Farm Aid 2011: The food

And we’re back with more Farm Aid!

Missed Part I? Farm Aid 2011 Kick off Party.

Farm Aid Food

I couldn’t wait another post to talk about my favorite part of just about everything … the food! Allow me to start very bluntly.

Farm Aid had, hands down, the best concession options. Ever.

But first … check out what we got in our neat swag bags!

Nice big tote? Raw agave? Chipotle gift card? Ticket for a free shirt? They {unknowingly} know me well!

 

Those Chipotle gift cards will be used very soon, I can assure you of that. Now to the important stuff … food!

Farmer’s Market Style

One of my favorite things about Farm Aid was that there were booths filled with fresh fruits and fresh baked goods. Why can’t every event have a booth of local produce, seriously?? The fruits included local berries, apples and fresh peaches.

It was so nice to be able to go grab some berries, an apple or a peach if you were hungry and just needed a quick healthy snack.

Fresh tomatoes have been AMAZING lately, too. I love it.

Food Venders

There were also several different booths that had meat from local family farmers for the meat eaters out there. We quite enjoyed Patchwork Family Farms shirts that said “Stop Factory Farms”. In fact, we tried to buy one but there were no sizes smaller than XL.

Food Concession Stands

The menu for their large concessions stand was quite impressive. I made the detailed menu large so you could check it out:

Some highlights from the Homegrown Concessions:

• The list is full of important words like “grass fed”, “family farmed”, “antibiotic & hormone free”, “local”, “rBGH free”, “organic”!
• Concessions were supplied from:
  • Patchwork Family Farms
  • Tallgrass Farm
  • Ranch Direct
  • Coleman Natural
  • Pilgrim’s
  • Applegate Farms
  • Local Burger
  • Whole Foods Market
  • Waldo’s Pizza
  • Paradise Locker Meats
  • Eden Foods
  • Rotella Roma Bakery
  • Farm to Market Bread
  • Heinz Organic Ketchup
  • Heartland Mill
  • Roasterie Coffee Roaster

Not surprisingly, we got the veggie burger, which is made by Hilary’s Eat Well who started Local Burger in Lawrence, KS.

And finished it off with some berries from Mule Barn Berries.

We hung out at Farm Aid pretty much all day from when it started at 1:00. The weather was perfect, I might add, so it was fun to sit, enjoy the breeze, eat good food, and relax before the flocks of people arrived.

A little later, we tried some grilled corn from Youthmarket Farm Stand:

The day was filled with great food, that’s for sure! Since we were there all day, we went back to the concessions later in the night to get a salad or veggie pizza or even another veggie burger and sadly, they were all out!

An apple came to our rescue but I do wish they would have planned for more, because there was clearly a demand for it. One of the concession ladies told us they sold out of some of those things by 4:00. Either way, I still cannot complain, they were awesome concessions!! And, hey, I’m glad they did so well that they were sold out.

Great day, great food!!

Still to come … the vendor booths and the music!

“As long as someone has his hands in the dirt to measure the health of it, I feel like everything else will be okay. As long as there is good food coming to my table from a caring farmer, then I think everything else will be okay” –Dave Mathews

Farm Aid 2011: Kickoff

Finally, Farm Aid recap time!

It was killing me (okay, okay, that choice of words may be a tad strong, but really, it was hard to wait!) that I couldn’t blog about it right away! If only my full-time job was to blog, tweet, look at Pinterest, take photos, and experiment in the kitchen all day … then I suspect I would have had to time to blog about Farm Aid a bit sooner, eh? A girl can dream.

But alas, this weekend my job that makes the money beckoned and I was forced to answer the call. If someone wants to pay me full time to blog, you’re more than welcome. Just saying …

Enough of that, let’s jump right in! We have to start with Friday night … the Farm Aid kickoff party.

Farm Aid Kickoff

On Friday evening, we went to the LIVSTRONG sporting complex to pick up our media credentials and scope everything out.

What is Farm Aid?

Farm Aid is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to keep family farmers on their land in order to guarantee an agricultural system that ensures farmers a fair living, strengthens our communities, protects our natural resources and delivers good food for all.

First off, some background:

• Farm Aid was inspired during the mid 1980s when American farmer’s found themselves overloaded with debts which were forcing tens and thousands of family farms off their land.
• In 1985, Willie Nelson heard a remark by Bob Dillon that something should be done for our fellow farmers here in America and he agreed. Joined by Neil Young and John Mellencamp, Nelson produced a special concert with the sole purpose of raising funds for farmers, making people aware of struggling farmers.
• It was then that Farm Aid was born. The first concert raised more than $9 million.

Farm Aid through the years:

• Still dealing with economic hardships of the 1980s, family farms were them confronted with a new threat of factory farms, making their struggle with debt even worse.
• The rise of factory farms not only was an assault against family farmers, but also a serious threat to all Americans who valued quality, healthy food and a clean environment.
• Farm Aid began to fund efforts to stop factory farm expansions

To this day, annual Farm Aid concerts are still being put on by board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews, accomplishing their mission by:

• Promoting Food from Family Farms
• Growing the Good Food Movement
• Helping Farmers Thrive
• Taking Action to Change the System

Love it! The Farm Aid kick off on Friday night consisted of local bands, HOMEGROWN concessions, a farmers market with fresh, local farms and many exhibits from related groups in the Kansas City area.

We had an Australian couch surfer staying with us this weekend who came through Kansas City to attend Farm Aid. Thus, it seemed obligatory to take pictures next to “Veggie Willie”.

Kick Off Dinner

After walking around the booths and getting to know Veggie Willie a little bit we checked out a dinner they were having full of delicious looking foods.

It was a perfect kick off or a great event.

There’s a lot more where that came from! Stay tuned for day-of food, activities, and music!

“We started out to save the family farmer. Now it looks like the family farmer is going to save us.” – Willie Nelson

Week in the lens of Instragram: Farm Aid Edition

Happy Weekend!

It’s been a busy end of week, hence the lack of my normal blogging schedule. I accidentally overbooked myself with work at the end of this weekend so I’m having to work some this Saturday and Sunday in my spare time.

Last night we went to a Farm Aid kickoff party. Since I don’t have time, due to work, to recap it this morning, here’s a quick Instagram version of our night … a complete version with real photos will be coming soon!

{Farm Aid 2011}

{Kickoff party dinner full of local food}

We also have a couch surfer from Australia staying with us this weekend who is also going to Farm Aid! Here we are taking a cheesy picture with “veggie Willie”

{“Veggie Willie”}

{Farm Aid, complete with bales of straw and corn}

After checking out the kickoff party we took our couch surfer (who is also vegan) to FUD for dinner, and showed her around Kansas City a little bit.

Now I must work! Stay tuned on Twitter and Facebook for Farm Aid updates throughout the day! Have a great weekend!!

Not able to go to FarmAid?? Watch live online here, starting at 5 pm Central Time!

BlogKC

It wouldn’t be a Lesley Lifting Life blog post if I didn’t start out with some type of weather report, ha … I’m happy to announce that today was absolutely beautiful, a nice preview of fall. If the weather was like this all the time, I would be one happy camper, not too cold and not too hot.

Waking up to a cool blowing breeze even inspired oatmeal this morning.

{I know, I know, Instagram photos are usually reserved for Saturdays but today, I make an exception}

BlogKC

I can’t remember at all how I discovered the BlogKC group, I just know it was via Twitter. But basically, it’s a group of Kansas City area bloggers that meet up once a month to eat together, started by Kristen of Dine & Dish. This month, which was this past Tuesday night, the group met at Kona Grill.

Lamely, the only picture I have of my BlogKC night was on the way and in the form of Instagram:

Kona Grill is super dark inside or I may have taken pictures. It was also my first time meeting everyone, which made me have first-time nerves. Thus, it was more fun to focus on meeting people than worrying about whipping the camera out. Word on the street is the next meet up will involved The Truck Stop and First Friday.

I sat next to the lovely ladies behind these awesome blogs:

• The Fresh Fridge
• Healthnut Foodie
• Cooking Up A Family
• The Concrete Catwalk
• Bev Cooks
• Gimme Some Oven

And met many more! Who knew there were so many bloggers in KC? I’m glad to have found them, and can’t wait to join in more meet-ups!

Farm Aid Update

Remember how I said I was invited to Farm Aid but I thought I was going to be out of town? Well turns out, we’ve switched around our schedule and now Lesley Lifting Life is an official part of the Farm Aid media … yahoo! Can’t wait to eat at their awesome local concession stand and blog all about it!

And that’s it for this random blog post. Hope you all are having a great week!

What’s your current favorite food?? Lately, I’ve been loving fresh delicious tomatoes and watermelon!

Curry Kale Potatoes

The 100+ degree weather finally decided to cool down!

It’s been glorious. I got up this morning and went outside to put the trash out. Right when I opened the door I knew I had to take a morning walk simply to be outside in this lovely cool weather.

I opened the windows in my office loving the cool breeze. It then proceeded to rain and it was even better! Thus, a delicious meal was born:

Curry Kale Potatoes

This was Erik’s creation. I got to be the lucky recipient of its deliciousness.

Ingredients:

• 4 medium purple potatoes, cubed
• 2 TB hemp oil (or olive oil)
• 2 bunches chopped kale
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 can pinto beans (Eden Organic brand)
• 1 TB garam masala
• 1 TB muchi curry
• 1/2 TB onion powder
• small pinch paprika
• salt, to taste
• around 3 cups water
• easy cashew cheese

Instructions:

• It’s simple! Heat large pan, add oil. Once it gets warm, add vegetables and beans. After a few minutes, add water and seasonings. Cook until vegetables are tender.
• Top with easy cashew cheese
• Enjoy!

Perfect for a rainy day.

Hope you’re all having a great week!

I’m headed to a KC Blogger meet up tonight (Tuesday) and I’m excited to meet everyone, this will be my first meetup with the group. Details to follow …

What’s your favorite rainy day food??

Week in the lens of Instagram: 8/6/11

Per usual Saturday … time for some Instagram!

{Friday night spaghetti}

{One of many lunches. It was good!}

{Apple & Moroccan Mint Green Tea}

{I may or may not have snacked on these vegan chocolate chips a lot this week!}

What are you up to this weekend??

Share the Love & Coming up in KC: 8/5/11

Is it Friday already?? Have a great weekend!

---

{Coming Up in KC}

• First Friday 
• The obvious immediate event in KC … today is First Friday! Go out, eat food, see art, have fun.
• Caffeine Crawl
• A LAB 5702 presentation, The Caffeine Crawl starts in Kansas City on September 17th. It features stops at 6 to 12 different local coffee shops, tea shops and coffee roasters and will include a brief hands-on presentation at each shop. We just got our tickets for Track A which will include: Parisi Coffee, Broadway, Crossroads Coffeehouse, Latteland, Mudpie, and The Roasterie. Sounds like fun to me! Word on the street is tickets to the Caffeine Crawl will be gone very soon. Get them while you can!

{Share the Love}

• Say What You Need To Say
• I love Lauren, and her blog! This week I wanted to highlight The Great Fundraising Act, Part II. It involves delicious looking granola up for grabs with the proceeds benefiting a great person in a time of need. Please go check out Lauren’s blog for all the details!

• The Granola Chronicles
• Courtney also grew up in Nebraska, is now living in California, and has a great blog! This week, her vegan pesto sounds most delicious!

• Clean Eating Chelsey
• I love a good chickpea burger. So when this whole post was about curry chickpea burgers, I said, yes, please!

• Simple Mom
• My friend Karen is always raving about Simple Mom so I finally had to check it out. While I don’t have kids yet, obviously, I really enjoy Tsh’s blog and you certainly don’t have to be a mom to benefit from it. There’s so many good resources on it, I almost don’t know where to start! Check it out, I think you’ll like it.

And finally … Happy Friday!!

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

It’s official. We’re all pretty excited about brown rice at Chipotle! For good reason.

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

As you may or may not already know, Erik and I really like documentaries. I’ve learned a lot from them covering a wide array of topics. My favorite type of documentaries {not surprisingly} involve health and food in general. Not too long ago, we finally saw Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead.

Here’s a general synopsis borrowed from their Facebook page:

“100 pounds overweight, loaded up on steroids and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease, Joe Cross is at the end of his rope and the end of his hope. In the mirror he saw a 310lb man whose gut was bigger than a beach ball and a path laid out before him that wouldn’t end well-- with one foot already in the grave, the other wasn’t far behind. FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD is an inspiring film that chronicles Joe’s personal mission to regain his health.

With doctors and conventional medicines unable to help long-term, Joe turns to the only option left, the body’s ability to heal itself. He trades in the junk food and hits the road with juicer and generator in tow, vowing only to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for the next 60 days. Across 3,000 miles Joe has one goal in mind: To get off his pills and achieve a balanced lifestyle.

While talking to more than 500 Americans about food, health and longevity, it’s at a truck stop in Arizona where Joe meets a truck driver who suffers from the same rare condition. Phil Staples is morbidly obese weighing in at 429 lbs; a cheeseburger away from a heart-attack. As Joe is recovering his health, Phil begins his own epic journey to get well. What emerges is nothing short of amazing – an inspiring tale of healing and human connection.”

And if you don’t feel like reading all of that … an extended trailer:

After Thoughts

We really liked this film, and I would highly recommend it! It’s amazing how one man, Joe, who decided to go on a juice fast for 60 days while traveling and talking to people throughout the country, ended up starting an ongoing circle that helped change so many lives for the better.

It’s been a little while since we watched it and the one thing that stays with me is the hope and happiness that came with each life changed. One person in particular, Phil. You could see that he was so unhappy with his life, so tired of all his health problems he was engulfed in and yet apathetic, thinking nothing could really change. When Phil was ready, Joe stepped in and graciously helped him get started, kept him motivated and really cared to take time to invest in his life.

And slowly, through many struggles, hope arose in Phil, he lost tons of weight, realized he was worth the fight, and regained his health, regained his life.

Basically, it was a great film! Obviously a healthy diet is not just how we choose to eat but it’s a fun hobby for Erik and I. We love to cook organic, fresh ingredients together and because of that sometimes I lose sight of why we’ve chosen to eat this way simply because it’s so fun for us, ha. But in actuality, when quality of life is concerned, food really does matter.

Have you seen Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead? What did you think?

What is your favorite documentary?

For more info on the movie, check out their website.

Brown rice at Chipotle

Hello, August!

Though it doesn’t affect me anymore, it’s hard to believe it’s already almost back-to-school time. Summer always flies by.

Now … a story.

Chipotle

I’m sure it’s no secret by now that Chipotle is our official we-need-food-right-now restaurant. It’s pretty much the only fast food place we go and it’s just a few minutes from our house. Plus, who doesn’t love a huge scoop of guac?

Erik made us an awesome homemade “Chipotle” salad version the other day, it was delicious! It consisted of:

• Salad mix
• Brown rice
• Black beans
• “Fajita” mix – bell peppers and onions, sautéed
• Homemade salsa
• Homemade guacamole

Looks pretty legit if you ask me!

Now to the story.

There are many things we like and appreciate about Chipotle. It’s fast, delicious, and they use local organic ingredients whenever possible. For fast food, that’s certainly not commonplace and they get major Lesley Lifting Life props for that. There’s just a few things I wish they could improve.

On the way home from St. Louis last weekend we were talking about the fact that the only grain option is white rice, and that everything is so high in sodium. I never used to contact companies or give my opinion on things until I started blogging. It’s made me realize that companies really do like hearing feedback, because it’s what makes them better. Thus, I whipped out my handy iPhone and emailed them.

Since I was in the car and on my phone I simply said,

“Ever thought of having a brown rice or quinoa option and cutting the sodium a little? Chipotle is the only fast food place we ever eat at and we do love it!! But it would be awesome to have a better carb option than white rice, and ingredients that didn't equate to a full days' (or more) worth of sodium! Please? :)”

I didn’t really expect to hear back but just a few days later I receive a very lengthy reply that said as follows:

Lesley,
Thanks for taking the time to write to us. We have been testing out brown rice for some time now in some of our restaurants around the country. Because the testing has been so popular and successful, I am happy to announce that we will be implementing brown rice to our menu as a full-time fixture. That being said, there is no current timeline for when the brown rice will be available in all of our restaurants however we are hoping it will be everywhere sometime this fall. I ask you to bear with us as we implement brown rice to our menu around the nation and stay tuned for more information to come.
As for sodium, we are always looking for ways to improve our food and certainly appreciate the feedback we get from our patrons. It is difficult to find a happy medium with all of our customers’ personal preferences and dietary needs; however that does not mean that our salt content cannot be reduced for the future. In fact, we have recently decided to reduce the amount of salt used in our carnitas as we have found that doing so is not only a healthier option, but also helps to bring out the flavor of our other seasonings. We are additionally looking for ways to improve our tortillas by incorporating low-sodium flours that can contribute to a more enriched flavor. We are hopeful that we can find a solution for this. In the meantime, I will also pass along your suggestion for ways to further reduce our sodium content to the appropriate folks for consideration.
Thanks for the suggestions and we hope to see you again soon.

Sincerely,
Austin

And if you didn’t feel like reading through all of that it basically said that all Chipotles are going to be offering a brown rice option soon, possibly this fall. I thought that was exciting! I didn’t know some Chipotles were already testing the brown rice option either. Has anyone been to one of these Chipotles already offering brown rice?

I know most of my readers really like Chipotle too, so it seemed like worthy info to pass on! Hope Monday treated everyone well!