Vegan MoFo ~ Snacks on a Vegan Road Trip!

Today's Vegan MoFo Prompt is 'what snacks would I take on a vegan road trip'.  Well...are you in for a post!
But first I want to tell you about part of my weekend!

I'll start with Sunday and go back to Saturday!  These two days produced snacks I would probably take on my road trip, too, so it's kind of fitting!

Sunday - we attended the Busti Apple Festival in Busti, NY.  Here's a picture of my dad with one of the apples I bought to take home.  It's almost as big as his face!  The type of apple is a 20-ounce Pippen...isn't it CRAZY HUGE?  I bet it was more than 20 ounces!  I ended up getting a smaller bag full of an assortment of NY State grown apples.  This is the first time I've gotten the Pippens, tho!

Saturday we winterized our camper.  I can't believe it's that time of year already.  After we did that I started collecting Hickory Nuts that have naturally fallen from the trees at the Warren County Fair.  The wildlife already started collecting them so I was 'choosy' which ones I took for myself.  Before I knew it I had about 10 pounds of them!  WOWZA!  So...know I have all these Hickory Nuts so if anyone reading is in the US and would like some I can probably flat rate ship some to you!  Let me know if you are interested!  I've asked at work and with family and friends if anyone wanted any and they ask what they would do with them.  Basically you can use them in place of Pecans!  I am thinking a roasted Brussels Sprouts and Hickory Nut dish is in order for myself!  They ARE a LOT of work, tho, I will warn you!

Another vegan snack I would bring on a road trip would have to be this sprouted trail mix.  Specifically the Thai Chili Pineapple flavor!  OMG!

Amazing!  You can find this HERE.

Basically ANY kind of DRIED FRUIT would be a great choice!  There are too many wonderful options to choose just a few.

Of course...NUTS and SEEDS is another thing on my list!

KALE CHIPS...need I say more about Kale Chips?

Another 'specific' I want to point out that is GREAT for traveling are these 'bad boys'!  They are meals in a cup and they only need WATER added to complete.  Either hot or cold water is fine.

Vigilant Eats is the brand.  Find them HERE.

The flavors I have tried and enjoyed are: Coconut Maple Vanilla Oat, Maca Double Chocolate, Goji Cacao, and Espresso Maca Mulberry Oat.

NUT BUTTERS...just about any kind!  But today I need to sing the praises of a few of Jem Organics, specifically!  Like this Cinnamon Red Maca Almond Butter, for example!  OMG - it's the LIVE for!  It's INSANELY GOOD and I'm a bit addicted to it!  Another one from them I have discovered as of late is their Cashew Cardamom Sprouted Cashew Almond Spread!  MY GOODNESS!

BUT...you also have to check out the offerings from Rawmio, too!  I mean how can you pass up options like...Almond Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Spread...among others?  So those are just a few items I would bring on MY Vegan Road trip!

Current Vegan Eats & Winner Announcements!

Hello there!  Before we get into all of these vegan eats - even some RAW Vegan Eats...I wanted to announce the winners of my last contest which was the NuNaturals $70 Prize Pack!

Linda K from the USA

Brenda P from Canada

Suituapui from Malaysia

Ashley R from USA

Thanks so much to everyone for participating the feedback was AMAZING!  Congrats to all of the winners!

In the first photo you will see a dip that I did a while back!  My thought behind it was to incorporate Mesquite Powder because I recently received a slew of it in an order from The Raw Food World and I wanted to start experimenting with it.

In this dip I used Cashews, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Red Bell Pepper, Garlic, Apple Cider Vinegar, Mesquite Powder, and Parsley.

Check out the entire recipe HERE it's one of the featured recipes over at The Raw Food World NEWS Recipe Section.

In other news I recently acquired like 20 pounds of bananas for FREE from a local produce stand! How awesome is that!?  They had a SLEW of over ripe bananas and they were due to get more in the following day and asked me if I wanted them!  Of course, I jumped at the opportunity even tho I'm not a fan of bananas I have been trying to incorporate more and more of them in my smoothies because I know how GOOD bananas are for you!  I shared a few pounds with 2 of the girls at work and went home to freeze the rest of them!

I also found a new-to-me flavor of Naked Smoothie at a nearby store.  I REALLY liked this flavor and grabbed it while traveling for work the other day!

Not too long ago I threw together a Farro Dish!

It was similar to the one I did HERE but I didn't have any artichokes or pine nuts to add to it this time around.

Before I get to my next few photos I wanted to let you know that this weekend my sister and I are going to the WNY Veg Fest in Buffalo!  We had so much fun last year we decided to make it a priority to go again this year.  I've already contacted Chis from The Vegan Zombie and he and Jon will both be there again!   This year I think I will make up some cards to pass out for my site!  I really want to start networking more with people in the Tri-State area and more online!

Here's a Mediterranean Chickpea Salad of sorts I did this past week!   Here's what's in it...

2 C Chickpeas
1 C diced tomatoes
1 Yellow Bell Pepper
1/4 C Parsley
1/4 C Chives
1 T Oregano
3 T Balsamic
Sea Salt/Pepper to taste

I loved the way this turned out!  It was so yummy!

Question of the Day...what's the last dish you made using Chickpeas?

And FINALLY...some raw vegan ice cream...

What it contains:

4 Frozen Bananas
5 T Almond Milk
1 C Frozen Strawberries
3 to 4 T Nut Butter of your choice

For the Nut Butter I used Jem Organic's Super Berry Maqui Camu and it was wonderful!

I blended the Frozen Bananas first (with the Almond Milk) and then added half of the nut butter.  I blended the strawberries separately and added both mixtures into a large glass dish and mixture by hand because I wanted chunks of fruit.  I then added the remaining nut butter.  It was great!

Smooth Vanilla Nice Cream

Recipe:

1 C Cashews

2 tea Smooth Vanilla OPP

1 tea Vanilla Extract (optional)

1/4 C Agave

6 T Coconut Milk

How's THAT for, short, sweet, and to the point?

Yup!  The recipe upfront!

Now I should probably tell you a little bit more about this recipe and raw vegan vanilla ice cream adventure, right?  Well, here goes!  After soaking my cashews for an hour or two I put all of the ingredients you see above in my Vitamix and blended on high for 30 seconds.  I then froze the 'ice cream' and dished it up and into my lovely bamboo bowl and topped with Jem Organics Maqui Camu Super Berry Butter.  This was off the charts AMAZING!

I used Garden of Life's Smooth Vanilla Organic Plant Protein in this recipe, too!  The vanilla aroma upon opening the bag was pure HEAVEN!  It added a great deal of flavor and I think next time I might add more to it, too!  YUM!

Plum Cinnamon Chocolate Chai Smoothie

This was one of the smoothies I did this week!  It turned out yummy!  I have 2 other posts today and they are below this one.  This one will be short and sweet much like this smoothie!

4 Plums
1/2 Banana
1 Scoop GoL's Spiced Vanilla Chai
1 C Almond Milk
1 T Red Maca Cinnamon Almond Butter

It was sweet and a little spicy.  Creamy and a little fruity.

Vegan MoFo ~ Vegan Findings

I had a late post yesterday and it explains a few things that will be happening over the next few weeks so be sure to check that out!  Today I have a few things I want to post including a GIVEAWAY later today so be sure to check back!  First I wanted to post a few things that I have found pretty AMAZING the last week or so and thought I would post it as a part of my Vegan MoFo stuff!  First up this WONDERFUL Jem Organic Raw Chocolate Superberry Maqui Camu Sprouted Almond Butter.  I can't say enough about this and I got it over at The Raw Food World.  Check out the first clickable banner on my sidebar and it will take you to their site.  It's rich, it's the perfect pouring or dipping thickness, and it delicious.  The berry notes are at just the right level of flavor without being too over powering.  Since I don't have dessert foods ofter - because I'm not a baker - and I can't find anyone who is a vegan baker locally - I grab things like this when I have a sweet tooth.  Oh!!!!  And what are those grapes there?  Why...they are Cotton Candy Grapes!  YES...Christine told me about them like 2 years ago and I finally found them in my region at Wegmans!

These are out-of-this-world sweet!  What a treat!  Truly 'natures candy'!  Some people have complained that they are too sweet for their liking but I just LOVE them.  I'm so grateful I was FINALLY able to find them - even if I had to drive 45 minutes to get them!

While I was at Wegman's I found this TERRIFIC Vegan Sauce!  I LOVE making my own but I have to say this is the BEST Vegan Sauce I have had that was store bought!  Later today I will be posting a recipe from last night's dinner!  The flavor is this was stellar!  It was truly tomato and basil and creamy and YUMMY!