veganhacker.com

Thanks to the ubiquity of blogs, veg folk around the world can easily publish and share their favorite vegan recipes online. But, if you’re like me, you come across several posts everyday that sound delicious and interesting. So, how does one go about managing and remembering what the heck those recipes are, when to make them and what site published them?

Enter the winning combination of Google Reader and Evernote. Use Google Reader to, of course, track all of those fantastic vegan blogs (see our compiled list of past VegBloggy Awards winners for ideas on blogs to follow) and then send your selected posts to Evernote for storing and tagging (see “How to Send Blog Posts from Google Reader to Evernote“).

Create a “Recipes” Notebook in Evernote and send all of your recipe “clippings’ there. The fantastic thing about Evernote is that the entire web page is clipped, images and all, not just a link. Now you have the power of tagging and categorizing to help you manage your recipes — and you have access to them from your smartphone or web-enabled device and from any web browser.

Tag Tips:

• Tag your  post with recipe ingredients to easily find recipes based on what you currently have in your pantry and fridge.
• Add a tag (winter, spring, summer, fall) to filter recipes by season
• Tag your recipes as entrées, desserts, starters, beverages, etc.
• If it’s good for a nice holiday meal, tag it with the holiday name
• Tag with approximate prep time
• Tag with type of cuisine

For anyone out there who is interested in trying a veg diet or knows someone who is, PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) has launched its 21-Day Vegan Kickstart program. They are offering celebrity tips, a forum, restaurant guide, recipes, and a 21-day meal plan. Heck, it sounds good for the already tried and true veg looking for culinary inspiration–for the next 21 days, you can have recipes and meal suggestions emailed to you daily.

You can also follow PCRM on twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

I’m really excited about this program. As mentioned on their site, veganism is becoming more and more accessible. Recent news coverage about factory farming and the environmental perils it entails is making it more and more difficult to ignore what meat-eaters consume and how that food gets to their tables.

As Jonathan Safran Foer recently noted, we need not incorporate new values  to understand and realize the horrors of the meat and dairy industry, we need only tap the values and “good instincts” we already have.

Couple that understanding with the fact that a plant-based diet is far healthier than any other and you’ve got a very compelling case for going veg.

Straight from Barnivore (and via JasonDoucette):

It might seem weird at first, but your favourite drink might have more than just alcohol in it.

Brewmasters, winemakers, and distillers may include animal ingredients in their products directly, or they might use them in the processing and filtration.

These ingredients don’t usually show up on the label, so the only way to find out is to ask.

More specifically, edible gelatins (made from bones), honey, isinglass (made from the swim bladders of fish), casein and potassium caseinate (milk proteins) and animal albumin (egg albumin and dried blood powder) may be used as ingredients or in processing and filtration.

Barnivore has provided the vital service of doing the legwork for us vegans! Enter the booze in question in the search field and get details on its vegan-friendly status.

Other on-line Vegan Beer and Wine resources:

• Vegan Vanguard’s Is Your Beer Vegan
• The Vegan Wine Guide
• List of Vegan Wine Retailers

Please feel free to contribute other resources in the comments! Cheers!

• PETA’s Golden Bun Awards – the best veggie burger brands available in North America and the best veggie burgers from a restaurant chain
• A greener BBQ – The Baja BBB Firepack, the lighter-fluid-free, eco-friendly alternative to your standard charcoal grill
• VegFamily News Vegan BBQ Ribs
• PETA’s 4th of July Menu ideas.
• Vegan BBQ with Compassionate Cooks on YouTube
• BBQ Tips from the autonomieproject

Happy 4th of July!

Yep. Jamba Juice’s Apple Cinnamon Pretzel is vegan! So, if you’re hankering for some nibbly to go with your nice, cold summer smoothie, feel free to order away.

Their entire vegan menu includes the following items (including the boosts):

• Orange Mango Passion
• Orange Carrot Banana
• 3G Charger Super Boost
• Omega-3 Super Boost
• Matcha Green Tea Shot – Soy Milk
• Wheat Grass Shot
• Green Caffeine Boost
• Antioxidant Power Super Boost
• Soy Protein Boost
• Energy Boost
• Immunity Boost
• Apple Cinnamon Pretzel
• Carrot Juice
• Orange Juice
• Protein Berry Workout with Soy Protein
• Mega Mango
• Strawberry Whirl
• Peach Perfection
• Pomegranate Paradise

.

View their vegan menu on the Jamba Juice website.

The source of the Salmonella outbreak linked to raw tomatoes is still unknown and cases are on the rise, but not all tomatoes are implicated. The FDA reports that raw, red Romas and raw, round, red tomatoes (beefsteaks) should be avoided, but cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, vine-ripened tomatoes still on the vine, and tomatoes grown at home are all still safe for consumption. Not all tomato-growing regions have been affected either, so if you know where the tomatoes have been grown, you can check it against this list to see if they are safe.

The FDA also offers the following tips:

• Wash hands with soap and warm water before handling tomatoes
• Wash each tomato thoroughly under running water. Don’t wash tomatoes in a tub or sink filled with water.
• When finished washing a tomato, cut out the scar where the stem was, and throw it away.
• Never cut a fresh tomato until it has been thoroughly washed.
• Cut the tomato on a clean cutting board, using clean utensils.
• Refrigerate fresh, cut tomatoes (or products made from them, such as salsa) at 41° F or less if they’re not eaten within two hours.
• Wash hands with soap and warm water after preparing the tomatoes.
• Cooking contaminated tomatoes will not prevent illness.
  
  

In addition to the guidelines above, The Daily Green offers an additional tip when dining out: “ask how the restaurant has responded to the outbreak. If you’re unsure, ask for no tomatoes with your order, since removing them once your food arrives could contaminate what’s left on the plate.”

For additional information, visit the FDA’s information page or their guide for the Safe Handling of Raw Produce and Fresh-Squeezed Fruit and Vegetable Juices.

Holy smokes. When I came across this recipe for vegan caramel popcorn, I could barely control my drool.

Thank you, PETA, for sharing the recipe on your Veg Cooking blog!!

today at the farmer’s market
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Most produce found in a grocery store is 1-2 weeks old and is often shipped from non-local sources. By shopping at your local farmer’s market or participating in a CSA, you support the local economy and ecological farming practices. But more than that, you’ll reap the benefits of enjoying produce that is grown and harvested sustainably, picked at the optimum stage of ripeness and much fresher than that found in a typical store.

Farmer’s markets are also a wonderful place to discover heirloom and other varieties of your favorite fruits and vegetables.

You can locate your local farmer’s markets using the USDA’s very own Farmer’s Market Search, or you can visit the Local Harvest site to search for both farmer’s markets and CSA’s (as well as organic restaurants, grocery stores and co-ops, and online stores).

Under the cash program revealed Wednesday, Web shoppers who sign up for an account and buy items found using Microsoft’s Live Search cashback site will receive a percentage of the purchase price deposited into their account. [ via Yahoo! News]

I tested it out with a search for vegan shoes, clicked to view a Garmont hiking shoe, and got results for 3 retailers with cash rebates ranging from 8%-12.1%.

Happy shopping.

That’s right. Apparently, Oprah is embarking on a 21-day cleanse in which she eliminates not only caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and gluten, but all animal products as well.

She reports that Day 1 was easy:

So this first day wasn’t hard at all. For breakfast, I had steel-cut oatmeal with fresh blueberries, strawberries, chopped walnuts and a splash of soy milk and some agave nectar. For lunch, chunky mushroom soup with wild rice and pecans. As a snack, a handful of roasted almonds. And for dinner, a baked potato drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper with a salad of shredded lettuce, cranberries, pine nuts and tiny orange slices with a vinegar and oil dressing.

You can follow along on her journey, browse her menu plan, and also try some of her posted recipes.

[Update]: Take a pledge to go vegan for a mere 7 days and get some free resources to get you started.