Tag Archives: Halloween

Vegan MoFo 2017 Day 31, Last day. Vegan Trunk-Or-Treat

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Halloween, Kid Friendly, Rhode Island, Unicorn, Vegan MoFo 2017 and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hey, so I am able to post after all.

Tonight I went dressed as a silly unicorn lady and gave out Surf Sweets vegan gummy heart candy and lollipops to a bunch of vegan kids. I also decorated my trunk with a unicorn, “vegan love” theme. I knew most people would do stuff that was scary or animal themed, so I wanted to do something different that reminds us why we’re vegan: because we have compassion.

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My favorite local vegan business, Like No Udder (ice cream), was there too handing out free cones. They offered a choice of orange creamsicle with chocolate pieces or cookies and cream in cones.

I didn’t know many people there, but it was nice to give out candy to the kids and see their costumes. I was so happy to be able to do something like this because as far as I know, this is the first all-vegan Halloween event for kids in our state. It was put on by Rhode Island Vegan Awareness as well. I’m so glad kids and their families will now have a safe and fun all-vegan event to go to that they can trust each year.

I didn’t take photos of the other trunks except for one. This trunk belonged to the president of RIVA, who also is named Laura (see my post from yesterday for more on RIVA and Laura), and since I knew she’d give me permission to post it, I felt comfortable asking to take a picture to post. They were parked right next to me.

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Pretty cool, right?

Happy Halloween, and hope you all had a great Vegan Month of Food! I’ll be back posting stuff after a quick break, not as frequently as I did for MoFo, but hopefully more frequently than I was before it started.

And I’ll definitely keep you all updated on the progress of my Vegan Unicorn Book.

Be sure to check out the Instagram account, @unicorns.eat.vegan for more stuff like what I was doing this month! Plus soon I’ll be posting about some cruelty-free craft ideas!

And, as always, if you haven’t yet “liked” my facebook page for Banana Curl, Vegan Girl, go ahead and do so! I usually post when I make a new blog post, and sometimes some other stuff, so it is definitely a good way to keep on top of my updates.

XOXO

Laura

Vegan MoFo 2017 Day 30: Vegan Halloween Party Recap

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Halloween, Unicorn, Vegan MoFo 2017 and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This post might seem a little all over the place. I’m tired and excited and I’m still recovering a bit from how awesome my birthday ended up being. This evening I went to a Halloween hot yoga class dressed as Wonder Woman. It was SO fun. I was so impressed with the soundtrack. It was choreographed to our yoga practice! I’m a little yoga high as well.

Anyways, today I’m here to share another Halloween event I went to. It was an all vegan Halloween Party hosted by the nonprofit group Rhode Island Vegan Awareness (RIVA).

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Of course, I went dressed as a unicorn:

halloween 17 unicorn costume

Since I know most of you are here for Vegan Month of Food, I figure I’ll talk about the food first. When we arrived, the tables had a smattering of delicious vegan gummy candy from Surf Sweets all over them and some chips and hummus. We had dinner soon after, and there was a gluten-free option that I had. It was pasta, pizza, and salad and they gave us a lot of it! There was the option for seconds too, but I was pretty full. Towards the end of the night, they passed out 2 packages of Justin’s Peanut Butter cups to each guest. It was awesome! I had been refraining from buying them the week before because I had heard a rumor we were getting them at the party.

The event was planned as a fundraiser for a vegan billboard that will be put up in Providence. This party was able to fund it and I’m excited to see it.

RIVA’s president is also named Laura. Together we make two vegan Lauras. She went as Belle from Beauty and the Beast alongside…well…her partner the Beast. Haha. Here’s a picture of the two vegan Lauras together. “The Beast” took our photo! Thanks!

halloween 17 belle and unicorn

RIVA did a great job organizing and running the party! Not only did we have food, but there was a cover band, vegan vendors, dancing, a trivia and costume contest, and raffles. I also got an astrology reading done in honor of my birthday. She gave me some great advice based on my chart and shared lots of stuff about me that helped confirm some life stuff I’ve been considering taking action on. I am going to keep it cryptic for now, but maybe I will talk about it sometime in the future. I was really glad I got to see and talk to her.

Oh! There was also a really awesome spoken word performance by my new friend, who I happened to carpool with after Laura had asked if someone could help with a ride for them. The piece was about how annoying it is to be asked, “where do you get your protein?” Even though most of us vegans often complain about hearing that question, the performance was still really inventive, funny, and well put together.

Oh! and there was a couple that dressed as B-12 and won the best vegan themed Halloween costume! I got such a kick out of it! If you go to RIVA’s facebook page and look at the pictures of the event, you might see them, amongst some other really awesome costumes! RIVA’s Facebook.

Anyways, I’m super tired from all this activity lately. I really hope I am able to post my last Vegan MoFo 2017 post tomorrow about the vegan Trunk or Treat event, but if I get home too late it might be a challenge. If I don’t make it in time, I will post November 1st, even though it won’t be the same.

Happy Halloween everyone! And Happy MoFo if I don’t post tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

Vegan MoFo 2017 Day 29: My birthday!

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Birthday, Unicorn, Vegan MoFo 2017 and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hey, everyone, it’s Laura here.

Shh, don’t tell Fluffy this, but I have some bad news. I didn’t realize until yesterday that there is already a famous body-positive unicorn named Fluffy. I’ve never seen it, but supposedly they are in a Despicable Me movie. So, I feel like I will need to change their name in order to publish my book without problems. If anyone has some good ideas for unicorny ideas, let me know! I’m going to do a big brainstorm and I want it to be something more creative than Fluffy and perhaps a bit less frou-frou sounding, but also short and sweet. A challenge!

Anyways, I missed posting yesterday because I was busy getting ready to attend a vegan Halloween party last night! I had a great time, it was so much fun, and I was able to post a Halloween themed Instagram photo of some cookies I made earlier in the month. Check it out on IG @bananacurlvegangirl.

The next few days of posts are going to be Halloween themed. Tomorrow I will do the recap of the party, and hopefully, if I can make time to post before midnight, on Halloween I will be doing a recap of the vegan Trunk or Treat event I am doing.

Then Vegan MoFo will be done for the year! This year’s experience has been awesome. Thank you to everyone who has liked my posts, commented, or followed me on social media! I know I’ve mostly been posting unicorn stuff on this blog’s Instagram account, but after MoFo is over I’m going to go back to posting all my unicorn stuff on a separate account I made @unicorns.eat.vegan. The blog’s account will go back to posting more general vegan foods and baked goods. So be sure to follow the unicorn account if you wanna see where this project ends up going.

Anyways, today’s post is all about ME!! What, is it my birthday? Yes! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

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The picture above is the most epic card from my brother. Let’s give him a shoutout, because he also helped me execute my design for the Vegan Food Should Be Fun graphic that I like to post:

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Yesterday’s theme was brunch, but I did that today. With my mom. At my favorite vegetarian restaurant that almost everything can be made vegan at. The Grange in Providence, RI. I totally cheated on my limiting gluten and went all out by ordering the chickun fried seitan and waffles, pictured below.

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Omg, it was so good. And since I’m kind of sick of cake from this month of food, we got a pumpkin glazed vegan donut for later to go. I haven’t looked at it yet, but maybe I will post it later on IG.

I also went to the mall and got some workout clothes and Lush cosmetics goodies. Oh, and a Lavender iced tea from Teavana.

I’m kinda taking it easy now because I’m super tired from last night. I did some relaxing, tarot card reading, and other mellow stuff. Now I am writing a blog and later we shall go out to eat again. I’ve only had one meal so far today, but that one meal was amazing!!

Tomorrow I also plan to go to a hot yoga class dressed as 70s Lynda Carter style wonder woman, I cannot wait!

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Vegan MoFo 2017 Day 23, Week 4: Entertaining

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Unicorn, Vegan MoFo 2017 and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

And we’re back, folks! It’s Laura, here.

It was nice to have a quick posting break over the weekend.

Boston VegFest was actually a real bummer this year. There wasn’t really anything new or exciting, and it was more crowded than ever. I mean, it was so crowded that you literally had to push your way through people to move. And, most of the time it was really hard to even see what any of the vendors were selling or the nonprofit groups were sharing. I ended up getting so frustrated. My favorite food to get at Vegfest is from Belmont Vegetarian, but even that was slightly disappointing because they didn’t have as much selection as they did last year for their dishes. I think they had half of what they usually offer. It was still really good though. I didn’t take any pictures, sadly.

Luckily, the day was redeemed by going to the Museum of Fine Arts after. They had an amazing Haruki Murakami exhibit. He’s been one of my favorite modern artists since high school.

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See? Instant mood brightener.

Anyways, on to MoFo business, now that I am back from the break.

Today is simply an introduction to the week.

This week’s theme is entertaining. It’s going to be a bit of a mix of entertaining things for me.

Tuesday I’m going to be posting about unicorn-themed finger foods, Wednesday I’ll be posting only on Instagram and will keep it a surprise (or maybe I will also post the photo here with a bit of text…who knows),  Thursday will be a unicorn-friendly showstopping dessert pizza, and Friday will be a kid’s food post with an elaborate unicorn bento box.

The weekend through Tuesday will be gearing up for the ultimate in entertaining since it’s my birthday Sunday and Halloween on Tuesday. Most of this will still probably be unicorn themed a bit since I’m going as a unicorn for Halloween and doing some really fun Halloween stuff this year, like going to an all-vegan Halloween party on Saturday and participating in an all-vegan trunk or treat event on Tuesday which I plan to infuse with unicorns at every point.

I decided after making all the cakes and sweets I’ve made for this MoFo that I don’t want cake for my birthday which may be disappointing to some, but I’ll try to figure something out instead.  Maybe a trip to Like No Udder, Rhode Island’s (where I live) own vegan ice cream shop, is in order if I can fit it in.

Excited to share what I have in store for the last week of Vegan MoFo! I heard a rumor that we may lose power due to a storm tomorrow, so if I’m not around tomorrow as promised, that may be why. I promise I will catch up in my own way if so.

 

 

 

Vegan MoFo 2017 Day 20: Hipster Stuff

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Vegan MoFo 2017 and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hey there, Laura here.

I had a really hard time thinking of what kind of a dish I could deconstruct and be in line with the unicorn theme. In fact, I wasn’t really 100% certain at first what a deconstructed dish was or why it was considered “hipster.”

I had decided a while ago, that for today, I’d do some kind of post about coffee since I feel like hipsters are gourmet coffee snobs. I was even going to try to make a vegan version of bulletproof coffee or whatever–you know the kind that people blend butter into? But, I got stung by a bee in my finger yesterday and was in no mood to do so this morning, especially since the reaction I had made my stomach act up for some reason. I guess we can’t all have the constant positivity of a unicorn.

I did, however, want to share this really cool company I recently found that makes deliciously flavored coffees. I emailed them when I found them to verify the coffee was vegan, and they said all their coffee is, even the ones that say the flavor is some kind of “creme”. The “creme” flavors are actually made with soy according to the person from their company that emailed me back.

The company is called Coffee Shop of Horrors, which is perfect for this time of year. They are based out of Florida.

Anyways, I was super excited because they have a coffee flavor I’ve been wanting to exist for a long time but had never been able to find. Peanut butter cup! It was delicious, we just used the bag up today. And I also bought a waffle and syrup flavor which I am excited about trying and this toasted coconut flavor:

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Which, although it is not a unicorn, is a siren/mermaid creature, which is also pretty mystical and rare.

Then I realized earlier this week, that I accidentally made a salad from the cookbook Salad Samurai by Terry Hope Romero and it was basically a deconstructed samosa.

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So, there you go #VeganMoFo, hipster food in a deconstructed dish. It’s not in line with my theme, but, yeah. Oh well.

Oh, and I might not be posting for the next two days or so. Tomorrow (Saturday) I am going to Boston Vegfest and Sunday I was planning on having a break, but who knows for sure. You’ll probably get some kind of information or recap from VegFest at some point.

Happy Birthday to me! Banana costumes and a birthday-worthy waffle recipe!

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Birthday, Breakfast, Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen, happy herbivore, Happy Herbivore Light and Lean, lindsay s. nixon, mayim bialik, mayim's vegan table, Other Vegan Food Blogs, Recipes, Sunday Brunch, Vegan cookbooks, Vegan Health, veganism, waffles and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

For my 30th birthday, which happens to be today, I had a bunch of fun stuff planned. The biggest thing was my run last weekend, in which I lived up to my blog’s name, and ran in a banana suit in the Providence (RI) Monster Dash 5k. I made a PR by about 2 minutes and it was soooo fun running in this costume:

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10435985_10100231982422689_6184586216801925680_nIt was a big hit with kids, especially. When I ran through the large crowd of people cheering us on, so many kids along the way would exclaim “there goes the banana!” And many of them put their little hands out to catch a high five from me as I ran past them…it was so cute. I waved to several of them, and even had a trifecta of 3 little kids put their hands out all at once that made me feel like I was a celebrity working the crowd. Haha. So that was cool, and I also plan to use this banana suit for more things for this blog, to make it funnier. You’ll see what is in store for it soon!

This morning, I made birthday cake waffles. I had some left over chocolate sauce from my candy apples and some strawberry syrup left from the strawberry frosted donut recipe that I put on top. Yum.

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BIRTHDAY Cake Vegan Waffles

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup Immaculate yellow cake mix (found in my local Target in the baking section)
  • 1 cup vegan bisquick mix (read labels)
  • 1-2 scoops vanilla vegan protein powder (optional)
  • 2 tbsp melted Earth Balance
  • 1 tbsp applesauce
  • 1 ½ cup vanilla almond milk
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • ÂĽ tsp almond extract
  • ÂĽ cup vegan non-pareille sprinkles (read label, I was able to find one without the confectioner’s glaze that’s in most sprinkles at my regular local grocery store, and instead has carnauba wax.

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together and follow waffle iron’s directions to cook them. Makes about 5 waffles depending on your maker.

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The batter

Tonight my family is making me a vegan vanilla cake, with raspberry filling and chocolate buttercream. I am making vegan crockpot buffalo ranch lasagna from this recipe for my dinner. I will share pictures later in a new post, maybe.

Also, I got three new cookbooks for my birthday present:

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So far I have looked in Chloe’s book the most, and I was seriously drooling after that. I will be cooking out of these for awhile in the next few weeks I think, so get ready for me sharing some reviews and pictures! 🙂

Just a quick pic to share of what I’ve been up to

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Apples, Food for Fall and tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

Hey!

Since Vegan MoFo ended, and then I wrapped up my first term at school, I’ve just needed a bit of a break from blogging. I’ll be back more regularly soon, I promise!

My birthday is next Wednesday! I’m turning 30! Aaaaaaah! In honor of the event, tomorrow I am running a 5k, and I hope to share some pictures of that, because they will contain a special (and hilarious) surprise for those who don’t know what I’m up to yet.

I also have a special recipe I created for my birthday to share, as well!

In the meantime, here is a picture of mostly raw candy apples I made from a recipe in Vegan Health and Fitness Magazine!

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I hope you are all enjoying your fall!

Post Halloween Recipe by me: Vegan Ranch Seasoned Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Halloween, Original Recipes, Pumpkin Obsession, Snacks and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hope you all had a very vegan Happy Halloween! Sorry I am slightly late in posting this recipe I created. I hope you haven’t had the chance to roast the pumpkin seeds you were drying out from carving your jack-o-lantern yet so you can try these!

Vegan Ranch Seasoned Roasted Pumpkin SeedsImage(I ate some of these before I took the picture, oops)

Recipe:

Ingredients:

About 1 cup raw pumpkin seeds, rinsed and set to dry overnight

  • 1/2 tbsp oil
  • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp dried marjoram
  • 1/4 tsp dried dill weed
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4, 1/2 tsp salt, separated

Directions:

  1. It may seem counter-intuitive to dry the seeds out and then boil them the next day, but supposedly it helps to make them easier to digest. So, take your dried pumpkin seeds, place in a pot of water with 1/2 tsp salt, and put on a high heat stove until they begin to boil.
  2. When boiling, turn the heat down so the water and seeds are simmering.
  3. Boil for 10 minutes.
  4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  5. Strain water from pumpkin seeds.
  6. Dry with a paper towel (I just dabbed them a bit in the strainer).
  7. Place seeds in a plastic Ziploc bag and put the oil and spices in the bag.
  8. Shake until coated.
  9. Place on a baking sheet (you may want to spray the baking sheet with oil to prevent further sticking but it may not be necessary really, but I did.)
  10. Place into oven. Cook for 10 minutes then check them. According to this blog I referenced, check them frequently and make sure they’re not browning on the inside by snapping them in half. I checked them 3 minutes after the initial 10 minutes (since my oven is wonky) and had to keep going for a while, checking every 2-3 minutes. I think this is a good idea, ovens vary and such…Unfortunately I lost track of the total time it took.
  11. When they are crunchy and not browned on the inside, they are done.
  12. Let cool a bit, and then eat!

Enjoy! Let me know if you try them what you think! I found them to taste sort of like a peppery ranch flavor. I may play around with the seasoning in the future to get a better ranch flavor…