Easter falls on April 4th in 2021; however,
you might want to shop for vegan Easter treats now! Here’s some online shops
offering vegan Easter Chocolate and Candy:
The Vegetarian Resource Group is a vegan activist non-profit organization that does outreach all-year-long. For example, VRG has been participating in numerous virtual events throughout the USA by providing speakers on a wide variety of vegan topics. We also send literature free of charge to other groups/individuals doing educational activities in schools, hospitals, camps, restaurants, libraries, offices, etc. Our ability to continue doing this depends on people like you! Your donations allow us to promote the vegan message whenever we’re called upon for assistance. Please consider becoming a monthly, quarterly, or single-time donor to The Vegetarian Resource Group.
Thanks so much for your support.
You can make a donation online here: vrg.org/donate
The VRG highlights several
recent (2015 to the present) scientific reports that reveal the relationships
between dietary choices and our climate crisis.
The following recipes are by D. Enette Larson-Meyer, PhD.
Colcannon
(Serves 4)
1 pound potatoes, sliced 2 medium parsnips, peeled and sliced 2 medium leeks 1 cup soymilk 1 pound kale or cabbage 1/2 teaspoon mace (optional) 2 cloves garlic, minced Salt and Pepper to taste 2 Tablespoons margarine Parsley
Cook the potatoes and parsnips in water until tender. While those are
cooking, chop the leeks (greens as well as white parts) and then simmer them in
the soymilk until soft. Next, chop the kale or cabbage and cook until tender.
Drain the potatoes, and season with
the mace, garlic, salt, and pepper. Add the cooked leeks with soymilk. Finally,
blend in the cooked kale or cabbage and margarine. The texture should be that
of smooth potato with well distributed pieces of leek and kale or cabbage.
Garnish with parsley.
Scannels’ Soda Bread
(Makes 1 loaf; 8 slices)
1-1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour 1 cup oat bran 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 Tablespoon sugar 2 Tablespoons caraway seeds 1/4 cup currants or raisins 1 cup soymilk plus 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
Mix the dry ingredients well. Blend in the caraway seeds and currants or
raisins. Add soymilk stirring to make a soft dough. Turn onto a lightly floured
board and knead for 1 minute. Shape into a round loaf and put into an 8-inch
oiled round pan. With a floured knife, cut an X into the top. Bake loaf at 350
degrees for 40 minutes or until lightly browned. Cut into slices when cool.
Here’s a list of some
companies offering dehydrated vegan meals that you can take on your next
backpacking trip:
Backpacker’s Pantry: Search under the
word vegan and many meals will come up including Organic Blueberry Walnut
Oatmeal; Kathmandu Curry; Cuban Coconut Rice & Black Beans; Pad Thai; and
Three Amigos Veggie Stew.
Firepot
Choose vegan in the dropdown menu of this United Kingdom company and you’ll see
that they offer meals including Cal and Rice with Spinach; Vegan Orzo
Bolognese; and Posh Baked Beans.
Food for the Sole: Search under vegan and meals such as Ratatouille with Nutty Quinoa Pilaf; Triple Peanut Slaw; and Cinnamon Cherry Crisp will come up.
Good to Go:
Choose vegan under type of diet and many meals will be listed including
Herbed Mushroom Risotto; Smoked Three Bean Chili; Kale and White Bean
Stew; and Bimimbap.
VRG intern Odette Olivares selected 24 of the best
websites with calcium information for vegetarians which includes information
geared towards Latinos. The Vegan R.D. and The Vegetarian Resource Group turned
out to be the best websites from this selection. Both sites were written by
Registered Dietitians and have comprehensive and detailed information on
calcium. Besides, this selection can also offer you other creative ways to
present calcium information. For example, you can find entertaining YouTube
videos containing an interview with a Registered Dietitian, or a vegan YouTuber
talking about calcium while also showing you their calcium menus. There are
plenty of different sites to choose from! Check them out and share this
selection!
Looking for something new to read while social
distancing? Look no further than In
Search of the Wild Tofurky: How a Business Misfit Pioneered Plant-Based Foods
Before They Were Cool. This engaging autobiography follows Seth Tibbott’s
story of breaking into the natural foods industry with a tempeh business in
1980 and eventually founding the now iconic Tofurky Company.
At around 217 pages, the story is short and sweet, making it the perfect weekend read. Throughout the book’s 9 chapters, Tibbott establishes a strong sense of character and quickly hooks readers in–I was immediately captivated by his grit and tireless efforts towards spreading the plant-based meat movement. For instance, I was amazed to hear that he lived by very modest means for a long time while building up his business, even residing in a simple tree house for a several year period.
Central to the narrative is the tension between Tibbott’s desire to stay
true to his mission of spreading veganism with an independent, “bootstrapper”
attitude and a need to keep his enterprise profitable. Tibbott provides great
advice on how to balance these two motivations at the end of each chapter with
“20/20 Hindsight” sections detailing lessons such as “Fire Yourself Regularly”
and “Invest Yourself in a Worthy Mission”.
The
story demonstrates just how dramatically the vegan food movement has evolved
over the years. Today, it’s easier than ever to take the accessibility of vegan
options for granted. After all, even fast foods chains such as Carl’s Junior
and Burger King serve meatless choices. Tibbott’s story is a great reminder
that this progress has been the result of “bootstrappers” who dared to
challenge the culinary status quo and try something new at a time in which
veganism was considerably less mainstream. It’s both an inspiring reflection on
the progress made in the last few decades, and a call to action to keep the
momentum going in the years to come.
The following recipe is by Debra Daniels-Zeller and previously appeared in Vegetarian Journal. This version of soda bread is a bit sweeter than the traditional Irish soda bread.
Juice and zest of 1 orange Vanilla rice milk or soymilk to make 1 cup (when added to orange juice) 3 Tablespoons canola oil 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 cup unrefined organic sugar 1 cup fresh cranberries, roughly chopped 1/2 cup dried cranberries 1/4 cup lightly toasted, chopped walnuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a baking sheet or line with
parchment paper. Combine juice and zest of orange with the soy or rice milk to
make 1 cup. Add oil and whisk together with a fork. Set aside.
Blend flours and baking soda together, stirring to make sure there are no
small lumps of soda. Mix in sugar, fresh and dried cranberries, and walnuts, if
desired. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients, stirring until a stiff dough
is formed. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead a few turns.
Shape into a round loaf and place on the prepared baking sheet. With a sharp
knife cut an X across the top about ½-inch deep (to allow for dough expansion
when baking). Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and
the top is browned.
Remove to cooling rack. Cool 10 to 15 minutes before slicing—if you can wait
that long!
Laura McGuiness calls her involvement with The Vegetarian
Resource Group “a seminal moment” in her life. She began volunteering with the
organization at age 19, and has written several articles for its blog, website,
and Vegetarian Journal magazine about
topics like baking
with aquafaba, cooking
seitan-based dishes, and starting
a school or community garden.
Laura worked as an intern for
the VRG, which gave her the opportunity to travel to the Animal Rights National
Conference in 2013. In her blog
post about the experience, Laura wrote, “there was nothing more
exciting than spending my weekend with hundreds of fellow animal rights
advocators who share my same vision…I found it intriguing that so many
different people flew, drove, or rode to this one spot just to meet others and
learn about animal rights.” While at the conference, Laura staffed the VRG
booth that showcased the group’s work, including its many books, and allowed
her to talk to other conference goers.
Laura’s
internship experience also allowed her to improve her writing abilities, a
hands-on learning experience for her. She says, “I learned how to write press
releases, how to fact check, [and] how to write for a particular audience.” She
also did HTML coding for VRG, which she continues to help with today. The
coding, specifically creating tables, was a challenge. She says, “I learned on
the job for the most part…. I would sit at my desk trying to figure it out for
hours, but now I’m actually quite good at it.”
Laura knew that
she wanted to become a librarian eventually, so for one project, she worked to digitize
issues of a historic publication, the American Vegetarian and Health Journal, which dates to the mid-1800s. This
proved to be an instructive challenge, as it required her to select a scanner,
find the appropriate software, and ensure that the documents would be
searchable for use, and today, viewers can read fully-digitized copies of the
publication for free online at HathiTrust.
Laura later went
on to earn her bachelor’s degree in English, and eventually got her master’s
degree in library and information science. She says she “really loved VRG as an
organization because they were (and still are) very concerned with providing
truly factual information,” something that’s important to her, “from an
information professional standpoint.” Today, Laura works in an archive at Los
Alamos National Laboratory and dreams about “one day doing a large
digitization/metadata project for VRG.”
Laura says of her
experience, “Not only did I have the opportunity to learn a lot about writing
and HTML, I learned a lot of practical skills,” adding that she found the
organization supportive of her goals, and saying her experience inspired her to
“continue to pay it forward.” You can check out Laura’s work online at vrg.org.
National Pi Day on March 14th recognizes the
mathematical constant π. The day is celebrated by pi enthusiasts and pie lovers
alike! Chef Nancy Berkoff’s previous Vegetarian Journal article
called Easy as Apple Pie features recipes for Maple Apple Pie, Apple Cream Pie,
Apple Pie: Hold the Sugar, Apple Pie with Whiskey, plus more. See: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2006issue3/2006_issue3_pie.php
The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public on veganism and the interrelated issues of health, nutrition, ecology, ethics, and world hunger. We have been helping health professionals, food services, businesses, educators, students, vegans, and vegetarians since 1982. In addition to publishing the Vegan Journal, VRG produces and sells a number of books.
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