Happy Vegan Thanksgiving!

 This year I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family and with the help of my mom and sister, made my first completely vegan feast. The best part was that my entire family agreed to partake. The spread included two Tofurkey loaves, buttery mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, candied yams, asparagus, cranberry fruit sauce, and buttered muffins. For dessert, my sister and I baked iced oatmeal cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and pumpkin spice cookies...we also had some regular and pumpkin spice Silk eggnog. Everything was delicious and 100% cruelty-free. It was the best Thanksgiving ever and I am forever grateful for my family's open-mindedness and willingness to alter their normal tradition and forgo the turkey and ham (and eggs, milk, and real butter). What an awesome and memorable holiday.

CHINO HILLS & PASADENA Food Randomness

Yesterday was my sister's birthday and to my utter delight, she requested a vegan birthday cake. Instead of making her one from scratch, I decided to give Sweet Craze bakery (located in Chino Hills) a try. While not a strictly vegan bakery, they have vegan options (good enough for me considering the lack of vegan sweets in my area) and I decided to order a cake. My sister loves chocolate and banana combos so I ordered her a chocolate cake with fresh banana filling and vanilla icing. As you can see from the picture, it looks amazing. Luckily for us, it tasted amazing. Unluckily for us, on the car ride home the cake fell of the seat after an unexpected stop BUT managed to remain in the box, rendering it completely edible (thank the vegan gods)! So that's why there is only one picture of the cake. I would have loved to show the inside but after the accident, it was one huge chocolate and banana mess. Still delicious though.

So, if you are looking for vegan cakes and goodies, give Sweet Craze a try!  http://itssweetcraze.com/



On a completely unrelated note, I stopped at Whole Foods in Pasadena (unfortunately, it's the nearest Whole Foods) to pick up a Tofurkey loaf and some other random vegan items that I can't seem to get anywhere else, and I was kinda hungry so I decided to try some vegan pizza from their hot food/deli/pizzeria area. I don't even recall reading what kind of pizza it was. All I know was it had Daiya cheese, artichoke bits and olives on it and that it was incredibly good. So good, it was the driving force in my decision to write/call Whole Foods and demand they open up closer locations since as of now, they are too good for the IE.

ACTON Animal Acres - Thankful Turkeys Celebration

I drove up to Acton, California (about 45 minutes North of Los Angeles, near Santa Clarita) on Saturday to take part in the annual Thankful Turkeys Celebration at Animal Acres. Animal Acres is self-proclaimed as a "Paradise for Farmed Animals and the People Who Love Them" and I cannot agree more. It truly is a refuge for the resident animals and for people like me, who love animals and want nothing more than to see them live happy, healthy, cruelty-free lives. This is the second time I've attended this event and am determined to make it a yearly tradition. I highly recommend everyone visit the sanctuary (veg or not) - It is open to the public every Sunday from 11am to 1pm and offers guided tours for $5 per person.

Anyway, the Thankful Turkeys Celebration is an annual event put on by the sanctuary to raise money for their mission of saving animals from the cruelties of food production. This particular event  aims at starting a new Thanksgiving tradition - one that involves saving and feeding turkeys rather than eating them. It does this by educating the public on the realities of factory farming, sharing the animals' poignant stories, and offering delicious vegan food. The  Thanksgiving meal provided was catered by One World Vegetarian Cuisine, which is based in West Covina, CA (http://www.oneworldveggie.com/). The meal included a slice of Tofurkey loaf and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and a wonderful vegetable medley. Dessert was cupcakes from Clara's Cakes (http://claracakes.com/main.html), a vegan baking business run by a 13-year old vegan and animal rights activist. All of the food was amazing.

Also, this event featured (as it does every year), guest speakers, raffles and prizes. Despite the bad weather this year, it was still a fun and memorable experience.



To find information on visiting and/or volunteering, attending events, or even donating to the sanctuary, visit their website:
http://www.animalacres.org/index.html

Colton Cheezy Pizza

Breadsticks

Garlic Cheese Bread

If you have a hankering for vegan junk/party food, Cheezy Pizza is the place to go. While CP offers traditional meat and cheese infused Italian-American food, they have an ENTIRE menu dedicated to us vegans and let me tell you, it's amazing! The owner and staff are extremely nice and friendly and they will bend over backwards to cater to vegans...in fact, that's what they do best as the majority of their customer base is vegan (yay!).

Their breadsticks are to die for. The carboholic in me couldn't order just one type either. I had to try both the buttery breadsticks AND the garlic cheese bread. Luckily I had several people to share it with. Notice the cups of white sauce in the picture picture of the garlic cheese bread. Yup, that is vegan ranch my friends. It was as delicious as it sounds and great for dipping.

We ordered a large pizza and asked for one half vegan BBQ chicken (right off the menu) and one half vegan cheese, pineapple, and cashew (a personal favorite/concoction). Both were amazing. The cheese was perfectly melted, the cashews and pizza crust were toasted just right to add a bit of warm crunchiness. I can't wait for an excuse to go back.


Check out their website: http://cheezypizzacolton.com/veganmenu.html

Rancho Cucamonga Yard House

 The Yard House now offers a "SUB VEGETARIAN" menu that involves the rampant use of Gardein "chicken" and "beef" products, both of which are vegan. While most of the items on the vegetarian menu aren't inherently vegan, I heard that some can be veganized.*  So I took a trip with my Inland Empire Veg*n Meetup group to sample some of the fare.


I personally ordered the "Veggie Chicken Rice Bowl" off the "SUB VEGETARIAN" menu. A vegan friend of mine with good judgement ordered the same thing and proactively asked the waiter what type of sauce it was cooked in. The answer was a mixture of garlic, soy sauce, and olive oil (yay, we were safe!). The dish included many veggies such as bok choy, baby corn, snap peas, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, celery, peppers, and broccoli. All this veggie goodness was placed over brown rice. It was really tasty. I'd definitely order it again!

Another vegan friend of mine decided to try the "Veggie BBQ Chicken Pizza" sans the cheese. It looked really good as you can see from the picture and according to said friend, it tasted really good too. I'm going to have to try it next time. And, there will be a next time.








*A little caveat for vegetarians: some of the items on the vegetarian menu aren't even inherently vegetarian! You may notice that some items on the "SUB VEGETARIAN" menu contain little green bullet points. These are the items you want to look out for as they "may still contain ingredients of animal origin." I can only assume it means items such as anchovy sauce (for the ceasar salad), beef/chicken stock (for the enchilada stack), and bacon...Yes! Bacon! Do NOT order the Veggie Mac + Cheese. It explicitly states bacon as an ingredient. Ludicrous, I know. Those items shouldn't even be ON the menu! Regardless of the Yard House's flaws, we must remain thankful for their attempt at offering vegetarian/vegan items and their willingness to modify the menu items at our request.




Check out the Yard House menu to browse options and help prepare questions about ingredients in advance: http://www.yardhouse.com/files/food_menu_13.pdf