Green Festival 2013, DC

I have a love-hate relationship with the Green Festival. There was a time when I tried to get into the environmental scene, but shortly thereafter, I realized it wasn't the scene for me. Composting, solar energy, and sustainable farming just doesn't get me going. That said, this year's Green Festival's focus on vegan food did and I was really glad I went.

The Green Festival is held in Washington, DC and San Francisco, CA each year.  As always, there were a number of speakers talking about everything from bicycle commuting to green juicing. I was especially excited to see that Karen of United Poultry Concerns was speaking out against backyard chicken-keeping in response to the pro-backyard chicken-keeping speaker from the prior year.

Throughout the festival, there were a number of vegan food exhibitors like Alive & Radiant, Daiya Foods, and Mira's Homemade Granola. Mom's was giving away produce while Clif was giving away bars. Honest Tea was selling teas using the honor system (how appropriate) for just $1. And there was raw food aplenty.

For lunch, I chose a raw plate from Nyota's Ting International Vegan Catering Company that included cajun nut meat and kale salad. It was delicious.

There were other cool items like a flower pot made of cork.  Oh, and there was a yoga area too.

But, the funniest thing really were the trash Nazis. These people stood behind the Compost, Landfill, and Recycling bins instructing festival-goers as to where to put their trash. They were so passionate that if you threw your plastic cup into the landfill, they would dig it out and place it in the recycle bin. We had some fun messing with them.

All in all, I really enjoyed the Green Festival this year as there was a huge focus on vegan food and skin products. I hope the festival returns to DC next year.

Taco Pedaler, Portland

Vida Vegan Con, the vegan blogger conference, held a gala on the second night to benefit an animal sanctuary.  There were two food carts invited to serve food and one of them was the Taco Pedaler. The Taco Pedaler isn't a food truck, rather it is a food cart on the back of a bicycle. How inventive is that?!

The owners have tasted tacos from the coast of baja to the border of Belize and brought these wonderful tastes back to Portland via a traditional Mexican tricycle.  They always offer vegan and gluten-free options. 

On this particular night, they were offering a vegan taco meal for $6.50. The coolest thing was watching them take a ball of dough, press it out round, then cook it on the grill to make fresh tortillas!  From there they topped two with fresh pinto beans, mixed grilled veggies, and guacamole along with shredded cabbage and cilantro. They were as good as bike food is going to get!  I wasn't a big fan of the chips, but the salsa was pretty good too.

Follow them on Facebook and Twitter to see where they'll be next!

BerryRipe's List of the Top 50 Vegan Blogs

I'm so psyched to find out I made BerryRipe's list of the Top 50 Vegan Blogs of 2013! My site was selected out of hundreds of blogs reviewed based on the quality of content, site design, user experience, and frequency of publication. The full list can be found here.

Hip, hip, hooray!

BerryRipe is a website that provides fitness tips, vegan recipes, and workout tutorials.

Prasad, Portland

After three days of non-stop eating in Portland, we thought it would be nice to take a local yoga class, then enjoy a nice healthy meal. So, my friend, Corey, and I took a class at Yoga Pearl, then dined in their inhouse cafe, Prasad, in the Pearl District of Portland.

Prasad is "an offering of sustainable organic cuisine to nourish and heal the mind, body, and soul." As an almost vegan, organic cafe, Prasad serves some of the healthiest food in Portland, in my opinion, and I was delighted to discover it.

Prasad serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For lunch, they serve salads, soups, and bowls along with juices and smoothies. The menu sounds simple, but is actually pretty complex as there are a lot of options. We stood at the front counter for quite a bit of time trying to decide what to order. I ultimately chose a bowl and a smoothie.

The cafe is actually in the same building that houses the yoga studios so it is pretty low-key. Most people were reading a book or working on laptops as they ate their food. We found a seat at one of the many tables near the window.

I ordered the Melody juice made with kale, cucumber, spinach, apple, lemon, and ginger. It was a sweet juice that finished with a kick of ginger.

For my meal, I ordered the El Dorado Salad. This huge raw bowl was filled with spinach and mixed greens, yam rice, walnut taco crumbles, avocado, sun dried tomato, scallions and cilantro. It also came with two sauces -- a jalapeno cashew cream and a red chili vinaigrette.  I can honestly say this is one of the best salads I've ever had. The jalapeno cashew cream made this dish as it brought creaminess and spice to a healthful bowl of greens. The walnut taco crumbles were oh-so-tasty and the yam rice was great too. I was so pleased with this dish.

Corey got the Dragon Bowl filled with greens, quinoa, beans, sea vegetables, avocado, sesame seeds, scallions, and red cabbage. It was great as well.

I liked it so much that I decided to return to Prasad five days later. On this trip, I wasn't feeling so great so I started with the Wellness Shot -- a blend of ginger juice, lemon, cayenne, and echinacea.

I also ordered the juice special that had turmeric root, carrot, apple, and beet. So good.

For my entree, I ordered the Chili Bowl. It was filled with quinoa, their housemade roasted garlic chili, steamed greens, avocado, cilantro, scallions, and garlic tahini sauce. It was healthy and delicious.

After 6 days in Portland, I have to say that Prasad was my favorite lunch spot while Blossoming Lotus was my favorite dinner spot.  At $9 per bowl, the price is great for all organic, healthy fare. I'd highly recommend putting this at the top of your list of places to eat in Portland...oh, and do a little yoga while you're there too.

Prasad (inside Yoga Pearl)
925 NW Davis
Portland, OR 97209
(503) 224-3993

Cabbage, Kale, Couscous, and Red Bean Bowl

There's all kinds of goodness in this bowl. This was really an attempt to eat everything in my refrigerator. So I put kale, Swiss chard, purple cabbage, beans, and couscous together with a spicy sauce and avocado on top. Talk about healthy! Red cabbage is very good for your digestive tract, especially when steamed. Kale is loaded with vitamin K and calcium. Swiss chard has high levels of vitamin K, A, and C.

For my grain, I used the Trader Joe's Harvest Grains blend of Israeli couscous, orzo, baby garbanzo beans, and red quinoa.  I also used Better Bean's Rethought Red Beans -- a great source of fiber.

For the sauce, I used The Ginger People Hot Ginger Jalapeno dip, which has a nice thickness to it and a spicy kick. You can use any sauce you want with this dish. I just discovered The Ginger People and have found their sauces to be really good.

Cabbage, Kale, Couscous, and Red Bean Bowl
Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup dried grains (I used Trader Joe's Harvest Grains blend)
• 1 package Better Beans Rethought Red Beans (or other red beans)
• 1/2 red cabbage, sliced in thin pieces
• 1 bunch kale, sliced in thin strips
• 1 bunch Swiss Chard, sliced into thin strips
• The Ginger People Hot Ginger Jalapeno (or any other sauce)
• 1 avocado, sliced

Instructions
Cook the grains according to the instructions on the package or use the 2:1 ratio of 2 cups of water to 1 cup of grains.

Heat the beans in a saucepan on low heat.

Heat a large pot with water over high heat with a colander insert or steamer insert inside. Once it begins steaming, add cabbage, and cover.  Steam for about 4 minutes, until tender, but not overcooked. Remove from pot. Steam half of the kale and Swiss Chard together, covered, for about 3 minutes. Repeat for the other half.

Put grains, beans, greens, and cabbage in bowl. Top with sauce and avocado and enjoy.

Back to Eden Bakery, Portland

During the Vida Vegan Con conference, I had the pleasure of dining at the Portland Breakfast Showcase, which featured small samples from local vegan businesses in Portland. After trying all of the samples, I determined that the savory pie I got from Back to Eden Bakery was the best item there, which made me want to seek out this bakery.

And, lo and behold, there it was right next to Townshend's Tea Company on Alberta Street! Back to Eden is not just a bakery -- they also serve some savory items like quiches, soups, and salads. But, what really makes Back to Eden unique is that not only is it completely vegan, it is gluten-free as well. So all items are vegan AND gluten-free...and they are good too! Imagine that.

I can only eat so much so I just decided to buy one thing when I stopped by the bakery. With an extensive menu of sweets including donuts, cakes, cheesecakes, and pastries, it was hard to choose. I went for the Marionberry Coffee Cake and saved it for breakfast the next day. It was spectacular. The fresh marionberries melted in my mouth as I enjoyed the sweet, moist coffee crumb cake surrounding them.

I also had the opportunity to try one of their cookies, which was pretty good as well. They obviously have some talented chefs at Back to Eden. Next time I'll come for lunch and stay for dessert as well.

Back to Eden Bakery
2217 NE Alberta St.
Portland, OR 97211
(503) 477-5022

DC VegFest 2013

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this year's DC VegFest was the biggest and best ever! It was so exciting to see hundreds of people lined up at 11 a.m. to grab a free goodie bag and even more exciting to see them getting to try all the tasty vegan treats!

Some of the highlights included speakers like Rich Roll, Wendy Rieger, and Paul Shapiro. There were some great nonprofits like the Kindness Collective, Vegan Outreach, COK, and VSDC.

Oh, and there was food...LOTS of food. The only problem was that the festival was in this enclosed area in Yards Park and there were way too many people, not enough room, and not enough food vendors for the number of people that showed up. This is a good problem to have, but made it challenging for the festival-goers. For example, one of my friends waited over an hour for food from the Woodlands Vegan Bistro truck. Other people waited in a line that went as long as the width of the festival space just to snag a vegan donut from Vegan Treats.

Some of my favorite food vendors included the bars from Kate Bakes, tonics from Gouter, toppings from Amsterdam Falafel, and kombucha from Barefoot Bucha.  The nachos from Bread & Brew looked delicious as well.

There were kale chips by New Family Naturals and cowvin cookies by Sticky Fingers.

If you didn't want to buy food, there were samples aplenty! I liked the pasta salad using Just Mayo by Hampton Creek Foods, sausages by Tofurky and Field Roast, and crackers with Treeline cheese the best.

And who could forget the awesome vegan clothing by Herbivore!

And what's a festival if I'm not getting my picture taken with some sort of plush, costumed person. So to keep the tradition going, here's me:

The weather was absolutely beautiful and it couldn't have been a more perfect day to sit out on the grass at Yards Park listening to the music and eating vegan nom.

Thanks to everyone who came out this year to VegFest. And thank you to all of the awesome volunteers who spent their day helping out, especially COK.  I'm hoping for a bigger, better VegFest last year.