The past few years, vegans have seen a huge growth in the availability and variety of non-dairy ice cream. Brands like Häagen-Dazs, Ben and Jerry’s, and Breyers now have vegan versions that occupy shelves in the frozen section of the store, fulfilling almost any flavor craving you might be having!
Get ready to scream—again—for vegan ice cream because Halo Top Creamery recently released seven coconut-based ice cream flavors.
I had the very difficult task of sampling Halo Top’s dairy-free varieties, and I will tell you that I enjoyed every single flavor! I’m a sucker for peanut butter, so naturally my immediate favorite was the Peanut Butter Cup. But if you’re a fan of caramel, you’re going to want to try the Caramel Macchiato and Sea Salt Caramel. Oh, and cinnamon lovers rejoice—they’ve got a Cinnamon Roll flavor just for you! The remaining flavors include, Chocolate Covered Banana and plain Chocolate.
Excited? Us, too! Use Halo Top’s store locator to track down these pints. Many stores are just starting to get them in, and they’ll eventually be available nationwide!
A few months ago, we featured Sunny and Elizabeth—two women who formed a close friendship after being connected through Vegan Outreach’s Vegan Mentor Program (VMP).
Today, we bring you a story of two families who, similar to Sunny and Elizabeth, became good friends after being introduced through the VMP. In this interview, we’ll meet both families, hear about their paths to veganism and the role the VMP played in bringing them together. Most importantly, we’ll see pictures and get the tasty details about their Thanksgiving holiday, which they celebrated together in sunny Florida!
Tell us about yourselves and your families.
Natalie Mindrum: My name is Natalie Mindrum. I work in the airline industry overseeing a real estate portfolio that includes the New York City region. My husband, Adam, is a fellow vegan, and we have two vegan kids, ages 7 and 5, and two vegan rescued canine companions, Leyla, a beagle-mix, and Stuart, a Rhodesian Ridgeback/Pitbull mix.
Kristine Casart: My name is Kristine Casart, and I’m a full-time mom of three vegan kids, ages 9, 6, and 2. My husband, Tim, and I also take care of our vegan beagles Leif and Lars. I’m also very excited about this project that I just started called Mom Vegan Love. So far I have a Facebook page and Instagram. I try to show people how fun it is to be vegan.
What were your respective vegan journeys like?
Natalie: I became vegan back in 2007. I read a book by E.O. Wilson called The Diversity of Life, which got me thinking about how similar humans are to the animals on our plates. Then I saw Earthlings and the rest was history. My boyfriend, now husband, was a bit resistant in the beginning, but now he’s been vegan for nearly a decade, too—for the animals. I decided to become a mentor for Vegan Outreach’s VMP because I wanted to meet fellow vegans and I was interested in helping people who were trying to go vegan.
Being matched with Kristine and her family, who lived just a few minutes away from us, was more than what I could have hoped for from the program! It’s led to what I hope will be a life-long friendship!
Kristine: I first watched Forks Over Knives about four years ago and wanted to go vegan overnight for health reasons. My husband was not quite ready at the time, and we started by transitioning to a vegetarian diet. About 2 ½ years ago we watched Earthlings together. We completely made the connection and went vegan for the animals that day.
I absolutely love us as vegans! Getting rid of asthma, allergies, low immune systems, and stomach issues has led us to enjoy life to the fullest. Opening our hearts to live according to our core values and letting love and compassion be our guide is just amazing. Our only regret is not having gone vegan sooner.
We do feel like the odd couple on the block sometimes though, ha ha. After a trip to California 1 ½ years ago, where vegan felt so much like the norm, I felt the need to find like-minded people closer to home. Meeting Natalie and her amazing vegan family has been just what we needed. We definitely feel like this is the beginning of a life-long friendship, and we’re so grateful to Vegan Outreach for setting us up.
Natalie (left) and Kristine (right)
Kristine, you just moved from Illinois—where you and Natalie met—to Florida. Have you two been able to spend time together since relocating?
Kristine: Yes! We all celebrated Thanksgiving together last year back in Illinois. Natalie and her family cooked an absolutely amazing meal for all of us, which I still dream about. We were thrilled when they could come down to Florida this year so we could return the favor. We had so much fun!
Give us the scoop on your Thanksgiving!
Natalie: Tim and Kristine are amazing cooks! I’m always telling them that they need to open a restaurant. We felt so excited to get to hang out with them in sunny Florida and eat their incredible food. I’m still thinking about the carrot lox and blueberry cheezecake.
Kristine: We had so much fun during their stay. Feels like a dream, truly something to be thankful for!
If you could offer one piece of advice to an aspiring or new vegan, what would it be?
Natalie: Remember that veganism isn’t about your own personal purity—it’s about reducing animal suffering. In the beginning, just do your best and don’t beat yourself up if you make a mistake. Remember to be compassionate to your fellow humans too, including yourself!
Kristine: Make the connection to where your food comes from—watch documentaries. Finding out that plants have plenty of protein and the health benefits of a plant-based diet made it possible for me to finally pull down the veil and make more compassionate choices.
Just take it one meal at a time and have fun! We love Pinterest for recipes—just type in whatever you’d like to eat and add the word Vegan. There are so many delicious options at your fingertips. Sign up for a mentor through Vegan Outreach, the support and companionship is amazing.
The author of the recipe, Kacy Franzen, is a dedicated animal activist, certified health coach, and lover of food. If you’re a fan of this recipe, check her website and Instagram.
Isn’t holiday baking great? Unless you’re lazy. Then you know what’s better than holiday baking? Not baking!
For example, melting a couple of ingredients together and turning them into chocolate truffles with a festive candy cane coating—easy as that! So turn on some Christmas music, pour yourself a little vegan nog, and whip up these delightful little treats that your friends and family are going to love!
Candy Cane Truffles
Yields 12-16 truffles.
Ingredients
10 Peppermint Candy Canes
1 ½ Cups vegan chocolate chips
½ cup coconut cream
½ teaspoon peppermint extract
Directions
Place the vegan chocolate chips in a mixing bowl and set aside. In a small saucepan, heat the coconut cream over medium heat for a few minutes until it begins to simmer. Pour the hot coconut cream over the chocolate chips and cover. Let the mixture sit for five minutes.
Add the peppermint extract and gently mix everything together until melted and well combined. Refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.
While the chocolate is chilling, place the candy canes in a plastic bag. Use something heavy to smash them into little pieces (I used a rolling pin). You can also crush them up in a food processor.
When the chocolate is chilled and firm, use a teaspoon to scoop out chocolate and form into little balls. Then roll the balls in the crushed candy canes to coat.
Place the truffles on parchment paper and put them into the refrigerator to chill until you’re ready to share—or enjoy all to yourself!
Nothing will impress your holiday guests more than an entirely vegan cheese platter! Tune in to watch Kim Sujovolsky, founder of Brownble, demonstrate how to make a spreadable, creamy, cashew and chive cheese and that will make for a perfect holiday-themed platter!
Festive Cheese Platter
Yields 2 round cheeses.
Ingredients
Cheese Base
1 ½ cups raw cashews, soaked in water for 4 hours or overnight
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¾ teaspoon salt
1 ½ tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons, plus 2 teaspoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons chopped chives
1 ½ teaspoons agar agar powder, diluted in a bit of cold water
1 tablespoon water—use only if needed to help your blender run. The less you use the better
Cheese Decorations
Chopped chives
Smashed pretzels
Whole pretzels—for adding on top of the cheese
Crushed pink peppercorns
Platter Additions
Fresh fruit—strawberries, raspberries, figs, grapes, etc.
Olives
Extra pretzels
Toast points
Dried fruit—apricots, dates, dried figs, etc.
Directions
Drain the cashews from the soaking water and add them to a blender. If you didn’t soak the cashews ahead of time, place in a pot of boiling water for about ten minutes and drain.
Add the garlic powder, salt, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and coconut oil. Blend together, scraping down the sides as needed until you have a thick cream. Depending on your blender, you may need to add a tablespoon of water to help it run.
Transfer the creamy mixture to a small pot and fold in the chopped chives.
Add the agar agar—diluted in a bit of cold water—to the pot and mix.
Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly. Let it cool slightly while you place some plastic wrap over two flat ramekins or small containers.
Divide the cheese mixture between the two ramekins, placing the mixture on top of the plastic wrap. Press it down well into the ramekin with a spatula since this will be your mold. Wrap the top with the plastic wrap.
Place the cheeses in the fridge for anywhere between 4 hours to 24 hours, depending on how firm you like it. It will still be a creamy cheese, but the more you leave it the more sliceable it will be. You can also increase the agar agar if you want an even firmer cheese.
Right before serving your cheeses, carefully remove them from the molds by pulling a bit on the plastic wrap, and then remove the plastic.
Place the extra chopped chives on a plate and carefully place the cheese over them so that they stick to the top. Turn it over and place it on your platter. Repeat the process with the second one, only this time using the crushed pretzels and smashed pink peppercorns.
Stick some whole pretzels on top of the pretzel-peppercorn topped cheese for a beautiful and festive look.
Add any additions you’d like to your cheese plate—from fresh fruit to different breads and toast, dried fruit, olives, etc.
Last month, Vegan Outreach’s Community Events team organized some amazing events—cooking demos, dairy-free food samplings, iAnimal virtual reality viewings, presentations, and discussions. Read on for all the exciting details!
Victor Flores, VO’s Greater New Mexico Community Events Coordinator, organized an event at the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range military base, located in the Tularosa Basin of south-central NM. During Victor’s presentation, the soldiers, staff, and a few children watched the video, Draw My Life: A Cow in Today’s Dairy Industry, which was followed by a Q & A session. “We had interesting conversations and the audience was very engaged!” said Victor.
Everyone enjoyed samples of dairy-free products from companies including Daiya Foods, Miyoko’s Kitchen, Follow Your Heart, and several more! Victor and the awesome volunteers will definitely be back soon!
Roopashree Rao, VO’s Indian American Community Events Coordinator, and volunteers, took part in the 2017 Dallas Diwali Mela festival, which celebrates the Hindu Festival of Lights. This is one of the largest Hindu festivals in the U.S., drawing over 60,000 people, most of whom are Indian Americans.
Roopashree handed out VO booklets, food samples, and participated in many conversations about a compassionate lifestyle. Commenting on the event, Roopashree said, “It was BIG, and I just wish I had had even more volunteers!”
VO’s Greater NYC Community Events Coordinator, Nzinga Young, teamed up with Chef Naliaka Wakhisi, founder of NYC Vegans of Color Meetup group, and organized several hands-on cooking classes at the Brownsville Recreation Center in Brooklyn, NY. Several elementary and middle school students attended.
Nzinga stated, “The curried kale and chickpea tacos were a huge hit among students and staff alike. Kids who were wary about cooking kale were eating it raw midway through class.” Nzinga plans to continue her cooking classes at the Brownsville Recreation Center after the holiday break.
Gwenna Hunter, VO’s Greater Los Angeles Community Events Coordinator, teamed up with VO’s Director of Outreach, Vic Sjodin, inviting pedestrians at Venice Beach to take a peek into the lives of factory farm animals via iAnimal virtual reality.
Gwenna re-told a particularly moving interaction from this day of outreach—“It was so powerful. One of our viewers, Corey (pictured below, middle), was initially laughing. I could see his demeanor and energy shifting after a couple of minutes into the experience. After he was done, Corey explained how he had no awareness of the cruelty these animals had to endure.”
The Community Events team certainly had a jam-packed outreach schedule in November, and the team is looking forward to December as we hit the ground running with more outreach opportunities!
As the Outreach Coordinators’ leafleting tours come to an end, we’d like to acknowledge this semester’s most prolific leafleters of Vegan Outreach’s Adopt a College Program.
We’ve asked each of the top leafleters to share their favorite memory from this past semester—their stories will surely leave you feeling inspired!
“The memory that really sticks out for me this semester was leafleting Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, NY. Not only was everyone incredibly friendly, but they were so interested in learning more about speciesism and veganism in general.
I had several engaging and unforgettable conversations with students, including one student I’m still in contact with today. I’ve given him a ton of resources, social media pages to follow, recipes, etc. He’s working on his full transition to vegan living!”
Alexis leafleted at 63 schools this semester and distributed 41,685 leaflets.
Jevranne Martel, Outreach Coordinator
“One memory that stands out was an interaction I recently had on Prince Edward Island. When I arrived in Charlottetown, I headed downtown to do outreach. I handed information to two younger gentlemen who quickly turned around to ask for more information. They were really excited to see activism happening on the island because they’d been learning more about these issues.
One of them not only wanted to go fully vegan but also wanted to get more involved and do activism. We had a wonderful, detailed conversation. I’m certain he will be an amazing activist for the animals!”
Jevranne leafleted at 58 schools this semester and distributed 32,695 leaflets.
Rachel Shippee, Outreach Coordinator
“My favorite memory is from the first day of the semester when I leafleted at the University of Iowa. I met a student, Breanna, who stopped to let me know she went vegan after receiving a Vegan Outreach booklet last year. We also had a great team of volunteers that day and handed out over 4,000 leaflets! It was a great start to the semester.”
Rachel leafleted at 33 schools this semester and distributed 39,499 leaflets.
Sam Tucker, Australia Outreach Coordinator
“My favorite day of outreach this semester was at Victoria University, in Melbourne, Australia. Vegan Outreach, Animal Activist Collective, and Truth Riders all worked together to support the launch of the Victoria University Vegans club.
We handed out 1,100 leaflets and about 30 people watched Animal Equality’s iAnimal Virtual Reality. We showed videos on TV screens, wrote chalk messages, plastered the campus with posters, fed countless students delicious vegan food, had in-depth conversations about reducing consumption of animal foods, and nearly 100 people signed up to join the new vegan club on campus!”
Sam leafleted at 34 schools this semester and distributed 55,723 leaflets.
A huge congratulations to these Outreach Coordinators and those highlighted in Part I.
And a big thank you to all of Vegan Outreach’s supporters—who directly fuel our work—Outreach Coordinators, and volunteers! Because of you, many animals will be spared a life of suffering.
Donate in honor of a leafleter today to keep their work going.
If you were a kid in the late 90s and early 2000s—or a parent to young children during this time period—you probably remember when Yoplait’s Go-Gurt made its way into grocery stores and quickly became all the craze and hype. As a kid who didn’t know what goes on in the dairy industry, I thought tubed yogurt was pretty darn cool. It required no utensils, and it gave kids a perfectly valid excuse to slurp their food.
I admittedly ate this kid-marketed snack all the way through high school. And even as a five-year vegan, I still feel a sense of nostalgia whenever I see tubed yogurt. Not nostalgic for the taste, but for the memories of childhood it brings to mind.
I didn’t anticipate eating a tubed yogurt again simply because there wasn’t a vegan version. But last week, as I was scanning the non-dairy yogurt section at a nearby natural food store, I laid eyes on one of Kite Hill’s newest products, Almond Milk Yogurt Tubes. Yes, you read that right. Vegan tubed yogurt.
After picking up the remaining items on my list, I gleefully drove myself home, marched my adult self up to my apartment, and enjoyed a delicious Wild Berry yogurt tube. The yogurt was deliciously creamy, but not-too-sweet. I finished with a smile and a slurp, of course.
If you want to join me in the happiness of eating vegan tubed yogurt, head on over to Kite Hill’s website to see where you can buy a box. And while you’re there, check out the other new products Kite Hill has recently released, including Greek-Style and drinkable yogurts.
A few weeks ago, I received an email from D’s Naturals, makers of the delicious No Cow Bar and Fluffbutter. I didn’t even have to read the entire email asking if I’d like to review the products before a wave of nostalgia rushed over me.
In the fall of 2015 and spring of 2016, I toured a good portion of the country for Vegan Outreach as an Outreach Coordinator—leafleting dozens of college campuses. And during those wonderful eight or nine months, I frequently had a box of No Cow Bars in my car. They were the perfect pick-me-up snack as I was doing outreach or driving from one city to the next.
At the time, D’s Naturals only offered a few bar flavors—Mint Cacao Chip was my fav—so I was surprised to see that they now offer eight No Cow Bar flavors in addition to an entirely new product, Fluffbutter. D’s Naturals kindly offered to send me samples of their products, so I had the opportunity to try their new Dark Raspberry Chocolate and Chocolate Banana Bread bars. I also tried the Brownie Batter Almond Fluffbutter.
The bars were as good as I remembered, but the star of the show was definitely the Fluffbutter. I used my Brownie Batter Fluffbutter on toast topped with sliced bananas, and I also drizzled a few tablespoons over my morning smoothie bowl. The most unique way I used the Fluffbutter, though, was swapping out peanut butter for Brownie Batter Fluffbutter when I made a delicious batch of Puppy Chow (a.k.a Muddy Buddies)*.
Don’t wait to get yourself a jar—or two or three—of every flavor of Fluffbutter. I also highly recommend you get yourself a few different kinds of No Cow Bars! All bars and Fluffbutters are vegan, offer a great source of fiber, and are jam packed with protein—20g per bar and 11g per serving of Fluffbutter.
Visit D’s Naturals website to try their products! And after you received your jars of Fluffbutter, give the following recipe a try!
*Despite what the name suggests, Puppy Chow is a treat only to be enjoyed by humans—dogs should not eat chocolate. This is why I’ve re-named the recipe.
Brownie Batter Not For Puppies Chow
Yields 6 servings.
Ingredients
6 cups Chex cereal—rice or corn
½ cup powdered sugar
1 cup dairy-free chocolate chips
½ cup D’s Naturals Brownie Batter Almond Butter
1 cup shredded coconut
⅔ cups mixed nuts, optional
Directions
Add the cereal to a large bowl and set aside.
Measure powdered sugar into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag and set aside.
In a small saucepan, melt almond butter and ½ cup chocolate chips over low heat.
Pour melted chocolate mixture over cereal and stir with a large spoon until evenly coated.
Place chocolate covered cereal in Ziploc bag, close tightly, and shake bag until cereal is evenly coated with powdered sugar.
Spread cereal on wax paper and let cool for one hour.
Place the cooled cereal back in the bag and add coconut, remaining chocolate chips, and nuts (if using). Close bag tightly and shake. Enjoy!
During the holiday season, there’s never a shortage of events where delicious holiday-themed cookies take front and center stage. Like that upcoming holiday cookie exchange, or annual office Christmas party.
Or maybe there’s no occasion and you just want a few—ahem, or a couple dozen—delicious holiday cookies at home to enjoy all by yourself! Whatever your holiday cookie needs may be, we’ve got some tasty recommendations for you!
Move over commercially-made, bagged Ginger Snaps. Here’s a pumpkiny, soft version that’s sure to win out any ginger snap-lover’s taste buds! Try Vegan Richa’sSoft Pumpkin Ginger Snaps.
Salty Sweet Toffee Cookies with Dark Chocolate Glaze and Candied Pecans
Attention vegan parents! In just a few short days, you’ll have access to a great new resource on vegan parenting—a free digital magazine!
This project was initiated by our friends behind the website Raise Vegan and will cover everything from planning for children, conception, how to handle skeptical family members, delicious recipes, and printable charts with nutritional information.
The first issue of the Raise Vegan magazine is set to release on December 15 and will be published in Spanish and English. By the end of 2018, the magazine will be in multiple languages.
