Small Vegan Junk Food Giveaway

One of the reasons why I wanted to start a vegan blog was to do giveaways. Weird? Probably, but I've always liked giveaways because I like free stuff and they're fun. I wanted to do a small giveaway for a while now but never got around to do it. Plus its the season of the Libras and October is known for Halloween, so Halloween is going to be the theme to this giveaway(hence all the candy). This is your chance to win a mash of some of my favorite vegan products!

One winner will get:
1 Bobo's coconut oat bar
1 Eli's earth bar-peanut butter crunch caramel
1 Jokerz candy bar-AKA "snickers" AKA the best candy bar out there
3 Single Justin's dark chocolate peanut butter cups
2 JJ's sweets Cocomels-Vanilla
These are some of my favorite vegan products and I want one of my followers to enjoy them as much as I do! Except for the Eli's bar, I have not tried it but it sounds amazing, so let me know how good it tastes. :)

Things you have to do through Rafflecopter:
Follow me (VeganLibra.tumblr.com) on Tumblr
Reblog the Small Vegan Junk Food Giveaway post on my Tumblr
Everything else on Rafflecopter is optional
U.S. Residents only

Starts today October 3, 2013 and ends a day after my birthday! :) (October  17, 2013)



a Rafflecopter giveaway

-Monica

Chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate

Nicobella Organics sent me some chocolates the other day and oh my! They all looked so good, I wanted to devour all of them once I had them in hand(I couldn't wait to try one;so that's why one is missing in the photo). I love this brand because they are vegan, organic, natural, fair trade and soy free! So, it's perfect for anybody who loves chocolate especially dark chocolate.

They sent me a Truffle Assortment box of 6pc, $13.50, which include theses flavors;blueberry almond, ginger green tea, pumpkin chai, pure cocoa bliss, walnut flaxseed, and sunflower butter banana. Also a much 3-pack, $15.95 each bag 2 oz, which include omega munch, coco-nut munch and maple-nut munch.

From left to right, blueberry almond, ginger green tea, pure cocoa bliss, walnut flaxseed crunch, sunflower banana  butter.( Pumkin Chai, didn't make it in time for a photo)

These lovely little squares are all super soft, chewy, and delicious! These are probably the softest chocolate I've ever tried. From all of these I would have to say the sunflower banana butter was my favorite,although you get the banana taste after its still very good. The blueberry was my next favorite, it was juicy and you get the blueberry flavor right away. As for the pure cocoa bliss, it's the plain version of all these, my mom loved it and she's not a fan of dark chocolate. It was like the others: soft, chewy, and melts in your mouth delicious. 

Coconut and Chocolate! And almonds, although I couldn't bite into the almonds because of my braces, these were really good. The chocolate melts in your mouth and you taste the little coconut flakes and man this was my favorite. 

I love love love the omega munch, it tastes like a Crunch bar ( from what I remember), it's a light and airy crunch. These munch bags are really good I would definitely buy these and maybe give them to a friend plus the ingredients are simple and awesome. Overall I can't say enough good things about this brand, I love their ingredients, I love that they're fair trade, and obviously their flavors. Go check them out at Nicobellaorganics.com

If you sign up for their newsletter you get 20% off your next purchase!

-Monica

Stuffed Shells

Monique, you are genius! Ever since I watched MokoBrownVegan video on making simple vegan dinners on YouTube, I have been wanting to make the stuffed shells she made. I finally got to it and I'm glad I did!

The recipes calls for jumbo shell pasta but they were no where in sight, so I got the next best thing. They actually worked perfect because we ended up using a plastic bag as a pipping bag to fill them in.

 These came out absolutely perfect, they had tons of flavor and overall great! My sister and I loved it so much we ended up finishing the whole thing before we could offer my parents, oh well! This dish is perfect if you're having friends over who aren't vegan because the consistency of the filling is similar to cheese, so it's a win win.

Recipe from Brown Vegan

• 8oz Jumbo Shells
• 3 garlic cloves
• 8 basil leaves
• 1 small onion, roughly chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon blac pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 14 oz firm tofu, drained
• Jar of spaghetti sauce

Instructions

Preheat oven at 400º

Boil jumbo shells in water until al dente.

In a food processor, blend together garlic, basil, onion, salt, pepper and oregano. Scrap down the sides of the food processor with a fork.

Crumble tofu with your hands and blend until smooth in the food processor.

Fill each shell with the tofu filling.

Line the bottom of a casserole dish with ½ cup of spaghetti sauce.

Cover with the shells and spoon on additional spaghetti sauce.

Cover with foil and bake for about 20 minutes.

If you're not already, I say subscribe to Moniques Channel because she posts some amazing recipes that both vegans and non-vegans will enjoy.
Moniques YouTube channel, MokoBrownVegan

-Monica

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce

I attempted to make a recipe called "Millet-Stuffed Chard Rolls" from the book Forks Over Knives. (If you haven't watched the Forks over Knives documentary Click Here to watch it for free!)  I couldn't find millet or chard leaves so I ended up making a romaine wrap with couscous with the roasted red bell pepper sauce.

Good thing this book tells me how to roast a pepper because I had no idea. This is how I did it and the book explains that you can place it in the oven to roast. I really enjoyed the smell of it because it reminds me of a dish my mom makes. So it took about 5-10 minutes to get the pepper looking completely charred. After it's all black you want to let it cool then peel the charred skin.

The ingredients you will need to make the roasted red pepper sauce are:
Half 12 ounce package extra firm silken tofu, drained
1 large red bell pepper, roasted and seeded
1.5 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoons chopped dill
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freashly ground pepper
Zest of 1 lemon (i totally forgot to add this in, but it still tasted good)

This makes about one cup of the sauce but you can double it to make two cups.

All you have to do is combine everything in a food processor, I used a blender, and puree until smooth and creamy. Super simple and easy and it tastes so good! At first it reminded me of hummus, which I love, so I had no problem with it. It's a bit spicy but not too hot.

Here's a not very good photo of how I ate the couscous "roll" it was very messy and delicious!

//Monica

Thankful for Dr. Praeger's

I had a coupon for a dollar off of Dr. Praeger's products and I've never heard of that brand so I wanted to give it a try. I first made sure that they carried vegan products and they do, which is exciting for me. If you go on their website you can see that they have eight vegan products and one includes a "Veggie Littles" that is gluten free for kids.

Carrots, onions, string beans, oat bran soybeans, zucchini, peas, broccoli, corn, soy flakes, spinach, expeller pressed canola oil, red pepppers ,arrowtoot, corn starch, garlic, corn meal, salt, parsley and black pepper is all what makes this delicious creation! Seriously, the ingredients are so simple and I know what they all are, so that's reason one on why I love this burger. Reason two is because it's just simply great tasting, It's moist, soft, and it has a very familiar taste but I cant describe it. (it reminds my sister of carls jr. and i don't know why)
Anyways I recommend this burger to all because it's my new favorite product!
Dr.Praeger's website here!

-Monica

A Summer Esential

Although summer is coming to an almost end, this product as been a lifesaver! Sun Bum is an awesome company that makes cruelty free sun care products like spray and lotion sunscreens, they also have lip balms and other goodies. Their sunscreen lotions and sprays range from SPF 15-50 and if you have a child they have a baby bum line!

When I first bought this it smelled like bananas, then I got home and realized it was just in my head because it does not have a banana scent, unfortunately.  I've used this product about four times and the smell isn't too strong and it's not oily, like other sunscreens. After getting out of the water, it does leave your skin a bit white, but I didn't mind. With sunscreen you are suppose to apply about 3 tablespoons of it in order for it to do it's job properly.

A couple of points I found on their website:

• Broad Spectrum UVA/UVB Protection / Parsol® 1789
• Ultra Waterproof / Ultra Sweatproof
• Paraben Free / PABA Free / Oil Free
• Hypoallergenic
• Photostable
• Vitamin E Enriched
• 8 FL OZ / 237 ML

The only down side is the price, $16 bucks is a lot for a sunscreen, but then again sunscreens are usually expensive.

For more information on Sun Bum and sun care click here!

-Monica

Quinoa

I have been loving Trader Joe's protein oatmeal, I pretty much eat it almost every day. If you are like me, you don't get sick of eating the same breakfast everyday, but lately i've been craving something new and a bit different. So I decided to try out the quinoa oatmeal wannabe breakfast like recipe.
It only has four ingredients, it's super easy, the only bad thing is is that it takes forever. The first time I tried doing this I didn't put enough milk so I had to keep adding more and it took longer to make. It seems if you add a cup of quinoa you're suppose to add 2 cups of water/broth/milk, or you can read the directions on the quinoa packaging and they will likely explain on how to cook it correctly.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of quinoa
1- 1.5 cup of vanilla rice milk
Cinnamon to taste
and bananas!!

First, you want to wash and rinse your quinoa, which is a pain but you gotta do it.
Add milk and quinoa to a pot on high heat and let it boil, then lower the heat, let it simmer, and cover.
Cook for about 20-30 minutes or until quinoa is translucent.
While it's cooking add some cinnamon to taste.
After it's done cooking serve with bananas or any fruit of your liking and enjoy!

Super easy to make you just need some patience. =)

-Monica

July Vegan Cuts Beauty Box

I was so excited when I heard that Vegan Cuts was having a new beauty box, so i ordered mine right away.
Good thing I ordered mine quickly because after two days they sold out of their July box, so I was more excited! So for some who don't know yet, Vegan Cuts is an online store where you can buy a bunch of vegan products like, food, clothing, purses, and jewelry. They also have two types of monthly subscription boxes, a snack box and a new beauty box, I haven't tried their snack box but it sounds pretty great.

Before I got my box I was too impatient, so I was looking at the #vegancutsbeautybox on Instagram and saw what others were getting and it just made me more excited. Vegan Cuts made a video showing us a small sneak peak so I knew we were getting a LVX nail polish, which is worth $16, and a Namaste pouch($7). I was so stoked to get a new nail polish, since I only have one cruelty free and vegan nail polish which is Zoya. The LVX comes in the color Deco and its part of their 2013 summer line. It's a very pretty bright pink color and sorry if this photo doesn't do it justice, I love it.

What I was super ecstatic for was their mascara. I have been looking for a vegan, cruelty free, and almost natural mascara for a long time but I end up not buying one because A. beeswax is sometimes always found in mascara and B. too expensive, so I end up with nothing. I have heard of GlamNatural before but it was too expensive for me so I didn't bother. It's a good sample size and if you want to buy the full size product it will cost you $28 bucks.

July Beauty Box came with these goodies:
LVX deco nail polish(full size)-$16
GlamNatural black mascara- full size $28
Namaste's jemma pouch- $7
Essence of Vali's sleep spray- sample $1
Acure Organics argan oil -full size $14.99
NYL Skincare rosewater face wash- full size $28
Suntegrity tinted moisturizer- full size $45
Lippy Girl lip gloss(full size)- $7.25

The box costs $19.95(including US shipping) so $16 from LVX, $7 from Namaste pouch, and  $7 lip gloss, you can see this box was more than worth it.

Check out Vegan Cuts here!

-Monica

Snacks are Always Good

Snacks are always a good idea, whether it be before a big meal or right after or all day everyday. I love snacks and the more nutritious the better. Like these fiber cakes from Trader Joe's, they have 11g of insoluble fiber, 5g of protein, only 2g of sugar, and only 80 calories. These are perfect for pretty much any time, after a workout, on the go, or for school. They are soft, moist, and blueberry-ish.

Trader Joe's-$4.49

Daiya- $4.69 Follow Your Heart- $3.99

Daiya grilled cheese

My first vegan grilled cheese since going vegan! The cheddar style slices from Daiya completed this sandwich. This sandwich was a perfect snack because the cheese actually melts and tastes so good. If you love Daiyas regular cheese shreds then you will still love this cheese. It was just perfect.

Follow Your Heart quesadilla

This is the second time trying out Follow Your Heart cheeses, first was at EVO Kitchen and I really liked it so I wanted to buy it. Plus, my sister is trying to give up dairy for a month and I thought she would prefer this brand over Daiya. She did like it because it doesn't have a strong flavor like Daiya cheeses do.
Tip: do not microwave this cheese. I was cooking this quesadilla and the cheese was not melting so I thought that microwaving it would help. It did not, it made it melt to pretty much just oil. Today, I tired a grilled cheese with FYH it was good and better than the quesadilla, but it didn't melt like the Daiya cheese.

Overall, don't microwave FYH, eat grilled cheese sandwiches with Daiya, need to test these cheeses on pizzas.

Daiya website here!
Follow Your Heart website here!

-Monica

Carrot Hotdog

Today I got to try a very weird hotdog, a carrot hotdog. At the Los Angeles farmers market there is this small stand called Fritzi Dog, the only vegan hotdog they carry is the carrot dog. At first I was very hesitant to try it because it's literally just a carrot, having braces, it kind of scared me haha. Also, I wasn't sure if adding ketchup to a carrot hotdog was "normal". Anyways, when I bit into it I was relived because it was surprisingly really soft. The flavor reminded me of the samosas that Whole Foods sells, which are good, but I wasn't really into it. The bread and tots were good though.

Fritzi Dog-carrot dog & tots

Mamma Chia-coconut mango

Bobo's Oat Bars -Coconut $2.70

After the strange carrot hotdog concept I stopped by Whole Foods and saw they had a deal on their Mamma Chia drinks, plus the lovely ceo Janie sent me some more coupons! So I took advantage of the deal and got myself coconut mango and guava mamma, I haven't tried the guava mamma yet but the coconut one is really good. Also, I have been seeing a lot of Bobo's lately so I thought I should give it a go. I got the coconut flavor, it's wheat free, vegan, and non-gmo. I really liked this bar because it was very filling, soft, and moist enough. The bar has two servings, 180 calories per serving, 3g fiber, and 8g sugar. I think this bar is perfect if you're on the go because it will fill you up fast.

-Monica