Simple Summer Tomato Soup
Hearty Lentil and Potato Soup
Veggie, Lime and Cilantro Soup
Tomato-Chickpea and Sweet Potato soup
Cream of Asparagus
In support of No Meat March, we are hosting a Vegan Meal Swap on Sunday, March 24, 2013 from 4:00pm-6:00pm (meals need to be on the table by 4:30pm to participate). It will be held at St. Pete Community Acupuncture located at 14 18th Street South, St. Petersburg, FL 33712.
Bring 6 servings of a vegan meal. Meals need to be pre-portioned and packaged for easy take home. Plastic containers and baggies are okay to use. Something that ideally keeps well or a few days or is freezable is optimal. Also, please bring an ingredient list of your meal for those with allergies or aversion to certain ingredients.
What’s a serving? Let your conscience be your guide! Generally it’s how much you’d expect to eat if you were sitting down to a meal.
The method of exchange will be the same as the soup swap. We will draw numbers which will be the order the meals will be chosen. We will then have a ‘telling of what you brought.’ Then in drawn order, each person picks a meal …1,2,3 – until everyone has their first pick and then again 1,2,3 – until you’ve gone around the room 6 times. The goal is to go home happy with a variety of items.
You don’t have to be vegan or even vegetarian, anyone can participate in the swap, as long as your meal is vegan. Participation in the swap is free. To sign up or if you have any questions email Heidi at stpeteveganfoodswap@hotmail.com.
Check out last year’s vegan meal swap here: http://stpeteveganfoodswap.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/vegan-meal-and-dessert-swap-recap/.
No Meat March is an event that promotes a meat-free, vegan diet for the entire month of March. Participating cities include Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Daytona Beach. You can learn more here — http://www.nomeatmarchtampa.com .
With today being day one of my 31 days of March post, I decided to start with the first meal of the day: breakfast. I don’t know about you but I feel like this is the hardest meal to find healthy choices devoid of soy and gluten products. Especially hard when you are a family that loves bagels with cream cheese, pancakes, and tofu scramble with faux sausage.
I came across this recipe for Strawberry and Cream Quinoa Porridge in Betty Goes Vegan. It was the basic quinoa breakfast recipe I already use with the addition of vanilla, brown sugar, and topped with strawberries.
Not only is this breakfast high in protein but also iron and calcium. And did I mention it tastes great. Not a strawberry lover, you could replace them with any other berry or even dried fruits or nuts.
For this and many other delicious recipes, check out Betty Goes Vegan by Annie and Dan Shannon.
To most people it was Super Bowl Sunday to us swappers it was SOUPer Bowl Sunday. We gathered on February 3rd for the 2nd Annual Vegan Soup Swap in observance of National Soup Swap Day.
The vegan soup swap, in its most simplistic form consists of making a large pot of soup, freezing six 1 quart containers, meeting with fellow swappers that have completed the first two steps, sharing a story about your soup, swapping the soup, mingling, then going home with 6 different soups.
Soup swap table.
This year’s soups consisted of: Hearty Lentil and Potato Soup, a one pot meal that consists of lentils, kale, and potatoes; Veggie, Lime and Cilantro Soup, not your run of the mill veggie soup, this one has kick flavored with lime, cumin, and cilantro; Simple Summer Tomato Soup aka Gazpacho, straight from your garden with tomatoes, green onion, celery, cucumber, and green pepper; Tomato-Chickpea and Sweet Potato soup spiced with cumin, red pepper flakes, basil, and surprisingly cinnamon; and Butternut Squash Soup chuck full of vegetables and made creamy with only the squash. We each got to take home one of each of these soups, plus one person who was adventurous made six different soups. We each got to take home a different one: Cream of Asparagus, Black and White Bean, Curried Cauliflower, Cream of Carrot, Butternut Squash, and Pea, Leek, and Potato soup.
Door prizes, Vegan Soup Swap 2013 pot holders.
Make soup, share it, eat well, start a tradition, build a community. – Knox Garner, who started this whole soup swap craze
Don’t worry if you missed this vegan soup swap there is always next year. Save the date for our 3rd annual vegan soup swap on January 25, 2014.
Since we are on the subject of soup, I wanted to share with you a picture of my vegan wonton soup leftover from my birthday dinner at Trang Viet in Tampa. If you love wonton soup like I do, you know that vegan wonton soup is not easy to come by in Tampa Bay. This is yet my favorite. I think it tastes like the real deal. Wontons filled with carrots, cabbage, and imitation chicken in a very convincing broth with scallions and slices of vegan ham.
Trang Viet is well-known for its extensive vegan/vegetarian menu, but did you know that you can receive a free entrée (up to $10.00 value) on your birthday? So the medium bowl of vegan wonton soup (too big to eat in one serving which is just as good heated up the next day) that I ordered was on the house. You will find me there every year on my special day. Just don’t forget your ID:)
Here is my loot from Sunday’s 2nd annual vegan soup swap. I brought home six uniquely different soups. I can’t wait to try them all. Check back for a recap of the event that will be posted in a few days.
Looking for vegan treats in St. Pete? Yesterday I stopped by Sweet! by the Cake Factory for some cupcakes. Their cupcake bar has a vegan option and all their icing (except for cream cheese) are vegan. I was told they use palm oil instead of butter. I picked up 2 marbled and 1 vanilla all topped with a mound of chocolate buttercream. Of course, in my excitement I forgot to take pictures. The cupcakes themselves were light and moist but easily fell apart. Not as good as homemade but still good enough to eat again and again. The chocolate buttercream was amazing. A little too amazing, I think I got a sugar high.
If you are in the neighborhood and need something sweet, I suggest stopping by for a little Sweet! treat.
