BADSEED turnips steal the show

One of the very best things about summer? Fresh produce, of course!

That and open windows, flip flops, dresses, open toed heels, barbeques, smoothies, snow cones, outdoor dining, homemade ice cream, an early sunrise, late sunsets, fresh juice, and farmers markets!

One of our favorite farmers markets is BADSEED, open Friday nights.

The creators/farmers of BADSEED, Brooke Salvaggio and Daniel Heryver, host a handful of other venders at their funky Kansas City Crossroads Art District location.  You’ll find everything local from vegetables, handcrafted homemade bread, cheese, coffee, tea bags, kombucha, soda, eggs, and more.

Phew, highlighting all the venders could be about 10 different blog posts in itself! I shall spare you {at least for now, ha}

So anyways, this past Friday night we picked up their “sexy veggie of the week”, some ruby red turnips.  They were beautiful, and delicious!

I was too caught up in creating something with them that I totally spaced on taking a picture of them pre chopping. I used the whole turnip in this dish, first highlighting the actual turnip heads (or whatever you want to call them?) …

Turnip “Chips”

-- 3 to 4 turnips
-- olive oil
-- seasonings of choice (I used sea salt, and a little chili powder)

Chop them up into “chips” (or fries), toss them in olive oil/seasoning, stick them onto a baking sheet, and pop ‘em in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes.

I then utilized the turnip greens in a delicious vegetarian quinoa dish!

Turnip Greens & Black Bean Quinoa

- cooked quinoa
- chopped turnip greens
- 1 can black beans (used Eden Organic brand due to their no BPA lining)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cups vegetable broth (I used a no salt added vegetable bouillon cube)
- 3 tablespoons minced garlic
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- olive oil
- sea salt & pepper, to taste

**sauté chopped onions and garlic in olive oil. once they’re soft, add all other ingredients minus the quinoa. leave skillet on low to medium heat for about 10 minutes. combine the cooked quinoa and greens mixture, and eat it all up alongside your turnip chips!

Who knew some turnips could steal the show?

The grand opening of Brooke and Daniel’s URBAVORE Farmstand, as well as a new city-wide composting program is being held this Saturday, June 4th from 2-6.  We’re pretty excited to check it out!
Word on the street is Fresher than Fresh is going to be there too

I’m in!

PizzaBella

The weather has been beautiful this Memorial Day weekend here in Kansas City! It definitely feels like summer, and it’s making me crave a pool, a comfy chair, some sunglasses, and a cold drink.

Here’s a few things we’ve been up to lately:

PizzaBella

Friday night we grabbed some pizza at PizzaBella.

PizzaBella is located in the Crossroads Arts District of KC, serving wood-fire baked pizzas and antipastas.

Since I absolutely love mushrooms + onions, I got the Mushroom Pizza which includes “mushroom, roasted onions, taleggio, and thyme”.

True to form, Erik went with the Margherita which of course consisted of tomato, garlic, basil, and fresh mozzarella.

The Margherita definitely reined supreme.  I mean, just look at that garlic! Delicious.

The décor and vibe are nice. Inside has a modern look and feel, near a couple wood burning pizza ovens adding that element of comfort and authenticity.

I had my eye on their Brussel Sprouts Antipasta.  By the sounds of it, I’m pretty sure I’d love it.  Maybe I’ll have to try that next time!

Random Recent Favorite

In other news, it sounded fun to share what we’ve been loving lately.  Fresh Fervere bread:

They most definitely deserve a blog post of their own, so I’ll save the details for later.  But basically, it’s a local bread shop that makes delicious, beautiful, handcrafted bread made with organic flour!

Who are the lucky ones that have Monday off??  One con to being self employed at home is that you don’t really get to take days like Memorial Day off … oh well!

Week in the lens of Instagram

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

I’m not sure what our plans are this weekend, probably depends on how rainy it is.  Either way, I’m sure thankful it’s the weekend!

Since getting an iPhone, I find myself taking a lot of Instagram pictures. I was secretly jealous of everyone who posted them before I had the capabilities so I pretended like I didn’t like them …. well, I’m a sellout. I like them, and I take lots of them.  Without further ado, I thought this would be a fun new little blog series …..

Week in the lens of Instagram:

Taste test for our vending machines at a local YMCA complete with veggie chips, Annie’s fruit snacks, and Izze.

Multiple bottle of various kombucha
 

Ominous weather that caused us to light candles and rely on our phones’ batteries when the power went out

Blue Bird Bistro {though I must confess, I didn’t actually go, Erik brought me home some food}
 

Last but not least … Good Karma rice milk Carrot Cake ice cream.  I was pleasantly surprised … this stuff is good!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

What are your plans for this {hopefully-for-you} long weekend??

Chickpea Burgers

There once was a bird that kept trying to build a nest on our deck porch light. 

Each day, there would be more nest fragments, and each day, the wind (or us) would knock them down.  Until one day, this bird successfully build a full nest and laid eggs.
 

After that point, we left it, and so far it’s been pretty weatherproof. Now it’s a source of entertainment for us.

Momma bird is very protective and can be found sitting on this nest most hours of the day. Each time we go outside, or even look through the window at the nest, she squawks at us and puffs up her chest like crazy.

We’ll have to see how it all plays out, ha.

Chickpea Burgers

A recent dinner of ours was chickpea burgers.  Confession: I have never made any veggie burgers until now. I have no idea why.  They’re so easy to make, and so delicious to eat!

Alongside the burgers, we had roasted broccoli, cauliflower, and onions. The onions were so delicious!

We decided they would make an excellent burger topping for next time.

The recipe was mostly made up from recipes I glanced at and meshed together, but here’s in general how these were made.

Ingredients:
-- 1 can chickpeas (preferably Eden Alley brand, due to their BPA-free cans; also, I added a few black beans in just for kicks)
-- 1 onion, chopped
-- 1/2 cup dry oats
-- 1 TB minced garlic
-- 2 eggs
-- 1 TB chili powder
-- 1 TB cumin
-- sea salt, to taste

Directions:
-- Preheat oven at 375 degrees and grease baking sheet.
-- Mash the beans with a fork to desired consistency
-- Blend together the garlic, oats, and eggs in a food processor
-- Combine the beans and egg mixture together and stir in onion, chili powder, cumin, and salt
-- Make into patties, place on a pan, and bake for about 10 minutes on each side

We both really liked them!

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

Dinner was followed by some of our favorite cupcakes:
Always delicious, moist, and quick to throw together.  Best part is … without fail, they always rise so nicely!

 

Until next time …

Fud

FUD

One of the food highlights of our weekend was FUD {pronounced “food”}. FUD is an organic and local, all-vegan restaurant located in the Westside neighborhood of Kansas City, right around the 17th & Summit area.

Seriously, Westside has the best restaurants in KC hands down! (Blue Bird, Westside Local, and Fresher than Fresh snow cones, just to name a few).

FUD opened in April of 2010 by chef Heidi VanPelt-Belle.  It’s a bright, colorful, and intimate restaurant with a very laid back feel.

The kitchen, where all the magic happens:

We started our meal with a Sunrise Juice made from freshly juiced oranges, carrots, beets, apples, and ginger.

Such a beautiful color, and so delicious! As I mentioned in my last post, I love the color beets add to fresh juices.

I got the Avocado Wich:

“One half an Avocado with Violet Onion, seasonal sliced vegetables & Greens topped with Dillanayz & Thrillanayz on Cracked Wheat Bread”

I had no idea an avocado sandwich could taste so good!! This sandwich is full of flavor, and basically amazing.

 And Erik got the breakfast burrito filled with tons of delicious veggies such as potatoes, bell peppers and Portobello mushrooms.Huge, and delicious!!

 

We ended up swapping our meals halfway through so we could both enjoy each dish.

Basically, we love Fud! Their menu has such delicious sounding items, I can’t wait to try more. I would definitely recommend it, whether you’re vegan/vegetarian or not. Things to note: Fud is a cash or check-only establishment so make sure you stop by the ATM first, or bring a check book!

  

Hope everyone is enjoying their Monday.  We had homemade veggie burgers for dinner complete with some chocolate vegan cupcakes …

I don’t ever tire of chocolate desserts!

Carrot Beet Juice & Taste of KC

Hello, weekend! Nice of you to arrive.

I’ll jump right in with this beauty: Carrot Beet Juice

This juice combo included approximately:

• 1 Beet
• 1 Lemon
• 3-4 Large Carrots

Such a beautiful color! Fresh juice is the best.
  Taste of KC

About a week ago Erik and I attended Taste of KC.  I had seen something about it online last year, and it looked neat, so when I noticed it was coming up this year, we decided to check it out. There were about 20 vendors that consisted of different Kansas City restaurants. Some of the food we tried:
    Unfortunately, we were a little bit less than impressed.  We paid extra for the “VIP” ticket that included a goodie bag.  The goodie bag was pretty much worthless, ha, but what can you do. 

I guess most of the vendors weren’t typical places we would eat, so we didn’t fully appreciate the event. When we were done, we redeemed our pallets at Westside Local.  I ordered a small strawberry spinach salad with salmon. 

It was amazing! It feels like the weekend might be a busy one.  We’re going to a YMCA tomorrow morning for another taste testing event we were asked to attend for Originally Organic Vending.  Hopefully it will be a successful one!

Erik and I were blessed enough to finally get iPhones this week, and since I’m a little bit obsessed having my first smartphone, you’ll probably see a lot of updates and check-ins on Twitter and Facebook now, haha. Any apps that I can’t live without??

Have a great weekend, everyone!!