The Sexy Vegan

Q&A: The Sexy Vegan on Hosting a Happy Hour at Home

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VegWeekThe jocular Brian Patton is a YouTube cooking sensation with an impressive resume: he’s currently the Executive Chef at food delivery service Vegin’ Out , author of The Sexy Vegan Cookbook: Extraordinary Food from an Ordinary Dude, and if that’s not enough, he’s also releasing a second cookbook—about happy hour.

While Happy Hour at Home: Small Plates, Big Flavors, & Potent Cocktails won’t be out until June, you can and should pre-order it now—with summer on the horizon, you’ll want to get the book as soon as it’s available to begin planning your post-work festivities. With menus entitled Holy Stromboli; Be Still, My Hearts of Palm; Papadilla, Don’t Preach; and Satay-day Night Fever, you know you’re in for a good time.

Earth Day

US VegWeek 2013 Kicks Off Today – Earth Day!

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Today marks the 43rd anniversary of Earth Day, a day intended to encourage individuals to take meaningful actions in their everyday lives that, collectively, contribute to preserving the planet. But in the words of late Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson who founded Earth Day, “Our goal is not just an environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty. The objective is an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all other human beings and all other living creatures.”

Native Foods

Native Foods Announces Plans to Open 200 New Restaurants

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It’s hard not to notice the increasing popularity of vegan eating. From Good Morning America to Saturday Night Live, everyone’s talking it. The topic of meatless meals has even graced the cover of one of the leading foodservice industry trade publications, Nation’s Restaurant News, which highlighted the increasing popularity and growing success of vegetarian and veg-friendly eateries across the U.S. Almost prophetically, when the question was posed in the article about whether America is ready for a national vegetarian restaurant chain, Aviv Schweitzer, the operations manager for Maoz USA, responded: “It think it’s a fact; it’s not really a question anymore.”

Thai New Year

Celebrate Thai New Year – Veg Dishes Made with Authentic Ingredients

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The Songkran Festival, also known as Thai New Year, is celebrated from April 13 – 16, and it’s the perfect opportunity to indulge in delicious Thai cuisine — 100% veganized, of course. While these recipes would traditionally include fish sauce, meat, or chicken stock, they can be easily made without an animal ingredients while maintaining the authentic flavors. For example, in Tom Kha, simply use vegetable broth instead of chicken stock. You’ll still get all the essential aromas and flavors because the key ingredients are lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime.

Protecting the Planet

A Four-Pronged Approach to Protecting the Planet

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For over 40 years, Earth Day—celebrated on April 22—has been inspiring people to take steps to help the environment. Did you know that perhaps the single most important action each of us can take to protect the planet is simply to choose meat-free foods?

Earth Day offers the perfect opportunity to empower others to fight global warming and animal abuse with our forks, and COK’s popular Eating Sustainably brochure is a great way to share this important message.

Newly updated for 2013, this trifold brochure is packed with information (citations included) about the negative environmental impacts of animal agriculture while also highlighting the global calls to action from the United Nations to shift towards a more plant-based diet.

Grilled Cheese Day

It’s National (Vegan) Grilled Cheese Day!

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Vegan Grilled CheeseWho doesn’t love a good vegan grilled cheese sandwich? That’s why we’re putting a compassionate spin on this food holiday, making it National (Vegan) Grilled Cheese Day. And to celebrate, we’re sharing our award-winning gourmet vegan grilled cheese recipe!

Last year, COK competed in the 10th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational (GCI) at the Pasadena Rose Bowl–and we took home the trophy for 3rd place in the professional chef category!