Campaign for Positive Change

I am delighted to have been asked to take part in a special blog event happening place today across the US and Canada for FARM Animal Right's Great American Meatout, a campaign with a goal to expose  20,000 new people to plant-based foods. They are almost at 18,500!

Inspiration for New Whole Plant Enthusiasts for FARM

A few weeks ago, I received a message from Oddin Helgason, who attended one of my classes with his girlfriend Erin approximately a year ago. When they walked in, they asked me what type of fish we would be making. When I found out Odinn is a well experienced hobby chef that loved to cook with meat and cheese, I was not sure if they would enjoy my whole plant approach. To my surprise, they were more than enthusiastic and even went out half way through the class to bring back some wine.

Above: A picture of one of Odinn's favourite plant-based recipes, Mock Tuna Salad. Recipe below.

Annika, founder of Social Bites, has asked me to share some of my recipes from last week's competition. You can find my recipe for Flax Buckwheat Crostini, inspired by Ani Phyo, in a previous blog post "Flax Buckwheat Crostini: An Everyday Staple Worth the Small Time Investment".  You can also click here for award winning recipes from Michael Robertson, who writes for the blog Sustenance for Granville Online Click here for delicious recipes for root vegetable ravioli with tapenades and mushroom cream from Malloreigh and Kaylie from Vegan Mischief.

Above: Julie's Apricot Water Lemon Kefir, picture compliments of Richard Giordano

Social Bites a la Vegan

This past weekend I had the privilege to participate in Social Bite's first ever vegan event!  Social Bites, started by Annika Reinhardt, is a dinner party event where hobby chefs open up their homes to two rounds of guests for a sampling of their creations. Guests spend one hour at each home, sampling food, drinking wine and socializing then rate their experience based on taste, presentation and hostessing.

Each event features 4 teams of hobby chefs and their sous chef. At the end of the night everyone gathers for desserts, the votes are tallied and the winner is announced.

Above: Basil infused Zhugetti and Lemon Thyme Sun Dried Tomato Sauce. Picture compliment of Richard Giordano.