Author Archives: Jennifer

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Hello everyone! I can report that Alexa and I doing very well and are safe from the big blizzard. We never lost any power, and personally didn’t have any flooding issues. The storm was really bad for the coastline in South Jersey, with flooding that is worse than Sandy. Hopefully the response will be faster than Sandy was. I haven’t ventured out of the house much yet, and I have a feeling the snow distribution will be weird. There are so many mini snow dunes in my development, and one car is covered in snow, while the other is pretty much untouched!

So I put together some articles I found interesting this week, and hopefully you can agree. I didn’t have a ton of articles so I am reverting to my old school way of formatting with pictures and all.

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Why I Went Vegan

There really isn’t anything earth shattering, especially for vegetarians, and vegans here. But I was really excited to read an article on a major non-vegan platform- The Kitchn. There is a series of articles being published as well, like “what do I buy now?” and “what do I eat?” sort of posts. Hopefully this gives a nice transitioning olive branch for people who are thinking about going vegan. Sometimes us vegans and write and write and write but if we keep networking with each other, there is a good chance we aren’t reaching as many non-vegans. So I find this exciting.

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Buffalo Bills Just Hired Their First Female Coach

I think I’ve linked an article before of how the cardinals hired the first ever female assistant coach, Jen Welters. She was only hired for an “internship” and isn’t working anymore. And now the Bills hired Kathryn Smith, and hopefully she will stay around longer than a summer. But even still I’ve been noticing more and more females in football advertisements outside of hot chicks and cheerleaders. There are more women in the Play 60 commercials, which is great. I know my one cousin really liked playing flag football, but surprise, her mother encouraged her to play more “female” centered sports. Football might not be the perfect sport, but I do see positions that women can excel in.

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Long Thought To Be Extinct, Bizarre Tree Frog Surfaces in India

This is really exciting news, a revival of an extinct species. This isn’t the first time, as I love the story about the kakapo (which is like a cute chubby fluffy dinosaur, in my opinion.) But what makes this story super interesting is that scientists think that they never noticed this frog because their tadpole phase could go on for years. This is another case of how we have to much to learn about animals in their natural habitat.  Which brings me to the next article…

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Danes Say Zoo Dissections Fit With Country’s “Very Honest” Parenting

The Danish get a lot of criticism about their zoos, and I do feel a little bad. Zoos put animals to sleep all the time, they just aren’t coming out about it. I do think in someways it is good for the vegan movement. The public rarely sees an animal butchered, and therefore find it disgusting. But I think if you are going to eat meat, you have to stomach it otherwise you are a little hypocritical.I also take faith that kids do listen to their hearts, and even the reporter speculates that these dissections could spark interest with kids in animal activism. I think these dissections are examples of showing that zoos are not natural places for animals, and another example of humans creating new “animal” problems.

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Consoling Voles Hint at Animal Empathy

A new study shows that animals might be empathetic. Seems a little silly, but it is hard to determine different emotions objectively. So scientists construct really weird experiments to try and prove different emotions. Feel free to read, but this experiment does involve distressing and hurting voles.


Why Are Vegetarians Annoying? (An Exploration of a Cultural Rift)

Hank Green has done a few videos about vegetarianism, and I have to give some respect to him. Sadly the comments are full of the same ol’ same ol’ “how can you tell if a person is vegan” jokes. Basically Hank Green admits, he is a little selfish for eating meat, which I totally respect. Very rarely do people come out and say this. There are tons of excuses that give me a big roll of the eyes, bacon, its for my health, it isn’t natural, blah blah blah. And Green is right in saying that we need to draw a line sometimes in the things we do. I would go out of my mind if I questioned every single item I bought in order to live a guilt-free, cruelty-free, sweat-shop-free, lifestyle. I also look at this video as a way to try and live my life less judgmentally, even if everyone else is judging me (which seems likes like a pretty conceded statement, but man reading those comments, people do judge vegans.)


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Alexa is ready for the snow!

Hi everyone. I feel like I am failing blogging in 2016. The main two reasons is that one week I went to go visit my Grandfather in Florida. He hasn’t been in the greatest health lately, and even has been in a hospital for most of December with a bad case of clostridium difficile, which I read about in this article about feces enemas. Anyways, we booked a trip for the weekend to visit him once he got better. Let me tell you that trip was EXHAUSTING! I kid you not when I say it was non-stop socializing affair. It also was a humbling experience, I am so picky about the quality of my food but I had to take a deep breath and think about why I was there. I did NOT do any research about vegan friendly places. And I messed up. I eat out so little I forget what things are usually not vegan, like onion rings. But mistakes will be made, and I am just glad I don’t need to eat (crappy) salad again for lunch AND dinner.

All week I was trying to catch up on things from the previous weekend, and then the weekend after I went into NYC to celebrate Alexa’s birthday. It was tons of fun, except the karaoke bar that Alexa booked didn’t put in her reservation for the right day. So we had to book it to someplace different that wasn’t BYOB. Our bottles of soju got opened, and confiscated. No big deal, it was like $10. I was tipsy, and doing fine, then when we leave the guy hands me an open bottle of soju back… which was nice but I had no idea what to do with it. I was drunk enough to think chugging it would be a good idea. Uh… wrong. I quickly got super drunk, I am so glad Jon was with me because I don’t remember much from that night. And I had the worst hangover all Sunday, it even lingered into Monday morning. So let’s just say I was pretty frustrated with my very stupid decision. I should of asked that nice guy to just dump the stuff.

So I have a bunch of articles that I wanted to share over the course of several weeks. So sorry that the list is so long. But I need to break the silence on the blog. I hope everyone had a better weekend than me! I will also have some reviews on some restaurants from Disney and NYC.

Health

A cool study on the effects of ultra marathoners

Women’s health is being ignored because of fat-shaming

I have to agree with this article- don’t join a gym.

I was thinking about making an exercise post like this, but this person got it so right.

People are surprised that I am not anti-GMOs. This article kind-of breaks down why, it is hard to define GMOs.


Extreme health diets are not new. Not saying everyone doesn’t have a grain of truth to their statements, but always use your brain. There is a lot of room food various types of food in your diet.

Veganism

Gina from the Full Helping has some great tips on how to transition to a vegan lifestyle

Scientists Have Found Evidence That Fish Have Feelings Too

There is a Buddhist monk in South Korea making the most amazing looking vegan food

This is an interesting article about some of the not so great representation of veganism.

Other Stuff

If you already know that tardigrades don’t care, then you will find this article about tardigrade stealing DNA cool

I have totally forgotten to share this awesome blog post about ethical fashion by Annika.

Here are some badass women you probably didn’t hear about in 2015

This house is crazy awesome

Rolling Stones released this bizarro interview with David Bowie and William Burroughs


This video makes me so sad to see all this wasted food.


Hey guys, I’ve sort of fallen behind in December with posting my daily photos. So here are the rest of the photos of 2015. I decided to not do a photo a day for 2016, but I am hoping to start it up again in 2017. I need a little break, that’s all. Anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed this little challenge.

Day 332: Jon loves his little Giant gingerbread man. Too bad the Giants aren’t doing so hot this year, not that Jets were any better.

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Day 333: I was feeling the holiday decorations and took some photos of my festivity deers.

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Day 334: Snapping some of the sparkles on my railings.

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Day 335: Someone’s cat was walking around and I tried busting out my telephoto lens. This little cutie had some crossed eyes.

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Day 336: Tried taking some photos of some Canadian geese that were resting in the little man make ponds in my development. They apprently didn’t like my presence and flew away.

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Day 337: Still taking some photos of the plant life.

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Day 338: Target had the most sparkly wrapping paper. I thought my nieces would love it- apparently not. On Christmas day they declared it TOO sparkly. Oh well.

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Day 339: Jon went to Wordcamp (a convention for WordPress) for work, and got an extra ticket from one of his co-workers. So I was able to go on Saturday. We sat through a few lectures, then went to HipCityVeg, then to the art museum. The museum had their Christmas decorations up, and a chorus singing throughout the museum. It was pretty amazing.

 

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Day 340: Pine Trees.

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Day 341: Toulouse is snuggling in the bed blankets

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Day 342: Some fungi growing on tree stumps at my work

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Day 343: I didn’t notice until now how many times I took photos of these gifts. I just really like how they turned out. Sadly the light in the house wasn’t so great at capturing their sparkliness.

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Day 344: A photo for my gift guide on vegan books.

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Day 345: Oddly things are still blooming. I knew if I didn’t snap some photos I would regret it.

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Day 346: No photo this day

Day 347: This is the first year Jon and I live in a house/space big enough for our own real tree. We went with his parents and Jon cut down the tree himself.

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Day 348: Taking some photos of Rebel drinks, this one was awesome but not vegan. They have others that are, so I eventually went out to grab more.

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Day 349: Some plants are still kicking it, so I figured I would take some snaps before they all die.

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Day 350: Because December was so mild in weather- or extreme in warmth, there were still flower blooming!

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Day 351: Another angle of the same flower, kicking it the next day.

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Day 352: Took a photo of the cookies I baked to review Vegan Cookies Invade Your Jar.

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Day 353: Finally there was a sunny day so I could let lots of light in to take a semi-decent photo of our fully decorated Christmas tree.

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Day 354: Jon really likes bears. One year I made a instagram photo shoot of all the bears on our tree. Sometimes I can’t stop taking photos of them

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Day 355: Another ornament.

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Day 356: Got this cool nut cracker from my boss who was emptying out his attic. It belongs to his parents and he never put his Christmas stuff out, so I snagged them

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Day 357: Photographed this weirdo retro santa mobile I got from my boss

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Day 358: For Christmas Jon’s father built us a new bookshelf just for our cookbooks. Isn’t that sweet. We actually have extra space so we put our Christmas cards up there.

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Day 359: Got my Petit Vour box for December and I took some photos for reviews. I only have the blush paper to try out

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Day 360: No Photo for this day.

Day 361: My housing development is right next to a water treatment place? Not really sure what it is, but there are huge round towers and lots of barbed wire. It was a pretty gloomy rainy day so it seemed appropriate to get some emo barbed wire shots.

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Day 362: I found some Nitro infused coffee at Whole Foods and will be writing a review about it soon

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Day 363: More gloomy skies for gloomy shots.

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Day 364: I made some Curry Ramen Hot Pots and took photos to post the recipe on the blog.

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Day 365: No Photo for New Years Eve. Whomp whomp.


2015-1

Boy I am horrible at keeping up with my book reviews! I don’t read much, but I always seem to take awhile to actually write my book reviews. And then when I finish the review, I’ve read yet another book to add to the site. Well, I finally completed my reviews of the rest of 2015. I am usually good about writing reviews for winter reading, so if you want to see what I read last year around this time, check out my Winter 2015 post.

As for reading, it was my goal to try and read less comics in comparison to novels and non-fiction. I kind-of failed but that is mostly because I tackled on a really long novel- 480 pages, which is a long book for me. I have always been a slow reader, and always enjoyed shorter novels and short stories instead of long epic novels. That is probably why I like modern literature over some of the classics. The overall theme this time arounds? Booze and animals.

What I am Currently Reading

Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu – I love Junji Ito’s horror comics, in fact he is the first manga I picked up to read. So I was excited to see that he wrote a comic about cats, and it is oddly suppose to be funny not scary.

We Always Lived in the Castle – I saw some blogger drop this book’s name (I can’t even remember who) so I thought yeah why not? Spooky house? Weird families? Yeah I’ll check it out of the library!

What I’ve Read

2015-2

Eating Animals

Eating Animals starts as a memoir of Jonathan Safran Foer relationship with veganism and vegetarianism. Bouncing in and out in his youth, which I can relate to. I was vegetarian in middle school, then vegan in college, but truthfully I would “treat” myself to certain non-vegan foods whenever it meant my only option would be a salad. But the book quickly turns and talks about factory farming. It is a pretty hard read for me personally since I became vegan without the horrible videos and gruesome nitty gritty details about how the meat industry worked. I honestly just had the “feels” that there wasn’t any ethical way to mass produce meat. Add in health and environmental reasons, it sealed my fate as a vegan.

The book works on many levels, memoir, poetry, and investigative journalism. Majority of the book revolves around the author visiting many different styles of farms. Factory farms, slaughter houses, and those small ethical farms. There is a thorough investigation about the smaller farms, the places that people grasp so heavily to for ethical treatment of animals. The book talks about why those farms are in jeopardy of going out business, despite having eager consumers.

What I like about this book is that it goes into the grey areas that many vegans avoid. Will people ever STOP eating animals? Probably not, at least not for awhile. So should we conserve energy to get people to stop eating meat or getting more ethical treatment for animals? Can you do both?

This book isn’t a piece of journalism. Yes there are facts, there is research, and much more. But Jonathan Safran Foer places a lot of weight and emotion into the book, which to some might be impossible not to. The books conclusions are very much his thoughts. Sure you as the reader will come to your own conclusion, I’ve know a person who read the book and has made no changes to their diet or practices with animals. Was that because the book came off too preachy? Or was he so un-judgmental that people found it easy to ignore his message? I think the ideal audience for this book is either the already vegan, or the person who is already somewhat invested in where their food comes from.

Paper Towns

I like picking up young adult fiction from time to time as an easy read. I enjoyed reading The Fault in Our Stars, and saw the trailer for the movie for Paper Towns. The trailer looked very fun and made the Paper Towns story more fun and uplifting than The Fault in Our Stars (or at least a different type of uplifting). The story follows Quentin, a teenage boy living in the burbs of Florida. He has been holding onto a crush for the girl next door, Margo. She’s popular, adventurous, and beautiful. One night she comes knocking at his window, and the two sneak out for an late night adventure. The next morning Margo goes missing, and Quentin makes it his job to find out where she went.

There are some things I loved and somethings I found annoying in the book. The slang used by Quentin and his friends sounded a little forced, and perhaps that is just to emphasis how painfully uncool the guys are. But knowing when I was a teenager, I would of found this language embarrassingly bad, and would have a hard time getting past. But there are somethings Green hit right on the head, like the social boundries falling down at the end of senior year, that new found freedom of owning a car, and friends being kind-of jerks.

As an adult there really isn’t any new profound meaning to take home, but as a teenager, I think I would of taken a lot of good advice. There is more to people that what you can see on the outside. And this largely why many people “break up” or relationships don’t work out. You might feel like your know this person you have a crush on, but there is only a certain side to our personality that we share with people. I wasn’t too fond of the ending, but I won’t go into the spoiler details. I do know that John Green addressed they did change some parts ending in the movie, which I think are for the better (I haven’t seen it yet, but I have my hunches about what it is). But it is a quick read and was still really good.

Watership Down

I saw a trailer of this movie from Criterion Collection and thought it looked cool. Added the book to my To Read list on Goodreads, and kind-of forgot about it. But I was scanning my bookshelf to pick the next book to read and saw the title! My husband took a lot of the books from his Grandmother who use to be an English teacher. The book still has the envelope in the back for students to check it in and out of the school library, which was kind-of cool.

It took a long time to read since it is much longer than what I am use to, 480 pages, when I normally read things that are 300 pages or less. I knew the book was about more than just rabbits, in the same way Babe is more than just a funny pig. I figured the book is a classic for a reason. I thought it might have a hidden “save the environment” or “respect the animals” message, and it kind-of does. The story paints a picture showing that animals can be more complex than we think. The author has done a lot of research on rabbits and their habits, so in some way we do get a great view of how an animal thinks. The book does show how humans shape animal’s lives. The rabbit’s home are destroyed by humans, they are constantly in fear of being killed by humans. But they still have some sort of understanding of our habits and will steal our produce from farms.

But this book isn’t about rabbits- it is very much about humans and the nature of war. Why do people go to war? How do we react to our homes being destroyed? What do we look for in our leaders? The story even touches about dictatorships and folklore. Many very “human” characteristics are given to rabbits but we never forget that the book is about rabbits not humans. What makes the book so brilliant is that by making the story centered around rabbits instead of humans, we as a reader can step back and think about war without any cultural constraints.

2015-3

Bee and Puppycat, Vol. 1

For my niece’s birthday I was trying to find some comics for her. I wanted to try and find some that weren’t based on super heroes. I am big fan of alternative comics, so I searched around. I randomly found Bee and Puppycat, and I loved the cartoons, so why not? I read the book before giving it to her and dubbed the books not very kid friendly. Some bits were a little confusing and the story had QR codes part of the plot. A cool thing, but I knew they would need the help of their mother. So I kept it for myself ^__~

The collection of comics are by various artists and writers so they quality changes a lot. But in some ways I like seeing the varying art styles and story lengths. What does stink is that because there are different artists working on the books there isn’t an overall theme or story arc. If I remember correctly there was even a story ending with “to be continued” but doesn’t get finished in this volume.

But I do think the stories capture the feel of the cartoon. The stories really utilize the comic medium well, which can be hard when making adaptations to an animation. It didn’t feel like they took the character from a cartoon and plopped them down on paper. I could imagine the voices of the characters and the movements that would be represented from the cartoon. I think this is a great comic for anyone who like the show, and it is fun for people who haven’t seen it as well.

Creepy Comics Volume 2: At Death’s Door

I picked up this book from my bachelorette party. Alexa wanted to check out her old comic book stomping grounds. The staffer suggested this collection since I said I liked Japanese horror manga. The book is throwback to the old Creepy anthology. The comic started in 1964 and ended in 1983. The series were black and white comics and came in magazine binding, with Uncle Creepy introducing all the stories.

The relaunch in 2007 keeps to the basics. Comics are still in black and white and the stories are still introduced by Uncle Creepy. What makes this comic collection so interesting is that there is a huge variety of artists working on the same book. Some are drawn in a very mainstream style that could be found with superhero comics while other stories have a much more indie vibe. For example Red Knife by Emily Carroll is an excellent comic with a loose narrative. Her panels weren’t always defined and the ending was open ended (but still creepy!)

The stories do truly change up a lot in artist style and subject matter. Some were very modern, some tried to give campy throwbacks, some had existential themes, some where creepy facts, and one took place in an ancient tribe. Because of this some stories were hit or miss. I think overall, the stories were pretty good, about 50% I really thought were solid stories that stood out. The stories were good enough that it makes me want to pick up another issue.

Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal

I originally picked up this book as a birthday gift for my niece. Both of my nieces have been reading more superheroes books and watching more shows. I am a little disappointed (and so are they) about the lack of female super heroes. So I picked up Ms Marvel. What I enjoyed about it is the representation. Ms. Marvel is Kamala Khan, a muslim girl living in Jersey City. Then she graced by the “superhero gods” who give her special super powers. She is now the new Ms. Marvel.

The book is really a coming of age tale, focusing on two struggles with Kamala. She is a muslim growing up in American, trying to find a balance between her culture and fitting in the United States. Her parents are strict, and want her to stay faithful for her heritage and religion. But Kamala is currently rebelling, wanting to go to parties and wear “normal” clothing. The second half of her struggle is trying to balance her new powers. Controlling her rubber hand can be difficult, and she isn’t always successful with her plans.

I found the story decent, but it is much more of a story for a teenage kid. I got it for my nieces that are much younger, kindergarten and 2nd grade, but I think having an adult read the story to them is fine. There were only a few refrences that might need to be censored for kids. What is nice about the book is that it can be saved for when they get a little older. When they can read it themselves, they can appreciate the message about growing up and peer pressure.

If you want more, I suggest checking out Idea Channel’s review/overview of Ms Marvel and how her representation is important for media.

2015-4

Let’s Bring Back: The Cocktail Edition

Let’s Bring Back is pretty straight forward, the author Lesley M. M. Blume shares many vintage cocktails and how to make them. The book is less about technique and types of glasses and more about looking into the old cocktail culture. She usually gives a recipe with a cute little blurb of history, or a quirky reason to have the cocktail (celebrating something? need liquid courage?) This isn’t a book you just read cover to cover, but is more about flipping the book open to a random page to read.

What makes the book weird is that it walks a fine line of expecting you to make drinks from the book, and doesn’t. Many ingredients are left with their old name swedish punsch, vichy water, and cake of ice, things that aren’t so easily googled. There also isn’t an index which can be a bummer. If I have some absinthe and are looking specifically for cocktails that use it, I would have to search through the whole book, rather than to look it up in the index.

What is nice about the book is the variety of cocktails. So many! You can try and mix and match all the various liquors you have in your house. The drinks also don’t use that much alcohol so you can drink more often. I do know I have a heavy hand with the bottle, but I do think cocktail culture today is a little too much booze. You don’t need to be hammered each time you drink, and the smaller size lets the drinker actually enjoy a cocktail. My only complaint would be that there need to be less vermouth. Goodness did people love to drink vermouth! It is pretty much the only liquor that is hard to store since it is suppose to stay in the refrigerator.

If you have a friend who is into vintage clothing, antiques, and historical novels, I would highly recommend buying them this book. The cocktails vary greatly from time periods, and gives people authentic drinks. I might consider buying this book for myself to refer to for making drinks on the fly at parties.

The Drunken Botanist

I bought this book thinking it would be great inspiration of centralized around making cocktails from fresh plants. It did inspire me with cocktails but in a different way. The book centers around the various ways that plants are used in drinks. She starts but covering the various plants that are used in the fermentation process, and all the different ways a certain plant will get used. For example she talks in detail about agave plants and the differences between mezcal and tequila. She also covers more unusual plants like sorghum, cassava, parsnip, and bananas! What I found most helpful are the fancy differences between various brandies, vermouths, and the like.

The second part of the book is about the plants used in flavoring in a liquor. Amy Stewart breaks down the chapter further by centering around specific plant types, herbs, trees, fruits, etc. This helped breakdown and decipher all the different liquors and gives the reader a better idea of what are some good replacements. As some people are aware, unlike food, booze rarely needs to list ingredients. This can be problematic for vegans and people with allergies. The last part of the book is about the plants in actual cocktails (think the mint and lime in the mojito.) This part was rushed through and I wish Stewart made it longer. She leaves the last chapter a quick “inspiration” on how to incorporate plants into a cocktail, rather than give examples of cocktails that use specific plants (though specific cocktails occasionally sprinkled throughout the book.)

I personally loved The Drunken Botonist, it really gave me some inspiration to try new liquors. I learned the history and the importance of some of the drinks that might not be so popular today. But mostly the book makes you revel in the awesomeness that are plants. So many flavors, so many ways we found to highlight their flavors. Vermouth, brandy, wine, all made from grapes but they all taste remarkably different.

I checked this book out from my library and it is definitely on my list of books to add to my library. I can easily see myself taking this book out over and over again reading inserts from it. I am sure there are more definitive books about the topic, but this one is an easy read.


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Happy New Year everyone! I love January since it gives a nice resting period after the crazy holiday season. Once all the hustle and bustle of December is done, it gives you a chance to reflect and set new goals. I know a lot of people dislike the idea of a New Year Resolution, and I usually agree with those ideas. I mean if you need a change in life, why wait until January? Some of the things I want to work on I’ve already started in December, but I now have the time to focus on them.

But I always like seeing blogger reflect over the year, and making solid lists of goals. I especially like it when they make a list and write about what they did and didn’t get done. With that in mind, I will copy and paste my goals from 2015 and write if I was successfull or not.

Drink Less Booze – Hmm… I think I failed this one. I am pretty sure I drank more booze than I did last year, BUT I did change one important thing- I am drinking less beer because I’m bored. I think the year before I was drinking it too often before dinner when my husband was working late. I didn’t like that. It felt like I was hiding beer bottles because I felt bad that I was drinking more than him. Now it doesn’t quite feel that way, but I am still drinking on a fairly daily basis. It won’t last… but I won’t go into that just yet.

Run and Workout More Often – So this was also a kind-of fail. I was doing pretty good for awhile, but then when I moved I messed up my foot, putting the whole exercise thing on the back burner for awhile. Pretty much this is a repeat goal for this year.

Kick the Coffee Habit – Yey! Something I accomplished! I still probably drink more coffee than what I pictured when I first set the goal, but I don’t feel the NEED to drink it like I did last year. I drink often, but I don’t noticed when I don’t drink it, which was what I was hoping for. I think a lot of the reason is that I stopped drinking the beans from Starbucks. I swear they add caffeine to their coffee.

Read 16 Books (with less comics) – I set a challenge on Goodreads for 28 books (16 books + 12 cookbooks) and I failed. I read a total of 17 books, 6 comic books, 3 cookbooks, 2 food-humor, 3 non-fiction, and 3 novels. You can see the summary on Goodreads.

Have a Cup of Tea Each Night – I know why I set this goal, less binge eating at night, and I think I am worse than ever. Time to reset that goal.

Pay More Attention to Vegan Clothes and Beauty Products – I have to say I am doing really well with this. I have gotten a lot of new lip balms that have beeswax from Christmas gifts, but some I gave away. I have been much better at checking companies and ingredients before heading out. I even like getting some of the beauty boxes, and will have a review for Petit Vour soon.

Start taking a photo a day – I didn’t REALLY get a photo a day, but I didn’t do too bad. I missed some days, and I fell of the wagon towards the end of December. But I will add the photos from last month soon, but you can see the other photos with the 365 2015 tag. Truthfully I was thinking about doing it again this year but my new place is very boring. Yeah I get lots of light, but I don’t walk around as much as I use to, and the area isn’t as dense with cool things. It feels a little devoid of life and the roads are packed with fast cars. Maybe next year.

Get Out of My Apartment – Accomplished! It is a little sad that we didn’t get a single family home and got a rowhouse in a development, but you gotta start somewhere right? I am a little sad but I am a little relieved to not have to worry about lawn maintenance… yet. We are working slowly to make our house look and feel like a home, and it is slowly growing on me. 

Goals for 2016

Work out More Often

As mentioned before, I wasn’t doing so hot with my working out in 2014, and I was doing pretty well in 2015. I was a little stressed with trying to balance my new schedule and finding a new house. Then I kind-of started to hurt my foot, and it was all down hill for the move. I just started to get back into the swing of things in December. My general goal is to work out 4-5 days a week, two days strength training, two days running, with a floater day to pick and choose a workout. 

Start Practicing Yoga and Meditating

I hear so many people saying how much meditating helps keep them grounded. I am feeling pretty overwhelmed by new home, and oddly the “calming” enviroment makes me stressed! I feel like people have new obnoxious driving methods, it takes forever to drive places, and the walk and run anymore is unpleasant. I think meditating and doing yoga will help me out. I am trying to do Yoga Camp on YouTube, and I really like the instructor. I am only on day two, and I technically started to do the challenge that was done last year, before hand. I am already starting to really enjoy it, and her methods. After yoga camp I might just do meditation, but I haven’t decided.

Stop Late Night Binge Eating

After moving I really got worse with my late night binge eating. I am not even hungry and some nights I went to bed felling like my stomach would ooze out if I felt asleep on my tummy. I don’t like feeling this way, and I am not burning calories to need all this food. I am trying hard to listen to how much I want to eat, and to not feel like I always need to snack. I am trying to drink more tea, and keep better entertained. Really focus on what we are watching, or do something else other than watch TV, play a game, color in a book, read a magazine, etc. Otherwise I am great at listening to my body during the daytime.

Read 28 Books

I set the goal last year, and I want to stick to it. I think last year was a flop in part because I tried to read a book that was almost 500 pages! Ack. I am a slow reader, so that took most of year to read. I also stopped reading and reviewing cookbooks the way I use to, so that kind-of took away from my overall numbers. So I want to get back to that.

Start trying to get pregnant

Cats out of the bag! I want to have a baby. It seems weird for me to say it since so many blogs I follow are run by people who don’t want to have kids. Sure there are some with children, and I get both ends of the spectrum. In fact I am kind-of in the middle. My husband and I decided we would start the journey of trying conceive, and I am not sure if this will be a fast or slow process, nor do I know how much I am willing to try and get pregnant. But the important thing is that we are starting the journey.

Buy a second couch

Oh such a materialistic goal. But I think it is a good one. We currently have once couch and it was donated to us from my boss, who was getting rid of some of the crap her ex-husband left. At the time our current couch had a broken foot, and I was tired of Jon trying to periodically fix it. Now that we have the space, we would like two couches because 1) we might get a third human 2) sometimes we both want to read a books in the living room 3) we both want to stretch our legs at night. 

Hike More

I want to hike around more, and I don’t have any specific goals like “hike x amount of miles” or “do a trail once a month.” I know that it needs to be somewhat organic, for example I wanted to hike on New Years Day, but it has been so rainy the past few days that I thought it would be a muddy mess. We now live a little closer to Wharton State Park so we might try longer hiking trails, and maybe travel up north more often for different trails.

Visit a new vegan restaurant with Alexa once a month

Alexa doesn’t know this one yet, but I want us to hang out more. I also want to try more restaurants. I don’t eat out often, and sometimes I feel bad for not supporting local businesses. So I want to make more road trips into New Jersey, and post them in the blog. Maybe check out a few new places in Philadelphia too. Overall I am hoping to eat out with Alexa 12 times this year… so cross our fingers.

Watch a Movie Once a Week

I’ve probably mentioned a few times on the blog that I went to college for film and digital video. My husband went to school for screenwriting. You would think that would mean we watch movies all the fucking time, but we don’t. Jon really likes watching TV Shows, which is the medium for screenwriters. I miss watching movies, and I want to take the time to watch them much more. Perhaps I will post a small review each week with Sunday Reading post, to keep me on track.

Start working towards the goal of being a Dietitian or Wellness Coach

So my Mom and Aunt mentioned I should look into becoming a dietitian, and it actually has been something that I’ve been wanting to do for awhile. I’ve waffled back and forth with it just because I was a little scared of what the clientele would look like. But I am  slowly finding out that I know a lot about food and nutrition to the degree that it is starting to bother me I can apply it something. I am in the early stages of trying to figure out what type of certification I want, and it might be a process that will take 2 or 3 years, but you have to start somewhere right?

Alright guys, I hope I didn’t bore you too much. What are the goals you are aiming for this year?


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I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas or a happy holiday. I hardly consider Christmas a “christian” exclusive holiday since most of the traditions are not rooted in the birth of Christ. And there are many books and articles written about how Christmas is pretty much a bunch of pagen celebrations that no one would give up, so they tacked on the celebration of Jesus Christ part, and made it okay to celebrate.

Now that Christmas is over I have been mulling over a few things. What I want to do with my life, different aspects of veganism, health, and whatever else. And I figured I would share what I have learned this year for Christmas, then eventually my New Years Resolutions/Goals.

1 I need to clear up what vegan means

I noticed what I got for Christmas this year has shifted. Clearly people are getting me things that they thought were vegan, like my sister got me some nice beauty products from a hip brand in Brooklyn called Flynn & King. Most of their products are vegan, except the lip balm (beeswax), which my sister got me (she also got this cool soap, which is vegan). I have also gotten some foods that I think people picked up THINKING it would be vegan, but they weren’t like candy cigarettes. Which is a bit of a bummer since you just check the ingredients it would be quick to see that there is cow gelatin in it. Sadly no chocolate, which can be somewhat easy to find vegan.

So most everyone is starting to understand what vegan means, but it is the uncomfortable transition to non-food items. Leather, fur, suede, beeswax, wool, silk, alpaca, and so on. I am pretty lenient on certain things. Like I am keeping the non-vegan lip balm since I already used it, and they used locally sourced beeswax which is better than nothing. But truthfully now that I am starting to use more vegan products I am learning that beeswax is pretty shitty. 

2 My Family now remembers I am vegan, this is good and bad

I’ve been pretty much vegan for 3 years now. The first year I went back to veganism I let some things slide with family, like my Aunt bought me a special quiche since there wasn’t anything vegetarian, and I felt pretty bad for it. I was still transitioning out of seafood and eggs so I figured I would let it slide. My Grandmother was shocked that I was vegan (or vegetarian) even though I kind-of dabble in and out for a few years before. The next year, I made something, and yet again my Grandma was shocked to find out that I was vegan, even though I was a year ago. At this point I was pretty strict and got my shit together. This year, my Grandma FINALLY remembered, though my Aunt still hasn’t figured out the difference between vegan and vegetarian and I had to decline her special meal she made for me. But now everyone is assuming I am “so healthy.” Which is funny since my husband yells at me when I make some vegan mac and cheese, and how I am always craving ice cream. Health is relative, and I wish people didn’t look at my food as healthy, it isn’t. I use oil and whatever else that most people use.

The other downside is that my Father remembers that I am vegan. That means he doesn’t touch my food anymore. Ugh. I’ve tricked him into eating vegan donuts and vegan lasagna (he had no clue we was eating tofu, his mortal enemy!) Now he introduces my food as “vegan” instead of names. It is also worth noting that my Father has a very weird relationship with food. He eats like a 5 year old, and loves meat and grease. I think he is the main reason why I never liked steak (he did a poor job cooking it.) So I need to be stealthy about my food, maybe hand off to my sisters to bring into houses instead of me so my Father doesn’t know who cooked what. I get a little petty when people don’t eat my awesome food.

3 Vegan food isn’t global and therefore diverse

One thing I thought about a lot was what Jon and I do when we travel abroad. Part of me knew we could be vegan, but I was scared it would mean not being able to try some of the local foods. But over the year I have followed so many different blogs and everyone really has their own local vegan cuisine. There are so many guides on how to eat vegan in certain cities and the food looks truly unique from American food. Heck, I can noticed a different between West Coast veganism and East Coast veganism!

Even countries that I wouldn’t think that would be all that different seem to have their own flair. Like some Australia blogs pop out new recipes I’ve never heard of. There are foods I never thought was particularly American end up being so. And there are some countries that are actually naturally vegan friendly like Taiwan, which is high up on my must visit list now. I think I might make some exceptions if I was in a jam while traveling, but it seems like I could still plan ahead of time and still be pretty darn happy.

4 I really miss spontaneity

I have to admit, I miss not thinking about food all the time. Going to a party? It would be nice to never have to think about what to bring. Going out, it would be nice to just walk into a place and “try it out” rather than looking at what is vegan friendly before hand. Yes, there will always be a way to get a vegan option, but sometimes it is nice to go into a vegan restaurant and know I can try ANYTHING on the menu, and not have to ask no this, sub that, etc.

If someone would ask me what I miss most about going vegan it would be spontaneity. Never having to question your products. And I guess the end goal as a vegan would be that everything would be friendly for the animals. But that isn’t how the world works now. It stinks that I have to think out what I can eat before heading off to a restaurant, or ask a million questions before hand. Things are changing and I know it is much easier now than say 10 years ago.

5 My kids will grow up to be freaks

I was checking my social media feeds since I had the time, and found this picture on Instagram. A kid who is straight up PUMPED about chlorella tablets. I love sea greens, and I know most people don’t love spirulina. It is an acquired taste, and kids that grew up on spirulina loved it (I know my friend Devin loved them when he was a kid). And I know my kid will not be the “norm” if I choose to have one.

But then again my 5 year old niece loves shoes and still freaks out when she gets them for her birthday or Christmas. No joke, this year she opened the gift from Jon and I (these shoes by the way) and proceeded to put them on, and prance around the living room. I also use to love drinking carob soy milk, so I guess every kid will get excited about their own thing.

6 My relationship with desserts is frustrating

No, I am not talking about a fear of eating too much dessert that I will get fat. It is more complicated and annoying. I love dessert, but I need to be in the right mood, and I need the right dessert. I don’t like how most Americans make sweets so sugary. Then there is the whole vegan issue, and I have learned that vegan baking is pretty easy. But no one puts there effort, and I kind-of understand why. Lots of people just buy a pre-baked goods, there are classic family recipes, and people assume that to bake something vegan, you need special “fake” stuff. Which is mostly true.

BUT here is the problem, I like baking, I like certain sweets, but I HATE coming home with a whole cake. I made a whole bunch of cookies, probably gave away 60% of them, but now I have tons of cookies. Not too big of a deal, just send them to work with Jon. Then there is the pudding cake from Oh She Glows. It was pretty good, but no one touched it at the one family Christmas get together. So we have a full cake, and I don’t want it. I am all desserted out. So I think I come off as a “health freak” to family and friends

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7 Boxed Gingerbread Houses suck, but I knew that anyways.

My husband said he never decorated a gingerbread house before and it is kind-of of the things I grew up doing. I know Gingerbread Houses aren’t something most kids do, truthfully. At least to the extent that we did. Yes we did the graham cracker houses when we were low on time, but we have baked our own gingerbread and put together our own houses. Those are the best.

But I haven’t tried making vegan gingerbread yet, so I am a little nervous how it would turn out. So the other day I passed by a Chanukah House and laughed at how little effort was given to hide it’s “stealing” of Christmas traditions. But as I mentioned, Christmas isn’t Christian to me so I am not judging. I bought it since it looked vegan (I am not use to reading labels with so many bi-products and dye names) and we made it. 

Our house looks like shit. Yeah, super horrible. Part of the problem is the garbage frosting. It was way too thick, it wouldn’t stick to the cookie, and the bags were chunky making it impossible to pipe. How do people use these things? Plus everyone has questioned my motives of eating it, because taste isn’t the number one thing with these kits. So now I am not sure what to do with this ugly house…. I don’t even want to eat the much better tasting cake I made let alone crappy cookie. **NOTE I tried the house, it actually was pretty good for a hard biscuit cookie.

8 My Mother is horrible at buying gifts

We aren’t getting any Shamwows from my Mom, she actually is very good at buying thoughtful gifts. She is just bad at communication, and there are almost always doubles at Christmas. In fact, I can’t remember the last time we haven’t gotten duplicates. This year was pretty bad, though some of it was on our end. I got a whopping 3 double gifts! It usually works out fine, like returning the gift, or in this case, giving away the extra copy of Vegan Richa’s Indian Kitchen.

But here is an example of the crazy Mom gift buying escapades. My older sister was trying hard to get this creepy unicorn doll for my niece. It was apparently one of the few things she asked for Christmas. But the doll was backordered and it didn’t look like it would arrive in time for Christmas. In a panic my sister tried to buy the doll from another supplier. Both dolls arrived in time, and SURPRISE! My Mother heard my sister talk about how she was concerned about not getting the doll in time so she bought one too! It is thoughtful, and not totally her fault, but now there are three creepy unicorn dolls.

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9 My Cat is the fuzziest

As a semi gag, I put on the Lil Bub Yule Log video on Christmas morning as we were getting ready to go to my sister’s house. We had a ha ha moments then mostly ignored it. Then we noticed Toulouse started to watch. She jumped on the TV stand at one point and sniffed the TV, looked behind the TV, then eventually sat on her pillow and just watched the TV like we would. It was probably because the video had a loud purring that she must of liked, but it felt a little bit like we helped give a little Christmas gift to her.

10 How did I live so long without a tofu press?

I just got one for Christmas and it was awesome. So many wasted paper towels, and the tofu still didn’t get as pressed as using a special device. Sold!


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The other day I was at Whole Foods looking for some Eggnog, they were all out. I was a little crabby because that was pretty much why I went there. So I handle it the way I always do, grab a fancy as fuck drink. I love liquids, something about slurping up a liquid really makes my tummy happy. I also am a sucker for trying out new flavors and companies. I happen to notice a matcha latte, grabbed it and went to the register.

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It has been awhile since I’ve had a matcha latte since it is something I kind-of have to make at home. There aren’t many vegan matcha latte, which then prompted me to flip to read the ingredients- NOT VEGAN. I do that often when I am hungry, as it happened with Califia’s Protein Drinks (which are now vegan). Luckily it was only honey in the matcha latte, which isn’t the worst considering I still have some mixed feeling about honey consumption (I try to avoid it, but my husband doesn’t so it kind-of sneaks into my diet from time to time.) I am pretty bummed since tea drinks love using honey, and it has been proven that it doesn’t have any special effect on your blood sugar levels short term.

BUT the drink itself was amazing. If you are a “plant based” vegan and will still eat honey, I would recommend this drink. There are tons of flavors going on, and the coconut wasn’t overpowering. I loved how much you could taste of the plants in it, and reminded me of the matcha spirulina shakes I have for breakfast. Well, that wasn’t too far off since there is spirulina in the drink as well.

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Since it was so good I went to the Rebbl website to see if all their drinks had honey. Turns out that they only put honey in their matcha latte and turmeric golden-milk. I noticed they had some maca drinks which I haven’t had any maca in a while, and boy do I love it. I am haven’t had it in a while since of the insane prices that happened last year. So I was irresponsible and ran back to the store after work and grabbed whatever they had- maca mocha.

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Let me say this is super amazing. I think I will be poor because I want to drink this all day. There is no coffee or cocoa (or not much cocoa) in the drink, which I think gives it such a great flavor. They use chicory root, which is known in the USA in the south to be mixed with coffee during rations. Carob has a reputation of being crappy fake chocolate, but I like its richer flavor, especially with savory flavors.

I am really liking these drinks and the company seems pretty awesome as well. They seem to trying and make sure all food is fair trade, and they donate 2% of the sales to Not For Sale. I hope I will be able to try their maca cold brew, reishi chocolate, and ashwagandha chai. I am bummed about the use of honey in their matcha latte and turmeric golden-milk since I liked the matcha, and the turmeric drink looks pretty tasty. I really hope they change the recipe at some point, but for now I’ll stick with that maca mocha.

*NOTE* After writing the rough draft I went to Whole Foods AGAIN and found the reishi chocolate. It was awesome as well, and pretty much satisfied any chocolate milk cravings. The drink was super decadent and would probably taste great if it was gently heated to make a hot chocolate. Although it was super awesome, it was a dynamic in flavor as the matcha or maca mocha drinks.


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With the Christmas season here, there is a good chance you are making cookies. And I thought it would be a good time to try out a bunch of recipes from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. It is a classic vegan cookbook that covers the topic of… well… cookies. It goes a little further covering bar cookies, brownies, and biscotti. Some of the cookies I made for christmas, and some I’ve made in the past for daily eating.

Photos

There are lots of photos in this book, I would say about half of the cookies have a photo. All are well lit and beautifully photographed. All the cookie photos are places on brightly colored backgrounds, making the photos very kid friendly (which let’s face it, we all remember the joys of cookies as kids.) There are enough photos to spark the reader in making new cookies, but I do have a problem. There are a few cookies that are nicely clipped to have white backgrounds and randomly show up in recipes. For example the Mexican Snickerdoodles show up in the recipe for Chocolate Marmalade Sandwich Cookies. At first I found this confusing, until I noticed the same cookies photo appearing over and over again.

Set-up

The book starts with some cookie basics which truthfully I skipped. I started to read it, but it can be painfully boring to the seasoned vegan baker. BUT it is filled with important information to a new baker. For example, I think my husband could read it and feel more confident about the different flours out there. There is even a section that have various troubleshooting situations. So if your cookie doesn’t turn out right, you can fix it.

They divide the cookies up by drop cookies, wholesome cookies, bar cookies, fancy cookies, and roll and cut cookies. When flipping through, it is easy to go from one section to another without ever noticing. I think this is true for all of their baking books. I am not really sure if I care too much about having “sections” or not. 

Writing

The book has the usual fun writing styles of Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. They really make you feel comfortable with baking, and make veganism seem less exclusive. They also make you smile for the “fancier” cookies, they aren’t that hard, you got this. The directions are easy and to the point, making it easy to tell if I need a stand up/hand mixer or just a big wooden spoon.

Overview

I love this cookbook. All these cookies have been winners, though I wish or rather could see this book being much bigger. Compared to the vegan pie in the sky and the cupcake take over the world, I feel like there are SO many types of cookies that I wish this book could be just a little bit bigger. There seem to be a large amount of drop cookies that used oatmeal. There also aren’t many of the classic Christmas cookies that you might find with Christmas tree decorations, or other classic cookies I grew up with. I know they can’t cover ALL cookies ever made, but I feel like there are so many that aren’t easily interchangeable like how a cupcake can be paired with different frosting to make a new flavor.

But everyone loves the cookies I’ve been making, and there are so many new inventive flavors. Carrot cake cookies? Grapefruit? Tahini lime? And out of all the cookbooks there are the least amount of “weird” vegan ingredients. Meaning I would feel pretty comfortable giving these recipes to an omni baker, who wouldn’t have to go out and buy new ingredients.

Below are all the cookies I made from the book- which is a lot. They are so good, and I recommend buying this book for any vegan who needs to make cookies from time to time.

Continue reading


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Some of the problems with Christmas shopping as a vegan you kind-of get stuck with the issue of how “vegan” does my gift need to be? I am always grappled with the problem of balancing ethics with what other people want. If my sister wants leather shoes, do I get it? What about a BBQ cookbook? I don’t try and SELL veganism with my gifts, but I try and make sure all my gifts are vegan themselves.

Well, I am working on a gift giving guide, and this time I focus on BOOKS! Some books are pretty good for people who aren’t vegan themselves, but may have a little bit of a vegan agenda to them. Hopefully you might end up solving one of your gift problems with this list.

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Do Unto Animals – $14

This is definitely the book for your animal loving friend. When I first heard of this book I knew I had to own it. Your friend might not be vegan, but maybe they work at a stable, take of animals on a farm, volunteer at a shelter, work at a zoo, or is that crazy cat lady. Hopefully these passionate passages will inspire your friend to get rid of meat and dairy from their diet.

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Vegan Tacos – $16

I recommended this book since it actually made it on my sister’s wishlist on it’s own! This is a great way to get people to go vegan since it provides a hearty medium to eat vegan food (a taco shell!). Let’s face it, when people first go vegan, they don’t know what to eat, so they think salads. These tacos are fairly omni-friendly, though there are some recipes for fake meats and cheeses.

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The Taco Cleanse – $13

Got a friend who won’t stop dieting? Well hopefully most of my readers know that diet culture is a sham, and that’s why I LOVE this cookbook poking some fun at this whole detox culture trying to hide healthy with loosing weight. All recipes are vegan and are great for your body. And I can assure you this will be a much more fun detox than a juicing cleanse.

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Eating Animals – $12

Do you have a friend who is waffling between being vegetarian or eating meat? Or maybe your friend has taken up the habit of buying only organic, free-range, ethically killed meat? Well Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer might be the book for them. Jonathan Safran Foer explores the meat industry, but not as much of factory farming as the smaller farms that are trying to treat animals well. It is a great book about veganism, but is written by a fiction writer, giving people the chance to read the book openly.

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Salad Samurai – $13

Omni friends and family will love this book. I originally got this book for my mother who said she wanted to eat more veggies. Being the stealthy vegan me, I got this book thinking “doesn’t have vegan in the title, and Terry Hope Romero is a great cook.” At the time my Mother lived with my sister while relocating for jobs, and my sister liked the book so much she proceeded to buy it for herself. So yeah, Terry knows how to get people pumped for salads.

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The Drunken Botanist – $14

I like to drink, I will admit that. But it actually took awhile for me to get into cocktails, it is so confusing and many places make drinks that taste more sugar than booze. The Drunken Botanist explores cocktails at their root ingredients- plants. Beer, wine, vodka, bourbon, and booze in general doesn’t come off a vegan thing, but this book makes you realize how plants shape our drinks.

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Vegan Richa’s Indian Kitchen – $14

Another cookbook for omni-people. We all know that the vegan lifestyle seems to heavily base itself on the food. It will make a bigger impact overall. But Western cuisine isn’t very vegan friendly. But getting Vegan Richa’s Indian Kitchen helps the transition. For starters, Indian cuisine can be very vegan friendly to begin with, so newbies won’t be weirded out. The food is also packed with flavors, are super easy, and doesn’t have a crazy ingredients list.

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Babe the Gallant Pig – $7

Got some grandkids? Nieces or nephews? Want to slowly brainwash them to join the vegan army? Well you can start with Babe the pig. I remember reading this in grade school and talking about how the author conveys a vegetarian message. You could buy the movie, but kids need to read more anyways, right?

 


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I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I made WAY too much food and had leftovers for the past few days. I was pretty excited when I was able to use my leftovers in a recipe, like mash potatoes and leftover seitan roast for a curry shepherd pot pie (which might be a recipe for the blog!) I already got most of my Christmas shopping done, but I am still looking around for some good stocking stuffers.

If you are vegan trying to give out gifts it can be hard to balance what people want, and what your dollars are going towards. Or perhaps you are a non-vegan trying to figure out what to get for your vegan family/friends? It can be tricky since not everything is vegan when it seems that way. So I plan on making a few little shopping guides on vegan gifts. This post I will covering stocking stuffers. The goal, listing fool proof or almost fool proof vegan gifts. They are also trying to be under $10 per items (preferably closer to $5 and under) and they should fit in a stocking (duh)

Petit Vour/Vegan Cuts

I like getting Vegan boxed sets because you get many small things at a discount. I personally got a few months worth of Petit Vour and plan on dividing it up between my sisters for their stockings. Petit Vour has a $15 monthly subscription box that has super high end beauty products. I like getting this since my sister like higher end beauty products. Vegan Cuts has a more expensive subscription box, but you get more in it. They also have one for beauty products and one for food items. The downside is that the food box tends to have a few foods that might not be a “snackable” or might not fit anyones taste. For example sometimes they give away protein powders, which might only be appealing to someone who is very athletic. But they have many other seasonal boxes that you can get, and you get a full list of packed items so it might be easier to buy one box and divide up between family members.

Magazines

I like buying magazines for everyone’s stockings. Everyone has hobbies right? I’ve gotten knitting magazines for my Mom, literature magazines for my sister, and even special edition Star Wars magazines for my brother in law. Check out a local bookstore and check out their selection. I usually can find something for everyone. 

If you are looking for vegetarian or vegan magazines, there are a good bit in print. I would go in and check out the magazines that are grouped in the cooking section. But if you need to buy something online you can check out VegNews, Vegetarian Times, Vegan Health and Fitness, Chickpea, Driftwood, and Vegan Life.

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The Perfect Nut Butter Scooper

Everyone will love this. I remember getting it in my stocking one year and thinking it was lame. BOY WAS I WRONG. It is just the perfect shape and stiffness to scoop out peanut butter and spread it around. It gets enough suction to make it scoop up every little morsel. After getting this I pretty much was able to get every little gram of peanut butter from the jar. It won’t be a stellar choice at first, but it will be the most memorable gift in the end. Seriously, get it off of Amazon.

Candy

No one likes getting too much candy. So I try and keep it simple- one big candy bar. I personally like Go Max Go Candy Bars. They are all vegan, and are similar to candy bars we grew up eating during halloween and after school. They have a location search engine on their site, so you can see if there any stores near you. Natural Candy Store has a whole section for vegan candy if you want to place an order online. Amy’s Kitchen now has a line of candy bars, two are vegan- the Dreamy Candy Bar and the Sunny Candy Bar. Another easier to find chocolate bar is the Endangered Species Chocolate Bars. Try and stick with dark chocolate and the “creme filled” chocolates. There are lots of chocolate bars that are vegan, just flip to the back and read the ingredients. It the ingredients have milk listed in the allergens, put it back on the shelf. But if it says “may contain traces of milk” then you should be fine since that means it is made in a factory that processes dairy and there may be cross contamination.

Tea and Coffee

This is kind-of fool proof. Aside from that crazy poop coffee, all coffee should be vegan. Try looking around for local coffee shops and roasters for a unique stocking stuffer. Almost all teas are vegan, though occasionally there are non-vegan flavorings added to it. But for 99% of the time you should be safe. Just stay away from bee/honey related products, they tend to be popular with tea drinkers. If possible go to a local tea shop and ask for suggestions and say you need dairy-free and honey-free gifts. Also check out small samples of teas instead of the big bags. Lots of online shops have the option, even small boutiques.

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Novelty Socks and Undies

Okay so this might seem like a weird one, but I love getting socks because I can’t remember the last time I bought socks. lol. Most novelty socks are made from a blend of cotton and synthetic fibers, making them almost always vegan. I quick search on Target gives you lots of ideas of fun socks you can get. Getting goofy boxers and underwear can seem a little too personal, so use your judgment if it seems weird to get that person them. Target makes a lot of crazy looking boxers including Star Wars, sriracha, and surfer santa ones. Apparently women’s underwear is called panties– if you need to find some fun one for your lady.

Small Bottles of Booze

Most liquors are vegan, so buying a fun little exotic liquor can be a nice little stuffer. If you aren’t sure which ones are vegan, download Barnivore to your smart phone and search brands when you go to the liquor store. It isn’t easy to tell which are vegan since most of the time companies use filters that use animal products. But there will still be plenty of different things to choose from. You can even get small bottles of wine or a single bottle of beer. Quick cheat sheet- these are common non-vegan liquors: fireball, baily’s, almost anything with cream in the title, anything with honey in the title, oyster stouts, milk stouts, mead, campari, XO VS & VSOP brandies, eggnog drinks, godiva liquors, pinnacle vodka, pucker vodkas, and svedka. This is just a quick cheaters guide, remember to check barnivore for specific beers, wines, other liquors.

Ornaments

I love have a billion very different ornaments on my Christmas tree. And most are vegan and under $10. What should you look out for? Well you might want to stay away from felted animal ornaments, as there is a good chance they might be made of wool instead of a synthetic fiber. Rarely materials like leather are used in ornaments, but feathers are much more common especially with birds. If your friend/family member really like a rare show, you could always commission Alexa do paint an ornament for you! She has a few examples on her instagram account, but you can purchase it online on her etsy shop.

What do you guys like to put in stockings?