Of Long Lost Vegan Cookzines ...

Back in my early vegan days, I only owned a handful of formal vegan cookbooks. There was How It All Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tonya Barnard, Robin Robertson's Vegan Planet, The Vegan Sourcebook by Joanne Stepaniak, and a few other oldies-but-goodies. Plus, I had a few vegetarian cookbooks that I used to veganize recipes.

But most of my recipe ideas came from vegan cookzines back then. Among my faves were The Cheap Vegan (my first vegan cookzine, a compendium of affordable vegan recipes including an old-school seitan recipe using only whole wheat flour and water ... yep, no vital wheat gluten ... we're talking old, old-school seitan) and a teensy-tiny little old thing called Rabbit Fodder Addict. Both were written by vegan zinester Stephanie Scarborough.

Rabbit Fodder Addict was no bigger than the palm of your hand, and it contained about 15 or 20 easy-as-vegan-pie recipes. I've probably made everything in there. The Rabbit Fodder Addict zines were part of a series put out by Portland's Microcosm Publishing, but I only had one. I think it was #3 but I can't be too sure. I recently remembered this beloved little handmade book and went searching for it on my cookbook shelf. My collection of cookbooks has grown to nearly 200, and all those giant, colorful, professionally published volumes must have completely swallowed up my tiny Rabbit Fodder zine. It's nowhere to be found. Most likely, it's stuffed in the pages of a bigger book, possibly swallowed up for an eternity. Sadness.

Thankfully, I do remember my favorite recipe from the book. I was recently reminded of it when trying to think of some old breakfast standards from my early vegan days. It's really been years since I've had this Tofu Bagel Breakfast Sandwich:

I don't remember what this was called in the book. But it's quite simple. Plain tofu fried up with Cajun seasoning and topped with vegan cheese (I used the Daiya Jack Style wedges), stuffed into a bagel spread with Vegenaise. Simple and delicious. I remember making this with Tofutti vegan cheese slices or Vegan Rella back in the day because that was all we had around here. Ha! My how the vegan world has changed over 7 years.


Does anyone else remember the Rabbit Fodder Addict series? What were your first vegan cookbooks?