Easter is a celebration of resurrection and rebirth, so it is the perfect occasion for everyone – veggies and non-veggies alike – to enjoy a delicious meat-free meal. Check out our tips on what to serve and links to the best recipes.

Also included are quotes from Veggie Challenge participants who gave up meat for Lent, a link to a good article about a woman questioning the baked ham that has always formed the centre piece of her family's Easter dinner, and a crucifixion ad by PETA.

Image from Sonicwalker's Flickr site (creative commons).

Friday marks the beginning of Earth Week, so we've gotta ask: what are you giving up? Our friends at Earth Day Canada are challenging Canadians to help create a healthier world by making changes to their daily routines. Are you ready to try a meat-free diet or green your cleaning routine? Will you put an “out of order” sign on your TV or stop buying stuff? Learn more about what you can do and get signed up to make an impact, right here. 

Veggielicious continues this weekend as more than 20 restaurants across the GTA and even as far as Niagara showcase gourmet food that is good for you, good for the planet and cruelty-free.

Restaurants are offering amazing deals on cruelty-free vegetarian meals so be sure to check out Veggielicious.ca to get full details of what's on special at businesses such as Rawlicious, Sadie's Diner, Magic Oven, Bunners and many, many more!  

Where?  Restaurants across the GTA, as far away as Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton and St. Catharines

When?  April 9-24, 2011

How much? Meal costs vary by restaurant

Help spread the word!  Click here to download and print posters to drop off in your neighbourhood, and to access a link to quickly promote through Facebook and Twitter

Find out more at Veggielicious.ca

This week, Liam, Emily, and Lisa (Mighty-)O have a lot of news to discuss! For one thing, Mighty-O Donuts in Seattle has WON a Food Network Competition, going up against non-veg restaurants to create a breakfast donut.

There's a new raw restaurant opening up in Burlington, resulting from a merge between Wild Seed and Naked Sprout. Is there a new trend of vegan restaurants opening up in wealthy suburbs? There are some good new places in the Burlington area, including Kindfood and Nzyme (in Oakville). So far, Emily has tried the Bunner's Bakery Veggielicious special, and Lisa has tried the special at Rawlicious, where David was featured on CTV news earlier this week! It turns out that Mercy for Animals has been running a Vegan Week event similar to Veggielicious in four cities in the US.

Natalie Portman has jumped off the vegan wagon, caving to pregnancy cravings for non-vegan sweets. Liam, having never been pregnant, refrains from judging. There are certainly plenty of vegan treats available in Toronto right now. Check out this page from our directory for news on veganized creme eggs, marshmallow peeps, and other holiday goodies, including raw chocolates. Hot Beans has just started serving cinnamon buns with cream cheese frosting (but be sure to arrive just after they open if you want to snag one for yourself.) In other sweets news, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero's new addition to their dessert trilogy is going to be about pies! A new series on Animal Planet will feature another vegan baker, in a show called Sweet Avenger.

A recent list of America's 10 best sandwiches has been veganized, and you can ogle the results and even check out the recipes to make some of your own. The photos are all "safe" to look at, since they don't contain any meat. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of VegNews, which it turns out has been featuring stock photos of non-vegan food and labeling them vegan. A recent article on NPR shares findings about the many types of drug-resistant bacteria which are being found on grocery store meat. If you want to make avoiding eating meat even easier, enter to win Gardein's contest! You can also save some money by signing up for Vegan Cuts and Ethical Deal.

Today's podcast is a sweet 35 minutes.

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Live On Chocolate delights!

Boardwalk Chocolates

Bunner's Bake Shop

Panacea is also bringing in foil-wrapped organic fair trade dark chocolate eggs, organic fair trade dark chocolate sitting bunnies, and vegan "milk chocolate" peanut butter crunch filled Easter eggs, all from Sjaak's vegan chocolate line.

Unrelated to Easter but totally related to chocolate, which has pretty much taken over this update anyway, Panacea is launching a new vegan bar product line from Sjaak's called Eli's Earth Bars, and 2 new varieties from Go Max Go that'll be modelled after Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Nestle's Crunch bar - watch our May updates post on May 2 for details!

Today Liam, Angela, Dax and John have the opportunity to try out more of Hot Beans while talking about the ins and outs of  vegetarianism. 
There are lots of cool events coming up in the not too distant future: 
• On April 27th and April 30th TVA participates in the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sales.
• Toronto will have a Vegan Scavenger Hunt.
• Veggielicious is taking place right now; get out there inhabitants of the GTA and try some good vegan eats.

Last, but not least:
• The podcasters discuss the age old debate: vegan donut vs. non-vegan donut. A battle to the death.
• There is news about the best hummus in Toronto. One can't go wrong with pureed chickpeas.
• More travel reports as it pertains to eating vegetarian food while travelling. Check out some reports from eating vegan in Asia.
- There are a couple of headlines which are sensationalized that put a damper on the vegan parade, but that won't bring us down for too long.

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Have you heard the news that the Toronto Vegetarian Association has been selected as one of the three finalists in the Green Toronto Awards? Yes, it's true! We're a finalist in the category of Environmental Awareness, as a result of the work that TVA's outreach and Vegetarian Food Fair does to support people in making greener food choices.

Thanks to TVA's generous donors and army of volunteers, more than 100,000 Torontonians were empowered to take steps towards a more sustainable diet in 2010. We know that going vegetarian is one of the most effective ways people can lower their ecological footprint, and now the City of Toronto agrees!

In 2010, we attended 7 environmentally focused events including the Green Living Show, the Halton Eco Festival and Live Green Toronto, where we distributed over 1000 vegetarian fact sheets and over 800 vegetarian starter kits and recipe booklets, and signed up over 200 people for the Veggie Challenge. At our Annual Vegetarian Food Fair, we distributed thousands more and signed up an additional 200 people for the Veggie Challenge. As a result of our new Meatless Mondays program, by the end of 2010, 550 people committed to reducing their meat consumption one day a week.

Recently, volunteers at the York University Health Fair signed up almost 100 people to take the Veggie Challenge in just a single day!

These accomplishments are made possible by the generous donations of members like you and the work of more than 300 volunteers.

On April 15th, the winners will be announced at the Green Toronto Awards ceremony held at the Direct Energy Centre. Wish us luck!

New finds

Caroline tipped us off to Swagruhas Dosa Home (2970 Drew Road, Mississauga, 905-673-2244,) an "authentic South Indian Vegetarian Restaurant, which not only has dosa in their name (and we love a good dosa!), they have dosas with chocolate chips on their menu!

The TVA office got a call from a helpful citizen to let us know about Bhavna's Food - Pure Vegetarian Indian Cuisine (1422 Queen Street West, 416-538-3035,) which was featured recently as a "lunch under $10" pick on Good Food Revolution - check it out for video and photos.

Peter from Wild Seed Food Bar emailed to let us know that Wild Seed will be merging with The Naked Sprout forming Burlington's first organic raw vegan restaurant, to be located at 4040 Palladium Way, a block North of Dundas on Walkers Line and opening on April 18th.  The previous location has closed, so keep an eye on their website for details later this month.

New stuff

Hot Beans (160 Baldwin Street, 647-352-7581) has just added breakfast burritos to their menu, which will be available Saturday and Sunday mornings starting at 11am until they run out. They're featuring The Elvis (tempeh bacon, sweet fried plantains, peanut-miso sauce, toasted coconut, crushed tortillas, hash browns and cashew sour cream) and The Trucker's Breakfast (scrambled tofu, seitan sausage, hash browns, black beans, lettuce, pico de gallo, cashew sour cream and creamy chipotle mayo.)  Oh, and don't forget their new breakfast deal: burrito and a coffee for $10 tax included!

Organic Oven (3189 Yonge St., 416-489-7777, and 31 Melanie Drive, Brampton, 905-459-2333) is now offering buckwheat flatbread (gluten- and wheat-free and made with Himalayan salt,) Lemon cupcakes with butter cream or cream cheese icing (also gluten-free with organic lemon juice and rind,) and organic lavender cookies (shortbread-style with therapeutic-grade lavender oil.)

Discount Updates

Power By Design, Graphic & Production Design Services is offering 20% off on hourly and flat rate design work.

Meatless Mondays Update

Tamarind the Indian Kitchen (Brookfield Place (Front & Yonge,) concourse level, 416-850-2929) is promoting Meatless Mondays ! They're offering special deals for vegetarian and vegan products each Monday.  Check out their Facebook and Twitter feeds for details!

Things we learn from the Internet

(Have you tried the internet? It's pretty awesome.)

Kindfood (399 John St, Burlington, 905-637-2700) used Facebook to brag about their Spirulina and Banana Cupcakes (photos here): "These guys are full of the Sea Vegetable Spirulina which naturally protects our thyroid (from radiation) and has all the essential amino acids to build the perfect protein molecule....all in a cupcake." I want everything in life to come via cupcake. It's clear to me now that it's the perfect delivery vehicle.

The Twitterverse is telling us that Jimmy's Coffee (107 Portland Street, 416-901-2289) is a good source of vegan cupcakes. And probably coffee.  And Jimmy.

Closures

Cozy Corners B&B has closed.

Rock out to help others veg out! This Thursday night, Vegan Rock is back again. Come hear some great live music and sample some tasty vegan treats at this benefit concert for the Toronto Vegetarian Association. The concert will feature local veg artists:

Dream Awake

Hush Money

More Than Breathing

Jacqueline Rendell

Plus, there will be a pay-what-you-can bake sale.

When?

Thursday, March 31st at 9 pm

Where? 

The Boat (158 Augusta Avenue, in Kensington Market)

How Much?

$10, with all proceeds going towards TVA. The baked goods are free but donations are greatly appreciated!

Find out more on Facebook. 

So today, we (Trisha and Emily) thought we would be making the podcast alone, and were a bit concerned that the podcast would never see the light of day or would be composed of laughter intermingled with awkward silences.  However, lucky for us Luke stopped by, and saved the podcast day.  If you are listening now, it's thanks to Luke.

What did we talk about?  Well, many things.  First of all, there is a new cafe called T.A.N. that has opened up on Baldwin St. just down from the TVA.  They have fair-trade coffee and Sweets from the Earth cookies (baked in-house - they are awesome). Hot Beans had its usual mention - the donuts are still amazing.

Trisha also made mention that Martha Stewart is having a vegan episode with Kathy Freston and Biz Stone, which is exciting, and puts her in the same league as Oprah, another omnimedia mogel.  Trisha also thought it important, however, to remind everybody that Ellen also has a talkshow (but not a magazine or radio show or own network...wait...back to the point at hand) and is vegan and thus every one of her talkshows is a vegan episode.  Kind of.  She often has vegan chefs prepare meals as demonstrations and so forth.

Upcoming Events: Vegan Rock! at The Boat!   Veggielicious!   Compassion Week!  Food Festival!  Earth Hour! (That's tonight). Can you tell we are excited?  And hungry. 

Also, TVA was selected as one of three finalists in the Green Toronto Awards - the winner will be announced in April 15th!

KindFood was also discussed at length, and anyone in or around the Burlington area (or anyone anywhere for that matter) should check it out.  The desserts on their website look tremendous.

Also, Trisha is heading off to Farm Sanctuary soon and will be sending regular updates on life at the sanctuary.  Emily is reading Farm Sanctuary which is about life at the sanctuary.  So...there you go.  All bases covered.

This podcast was an omnimedia conquering 19 minutes.

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Today John and Liam (“Left Eye” Lopes) are believers in their friends as they receive lots of good information from loved ones and random listeners, and this leads to a lengthy show.

Lisa P. writes in about some of the new vegan processed foods that are on the market which were displayed at Expo West.  She balances this out by writing in about her experiences at The Thrive Juice Bar which she discusses here.

Lisa O. lets the podcast team know about a list of vegan fair trade chocolate.  She points out that Boardwalk Chocolates is not on the list, but they are fair trade.

Angela informs the podcasters about a veggie runner’s blog and a vegan backpacker’s blog.  The latter ties in nicely as John has a chance to sit down with Marco and speak about his travels as it pertains to veganism in Honduras and Guatemala.  Marco is a good source of information.

Liam and John also hear from Marty who has a response to the last couple of podcasts which address the Spice Goddess.

Other topics covered on today’s show:  roti, White Lotus, Hot Beans, The Worldwide Vegan Bakesale, and Veggielicious.

This week’s show is a son of a Bahama 48 minutes.

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Today John and Emily respond to last week's podcast with their own thoughts on the Food Network. John reports that he watched two and a half shows yesterday and did not see a single vegetable being used in the shows. Emily also reiterates that it is not exactly a vegetarian friendly form of media.

Since this is Emily's first time on the podcast she gets to introduce herself and her vegetarian background. For those of you who don't have a lot of supportive family out there you're going to be jealous as Emily has a sister and a parent who is vegetarian.  

The two podcast co-hosts also discuss Hot Beans and their donuts (the new dessert trend according to Emily). Liam reports that the price has gone up, but that won't stop him from spending the extra fifty cents ($2 total) from eating them up like they are going out of style. John is going to have to research this phenomenon by visiting Hot Beans post-haste to try the donuts out.  (NOTE: John went to Hot Beans after his volunteer shift.  Hot Beans is not at 160 August as he reports on the podcast.  Hot Beans is located at 160 Baldwin.  160 Augusta is a hard ware store and, no, they do not sell vegan donuts.) 

Most importantly Veggielicious is going to be upon us quicker than you think. If you don't get excited about this you need to check your pulse. You will have the chance to win some great prizes by being active on Twitter and Facebook. Download a poster here, print it and post it to spread the word!

This week's episode is a Buddha Bowl of goodness 27 minutes.

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Today, Liam, Trisha, and Lisa O.  started off the show by talking about new TV shows. Liam discovered Spice Goddess on the Food Network, a show on Indian cooking that showcases a lot of vegetarian meals. Lisa O. heard about a new channel being launched by Swiss Chalet that will show chickens roasting in an open flame oven 24 hours a day for 13 weeks. Liam has a great suggestion to show battery-caged chickens on the channels directly on either side of the new Swiss Chalet channel.

Trisha talked about her upcoming three-month animal care internship at Farm Sanctuary's Watkins Glen location . She's excited to work with the animals and scoop some poop! We look forward to hearing about her experience when she returns in July.

Image courtesy of Hot Beans

Liam just returned from a trip to the Bahamas, where he enjoyed himself but ended up eating a lot of instant noodles. We were spoiled today in the food department, however, as we all sampled some of Hot Beans' offerings. It's a new all-vegan eatery in Kensington Market with a Mexican-inspired menu and VEGAN DONUTS for just $1.50 each. We highly recommend the "pulled pork" jackfruit taco filling, and we also hear that the seitan burrito is tasty. There are a few new veg-friendly places that have recently opened around the GTA, so check out the directory updates page to find out more info!

Liam is excited to try the new breast milk ice cream on offer in London. The flavour Baby Gaga is Madagascan vanilla with lemon zest. Lisa and Trisha, while supportive of breastfeeding, were trying not to gag during the discussion. What do you think of it, listeners?

Liam was lucky enough to attend the Boardwalk Chocolates tasting party at Panacea, where he sampled eight flavours and also discovered that Tofurkey now makes Daiya-covered pizzas. His favourite flavour is the Italian Sausage Pizza. He also stopped by Mylk Un Cookies recently, but was turned away, as they accept cash only (word to the wise!).

Check out Barnivore to find out whether your alcohol is vegan. Liam discovered that Guinness isn't, but Lisa learned that German beers must be vegan by law, so that's always a safe route.

After a recent podcast, Barbi suggested the resources petfinder.com, which lists animals up for adoption at hundreds of shelters, and Gentle Giants in California, which is run by the guy who played Robin in the original Batman movies, and specializes in large dogs.

Check out the volunteer section of the site for many current volunteer opportunities.

Today's podcast was a jacked-up jackfruit 30 minutes.

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