So The Exciting Stuff…

I promised you guys some news about this little blog. And there is news. It is all still in the works. Most of you know that I want to be a writer and do this stuff full time, please don’t judge my writing skills by this blog (at least not yet).

So the news.

It’s all still in the works but I promise this blog will be getting a facelift. It will look nicer. And include photos. And all sorts of fun bells and whistles that make people want to read blogs. And not just boring words on a screen. I promise. Seriously.

I’m hoping to start doing restaurant reviews again for the local paper. I used to them frequently before I went vegan and I’m requesting to do them again as a vegan. I mean, that should be welcome, right? I’ll keep you posted. If they say no, we can all protest together!

There will be guest bloggers here. Yup. I want my brilliant friends to post here as well.

There will be more here than vegan stuff. I promise. I will be more open about myself and I will let you guys get to know me a bit better than you do.

I’m hoping if I get enough readers and support, there will be a newsletter of sorts. Vegan food finds, clothing, music. Fun stuff. Newsletters, I can make 🙂

Basically, this blog is going to take on a life of it’s own and I would like to turn into a thriving, fun community of smart people.

So, please continue reading. Tell your friends. And I promise, PROMISE to make this a really rad blog (and hopefully full time gig) for you to read.

Expo West Part One

I am exhausted. Utterly and completely exhausted. If I could magically fall asleep at my desk on this yoga ball I would.

On Thursday, I showed up at the Anaheim Convention Center at 6:30 a.m. (I only live 15 minutes away) so it wasn’t too terrible. I got there picked up my entire companies badges, picked our booth space for next year and then ran around for 15 hours. Carting things to and from my car. Setting up our booth display. Setting up our fresh ideas table top. Working our fresh ideas table top.

Repeat this scenario for the next four days. Literally. On my feet. From 5:30 am until 9 pm. No breaks. Nobody else lifting a finger to help me. It was completely draining and exhausting and I am so fucking glad it is over.

But, with all of that said – what an experience. The show floor was incredible. The companies there were incredible. The new products – amazing. Particular standouts were Daiya cheese was making little pizzas – I probably had 10 tiny sample sized slices every day. So good. Plus, they have new packaging – it’s going to be shredded and in a bag (like Kraft does) – should be in all Whole Foods starting end of this month. So, keep an eye out for that. Lara Bar has four new flavors – all super delicious. Cookie Dough, Peanut Butter Cup, Carrot Cake and Chocolate Brownie – YUM. They will all be available in July. Lots of coconut products, tofu products, tempeh products – luckily for me the show floor was an organic, vegan paradise of processed food. However, eating mostly processed foods for four days straight has left my stomach a bit of a mess and I can’t wait to go home tonight and cook some vegetables (if my eyes can stay open that long).

I met a lot of people. Made a lot of really amazing connections. And despite all the hard work and manual labor (in a pencil skirt, tights and heels) – it was a great time. I may kill our events guy for purposely scheduling his vacation so he didn’t have to deal with Expo West leaving me (a PR person, NOT an events person) in charge with absolutely no clue what I was doing – but I am so glad I got to be there. Hopefully, next year I can just attend and not be running the entire damn thing for my company.

I definitely have a new respect for event and tradeshow people. Now, back to my sleeping sitting up.

Work Update + Tomato Soup Recipe

This entry is going to be extra scattered and all over the place today.

Work has gotten CRAZY. To the point where I couldn’t post at work (like I normally do). I got rid of the internet at my apartment – I was spending way too much time working at home, so I decided that if I was going to be working at home – work should pay for my internet. So, until they do, no more internet connection for me. So, I’m typing this in Word and I’m going to post it first thing in the morning – which is pretty much what I will be doing from now on. Just in case you cared.

My entries this week may be light, I’m off to Natural Products Expo for most of the week. I’m crossed between dreading it (it’s going to be EXHAUSTING) and being super excited about it – I get to meet the founders of some of my favorite products (Manitoba Harvest, Guayaki, Daiya…to name a few). It’s a crazy show and there will be over 60,000 people there. My hours are insane – 8 a.m. to 3 a.m. every morning and I didn’t even get a hotel room (I live 30 minutes from the show and decided that I would much rather sleep in my bed). So, entries will definitely be light, but look for some fun posts after the show.

So, I’m trying to do tons of laundry and get my apartment spotless – the last thing I want to come home to when I am exhausted is a messy apartment. My apartment currently looks like a bomb went off inside of it – so I have quite a bit of work ahead of me.

The veganism is going awesome. I haven’t even been tempted to eat non-vegan food. I have been overeating and overindulging on some foods recently (lots of bread, tortilla chips, oven French fries, baked goods, coconut ice cream) all vegan, all delicious – but not so good for my waist. The last thing I want is to turn this into a weight loss blog – but I do need to keep my eating in check – I’m going to start focusing more on lower calorie, lower fat vegan foods and eating more fruits and vegetables (as opposed to breads, crackers, chips, etc.)

I made the chickpea tomato soup in VeganYumYum tonight to take for lunches this week. I made a few slight changes based on not having all the ingredients on hand and I used less oil than the recipe called for – I had a couple bites this morning and it’s delicious. Plus since it’s pureed with chickpeas – it should keep me really full throughout the day. Another bonus – it took me all of 20 minutes to make.

Tomato Chickpea Soup (adapted from VeganYumYum)

1 TB canola oil

1 yellow onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1.5 cups cooked chickpeas or one 15 oz. can (I used cooked chickpeas)

1 TB chili powder

½ TB Tumeric

Pinch red chili flakes

1 28 oz. can of tomatoes (I used Muir Valley Roasted Tomatoes with Chipotle Peppers)

1 cup of hot water

2 TB of nutritional yeast

Fresh Ground Pepper

Heat oil in a pan with high sides (any soup pan will work). Add onion. Cook for for two minutes. Add garlic, chickpeas, chili powder, tumeric, chili flakes. Cook for another two minutes.  Add tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes. Add hot water and nutritional yeast. Transfer to a blender in batches (or use an immersion blender) and blend until completely smooth. Top with fresh ground pepper.

So, the exciting blog news?

Well, I promise that within the month, I will actually take the time to learn how to wordpress and there will be pictures and links and all sorts of good stuff on here to make it look less boring.

There is more exciting news – but that’s it for the time being.