The Vegan and Vegetarian Secrets Blog …

Some exciting news and a wonderful surprise, that we reached ‘The Lens of The Day’ on Squidoo -The Biggest Honor you can reach in the in Squid-ville Community.

Receiving such an acknowledgement really inspires me to create even bigger and better veggie sites and lenses and keep me moving forward to even more vegetarian and vegan online ventures!

Check out our Lens here: http://www.squidoo.com/vegetariansecretsrevealed

PS> Don’t forget to vote for our lens and/or leave comments feel impelled to do so too. The more votes we get the more exposure veg*nism can get in the Squidoo World – so it’s great exposure for Veg*n Living and to help others who may not realise otherwise that vegetarianism can help combat global warming and heal our planet in a positive way, plus others can understand that we do make a difference with what’s on our dinner plates!

• They’re great for cooking up amazing animal-free foods for birthdays, holidays, a housewarming gift, or just because.
• Vegans love animals and do more to help them live peacefully!
• What’s better than a vegan oozing with Compassion.
• They are Helping to save the planet every single day, they don’t contribute as much to global warming as meat eaters (FACT, not fiction).
• They’re squeaky clean on the inside.
• They support animal rights in a tasty, kind and affordable way.
• They don’t eat the bodies of tortured souls, therefore what could be more kind for the animals? 
• There’s a vegan for every occasion. 
• Vegans are Better Lovers too!

Vegetarian or Veggie read carefully the label!

Author: Ben W.

So how to be sure, when you are vegetarian or vegan to taste a vegetarian wine or vegan wine anyway?

Well, it is the agent used during the fining process which determines the suitability of wine for vegetarians or vegans.
Fining is a clarification process, clarifying the wine makes it bright and sparkly. Gravity would naturally do on its own, but fining speeds it up a little. In some cases if the wine is in bad condition fining can help to improve the wine, removing hazes and altering flavour. Fining works by electrostatic attraction ��” if the element in the wine that needs to be removed has a negative charge, then a fining agent with a positive charge will be added. The fining agent thud acts as a magnet, and collects the unwanted matter in the wine, which sinks to the bottom of the tank. Then the clear wine is racked or decanted off the sediment into a clean tank.

The fining agents or finings include Gelatin, Isinglass, Bentonite, PVPP, Albumin, Casein, Chitosan and Carbon.

• Gelatin is derived from animal bones, tolerated neither by vegetarians nor vegans. Mainly used in red wine.
• Isinglass: A very pure protein obtained from the bladders of
  various unfortunate fishes including the sturgeon. Used in red and whites, tolerated neither by vegetarians or vegans. Manufactured isinglass is not allowed for organic farming. Used in red and white wine.
• Albumin or White egg is tolerated by vegetarians. This is often used to soften bitterness (usually in red wine) and is a protein soluble in water. Up to five fresh egg whites are used per 225L cask of wine. If albumin (egg whites) is used, then the eggs would have to come from Organic or Biodynamic (and intrinsically free range) chickens.
• Chitosan comes from the shells of shellfish and crustaceans. It is tolerated by neither vegetarians not vegans.
• Bentonite is used to stop white wines turning into cloudy in warm weather. It is tolerated by vegetarians and vegan.
• PVPP (Polyvinylpolypyrrolidone) is an oenological product which is a yellowish white powder, insoluble in water, organic solvents and aqueous alcohol. PVPP is used in red wine to fixe anthocyanin. It leaves no residue in the wine.
• Casein is used to soften bitterness and is the main protein of milk. Casein is often used in white wine to remove off colours. It is tolerated by vegetarians.
• Carbon is used to strip off flavours from rotten grapes when pressed. It is tolerated by vegetarians and vegans.

Who doesn’t agree with the opinion of many of organic and biodynamic growers which is that the more a wine is interfered with, the less it expresses its true character.

About the author: Ben works at Festival Wines, a wine shop selling organic wines ,  biodynamic wines , vegetarian wines, vegan wines and low sulphur wines.

Happy Veggie Easter to You!

We’ve spent some time experimenting with raw chocolate food recipes over the past months and just this Easter Long Weekend, we’ve prefected another recipe. This one is so easy and delish that you wouldn’t believe it’s a raw foodies chocolate recipe unless someone actually pointed it out to you.

Here’s the recipe . . .

 Raw Chocolate Easter Bars  
  
This recipe came from a raw food recipe I picked up recently and adapted a little with what I had in the cupboard at the time.

It’s truly a delicious chocolate recipe and makes quite a few good square bars to share with friends and family (if you cna resist eating them all your self that is).

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond butter (or one jar)
• 1 cup cacao powder
• 3/4 – 1 cup cacao butter, melted
• 1 Tablespoons vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup agave nectar
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt (optional)

Directions:

1. Grate the cacao butter in a bowl and place that bowl on top of another bowl of hot water to melt the butter.

2. In a food processor mix the almond butter and cacao powder thoroughly.

3. Transfer this mixture to another bowl and add the vanilla and agave. Mix in well with a wooden spoon.

4. When cacao butter has liquidised, pour into chocolate mixture and mix through. Then add the coconut and sea salt.

5. Use a spoon to spread chocolate into a glass dish 20 x 20 cm approx, then add some extra shredded coconut on top if desired.

6. Put in freezer until chocolate has set. This could also be done in the fridge if you’re not in a hurry.

7. Cut into squares and eat without holding back. This recipe may turn you into a chocoholic if you are not one already – So Beware my friends.

Incredible! CUT YOUR FUEL BILL IN HALF and SAVE OUR EARTH.  Here’s another great way to reduce your carbon footprint from car emissions (besides living on an ethical green lifestyle of veganism that is).  So you could laugh at rising gas prices if you implement what this site has to say.

Generate FREE ENERGY in your car or truck, AND double your mileage, AND boost your engine’s performance, AND prevent smog.

http://www.vegansecrets.com/recommends/water4gas

Experience the deliciously smooth taste of Sweet William’s new White Chocolate! We got a few samples delivered to us for review a few days ago and well – this is one sweet treat indeed. We love Sweet William Chocolates as it is, so now to add their smooth creamy dairy free white chocolate to the range is so very exciting for all the vegans and lactose intolerant people out there.

But that’s not all . . . Sweet William have also added a few more great tasting goodies to their ever increasing 100% dairy free, vegan, nut and gluten free range of chocolates including: ‘Not Nuts’, Chocolate Chips and Buttons for cooking (in both white and original flavours) plus a Carob Deluxe bar.

Click here to find out more about the whole range of vegan goodies, and be sure to grab yourself a try of the new White Delight Dairy Free Bar soon.  Grab them from Woolworths/Safeways and Franklins as well as from selected Health Food stores. And from May onwards you will also be-able to get the bars from Coles Supermarkets Australia wide.

This clever ad is an exciting new opportunity to spread awareness about the suffering endured by Australian pigs and to offer hope to them for change.

There will be 100 of these ads put up around Sydney over the next month. And one person’s creativity and generosity can be thanked for making this opportunity possible … that’s right, the same fellow you see cramped at the bottom of the ad.

Animals Australia interviewed Luke Fox to find out more… Click Here for Full Interview

To visit Luke’s website go here: www.pigad.blogspot.com

A Delicate Balance is one film to keep an eye out for, it’ll be released In Sydney Australia around the end of March. Something more to help get the word out there for the environment, the animals and all of humanity!

Check out the Trailer here:

We’ve been lucky enough this week to get sent a sample of a brand new ’marshmallow making kit’ to review that’s coming onto the market some time in the near future, and I must say it is simply FABULOUS!

I’ve never really made my own homemade marshmallows, but there’s a first for everything - so last night we rolled up our sleeves and got to it.

The kit contains instructions and specialist ingredients you need to make approx 50 or so homemade fluffy cruelty-free vegan marshmallows.

And the Verdict for these little white blobs of stuff is . . . ‘Superb’! They are soft, fluffy, tasty and oh so yummy I’m not sure how long they will last around my place? I must say I’m highly impressed with this homemade vegan marshmallow making kit.  It has very easy to follow instructions included and doesn’t take as long as I would have thought it would normally take to make such delicate little sweets. This will be one of those great stables to keep in the pantry cupboard (in case one needs an emergency supply of marshmallows or just a simple sugar hit). Whatever the reason, I’m all for the world having even more Vegan Marshmallow options out there, cause as us vegans already know they are few and far between. 

Here is a picture of our results . . . (of course we had to coat them in toasted coconut for a perfect treat). 

Hi folks, just a quickie message today to let you know that we have just revamped one of our veggie sister sites, check it out here: Vegetarian-Secrets.com

And hopefully you’ll like the newer features on there with our brand new Vegetarian Books & Products page to help veg-visitors on the way to easy and effective veg-living. We will be adding heaps more books and veg items to this page and the site over the coming days and weeks, so don’t forget to check back often.

PS> If you like Alpha Creams Vegan Chocolates, we are also now selling some online at eBay Here