Monday Comic Relief - Elf Thoughts
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Monday comic relief at Groovy Vegetarian is brought to you by Comics.com
Next week we will serve up another. Hope you get a laugh out of these. If so, let me know. Cheers!
Happy Vegetarian Thanksgiving And Black Friday!
If you celebrate Thanksgiving, then i would like to wish you a happy one and hope you are well, safe, and with good company.
I am grateful for my health, my family, my pets, my blogs, my laptop, my friends, my readers, chocolate, Coldplay, and so much more. Hope you too have lots of things to be grateful for. Don’t eat too much!
Black Friday Deals
And if this year you won’t be braving the flip flop weather, the crowds, and general Black Friday madness, i have a few *hot* online deals for you. I prefer to do my shopping online, as i’m not a fan of crowds and mayhem. ~Woot~ Hope you find something you like. Enjoy and stay safe!
*the deals below last from 11/27 to 12/01
I Am A Peacekeeper (Vegan Cosmetics) - 35% off any purchase
Aeropostale - Guys Accessories from $2.99
Aeropostale - Girls Accessories from $2.99
Nimli - 25% off any purchase at green and eco friendly shop Nimli
Amazon - Black Friday Deals at Amazon
eBay - When in doubt, hit online supercenter eBay
I consistently keep finding better prices on eBay than most major retailers when it comes to shoes, electronics, books, and PC equipment. I recently found a nice four hub USB port for my laptop for $5 and it works perfectly. I easily saved about $15 by shopping at eBay as opposed to Best Buy, or even Walmart.
Speaking of Walmart, they have the item i so want this Christmas, the Flip Video Cam.
Well that wraps up this post, have a safe and fun Thanksgiving. Cheers!
Monday Comic Relief
It’s Monday, who needs a little comic relief? Show of hands please. I see loads of hands up, so without further ado. Here is a new feature on Groovy Vegetarian that hopefully you (and especially bloggers) will appreciate: Monday Comic Relief.
I will post comics, videos, funny pics, cute t shirts, clever quotes, whatever i can find that adds some joy to your dull and dreary Monday.
Let me know what you think of this weeks entry?
*shout out to matt from blog about your blog for the inspiration. (comic via comics.com)
Economy Blues? 8 How-To Cope Tips For Vegetarians
We hear about it all day — the trouble the automotive companies are in, the mess the banking and real estate business are in, not to mention the sharp declines in the stock market.
tofurky coupon below
So I thought I’d share a short list of how to maintain your healthy eating without breaking your budget. Whether you’re a vegetarian college student, searching for a job, or down on the dumps, the 8 tips below are for you. Share how you’re coping in the comments?
1. Grow a garden
It sounds cheesy, but one of the biggest ways to save money is to simply grow a garden. Organic produce doesn’t come cheap, but its relatively easy to grow. If you can’t handle an outdoor garden, grow a couple tomato plants indoors. If you’re willing to grow an outdoor garden consider beans, hot peppers, lettuce, basil, and cucumbers as just a few potential crops.
2. Look for health food brands and chain grocery stores
Kroger, Meijer and others have started to carry organic produce and some familiar health food brands, such Morningstar and Annie’s. Regional availability is still an issue, but you can find a lot of good deals at these places.
3. Shop Trader Joe’s
Trader Joe’s (if you’re lucky enough to have one by you) is an awesome asset to vegetarians. While the selection can be somewhat lacking, the prices are unbeatable. I often find the EXACT same item for 2-3 dollars cheaper than at Whole Paycheck… er I mean Whole Foods Market, the other health food chain by me (DISCLOSURE: I have several friends at WFM, and I definitely support what they’re doing, despite the high prices.)
4. Shop local health food joints
Many areas have local health food stores that can be very competitive in pricing with retail chains like Whole Foods Market. While not as cheap as some places (Trader Joe’s), these places often have a broad selection, such as a variety of organic cheeses or entrees, which a place like Trader Joe’s does not.
5. Eat in
Eating in — it’s romantic, it’s tasty, and it’s affordable. If your cash is tight eat in, it’s just common sense. Besides, there’s a shortage of good vegetarian restaurants and they typically charge a premium. Even if you are willing to make due with less-than-health food like Italian joints, you can still cook a premium organic vegetarian meal for the price that it would take to buy a run-of-the-mill dinner.
6. Check out the co-ops
Afraid to garden on your own? Want to meet other vegetarians? Do some research on co-ops in your area. Most parts of the country have these groups and they can be great and provide a lot of savings over the course of the year. Besides being part of a co-op makes you feel pretty darn groovy.
7. Clip coupons
This is another seemingly common sense tip, but many don’t know how many coupons there are out there for health food. Check out Whole Foods Market if there’s one by you — they put out really nice books of coupons, which can often be used at competitors. Vegetarian magazines also are another good source, and sometimes you can go directly to retailers website or try writing your favorite retailer to receive more special offers. Visit a frugal forum or get some tofurky coupons?
8. Buy in bulk
The last tip of the day is to buy in bulk. Sounds obvious, right? Well actually a lot of organic and vegetarian food items aren’t available in bulk or are just becoming available. Case and point — my favorite smoothy maker Sambazon just recently released a jumbo bottle of the Acai drink, which delivers about 3 little bottles worth for 2/3’s of the price. Keep your eyes peeled and take advantage of these opportunities when you find them!
Want A Free Sample Of Dunkin Donuts Coffee?
Sure you do. The freebie this week is a sample of Dunkin Donuts coffee. I spotted the offer via the fantastic Bargainist blog.
As with all the other freebies, simply fill out your name and address and the free sample will be mailed to you in a few weeks.
There isn’t a Dunkin Donuts anywhere in sight in the South, but i do love a hot cup of DD java when i visit my stomping grounds in Chicago. No need to bring five bucks either, you can walk away with a large for like less than $1.50
Nice!
All Natural Protein Shake Video Recipe
The hunky dude you see in the video above is vegan NFL player Tony Gonzalez. He runs down a quick all natural shake recipe for you.
Watch the video for all the ingredients. I will give you a clue though, loads and loads of fruits are used. Enjoy!
10 Good Sites To Find Vegetarian Recipes
Want some great vegetarian recipes but don’t know where to go? Maybe you’re looking for vegetarian Thanksgiving ideas? Well check out the 10 recipe sites below — their wealth of ideas won’t leave you disappointed!
1. Vegetarian Times
Vegetarian Times magazine is a fun read, and a terrific resource for everyone from starting vegetarians, to long time healthy-eaters. The recipes section of their website is quite spectacular.
They have so many recipes they had to include a full featured, intuitive search which includes categories such as your diet type (vegetarian, vegan, etc.), the appliance you’re cooking with, the season, and even special categories to select a holiday. If that’s not enough to get you drooling, users can rate recipes, so you’re sure to find good ones.
Check it out here:
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/
2. VegCooking.com
What better place to find vegetarian recipes than a site entirely devoted to it? While Vegetarian Times may be slightly quicker and more intuitive for quick recipes, VegCooking is more full featured, with shopping and dining guides, and more.
When it comes to recipes, the site has some delicious ones. Check out their seasonal article on making a vegetarian Thanksgiving feast. You won’t be disappointed!!
http://www.vegcooking.com/
3. VegWeb
VegWeb is much more organic in format to most other recipe locations. Users submit recipes and photos and other users submit reviews. The recipes here include delicious entries like “Double Chocolate Oatmeal Banana Cookies” and “Vegan Banana Pancakes”. Strengths are its grassroots nature and the fact that it caters to a variety of diet types.
4. Savvy Vegetarian
This site has a lot of recipes. If you can get past a garrish color scheme (at least on my browser) and are willing to dig into the less-intuitive (or at least less graphically pleasing) menus, you should find some good stuff here.
Categories of recipes include bread, beverages, vegan desserts, pastas, salads, soups, and tofu recipes.
http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-recipes/index.php
5. Simply Recipes
Simply recipes is a blog headed by Elise Bauer. It has a massive list of neatly laid out recipes. When looking for a random recipes the layout works very well. Looking for a specific recipe might be slightly harder. Still, there’s just so many good recipes here, with attractive pictures, that its hard not to love this site.
The site employs several culinary bloggers, so there’s lots of fresh creativity as well.
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/vegetarian/
6. BBC Good Kitchen’s Vegetarian Section
BBC? Like the British news station? Yep! The British Broadcasting Company, interestingly has a massive culinary page filled with recipes of all kinds. To go along with Europe’s Vegetarian-friendliness, BBC Good Food indeed has a full page of vegetarian recipes filled with beautiful pictures.
The recipes are split into Dessert, Dinner Party, Main Course, Starter, and Vegan dishes. More recipes can also be found under Occasions and Cuisines, but these are not purely Vegetarian, so beware.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/vegetarian/
7. The Food Network
I admit, I’ve been a bit of an addict of The Food Network at times. Even if you don’t find cooking TV shows fun, its hard to deny their eye-catching website’s appeal. Why do I rank it this low? Well there’s pictures of meat entrees everywhere, which may turn off some. And while there’s many vegetarian recipes, including a large soy section, there’s less than some places and they’re less sensitive to special diets like veganism.
Still it’s worth checking out, in my opinion:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/healthy-eating/index.html#tab3
8. Veg Kitchen
Veg Kitchen has an attractive website, easy to follow recipes and a lot of them. The only thing that I was not a big fan of, and this is pretty subjective, is the lack of images to accompany the dishes. I liked how some of the sites included tempting pictures to motivate you to embark on your culinary adventure.
Still this site is a treasure trove of some great vegetarian (and vegan) recipes.
9. 101 Vegetarian Recipes
The site “101 Vegetarian Recipes” is slightly deceptively named as it actually has more than 101 vegetarian recipes. The site has no pictures, but has many good recipes, most of which are Vegan.
One minor note is the site pops up recipes in a new tab, which I suppose can be good or bad depending on your browsing preferences.
http://www.101vegetarianrecipes.com/
10. VegNews
This site wins points for creative appetizing recipes with beautiful color images. Navigation is easy as well. The only drawback that makes it less than tantalizing, is that there’s only a small rotating selection of recipes and it’s hard to navigate to past recipes.
