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Archive for Vegan Meetup

Vegan Chicago Meetup – Veggie Bite

02.6.2011 at 10:00 am · Filed under CHI, Travel, Vegan Meetup

For February Vegan Chicago headed to Veggie Bite for lunch. It was a great meetup, large group (over 80 RSVP’d!). I know the concept of vegan fast food doesn’t sound appealing to people. But I think Veggie Bite does a very good job of making it as healthy as possible. Their menu is large, the food tastes great (since I’ve been there several times), it doesn’t ever seem or feel too greasy “fast food” like. By far they have the best french fries around.

So this time at Veggie Bite I opted for the Chili Cheese Fries!

I also got the BBQ Nuggets, which were good, but not what I think I really wanted (or what went best with the fries…I thin k chix free nuggets would have been the better combo).

Then for dessert I got a slice of Strawberry Cake (because who can say no to cake?! Not this vegan).

As always, I have a great time with the Vegan Chicago group. I can’t wait to see what next months meetup is.

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Vegan Chicago Meetup – Ian’s Pizza

01.11.2011 at 12:29 pm · Filed under CHI, Travel, Vegan Meetup

Last weekend Vegan Chicago had it’s monthly meetup at Ian’s Pizza in Wrigleyville. They serve up vegan pizza’s with Teese and Upton’s products. We each got 3 slices of pizza and I tried one of each…there was the Vegan Dimo (tomatoes, spinach and mozarella soy), The Chicken Seitan Taco (buffalo chicken seitan, pico de gallo and cheddar soy), and a 3 Veg (portabella mushrooms, roasted red peppers and spinach with mozarella soy).

My personal favorite of the night was the Vegan Dimo – it had the best flavor and texture of the 3 options. All were really good though and it’s wonderfult o have a pizza option here in Chicago.

Have I mentioned how much I love being part of Vegan Chicago? No…well I do, a lot. Everyone in the group and at the meetups is wonderful. Afterward we even went on a mini pub crawl. I bailed out around 9pm since I was tired and had to head to MKE the next morning. But it was a blast hanging out with everyone!

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Vegan MoFo – Day 12 – Vegan Chicago Meetup

11.12.2010 at 8:00 am · Filed under 2010, CHI, Travel, Vegan Meetup, veganmofo

Last Weekend was the Vegan Chicago Meetup, this time at Dragonlady Lounge. It was awesome. The BF & I Stuffed ourselves and then managed to eat more. Seriously…just check out the buffet Sue put on (all vegan!)

Here’s Plate #1
Plate #2 (and soup!)

Note; Thursday they always have a vegan buffet. I want to go again…who’s with me?

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Chicago Vegan Mania

10.15.2010 at 7:46 am · Filed under Vegan Meetup

To say I was excited about Chicago VeganMania would be an understatement. I had been looking forward to it for at least month. The BF came down for the day and we started the trek out to the Pulaski Park for the days event!

I was super excited to hear Isa Chandra Moskowitz speak – she did not disappoint and it was also fun to find out we both have the same cookbook (read: Tofu Cookery! There is also a 25th anniversary addition – I might get it). She shared stories of a few recipes form the book and now I’m going to go and make those, as I have yet to make anything from this book.
After Isa’s talk The BF and I scored lunch. We opted for Soul Veg and were severely disappointed that the BBQ ran out and we had to have the gyro “meat”. Still awesome, but mega bummer. And the greens and mac’n cheese freaking rocked! We’ve made a note to go and actually eat there, even though it is out of the way…it was so good. Who wants to come with us??
The we stopped by Upton’s Naturals and got some pizza…yum!
After the pizza I was in need of a treat (it was my 31 + 1day b-day!) So we got a pumpkin chip muffin from Life on Mars. It rocked.
And also since it was my 31 + 1day b-day I talked one table into giving me this mini pear & spice cupcake. It was so yummy, I wish it wasn’t mini!
Another awesome treat was that Arya Bhavan was there and I scored a Samosa, my fav!

I also got a nice autograph from Isa to round out the day. Finally got off my lazy bum and bough Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar!

The rest of the event went well. I missed Isa’s cooking demo, it was super hot in the room and the sound system went out, so it was also delayed by 30minutes. That was actually the bad part about VeganMania. The building just doesn’t work for the number of people that came. It was crowded and the layout was inconvenient to get from one side to the other. I really hope that next year they opt for a convention type center instead. It was mega crowded and difficult to get to the different shops that set up market area. Otherwise, the event rocked.

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Chicago Vegan Meetup

10.6.2010 at 7:12 am · Filed under CHI, Travel, Vegan Meetup

This past weekend was my much anticipated (what? I have no friends here, of course it was anticipated!) Chicago Vegan Meetup. Even though The BF & I had to travel via L way out to Oak Park to eat at Lalo’s, I was stoked. The meetup even boasted Upton’s Naturals Chorizo (one of the attendees works at Upton’s and scored a case – we’re all hoping Lalo’s starts stocking it!).

They had the tables set with a variety of salsa…both of these rocked. I love salsa (yum, and chips).

And then they perpared a dish for everyone to include the Upton’s Naturals, Refriend beans (now made with veg oil and not lard, woot!), rice, and fajita veggies. Also loaded us up with plenty of flour and corn tortillas.

The day was fun, even found out I was seated next to Snarky Vegan…how rad was that?!

I hope to make more of the meetups in the future!

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Vegan Meetup

04.13.2010 at 8:45 am · Filed under Vegan Meetup

On Saturday it was time for the monthly Vegan Meetup. This month took us to Classic Slice. They boast 3 purely vegan creations or you can customize your own vegan pizza. I opted for the Anne Curry, yes it was incredible! I love curry and this pizza did not disappoint. The dough is wonderfully chewy and the curry sauce went well with it. Tofu, spinach, mushrooms, broccoli, and tomatoes rounded out the pizza.

I love the Vegan Meetup because its a chance to hang out with others who hold similar views as I do with regard to animal consumption. It’s wonderful to spend an afternoon with people and be able to eat the way I like without the snarky side comments I get from some of my omnivore friends.

The other splendid facet of the Meetup was one of the new members, who also happens to be a cyclist! I was stoked to finally meet Luke (as we’ve chatted via e-mail regarding bike routes), but we had a great talk about MKE & the vegan lifestyle. We eventually pedaled to Riverwest Co-op in search of vegan desserts…we scored big time with a cheesecake torte, topped with sliced almonds & fruity glaze. It was really tasty. I love that at the Co-op its not a set dessert menu, always changing based on what the volunteers make, I have yet to be disappointed.

So the Meetup was a success & if you have not been to Classic Slice, what are you waiting for?

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Vegan Meetup – Comet Cafe

03.15.2010 at 11:33 am · Filed under MKE, Vegan Meetup

I’ve missed several MKE Vegan Meetups this past year, they always seem to fall on WORS Races or some other bike related event. So this past weekend I had a chance to join in on the Sunday vegan dinner meetup at Comet Cafe. I’ve had all but 3 dishes on the menu I think and this weekend I opted for the Open Faced “Meatloaf” Sandwich. It was incredible. I chose this sandwich since one of my fellow vegan friends said her bf loved it. I can see why!

I also enjoyed a Booze-a-Latte with my meal. It’s a pretty awesome coffee drink.

The sandwich helped fill the void from my 35mi windy ride on sunday. So I managed to eat the entire sandwich.

And even though I ate all that, when our waitress returned to tell us about the FRESH vegan bakery items they were just unloading….I had to say yes. I got the most amazing Banana Cupcake I’ve ever had. What a great treat!

I made a few new friends at the event and we’re planning to get together for dinner in the near future. I can’t wait!

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Vegan Meetup – MKE

04.1.2009 at 11:24 am · Filed under Vegan Meetup

The Milwaukee Vegan Meetup was on Sunday at Maxie’s Southern Comfort and I got the Tofu Jambalaya….awesome, to say the least. It was good times to meet and chat with several vegans! I love this group.

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Saturday – The Vegan meetup

02.7.2009 at 1:44 pm · Filed under Vegan Meetup

For lunch is was off to my first Vegan Meetup…at the Taj Mahal, it was awesome. about 20 people showed up, mostly vegans, some vegetarians. I got to chat with several people and had a great time. The food, of course, rocked my world. I had my first plate from the buffet(which they made a special mostly vegan buffet for us) was basmati rice, Channa Masala (Chick Peas with onions and tomatoes), Aloo Tikki (diced potatoes and curried veggies), Vegetable Biryani, and I’m pretty sure the last thing was called Onion Kulcha (is was rice flour bread with curried onions in it, it was tasty to say the least.

On my second plate I got a Samosa (turnover stuffed with potatoes and veggies), more Channa Masala and another Onion Kulcha. The meetup was a lot of fun and I can’t wait for the next one.