The Vegetarian Resource Group maintains an online Guide to Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurants in the USA and Canada. The entire guide can be found here: http://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php
To support the updating of this online restaurant guide, please donate at: www.vrg.org/donate
OPM announced a special Combined Federal Campaign giving period. The Office of Personnel Management has reopened its annual federal giving program in response to the coronavirus pandemic. In an announcement dated April 22, acting OPM Director Michael Rigas said that the web portal for donating via a special Combined Federal Campaign would be open until June 30, 2020, to allow federal employees to donate to nonprofits.
According to the announcement, gifts from federal employees will go entirely to the nonprofit and won’t be subject to distribution fees. The announcement also said that employees who didn’t pledge through payroll deductions last fall can make a payroll-funded donation through CFC. Existing donors who pledged through payroll deductions can make additional donations electronically. See: https://cfcgiving.opm.gov/
The Vegetarian Resource Group maintains an online Guide to Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurants in the USA and Canada. Here are some recent vegan restaurant additions. The entire guide can be found here: http://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php
To support the updating of this online restaurant guide, please donate at: www.vrg.org/donate
Here are some new additions to VRG’s guide (Note: Due to the coronavirus pandemic many are doing take-out and/or delivery now):
Green Gene Vegan Café, 2300 Central Ave. SE, Ste. B, Albuquerque, NM 87106
Green Gene Vegan Café is a restaurant that truly puts growing fresh food and supporting local businesses at the top of their priority list. Most produce used is from their own farm, and the menu is entirely plant-based. They offer American favorites like burgers and hot dogs along with international favorites like Jamaican patties. During regular hours, a Sunday brunch is offered, and they have patio rental opportunities for events. Local’s favorites include the Trinidad Doubles and their hand-made desserts.
Mama Sesame, 4529 SE Division St., Portland, OR 97206
This is a vegan gluten-free Mediterranean falafel café. They have variations on falafel/veggie bowls including the Cardamom Rice Bowl, Market Veggie Bowl, Kale & Beluga Lentil Bowl, and Quinoa Tabbouleh Bowl.
My Vegan Panda, 201 E. 4th St., Santa Ana, CA 92701
My Vegan Panda is located within the 4th Street Market in Santa Ana. Their offerings include panda bowls, banh mi, and their “naughty rolls” that allow you to say goodbye to the days of scouring your old sushi restaurant’s menu for plant-based specialty rolls. Their most popular sushi offering, the Sumo Sushi Burrito, is the perfect example of Asian-Fusion with its spicy jackfruit, colorful vegetables, and fried exterior.
Plant Bae, 175 Lee St., Montgomery, AL 36104
Plant Bae serves “All-American” vegan fare such as nachos, plant-based burgers and spicy chicken, fries, and wings along with in house drinks and desserts.
Sealevel City Vegan Diner, 1015 S. Kerr Ave., Wilmington, NC 28403
From their best-selling Chickpea Avocado Lentil Burger to their aquafaba-topped Sweet Potato Pie, Sealevel City Vegan Diner gives Wilmington residents and visitors their vegan American food fix. Located less than a mile from the UNC Wilmington campus, other popular dishes include the Carolina Dog, Kimchi Tempeh Reuben, and Kale Nachos. About half of their produce is local and organic, and all packaging is compostable. Be sure to check out their Facebook and Instagram pages for daily specials like Strawberry Cheesecake Bars and Homemade Vegan Pimento Cheese!
Square One Café, 185 Jay St., Schenectady, NY 12305
Square One Café is a vegan breakfast and lunch eatery in downtown Schenectady. It is an expansion/reimagining of the owner’s Happy Cappuccino coffee shop located in the same space. They serve vegan takes on classic breakfast sandwiches, bagels, lunch sandwiches, and burgers.
Tarantino’s Vegan, 7960 South Rainbow Blvd., Ste. 8000G, Las Vegas, NV 89139
Tarantino’s Vegan takes traditional Italian American dishes and puts their vegan spin on them. Italian classics like Chicken Parmesan, Caprese, and Lasagna are made vegan with ingredients such as Almond Ricotta, Mozzarella, and Chick’n. Their pasta bar offers a wide variety of pastas, sauces, and vegan proteins to choose from, including gluten-free options. Don’t miss out on their delectable desserts, ranging from Tiramisu to Napoleons to Chocolate Cake!
The Plot Restaurant, 1733 South Coast Hwy., Oceanside, CA 92054
Enjoy upscale food such as roasted cauliflower, sushi, farrow salad, “chicken” and waffles, and polenta with chorizo, as well as desserts including dark chocolate torte, spiced apple pie, and pineapple cherry upside cake.
Ye’s Asian Vegan, 2469 Hilliard Rome Rd., Hilliard, OH 43026
This is a vegan Asian Restaurant with Chinese, Japanese, and Thai Food. There are some interesting items on the menu including Cold Green Tea Noodles and Thai Basil Sauce over mixed vegetables.
Emma Sodie’s vegan journey began when she was 13-years-old. She stopped purchasing and consuming all animal products – meat, dairy, eggs, leather – “and I never looked back,” she stated.
Emma did internships at Compassion Over Killing and The Humane League. She assisted with a MeatOut campaign, volunteered at Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary, and NBC 4 Health and Fitness Expo tabling event. She also conducted research on veganism in local media, wrote articles and created presentations on factory farming, and attended a “I’m Not Lovin It” protest.
While leading her Environmental Ethics club in high school, she screened the movies “Earthlings” and “Cowspiracy.” She also arranged a vegan food tasting at her school sponsored by VegFund. In addition she set-up a meeting with her school’s lunch program coordinator to advocate for more vegan options. They have since added tofu to the salad bar, and made sure that at least one vegan option is available every day.
Emma’s favorite subjects are physics and chemistry. She hopes to pursue a career that helps animals in some way, whether that means working for an animal rights organization or opening her own vegan restaurant.
We had 280 incredible applicants for the VRG Scholarship Contest in 2020. We wish we could give awards to all of these amazing teens. The deadline for applications for 2021 graduating high school seniors for college scholarship awards is February 20, 2021. To see rules and other scholarship winners, go to https://www.vrg.org/student/scholar.htm
To support other scholarships and internships, donate at www.vrg.org/donate
Something about lemon sings of summertime. Think lemonade or lemon vinaigrette on salad. In that cheerful tradition, here is a recipe for lemon poppyseed cookies. They have a bright, uplifting flavor and can pair with iced tea or accent a dish of vanilla-coconut ice cream nicely. Not as heavy as a muffin, they are a subtle, summery finish for any hot-weather meal, and also pack well to take on hikes with family or friends.
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon arrowroot starch (or cornstarch)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup vegan sugar
1/2 cup vegan margarine, softened to room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
Zest and juice from one lemon
1 Tablespoon poppyseeds
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
In a bowl, mix flour, arrowroot, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
In a second bowl, combine sugar, margarine, extracts, and lemon zest and juice. Blend using a hand mixer or wooden spoon until smooth and creamy. Add dry ingredients and poppyseeds, and mix again until a stiff dough forms and seeds and uniformly distributed throughout. If there is leftover dry flour, you may have had a not-very-juicy lemon and might need to add a little water or plain soymilk. Add by the tablespoon until dough comes together; don’t overdo it, this isn’t a runny cookie dough.
Scoop by tablespoon-full onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes, until cookies are firm, edges are lightly browned, and kitchen smells fragrant. Allow to cool on cookie sheet ten minutes before serving.
Feeding 100 people healthy vegan food on a budget was a regular practice for volunteers, including Leigh Harris, at one homeless youth shelter in Utah. For others who would want to plan and execute a similar project, Harris suggested starting with local organizations.
“Start contacting the homeless shelters in your area to see if they have any opportunities for serving meals to a group. And then if you’re wanting to specifically involve a plant-based meal, get involved with the different animal rights groups in your area […] It’s been great getting to involve two passions of helping people and promoting a plant-based diet, so definitely try to involve those in your community who share those same passions and those same views,” Harris said.
After a shelter to work with has been found, 8 to 10 volunteers are needed to complete the meal, according to Harris. She also added that this can be a positive volunteering experience for families, but any volunteer can gain something from the experience.
Additionally, no training is needed to participate as a volunteer, and teamwork “makes it very easy,” for volunteers to prepare food to feed up to 130 people. Different roles are established and filled easily in by the volunteers working on the project, in Harris’ experience.
“People will always find something to do or even washing the dishes is something that is always needed. Then, whoever is serving is usually up front and not everyone serves so there’s kind of a place for everyone during the volunteer time.”
Another role critical to the meal is someone to purchase the ingredients needed for the recipes being made that night. According to Harris, the non-profit organizations will provide the money allotted for that evening and it can take around 15 minutes to purchase the food. When picking ingredients there are several factors the volunteer should keep in mind.
“Some things that we have to take into account would probably be trying to really base the meal off of those staples that we [mention below] and basing it off of more of a whole foods plant-based diet and usually not involving the more expensive meat substitutes and cheeses just because that can get a little costly when you’re feeding that many people,” Harris said.
Some staples that Harris’ volunteer groups have utilized previously are less expensive vegetables and pasta. When feeding large groups it is also more effective to use certain recipes that provide necessary nutrients and exclude complex food products. If a recipe is chosen that usually feeds a smaller group, Harris explained often it can simply be doubled or tripled as necessary. Additionally, a recipe can always be adapted to be vegan.
“On multiple occasions we’ve made different kinds of Indian curry dishes. Things that involve rice, vegetables, and lentils and items with coconut milk to make these curries so fulfilling. [Those] are definitely some staples we use pretty consistently and then of course pasta is always a good one,” Harris stated. “[We] just [base meals] around good vegetables and breads, always incorporating that, [and] sometimes we even make little desserts for the end.”
Overall, an important consideration is to provide “overall nutrients” and “all the good things a well-rounded meal would need.” In order to find recipes that fit these criteria, cookbooks, family recipes, and the internet can be used. One cookbook Harris used is Oh She Glows, by Angela Liddon, and also expressed “the internet is a boundless resource” for finding vegan recipes.
“One of my personal favorites [recipes] that I’ve made, and it was actually my family’s turn to make the dinner, was these stuffed shells. It’s incredibly simple, [and is] not costly. You basically just make the ricotta cheese out of the cashews, following a very easy recipe. [Then] we use some good seasoning and then stuff those shells and kinda pour the marinara sauce over them and then we sprinkle some plant-based cheese on there if we’re feeling fancy and then just bake those. Then just have a nice salad with it. It’s definitely one of my favorites that we’ve made,” Harris explained.
When Harris volunteered, any leftovers were saved and were later used to continue to feed the homeless shelter residents. The entire process of purchasing and preparing the food usually took around an hour and a half for Harris’ volunteer group, and always received positive responses from those eating the final meals.
“We’ve always been pleasantly surprised by just how affordable it is to feed such large groups on a plant-based diet. I think there’s a little bit of intimidation when it comes to feeding a large crowd a vegan meal but I really do think people will be pleasantly surprised. We’ve had a majority of very positive feedback from the youth that reside in the youth shelter and [they are] almost always coming back for seconds or thirds,” Harris said.
The National Restaurant Association Show announced the recipients of the 2020 Food and Beverage (FABI) Awards. These recognize products that are breaking new ground. They said nine of the awards are changing the “plant forward game.” Of interest to our readers may be Beyond Breakfast Sausage, Gardein Crabless Cake, Impossible Pork made from plants, Oatmilk Draft Latte, and Yondu Vegetable Umami. They also included CAULIPOWER Chicken Tenders as plant forward, but said they are from all natural, cage-free chicken, illustrating that plant forward isn’t the same as vegetarian or vegan. So always be sure to read ingredients!
I can’t think of a more perfect book title than Vegan for Life. This classic, first published almost 10 years ago, is a practical handbook for being vegan for life – for your life, for the animals’ lives, and for our planet’s life.
Recently, Jack Norris, RD and Virginia Messina, MPH, RD, extensively updated and revised their book. This revised edition has the same calm, sensible tone as the original edition did. It’s been updated to include the latest research on topics relevant to vegans including fat (how much? What kind?), vitamin B12, digestive health, food allergies, and even lesser known nutrients like choline and selenium. The authors are both vegan dietitians and the book reflects their commitment to honest, evidence-based information.
This is not a dry, nutrition text, however. The authors provide lots of practical information including sample menus, lists of foods, and a food guide. There are also chapters on vegan pregnancy, children and teens, older people, and athletes. The chapter on transitioning to a vegan diet was one of my favorites because of its ideas for simple dinners, packed lunches, and ways to use beans. Even as a long-term vegan I found lots of helpful ideas for fine-tuning my diet.
This book offers resources for new vegans, for those considering being vegan, for vegans of all ages, for seasoned vegans. I plan to urge my local library to order several copies – it’s that good.
Vegan for Life, 2nd edition (ISBN: 978-0-7382-8586-3) is published by Hachette Books. It has 334 pages and retails for $17.99.
Shortly after our post about updated Daily Values on food labels, we got a question from a reader who asked, “The FDA webpage you linked to highlights that the DV for total fat has been updated from 65 g to 78 g and the DV for sodium has been updated from 2,400 mg to 2,300 mg. Do you have any comments on those changes?”
As you may recall from an earlier post, the Nutrition Facts portion of a food label includes Daily Values which are established by the FDA to be used for the labels of foods and supplements. Daily Values are amounts of nutrients that people are recommended to consume or not to exceed each day.
In the most recent update, the Daily Value for total fat went from 65 grams to 78 grams of fat per day. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you need to eat more fat. Remember, in this case, this indicates an upper limit – don’t eat more than 78 grams of fat a day if you’re eating 2,000 calories a day. 2,000 calories is the amount the FDA decided to use as a guide for general nutrition advice.
We wondered why there was an increase in the upper limit for total fat. Some quick calculations showed us that if your diet has 65 grams of fat and 2,000 calories, your diet gets 30% of its calories from fat. If your diet has 78 grams of fat and 2,000 calories, your diet gets 35% of calories from fat.
The RDAs include recommendations for the acceptable macronutrient distribution range (AMDR) – the percentage of calories that should come from protein, fat and carbohydrate. The AMDR for total fat is 20-35% of calories (1). Since 35% appears to be the upper limit, that is likely why 78 grams of fat (35% of 2,000 calories) was used as the DV.
The change in the sodium DV is due to a new recommendation for sodium. In 2019, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, (the non-profit organization that makes nutrition recommendations for the United States) developed a new method for evaluating dietary intake called the Chronic Disease Risk Reduction Intake (CDRR). The CDRR is defined as the lowest level of intake for which there was strong enough evidence to say that above this intake, there is a greater risk of chronic disease (2).
There is strong evidence that reducing sodium intake reduces blood pressure (2,3). The CDRR for adults for sodium is 2,300 mg/d; above this level of intake, a reduction in sodium intake is recommended. This new recommendation appears to be the reason that the DV for sodium was changed to 2,300 milligrams.
As was the case for fat, this does not mean that you must take in the DV for sodium daily to be healthy. It means that you should reduce your sodium intake so that it is below 2,300 milligrams.
References
Institute of Medicine Food and Nutrition Board. Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 2002.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. 2019.
Newberry SJ, Chung M, Anderson CAM, et al. Sodium and Potassium Intake: Effects on Chronic Disease Outcomes and Risks. Comparative Effectiveness Review No. 206. (Prepared by the RAND Southern California Evidence-based Practice Center under Contract No. 290-2015-00010-I.) AHRQ Publication No. 18-EHC009-EF. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; June 2018.
The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public on veganism and the interrelated issues of health, nutrition, ecology, ethics, and world hunger. We have been helping health professionals, food services, businesses, educators, students, vegans, and vegetarians since 1982. In addition to publishing the Vegan Journal, VRG produces and sells a number of books.
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