Random Fridays: Cruelty-Free Hair Products Round-Up

EDIT: Since I wrote this post, I found out that Deva Mist-er Right contains beeswax. So, not vegan. (4/28/08)

Co-owned by author of Curly Girl, Lorraine Massey, Deva Concepts' products are focused more on botanical ingredients rather than harsh chemicals. Their No-Poo cleanser was recommended to me by my stylist at Juju Salon in Philly (which I highly recommend for the organic, mostly vegan products they carry and they fact that, prior to my appointment, they always give Brian and me delicious vanilla rooibos tea from their next door neighbor, House of Tea, and ginger cookies ). I finally picked some of this nonlathering hair cleanser at Harmon's/Face Values, a Jersey health and beauty discount chain that I cannot go to unless I want to spend $30 or $40 on bottles of sweet-smelling stuff I slather onto some part of my body. Seriously, they are the best and pretty cheap, too. Cheap until you buy 10 more things than you originally planned. The next day I made the mistake of going back to purchase Deva Mist-er Right, which enlivens wet or dry curls and smells like key lime pie.

Though the Deva bottles state that the products aren't tested on animals and the ingredients list seemed relatively unspooky, there was no cruelty-free bunny logo. I sent an e-mail to their PR contact and she wrote back:

"No way never!" (PLEASE SEE NOTE ABOVE)

I also purchased Giovanni Frizz Be Gone Anti-Frizz Hair Texturizing Balm, which can finally replace my years-long use of John Frieda's Frizz Ease. So far, my curls are frizz-free and bouncy. Their products clearly state that they are free of cruelty and animal by-products.

For more information on beauty products and their ingredients list, please check out:

Go Cruelty Free

PETA’s Caring Consumer
Cosmetic Safety Database

For vegan shopping ideas, visit these blogs:
Swanky Veg

The Vegan Flower

Philly Businesses Listed in This Post:

Juju Salon and Organics

located at 716 S. 4th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19147

(215) 238-6080

The House of Tea, Ltd.

located at 729 S. 4th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19147

(215) or (888) 923-8327

Mutual Menu is giving away one copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. To enter to win and for more details, please leave one comment here.

What's New Around Here

I signed up for Twitter. You can see my updates on the side.

We now have a blogroll. As it grows, we may break it down into categories but for now, this is just a collection of blogs I read regularly and find inspiring, helpful, entertaining, and well-written. Some are by friends (Eats Well with Others, Ladypoverty), some are based in Philly (Ladypoverty, The Urban Vegan, Straight from the Farm), others are based in San Francisco (Eats Well with Others), and all of the food-related ones are vegetarian or vegan.

We’re giving away one free copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World. People are actually entering! You should too. All you have to do is leave a comment here. When you sign in to comment, make sure it links back to a Blogger page or your e-mail address.

Happy Earth Day 2008

One of the many green tips in the April 2008 Green Issue of Glamour was to give up meat once a week. I sent them the following letter applauding the tip but asking them to go one further—give up eating meat entirely:

I loved the Green Guide in the April 2008 issue. I especially loved the tip about giving up meat once a week to lessen the damage meat production causes to our environment. I’d like to go one way better, though—how about giving up meat entirely? It’s not only better for the environment; it’s the only truly humane way to treat the animals so many of us love (I think most people who live with a cat or dog would agree that there’s no “humane” way to kill their beloved Fido, right?). After a lifetime of meat-eating and saying, “Oh, I could never be a vegetarian!” I finally gave it up a year ago. It’s by far one of the most rewarding, healthful, and delicious choices I’ve made in my life. Rather than limiting my options, being a vegetarian has opened up my taste buds to a world of produce, grains, and flavors I never tried when I ate grilled chicken every night. More importantly, now that I no longer eat animals, I can look my dog and any cow, chicken, or pig in the face and know that I’m finally living out my conscience.

If you’re thinking of a way to commemorate Earth Day today, consider not eating meat today. Here are some links to site with recipes. Or pick up some of the following cookbooks at your local library or buy a used copy.

* The Post-Punk Kitchen, the website of Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, the authors of the awesome cookbooks Veganomicon and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. You can enter to win a copy of Vegan Cupcakes from us just by leaving a little old comment here.
* Vegan.com Top 10 Recipes of 2008: I found this link on Elaine Vigneault’s excellent blog, which is now a daily read for me.
* VegWeb.com

* All Recipes’ vegan and vegetarian recipes
* Vegan Chef

* Eat, Drink and Be Vegan Dreena Burton's blog and her latest cookbook, which I refer to frequently and with much success.
* The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Try making the German Apple Cake or Blueberry Coffee Cake and see if there are leftovers after just an hour. Colleen’s working on a new cookbook now and I’m going to be one of the recipe testers. I cannot wait to test and eat the sure to be delicious recipe she’ll send over.
* Compassionate Cooks is Colleen’s main site, where you can find both free and reasonably priced recipe packets, her excellent Food for Thought podcasts, and sign up for cooking classes
* Vegetarian Times I really knew I was a vegetarian when I canceled my years-long subscription to Cooking Light and signed up for Vegetarian Times. About 70–80% of their recipes are vegan. The rest are easily veganized. You can search for free recipes on the site too.
* Veg News More features than recipes but I got the recipe for a delicious chocolate chip banana bread in a back issue.
* Herbivore magazine will stop printing the magazine this year. That sucks. Issues usually feature a few recipes and you can order cookbooks at their store.

That should get you started on a very delicious and enjoyable animal-product free day. Enjoy!

Everyone Is a Little Vegan

My friend just came back from Canyon Ranch and was going on about how lovely it was, how good the food was, how restorative restorative yoga was. Just listening to her made me want to go so I checked out the web site and looked over the menu. They clearly label vegan items, like miso soup and smoothies, which is really great. However, I noticed that some clearly vegan items did not garner a vegan sign next to it. Apparently, bananas, berries, melons, rice, and potatoes are not vegan.

When many people think of vegan food, they often think of tofu or fake meat strips. They are vegan and I happen to like both. We often forget that the fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, and nuts we are eating are vegan too. It’s strange that the completely unadulterated foods—almost all of which are vegan—don’t get labeled as such. Why are they not immediately deemed vegan by your average meateater, then? When Brian and I bring fruit salad to a lunch, it doesn’t get labeled vegan so everyone gobbles it right up. When we bring out the cake that doesn’t contain eggs and butter, though, trepidation often kicks in because it’s V-E-G-A-N. But it’s no more vegan than the fruit.

What makes a diet without meat and other animal products seem daunting is the idea that we will have to eat food that isn’t “real”, is too different, isn’t good enough. I certainly used to think that way and still have some of that thinking to a degree (hello, cheese). Thing is, I always ate vegan food even when I was an omnivore. The banana in my cereal, the beans on my rice, the salad for lunch—all vegan. We’re all eating vegan food all the time. Thinking that it’s an entirely foreign diet is inaccurate and makes something already familiar and available in abundance seem unnecessarily weird and lacking.

Mutual Menu is giving away one copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. To enter to win and for more details, please leave one comment here.

Mutable Menu

I saw pigs in a truck while driving to work this morning.

I see many trucks on my commute along I-287 every morning and afternoon. I normally don’t check the trucks out unless one of them is obnoxiously and dangerously cutting off cars that are a fifth of their size, which happens often enough. The sides of the trucks are usually emblazoned with company logos for supermarkets, soda, moving companies.

The body of this truck carrying pigs had no logos, just metal open slates for air. I knew there were animals in there and peered to see what kind. At first, I could only see the walls of the truck, nothing else. As I got right beside it and took a better look, I saw the backs and tops of heads of pigs. Immediately my stomach dropped and I stopped looking.

For a few moments, I imagined what would happen if I followed the truck and tried to stop whatever was going to happen. The pigs were pretty big so I guess they were going to a slaughterhouse. I thought about just tailing the truck to wherever it was off to and pleading (screaming and crying) with the driver to let me have them. This seemed impossible for a number of reasons. One, I doubt any business person and animal-owner would hand over their property to me and I wouldn’t be able to afford what a truck full of live pigs probably costs (although I would have no problem being able to pay for the pigs once they are turned into ham, bacon and chops; I’m pretty sure pigs are cheaper when they’re dead). Also, who knows where the truck would end up? I’m already late on my way to work. Finally, what good would it do? Let’s say the truck and I end up in some alternate universe where my hysterics persuades all interested parties to hand over the pigs to me. Then what? I take them home? The dog has 100 new siblings?

I did what was practical, convenient and less painful. I drove way past the truck and went to work. I thought about how there didn’t seem to be that many pigs in that one truck given how much meat I see in a supermarket. I started thinking about how many trucks have to travel everyday just to fill up the Stop and Shop in my neighborhood, let alone all over the world. It seemed incomprehensible, the number of animals and miles. I thought about how this is the first time in my life I’ve seen pigs in a truck. I’ve seen horses before but never pigs or cows or chickens or sheep. The animals being transported and killed are truly invisible but once they are dead, processed and package, we can’t escape it. We don’t have to because it’s ok once they are in the refrigerated section. Just another product to pick up like the cereal and toilet paper.

When I told Brian about my idea for Mutual Menu, I wanted it to be about how vegans, vegetarians and omnivores could happily coexist without anyone’s proverbial feathers being ruffled, no dish being questioned. I’d write about making chicken and tofu using the same recipe or how I was buying all my steak from Whole Foods now because it’s humane. I was so excited and happy! Everyone would get their cake and eat it too. Just as quickly as the blog was up, though, I stopped eating chickens and pigs and cows. Then I stopped eating the fishes. Now it’s been a while since I’ve bought cheese but I’ll still eat it in a restaurant. I once told Brian that maybe we’d have to change the name of the blog if I went vegan because then the menu wouldn’t be so mutual. As soon as I said that, I didn’t need him to point out the huge idea I was missing. I realized which way the mutuality could go. I’d be extending it the animals. I didn’t have to change the name. I’d just change myself.

Mutual Menu is giving away one copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. To enter to win and for more details, please leave one comment here.

First Mutual Menu Giveaway: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

Something I've wanted to do for quite some time on Mutual Menu is have occasional contests where we give away cookbooks and other items we really love. We're finally getting this rolling after being inspired by Vegan Soapbox's Cookbook Giveaway and Elaine Vigneault's post on why blog giveaways are great.

Our first giveaway is a brand new copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule by vegan cookbook heavyweights, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero (they've also co-authored the recent Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook and Moskowitz created the seminal Vegan with a Vengeance: Over 150 Delicious, Cheap, Animal-Free Recipes That Rock) . Vegan Cupcakes seemed an obvious first choice for many reasons. One, who doesn't love cupcakes? Two, the book is compact, cute, full of scrumptious pictures, and written in a friendly tone. It's also the first vegan cookbook I ever purchased and every creation I've made so far--Golden Vanilla, Apricot-Glazed Almond Cupcakes, and Lychee Cupcakes with Coconut Glaze--has been delicious. Additionally, the book contains many practical tips and troubleshooting for successful cupcake baking so anyone looking to enhance their baking repertoire in general will find much to learn here.

A major deterrent for many when it comes to adopting animal-free eating is the idea that food will not taste good anymore or that some food items, such as baked goods, will be impossible to replicate. I can assure you, you don't need chickens' eggs, cows' milk, and butter to make delectable cakes, cookies, pies, and other treats. Vegan Cupcakes is a testament to this fact.

Brian and I bought this book on Sunday at Robin's Bookstore in Philadelphia, which was one of the places we went to on our first date. It was in Robin's where I first realized I was going to know Brian for a very, very long time.

OK, back to the book, we will pick one person at random and send the cookbook to them. To enter the giveaway, just leave one comment to this post (be sure to include your e-mail address when signing on to comment). Entries will close on May 12, 2008. Unfortunately, to keep shipping costs down and post office visits short, we can only ship the book to those in the USA. Depending on how the first giveaway goes, we may, however, open up later contests to other countries.

Visit The Post Punk Kitchen for recipes and community. Visit Robin's Bookstore and buy some books. Visit Vegan Soapbox and enter their cookbook giveaway too. Please do spread the word and invite others to enter and read as well.

*Picture courtesy of The Post Punk Kitchen.

Random Fridays: Piglets, Painters, Plasma and More

I know I may be one of the last people on the Internets to have heard about Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture,” but better late than never. His lecture was part of a series at Carnegie Mellon Univeristy where members of the university community would share everything they would want to share if it were the last lecture they were ever to give. I finally listened to Dr. Pausch's lecture this week and was definitely moved, not just by the fact that the lecture is among the last Dr. Pausch will give (he is dying of pancreatic cancer), but because I always enjoy learning how people who love their work accomplish that feat.

In life, Dr. Pausch says, you’ve got to decide if you’re a Tigger or an Eeyore. I can relate to melancholy Eeyore more than bouncy, cocky Tigger but I’ve decided that I'm neither. I'm more of a Piglet:

A ‘Very Small Animal’ with a generally timid disposition, he often conquers his
fears and seems to want to be brave…Piglet himself can read and write, at least
well enough for short notes.

In honor of all the piglets, why not sponsor a rescued one at Catskill Animal Sanctuary (CAS)?Being greeted by the pigs when Brian and I first visited last September was one of the highlights of our trip. The pigs were very gracious hosts and allowed us to rub their bellies and coo at their piglets. I loved all the animals there and I pretty much love all animals but I do have a soft spot in my heart for pigs.

A lighthearted blog post I enjoyed this week was on the site, Book A Week with Jen, where one entry explores the long ago and simpler days before Gossip Girl when the Sweet Valley Twins reigned.

This weekend, Brian and I are going to take his mom to the Lee Miller and Frida Kahlo exhibits at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA). I’ve been dying to see the Kahlo exhibit for months and, though I’m not as familiar with Miller's life and work, after reading a bit about her in a Philly paper, I'm excited to see both exhibits. And yes, as I first time visitor to the PMA, I will be running up those steps a la Rocky.

Brian and I are also donating blood. I’d never donated blood before meeting Brian but he is a veteran. I didn’t know my blood type prior to donating and now I know that Brian and I share the same type, A positive (as a co-worker sarcastically remarked when I told him this fact, "How romantic"). It is the type that, according to the diet book, Eat Right for Your Type, means you should be a vegetarian, which, hey, I agree with. Other blood types should be too, though.