VegKC Meet-Up

Wow, it’s a hot one in Kansas City today! One of those days you either want to be in a cold body of water, or relaxing inside with the AC running. We’ve been doing the latter, and it’s nice.

Eden Alley Meet-Up

As I mentioned, this Saturday we went to our very first VegKC meetup, Kansas City’s vegan/vegetarian Meetup group which was held at Eden Alley Cafe.

There was about 20 of us there all together {aka, the big group in the middle of the picture} …

I was predictable and got the Mandarin Salad just like last time I posted about Eden Alley. I always love beets and mandarin oranges.

Erik got the Avocado Vera Cruz:

And next up, obviously … was dessert. We usually don’t get dessert at restaurants {unless, of course, we’re at FUD and there’s cashew ice cream to devour}, but when these are placed in front of your face, it’s hard to resist:

We picked the raw pie, and I can’t even remember what all was in it. It wasn’t bad, but not gonna lie, I didn’t love it. In my {obviously oh-so-humble} opinion, our raw blueberry pie reigns supreme for sure!

All that being said, it was a lot of fun! The only downfall to a restaurant meet up setting is that you really only get a chance to talk to those seated right next to you. But it’s nice meeting at least those people sitting near you who appreciate eating the same way as you and don’t think it’s weird, haha. Not only that, it’s just fun meeting new people!

We’ll definitely attend more of these meet ups in the future, and we’re looking forward to getting to know people better and being more involved.

And now the age old beginning-of-the-work-week question … what was the highlight of your weekend??

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!

Good You

And next up on in our foodie weekend recap, a stop at Good You food truck.

Food trucks seem to be popping up all over the place lately (which I love), and when I heard about a KC organic food truck, I knew we had to stop by at some point. So Friday, we finally did.

Good You is operated by Chef Kelli Daniels and Kate Szalay, bringing Kansas City its first organic food truck.  Their menu changes every day, and like most food trucks, their location can be found by reading their updates on Facebook and Twitter.

We decided on sweet potato burritos:

And “KC’s best burger”, served on delicious Farm to Market bread:

 

Both menu items were delicious, and I know we’ll frequent Good You from now on.  I’ve got my eye on their fish tacos!

Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Need a great way to get a chocolate brownie fix in? I promise, these will do the trick!

 

 Ingredients:
Adapted from Clean Eating Magazine
-- About 6 oz dark chocolate chips
-- 3 large egg whites
-- 1 1/2 cups raw cane sugar, divided
-- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
-- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
-- 1 TB arrowroot powder

Directions:
-- Preheat oven at 375
-- Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl
-- Beat egg whites until they form soft peaks, then beat in 1 cup cane sugar and vanilla
-- In a separate bowl, combine the rest of the sugar (1/2 cup) with the rest of the dry ingredients
-- Beat the dry ingredients into the wet, then stir in the warm chocolate until the mixture thickens
-- Bake for about 10 minutes, and enjoy!

The texture didn’t turn out as planned, and the batter was a bit runny, but it was a blessing in disguise. They were very brownie like, very rich, and very delicious!

I put some leftover batter in a small ramekin, and this turned out beautifully as well.  The middle was perfectly warm and gooey with just enough outside chewy crisp.

I love chocolate!

What’s your go-to dessert craving??

Conveniently Natural

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Erik and I did all kinds of fun foodie activities in KC this weekend, so I’m excited to share them all in my next couple of posts!  What did you do this weekend??

First up for us, Friday night began at Conveniently Natural’s open house.

Conveniently Natural

Conveniently Natural is Kansas City’s first, and all-new, all-vegan meal delivery service, owned by Brian and Kim Gordon.

They held an open house on Friday night with samples of some of their foods. We got to try creamy mac and cheese, barbeque seitan, and a super-slaw salad, all very tasty! Special shout-out to Rawxy, whose very delicious raw cookies were there as well!

With ten meals delivered every Monday for a price of $97, and a new menu every week, I think this is a great concept to get convenient, healthier foods out to people who perhaps don’t have the time or knowledge to always eat healthy. 

Along with their meal delivery service, they’ll soon be opening a café, which I’m excited to try out. 

  

Each current week’s menu can be found on their website.  The first meal delivery week began this week, on May 16th.

 

I enjoy cooking too much to use a meal delivery service myself, but I truly wish them all the best! It’s great seeing more health-centered, local food options popping up in Kansas City, and it makes me that much more glad that this is the city we get to call home!

For more information, you can visit their website, or Facebook page.

And though I seem to fail at keeping my Examiner articles current, here’s the latest, also talking about Conveniently Natural.

Coming up soon … Good You organic food truck, chocolate cookies, ad local kombucha. 
Did I mention that I love Kansas City?

Have you ever tried a meal delivery service?

Lunch in the sun, Eden Alley & kitchen failures

What beautiful weather we’re having!

I’ve been anticipating nice weather for so long, now that it’s hear I don’t know what to do with it, ha. I love cold smoothies, flip flops, lunch outside in the sunlight, warm evening walks, etcetera!

KC Juice

I started my weekend with by going to World Market and picking up some new fun kitchen items (in which I’m sure you will be seeing in various upcoming blog pictures).  But first, I had some KC Juice.

 

I got my favorite smoothie, the “big apple” which consists of primarily apples, bananas, and frozen yogurt.  I was going to put wheatgrass in it but they were out of the powdered smoothie wheatgrass so I opted for a wheatgrass shot instead.  I always feel extra healthy after a shot of wheatgrass, ha.

Lunch in the Sun

A little later on in the day, Erik and I had lunch at Eden Alley, which is a vegetarian café located on the plaza in KC. They have an awesome menu, and incorporate local and organic ingredients into delicious vegetarian dishes that are also mostly soy free, and easily turned vegan.

Our sunny lunch started out with a cold glass of fresh juice.  I’m not sure what all was in it, but obviously the star of the show was carrots.

 

Their agave butter served with the bread is really good, especially when being melted by the sun.

 

I decided on the mandarin salad, which completely hit the spot!

 

The beets and mandarin oranges tasted perfect! Erik went with a pasta dish.  We smelled the garlic from a mile away, ha, but that’s just the way he likes it.

We decided that we don’t go to Eden Alley enough. We always love it there, and for their vegetarian menu, there’s so many delicious options!

Kitchen Failure

I hate it when things go wrong in the kitchen! It often makes me feel like a kitchen failure, but I have to realize that just comes with the territory.  Here’s two prime examples of things gone wrong:

We had homemade pasta again on Sunday night.  We decided to try out a penne type pasta with an attachment we had, and it didn’t work out too well.

Don’t let this picture deceive you.  It didn’t taste good.  The pasta was super heavy, and got dry quickly.  On top of that the meatballs were drier than a bone and way over seasoned.  We were troopers, and ate it anyways because when you're hungry, you’re hungry!

I then thought I could redeem this failed meal with a delicious chocolaty dessert made in my cute new little ramekins. MAJOR FAIL.

As you can see, they didn’t rise AT ALL, and the taste was nothing less than horrible. I mean, they were take-one-bite-and-immediately-throw-it-away horrible. It was a major bummer.  They sure looked good, ha.

I was attempting to make this recipe on Clean Eating Magazine’s website, and even followed the directions exactly. It made me feel better to see in the comments section that others had the same problem though … I’m not the only one!

I plan to go redeem myself just as soon as I hit “publish” on this post, with some trusty standby chocolate cupcakes, but with a little twist tonight. I know cupcakes won’t fail me!

What’s your biggest kitchen disaster?