it’s a signature dish. I thought it was great and I’m not even that into mousse! I am into donuts though and I really liked these chocolate-topped baked donuts (get out of my way, coconut donuts!):

Since the donuts are baked and not fried, we are not talking Ronald’s, but they were good. And you can’t tell from the picture but these are mini donuts! Like mini-mini donuts. Very tiny. I love very tiny food!

My very favorite thing was the carrot cake! I haven’t had a good carrot cake in a while and this really hit the spot. Very moist and yummy but not too sweet:

Another highlight were these wacky “sand” cookies:

I love them! They were salty and reminded me of these wheat biscuit/crackers Carr’s used to make. 

Now I will introduce you to my favorite party guest, Hanly!:

OMG Hanly rules, he’s a Seeing Eye dog! And a party animal. Plus, he has his own wine label! Well, his owner does. But his picture is on the label! Alex Elman supplied the delicious wine for the party. I got a chance to speak with her and she said her wines are all vegan and organic. And they were sure tasty! I definitely recommend this wine and it seems to be widely available. You can check for it near you.

Back to Vegan Divas, you can buy their products at a number of places in New York. They also do catering! For those outside of New York, they do say they ship to the continental US (sorry my out of country friends! Now you have to visit me!). My official recommendations are the carrot cake and anything chocolate. And if you are gluten-free or have any other allergies, I think this is the company for you. Order Vegan Divas and have your own fancy dessert tasting! You know what would make it even fancier? Invite me! I light up a room.

Vegansaurus giveaway: Allison’s Gourmet! Yes!!  »

Do you love amazing sweet treats? Are you obsessed with chocolates, caramels, peanut brittles, toffees, truffles, brownies, and everything delicious? If you did not answer yes to all of that then GET OFF THIS SITE! You should know, above all, that we love to eat, and that vegan sweets genius Allison’s Gourmet understands that need, and excels at execution! If you haven’t indulged in Allison’s treats, you’re really missing out. Not only will they kick the shit out of any omnivore treat in taste and appearance, all of Allison’s treats are fair-trade, vegan, and organic. I MEAN COME ON. Plus, her packaging is pretty enough that you don’t even have to wrap it. You’ll save millions of dollars on wrapping, for real.

Now, what are my personal favorites, you ask? SOPHIE’S CHOICE! But also, I cannot get enough of the mind-blowing Chocolate-Almond Toffee, the absolutely ridiculous Salted Chocolate Caramels, the perfectly sweet and rich Peppermint Bark, and the beautiful and extremely tasty truffles. Oh, and the peppermint drinking chocolate! Holy crap! So good! If anyone ever enrolls me in the brownie, cookie, or fudge of the month clubs, I promise to have all your babies or never have a baby with you, whichever you prefer. 

Now that you want to eat all of that, you might as well start with some freebies! The lovely Allison has generously offered a $20 Allison’s Gourmet gift certificate to one lucky Vegansaurus reader! For your chance to win, just tell me what your dream Allison’s Gourmet confection would be. Let your imagination run wild, you little vegan piggy. It can be mayonnaise peony, or peanut butter marshmallow sriracha for all we care! Actually, that second one might be pretty good, right? The winner will be chosen randomly next Friday, Dec. 16. Yay Allison’s Gourmet, we love you!!!

If you want to find out about more offers from the delightful Allison’s Gourmet, follow them on Twitter and Facebook DO IT! Now, let’s stare at truffles and caramels and be very happy:

More holiday deals: Oh Deer! Chocolates e-book, get it on Etsy!  »

It’s that time between the two major holiday meals, where you have two choices: take it easy, eat some veggies, maybe do a juice cleanse OR GO FULL SPEED AHEAD, EAT EVERYTHING, after all, swimsuit season is so far away! I’m somewhere in the middle—I guess it’s not so black-and-white. One thing I do want to do in this time is incorporate more raw foods in my diet. And OhDeerChocolates has sprung up on Etsy at the most perfect time!

Sara Malazzo-Miller, creator of OhDeerChocolates, is selling her e-cookbook for the low price of $8, for this week only! Her 20+ cookie, truffle, and candy recipes are raw, vegan and CHOCOLATE!

OhDeerChocolates’ chocolate mousse.

Raw dessert—it’s like health food. At least that’s my motto! Sara is also donating 100 percent of the profits to wildlife rescue centers. Now that’s the holiday spirit!

Eat this immediately: Gourmellows! They’re what’s for every meal if you’re not an idiot!  »

You guys, you really really really really really have to try these gourmellows from Desiderio Chocolates. Yes, gourmellow — it’s GOURMET and MARSHMALLOW made into one awkward word, but who cares, the taste is nothing short of legendary. Legendary, I say! I found them while browsing the vegan section of the adorable Abe’s Market instead of working (it’s one of the many things I do that don’t involve working), and BAM: Gourmellows:

They’re half-fudge, half-marshmallow (roughly the same composition as yours truly) and then covered in the smoothest dark chocolate I’ve ever had. It’s almost milk chocolaty. I mean, HOT DAMN! It tastes like nothing I’ve ever eaten, and I’ve eaten pretty much everything. If you don’t believe me, I’ll send pictures.

Man, I love Gourmellows so much. I’ve gotten into the adorable habit of g-chatting my boyfriend simply, “GOURMELLOW DOWN!” because it makes him sad that he’s at stupid work without delicious gourmellows and I’m living the dream!

Get at them, either via Abe’s ($14 for six, or $12.60 if you give them three friends’ email addresses, YOU ASSHOLE) or Desiderio Chocolates’ Etsy store ($6 for three). Also, their sea salt caramels are UNSANE. You like nougat? Oh, they’ve got your nougat! Oh fuck it, just get a sampler snack pack and go to town, fatty. FUCK, I see that they’ve got ROCKY ROAD, TOO. Goddammit!

Here’s the sea salt caramel:

Here’s my hand-model hand and a Gourmellow EXTREME CLOSE-UP:

Candy Cane Joe-Joe’s have hit the stores!  »

Candy Cane Joe-Joe’s ARE BACK!!! We spotted them at an SF Trader Joe’s! Hurry and get some before I eat them all. Because I’ll do it. I WILL JUST DARE ME. 

Now. LET US DO THIS. Also, this. And maybe this too. Enjoy it all with some Silk Nog, why don’t you!

Bomb Truck! Has anyone in S.F. tried these organic vegan popsicles yet?  »

The Bomb Truck is apparently roaming the streets of the Mission, selling vegan organic popsicles in flavors like Mom’s Flan, Pineapple Chile Lime, and Avocado. They look amazing! I want one right now very badly! And, according to the site, all the ridiculously delicious-looking flavors are vegan! AND THEY DELIVER?! Let us all get up on this.

Here’s what the truck looks like:

Here’s what the pops look like (adorable kid not included, I am assuming, but not 100 percent sure):

Here’s a better pic and a list of flavors. Per Food Truck Law, follow them on Twitter to see where they’re headed next!
[Peanut Butter Banana Pop, I love you! All photos from Bomb Truck’s website! Hat tip, Abby! Hi Abby!]

New vegan gelato coming to Whole Foods!  »

It’s called Genuto (cause it’s made with nuts GET IT) and I tried it at last weekend’s World Veg Fest in San Francisco and wrote about it (and an entire World Veg Fest breakdown, with awesome photography by my phone!) over at the wonderful Bay Area Bites. Go read it and learn about this delicious new vegan gelato that’s about to take over your life! It’ll be in Whole Foods and local natural grocery stores staring very soon. Like, in a month. Or less. Anyway: Learn lt, love it, live it. 

Make these immediately: Fat Elvis Pudding Pops!  »

The recipe is so simple! And all you’ll want to do is eat them ALL THE TIME! And that’s okay because they’re not THAT* bad for you!

*Actually, that depends on what you think THAT bad is. For me, it’s eating whipped cream topped with chocolate fudge, mayonnaise, and lard chunks. Shit, the Fat Elvis Pudding Pop is downright slim-ifying!