vegansaurus!
04/02/2012
Vegan chocolate goji ice cream from Cream and Cone! It’s raw and made with avocados! Sometimes avocado in desserts scares me but avocado as an ice cream base just makes so much sense, right? It’s so creamy! I guess it’s just avocado flavored sweets that scare me. But avocado-based mousse and ice cream sounds right on.
I heard goji berries are really good for you or something so I looked it up on wikipedia, because I’m basically a scientist. According to wiki, goji berries have all this great stuff:
- 11 essential and 22 trace dietary minerals
- 18 amino acids
- 6 essential vitamins
- 8 polysaccharides and 6 monosaccharides
- 5 unsaturated fatty acids, including the essential fatty acids, linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid
- beta-sitosterol and other phytosterols
- 5 carotenoids, including beta-carotene and zeaxanthin (below), lutein, lycopene and cryptoxanthin, a xanthophyll
- numerous phenolic pigments (phenols) associated with antioxidant properties
I don’t know half of those words but it sure seems impressive! Apparently they are also known as “wolfberries.” And sometimes they are used in wine! If they are in wine, do you still get all the nutritional benefits? Forget chewable vitamins, I want drinkable vitamins! Drunkable vitamins, even!
∞ posted at 05:07 by youtalkfunny 
03/21/2012
Celebrity news: Jessica Chastain is vegan! »
In the last three days I’ve watched both The Tree of Life and The Help — do you know what the common denominator is? Actually there’s two: Both were nominated for Oscars, and both feature Jessica Chastain! Who happens to be a vegan! How do I know this, you ask? I totally internet stalked wiki-ed her after I watched The Help. It’s my thing!
I found all sorts of cute interviews and articles about her veganism, which I was hoping we could bond over.
Here’s an interview with her and Octavia Spencer, in which Jessica talks about the vegan fried “chicken” she ate in the The Help, as well as the vegan meal she cooked for Octavia.
A list of 25 things about Jessica, including her dream to buy a food truck for her mom, who is a vegan chef! So sweet! Apparently she also get embarrassed when people sing “Happy Birthday” to her. (Me too! But don’t stop — I like the attention.)
She had to gain 15 pounds for her role in The Help, and to do that, she ate tons of soy milk ice cream. Not with a spoon — she microwaved it and drank it. I don’t know how I feel about that, but only because I prefer coconut milk ice cream (and don’t believe in using microwaves cause I’m a hippie).
I hope you enjoyed your vegan celebrity news for the day! Now back to my Us Weekly Mensa flashcards.
∞ posted at 13:08 by jennybradley 
03/19/2012
Product Review: Steve’s Cinnamon Coffee Coconut Creme! »
Guys, I’m in love! I don’t do a lot of vegan ice cream reviews because I don’t actually like ice cream that much—except, I LOVE coffee ice cream! I don’t know, I’m a particular person. It’s part of my immense charm. But I had read about Steve’s Ice Cream and their vegan flavors so when I saw some buckets of Steve’s at Union Market, I took a look. WHAM BAM! They had a cinnamon coffee flavor! Cinnamon? I wasn’t sure. But I love coffee ice cream so much that I thought I’d take a chance.
Holy cannoli! Gamble well spent! This stuff is incredible! Like, super-amazing-fantastic. And cinnamon with coffee is pure genius. I had no idea. Seriously, I can’t say enough amazing things about this ice cream! It’s like rainbows and kittens and vacations and moon bounces and recess and waterslides all in one tub!
Looks like you can only get this stuff in New York. But hey, New York isn’t so bad! You should come visit! You never visit me anymore.
∞ posted at 07:45 by youtalkfunny
01/23/2012
Guest post: A vegan guide to Madison! »
So, you’re a vegan in Madison, Wis. Maybe you live there, maybe you’re traveling through. You may have a lot of despair in your heart, because you know that in Wisconsin, underneath the earth’s crust is a river of molten cheese. You may have also discovered that everyone born in Wisconsin is composed of pure cheese. In fact, if you were to shake my hand right now, it would melt.
Yes, the dairy industry is a proud part of life in Wisconsin. It can seem that there’s cheese at every turn (the streets are made of cheese), butter on every vegetable, and mayo in every salad. But if you know where to look, Madison can be a vegan’s delight.
Things I, Rachel, a vegan, ate at Madison restaurants: a list for your pleasure
- Lemon poppyseed cheesecake
- A BBQ jackfruit sandwich
- Tangerine champagne cake with raspberry filling
- A crab cake sandwich
- Split pea soup
- A grasshopper (a brownie with mint frosting)
- A scone
- So many muffins I am now known as “The Muffin Man”
AND MORE! “Lead me to this smorgasbord, Rachel,” you are saying to me right now. Forward!
The Green Owl Café
Located on Atwood on the near east side, The Green Owl Café is Madison’s first vegan/vegetarian restaurant. I went there twice in two weeks and wish I could transport it to Oakland so I could LIVE there. The most outstanding part of both meals was the desserts, which they make in house. The waitress said “Vegan lemon poppy seed cheesecake” and I screamed so loud it deafened her. I was like a hippo, making loud noises and eating everything and probably sweating from all the joy.
BBQ jackfruit sandwich
Tangerine champagne cake
Himal Chuli
Did you know that Madison has more Nepalese restaurants than any other American town? We have two, and they are next door to each other. Himal Chuli is where you go if it’s 2 degrees and hasn’t stopped snowing in three months. The food will warm you AND prevent scurvy! Their vegetarian menu is extensive, but I recommend the momochas and the takari (your choice of 2 vegetable blends). WARNING: the roti is made with yogurt!
Chocolate Shoppe
You can’t go to Wisconsin without eating ice cream. IT’S THE LAW. Luckily for us, Chocolate Shoppe ice cream is locally made and has soy options! My favorite flavor is the espresso oreo. The photo you see before you was taken when I ate ice cream for lunch one day. TREAT YO SELF.
The Willy Street Co-Op
This is the Rainbow of Madison, y’all. I ate like 55 muffins here? I also consumed a grasshopper as big as my head (see photo). The baked goods at this place kind of put the Bay Area to shame, you guys. The only thing they were missing is Cinnaholic rolls.
I left Madison with a sad heart and tight pants.
Rachel orders one pancake with her breakfast burrito at Saturn Café, just so she can cover the burrito with maple syrup. She organizes the SF Vegan Bakesales and is the genius behind @sfveganbakesale. Will you marry her?
∞ posted at 08:35 by crownandcrow 
01/05/2012
Portland, Ore., gets all the good stuff! Reader Calvin is looking to open an artisanal vegan ice cream shop in Portland, and is looking for funding through IndieGoGo. It’s called Savor the Chill, and we are already (pistachio) green with envy. Look at this roasted banana maple vegan ice cream! Look upon it and despair!
If I had all of the money—or, OK, more of the money than I have now, which is “very little”—I would open a vegan diner, open late nights through late mornings, and we would always serve brunch and sticky desserts, and also beer and maybe if we got enough money for a for-real liquor license, boozy coffee. Yes, I have serious holiday hangover and I really just want to drink boozy coffee with a sticky bun, sitting under a blanket watching an AbFab marathon, but can you blame me?
For now, let’s throw a few dollars Calvin’s way and give ourselves another destination for our Portland Eating Tour 2012. Good luck, Savor the Chill!
∞ posted at 09:54 by seriousmeaveness 
10/04/2011
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.
∞ posted at 10:01 by laurahooperb 
09/15/2011
While cruising through one of my new favorite blogs, Hello Giggles, I found this post (and subsequent video) all about making vegan sundaes. How exciting! There are recipes for both salted caramel and bananas foster. And who does it happen to star? Napeoleon Dynamite’s own Haylie Duff! I love my celebrities, especially when they partake in vegan doings and makings.
Can someone make the caramel sauce and bring it over to my apartment? Thanks! We can totally run across the street and pick up some Coconut Bliss at Whole Paycheck. Sundae Party!
∞ posted at 09:55 by jennybradley
08/05/2011
Vegan Dad’s Strawberry Daiquiri Sorbet. It’s frozen fruity alcohol, what more could you want? Besides an Infinity Pool and a billion dollars? LIFE IS A BEACH!
∞ posted at 11:49 by laurahooperb
07/29/2011
Australia: Cocoluscious is vegan ice cream for the people! »
GOOD MORNING AUSTRALIA!
I should jump in here and say it: I’m a CocoLuscious addict. I first tried it as an omni and it may or may not be a large part of the reason I became vegan.
A few of the flavours in The Green Edge, my local vegan shop thing.
CocoLuscious is a coconut milk-based ice cream that’s made with totally natural ingredients. And it’s absolutely delicious.
Originally there were three flavours: chocolate, coconut, and vanilla. Since then three new flavours have been released each season, so you can now get vanilla, coconut, chocolate, raspberry, mango, blueberry, chai, vanilla chocolate chip, peppermint chocolate chip, and the three new winter* flavours: coffee, Mexican chocolate, and chocolate chip cookie dough. The chocolate chips contain soy lecithin, so if you’re not down with that, be careful to avoid it.
The three new flavours are my favourites. The coffee is actually the best coffee ice cream I’ve ever eaten. The Mexican chocolate starts off like, “Yeah, so what? it’s jaffa ice cream” and then goes “BAM CHILI!” If you don’t like hotness, perhaps this is not the one for you. The cookie dough is obscenely moreish—my partner and I ate a whole container in one sitting. Two nights in a row. Not recommended, but also seriously recommended.
Best of all, I can actually pronounce all of the ingredients on the label. They’re nice normal ingredients like coconut milk, and raw cacao powder, and it’s sweetened with agave nectar. Really, nearly every single flavour is gluten- and sugar-free.
Initially, you could buy chocolate, vanilla, and coconut in organic or non-organic, which was slightly cheaper, but I don’t know whether that’s still the case now. All the new flavours are organic!
Cocoluscious used to be available in only a few health food stores in Southeast Queensland, but you can now find it in various places in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, ACT, and Western Australia. If you have a local health food store, you can probably just ask them to get it in stock.
There’s not much more information, but their website is cocoluscious.com.au, and you can also find them on Facebook.
James Hultgren lives in Australia. He doesn’t work for Cocoluscious, he just really loves the ice cream. This is his first guest post for Vegansaurus. Also, now we all want to move to Australia even more.
*Rememeber, the antipodean July is a winter month!
∞ posted at 11:03 by seriousmeaveness
07/13/2011
Caramel apple brownie sundae I love you and want to make you mine. Description by the photographer, QuintanaRoo (a.k.a. Emilie Hardman):
Chocolate sauce on the plate, a decadent brownie, two scoops of Turtle Tracks Purely Decadent Soy Ice Cream, a mound of faux whipped cream, a generous spoonful of heavily spiced roasted apple sauce, slivers of a nutmeg infused caramel apple and chocolate shavings.
Uuuhhhh YES and PLEASE and NOW. If you’re a real glutton for punishment (or just a glutton!), check out her entire set of vegan ice cream and sorbet photos. If I had a room of my own, I’d decorate it exclusively with these pictures.
∞ posted at 08:18 by seriousmeaveness
