A month in review, a year in review: part 2

Now that we have properly celebrated the 1 year anniversary of my blog, I'd love to fill you in on all of the fun stuff that I have been up to the last month.

The weekend of May 22 was Green Fest at Chicago's Navy Pier. I won a pair of tickets from VegNews, so I grabbed Steve and we went. This was my kind of trade show, and I am so glad that we decided to go!

Natural health, green energy, fair trade and recycled goods, animal rights, vegetarian/vegan/raw food, and more. Here are a few snapshots:

I had many great conversations with various exhibitors that day. I had the opportunity to meet a few of the girls from VegNews, including Savvy Abby. I had a nice long chat about publishing, vegan cooking, and blogging with Thomas Hupp from Book Publishing Co. Here is a shot of us at their booth--check out all of those vegan books!

There were so many cookbooks that I wanted to buy, but I managed to escape with just two: Cooking with PETA and The Chicago Diner Cookbook.

Here is some of the other loot I picked up at the show, some Mary's Gone Crackers samples (YUM) and a coin purse from Global Exchange made from recycled tires.

Steve bought a new hoodie from Organic and Vintage Wear. This sweatshirt is made from recycled plastic bottles! It is so soft and comfy, it's hard to believe that it is made from plastic.

Then of course, we ate! Steve could not resist his favorite restaurant, The Chicago Diner. He ordered the vegan gyros and then the peanut butter puck for dessert.

It was a tough decision, but I opted for Soul Vegetarian (it was the greens that got me!). Check out my plate of "ribs", mac 'n cheese, greens, and cornbread.

 

 After we ate we left the exhibit hall and went out to enjoy Navy Pier for a bit before heading home.

Moving right along, in my month in review... later that same week my new roommate moved in, meet Meril:

I have been keeping busy in the kitchen cooking for us, trying out all of my favorite recipes on her. Meril is an omnivore, but very open to eating all of my vegan cooking. So far she has really been liking it! In addition to my favorites, I've also tried a few new recipes this month that are worth sharing. This is the New Age Vegan Pasta Carbonara (recipe by Ricki Heller).

I have been wanting to make a mock chicken salad and I finally did. Behold the Tempeh Salad Wrap (recipe by Morgan of Little House of Veggies).

Originally I was going to include my Memorial Day weekend vacation in this post, but this post is already long enough! For now I will leave you with a photo from my trip, and a clue, this was not NYC. :)