Fun at the NW Veg Fest

It's been a while, but on Sept 19, we had a blast at the Northwest VegFest in Portland, OR.

Lot's of vegetarian/vegan excitement! Delicious food samples and giveaways, product handouts and education material, cooking demos, lectures, and music!

There were many restaurants that served all vegan food:

Blossoming Lotus: Lasagna, Chili/Cornbread, Cashew Hummus/Flax Crackers, Lavender Lemonade, Kauai Chai, Trail Mix Cookies
Curry Leaf: Samosas, Pakodas, Cutlets, Spring rolls
Papa G's: Mac and Cheeze, Curry Bowl, TLT Sandwich, Raw Pizza, Limeade, Keifer, Cookie Bars
Proper Eats: Collard Wraps, Mummy Balls, Hummus, Pesto, Miso, Sunseed Spread, Raw Crackers, Raw Veggies, Raw Fajitas, Date Fudge
Red and Black: Black Dragon Noodles, Kale and Quinoa Bowl
Sweet Lemon: Divine Thai Wrap, Very Curry Wrap, Rainbow Wrap, Supreme Salad Roll, Thai Iced Tea, Cookies
Vege Thai: Pad Thai, Thai Salad Rolls with Peanut Sauce, Salad with Soy Chicken and Peanut Sauce, Thai Iced Tea

So much to enjoy!

Here's a list of all the exibitors. Some of our favorites included Equal Exchange, Pacific Foods, Bob's Red Mill, King Harvest, Turtle Mountain (So Delicious Products), Wildwood Tofu, Theo Chocolate, Genesis Organic Juices, and Artisana.
Our favorite part about this fest was sampling food and seeing new food products. Pacific Foods was the best booth to go to! New Simply Teas and Yerba Mate Teas (flavors include Peach, Lemon Ginger, Traditional, Unsweetened, Berry, etc). Another new Pacific Foods product is their creamy hemp milk, perfect for ice cream or smoothies.


Lots of pamplets and information about vegetarianism, animal rights, and environmentalism.


We didn't have time to go to the classes or lectures, because we volunteered for a few hours in the kids area, but next time we will dedicate time to listen to the speakers.

It was neat to see all the families, kids, and couples all enthusiastic for vegetarianism and health. It is great to be involved in a community event that focuses on vegetarianism. Yay for VegFest!


Have a great Autumn week!

U-Pick

Hi everyone!

We've been so busy with work, then cleaning... sorry about the lack of posts. We do have so much to share with you.

Last weekend we enjoyed a trip to a u-pick farm in Canby, OR. Such a fun opportunity! It was so rewarding to be out in the field like a farmer and pick fresh fruits and vegetables!

6 different varieties of blueberries! We loved snacking while we picked. We could distinguish each variety by the leaves, tree height, and flavor, with some slightly sweet or tart than others.











Green beans, snap peas, snow peas!

Chard and Kale!













They also grow corn, tomatoes, squash, pumpkin, blackberries, raspberries, plums, cucumbers, pears, chives, brocolli, cabbage, cauliflower, but not all of them were ready to pick. So fresh to be able to pick and eat it the same day! And an economical way to purchase produce for about a dollar a pound.




Have a sunny weekend,

Birthday Portland Excursion & Other Eats

It's been a while posting...partly because we've been getting burned out from 9-11 hour days at work. We had an especially bad day on Thursday June 18, which happened to be our 23 rd birthday. :(

Saturday was a wonderful day, though, hiking in Forest Park (the largest urban park in the USA), strolling through Portland's Pearl District (and stopping in at Storables, Powell's City of Books, and Whole Foods Market), and eating at Proper Eats Cafe! We had a wonderful refreshing hike followed by a fresh, healthy lunch. If you are ever in the area, you have to hike at Forest Park, it is so beautiful, scenic, lush, peaceful, and rejuvenating!

At Proper Eats, we shared a tabouli wrap with shredded beets, sauerkraut, spinach, and miso tahini sauce on a whole wheat tortilla, and a sample platter of raw crackers, raw veggies, sunseed avocado dip, hummus, and spicy black bean dip. For dessert, decadent Thai Chili Dark Chocolate Truffle and Peppermint Dark Chocolate Truffle! While the meals were very good, unique, and fresh, we felt like they weren't wow enough to get the next time. We really want to try their other dishes, because it was all so healthy, local, and vegan. The cafe is quaint and even has a small grocery store with local produce, bulk section, and vegan snacks.
Did we mention how much we LOVE our farmer's market? Last week we bought super sweet and fresh strawberries, zucchini, lettuce, bok choy, cucumber, and fresh aromatic basil.


Since we are behind in posting, here are some more delicious yet random eats to share with you!

Starting off the weekend with a fruit n' veggie smoothie, fresh sliced pears, and some Nature's Path Flax Waffles, drizzled with a little pear butter and maple syrup.









And, let's just skip to dessert! Vive le Vegan's Chocolate Chip Cookies!

We adapted them slightly (added in a little oats for texture, among other things), but overall these were the best chocolate chip cookies we've tried. Good texture, soft yet not too doughy or crumbly, whole grain, and very flavorful! This recipe can act as a base to be used to create other great cookies. Yummy :)


Using our huge farmer's market zucchini, we made zucchini hummus. This recipe came from our raw "cook"book (Raw Food Made Easy for 1-2 People), but our tahini was non-raw, so this hummus is semi-raw. The hummus has zucchini, tahini, garlic, a little cumin and paprika, and some salt just blended together. It is slightly thinner in consistency, but very tasty and unique. It is more than just hummus - it can be used as a creamy sauce, as a dip, or as a dressing, and you can change up the spices to create different flavors. We loved it especially over pasta (chilled or warm), fresh basil leaves, and veggies (in this case some sundried tomatoes).
So, celebrate this summer by buying fresh local produce, traveling/exploring new places, eating healthy delicious meals, and indulging in decadent desserts!

Portland is a great place to travel, with beautiful bridges, parks, shopping, and restaurants.


Have a nice week everyone! We will share some more product reviews soon.

Let us know what your favorite places/cities to travel are, because we love to travel!

Catch Up!

Instead of the raw dessert post we promised, we'll wait till the weekend since we plan on making a tasty raw treat with our new ultra exciting member of the household - a Vitamix!

Until then, here are some photos and quick rants on our most recent foods.






A Farmer's Market feast! Our last time at the farmer's market for the year, and we'll miss it so much until mid April when it starts up again. Curly kale, broccoli, Danish squash, pumpkin, eggplant, garlic, bell pepper, banana pepper, corn, red onion, and yellow onion.

Savory Millet Breakfast - with tofu, Braggs, nutritional yeast, basil, and garlic powder







Orange/Yellow Watermelon - tastes just as sweet, juicy, and delicious as red watermelon!


Crisp Juicy Red Grapes!




Thick sprouted wheat pasta with sauted kale, garlic, onion, tomatoes, and eggplant (farmer's market produce!)



Wonderful salad with local salad greens, tomatoes, bell pepper, and lemon pepper tofu.



Now that the farmer's market is over, we signed up to be apart of the Community Supported Agriculture, and we get produce every week from "Growing Wild Farm". Carrots, spicy radishes, lots of bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, turnip greens, fresh bay leaves, and (not pictured) wonderful mixed salad greens.


Indian Sweet Potato Stew - Sweet potatoes, cabbage, pecans, onion, bell peppers in a spiced Indian sauce served with chewy red rice. Got the recipe from online somewhere. Great hearty warm dish for a chilly day.



We've been enjoying the outdoors whenever we are blessed with a clear sunny day - such beautiful scenic drives, farmland, and trees. The leaves are changing colors! - LK

Oregon Food Haven

We made it to Oregon and now we never want to go back to Texas. The drive was long, 10 hours each day, with minimal fast food vegan food available, but the scenery was beautiful. New Mexico, Utah, and the Colombia River that flows between the Oregon and Washington borders were all breathtaking. Our movers with all of our furniture won't arrive till next week :( but we've been keeping busy touring the area, attending Farmer's Markets, and shopping at wonderful grocery stores like McMinnville's local Harvest Fresh and Portland's Whole Foods.

The community here is really wonderful - friendly, focused on recycling, and supports local farmers. On Thursdays our town has its farmer's market. So many vendors, most of them organic farmers!
We purchased wild spinach, Gravenstein apples, baby broccoli, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, potatoes, and plump blueberries. All of the produce was unbelievably tasty and fresh! We also bought rosemary and lavender plants for our windowsill.














A few days later we drove up to Hillsboro to check out their farmer's market. This time we purchased 1/2 flat of berries to freeze for the winter. The blackberries and blueberries aren't tart, but extremely sweet and juicy! The peach we got was just perfect, better than any Texas peach. We also got a 1 1/2 foot long yellow crookneck squash for only 50 cents, along with some green beans, radishes, and cucumbers.

One day we drove into Portland, about 1 hour away, and stopped at Blossoming Lotus for breakfast. We tried the Banana Greens smoothie with berries and hemp milk - very healthy and refreshing for the start of the day. We also bought an Everything muffin, with coconut, carrots, raisins, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, and other goodies. It was really good and hearty! We took home a Blueberry Lemon scone for later eats. The buckwheat granola we ordered was way too much - enough to serve 4 people, and needed a lot more sugar and milk; nothing special.

After Blossoming Lotus, we walked down the street to shop at Whole Foods. We bought a ton of new products that we've never tried!












Laura's Wholesome Junk Food - brownie bites
These were very good - fudgy-chocolaty with a slight fruity/date flavor! A tad sweet, though. Perfect size for a small treat! Other flavors we want to try include Lemon Vanilla, Gingersnap, Banana, and Fudge.

Delallo Organic Whole Wheat Pasta Shells * Update - great flavor and bite. Good with spaghetti and will use it in tofu creamy pasta salad.

Whole Food's 365 Organic Oat Bran Flakes * Update - too much sugar coating, a tad too sweet.

Nutiva Shelled Hemp Seeds

Galaxy Granola - Cranberry Orange (although didn't realize it had honey until after we got home) * Update - great flavor, subtle orange, good crunch.

Manitoba Harvest - Hemp Bliss hempmilk
Not that great for cereal milk. Had a vegetable flavor to it? Not sweet either to hide that taste. We will use it up in baked goods and then stick with Living Harvest Hemp Milk.

Heaven Scent Traditional Spice Windmill Cookies
These are Heaven! Spiced like a Christmas cookie. They also have Almond flavor which is very good, too.

Lydia's Organics - Italian Crackers
Unique raw cracker with a nice gentle crunch. Good flavor, especially with bean dip.

Gabriel's Bakery Blue Cornmeal Bread (Portland bakery)
A tad sweet, but good with bean dip or spinach hummus.

Bumble Bar - Hazelnut
Another item that is too sweet (and we thought we had sweet tooths). Overall, though, it is very nutritious, tasty, and has a good chewy crunch.

Whole grain red rice

Scharffen Berger Nibby Chocolate with Cacoa Nibs
Chocolaty with a nice crunch.

Deep Steep Foaming Handwash - Honeydew Spearmint
Perfect handsoap for the kitchen - love the smell!

oatmeal almond soap bar - love almond scents!

So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurts
Wow, so good. The texture is more uniform/thicker than some soy yogurt products we've tried - slightly like pudding. We tried the Raspberry, Strawberry Banana, and Tropical Mango. The Strawberry Banana is very good - one of our new favorite yogurt flavors. The raspberry wasn't anything exciting, though, compared to Whole Soy's line.

Whole Soy & Co. Soy Yogurts
These soy yogurts are our favorite - especially Blueberry, Strawberry, and Lemon. We also bought at Whole Foods the Strawberry Banana and Mixed Berry flavors.

Lightlife Tempeh - veggie
We have always been a little hesitant with tempeh, but were eager to cook with it again - this tempeh was very tasty with subtle veggie flavor.

Tofurky Tempeh - spicy veggie
Haven't had it yet, but we are eager to put it in a wrap with salsa and guacomole! * Update - it's now in our trash. Was terrible.

King Harvest Spinach Hummus
One of the best hummus we've ever had! Not too garlicy, not lemony, not oily; just right. And an awesome spinach flavor! Healthy too.

Wildwood Tofu Veggie Burger * Update - too oily (had to pat it dry), also tasted like a "chicken" patty that you could get at McDonald's. Wasn't bad but not worth getting again.

Today we had to drive to Beaverton, and we were excited to stop at Trader Joe's; unfortunately, we were very disappointed with the store. It was small, very very hectic and crowded, didn't have much selection, and had very few vegan options (such as soy yogurts).

This is what we ended up buying though (Trader Joe's Brand): High Fiber O's, Orange-Guava Smoothie Drink, Whole Grain Onion Pita Chips, Whole Wheat Lavash Bread, Sprouted Wheat Pappardelle Pasta, and (Dr. Praeger's) Tex Mex Veggie Burgers.
* Update - the High Fiber O's were pretty good and crunchy, Guava smoothie was excellent!, pita chips were very good with a subtle onion flavor and a great crunch, and the lavash bread was good for wraps.


Our first dinner in our new place - Garden Veggie Tempeh with wild spinach, sun dried tomatoes, bell pepper, and garlic. For leftovers we added fresh broccoli! So fresh and nutritous!

Here's a pic across from our apartment complex - hills and farmland/winery.


Looking forward to the next Farmer's Market, and the next, and the next.... so far we love it here in Oregon!

Supporting Local Farmers By Buying Local Produce

Summer has been a GREAT season for fresh local fruits and vegetables!

We've been buying lots of local produce, which is not only tastier, but cheaper and healthier. Choosing local foods also supports small farmers who take better care of the land, who often grow many varieties of crops, and who often use organic sustainable farming techniques.

We recently received "The Green Book", by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen, and "Green Chic - Saving the Earth in Style", by Christie Matheson. Both recommend eating local foods and buying from farmers' markets.

Both point out that it takes roughly 1500 miles for supermarket food to reach your plate, compared to 50 miles for local produce. Much more energy and resources are used to produce conventional food versus local food; Christie says that 32 times more energy is used and 32 times more CO2 is emitted with conventional food. In addition, local food is more nutritious, because it's picked when ripe, and eaten soon after, versus food from supermarkets that sit for days, maybe a week, before it's transported to the stores. (These are just some of the reasons to buy local - we suggest reading more about eating local foods and being "green".)

A great motivator to buy local foods, is trying new foods! There are so many varieties of fruits and vegetables that you can find at the farmers' markets. Here are some local foods we've eaten this summer:

• Heirloom tomatoes of different sizes and colors (yellow, orange, purple!)

• peppers
• bell, banana, jalapeño, and one we don't know what kind it is - it's yellow with a "spin top" shape
  

• eggplant (small purple-and-white stripped)

• fresh figs!
• yes fresh figs! First time to try these, and they were delicious, sweet, and addicting.
  

• Texas peaches and corn

• squash
• zucchini, yellow, white, and sunburst
  

• sugar snap peas
  

• melon!
• "jade" watermelon that was the best juiciest sweetest organic watermelon we've ever had! Very huge too.
  
• also "sugar not" melon that was a cross between a cantelope and a honey dew with a slight cucumber/kiwi taste and that was soo sweet and juicy!
• BTW - the melons came from Holistic Gardens of Texas A&M and there were about 20 more varieties of melons that they produced, and they wanted customer feedback!
  

And here are some tasty ways we used our great produce!

Roasted Veggies - eggplant, red bell pepper, tomatoes, and yellow squash with herbs - and served with couscous.



Garbanzo Snap Pea Quinoa Bowl ... garbanzos, snap peas, quinoa, green bell peppers, garlic, diced carrots, and a curry dressing.





Our first RAW meal! Lasagna with Zucchini "Noodles", a Spinach Basil Cashew filling, and Fresh Tomato Sauce! We are going to try to make a raw meal once a week. So far, it's been a great experience.

- We adapted Carmella's recipe from The Sunny Raw Kitchen. Lasagna usually takes so long to prep AND cook, but with this recipe, it only took long to prep, and then it was done!

Raw Spinach Zucchini Lasagna

Spinach Basil Filling:
1 cup cashews, soaked (for maybe 3-4 hours?)
1/2 cup water
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
3-4 cups fresh spinach
3/4 th of small pack of fresh basil (2 Tb?)

Grind nuts and garlic until fine. Then add other ingredients until creamy.

Tomato Sauce:
3-4 large tomatoes, chopped
1/3 cup diced onion
1 large garlic clove, minced
rest of the pack of fresh basil

Blend in a food processor until slightly smooth, slightly chunky.

Noodles:
2 large peeled zucchini, sliced thinly lengthwise

Assembling:
Using 1/2 of zucchini, make a layer in the bottom of a pan. Spread 1/2 of the spinach filling over the zucchini. Then add the remaining zucchini to make another layer. Spread the remaining spinach filling, and then top with the tomato sauce. Add a little nutritional yeast and black pepper to taste. Cut and serve!

Here's a photo of the cream filling and then a photo showing some of the layering.











... And you'll just have to wait to see what concoction we create with the watermelon! :)


To end this post, we hope that you will buy more local food. We as consumers need to support local family farms, buying directly from the farmers. Go to a farmers' market, or even better, grow your own food. You can also participate in the Community Supportive Agriculture program (CSA) if available, for which you pay in advance for a weekly amount of fresh produce.

See you at the next Farmers' Market! LK