While saving animals doesn't often appear at the top of governments' agendas, it is starting to sneak in by way of "Green Living"! In a recent newsletter from Sydney City Council I noticed they are promoting Meat Free Mondays.

Meat Free Mondays is a global campaign encouraging people to help curb climate change by having at least one meat-free day per week. If you think this sounds like a great idea, then you're in good company! The campaign already has the support of Paul McCartney, Richard Branson, Moby and the head of the International Panel on Climate Change (ie. the guy who advises the UN on all things climatey).

Governments promoting vegetarianism really makes me all goose-pimply with excitement. And this story gets better! Cause Sydney's not the only city either. In May, the Belgian city of Ghent launched a brilliant initiative to urge the whole city to go vegetarian every Thursday.

If you think Sydney Council is on a winning idea, then why not write to your school/uni/workplace to encourage them to combat climate change too and adopt Meat Free Mondays. Just think of the lives saved if they do!

So whenever you go shopping to stock up on mouth-watering cruelty-free food, do you spend more time than you'd like trying to ignore the icky meat, egg, and dairy-laden products that clutter the supermarket shelves in your quest to find those delightful dairy-free chocolate bars, meat-free mince and eggless mayonnaise? I know I do, especially when I visit a new supermarket that I don't know very well!

Don't you just wish shops would stick big, eye-catching signs up quickly drawing your attention to all the amazing vegetarian and vegan goodies that they sell? Well, one supermarket in Adelaide has done just that! Yep, apparently Foodworks in Glenelg have figured out that more and more people are wanting to fill their shopping trolleys without contributing to animal cruelty and environmental destruction and so they have posted big signs directing shoppers to the amazing cruelty-free food that they stock. Woot!!

Tofutti cheese, pig-friendly 'bacon', meat-free schnitzels, vegan whipped cream, vegetarian 'prawns', to-die-for dairy-free icecream ... yum!! :-) If you're in Adelaide make sure you check this place out on Jetty Rd, Glenelg. And if not, post a comment below and tell everyone where your favourite veg-friendly shop is!

What was in your lunch box today? How would veggie pizza with whole grain crust, rice and beans, veggie subs, and lentil sauce with pasta sound for lunch? According to the US School Nutrition Association that's the veg options that are most popular at US schools. I'll have one of each thanks!

Their recent survey found that almost 2 out of 3 US schools have regular veg options on offer. I don't know about you but my school tuckshop had mostly meat pies, sausage rolls and sweets (ok! so you won't hear me complaining about sweets :P).

It's about time we had more veg options in schools here as well! And it seems I'm not the only one who thinks so. The World Cancer Research Fund is now urging parents not to pack their kids' lunchboxes with ham and other processed meats. This follows a report by them earlier this year in which they concluded: "The scientific evidence linking processed meat [ie. ham, bacon, salami, etc] and bowel cancer shows that the best amount to eat is none at all." Go WCRF!

What's your school's veg tuckshop selection like? Might be a good time to suggest they add a few more options!

There are heaps of reasons not to eat chicken – for your health, for the environment or for the animals. For me, the fact that chicks are forced to grow much faster than their bodies can cope, with some dying from organ failure and others starving to death, unable to lift their own body weight, was always reason enough not to eat them. But now I think this one takes the cake...

Number one reason not to eat chicken: Because your housemate might just douse you in boiling oil!

Yep, the Herald Sun has reported that a dispute over Nando's chicken has ended in a man having boiling oil poured over him in his sleep. Sure, I'd be pretty annoyed if you ate all of my delicious mock chicken, but as far as I’m concerned violence has no place on or off my plate.

So anyway, what vegan treat do you find so delicious it’s just impossible to share?

Earlier in the week we appealed to the chocolate admirers out there with the promise of free Constant Craving Truffles. So began the hunt for Unleashed's most worthy chocoholic. But sheesh – you didn't make it easy on us – the competition was fierce! After reading the responses from so many worthy candidates, we were so overwhelmed by the heartfelt pleas for chocolate that we realised we couldn't choose just one winner...

So it's time to congratulate our two most worthy chocoholics, Matt.Y, who promises to give the chockies to his Mum (we want photographic evidence, Matt), and chaha33, the super-keen-vegan-cocoa-bean-eating-poetry-machine! Congratulations Matt.Y and chacha33 – your bundle of 10 Constant Craving Truffles are zooming from the Unleashed office to your doorstep right now! But that's not all. We've also thrown in some free stickers for good measure :-)

In truth we believe everybody deserves chocolate, and really there's no reason to miss out. If all this chocolate-talk has you salivating at your keyboard, then follow me to the Unleashed shop where you can pick up your own bag of truffles for just $10 (or $20 if you're really serious). All the money raised through the shop goes towards helping animals and fighting animal cruelty.

And just for you lovely folks, postage is free :-)

I can hardly contain my excitement as I write this... There has been so much chatter about dairy-free chocolate on the forum recently that we thought we would share the love even further and give away some vegan chocolate.

That's right – FREE CHOCOLATE!

In fact, we've all gone a little chocolate-mad with two new chocolate gift packs for sale in the Unleashed shop. And believe me, there's a good reason they call them 'Constant Craving' truffles. If you want to impress someone, I promise you, the only thing you'll ever need to do is get them some of these...

Constant Craving Truffles - 5 pack ($10)

Constant Craving Truffles - 10 pack ($20)

Each pack includes five dreamy varieties including Jaffa Delight, Coffee, Scorched Almond, Coconut, and Apricot Dream.

Ok ok ok, back to the free chocolate :-) If you want to get your hands on free pack of these melt-in-your-mouth truffles simply leave a comment below and tell us why you deserve them. We'll send the most worthy candidate a chock-filled gift to satiate those constant cravings...

Update: most worthy chocoholics announced! Click here to find out who won.

Have you been desperately wanting to make a difference and help animals but been too strapped for cash to donate? Well here’s your chance to help!

If you haven’t already seen, NextStop is donating $10 to Animals Australia every time a guide is posted in "Great Spots for Vegetarians & Vegans - Australia"

This doesn’t just have to be a restaurant; it can be a store, market, café… ANY place that is vegetarian/vegan friendly that you love. Surely everyone can think of 5 little places they’ve been to that fit this category!?!

This is turning into such a great resource, I know I’m going to be checking out a lot of the places I didn’t know existed. So take 5 minutes to spread the word about hot vego spots in your town and help us kick ass for the animals!

Thanks so much to everyone who has already posted a guide, we have raised $300 so far!!! Just 20 more guides needed to reach the $500 goal!!!

Alright, here's a treat you'll be jumping up and down about. A recipe for vegan cupcakes!

A couple of weeks ago we ran a stall at the Petacular pet expo in Brisbane. The wonderful volunteer, Kate, offered to bake vegan cupcakes for the day... So of course we said yes yes yes!

The cupcakes looked and tasted amazing! Not surprisingly, they went down a treat and many a cupcake muncher marvelled at the fact that no animals were harmed in the making of these delectible treats.

When highlighting the cruelty of the egg and dairy industries, nothing promotes cruelty free living quite like cupcake goodness. So it's time, as Kate would say, to "share the cupcake love"!

This cupcake concoction was even given the thumbs up by punk heroes Propagandhi. Kate's hubby plays in the Brissie band Bad Day Down, who supported Propagandhi on their recent visit to Australia. On tour, Kate soon assumed the role of official cupcake cooker. But she isn't just a superstar in the kitchen. Check out this photo of her singing on stage with Propagandhi at their Melbourne show. (btw, keep your eyes out for more from us on Propagandhi soon)

Anyway, back to the important business of cupcakes. Here for your pleasure, is the undisputed best cupcake recipe in the world (or at least so claims Kate): Click here for the cupcake-a-licious recipe.

Now don't be greedy! Make sure you share your amazing cruelty free creations with all your friends and family to spread the word about how easy it is to be sweet to animals.

If you're as obsessive about a mug of scalding hot liquid as I am, you'll understand why I'm giddy with delight at discovering Di Bella's coffee today...

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with coffee shops... only because you still occasionally find one that's stuck in the dark ages and hasn't heard of soy milk—so I was reminded this morning (thanks a bunch, Brewbakers). Fair to say, these places tend to lose a lot of customers (like me). But when you need a coffee, you need a coffee. Right?

My coffee expedition led me to Di Bella's, where I was not only offered an ultra-smooth velvety soy latte, but I wasn't charged for the privilege of sparing the life of a baby cow!

Seriously, we live in a topsy-turvy world where most cafes try to squeeze an extra 50 cents out of you for a dash of soy milk, when it's no secret that the dairy industry is a vastly inefficient machine, squandering precious resources, damaging the environment—and not to mention—causing immense pain, suffering and death to countless innocent cows. In the end you can't really put a dollar figure on the damage (or absurdity) caused by people drinking milk meant for baby cows.

But Di Bella's didn't stop there. Their brews are all fair-trade, AND they also give out free vegan Belgian spice biscuits with their coffees! What more could a coffee lover hope for??

What's your favourite cup? Or, what's the lamest coffee shop experience you've had? Share your comments below!

When our good friends at PBS radio station contacted us saying that they were organising a fundraiser on Christmas eve, and they wanted Unleashed to run a table and bbq at the event, we just couldn't resist. In the good spirit of Christmas, we loaded up the car with veggie snags, and goodies and headed to The Arthouse for a night to remember.

Celebrating Christmas is great. Celebrating Christmas with a whole bunch of good mates, vegan food and Trial Kennedy and Capeside thrashin' out the tunes is greater! And to top it off Luke from The Hot Lies donned his chef's hat to help on the barbie.

If you haven't caught Trial Kennedy, then they're a name to remember. These guys are almost as hot as a Christmas day in Aus.

So that was our Chrissy feast. Tell us about yours. What cruelty free goodies did you whip for the Christmas season?