Can we listen to Christmas music now?

So what did everyone do for Halloween? We hung out at home and handed out treats to all the little kiddies. They got some of our Originally Organic Vending treats! Aaaand I ran out of them early, ha. There are tons of little kids in my neighborhood.

In other news I have a bunch of randomness to throw at you!

As I mentioned in my previous post, Erik’s aunt was in town this weekend and along with my mother-in-law we gave her a mini tour of Kansas City. Here’s some pictures we took along the way:

Hot tea from Crossroads Coffee:

At Union Station:

More beautiful fall leaves:

We finished showing off Kansas City by eating at Westside Local. Erik order a spinach salad and I got the quinoa and we split them both. The spinach salad typically comes with bacon, but Erik ordered it vegan style and the only complaint is … we found a piece of bacon in it, ha.

But the quinoa, how can you go wrong with Brussels and sweet potatoes? Yeah, you can’t.

It was a great end to the weekend.

And now that Halloween is over … I think it’s about time for Christmas music, don’t ‘ya think??? Yeah!

Hen House Holiday Celebration 2011

Happy Halloween Weekend!

I’ve been under the weather a bit but am starting to feel much better. And it didn’t stop me from doing a few things this weekend. First up …

Hen House Holiday Celebration

We went to the Hen House Holiday Celebration at the Overland Park Convention Center.

Having never been, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. There was certainly a lot of people there! It was full of vendor booths mostly consisting of name brand grocery items with a few local businesses.

Most notably, we ran into Amber from Almost Vegan. We live in the same town, but had yet to meet each other in person! It was about time!

Also ran into Sharmin from What You’re Missing KC and Jamie from The Urban Homestead Experiment, practically a mini blogger meetup!

Tyler Florence was there, too! I’ve really only seen him on The Greatest Food Truck Race, but still neat, everyone seems to love him.

After walking around the Hen House Celebration since we were right in the neighborhood, we stopped at Whole Foods to get some food. Grilled veggie wraps with hummus it was! Quick and pretty good.

Erik’s aunt has been in town this weekend too, so we hung out with my mother-in-law and her a lot too, it was fun, and many more pictures were taken. More to come later …

Hope everyone has a great Halloween! What are your plans??

Hen House Holiday Celebration

Hey everyone!

Blogging has suffered a tad the past few days as I’ve been a bit under the weather. I guess it’s that time of year, right? I’ve been fighting back with things like fresh juice, vitamins, water, warm soup, and hot tea!

This concoction of fresh juice is a mixture of carrots, kale, orange, apple, and lemon. Delicious, beautiful color, and chalk full of good-for-me vitamins.

Thankfully, I feel all right, I’m just starting to look like Rudolph from blowing my nose so much. Maybe it’ll at least get me in the Christmas spirit?? Ha. Either way, I’m sure it won’t last long.

Speaking of holiday spirit …

Hen House Holiday Celebration

For those in Kansas City, the third annual Hen House Holiday Celebration is taking place this weekend!

This celebration is held at the Overland Park Convention Center (6000 College Boulevard) on October 28th, 29th, and 30th. Events include:

• On Friday, October 28th, Celebrity Chef and Food Network Star, Tyler Florence will be making two appearances.
• On Saturday, October 29th, new cookbook authors, the Casserole Queens are back in town to help us whip up some holiday side dishes
• Also on Saturday local high school culinary programs will compete for Top Student Chef
• On Sunday, local executive chefs including Charles D’ Ablaing from Chaz, and Tate Roberts from EBT compete for Kansas City’s Top Chef

Not only that, but there will be over 90 displays of food and entertaining ideas that include plenty of samples an tastings. Sounds like fun to me!

Tickets are $5.00 if you hurry and get them at a Hen House Market, otherwise, they’re $6.00 at the door. Either way, pretty affordable. For more information, please visit www.HenHouseHolidayCelebration.com

I’m hoping to make it out at some point this weekend to participate in all the fun and take some photos to share. If anyone else plans to go, holler at me, maybe I’ll see you there!

Raw Banana Cashew Ice Cream

Let’s eke out ooooone more summer’ish recipe, shall we? I think so.

What a beautiful day in Kansas City!

I doted over the weather in yesterday’s post too, but I just can’t help myself, it’s been amazing out, you guys! Erik requested some ice cream last night so ice cream it was. It worked out perfectly as I was sitting in my very warm office this afternoon. Ice cream to the request!

This cashew ice cream is very similar to past recipes I've posted but this time with a slightly different delicious twist.

Raw Banana Cashew Ice Cream
Makes about 4 cups of ice cream

Ingredients:

• 2 cups raw cashews
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup raw agave nectar (honey will work too if you don't have agave)
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil (melted, if hard)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 ripe banana
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions:

• Blend together cashews and water until smooth.
• Add remaining ingredients, and once again blend until smooth. The mixture should be blended enough that it’s slightly creamy
• Place in ice cream mater until thickened. My ice cream maker usually takes around 30 minutes.

Note: If you don’t have an ice cream maker, I imagine you can place the blended mixture into the freezer, stirring occasionally, and it should produce good results!

Feel free to add in whatever else you’d like. I’m confident any nut butters would be an excellent addition!

Food Day Fair at City Market

What a beautiful weekend!

The weather was pretty much perfect, especially on Sunday.

In my last post I mentioned how Food Day is on Monday, so I decided to check out a local Food Day event at City Market here in Kansas City. Erik had to meet a friend on Saturday morning right up the street from City Market so we went together and split ways.

Along with the normal weekend farmers market, this City Market event consisted of a Food Day Fair with many local food organizations.

I walked around enjoying the beautiful weather, talking, and snapping pictures.

And after seeing all these pumpkins and squash everywhere, I’m thinking as soon as this nice weather spell ends, it’s high time for some warm pureed soups! Who’s with me??

Once Erik and I met back up, we ate a delicious potato hash at Füd, did some thrifting (I scored some awesome things for very cheap!) and then hung out at home for the rest of the evening.

It’s been a great weekend in The Purple Carrot household. Look out for some recipes coming at you very soon!

Also, check out my Facebook album for more Food Day Fair and City Market pictures!

Eat Real on Food Day 2011

October 24th (Monday) is Food Day! Let’s celebrate.

First off … what is Food Day?? It occurs each year on October 24th and is modeled after Earth Day. It “seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way”.

The goals are to:

• Reduce diet-related disease by promoting safe, healthy foods
• Support sustainable farms & limit subsidies to big agribusiness
• Expand access to food and alleviate hunger
• Protect the environment & animals by reforming factory farms
• Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids
• Support fair conditions for food and farm workers

That’s definitely something The Purple Carrot can get on board with!

Eat Real

The theme for Kansas City Food Day is Eat Real! Food Day challenges us all to celebrate the beauty and simplicity of real food; food that’s not prepackaged and full of genetically modified artificial ingredients, fillers, and chemicals.

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It so very well relates to my own health motto, which is to eat close to the ground, and move.

Eating real can be as simple as shopping for organic produce at your local farmers market, eating at a restaurant that uses fresh local ingredients, or preparing more fresh foods at home!

You can check out Food Day’s website to see what your city is doing to be apart of this day. For those in Kansas City, there’s several neat events going on this weekend and this month you can be apart of. Check out the KC Food Day’s Facebook for more info.

What real food are you eating this weekend to celebrate Food Day?

Weekday fun featuring Blue Bird & Mudpie

It’s been a fun week here in The Purple Carrot household. I’ve gotten to get out of the house and go to dinner two nights in a row this week so I keep thinking it’s the weekend, I love it. (And when you work from home, actually getting ready and getting out of the house two nights in a row can feel like quite a treat, trust me, ha).

Most excitingly … my friend came to town!

This is Danelle. We met in 5th grade and were joined at the hip all through school, and even moved together to Missouri after graduating high school in southwest Nebraska. Sadly (but good for her) she now lives in Lake Elsinore, California with her husband where they own a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Any California readers live near Lake Elsinore? You should definitely go see Danelle, you’ll like her, I promise!

Anyways, we picked her and her husband up at the airport, dropped their stuff off at our house and hit the town. We decided on Blue Bird for dinner.

I got a long-time favorite, the black bean burger. Along with that, Erik and I split some spicy black bean and vegetable soup. I spaced off taking pictures of anything else, so the soup pictures are it.

It’s been really chilly lately so it hit the spot!

And after dinner, we headed to our favorite coffee shop, Mudpie, for some warm beverages. I got tea, of course. I can’t get enough of it lately!

Hand modeling credits go to Erik.

Can you tell it’s almost Halloween?

I’m so glad I got to spend time with Danelle on her trip back to Missouri for the weekend, I’ve missed her! I never laugh as much as I do when she’s around.

And despite the polished picture up top and the fact that Danelle will probably not like that I’m posting this picture on my blog for the world to see … this one probably describes us MUCH better.

Your turn! … what have you been up to this week??

Warm sweet potato quinoa

Happy middle of the week!

The weather has officially been feeling very much like fall, and I’m still loving cuddling up next to a hot tea. The past few days in Kansas City the sky has been cloudy and the breeze has been chilly. Thus, it called for warm, delicious comfort food! I had to work late this evening, so Erik made it happen. And in such an easy, simple, and delicious way.

Warm Sweet Potato Quinoa

Ingredients:

• 2 cups quinoa, cooked according to directions
• 1 large sweet potato, cubed
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 vegetable bouillon cubes (no salt added)
• Water (about 8 cups)
• Sea salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste

Instructions:

• Cook quinoa according to directions, set aside.
• Place all other ingredients in large pan, and cook on medium high until almost boiling. Turn heart down to low and let simmer until veggies are tender (about 20 minutes total)
• Place some quinoa in a bowl, and top with as much veggie mixture as desired, and enjoy!

Note: I added a dollop of cashew cheese to mine, but it’s delicious as is!

I’ve missed you, sweet potatoes! Perfect fall evening dinner, and so quick and easy. Have I mentioned lately that Erik is the best? Yes, he is!

What’s your favorite way to eat sweet potatoes?