vida vegan con Archives - Compassionate Women

Vida Vegan Con Bazaar 2015

June 2, 2015 by Jillian Leave a Comment

This past weekend was the third annual Vida Vegan Con Bazaar & Conference in Austin, Texas. The conference itself, which took place on Saturday and Sunday, was sold out by the time I caught word of the event, but luckily, I was able to snag a ticket to the Friday Bazaar. It was held at the Marchesa Hall & Theatre, which holds many annual events and is the home of the Austin Film Society.

Out front were local vegan food trucks, including Cool Beans, Arlo’s and more. Inside was a flurry of vendors and people and food and freebies and it was awesome. Like, seriously. Getting to be surrounded by friendly vegans while sampling delicious food and discovering new products is pretty cool. Here are some of my favorite photos from the Vegan Bazaar, starting with the food!

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Cheesy Broccolini Breakfast Biscuits

May 29, 2015 by Jillian Leave a Comment

Today is the day. The Vida Vegan Con Bazaar has arrived in Austin, TX. A few hours from posting this, I will be in vegan heaven collecting cruelty-free swag and meeting more vegans than I’ve ever been in a single room with. I’m going to be a kid in a candy shop. A vegan candy shop. I can’t wait. I want to make sure I post a yummy recipe before heading out because who knows how long it will take me to recover from rolling in all the swag I’ll be getting.

On Monday I posted my recipe for Cheesy Broccolini & Brown Rice Patties, so don’t get these confused. I had a bunch of leftover broccolini and needed something to do with it, so I came up with the idea of a savory breakfast biscuit because who doesn’t love those? If you’re gluten free and miss those ultra bread-y products, I think you’ll enjoy these biscuits. They hit the spot!

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Rabbit Food Grocery: Austin’s First Vegan Grocery Store!

May 27, 2015 by Jillian Leave a Comment

In honor of my birthday this week and also the Vida Vegan Con Bazaar & Conference, I’m publishing three posts instead of my usual two. I know, stop the presses. But I’m pretty excited, I feel like Vida Vegan Con purposely scheduled their conference this weekend because they knew it was my birthday. Okay, probably not. Seriously though, Vida Vegan Con is going to have some awesome speakers like Gene Baur, founder of Farm Sanctuary, and 40+ classes, panels, and workshops. Annnnd to kick it all off they are throwing a Vegan Bazaar with tons of local vendors giving out swag (did I tell you how much I love swag?), a Decadent Dessert Demo with Fran Costigan, and more! If you don’t live in Austin and can’t attend – don’t worry! – I’ll be there taking pictures until I have to drive down to the Texas coast for my b-day shenanigans.

Rabbit Food Grocery ties into my speech about Vida Vegan Con because they will be there in all their shining glory. They are Austin’s first all vegan & cruelty-free grocery store and I’m thrilled. I literally want to buy everything in their store. Rabbit Food was founded back in 2008 by Jessica Morris and Gabriel Figueroa, both longtime vegans; they would set up pop-up shops around town during events. Jump forward to January 2015, thanks to Kickstarter donations and lots of hard work, they’ve opened up their first physical store. Yeaaaah!

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