Loyola University Chicago's Vegetarian Week 2009

The week of Monday, March 16th to Saturday, March 21st was Loyola University Chicago's first Vegetarian Week (2009). Our agenda consisted of:

• Bake Sale: We had a bake sale to raise money for the group and we gave out free dorm-friendly recipe CDs!
• Colleen Patrick Goudreau Event: Author, activist, and chef spoke on behalf of the vegan lifestyle
• Ethnic Dinner: We had vegan food from 9 local ethnic restaurants around Roger's Park showcasing how vegetarianism fits into the culture
• PAWS Volunteering: Kitty City!

To kick off the week, we had a bake sale in Damen Hall. We made about $76! Not bad at all. The recipe CDs were a hit and the free vegetarian literature was gone by the end of the event. I made some vegan stout cupcakes out of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, oatmeal raisin cookies out of The Joy of Vegan Baking, and Irish Whiskey Cake (the recipe link is in the St. Patrick's Day post) for the sale.

Photo of Alexis, Paula, and Colleen. Taken by Sam Chen.

Speech description:

From Excuse-itarian to Vegetarian: Addressing the Blocks that Keep People from Making Changes:

Combining humor and wisdom to tackle the most popular excuses for not eating a plant-based diet, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau leaves no rationalization unexposed and offers sound and practical tips for living a life that reflects the values of sustainability, compassion, and simplicity.

We had a great turn out, at least 75-80 people came! Also, free food thanks to VegFund (hummus, vegetables, and vegan cookies). If anyone would like a recording of the speech, I have a copy I can e-mail you. It lasted about 45 minutes, plus Q&A and some book signing. Check out her podcasts on her website and buy her book, The Joy of Vegan Baking. She'll be coming out with a new book soon, The Vegan Table. The morning after the speech, Colleen and I had breakfast at Blind Faith in Evanston. It was quite tasty! I had the tofu scramble made vegan and she had the breakfast burrito made vegan sans the tortilla.

Photo of Paula and Colleen. Taken by Sam Chen.

The Ethnic Dinner was really tasty, haha. We had dishes from 9 local Roger's Park restaurants. Cuisines included: Ethiopian, Thai, Mediterranean, Italian, Chinese, Indian, Latin American, and American (dessert = chocolate cake!). All dishes were vegan. We had laminated sheets on the tables explaining how the vegetarian diet fits into that culture's cuisine plus laminated sheets of the restaurant list and cuisine (with ingredients).

Scanned article from the Phoenix, Loyola's school paper.

Last event on the week's agenda was volunteering at PAWS Chicago. There are pictures of this from a previous post regarding that weekend (retro bar crawl!)

Thank you Colleen for being the star of Veg Week and helping make it a huge success! Here's to Vegetarian Week 2010! :]

Vegan Chicago: Jive!

This weekend was full of vegan goodness and retro fun! Quite themed. On Friday, we went to The Chicago Diner which is probably the best known veg restaurant in Chicago. Meat Free Since '83! Ellen and Portia tried out the food there for their wedding, :]

Above is a Chiken Filet Sandwich with a side salad (Lime Cilantro dressing). The options were vegan ranch or chiptole for the sandwich, I opted for chiptole. Definitely great! Enjoyed every last bite, highly recommend it.

Vegan Mac & Cheeze! Divine. Everyone should always order a side of this stuff when they go to Chi Diner!

Retro styling for the evening! Gotta love it.

On Saturday morning, I volunteered at PAWS Chicago. It is a no kill shelter, the largest in Chicago. I spent my time there in Kitty City. Quite a few people out... weather was nice, just the time to go out and adopt a lovely pet. Heh.

After volunteering. I went to Handlebar. It is a bicycle bar that is diner veg-friendly! It is a cool place, but the service was just awful. The food was decent, nothing spectacular. I would recommend it for a one time try, at least.

I got their Everything Green Salad made vegan and a side of fries.

More retro hair and vintage dresses on Saturday night! We went on a River North mini retro throw back bar crawl.

Our bar crawl started out at The Motel Bar. So cute! I highly recommend going out of your way to this place. Had a French Martini and a champagne cocktail in a flute. Next we went to The Pump Room inside the Ambassador East Hotel. Well, we might have been the youngest ones there, but who could resist free live jazz and cabaret? Had a Pump Room special called a Pomatini. After, we went to The Green Door Tavern. It was built back in 1872! Chill place and the walls were super cute, albiet a bit much. Made a decent Cuba Libre! Our last stop was The Clark Street Ale House. Didn't have a drink here, but it was open until 5 am, haha. Apparently their beer selection is quite large and impressive.

This is The Green Door Tavern. Oh, also, our "cab ride" to this place from The Pump Room was in a half limo... at the same price as a normal cab ride? It was bizarre! What a classy bar crawl. I'm not sure you can top this and it was all of our first time doing a bar crawl.

To end this impressive bar crawl, a friend and I had Sunday brunch at Kitsch'n River North. It is right next to The Motel Bar. Loved it! I forgot to take a picture of my brunch, but it was a tofu scramble made vegan (it had cheese on it). It was a decent scramble. Definitely had better, but it was worth it for the atmosphere.

Tonight, I made a very lovely blueberry cake which I'll post about tomorrow. Phew! What a weekend, heh.

Vegan Chicago: Greenheart & Peaceful Mingling

Greenheart is a Chicago non-profit, eco-friendly, fair trade boutique. It has household items, food, jewelry and clothing from all over the world.

Tonight they had a wine and chocolate tasting featuring fair trade wine from South Africa, Stellar Organics, and fair trade chocolate from Ghana, Divine Chocolate. While not all Divine Chocolate is vegan, the 70% Dark Chocolate and the Mint Dark Chocolate bars are. The woman at the table explained how chocolate was produced and the lives of the farmers. It was quite informative. The website tells the story of the company.


It seems that Stellar Organics has a number of vegan wines, if not all of them. I was unaware of this when I went tonight, so I refrained from trying any. Here is a list of their wines that are in fact vegan.

To note: Another helpful website when trying to drink alcohol and keep vegan is Barnivore. Most helpful when you can upload it from your phone at a bar or the market.

This website tells one the basic reasons as to why many wines and beers are not vegan. Good news for you cheap wino's out there, most Yellowtail is vegan (at least the red is). Sadly, Franzia is not. No boxed wine for us vegans. :[



 

The inside of Greenheart:

In memory of the cyclist on LaSalle St.