Vegetarian Resource Group Nutrition Advisor Reed Mangels, PhD, RD, recently updated information in our Protein Content of Selected Vegan Foods Table that appears both in VRG’s book Simply Vegan and online on VRG’s website here: Protein Content of Selected Vegan Foods (scroll down to Table 2 in this article).

You can receive fifteen percent off Snakaroons. Newest vegan snack flavor includes organic dried pineapple with cinnamon and a touch of sweet potato spice, and organic dried mango with hint of lime and jalapeño. Use coupon code VRG at checkout.

For flavors and to order, go to www.thelaughinggiraffe.com/shop

Vegan Flan served at Luna Verde

The Vegetarian Resource Group maintains an online Guide to Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurants in the USA and Canada. Below are some recent additions. The entire guide can be found here: VRG Online Veggie Restaurant Guide

To support the updating of this online restaurant guide, please donate at: Donate to The Vegetarian Resource Group

Here are some new additions to VRG’s guide:

Blinders Burgers & Brunch
6410 N. Durango Dr.
Las Vegas, NV 89149
Try handcrafted burgers along with sides such as rosemary fries, onion rings, and salads. Also enjoy sandwiches, a Mediterranean bowl, and more.

Chef Kennys Asian Vegan Restaurant
6820 Spring Mountain Rd.
Las Vegas, NV 89146
The menu features items which recreate popular meat dishes such as General Tao’s Chicken, Crispy Beef, Kung Pow Shrimp, and many more. In addition, they are offering an all vegan sushi roll menu which has fast become a customer favorite.

Hip Peaz
13469 Wetmore Rd.
San Antonio, TX 78247
Hip Peaz is half restaurant, half deli counter, serving daily specials and selling plant-based meat alternatives by the pound. Owners Leah Drones and Javier Balderas launched Hip Peaz out of a desire to help people transition to veganism by creating comfort-food options with a vegan twist. The eatery offers rotating menu items such as Crasian Shrimp Po-Boy Sandwich, Reuben Sandwich with house-made vegan corned beef, sushi burritos, shrimp, sausage, and duck gumbo. House-made vegan meats such as ham, corned beef, and hamburger patties are also available for purchase frozen.

Luna Verde
400 Main St.
Bradley Beach, NJ 07720
Enjoy authentic Mexican cuisine vegan style! Appetizers include guacamole, pico de gallo, nachos, and more. Also enjoy salads and soups, as well as tacos, burritos, fajitas, chimichangas, and tostadas (some filled with seitan or mushrooms). Dessert options include vegan flan and tres leches (vanilla cake with fluffy cream and strawberries).

Luhv Vegan Deli
Reading Market Terminal
51 N. 12th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19040
Enjoy soup, chili, vegan tuna salad, spinach saffron rissoto, veggie burgers, and more.

Mac and Moon
801 Magazine St.
New Orleans, LA 70130
Mac and Moon is set in the Auction House Market just two blocks south of Lafayette Square Park. The menu includes completely vegan and gluten free options. Macarons and rolled ice cream are guaranteed to satisfy even the most extreme sweet tooth. These trendy items are available in a number of fun flavors. Be sure to check out the picturesque teas as well!

Nature’s Plate
15 Main St.
Keyport, NJ 07735
Enjoy fresh juices, smoothies, coffees, salads, sandwiches, live raw pizza, chili, a nacho plate, brownies, chia pudding, and more.

Salubrious
4306 N. Central Expy.
Dallas, TX 75206
100% organic juices, smoothies, smoothie bowls, and coffee are served alongside paninis and avocado toast at this modern restaurant. There’s also free Wi-Fi and plenty of seating, making this a great study location.

Sassafras Somerville
688 Broadway
Somerville, MA 02144
Sassafras strives to create the most unique and delicious meat alternatives that even carnivores would enjoy. Try the Fried Egg, Filet Mignon, Chick-un Pot Pie, or the Vegan Cheese Pizza.

Whether you live in Baltimore, MD or are just visiting the week of August 17-26th 2018, you might want to dine out in one of the many restaurants participating in Baltimore Vegan Restaurant Week. Some of the restaurants you can dine at include:
The Land of Kush
Stall 11 in RHouse
Harmony Bakery
Donut Alliance
Golden West Café
Little Havana
Joe Squared
And many other restaurants…

For details on special events being held this week and all the restaurants participating, see: https://www.mdveganeats.com/

Thank you to Karen Peissinger for doing a Vegetarian Resource Group booth at the Western New York VegFest in Buffalo, NY. She was able to help youngsters to retirees. Several grandparents picked up brochures to give to parents to help them feed more nutritious food. Karen was able to assist another person who said that she works with children from 6-years-old to 11-years-old and provides them nutritional education. And a Registered Dietitian picked up VRG Spanish materials for her clients.

Thank you to Karen for her great outreach!

This will be a wonderful opportunity to meet other vegetarians and vegans and enjoy 100% plant-based food at Veggie Grill!

The fundraiser takes place on Thursday August 16th, 2018 at Veggie Grill (614 West Diversey Pkwy.) between 4pm and 9pm. You are welcome to join anytime between 4pm and 9pm, so whether you’re an early bird or have to stay late at the office there will be a spot for you! All you have to do when ordering is mention the fundraiser and a third of your purchase will be donated to the museum.

Please share this event and invite your friends and family! Children of all ages are also welcome! Thank you for your support!

See: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vegan-fundraiser-dinner-at-veggie-grill-tickets-48744502118

Former Vegetarian Journal Senior Editor Samantha Gendler shared the following: “Thought you’d like to see this cake my mom made my daughter for her first birthday. There are layers of watermelon covered with coconut whipped cream. The whipped cream is died pink with beet juice. The cake is decorated with strawberries.”

VRG’s Parents and Kids Facebook Group is intended to be a group that offers support for families raising children on vegan diets and for vegan kids. We envision it as a place to get advice about a wide-variety of topics: pregnancy, birthday parties, school lunches, Halloween, non-leather apparel, cruelty-free products, summer camps, and more. Please use it as a place to share your wisdom, seek advice, or just find a sympathetic ear. The goal is to offer support.

Consequently, any profane, defamatory, offensive, or violent language will be removed. Feel free to disagree, but do so respectfully. Hateful or discriminatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs will not be tolerated. We expect that posts should relate to vegan diets and lifestyles. The Vegetarian Resource Group reserves the right to monitor all content and ban any user who posts in violation of the above rules, any law or regulation, SPAM, or anything otherwise off topic.

Recent discussion topics include:
Video of a 3rd generation vegan being interviewed.
How do you give Vitamin B12 to your toddler?
What do you do when your family says you need to feed your child meat?
What is your child’s favorite plant-based vegan meal?
Plus more!

Please share this information with any veggie families that you know! Thanks.

By Angelique Complainville, VRG Volunteer and Amy Dell, VRG Intern

One of our projects with The Vegetarian Resource Group was to film a recipe video for The Vegetarian Resource Group website. We produced a video about how to create a classic French lunch, but vegan. A local school at a church was very kind as to lend us their kitchen for 6 hours (from 11am to 4pm) and we used it as our cooking and filming location. We think that we have picked up some tips and tricks during this day to make shooting a video easier, so here they are. You can also find a link to the video at the end of this article.

Before starting to shoot the video, you want to have a clear idea of what you are going to film: which recipes, an intro, and an outro. We would advise against trying out a new recipe while filming. You should make it at home first just to make sure it works (know measurements, cooking time, etc.) and tastes good.

Communication is also key in the beginning stages of the process. You have to work with your team to make sure that everyone’s input is included, so that the final product can be the best it can be. If you are working for an organization, it’s a good idea to run the outline of the project by your supervisor before committing to anything.

To make filming more efficient, we wrote a script of what we were going to say and the order in which we were going to film the recipes. For example, one of our recipes had a 2-hour cooking time so we decided that we would tackle it first and film the rest of the recipes while it was cooking. We also chose to film the intro and the outro before doing any cooking. That way we didn’t have to worry about it in case we were running out of time after cooking everything, plus the kitchen looked nice and clean. For the intro and the outro, we would really recommend learning/reading your script beforehand; that way you don’t have to film as many takes. But they do make fun bloopers.

After finishing the script, we made a shopping list of all the items we were going to need to purchase as well as all the utensils we needed to bring. This is especially important if you are not cooking in your own kitchen and it might not have what you need. Here is what I learned from forgetting a key ingredient: make a last minute checklist of everything you need to bring and make sure you have everything before leaving. My mistake was forgetting to check the freezer. Also, this might seem like a no-brainer but make sure your camera is fully charged and bring your charger just in case. A tripod could make filming easier especially with the intro and outro. Ours was broken so we just used what we had on hand to create a makeshift tripod.

If you don’t have a camera, you can use your phone or ask family and friends if they have one you can borrow. It’s a good idea to do this well ahead of time so that you have time to find what you need. If you’re contacting a business/organization to use their kitchen to film, you also want to do that well ahead of time to make sure they still have a date available, and make sure to allow more time than you think you’ll need, just in case something goes wrong.

We would recommend having at least two people when making a recipe video. While one is cooking the other one can be filming. We took turns so both of us would be in the video. That being said if you are by yourself we really think that having a tripod would be really helpful to get nice shots.

To make editing easier, don’t film everything. For instance, if you have to chop a lot of veggies, just film yourself chopping one and explain in the voice-over how many you actually need to chop. The video would be very long and quite boring if it showed all the process. That said, make sure you don’t skip any key parts in the recipe.

When editing, you can also speed up the chopping and preparation of the ingredients. This makes the video quicker and holds attention better. Try adding music to the background so that the video is more interesting.

Last but not least have fun while filming, and experiment with new filming techniques and different angles. You can also choose to talk while filming or record a voice-over as you are editing the video. I would definitely recommend filming more shots that you think necessary so that when you are editing you can pick your favorite ones and delete the blurry ones.

This is a fun project to do as part of an internship, or just because you want to share your vegan recipes with others. You don’t need fancy equipment or a professional kitchen to make a recipe video. Anyone can do it. As long as you enjoy yourself, this is a worthwhile project!

You can watch our video here: https://youtu.be/vmRhqpU9f8I

By Keryl Cryer

I’ve watched enough baking competition shows to know that it’s hard to perfect French macarons – those round, meringue-like, and often brightly colored sandwich cookies served at bridal showers and tea parties. Now, imagine what it must take to develop comparable vegan and gluten-free versions. Not only has Mac & Moon conquered this remarkable culinary feat, but its ‘karmacarons’ are gaining momentum in notoriously decadent but historically vegan-inhospitable New Orleans.

On a recent trip home, I visited the upscale Auction House Market food court and made my way to Mac & Moon’s counter against the far wall. Within a glass display case, I discovered a pastel confectionary rainbow, with salmon-hued Strawberry Cheesecake, golden Champagne, viridescent Matcha, and delicate Lavender. Not surprisingly, it was difficult to limit my selection to the half a dozen that packed my purple takeout box.

My favorite varieties were the Mojito, with its vibrant lime filling, and the Cherry Pie, which had a prominent fruit flavor and a drizzle of white icing on top for a finishing touch. Still, there was not a bad variety in the bunch. The Tangerine Dream delivered a refreshing citrus burst, while white nonpareils and a festive blue filling livened up the Birthday Cake. The Cookies & Cream was notable for its prominent vanilla flavor and cookie-flecked filling. Even the pale blue Plain Jane was patently delicious. Maybe the next time I’m in town, I can sample other recipes featured on Mac & Moon’s Instagram, such as Red Velvet Cake, Lemon Blueberry Basil, Hibiscus, and the recently added Chocolate Caramel Pretzel.

A word of caution for those with nut allergies. Like many other macarons, all of Mac & Moon’s varieties are made with almond meal. That doesn’t mean you can’t indulge there, though! Mac & Moon offers ample nut-free options, all of which are vegan and gluten-free. If you need to cool off from that infamous NOLA humidity, you can choose among milkshakes, frozen teas and lemonades, and jasmine rose bubble tea. Mac & Moon has also embraced crazes like rolled ice cream and bubble waffles, both of which contribute to endless combinations of sweet possibilities.

Mac & Moon’s home, the Auction House Market, is conveniently located on the corner of Magazine and Julia Streets in the Arts District (formerly the Warehouse District). It is mere blocks of the National WW II Museum, the Contemporary Arts Center, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the Louisiana Children’s Museum. (It’s also only one block from my favorite vegan-friendly Big Easy eatery, Carmo.) In addition, it is only a short streetcar or taxi ride from the Superdome, the French Quarter, and many downtown hotels.

While the Auction House Market is open from breakfast to late night, Mac & Moon’s hours are more limited. You may want to contact Mac & Moon’s owner, Kristina Ostrom, at 504-323-9727 or [email protected] about that day’s hours, as well as questions about wholesale orders and catering.
Also see: https://www.instagram.com/macandmoon/