Oh that sign… that place
That sign… that place brings back so many fond memories. It is one of the symbols that represents the Eug and many happy times and memories for us. If you are ever in Eugene you MUST try Mommy’s Falafel. Don’t let it being in a gas station scare you. That is all part of the charm. I believe before coming to Eugene the owners had a restaurant and they have plans for opening a stand alone restaurant in Eugene. Right before we moved they updated the food area (which you can see a little bit of in some of the pictures below) and made it pretty cool looking. But, even before that it was still awesome. This is probably one of the greatest finds in the history of personkind. Beats having to make do with chips or cookies or finding places such as Subway or Quiznos in a gas station any day of the week. Not to mention the owners are a family and extremely friendly.
Here is me waiting for our food to be done. 
That huge smile is partly because I knew that I soon would be having the deliciousness that is Mommy’s Falafel and fries which when combined with a soda/pop (depending on your preference 
) is the Falafel Combo. We are a fan of having them add hot sauce and highly suggest you do as well.
But the smile was more so because of the company that I had (Wozzie). Finding/eating tasty food is awesome but sharing the experience with good company is what makes it really great and awesome and takes it “Over the Top” (Pretty awesome movie that you should check out. Trust me ). If you have that always make sure to take advantage of it and appreciate it.
For some reason they always gave me the messy sammie
and always gave Wozzie the neat sammie.
Hmmm…
This is a ridiculously short post but I was craving this like crazy the other day and was so super happy once I finally had it to nom down on.
I love several of the selections that Imagine Foods has for their soups and nothing beats their creamy tomato soup when you are looking to dip a hot off the skillet grilled cheese sammich. The “cheese” of choice for these, for me, is always Tofutti. While most would go with the American slices, my palate adores the Mozzarella for this comfort food.
So, anyway, silly easy and not much to tell but everyone has a comfort food, ya know. Tell me, what’s yours?
NOM.
Another off-topic post here at HHV but this has been on my mind A LOT lately and writing it all down helps me remember exactly why I do what I do. When people talk about being Vegan, they will give a number of different reasons and all of them are completely valid. For me, though, it only has to do with one thing and one thing only: animals deserve to live their own lives free of pain and suffering.
It’s been nearly 3 years since I decided to be a Vegan and that decision wasn’t taken lightly; it made complete sense for me at the time and still does today. Lately, though, things have become difficult. Maybe it’s the holidays, maybe because I’ve started dating an amazing person who happens to be an omni, or perhaps maybe it’s just because I’ve become comfortable in my day to day routine that I began to forget why I do what I do. I began to go through the motions and not think about the reasons behind my Veganism: all those little lives, faces, feelings.
There are a lot of people I love in my life that don’t understand exactly why I’m Vegan, nor will they ever be Vegan themselves. I don’t judge them or love them any less for this. We are all on our own journeys and paths in life and I love them more for not judging my choices, but rather embracing who I am and incorporating aspects of that into their own lives.
So this isn’t some big, long, logical explanation about why I’m Vegan because there really isn’t one. It’s all emotion and all heart. I understand the other reasons and I use those arguments when people come at me defensively (which people tend to do when they find out I’m Vegan…what’s that about anyway?!), but if you want to know why I’m Vegan, I’ll simply show you why. (All photos were taken at Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY this summer).
Theresa is a rescued dairy cow. She would have been raped over and over again for 5 or 6 years to produce calves she couldn’t even give the milk that was meant for them. After which point she would have just been slaughtered and thrown out like trash. What? Did you think they just MADE the milk?
Then there’s Cash who would just have been used again and again for his wool. Think that’s not painful? Look up flystrike and you’ll think differently. He’s such a handsome boy:
Also, because I’m Vegan, chickies like these aren’t giving up their lives for me as nuggets, get to live beyond the 42 days of a broiler chicken, and don’t have to be ground up alive as a “by-product” of the egg industry. (And if you’ve never seen little chicken butts run to dinner time, you are missing one of the cutest things on Earth):
And lastly, make all the lame bacon jokes you want, but these guys are amazingly intelligent, sweet and loving. They aren’t meant to be on a pizza, BLT, or a double cheeseburger thankyouverymuch.
So really, that’s it and that’s all. It’s why I am who I am and why I do what I do. And what I’ll continue to do…for them. Now pass me Divine Cupcake, please. NOM.
This is one of our off-topic posts so I apologize for no recipes or pictures of delicious noms up front 
Although it is relevant to Hungry Hungry Veganos and Veganism because both are part of what I am thanking.
This post is a thank you. Not a thank you to any one person, place, thing, or idea really. But rather to a period of time in my life.
I recently changed emails for several reasons. I had the old one since 2003 (possibly before but I can’t remember exactly haha). I was going through and forwarding some of the important emails in my old email to my new email. It feels like I am moving into a new chapter of life. And seeing old emails has got me to thinking and reminiscing.
I won’t list anything specifically but some people, places, things, and ideas played a bigger role than others and while I said this is not a thank you to any one thing I would like to give extra thanks to these people, places, things, and ideas.
One person especially played a much larger role than any other person, place, thing, or idea. You know who you are ( I hope so at least). Thank you so vair much for being such a great friend. Thank you so vair much for helping me along in my journey. Thank you so vair much for being there for me. Thank you so vair much for at times being what allowed me to make it through the day. Thank you so vair much for so many other things (things that if I listed would take up pages upon pages). I look forward to having you in this next chapter of my life and would like to thank you in advance for playing a role in it. Thank you so vair much for everything you have done and everything that you will do.
2003(?)-2009 thank you, you have helped me become the person I am and the person I will be
It’s no mystery that I love the mac and cheese. In my omni days (also known as “Before I Knew Any Better”), I ate Kraft Dinner and Velveeta by the ton! Something about pasta with cheese that just makes everything right in the world. Well except for all the pain and suffering to get said cheese so, well, you get the Vegan picture, right?
Goodness knows that Saucy Shells have been a staple comfort food ever since it crossed these Vegan lips over 2 years ago. Yes, I love those shells and have to admit, I felt like I was cheating on them a bit last night when I tried a new recipe.
The main difference in the recipes is making a roux with margarine and flour vs. blending tofu and all the rest of the goodies. And after the last time I made Saucy Shells and had a blender fandango occur at the 11th hour, well, I was a bit gun shy and this allowed me to try something new. I’ll never stop lovin’ on those shells, but I’m certainly glad I tried this new yummy number that was given to me in a recipe book as a giftie a couple years ago.
Behold the Mac and Cheeze:
All I can say is that this little number was ridiculously EASY to make and way DELISH. Here’s how you can get your paws on them:
Ingredients:
1/2 lb. cooked pasta
1/4 cup margarine (I recommend Earth Balance)
1/4 cup flour
1 3/4 cup hot water
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon soy sauce (I added a little more…I can’t ever get too much!)
1/8 cup olive oil
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt margarine in a saucepan and whisk in flour to create a roux. Add everything else but oil and nutritional yeast. Once thick and bubbly, add in remaining ingredients. Pour “cheeze” over pasta and bake for 15 minutes.
NOM.
Yes, this is December 14. Yes, Thanksgiving was on November 26. I hibernated for a while after Thanksgiving because of all of the food I made and ate! I had lunches for days on end. And actually ended up throwing some food away. For Christmas I am going to make much less food. I have learned my lesson.
For dinner I made Seitan based off of the recipe on Vegan Mafia (although I couldn’t find any nutritional yeast around here), dinner rolls based off a Vegweb recipe (I changed it slightly and added some pumpkin), shepherd’s pie using Sarah Kramer’s recipe, corn on the cob with Earth Balance and spices, mashed sweet potatoes, and squash with Earth Balance and brown sugar. Some Omnis tested the Seitan and thought that it was pretty good
For dessert I made pumpkin shortbread cookies (we posted about them last year) and cooked a store bought apple pie. The desserts resembling a bird was as close as I got to eating turkey or any other animals products. And that is how it should be.
Hope everyone has a great rest of the year!
And the winner is…
#3
I’ve never tried ‘em but have been dying to do so for a while now! Cinnamon Pecan sounds awesome.
Comment by Kelly — November 22, 2009 @ 10:43 PM
Congratulations Kelly! Thanks to everyone who entered.
We hope all of you have a happy and cruelty free Thanksgiving. You do not need to use animals to have a happy and delicious holiday. For that matter you do not need to use animals for anything. We are thankful for all of our readers, commenters, and fans. You are a huge part of what keeps us going on here, Twitter, Facebook,etc!
We will definitely have pictures of food and/or recipes to post from today so check back often the next few days
Sara from Sweet & Sara was kind enough to send us a Marshmallow Variety Sampler, which contained four of each marshmallow flavor (vanilla (which we pronounce vaneeya), toasted coconut, cinnamon pecan, and strawberry), to taste test and review.
She will be sending one lucky winner a Marshmallow Variety Sampler as well!
All four flavors are “deeee eeeee lissssh us” and have a great texture. Our favorites, however, are the coconut and cinnamon pecan flavors. These marshmallows are great just by themselves straight out of the refrigerator. The vanilla and coconut flavors are also great for making Vegan s’mores. They melt and get all gooey mmmmmm. They are especially good if you have access to Rice Milk bars (we HIGHLY suggest Terra Nostra’s Ricemilk Choco Bar). We have not tried making s’mores with the other two flavors but we are sure they would be vair tasty too.
And if you don’t feel like making your own s’mores? Then Sweet & Sara has you covered with their Original and Peanut Butter flavored S’mores. They are good cold, at room temperature, or heated up. Our favorite is the Original but the Peanut Butter variety is also nom worthy.
You might be saying to yourself right around now “Wow, that is a lot of tasty looking products. There is no way they could have even more.” If so, you would be wrong! This is one of the times it pays to be wrong though so don’t worry 
. S&S now offers mini vanilla marshmallows that could go great with some Vegan hot chocolate or maybe you could add them to a bowl of cereal . And finally there is the Rocky Road Bark which has a big bite.
Wozzie used to own and run her own Shoppe and she sold S&S marshmallows and s’mores. They were some of the best selling items in the shoppe! Woz says that Sara was great to deal with too. We would like to end the review by begging Sweet & Sarah to bring back the Mexican Chocolate flavored marshmallows. Please, please, please, please Sara!!
Now for the giveaway. To enter leave a comment telling us your favorite Sweet & Sara marshmallow flavor. If you have not tried any of the flavors let us know which one you look forward to trying the most. Is one entry not quite enough for you? Then follow us on Twitter (we are HHVeganos) and Tweet about the giveaway. Then make another comment on here linking to your Tweet to get a second entry into the contest. The winner will be chosen at random. Winner will be chosen on Friday, November 27. Good luck to all of you! Sorry, contest is for the USA only.
Artella Artsgiving Sale – Celebrate Thanksgiving without harming any turkeys (and all other animals)
Some of you may remember that we posted about one of their holiday sales last year. You can find more information about Artella in that post.
“This sale offers 50% off all vintage goods and Artella eCertificates up to $50.00, PLUS a fun Holiday eBasket full of gifts designed to inspire holiday art-making!”
Thanks to everyone who commented!
Congratulations to our winners
#28
“The Twilight Bar sounds amazing!!
Comment by Bryn — November 16, 2009 @ 9:47 PM”
#20
“I like Mahalo. It’s tropical essence gives me a reason to break out
my ukulele and celebrate.
Comment by Susie — November 16, 2009 @ 9:10 AM”
#15
“I love the Twilight bar because milky way was my favorite candy bar
prevegan days, but I hadn’t been able to enjoy one in almost 20 years!
So thank you Go Max Go for making these!
Comment by Tracy — November 14, 2009 @ 12:19 PM”
Stay tuned for the Sweet & Sara review and giveaway coming up!
We can’t say enough about how amazingly nom nom nom these Go Max Go candy bars really are. Nevermind that at some locations they can be close to $3 a pop, they could be $40 and we’d still buy them. They are THAT FLIPPIN’ GOOD! Dairy free, no trans fat, no cholesterol, totally Vegan, no hydrogenated oils, and 100% tasty in a wrapper.
Behold the wonders known as Mahalo, Buccaneer, Jokerz, and Twilight:
The fine folks at Go Max Go sent us these to sample and review. So we rallied up two willing omnivores to also join us in this taste test to get a good gauge on how these bad boys really measured up. The omnis were pleasantly surprised at how good these candy bars were, with the Twilight being their favorite. “This is Vegan? Really?” seemed to be the question at hand. Yes, yes, they are Vegan and damn good, too.
Although tasty by their own merits, the appeal of these to many Vegans is they are quite similar to the candy bars we loved before we knew any better. Twilight is the cruelty free version of the Milky Way bar, Buccaneer is the modern day Three Musketeers, Mahalo is the twin sister to the Almond Joy, and Jokerz is the Snickers bar that no cows had to suffer for to be so delish. These candy bars are rich, quite tasty, and simply amazing. The only criticism received came from both the Veganos and the omnis: the Jokerz needs more peanuts to truly stack up and satisfy. Make no mistake, however, it did the trick and then some.
So, here’s where you come in. Tell us your favorite flavor and why. If you haven’t tried them yet, tell us which one you’d like to nosh on and why. We will randomly pick THREE WINNERS next Tuesday with the prize being your very own Go Max Go bars sent directly from them. Okay, go (Max, go)!
NOM.
Sorry for the lack of posts. Sorry to the companies that we are supposed to do reviews of their products. I will post those soon. And the contests/giveaways that go along with them. Look forward to reviews of Go Max Go candy bars and Sweet and Sarah marshmallows (and giveaways of both as well). After that posting may be sparse or nonexistent for a while. Thank you to all of our readers/commenters over the last year.
The random winner is
“I’ve never had the opportunity to try Coconut Bliss, so I’ll have to hope for luck of the draw…and wow, chocolate hazelnut fudge sounds heavenly.
Comment by Bekki — October 4, 2009 @ 10:56 AM”
The most creative winner is
“My favorite flavor of Coconut Bliss is the dark chocolate and I enjoy it with some organic locally grown raspberries and a glass of Malbec wine on the side. It’s the ultimate indulgence!
Comment by Sarah — October 1, 2009 @ 12:18 AM “
Thanks to all of you that commented and entered the contest. There were several creative ideas and it was hard just picking one. Enjoy the Bliss!
One of the things Wozzie misses most about Eugene is all the COLOR in the neighborhoods near the original Veganos headquarters on West Broadway. It would be hard to walk too far without coming across some funky art or a brightly painted home. It just had personality and style.
So to walk a few blocks and find this in the middle of what was otherwise a residential street, well, it just makes sense for Eugene. Ladies and Gentlemen, Off the Waffle:
Although we only got to go there a few times before we headed East (and then back West AGAIN), it quickly became a favorite. A fun little place owned by guys with amazing hairdos (the sign is truly what their hair looks like…yeah, it’s that awesome) was just as interesting on the inside as it was on the outside.
In addition to the free book exchange and Jenga blocks strewn about, if you happened to have a shine for waffles but may be short the cash, well, let’s barter on that, baby:
In addition to an assortment of teas, the menu was simple and happily sported a Vegan option called the No Dairy Gary:
Each waffle is made to order and super yummy:
While these may be a wee bit pricey for the size, they definitely had an amazing flavor. And we just learned that since we’ve moved (sniff sniff), they’ve opened a new location near the U of O campus. So if you haven’t been off your waffle yet (and are fortunate enough to live in Eugene), it’s really about time you did.
NOM.
