Festive Dinner 2008

Once again we are holding a FESTIVE DINNER at Satisfaction Feast and, this year, our guest speaker is Savayda Jarone, prominent Nova Scotia herbalist, who will speak on herbalism and vegetarianism.

Where ? NEW LOCATION
3559 Robie Street (one block north of Lady Hammond)

When? December 6th Saturday

Time? 6:30 PM

What? A three course dinner including soup as the appetizer; vegetable tofu pot pie, mashed potatoes, with gravy and cranberry sauce as the main course; and a choice of their famous truffles, peanut butter balls or carob balls for dessert.
The dinner is vegan or vegan adaptable.

Cost? $16.00 OR $14.00 if you choose to order the main course with smaller portions.
Tea and coffee included. Other drinks are an additional cost as well as taxes and gratuity.

Satisfaction Feast is one of a growing number of restaurants and cafes in Halifax to give a discount to HAV members. The discount does not apply in this case, as Sarita, owner of Satisfaction Feast is already giving us special pricing on this dinner.

• Payment - cash, debit or credit card
  

There is limited seating, so reserve early for this festive vegetarian
fall dinner by emailing halifaxvegetarians@gmail.com.

Thanks!

the HAV team.

Wellness Expo a Success

Our booth at the Wellness Expo on Saturday and Sunday, October 18th and 19th, was busy. This was our third year at the show, and it enabled us to increase our visibility. We were able to answer a wide range of questions about vegetarianism and our association, in addition to increasing our membership.

We presented two vegetarian dinners for two at Tarek's Cafe as prizes again this year, thanks to the support of Tarek. He has been very supportive of the Halifax Association of Vegetarians and both of his cafes are in our discount program for members.

Our Veggie Taste Challege at Planet Organic having been the focus of the association in September, it has been some time since we have offered a dinner for the membership. Good news! We are planning our Annual Festive Dinner at the Satisfaction Feast for early December and will be back to you soon with the details.

Vegetarian Taste Challenge

The Halifax Association of Vegetarians and Planet Organic are working together to offer you the opportunity to taste a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan foods. We are calling this our vegetarian taste challenge, since most Nova Scotians eat only 12 - 15 recipes and repeat them every week. Ironically, the most common question asked of vegetarians is "what do you eat, if you don't eat meat?".

We are challenging you to taste some new foods, all vegetarian and most vegan. You will want to add some of these to your regular diet for better health, longer life, and especially because of the great taste.

There is no charge and members of the Halifax Association of Vegetarians (HAV) will be available for those who wish to learn more about vegetarian and vegan diets. Drop by at Planet Organic (upstairs) on Sunday, the 28th of September, between 2:00 and 5:00 PM.

Picnic Today

We hope that you received a notice of our picnic today as it's a great opportunity to enjoy some great veggie food and friendly company next to the ocean.

WHAT? A Saturday Picnic/Potluck
WHERE? Point Pleasant Park (by the lower Parking Lot)
WHEN? Saturday July 5th at 2pm

We look forward to sharing food, ideas, stories, recipes, and more.
All are welcome, so feel free to bring along your family and friends.

June Successes and July Picnic

Our Music and Pizza evening on Friday, June 13th was very successful, as we enjoyed the music and food provided by John Dalton of Big Life Whole Foods. The Muffin Bake Off, held on Saturday, June 21st, a shared event with The Grainery, Halifax's natural foods cooperative, was also enjoyable with six contestants supplying the delicious muffins. Yes, we are posting the recipes on our website with the next update.

Our summer plans include a picnic in July (subject to weather) and a dinner featuring the foods of Cumberland County, that will be held at the Art Gallery in Parrsboro on a Saturday in August. We will post more information on these events in an upcoming blog.

All of our members receive regular emails concerning our events, additions to our discount program and other benefits. If you have not yet joined, there is no better time. Enjoy the Nova Scotia summer and the great vegetarian food offered here, using your membership card for a discount makes it less expensive and identifies you as a vegetarian.

Music and Pizza Date Change

We have decided to move our Music and Pizza Dinner to Friday, June 13th at 6:30 pm (no, we are not superstitious), so note that date on your calendar and join us for the food and music noted in our previous blog.

Pizza and Music

This year we have enjoyed many firsts: a potluck with the Halifax Vegan Potluck Group, a dinner at Mexico Lindo and a brunch at the Turkish Delight. Our next event is another first for the association, as we are offering a catered dinner. Big Life Whole Foods, that are popular at the Halifax Farmers Market for their vegetarian baked goods, pizzas and soups will create food for the dinner to be held at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Halifax at 5500 Inglis Street on Friday, June 6th at 6:30 pm. As a year has passed since our first annual general meeting, we shall have a short (yes, it will be short) second annual general meeting. John Dalton, the owner of Big Life Whole Foods, will speak about his business and provide music for the evening.

The dinner will include a red lentil with organic vegetable soup; a garden salad featuring local and organic ingredients; a choice of four slices from the eight pizzas being offered that include pepper/black olive, zucchini/red onion/sun dried tomato, mushroom/roasted garlic/sun dried tomato, artichoke heart/sun dried tomato/black olive, pepper/mushroom/onion and three cheese; and finally apple crisp made with spelt flour and choice of coffee or tea.

The pizzas are made with either porridge/multigrain, spelt, or a mix of five gluten free flours and there are gluten free and vegan options. The cost for the dinner is $20.00 ($18.00 for members) and reservations are needed, so reserve soon as space is limited.

We have ambitious plans for the balance of 2008, including a dinner on a Saturday during the summer at a gallery in Parrsboro featuring Cumberland County ingredients; a dinner at the Wooden Monkey in the fall that will include Geordie Ouchterlony of Home Grown Organic Foods as our guest speaker; a dinner in Lunenburg County and a return to the Satisfaction Feast for our annual Festive Dinner. All of these, as well as our other events and discount program will include savings for members, so join or renew your membership by contacting us at halifaxvegetarians@gmail.com

Be kind to animals, don't eat them (The slogan for Vegetarian Journal)

Join us for brunch at Turkish Delight

Following our successful buffet dinner at Mexico Lindo, perhaps our most successful dinner to date, we are meeting for brunch at Turkish Delight (5680 Spring Garden Road), so mark 1:00 PM on Sunday May 4th on your calendar and make your reservation with our secretary as early as possible, since seating is limited to twenty-nine.
Unlike Mexico Lindo, where we were treated to a buffet of foods not on the menu, the Turkish Delight will give a 10% discount from the menu to members of our association and will then join our discount program, so that members can continue to enjoy the discount on return visits.
We have no guest speaker for the brunch, but ask that you bring your favourite cookbook or recipe to share with others. At our potlucks, you get a chance to sample some recipes, but this will give you a chance to take note of recipes that have worked for other Halifax vegetarians and vegans.

Sample the cuisine of Mexico on April 7th

Buenas dias
Winter lingers and all of us cannot go to Mexico, so we have arranged for a buffet of Mexican cuisine to be available for our members and their guests at Halifax's own Mexico Lindo restaurant, located at 3635 Dutch Village Road (across from the previous site of Halifax West High School). The dinner will be held on Monday, April 7, as Ana Jiminez-Jenkins ( the owner) is closed on Monday, so is free to create recipes for our buffet that are not normally available. Please mark this date on your calendar, come dressed in your Mexican attire (if you wish) and bring your favourite Mexican recipe to share with others. Ana has agreed to be our speaker, while we are enjoying coffee or tea. As this is a buffet, any remaining food will be available for members and guests, so be prepared by bringing a storage container. Reservations are required at halifaxvegitarians@gmail.com as space is limited.
Mexico Lindo buffet menu – Monday April 7, 2008 6:30 PM
* denotes vegan choices

*chips and salsa
*soup Tarasca (black bean soup with chipotle)
*cactus salad (pickled cactus, tomato, onion, jalapeno and cilantro)
*Tamales (corn flour dough filled with spinach and cheese, steam cooked in a corn husk)
Enchiladas (corn tortillas filled with green pepper and corn, topped with salsa and melted cheese)
*Mexican rice (rice fried in tomato salsa and corn)
Harvest salad (apples, pineapple, celery and pecans, topped with sour cream)
*Veggies in green salsa (carrots, zucchini, green beans, onions, tomato cooked in green salsa
Flan (Mexican style cream of caramel topped with goat milk carmel)
*Agua fresca (fresh fruit drink – flavour depends on the market) one 16 oz. serving included

price for each person $15.00 plus HST
coffee and/or tea additional $1.25

We look forward to seeing you there.
The HAV team

Successful Planning Meeting and Vegan Potluck

Our Directors meeting on Jan. 27th established our goals and aims for 2008. We held five dinners, two potlucks and two outreach events during 2007. In 2008 we plan to increase this to six dinners, six potlucks and six outreach events. The dinners may include locations outside the Halifax area (we discussed a Lunenburg County restaurant and have since had the suggestion of a Cumberland County dinner featuring foods from that area of Nova Scotia). The potlucks will offer variety and will again include a picnic. Events will vary from another appearance at the Wellness Show to an appearance at the Halifax Farmers Market.

We decided that more advance notice was needed and will attempt to put together a six month schedule. Directors Meetings will now be held at 2 PM. on the last Saturday of each month. The locations will be posted and members invited to attend.

Our first potluck of the year was held on Sunday, February 3rd in cooperation with the Halifax Vegan Potluck Group. It was very successful with a doubling of the normal attendance. Many of our Facebook group made their first appearance at a HAV sponsored event. We have added this excellent potluck to the events page on our website as it is held every second week and deserves support.

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2008, a year for adding new vegetarian recipes to your diet. To make this easier, we are planning a potluck in conjunction with the Dal Vegan Potluck Group, which will be held on Sunday, February 3rd at the Women's Centre (time and directions to follow). This will give you a chance to add new recipes and share your favourites. Please insure that they are vegan, so we can all enjoy them.

On Sunday January 27 (the Sunday prior to the potluck), the Board of Directors are meeting at 2pm at the Daily Grind on Spring Garden Road to discuss goals and plans for HAV. Members are encouraged to attend and to contribute to the discussion, as this will result in a stronger association. Hope to see some of you there!

Finally, Joe Mrkonjic, the owner of SeaLife Sea Plants, is working with the chef of a popular downtown Halifax restaurant to create a unique menu for a dinner that we will be enjoying in February. Joe will be our guest speaker at the dinner. I expect to announce the location, time and price of the dinner in my next posting.

Record Attendance at Festive Dinner

Our annual Festive Dinner held at the new Satisfaction Feast on Friday December 7th was our biggest dinner to date with thirty members and guests filling the restaurant. The food was impressive thanks to Sarita and her staff, who managed to satisfy everyone. The choice of larger or smaller servings is rarely given in restaurants today, but was offered to us and provided savings in cost and waste. With the Satisfaction Feast stressing local and organic when possible, the dinner was an environmental, as well as a vegetarian success.

Dr. Anne Houstoun spoke to us on the health benefits of a vegetarian diet. The fact that vegetarians live longer healthier lives was documented in the Public Policy Statement of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada Position on Vegetarian Diets. This report and a Vegetarian food guide rainbow was provided to each of us by Dr. Houstoun. We are in her debt for this report, as well as the time she gave us for her thoughtful presentation and individual discussions. If you missed the dinner, but would like to receive this printed information, please request it from our secretary.

I found it interesting that the policy statement indicated that 2.5% of adults in the USA and 4% of adults in Canada follow vegetarian diets. If this is the average for all of Canada, the average in Halifax would be much higher. Our current membership of just over fifty has considerable potential for growth.

We will be back to you in January with our 2008 events including a January dinner. In the meantime, use your membership cards over the holiday for discounts at the restaurants, cafes and other businesses in our discount program.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Annual Festive Dinner

It's Dinner Time at HAV !

Once again we are holding a FESTIVE DINNER at
Satisfaction Feast and, this year, our guest speaker is
Dr. Anne Houstoun, who will speak on the health benefits
of being a vegetarian.


Where ? NEW LOCATION
3559 Robie Street (one block north of Lady Hammond)

When? December 7th 2007

Time? 6:30 PM

What? A three course dinner including soup as the appetizer;
vegetable tofu pot pie, mashed potatoes, with gravy and
cranberry sauce as the main course; and a choice of their
famous truffles, peanut butter balls or carob balls for dessert.
The dinner is vegan or vegan adaptable.

Cost? $15.00 OR $13.00 if you choose to order the main course with
smaller portions.
Tea and coffee included. Other drinks are an additional cost as well
as taxes and gratuity.


Satisfaction Feast is one of a growing number of restaurants and cafes
in Halifax to give a 10% discount to HAV members.
The discount does not apply in this case, as the Satisfaction Feast
is already giving us special pricing on this dinner.

• Payment must be made with cash or debit

There is limited seating, so reserve early for this festive vegetarian
fall dinner by emailing halifaxvegetarians@gmail.com.

Thanks!

the HAV team.

September and October Review

Wellness Expo
Our attendance at the Wellness Expo (previously NS Good Health Show) was the highlight of our fall activities. For a second year, Shivaraj and Kundalini (the owners of the show) made our booth possible by supporting our association. This enabled us to increase our membership and raise the profile of vegetarianism.
The show was held on the weekend of October 19-21 and attracted thousands of health conscious Maritimers. For a second year, thanks to Tarek, we awarded two dinners for two at Tarek's to visitors to our booth that entered our draw. In addition, thanks to Robert Webber, Director of the Yoga Loft, we awarded five yoga classes at the Yoga Loft to another lucky booth visitor.

Website
We launched our new website in May, but as our webmaster soon moved to Toronto, the site sat idle and in need of updating for several months. After posting a request on kijiji, we found two webmasters that are now sharing the responsibility. David Kristof, a Halifax native, and Sudhanshu Singh, a native of India that comes to us via Saskatchewan. Sudhanshu is a lifelong vegetarian. Both have now joined as directors of our association. The recommended restaurants with photos and maps, and an interactive element to our site are the first of many changes that will make the site essential viewing for the thousands of vegetarians living in Nova Scotia or visiting our area.

Membership and Discount Program
We now have a laminating machine, thanks to our treasurer, Jesslyn Fowlie, which enables us to provide laminated membership cards. This is increasingly necessary, as our discount program for members continues to expand to more veg-friendly restaurants (and other shops and services) in the Halifax area and across Nova Scotia.

Update

Over the next few days we will be updating this blog, and including the activities that have taken place, since Jessica (our secretary that created this blog) left on her travels. We'll also be adding information on our upcoming events, such as the upcoming festive dinner at the Satisfaction Feast's new location on Robie Street, and recent developments regarding our website and discount program.

Mid-East Food Centre Dinner

~~ Action Packed August ~~



Thank-you to all who made it out for the PICNIC/POTLUCK event this past Sunday at Point Pleasant Park! The weather was just perfect and the food was fabulous. I'm always amazed when there are never two of the same dishes!

Although it may seem like we are hosting two August events, in fact, the Picnic was held over from July! So, mark your calendars once again because on August 17th look forward to a devine dinner at the Mid-East Food Centre! A year ago to date we held the same event and it proved to be the most popular thus far! Even more popular than our Pyramid Cafe Brunch!

The Mid-East Food Centre has welcomed us back and we're hoping for repeat success! With an expanded dining area, maybe this will be our biggest event yet! The price is UNBEATABLE, the quality is EXCEPTIONAL, and the atmosphere is INVITING! Don't miss out!!! Furthermore, Mid-East has agreed to offer the same menu choices as last year, making it a nostalgic treat for those who were there and a new memory for those who weren't!



______________________________
_________________MENU__________________

Choose any 4 items for $8.00 per person!
- NO TAX -


1. Grape leaves (rice, oil, spices)
2. Mjadra (lentil, rice, onion)
3. Binjani Rice (Basmati rice, yogurt, eggplant, potato, onion, tomato, spices)
4. Tabouli Salad (Italian parsley, tomato, onion, cracked wheat, oil, spices)
5. Hummus (chick pea, salt, garlic, tahini)
6. Vegetarian Samosa {hot} (stuffing of potato, peas, spices)
7. Cracked wheat with tomato and onion


*Please note drinks are of extra cost and the restaurant is not licenced for alcoholic beverages.
** Also, CASH ONLY. Neither credit card or debit will be accepted.

___________________________________________________________
[I've made my 4 choices ... and I bet your deciding yours right now!]



What's more is you can also anticipate an informative talk by a guest speaker from the Ecology Action Centre's Food Miles Committee who will be speaking on the ecological benefits of vegetarianism!!!

Simply reply to this email to reserve your spot for this exciting event as it will only go ahead if reservations are received.

As always, feel free to email with any questions, concerns, or comments!



For now,

Cheers and Happy Eating,
the HAV team

Picnic/Potluck TOMORROW!

Join us as Point Pleasant Park Tomorrow at 1pm for a fun PICNIC/POTLUCK!

The event, originally scheduled for last Sunday has be rescheduled for TOMORROW, SUNDAY, AUGUST 5th!

Please join us - we look forward to seeing you there!

For more information see previous posts or email halifaxvegetarians@gmail.com

___________________________________________________________

Postponed Picnic/Potluck

Hello Veggie Friends!

Regretfully, due to weather, we have made the decision to postpone the Picnic/Potluck event planned for today at Point Pleasant Park. I apologize for the short notice and anticipate seeing each of you on our alternative date, Sunday, August 4th with picnic dishes in hand!

Until then,

Cheers and Happy Eating,
t h e HAV t e a m

SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS OR EMAIL halifaxvegetarians@gmail.com

PICNIC/POTLUCK

PICNIC & POTLUCK
-TWO IN ONE EVENT-



WHAT? A Sunday Brunch Picnic/Potluck
WHERE? Point Pleasant Park (by the lower Parking Lot)
WHEN? This Sunday - July 29th at 1pm
DETAILS? Plates,cutlery and cups made from recycled paper will be
available for those who do not bring their own.



Along with many others, HAV has been anticipating this fun filled event! We look forward to sharing food, ideas, stories, recipes, and more with you, your families, friends, and maybe even your dog?!?!

What if rain spoils our plans?! No problem, we'll just hold the same event at the same time on the following Sunday, August 5th.

We apologize for the late notice. Have you any questions, please feel free to email halifaxvegetarians@gmail.com

We look forward to this great opportunity to enjoy fresh veggie food and friendly company by the ocean's breeze and the sun's warmth.


Until Sunday,


Cheers and Happy Eating,
t h e HAV t e a m

Announcements!!!

Our last event on Sunday, June 24th, 2007 at the PaperChase Cafe was another great success!


The PaperChase provided us with a DELICIOUS specialty menu offering a wide selection of vegan food (minus the carrot cake!) all at AMAZING prices. I didn't hear a single complaint! A special thank-you to everyone who came out! For those of you who couldn't attend - we look forward to seeing you at next month's event - a PICNIC/POTLUCK!!! This will be a great event to get out and enjoy the nice weather while endulging in delicious vegetarian foods and good company!

Also, we have an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT concerning HAV's membership rates. It has very recently been decided that the current yearly membership rates are increasing as of August 1st, 2007 due to the membership cards doubling as a Discount Cards.

- Student/Senior: from $5 to $15
- Individual: from $10 to $20
- Family: from $15 to $25

Therefore, this is a prime time to become a HAV member!

We have other things under works, so keep checking back for updates and details about the Discount Card and Events!!!

until then,
Cheers and Happy Eating!
t h e HAVt e a m