As Betty White was driven up to the “Hot for Cleveland” set last Friday, she was surprised by a hula dancing flashmob (apparently, her assistant greets her with a hula dance every morning). With tears in her eyes, Betty didn’t miss a beat and jokingly warned, “At 93, you shouldn’t be doing this!”

According to Ecorazzi, there was also vegan cake, but WE NEED DETAILS, PEOPLE. You can’t just go talking about vegan cake and not, at least, tell us what flavor it was. Geez. 

Happy (belated) Birthday, Ms. Betty!!! Thanks for the smiles and for being a public advocate for animals! 

Betty with her pets, in 1963, in her Brentwood, CA home. (Photo Courtesy of: nwitimes.com)

Go to SaplingVegan’s Etsy store to get one of these shirts! 

Sometimes the Internet Goddess bestows (doughnut-flavored) blessings upon you, and my friends, this was indeed one of those instances. Late one evening I saw my Instagram notifications lighting up from a new follower, so I went to check out their account. Lo and behold, I was met with the glory of SaplingVegan’s deliciously inviting food porn, and images of amazing, vegan-inspired t-shirt designs. Several direct message exchanges later, I had the pleasure of knowing a bit more about Stephanie (aka SaplingVegan), we were vegan BFFs, and I knew I had to give her a VS shout-out!!

I love supporting vegan businesses, especially local to LA and owned by women! And keeping it in the family (and local), her shirts are printed in Downtown LA at her cousin’s shop, Shirt Agency. She currently has two designs and some stickers, and is just getting started. I can’t wait to wear my shirt on a vegan doughnut tour of LA! 

She sent me a little bio about herself and, hello, my friend crush only got bigger. 

I’m just a little lady who enjoys eating, sleeping, and dreaming of what I’ll eat when I wake up. I live in LA with my two elderly fuzzers, Harry (a Basset Hound) and Lady (a Cocker Spaniel). I went vegetarian at 14 and have been vegan for about 5 years now. I’ve always loved animals and am pretty sure, even to this day, that my stuffed animals were totally real. I’ve got a do no harm attitude, unless it’s toward doughnuts or pizza, I’ll DESTROY THEM! I lived in San Francisco for a few years and the vegan food scene is awesome. You’ve got your main staples of Gracias Madre, Pepples, Ken Ken Ramen ( the make a mean veggie raman),and Millennium. LA’s vegan scene is never ending! It’s so huge; I’ve lived here almost a year and feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface. My goal is to eat every vegan doughnut in LA. So far Donut Friend’s lemon Weapon (made vegan) and Real Food Daily’s cronut are tied for first place. 

She also has a blog where she posts recipes, and does product reviews and giveaways. Being that she’s also a recent transplant from SF to LA (same as me, Laura and Jenny!), she blogs about her favorite places to eat there, along with the Inland Empire, and LA. In addition to that, she’s a contributing writer to Plant Based on a Budget.

Basically, Stephanie rules, so go buy a shirt and follow her on Instagram at @SaplingVegan.

Bonus: FREE SHIPPING for one week for VS readers! Just use the code: vegansaurus when you check out! 

Meet Ellen, Carrie, Emily, and Kristen, who were saved by Farm Sanctuary from a foie gras factory.

Pull out the tissues, because if you’re anything like me, this heartbreaking news will get them flowing.

In addition to the tragic violence in Paris today, animal activists were supremely disappointed to hear that U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson overturned the ban of selling foie gras in California. Twitter immediately went wild on both sides of the ban. 

The ban was passed in 2004, but took effect eight years later, which apparently pissed off a lot of chefs and patrons (i.e., assholes) in the California dining scene. I made the (rookie) mistake of reading the comments on some related posts, and it really bummed me out. People are genuinely stoked on the ban being overturned. On SFGate, Ken Frank, chef and owner of Michelin-starred La Toque in Napa, was quoted saying, “It goes on the menu tonight…All of my sous chefs are jumping up and down. This means chefs in California can cook with their favorite ingredient, just like chefs everywhere else in the world.” (Seriously?!? Ugh.) 

In case anyone isn’t aware of what foie gras is and how it is produced, it’s not for the light of heart. From PETA’s website: “[Factory farm] workers ram pipes down male ducks’ or geese’s throats two or three times daily and pump as much as 4 pounds of grain and fat into the animals’ stomachs, causing their livers to swell to up to 10 times their normal size. Many birds have difficulty standing because of their engorged livers, and they may tear out their own feathers and cannibalize each other out of stress.”

If you feel like sharing with your social networks, PETA posted this heart-wrenching image to their Facebook today, asking people to share if they’d never support this. 

Banana Nut Muffins (with Lily’s dark chocolate baking chips) from Isa Does It by the infamous Isa Chandra Moskowitz. 

I’m an equal opportunity eater, so when Lily’s Sweets sent me their Premium Dark Chocolate Baking Chips I was happy to make something tasty with them. I had almost all the ingredients on hand to make some muffins, so it was the obvious choice! 

The most SWEET (get it?!) fact about Lily’s is that the company named themselves after a now 13-year-old girl who is a cancer survivor and they donate a portion of their proceeds to childhood cancer.

According to their website,

“When Lily was seven years old, she was diagnosed with brain cancer. Doctors operated success­fully, but the surgery to remove her tumor left her with some immobility. Lily spent months learning to walk again. Though she suffered some nerve damage, she held on to her sense of humor and through it all kept everyone around her entertained and amazed at her progress.

Throughout her recovery at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, there was a shortage of electric wheelchairs. It made Lily sad to see kids having to wait for a turn to use one. When she returned home, she worked with her family to raise $9,000 for an additional chair.

A couple of years later, Lily’s cancer came back, but she beat it again, returning home months before her doctors thought it possible.”

What a badass kid!!! 

Their products are Certified Fair Trade, non-GMO, certified gluten-free, have no added sugar and offer 25{ae720e0b436026f867bfa0c31185c2252a138f27e85f5f152ec5acc1c10a8cc9} fewer calories than conventional chocolate…aka EAT AS MUCH AS YOU WANT (my opinion, not theirs). I’ve seen them at local health food stores and Whole Foods. You can see what stores carry their products on they’re their website. 

All 75 RECIPES HAVE CHOCOLATE IN THEM! And they’re mostly savory!

I am lucky to call myself a friend of the two tubular dudes that put this glorious book together. Matt Ruscigno, M.P.H., R.D. brings his thorough nutritional knowledge, and punk rock chef, Joshua Ploeg, demonstrates his wizardly ability to dream up uniquely combined ingredients, in their first cookbook together, Superfoods for Life: Cacao. 

I honestly wasn’t sure what to think when they told me there would be a lot of savory recipes, but I had the privilege of testing some of them before the final version went to print, and PEOPLE, they’re great! The mole is especially incredible.

The coolest thing I like about their book is that it’s not marketed as a “vegan cookbook.” I LOVE SNEAKY VEGAN ACTIVISM! It’s actually part of a series of superfoods cookbooks, some of which are not vegan. It’s a great gift for omni friends or family members who are into chocolate and/or into superfoods and health! It’s “choc-full” (GET IT?!) of science-based information, and tips for making healthier choices (that include cacao…duh!).

Also of note: Matt is a super awesome activist and made a point to include information in the appendix about knowing where chocolate comes from. Check out the Food Empowerment Project to learn more about this. Bonus:10{ae720e0b436026f867bfa0c31185c2252a138f27e85f5f152ec5acc1c10a8cc9} of the book’s profits go to FEP!

For the love of all things chocolate go out and get a copy of this book—for 50{ae720e0b436026f867bfa0c31185c2252a138f27e85f5f152ec5acc1c10a8cc9} off, if you order before December 31st! 

And now, as promised, a recipe:

Tamarind-Chocolate Chili

Photo: Fairwinds Press

Ingredients
2 cups (396 g) cooked lentils or other legumes
1 cup (150 g) chopped seasoned tofu or cooked tempeh
½ cup (80 g) diced onion
1 cup (235 ml) vegetable broth (more as needed)
1 cup (240 g) crushed tomatoes
2 minced garlic cloves
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon minced ginger
⅓ cup (82 g) tamarind purée
1 tablespoon (15 ml) lemon juice or balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon (9 g) minced chile pepper
½ cup (75 g) diced bell pepper
¼ cup (27.5 g) minced carrot
½ cup (75 g) corn, fresh, frozen, or canned
2 tablespoons (18 ml) tamari
½ teaspoon black pepper
⅓ cup (27 g) cocoa powder or 2 to 4 ounces (55 to 115 g) chopped dark chocolate
¼ cup (4 g) chopped fresh cilantro
Sweetener of your choice, to taste (optional)

Yield: 5 servings