Have A Happy Vegan Valentine's Day!

Just because you can't eat milk chocolate hearts or Sweethearts (they have gelatin), doesn't mean you have to miss out on Valentine's Day. Here are some vegan friendly ways to celebrate.

• Give (or eat!) vegan chocolates. Try dark chocolate/semi-sweet bars.
• Make a vegan chocolate recipe! Here are some of my suggestions, Chocolate Banana Chunks/Fondue, Vegan Truffles, Vegan Brownies, 2-Layer Chocolate Coconut Cake, Chocolate Cowpie Drop Biscuits, Happiness in a Cone, Tofu Chocolate Pie
• Give a shopping spree to your hunny with the Peta Mall Valentine's Day Specials!!!
• Send a cute Valentine's Day PETA E-card to all your friends and lovers!

If you happen to not have a human bunny in your life who you celebrate this, you can always open your heart to animals!

• Volunteer at your local humane society/animal shelter
• Distribute literature about animal rights (door hangers, cards, stickers, pamphlets, etc.)
• Bake/buy some cruelty-free biscuits for your furry friend or the humane society!
• Write letters to companies that test on animals asking them not to.
• Sign pro-animal rights petitions online!
• Help feed animals in shelters... online! (When you click, sponsors pay to help feed the animals! By the way, you can do this everyday to help even more!)

Hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Implemented

I finally implemented my Adsense, if you have any suggestions, comment up :)
I tried to make them be visible, stand out, but not detract from the site.
Sorry for the lack of info, but legally I really cannot say much more about them.

New Layout

Yes, there's a new layout!

Things that've changed:

• I tried to make the background sublte but still showing. I've noticed however that the colors look a bit different between Mozilla Firefox and MSIE 7 but overall I think it works.
• Some borders and heading have been turned purple (changed the border on the description)
• Rent my blog space is more visable (you can see it w/o having to scroll)
• Important Posts list has been shortened
• New Blogs in the "Blogs I Read" section
• Link to Blogarama Blog Directory added, button to favorite on Technorati added also.

I was going to make the layout snazzier, actually. Something along the lines of this. But I realized that lots of CSS and graphics makes a page ...r....e...a...l...l...y... slow to load, which isnt cool when you're like me and use BlogExplosion and other traffic exchange sites because after waiting the minimum 30 seconds, the page hasnt even loaded.

I also wanted my page to be accessible by other browsers and display sizes. CSS (and even ESS) makes pages slower and having a CSS/ESS/or Java dependent website sucks for someone who doesnt have them. So excuse the lack of graphics :)

If you find any glitches, comment up!
~Allie

QUALITY Marinara Sauce Is Only A Click Away!

Marinara sauce. The perfect compliment to any pasta. Full of vine-ripened tomatoes, a handful of fresh herbs, garlic, and extra-virgin olive oil. You cant really go wrong with marinara. Its easy to store in the cupboard, goes with any pasta, and is always vegan (true marinara sauce doesn't have cheese, other styles do.)

But so many times I've gone to the store and picked up a jar of less-than-desirable marinara sauce. Shaw's. Bertolli. Escencia. Ragu. Prego. *sigh*. You get the point. They are all either too oily, too salty, too watery, too thick, or contain nasty colors, additives, or contain the new kid on the block, high fructose corn syrup (can't we just leave the corn to the Mexicans? Since when did corn grow alongside tomatoes in Italy? I didn't think so.)

So I'd like to inform you all of a GREAT marinara sauce that is PERFECT. It clings to any pasta, but doesn't cake. It's all natural, and is made with real fresh ingredients, and doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it. It's a bit salty, but not enough to make you pucker up in disgust.

It's called BOVE'S OF VERMONT. (click the link guys, it has ordering info and ingredients/nutritional info!) So yes, I'm also encouraging you to buy from my neck of the woods and support a great family company. The recipe originated from a restaurant in Burlington, Vermont (for those of you who don't know, B'ton is on Lake Champlain, which borders upstate New York.)

This marinara sauce is amazing! You must try it. There is also an organic version, which I have tried. The flavor is slightly different, but it is amazing. I can never decide which one to get, as they both are the best sauces I have ever tried!

If you live outside the area, it may be hard to find this brand (if in NE, try Shaw's Supermarkets with the WILD HARVEST section.) But if you live elsewhere, and have a credit card and 5 bucks to spare, I whole-heartedly suggest you click the links and order some by mail. Another good sauce (my #2 favorite after both the Bove's) is Victoria's Marinara. It is carried by all Shaw's Supermarkets, and has a unique flavor that deserves recognition.

So lets start the Sauce Revolution! Go up to your grocer and demand the quality sauces your spaghetti, penne, linguini, and cappellini deserve!

Here's a picture of my dinner tonight, Bove's Marinara with organic spaghetti:

(yes, it's a bit blurry but it's cause I was rushing it to my mouth 'cause its so darn good!)

I'm Addicted!

I have started a new group, NOA, which stands for Newmans O's Anonymous! I am going die of obesity if someone does not take these away from me!

I think they taste better than Oreo brand cookies, theres no chemicals or artifical shit in them. Just organic ingredients. And they're vegan!