Bianca Phillips's Blog, page 222

Juiced Out

Yesterday, I wrapped up Amber Shea Crawley's whole foods-based Real Food Cleanse, my attempt at undoing the damage done by too many doughnuts in Portland. But for some crazy reason, I didn't want to stop there. I decided that it would be a good idea to forgo solid foods until dinner time today in favor of fresh juices.

For one thing, I've been meaning to review The Everything Giant Book of Juicing. And for another, I do love the way I feel the day after a juice cleanse. I picked out four juices from The Everything Giant Book of Juicing to make two times each. So I made eight large juices in all. Last night, I separated out the veggies for two juices and let them soak in the sink as a lazy way of washing.


The morning started with a large hot water with lemon (something about getting the circulation going, I read that somewhere), followed by a large Energizer Juice from the book. This had apples, cucumber, celery, lemon, kale, spinach, and romaine. It was supposed to also have ginger but I forgot to buy any, and it was supposed to have fennel, but that's gross. Loved this juice! Apples make green juice tasty.


I brought two large juice jars to work as morning snacks — another Energizer Juice and this Powerhouse Juice. The Powerhouse was made with celery, parsley, spinach, cucumber, carrots, and beets. It also called for Swiss chard but only two leaves. I didn't see a point in buying chard for two leaves. I'm always a fan of beet juice, and this hit the spot.


I should mention though that the Powerhouse Juice totally killed my Jack Lalanne juicer. Midway through juicing a beet, the motor just gave out. I considered giving up then and there and having a bowl of peanut butter oats instead. But then I remembered that I had a key to my friend Cassi's house and that she had a Breville. I broke in, stole her juicer, and brought it back to my house. This is what she gets for entrusting me with a key. Oh, and by the way, I learned today that the Breville trumps Jack Lalanne big-time. That Breville could juice a brick, as Cassi likes to say.

Anyway, I went home from work at lunch to make more juice. I'd prepared this sink full of veggies for my gazpacho juice.


But before I made the tomato-based gazpacho juice, I had this Vampire Chaser — cucumbers, parsley, and garlic. I LOVE juices with garlic, but I'm sure the people around me don't. Oh well. This was light and refreshing with a spicy garlic kick. Sorry if I breathed on you.


And finally, I had Good Old Gazpacho — tomatoes, scallions, garlic, red pepper, green pepper, and jalapeno.


This was my very fave! I love tomato juices the best, and with the garlic and jalapenos, it was like a way fresher, less sodium-heavy Spicy V8.

By 5 p.m., I'd had seven servings of these combinations. I ended up not even needing my last jar of Vampire Chaser because I was actually full.

But before you go thinking this juice fast was easy for me, not so fast. It was hell. I drank lots of water in between juices and had a juice every time I started to feel even the slightest bit hungry. But I never felt satisfied (full, yes, but not satisfied), and around 2:30 p.m., I started to feel light-headed and weird. I decided that I must be high on vegetables.

I can't even begin to explain how happy I was when dinnertime arrived! My friends and I go to Imagine Vegan Cafe every Wednesday. I ordered their Hummus Plate, and omg, I have never been so excited about hummus.


Imagine is a comfort food cafe, and they're known for pizza, chili dogs, and vegan country fried steak. Not hummus. This dish wasn't even on my radar before, but it seemed like the perfect thing to eat coming out of a juice fast.

I felt 100 times better after eating solids, but I was still hungry. So I ordered a Side Salad with Vegan Ranch. Now ranch probably isn't a good thing to have after a juice fast, but it tasted so good. And I felt like that little indulgence might be the perfect food to transition me into regular solid food tomorrow. God, I can't wait for tomorrow. I'm sure I'll feel great for having juice-cleansed, and I'll be so glad this is over.


To be fair, the juices I drank were delicious. And the Everything Giant Book of Juicing is awesome. It's packed with all sorts of creative juice combos (they even juice sweet potatoes!), and juices are organized in chapters of veggie juices, fruit juices, detox and cleansing juices, anti-aging juices, cold soups, and smoothies. I'll continue to use the book but probably not for fasting. An occasional juice snack between solid meals is perfect for me.

I've successfully done two "until dinner" juice fasts before today, and I've had one total failure. Although this juice cleanse had its downs, I think it may have gone a little easier than cleanses in the past. The key for me this time was lots and lots of juice. I drank so much liquid, and I was peeing all day. But despite the lightheadedness at times, I wasn't starving like I have been on cleanses in the past. Though I'd rate this one as the most successful of my four juice fast attempts, damn, I'm glad it's over.

The Real Food Cleanse, Day Three

If you've been following my posts over the last couple of days, you know that I've been doing Chef Amber Shea's Real Food Cleanse, a three-day, mostly-raw, whole foods cleanse from an e-book titled The Real Food Cleanse (you can download it on Amber's blog for $14.99).

Now that I've finished day three, I can attest that this e-book is worth every penny (To be fair, I think I actually got mine for a promo price when it was first released, but I'd pay full price in a heartbeat). I started the cleanse to reset my eating habits after returning from Portland, where I stuffed every vegan doughnut, fake meat, cheese sauce, and fried food into my mouth that I could. I needed a reset button, and this cleanse was it! I feel great.

I've forgone processed foods, grains, alcohol, and sugar for the past three days. But that doesn't mean I've been starving. In fact, the portions on this cleanse are abundant, likely because the extra veggies make up for the lack of grains. And the food is simply delicious. Take today, for example.

I run on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and at least one weekend day, so today was a running day. That meant that I needed a pre-workout snack when I awoke this morning. It wasn't on the cleanse, but I had one of Amber's Cocoa Crunch Clusters from Practically Raw Desserts (I keep these in the freezer for quick pre-workout snacks). Technically, cocoa isn't allowed on the cleanse, but that's the one rule I decided to break from the get-go.

After my run, I sat down to this filling bowl of Blueberry-Banana Chia Pudding.


The chia seeds were soaked overnight in unsweetened almond milk (you can also use water, but I opted for milk) so they were all gelled up and doing that magical pudding trick that chia seeds do. And they're topped with bananas and blueberries. I also had a scoop of Vega One Vanilla Chai protein powder mixed with water to get some extra protein after my run (not on the cleanse, by the way).

This meal kept me full until about 11 a.m., my usual morning snack time. I brought some raw mini bell peppers to work, so I had about four of those.

And then lunchtime came. Glorious, glorious lunchtime. Guess what I got to eat for lunch? A whole freakin' avocado!! Not by itself, of course. But a whole avocado went into the dressing for this Caesar Salad with Chunky Olive Tapenade.


If you and I are Facebook friends, you might have noticed how happy this avocado dressing made me today. I rarely eat an entire avocado in one sitting. But I should do that more often. Too often, I get my fat in less healthy ways (French fries, anyone?). Whole avocados are the way to go.

My afternoon snack dessert may have topped the avocado on the awesome factor — Whipped Cherry Banana Freeze!


This is basically simple frozen banana soft serve but with frozen cherries mixed in! I always let too much time pass between instances of eating banana soft serve. I need to be eating this stuff everyday. By the way, here's an example of how generous the portions are on this cleanse. I cut the recipe in half, because I ate this shortly before dinner, and there was still a ton!

The grand cleanse finale may have been the best of all though because it combined my two favorite veggies with one of my favorite spices — Roasted Kale and Cauliflower with Curry Cream.


Both the kale and the cauliflower are roasted, so it's kind of like eating cauliflower popcorn and kale chips for dinner! And that's all topped with a spicy curry sauce. Oh, and check out the portion sizes here! Amber calls for an entire small head of cauliflower and one whole small bunch of kale. I could only find a large head and a large bunch though, so I used about 3/4th of the cauliflower and kale.

Now that the cleanse is over, I'm ready to start eating a little healthier. Of course, I'll add back in my beloved faux meats, but I'll try to limit those items to a couple times each week and stick with more whole sources of protein, like tofu, tempeh, homemade seitan, and beans. Granted, I've got another short road trip coming up next week, but I don't think it'll mess me up too much.

Stay tuned tomorrow. I'll be attempting a half-day juice fast just for fun (not as part of Amber's cleanse ... there's no fasting required there!). But don't worry: I'll be eating dinner. I can't make it a whole day without solids. But I'll review some juices tomorrow night.

The Real Food Cleanse, Day Two

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm doing Amber Shea Crawley's three-day Real Food Cleanse to reset my eating habits after letting myself go in Portland. The Real Food Cleanse is an e-book, and you can download it from her Chef Amber Shea website for $14.99. It includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert recipes for three days, plus a shopping list and tips on prepping meals the night before.

I started the cleanse yesterday (Sunday), and I felt great all day! The food is high-raw, so you do get to eat some cooked beans. But there's not supposed to be any sugar, caffeine, alcohol, grains, or processed stuff (but I am having hot raw cacao and tea for caffeine so I don't die). I woke up this morning feeling pretty darn good about myself after eating so well yesterday.

The plan includes "bulk it up" instructions for those needing higher calorie diets. Basically, it involves including sunflower seeds and bananas as snacks. Since I work out, I need more calories. So I started my morning with a pre-workout banana. I did a little cardio workout, and then sat down to breakfast — Chilly Cherry Coconut Porridge.


This was a banana and cherries blended together (like a smoothie!) with coconut and cinnamon on top. It was tasty! But as I suspected, it didn't fill me up. I'm a BIG breakfast eater. I typically have a large meal with grains (like oats, toast, English muffins, or bagels) and protein (usually tofu). I was satisfied for about an hour, and then I was FAMISHED. Luckily, since I'm following the "bulk it up" plan, I had one-fourth cup of raw sunflower seeds and some bell peppers for a snack.


That mostly kept me satisfied until lunch. But I was more than ready to tear into this Mediterranean Mezze Platter with One-Minute Hummus.


Now this is what I'm talking about! The hummus was oil-free but yet still so delicious. And it had nutritional yeast in it, which I've never put in my hummus. I'm not sure why because noochy hummus is amazing. To dip, I had an entire sliced cucumber, a whole sliced red bell pepper, 3 carrots, and 6 olives. This actually kept me full for a long time.

But come 4 p.m., I was ready for my dessert snack. I'm eating all of the desserts on the plan in the afternoon before dinner. That's just when I crave sweets. This Strawberry Avocado Pudding hit the spot.


I'd had chocolate avocado pudding before but never strawberry. It was so creamy and awesome. I loved the slight avocado taste mixed with the tart sweetness of the strawberries.

Dinner was another huge meal — Fiesta Black Beans with Coconut-Buttered Sweet Potato.


Coconut butter and sweet potatoes were meant to be together. Forever and always. The beans (left from the can I opened yesterday) were tossed with the leftover dressing from yesterday's salad and served over the remainder of the salad greens from the bag I opened yesterday.

That is the single most awesome thing about Amber's book, by the way. She has you utilize all of everything you buy for the cleanse in the three days. There's no waste. And each recipe makes a single serving. As a person who cooks for only herself, I can't tell you how much I appreciate a recipe that makes one serving and a cleanse that isn't wasteful. Thanks Amber! One more day to go!

The Real Food Cleanse, Day One

Now that I'm back from Portland and caught up on sleep, I'm realizing that I might have put on a few pounds in Stumptown. My skinny jeans are, um, a little too skinny. So I'm ready to reset my eating habits and get back into doing more long runs. You know how I love a good whole foods-based cleanse to get my ass in line, right?

Well, a few months ago, I downloaded Amber Shea Crawley's e-book The Real Food Cleanse . It's a three-day, high-raw cleanse with no sugar, booze, grains, or processed stuff. I started the plan today, so I'll be posting pictures from all three days of the cleanse this week. Then I plan to spend Wednesday juice fasting until dinner. Juice fasting is not part of Amber's plan, but I have a juicing book that needs reviewing, so I figured I'd tack that on at the end.

Day one of the Real Food Cleanse was filled with delicious, wholesome meals that totally satisfied. I didn't even miss fake meat! Breakfast was this GIGANTIC Strawberry Blonde Bowl — one apple, one banana, 1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries, mixed with a tahini sauce. It made so much that I had to eat it out of a mixing bowl.


I ate this while watching Downton Abbey in my pj's. Then I got dressed and went for a 6.2-mile run. Protein powders aren't on Amber's cleanse plan, but I like to drink Vega after long runs because the high level of protein helps rebuild muscle. I typically drink my Vega in smoothie-form as a meal replacement, but today, I mixed the Vega One Vanilla Chai powder with water and drank it that way. Not as delicious. But not half bad.


Lunch was this Zingy Spring Mix Salad with Black Beans. It had a nutritional yeast-tahini dressing and avocado as well. I loved having the cooked beans in with the otherwise raw salad. It was more filling that way. Sometime totally raw food meals leave me hungry.


Each day on the Real Food Cleanse includes a dessert. But I don't eat dessert after dinner because I'm always too full. I'm a dessert in the mid-afternoon kind of gal. I had these Buttery Stuffed Dates and Blueberries while reading Damien Echols' Life After Death memoir this afternoon. The dates were stuffed with coconut butter, which has long been one of my fave desserts. Few things go better with dates than creamy coconut butter.


Dinner was massive and very filling — Cheese-Smothered Broccoli and Chickpeas. An ENTIRE HEAD of broccoli florets are steamed with a half-cup of chickpeas, and that's topped with a noochy cheese sauce.


One thing I'm loving about this cleanse is all the nutritional yeast and tahini. Raw and steamed veggies are all fine and good, but they're five million times better topped with nooch and tahini!

Now I'm about to start prepping my meals for tomorrow. Amber includes detailed lists of things you should do the night before to make meal prepping a breeze. See y'all then!

Vida Vegan Con, Part 2

Tired of my Vida Vegan Con posts yet? Too bad cause here's another! But it's the last, I promise. Tonight, I'll be sharing some pics from Saturday and Sunday, which were both full conference days filled with workshops and panels. But of course, we had time for crazy fun afterwards!

Saturday began with the VVC Portland Breakfast Showcase in the ballroom. Restaurants from across the city served up bite-sized menu items. Most were breakfasty foods (doughnuts, quiches, etc.). But of course, I had to go straight for the pizza and burgers table. Only in Portland can I eat pizza and burgers for breakfast and not feel a twinge of food guilt.

Sizzle Pie was serving "Eggs" Benedict Pizza with Ranch Dressing. Definitely my fave breakfast item of the weekend.


And I had some BBQ Jackfruit and Beet Burger Sliders from the White Owl Social Club's table. Yes, BBQ for breakfast. I'm a true Southern gal.


Everyone at my table was raving about these gluten-free Tofu Quiches from the Back to Eden Bakery table. Delicious! I couldn't even tell it was gluten-free.


And even though I was stuffed, I found room for this sample-sized Tofu Scramble with Meatloaf and Cheezy Sauce from A.N.D. Cafe.


After all those carbs, I was happy to see the Portland Juice Press folks were offering juice samples for balance.


After breakfast, the panels began. I attended a great panel on Vegan Community Building. Jason Das from Vegan Drinks was on the panel (along with Maeve Conner, Laura Beck of Vegansaurus, and Leigh-Chantelle of Viva La Vegan), and his words inspired me to get a Memphis Vegan Drinks chapter started here. More on that soon! I'm planning the first meet-up for July.


I didn't have any panels to speak on on Saturday, so I just hung out and attended lots of other peoples' very informative discussions.

Lunch was a Build-a-Bowl buffet! There were all sorts of goodies for bowl piling, and I think I managed to fit every one of them in this bowl — brown rice, quinoa, tempeh bacon, Upton's seitan, tofu, black beans, pinto beans, raw walnut meat, Galaxy vegan cheese, hummus, Nacheez, hemp seeds, lettuce, carrots, and garlic sauce. Oh, and Secret Aardvark habanero sauce and sriracha!


After lunch, Kittee Kake of Cake Maker to the Stars, Amey of Vegan Eats & Treats, and Mo of Mo Betta Vegan hosted the Vegan Battle Royale, a vegan trivia game show in which audience members were called to the stage to answer questions like, "What cookbook features Caulipots?" (hint: Appetite for Reduction) or challenges such as naming 15 blogs in a matter of seconds (The badass Ashlee Piper of The Little Foxes won that challenge, and Vegan Crunk was the last one she named!). There was also a blind taste test in which contestants had to guess ingredients in a mystery food. Isa Chandra Moskowitz won that one.


There were more workshops and panels after the Vegan Battle Royale. We had a short break between the conference and the Galarama, a fancy vegan gala to benefit the Chimp Sanctuary NW. It was held in a really rad venue with a model train track that spanned the inside and part of the outside of the building.

My friend Joel (whom I stayed with while I was in Portland) didn't attend the conference, but he did join me at the gala. Joel ordered beer, and I made a b-line for the samples of Miyoko's vegan cheeses. Miyoko Skinner wrote Artsian Vegan Cheese, and she's pretty much the world's greatest expert on vegan cheese. And she made these herself!! OMG! These were amazing! I wanted to eat this entire tray, but I had to be nice and share.


We had the local Bridgeport Summer Squeeze. Don't you love the tracks?!


And there were Vegan Jello Shots! They didn't set properly, but that didn't stop us.


Outside the gala, a couple of food carts were selling dinner. There was a taco cart and a hot dog cart. Joel and I both chose the Tandem Treats hot dog cart because their logo was a two-headed rainbow unicorn.


I got a Tofurky Hot Dog with Grilled Onions, Black Olives, Tomatoes, Spinach, and Jalapenos. Joel had the same but with a Tofurky Brat.


There was a silent auction at the gala to benefit the chimp rescue. And when I spotted these Viana Sunflower Spreads that I'd sampled (and fell in love with) at NOLA Veggie Fest a couple of weeks ago, I had to bid! And guess what? I won! $32 for 8 jars.


After the gala, a group of us decided to walk to the legendary Casa Diablo, Portland's vegan strip club. Yes, folks, a VEGAN STRIP CLUB!


All of the food served there and all the booze is vegan. One person in our group had a White Russian! I had Taquitos! There's actually a far more interesting shot of these taquitos with a stripper's boobs in view, but it's probably not appropriate for my food blog. Use your imagination.


Whew! Saturday was crazy! But Sunday morning came quickly. We awoke to another breakfast buffet at the conference. This one was all about cold and hot cereals. I'm not a huge sweets-for-breakfast person, so I was afraid I wouldn't find much I was excited about eating here. But thankfully, there was nooch (should I have ever doubted that there wouldn't be?) and Secret Aardvark habanero sauce to make Savory Oats. And there were Breakfast Potatoes. I added some Chia Pudding for good measure. And some fruit cause why not?


Lunch was another buffet, but this time it was all about building sandwiches! I made an Everything Sandwich with tofu, Upton's bacon, Tofurky slices, roasted veggies, hummus, greens, Nayo Whipped spread, and basically a little of everything on the buffet.


I also built a sort of Raw Taco using raw walnut meat, a romaine leaf, and some carrots. But then I made it un-raw by covering it in Nacheez spread.


There were more panels after lunch, including one on Inter-dietary Cohabitation with me, Dawn of Vegan Moxie, and Joni Marie Newman of Just the Food. My partner Paul, whom I share space with, is an omnivore, so I talked about how we handle sticky situations, like dinner, fridge space, and separate pots and pans. I also had some great news to report during the panel — Paul has decided to go vegetarian until dinnertime every day. Not vegan, because he wants to eat Morningstar Farms black bean burgers for lunch. But still. Progress. Baby steps. It only took 8 1/2 years.

And then the conference was over. Sadness! We said our goodbyes and snapped the last pics (I'll be posting many of those on Facebook soon). Until next time, my friends.

But wait, that's not all! After the conference, my friend Joel and his friend Scott and his girlfriend took me to Multnomah Falls, just about 30 minutes outside of Portland.


Wow! I've never seen a waterfall this amazing! It was lovely seeing some Northwest nature for a change instead of just stuffing my face (though I do really love stuffing my face).

After our waterfall journey, I met up with a few vegan blogger friends for one last meal at the appropriately named Bye and Bye (the same vegan bar where we ended out the conference in 2011). I had the Samurai Bowl (brown rice, nooch-covered tofu, slaw, miso-chili sauce, and avocado).


And of course, I couldn't end a trip to Portland without one more Vegan Bloody Mary! Sadly, I only had time for a couple of these because my flight left Monday morning at 6:55 a.m.!


Cheers to my vegan blogger buds! I'll see y'all again next Vida Vegan Con (or hopefully sooner!).

Vida Vegan Con, Part 1

I spent last week hanging out with some of my favorite vegan food bloggers and speaking on panels at Vida Vegan Con II in Portland. I took about 600 pictures, so I've combed through and selected my faves to share in two posts today and tomorrow. I mean, I'm sure you'd love to see every single one of my 600 photos, but .... jk! I know you don't care about all that! Here are my highlights from Thursday night and Friday.

Vida Vegan Con didn't officially start until Friday around noon, but there was an unofficial meet 'n' greet at the White Owl Social Club on Thursday afternoon. I arrived early because I was on foot and got there sooner than I'd planned. Lucky for me, they had Vegan Bloody Marys!!! Jesus, Portland is a magical place. This Bloody Mary was the best I've ever had because it was super spicy and made with beet juice!


Also arriving early were Lydia and Mauro from From A to Vegan! I'd never met them before, and they were so fun!


We chatted for a bit, and then my old pals from Vida Vegan Con I arrived — Brit of Vegans Don't Bite, Dawn of Vegan Moxie, and Katie of Vegan Noms. We spent so much time together at the 2011 conference, and this year was no different. I was so excited to see my girls again!


I spotted Jojo from Vegan In Brighton right away! How can anybody miss this adorableness?


And I was thrilled to meet Dan of The Gay Vegans (and Dan was thrilled with this Cock and Bull beer!). He was such a sweetheart. We'd been Twitter friends for some time, but now we are real life friends.


On the way to the ladies' room, I ran into Sayward of Bonzai Aphrodite and Gena of Choosing Raw.


Of course, Erika of Sews Before Bros and Amey of Vegan Eats & Treats were up for some silly fun.


After all that socializing, I'd worked up quite an appetite. And it was happy hour at the White Owl, which meant the Fried Mac & Cheese Burgers were half-off. This burger was RIDICULOUS! Mac & cheese all pattied up and deep-fried. Glorious.


I mean, look at this. Come on.


The meet 'n' greet ended at 6:30 p.m., but Dawn, Brit, Helen, and I found a few minutes for a fun photobooth shot.


The next stop was the People's Co-op, a natural grocery, where we watched The Intrepid Herivores vegan travel show pilot. It was all about eating and ordering vegan food in Thailand. Then we were off to the Sweet Hereafter — a totally vegan bar — for more vegan drinks. I had a Vegan White Russian!


On Friday morning, I awoke to a couple of Voodoo Doughnuts, and then I left Joel's apartment to register for the conference at the Portland Art Museum. After registration, I had a few minutes to seek out lunch at a nearby food cart pod. I stumbled on this vegan-friendly cart called Savor.


They were offering Vegan Grilled Cheese and Vegan Split Pea Soup with Croutons. You can add all kinds of stuff to your grilled cheese, so I picked Marmite and tomatoes. Wow! I will always add Marmite to my grilled cheeses from here on out.


After lunch, it was time for the VVC panels and workshops to begin. I spoke on a panel about spirituality and veganism (with freelance blogger Gabrielle Pope and Nicole from Upton's Naturals), followed by a panel called "Path to Cookbook Author" with author goddesses Joni Marie Newman and Julie Hasson. So honored to be on panels with such amazing women!

After the panels were over on Friday, there was a VVC Veggie Grill reception in the conference ballroom. There was Watermelon Juice (delicious, but it would have been better with vodka).


And Vegan Chicken Wraps and Buffalo Wings.


And just to make sure we got some veggies in, they also served up a Kale Salad with Mango Dressing. Mind you, this was the most greens I got all weekend!


Just after the reception, I tagged along with Dan (from New York), Amber Shea Crawley, and her husband Matt for a ride to the Vegan Mini Mall, where a gorditas and s'mores pop-up shop was underway. Upton's Naturals was serving Gorditas inside Food Fight Grocery. Remember gorditas from Taco Bell? With the hard and soft shell combined? That was the business.

 
And for dessert, Herbivore Clothing Company and the folks from Dandies were roasting s'mores near the register.


The best part about these s'mores? They were made with Biscoff cookies instead of graham crackers! Glorious.


Here's a shot of vegans loitering outside the mini-mall with their gorditas and s'mores.


After the pop-up, a group of us went for local craft beers at Hungry Tiger Too. And then we headed to Lovecraft, a goth bar. Look at the ceiling!


And here's a group shot (of course, the lovely Miss Amber Shea "Goth Girl" Crawley was there!).


Well, that was all for Thursday and Friday. I'll be back tomorrow with pictures from the rest of the conference.

Portland!!!

I'm back from Vegan Mecca, a.k.a. Portland! And boy is my belly full. I spent the last several days eating my way through Portland and hanging with tons of other vegan food bloggers at the second bi-annual Vida Vegan Con blogger's convention.

But I'll tell y'all more about that in posts on Wednesday and Thursday night. Tonight, I want to share some food porn pics of my pre-conference meals. I arrived in Portland on Wednesday, two days before the official start of VVC so I'd have more time to explore Portland's awesomeness. Lucky for me, my friend Joel moved from Little Rock, Arkansas to Portland last year. So I had a great (and very comfy) couch to crash on.

Here's Joel and I shortly after my flight landed on Wednesday afternoon. Ready for adventure!


Joel, his friend Scott, and I set out on foot from his apartment in Northwest in search of a pre-dinner snack. I found the iconic Portland sign that's featured in the opening credits of Portlandia!


We had no destination in mind, so long as what we found was vegan. And guess what? We stumbled onto one of the places on my must-try-while-in-Portland list — Veggie Grill!


Since it was happy hour, we ordered the Wings and PBR special — Buffalo Wings and a tall-boy can of Papst for $4.95.


And we also ordered some of Veggie Grill's legendary Mac & Cheese to split (best mac in the world, y'all!).


And we also ordered the Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes with Gravy to split. This stuff bears a striking taste resemblance to KFC mashed taters and gravy!


After our snack, we wandered around and did some shopping at thrift shops and the famous Powell's City of Books. We made 7 p.m. dinner plans for Blossoming Lotus with some more of Joel's friends. After our heavy snack, I didn't think I'd be hungry. But we quickly burned off the wings and taters while shopping.

At 7 p.m., we arrived at Blossoming Lotus, a fancy sit-down all-vegan restaurant. And it seemed that many other early conference attendees had the same idea. I ran into Leigh-Chantelle from Viva La Vegan, vegan cookbook goddess Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and John McDevitt from The Laziest Vegans in the World.

After a very long wait for a table, we started dinner with a bottle of August Cellars wine, a local vegan red.


For starters, we ordered the Live Nachos — flax crackers with raw nacho cheese and raw sour cream. So good!


And we also ordered the Live Cheese Plate — three raw cheeses (apricot chevre, cheddar, and pepper jack) with raw crackers and fruit. The chevre was my very fave!


For my entree, I couldn't resist the Southern BBQ Plate. You can take the girl out the South, but you can't take the South out the girl, right? This was amazing! BBQ Soy Curls, Mac & Cheese, Buttered Cornbread, Black-Eyed Peas, and Kale.


After dinner, Joel and I went to Ground Kontrol, a rad video arcade and bar with vegan bar food! Unfortunately, I was too full to sample the vegan pizza and corn dogs there. But we drank local beer, and I kicked Joel's ass at Mortal Kombat.



We also ran into my old pal Jack from Memphis at Ground Kontrol. He moved to Portland six years ago. We all played some pinball together.

After the arcade, I just HAD to get a box of vegan doughnuts from Voodoo Doughnuts. Last VVC, I only sampled two doughnuts, and that made me sad. So this time, I ordered a dozen!!! All for me (because Joel doesn't like doughnuts).




I intended to eat several doughnuts every day while I was in town. But I have to admit that I left Portland with 4 or 5 doughnuts untouched in the box. A girl can only eat so many doughnuts. I gave it my best try!

The next day — Thursday — was mostly open until the afternoon, when the unofficial Vida Vegan Con meet 'n' greet was scheduled to happen at the White Owl Social Club. Joel and I spent the morning exploring Portland a little more before I'd be super busy with con stuff.

We ended up at Hungry Tiger Too —home of the world's best vegan corn dog — for lunch.


I ordered the Vegan Corndog (because I'd been dying to try it for years!), but I subbed out the fries that come with it for Coleslaw. I knew the weekend would be all about eating vegan junk food, and I figured it was best to get some veggies in early.


This corndog BLEW MY MIND! I've had vegan corndogs, of course. But nothing can top this one. The batter was crispy, greasy, and slightly sweet.


Joel ordered the Cougar Club, a massive sandwich with fried tofu, tempeh, vegan cheese sauce, and jalapenos. I took a bite, and it was so good!


After lunch, we walked to Portland's famous Vegan Mini Mall! It's a strip mall with Food Fight (a vegan grocery), Herbivore (a vegan clothing company), Sweetpea (a vegan bakery), and Scapegoat (a vegan tattoo shop).

Look what I found inside Herbivore! My book! They asked me to sign these copies!


Okay, I'm stopping here. Tomorrow, I'll share pictures from con stuff, like the meet 'n' greet at White Owl, the Veggie Grill reception, and a pop-up gorditas shop!

Beyond Meat Fajitas!!

I'm off to Portland for the second bi-annual Vida Vegan Con food bloggers conference! So this will be my last post until next Wednesday. But don't worry — I'll share oodles of drool-worthy shots of vegan doughnuts, vegan s'mores, gorditas, and goddess know what else I'll find in the vegan mecca when I return. And of course, I'll have lots of fun stories about hanging out with other bloggers!

Since I'll be gone for so long, I want to leave you with something good. How about a review and recipe using Beyond Meat? The folks at Beyond Meat, a new plant-based chicken that tastes and feels alarmingly like animal chicken, sent me samples of three of their chicken-free strip flavors to review in conjunction with their national release of Beyond Meat products at Whole Foods stores. Before, some Whole Foods (like the one here) carried prepared deli foods made with Beyond Meat, but now you can find it in the freezer case!

And if that wasn't awesome enough, Tropical Smoothie shops have begun carrying Beyond Meat for their wraps. The world is a beautiful place, my friends.

So how is it? Well, y'all know I love some plant meat, right? I've tried every plant meat I can get my hands on cause deep-down I'm a meat-and-potatoes gal who just can't bear to eat other breathing creatures. And I'll tell ya, this is the most realistic-tasting vegan meat on the market. It looks like meat. It tastes like meat. It even fooled my omni partner Paul (okay, he knew it was plant meat when he tried it, but he said it was delicious ... and that means a lot coming from him).

I got three flavors from the Beyond Meat folks, but tonight, I'll feature the Southwest Style because that's all I've had time to play with.


The soy-based meat comes in strips, and Southwest Style is seasoned with chili powder, garlic, cumin, oregano, coriander, green pepper, and cayenne. Perfect for making fajitas!

I whipped up some Southwest Style Beyond Meat Fajitas for a quick weeknight meal.


Here's an inside shot (look at that sexy guacamole).


Here's the recipe.

Southwest Style Beyond Meat Fajitas
----------------------------------------------
1 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, sliced into strips
1 green pepper, sliced into strips
1 frozen 12-ounce package of Beyond Meat Chicken-Free Strips, Southwest Style
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
4 tortillas
Guacamole
Lettuce
Tomatoes

Heat the oil on medium heat in a non-stick skillet. Add the onion and saute for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the peppers and saute for about 3 minutes, until they begin to soften.

Add the Beyond Meat strips and spices. Stir to coat. Saute 7 to 10 minutes, until Beyond Meat is browned and veggies are tender.

Serve in tortillas with guacamole, lettuce, and tomatoes.

Bluff City Vegan Eats: Hunger Monkey

Last Friday was National Bike to Work Day, and even though it was gloomy and drizzly on Friday in Memphis, my co-worker Mark Plumlee and I rode bikes to work anyway. We participate in Bike to Work Day every year.

The ride from my Crosstown house to my downtown office takes about 45 minutes, and there are bike lanes for much of the drive. Memphis has become incredibly bike-friendly over the last two years with 55-plus miles of bike lanes added across the city. A few years ago, folks around here didn't know what a bike lane was!

Not only has Memphis grown more bike-friendly, it's also become way more vegan-friendly (as I'm sure you can tell in my Bluff City Vegan Eats series posts). Portland of the South? Not quite yet. I'd give that distinction to Atlanta or Austin. But we're getting there for sure. Case in point: the Hunger Monkey food truck.


Every year, there's a little Bike to Work Day festival at lunch time in Court Square. Typically, there's live music and food trucks and lots of cyclists hanging out. But since it's rained, hardly anyone showed up at this year's fest. Mark and I were there though. And so was Dawn Vinson, Bike to Work Day's Memphis organizer (who also happens to be vegan!). And guess who else was there? A vegan-friendly food truck!

Hunger Monkey is a new truck. It's only been on the streets for a few weeks, but I'd read about it on the Hungry Memphis blog. They serve meat, but they have plenty of vegan options. There's a vegan pasta dish, hummus and pita, and all the veggie sides are vegan. You can make a plate of four sides for $8. So that's what I did.


There's Couscous with Tomatoes and Basil, Roasted Okra, Cooked Collards and Kale, and a Kale and Orzo Salad.

The roasted okra was AMAZING! As much as I adore fried okra, I have to admit that I think I love roasted okra more (here's my recipe). These guys season theirs with a spicy Cajun-like seasoning. So good.

The kale and orzo salad was also amazing. The raw kale was massaged, and I liked how there were more veggies than grains. And the couscous was fantastic (but I did have to add some extra salt). The cooked greens, which are buried under the okra in this picture, were really tasty too. They were slow-cooked, Southern-style greens, and there were little mushrooms chopped up in there.

With a good 30-minute bike ride home ahead of me, it was nice to fuel up on fresh veggies rather than something fake meaty or fried (my usual go-to dining out fare).

If you're in Memphis and you'd like to find where Hunger Monkey will be parked next, check their Facebook page.

Artsy Vegan Buffet Dinner in My 'Hood!

For the last four years, my neighborhood arts organization, Crosstown Arts, has been holding annual MemFEAST dinners. What's MemFEAST? Well, the "Mem" stands for "Memphis," and FEAST is an acronym for "Funding Emerging Artists with Sustainable Tactics." Still not clear? Let me explain.

Community members and arts supporters from all over the city pay $35 for a ticket to MemFEAST.  Money from all the ticket sales — plus some generous donor contributions — totals at $5,000. In return for their $35 ticket, patrons get a massive and awesome vegan dinner. And while they're eating dinner, artists make presentations for art projects that they could create with that $5,000. After the presentations are through, the patrons vote for their favorite art project. The winner gets the $5,000 to make their art project a reality.

I love the MemFEAST concept, and I've attended the event every year. The meal hasn't always been all vegan (the first two years featured a mostly vegan menu with one or two meat dishes for the omnis). But for the past two years, Chef/farmer Miles McMath has been preparing the food. And he makes everything vegan! Crosstown Arts, the arts organization that represents my neighborhood in Memphis, is probably the most vegan-friendly arts organization in town. They always have vegan options at their events, and many times, all of the food is vegan. Lucky me!

This year's MemFEAST event happened on Saturday night. Each year, the location has changed, but this year may have been my very fave. The party was held outdoors on the V&E Greenline, a 1.8-mile bike and pedestrian path on an old rail track. It was like a lovely garden party!

Here I am (with new hair!)


And here are my friends Cassi and Greg, who are both vegan as well, checking out the menu before dinner.


Each table had multiple bottles of Ginger-Basil Aqua Fresca.


And look at these adorable decorations! Old airplane-sized liquor bottles with flowers!


The buffet was AMAZING!!! It started with antipasto — Heirloom Bean Hummus, Olive Tapenade, Raw Veggies, Portobello Mousse, and Burnt Naan (The naan had a light grilled flavor and was among my favorite things).


And there was French Lentil Caviar, Beet Tartare, Pickled Spring Vegetables, and Rustic Bread.


But the real icing on the cake was the vegan slider bar! I had one of each! There were Edamame & White Bean Burgers with Field Lettuce, Spring Onion, and Chow Chow, Redneck Reubens made from Vegan Andouille, Kimchee, and Creole Remoulade, Green Lentil & Quinoa Burgers with Vindaloo Vegetables, and Tamarind Chutney, Hominy-Green Chili Burgers with Avocado, Salsa Roja, and Lime Crema, and Sweet Tater Logs with Chipotle Ketchup.


And at the end of the buffet (and I failed to take a picture) were Curry Spiced Tofu with Broccoli Rabe and Basil-Mint Pesto, Sweet Corn & Farro Risotto with Green Butterbeans and Arkansas "Feta" (my fave!), and Springtime Soba Noodles with Ginger Miso Broth, Pok Choi, Daikon, and Shoots.

And let's not forget dessert! Brownies and Raw Peach Cobbler with Green Wheat Freekah Crust.


I tried everything on the menu. So needless to say, my plate was a little overstuffed. I took a picture of Greg's much tidier, less gluttonous plate.


After dinner, we were so full! But the artists' presentations helped get our minds off our very full bellies. Five artists gave presentations, and the winner was Jeannie Tomlinson Saltmarsh, who proposed the installation on the greenline of metal fish sculptures that move with the wind.

We stayed for awhile after dinner and drank more wine. Look how lovely this little garden party was after dark!


Another successful MemFEAST has come and gone, and this one was definitely the best so far.