From Jean-Leon Gerome’s The Bath

There are plenty of people that suggest home remedies for beauty tips, but some aren’t so veg-friendly. So I decided to compile a list of cruelty free home remedies for keeping you as beautiful on the outside as you are on the inside!

Crushed Garlic for Acne remedy
Mash garlic into a paste and put on blemishes. Garlic is antibacterial and should help clear up acne if left on for about 15 minutes. Of course, you may go around smelling like garlic afterwards but, you know, some people like that. Coffee grounds or lemon juice can help dull the scent. On that note…

Lemon Juice for Acne Scars
Lemons, as well as other fruits like lime and pineapple, are natural acid exfoliants. Apply lemon juice or fruit puree to acne scars for 15 minutes and wash off. Note: you know how lemon juice lightens your hair in the sun (yet another beauty tip)? Well, it can also make your skin extra sensitive to the sun, so you might want to apply the lemon juice in the evening or some time when you won’t be exposing yourself to the sun.

Cooked Oatmeal Face Mask
Good breakfast for your belly and your face! After you cook the oatmeal, apply to face. Maybe let it cool down before applying so you don’t burn your skin! Let dry and wash off. Yet another method for clearing up your skin.

Olive Oil for Dry Skin
Is there anything olive oil can’t do? Apply to dry hands or feel before bed time. This could get a little messy in the bed sheets, so you might want to buy a pair of cheap gloves and socks to cover hands and feet. Olive oil can also be used as a nail and hair moisturizer. For a dry face apply Almond Oil before bed. Or…

Banana Mash for Dry Face
Sounds gross and gooey but if you mash up a banana and leave on your face for 20 minutes, that should also help your dry skin. It can also reduce wrinkles!

Coffee for Exfoliating
Brew a quarter cup of ground coffee with a tablespoon of salt. Without burning your face (remember the oatmeal?) apply to skin within 20 minutes of brewing. Note- may cause irritation to skin. Test it out on a small part of your skin to check. What else can you do with coffee?

Coffee for Glowing Hair
I actually have coffee in my hair right now. Nothing like absorbing coffee through your mouth and hair at the same time. Use the same process as you would with exfoliating, but apply to your dry hair instead of your skin. Leave on 20 minutes before rinsing with warm water.

Vinegar for Dandruff
Feeling a little flakeage? Pour vinegar onto hair, massage and let dry. Then wash hair. Repeat daily until hair is flake free.

Beer Bath for Nourished Skin
If you have beer you don’t feel like drinking and a bathtub, give yourself a beer bath to let the vitamins and yeast soak in. Don’t know which beers are vegan? Check here. A general rule is to stay away from cask-conditioned ales or beers that use a refining process. Apparently Cleopatra was a big fan of the beer bath. There are even spas that offer this treatment. Check it out! What else can you do with beer?

Beer Rince for Dull Hair
As long as you’re bathing in it, you may as well rinse your hair with it! After you shampoo, rinse your hair with beer to add some shine. Or add baking soda to your shampoo. I did that yesterday! If your hair is too oily…

Mashed Carrots for Oily Hair
Mash up cooked carrots and apply to hair for 15 minutes.

Apple Cider Vinegar and Baking Soda for Whitening Teeth
Baking soda is another amazing ingredient with many uses. If you don’t have apple cider vinegar, use crushed up strawberries. Either paste can be brushed on teeth for a natural whitening.

Processed Potatoes for Under Eyes
Not getting as much sleep as you’d like? The catecholase in potatoes lightens skin and can make those dark circles less dramatic. If you have a food processor, chop up the potato and put into cheese cloth. Place under eyes for 20 minutes.

Happy Vanilla Bath
Feeling a little down? Have some vanilla extract to spare? Add 1/4 C to your bath to lift you up!

sources
http://www.modelbeautytip.com/homeremedies.htm
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/coffee-kitchen-cupboard-beauty.html
http://www.free-beauty-tips.com/homemade.html
http://www.happyvegetable.com/blog/getting-saucy-the-vegan-way/

I’ve been intending to make a curry dish for quite some time now and I was at The Wedge Co-op today (cool place by the way-many fresh prepared vegan items for sale) and found a jar of Bombay Curry Simmer Sauce by Ethnic Gourmet. Excellent! So I kind of did an improv dish and it worked out quite well.

Ingredients (makes about 4 servings)

• 16 oz jar Bombay Curry Simmer Sauce
• 2 C (dry) couscous
• 8 oz extra firm tofu
• 12 oz green beans
• 1/2 a red bell pepper sliced
• 8 oz carrots coins
• a slice of red onion
• leaf or two of fresh basil for seasoning
• clove garlic pressed

Empty jar of curry sauce into large skillet or wok. Add 8 oz water. Chop up tofu into cubes and add to curry sauce. Add the remaining ingredients (excluding couscous) stir, cover and let simmer for about 15 minutes (can cook for longer on medium low heat). In the meantime, prepare the couscous.

When couscous and curry are done, put couscous onto plate and cover with curry sauce. And eat! The Curry Simmer Sauce is a little spicy, but not overly so. And I’m a total wimp when it comes to spice, so if I can eat it, it must be pretty mild.

Four days left to support your favorite veg companies in the 2008 Veggie Awards. You have until midnight of August 31st to get those suckers submitted. Show your support for the restaurants you love, faux meat you eat, your favorite non-dairy milk, non-dairy cheese, make-up, shampoo, blog, forum, animal activist group, vegan athlete, vegan chocolate, and more! It only takes a few minutes. Oh, and there’s room for write-ins, so… you know. If you like my blog, you can always vote for it.

All you gotta do is click on this icon to the left here to get to the voting survey. Have fun!

Galactic Pizza is a quaint little pizza place in Minneapolis. There are several quaint little pizza places in town, but this one is special because they serve vegan pizza. As in vegan cheese, vegan sausage and vegan pepperoni. So of course I hopped at the chance to check it out.

The style of the restaurant is kind of a mish-mash. We sat outside and were shielded by an umbrella made of fake hoola skirt grass. The service was very good and we ordered vegan garlic cheese bread. Super yummy, though, as with many cheeses, this cheese had some melting issues. We ordered a pizza of half vegan cheese, half vegan “old school”. The Old School contains tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, sausage, button mushrooms, organic green peppers, and organic red onions. It was pretty good. Not amazing, and not bad. It wasn’t quite as delectable as Este Pizza’s vegan cheese in Salt Lake, but it’s nice to know we have another vegan pizza place near by. The vegan sausage was pretty tasty. The vegan pepperoni was ok, but I don’t think I really liked pepperoni when I ate meat, 14 years ago. So perhaps I should try different toppings next time. Most of the pizzas they offer can be made vegan or vegetarian, which is great. And they have quite a few interesting options to choose from.

You can check out their menu here: http://www.galacticpizza.com/menu/

The website is kind of cooky, kind of funny. It’s the second restaurant in a row I’ve gone to which has a superhero theme on their site. The first was The Bad Waitress. This is also the first year I attended Comic-Con and I’m in the process of writing a comic book right now (don’t hold your breath). I’m just bombarded by superheroism these days.

Galactic Pizza
www.galacticpizza.com
2917 Lyndale Ave S
Uptown Minneapolis, MN

Side note on vegan cheese: we may not have to put up with the less than ideal vegan cheeses much longer. There is a company in Brooklyn called Dr. Cow creating some apparently heavenly gourmet vegan cheeses. You know, cheeses that come in a wheel instead of a plastic sleeve. And they’re raw! They use old methods of cheese making but use it for making nut cheeses like aged cashew. Apparently the few stores that sell these nut cheeses can’t keep them in stock! Hopefully they’ll be spreading their wings soon so we can all enjoy some gourmet nut cheeses. Wine and cheese parties, here we come! Read more about it in this month’s issue of VegNews.

I just received information that an American director, based out of London, named Ryan Vance is working on making a romantic comedy that promotes veganism. I believe it’s going to be called “Vegan Love”. It will be a fictional short film and not a documentary which is a bit less common. I’m excited to see it when it comes out. So, I guess he’s holding a fundraiser to pay for completion costs. You can get more info here: http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/vegan-comedy-fundraiser

Anyway, if this is a cause you’d be interested in putting money towards, by all means! Sorry I don’t know much more than this. But I thought I’d throw it out there for you. Here’s a picture of the vegan filmmaker. He looks friendly. I’ll let you know if and when it will be available for public viewing once I find out.

Here are some items I’m digging lately (and no, I am not payed or bribed to promote anything):

Blueberry Vanilla Crackle Granola Planks (other flavors available)

I love the versatility of these things. You can eat them as bars, breaking off whatever size you want, or crush them up in a bowl as cereal. They’re incredibly tasty. Note: they are produced in a non-vegan facility. http://www.honest-foods.com/granola_planks.html

Newman’s Own Asian Sesame Natural Salad Mist (other flavors available)

For only 1 calorie per spray it adds a world of flavor to your salad. This stuff blows my mind. And Newman’s Own is, of course, a great company to buy from since all of their profits go to thousands of charities worldwide. The questionable ingredient would be sugar but since they are a company known for being natural and organic, I’m thinking the sugar is probably vegan. If anyone knows for sure, lemme know. http://newmansown.com

Café FAIR Shade Grown Organic Cordilleran Coffee (other flavors available)

This coffee tastes delicious. Add a little Vanilla Silk Creamer and you’re in heaven. In addition, it is fair trade and shade grown (which supports the ecosystem by not using deforestation methods). http://cafefair.com/

Amy’s Quarter Pound Veggie Burger

These things are fantastic. Throw it on a George Foreman grill for a couple of minutes, if you have one. It’s jam-packed with great organic ingredients. It’s the most robust veggie burger I’ve ever had. Very filling. www.amys.com

Something about 50s style diners just makes my heart sing. I love the cozy retro atmosphere. I love the vintage posters. I love booth seating (with the exception of the leather seats), bar stools and the casual yet classic mid-century modern design. So when browsing through http://www.vegguide.org for a good vegan-friendly restaurants in Minneapolis, I was stoked to find The Bad Waitress.

The Bad Waitress was built in 2005, and pays tribute to the diners that once existed in Minneapolis. One reason it’s called the Bad Waitress, which my boyfriend and I realized 10 minutes after arrival, when no one came to take our order, is… well just that. No one comes to take your order (it is also a throwback to pulp fiction book titles and reminiscent of a time when “bad” meant “awesome”). So instead, there are pads of paper on your table. You fill out the ticket yourself and bring it up to the cash register. I like this method, because sometimes it takes me a long time to decide what I want and I have to make the waiter keep coming back. Other times I know exactly what I want and don’t feel like waiting for my order to be taken. So there you go. Also, me filling out the order and writing in caps and underlining VEGAN on the sheet makes it more likely that my order will be delivered sans animal parts.

Another plus, which my boyfriend was delighted by, is they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner all day. And, though the restaurant isn’t entirely vegan, they do have several options to choose from like the tempeh scramble, black bean burger, portabella mushroom sandwich, veggie chili, grilled tempeh reuben, farfalle pasta, ingredients for building your own pizza, add-ons like vegan sausage and tofu and more! And meals that come with cheese, you can just ask for no cheese. And note that if you order the American fries, these are actually seasoned potatoes and not French fries, which I think is lovely.

So if you’re in Minneapolis and you’re in the mood for some yummy vegan greasy spoonage and a quaint diner atmosphere, do see the Bad Waitress for a bad (awesome) time. I know I’ll be back!

The Bad Waitress Diner & Coffee Shop
http://www.thebadwaitress.com/
2 E. 26th St. Minneapolis, MN 55404
(612) 872-7575

For those using Internet Explorer, you may have noticed there was some cooky stuff going on with my site. BUT it seems to be fixed now!!! (unless you are one of the very few using IE 5 on a mac -like my sister-tisk tisk) I say very few because according to my analytics, of all the people that have viewed my site, only 3 people viewed my site in this manner. Note: they do not make updates for Internet Explorer on Macs so if you have a Mac, use Firefox or Safari. Otherwise you’ll be in a world of frustration when nothing works right. End tangent.

SO, for those of you who were unable to leave comments, due to the nonexistent “submit comment” button, or the masterminds who somehow managed trick your comments into submission by hitting return after selecting the name field (I stand amazed), you can rest easy and please please- leave comments! Embrace these new-found commenting abilities.

Thank you for your patience and enjoy!

(reference to previous post: http://www.happyvegetable.com/blog/reasons-i-hate-internet-explorer/)

HOORAY!! I’ve opened a Cafe Press store for you to enjoy. It’s filled with shirts, mugs, buttons, stickers, magnets, and more! Check it out! And I’ll keep adding items, and switching up what I’m selling, so check back often! If you’re happy to be vegan, show the world! We should be proud of ourselves. Being vegan isn’t always easy but it is certainly rewarding. Give yourself a pat on the back, and perhaps throw in a magnet!

Check it out here: http://www.cafepress.com/happyvegetable

My boyfriend is a huge pizza fan. And I noticed we had some garlicy pita bread in the fridge that needed to be used. Pita bread really is the perfect size and thickness for a personal pizza crust. This is a super easy, healthy, and delicious recipe.

Ingredients for two pizzas:

• 2 pieces of pita bread (without pockets)
• 2 fresh tomatoes (puréed)
• 1/4 – 1/2 C fresh basil chopped
• 2 gourmet baby bella mushrooms (sliced)
• 1/8 C pine nuts
• 1/4 C vegan mozzarella (shredded)
• 1 clove garlic

Now obviously you can put as much or as little of these ingredients on as you want. And another thing I like to add to homemade pizzas is chik patty or chik’n nuggets chopped up. Just make sure the ones you buy don’t contain egg.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Blend 2 fresh tomatoes and clove of garlic until it’s the consistency of sauce (if you don’t have a blender or food processor you can buy a can of tomato sauce and add minced garlic on top of the pizza, or you can make a no-sauce pizza and just slice the tomatoes). Strain out some of the excess water from the tomatoes. Spread onto pita. Add chopped basil, sliced mushrooms and pine nuts and vegan mozzarella. Bake pizzas for about 13 minutes. And enjoy!