VeganMoFo

And our soon to be much more stylish winners are:

Benjamin, “This southern boy misses his biscuits and gravy, so the Italian style sounds perfect to me!”
Ricky Blue, “I live in Chicago so I get the wraps for lunch at one of the Lakeview Whole Foods locations at least once a week. I love those wraps. I wish they had them everywhere.”
Candace, with this epic tale, “::Setting the scene:: I was broke, I was young and a new vegetarian. What a set up for disaster. I wasn’t eating properly and didn’t know how to get a balanced meal with the foods I was supplied with. I started trying every meat substitute known to man in order to try and curve my cravings for something substantial…morningstar this.. gardein that… With many successes and failures I started getting staple ingredients to begin creating a normal eating routine and getting the adequate nutritions a vegetarian needs. I was out shopping getting my normal fresh produce, already being stocked up on frozen meat substitutes, when this little 1920’s man with a lovely mustache was staring at me. “No Candace, you don’t need anymore food,” I told myself. “But..look at that packaging..is it recycled material?” My can’t-stop-won’t-stop-$11.71-account-balance self counteracted. The yellow label of the ground-beef style seitan accenting the delicious contents inside were inviting. As I stood in the aisle handling the package reading all the labels, all the ingredients, I saw my hand slowly lowering into my tiny basket filled with greens. The rest is history…”

I will email you all right now!

Upton’s Naturals has two things that make it a unique and awesome vegan company:

1. They have the coolest packaging/gimmick. Who doesn’t love mustaches?

2. They make pre-packaged seitan that is DELICIOUS.

The first time my husband spotted Upton’s in the health food store, he stopped and got really excited about seitan chorizo (and mustache packaging). Now, if you’ve tried pre-packaged seitan before you can understand why my response was, “Ugh, I can MAKE that.” Brian’s reply was narrow eyes and package clutching until I agreed that he could try it. It was love at first bite! Not only is the chorizo really good, but I quickly realized that we had finally found a replacement for Morningstar crumbles (no longer vegan) for taco nights. Now, if we don’t have some kind of Upton’s in the fridge, Brian gets cranky. We also really like the italian style for biscuits and gravy.

Not only is Upton’s tasty, but they don’t use a ton of weird ingredients, it’s just straight up seitan with spices, like you would make at home. But conveniently flavored and ground for you!

Upton’s doesn’t have free product coupons yet, so they offered to clothe three vegans with their awesome t-shirts, featuring the Upton’s logo! They are unisex Gildan shirts, sizing chart here. You pick the size so don’t worry about getting stuck with a shirt that is 18 sizes too big or small!

To enter to win, comment here and tell us which Upton’s product you like to use and for what, if you haven’t tried their products tell us what you would if you could. US only, I will pick three random winners on Friday morning.

Our winner is Megan, who says, “A dab does the job on my Ezekiel bread!”

When I first made the transition from vegetarian to vegan, I did so with enthusiasm and excitement. I was already eating soy yogurt and drinking non-dairy milk, I had learned about vegan baking…and then I tried an not-to-be-named margarine that happened to be vegan, and I kind of halted, because it was not good. Now, i’m no Paula Deen with a stick of butter in every dish, but I like a little pat of it on my toast, in my oatmeal, with potatoes…it is definitely my fat of choice. For the first time, I was concerned that I was really giving something up.

Thankfully, I quickly learned about Earth Balance margarine! I believe my initial reaction to trying it was something like, ‘ohthankgod’. I had a delicious, buttery spread to carry me forward into my new lifestyle. And their line is always expanding! Not only do they have the buttery spreads and sticks, but they now have vegan mayo, soymilk, and nut butters. And of course, everyone has at least seen the pictures of everyone enjoying the new coconut spread at Vida Vegan Con, which is delicious on anything you would normally put butter on (try it on cornbread).

Today, Earth Balance is offering one lucky winner a bamboo cutting board and a year’s supply of Earth Balance (12 free product coupons)! Just comment here, telling me your favorite food/recipe to use Earth Balance with, be it a baked good or just on bread. This one is open to US and Canada, a winner will be randomly chosen tonight at 11 pm CST.

Here are our winners! Thank you to everyone for the pictures, whether you pulled them off of the internet, they are yours, or your foster pets. I spent a good chunk of my night/morning laughing and gushing. As usual, i’m glad I use a random number generator to pick people because if I had to pick the best picture, I would be here all day deciding!

Stacey wins Rabbit Food for sharing her diabetic cats, Pekoe and Larry with us.
Amanda wins Caribbean Vegan with this baby hedgehog in a coffee cup.

I will email you shortly!

I don’t know about you, but I am a cookbook hoarder collector. Which is funny, because i’m not much for meal planning or recipe following. So for me, cookbooks are a thing to read and look at, and since there are so many vegan cookbooks out these days, I kind of have high standards. I will pretty much never buy a book without photos (except zines/DIY books), and I prefer that they have a special angle to them. Like, I know how to make a bean burrito already.

Which is why i’m so glad that today we are giving away two beautiful books that are sure to be a great addition to anyone’s collection!

First up, we have Vegan Caribbean by Taymer Mason (giveaway courtesy of The Experiment). This book is full of beautiful photographs, authentic Caribbean cuisine (Taymer is from Barbados), and I can guarantee you will learn about new flavors and dishes with this book. Here are samples of some of the recipes that await you: Curried Potato Salad, West Indian Pumpkin Fritters, and something really exciting, Holiday Ham!

The second book is Rabbit Food by Beth A. Barnett. This book is spiral bound, full of neat info like how to make your own grocery bag and some food history, and a ton of adorable illustrations. Beth used to put out the book all by herself, but has recently passed production onto Sasquatch Publishing (who are sponsoring the giveaway), this brand spankin’ new edition has new recipes and updated resources, but is just as cute as before! Beth has up lots of pictures and some sample recipes here, you really need to check out the pictures to see how much effort she put into it. Also, check out her etsy shop for more handmade paper items.

Since these books are from separate publishers, Vegan Caribbean is US only, while Rabbit Food is open to US and Canada. To win, please state which book you would like, and then link me to picture of a cute animal, because I am running out of creative questions to ask you guys and I like cute animals. I will pick a winner tomorrow morning around 9 am CST.

Winners!
Kelly, “Artichoke hearts, garlic, pesto, green olives, kalamata olives, mozzarella Daiya, sundried tomatoes, Upton’s Italian seitan, roasted red peppers, green peppers, and basil.”
Amy, “Sundried tomatoes, gardein chickn scallopini, olives, red onions and fresh basil with a roasted garlic sauce. Now I’m hungry…”
Ellen, “Kalamata olives, bella mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, and mozzarella Daiya cheese! YUM!”
Megan, “Artichoke, onions, mushrooms, and kalamata olives. So good!”

I use a random number generator to choose winners for fairness, but I think olives are gross, so after drawing four olivey pizzas I decided to hand-pick the last answer. Onions and garlic, heck yeah!

Shannon, “My dream pizza is one I just started making recently. I make 2 french bread rolls. After they are done and cooled off, I cut them in half and into fours. I use them as my crust. I top them with sauteed mushrooms, garlic, onions, and kale. I put a thin layer of Daiya on top, after I sauced them. Then I add my veggies, followed by another layer of Daiya. After I pop them out of the oven I sprinkle some vegan paremsan cheese on top along with a little basil and oregano. Sometimes if I add a little Sriracha to give a kick!”

You’ll be emailed in the morn!

There are a few touchy subjects among vegans that everyone has strong, differing opinions on. One of the big ones is which brand of vegan cheese you prefer, if any. Every brand has its fans, and the same brands have people who think it’s completely gross. But who cares, we now have more vegan cheese options than you can shake a stick at!

Daiya had the vegan world a-buzzing before it was even released. Shredded cheese? That melts? That isn’t soy? And if you’re a fan or not, you can’t deny that Daiya has really pushed vegan cheese out into the mainsteam. I have seen it Kroger grocery stores, a place where I have never seen anything but those non-vegan veggie shreds. It’s in Amy’s products, Gardein, Tofurkey is making frozen pizzas with it…and restaurants are using it! Getting a vegan pizza where you don’t overpay for them to take off the cheese is an exciting thing, especially if you don’t live in a big city where vegan foods are easier to find.

(Vegan pizza with Daiya from Pi Pizzeria in St. Louis)

My personal favorite way to use Daiya is pepperjack flavor + tortilla = instant quesadilla!

Today, we are giving away three free product coupons to five lucky winners, meaning you can get a bag of each flavor if you want! Since I now have pizza on the brain, just comment here with your dream vegan pizza combination to enter! This giveaway is open to US and Canada only. The winners will be chosen tonight at 11 pm CST.