Veg Option Allies and Advocates - Vegetarian Food Festival NYC

Nicole Eisenberg has been a vegan advocate for seven years. Realizing how difficult it could be for those with a plant-based lifestyle to have conversations with omnivores, she founded Veg Option Allies & Advocates (VOAA).

VOAA aims to knock down walls between vegans and non-vegans by joining them together to break bread at delicious events to respectfully engage in conversation.

Hear more about VOAA and upcoming events from Nicole at the Vegetarian Food Festival in NYC.

http://www.voaa.org

Social Media @vegallies

Guerrilla Wearfare Pro-Veg Clothing - Green Festival NYC

Trying to share information about the impact eating vegetarian, vegan, or less meat in general has on the body, mind, environment and economy is no easy task. Vegheads are usually met with sighs, eye-rolling and complaints about their food choices being respected.

Fortunately, pictures are worth a thousand words, and Christopher Baez of Guerrilla Wearfare has brought his message down to street level with thought provoking tees for every day wear.

GuerrillaWearfare.org

Sweet and Spicy Cauliflower Karaage with Scallion Pancakes

I love the reduced produce section of my supermarket. I always end up with a ton of something random for really cheap. This time it was cauliflower. I had JUST finished watching an episode of Shokugeki no Soma where there was a karaage competition, and I was inspired!

Plant Based Cool Chocolate Mint Cake Topped with Pudding and Strawberries

When I want treats, I just mix things together in the kitchen. I'm no chef, and I don't do measurements. I've just cooked enough in my life to know what amounts sorta work, what causes issues, how textures and thicknesses of batters are supposed to be, etc. So if you are new to baking, or meticulous about measurements, you will hate me. 

But if you are an experienced, clean eating, and plant-based kind of person, the experiments I do around here will give you some ideas. One day I will get more organized for a cookbook, until then, meh.

This chocolate, peppermint gluten-free, soy-free, corn-free, egg-free, dairy-free, oil-free and sugar-free cake with a coconut cream pudding and fresh strawberries was such a wonderful summer goodie. It actually would have been better if the mint was put in the pudding, and not baked in with the cake, but still tasty. 

Gluten Free, Soy Free Asian Dumplings and Noodles

I never spend time cooking for just myself. Seems like a whole lot of time wasted just to eat. Eh, I don't need to impress myself with a fancy meal. If it can't get thrown together in less than 10 minutes or be put in a slow cooker, I don't want it.

However, after I saw a recipe for gluten free dumpling skins from Girl With Spoons official website, I had to get busy! I am not gluten intolerant, just a little sensitive to it, so I try to save my gluten for certain meals I must have and can't make good enough gluten free.

So, I'm a Vegetarian Now.

I never thought that I would, but in the last few months I started eating wayyy less meat. I'll have fish on occasion but otherwise I've been getting creative with making meatless foods with a good degree of success. Vegan recipes are helpful although I am not vegan. I still eat eggs as well as yogurts and cheeses in small amounts because I'm lactose intolerant. I try to make these things organic because it if I'm going to eat animal products, I would like them to be of a little higher quality.

Why the change? I was always into the different effects that natural food has on the body, and have been researching and reading about such for years. From there, I eventually found my way into documentaries about our food and the business of it.

After watching how animals and food were being handled in factory-farms, I felt a little squeamish. Not because of any emotional or physical stress on the animals (although, that's upsetting an upsetting symptom of high meat demand) but the fact that my meat could be dirty or contaminated with germs and a ridiculous amount of grossness. Between unsanitary conditions, animals being pumped full of who-knows-what, arsenic in chicken feed, and my fruits/vegetables being genetically modified, I was skeeved out, man. Totally skeeved out.