In this special episode of the TVP, Lisa and Colleen engage in a total gush-fest because they get to interview Colleen Patrick-Goudreau of Compassionate Cooks. Besides founding Compassionate Cooks, Colleen P-G is the author of old-school sweet-fest The Joy of Vegan Baking and dinner party planner extraordinaire The Vegan Table.

Lisa and TVP Colleen got to talk to Colleen P-G about her podcast, her cooking classes, her favourite recipes, and what she’ll be talking about at this year’s TVA annual food fair (Sept. 11-13, 2009 – mark your calendars!).

This podcast is an old school apple pie 27 minutes long.  

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John and Colleen are in a time warp this week and are joined by podcast originals Jason and AngelA for a fun filled half hour of banter.

The four of them were very happy with the community feeling that today's vegan bake sale created.  There were lots of great treats sold (lemon bars, caramel pecan bars, truffles, raw cheese cake, spiced truffles, and much more).  Thanks to everyone who came out in spite of the rain.  Extra special thanks to everyone who donated baked goods to assist with this wonderful event.  Pictures of the bake sale will be posted here.

The podcast team is very excited about the upcoming spicy dosa eating contest taking place at Dundas Square on July 13th at 5:30 p.m. - please contact Udupi Palace for more information. 

Other topics from this episode: a variety of coffee experiences, more news on Vitamin D, Ethiopian food, the Joy of Vegan Baking, "healthy" vs. "healthy looking".

This podcast is a ripe avocado 34 minutes.

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Lisa and John have the chance to interview Ani Phyo. Ani's raw food books are wonderful for anyone who is interested in experimenting with living foods.

Ani's raw food dessert book has just been released.

This podcast is a three ingredient recipe 24 minutes.

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Today John has company in the form of a very excited Colleen.  She is very happy due to some fancy vegan ice cream at Hibiscus Cafe in the Kensington Market.  Colleen particularly likes their homemade coconut raspberry.

Colleen also talks about two different types of veggie bacon available at Sadie's Diner - one is vegetarian and the other is vegan.  If you're vegan make sure you request the vegan version.

Vegan baking news abounds.  There is still time to participate in next Saturday's vegan bake sale (June 20th).  You can contribute your baked goods to the sale (ideally submit your recipe here by Sunday, June 14th) or you can simply come to the patio of Vegetarian Haven (17 Baldwin Street) between 12 and 2 p.m.  Things are also in the works for the 2nd Annual Totally Fabulous Vegan Bake Off.  There will also be a vegan bake sale in Guelph on Saturday, June the 27th (for more information please contact Kelly).

Other noteworthy news on this week's podcast:  John gives his rendition of being attacked by redwing blackbirds , there will be a podcast with Ani Phyo this week, podcast listener Mindy has a great vegan pizza recipe, TVA is an official charity in this year's Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, and the Durham Vegetarian Festival is taking place on August the 9th (mark your calendars).   

The resource centre will be closed on Saturday, June 27th and Wednesday, July 1st for Canada Day. 

This podcast is a rounded tablespoon of Jermaine Jackson 27 minutes.

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Lisa and Colleen have the chance to interview Isa Moskowitz.  Isa has brought us the following cookbooks: Vegan Brunch, Veganomicon, Vegan with a Vengeance, and Vegan Cupcakes take over the World.

Isa will have Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar released later this year.

This podcast is a seitanic 28 minutes.

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Today’s podcast is a celebration of vegan ice cream and there were a lot of visitors who came into the Resource Centre to try out some of the samples.  There were five flavours in total (ginger beer sorbet, chocolate, vanilla chocolate chip, cookies and cream, and pumpkin oat).  A delicious time was had by all.

There are also other sweet things on the plate.  Namely vegan cheesecake from a company called Living Sweets.  You can find these at Noah’s (Spadina/Bloor).  You will also be able to find pictures and a description of the cheesecake on the Resource Centre blog.

Mindy writes in that she would like to know John’s whole wheat bread recipe as he was bragging about it on podcast 140.  Here it is:
1 1/8 cup water
1 ½ tbsp oil
3 tbsp some liquid sweetener (John uses agave)
3 tbsp maple syrup
1/3 tsp salt
3 cups hard whole wheat flour
1 ½ to 3 tbsp gluten
1 ½ tsp yeast
Place the ingredients in your bread maker in the above order and set to the whole wheat cycle.

Saturday, June 20th is the Vegan Bake Sale taking place on the patio of Vegetarian Haven (17 Baldwin Street) between the hours of 12 and 2 p.m.  If you are interested in donating some vegan baked goods to this sale or getting more information please write to torontoveganbakesale@gmail.com.  TVA is proud to be a part of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale.

The Toronto Vegetarian Association is now a registered charity with the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.  There will be more information forthcoming about how you can help to support TVA through this wonderful race.  

Lisa spills the beans on who is coming to the Vegetarian Food Fair in September.  The list includes: Brenda Davis, Gene Baur, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, and Terry Hope Romero.

This week's podcast is a ice creamy 21 minutes

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Today Liam and John are sweating vitamin D and very excited over visitors, vitamin D, and vivacious vegan ice cream/baking.

Liam and John talk about podcast listeners and Resource Centre visitors Claude and Rochelle on today's episode (Hi Claude!).  Claude speaks with John and Liam about how being a podcast listener has resulted in him getting bigger servings of food at Karine's Vegan, Vegetarian & All-Day Breakfast .  Apparently being a listener has its perks.

The podcasters also discuss a new vegan restaurant opening at Bathurst just north of Bloor (854 Bathurst - 416-535-5683).  One Love Vegetarian was formerly at the long-running World Cafe food court at Harbourfront Centre, the owners of One Love Vegetarian now have their own restaurant.

Shawn also writes in with his report on vegan ice cream books.  There are a few on the market; the TVA Resource Centre also has the book Vice Cream for sale.  This comes just in time for next week's We All Scream For Vegan Ice Cream event next Saturday at the TVA Resource Centre between 1 and 4 p.m.  There will be an old fashioned chocolate ice cream along with some samples from Vegan Scoop (including a Ginger Beer ice cream). 

Liam gets the chance to respond to a letter written from a new MD (Reed) from Rochester, NY.  Reed addresses the issues surrounding B12 and Vitamin D.  Reed provides some helpful links that deal with these issues. 

The other big event coming up on June the 20th is the Vegan Bake Sale taking place on the patio of Vegetarian Haven between the hours of 12 and 2 p.m.  If you are interested in donating some vegan baked goods to this sale or getting more information please write to torontoveganbakesale@gmail.com.

Liam's question of the week can be found here.

To end this week's show Lisa enjoys interviewing Nate from the blog Vegan Dad. 

This week's podcast is a rung-out-sweaty-t-shirt 41 minutes.

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Today Liam and John have some silliness bubbling over that they need to get out of their systems.  This comes in the form of discussing some of the odd things that they ate when they were children.

When they do get down to business they talk about the Ontario Vegetarian Food Bank and how TVA accepts donations for them in the form of non-perishable food items.

One perishable food item that is worthy of discussion is ice cream.  Specifically vegan ice cream.  A visitor this week mentions that there is a vegan ice cream shop in New York City.  John's research into this shows that there are in fact two vegan ice cream shops in New York City.  Liam is very excited about the talk of ice cream and mentions Toronto's own Soy-n-Joy.  While there is no promise that the TVA resource centre crew can compete with the pros they will be giving out free samples of vegan ice cream on June the 6th between 1 and 4 p.m.

Liam also discusses his recent (separate) experiences with vitamin D and a slow cooker.

As John promises during the show here's the link to the TVA resource centre blog.

This week's podcast is a chewing on a frozen mock-meat fish stick 34 minutes.

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Today Liam and John have the chance to talk with Gary from Compassion for Animals.  Gary is part of a team who is working on the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale.  TVA will be a part of this and will have its Vegan Bake Sale from 12 to 2 p.m. on Saturday June the 20th on the patio of Vegetarian Haven (17 Baldwin Street).  You should really come by, or even better, help out by making your favourite baked good for us to sell - more information will be forthcoming.

The free cupcake event went so well a couple of weeks ago that there will be a part deux.  This time there'll be vegan ice cream.  On Saturday, June the 6th come to the Resource Centre between the hours of 1 and 4 p.m. to get your taste of homemade vegan ice cream.  Listen to future podcasts to get more details.

Liam spends some time this week discussing the seal hunt.  While Liam is appalled by this he feels that the atrocities done to farm animals are far greater.

John discusses the Ethiopian food experience he had this week while dining with a gaggle of omnivores.

This podcast is a Sidney-Crosby-free 32 minutes.

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John and Liam were happy to have some very interesting visitors come into the office today. There was a visitor who recently decided to go vegan due to a workshop he was at featuring Nimisha Raja. There was also a visitor who wanted to get more information about Brendan Brazier as he was at Brendan's talk recently. It's great to know that the TVA workshops which are being put on are really helping people.

Another couple who visited are podcast listeners (Hi Shôn and Roman!) and the discussion was all over the place. Liam got some interesting information about the Dufferin Grove farmer's market, growing your own mushrooms, and permaculture. John got more information about travelling in South America and where to eat when in a foreign country.

This week there are two questions of the week: 1) Do you have a favourite vegan cheese? 2) Would you eat eggs from a chicken that you knew was ethically treated?

Although it wasn't mentioned on the podcast, you should really consider coming into the Resource Centre on Wednesday night (May 6th) for the workshop on how to make marvelous meals for mother's day.

This week's podcast is a frozen pizza pizzazz 25 minutes.

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Today John, Colleen, and Liam surprisingly had the energy to podcast after eating a whole lot of food from Hot Yam. Hot Yam catered an event for Utcare and the trio were some of the beneficiaries.

The three also discuss a really helpful resource to help anyone in Toronto to live a more environmentally friendly life.

Liam's question of the week: what are your thoughts on vegetarians dating non-vegetarians? It seems as though the three co-hosts differ in opinion on this topic. John points out that K-os, who John believes to be vegetarian, is smitten with Natalie Portman, who John also believes to be vegetarian. John feels that this proves that "vegetarian love" extends into the celebrity world as well - Colleen suggests that lots of guys love Natalie Portman just because she's beautiful.

If you're looking for ethical jewellery/wedding rings this episode will be of assistance .

In case you don't know yet you can find out more about the resource centre crews and podcast co-hosts on their blog.

TVA will also be taking part in the Worldwide Vegan Bakesale on June 28th at Pedestrian Sunday in Kensington Market. There will be baked goods exchanged for a "suggested donation" available on that day.

Also, check out How to Make Marvelous Meals for Mom, and the Healthy Eating Workshops on April 28th, April 30th and May 26th.

This Podcast is a lime in the coconut 35 minutes.

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This week, Angelina and John dip into food lit, revamped restaurants, and ethical quandaries - all in the name of plant-based eating.

Atop Angelina's recent reading lists are Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, ruminations on how we perceive of what we eat, and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, in which she reflects on her family's year of producing all their own food. Topics brought up in these food politics books also tie in with a variety of TVA-sponsored health talks and how-to events coming up in the near future.

Kensington Market is on everyone's mind at the RC today. Angelina has recently rediscovered Hibiscus, a cozy, mostly vegan eatery on Augusta that serves delicious buckwheat crepes and exotic homemade non-dairy ice creams. Ask for the experimental rice cheese! John has noticed that King's Cafe is hopping in the first weeks after its recent renovations. As well, he interjects ethics into the podcast discussion with two tales of dietary profiling.

For more information about T.O.F.U.magazine's tour click here.

Also, don't forget about next Saturday's Vegan Cupcakes Take Over Your Stomach at the Resource Centre.

Today's question of the week: if you could get a food based tattoo what would you get?

This podcast is a musky 27 minutes.

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Today John and Colleen are on full recovery mode from yesterday's chickpea indulgence. A small group got together to have a "hummus-off"; there were nine hummus entrants competing for the elusive title of "Hummus Champion Of The World". The names of the hummuses ("hummi"?) were as diverse as the flavours. The winner was the "Healthy Hatha Hummus"; the runners up were "Conquistador" and "¡Garbanzo Caliente!".

There are lots of fun events in the near future which you will be invited to as well. On Saturday, April 25th John and Colleen will be making their favourite recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World which will be free to sample in the Resource Centre. There are also rumblings of some active events too, including ultimate frisbee, soccer, and softball.

Colleen's heart is all aflutter due to the following cookbooks: Vegan Brunch, Vegan Soul Kitchen, Ani's Raw Dessert, The 30 Minute Vegan, Skinny Bastard and The Vegan Table .

John's mouth is running amuck with regards to the state of vegetarianism in Wisconsin.

This podcast is a hummus of a thousand suns 23 minutes.

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It's a Wednesday night and Lisa and Colleen have finally had success in recording the podcast they planned for the previous Saturday. They discuss food, as always, including Organics on Bloor's great produce boxes, the great vegan truffles you can get in Kensington Market, So Delicious coconut ice cream, and the sexy Engine 2 Diet.

Lisa and Colleen also discuss Toronto Sprouts' recent market event and their upcoming move to Etobicoke, Colleen's 3rd copy of The Garden of Vegan, and Lisa's recipe testing for Terry Hope Romero's new cookbook, tentatively titled Vegan Latina.


This podcast is a Ripped and on fire 32 minutes long.

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Liam and John are on a world tour and are taking a hiatus to podcast. John recently got back from Panama City and New York City - obviously, there is a report as to the food consumed in these two cities. Likewise Liam was recently in Chicago and he reports that Chicago Diner and Trader Joe's are vegan meccas.

The two also discuss tonight's TVA festivities as it relates to Earth Hour. There were also two separate emails from Australia - one is fan mail and the other deals with the Blood Type Diet.

Liam's question of the week: How do you get ten servings of fruits and vegetables a day?

This podcast is a jet-setting 29 minutes.

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