vegansaurus!

If you were important, you’d get free vegan queso for Earth Day  »

Cameron Diaz is getting a jar of Food for Lovers Vegan Queso for Earth Day and I’m not pleased. I’m super-jealz—WHY HER AND NOT ME?!  Life is so hard and unfair sometimes. I’m also mad because I was just in Austin last month—the city of its conception and the only place I’ve been recently that it’s available for purchase—and didn’t pick any up since somehow I’m so out of the loop I didn’t know it existed.  Maybe Cameron does deserve it more than me.

Distinctive Assets (a company that puts together gift bags for celebrities—I can’t wait till I’m famous) approached Chris and Crystal Tate, creators of the world’s first vegan queso, about using their product as swag for A-listers for Earth Day. Of course they said yes. Being able to use celebrities to promote your vegan product is an incredible opportunity to reach the masses (my mom has a subscription to US Weekly, I know what I’m talking about)!

Crystal and Chris are also featured in this month’s VegNews, as they just had a super hip vegan wedding. I imagine all vegan weddings are hip (NO GRILLED VEGETABLE PLATTERS) [Ed.: We’re totally putting that on a sticker! Don’t steal it, thieves!], though I have yet to attend one. No one knows yet if the images used for the article were real or stock photos. SNAP! Sorry, VegNews, you know I still love you.
Natalie Portman is also getting a jar. I thought the baby in her womb was forcing her to indulge in animal products?  She can send her jar to me. Thanks, Natalie!

MOST IMPORTANTLY, when is Rainbow getting this in? Until then, I’m ordering mine from Vegan Essentials! [Ed.: Rainbow is totally carrying it now!] I’m awesome and won a gift certificate, which allowed me to feel like a fantastic celebrity who gets free shit for no reason. I already know what I’m doing with my jar!

This is Jenny Bradley’s first post for Vegansaurus! She is one of our new regulars (you’ve already met Rachel! And there’s more where MORE! we’re a godammed clown car of new writers! Not really, just four! That’s a regular car!) and she’s really, really great. As you can tell. Anyway! Yay, Jenny!

Rainbow Grocery’s Customer Appreciation Day is TOMORROW!  »

It’s 20 percent off everything you want at Rainbow so get up on this! It’s tomorrow today, Tuesday, Mar. 8, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. That’s plenty of time to buy your bulk granola, 15 pounds of Daiya, and several dozen cases of almond milk. Be prepared for crazy-ass crowds and possible fisticuffs in the baked goods section but you know, that’s life during Depression 2.0. Honestly, I look at it as good practice for Judgment Day. 

[Hat tip, Shelly!]

No lying about this weekend with so much to do!  »

First, Bay Area friends, don’t forget to enter our contest to win two tickets to the premiere of Bold Native in San Francisco next Saturday, Nov. 18! The contest ends on Thursday, Nov. 11, and entering is as easy as commenting on the pertinent post with your favorite ice cream flavor. Nothing to it, this competition.

Saturday
OK, this is mainly (exclusively) Los Angeles-centric, but that’s all right, we’re happy everyone’s here.
First, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Roxy Theatre on Sunset, it’s Vegan Beer Fest no. 1, as sponsored in part by Quarrygirl (hooray!)! We mentioned it once, and now it’s in a more prominent position! The pertinent details are still on other sites, however. Have lots of fun, and do consider a guest post for us!

Immediately following Beer Fest (!!), have a sober driver take you to Venice for the release party of The Kitchen and The Garden Patch cookbook, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Me & Blue, 566 Rose Ave. (at 6th Avenue). We continue to recommend this event as well—a lovely vegan cookbook and recipe samples? You are strongly encouraged to pay them a visit, yes.

Saturday and Sunday!
SF Green Fest fall 2010 has arrived! Remember last year’s? We got vegan corn dogs and saw creepy milk-soliciting, Tessa tried a preview taco from Gracias Madre, and A QUEEN spoke. Among other things.

How can this year possibly compete with solicitation and the author of Overcoming the Angry Vagina? For starters, if you have spent $10 or more at Rainbow since Nov. 1 and through Nov. 7, bring your receipt to Green Fest for free admission! Now, that is either a savings of $5, since one-day admission costs $15, or a savings of the full $15, since you were going shopping at Rainbow anyway, you vegan hippie weirdo.

Amy Goodman and Dolores Huerta and y/our state Senator Mark Leno will speak! There are a bunch of Slow Food-related speakers, too, which is why we say, go listen to some people talk about less aggravating subjects. At a skim, the food options look like Gratitude, Chad’s Grill (?), Donna’s Tamales, Star Anise Foods, and Underdog; various chocolates, bars, drinks, and produce; Tofutown North America, makers of Soyatoo! vegan whipped cream!, and our BFFs Sugar Beat Sweets!!

SF Green Fest fall 2010 will happen at the SF Concourse Exhibition Center, at 635 8th St. at Brannan Street. It’s open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are available online or at the door.

Have we missed anything? You should let us know, via email or a comment, and we will happily update this post. Enjoy your weekend!

Drown your end-of-coupon-days sorrows TONIGHT at SF Vegan Drinks!  »

Yes, it’s the last coupon day at Rainbow, ever. You were already planning to camp out in line from dawn till dusk to save 20 percent off a barrel of flax seed oil, so why not follow it up by drinking the pain away at SF Vegan Drinks? Or show up early, and drunk-shop for the final two hours of crazy. And speaking of drink specials, I hear we have those? Here are the details, from Lyndsay (who said “hi” as I walked by on Valencia Street yesterday and didn’t realize until it was too late who it was SORRY LYNDSAY I THINK YOU’RE GREAT I AM JUST BLIND):

Just a heads up that the September installment of Vegan Drinks is Thursday, Sept. 30 at Martuni’s (Valencia @ Market). This a fantastic chance to mingle with other interesting vegans while enjoying drink specials—this month: $5 Rock Sake Pomegranate Lemonade Martinis—a host of non-alcoholic beverage options, and all-you-can-eat vegan hot dogs and popcorn!

A representative of Rock Sake will be joining us and will provide a variety of free samples. Looking forward to seeing you! 

Here’s the thing. Coupon day is hell, but 20 percent off everything you could ever want has been hard to pass up. I hate waiting in lines, and I complain bitterly about it, but I’ll also miss getting all that free stuff without having to shoplift. Not that I would ever shoplift from Rainbow in a million years. There’s a lot of love in the people who make that grocery store happen, and they’re still worker-owned; how great is that? While other people are busy with wage theft and exploiting immigrant labor, places like Rainbow give me hope for humanity. 

Also giving me hope/dulling my hopelessness for humanity: drinking. SF Vegan Drinks is sponsored by Vegansaurus and VegNews, and we’ll be there tonight! So show up! At Martuni’s! From 6 to 8 p.m.! Sí se puede!

No more coupon day at Rainbow!  »

No more Rainbow Coupon Days, y’all. This is the last month. I’ll be spilling out some organic almond milk for my fallen homie. Good write-ups of the pros and cons of coupon day in both UA & ML, so I’ll spare you the eulogy/celebration/tears. I guess I’ll just have to steal extra from the Whole Foods bulk section to make up for the loss. LE SIGH. I only worry for the phonebook. Now that its only purpose is gone, is there any need to make these landfill-overflowing machines anymore?? PLEASE STOP!

(via Uptown Almanac via Mission Local) [I refuse to do the @ sign in their name because it’s hella goofy.]

Cheap Eats: Beans, beans!!!  »

I know I’m behind the curve on this one, but it’s something that bears repeating: 90-Minute No-Soak Beans. You heard me. Beans. From drizzle to sizzle in 90 minutes, and you don’t have to do anything crazy like pressure-cook them or any of that kind of shit.

[Image courtesy ranchogordo.com]

Now, this method has been written up all over the damn place, but I found it on The Kitchn, so that’s where I’m linking it to. Basically, what you do is preheat your oven to 325, get a pound of dried beans, throw them in an oven-safe pot with a lid (a dutch oven is ideal for this, so much so that I’m planning a trip to Target to get one—what? They’re $30 there!) and add enough water to cover the beans, plus one inch, and 2 teaspoons of salt. Cover your pot and throw it in the oven for about 90 minutes. Check on them after an hour or so, and if they look dry, add some more water. If, after 90 minutes, they’re not quite done, give ‘em another half hour or so, but they should be done by the two-hour mark.

If you don’t have a dutch oven, you can use a regular pot (as long as it’s oven-safe—no plastic handles or glass bits!), but you have to find a good, heavy lid to cover it. Me, being kind of a scumbag, I used an all-metal stock pot and covered it with my cast-iron frying pan. It worked just fine, though if you use this method, be careful to pull the frying pan out of the oven first before removing the pot, so that it doesn’t move, or fall and burn the crap out of you or your kitchen floor.

Now that they’re cooked, prepare for some of the tastiest beans of your entire life, especially if you use some bomb-diggity heirloom beans, like the ones at Rancho Gordo. You can get six or so kinds of their awesome dried beans in the bulk section at Rainbow (I am really into the Good Mother Stallard beans). They’re a bit pricey, but considering that a $5 pound of dried beans will net you something like 10 cups of cooked amazingness (which you can also freeze for later use if you don’t need that much all at once), it’s still cheaper than canned beans, AND they seriously taste a gazillion times better. I was never a bean person, really, and now I could eat those things for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Finally, you can add seasoning agents to the beans as they cook (bay leaves, onion, garlic, spices, etc.) but I recommend giving it a try without first (especially if you splash out and get the heirlooms), just to see how amazing good beans taste on their own. Serve ‘em up with some rice and a whole whack of pico de gallo, and you’re welcome!

Looking good, San Franciscans  »

Hey sexy people, Stylist.com gave a shout out to San Francisco’s “beauty trends!” Let the excitement begin! I’ll summarize for you because you are lazy and I’m a genius summarizer:
1. Smokey eyes are so totally in.
2. You’re crunchy bastards.

They say vegan makeup is all the rage and that Pin Up Cosmetics is totally the way to go. I had never heard of this Pin Up Cosmetics but they’re vegan and based in San Francisco! Has anyone tried their products before?

They also gave some love to Rainbow Grocery among other places:

If you’re in San Francisco (or you just want to get into natural beauty), stores such as Rainbow Grocery, Whole Foods and The Real Food Company are the hip places to shop for local, fresh and organic beauty products. Come visit!

Congratulations, you guys are grocery hipsters! Yay!

What’s new at Rainbow Grocery: a vegan odyssey!  »

Man, we have it so lucky in the bay area. In other parts of the country, they have to literally climb mountains, cross rivers, and pass tests of endurance, skill, and wit to get to a quality vegan cupcake. For a decent vegan pizza, they must whittle a squirrel while riding an elliptical. For vegans in Middle Earth America, grocery shopping is basically like living in Saw, but worse*. WHICH LEADS ME TO MY NEXT POINT: God Bless San Francisco and God Bless Rainbow Grocery. Now, let’s get down to business!

First, we have VEGAN COOKIE DOUGH. That’s right, we can eat cookie dough straight out of the tub with the fattest of ‘em! And guess what, we ain’t getting Salmonella! HELL YEAH. Check out the ridiculously amazing Eat Pastry in the frozen section!

AAAAAAND… let’s give it up for Tofurky Pizzas! It’s a melty, delicious, Daiya-topped, vegan pizza and it’s ALL YOURS. It’s like $8 so my cheap ass will be saving it for special occasions like weddings and graduations and days ending in y. The actual pizza doesn’t look exactly like the box but SEX SELLS.

Also, vegan fertilizer for vegans who want to get DIR-TAY. Sorry, listening to too much Christina Aguillera.

Don’t know much about this but thought it might be of note for all you outdoorsy types. Cheers!

*I kid! It’s pretty easy to be vegan just about anywhere in America and so all you whiners better shut the hell up and GO VEG! Also, MOVE TO A COAST. I kid again, GO MIDWEST!