Online VEGAN Bake Sale!

Do you LOVE helping animals?

Do you LOVE eating sweet treats?

Do you LOVE getting things delivered right to your door?

If you answered YES,

this Online Vegan Bake Sale is for you!

On Saturday, November 10 - Sunday, November 11th, Peace To All Creatures (which I am proud to be a part of) is hosting an Online Vegan Bake Sale to benefit  Cat Call's medical bills (cat rescue group in Tampa), For The Animals Sanctuary (in NJ), Carnism Awareness & Action Network, and Animal Rights & Rescue of North Texas.

How it works: On November 10-11, go to The Peace To All Creatures Blog, take a look at all of the yummy goodies up for grabs, bid on the items that you want by commenting on the blog post, and submiting your payment via PayPal. As soon as the donation is received, you will get an email asking for your address, the baker will make your goodies fresh, and they will be delivered right to your door!

We made over $1000 with our online bake sale in March, help us top that!

Dun-Well Doughnuts FTW!

Vegan donuts, oh how I love thee,

let me count the ways...

1. I love how no animals were harmed in making you...

2. I love how you still taste just as good, if not better!...

3. I love how you play hard to get, so I enjoy you even more when I find you...

4. I love how good you look in that icing...

5. I love how I don't care how fattening you are, because you are oh so worth it...

6. I love how you are spelled donuts and doughnuts...

7. I love you because you are a donut, and that's reason enough!

If you read my post yesterday, you know that I recently visited New York for the first time (if not, you can find my post here), and finally got to go to a vegan fast food style restaurant. After I left there, I hoped my happy butt back on subway like a real New Yorker (well not really, I'm far to excited about riding the subway to be confused with a real New Yorker), and went across town to Dun-Well Doughnuts. They have over 200 flavors of vegan donuts, so it was kinda a bummer that they only had 3 in stock when I visited. I chose to try two of them, a raspberry glazed and a vanilla glazed with chocolate sprinkles. I'm happy to say that I approve them both, unlike this years presidential candidates... 

 

Donuts as big as your hand!!!  

Wait a minute... ice cream?

Yep, they have vegan ice cream too. I got the cherry vanilla, because apparently fast food and donuts weren't enough! When in Rome Brooklyn, am I right?...

Happy Vegan Mofo!

Vegan Fast Food, New York Style!

My friend Jessi and I were lucky enough to score free plane tickets, so we used them to take a trip up to New York to visit our good friends Pj of Vegan CineGrub, who was getting married. It was my first time visiting New York, but it won't be my last.

One of the most exciting things to me about New York was the number of vegan/vegetarian restaurants they have...TONS of them. I live in the small town of Plant City, right outside of Tampa, and even though the name sounds hopeful ("Plant" City), and I love my town, most people here don't even know what the word vegan means, or how to pronounce it, much less how to cook vegan food, which is very unfortunate because Plant City is a big fruit and vegetable farming community. Tampa doesn't have many choices either. Loving Hut is Tampa's only all vegan restaurant, and I am not a fan of our Loving Hut. So I was completely blown away by the number of vegan restaurants that New York has to offer.

I've been to plenty of vegan restaurants in St. Pete and Orlando, so I'm used to all of the hippie dippie foods and the flower teas, and I like them, but judge me all you want, I was looking for a place that had some good ol' fried vegan fast food for a change, and I found all I could ever want and more at Foodswings in Brooklyn, New York.

Behold, Vegan Potato Skins!!!

Fried Vegan Chick'n Cutlet Sandwich

They even have vegan milkshakes!

I wish I could show you more food, but as soon as I saw Vegan Potato Skins on the menu, every other food choice had to take a back seat. But they have something for everyone including, burgers, hot dogs, corn dogs, drumsticks, Philly cheese steaks, milkshakes, cheese fries, punk fried, metal fries... you get my point. Check out their menu here, and plan your trip today!

What is your favorite vegan food hot spot?

Happy Vegan MoFo!

How I Roll... Vegan Peanut Butter Cinnamon Rolls!

Who can resist a big ol pan full of ooey gooey vegan peanut butter cinnamon rolls? Not anyone in this household, that's for sure! I have been eyeballing this recipe for a long time now from one of my favorite vegan foodie blogs Bjorkedoff (Please come back Evan!!!), but was too intimidated to try it out until just recently. It was very time consuming and labor intensive, but TOTALLY worth it!

Behold! Heaven on Earth!!!

Is your mouth watering yet?

Find the recipe here, and leave Evan a comment begging him to come back to his super awesome blog! I followed the recipe as written except I made a double batch of the peanut butter filling, because I wanted to go into a sugar comma... goal accomplished! I also put the extra peanut butter filling on the top of the rolls as well as the insides... I think I gained 10 pounds just baking these! He forgot to list the ingredients for the icing, so I used a basic glaze recipe. See below.

Cinnamon Roll Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup vegan margarine

enough non dairy milk to thin out

Happy Vegan MoFo!

Blessings in disguise? Fred and CC

Do you believe in fate? Have you ever been in the right place at the right time, to change the life of another? I'm finally starting to believe that somethings are just "meant to be", and that many of my hardships are just blessings in disguise...

It all started when I responded to a Facebook post about a cat who needed a foster ASAP or he would die. I received a phone call soon after I offered to help and was told that the cat was safe, another rescue had pulled him. I was super excited and relived, because I really had no business trying to pull cats from another county when my own county was in such desperate need. The lady I spoke to took it upon herself to tell me that there were 2 other cats that needed commitment with in the next hour, or that they would be killed, she even texted me their photos... I was pretty upset that she put me on the spot like that and I told her that the only reason why I offered to take the other cat was because my mother agreed to foster him for me...  and there was no way that I could take 2 cats. I told her that I usually just deal with feral cats who need to be TNR'd (Trap-Neuter-Return) or relocated, or kittens born to feral moms. She told me that the 2 cats were feral cats, and relocation was what they needed. I agreed to take them, but I made it VERY clear that I could ONLY do so if they were feral cats, because I didn't have a place for 2 friendly indoor cats to go.

When I met her to pick up the cats, she told me how they were both super friendly, and how I shouldn't have a problem adopting them out... I was stunned, and told her that I couldn't take them... they were supposed to be ferals... that was our agreement. She played dumb and acted like she forgot, and told me that if I could just keep them through the weekend, she would take them back, she had another lady that could foster them.

Well, I think you know where I'm going with this... She stuck me with the cats!!! Not only that but the poor female cat (CC) was a bag of bones, full of fleas and ticks, and had diarrhea so bad that she couldn't control it, which meant lots of money out of my pocket and multiple trips to the vet. The male cat (Fred) had a severe yeast infection in his ears and was FIV positive, so it took allot of extra time to find him a home with a person that understood that FIV is not a death sentence, and that he deserves to live just as much as any other kitty out there.

Long story short... another rescue took CC, but even though Fred is a major love muffin and a super awesome cat, it still took me 5 months to get him adopted out because of his FIV. Do I regret saving the lives of these 2 precious souls? No! Absolutely not! I love them to pieces and I'm very grateful to have met them.

Some things are just meant to be! :-)

Fred making "air biscuits" :)

Fred the lover boy!

Loukas and Fred

My favorite pic!

Fred goes up for adoption! :)

He's making biscuits as usual.

CC

Poor baby was so skinny. :(

CC is a sweet girl.

Who could resist that face?

Apparently not me...

Excuses, excuses, excuses...

Check one, check two... Hello? is this mic blog on?

Wow, I don't even know where to begin... Where have I been? Why haven't I blogged?

Alien abduction?

Time Travel?

Zombie Apocalypse?

Nope!

It's all MY fault! I have a very bad habit of overwhelming myself with volunteer work such as animal rescue/activism. I also have a VERY hard time saying no, especially when animals are involved. I took on way too many projects, spread myself out way to thin, and became super stressed out... and unfortunately blogging is the last thing on my mind after a long exhausting drama filled day, so my blog and personal life have suffered because of it. 

Excuses, excuses, excuses... I know, I know... :/

I'm back, I'm trying to become more organized, which equals less stress... right? I'm also trying not to over commit myself... pssh... we shall see how that goes, because I've already committed myself to 3 SWAPS THIS MONTH on top of everything else that I have going on...  Ahhhhh, I need help! How do you do it?... How do you organize yourself to stay on track, and how do you say NO? Please someone, help a sister out.

But for now, Here is a cute kitten!

=^.^=

P.S. Don't worry if you are my swap buddy, you WILL receive your package,

I won't flake out on you. :)

Chickpea Tacos w/Fresh Tomato Avocado Salsa

Never under estimate the power of the chickpea!

Packed with fiber, protein, valuable phyonutrients, and the ability to lower cholesterol, reduce blood sugar, and decrease cardiovascular risks; these little legumes are worth writing home about. Just one cup of chickpeas contains a whopping 12.5 grams of fiber, and as little as 3/4 cup of chickpeas a day can help lower our LDL-cholesterol, total cholesterol, and triglycerides in a one-month period of time. Chickpeas are a super food in my book.

Let's not overlook their taste, chickpeas are awesome, so creamy and full of flavor. You can add them to just about anything with great results, as I did here in my Chickpea Tacos.

For more information on why chickpeas are so good for us, go here.

Chickpea Tacos with Fresh Tomato Avocado Salsa

Fresh Tomato Avocado Salsa

2 roma tomatoes

1/2 avocado

the juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 tsp coriander seasoning

1/4 tsp garlic powder

dash of salt

Chop tomatoes and 1/2 of avocado into small chunks. Put into bowl. Squeeze in 1/2 lemon and stir. Add other seasonings. Taste and add more seasoning if needed. Let sit in the refrigerator while making tacos.

Chickpea Tacos

makes 4 tacos or double for 8

4 taco shells

1 can of chickpeas

1/2 package of taco seasoning

1 cup of water

garlic powder to taste

cumin powder to taste

* optional: 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

Add a dash of oil to a medium sized pan or spray with cooking spray, just enough to prevent sticking. Heat pan to medium-high. Rinse chickpeas under water and then add to pan. Cook until lightly brown or to your liking. Add 1 cup of water to the pan. Stir in 1/2 packet of taco seasoning, nutritional yeast (if using), and other spices until well combined. Let come to a low boil. Cook uncovered for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Turn the heat down to low, cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes for full flavor. Heat taco shells at 325 degrees for about 3-5 minutes.

Assemble tacos by adding chickpeas first, taco sauce if desired, lettuce, and tomato avocado salsa. Or give them a personal touch by adding your favorite toppings.

I promise you wont regret making these. They are so fast, easy, and full of flavor. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

~amber