Vegan Cuts - June Box

I had my first Vegan Cuts experience last month at Vida Vegan Con. They were one of the exhibitors and gave us all a great little snack bag. Here is their awesome June Box. 

The box includes: 

• Go Veggie! Parmesan 
• The Good Bean's Sweet Cinnamon roasted chickpea snacks
• Michy's Cookie - Cran Rustica 
• MacroLife Naturals 
• Fanciful Fox - Peanut Butter lip balm
• Ultima Replenisher 
• Snapz - Tomato Veggie Crisps
• Beanfields Rice & Bean Chips

I am most excited about the Fancifox lip balm. I love trying new lip balms. I was so excited I took it out of the box and forgot to photograph it. Next I can't wait to try the Go Veggie Parmesan. The most interesting and different snacks are the The Good Bean's Sweet Cinnamon roasted chickpea snacks and Snapz Tomato Veggie Crisps.The Good Bean snacks might look like a chickpeas but they tasted more like sugar and spiced nuts. The Snapz Tomato snacks were like a chewy tomato chip. They were better than expected. I would like to try a different vegetable.

http://www.thegoodbean.com/

http://www.snapzcrisps.com/

Thank you Vegan Cuts for this awesome snack box. Go get yours today!
 http://www.vegancuts.com/

Portland - The Beauty in the City

Here are some of the shots I took around town of the great fountains, statues, and architecture. 

Go Vegan Please - Portland Sidewalk

VVC 2013 Day Three

SUNDAY, MAY 26

Today the buffet had a healthier fare. Thank god because all the rich food I was eating was starting to make me feel bad.

Today’s schedule..

9:45 – 11:00  Advanced Photography - Susan Voisin

This was another of our favorites. We probably learned to most in this class. We are about to buy ourselves a better camera. Right now we just have a point and shoot small camera that I carry in my purse. Thanks to Susan we learned a few tricks and tips for us to use when we do buy our camera. 

11:15 – 12:15  Recipe Creation & Testing - Terry Hope Romero

12:30 – 1:15  Lunch in the Ballroom: The Sandwich Board

 1:45 – 2:30 Artful Food Photography - Kelly Peloza

2:45 – 3:30 

1st Attempt:Tech for Effective Web Presence - Jason Das

2nd Attempt: Veganism & Social Justice - Maeve Connor, Jamie J. Hagen, Erika Larson

I really wanted to attend the Tech class since my blog is basic. By the time we got to the class it was standing room only. Since this was the last class we were tired and didn’t want to stand. The class was in the same building as the museum gift shop so we looked around for a bit then went to Veganism and Social Justice which surprisingly wasn’t full.

3:45 – 4:15 Closing Address

In Summary

…

We had a great time meeting fellow vegans and catching up with others that we had met at the first VVC.

The food was good. I liked the mix of indulging a little (breakfast showcase) and eating a little healthier (Bob's oats, Attune cereal). The buffet was a great way to sample things we haven't tried before like the Uptons Seitan Bacon.

For VVC3 I would love to see more classes like my top 3 favorites (Food Styling, Advanced Food Photography, and Cadry Nelson’s class) or anything with our favorite speaker Terry Hope Romero. 

My only disappointment was some of the class sizes. The "West" classroom was too small. The only reason I got a seat in one of the classes in that room is because I left the class before it early. We didn't want to be rude but we weren't going to miss Cadry Nelson.

VVC 2013 Day Two

SATURDAY, MAY 25

8:00 – 9:15 Portland Vegan Breakfast ShowcaseThis was such a great idea. Our favorites were the breakfast pizza from Sizzle Pie and the sliders from White Owl Social Club. And don’t forget the scones from Back to Eden. We were so full from trying everything I’m surprised we didn’t go into a food coma in the next class and fall asleep. How embarrassing would that have been!

Our classes for the day...

9:30 – 10:45 
1st Attempt: Developing & Teaching Kick-Ass Vegan Cooking Classes for Everyone - Fran Costigan

2nd Attempt: Ethics Beyond the Plate - Laura Beck, Jamie J. Hagen, Leigh-Chantelle, Erika Larson, John McDevitt

We enjoyed breakfast so much and chatting with folks at our table we didn’t leave early to go to the next class. Even though we got there before the class was supposed to start we were refused. The class was too full and they weren't  letting anyone else in. So disappointing. I really wanted to see Fran and it made me nervous that it would happen to other classes. It made me want to leave other classes before they were over so I wouldn’t have to miss the ones I really wanted to take.

11:00 – 12:00 Privacy Lines & Oversharing - Sayward Rebhal, moderator, Dreena Burton, Joanna Vaught, Susan Voisin

12:15 – 1:15 Lunch in the Ballroom: Portland-Style Build-a-Bowl

 1:15 – 2:00 Exhibitor Spotlight & Vegan Battle Royale, with Amey, Kittee & MoThe Vegan Battle Royale was fun but I didn’t participate because let’s be honest I would have embarrassed myself. There were prizes on our seats when we got into the ballroom. I was happy to get another Hurraw lip balm. Yeah! 

2:15 – 3:00 Finding Balance: Blogging & Personal Life - J Hagen, G Hamshaw, K Peloza

To be honest we almost fell asleep in this class. It wasn’t boring. We just had too much to eat for breakfast and stuffed our faces during lunch. Luckily we made it through. The bad thing is we were in the second row. I would have hated for the speakers to think we weren’t enjoying the discussion. 

3:15 – 4:00 The Other Side: A Reader’s Perspective - Maeve Connor, Gabrielle Pope, Jess Sconé

4:15 – 5:00 Incorporating Your Other Creative Talents into Your Blog- Cadry Nelson
Another one of my favorite classes. Cadry is a great speaker. She showed a couple of videos that were awesome. I hope she is a speaker again at the next one. 

You must visit her blog and watch her videos!
http://cadryskitchen.com/

VVC 2013 - Day One

FRIDAY, MAY 24

Time for VVC. We woke up, had a little oatmeal then headed to the Portland Art Museum to pick up our Swag Bag. Thank goodness we left a little time to take it back to the hotel. Those bags were heavy. After dropping off the bags we decided to go back to Backspace for lunch. This time we had a wrap. 

VVC Swag Bag

Veggie Sandwich Wrap

Once we had lunch we head back to the museum to start our official day one of VVC2013. First we took a look around at all the great exhibitors. 

Exhibitors

Then headed to our classes....

Here is our first day of classes..

12:45 – 1:30 Food Styling: Keeping It Real - Hannah Kaminsky

This class was one of our favorites. We definitely learned a few tricks.

1:45 – 2:30 - Attention Spans, Social Media & the State of Blogging - Jess Sconé
2:45 – 3:45 - Art of Writing Recipes - Nava Atlas, Dreena Burton, Terry Hope Romero

4:00 – 4:45 MoFo Workshop - Kittee Berns, Mo Martin, Amey Mathews

I really wish this classroom had been bigger. By the time we got there it was standing room only. We lasted about 30 minutes then left to go sit and wait for the Veggie Grill Reception in the ballroom. It was hard for me to enjoy it anyway because I kept worrying if Momma Veg was ok standing so long and if her knee was giving her problems. To be honest I was a little surprised that no one offered her a seat. This was my first lesson that you have to get to your next class as early as possible. 

Here is the ballroom that we had all of our meals, etc in. 

This was a nice Vegan Cuts snack bag that was given to us. 

Portland 2013 - Day Two

We took our time checking out of the hotel then headed to Bob’s Red Mill. This place was really nice. We wish we had this in our town. All the Bob's products plus a cafe to get something to eat.

After driving around town for a while and visiting our normal places like the Vegan Mini Mall we returned the rental car then headed to Backspace for a late lunch. 

Club Sandwich and Tomato Soup

It was raining so we decided to pick up a sandwich from Veggie Grill to take back to the hotel for dinner. 

Veggie Grill

All American Stack

Portland 2013 - Day One

BOI to PDX in a small plane with propellers. Luckily we had no turbelence.  

Alaska Airlines has a vegan option. It was too early in the morning for lunch so I didn’t try it. 

We arrived in Portland, rode the Max downtown, and rented a car.  Since it was starting to get close to lunch time we headed south to Tigard to visit one of our favorite restaurants, Native Foods. We decided to keep it light and shared a sandwich. 

Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger

Next we headed down to Salem to see the State Capital. It was different than most since it didn’t have the regular dome.  

We drove back to Tigard where our hotel was for the night. Right next door was Whole Foods so of course I had to go in. 

Then we decided to go back to Native Foods one more time. 

Nuevo Native Nachos

Scorpion Burger