Sandwich of the Week: 'Don't be a Chump' Chickpea Sandwich October 22, 2009

Posted by Marta at October 22, 2009 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 ) | TrackBack

I know we've shared many delicious sandwiches with you over the past several weeks, and it's my turn this week! While there are tons of awesome "faux" products out there these days like faux meats, soy cheeses, and vegan mayo (and I fully recommend you try them), I decided to make things even easier on you this week by keeping the "faux" out.

Of course, I couldn't resist sharing a recipe with you from PETA's Vegan College Cookbook, so if you're a lover of chickpeas (AKA garbanzo beans), like me, then keep reading!

I bring you the 'Don't be a Chump' Chickpea Sandwich:

Yum! Here's how to make it:

• 1/2 (15 ounce) can of chickpeas, drained and mashed with a fork
• Italian dressing, to taste
• 2 slices bread (I used multigrain and toasted them for a little extra pizzazz)
• 1/4 cup shredded carrots
• 4 cherry tomatoes, halved (I decided to get a little crazy and use grape tomatoes! I know, I need to calm down.)

Mix the chickpeas with some Italian dressing and spread on one slice of bread. Top with the shredded carrots, the tomatoes, and add the other slice of bread.

Makes 1 serving

Some tips: You can stop by a salad bar and grab some shredded carrots and tomatoes if you don't want to buy whole containers of either, and feel free to tweak the sandwich to your personal preferences. I like to see it as a jumping off point. Love avocado? Toss some of that green goodness in there! Hate chickpeas? Experiment with another bean. And if you suck at bean mashin', try using a blender or food processor (though it will have more of a hummus texture—but that's never a bad thing!).

Hope you enjoy it!

Being a Jewish Vegan August 3, 2009

Posted by Marta at August 3, 2009 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 5 ) | TrackBack

Here's a special guest post from my fellow peta2 staffer and cookbook co-author Starza about being Jewish and vegan. Enjoy!
-Marta

I was raised Jewish and my family kept a kosher household—that's right, we had "meat" plates and "dairy" plates that had to be kept separate, and you couldn't eat meat if the meal had dairy and vice versa. Because of this, my brother and I would often fantasize about cheeseburgers, pepperoni pizza, and what would happen if we secretly ate steak on a "dairy" plate.

I decided to go vegetarian a few months after my Bat Mitzvah because I didn't want animals to suffer for my meals. I found out that veganism was automatically kosher because there's no worry about whether or not a meal had meat or dairy in it. On top of that, I could eat "cheese" burgers and "pepperoni" pizza by using their faux alternatives. I even ventured out and made the most un-Kosher-but-Kosher-because-it's-vegan snack I could think of—"ham" roll-ups—which were crazy delicious! There's a recipe for them in PETA's Vegan College Cookbook which I'm also sharing with you here, so that you too can experience their Koshery goodness!

Sham "Ham" Roll-Ups

You've always wanted to make something with chives because they sound fancy—admit it.

1 (8-ounce) container vegan cream cheese
1 tablespoon chopped chives
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 (5.5-ounce) package vegan ham deli slices

Mix the cream cheese, chives, salt, and pepper together. Spread
the mixture on the deli slices and roll up. Use a toothpick to
hold together.

Makes 4 servings.

If you're curious about vegetarianism, Judaism, and how they are related, check out this article. It explains how the act of being vegetarian is a mitzvah (good deed) and a form of tzedakah (charitable giving)—something all Jews are required to practice on a regular basis.

So there you go, yet another reason why being vegetarian rocks. I know my Bubbe would be proud!

Shalom!

-Starza

Free Stuff Friday: Lick It! Ice Cream Book and Tote Bag! July 17, 2009

Posted by Tiffany Wright at July 17, 2009 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 344 ) | TrackBack

Everyone knows summer time = ice cream time! And, this week, you have the chance to win Lick It! — the ultimate vegan ice cream recipe book. Author Cathe Olson fills you in on everything you'll need to make all of your ice cream favorites from fruity sorbets and gooey sundaes to creamy shakes and floats — no ice cream maker necessary! With over 100 pages of easy-to-make recipes, you just might be eating ice cream for the rest of the summer.

For your chance to win Lick It! and this super cute ice cream tote bag from Hollywood Mirror, comment below with your favorite summer treat. Entries must be received by July 24. The person with the most delicious comment will be chosen as our winner and will be notified by July 27.

Just so you know ... by commenting here, you're acknowledging that you've read and agreed to our privacy policy.

Also by commenting, you are agreeing to the following terms and conditions.

While you're waiting to find out if you're a winner, check out Olson's amazing recipe for fudge pops!

What You'll Need:

1 3/4 cups soy milk or other non-dairy milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pour the soy milk into a small saucepan. Whisk in the sugar and cocoa powder. Warm on medium heat until the soy milk begins to simmer. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate chips and vanilla extract. Cool to room temperature. Poor into pop molds and freeze. (Makes 8 2-ounce pops)

Make Something for Your Dad This Father's Day! June 16, 2009

Posted by Marta at June 16, 2009 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 6 ) | TrackBack

Since so many of you loved making a cake for your mom this past Mother's Day, we wanted to make sure that your dad got in on the good eats too. And we couldn't think of a better way for you to show how much you appreciate him on Father's Day than by dishing him up a big, homemade, delicious breakfast! Here's a recipe for you to impress your meat-loving dad with, straight out of PETA's Vegan College Cookbook. This recipe is ridiculously easy and I could eat vats of it because I love it. Yummmm.

Toasty Sausage Surprise

The surprise? Your omni friends will never know this isn't real sausage.

1 (14-ounce) tube veggie sausage, crumbled
2 cups soy milk
2 tablespoons vegan margarine
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup flour
6 slices of bread, toasted

Mix together the sausage, soy milk, margarine, and salt and pepper in a bowl. Heat for 3 minutes, then add a dash of flour while stirring. Heat for an additional 2 minutes. Repeat this flour-adding process until the mixture is thick. Place toast on plates and top with the sausage mixture.

Makes 3 servings.

Serve this up with some of your fave breakfast foods (I personally like hashed browns, fresh fruit, OJ, and tofu scramble), and your dad will totally give your cell back to you after you sent way too many texts last month. Well, maybe not, but it doesn't hurt to try, right?

E-mail StreetTeam@peta2.com a picture of your Toasty Sausage Surprise and let us know what your dad thought of it and we'll give you 1,000 Street Team points.

Happy eating!



P.S. Have you gotten a copy of PETA's Vegan College Cookbook yet? What are you waiting for?! It'll make your life easier and more delicious. Seriously.

Memorial Day Eats May 21, 2009

Posted by Marta at May 21, 2009 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 4 ) | TrackBack

Memorial Day is coming up quickly, and you know we like to make sure you're always prepared! Memorial Day and BBQs pretty much go hand-in-hand, and though for some people that means meat, I have a bunch of delicious, easy, vegan (and in my opinion, better) suggestions for you. Here are a few of my personal favorites to toss on the grill:

• Veggie dogs & faux chicken burgers
• BBQ sauce-marinated tofu
• Corn on the cob
• Kebabs with pineapple, orange bell peppers, tofu, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, red onions, and zucchini
• Asparagus or Potatoes

And a few other ideas of what to dish up:

• Vegetarian baked beans
• A giant bowl of fruit salad
• Chips with salsa, guacamole, hummus, or all three!
• Black bean and corn salad
• Cole slaw

Memorial Day just wouldn't be complete without potato salad though, so check out this recipe from PETA's Vegan College Cookbook!

German 'Tato Salad

Even if you can't get to the beer garden, you can be an honorary German year-round with this tasty concoction of 'taters and mustard.

2 lbs. red potatoes
1/2 cup chopped chives
1 cup vegan bacon bits (you can find this at basically any grocery store)
6 tablespoons vinegar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons brown mustard
Salt and pepper, to taste

Wash the potatoes and stab them with a fork (to vent). Place in microwave for 5 minutes or until tender. You should be able to easily stick a fork in them, but they shouldn't fall apart. Cut into cubes. In a large bowl, mix together the bacon bits, chives, vinegar, oil, and mustard. Toss the potatoes into the bowl and mix until the potatoes are well-coated. Add salt and pepper.

Makes 4 servings.

What's your favorite food to eat at a BBQ?

Make a Cake in the Microwave for Mom! May 6, 2009

Posted by Marta at May 6, 2009 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 24 ) | TrackBack

Your mom does so many nice things for you—from driving you to soccer practice to making you dinner (not to mention giving birth to you!)—it seems like you can never do enough to say thanks. Mother's Day is right around the corner, and I bet you're trying to figure out what to get her. If you've got some money, you can give her the gift that gives back, but if you're a bit more strapped for cash, why not make your mom a cake to let her know how much you appreciate her? It's simple, thoughtful, and delicious—Mom will love it!

To keep things easy for you, I present you with a super-easy cake recipe from PETA's Vegan College Cookbook. You don't even need a stove to make your mom happy.

Loco-Cocoa Snack Cake

Crazy fast and delicious.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt in a bowl. Combine the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl, then stir into the flour mixture. Microwave on high for 6 to 7 minutes, rotating 1/4 turn twice, until a fork comes out clean when inserted in the corner. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Makes 4 servings.

Once you make the cake for your mom, drop us an e-mail at StreetTeam@peta2.com to let us know how she liked it. We'll give you 1,000 points. Want to make her extra happy? Give her one of these ridiculously cute peta2 Mother's Day cards too.



P.S. You can find other easy and delicious recipes like this one in PETA's Vegan College Cookbook. Get your copy now!

Veganize a Family Favorite! April 7, 2009

Posted by Marta at April 7, 2009 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 32 ) | TrackBack

We all have them—those dishes that make our stomachs rumble just thinking about them, the foods you can't get enough of, the recipes that once you went veg, you thought you'd never, ever eat again. Well, there's no reason to kick those dishes to the curb just yet.

Think of a favorite dish your family has (pizza, chimichangas, sushi, whatever!). Now, here's my challenge to you: Find a way to veganize it. It's really not as hard as you might think. When veganizing a recipe, you can do one of two things:

• Substitute ingredients exactly (like using soymilk instead of cow's milk)
• Use completely different ingredients (that will allow you to mimic the taste and texture of the original dish).

So, think of your favorite previously-not-vegan dish and figure out how you can make it vegan. Yes, this might take some thinking—but you're gonna get some delicious results. Once you've figured out the ingredients you need, make the dish and share it with your family! This is the perfect opportunity to show how delicious it is to leave out the meat, dairy, and eggs. To get Street Team points, e-mail us at StreetTeam@peta2.com with the recipe you came up with and how your family liked it and we'll give you 1,000 points. Include a picture of your dish and we'll toss in another 500 points.

For some inspiration, check this out: One of my favorite dishes growing up was Fettuccini Alfredo, and though you can use straight up vegan cream and soy parmesan, I wanted you to see that you can use completely different ingredients and still get amazing results.

Vegan Alfredo Sauce

1 package silken tofu
Chopped garlic, to taste (I like a lot!)
1/4 to 1/2 cup Nutritional Yeast (at your local health food store)
1/2 cup soy parmesan (I love Parma!), or more Nutritional Yeast if you don't have vegan parm
Vegetable broth
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup margarine
Italian seasoning, to taste

Throw everything in a blender, adding the broth and blending until you get the consistency that makes you say yummmm. Tweak to your heart's content. Warm it up on the stove or in the microwave, then toss with your favorite cooked pasta (I used spaghetti). Makes enough sauce to serve four.


The best thing about this dish (other than the fact that no animals suffered to make it)? You aren't left with that super heavy feeling in your stomach like you would with dairy Alfredo. It's filling, but doesn't weigh you down.

I can't wait to see what you all make!



P.S. Is the dish you're making a dessert? You can always use applesauce, a banana, or tofu instead of eggs in baking!

Something for Robert Pattinson to Bite Into April 3, 2009

Posted by Marta at April 3, 2009 5:33 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 10 ) | TrackBack

sugarslam / CC

If there's one thing I like, it's a guy who knows how to work a microwave. That might sound weird, but hear me out. For the past many months, my friend Starza and I have been working hard to bring you PETA's Vegan College Cookbook: 275 Easy, Cheap, and Delicious Recipes to Keep You Vegan at School. Here's the really exciting part: The most complicated cooking contraption you'll need for these recipes is a microwave!

WTF does this all have to do with Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson? Well, as it turns out, the lovely Mr. Pattinson loves microwaves too. According to an interview with Pattinson in the April issue of GQ, "He explains that the place he's staying at in L.A. has a microwave, and that he's never had a microwave before, and that he spends a lot of time looking for new things you can microwave." Including a carrot! Talk about a match made in heaven (meaning Pattinson and the cookbook, not him and me, although now that I think about it ... ).

Anyway, I can't imagine a more perfect gift for him right now than PETA's Vegan College Cookbook, which is exactly why we sent one his way today. After all, the cookbook is perfect for any busy person—whether you're a college student or a movie star. Wouldn't it be awesome if he realized how easy it is to be vegetarian and gave up the flesh?

Now, the cookbook doesn't come out until May, but here's a sneak peek at a recipe you can sink your teeth into right now!

Campus Streaker Sausage Dip

Great for when you're on the run. Guaranteed to turn any party into a sausage fest.

1 (14-ounce) tube vegan sausage
2 (10-ounce) containers of vegan cream cheese, room temperature
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies, undrained

Crumble the sausage as best you can and stir it into the cream cheese and tomatoes until evenly blended. Heat in the microwave for 3 minutes, or until hot. Serve with tortilla chips.

Makes 8 servings.

So, are you as excited about the cookbook as I am?!



P.S. If you're ridiculously obsessed with corny infomercials like I am, you'll love our cookbook infomercial!

Celebrate Chavez Day with Baked Chimichangas! March 30, 2009

Posted by Marta at March 30, 2009 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 5 ) | TrackBack

Growing up in California, I heard a lot about Cesar Chavez—a civil rights activist, labor leader, and farm worker. His birthday is even a state holiday in eight states! Something that is not as widely known about Chavez, however, is the fact that he was also an animal rights advocate and vegan.

Check out one my favorite Chavez quotes: "Kindness and compassion toward all living things is a mark of a civilized society. Conversely, cruelty, whether it is directed against human beings or against animals, is not the exclusive province of any one culture or community of people. Racism, economic deprival, dog fighting and cock fighting, bull fighting and rodeos are cut from the same fabric: violence. Only when we have become nonviolent toward all life will we have learned to live well ourselves." Amazing, right?

So what better way to honor the great Cesar Chavez today than by making delicious vegan Mexican food to share with your family and friends? Burritos, tacos, and nachos are always good options, but I thought I'd kick up the fanciness factor with some delicious chimichangas. Now, chimichangas are typically deep-fried and filled with meat, cheese, and beans, but it's always fun to try vegan versions of dishes that are typically meat and dairy-filled (meaning, dishes people think can't be veganized!), so when I came across this VegWeb recipe for Baked Chimichangas, I had to give it a try (This recipe makes a ton of leftovers, just as a heads-up, but you'll likely eat them all if you're anything like me—they were so good!).

Baked Chimichangas

1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped (I used yellow)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can pinto beans, undrained
1 can diced tomatoes with chilies, undrained
1 can mild chilies, undrained
cumin—to taste
chili powder—to taste
1 cup cooked instant brown rice
1 can vegetarian refried beans
salsa
guacamole
tortillas

In a large saucepan, sauté garlic and onion in 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat until onion is translucent. (Reserve rest of oil for later use.) Add bell pepper, stirring constantly. Add beans, tomatoes, chilies, and spices. Turn heat down to low and let simmer for 15 minutes, uncovered.

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F.

Spread thin layer of refried beans on to each tortilla. Top with rice and bean mixture. Fold each side of tortilla towards each other and roll to form a closed burrito. Brush each burrito lightly with remaining oil.

Place burritos on nonstick or lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown (Marta's note: I only baked for 15 minutes and it was crispy just the way I like it!).

Let cool slightly, then top with guacamole, salsa or any other toppings you like. Enjoy!

What's your favorite vegan Mexican dish? What will you be making in honor of Cesar Chavez today?

(Vegan) Pancake Day! February 24, 2009

Posted by Marta at February 24, 2009 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 13 ) | TrackBack

Oh man, a pancake is one of the most delicious foods ever. Sarah over in peta2 UK wants to share her yummy pancake recipe with ya. Check it out, and get to making your own!
-Marta

The day before Lent in the UK is traditionally known as Pancake Day—yummers! It's a way to use up all your rich foods such as eggs, milk and sugar before fasting for 40 days. In many cultures this also means no meat either! I've already given up all animal products (for more than 40 days!), so I'm just using this day as an excuse to make pancakes for the hell of it!

If you want to make your own dairy and egg free pancakes, check out my simple steps below!

What you will need:

1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of "No Egg" (or equivalent) mixed with water, as directed on the packet
1 cup soya milk (or try rice or oat milk)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Set out your ingredients and combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, and then add the soya milk (or rice milk in my case!) and vegetable oil to the mixture. Warm a pan up with a little bit of cooking oil whilst whisking up the mixture. Spoon one pancake's worth of mixture into the pan. Once there are bubbles in the middle of the pancake, or the edges have stiffened—flip it over to cook the other side. I'm not the greatest flipper in the world, so I cheated and used a spatula (still managed to break it!).


I also decided to put some currants in my mixture. All that's left to do is add your favourite topping (and eat it of course!). Mine is usually sugar and lemon ... but I went with some syrup—yum!! Check me with my vegan goodness:


Are you going to make vegan pancakes? And most importantly, what topping will you use?!


P.S Veganising food is easy—check out some other recipes here.