Notes for January 29

Veg Club Minutes from January 29, 2013

Business

1.) Vegetarian/Vegan Co-Op Research Results

• As part one of the project of trying to start a vegetarian/vegan co-op at Bowling Green each member looked into one of several existing programs at other schools or programs (Hiram College, University of Washington, Oberlin and the Co-Fed organization) and reported their findings to the club this week
• After some discussion of the various models we achieved agreement on wanting to develop a student run/cooperatively owned (non-profit?) business that would be open to all members of the Bowling Green community.
• It was also decided that, given the scale of the project, we would do well to try to involve other organizations that might have the interest in and resources to help with this project (e.g. Net Impact).

2. Monthly Events
    

• It was decided that we would like to have one special event each month, in addition to our monthly eat together
• It was also proposed that we endeavor to have one bake-sale per month, as our bake-sales have been fairly successful. We are, however, hoping to increase our variety of offerings at future bake-sales. For example, we are planning to have a pancake bake-sale.
• Special Events discussed included:
  - Participating in the Eco Fair in April (we had also wanted to bring a speaker to campus and it was proposed that we have the speaker come as part of our Eco Fair event)
  -Cooking classes: though no month was proposed, we are considering taking cooking classes
  -Documentary showing: we are probably going to screen Forks Over Knives
  -Sasha (Sanctuary and Safe Haven for Animals) Farm: we are planning to collaborate with Save in a trip this semester to Sasha Farm in order to do volunteer work for them.

Ann Arbor Adventure

This morning/afternoon, Veg Club took a trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan to enjoy a veg-friendly atmosphere and each other's company.  It's about an hour and a half drive from Bowling Green to Ann Arbor, and we had just enough seats to fill one vehicle, plus some extra driving time for directional confusion. By the time we arrived in Ann Arbor, we were fair hungry and closed in on our planned destination for lunch: Jazzy Veggie.

Jazzy Veggie is an entirely vegan cafe in downtown Ann Arbor, and we managed to arrived just as they were opening for the day.  Everyone had a phenomenal eating experience, with menu choices ranging from the sweet potato quinoa burger to the muffaletta to the ol' western sub to the jus' veggies sandwich. There was much appraisal of the coleslaw and plantain chips as well, and the servers were quite friendly and helpful.

The next stop on our expedition was The People's Food Co-op. Veg Club has a history of visiting the co-op when we visit Ann Arbor as members appreciate the values behind a cooperative business model and approve of the co-op's efforts to sell local food.  Some pleasing finds included vegan chocolate, locally produced sugar and flour, and bulk nutritional yeast flakes.

Finally, we journeyed to Whole Foods.  Veg Club appreciates the variety of products available to us here that are sometimes hard to find in the smaller town of Bowling Green.  At least one member enthusiastically carried out their shopping for the week, exalting in a franchise dedicated to supplying specifically nutritious, ethically produced food.  All in all, we considered the whole journey quite successful, full of delightful conversation and delicious food.

No Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Oat Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 c vegan margarine
2 c sugar (white or brown)
1/2 c nondairy milk (we use almond)
4 tbs cocoa powder
1/2 c creamy peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 c quick cooking oats

Instructions:

Line cookie sheet with wax or parchment paper.

In a large pot, bring margarine, sugar, and cocoa to a boil stirring constantly. Let boil for 1-2 minutes, until mixture is completely melted. Do not boil over.

Take mixture off heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla until completely melted. Then stir in the oats.

Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto the prepared cookie sheet and allow it to cool. When cool, turn cookies over to dry the bottoms.

Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

Peppermint Fudge Balls

The peppermint fudge balls are an original recipe from Miriam.  Here's roughly how they were made:

Ingredients:

1 c + 1tbs of coconut oil
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1 tbs flax seed
2 tbs water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 c flour
1/2 c + 2 tbs cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
~1/4 c broken peppermint candy

Instructions

Cream the oil, sugars, flax seed, water, and vanilla together.  Add the rest of the ingredients EXCEPT for the peppermint a little bit at a time, using the hand mixer to blend.  (You could mix the dry ingredients together first, but I don't see any reason to bother) Once everything is well mixed, roll the chocolate mixture into balls and roll them in the peppermint candy.  Eat them!!

Vegan Puppy Chow

The puppy chow recipe from our bake sale was borrowed from PETA's website.  Here it is:

1 c semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips
1/2 c creamy peanut butter
1/4 c vegan margarine
9 c rice cereal squares
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c powdered sugar

Combine the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and vegan margarine in a microwave-safe bowl and heat for about 1 minute, or until melted. Add vanilla.

Place the cereal squares in a large container and pour in the chocolate mixture. Stir gently until all the squares are coated.

Add the powdered sugar to the container and seal with a lid. Shake gently until the sugar has coated all the squares.

Place in the freezer for 30 minutes, or until the chocolate hardens. Once solidified, store in the refrigerator. (We totally ignored this entire step).

Doom Fudge Brownies

This recipe is a staple of veg club bake sales, recommended by a friend of a current member in 2009.  The recipe giver warned against altering her recipes (taking no responsibility for repercussions) but this recipe has since been tried substituting cocoa powder with carob powder (when one of our members was unable to eat chocolate) and white flour with whole wheat pastry flour.  At the most recent bake sale, the recipe was followed exactly. Without further ado, the original text:

Ingredients:

●      2 cups all-purpose white flour

●      2 cups sugar

●      1 cup cocoa

●      1 teaspoon baking powder

●      1 1/4 teaspoons salt

●      1 cup water

●      1 1/4 cups oil, preferably melted coconut or palm oil, but vegetable oil is fine

●      1 tablespoon vanilla

●      1 egg worth or your favorite egg replacer (I like ground flax seeds and water)

Directions:

●      Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9x13 cake pan.

●      Mix all the dry stuff.

●      Add all the wet stuff.  Mix well.

●      Eat a spoonful of raw batter because you can.

●      Pour batter into pan.  Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes out a little gooey.  DO NOT OVERBAKE. If the toothpick comes out clean, it's too late.

Meeting Notes for Jan 22

Events

1. An-Arbor Trip This Sunday:
   - We will be leaving at 10:00 AM from the Student Union Starbucks for An-Arbor, Michigan, to partake of the city's fine vegetarian and vegan cousin and shopping opportunities (Notably, we are thinking of going to either or both the People's Food Co-Op and Whole Foods for groceries, followed by lunch at The Jazzy Veggie).
   -We should be back in BG by 4:30 PM.

Business

1. Bake Sale:
   - We made ~ $38 at this week's bake sale, which we considered a successful event
   - Profits were tempered a little more because we had been in debt $9 because of a mistake about how much money was in our club account
2. Get Involved Fair
   -We had significantly fewer people interested at this week's Get Involved Fair, though this is probably largely a function of the fact that attendance was generally unusually low at the fair.
   - That said, we warmly welcome all to our meetings (Tuesdays at 9:00 PM in Olscamp 206).
3. Dining Advisory Board Meeting—many things were discussed at the last dining advisory board meeting; here are some of the highlights:
   - One of the focuses of the meeting was on The Sweet Shop. At the advisory board meeting, Holly noted that we would like to see more vegan sweets.
   - The university is considering new commuter meal plans.
4. Starting a Vegetarian/Vegan Food Co-Op on campus
   - Though it would obviously take a lot of work, Miriam's proposal of trying to start a vegetarian/vegan food co-op on campus was met with unanimous support.
   - As part of our initial planning, we are getting in contact with and researching schools that already have such food co-ops for inspiration and tips on how to get started.
5. Surveys
   - We would like to return the campus dining experience surveys at next week's meeting. If you are participating in the survey please remember to finish your visits before then.
6. Other ideas for the semester:
   - Though nothing concrete was decided, we briefly discussed what other events we might want to plan for this semester. Ideas included: another documentary screening, taking a cooking class together, Pay per view info videos/ other collaborative work with Mercy For Animals, pamphleting, and bringing in a guest speaker (likely a task to be approached in collaboration with other campus organizations). 

Notes for January 15

Here are the minutes from this week's Veg-Club meeting (Tuesday, January 15, 2013).

Upcoming Events:

1.) Bake Sale: we will be having a bake sale Friday 18th of January from 11:00-3:00 PM in the Student Union. Food will be prepared Thursday evening; comment ASAP if you're interested in joining us for the food prep or the sale itself.

2.) An-Arbor trip: we will be visiting An-Arbor, Michigan January 27 for lunch and to partake of the city's excellent veggie shopping options. Specific times to be sent later.

Other News:

1.) New treasurer: Kate has been elected as our new treasurer; congratulations and best wishes, Kate! 

We also discussed an email from students concerned about the treatment of fiddler crabs at Walmart and whether or not we could/should do anything about it.  Our homework for the next meeting is to do some research on fiddler crab well being and how these kinds of stores treat their animals. Come to our next meeting with insights, or comment here, or email us at bgsuvegclub@gmail.com!

Next week we will also discuss further plans for the semester. If there is something you would like to see us do, again, please come to the meeting or comment or email us!

Reminder:

Don't forget to fill out our surveys for Dining Services! Let us know if you'd like a copy!

Soft Pretzels

Miriam made soft pretzels for the meeting, using this recipe from the website, Cook Eat Delicious! Instead of white flour, she used chapati flour (Indian whole wheat flour). You could also make these with half white four and half wheat flour.  The recipe halves well too, if you don't want 12 pretzels.

Homemade Soft Mall Pretzels

Author: CookEatDelicious.com

Recipe type: Appetizer

Prep time:  1 hour 30 mins

Cook time:  9 mins

Total time:  1 hour 39 mins

Yields: 12 pretzels

 

This is a Vegan Recipe! Serve with mustard.

Ingredients

• 6 tsp yeast
• 2 tsp white sugar
• 1¼ cups warm water
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup white sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup baking soda
• 4 cups hot water
• Kosher Salt for topping

Instructions

1. In a small bowl combine yeast, 2 tsp white sugar, and warm water.
2. Let stand for 10 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, combine 3½ cups flour, ½ cup sugar, and 2 tsp salt.
4. Add in oil and yeast mixture.
5. Mix to form a dough ball and knead in ½ cup of flour.
6. Knead until dough is elastic and smooth, 8 minutes.
7. Lightly oil a large bowl and place dough ball inside and cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
8. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
9. Bring water to a light boil.
10. Dissolve baking soda in hot water and remove from heat.
11. Divide dough into 12 pieces.
12. Roll out each piece into a rope and twist into pretzel shape.
13. Dip each pretzel into baking soda water and place on a greased baking sheet.
14. Sprinkle with salt.
15. Bake for 9 minutes.
16. Cool on a wire rack.

Meeting Notes for January 8

January Events:

1. An-Arbor Trip: we are tentatively planning to visit An-Arbor, Michigan on January 27 for lunch and shopping. Let us know if you have ideas for activities!
2. Get Involved Fair: the Get Involved Fair is January 22 from 11:00-3:00 PM and we would like volunteers to staff our table there. We will plan for the fair at greater length next week.
3. Bake Sale: we are planning to have a bake sale January 18, details to be worked out later.

Dining Services Updates

1. Dining Services has asked us to fill out monthly surveys about our experiences with campus dining. Holly designed the requisite survey and each member was given a copy of the survey for this month. The survey requires dining at Kreischer, The Oaks and Carillon Place once per month. Email us (bgsuvegclub@gmail.com) if you weren't at the meeting and would like to complete the survey!

Constitutional Amendments

1. A constitutional amendment to our mission statement so as to modify it to acknowledge those who want to eliminate all animal products from their diets/lives (vegans) was passed with unanimous support. The previous language referred only to meat.

New Semester!

It's a new year and Veg Club's resolution is to update the blog more regularly! The most important meeting not blogged included the results of our officer election for 2013.  Veg Club elects officers to serve for two semesters, starting in the spring.  Our new president is Holly, our new treasurer is Steph, and Scott remains secretary.

We will be having our next meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) at 9:00pm in Olscamp room 206.  Come join us and help us start a great new semester!