Tag Archives: Vegan MoFo 2017

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:

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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:

Fat Unicorn

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.

Vegan MoFo 2017 Day 19: Minimalist White Chocolate Fudge

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

Today’s theme is Minimalist (5 ingredients or less!) vegan recipes. May I present vegan white chocolate fudge fit for a unicorn! This stuff is really good, and it’s almost as hard to find vegan white chocolate as it is to find a unicorn, so it seems fitting. I usually get culinary cocoa butter online, but I believe places such as Whole Foods sell it in the nutritional supplement/superfoods section. Just be sure you’re buying food grade and not cosmetic grade as I believe there is a big difference between the two! 

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Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups cocoa butter (I used a brand that was recommended by Food Empowerment Project)
  • 1 can sweetened condensed coconut milk
  • 2 cups organic powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • Toppings of choice such as Dandies Mini Marshmallows, a variety of freeze dried fruit slices, crushed up cookies or candy, sprinkles, etc. I used Sweet and Sara’s rainbow cereal marshmallows I got before they announced their closure.

Directions:

  1. Melt the cocoa butter and condensed coconut milk until all the cocoa butter bits are liquified. It will become a bit of a golden brown liquid, that’s okay.
  2. Slowly stir in one-half cup of the powdered sugar at a time until smooth and no longer clumpy. Unicorns don’t like clumps.
  3. Grease an 8×8” pan and spray the bottom and sides with a nonstick spray. You may also want to line it with parchment paper to make it easier to remove from the pan later.
  4. Pour the liquid fudge into the pan. Spread the toppings across the shiny surface. They should float to the top like a mermaid who has come to the surface of the ocean.
  5. Make sure the top is pleasing to the eye, cover, and place into the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight until set.
  6. Slice into cubes and serve.
  7. Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

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Vegan MoFo 2017 Day 17: Unicorn Drink

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

Hi! Welcome to day 17 of Vegan MoFo. Today’s ingredient challenge is “Let’s Get Boozy,” but Unicorns want nothing to do with alcohol. It makes their tummies hurt and they do funny stuff (not good funny) when they consume it. So today, we’re sharing the official drink of unicorns.

It’s called Unicorn Milky Drink. The way it’s made is kinda cool. First, you make a drink mix, then you add 2 tablespoons of the mix into your favorite nondairy milk after it’s been heated up on the stove or in the microwave. It becomes a grayish purple (the color of most unicorns), sweet drink. We topped it with freeze-dried rainbow colored Sweet and Sara marshmallows and put it inside this awesome unicorn mug with a stirrer.

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Unicorn Milky Drink Mix

Makes one jar of a flavored hot milk mix, to give as a gift with instructions or use yourself.

You can mix it with vegan milk anytime you want a hot caffeine free drink

Ingredients:

½ cup vegan organic sugar

¾ cup vegan coconut milk powder (be sure there are no dairy ingredients in the brand you buy)

1 tbsp acai powder (for a unicorn worthy purple) or dried raspberry powder (for a unicorn worthy pink)

1 tablespoon vegan non-pareil sprinkles

A Mason Jar for storage

8 oz non-dairy milk, heated until hot mixed with two tablespoons of the mixture, topped with mini vegan marshmallows

Directions:

Stir or place the sugar and coconut milk powder in a food processor and pulse until the two ingredients become one. Add in the acai powder and watch the mix become purple, as if by magic! For a final dose of color, stir in the non-pareil sprinkles. Transfer to a glass mason jar. This makes a great gift for unicorn lovers all over the world. You can also keep it for yourself, which is what I would do. You turn it into a hot drink by heating 8oz of nondairy milk and then adding two tablespoons of the mixture and stirring well. If you can, I recommend adding some mini vegan marshmallows as a topping. Savor each velvety sip. I enjoy this before I go off into a field and slumber, dreaming of shooting stars in the milky way.

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Vegan MoFo 2017 Day 16: Zombie Apocalypse

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

Fluffy the Vegan Unicorn here!

We are on week three, which get into ingredient challenges. Today the theme is “what can you make from just canned or foraged food?”

I’m really in trouble if a zombie apocalypse ever comes! All I stockpile for food is cake, frosting, sprinkles, sugar, ice cream, and candy. Unicorn pantry staples. If the electric power goes out during the said zombie apocalypse, which it probably will, it will not be pretty for me. I kinda need the magic of refrigeration! Although, I suppose I could summon my friend, the yeti, to help me out, so don’t feel bad for me!

So today, we’re not really looking at canned food because as far as I know there’s no such thing as cake in a can.

But, to keep with the theme, Laura and I made something delicious without going out of the house, using only what was available. Luckily, we still had cake leftover from last week’s behind the scenes week. If you ask, me Laura’s still a little tired out from all this posting, so she got a little lazy today. She did eat half of her creation, which is all you can ask of her because it was a huge dish full of cake, key lime coconut yogurt, frozen fruit, and sprinkles.

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I guess we’ve learned a lesson today: unicorns would not survive a zombie apocalypse. Sadly. Although we will always survive in your hearts and minds! Wait, is the zombie apocalypse what took us out in the first place?

Vegan MoFo 2017 Day 15: Behind the Scenes: Rainbow frosting tips

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Baked Goods, Cupcakes, Rainbow food, Unicorn, Vegan MoFo 2017 and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

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This is the final day of the second week of Vegan MoFo, where the theme is “behind the scenes.” So far this week, we’ve talked about picking the best unicorn cookie cutters, vegan sprinkles, given you a behind the scenes aquafaba video on Instagram, shared a pitch for the cookbook I am writing, and a look at a rainbow layered unicorn cake.

Today is all about frosting, unicorns practically subsist on the stuff!

Our favorite frostings tend to be like buttercream but veganized to exclude real butter or even palm-laden margarine and vegetable shortening by using solid coconut oil instead. I’ve sort of perfected the recipe, but want to wait a bit to share it.

Today I’ll talk about how to get a real rainbowy look out of whatever vegan frosting you most prefer.

You can use any type of colorant you want, but I’m partial to beet powder for red (or using a fruity powder too, such as freeze-dried strawberry or raspberry powder), turmeric for yellow, matcha for green (tastes way better than spirulina in a frosting, trust me!), butterfly pea tea powder for blue, and either acai or a mix of a red and blue powder for purple.

I have found it easiest to get results like what was pictured above with only 3 colors of the rainbow rather than them all. The reason for this is actually, that if you mix all of the colors of the rainbow together, you get a muddy, ugly, poopy brown. And not the beautiful colored poop of a unicorn, either.

The easiest way to swirl the three colors together is to use a pastry bag with a frosting tip attached (these things always confuse me, so read the directions if you don’t know how to properly set this up). Mix in the colors into frosting placed in three separate bowls or however you want to do it, just keep it separated somehow. Then take a rubber spatula, and spread a big glob of frosting down one side of the bag. Then take the other color, and place a globby stripe of frosting down the next side. Repeat until the bag is filled up with all the colors. They should touch each other and extend down towards the frosting tip.

Then, squeeze out the frosting to the desired amount you like on your cupcakes, using the picture I posted as a guide, or not. They may not all look the same depending on how you layered the frosting colors in the bag. I think it’s more magical when each one looks unique.

They also sell a kit at craft stores from Wilton which is designed to help you make rainbow-swirled frosting more “easily” but I found it more of a pain to use than this option.

Enjoy and have fun!

 

Vegan MoFo 2017 Day 14: Behind the Scenes: Cake Test

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

Fluffy here-

For this week, the theme is behind the scenes. Today, we give you a behind the scenes look at Laura’s test run of her birthday cake, as she has a birthday coming up at the end of October. However, since we’re now starting to get overwhelmed by so much cake and desserts we’ve been prepping in advance for MoFo, I think Laura has sadly decided to not make her own birthday cake on her actual birthday. She also felt a little disappointed in the way the outside of cake looked, and I’m trying to work my magic to help her feel better.

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Cake decorating is not, as the saying goes “a piece of cake.” It’s actually pretty challenging! Laura’s goal was to make a cake that could show it’s easier than it looks, but now she’s not so sure since she struggled so much with it. These are important lessons for her to go through though, as it makes her stronger and helps her solve problems.

She had a great idea to make the unicorn’s hair out of cotton candy. The cotton candy is moldable and an edible version of fuzzy, fluffy hair!

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She did use something that made making the five rainbow layers much easier. You can find them being sold lots of places now. They come as a set of 5 smaller cake pans for layer cakes. You only need one batch of cake (or a cake mix) to fill them all up.

She also made the decision to make an exception for using unnatural food colors this time. We wish natural colors were as vibrant and easy as these ones were. Sometimes you may want to give in and take the easier route,  and as long as it’s still vegan, you’ll be okay.

unicorn cake 3 of 5The inside of the cake sure is a beauty! Tommorrow we’ll be sharing some of our best tips for making rainbow frosting effects.

Vegan MoFo 2017 Day 13: Sell Yourself (your book)

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

Hi, it’s Laura.

I did not post here yesterday, as I posted a video on my Instagram account instead. If you missed it, check me out there at @bananacurlvegangirl

Today I’m sticking with the daily prompt. Sell yourself. And since everything I’ve done so far is about the book I’m writing featuring Fluffy the Vegan Unicorn for my thesis project for my master’s degree in Humane Education, I figured I’d write a bit of a pitch of the idea and where I hope to go with it beyond publishing it in my school’s thesis database or whatever.

I am actually planning on sending it to vegan-friendly publishing companies after I have a manuscript so that everyone can access it. I have no idea how that would go, but if I am rejected by everyone, then I may look into self-publishing, although that seems really hard and expensive for me right now. I’d rather turn it into a zine if formal publishing does not work out. Please send positive vibes for me that someone will want to take it on to publish!

This book is designed to bring humane education to the masses in a wholly positive, compassionate, and loving way. It will make learning about hidden cruelties that affect humans, animals, and the earth in food and craft supplies less overwhelming because alternatives and resourced to avoid products free of the suffering will be recommended at every point and Fluffy’s voice will be comforting and pleasant. Fluffy also brings their sense of pizzaz and humor to each recipe, so that it makes reading them a bit more magical.

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It is designed to appeal “grownups and not-so-grownups who never stopped believing in magic.” Really, it’s for everyone, with special attention to kids and their parents. The cookbook portion will go beyond recipes for rainbow tinted cakes and desserts. There will be savory dishes, unicorn-inspired lunch box bento ideas, and more! However, the concept of the book is more than just cooking fun food once in awhile. There is an emphasis on planning a party. So, there is also a chapter on craft projects that are fun to make for presents, decorations, party activities, goodie bags, and beyond. Then everything is tied together to culminate in the epic unicorn party! There are suggestions on unicorn themed books, movies, products, etc. too that I love as well.

While I am trying to maintain a good balance between secrecy and sharing so I don’t spoil all the surprises awaiting you in the book, I do want to share a few of the recipes I’ve created so far that I am most proud of:

An amazing white cake that can be colored any color of the rainbow

All natural food coloring dye

Unicorn Poop Sugar Cookies

Rainbow Cloud Cupcakes

Energy Bars

Dessert pizza

Parfaits

& more (plus others in progress)

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing a behind the scenes look at the test run of my birthday cake (for the end of October).