Join more than 5,200 cities by turning your lights off tonight (03/31/2012) at 8:30 PM, wherever you are in the world, as part of the World Wildlife Foundation’s Earth Hour. This event is meant to raise awareness of climate change and promote more environmentally-conscious (green) habits.

Little changes throughout the day can make an impact. Ponder the question, ‘What are you willing to do to save the planet?’ When doing so, think about taking a step further. Go beyond recycling and carpooling and turning off the lights, consider going vegetarian or vegan. Shown by scientists to be one of the greatest actions a person can take to helping our environment.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management says: “A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products” (The Guardian, 2010).

Another 2010 writing, in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, confirms that “vegetarian and vegan diets could play an important role in preserving environmental resources and in reducing hunger and malnutrition in poorer nations” (Baroni et al, 2007).

It doesn’t have to be an all or nothing endeavor. Like turning off the water while you’re brushing your teeth, swapping out one day a week (ie Meatless Mondays) or a meal time each day can have a positive impact on the environment.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

If I click my heels three times, can I get to the Texas VegFest? Oh, to be in Austin this weekend. I wish. The Texas VegFest is definitely getting added to my bucket list.

While I was at the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival earlier this month, listening to Terry Hope Romero, I thought back to the D.C. VegFest in October and watching Isa Chandra Moskowitz. The two have done a handful of cookbooks together. I pondered, ‘Do they ever do appearances together?’

Well, searching for some festivals around Oklahoma for An Unrefined Vegan, whose blog is super and you should totally check it out, I came across the Texas VegFest. Low and behold, Isa and Terry will be at the festival together. Yippie!…Darn for me…but yippie.

Also speaking will be Erica Meier from Compassion Over Killing (it’s ok to heart her; she’s doing amazing work); the very fit Robert Cheeke; and the unexpectedly funny Dr. Michael Gregor (he painlessly spoon feeds you life changing information).

Since some Texas cities are topping the list of fattest US cities, this is a positive move. Organizing events like these are not easy, so give love to the organizers! Be sure to check out those behind this event.

Texas VegFest, March 31, 2012, 11AM-6PM, Fiesta Gardens, Austin, TX

March is what college basketball fans wait all year for. Even if you’re not generally into hoops, you probably created a bracket and played that odds…even if that involved eenee-meanee-minnee-mo.

I’ll admit I didn’t have any b-ball tie-in in mind when I decided to make these. If you’re planning any Final Four or National Championship parties for this Saturday (3/31) or Tues (4/2), you may want to though.

I was gifted a box of Dandies and thought, ‘What should I do with a dozen bags of vegan marshmallows?’

First up, Rocky Road Cookies! The recipe I used is a variation from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

I kick myself for not taking better, or even just more, pictures of these cookies. These cookies were a big hit. One of my coworkers said they reminded him of Snackwell’s Devil Food Cookies.

The book’s recipe calls for white chocolate chips; I substituted the vegan marshmallows. Initially I patted the marshmallows on top, but I suggest folding them into each cookie you roll. While they taste the same either way, they just look more inviting this way. (In the pick is visible a first batch cookie (top) and second batch (peeking out from below).

These cookies were super…correction: SUPER…soft. I actually had only a fourth of the cocoa powder the recipe called for. I replaced a portion of the difference with extra flour. To some extent, this was a que sera, sera endeavor. You can make them to the book’s recipe, then you can go crazy and alter as desired.

Have fun! Eat yum!

Visited 03/20/2012

I’ve said it before, but I can’t believe the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival has come and passed. After attending the first in April of last year (2011), I anticipated the second. Now eleven months and counting until 2013′s.

Last week, the organizers got together with volunteers, myself included, at Caravan of Dreams to catch up.

I’ll admit the menu prices are not cheap, my Quesadilla with soy chorizo and cashew cheese, was something like $19 alone. So it’s not somewhere you might frequent. It’s a treat for a special occasion.

As a starter, there’s no bread. Instead, a slice of blood orange and avocado. You make look at it oddly for a second, but it’s actually pretty good, separate and together.

I was tentative to get the sample platter appetizer, but I wanted something people could share. All the foods included are very good but the platter is better in theory than exaction. I opted for the raw bread, and maybe that’s why, but what I got was not enough to go with the platter…unless you heaped a big spoonful on each piece of bread. Instead I asked for extra veggies.

My entree was delicious and I am definitely going back. There was seitan on the appetizer platter, so I’m thinking next time I’ll try the Seitan Taquitos.

Towards the end, watching the waiter create the Hot Brownie Sundae was crazy. It’s a glass with strawberries; then brownie bits; topped with ice cream and whipped cream, which I think someone say were coconut; and drizzles of chocolate plus a few other things I lost track of. Such a yummy combination. Great to share…but you can keep it all for yourself if you please.

Caravan of Dreams

405 Eat 6th Street

New York, NY 10009

212.254.1613

Brooklyn Restaurant Week is running until March 29th. If you’re vegetarian or vegan looking to get out for a bite to eat in the upcoming days and benefit from “discounted lunches and dinners (for $20.12 and $25, respectively), plus two-for-one and brunch options,” the pickings are slim.

Of the 195 Brooklyn restaurants participating in Restaurant Week, 18 of these restaurants are Clean Plates approved. Clean Plates promotes themselves as a way “to make it easier and more enjoyable for you to eat healthy, sustainable food.” Of the 18 Clean Plates approved restaurants participating, 9 carry their Vegetarian seal.

Here’s my review of the options:

• Al Di La Trattoria (The Winter Squash Ravioli sounds good…but they serve calf liver and rabbit…it’s your call.)

• Applewood (All the veggie combinations sound delicious…then they muck it up with meats and cheeses. Pass.)

• Aurora (Heavy on the cheeses. Prix Fixe menu not available to view online. May be worth visiting for restaurant week if they offer some substitutions.)

• Chestnut (Website not updated since before Thanksgiving. Call.)

• Lunetta (Likely not worth visiting for restaurant week; prix fixe menu not available online but general menu doesn’t seem well rounded enough to accommodate three veg courses.)

• Miranda (One of the desserts expressly says vegan. May be worth visiting for restaurant week if they offer some substitutions.)

• Moim (May be worth visiting for restaurant week if they accommodate some substitutions.)

• Palo Santo (May be doable; ask about desserts.)

• Rose Water (Not worth visiting for restaurant week; prix fixe doesn’t offer a veg option in all three courses and there are no substitutions.)

Click to view the full restaurant listings.

If you’re really looking to join in on Brooklyn Restaurant Week, call ahead to confirm these restaurants carry sufficient menu options for your lifestyle needs. Otherwise, just patronize the places that treat you right…and don’t make you play this guessing. Maybe even encourage them to participate in the future.

Kathy Freston is the well-known author of Veganist. She has appeared in Oprah and Ellen, among others. I was fortunate enough to receive an advance copy of her latest book, The Lean, which has a double meaning. It is a weight loss book, a road map to getting lean; but also to leaning towards more plant-based eating and away from animal-based products.

I’m not the hugest fan of dieting books. I do like the layout of the book, though; chapters broken out into days so you take little baby steps to change rather than a scary, drastic overhaul.

Since I’m already lean and I already lean towards veganism, I slipped back to the Appendix to the nearly 70 pages worth of recipes. I’d never considered having quinoa, a fairly new food to me in the last year, for breakfast, which makes me wonder what other tips Freston has up her sleeves.

The Lean is available March 27, 2012.
I like how simple the ingredients are (including cinnamon, not pictured below); pretty much all of which I had around already. I also enjoyed that the recipe makes two bowls, so now I have breakfast for tomorrow too.

A few quick tips:

• The recipe calls for almond milk, though; I had on hand Sunsational Sunflower milk, which I feel worked just as well as almond would have.
• Additionally, if you don’t have agave nectar, I tried this with Pure Maple Syrup and it still tasted great. Maple syrup and agave have similar amounts of calories.
• Don’t nix this just cause you don’t like apples or walnuts. Use a fruit or nuts you do like instead.

For full ingredients and instructions, please check out Kathy’s new book.
For more with Kathy:

Visited 03/24/2012

Sitting at a counter on a sunny Saturday listening to The Replacements while noshing on a vegan Croque Madame (tofu, sham, daiya on a hero roll) is the cure for…anything.

P.S. – they have $1 Oreo cake balls…nom…nom…nom…

Champs Vegan Bakery and Diner
176 Ainslie St
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211
718-599-2743

A veg*n walks into a BBQ joint…

Sounds like the start of a joke and it ended up being so.

Last night the company I work for had a happy hour at Southern Hospitality, located at the corner of 45th st and 7th ave in NYC. Initially I was jazzed. For anyone who has never heard of this place, even the salads have meat in them. After a Google search, I wasn’t quite as eager…”vegan hell” were my words.

You go for the free drinks and the people, though…and I work with some good people, which is something I almost missed.

As I walked in to look for familiar faces in the sea of the company’s staffers, immediately the pungent BBQ smell consumed my nose…and my stomach lurched. After finding a close coworker and lettinh her know I might not be able to stay, she suggested a quick drink to dull my senses.

Balloa was it sang, “You’ve got to accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative.” Well, for the moment, neutralize. There is a purpose to be served in not being the surly veg*n.

Now, I have no idea what I looked like at the end of the evening, apparently no pics were taken of me. I suspect I looked as young professional as those you see drawn on for falling asleep at parties. Caveat: I was awake and the instigator.

Since I couldn’t have the appetizers, I did have a drink and chatted and made sport at beg, borrowing, and stealing peoples’ name tag stickers. It was a great time.

Now, keep in mind, I would never recommend Southern Hospitality. The place didn’t make the night; the people did.

Visited 03/19/2012

Monday night, new cookbook author Christy Morgan gave a cooking demonstration at Brooklyn’s Sun in Bloom. Morgan’s book is filled with all vegan, simple, and healthy recipes, like the Un-Tuna Salad she made that evening.

Sun in Bloom offers organic, preservative-free, vegan and gluten-free, including the delicious Western Wrap. Conserve calories, limit gluten, and get an extra boast of antioxidants by selecting a collared green wrap.