I was pleasantly surprised at lunch on the first day of the conference. Well, first I wasn’t surprised at all. There was a salad on the buffet line, and that was it, the only vegan option. Even the broccoli and cauliflower had cheese on it. The fabulous Marge, who works at the hotel, took pity on me. She said she would get me a bowl of cauliflower and broccoli without the cheese. I remained near the buffet line, clutching my salad, and she returned empty-handed. Uh oh. She smiled and said, “Go have a seat and eat your salad. When you’re done, I’m going to bring you something very nice from the chef.” Later she returned with a lovely plate of rice, mushrooms, onions and asparagus. I was over the moon—and there were a few jealous folks at my table! Sadly, no photo. I didn’t have blogger-bravery because it was a work luncheon.
In the afternoon I dove into the humus, carrots and celery (oh, okay, and a glass of wine!) that I brought with me from home. We ventured out for dinner, and found Schade’s Restaurant within walking distance.
I ordered the veggie wrap, hold the cheese and hold the wrap.
Why hold the wrap?
So I could enjoy these, guilt-free thank you very much.
Great meal? No. Good meal? Yes!
Thursday morning I went outside to take a few photos
before I enjoyed my green smoothie and a few snap peas and humus for breakfast. Tons of energy for the presentation I did later in the morning!
(feeling sassy, pre-presentation!)
At lunch, while the others were eating chicken and salmon, I got this
Tofu! Woot! I was a very happy vegan. Apologies for the iPhone picture but at least some of my blogger-bravery came out! But it was served during the business meeting of the conference, the president of the association was speaking, so it didn’t feel appropriate to whip out the Canon.
Speaking of iPhone pictures…my husband, who is not a vegan and not a food blogger (but he does blog) texted me a photo as I was heading down to a reception.
He made a sweet potato hash and texted “enough leftovers for you to enjoy when you get home.” I could see that he used the white dish, the white towel and placed the dish in the right spot by the patio for an attempt at good food pic lighting. Adorable. I texted him right back to let him know the picture was going on the blog. He promptly emailed me his recipe
db’s Sweet Potato Hash
INGREDIENTS
- 4-5 small sweet potatoes or 3-4 larger-ish sweet potatoes
- 1/2 to 1 small-ish onions
- 3/4 a medium red pepper
- 3-4 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 to 3/4 large apple (Honey Crisp if you have it)
- Cumin
- Salt
- Pepper
- Red pepper flakes
METHOD
- Clean the potatoes, then slice and cube them into bite-sized bites. Nuke or bake them until “almost cooked.” (I nuked em’ to keep the cooking time down)
- In the meantime, slice and dice your onion into chunks (just smaller than bite-sized) and mince your garlic
- Also, slice and dice your pepper and apple into bite sized chunks as well.
- Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium / medium high heat. Toss in the onion and pepper. Toss and heat for a few minutes.
- Toss in the potato chunks, garlic, and red pepper. Toss / stir / whatever.
- Toss in some salt and pepper
- Add the potato chunks. Toss. Add cumin and red pepper flakes. Toss some more. Maybe a minute or two. Add more salt if you feel like it.
- Add the apple chunks. Toss and heat for another minute or two until the apples are warmed.
- Take pix like a novice food blogger with your iPhone at 500 p.m. with fading sunlight and feral cats on the back deck stalking you for food.
Gotta love him! 🙂
Are you reading all of the great Vegan MoFo posts this month? My Google Reader is overflowing with great vegan eats posted by great bloggers! Can’t wait to get caught up them when I get home.
