Oakland Veg Week is a week-long celebration (April 15-21, 2012) that invites meat-eaters to pledge to be vegetarian for one week. It’s a positive, upbeat event where everyone wins: Meat-eaters who want a little help with their veg experiment, local restaurants who want more customers, the City of Oakland (who, let’s face it, could use some happy press!), and most importantly, the animals who would really, really, really like to see more vegetarians!

Bay Area Vegetarians is going to match every donation made for OVW12 up to $500.00. For real! That means a possible total of $1,000 to buy more vegan food to give to meat-eaters…if you can help us out. Your $50 donation is actually $100 with this match, and it’s tax-deductible! Oakland Veg Week is all volunteer, all free, and all awesome. With your support, OVW can reach more meat-eaters with the veg information and samples.

Please consider donating today to help create more vegetarians!
Bay Area Vegetarians, OVW, P.O. Box 700, Vallejo, CA 94590 credit card also accepted

What we like most about Oakland Veg Week … let us know what you like about OVW in the comments.

10. Eating out!
We love restaurants. Lots of Oakland restaurants have signed up to offer special vegan options for OVW12, and we want to make sure they feel the love from the community. If a meat restaurant gets a positive response, they’ll offer more (and better) veg options. So call your best buddies and make some dinner plans ASAP!

9. OVW12 is an all-volunteer, all-local event.
Five hard-working Oaklanders are spending their evening and weekend hours calling local restaurants, putting up fliers all over town, organizing cool events, and working with the city to promote it. They all have day jobs and they’re dipping into their own pockets to cover expenses. So your dollars will stay right here in the Bay Area!

8. The OVW12 organizers said we could watch this video every single day if we supported their work. Works for us.

7. OVW12 is *totally free* for meat-eaters who take the pledge!
Free recipes every day, free movie screenings, free food samples, free cooking classes, free talks by veg experts. We like how accessible that makes it for meat-eaters. The organizers can’t raise funds from tickets to cover their expenses (like space rental fees), but we can help by donating!

6. OVW12 is geared towards meat-eaters.
We love our veg community, but this is about about reaching new people. OVW12 has been marketed to the City of Oakland; the County of Alameda; Rockridge, Glenview and Montclair communities; Oakland School District and Oakland-based colleges and universities, Oakland churches and more.

5. You don’t have to be local.
Sure, locals can attend the free events and enjoy the local restaurants. But anyone can take the veg pledge and still get the free recipes and email support! Way to be inclusive, OVW12! So no matter where you live, please share the Oakland Veg Week pledge page with all the meat-eaters you know.

4. There’s a party at the end!
They’ll have free prizes, free goody bags, yummy food, and even gift certificates from totally awesome restaurants like this!

3. Our very own local rock band, Tremor Low, will be performing live for Oakland Veg Week…with No No Burger there handing out free burger samples! Top that.

2. We think Jack Norris and Nathan Runkle are both seriously awesome. It’s like Superman and Batman both coming to your hometown at once.

1. And the #1 super most important reason to support OVW: The animals.

According to the awesome blog Counting Animals, a vegetarian saves at least one animal a day! Every time we eat, we can decide to contribute to animal suffering or to eat a healthy, humane meal. Many of you reading this blog have already chosen to eat humanely. Now is your chance to help others make the same choice. The animals are counting on YOU to spread the word, and the volunteers behind Oakland Veg Week have made it easy for you! Read more about farm animal welfare on Vegan Outreach’s website.
Please consider getting involved with this powerful–and fun–week. If you donate to help cover costs and we’ll match it. You can also spread the word about OVW12 to your non-veg friends, and of course, take those same friends out to eat at a participating OVW12 restaurant.

Thank you and Happy Oakland Veg Week!

Vaishnu Express Cafe opened last fall, serving fast food Indian vegetarian food in a strip mall in Vallejo, just of 29 near 37.

They offers curries, sweets, and chaat. Several of the curries and chaat are vegan. Ample indoor seating, in a clean, no-frills environment. Food is served on paper trays.

Weekday lunch special is 4.99 and entrees 5.99. Catering is also available.

They don’t have a permanent sign up yet, just a banner.  Look for #135; it’s next door to the donut shop.  There’s also an Indian grocery store in the strip mall, Indian Bazaar.

Vaishnu Express Cafe may very well hold the title as Vallejo’s First Vegetarian Restaurant.  If you’ve tried it, do share with us what you like.  Or other nearby places for veg eats.

For more info:
Ultimate Guide – Vaishnu Express Cafe : read it, rate it, review it!

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And that’s the challenge for the party go’er.. deciding what to bring.

Alicia, who is hosting a Vegan Food Party this Sunday in San Rafael, has a straight-forward guideline for deciding what to bring:  “Depends on location–if it’s close, I like to bring something hot.  If it’s far, then I bring something that can be served cold or at room temperature.”

One of her favorite dishes is a linguine with a peanut sauce with steamed broccoli. The peanut sauce has peanut butter, rice vinegar, crushed red pepper flakes, olive oil, soy sauce, and water or veggie stock.

Cheryl, who is hosting a Vegan Food Party next month in Pacifica, shares her strategy: “I have selected what I bring to a food part a few different ways.  The first time I went to a summer Vegan food party, I went online and searched Vegan Summer recipes and found a wonderful vegan potato salad and I still make it to this day.   It was a wonderful way to find a new recipe that became part of my classic recipes.  I have also made something that I had somewhere when I was out and decided to have a go and make it on my own without a receipe.  It was a Cold Asian Tofu Marinate over rice and it turned out to be a huge success.

I think it is fun to try new ideas and create your own recipes, but I have also made something that I have made for myself in the past too!  This upcoming party I am making something fun and that I have made in the recent past.”

There’s a variety of ways to decide what to bring.  Tammy and Chris, who hosted the first-ever Vegan Food Party, share a couple of their ideas on how to decide what to bring:  “Sometimes we need inspiration to try a new recipe, so we pick one that sounds interesting and bring it to the VFP to ‘animal test it’.  Or, maybe it’s an excuse to make a favorite dish that we haven’t had in awhile, like macaroni and cheese.  Because we both love vegan desserts, we’ll often bring something in that category, like brownies, chocolate mousse pie, cheesecake, apple cake, or pumpkin pie.”

So, join your fellow vegan food-lovers at an upcoming Vegan Food Party

02/06 VFP – San Rafael
03/12 VFP – Pacifica

Thanks to Cheryl for sharing her favorite potato salad recipe that she’s made twice for summer parties.

Vegan Calico Potato Salad

****SPICEY****

For the Dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vinegar (Red Wine Garlic)
1 1/2 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp. Sea Salt
Dash of hot pepper sauce

For the Salad:
2 lb. red potatoes, peeled, cooked, and cubed (Organic)
1 1/2 cups cooked whole-kernel corn  (*Can)
1 cup shredded carrot  (Organic)
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup diced green pepper (organic)
1/2 cup diced red pepper (Organic)
1/2 cup sliced olives  (Can)

For the Dressing:
• Combine all the ingredients. Cover and chill.

For the Salad:
• In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients.

To Assemble:
• Combine the salad and the dressing and toss to mix.

Makes 14 servings

Space is limited and the classes typically fill-up fairly quickly, so please reserve your space today.

Date: Saturday, Nov 6th
Time: 1:00pm – 3:30pm
Location: Whole Foods Market, 1010 Park Place, San Mateo
Cost: $25/person *
Registration | Event Listing

When asked “What did you like most about the baking class?“, class participants replied:

“The taste and texture of the baked goods was very impressive. Very tasty.”

“It gave me confidence that you can make vegan dessert items that taste every bit as good as baked items with animal products.”

“Being with other vegetarians/vegans and learning how to make healthy desserts.”

“Learning all the tips/techniques you can’t get from just a recipe.”

“To meet an actual vegan baker — we need many more of these to progress the “cause” and get/perfect more options.”

“Christine has some good baking humor – she made me laugh”

To learn more about the Secrets of Vegan Baking classes, visit the SecretsOfVeganBaking.com website

For registration, please visit the Bay Area Vegetarians website – http://bayareaveg.org/cooking/

* Thank you to Christine for volunteering her time and expertise; all proceeds benefit Bay Area Vegetarians. In the spirit of promoting vegan baking, these classes are offered below market rate.

Join us for the 1st planning meeting for the Vegetarian Book Lovers Club! We will be meeting at Cafe Trieste (315 S 1st Street San Jose, CA 95113) in downtown San Jose on August 20th at 7pm. If you love to read and discuss thought provoking fiction while enjoying vegan refreshments, join us as we decide on our first book selection.

For further information and to RSVP, please contact Katherine directly (link)

Cinnamon Rolls from Secrets of Vegan Baking

Learn the secrets of baking amazing cinnamon rolls, banana walnut bread, and raspberry cream scones with Secrets of Vegan Baking instructor Dr. Christine Dickson

Date: Saturday, August 14, 2010
Time: 1:00pm – 3:30pm
Location: Whole Foods Market, 1010 Park Place, San Mateo
Cost: $25 per person
[ Register online ]

When asked “What did you like most about the baking class?“, class participants replied:

“The taste and texture of the baked goods was very impressive. Very tasty.”

“It gave me confidence that you can make vegan dessert items that taste every bit as good as baked items with animal products.”

“Being with other vegetarians/vegans and learning how to make healthy desserts.”

“Learning all the tips/techniques you can’t get from just a recipe.”

“To meet an actual vegan baker — we need many more of these to progress the “cause” and get/perfect more options.”

“Christine has some good baking humor – she made me laugh”

To read more about the Secrets of Vegan Baking classes, visit the SecretsOfVeganBaking.com, and Register online at Bay Area Vegetarians.

For more info:
Ultimate Guide – Cinnaholic: read it, rate it, review it!
Cinnaholic Grand Opening information

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"Bay Area Veg Meadow" at Animal Place

Even before facebook started, we’ve been a fan of Animal Place for many years.

With Animal Place’s support, we’ve had an annual tour and picnic for several years at their Vacaville location.  So when we heard they needed to relocate, a few of us got together and organized a fun(d)raiser for them in June 2008.   ( See past blog posts for more info: The Fun(d)Raiser | The Fun(d) Crew )

Our fun(d)raiser provided much needed funds towards expanding to their new Grass Valley location, where they named a meadow for us.  Our meadow is very suitably in the picnic area, because we do love to eat

Their barm warming is tomorrow, and we’re heading up to check out the new sanctuary and definitely “Bay Area Veg Meadow”!  Email us if you’re also going, maybe we can rendezvous.

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BAVeg Jul 2010 Summer Events

To receive it directly, sign up at our website at http://bayareaveg.org

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Veg Info for LGBT Pride

We had an amazing & awesome first day at the BAVeg SF LGBT Pride booth!!  A huge number of folks interested in veg*nism came by for their Free Veg Starter Kit, and sampled delicious coconut milk ice cream samples and meatless jerky.

I’m really looking forward to Day 2, Sunday.  We’ll again have the BAVeg booth (we’re on Larkin in front of the Asian Art Museum), and will also be doing some leafleting to the crowd who are standing around and waiting for the Parade to start ( for those watching the parade, look for the EBAA veg contingent!)

For now, I’ve uploaded a few of the photos that I took of our booth, and there will be more to come that the other volunteers have taken.

http://www.bayareaveg.org/gallery2/v/pride10/

Our entirely all-volunteer crew made this day possible.   I am privileged to have collaborated with such a dedicated group of fellow veg*ns on our outreach booth.

Michelle & Dan

Let’s give them all a virtual big hand of applause:
- Michelle, Dan, George and myself did the setup
- Heidi and Donna staffed the veg booth
- Heidi was also busy taking photographs, and Donna made the most amazing vegan goodies for the booth volunteers
- Michelle and Dan gave out information & stickers galore
- Mila and Mike organized the hugely popular ice cream samples (dry ice is amazing)
- Chris designed the new banners that had people walking over to the booth asking for their Free Veg Starter Kit

We also owe thanks to:
- Turtle Mountain and Primal Spirit Foods for So Delicious Coconut Milk Ice Cream Sandwiches and Primal Strips donations, respectively, distributed to booth visitors
- PCRM, PETA and Vegan Outreach generously donated literature
- Individuals who donated in response to our plea, which so far partially cover our expenses for Pride

BAVeg will be back at SF LGBT Pride all day Sunday .  Our info booth is on Larkin, right in front of the Asian Art Museum  Come by and say hello, and grab some literature for you or a friend

- Tammy

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