Meet Draculara, the Vegan Vamp

"Mom!! MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM! Come quick, look!"

My 8 year old daughter was watching T.V, and excitedly informed me "Look, she's a vegan, too!" pointing to the trendily dressed vampire on her morning cartoon, Monster High. 

HOW COOL. I love watching veganism going mainstream! I LOVE Draculaura. And I want a doll. 

Here's Draculaura's bio: 

Draculaura — daughter of Dracula. She is a vegan vampire, abstaining from any blood. She is hemophobic, being unable to even say the word "blood" without feeling faint. According to her biography, she is 1,599 years old. She has a pet male bat named Count Fabulous that Draculaura dresses up in pink clothing. In the books, she goes by a more normal name, Lala. 

Name: Draculaura (Daughter of Dracula)
Favorite Food: I'm a vegan, no icky blood for me, so it's fruits, vegetables, and a lot of iron supplements.
Pet Peeve: The lack of vegan selection in the Creepoteria is so sad.

Draculaura is the brainchild of Mattel, and now has her own line of EVERYTHING - dolls, stationary, cartoons, music, clothes, costumes, games, etc. 

Check her out! http://www.monsterhigh.com/bios/draculaura

The whole series is super veg friendly. Here is an example: DIS the DISSECTION! 

xo,

Sarah 

Happy Valentines Day!

So, I've totally overindulged in chocolate today! Yum, and uggghhhh. I came across a posting for vegan(ish) peanut butter cups a few days ago, and became crazy obsessed. Resses be damned!

What better timing to cater to my not-infrequent-enough- choc-o-holic-whims then V-day? Hey, I'm single so no flowers for me, and I'll drown myself in sugar if I wanna! I set to work. Unfortunately, I am a typical over-planner, and get overwhelmed and rush my projects. In between painting my daughters room (with eco-friendly paint of course!), vacuuming the sand out of my car, turning the seriously overripe nasty bananas into oh-so-yummy muffins,  and dodging  "mom, mom, MOOOMMMM!!"s, I decided to make these treats. WHAT WAS I THINKING?

All the recipes I looked at were amazing, beautiful, and decadent. But I'm a mom - an insanely busy one- and I just wanted some dang PB and chocolate! Is that sssooooo much to ask?

I cheated.

And you know what? They were gooooooood. So good in fact, I almost did not share this with you because I can now so easily fake my non-existent confectioners talent with these.

Here's the secret:

Take a mini muffin pan
Put 1 Tbsp. chocolate chips in the bottom of each cup (please use liners. Do as I say, not as I do.)
Put in the oven for 2-3 min (I had mine set at 350 because I was baking)
Take out of oven
Put in a dollop of your choice of filling (I used Dandies vegan marshmallows - YEAH, baby! And PB)
Cover with another tablespoon or so chocolate chips (this isn't rocket science)
Put in the oven for 2-3 min
Take out of oven
Swirl chocolate to make it look pretty
Place in freezer
Take out of muffin cups
EAT IT and LIKE IT.

If you know me at all, I don't apologize for my food. But, I am sorry. These are so ugly. I forgot to take a picture of the pretty ones, and by the time I went to do so, they had all vanished! :-D

xo,
Sarah

Valentines is Coming!

Valentines Day is Monday! I am not big on celebrating this holiday, and one year tried to convince my kids that it was an unimportant holiday. We had recently become vegan, I didn't really think about getting vegan chocolates, and I was in a very idealistic place, not wanting to contribute to a "Hallmark holiday", encourage the kids to consume junk, etc. BIG FREAKING MISTAKE. Though we had talked about it, my kids were devastated when they woke up that morning and there was no candy and trinkets - I am a bad mom, so I didn't even make a card. It was tears and "don't you love us?" all morning! Talk about feeling like crap.

Lesson learned. Here is their gift this year:

Above: Go Max Go Jokerz Bar 

Sjaaks Chocolate Heart of Cherry, Peanut Butter Bites, and solid Dark Chocolate Heart 

Go Max Go bars come in four flavors! 

All Go Max Go candy bars are covered in our signature-recipe rice-milk chocolatey coating. Light and lovely, it makes dairy-milk chocolate positively passé.

When your idea of the perfect candy bar is all about peanutty goodness, then we've got you covered. If layers of dry roasted peanuts, buttery-tasting caramel, and rich peanut nougat, sweetly wrapped in a delicious chocolatey coating sounds like a little slice of heaven, then smile, the Jokerz™ bar is for you!

How does a rich, fluffy, chocolatey nougat covered in a creamy chocolatey coating sound right about now? If you can't answer because desire is consuming you… aye matey, 'tis aBuccaneer™ bar for you!

Now imagine that rich, fluffy, chocolatey nougat topped with a layer of thick, buttery-tasting caramel all wrapped up in our very own creamy, rice-milk chocolatey coating. If this gives you sweet dreams of good taste, then the Twilight™ bar is for you!

If you crave a gently sweetened coconut candy bar topped with three whole dry roasted almonds and covered in a luscious chocolatey coating… hang loose, the Mahalo™ bar is for you!

Yeah.... YUM!! 

They are carried at most Whole Foods stores, and here is a list of other locations: 

http://www.gomaxgofoods.com/where.htm

TOTALLY WORTH IT!! 

Sajjaks makes various vegan chocolates, and they are DE-LISH! Chocolate and PB? Yes, please! They have seasonal treats, and a bunch of vegan options. Watch out though, because not all their products are vegan (I thought they were, and ended up buying treats for my office).

They can be purchased at some Whole Foods, and many natural foods stores and Co-ops. If your local stores don't carry them, they have a request form available. Of course, they can also be purchased online! 

xo's and chocolate,

Sarah

Kids Perspective - a follow up to Have a Heart

I recently wrote about our struggle with dissection in school: http://growingvegans.blogspot.com/2011/01/have-heart.html

The outcome was that my son decided to observe the dissection. I bit my nails all day at work, anxiously awaiting for his report on the lesson. When I picked him up, he said "WOW! That was the coolest and most disgusting thing I have ever seen!!" Hmmm... not so much the reaction I was expecting. What was I expecting? Remorse. Horror. Scarring. But you know what? He's 11. Things like this are cool when you're 11. As ethical and thoughtful and empathetic as he is, he's still a kid.

We talked about his feelings about participating - he felt bad for the animal, but didn't feel terrible about participating. I asked him if he thought he learned more, less, or the same than if we had decided to learn about it at home, online, and by making a model. His answer? "Way more mom, because everyone was excited to learn 'cause that was cool".

So when he wrote this a few days later, I was somewhat surprised. I asked him why the change of heart (pun intended) and he looked downcast, saying "I don't want to talk about it. I just feel really bad about what I did".

When this comes up again (it will next year), I think I will handle it the same way. It's not perfect, but it's true to who we are. It's my job to help him make good decisions, but at his age, it's up to him to carry them through. I'll have him re-read what he wrote, encourage him to remember why we're vegan, and let him make his own decision.

Here is his post:
www.growingvegan.blogspot.com

Dissection

OK one thing every vegan on earth worries about dissections at school. We did that in class a week ago, I had a raging battle inside my conscience over it but in the end I did it. I will NEVER do that again. Next time I might walk out of the classroom if I have to. anyways I wish I hadn't done it.

-Dylan

xo,

Sarah

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Under "Growing Vegans".

xo,

Sarah