This week on TheUrbanHousewife.com, a GIVEAWAY!

Go check out your chance to win a sweet treat!
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Bake Sale Success & a Bountiful Vegan Cookie Giveaway!

Please head over to my new blog at TheUrbanHousewife.com, where you'll find this post & more!

As I mentioned last week, we held a two day bake sale in San Francisco to benefit Animal Place & East Bay Animal Advocates as a part of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale. Well, I'm happy to say it was a smashing success! Thanks to my co-organizer Laura from Vegansaurus, plus our many volunteers, we raised $3000 for the charities! Yes, $3000!
Our awesome bakers & volunteers included The Sisters Vegan, Too Vegan To Function (maker of the Pride donuts), Vegan Homemade, Strange and Violent Creations, Kristen Blackmore, Valencia Street Vegan (bake sale table photo), Vegan Lush, Erika Lutz, plus local businesses Pepple's Donuts, Bike Basket Pies, Sugar Beat Sweets, Brassica Supperclub, Pure Life Chef, Pie Truck, Angel Cakes, À Côté Restaurant, VegNews, & Daisy Wares. PHEW! Hope I didn't miss anyone. Of course, we have to thank Ike's Place who let us have our event out front on Saturday, which was perfect! I'm really proud to have worked on this event & I'm sure next year will be even more amazing!

Now that I have your sweet tooth at the ready, I'm going to tell you about a little company called Bountiful Vegan & their Intention Cookie. I was lucky enough to receive their Variety Pack in the mail a bit ago, and it contained four GIANT cookies in interesting flavors. Of course, I had to try them all, so I could tell you about them!

I started with the Harmony which is described as a Lemon Snickerdoodle. This crunchy cookie has a great lemony taste & is flecked with cinnamon & sugar. I made the mistake of sharing a bite with Strummer & the begging never stopped! Next up, the Prosperity is a soft & crumbly chocolate cookie with pecan & chocolate chips. It was not too rich, which made it far too easy to snack on! The Well Being is a Pineapple Coconut affair that's light & fruity, yet chewy with a coconutty flavor likely from the shreds of coconut within it. Finally, the appropriately named Love is slightly soft Orange Chocolate Chip cookie, that still has a somewhat firm bite to go with it's sweet orange flavor & chocolate chips. I think this may have been my favorite & it was hard not to devour it all!

Each cookie contains a message on the inside of the label which you are supposed to repeat, in hopes of making it come true. See where the name Intention comes in? While I wouldn't normally participate in something like this, one of the messages caught my eye, "Money comes easily to me..". I may or may not have repeated this one to myself! ha. All of the cookies are a nice addition to the pre-packaged vegan cookie world & will hopefully be popping up at a store near you! In the meantime, you can order them online.

Guess what? I have a Variety Pack to giveaway! Yes, one lucky commenter will get an assortment of these GIANT cookies all for themselves.. or I suppose you could share with a friend. To enter, leave a comment & let me know, if you were an Intention Cookie, what would your name be? The winner will be selected at random & announced next Tuesday, July 7th. For ANOTHER chance to win a Variety Pack, sign up for the Bountiful Vegan mailing list, as they will also be picking a random winner in the near future. Good Luck!

POM is not Wonderful & a $100 Giveaway!

Please head over to my new blog at TheUrbanHousewife.com, where you'll find this post & more!

As bloggers, there are times when we are offered free products, typically in exchange for a review or writeup, which results in publicity for the company. While it can be hard to resist the lure of free, I try to consider all aspects of accepting these items, as there's always a chance I may not like them. Additionally, there is the ethical side of things, so research is always in order. When I was recently contacted by POM (cough) Wonderful with an offer of samples, I knew right away I would not be accepting them.

You see, POM has a history of animal testing. In the past, they would torture our dear rabbit & mice friends, so they could make claims about the health benefits of their juices. When I found out about this a few years ago, I jumped in to action & told all of my friends. Of course, PETA jumped in to action as well & the result was the agreement that POM would stop the deadly testing.

So, why am I still boycotting them? While I appreciate that they stopped the insane & inhumane misuse of animals, realistically, they went from a murderous juice company to a NORMAL juice company & therefore I believe they deserve no special treatment & certainly not my support. With all of the juice options out there, I cannot give my money a company that lacks ethics & likely would not have stopped testing had they not been called out. They have their results from the tests they've already done & therefore can make health claims, but innocent animals still died for their marketing. I will not be a part of their marketing & I hope other bloggers will refrain from giving them positive press & legitimizing POM to their readers, even if they did receive samples.

I know this is a heavy topic for a typically light hearted food blog, but I feel that is it important that my readers know about animal cruelty, so they can combat it. I am not only vegan, I am an activist as well, so this is an topic I cannot shy away from.

Now, as bloggers we also get FUN offers as well! When I was contacted by OnlineShoes.com & asked if I would like to give away a $100 gift certificate to my readers, I was more than thrilled. What a great way to give something back to my friends & possibly draw out the lurkers as well.

OnlineShoes.com has a nice selection of vegan friendly items, including a large selection of EARTH Shoes, many of which are labeled as vegan! While I may be more of a loud & proud boot kind of gal, or even a subdued boot kind of gal, there's likely something for everyone at OnlineShoes.com.

Want to win a $100 gift certificate from OnlineShoes.com? Comment & tell me about the WORST shoes you've ever owned! LA Gear with double neon laces (wait, those were awesome), squeaky soles, or downright uncomfortable? I want to hear about your footwear faux pas!
The winner will be drawn at random & must reside in the United States (or have a place to send them?). Don't forget to leave a way to be contacted & get your entry in by February 16th!

My Sweet Vegan giveaway results!

Please head over to my new blog at TheUrbanHousewife.com, where you'll find this post & more!

Phew, what a crazy week of comments it has been! With over 100 entries, I'm glad I decided to let random.org choose the winner for the My Sweet Vegan giveaway, rather than deciding myself.

While many of you chose common combinations like peanut butter & chocolate or fruit & chocolate, others came through with unique flavor combinations such as banana & curry, chili & pickle juice, pineapple & turmeric, & multiple people even mentioned peanut butter & pickles! I'm finding myself inspired by the suggestions & may have to use some of them in future kitchen concoctions! I was a bit alarmed to see mentions of items like bacon & cheese on a vegan blog, but that's a story for another time!

So, without further ado, the winner of a copy of My Sweet Vegan by Hannah Kaminsky is..
#30- Bianca! "you can really do no wrong with chocolate but a sourdough acme baguette sliced up and covered in chocolate is totally magical." Here's a screenshot of the random.org selection.

Congratulations Bianca; I'll definitely be trying your flavor combination! Lucky me, I live in the city of Acme Bread & it is a favorite of mine. In fact, I used their Sour Batard tonight to make the "Sweet & Simple French Toast" from My Sweet Vegan & it was delicious! How is that for irony?!

Thank you to everyone for joining in the fun & I hope those of you who weren't selected will buy a copy of My Sweet Vegan today! It's a fun & fabulous book for any dessert lover!

My Sweet Vegan & a giveaway!

Please head over to my new blog at TheUrbanHousewife.com, where you'll find this post & more!

The past few months have seen the release of a plethora of fabulous vegan cookbooks & My Sweet Vegan by Hannah Kaminsky is no exception! From the minute the book landed in my hands, I was drawn in by the beautiful layout which includes full color photos, taken by Hannah, for each & every recipe! Upon closer inspection, you find a collection of unique & tempting recipes such as Caramel Macchiato "Cheese" Cake, Lemon-Lime Sunshine Bundt, Turtle Shortbread Wedges, & Wasabi Chocolate Cupcakes, & as well as a selection of classic cookies, muffins, pies, tarts, & cakes! This isn't your standard vegan dessert book, Hannah's approach is a refreshing & exciting take on vegan sweets, yet it's approachable & easy to follow.

Before reviewing this sugary sweet selection for you, I had to try out a few recipes to see if they taste as fabulous as they look on the pages. I am a fiend for marshmallow, so the Marshmallow Mud Cake was the first up to bat, a treat to share with friends as we celebrated the new year! This chocolate cake makes use of chocolate soy milk for extra flavor & is topped in a confectioners sugar & ricemallow blend that makes for a fluffy topping for the true sweets lover! I had a bit of an issue with my frosting slipping down the sides of the cake, but that didn't stop me from trying to load it as high as possible before drizzling the top with chocolate!

I let Ryan pick out another recipe to try & of course it was a peanut butter & chocolate combination in a cookie form; Peanut Butter Bombs. These are a chocolate cookie with a baked-in peanut butter center & a true treat! I was lucky enough to have Ryan on filling duty, so these came together quickly & were immediately dipped in soy milk & consumed once they came out of the oven.

My favorite way to enjoy a new cookbook is to go through every page & put tabs on the recipes I'm interested in making. I have no doubt you'll be seeing Lace Sugar Crisps, Black Bottom Blondies, Peach Melba Layer Cake, & maybe even a Mocha Devastation Cake from My Sweet Vegan coming out of my kitchen in the near future!

Do you have a copy of My Sweet Vegan yet? Want to WIN one?
I am giving away one copy of My Sweet Vegan to a reader!
To enter, leave a comment letting me know your favorite unique flavor combination & you may find a copy of My Sweet Vegan on your doorstep! The winner will be selected at random, but you must play along & answer the question to be entered. I will announce the winner on February 6th & hopefully it will arrive in time to make something on St. Valentine's Day for YOUR sweet vegan!