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Gift Guide for Vegan Kids- 2014

12/12/2013

Here are some of my favorite suggestions on what to get vegan kids this holiday season. These gifts are animal/vegan-friendly and fun. They are gifts that inspire kindness and healthy living. Read on to find the perfect gift for your own vegan child, grandchild, nephew, niece, neighbor, or any other vegan kid you know...
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2014 Gift Guide for Vegan Kids

HOPSCOTCH KIDS NAIL POLISH is made just for kids. The nailpolish line is paraben free, vegan, fragrance free, toxin free and biodegradable. There are nearly 20 fun colors to choose from. My daughter loves her Hopscotch nailpolish!

The Rescue Princesses book series is perfect for the animal-loving kid-- it's geared to the age 7+ set. Each book centers around the princesses on a mission to rescue animals who need help. This includes wounded tigers, snow leopards, baby pandas, lion cubs, dolphins, dog thieves, and trapped deer. So if young girls are going to be obsessed with princesses (sigh...my own), then they should be compassionate and kind to animals, and these princesses are!

FUR & FEATHERS BOARD GAME is an animal-friendly board game for kids.The object of the game is to save animals, and players do this through different methods. It's a fun game for the whole family, and it would make a wonderful present for that animal-loving veg kid in your life.

CYNTHIA KING BALLET SLIPPERS are beautiful! My daughter loves her pair. They're cruelty-free slippers made of canvas, and they come in 3 colors (fyi they have adult sizes too). They were even featured in Vogue magazine in Natalie Portman's cover shoot! Get a pair for the vegan dancers in your life.

Charlotte's Web is a classic movie that every kid should see. It's about a little pig who escapes his destiny as a meal, and befriends the other barnyard critters including Charlotte the spider. It's a really sweet movie with a powerful message. There are so many other great animal-friendly films including Chicken Run, Babe, Finding Nemo, Open Season, and the brand-new movie just recently in theaters, Free Birds. Check out this list for more.

CRAZY RUMORS LIP BALM is a perfect stocking stuffer. It's a natural, vegan lip balm that comes in fun flavors including banana split, orange creamsicle, gingerbread, pistachio, bubble gum, orange juice and may more unique flavors. My daughter loves her raspberry sherbet balm!

Kidlicious cookbook for kids. This all plant-based cookbook has recipes that kids (and parents) will love. The book includes color photos and recipes that are healthy, fun, creative and easy to follow. Just to name a few: zebra pizza, monkey pancakes, refrigerator pickles, salad on a stick and apple nachos! Pair this cookbook with a kid's cooking tool kit to get your kids excited about getting in the kitchen to make healthy food together.

LUSH BATH BOMBS are so much fun for bathtime. Throw them in the tub, and watch them fizz as the water changes color. They come in many colors and scents. When they're finished "melting" in the water, some leave behind special surprises such as glitter, dried flowers or silver bells. It makes bathtime extra fun for kids.

VEGAN KID NECKLACE is a sweet gift that represents compassion. Kids should be proud to wear this. It's a reminder that their lifestyle is based on love and respect for all animals. It's a symbol of kindness.

THE LITTLE VEGAN GINGERBREAD HOUSE KIT is a must have for the holidays. If you don't have time to make a vegan gingerbread from scratch this year, order one of these kits from Etsy. The kit includes everything you need to assemble the house including the vegan candy and icing. What a great idea, and of course kids will love making it!

100% PURE YUMMY ICE CREAM GIFT SETS come with bubble bath, body lotion, and body wash/shampoo. They come in 3 different flavors: strawberry, vanilla and mint-chocolate chip. The ingredients are all vegan, natural and food-based and don't contain any synthetic chemicals, harsh detergents, artificial fragrances, chemical preservatives or any other toxins.This makes a really nice gift, it's definitely on my list.

I hope these suggestions are helpful, and I hope the vegan child in your life loves whatever you choose!

Have a very happy and peaceful holiday and a wonderful new year!

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Peppermint-Flavored Vegan Christmas Cookies

12/19/2011

1 Comment

Want to make traditional vegan christmas cookies? Check out this recipe below for roll-and-cut sugar cookies from "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar." They are fun to make and taste delicious!

Charlotte and her cousin, Pike spent a cold, December evening all cozy inside making Christmas cookies with Grandma and Grandpa. Flour dusting the kitchen floor (and the kids' hair and clothes!), Charlotte cramming chunks of batter in her mouth at record speed, Pearl the dog licking the table, sugar sprinkles flying through the air, and elbows pushing one another to get to the cookies. Complete chaos! But in the end we had some very happy kids and a delicious batch of peppermint-flavored cookies to show for it! And that's what it's all about!

Flour-covered table

Roll-and-Cut Sugar Cookies
- Recipe from the book, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Ingredients:
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup margarine, slightly softened (like Earth Balance "butter" sticks)
1/2 cup nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract (you can also use almond, maple or any other flavor)
1/4 cup vanilla soymilk (or other non-dairy milk)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt and baking powder and set aside.

In a larger bowl, cream the shortening, margarine and sugar with electric beaters until the mixture gets all soft and fluffy, for at least 4 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure everything mixes in. Now beat in the vanilla and lemon (or other) extracts and the soymilk to combine. Beat in half the flour mixture until moistened, then carefully mix in the remaining flour mixture to form a soft dough.

Divide the dough into two discs about 1 inch thick. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and chill for several hours or overnight.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly flour a large, clean work surface. Roll the dough to a 3/8in. thickness and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. If the dough seems too stiff to roll or cracks too much, let it rest at room temperature for 10min, then try rolling again.

Bake 8-10 minutes or until the cookies have just started to turn golden brown around the edges.

Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for five minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies depending on the size of your cookie cutters.

Peppermint-flavored Icing:
- from Vegetarian Times

3 cups confectioners' sugar
3 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. vanilla soymilk
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract

Mix all together and decorate with sparkling sugar or sprinkles.

I especially liked the peppermint extract in the icing-- it really gave the cookies a seasonal flavor. They tasted like candy cane cookies!

ENJOY!

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How to Make a Vegan Gingerbread House

12/8/2011

3 Comments

Josh Latham poured his heart and soul into creating a completely vegan gingerbread house. After 3 months of trial and error (including finding a secret food ingredient that works like cement to hold the house together!), he created an ebook filled with recipes, directions and patterns for the most unique, amazing vegan gingerbread houses! Find out how to create a traditional Granny house, cottage, chalet, mansion, mountain retreat and more....and a very special gingerbread house designed just for RaisingVegKids.com readers!

Guest post by Josh Latham, creator or MyVeganCookbook.com
Hi, my name is Josh Latham. I run a vegan recipe website called My Vegan Cookbook. My twin brother and I became vegetarian at age 11. We were both pretty finicky eaters before this decision. I always thought that meat was gross and sort of pushed it around my plate. But there was one incident in particular that really changed me. My mom had me help her prepare a chicken for dinner. She wanted me to pull the skin off the chicken for her while she chopped vegetables. I took a knife and started to trim the skin but my hands froze. I was suddenly struck with the realization that this used to be a living and breathing creature. I studied the chicken and felt a deep sadness and empathy for him. It was then and there that I woke up. I could no longer deny what meat was. Along the way, I had a few set backs to becoming vegetarian, and my mom thought I was just going through a phase, but after a year she realized she was going to have to start cooking vegetarian meals or else it would just get tossed out. It wasn't until I read The China Study in 2006 that I realized I wasn't doing myself or animals any favors by drinking cow's milk, and eating cheese and eggs. And so I began the year long, slow transition to complete vegan.

Geek Boy Gingerbread House

I was excited to be invited as a guest blogger on this blog because I am a kid at heart. My wheels started turning immediately as to what special gingerbread house I could create that would appeal to kids and young adults. I love all things geek, gingerbread and Kawaii, so I decided to combine all three. And so was born the Geek Boy Gingerbread House!

His eyes are open wide inside his thick glasses. The expression on his mouth is agape and his arms are flailing. Looks like he got that special tech gadget that he asked Santa for! Geek boy's look is finished off with a plaid pattern on his roof and a red bow tie.

To make this gingerbread house you first need to read through my free Vegan Gingerbread Houses ebook. This will give you a better understanding of the materials and recipes needed to construct a gingerbread house. You will find all the basics here, as well as other designs for houses in case you want to choose another style. There's a house for everyone's taste (pun intended) in there!

Download the pattern and instructions for the Geek Boy Gingerbread House.

If making a real gingerbread house is too much work, you can make one out of paper. Download, print, color with markers or crayons, and assemble the model of the Geek Boy Gingerbread House here.

Note from RaisingVegKids.com
After finding Josh's website online, I knew instantly that I had to make one of his gingerbread houses with my daughter, Charlotte. The photos of the houses in his ebook are all beautiful so it was very hard to choose, but I finally decided on Granny's House because it was clean and classic. Charlotte is only 15 months old, so I naturally did the bulk of the work, but she had fun mixing the ingredients....

......and a great time decorating the house with her friend, Linda.

About half way into the decorating, Charlotte realized that you could actually eat the candy! So that was the end of that...

After we finished decorating (and eating) the house, Charlotte stepped up onto her chair and admired her masterpiece from afar! I think she was happy with how it turned out!

Josh's step-by-step directions and recipes were organized, and easy to follow. He worked hard and put many hours into this project, and it shows. So if you are looking for a gingerbread house to make for the holidays, look no further. It's all right here.

A BIG thank you to Josh for sharing his genius project and for helping to make the world a kinder place one gingerbread house at a time.

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Gift Guide for Vegan Kids- 2014

2014 Gift Guide for Vegan Kids

Peppermint-Flavored Vegan Christmas Cookies

How to Make a Vegan Gingerbread House

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