VegFest Michigan 2012 And Other Goings-On

This was a busy weekend--went to Ann Arbor Friday and Saturday for my sister's graduation from U of M, and today I went to VegFest in Novi with my mom, which was awesome!

Beginning first with my sister's commencement ceremonies and graduation:  we went to Sava's for dinner on Friday night and it was VERY disappointing.  There was not one vegan option.  

Not ONE.

Their salads were not even vegan-friendly.  I ended up designing my own, with greens, arugala, avocado (I think I saw it in there...?), cucumber, spinach (umm...it was listed on the menu but I wasn't brought any...???), carrots? (didn't carry?), mushrooms (nope), and when it arrived my "salad" consisted of a VERY modest plateful of arugala with, maybe two cucumber discs.  So no other lettuce...or substance, for that matter.  I asked for more, and was brought a plain bowl of lettuce (yum), and oil and vinegar carrier because EVERY dressing had some animal product in it--cream, eggs, butter, etc.  I did not photograph my dinner because, really, it wasn't worth it.  

I am kind of amazed that such a vegetarian-friendly restaurant is so unaccommodating to vegans.  I am especially amazed that a restaurant in ANN ARBOR has such limited options.  The waitress did little to accomodate me, either.

On a perkier note, though, my dessert of lemon sorbet was DIVINE.  It looked so pretty in its lemon peel "container" too!  That said, however, I did have one issue with it:  its price.  $6.00!  And for SUCH a small portion.  Literally, I was not even given a half-cup's worth.

Whatever.

It looked pretty and at least I had one good thing at Sava's.

Nowwwwwww for VegFest!  It was AWESOME!  I had never been before and did not know what to expect but I was pleasantly, pleasantly surprised!

The festival was held at the Suburban Showcase in Novi, which was a really nice venue for the event.  Admission was $10/adult, $5/student and with all the free, quality samples that were given away, this was well worth the price of admission.  

Some of the things I sampled were tortilla chips and "Jack's Special Medium" salsa from Garden Fresh Gourmet, DELICIOUS Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream (made with rice milk) from Treat Dreams in Ferndale (and I am seriously contemplating a visit there this week), flavorful raw lemon lavender macaroons from Rightfully Raw, and these great lemon raisin scones from Bell Mountain Vegan Goods (they don't have a website *gasp* so I cannot provide further information about their company, which is really too bad because these scones were great!).

I did try other things in addition to the aforementioned but those were the best.  That is why they get special attention and credit ;))

At VegFest I also purchased a vegan lip balm from this cute little company, Green Daffodil, based out of Ferndale.  My flavor of choice was Root Beer.  I also really, really liked their Blackberry Sage and Tangerine Sage candles.

LASTLY!  I purchased the most ADORABLE shirt at VegFest from Herbivore Clothing Company.  I really like this company because their graphics are incredibly eye-catching, their messages are funny and the quality of their garments is very good (as are the colors!).  I also bought a sticker from this company and had to resist the urge to by 12 of them because they were only one dollar!

Okay, okay, blah...blah...blah.  That was a lot of text and NOT a lot of images.  NOW for the photos!

I made a new batch of goodies to bring in to work this week and boy, oh, boy did they turn out great!  They are:  BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE STREUSEL BARS!!!

I purchased a cute little journal to set on my table at work for people to write their comments and suggestions in, and I'm really excited about this!  I will now get to hear how people liked a treat they tried or what they'd like to see again, even when I'm not physically present!  I'm hoping that people will also write suggestions for recipe improvement or what they'd like to see featured.  

We'll see how these move!  Will they be a hit or miss???

I'll post photos of people's entries as they come in.

That's all for tonight.  Happy Sunday night!

I got these cool dots painted on my face at VegFest today and I kind of want to leave them on for yoga tomorrow!