Announcing Veg Week 2012

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Announcing Veg Week 2012!

Mark your Calendars for Veg Week 2012! Our ninth annual Veg Week pulls together a host of fun and educational events to encourage people to move towards a plant-based diet.

Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA) started our celebration of all things veg back in 2004. Over the course of one week we celebrate vegetarian diets, educate the public about compassionate food choices, and inspire respect for farm animals. Events include a feed-in and film screening, a dine-out, a cooking class, and more. Check out our calendar below for a full list of events and times.

Pledge to be Veg!

Participate in Veg Week by taking our Pledge to be Veg and choosing to eat vegetarian for the week! Already a vegetarian? We are encouraging vegetarians to try eating vegan.

Don't worry, we make it easy! When you Pledge, you receive a Pledge Card that gives discounts at local veg-friendly restaurants and businesses. We also help by sending email updates with recipes and nutrition advice and providing a supportive community of animal lovers who will be attending our events during the first week of October!

Encourage your friends to take the pledge too!

Calendar of Events

See the events below, and click on each link for more details!

• Tuesday, September 11th, 10 am to 2 pm: Vegan Food Showcase, West Bank bridgehead, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
• Saturday, September 29th, 7 to 10 pm: Veg Week Kick-off Concert with Roe Family Singers and Sleepyhead in The Whole in Coffman Memorial Union, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
• Monday, October 1st, 6 pm to 10 pm: Spaghetti Feed-In and Vegucated movie showing in the Mississippi Room in Coffman Memorial Union, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
• Tuesday, October 2nd, 10 am to 2 pm: Bake Sale, in the basement of Coffman Memorial Union, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
• Tuesday, October 2nd, time TBA: Shop with a Vegan at the Seward Co-op
• Wednesday, October 3rd, time TBA: Cooking Class, location TBA
• Thursday, October 4th, 7 pm to 10 pm: Dine-Out at Krungthep Thai
• Friday, October 5th, 8 pm - 11 pm: Vegan After Dark at Moto-I
• Sunday, October 7th, 1 pm to 3 pm: Chicken Sanctuary Tour at a local sanctuary

Check back at our website at www.VegWeek.org for details and updates. We hope to see you there!

Help out at the 2012 Vegan Food Showcase

Your help is needed for one of our most fun volunteer opportunities of the year: to help staff our annual vegan food showcase on Tuesday, September 11!

This giveaway will be a ton of fun and are a great, positive way to promote vegetarianism to interested students and community members. At our last giveaway, around 1,500 people stopped by to sample delicious vegan food and learn more about going veg!

This event will go from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, and we could use your help for any period between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm. The location of this event is the West Bank bridgehead on the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus.

There are many things you can volunteer to do at the food giveaway. These include:

• Set up/Chalk (8:00 to 10:00 AM)

  • Requirements: Able-bodied volunteers needed to set up tables and start preparing food.
  • Benefits: Smell delicious food cooking while hanging out with like minded people.
  • Number needed: 9.

• Photography (1 or 2 hours between 10 AM and 2 PM)

  • Requirements: Take pictures of the event. Must take a picture of the VegFund sign.
  • Benefits: Meet other CAA volunteers, and perhaps taste delicious free food.
  • Number needed: 2.

• Food Servers (2 shifts - 9:45 AM to 12:00 PM, and 11:45 AM to 2:00 PM)

  • Requirements: Be friendly, hard working, and careful volunteers needed to prepare and serve the food samples, as well as answer questions and distribute literature.
  • Benefits: Everyone's favorite job, you will meet lots of people who will be happy that you are giving them delicious free food, as well as meeting other CAA volunteers.
  • Number needed: 12 per hour

• Pledge to be Veg takers (2 shifts - 9:45 AM to 12:00 PM, and 11:45 AM to 2:00 PM)

  • Requirements: Friendly volunteers needed to walk around the event attempting to get people to take the Veg Pledge and then recording the results.
  • Benefits: Meet lots of people in favorable circumstances to social change. Recording a tangible benefit for animals to your volunteering work!
  • Number needed: 3 per hour

• Cleanup (2:00 PM to 4:00 PM)

  • Requirements: Able-bodied volunteers needed to take down and clean up tables and leftover food. Expect to lift heavy objects.
  • Benefits: A chance at delicious leftovers!
  • Number needed: 8

• Data Entry (September 12th noon to 4 PM)

  • Requirements: Enter the Veg Pledge information the day after the event.
  • Benefits: Hang out at the CAA office with Unny. Perhaps he will perform his Mr. Roboto parody if you ask nicely.
  • Number needed: 2

If you would like to help out, please contact me with the time(s) of day you are available. It is a great outreach opportunity, and we guarantee lots of fun!

Email unny@exploreveg.org or call 612-276-2242 to sign up!

Cooking Vegan Book Review

The functionally-titled Cooking Vegan offers a gateway to cruelty-free dietary choices and lifestyles through self-proclaimed "healthful, delicious, and easy" recipes from Canadian co-authors Vesanto Melina and Joseph Foreset, a registered dietician and chef/food columnist respectively.

Review by Tyler Barrett

This 250-page book serves as both a conventional vegan recipe collection and an introductory guide to establishing and maintaining a healthy vegan diet. The authors provide a thorough foundation in vegan cooking, from the basics of vitamins and minerals in vegan whole foods to recommended protein intake for athletes and a breakdown of the ratio of carbohydrates to calories. This book is well-suited for those new to vegan cooking or for someone looking for a more informed selection of meals and ingredients.

The opening chapters also include a very elementary introduction to "using your senses in the kitchen" (yes, those senses: hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and touching) as well as the six tastes: astringent, bitter, pungent, salty, sour, sweet. While I appreciate that the authors don't make assumptions about the reader's knowledge base, explaining how and why to use your sense of sight in cooking is borderline patronizing.

The selection of recipes in Cooking Vegan is broad, covering a wide variety of entrees, side dishes, beverages, soups and salads, sauces, and desserts. Many cuisines are represented, incuding Moroccan black beans, French lentils, Vietnamese salad rolls and universal basics like a portabella mushroom burger and wild rice salad.

The first recipe I attempted was the "Limey Avocado Dip," which could have easily been abbreviated "guacamole" since that's what it is. The recipe calls for a lot of ingredients, though avocado remains the dominant flavor, even above the chili powder, lime, cilantro, garlic, and tamari. The final product was a fresh blend that went well with tortilla chips, though I found myself adding crushed red peppers for some kick.

In the entrees section, there's a collection of "International Roll-Ups" which includes recipes for styles from Africa, Indonesia, Japan, Italy, Mexico, and the Middle East. I chose to make the Mexican-Style Roll-Up, which is essentially a soft-shell taco with a fancy name. The recipe was simple and turned out delicious, though I skipped the vegan mayonnaise out of an aversion to anything with "mayonnaise" in the name.

For dessert, I went with the Almond Butter Balls, substituting the almond butter for peanut butter. The result was still delicious. These balls are chock full of protein. The nondairy chocolate chips and dried cranberries add sweetness. They're a great dessert or post-workout snack.

Despite its elementary presentation and basic approach, Cooking Vegan is an excellent choice for beginning vegans and seasoned veterans alike. With its wide variety of savory dishes, there's something for everyone in this globetrotting collection of recipes.