Tag: vegetarian

2017-Cutting-Edge-Food-Trends-iStock-521534856

2017 Cutting Edge Food Trends

So much can be said for the future of our industry and of food. There is too much hunger, yet food waste is a major problem. We grow field after field of crops that will feed our cars, our cattle, and ourselves, but we grow in unsustainable patterns with inefficiencies that cause massive price hikes on crops that would be affordable and environmentally friendly if they were only grown cyclically. And what about dining? We come together to celebrate, socialize, and conduct business, but the changing landscape of food laws and dietary needs has created a different environment for the…

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swiss chard + white bean grilled sammie from Sunday Morning Banana Pancakes

Make Your Attendees Crave Lunch with these 12 Vegan Options

Use the Vegan Lunch Ideas for Meetings to Feed Attendees Well Over the last few months I’ve gotten quite a few emails/calls from meeting planners asking me for healthy and delicious vegan lunch ideas for meetings since the hotel, convention center and/or catering companies they are working with are not making an effort to do this for them. To top the frustration I’ve heard from planners, the stories from vegan and vegetarian meeting attendees about what they were served illustrate a lack of enthusiasm from chefs to create these meals: At an awards banquet Jessie was served one – yes, one – roasted carrot. Monica was…

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Happy Vegan Month and World Vegan Day!

November is off to a great start and one of the reasons is that November first is World Vegan Day. I’m not promoting we all need to switch to veganism, but I am promoting more vegan dishes in our menus. Not only will be making a concerted effort to meet the needs of our custom eaters, we’ll be opening our events to a vast and surprisingly delicious world of innovative vegan dishes. With a growing number of people turning to vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, the effort to create meat-like dishes is long gone. Occasionally, we still see tofurkey, fish-like tacos,…

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October: Vegetarian Awareness Month

October is Vegetarian Awareness Month! This doesn’t mean there is a sudden call-to-action for all meat-eaters to go veggie, but it’s a great way to stop and appreciate that there are some amazing veggie dishes out there that are worth building into our main course menus. And if we were to build just a little more veggie-life into our personal weekly menus, we might find we are actually experiencing this delicious world in an even more interesting way. Quick Run-Down on Vegarians: Vegetarian Awareness Month has two purposes. One is to be aware of vegetarians and the reasons for their…

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An Open Letter to the Meetings Industry

Meetings Industry – An Open Letter on Inclusion

Dear Meetings Industry, In June 2016, I attended Meeting Professionals International (MPI) World Education Congress. As usual, the international conference was well attended and a wonderful gathering of top industry professionals. We studied food and beverage topics, budgeting, international trends, hybrid and virtual meetings and more. Added to this year’s event was a celebration of inclusion … mostly. Unfortunately, the convention occurred on the heels of the tragic LGBT nightclub shooting in Florida, where 49 people were killed, over 50 were injured, and over 200 were held hostage until the gunman’s death, when police stormed the club around 2 a.m.…

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11 Ways to Implement Important Sustainability Practices

Sustainability has become a big aspect of almost any industry and in the meetings industry sustainability has become crucial to maintaining our social and environmental responsibility. While we often hear farmers producing sustainable crops or even sustainable livestock, our kitchens also need to take stock in their environmental impact as well to ensure a better quality and in-demand products. Just as Climatarians make specific changes in their diet to minimize their carbon footprint, we need to make changes, industry-wide, to do our best to minimize and diminish unsustainable practices across the supply chain and in the kitchen. Whether we seek a…

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Variety of whole and half multi colored beets

All About Beets

As part of fruits and veggies month, Thrive! is featuring fruit and veggies each week. This week the vegetable is beets - red, golden, Chioggia. A whopping ninety percent of adults and children don't get enough fruits and veggies, so add this one to your shopping list this week! HISTORY The beet comes from the wild sea beet, native to the Mediterranean and parts of the European and North African Atlantic coast. Only the leaves of the sea beet were eaten. The scientific name for the beet is beetroot or table beet also the sugar beet and the mangelwurzel. The…

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Food Trends from 2015

Launch into the New Year with the Best Food Trends from 2015

From Bar Carts to Beer, Here is How and What We Ate in 2015 As 2015 comes to an end, it’s time to review the lessons of the past year and welcome a new year of successes and challenges. Let us know what you thought of the best food trends from 2015. [list icon=”icon: check-square-o” icon_color=”#d81c5c”] Restaurants and events have seen a return of bar carts for cold and warm dishes. This vintage touch has the benefit of transportation efficiency and satisfaction of the immediate supply of additional condiments and other requests. Gourmet comfort foods were added to menus across the nation this year.…

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