10 Things I'm Loving This February

Hello darlings! I hope you are having a spectacular February! Valentine's Day is behind us (did you see my goth love songs playlist, spooky love decor ideas, creepy cards, and ghoulish gift guide posts?) and hopefully you've all been celebrating Black History Month and Women in Horror Month! As for me, I've been watching a new horror documentary, listening to gloomy tunes, reading a thrilling book, eating delicious vegan sweets, and more. As I've been doing on a monthly basis with these "ten things" posts, I'm sharing with you 10 items I'm loving this month, which encourages me to be grateful for the little (and big) things while also passing along cool things for you to check out. See the 10 Things I'm Loving This February below:

10 Spooktacular Vegan Recipes For Halloween

I haven't had a chance to do that much cooking or baking this Halloween season, so I thought it would be fun to revisit some of my Halloween recipes from the past ten years (wow, I can't believe it's been 10 years since I started this blog!!). I am by no means a pro at baking or cooking, but I always love putting a spooky spin on recipes - it is so much more fun to eat Halloweenized food, am I right?!

Below you'll find some of my fave past recipes, from eerie appetizers to creepy cookies! All recipes are vegan and contain no animal ingredients, because no one wants that trick for Halloween.

10 Spooktacular Halloween Recipes to make this Halloween season:

Pumpkin Spice S'mores Cookies Recipe

This is one of my favorite cookie recipes to make this time of year! I came up with it last year after adding Dandies' Pumpkin Marshmallows to my pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookie recipe, which gave these a delicious flavor evocative of marshmallows roasted over a bonfire on a crisp fall night.

The cookies themselves are fluffy and cake-like, delectably sweet with a light hint of spice. The marshmallows give them an ooey-gooey consistency that makes them a perfect autumn treat. Whenever I've served them, they are always a huge hit with vegans and non-vegans alike! Today I'm happy to share the recipe with you below:

Eat Pastry Vegan Cookie Dough Giveaway

CONTEST CLOSED! See the winner on the original post on Instagram!

Trick or treat, give me something good to eat, like this delectable cookie dough by Eat Pastry! Eat Pastry makes my favorite vegan cookie dough, and it is always a treat. And lucky for you, I've partnered with Eat Pastry to give away a tub of their vegan cookie dough so you too can enjoy this scary-good cookie dough!

Creepy Crunch Halloween Cookies

Photo by Kendy aka MissMuffCake

Today, I have special guest Kendy aka MissMuffCake sharing her recipe for Creepy Crunch Halloween Oreo Cookies! I have been an admirer of Kendy for quite some time now. I've been reading her website for years and love her vegan recipes, beauty posts, and more. She also writes several zines, is a champion for mental awareness, has killer style, and has written for Super Cute Kawaii and VegNews. I am thrilled to have her on the blog today to share the recipe for these delectable Halloween cookies. Check out her recipe for them below:

5 Girl Scout Cookies You Won't Believe Are Vegan

Girl Scout cookies are such a treat this time of year and the good news is that they offer more vegan options now more than ever. In fact, there are now a total of five Girl Scout cookie varieties that you won't believe are vegan! Read more about these vegan varieties and where to find them below!

10 Vegan Candies for Trick or Treaters

It seems that every year we get new vegan treats and more and more companies are offering cruelty-free sweets for Halloween, hurrah!! This is great for those of us that have a sweet tooth and want to enjoy vegan goodies around Halloween! And even if you aren't vegan, it is a good idea to hand out vegan treats since so many trick or treaters have allergies and I'm sure they would be stoked to receive treats they can actually enjoy!

Food Review: Sweet Magic Bakery Cookies

Sweet Magic Bakery's Orange Zest Sugar Cookies

In my never-ending quest to eat all the vegan things, I was thrilled to be approached by My Cottage Foods to try Sweet Magic Bakery's gluten-free and vegan cookies. My Cottage Foods delivers local craft food straight to your door and helps smaller companies gain exposure by offering up their organic and allergen-friendly products through their online store. My Cottage Foods is like having your own local farmer's market online, and it's so cool! Not everything on their site is vegan, but many products are, including a few varieties of Sweet Magic Bakery's cookies.

Sweet Magic Bakery has a mouth-watering selection of cookies (though not all are vegan, so always check the ingredients!), and I was lucky enough to receive their Gluten-Free Vegan Cinnamon Spice Molasses and Orange Zest Sugar cookies to try. Owner and head baker Vivian Van Natta has been baking her whole life (her fondest memories are of helping her mother bake in the kitchen) and she was inspired to offer up allergen-friendly baked goods since she has a dairy- and gluten-intolerant friend as well as many customers who want to avoid dairy and/or gluten. Her goal is to make vegan and gluten-free baked goods that are delectable! Keep reading to see if she succeeded...

Sneak Peek: Halloween 2015 at Target

Cute lawn signs and wooden signs that were around $3 in the Dollar Spot section.
Um, how perfect is that spooky bat sign?! I would have bought it if it wasn't so
sparkly!

I stopped into Target over the weekend, and was pleasantly surprised to see a few Halloween items in a few sections! Not much yet at the particular store I visited, but we all know how long Target takes to put the full glory of their Halloween goodies out (we are looking at mid- to late-September), so I was stoked to see just a few orange and black items popping up!

Here are a few photos of the Halloween 2015 products I spotted so far at Target, which I consider a sneak peek of things to come!

Top Five New Vegan Products from Trader Joe's

Written by Sarah E. Jahier

Trader Joe's has been rolling out some fantastic new vegan products lately! It seems that every time I make a trip to one of their stores I end up scoring some new vegan food item to try. Lately, I've discovered some exceptional new snacks from TJ's, which I wanted to share here with you. From drinks to cookies to popcorn to breakfast breads to dessert hybrids, there are lots of great new vegan snacks I've been drooling over lately.

Food Review: Bit Baking Company Cookies

Bit Baking Company Cookies!

Is there anything better than a perfect vegan cookie? I think not! So when Bit Baking Company contacted me to review their vegan and gluten-free cookies, I couldn't say no! A delightful package arrived a few days later full to the brim with four different flavors from this Michigan-based company. Each of the cookies were wrapped individually and a good size, about the size of my palm.

Bit Baking Company Cookies I received - Cocoa Chocolate Chunk,

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk, Chocolate Chip, and Oatmeal Raisin!

The four flavors I received were Chocolate Chip, Cocoa Chocolate Chunk, and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk, and Oatmeal Raisin. Since their website didn't have a full ingredient list at the time of this post, I took photos of the ingredients of the cookies I received (note: these ingredients may change, so always check with Bit Baking Company directly if you have any questions about their ingredients).

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. 

Food Review: Neat Egg Replacer Mix Plus S'mores Cookie Recipe

I previously reviewed all of Neat's meat replacement mixes (check 'em out here!), but I wanted to do a separate post to highlight their awesome new egg replacer, called the Neat Egg! I used it in all of the Neat mixes I tried, and it worked wonderfully, but I also wanted to try baking with it.

The Neat Egg is pretty awesome if you ask me! Not only is it versatile and can be used in cooking and baking, but it is also only made with two ingredients - chia seeds and garbanzo beans! That means it is totally natural, plus it is gluten-free, non-GMO, soy-free, and, of course, vegan! It comes in a dry mix, and to replace one egg you just mix together one tablespoon of the Neat Egg with two tablespoons of water and add to your recipe! It's so easy and it is a fantastic binder!

Food Review: San Clemente Cookie Dough Company's Cookie Dough Squeeze

I recently had the opportunity to try San Clemente Cookie Dough Company's squeezable, to-go cookie dough that is vegan, dairy-free, egg-free, and gluten-free! This brilliant cookie dough is sold in individual pouches that are perfect for those that are busy, on-the-go, or are just looking for an easy snack. Each squeezable pouch has a single-serving of cookie dough that can either be eaten raw (another perk of being vegan - we don't have to worry about salmonella and can eat all the raw vegan cookie dough we want!) or baked up into cookies!

Food Review: Hampton Creek's Just Cookie Dough

I have been looking forward to Hampton Creek's new Just Cookie Dough ever since I heard about it way back in 2014. Vegans already have the delectable Eat Pastry line of vegan cookie dough (which is freaking fantastic!), but I can't complain about having MORE options when it comes to vegan desserts! I finally spotted the Just Cookie Dough at Whole Foods in their refrigerated section, though there were only a few packages left (that's a good thing, though!)! I quickly grabbed a Chocolate Chip tub and couldn't wait to get home to enjoy some raw cookie dough (ah, another perk of eating vegan!).

Vegan Bake Sale to Benefit The Gentle Barn this Sunday

Come buy some delicious vegan holiday treats this Sunday, December 7th at The Gentle Barn animal sanctuary in Santa Clarita, California! This is the first holiday-themed bake sale that is happening at the Gentle Barn, and it looks like it will be the biggest one yet! That means you can stock up on baked goods for the holidays to gift or just enjoy them yourself! Here is a sneak peek at the goodies you could be enjoying:

• Cupcakes from Courtesan Cupcakes, Luscious Organic Desserts, Sprinkles and Sensitive Sweets
• Bundt cakes from Biggie Bakes
• Various goodies from Life is Sweet Bakeshop 
• Brownies from Native Foods
• Cheesecake and cookies from Bloom Confections
• Raw desserts from Feel Good Desserts
• Various desserts from other bakers, including snowballs, gingerbread and candy cane muffins, sticky buns, holiday cookies, s'mores bars, and much, much more!

Besides the bake sale, a trip to The Gentle Barn will let you meet some truly amazing rescued animals. This sanctuary takes in abused and neglected animals that no one else wants and rehabilitates them, letting them live the rest of their lives in peace. In turn, they use rehabilitated animals to teach their visitors about these amazingly resilient and loving animals. You can pet, hug, cuddle, and spend time with most of the animal residents, which is truly a life-changing experience in itself!

Go for the treats, go for the animals, and spend time with some inspiring people and animals!

Here are the details of the event:

LOCATION: The Gentle Barn
ADDRESS: 15825 Sierra Highway, Santa Clarita, CA 91390
DATE: Sunday December 7th, 2014
TIME: 10am – 2pm
FOR MORE INFO: Facebook Event

You can read about my past visits to The Gentle Barn here!

13 Days of Creepmas: Gingerbread Haunted Houses and Gingerdead Cookies

The Haunted Mansion's 2014 Gingerbread House at Disneyland! 

They change it every year for their Nightmare Before Christmas 

display! It is massive and I believe it is made with real gingerbread.

Building gingerbread houses for the holidays just got a whole lot creepier! Instead of traditional cutesy gingerbread houses, this year you can make a ginger-"dead" haunted house, taking inspiration from Halloween or The Nightmare Before Christmas, like the photo above! A lot of gingerbread kits are sold around Halloween, but you can also make or modify your own for Creepmas. 

31 Days of Halloween: Nutter Butter Ghost Cookies

[image source]

Looking for last-minute, easy food ideas for Halloween? How about this super simple snack? Take some Nutter Butters (they are an "accidentally vegan" item!) and spread some of your favorite white vegan icing on them (alternatively, you can dip them in white icing if it is liquid enough).

Food Review: Trader Joe's Pumpkin Joe-Joe's

A brand new product was released at Trader Joe's for the 2014 Halloween season - Pumpkin Joe-Joe's! If you are familiar with the Trader Joe's grocery stores, you'll know that they usually have some kind of Halloween-themed Joe-Joe's, but I have never seen pumpkin ones before!

If you aren't familiar with Trader Joe's, their Joe-Joe's are like Oreos! And they are also "accidentally vegan" (unless you feel strongly about processed sugar - however, like I've said before, veganism is all about intent and not perfection, so I am fine with being 99.9% vegan, meaning I don't stress about possible trace amounts of animal ingredients). I know many people that prefer the Joe-Joe's to Oreos and they appear to be a bit healthier than regular Oreos (they are still cookies though, so it's not like they are health food!).

Food Review: Pumpkin Spice Oreos

Last week, Oreo finally released their latest fall flavor, Pumpkin Spice, in stores! I finally managed to snag a box over the weekend at Target, cuz OMG Pumpkin Spice Oreos!! I have previously reviewed Oreo's other fall flavor, Caramel Apple (read the review), so I was greatly anticipating trying the Pumpkin Spice Oreos!