Halloween with Veg Club!

Pre-Toga--Feeling Greek!

End of Summer: Insider look into fun times cooking and eating together :)

That's Amore: Veg Club Presents Italian Food

This past Saturday, Veg Club celebrated the good life with an Italian feast: Roasted Eggplant, Stuffed Bell Peppers, Mushroom Pizza, Cesar Pizza, and Whole Wheat Pasta. *Kiss "Bella"! If you missed this dinner, don't despair. Veg Club has dinners every Saturday Night! Come and check us out at Berkus House at 7.

Hello to the new kids on the block!

This is me signing off. Being a part of Vegheads has been such an incredible experience that I don't want to let it go. But this year, Vegheads has got some new wonderful, brilliant, talented, beautiful people on the board, and it's their turn to show off their hard work. Joining our fearless leader Brandilyn this year, we have one delightful Elise, an amazing Emily, and the fantastic Anna. Four very different women who will each bring something unique and spectacular to her post, and I can't wait to see what they accomplish! After a very emotional end of the year barbecue, a summer filled with ohmygod all the vegan food, and the first few dinners of the year already past, I'm finally ready to say goodbye! And hello to the Vegheads Board Class of 2014!

All my love, 

Kara 

Go Veg Week: bake sale recipes!

We've had a big week here at the Oxy Veg Club! It was Go Veg Week this week, and in addition to having about 50 students pledge to go veg for the week, we had a total of nine different events throughout the week to engage the community and spread the word! We've had a lot of recipe requests from last Monday's Gentle Barn bake sale fundraiser, so without further ado:

Cranberry-pistachio cookies: (adapted from here)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup granulated cane sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup ground pistachios
1/4-1/2 cup coconut oil,
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 "vegg" (vegan egg from Compassion over Killing) mixed with water
Optional: more coconut!

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, and wet in another.
Mix everything together.
Put large spoonfuls of the dough on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

No-bake pecan date bars:
Recipe here

Chocolate chip peanut butter bars:
Recipe here

Enjoy!

Brazilian food!

The lovely Isadora Zanon co-hosted yesterday's Brazilian veg dinner! This marks our 22nd dinner and our 12th geographic area-- we've experimented with Southern US, Mexican, Italian, Mediterranean, Moroccan, Ethiopian, Afghan, Indian, Thai, Korean, Japanese, and now Brazilian cuisine! Isadora and I visited Supermercado Brasil in Culver City, and picked up the rest of the stuff we needed at Organix on Colorado Blvd, or favorite neighborhood store! Our menu included sweet mate tea, suco de maracuja e mango (passionfruit and mango juice), salada, polenta topped with quibe de abóbora (squash), feijoada com arroz, farofa de banana, and acai and banana smoothies with pineapple, coconut, and granola for dessert. Many thanks to everyone for a great night!

Our faculty dinner!

Yesterday, Wednesday April 17th, we hosted a community dinner for faculty and students alike! We hoped to engage key members of the faculty and our peers in a conversation about the role of food— how health, the environment, ethics, and culture intersect on our plates. Professors Heldman, Dirks, Morrissey, and Sabo joined us and we all discussed our personal philosophies of food. Vegheads hopes to strengthen the community around food awareness here at Occidental and bring sustainability, rights, and public health into the focus of the Oxy community. Our (almost entirely local, seaonal, and organic) menu included: spinach salad with pecans, strawberries, and blackberry fig vinaigrette; bruschetta with sauteed onions and mushrooms; stir-fried zucchini with fenugreek seeds; asparagus and cannellini bean risotto; and an orange, grapefruit, mango, and pineapple smoothie to finish. Funding for the dinner was provided the ASOC. Many thanks to the students and professors who joined us for this event!

Afghan food!

Last Saturday, April 13th we had our Afghan dinner! We hope that by coming together over a cruelty-free meal and learning a little bit about Afghan culture we can contribute to spreading the message of peace. Our menu: Afghan chai spiced tea, salaata, maash pulao (rice dish), burani bonjon, vegetable qorma, and vanilla ice cream with pistachios and rosewater poached pears. Thanks to everyone who joined us for one of the best dinners this year!

SoCal Activist Empowerment Conference

On April 6th, we hosted our first Activist Empowerment Conference! Brandilyn Tebo, our club's founder, planned the entire event. The event drew approximately 70 attendees from all over the L.A. area, and featured speakers, workshops, and tons of vegan food. Best of all it was free!

Speakers included (P: presentation):
Brandilyn Tebo- Oxy Veg Club founder and event organizer. Introduction.
John Pierre- personal trainer and nutrition coach. P: The health benefits of plant based diets
Clair Morrissey- professor of philosophy, Occidental College. P: Animal ethics.
Kim Dreher- VegFund Programs Director. P: Effective forms of communication and advocacy.
Charlotte Cressey- yoga instructor and animal rights activist. P: Feminism, the body, and animal rights.
Prabhat Gautam- Animal Advocacy Museum creator. P: Networking
Dave Rutan- Vegan Toastmasters. P: Public speaking and constructing persuasive arguments.
Ryan Flegal- animal rights activist and community organizer. P: Activism and solidarity.
Alec Pederson- filmmaker involved with "The Cove." Previews of films "Unity," and "The Heist."
Nathan Runkle- Mercy for Animals founder. P: Media and politics in the animal rights movement.

Lunch was generously provided by VeggieGrill and the incredible Chef Rawsheed catered dinner.

Thank you so much to everyone who came out for the event! We'll contact you about future public events like this, and meanwhile let's keep the conversation going to make sure that our important work keeps moving forward!

Korean food!

On Friday we hosted our Korean food dinner! Since Brandilyn works for Dave's Gourmet Korean Food at the Farmers Market, we got a ton of donated goodness! We dined on Dave's tempha black bean and brown rice cakes, spicy daikon radishes and burdock root with a spinach salad, mixed seaweed, marinated lotus and garlic root, miso soup with glass noodles, two types of kimchee, bibimbap- rice and veggie stir-fry with red bean paste and carrots, and baesuk- cooked pears with ginger, cinnamon, dates, and agave. A great end to a very cooking-intensive week! Vegheads also participated in the Student Labor Action Coalition's Employee Appreciation Luncheon on Thursday, for which we made spinach, apple, and grape salad with raspberry vinaigrette, cajun-spiced dirty rice, and apple and pear crumble! It's almost April, but we're not slowing down-- RSVP for our all-day Activist Empowerment Conference next Saturday, April 6th, and keep an eye out for the rest of our upcoming events: our Middle Eastern dinner April 13th, April 17th faculty dinner, and of course Go Veg Week April 22-28th! For all the details, check out our new website: oxyvegclub.weebly.com

Raw food!

Brandilyn hosted Vegheads' first all-raw food dinner yesterday night! Her menu included a spicy mango and kale salad, raw fetuccini alfredo with kelp noodles, a faux tuna salad (made from nuts!) with nori, creamy corn chowder, chocolate pudding made with avocados, and carrot cake! Join us next Friday (note the day change!), March 29th for Korean food! We'll have bibimbap vegetable stir-fry with rice, kimchee, tempha (black bean brown rice cakes), seaweed salad, and baesuk (cooked pears) for dessert!