Congratulations to the five winners of the 3 minute chocolate challenge. Your yummy prize packs are on their way. I know the sensible advice to give would be ‘don’t eat them all at once’ but in this case I would recommend eating them all as fast as you possibly can! And then acting like it never happened ... This kid knows what I’m talking about.

Why? Because since exposing the truth about bobby calves in the dairy industry, there’s a whole lotta people with a taste for dairy-free choccies. In fact, an awesome 96% of people who watched the 3 minute video picked the dairy-free option over cow’s milk. Which means the big winners in this are bobby calves! Every time you choose a dairy-free alternative, you are taking a stand against cruelty to the ‘unwanted’ calves of the dairy industry.

If you’ve been on the look-out for new dairy-free recipes, Whyveg.com has a bunch of my personal favourites – apple cinnamon muffins, raw chocolate SUPERFOODS brownie, and mac ‘n’ cheeze! Yep! All dairy-free :)

What’s more, if you missed out on a choccie prize pack this time around, you can get your hands on them ANYTIME you want in our online store. Try the chocolate coated cranberries. They’re new! And delicious.

And, because we just can’t get enough of giving stuff away for free, we’ve got a new comp up and running already! Click here to win a cute Give A Stuff stuffed toy – also dairy-free 

“Happiness doesn't result from what we get, but from what we give.” -- Ben Carson

I’m so excited to tell you about our latest giveaway! It’s possibly the cutest, cuddliest prize that we’ve given away yet. And even better, we’re giving away TWO! Meet the Give A Stuff family:

The best thing about Give A Stuff stuffies is that for every one you adopt, a donation goes to an Australian animal sanctuary. So a little furry munchkin gets a safe and happy home with you, AND you help provide safe and happy homes to animals who might have nowhere to go if it weren’t for these sanctuaries. :) Click here to read about the awesome organisations Give A Stuff supports.

So, because it feels so good to give, we’re giving you the opportunity to give one of these gorgeous stuffed animals to someone you know who gives a stuff about animals. AND we’ll throw in one for you as well. :) TWIN STUFFIES!

Just like you, animals form strong bonds with friends and family members. Sheep, for example, are friendly, social and make great companions.

All you have to do to enter is let us know in the comments below about someone you know who deserves this gift and why. Entries must be less than 150 words and competition closes 1 December 2013.

Good luck!

Psst! Can’t wait that long to get your arms around a Give A Stuff animal? You can purchase your new furry friend here.

I’ve gotta share a sad story with you I’m afraid…

Tomorrow, this Australian sheep is destined to be brutally slaughtered in Kuwait, on the first day of the annual Festival of Sacrifice. Sadly, he's just one of thousands of sheep who will suffer tomorrow. They will be sold on the streets, stuffed into car boots, and butchered in back streets and makeshift abattoirs. It will all happen with the acceptance of live exporters. And it will all be illegal.

These sheep are supposed to be protected from what is about to happen. And yet our investigators have found thousands of Australian sheep being sold illegally at roadside markets, in Jordan and Kuwait, where they were never allowed to be. AND their ear tags had been removed, in what appears to be an attempt to hide the identity of the exporter.

Now for some good news: This investigation has exposed that live exporters clearly don’t intend to play by the rules. But they’re shooting themselves in the foot. Every time we expose that they’re breaking the rules, it comes back to bite them. 

They say “anything worth having is worth fighting for.” (Susan Elizabeth Phillips.) And while we haven’t ended live export yet, with every investigation, and every action you take we make it harder for them to export animals, more expensive and, as a result, the numbers of animals being exported decreases (#win).

Today, you can be the voice for these animals! Help remind our politicians that the only way to protect sheep from this brutality is to stop the live export trade once and for all. Take action NOW!

• If you’re over 18, head here to let your MP know that you support an end to live export.
• If you’re under 18, click here to tell the PM where you stand.
• Help us continue to hold exporters to account for cruelty by clicking here to sponsor an Animals Australia investigator.

Every time you speak up for these animals, you bring us a step closer to ending the live export trade. So thank you for speaking out today!

I’ve decided I’m going to share something with you. It’s not something that I let many people in on. It’s my tofu scramble recipe. Now I’m normally the kind of cook who burns stuff to the bottom of the pan, sets off the fire alarm and then orders in takeaway. But my tofu scramble is world-renowned (amongst the handful of people I’ve cooked it for.)

So what’s the occasion? Well, tomorrow is World Egg Day. The thing about the egg industry is that it kills about 12 million male chicks on their first day of life, simply because they can’t produce eggs and are therefore considered waste.

That’s not something I’m keen to celebrate. But there is something that’s worth making a fuss about. And that is that egg-free food is easy, delicious and lifesaving! Which brings me back to my tofu scramble recipe. Because one of my favourite ways to not eat eggs is in a scramble! Give this a go on the weekend and have a little Egg-Free Day party of your own :)

Scrambled Tofu

Tofu. (I find a medium tofu is best for this but soft works too. Probably about 200-250g per person.)
1 onion, diced
Vegetable oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon turmeric
Soy sauce
1 avo
1 tomato
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Grumpy princess cat mug (pictured right) is optional, but recommended.

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Dice up the avo and tomato. Put it in a bowl and dress with a splash of olive oil and salt and pepper. Put aside.

Stir fry onion with veg oil until a little brown. Crumble up the tofu into the frypan and stirfry until it starts to get a little brown and crispy. (Try it out with a handful of dairy-free cheese, like Vegusto or Cheezly, grated in for an extra especially delicious treat.)

Add minced garlic, turmeric and a splash of soy sauce.

Serve on toast with the avo/tomato combo on top.

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This is my classic fave version but there’s so many ways you can serve it up. Try mixing in sundried tomatoes, mushrooms and spinach instead of doing the avo/tomato thing. Serve that one on some toast with hummus. Yum. Now I’m hungry.

Do you have a favourite egg-free recipe?

FINALLY, the Animal Effect phone app has launched on Android phones. I’m pretty excited! Earlier this year we reviewed the app for iPhone, but as a staunch Samsung user, I felt a little left out. But on Friday I got over it, like a donkey on a waffle*.

So, WHAT IS IT?? Ok, chill. Animal Effect is a cool tool that pools together animal events organised by loads of animal protection groups across Australia. It includes rallies, meet-ups, online actions and festivals. You can browse, search by area or organisation or keyword, add stuff to your calendar so you don’t forget, text the deets to your friends ... heaps of stuff. I’ll let this iphone explain (but I’ll be picturing it as an Android phone. With a sparkly Hello Kitty dangling off it. Just like mine.)

Looks good huh? There's already a bunch of Animals Australia actions on the app, with more to come. And if you purchase the app through this link, part of the proceeds will be donated to us. :)

Have you used Animal Effect before? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

*I’ve never actually seen a donkey eat a waffle but I reckon it would happen pretty quickly.

How's this for a good Friday? Not only is it World Animal Day today, but one of the country's biggest supermarket chains has announced it is getting rid of ALL cage eggs from its stores!

This MASSIVE news will mean millions of Aussie hens freed from life in cages so small they can't even stretch their wings. Excuse me but I just have to hashtag this......... #winning #YES #omg

And Woolworths' plan even includes eggs used as ingredients in their home brand products! Yup, that's right: by 2018 NO hens will be suffering in cages to provide Woolies with eggs.

Go on, why not give Woolworths some love for this kind choice on their facebook page – or share this image on yours!

This decision was made thanks to the growing number of caring people (like YOU) who are taking action to help animals in factory farms.

This is seriously a historic day. But if you want to go all the way to help hens, the living conditions in egg factories are only half the story. You see, all laying hens are exactly that: hens (meaning they're female). What about the boys?

This is the super sad part.... :-(

Each year millions of day-old male chicks hatched for the egg industry are gassed to death or ground up alive -- just because they will never grow up to lay eggs.

But you can help protect them! The simplest way to stop the suffering of hens and male chicks is to go egg free. That's it! And it's EASY, too: just check out all these delicious egg free recipes.

Do you have a favourite cruelty free dish? Share it in the comments!