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Yes, it's November, but we're still trying to hang on to a few October traditions in this issue of eLifelines.

Following Canadian Thanksgiving, we bring you a celebration of living, rather than dead, turkeys, and have some warming suggestions for using pumpkins for more than just jack-o-lantern carving.

November is a busy month with a special open house at the TVA Resource Centre where you can meet your 2010-2011 board candidates, and score some free vegan treats and deals in our fully stocked bookstore, a talk by famous chef Tal Ronnen, and our Annual General Meeting. Plus, several of the TVA social groups are active this month as well.

Read on to find out more details about the above, and to find out where you can save 20% on vegetarian cooking classes!

Don't Miss These Upcoming Events!

Meet 'n Greet with TVA's board candidates on November 14th, before our Annual General Meeting on November 21st. Learn from chef Tal Ronnen who helped Oprah try a vegan cleanse on November 18th, and warm up at Sensational Vegan Soups and Stews on November 28th. Find out more in the TVA in Action section or on Facebook.

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This Month...

TVA in Action - Board Candidate Meet 'n Greet and New Books at the Resource Centre, Visit from Tal Ronnen, Annual General Meeting, Cooking Class, Directory Updates

In the News - Tougher laws for farm animal transport

Animal Profile of the Month - Thank a Turkey

Nutritious Food of the Month - Keep the Halloween Festivities Alive with Pumpkin

Recipe - Pumpkin Dal

Discount Profile - Fully Nourished Cooking Classes: 20% off 

Contact Us

TVA In Action

Upcoming Events

Meet 'N Greet with your Board Candidates and RC Book Sale 

As you'll read about below, our Annual General Meeting is coming up. Before then, come on down to the Resource Centre to meet the candidates for this year's election, and to score some deals on our newly stocked Resource Centre!

 

This is your chance to ask the candidates where they see the organization going and what they can bring to TVA.

 

Plus, the Resource Centre is brimming to the edge with books since the 26th Annual Vegetarian Food Fair, including the newest cookbooks like Viva Vegan and Becoming Raw, and a wealth of animal rights discussions like Second Nature and Animals Matter. To top it all off, there will be free baked goods (while supplies last).

 

When? Sunday, November 14th from 1 to 3 pm

 

Where? TVA Resource Centre (17 Baldwin Street, second floor)

 

 

Talk from Tal Ronnen

Join Tal Ronnen for engaging discussion about how to make delicious, vegetarian cuisine. Tal has worked hard to create plant-based dishes that appeal to the masses. Tal has brought Gardein to the mainstream by working with restaurants to add it to their menus. He cooked for Oprah during her vegan cleanse and had her praising hummus to millions. His book, The Conscious Cook, has been heralded as revolutionizing the way the world experiences plant-based meals.

Taste a sample of Tal's amazing food, purchase a copy of The Conscious Cook, or just learn from a man dedicated to creating change.

 

When? Thursday, November 18th from 7 to 8 pm

 

Where? Lillian H Smith Library (239 College Street, just east of Spadina)

 

Cost: $5 at the door

 

2010 Annual General Meeting

Want to help set the direction for the Toronto Vegetarian Association in the years moving forward? Attend our Annual General Meeting on Sunday, November 21st and help elect our 2010-2011 Board of Directors.

 

We'll also be presenting our 2011-2013 Strategic Plan which will guide TVA's activities for the next three years, following a brief review of our accomplishments and activities in 2010. Light refreshments will be served.

 

When? Sunday, November 21st from 3 to 6 pm

 

Where? Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre (at the corner of Bloor and Spadina)

 

Membership Required: This event is for TVA members only. Although non-members can attend by joining at the door, only those who have been members for 30 days prior to the AGM are eligible to vote at the meeting.

 

Sensational Vegan Soups and Stews Cooking Class Soup’s on! Nothing says comfort like a hot bowl of soup or stew. Let health coach Nimisha Raja of Evolving Appetites show you how to create healthy vegan nutrition in a pot. She’ll show you how to build your menus around a creamy broccoli/spinach soup (non-dairy), silky butternut squash soup, spicy Cuban black bean/barley stew and an African peanut stew.

 

When? Sunday, November 28th from 2 to 4 pm

 

Where? Whole Foods teaching kitchen, located at 87 Avenue Rd.

 

Cost: $30, including samples of all dishes and copies of recipes used

 

Registration? Please call 416.944.0500 for more information or to register. Unless otherwise stated, please register in person at the customer service desk or by phone. Space is limited to 14 students so don't delay. 

TVA Reads will meet to discuss Brenda Davis' Becoming Raw and to enjoy a vegan potluck on Monday, November 22nd at 6:30 pm. For more information or to join the group contact Shân at  tvareads@veg.ca. 

Join one of TVA’s social groups.

Directory Updates: Back...With a discount!

For those of you missing Full Moon Vegetarian on Dundas, which closed this summer, we've got good news!  They're apparently still searching for a new location, but Greens Vegetarian Restaurant has taken up residence at good ol' 638 Dundas St. W. AND they're offering a 10% discount to Vegetarian Discount Card holders. They say they feature "healthy vegetarian/vegan Pan-Asian cuisine made with all natural, low-sodium ingredients," but unfortunately they're closed Wednesdays, which is when we went by to try them out!  The inside looks nice through the windows though.

And speaking of discounts, did you hear that Commensal has boosted their discount to 10% in celebration of their 15th anniversary? Check them out at 655 Bay St.

New catering options

A Vegan Affair Event Catering got in touch asking to be in the Directory, and I said hey, if you want to be mentioned in this update, you've got 24 hours to get your listing together, and they did it! We haven't tried their food, but I hear being able to meet deadlines is important in this line of work, so they passed that test with flying colours.  Check them out here .

Live in Cabbagetown? Help us out!

We're looking to add more listings for the Cabbagetown neighbourhood of Toronto, because cabbage is good for you and the area seems empty at the moment.  If you know a great place for a veg meal in the area, please send it along to directory@veg.ca!

Stay in-the-know as more updates are announced on our directory updates page.

In the News

Tougher Laws for Farm Animal Transport

The World Society for the Protection for Animals has just won a victory. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has passed regulations that will increase penalties for animal transport violations and hopefully improve enforcement. Fines for those who improperly transport livestock and violate regulations have been more than doubled, representing the first increase in fines in over 10 years. Click here to read more about WSPA's campaign surrounding this issue and get involved.

Turkeys are perhaps the least known of all farmed animals, because to most people they come wrapped tightly in the grocery store, as though they were never living beings at all. Any resemblance to a once-living bird has been pulverized out of the sanitized package shoppers delightfully pick up, wondering if this or that one is “big enough” for the holiday gathering. The answer is of course yes: turkeys are bred to be huge. 

Meet a turkey on a farm sanctuary and you’ll probably never eat another one again in your life. That’s because turkeys are fabulously gregarious with each other, and so sensitive that they even blush. They dance, jump, flap, and celebrate together.  They crave human affection.  In the springtime, when mating season comes around, male turkeys, also called "Tom Turkeys" or "Gobblers", puff up and spread their tail feathers (just like a peacock).   

They make that famous "gobble gobble” sound and shake their feathers.  This helps the male attract females for mating.  Residents of Muskoka can often see wild turkeys in the evening, darting quickly across the dirt roads of cottage country. When the moon rises, wild turkeys fly to the treetops, where they roost for the night. 

Unlike their wild counterparts, turkeys on factory farms are fattened to such an extent that they become too heavy to ever fly. They live in crowded, suffocating conditions and are cruelly treated by farm workers who see them only as product. Turkeys, like all other farmed animals, are farmed for a profit, and so measures that would make their lives more bearable or humane, measures that would cut into profit, are not on the menu.  That’s why I suggest you consider taking turkey off your menu, and visiting veg.ca for more compassionate holiday meal choices.

Nutritious Food of the Month

Keep the Halloween Festivities Alive with Pumpkin

Care of Amy Symington 

Orange you glad it’s fall? It’s that time of year again for all vegetables orange – from sweet potatoes, to carrots to a litany of squash varieties. However, when it comes to the fall season, winter squash or more commonly pumpkin, in particular is the Cinderella of the vegetable ball. What is autumn without thirds of pumpkin pie and doorways chocked full of jubilant jack o’ lanterns? Not one that most Canadians celebrate that is for certain. 

 

With that said, and succulent desserts and carving fun aside, pumpkins are a versatile and healthy reason to raid a pumpkin patch this fall. Their nutritional benefits are scarily high. Pumpkin flesh isn’t just for carving blood chilling faces into, it is high in potassium, phytosterols, fibre, vitamin A and C, which in turn helps to reduce bad cholesterol levels in the blood and reduce hypertension, aid in digestion, reduce free radicals in the body and promote superb eye health. And don’t even think about throwing the seeds out with the innards! Pumpkin seeds contain essential omega 3 fatty acids that help to maintain healthy blood vessels and nerves as well as lubricate vital bodily tissues, like the skin (which helps with anti-aging). They are high in protein and contain as much of the essential amino acid tryptophan as an inferior cup of cow’s milk. In addition to that, pumpkin seeds have been said to have anti-inflammatory properties that can potentially assist in the relief of arthritis without the side effects of over prescribed medications. Also, recent research in support of good prostate health as well as osteoporosis prevention claim that pumpkin seeds can be extremely beneficial in reducing the risk of illnesses in both. 

 

Now that you’re on board the pumpkin truck, how would you like your pumpkin? Their vast culinary uses can be out right daunting. Listing everything and anything that can be made with the delectable squash could potentially lead to a large work of non-fiction. Pumpkin pancakes to tarts to muffins to ice cream, from soups to risotto to curries to pasta, from sauces to stews to stuffed goodness, the ideas are absolutely endless. These are the reasons that we never tire of this miraculous, chameleon of a food; that and the fact that everyone’s grandma makes the best pumpkin pie this side of the city fair grounds! And after further nutritional inspection it’s a darn good thing too. Thanks Grandma!*  *Obviously, we don’t recommend over doing it with the pie*

Click here to join TVA and receive the print Lifelines, which offers more nutritional info, recipes and cookbook reviews. Find more nutritional information at veg.ca/nutrition.

Recipe

Care of Lisa Pitman

Pumpkin Dal (as posted on vegancookbookcritic.blogspot.com)

 

• 1 cup red lentils
  
• 2 cups water 
  
• 1 large yellow onion
  
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
  
• 1 tsp mustard seeds (optional)
  
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin
  
• 3/4 tsp salt
  
• 1/2 tsp hot curry powder
  
• 1/4 tsp garam masala
  
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
  
• juice of 1 lime
  
• 2 tbsp shredded coconut
  
• 2 kale leaves, finely sliced 
  

Directions

Rinse the red lentils in a fine mesh strainer until the water runs clear. In a small saucepan over medium heat bring the water to a boil. Add the lentils, cover and reduce the heat to simmer. Cook the lentils for 20 minutes. The lentils should be soft and most of the water should be absorbed. Add the coconut oil to a medium saute pan over medium-high heat. Once the oil has melted add the onion (and mustard seeds if using) and saute for 10-15 minutes until the onions are translucent and begin to brown. Add the spices and stir to coat the onions and cook for about 2 minutes. Stir in the pumpkin, cooked lentils and lime juice. Add the shredded coconut and kale. Continue cooking until the kale has softened. Serves 4-6.

Discount Profile

Fully Nourished Cooking Classes: 20% off with TVA Discount Card

Want to learn how to make healthy and delicious vegetarian meals? Marni’s classes, each one with a different theme and topic, are filled with organic whole food ingredients and delicious knowledge.

The classes are hands on, plus you'll learn about the nutritional content and benefits of the foods being prepared. And of course, you'll enjoy eating the dishes you've learned to cook, leaving each class feeling fully nourished from delicious food and valuable information.

 

And if you've got a TVA discount card, your wallet will remain nourished as well because Marni offers TVA discount card holders 20% off!

 

Veg Status? Vegan

Savings with TVA Discount Card: 20% off

Location: Classes are held in the Bayview/York Mills area. Find all the details and register at www.marniwasserman.com. 

The TVA Discount Card is available to members of the Toronto Vegetarian Association. Find a full listing of participating locations here. To join TVA and/or purchase a discount card, make a tax-deductible, online donation or phone the TVA office at 416-544-9800.