Make a Vegan Jack-o-Lantern Burger for Halloween

Enjoy a vegan Halloween burger this October (and beyond)!

If you're like me, you like to add Halloween magic to everything, and that includes food! I mean, I don't have the time to get too fancy, but a few fearsome flourishes can add Halloween spirit to any meal. As you can see from my pic above, sometimes the simplest trick makes for a festive treat! Turning a vegan cheeseburger into a Halloween cheeseburger is really easy, but I'll walk you through how to do it below.

Top 10 Vegan Finds at Natural Products Expo West 2017

This was my fourth year at the Natural Products Expo West (past years' coverage - 2014, 2015, 2016), a convention held every year at the Anaheim Convention Center where companies showcase their new natural foods and products to retailers, restaurants, industry folk, and press. Many companies launch new products at this convention, including many vegan and vegan-friendly products. Each year it is so exciting to see so many more vegan options at the Expo! This year was no different, and there were so many new vegan finds I can't wait to share with you!

I was only able to go one day this year, but I still managed to cover lots of ground and hit most of the booths I was interested in checking out. I'm ecstatic that veganism keeps getting bigger and bigger at Expo, and I even overheard a buyer from a HUGE grocery chain (that was checking out a vegan cheese line no less!) exclaim that veganism seems to be everywhere this year (she's right, and it's just gonna keep getting bigger and bigger)! There was so much vegan stuff to check out and I stuffed my face with so much vegan food, but there were ten vegan finds that really stood out. Check them out below:

14 Perfect Gifts for Your Spooky Vegan Valentine

It's almost Valentine's Day again, and though I'm not the biggest fan of the holiday, I couldn't resist putting together a gift guide full of goodies for your Valentine, which kinda doubles as my own personal wishlist as many of the items are gothy and dark, along with being cruelty-free and vegan! These are the kinds of things I would loooooove to receive for Valentine's Day (or any ol' day)! Even though I don't believe you need to give gifts of monetary value to express your love, the items below are quite handy as tokens of affection!

Food Review: Daiya Deluxe Cheezy Mac

Daiya Deluxe Cheddar Style Cheezy Mac

Just a year or so ago, vegans didn't have many options for cruelty-free mac and cheese. We had the delicious frozen mac and cheese from Amy's [review], but the first boxed vegan mac and cheese that was decent was Earth Balance's version [review], released just last year in 2014! After that, many new vegan mac and cheese options have hit the market, including Daiya's three different types. I had tried this kind at Expo West (read about my initial thoughts on it HERE), so I was ecstatic when it finally hit shelves.

Daiya's Cheezy Mac is different from other brands' mac and cheeses as it comes with a packet of cheezy sauce and instead of powdered cheese mix, so you don't need to add any non-dairy milk or vegan butter to make it. Everything you need (macaroni pasta and cheezy sauce) are included in the box it comes in. 

Food Review: So Delicious Pizza Mac and Cheese

So Delicious' Pizza Mac and Cheese

I really had high hopes for So Delicious' Pizza Mac and Cheese, cuz how could anything pizza-flavored be bad? Well, let me save you the horror of eating this and let me tell you - it's BAD. I really hate giving bad reviews to vegan food items, but sometimes companies just don't hit the mark, and just because something is vegan doesn't mean it's good. Plus, if someone veg-curious picked this up and HATED it, that doesn't really do veganism any justice. However, there is a silver lining to this mac and cheese, and I did manage to salvage it...read on to find out how.

Food Review: Annie's Vegan Shells and Creamy Sauce

It's always great having another vegan option hit the market, especially when it's vegan mac and cheese! There have been so many vegan mac and cheese options hitting the market lately that I've been pretty overwhelmed with trying all the options. I have finally tried the majority of them over the past few months, and I'm dedicating this week to reviewing them all! If you want to see earlier examples of vegan mac and cheese, check out my Earth Balance review and Amy's review! Those are two solid standbys I pretty much judge all vegan mac and cheese by!

Anywho, first up in the newbies of vegan mac and cheeses is Annie's Homegrown Organic Vegan Shells and Creamy Sauce. Interesting to note that Annie's never calls it mac and cheese but I'm pretty sure anyone that looks at the box will assume it promises some mac and cheese-like flavors and textures.

Candy Corn Pizza

Ahhhhh how I miss candy corn! The candy corn you find in stores isn't vegan, and I woefully miss it around this time of year (hey vegan companies, how about someone makes a vegan version pretty please??).

I gotta get my candy corn fix somewhere, so that's where this pizza comes in. No, it doesn't taste like candy corn, but its triangular slices sure do look like the sweet stuff! I was inspired to make a vegan version after seeing a recipe in the Ghoulish Goodies cookbook. 

Curse of the Mummy's Tomb Bagels

In keeping with the Goosebumps theme, I was inspired by R.L. Stein's The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb to make these creepy cute bagels! I made these with the last of my Violife stash (sadly, this Greek-made vegan cheese is only available in Europe - I wish we had it in the U.S., though the makers of this cheese also make the Field Roast Chao and Follow Your Heart sliced cheeses)! Anyway, these mummy bagels are so easy to make and so cute!

What I Ate: June Junk Food Edition

I meant to post this at the beginning of July, but this month has just flown by! Is it just me or is this summer going by super-fast?! Not that I'm complaining, mind you; summer can suck it and autumn can't come soon enough! Anyways, I can't let these vegan junk food pics go to waste (though you will recognize some if you follow me on Instagram), so I'm sharing the yummy noms I ate in June below:

 This is Amy's Vegan Margherita Pizza topped with avocado slices and sriracha.

I already love the pizza on its own, but the addition of the avocado and sriracha 

just sky-rocketed its flavor!

What I Ate - April/May 2015

I've been a little stressed at work lately, so I haven't had a chance to post much. I wanted to remedy that, but since my life has pretty much been work, eat, sleep, repeat, I haven't had much to write about. However, inspired by Vegan Crunk's "Stuff I Ate" posts, I figured I could at least share some of the better things I've eaten in the past couple weeks. I love drooling over everyone's vegan food posts, so I thought this would be a fun, quick, and visual way to showcase some finger-lickin' vegan food I've eaten recently! Note: Most of these have been posted previously on my Instagram, in case you already follow me there and are thinking these look a tad familiar!

 My version of Frito pie! I made this with Trader Joe's Corn Dippers (though Fritos are "accidentally" vegan), black and refried beans, Follow Your Heart's Cheddar Vegan Gourmet Shreds (my new fave vegan cheese shreds!), crispy cabbage, red salsa and hot sauce. 

Top 10 Vegan Products at Natural Products Expo West 2015

This past weekend I attended the Natural Products Expo West at the Anaheim Convention Center to scope out all the new vegan goodies coming out this year! I attended last year (check out my report!), but this year was even bigger and better, and I was ecstatic to see so many vegan or vegan-friendly companies rolling out exciting new vegan products!

Over the few days at Expo West, I got to try oodles of vegan food, beauty/health products, drinks, and got to visit with some of my favorite vegan companies as well as discovering new ones! It was a blast, and I already can't wait until next year!

There were SO MANY awesome products launching, so it was really tough to narrow it down to my top 10 favorites. I finally did, sorta, and below you will find my top 10 favorite products from the Expo, plus some honorable mentions. Not all of these are available in stores or available in the US, yet, but most should either be coming soon or already in some stores.

Baked Vegan Almond Feta Cheese

I was over at a friend's house a few months ago, and she made the most mouth-watering vegan feta cheese that I have been dying to have again! Unlike some vegan cheeses, this one was super-simple to make, and when I was over at her house I think it was done in less than an hour. It also uses easy-to-find ingredients, doesn't have any crazy cultures, and there is no long prep, so you could enjoy it tonight if you wanted! I was really stunned how easy it was to make, so I vowed to make it myself!

Restaurant Review: Fresh Brothers in Newport Beach, CA

Vegan Sausage and Cheese Pizza from Fresh Brothers

Fresh Brothers is a small chain of pizza restaurants with locations all over SoCal, though mostly centered in and around LA. I was excited that they recently opened their first Orange County location in Newport Beach (near Roger's Gardens and Fashion Island). Pizza is my lifeblood, so I was stoked to hear they had vegan options and couldn't wait to check them out! In fact, they have a special vegan section on their menu that includes a couple different kinds of pizza, plus Gardein chick'n tenders, salads, fries, and even special vegan dressings!

Food Review: Treeline Herb-Garlic French Style Soft Cheese

I recently had the pleasure of enjoying Parmela’s treenut cheese (review), so I thought I would expand my vegan cheese repertoire and try Treeline’s French-style soft cheese. Treeline was one of the first, if not THE first, vegan companies to offer fancy vegan soft cheese, and I've hear so many friends rave about their cheese, so I thought it was high time I tried some! Treeline is produced by The Gardener Cheese Company in Kingston, New York and is available at most Whole Foods and select natural food stores.

Restaurant Review: PizzaRev in Santa Ana, CA

PizzaRev in Santa Ana

Written by Sarah E. Jahier

A fellow Orange County vegan clued me in on PizzaRev, a new pizza place that opened up near South Coast Plaza in Orange County. PizzaRev has other restaurants in SoCal (and are planning on expanding to other parts of the nation), but this is the first one I had ever heard of! They have a build-your-own pizza system, with a counter set-up much like Chipotle’s, where you tell your server what kind of crust, sauce, and toppings you want for your pizza. They are not a vegan restaurant, but they do offer vegan options!

Food Review: Parmela Creamery's Creamy Treenut Cheeses

Written by Sarah E. Jahier

There are tons of new artisinal vegan cheeses popping up, much to my delight (and to the delight of other vegans)! These vary from Daiya’s delicious and economical cheese spreads to the pricier Kite Hill, Treeline or Punk Rawk Lab cheeses. I hadn't really had the opportunity to try many of the artisinal cheeses, either due to high price or not being able to find them, but recently I discovered Parmela Creamery’s cashew-based cheeses! I found them at Whole Foods, and since they were only around $6 a tub, decided to splurge a little and have my own cheese and crackers party!

Food Review: Earth Balance Vegan Mac n Cheese

The vegan holy grail! Mac n cheese!

Written by Sarah E. Jahier

By now, most of you know that the wonderful Earth Balance has begun making vegan mac n cheese, sold in boxes just like the Kraft stuff most of us were familiar with in our pre-vegan days! I don’t know about you, but those boxes of mac n cheese hold so many nostalgic memories for me, so in my opinion I think it is fantastic that this comfort food has finally been veganized!

Earth Balance has made two flavors – the classic orange-colored cheddar flavor, plus a white cheddar flavor. Both flavors should be on store shelves this month (some are already hitting the shelves of local health food stores and Whole Foods), but I got impatient and just ordered mine online from the fine folks at Rabbit Food Grocery.

Food Review: Earth Balance Vegan Cheddar Squares

Written by Sarah E. Jahier

Back in college, I practically lived on Cheez-Its (true story)! They remind me so much of the frenetic days of my collegiate days - long nights working on my Texas Chain Saw Massacre thesis, watching movies with my film friends, sneaking boys into the dorms, hustling to classes, blasting Thursday and other screamo bands to drown out the sounds of annoying roommates/neighbors, the bad cafeteria food, going to many indie shows, and holing up in my room to study. It seemed I always had a huge box of Cheez-Its at my disposal for snacking, and of all the things I miss about my pre-vegan days they were pretty high on the list!

Food Review: Earth Balance Vegan Cheddar and Sour Cream & Onion Flavored Kettle Chips

Written by Sarah E. Jahier

Ok, I am slightly behind the times as I just picked up the two new Earth Balance kettle chip flavors this past month though they have been out on the market since the beginning of the year. I found them at my local Whole Foods and couldn't resist picking them up since I can't remember the last time I ate sour cream and onion or cheddar flavored chips!

Food Review: Venice Bakery's Vegan and Gluten-Free Pizza Crusts

Venice Bakery's Vegan and Gluten-Free Pizza Crust topped with 

Vegan Bacon, Kale, Avocado and Tomato and Smoky Cheddar Sauce

from The Sexy Vegan's recipe

Written by Sarah E. Jahier

If I had to pick a favorite food, I'm pretty sure it would be pizza. I can eat pizza any time of day, days and days in a row, and pretty much never get sick of it. I usually buy store-made dough and roll it out myself to make pizza, but I was recently sent pizza crusts from Venice Bakery to try out. They make pre-made pizza crusts that are both vegan and gluten-free! Now, I'm not gluten-free, but it is always nice to see another gluten-free option out there that is also vegan. And as long as it's vegan, I'll try it!