Tag Archives: giveaway

Made in Nature Review & Giveaway!

Welcome to the relaunch of Turning Veganese! We are celebrating by trying out fantastic products from Made in Nature that will please both vegans and non-vegans. My discovery of Made in Nature came at a perfect time: I’ve been working really hard to eat more cleanly along with exercising regularly. One of my favorite snacks is dried apricots, and Made in Nature has these and much, much more for anyone who wants a healthy and natural snack.

Made in Nature selects the freshest, finest organic fruit, picks them at their culinary peek, and dries them to pure perfection to capture all of the flavor you crave. How do we do it? We work with the most dedicated family of farmers to grow the best tasting, organic fruit on the planet to guarantee true ‘taste of place.’

Made in Nature

Made in Nature has products from dried fruit to pizza to fresh produce. We were lucky to have the chance to try out their dried bananas, pineapples and apricots (my favorite!) as well as two products from their new line of healthy snacks! So, how are they different from anyone else? Here’s a list:

  • All their products are organic
  • NO sugar added
  • NO sulfur-dioxide
  • NO artificial color or additives
  • NO artificial fertilizers or pesticides
  • NO gluten or nuts
  • NO GMOs

I had my best taste testers assist me. I’ll admit that I was worried: these kids love their sweets. But they also love fruit and were game to try everything!

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Juliana was most interested in trying out the bananas. Now, I’ll admit that we was a little shocked when I opened the bag to find dark, dried banana pieces. I was expecting something that looked more like a banana chip but these were dark brown and chewy. Juju immediately put a whole piece in her mouth. “Interesting… mmmm, this is delicious!” I agree with my niece’s assessment. For any Filipinos out there, the taste and smell of this reminds me of turón!

Made in Nature

Jocelyn is a girl after my own heart, so she wanted to try the apricots. Again, these are much darker than a conventional dried apricot, but she did not hesitate at all in trying a piece (or 3). “These are really good!” I agree and can guarantee that the rest of the bag will go quick.

Made in Nature Dried Fruits

I tried a taste of the pineapple. Like the others, I really enjoyed the pineapple and especially enjoyed how much healthier it is than dried pineapple you’ll find anywhere else.

Finally, we all tried out the Fruit Fusion snacks. We sampled the Antioxidant Fusion and the Tropical Fusion.

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The Antioxidant Fusion consists of cherries, blueberries, cranberries, raisins, goji berries and pepitas. Yum!!! It’s hard to believe that there is no sugar added to this mix. Same goes for the Tropical Fusion: bananas, pineapples, mangoes, coconuts, ginger and cacao nibs. I’ll state right now that cacao has definitely been an acquired taste for me, but this mix is tasty and beautiful. Both snacks hit the spot in terms of satisfying that mid-afternoon craving. The best part is that I don’t feel one bit guilty about it!

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Do you want to try Made in Nature products? Duh. Of course you do! And thanks to the generosity of Made in Nature, you have the chance to win Made in Nature prizes. Be sure to read the rules of this giveaway carefully:

  1. Follow us on Twitter @turningvegan or on Instagram @turningveganese.
  2. To enter on Twitter, tweet about your healthy favorite snack and mention @turningvegan and @madeinnature and include #vegantvsnack.
  3. To enter on Instagram, post a photo of your favorite healthy vegan snack and mention @turningveganese and @madeinnature and include #vegantvsnack.

You MUST include both mentions and the hash tag in order to be eligible. You can enter on both sites to double your chances! The giveaway will close on Sunday, July 27 at 11:59pm Central Time and winners will be announced on Monday, July 28. P.S. By mentioning us, you are giving us permission to retweet or regram your photos. Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

I hope you like the new (and improved, in my opinion) Turning Veganese! –Melissa

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TofuXpress Winner!

We are super pleased to announce the winner of our TofuXpress giveaway. Congratulations to Lorena!! Lorena has won the wonderful TofuXpress as well as a chance to guest blog on Turning Veganese. We’re pretty excited to find out what she makes with her fancy new gadget.

Here’s a line-up of some things we have made with the help of a TofuXpress:

Brent’s Marinated Tofu

Pesto Tofu

A Different Kind of Tofu Scramble

Big thanks to everyone who entered. If you don’t have a TofuXpress and eat a lot of tofu, you gotta get one! Trust us… it will change your life! –Melissa

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Giveaway Extravaganza!

Today on Turning Veganese, we are announcing our final giveaway winner of a Bubble & Bee Lotion Stick. And the winner is… justaudrey! Wooooot! Congratulations!! Thanks to everyone who entered!

Don’t forget to enter our TofuXpress giveaway! To enter, you will need to do at least TWO of the following:

Then, e-mail us at turningveganese@gmail.com and tell us what you will make with your TofuXpress if you win it. The winner will be chosen randomly and will be invited to write a post for us about your TofuXpress experience! We will accept entries through December 31st. The TofuXpress giveaway is open only to residents in the U.S. or Canada.

Get those entries in! –Melissa

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Spotted Dog & Our First December Giveaway Winner!

I was in North Carolina this past weekend and my cousins took me to an awesome vegan-friendly restaurant called The Spotted Dog. The Spotted Dog is located in Carrboro, which was very clearly a health-conscious town. I was so excited to eat my vegan crab cake sandwich that I forgot to take a photo, but it was tasty and splendid. Two non-vegans also got the vegan crab cake sandwich and loved it! I hope I can go back there again.

I would have loved to spend more time in Carrboro. I was hoping to get coffee from a local spot while I was away from home and The Open Eye Cafe did not disappoint with their soy au lait. I was a little disappointed, though, because they didn’t have any vegan treats while I was there. No problem — we walked about a block to Weaver Street Market and got vegan cookies and muffins which were so yummy. (Sorry, no pic of these, either!)

And now… onto some exciting stuff. We have randomly picked the first winner in our December giveaway! This week’s winner of a Bubble & Bee Lotion Stick is Erica Wollman! Yay, Erica! Everyone, check out Erica’s blog and be sure to enter our giveaway. You still have 3 chances to win a lotion stick and can also enter to win a TofuXpress.

Woohoo! Free stuff!!! –Melissa

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Crazy Easy Three Bean Chili and a Giveaway!

Three bean vegan chili is nothing to sneeze at when we make it. Before I talk about chili though, I’m going to tell you about Muir Glen – I’ve been using their organic canned tomatoes for years.

I grew up farming and tomatoes have a special place in my heart. In fact I’m a tomato snob. I usually turn my nose up at tomatoes in the supermarket and in restaurants because they’ve lost their flavor through refrigeration, artificial ripening techniques, and through selective breeding for other traits like improved shelf life. Subsequently I turn to canned varieties unless I can get good ones from my garden or from my farmer’s market. Muir Glen has a range of organic tomato products including their roasted diced tomatoes, tomato paste and regular diced tomatoes. Whatever they’re doing over there definitely makes a difference and this is a giveaway so you can see for yourself without spending your hard earned cash.

Back to chili. Tomatoes are important for chili recipes. I can’t imagine chili without them: they provide a crisp base and a source of important nutrients like lycopene and vitamin C. To begin we assembled the following:

1 onion, diced

1 jalapeño, minced

1 cube vegetable bouillon

1 tsp cumin

1 tbsp coriander

1 15oz. tin of pinto beans

1 15oz. tin of kidney beans

1 15oz. tin of black beans

1 15oz. tin of diced tomatoes

1 15oz. tin roasted diced tomatoes

1 cup TVP (use a 15oz. tin of pumpkin puree if you’re sensitive to soy or both if you want a mellower chili)

1 tsp flake red pepper (more if you like spicy food)

salt to taste

1 tsp olive oil

We sauteed the onion, jalapeño and spices and sauteed it in olive oil until the mixture was fragrant and steamy.

Then we added the tomatoes and heated them until it started to bubble.

Then I added the rest of the ingredients (don’t drain the liquid from the beans or tomatoes). I added both TVP and pumpkin. That’s just how I roll. After it was nice and hot, I adjusted the spices and served up topped with Daiya and some home made bread.

This is a flavorful chili that will fool a lot of meat eaters with how hearty it is. The roasted tomatoes add an additional depth of flavor that you can’t get just by adding liquid smoke. The textured vegetable protein will confuse a lot of vegans because it’s so meaty. It’s cholesterol-free, high in fiber and low in fat.
So now on to the giveaway. This is a promo by Muir Glen: they’re going to send you a 14.5 oz can Reserve Harvest Sunset Organic Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes, a 14.5 oz can Reserve Harvest Sunset Organic Diced Tomatoes, a 14.5 oz can Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies, a 14.5 oz can Muir Glen Organic No-Salt Added Diced Tomatoes and recipe booklet featuring a variety of recipes created by award-winning chefs from around the country. Of course you’ll only need the recipe book for using the other cans of tomatoes because you’ll want 2 of them for my recipe.

In order for me to select winners, all you have to do is the following:

1. like and follow our blog

2. like us on FaceBook

3. comment below on what you use tinned tomatoes for most often in your kitchen

Then I’ll ask each of the randomly selected winners (5 in total) to email us their mailing address before midnight Sunday, October 14. I’m excited to pass on some free products that I’ve been enjoying for years so that I can be sure I’m not crazy for liking Muir Glen.

This is Christie, signing off.

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Giveaway Winners and MOFO!

October is Vegan MOFO or Vegan Month Of FOod. It’s as exciting as it sounds.

This is a great way to find a whole bunch of blogs that you can add to your RSS feed and be bombarded with vegan goodies that will put the food television to shame and do you want to know why? The food programming on your cable channels routinely supports suffering of animals and unsustainable farming practices not to mention enough cholesterol to make your heart stop. Give Vegan MOFO a spin!

Okay, now I’ve gotten that out of my system… maybe… a little. On to the giveaway. We’ve got some winners and because there were only 5 entrants I couldn’t bring myself to leave anyone out. the Vegan Penny Pincher gets some screen, Somer of Good Clean Food and Veged Out fame get some screen, Lorena, tweeter and mom gets some screen, Bessie the faboo baker gets some screen and last but not least Catherine. If you email us at turningveganese@gmail.com with your mailing address, I’ll cut you some screen and mail it right to your hot little hands for some hot screen on sprouts action. The number of winners has nothing to do with the fact that I had to buy a whole 2×8 foot roll of screen just to get the 3 8×8 inch squares that I use regularly… nothing at all. Congratulations! Thank you SO much for participating.
This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Sprouts! … and a giveaway!!!

Sprouts are the freshest greens you can have in your house on a regular basis and for pennies. All you need is a jar, a rubber band, a piece of screen and some organic seeds for sprouting. I’m using mung beans (left) and a spicy sprouting mix (right) that I got from my local farmer’s market. You don’t need a lot, they get big fast. Place the screen over the mouth of the jar and wrap the rubber band around it to hold the screen in place.

Every day, at least once a day and preferably twice a day you’ll need to rinse the sprouts. To do this you’ll fill the jar with enough water to cover the spouts and empty it through the screen and into the sink. Do this 2-3 times. Don’t worry if they get stuck in the screen. They’ll be fine.

Somebody accidentally ate the spicy sprouts before she remembered she needed them for a photo opportunity but here are the mung beans below.

YUM! That tablespoon or so of mung beans made a whole jar of sprouts. Cheap, easy and delicious! This is actually a giveaway. When I bought the screen I had to buy a HUGE roll so I want to part with some. We need at least 30 entrants or September 30 (whichever comes first) and all you have to do is the following:

1. like and follow our blog

2. like us on FaceBook

3. comment below on what you favorite kind of sprouts are and your favorite way to eat them (mine is Mung bean sprouts in pad thai!)

Then I’ll ask each of the randomly selected winners (3 in total) to email us their address and I’ll send you 2 bright shiny pieces of screen for your own jar of sprouts! Thanks to Somer at Good Clean Food for the brilliant idea!

This is Christie, signing off!

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