you may have already heard, the peeps over at lollihop have launched a surprise vegan snack box shipment in honor of world vegan day (that’s tomorrow!), and they sent me a sampler!

it came overflowing with all kinds of healthy goodies that taste delicious and cover some of the important bases: high in antioxidants, high in fiber, and low in sugar. a variety of bars, chips, pretzels, water, hand sanitizer, and even STICKERS! yes, i would like to receive one of these every month.

i think this box would make a cool gift…especially from an omnivore parent to a vegan college student. you know, it’s such a cute and healthy little care package—what’s not to love?!

the thing is, the last chance to order a vegan box from lollihop this year is 11/1 (that’s tomorrow!), so don’t slack if you want in on this.

for more info, hit up lollihop.

it was a sad day as we learned one of our favorite vegan products is no more: the vegan mozzarella teese sticks by chicago soydairy have officially been discontinued. their run was short lived, but i speak from personal experience when i say these things were AMAZING. they were my favorite discovery at expo west earlier this year, and i was lucky enough to enjoy a whole bag of them at home. if you live in LA, you may have tried them at tony’s darts away, or grabbed them at viva la vegan in rancho cucamonga. wherever you obtained them from, if you ate these things, consider yourself lucky.

fried up and crispy with melty stretchy vegan cheese inside, these were some of the best snack foods i’ve ever eaten. they were too good for this world!

on the happy news front, it appears chicago soydairy is expanding their business like never before…and now teese is even available at whole foods on the west coast. if you haven’t tried teese yet, track it down. it’s definitely one of (if not the) best vegan cheeses available in america.

let this serve as a reminder to you all: buy vegan products like they’re going out of style, stock pile them, and freeze them for the apocalypse…or the sad day they get discontinued.

hey guys! i know this blog is mainly about vegan food, but we are huge beer fans as well, so i wanted to let you know about the 3rd annual LA beer week beer fest that’s going down this sunday at union station from noon – 4pm.

we attended the fest last year, and it was fantastic! so much craft beer from all over the world (over 70 breweries!), plus various lectures and events that you can attend throughout the day. on top of it being a lot of fun, it was super well organized with no long lines. on top of all that, it’s held at a train station, which means super easy to get to and no need to drink and drive. get tickets here!

full disclosure: the food trucks at the fest this year aren’t looking very vegan-friendly (grill ’em all, flatiron, crazy creole and cheeseball wagon), so i suggest you hit up shojin beforehand (and after!) and try out their new menu.

happy monday, everyone! in honor of the start of the work week, i’m bringing you a post about my favorite quick in the office lunch: dr. mcdougall noodles.

i work in a part of town without a ton of vegan options, and during the week when i’m busy, i’m super thankful for the good doctor’s food line. mcdougall has been making low fat vegan soup cups for years, but recently he came out with a new line called “asian entrees,” which includes several noodle dishes such as pad thai, roasted peanut, spicy kung pao and teriyaki. they all taste delicious, they’re easy to prepare, and each cup is only around 200 calories! win/win/win.

pictured at the top of the post is the pad thai, along with some added vegetables and loads of sriracha. so good! when i’m at work, i usually eat the noodles on their own straight out the cup, and they’re just as tasty. you can find these noodle cups at places like ralphs or whole foods, and they go for a few bucks per serving.

and if you like dr. mcdougall on facebook, you can enter to win a month’s supply of noodles and an ipad! yes!

finding vegan food can be hard sometimes, but imagine being a vegan musician on tour. shuffling around from city to city, being away from home, and dealing with the pressures of performing—all while trying to find 3 animal-free meals per day in uncharted territory. sounds challenging, eh? well that’s what alex estrada is up to right now, as his band silver snakes embarks on a 10 day tour from california to nevada, to washington and oregon and back again. for educational purposes, alex has agreed to document his vegan tour experience via text to me, and i’m gonna post it all here on the blog. the tour culminates here in LA with a CD release party on october 23rd, so i expect to see you all there after reading what’s gone into the silver snakes’ stomachs for ten days straight. if you aren’t familiar with silver snakes yet, check out their site, listen to them on spotify, and read up on them at peta2.

their tour kicked off today in sacramento, and the band stopped off at a chipotle in lebec, CA for lunch, followed by some sugar plum vegan in sacramento for dinner. here are the photos, along with alex’s direct words via SMS.

chipotle veggie bowl with extra beans, all the salsas, and extra corn tortillas

California classic. Lebec, CA – chipotle veggie bowl. Extra beans, all the salsas, corn tortilla on the side. I have no idea where we are… I think we are by bakersfield.

I found a place in Sacramento I want to try. I hope we make it in time! Dude I heard this place has a jackfruit/walnut tuna melt and animal style fries.. pray4me ;)…

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have you ordered your vegansaurus shirt yet? if not, GET ON IT. you only have until friday.

if you aren’t already aware, vegansaurus is an awesome blog based out of san francisco that posts about all things vegan including restaurants across the country (and world!), recipes, news, cool links, and cute pictures. they’ve got it all. not only that, but their logo is a badass pink dinosaur. who wouldn’t wanna sport that!

until friday only, vegansaurus is selling some super limited edition cute and affordable shirts, with a portion of the proceeds going to charity. i already ordered mine—buy one too, so we can match! xo

…until i saw this one. happy 3 day weekend.

listen up, vegnews (and everyone else)! instead of being relegated to horrendously boring and limited vegetarian bbq pictures that are obviously from istockphoto.com, you should get on this new and rad entirely vegan stock photo site called vegistock.com. trade in that mushroom skewer for a proper vegan bbq shot:

vegistock officially launches tomorrow, and will feature high-quality professional photos of animal-free foods at affordable prices. i seriously think all vegan publications should get on this. more on them after the jump…

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have you guys tried snikiddy baked fries yet?! i got my first taste of them at natural products expo west, but now they’re available at whole foods…and they’re quite addictive.

be warned: not all the snikiddy flavors are vegan-friendly, so be sure to read the bag before buying. i can personally recommend both the bbq and the sea salt varieties. snikiddy fries scratch the same itch as a bag of potato chips, but they’ve got less calories and half the fat.

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this is so exciting! one of my favorite products of all time, food for lovers vegan queso, is now available at whole foods.

i am used to driving across town for this stuff or ordering it in bulk online, so imagine how happy i was to see it at my the weho whole foods for just $4.99 per jar.

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this is definitely cause for celebration! cheezly, our favorite vegan cheese ever, is now available in the states. it comes to us all the way from the UK, and it’s bloody amazing.

in december 2010 cheezly lost its stateside distribution, but somehow vegan essentials has managed to bring it back!

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i have a new favorite meat replacement, and it’s called schmicken! not only is it super fun to say out loud, but schmicken is delicious and healthy as well.

homemade in small batches by vegan mario’s in santa barbara, schmicken is a breaded wheat meat cutlet made from sprouted red lentils, yellow peas, wheat gluten, almonds and spices. you can buy schmicken online in packs of 3 and have it shipped to you anywhere in the united states.

it freezes well and comes with lots of great serving suggestions…

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sad news, folks! ralphs grocery stores in los angeles are currently in the process of clearing their shelves of many of our favorite vegan products…for good!

bye bye

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here in los angeles, we have no shortage of impressive vegan cookies—and i’m on a mission to try them all! my latest discovery is michy’s, an entirely vegan mail order bakery based in west LA with an arsenal of cookie flavors that is guaranteed to blow your mind. the tag line of michy’s cookies is “gourmet. vegan. delicious.”—and i’m happy to report that the description is very apt.

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i am absolutely in love with goody good stuff! the vegetarian UK based company makes the best gelatin-free gummy candies i’ve ever tried. i haven’t had chewy sweets this authentic tasting in so long, i forgot how much i used to love them.

although goody good stuff uses beeswax in some of their products, they have some entirely vegan varieties which include cola breeze, summer peaches, and sour fruit salad. i’ve tried all three, and it’s impossible to choose a favorite.

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