LexVegFest (October 1, 2016 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at 2312 Palumbo Dr, Lexington, KY 40509) is the first annual VegFest in Lexington and central Kentucky sponsored by GA Sanctuaries and Housewarmings. Our mission is to celebrate and promote plant-based lifestyles for health, environment, and compassion for animals. LexVegFest will feature local speakers, delicious food and drink, vendors, cooking demonstrations, informative exhibitors, children’s activities and more. Our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/lexingtonvegfest/ Contact: [email protected]

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: http://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php

To support the updating of this online restaurant guide, please donate at:
www.vrg.org/donate

Cashew Cow
16 S. Eastbourne Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85716
They specialize in non-dairy “ice cream” derived from a cashew base. Choose from many flavors including Vanilla, Strawberry, Lemon Poppyseed, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Cookies & Cream, and many more.

Chuminh Tofu & Veggie Deli
1043 S. Jackson St.
Seattle, WA 98104
Chef Tanya opened Chuminh Tofu & Veggie Deli to provide the public with healthy and ethical food. There are many different menu options ranging from sandwiches and smoothies to traditional Vietnamese plates. Try the Pad Thai or the Bún Tàu Xào!

Equelecua Cuban Café
1120 W. Florence Ave., Unit C
Inglewood, CA 90301
Equelecua offers authentic Cuban cuisine with a vegan twist! Owner Caro Lafaurie and Chef Julito Ortega transformed traditional Cuban dishes to meatless masterpieces. Be sure to try the Alitas (the spicy agave wings) or the Camarones al Ajillo. Equelecua is conveniently located within walking distance to LAX.

Grow Your Roots
220 Terence Matthews Cres.
Ottawa, ON K2M 0E2
For breakfast dine on Nola Granola Parfait, Morning Scramble, bagels, and more. For lunch or early dinner enjoy soups and salads, Panini, BBQ tofu, veggie burger, and more. Weekend brunch items include Apple Pie Panino and waffles.

Karmah
343 Kerr St.
Oakville, ON L6K 3B7 Canada
At the end of each day, Karmah donates its compost and uneaten food to local animal sanctuaries where animals were saved from slaughter, so satisfy your hunger and eat for a good cause! Food is prepared daily, juices are pressed on site, and desserts are created fresh in the restaurant’s bakery. All food and beverages are vegan and soy free with some gluten-free options available. Food includes bowls, tacos, and wraps. A wide variety of beverages includes juices, smoothies, hand-crafted nut milks, and coffee drinks sure to please all tastes. Dine in or grab and go.

Munch On and Beyond
1346 Wetmore Rd.
San Antonio, TX 78247
Five individual businesses have partnered together under one roof to bring a variety of vegan, gluten-free, grab-and-go meals, snacks, sweets, and drinks. My Tea Soul features tea and baked goods; Enlighten Veggie Food offers gluten free and vegan food, like burgers, tacos, and ice cream; Viva Vegeria sells vegan tamales and Golden Horn of Plenty is a resale shop, benefiting San Antonio dog rescue.

Nourished Food Bar
131 Dean A McGee Ave. Ste. 115
Oklahoma City, OK 73102
A small space focusing on take-out with limited seating. While the structure of the menu will stay relatively the same — hearty salads, soups, snacks/bites — the ingredients used will change often, depending on the season and what we can buy from local farmers. Some items that have been available include house-made cashew cheese, hummus sandwich, potato leek soup, and kale salad. Everything is gluten free as well.

Plant Matter Kitchen
162 Wortley Rd.
London, ON N6C 3P7 Canada
Lunch items include Mac & Cheese, Curry Wrap, Veggie Burger, pizza, soup, and more. Dinner cuisine includes Pizza with side soup and salad, Shepherd’s Pie, Caesar Salad, and more. Sunday brunch dishes include Breakfast Burrito, Mega Bowl, and more.

Press Food & Juice
426 Rhode Island St.
Buffalo, NY 14213
Choose from fresh produce and have a juice cold-pressed especially for you or buy one of the pre-bottled juices from the refrigerator; miniature shot-style juices are also available. Press offers a variety of breakfast, lunch, and snack items, including coffee, tea, pastries, salads, wraps, and soups. Dessert items include ice-cream, smoothies, and cocoa. An open kitchen allows patrons to see the food being prepared. All ingredients are organic and all food items are vegan; many food items are prepared raw. Some gluten free options are available. Menu availability changes often, so check their Facebook page or call for a current menu.

The V Spot
12 Millers Ln.
Dundas, ON L9H 2S9 Canada
This vibrant café serves a wide variety from fries smothered in their chili affectionately referred to as “Hot Mama’s Three Bean Chili” to a Coconut Curry Chickpea wrap. You can also get a quick boost with their fair trade coffee or cool down with a refreshing Berry Patch smoothie made with coconut water. Sit cozy indoors or enjoy a bit of sun on their private back patio. The V Spot is perfect for a quick and delicious lunch solo or with friends.

Vegan’s Delight
3565 Boston Rd.
Bronx, NY 10469
Enjoy Dal Patties, Wheat Meat Curry, Ital Stew Peas, Ginger Beer, Sorrell, and more. They are located off the next-to-last stop on the 5 train in the northern Bronx.

Virtuous Pie
583 Main St.
Vancouver, BC V6A 2V1 Canada
Virtuous pie offers a heavenly yet sinful dining experience. What better place to indulge than a vegan restaurant serving mainly pizza and ice cream? Their pizzas range from a standard/not-so-standard Margherita pie made with cashew cheese and fresh basil to one called Stranger Wings topped with crispy buffalo cauliflower and vegan blue cheese. Their ice cream has eclectic flavors like Basil and Peach Jam. Sit back and enjoy plant based pizza served on hand-made pizza plates in a crisp, modern atmosphere.

Stock up on your favorite veggie products from The Vegetarian Site this month! For the full month of September 2016, The Vegetarian Site will give 10% of their sales to The Vegetarian Resource Group!

The Vegetarian Site sells vegan footwear, belts, wallets, bags, and other accessories, food products, books, personal care items, plus much more. They are always adding new items in their store.

Try the one cent sample of PARMA! VEGAN PARMESAN.

Support The Vegetarian Resource Group by shopping online at: http://www.thevegetariansite.com

By Heather Francis, VRG Volunteer

Traveling to Screamer’s Pizzeria went smoothly; from Penn Station we headed to downtown Brooklyn. We jumped on the A train heading downtown on 8th Avenue express and got off at Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street and then transferred to the G train heading up to Brooklyn-Queens Crosstown. When we reached Nassau Ave./Manhattan Ave., we got off and headed up the stairs. Immediately in front of us was a huge Blue Sign that had a vertical sign saying “Vegan,” with Screamer’s in small print.

I walked into the Pizza shop starving, ready to dig into pizza. The shop is small, but has a lot of character. The pizza shop is identical to a hole in the wall pizza shop you may stop in. We glazed over the menu which was on a huge mirror stretching from the door to the cash register. My girlfriend and I wanted to purchase an entire pie and we decided on Buffalo Cauliflower and a vegan take on Hawaiian Pizza.

After waiting twenty minutes, we were handed a glorious box filled with pizza. The toppings filled almost every space mounting over gooey vegan cheese and red pizza sauce. We devoured the freshly baked pizza pie. My first slice was the Hawaiian pizza and it was superb. The pineapple and vegan ham had the perfect amount of sweet and savory. I decided that the buffalo cauliflower one was my favorite. I had never had buffalo chicken with ranch, and trying the buffalo cauliflower pizza topped with ranch, was a new experience itself along with trying this 5 star rated pizzeria. The crust on any pizza is a factor in deciding whether or not it’s worth to come back, and I know that I personally will be traveling to Brooklyn again to one day try another one of their specialty flavored pizzas. They even have vegan cannoli’s on the menu, which is something I’m dying to try.

A cool part about the location of this place, is the ice cream store next door: The Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream shop. This ice cream shop has a whole blackboard full of vegan ice cream flavors to choose from, and after devouring two or three slice of delicious pizza, who can say no to gourmet ice cream? I definitely didn’t.

For more information on this restaurant please visit: http://www.screamerspizzeria.com

If you would like to learn more about dining out in New York as a vegetarian or vegan, go to the VRG’s online restaurant guide at http://www.vrg.org/restaurant/New_York.php or visit our national restaurant guide at www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php

JOIN US AT THE VEGETARIAN RESOURCE GROUP VEGAN THAI DINNER IN BOSTON AT MY THAI VEGAN CAFE
Sunday, October 16, 2016, 6 PM

The Vegetarian Resource Group will host a vegan Thai dinner
at My Thai Vegan Café in Boston on Sunday, October 16, 2016 during the
annual meeting of The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Meet VRG
advisors Reed Mangels PhD RD, Catherine Conway MS RD, Debra Wasserman,
and vegetarian dietitians from around the country. All are welcome.

MENU:
Tom Kha, Thai Coconut Soup with tofu
Thai Mango Salad
Nam Prik Kaeng Kari with tofu (Yellow Curry) and brown rice
Pad See Ew. Wide rice noodles with Chinese broccoli and vegan gluten.
Fruit cocktail for dessert or other fruit
Tea and cold water

This will be a plated sit down dinner.

TO RESERVE: Send $30 person (includes tax and tip) (Under eight is half
price) with names of attendees to The Vegetarian Resource Group,
P.O. Box 1463,
Baltimore, MD 21203.
Call (410) 366-8343.

You can also pay at www.vrg.org/donate and write Boston Dinner in the Comments.
Refunds after September 30th only if your seat can be replaced.

Hope to see you there!

Here are Reed’s comments after the event:
Thank you to the Toronto Vegetarian Association (TVA) for inviting me to speak at their wildly successful Veg Food Fest. While in Toronto, I learned that the TVA was founded in 1945 and that this was the 32nd Veg Food Fest. The Fest has a beautiful venue at Harboufront Centre on the shores of Lake Ontario. Although more than 50,000 people attend the festival, it is so well-run and there are so many helpful volunteers that lines move quickly and it is easy to get from one area to another. Vegan food is celebrated at the festival with lots of free samples and cooking demos. Name a cuisine and it’s likely that you’ll find it being sold. I saw Ethiopian, Indian, Chinese, Mexican, French, Rastafarian, Greek, and so much more in addition to vegan burgers, dogs, pizza, mac and cheese, doughnuts, cheesecake, ice cream, cookies, and on and on. It was hard to decide between all the delicious choices but I enjoyed a souvlaki wrap from Through Being Cool Baking Co. and a kale salad with roast chickpeas and a tahini dressing from Green Zebra Kitchen.

Besides great food, the festival also features many non-profits and an extensive book store. I was honored to be on a panel with Michael Greger, MD; Tushar Mehta, MD; and fitness guru John Lewis. We spoke to a capacity crowd about vegan health and nutrition. The next day I spoke about raising happy and healthy vegan children. Reed also commented: You can’t tell it from the photo but we were under a big tent with a crowd of several hundred people, more outside, about 90 degrees and 100% humidity!

Mark your calendars now – TVA’s Veg Food Fest is an event not to be missed. It will happen next in Fall, 2017. In the meantime, check out their Vegan Bake-Off and Veggielicious in the spring.

The photo from the panel was taken by Alex Bez
Instagram: vegan_eh

RelayFoods.com, an online grocery store with a mission to make eating quality, healthy, sustainable food simple is offering a discount for you. Shop their catalog of Vegan and Vegetarian Products https://www.relayfoods.com/search?q=tag=6WX

Also, see recipes at: https://www.relayfoods.com/meals/dishes?f=vegan

Be sure to use coupon code VRG20 to save $20 off your first $50 order through 12/31/2016. Offering online ordering for local, organic, and everyday groceries, and home delivery or free pick up.

Read this article by a long distance VRG summer intern, which was published in her school newspaper.
http://www.thesetonian.com/2016/09/07/shu-cross-country-runner-talks-impact-of-veganism/
For more information on athletes and the vegetarian diet, see
http://www.vrg.org/athlete/
http://www.vrg.org/teen/#athletes

The annual Boston VegFest will be held on Saturday October 22 (11am to 6pm) and Sunday October 23 (10am to 6pm) at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center, 1350 Tremont Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Admission is free and you will find a wide variety of non-profit groups exhibiting, as well as veggie food vendors and more. There are also numerous speakers each day.

For details, visit: http://www.bostonveg.org/foodfest/index.html

By Savannah Lawrence, VRG intern

Relationships are complicated enough without adding a vegan diet into the mix, so what happens when your significant other doesn’t also eat vegan? He or she may believe that romantic candlelit dinners or one day living together and planning meals together are now impossible, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
My fiancé comes from a meat-loving family, but now that we live together and therefore eat together, we’ve found ways to make it work. Today my fiancé eats a meat-free diet 90 percent of the time, and most nights he’s doing the cooking, too! Here are the ways in which I’ve positively introduced him to vegan dishes:
• Avoiding fake meat products
He draws the line at fake meat because he doesn’t enjoy the texture or taste, especially because he still eats meat. So to add protein into our meals, I rely mainly on beans, whole grains, and vegetables instead.
• Cooking separate dishes when I do want to eat fake meat products
I like to add veggie crumbles to my pot pies, chilies, and pasta sauces whereas my fiancé likes to add ground beef. To please both our palates, we make two separate dishes with all the same ingredients expect for the meat or fake meat. All it takes is an extra pot or dish. He cooks his own meat before we cook the rest of the meal and uses separate cooking and serving utensils to avoid cross-contamination.
• Easing him into the colorful world of fruits and vegetables
Tomatoes and spinach used to be on his black list when it came to fruits and vegetables, but I’ve learned that if I use baby spinach or petite diced tomatoes, he’ll comply. When they’re small, I can sneak them into a dish without him noticing!
• Cookbook shopping and meal planning together
We spent a weekend afternoon at the bookstore, choosing vegan cookbooks together, so we could ensure that we both liked the recipes. Now that we have cookbooks we both like, we sit down together once a week to choose recipes. We both look at the ingredients to ensure that we’ll both enjoy the meals. His favorites are crockpot meals because he can come home from work to dinner already made!

Dining out doesn’t have to be a problem, either. My fiancé lets me have the final say on a restaurant when we dine out because he knows that my diet may limit our choices. He always has me pre-screen the menu and make the final call on whether or not we eat at a particular place.
Perhaps your significant other isn’t quite as patient during this process. Then I would recommend pre-screening a menu and making the restaurant recommendation before he or she has the chance to suggest another location. Think about his or her tastes, too. If it’s a vegan restaurant, are there dishes he or she would enjoy?
If these tips sound too good to be true because your significant other isn’t so accepting of a vegan diet, begin by establishing some ground rules and communicating openly. Here are some questions to get you started:
• Are you comfortable having meat and dairy products in the house? If so, do they need a separate place in the refrigerator and/or separate cooking materials?
• Will you cook separate meals or the same meals most of the time?
• What won’t your non-vegan significant other eat that you will?
• What restaurants in the area can accommodate both your needs and tastes?
• Is your non-vegan significant other willing to exercise patience when picking a restaurant in an unfamiliar area (like when you’re traveling together)?

You don’t have to date a vegan to continue happily living your vegan lifestyle. You just have to be willing to work with your significant other until you find a routine that works for you both. Remember to be patient and understanding because this may be a new process for him or her!

Savannah wrote this piece while doing an internship with The Vegetarian Resource Group. She is a student at Stevenson University in Maryland.