Tag Archives: review

the awesome snackiness of the vegan cuts snack box.

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Vegan Cuts Snack Box

Instagram shot of my Vegan Cuts Snack Box (follow me @madcapcupcake)

Behold the awesome snackiness of my Vegan Cuts Snack Box, of which I was the fortunate recipient for review. The Snack Box is available as a monthly subscription ($19.95 in the USA, $27.95 in Canada, shipping included) from the good folks at Vegan Cuts—a fab company that offers many more innovative cruelty-free products for sale, from food to clothing, make-up and accessories.

If you subscribe to a Snack Box, each month you will be presented with a selection of 7-10 vegan snacks and samples, often gluten-free, from an array of well chosen cruelty-free companies. My Snack Box consisted of the following treats:

  • Meow Meow Tweet’s Moisturizing Lip Balm, which glides on smooth, without any sticky, waxy residue. Mine was cocoa flavoured. I’m a devoted lip balm fan. Very nice.
  • Oloves, deli-style, snackable olives with only 50 calories per bag and no preservatives. I enjoyed my package of Lemony Lover Oloves at the airport during a recent trip and they were the perfect snack on the go, as well as a welcome departure from the regular snacking carb-fest.
  • Milas Food’s Savoury Bruschetta Blend. I made bruschetta of course, enjoying mine on a thick slab of crusty sourdough bread. Delicious.
  • 22 Days Protein Powder, which is non-GMO, organic, dairy-free, gluten-free, and soy-free, and perfect for a quick breakfast when you’re short on time and great for traveling. Mine was chocolate. Good stuff.
  • Food Should Taste Good Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips, a delicious baked twist on sweet potato chips. They were gone in a flash. I felt like I was enjoying chips without being bad.
  • Teeccino, herbal coffee in a tea bag. Awesome idea, no? Full-bodied and robust. I’m a big Teeccino fan. Love them.
  • Skinny Pop, guilt-free, incredibly tasty all natural, fibre-rich popcorn with zero trans fat. I saved mine for the plane and savoured every last bite.
  • Chicago Vegan Foods Teese, a stretchable, meltable line of non-dairy cheeses free from GMOs, soy, gluten, and palm oil. I received the nacho cheese sauce, which is the best Teese I’ve tried yet. These are the same folks behind Dandies vegan marshmallows. Love them.
  • Beyond Meat coupons, thanks—I’ll be on the lookout for some! So curious.
  • Parmela Parmesan Style Aged Nut Cheese. The perfect way to top off to a steaming bowl of pasta, and I did. Excellent. Seriously though—how do they do that? It’s so much like Parmesan I did a double-take.

If you like tasty snacks, trying new products and getting packages in the mail, this sweet setup is right up your alley. Very fun. Many of the companies I received samples from weren’t even on my vegan radar, so discovering them was awesome. A big ‘thank you’ to the generous folks at Vegan Cuts for sending me a Snack Box of my very own to try out.

Highly recommended. Check them out and get snackified. Enjoy.

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tiny treats, taste & shoot

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Chocolate Chips and Coating

Chocolate Chips and Coating, in the works.

When Nicole Axworthy of A Dash of Compassion and Lisa Pitman of Vegan Culinary Crusade asked me to assist with the styling and photography of their Tiny Treats eBook, I was thrilled and honoured to join the collaboration. I have a great amount of respect for these two very talented ladies and I knew the project would be a ton of fun and a smash success. After having sampled copious amounts of scrumptious treats for months leading up to the shoot via their other joint venture, the Raw Vegan Treat of the Month Club, I knew that each and every recipe in this book would be a winner.

Also, being the generous and compassionate spirits they are, Lisa and Nicole are donating one-third of all eBook proceeds to a charity close to their hearts, the Elephant Nature Park in Northern Thailand. Buy the eBook and you’ll be helping elephants and be rewarded with mouth-watering sweet treats all at once.

Convinced yet? Read on about what you can expect from this sweet little tome:

  • 25 deliciously sweet, whole foods based dessert recipes
  • no wheat, refined flours, sugars, soy, eggs or dairy
  • a delicious assortment of  cookies, bars, and cakes
  • recipes for must-have staples like nut milk, raw chocolate, and date paste you can make yourself
  • well laid out and super simple instructions
  • no need for fancy equipment (a blender or food processor and you’re good to go)
  • great tips and techniques to add to your culinary repertoire
  • large, full-colour photos of each recipe (including a few from yours truly)

The photographs in this post are some of my outtakes from the shoot and represent a small portion of the awesomeness you will find in the book: I feel truly honoured to have been able to contribute to its creation. Plus, not only did I get to spend a fun-filled weekend with friends, playing with props and styling to my heart’s content, a few of my photographs were selected by the girls (who also photographed their work) for the final product. Very cool.

Blueberry Cream and Fruit Tarts

Blueberry Cream and Fruit Tarts

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Yogurt, Milk, and Granola

Raw Almond Yogurt, Cinnamon Bun Granola, and Almond Milk.

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Hazelnut Brownies

Hazelnut Brownies with Maple Chocolate Ganache.

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How does that grab you? You can read more about the Tiny Treats eBook, as well as preview and purchase it, here.

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vegan MoFo: a fine pickle.

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VegiTerranean Dill Pickles

I awoke this morning to a text message from my friend Kate and the sad news of The VegiTerranean’s closing. The VegiTerranean was a seriously good, all vegan restaurant in Akron, Ohio. It was opened four years ago by rocker Chrissie Hynde and, as far as I can tell, has been delighting patrons ever since. It has barely been a week since I was sitting at one of their shiny tables in Akron, enjoying a truly fine vegan meal. I am sad for Chrissie, who had to close the doors on what must have been a big dream, and for the staff who have lost their jobs. I am also sad for the patrons who are losing a culinary gem of a restaurant. I feel grateful to have been able to experience VegiTerranean at least once, in the form of the house salad, a veggie wrap (with artichokes and tofu feta), Chrissie fries (with tofu ricotta and homemade ketchup), Philly cheese steak, and chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream.

Thank you for that, Kate.

Our meal began with the extra fine dill pickles above, a favourite of Chrissie’s – and mine. I do like a good pickle. We had seconds. Take a look at Kate’s heartfelt roundup of photos and musings from this and past visits to what was one of her favourite eateries. I may have only eaten there once, but I know The Vegiterranean will be greatly missed.

Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream