Vegan Food at Blogfest and IDEA World 2015

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So I’m back from Blogfest, Idea World, and Zumba training. It’s been a strange five days and I will recap the convention days, plus the Zumba training but today I wanted to recap some of the delicious plant based food I ate during blogfest and Idea World. Honestly it’s always tough for me traveling as I don’t like being off my diet plan but I accept that when traveling you have to make concessions and give yourself a little leeway. Last week when I went grocery shopping I got some snacks to see me through the days, plus some breakfast items. Breakfast was included in my hotel stay but I had early mornings and the breakfast room didn’t open till 6.30am and it just wasn’t early enough for my schedule. So I took some muesli and So Delicious Almond Milk for breakfast plus a Quaker supergrains oatmeal pot, which I just needed to add hot water to. So on with the other food.

Vegan Food at BlogFest and IDEA WORLD

Wednesday I had Zumba training, and from previous experience I figured we wouldn’t get long for lunch so I picked up a Subway veggie delite (minus the cheese but with guacamole) in the morning. Subway was literally two doors away from my hotel so I LOVED that. I get extra veggies, always load up on veggies where you can.

1. For dinner I met up with an old friend from the UK that I hadn’t seen for 15 years!!! We went to the Yard House at LA Live, and I had the GARDEIN™ CHICKEN RICE BOWL (bok choy, baby corn, snap peas, carrots, shiitake, celery, peppers, broccoli) with a beer. It was delicious.
2. Our Blogfest lunch on Thursday was sponsored by Nestle who were promoting their revamped Lean Cuisine and Stouffers FitKitchen meals. This meant that none of the planned entrees were vegan. One of the staff overhead me declining the entree and brought me a vegan option, which had the Indian Style Patty by Morning Star Farms and was very tasty. The cauliflower ‘rice’ and veggies were  really good too.

[tweetthis url=”http://wp.me/p1fDG1-1rx”]Check out @workoutwithdi #whatveganseat when traveling at #blogfest and #ideaworld [/tweetthis]

3. Lunch on Friday was provided by Kellogs and their Morning Star Farms brand. I admit that I was disappointed a little that there weren’t more vegan options, but the quinoa bowl they had was delicious with their india style patty crumbled into it. They are asking that people take the veg of allegiance and  commit to making a number of their meals each week meatless. I wish they would do more vegan options, meatless should include eggs and dairy too!
4. One of our snack providers for Blogfest was Truitt Family Foods. They also sponsored our run on Thursday morning. I admit I had a couple of their hummus dips with chips to tide me over on both days. Plus I had a couple of packs in my goodie bag, plus from the run. Their hummus rocks, and travel bonus – it doesn’t need refrigerating!

 

Thursday night was the IDEA WORLD urban party and the only vegan offerings I found was just salad. Thankfully I had the foresight to bring some McDougall’s Right Foods Pots with me so I could just add hot water. I took: Vegan Lentil Couscous Soup, Thai Peanut Noodle, and Masala Lentil Pilaf. Again not something I would eat normally due to the sodium content, but travelling means you make allowances. I took them ‘just in case’ and they certainly did help and tasted great too!

5. Breakfast on Friday was sponsored by  General Mills. As I’d eaten already I just opted for Tea and Orange Juice. Much of the breakfast spread seemed geared towards their yogurts anyway so I skipped the food.
6. Snacks again for today were Truitt Hummus, this time I discovered carrots. So I snagged two packets of carrots with my hummus. One I ate later with some Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter blend that I got at Whole Foods but is also available on Amazon, and it rocks! These are individual serving sachets of nut butters perfect for the traveling vegan!
7. In the Idea World fitness Convention Expo I attended the Soy Foods Association demo at the nutrition stage, and chowed down on their samples of tempeh bacon BLT and Tofu salad with goddess dressing. I also picked up a ton of info from their booth which I’ll be blogging about soon 🙂
8. I was happy to see a few plant based protein powders at the expo. I personally don’t use these often but again, travelling brings issues so I tried a couple and will be doing some reviews on those soon.
9. Vegan food highlight of the Idea World expo was again Daiya Foods. They were serving some tasty bites including samples of Beyond Meat beast burgers with Daiya Cheese, Smoke Gouda, and a non-spinach version of their Swiss Garden Daiya  Quesadilla. All were extremely delicious and their booth was always packed with people. I took home a few of their coupons so I could pick up a few things to try. I loved the Beast Burgers though! Bob would like them too I’m sure.

All in all I had a great time sampling some tasty vegan foods, some new foods, and got lots of ideas to try new recipes, and veganize existing ones. Plus I met a few fellow vegans at the blogfest lunches!

[tweetthis url=”http://wp.me/p1fDG1-1rx”]Check out @workoutwithdi #whatveganseat when traveling at #blogfest and #ideaworld [/tweetthis]

Questions:

Are you taking the “veg of allegiance”?

What’s your favorite plant based food company?

Have you tried the guacamole at Subway?