VegFest Seattle 2010

Seattle's annual VegFest was held last weekend, and naturally, my Sprouts and I had to make our yearly pilgrimage to test, taste, sample and learn about all the new products being marketed at vegans, vegetarians and those interested in healthy living...


We even brought a van-load of (fairly willing and curious) friends, and while they aren't vegetarian, they still enjoyed the experience and came away with loaded goody bags and full tummies and (hopefully) some new ideas.


As a VegFest veteran, I've watched food and marketing trends come and go, (one year there were 42 hummus samples available!) but this year, my one-sentence assessment of VegFest would have to be: "Too many energy-drinks!" Wow.
I enjoy an occasional green-smoothie or meal replacement shake... but I prefer to make my own, out of fresh, raw fruits and veggies, thank you - without a two-paragraph list of ingredients and the ultra-spendy cost-per-drink that comes with the little nutrition-filled packets of whatever they were selling. I'm sure they appeal to someone. Just not me.


Nevertheless, there was plenty of other good veggie-feasting going on: burgers, dogs, dips, sauces, chips, dressings, tofu, breads (stay tuned for a BREAD-filled blog post soon) as well as our family's two long-time favorites: the good people at Field Roast and Dave's Killer Bread.

Through a FaceBook Fan Page promotion, my kids (AND their friends) read about Dave's Secret Password and they all scored awesome tee-shirts AND a picture with Dave himself, which TOTALLY made their day.

Let me tell you, this was a brilliant PR idea, as the kids are now wearing the shirts EVERYWHERE and insisting that their friends MUST try Dave's bread and furthermore, "...promise you'll ONLY eat Dave's bread from now on, because the stuff rocks and so does Dave and ALL the cool people eat it - duh!..." (their quote, not mine). It is good stuff indeed.

Field Roast was showcasing their "meatloaf" and had samples crumbled and seasoned into a "taco-meat" which was amazing (and the l-o-n-g lines can attest to!). Rumor has it (read their blog) they did sliders and sloppy joes earlier in the weekend, those would have been yummy too!
With the entourage of restless and wandering teenagers, (and I apologise to the Lara-Bar people, apparently some of us *ahem* may not have listened to the very stern and strict vendors at your booth and *may* have have come away with more than just "one" teeny tiny sample...) we didn't pause long enough to catch the speakers or presentations, though they had some good ones, as always; As a side note of trivia, one of the presenters, Dr. Helmuth Fritz, is a good friend of my parents, so it was cool to see him there.

I also ran into a lot of people I knew from work, church, FaceBook, Twitter, fellow blogger-friends (like the creative minds behind the Soundly Vegan blog - they spent the day volunteering there!) as well as quite a few readers who randomly recognized me from this blog. (*waves*).

It was a fun day for everyone, vegetarians, vegans and otherwise. It was great to see ALL of you, and if you're in the Seattle area next Spring, by all means consider checking out this fun festival of all things vegie-licious!

Seattle VegFest 2009

The Big Day dawned grey and drizzly, no surprise for Seattle weather and definitely not significant enough to keep the faithful from their journey. (OK, maybe I'm rhapsodising a bit too much...)

But, OH MY!!
The things we saw. The foods we tasted. The people we talked to. The facts we learned. Most of all... the FUN WE HAD!!
Seattle's Vegfest is the largest vegetarian-food festival in the country, with 14,000 visitors last year.

I realize my ramblings may seem a bit redundant, 'cause I've blogged about previous year's VegFests here and here and on and on... and I do tend to get carried away.

But I'm excited to share this year's adventure, as my perspective is somewhat different...

See... instead of the usual group of fellow vegans/vegetarians, I branched out and brought several friends who are definitely not vegetarian, as well as a crew of teenagers, (including my daughter who actually IS vegetarian - I had to have SOME support after all!).

And of course, Barbie came along for the ride, and she may have upstaged me, as she has her OWN blog!! (Fine Barbie, then take your own PICTURES too!!!)

.

.

. .

. .

.

So without further ado, here's the part you're wanting to read anyway, a sampling of what we sampled:

.

One of my favorites first: (OK, everything was a favorite) Best vegan treats in Seattle - at least in my book. Mighty-O Doughnuts. Yes, you CAN be vegan and indulge in sugary, fried pastry goodness!

The picture doesn't do them justice. Wish you could have been there.

A Vegetarian Festival isn't complete without tofu of course, and this is hands down the Best Tofu in the World that I know of.

Small Organic Planet Tofu:

I LOVE this tofu so much! I could be their spokesperson!

I spent quite a while chatting with the owner, "Tofu Phil" who started the company in 1992. They're a small LOCAL artisan tofu company and truly do make the most amazing and delicious tofu I've EVER had. (From a blogger called Tofu-Mom, I think that's the ultimate compliment right there.)

As I've whined about before, my budget doesn't allow specialty items very often, but this is worth it! I can GUARANTEE the price is worth it - my favorite would be the Curry flavored. Even if you *think* you don't like tofu, give theirs a try. At least once. Or ten times. (They're coming out with a new Lemongrass-Ginger variety that I can't WAIT to get a hold of!!)

.

Moving on, another of our favorite vendors was Dave, of Dave's Killer Bread. We make sure to visit every year. Go to his website, read his story. Be amazed.

Oh, and try some bread too, you'll never, ever want any other bread. It's been our family's favorite for over a year now. And sorry to tempt those of you who live far, far away... it's a local (Portland) thing.

Dave totally charmed my daughter by posing with Barbie for her blog. You'll have to visit Barbie's Blog to see more.

As a bit of trivia? Dave and I attended the same high school. All the more reason I love his bread :)

Weirdest and most "Un-Vegan-Like" item: "Cavi-Art vegetarian Caviar," made from seaweed. The kids were braver than I was, too fish-egg realistic for me, and I tried it last year, so I'm exempt, aren't I? While my daughter wasn't impressed, her friend Tanner almost liked it, I think.

Best Hummus out of 272829282827 varieties we tried. (Why do these events always attract yet ANOTHER vendor who thinks they have the best hummus out there?)

Well, Maloula's Garden Garlic Hummus was honestly really awesome stuff - definitely stood out from the crowd. That's high praise coming from a hummus-snob like myself who really never eats store-bought. Another local product too!!

We don't remember what this green drink is. My daughter thinks it was a hemp-something-or-other, but I think it looks more like one of the many green drinks being sampled (way too many since I'm NOT a fan of green drinks!!). We all cheered her on for being brave enough to try it!!

And speaking of green, I'd like to take a moment to point out our NAILS, which we'd thoughtfully painted a nice eco-friendly GREEN color in honor of today!

Last, but definitely NOT least, my wonderful friends over at Field Roast!! OK, not friends, like good-buddy-pals, but I consider them such, all the same. They always recognize me from my blog and are SO friendly. They're an amazing, tasty and again LOCAL company! Last year they even gave me a great Field Roast tee shirt - I should have worn it today!!

Field Roast was sampling their new MEATLOAF which will be available in stores in a month or so. EXCELLANT and as you'd expect - SO tasty!! Too bad I got a crap picture. It didn't taste like crap, I swear!!

We ended the day with full tummies, a little craziness and way too many new and tasty ideas. My friend Tanya became particularly attached to the Mighty-O donuts sticker. We just pretended she wasn't with our group.

If you're ever in Seattle around the end of March, VegFest is an AWESOME destination.

Seattle Veg-Fest; Chapter One

As mentioned previously, today was the much-anticipated pilgrimage to Seattle and the hallowed halls of VegFest.

Let me start out right now by saying this blog is NOT a complete recounting of my adventures today. I'm much too wordy to blog about it in one simple paragraph, (as you may have discovered) and much too busy to blog much tonight. But some of you are restless and asking how it went, so here's a teaser: It was a BLAST!!

.

Here we are ^^^

My "middle sprout" Olivia, her friend Tanner, one of my best friends, Tanya, and of course, there's me. (For a great perspective on VegFest read Tanner's blog - amusing stuff). Olivia took "Barbie" around to visit many of the booths as well, look for a new update on Veggie-Barbie and Carnivore-Ken's Blog coming very soon!!

.

I just wanted to shout out a BIG HELLO to those of you who RECOGNISED me - at least six of you I think - ("Hey, it's Tofu Mom, the Blog Lady!") while inching shoulder-to-shoulder through the crowded lines waiting for a minuscule sample of whatever yummy thing was being handed out at the next booth. I'm honored and flattered. And no, it's not creepy. I am still surprised every time, but glad you're all along for the ride...

.

Have a great week.

Chapter Two to follow soon, stay tuned.

VegFest II; The Rest of the Story.

OK, it's been a week, you'd think I could finally get the rest of the VegFest post done, but no.... I've been on Spring Break and being lazy and doing... well.... not much... visiting with friends, cooking, going out to eat with my friend Shaun and a couple Dr.'s appointments. I'll post gratuitous food porn shots another day.

.

So last Sunday.

VegFest in Seattle.

What a blast.

Yummy food and great information and interesting presenters... You all just need to come next year.

.

I guess it's the largest (or 2nd largest? I heard both statistics) event like this in the country.

It's pretty big. Yeah, like sensory overload. But worth it.

A group of 6 of us went together, 2 vegans (my friend Shaun, and myself), 2 vegetarians (my 2 'Sprouts') and 2 "sometimes-a-tarians"(my friend Sheryl and her son) ...yes, yes, calm down, I know the term is FLEXatarian or whatever, (insert eye-rolling here) but they like this better and I suppose they can call themselves whatever they want, I'm not that into labels.

It was nice to have perspectives other than mine when it came to trying new products. My kids tend to be picky, it was nice to let them try new things without buying an entire BOX and then wasting it... I discovered my littlest Sprout LOVED Nancy's Soy Yogurt and the Bumble Bars. Items I haven't boughten simply because I'm not a fan. My not-quite-vegetarian friend Sheryl loved several of the burgers and the Tofurky sandwich slices, as well as meat-free Potsticker dumplings, all items she hadn't had before.

I think I sampled every available vegan sample - I was stuffed, but what FUN!! (OK, except for the reeeeally green hemp butter. Just a little too "green" for all of us...).

There were a few lacto-ovo items that I wish had been labelled better. The event is run by volunteers and even though they do an INCREDIBLE job, unfortunately, sometimes their product knowledge is limited. I LOVED the Bella Diva Raw almond/coconut oil (I think?) spread or "butter" too. So creamy and slightly sweet. It'd be nice instead of Earth Balance once in a while, I think.

And did I mention we all voted the Field Roast booth our favorite? Well, of course.

My only disappointment was the "Purely Decadent" people - what was up there? Last year was so awesome! Not to fear, there were several other vegan ice-"creams" to sample.

Matthew, my friend's teen-age son, so typical, tries to act like he's seldom impressed by much, but he was our "guinea pig" and volunteered to try anything. He really loved the "Cavi-Art" vegetarian "caviar"... I saw him return for several samples there. Surprising.

It's fascinating and fish-egg-like, but a little TOO caviar-like for me.

Oh!! And Bryanna Clark Grogan was one of the presenters!! So exciting. A REAL celebrity!

She gave the best demonstration for Banana Cream Pie, which I unfortunately don't have a recipe for - think I'll go look on her website. It was fun to see one of my cookbook heros in action though, even if I was in the w-a-y back! She's very entertaining and informative in real life, not that she isn't otherwise, but you know...

Here's HER blog notes about VegFest for a slightly different perspective. We were gonna stop by for an autograph in my "Nonna's Italian Kitchen" book a little later but my kids had had enough of the crowds by then. It WAS crowded. Very.

Speaking of crowds - I saw someone who recognised me from the PPK forums as well, but I didn't have time to stop and ask THEIR name... (kids needing the bathroom don't wait for veggie chit-chat I'm afraid.) So, {sigh} whoever you are, I wasn't being rude, I swear it!!

.

A good time was had by all.

.

My not-quite vegetarian friends learned a lot about products they hadn't heard of or tried; my kids got adventurous and sampled new things; And my friend Shaun - also vegan - got to try lots of items he can't find in the stores in his area of the world (Albuquerque).

As you can see, we came home LOADED with "loot" like vegetarian trick-or-treating; PETA stickers, Odwalla bars, tea and coffee and LARA bars!

After VegFesting, my 'Sprouts' were getting a little stir-crazy with the crowds, so we did a little Seattle sight-seeing (*Ooooh, the big city - skyscrapers - traffic - pollution - street people - oh my*) and then went to Whole Foods which, for us, is a treat; almost 2 hours from my house. I go about once a YEAR!

My friend Sheryl, a small-town girl like me, had never been. She was awestruck at the variety, selection and typical Whole Foods "pretty stuff". I SOOO enjoy sharing favorite places with my friends.

Here's hoping each of you had a great weekend and spent time with people you love.

VEGFEST, SEATTLE, Part II

VegFest! The day's finally here! An entire convention hall devoted to vegetarian food, product samples (i.e. lots of yummy vegetarian foods to taste or even buy) speakers, chefs, nutritionists, etc...

We met up with friends (see post below) and got a bite to eat first, then headed over...









As we walked over to the Convention Center, I happened to see the Purely Decadent truck parked on a side street and had to run do a happy dance in the street... (Scoops of ice cream bigger than my head... I'm in heaven...).

Once inside the Festival, we wandered up and down aisle after aisle, sampling all sorts of interesting and tasty items. Talk about sensory overload. Wow.

With so much, it was hard to pick a "favorite" but we definitely LOVED the Field Roast booth. Have you tried Field Roast? They call themselves a 'Grain Meat' - basically a really well-done fake meat product. Even if you don't like some of the faux-meats out there, try this!! I know it's not available everywhere, which is too bad. Oh my gosh...

They had generous samples, helpful information and were SO friendly! We jut stood there chatting and trying ALL their yummy items. I am always raving about the stuff to people and getting soy-skeptical omni friends to try it - one time I randomly started talking about it to someone in the grocery store... I should do their PR, I swear! (They're a small artisan company based right here in Seattle, so it's even LOCAL!) it was fun to try everything! If you have access to them in your area, DEFINITELY check it out - the sausages especially? Amazing. My friend's husband, a devout omni :) even gave them his seal of approval!
So of course we had to ham it up (can vegans do that?) a little in front of their sign.

Oh, and one of the staff even recognised me - which was sorta cool; "Hey, you're the Blog Lady" she said. Funny. Yeah, they have a nice little blog here that I'd posted a comment in a while back. My friends called me "The Celebrity Blog Lady" for the rest of the day - :rolling eyes: great!

Other interesting items; samples of Purely Decadent "brand new" flavors they're introducing this summer; Pomegranate-Chip which was just OK, a Coconut Crunch sorta-thing which was too coconutty for me, Strawberry-something which I can't remember the name but we all really liked, and Orange-Creamsicle and Lemon Creamsicle which we agreed were heavenly!

SOOO many other things to try too! Besides the usual - soymilk, granola, energy bars, and so forth, there were about twenty flavors of hummus (we didn't feel a need to sample all of those) lots of salsas, faux meats, rice milk, hemp milk (which I'd never had, really good stuff!) "caviar" made from seaweed which was...um.. interesting...

Speakers included nutritionists, chefs and dietitians. The featured presenter while we were there, was doing a presentation on ways to use nuts. She had good ideas, some of which I already use and others I hadn't thought of, but unfortunately was very soft spoken and it was hard to hear.

There were pretty long lines for some of the more popular samples and sales pitches, so it took us a while to make the rounds, but all-in-all, a really fun and interesting afternoon.

On the hike back to the parking garage we passed the Purely Decadent truck again... and even with tired feet - more happy dances in the pouring (Seattle) rain... yeah, we're weird. Great ending to a great day!
But wait, there's more!

LOOT:

After returning home, I dumped my bag out and took a picture of all the great take-home samples we returned with as well... I had no idea there was so much until I put it all together - and we didn't even hit every booth! I feel like I hit the veggie-sample jackpot all over again.

And last but not least, my 'Sprout', ever the Animal Rights Activist, made several trips past the PETA, Pigs Peace and Northwest Animal Rights Network (NARN) booths to stock up on stickers... she immediately covered one of her school binders when we got home and took this picture for me to share ...

VEGFEST, SEATTLE - Part I

So the moment I've been waiting for all Spring has arrived: that wonderful, educational and informative (not to mention TASTY!) event known as VegFest... in Seattle!

For those who don't know, VegFest is an annual Vegetarian Food Festival (supposedly one of the largest in the US? I don't know if that's true but it is big) where you can taste free food samples - (over 500 different kinds to try according to their website); as well as see cooking demonstrations by chefs from all over the country and hear the latest information on nutrition from doctors and dieticians who are specialists in vegetarianism.

Fellow veggies to hang our with? Free samples of the latest vegetarian products and yumminess, you say? I am all over that! My kids and I have gone the last couple years and had a BLAST!

So my Middle Sprout and I met fellow veggie-friend "4EverGrounded" (I'll use her VeggieBoards screen name, like I do with all my friends, just in case they're hiding from the IRS or whatever) for an afternoon of veggie-ness.

But first, Lunch! (I know, with all those samples, this may seem like overkill, but venturing into Seattle is, in itself, a rare treat for us, so we decided to hit up one of our favorite all-vegan restaurants "Bamboo Garden" for lunch before braving the wall-to-wall crowds, long lines and hours of walking...

Everything at Bamboo Garden is wonderfully vegan. Many items use faux meat products that are all quite yummy - they have a HUGE menu and narrowing down choices is always difficult.

We ordered some super-spicy Ruby Chicken and Vegetables (my choice), some potstickers which I didn't get a
picture of, and Almond Fried Chicken which my duaghter absolutely adores...

Everything was insanely good, of course.

At the end of the meal, we all got to giggling hysterically because instead of "Iced Tea" I had "Rice Tea".

(My Sprout discovered I'd dropped rice into my teacup and thought it was wildly funny... OK, maybe you had to be there).

After lunch we headed out to VegFest. At least this way we figured we wouldn't be starving and cranky waiting in all those lines and ready to chew people's legs off... (which, being vegan, I suppose we really ought not to do anyway...).

Stay Tuned.