By Lori Stultz, VO Rocky Mountain Outreach Coordinator
Nutella was always a favorite treat of mine in my pre-vegan days, but, probably like many of you, I cut it out of my diet after discovering that it’s made with cow’s milk.
Interestingly enough, it took me quite a while to discover a semi-alternative for Nutella. I had turned to Justin’s Peanut Butter, and Peanut Butter & Co.—two peanut butter brands that make chocolate peanut butter. These products are wonderfully delicious, don’t get me wrong, but there’s just something about them that doesn’t quite fulfill the tastefulness of chocolate hazelnut.
Now I’m happy to report that for those of us who gave up Nutella, but weren’t 100% satisfied with chocolate peanut butter, our waiting has come to an end! Introducing Rigoni di Asiago, an Italian company that is now producing—and selling in the U.S.—a dairy-free, chocolate hazelnut spread, called Nocciolata Dairy Free.
The website tells us, “Nocciolata Dairy Free combines hazelnuts with cocoa and cocoa butter, natural vanilla extract, and raw cane sugar for a chocolate-hazelnut spread with undeniably superior flavor and smooth texture,” and right they are!
This hazelnut spread is even smoother and creamier than what I remember Nutella being—granted it’s been about four years since I ate it. Others who’ve tried the spread also seem to really like it! In fact, I shared the jar with my colleague, Nikki, and, after she tried it, I received a text message from her that read, “Omg this is so awesome.”
I made an open face sandwich with banana slices, but the creative possibilities with this spread are limitless! I think it’d taste great on fresh apple slices and strawberries.
The website has a store locator, so you can track down the closest store that’s selling it. And it’ll be available to purchase on Amazon soon!
Do you know a vegan activist who puts in hours of work to help raise awareness about animal cruelty, but doesn’t receive a great deal of recognition for their tireless efforts?
The Pollination Project’s Lisa Shapiro Awards for Unsung Vegan Heroes is your chance to bring that activist to the forefront.
For all of the details about this award—including nomination and prize information—check out this page.
Act quickly! Nominations are open through Friday, August 12, 2016. Our Hen House will announce the winners publicly on Saturday, October 1, 2016.
By Jamila Alfred, VO Maryland/DC Events and Outreach Coordinator
As you might have heard, the Vegan Outreach Super Team attended the 2016 Animal Rights National Conference in Los Angeles the second weekend of July, and what a culinary adventure that was!
We indulged in delicious vegan fare from a number of wonderful restaurants—mostly from ethnic restaurants with unique dishes and colorful atmospheres.
After our cozy flights and road trips from all parts of the world, we congregated at the sassy Equelecuá Cuban Cafe where we enjoyed vegan wings, garlic “shrimp,” and tasty Cuban sandwiches that are a rarity to find in vegan form. Then a few of us ended the night with cupcakes and rice pudding!
Alitas (Wings)—Chik’un Drumsticks Served with a Sweet Garlic SauceCamarones Al Ajillo (Garlic Shrimp) Served on RiceArroz con Pollo (Shredded Chik’un with Rice)Rice Pudding
For our productive team meeting the next morning, we were treated with donuts for breakfast and pizza for lunch. Needless to say, we were very pleased!
We then went to Rahel Ethiopian Vegan Cuisine after a lengthy day of becoming acquainted with each other and discussing the future of the organization. The scenery was magical and so was the food. The servers recommended that we order trays of food meant for big groups to share. No surprise, we were met with a smorgasbord of yummy veggie stews on one giant plate with injera bread on the side! We shared as much as we could.
Maple DoughnutsVegan Meat and Cheese, and Margarita PizzaVeggie Paradise Combo Plate
There were a couple of days the VO crew couldn’t resist ducking out of the conference for an hour or two to enjoy the many options of Veggie Grill, a West Coast-based vegan fast food restaurant. This place had everything from grilled chickin’ and crab cake sandwiches to buffalo wing and banh mi salads.
The restaurant’s laid-back, comfortable feel made it a great place for light-hearted conversation and for talking business. If it weren’t for the sake of exploring other vegan restaurants, I’m sure we would eat here every day!
Last, but certainly not least, was our lovely experience at LA Vegan—an Asian fusion restaurant we chose for our final meeting and dining place. We filled up the whole restaurant—literally—excited to try their diverse menu made up of pancake platters, burritos, curry and noodle dishes, and vegetable soups. They were as delicious as expected!
Pancakes with Vegan Butter and Maple SyrupGreen CurryVegetable Soup
It was an intimate place perfect for wrapping up a wonderful weekend with awesome people.
We will miss you Los Angeles—not only for your palm trees and beautiful weather—but also for your incredibly fantastic vegan eats scene!
By Lori Stultz, VO Rocky Mountain Outreach Coordinator
If you love sweet—or in this case, savory—baked treats, but don’t love the time and energy that baking usually requires, this cookie recipe is your solution!
Renee Press, founder of Fire and Earth Kitchen, has really outdone herself with this maple tahini cookie creation! And a huge shout out to her for sharing this recipe with us!
These delightful goodies only call for seven ingredients, and they mix-up and bake in a snap!
I’ve to admit that I was a bit skeptical about these cookies, as it was the first time I’d ever come across a maple/tahini combo. However, I was blown away at how good they tasted! I’ll most definitely be making these for future holiday gatherings and potlucks.
I’d love to hear feedback from anyone else that gives this recipe a go!
7 Ingredient Maple Tahini Cookies
Yields 6-8 cookies.
Ingredients
½ cup sesame seeds (optional)
½ cup maple syrup
½ cup tahini
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
Directions
Preheat oven to 400°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Place sesame seeds in a bowl.
Combine maple syrup, tahini, and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Stir in salt and baking powder. Add flour and stir to incorporate. Dough will be sticky.
Wet palms and form dough into balls about 2″ in diameter. Roll each in sesame seeds and place on parchment paper, spaced evenly apart.
Bake for 10 minutes until golden, remove and let cool. Enjoy!
By Paige Carter, VO Diversity and Community Expansion Specialist
As part of Vegan Outreach’s Community Expansion Program, David Carter and I have recently started doing vegan store tours in neighborhoods that are normally overlooked by the vegan community.
Our first store tour got off to a great start when our amazing volunteers showed up bright and early on the morning of Saturday, June 25 at a Ralphs grocery store in Los Angeles. After setting up the signage and the Vegan Outreach information station, volunteers Roxanne and Nicole helped me fill the Vega giveaway bags—graciously donated by Vega—with a shaker cup, a protein powder and bar, a plant-based eating guide, and a VO Compassionate Athlete booklet.
By 10:00 am, we were ready to go and our first tour group had arrived! Jessica Handy—one of our vegan registered dieticians—and I took the first group around.
We met a mother and daughter who had both recently gone vegan, and another mother and daughter who weren’t vegan but had seen the Vegan Store Tours poster outside the store and were interested in learning more. Together we walked through the store and listened as Jessica pointed out things like:
Paying attention to price per pound.
Cutting out the middleman by buying dry ingredients, like beans, and cooking them yourself.
Finding cheap protein sources—beans and legumes—if vegan meats aren’t in your budget.
By 2:00 pm, the event had come to an end. Our three tour guides, David Scott, Matt Ruscigno, and Jessica Handy, had spent hours taking veg-curious people on tours.
And our fabulous volunteers—Roxanne, Yvonne, Nicole, Liz, Derek, and Janelle—had passed out all of our giveaways and handed out stacks of leaflets that changed countless lives for both animals and humans. This was hands down one of the best days of my life!
Walking around the Ralphs grocery store on the corner of Vermont and Adams in South Central Los Angeles, not too far from where both David and I grew up, I was overwhelmed with happiness. Photographing the day’s activities and seeing vegan budget tours happening simultaneously with Gardein and Kashi cooking demos and leafleting outside the store, I had to pinch myself. In a neighborhood normally overlooked by the vegan movement, all this magic was happening!
I want to give a long-distance shout-out to VO’s Vic Sjodin and Brenda Sanders! They were both on the East Coast during the planning and implementation of this event, but that didn’t stop them from answering tons of emails and questions, coordinating the event, the literature, the volunteers, and more.
VO has a strong team and it was fun to be part of it for this great event!
Make sure you’re signed up for the VO blog and the VO E-News because we’re planning more vegan store tours in other cities and we want to keep you posted!
By Lori Stultz, VO Rocky Mountain Outreach Coordinator
One of the most fun culinary hacks I’ve discovered since going vegan is all of the different ways nuts and seeds can be used. Gone are the days of simply grabbing a handful of almonds or sunflower seeds for a quick snack—even though that’s still a great way to enjoy them. I mean, just think about it. Nuts and seeds can be made into a variety of different oils, flours, butters, milks, sauces, and more!
Lucky for us nut and seed lovers, Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman put together a beautiful cookbook all about, you guessed it, nuts and seeds!
Their book is titled Vegans Go Nuts, and I highly recommend it to anyone who keeps nuts and seeds as staple food items in their kitchen. It really doesn’t matter what kind you keep on hand—I can guarantee there’ll be at least a few recipes in this book that utilize whatever kind of nut or seed you have in your pantry.
For me personally, there are two main reasons why I liked the book. First, the authors offer helpful tips, like how many hours each type of nut or seed should be soaked if a recipe calls for a soaked batch.
Second, you don’t have to be a master chef or have a bunch of extra time on your hands to use this cookbook. Sure, it would be great if you could make your own nut butter, flour, or milk every time a recipe calls for it, but let’s be real—neither you nor I want to do that.
With this book, you have the luxury of having that information, but you can also just sub out store bought ingredients and still get fantastic results!
It took me quite a while to decide what I wanted to make and share, but I finally opted for this Cheesy Almond Gravy recipe. It’s a vegan spin-off of a non-vegan dish called poutine. I opted to pour it over roasted acorn, cauliflower, and broccolini instead. The results were great, however, I highly recommend cutting the recipe in half if you won’t be sharing it with anybody else. This recipe makes A LOT of gravy!
Enjoy!
Cheesy Almond Gravy
Yields about 4-5 servings (2 ½ cups).
Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour (if you’re gluten-free, any type of all-purpose gluten-free baking flour will work)
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 cup vegetable broth
1 cup almond meal
¼ cup nutritional yeast
½ teaspoon black pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon yellow miso
Directions
Heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add in the garlic and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, until fragrant. Whisk in the flour. Continue to cook and stir until a golden paste forms, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Slowly whisk in the almond milk, vegetable broth, almond meal, nutritional yeast, and pepper. Continue to cook and stir until thickened and no lumps remain, about 5 to 7 minutes (if you prefer silky smooth gravy, blend with an immersion blender or transfer to a blender and mix until it reaches the desired consistency).
By Lori Stultz, VO Rocky Mountain Outreach Coordinator
At Vegan Outreach we are working against several forms of injustice—both directly and indirectly. The most obvious injustice we’re working to end, animals being exploited for food.
The clothing industry faces issues with many forms of injustice to both animals and humans. Animals, humans, and the environment are brutally mistreated and exploited, and it’s a problem of which many people are unaware.
We’d like to introduce you to a friend of ours who’s actively working against this type of injustice: Jean White.
Jean, a Seattle resident and vegan boutique owner, is improving the fashion industry. Jean’s boutique, Drizzle & Shine, is a unique clothing and accessory store that only carries a combination of fair trade, organic, local, USA-made, and/or recycled items—allowing customers to shop with a peace of mind.
Inspired by her dedication helping to alleviate the injustices of the fashion industry, Vegan Outreach caught up with Jean to find out more about her.
Let’s meet Jean!
Lori Stultz: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Jean White: I’m a Canadian transplant to the Pacific Northwest. I moved to Seattle from Toronto in 2000—the same year I went vegan!
Growing up in a big city like Toronto was a lot of fun. I had access to great museums, parks, and restaurants. But I was very removed from my food sources in this urban environment. Meat was just a frozen package in the grocery store.
I had the opportunity to live in a small town in Germany when I was ten years old. I’ll never forget the day I saw a pig being slaughtered! I went vegetarian right away. I didn’t even know the word for it but I stopped eating meat. My parents were very supportive. After graduating from university, I read Diet for a New America and learned about how laying hens and dairy cows are mistreated and killed for eggs, cheese, and milk. I went vegan and my family soon followed.
I was really fortunate to get connected with the Seattle vegan scene early on. I have a great group of compassionate friends and activists. I love volunteering with NARN (the Northwest Animal Rights Network).
When I’m not working or volunteering, my husband and I enjoy the Seattle music scene and the natural beauty of the area. We have three rescued cats and an old, rescued dog.
MargoScarletAliceFrankie
Lori: How old were you when you started taking an interest in fashion? Did you attend school for fashion design or business management? Or was this something that came about in a totally different way?
Jean: It’s funny, but I’ve always liked fashion. I had influences from my mom—who grew up a very stylish boho hippy in the 60s—and my grandmother—who was into more tailored, high fashion.
I found my own style early on and really just enjoyed clothing as an artistic expression. Even as a four-year-old, I picked out my own clothing and reminded my mom that, “I have my own taste, you know.”
I’ve worked in clothing stores in the past but my background isn’t fashion-related. I studied English literature in school and worked as a technical editor and writer for over 15 years.
Lori: How did you come to learn about the ethical issues of the fashion industry?
Jean: Working in technical writing was challenging and interesting, but I needed an outlet for style and fashion. That’s why I started my style blog, Jean of all Trades.
At that time, I was still buying some second-hand, non-vegan items (vintage clothing with wool or silk, for example). I figured the items existed, so why not use them and keep them out of landfills?
But the more I thought about it, the more uncomfortable I was. I didn’t want to promote animal products or send the message that one can’t be stylish without exploiting animals. So I learned about fantastic vegan lines like Vaute Couture, Cri de Coeur, Mat & Nat, and NICORA and I started incorporating them into my wardrobe.
By Jamila Alfred, VO Maryland/DC Events and Outreach Coordinator
Ever since I was a kid, I have always eaten raw cookie dough from the store-bought, pre-made cookie dough packages before my mom even had a chance to bake them!
But can you blame me? Cookie dough is notoriously delicious!
I was such a little menace nibbling on the sweet treat with no knowledge of where the ingredients truly came from.
Although the threat of salmonella in the raw eggs and the high fat and sugar content were alarming, I still couldn’t resist the taste and texture of raw chocolate chip cookie dough.
When I discovered the vegan version on Tami Torossian’s YouTube channel, I knew I had to give it a try! To my surprise, it tasted exactly like how I remember it tasting when I was a kid—just without the unnecessary and unkind extras.
It was awesome to know I could make something so simple that would satisfy my sweet tooth and love for the taste of raw cookie dough!
Now, go make it and leave comments telling me how much you love it!
3 Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Yields about 2 servings.
Ingredients
7 medium-sized medjool dates (depending on the size of the dates—you may need more)
1 cup of old fashioned oats
¼ cup of dairy-free chocolate chips (or more if desired)
Directions
Remove the pits from the dates and toss them into a high-speed blender or food processor. Pulse for about 30 seconds or until they become a chunky, thick paste.
Add the oats to the date paste and pulse until the mixture turns into individual clumps.
When the cookie dough is fully formed, sprinkle the chocolate chips into your blender. Pulse only a few times to make sure they stick to the batter.
Remove the dough from blender with a fork and eat it any way you’d like!
Recipe Variations
If you’re a fan of peanut butter, try adding 1 tablespoon (or more if you really love peanut butter).
By Katia Rodríguez, VO Mexico Campaigns and Spanish Media Coordinator
Last month, Emmanuel Márquez, Vegan Outreach’s Mexico Outreach Coordinator, and I were invited to the Gira Expo Conciencia Animal (GECA), a tour of events that promotes respect for animals, namely dogs and cats. GECA travels to various areas throughout our Mexican state, Nuevo Léon, and includes conferences, adoption opportunities, and spaying and neutering services.
It was a great occasion to do outreach because the people attending the event were already interested in helping animals. We felt that these individuals would be open to expanding their circle of compassion to farmed animals, but that they needed to be informed about the abuses that take place on factory farms.
Emmanuel and I, along with Vegan Outreach volunteers Constanza Zuñiga, Luis Zepeda, Carlos Contreras, and Ángel Ramírez set up a table at the GECA event in Monterrey, Nuevo Léon with information and tablets for Pay Per View (PPV).
Volunteers Constanza Zuñiga and Luis Zepeda
For those of you unfamiliar with PPV, it’s an effective form of outreach where people are typically paid a few dollars to view a short video that briefly describes the inhumane treatment of animals in the meat and dairy industries. Immediately following the video, viewers are prompted with a survey asking how likely they are to make changes to their diet.
Instead of paying people money at this event, we decided to give them a pack of vegan chocolate cookies instead. We wanted to debunk the myth that vegan food has no taste or is not good. Everybody loved them!
More than 150 people saw the video and over 300 received a leaflet. Most people who stopped to watch the video expressed interest in making changes to their eating habits! We engaged in some good conversations and invited everyone to visit the Spanish section of the Vegan Outreach website. We also told them about the Spanish Vegan Mentor Program, Programa Mentor Vegano.
Overall, this was a great and effective outreach event!
Vegan Outreach’s Director of Outreach, Victor Sjodin, will be presenting “Leafleting 101: The Art and Science of Personal Advocacy” at the Conference on Animal Rights in Europe (CARE). This event will be hosted in Warsaw, Poland on Friday, July 29 – Sunday, July 31, 2016.
Thank you, Victor, for taking this important message to our friends in Eastern Europe!
