Vegan Sweet Treats

You may have noticed that there has been a lack of food related entries as of late here. A few reasons for that. First, I have been testing recipes for some upcoming projects for the lovely Isa Chandra Moskowitz (!!!). This is quite exciting as Isa has always been such a favorite of mine. She's written quite a few cookbooks that are essential to any collection such as Veganomicon, Vegan with a Vengeance, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, Vegan Pie in the Sky, and my favorite, Appetite for Reduction. Right now, I am testing recipes for her contributions to the upcoming Forks Over Knives cookbook (her contribution will be low-fat and low-sugar dessert recipes) as well as meals for her latest cookbook that will focus on easy weeknight meals.

I've also been cooking my way through Blissful Bites, the new cookbook by Christy Morgan. Her publisher contacted me to see if I'd be interested in reviewing her book and I jumped at the chance. Christy's food philosophy is very close to my own - lots of whole foods, veggies, fruits and nothing too complicated. The book is amazing and I'll be posting a full review very soon. I'll also be hosting a giveaway for a copy of Blissful Bites, so keep your eyes peeled!

*** Note that Christy's book tour is underway, so if you're interested in checking her out or attending one of her cooking classes, check here for dates and locations! More about this in my upcoming post, just want to give people a head's up. ***

Anyway, it's been nice not having to be too inventive in the kitchen the past few weeks, but the downside is that I don't have any new recipes to post here! So I thought I'd just share some of my favorite vegan treats that I've been enjoying between mouthfuls of Isa's healthy desserts and Christy's healthy meals. Everything in moderation, right?

On my way home from therapy on Saturdays (yes I go to therapy, I'm a real New Yorker now!) I always walk by this statue at the Polish Consulate's building. He looked so chilly on this day, I kind of felt bad for him. I was tempted to bring him a treat to warm him up. Then I realized why I'm in therapy.

Maple Leaf Sandwich Cookies from Trader Joe's. These are one of those "accidentally vegan" products and hot damn are they ever delicious! They are mapletastic and how they make the "cream" layer without using dairy is beyond me, but it tastes really good. They are very bad for you (like 5g-of-fat-in-each-cookie bad), but for an occasional treat they are perfect. I like mine with black tea and soy milk.

BTW, I use a nifty device called the AeroLatte to froth my soy milk when I'm having tea or coffee at home. It's really neat! You just warm up your milk in the microwave, froth it with the AeroLatte, then add in the tea or coffee. It feels more ceremonious and special than just pouring the milk in.  

Cookie Butter. Cookie butter originated in Europe under the name "Speculoos Spread". The name says it all - this is butter made from blended up Speculoos cookies. This stuff was mythologized by vegans because it contains no animal ingredients and vegans in Europe were always bragging about how good it is. When news hit that Trader Joe's was carrying their own version here in the States... well, let's just say if there was a "Vegans Gone Wild!" video series, the camera guys would be provoking us to show our naughty bits in exchange for a jar of this stuff. I have to say, the best way to enjoy this treat is with a spoon. It tastes just like a buttery cookie full of spices like cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. Delightful! It seems now that the original Speculoos Spread has invaded the U.S. and I've been seeing it in my regular grocery store packaged as Biscoff Spread. Do yourself a favor and try it sometime.

ARGO TEA. Has anyone else experienced this magical place? They are only in select cities for now, like Chicago, NY, St. Louis, and Boston, but I anticipate this place is gonna blow up in the near future. It's like Starbucks, but for tea, and way better. There is one near Johnny's school so he took me in one night. I don't know why I was skeptical (probably because it feels insane to spend $4 on a cup of tea), but I was quickly hooked. So far I've tried the Mojitea (an iced mint tea concoction), the Teapuccino (I got it with black tea, soy milk and vanilla flavoring - cracktastic!), and some sort of sparkling iced tea drink. They have sugar-free options for those watching your sugar intake (as I am obviously failing to do), and they have some yummy looking food including several vegan options.  If you're ever near an Argo Tea you should totally check it out. Oh, and they have coffee, too, but coffee is so passé.

Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate Marzipan Bars. I remember one year for Christmas, my Dad went all out and decided to make a cake that was covered in marzipan. He sculpted it to look like a giant present with a red bow and it took him hours! It was the coolest, yummiest thing ever and I've had a soft-spot for marzipan ever since. So when you fill delicious European dark chocolate with sweet almond paste, you really can't lose. This is one of my very favorite vegan candy bars and the best part is that it's so readily available. If I need a fix, I can always find them at Duane Reade or the grocery store.

Enjoy Life Mini Chips. These little guys are the best chocolate chips I've ever had, vegan or not. Luckily for me, they are dairy-free as well as soy and gluten-free. They are great in cookies and baked goods, but you can also just sneak a few from the bag if you have a sweet tooth. I've also melted some in the microwave with non-dairy milk and blended it with my AeroLatte for a perfect cup of hot chocolate.

So there you have it! I'll be back soon with that book review and giveaway!

Vegan MoFo Day 6 - Vegan Package Swap!

Aside from this being the first year I am participating in Vegan MoFo, it's also the first year I participated in the Vegan Care Package Swap! It is hosted by Lindsay over at Cook, Vegan, Lover and to participate I just submitted my name to her back in September and was paired up with someone to swap care packages with. I was paired up with Michelle from lovinlivinvegan and can I say it has just been a joy getting to know Michelle over the past few weeks! Michelle lives in Tennessee and I live in New York, so it's been awesome to compare and contrast what it's like to be a vegan in such different geographic locations. I told her early on that it was so exciting to chat with her over e-mail because I don't even know any vegans in "real life"! She's such a sweetie and I'm sure our friendship will continue even after the care package swap concludes!

I received Michelle's package on Tuesday and it was such a lovely feeling to open up a big box of amazing vegan goodies that were all hand-picked just for me! Here's what I got: a spice mix for roasted veggies and fries; dried mango chips; Yogi Calming tea; granola bites; some crackers from a country store; Vitamin C lollipops; coconut flour; all-purpose sauce; a cute little chick scrubber; and (not pictured) a bag of Sea Salt PopCorners popcorn chips and some Nana's chocolate cookie bars! That's a lot of stuff!

So far, I have already inhaled the entire bag of PopCorners (those things are good!) and last night I cracked open the mango chips, only to find they had disappeared a few minutes later. Who knew dried mango slices could be so darn tasty? I also sampled the Nana's cookie bars - which are vegan AND gluten-free - and they're quite delicious. And the Vitamin C lollipops are so genius - Johnny is battling a cold right now that I don't want to catch and there's no yummier way to boost my Vitamin C intake than by sucking on a lolli. I can't wait to try all the other items, I'm especially excited to try to Coconut Flour and will be hunting for just the right recipe to use it in. 

Thanks so much to Lindsay for hosting and organizing the swap, it's such a great way to get to know a fellow vegan! And thanks to Michelle for being so rad and for sending me such a thoughtful care package! (Michelle will hopefully be receiving her package on Friday, so be sure to check out her blog for her upcoming post! Plus her blog is just really cool to read anyway)

My Favorite Natural Beauty Products

New York City... They say if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. This summer  has been a bit intense so far and we New Yorkers tend to feel the heat more than others because we're actually out there IN IT. We walk here - a LOT - and we take the subway which requires us to go deep down underground where temperatures reach hellish highs and the train seems to suffer from some heatstroke induced slowness of it's own. As Ani DiFranco so eloquently put it, "Back in the city the sun bakes the trash on the curbs, the men are pissing in doorways and the rats are running in herds." It's no joke! 

You can imagine how this all leaves a girl feeling insanely sweaty and grimy at the end of a long day! Thankfully, I've discovered some splendid bath products that will wash the city right out of my hair and off my bod and send it all down the drain.

I've been making a serious effort to transition our household to kinder, gentler, eco-friendly bath and cleaning products. I got the scare of my life by looking up my old personal hygiene products on The Environmental Working Group's cosmestics database. It gives you the 411 on the toxic chemicals we slather onto our hair and skin everyday, many of which have been linked to cancer. I've calmed down a bit since then and come to realize that no product is perfect. Unless I plan to brush my teeth with a twig and sprinkle baking soda under my arms, there will probably always be something objectionable in my daily routine. Regardless, I feel good about a lot of the products I've found that are vegan, don't test on animals, and that contain far fewer chemicals than their drugstore counterparts. Plus, I'll take any chance I can get to buy products from small companies as opposed to huge corporate machines. Damn the man, save the empire! Amirite or amirite? Or amirite?

In my quest, I've used a few shampoo/conditioner combos that left my hair feeling like straw, lotions that gave me an oily sheen, and deodorants that left me smelling like someone on their third day at Burning Man. But after many trials, I located a few products that are FAR superior to anything I used before and I hope to persuade some of you to give them a try!

Shampoo

Giovanni 50:50 Balanced Shampoo

I LOVE GIOVANNI! I picked up this shampoo and some of their conditioner (see below) a few weeks ago at my local health food store and I'm already a devoted fan. The 50:50 Balanced Shampoo smells fabulous, creates a great lather, and gets rid of the grunge without stripping my hair so much that it's dry and frizzy. This one is also suitable for color-treated hair which is rare in natural shampoos as hair color is the devil and no one should be using it anyway. (Though the ever-multiplying grays on my head beg to differ.)

Conditioner

Giovanni Smooth as Silk Conditioner

This conditioner is super moisturizing, but doesn't weigh my hair down. It also smells wonderful and makes my hair very manageable. Giovanni products are made in SoCal, their company is family owned, and they are very conscious of using the most natural ingredients possible. They're available all over the place: Target, Walmart, Whole Foods, CVS, Rite Aid... and with such a reasonable price tag, there's just no reason not to give this stuff a try. You'll thank me later!

Body Wash

ShiKai Moisturizing Shower Gel

ShiKai is like that comfy old t-shirt that you want to wear all the time. You buy other shirts in an effort to mix things up, but you come back to it over and again. Okay, that was kind of a tired metaphor, but ShiKai's stuff is not tired! I have yet to find a product of theirs that I don't like. Their shower gel is some of the only natural shower gel I've found that actually foams up and creates that nice lather that, to me, equals clean. And their scents couldn't be more delish; my faves are Pomegranate and Coconut. YUM! I buy it at Whole Foods, but it's also available at Trader Joe's, Safeway, and lots of little health food stores.

Runner-up: I'm also a fan of Nature's Gate Shower Gels. They aren't as foamy as ShiKai's, but they get the job done. Mango is my favorite scent.

Lotion

ShiKai Hand and Body Lotion

You've gotta get the lotion that goes with your shower gel, right? And luckily there's no need to mix and match here, because ShiKai's lotion also rocks! It's moisturizing without being greasy and keeps the skin oh-so-soft. Pomegranate and Coconut are my faves again, but sometimes I switch it up and use Sandalwood when I have the urge to smell like a gypsy. Ooh la la!

Face Wash

Avalon Organics Vitamin C Refreshing Cleansing Gel

Have you ever wanted to wash your face with orange juice? You may not realize it, but you have. I've struggled with breakouts for most of my adult life and have found that most natural products just aren't strong enough to keep the acne under control. But I've been using this stuff for about a month now and have noticed that my skin is actually clearing up! It seems to remove all my make-up and leaves my skin feeling really clean. And guess what? It totally smells just like OJ! It's amazing. Gonna give the matching moisturizer a try next.

Moisturizer

Alba Botanica Sea Moss Moisturizer

I've been hooked on this stuff for a few months now. I used the matching face wash for awhile, but was still getting breakouts. However, the moisturizer is a different story. It's really light and not greasy at all, but it feels really nourishing. And the idea that it has sea moss in it makesme feel like a mermaid. The scent is similar to freshly washed laundry and after I use this at night Johnny always comments on how good I smell. Score!

Toothpaste

Jason PowerSmile Toothpaste

Confession: I have a really weird allergic-type reaction to most toothpaste... it causes the skin on the inside of my mouth to peel off. Ewwwww.... I know. I was 99% sure it was due to the fluoride added to most toothpastes, so I began using Tom's of Maine fluoride-free toothpaste and loved it for many years. But Tom's of Maine was bought in 2006 by Colgate-Palmolive and I noticed a change in their products for the worse. They started using sulfates in their toothpaste and guess what? Gross mouth peeling business returned!

I since discovered Jason's line of toothpastes which are free of fluoride and sulfates. Happy mouth again! PowerSmile is actually whitening my teeth over time and their Vanilla Mint flavor is like brushing your teeth with delicious icing. No joke. I have to stop myself from eating it straight from the tube every day.  

That's about it for bath and body products. Next on my agenda: I need to transition to natural cosmetics. I have tried a few different products, but find they really don't work so well. Any suggestions my little chickadees? What are some of your favorite beauty products and cosmetics?