it's all about the cupcakes

This Weekend: Poplar Springs, Thanksgiving with the Turkeys

This coming weeked is Poplar Spring’s Annual Thanksgiving with the Turkeys. Join their eight friendly turkeys and all their friends in celebrating a cruelty-free Thanksgiving potluck. Please bring a vegan (no meat, dairy, or eggs) dinner or dessert item to serve 8. $10.00 suggested donation to benefit the animals. No charge for children under 16. The event is from 12pm-4pm on Saturday November 22nd.

Click here for directions to Poplar Spring’s

See you there!!!

November 17, 2008 | Filed Under Animals, Benefit, Events, Farming, Food, Kids | Leave a Comment 

DC Vegan Drinks

DC Vegan along with COK and The Science Club are staring a monthly event call DC Vegan Drinks. Its basicly a social networking event for people who are interested in veganism and animal rights. It will be held once a month (we are still working out a date for our first event). For more info and to join our mailing list visit the website, http://dcvegandrinks.org

November 16, 2008 | Filed Under Animals, Beer / Wine, COK, Events, News | Leave a Comment 

black bean soup i could open a diner with……

tim asked me to post the recipe…basically, though, it’s all “to taste”. but here’s what i put in it:

1 large can of black beans, 1/2 can of water, warmed in a saucepan, add one avocado to the black beans towards the end of cooking…(i probably cook the beans for 10-15 minutes or so).

in a skillet, heat some avocado or canola oil (or other high heat oil) with onion powder (to taste), garlic powder (to taste) and salt. i use quite a bit of the onion powder. i like the taste of onions but i don’t like the texture so i don’t use them–but if you want to use real onions, use less powder.

add frozen corn, green beans, and quartered baby carrots (i’d say about a handful of each) to the oil. if you want to impress some of your meat eating friends (or if you’re hankerin’ for some tasty vegan meat)–add a box of the smart strips chick’n style strips to the mix. i usually add a bit more onion powder and garlic powder while it’s cooking–again, to taste. i love rich, garlicy food so i’m all about a few extra “pinches”.

i will saute the veggies for a good 10-15 minutes or so, stirring quite a bit. sometimes i add another half can or so of water depending on how soupy i want it to be. honestly, though, it’s more of a stew.

pour the beans and avocado into the veggie mix and mix it all together, let it sit for another few minutes…

this makes two somewhat large helpings (the more the merrier’s what i say). :o)

serve, and enjoy!

November 14, 2008 | Filed Under Cooking, Food, Recipes | 1 Comment 

Things that make me go…arrrrggghh!

So I don’t mind it if I don’t get invited to a dinner at a friends house where everyone is there BUT me because I am vegan. Their excuse was, “There wasn’t anything for you to eat.” Far be it from me to offer to bring a dish for not only me to eat but others to try. See, no, no, this situation isn’t what burns my buns, what burns my buns is when someone DOES invited me and KNOWS I am vegan and has nothing for me to eat and turned down the offer of me bringing a dish or two for not only me but for others to try. Their reasoning for why I shouldn’t bring a dish, “There will be plenty of food. I’m sure there will be something here you can eat.” Well, in this season of turkey, ham, chicken stuffing, meat, meat and more meat and buttery rolls, whip cream, dairy, dairy and more dairy, I am very upfront on offering to bring food. It not only makes me look gracious, but it prevents me from starving. So color me surprised when I arrived at this dinner party and come to find out there was nothing, literally nothing I could eat. It drives me banana sandwich when the host first apologizes then gets huffy and tries to find something for me to eat. Grrrrarrrgh.

So now that is off my chest, I’d like to present some ideas and recipes to the vegans out there for this Thanksgiving season. First of all, the Tofurkey Thanksgiving dinner box. PERfect! I tried it last year. Totally AWesome. This year I am going to change it up though. Last year, I just followed the directions on the box and let the “turkey” cook. This year I am going to let it slow roast and perhaps put a light coat of honey (yes, I do honey) or agave sweetener, you know to give it a little crunch and let the mushroom gravy soak in. I got you drooling now having I? Plus I plan to Google for many other Thanksgiving favorites, veganized. Check out this recipe for vegan pumpkin pie, http://www.simple-vegetarian-recipes.com/desserts-vegan-pumpkin-pie.html

I personally am planning on bringing the Tofurkey dinner along with the pie and some other goodies to my uncle’s house where I am having my Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, he will have plenty of food but I am still bringing it!

November 13, 2008 | Filed Under Cooking, Food, Recipes | 3 Comments 

Call for Vegan Entrepreneur’s

Are you vegan, are a small business owner, and live in the DC area? If so send us some info about you and your business, and you may be featured on DCVegan. View other Vegan Entrepreneur’s in DC.

tim@dcvegan.com

November 11, 2008 | Filed Under News | Leave a Comment 

sticky fingers bakery! free stuff today, COK benefit tomorrow

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the new website for VegNews magazine , you’re missing out!  Among other great features, throughout the entire month of November, VegNews is giving away free vegan stuff each day — and today’s lucky winner will get one dozen little devils from Sticky Fingers Bakery.

Which leads to the next reminder that tomorrow (Tues., Nov. 11) is a Compassion Over Killing benefit day at Sticky Fingers Bakery - stop by there anytime from 7am to 7pm, and a portion of entire day’s sales will be donated towards COK’s farmed animal advocacy efforts!

November 10, 2008 | Filed Under Benefit, COK, Events, Food, The Web | 1 Comment 

Why I went Vegan…

It all started right after Thanksgiving of ‘07. I saw this girl reading a book called Skinny Bitch on the metro. The title ALONE raised my eyebrow. So on my next trip to a bookstore; I sought out this book to see what it was about. Color me surprised when I found out it was a nutrition book. At this point of my life I was a little overweight, unhappy and self-confidence slowly going down the toilet so it was perfect. It was a book about going vegan. At this point in my life I was already semi vegetarian. I hardly ever ate chicken, beef, turkey I ate sometimes fish but I NEVER ate pork or pig products. I did a book report when I was in 6th grade about food poisoning for my Home Ec class. It was on trichinosis and from hence forth I never touched a pig product of any kind. However there were just some days when I just didn’t want to eat any of it. My boyfriend constantly bugged me that I wasn’t eating enough protein so reluctantly I would eat some meat. I just wish there was some magic word or phrase I could say to people instead of giving them a long explanation on why I just didn’t want to eat the meat. Plus, if I didn’t have an explanation on tap, people at parties will just think I am just a “picky” bitch.

Skinny Bitch showed me the way. There was a phrase I could say without having an explanation needing to follow why I just don’t want the meat. “I’m vegan.” Done and done. I claimed being vegan right before Christmas. Giving up meat was not problem, especially after reading Chapter 7 and Chapter 9. Giving up dairy was the hardest, since I just LOVE me some cheese. Slowly but surely I took one day at a time. Then, finally one day, I saw a Pizza Hut commercial that normally would’ve made me drool with all that drippy, gooey cheese, instead it made me gag. So hence forth I have a complete and totally aversion to all dairy products. I don’t do butter, milk, cheese, eggs (yes, strangely eggs are a “dairy” product), cream cheese, sour cream, cream anything. Plus, after reading Chapter 5 in Skinny Bitch, I was more gung-ho about giving up dairy.

So after nearly a year of being vegan and also losing 25 pounds, I still have my copy of Skinny Bitch and believe you me, it IS my Vegan Bible. I have leaps and bounds of energy. I used to be plagued by sinus issues and allergies but no more.

Going Vegan was the best decision I’ve ever made and I encourage anyone and everyone to just try it. I challenged one of my friends a few weeks ago to just stop eating dairy. Everyday he emails me and says he has so much energy and his pants are starting to get loose. Next he’s cutting out the meat. Come join with my friend on his journey of veganism. You’ll be glad that you did. Especially when your pants start falling off you.

November 6, 2008 | Filed Under Rambling | 7 Comments 

New stuff on DCVegan

So we have 2 new features on DCVegan:

  • DCVegan on Twitter
  • DCVegan Flickr Group post your pics from events or food porn! (we need some pics!)

November 5, 2008 | Filed Under News, The Web | Leave a Comment 

Prop 2 passes: Yes we can give animals more room to move!

Nov. 4, press release from the Humane Society of the United States

Californians Make History by Banning Veal Crates, Gestation Crates, and Battery Cages

Voters in California approved an historic ballot measure to halt the inhumane confinement of animals on factory farms—by an overwhelming margin.

Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, said, “California voters have taken a stand for decency and compassion and said that the systemic mistreatment of animals on factory farms cannot continue. All animals deserve humane treatment, including animals raised for food.”

As of 11 p.m. Pacific time, Proposition 2 was ahead by 62 to 38 percent.

Space To Move

Proposition 2 ends the practice of confining certain animals raised for food in crates and cages so small the animals can barely move. Prop 2 requires that factory farms provide enough space for animals to stand up, turn around and extend their limbs. It applies to breeding pigs, egg laying hens and veal calves.

Prop 2 goes into effect in January of 2015, giving factory farms six years to shift to different housing systems.

The Yes! on Prop 2 campaign received donations from 25,000 individual contributors across the country. Thousands of volunteers worked to collect signatures, distribute campaign literature, and rallied to get out the vote for Prop 2.

Prop 2 attracted support from a broad coalition of organizations and leaders, including the California Veterinary Medical Association, United Farm Workers, State Humane Association of California, the Center for Food Safety, and the Consumer Federation of America, to name a few.

The opponents of Proposition 2, agribusiness companies from throughout the nation, spent $9 million to try to defeat the ballot initiative.

November 5, 2008 | Filed Under Animals, Farming, News, Not DC | 1 Comment 

Happy World Vegan Day!

Let us know what you (someone else) is doing to celebrate World Vegan Day. Here are a few great ideas.

More info about World Vegan Day and Month here, http://www.worldveganday.org

Others doing World Vegan Day

  • Lush Does World Vegan Day

November 1, 2008 | Filed Under Events, Food, News | Leave a Comment 

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