I have a super sweet tooth, but these days savoury meals are the ones that I want most! I’d love a bowl of this Carrot and Cauliflower Mac and Cheese made by A Cook in the Making.
And I love the look of this Vegan Beef Curry with Papaya, made by Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen.
This side dish of Roast Rutabaga Salad over at Body by Plants looks almost too good to eat!
And finally Busy Veggie Mama shares this delicious-looking Ethiopian platter
CONTEST CLOSED
With all the taco cleansing and ice cream eating I’ve been doing these last few weeks of Veganmofo, smoothies are about the only way I’ve been getting my RDA of nutrients. Adding Navitas Natural superfoods to my smoothies makes me feel like a super smurf. According to their website, their mission is to “bring energizing superfoods to North America to invigorate the modern ‘Western’ diet. Our organic superfoods come from ancient cultures around the world where they are traditionally used for both nutritional and medicinal purposes. Health-conscious people choose our nutrient-dense superfoods because they are an abundant whole-food source of antioxidants, protein, essential fats, vitamins, minerals and other key nutrients.” They also add a lot of extra flavor. I recently acquired Kathy Patalsky’s lovely 365 Vegan Smoothies and I’ve learned lots of different ways to add these to my smoothies. My favorite is the Cacao powder, it adds so much more chocolatey flavor than the nibs.
The hemp seeds and the chia seeds are both excellent for adding some omega-3 fatty acids into my body and goji berries are full of all kinds of magic. And they are delicious. Navitas has tons of different options too, from camu powder, to dragon fruit, and wheat grass you are sure to find something to wake up your smoothie.
Navitas has agreed to send one prize package (of all of the above) to a veganmofoer with an address in the US or Canada. TO ENTER: All you have to do is comment below with a link to a smoothie you have blogged about or that another veganmofoer has blogged about and tell me the name of it too. Please also add a valid email to the comment form that I can actually contact you with.
Good Luck!
I do love a good cookie.
Amy from Vegan Eats and Treats has my favourite chocolate chip cookie up with a story to boot. The secret is in the extra vanilla.
Cupcake Kitteh made the fabulous black and white cookie. Like a little bit of NYC on Sunday.
Brown sugar and apple butter sandwich cookies? I am on my way over to Too Cheap For Pinenuts for a snack.
Cookies that are a food stuffed into another food? Seitan Is My Motor has got it going on.
And last but not least a chocolate walnut cookie from Wing It Vegan. Check out her post to find the grumpy hummingbird.
It may seem weird, but for me, mac and cheese is my quintessential vegan food. I’d never eaten it before I went vegan, and living in my opposite-side-of-the-planet bubble, I had no idea of its popularity in North America. But from having a look at my Pinterest or the scraps of printed-out recipe pages floating around my kitchen, you’d think I eat nothing else these days. What can I say- we vegans are just a creative bunch, and I can’t get enough of the different ways to make and eat this staple food.
Isa‘s BLT mac and cheese recipe was one of the first things I saw while checking Facebook on my phone in bed this morning, and part of me wanted to leap right up and get cooking. Eggplant bacon is a breakfast food, right?
Jackie over at Vegan Yack Attack has been cooking up a cheesy storm all month with her all mac, all the time theme. It’s tough to pick a favourite post, but I can’t say no to the glorious love child of two of my favourite foods, in her Mexican mac burrito.
Jojo has taken on the very important job of testing new mac and cheese recipes to find a favourite, as part of her Mac ‘n Cheese Mondays at Vegan in Brighton. This mac and shews reminded me that I need to make this one again immediately.
Elisa at Guy Gone Vegan is also tackling a month-long mac feast theme, and while I’ve loved every post, I actually let out an excited ‘WHAT?!’ when I saw these mac and cheese-stuffed jalapeno poppers.
Lastly, I was super happy to see one of my favourite themes this MoFo taking on one of my favourite foods. Laughfrodisiac has been veganising food from Friends (and yes, you’d better believe she made the not-so-traditional English trifle), and this time she played it a little safer with Chandler’s righteous mac and cheese. The perfect Thanksgiving food!
I know what I want for dinner tonight… now to narrow it down to one recipe.
I’d like to interrupt the regular string of vegan-tastic roundups and giveaways with some special news: this is PRACTICALLY the RSS Feed you’ve been waiting for.
Here’s the thing.
We hear ya.
We wish there was a way to publicize an RSS feed bundle like the good old days of Google Reader (which retired over the summer), but apparently that breaks the internet or something (I’m guessing) and unless anyone out there has stumbled upon another form of this we haven’t yet — and trust me, we’ve all been looking here at VeganMoFo central — there are three primary ways we suggest perusing the epic, VeganMoFo VII blogs:
1) Check the Blogrolls
Go ahead and peruse the breakdowns and categories, bookmark the ones that catch your eye and follow your favorites (whether it’s via blogger, wordpress, or whatever reader service you’re using), etc.
Here’s the gigantic list of everybody who signed up by the deadline.
2) RandoMoFo.com!
This is the random, super appreciated VeganMoFo blog generator cleverly developed by the Tates, the fine folks behind Food for Lovers. Digging what pops up? Again, bookmark, follow, and add it to your own reader or favorites folder.
3) Dum dum dum…Download the brand new OPML file.
Here’s the link. It should open in Google Drive (where we have it stored), which you can then download to your computer.
Really, this is easier than it sounds:
Here’s the thing: If you happen to notice a non-vegan post in the bunch or don’t like one for whatever reason, you now have the power to delete it from your feeds. You know, as if something like that would ever happen. In the past, your friendly VeganMoFo volunteer organizers did this with the official Google Bundle, but once you download this file, it’s in yours hands. The same goes if you see a blog missing — you are more than welcome and encouraged to add it to your own reader!
So, that’s that.
Please thank VeganMoFo volunteer Mary for her amazing, hard work on devouring spreadsheets and bringing that file to the masses!
GIVEAWAY CLOSED
My favorite product to come out in this last year isn’t some cheese or meat replacement and it’s definitely not an über healthy raw concoction. No my friends, the Earth Balance Puffs have quickly climbed to the top of my snacking desires.
The aged white cheddar is shockingly realistic and the puffy crunchy texture is snack food at it’s finest. And they are even gluten free! I have long been a fan of Earth Balance products, their vegan buttery spread is a staple at our house for everything from homemade hashbrowns to cinnamon raisin bagels and the sticks are so helpful for Christmas cookie baking sessions. Lately they have been coming our with tons of amazing new products like coconut spreads, mayo-like dressings, and a range of soy milks.
TO ENTER If you would like to try one of the new products, or want to stock up on one of your old favorites they are sponsoring a giveaway today for 5 VIP coupons that will get you any of their products for FREE. All you have to do is comment below with a link to a new blog that you have discovered during this veganmofo. I will randomly pick a winner at 11 AM CST September 13. Please make sure you leave an email too, in the commenting form that I can actually contact you with and have either a US or Canadian address that Earth Balance can send the coupons to.
Good luck!
I’ve gotta say that I love a good vegan sub, whether it’s mock meat, faux cheese or The Vegg, I’m in. I personally didn’t give up animal products because I didn’t enjoy them so for me being able to chow down on realistic subs for my old fave’s is great, great for my stomach and great for the animals.
Whilst browsing around the MoFo blogroll this evening I came across so many bloggers either using or creating their own meat, egg and cheese subs that it just had to be my round up theme.
Jes from Your Mom’s A Vegan made this delicious looking Buffet “Chicken” Salad using Soy Curls.
Abby Bean from A (Soy) Bean kept it simple with one of my fave’ meat subs, Field Roast Frankfurters, which she paired with baked beans and wedges.
For extra bonus points Abby Bean’s adorbz doggie 89 also makes an appearance! Squeee!
The peeps behind fuckyeahveganpizza posted this mock meat covered awesomeness earlier today and now all I can think about is visiting this all vegan pizzeria in Garden Grove, CA!
Whilst I love store bought mock meats I also adore homemade and today Sal from Alien on Toast has got these on lockdown. She made an amazing looking chicken style seitan roast to go with her roast dinner and now I’m tempted to get my vital wheat gluten out and start whipping up some seitan of my own. At 1:30am!
Continuing down the homemade route Sammy from An Ode to Mungbeans took on the challenge of veganising egg on toast. Using both tofu and The Vegg this creation looks out of this world delicious.
Finally we come to the most inventive of dish in this evening’s faking it game; Luminous Vegans veganised crab strudel made with shiitake mushrooms and cashew cheese. I have nothing to say but wow!
That’s all from me folks, it’s time to hit the hay! Happy MoFoing.
I think my favorite vegan blog posts are the ones about travel because I have a serious case of wanderlust and they are always really helpful when planning a trip. One of the best vegan travel blogs out there is Vegan Miam who always has the most stunning pics of locations and food. The last few posts have made me really want to go to Spain with her!
Of course I love recipes too, especially ones with exhaustive guides for things like jalapeno poppers. I am kind of obsessed with poppers but I’ve never tried to make them. After reading The Illustrated Guide to Vegan Delight I’m sure I could tackle them. There is even a warning illustration for what happens when you don’t have the seams facing up.
I love all kinds of pepper so I was excited to see another post today all about Hatch Peppers from Kim Cooks Veg 4U. They froze 80 bags of Hatch chilies so I can’t wait to read about all the different ways they are going to use them!
I also love to learn about cuisines that I don’t know anything about. Madeline.teacup has been focusing on pre-columbian recipes and her picture today for Inca chilcano de pirana looks just beautiful. I love that she used Kittee‘s chichpea fish from Papa Tofu Love Ethiopian for the pirana!
There are so many fabulous simple recipes on the internet too, that I never would have thought of myself, like single serve brownies, and obviously, the vegan ones make me the happiest. I also love the combination chocolate and peanut butter so this recipe for Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars from an unrefined vegan definitely caught my eye.
But, I have to admit that my most favorite favorite part of vegan blogs and especially veganmofo is the amount of nerdy-ness and geeky-ness that goes down. As a die hard Star Trek fan I was pretty stoked to see Earl Grey Truffles from Saving the World One Bite at a Time especially since there was a diatribe about chocolate from Deanna Troi AND a video clip of the one and only Captain Picard. You all are the best!
Happy Mo-fo!
We have our winners, drumroll please! Congratulations Jenny and megs, we’ll be in touch soon.
Today we have a pretty special worldwide giveaway for you guys. The Ms Cupcake Cookbook has been out in the UK since early this year but it was only released in the US last week. We have two copies to give away so get excited because this beautiful vintage-style cookbook has serious substance.
I’m lucky enough to live just over an hour by train from the Ms Cupcake store in Brixton, South London and I actually started visiting way before the shop opened when Mellissa sold her baked goods from a stall at Greenwich Market. I became a frequent visitor over the years, always hunting down Ms C at vegan fairs and festivals across the country. On a few occasions I even worked for them behind the stall!
I was SO excited when I heard that there was going to be a Ms Cupcake cookbook and I was even more excited when I saw the previews with my own eyes. The woman behind the sweet treats is Canadian born Mellissa Morgan who started her bakery from home after spotting a cupcake shaped gap in the UK market.
The book itself is beautiful, hard-backed and filled with stunning pictures of the staff and shop as well as the bakes themselves. The cookbook gives you a real sense of the bakery itself which I love.
The very first thing I made when I got my hands on a copy of the book were these Jaffa Cakes. If you aren’t British you may not have heard of these traditional biccies (or, in fact, the word biccie!) which are technically classified as a cake but nobody really thinks of them like that.
The recipe turned out wonderfully and whilst I’d intended to give half of the batch away to a friend I ended up scoffing the lot myself. After this success I immediately fired up the oven again and got cracking on the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I buy these cookies from the Ms Cupcake store and they’re one of my favourite treats so I had high hopes. My husband often jokes that Mellissa should be called Ms Cookie because they’re that good and the recipe certainly wasn’t a disappointment. These are just like the kind from the store!
I’ll stop making y’all jealous with my tales of fantastic baked goods now and get on with telling you how you can win a copy all of your very own. All I need you to do is find a Vegan MoFo blogger who has posted about cake this month. Any cakes will do, cup cakes, layer cakes, raw cakes, gluten free cakes, as long as it’s from a participating blog it’s in so leave a link to the cake filled blog post in your comment.
To enter you just need to leave a comment below with your answer by 11pm BST tomorrow. Please make sure to include a valid e-mail address so that we can get in contact with you if you win. The two winners will be randomly selected and announced after the giveaway has ended. This competition is open worldwide.
So many of us spend the month of MoFo in our kitchens working away at our complex and wonderful themes but these posts reminded me that we all need take a day, or even just an afternoon, off now and then. These bloggers have been showing us the wonderful food they’ve been eating outside their kitchens.
Ashley from A.Cook In The Making is blogging about orange food this week and she started off with this beautiful Acorn Squash Curry with Tofu from Lanna Thai Diner in Massachusetts.
Renée from Veganza spent a wonderful long weekend hanging out with friends and they ate a tonne of delicious looking food from Kuan Yin Teahouse. I am particularly enamoured by the faux fish bento on the top left.
Linda over at The Lentil Institution picked up these wonderful looking desserts from Mister Nice Guy’s in Melbourne. The Chocolate Babka is making me wanna hop on a plane to Australia!
Abby Bean from A (soy) Bean made me super jealous today by posting about somewhere I have been dying to visit for a really long time, NYC’s Cinnamon Snail Food Truck. This sandwich looks right up my street and I definitely wont be missing them next time I end up in NYC.
In England dropscone picked up a delicious juice from her local market, I’m glad it’s still summery enough for this where she is because it’s pretty Autumnal down here already.
Caroline from Tea & Sympatico is focussing on Manchester’s Northern Quarter this MoFo and today she blogged about a falafel wrap from new vegan chain, Go Falafel. Sometimes the classics are the best right?
April’s blog, The Travelling Austin Vegan, has been taken over by hedgehogs this month! Whoa! Today they told us all about the great pizza they picked up from Mamma’s Pizza in Toronto.
Last but by no means least the awesome peeps at Rabbit Food Grocery in Austin have been taking part in the taco cleanse and today they posted this brilliance from their friends at Sweet Ritual, Choco Dessert Tacos. Mind. Officially. Blown.
