OC Fair Family Ticket Giveaway

16 Thursday Jun 2016

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The winner of our OC Fair Giveaway was Kelly G! She had a wonderful time with her family at the fair. 🙂 Thanks for entering, everyone!

Hello everyone!

Anyone who knows us, knows how much our family loves the OC Fair. It’s a family tradition for us to enjoy a vegan hot dog from Pink’s and a lovely bowl of fresh fruit from Terri’s Berries.

So when the OC Fair contacted me about hosting a giveaway, I jumped at the chance.

This week I will be giving away an OC Fair Family Packet, which includes:

4 General Admission Tickets
2 Carnival Ride Cards (3 Free Rides Per Card)

Here are some additional details:

The OC Fair will provide the prize packet directly to the winner.
Parking is $10 (cash only) and is not included with the giveaway.
Each carnival ride card is valid for three rides or games in either the Main or Kiddie Carnivals. Ride Cards are not valid for food or drinks.
Admission and/or ride cards do not have to be used on the same day. Prize must be redeemed during the 2016 OC Fair.

And Some additional OC Fair Information:

Dates: July 15-August 14, 2016
Public Hours: Wednesday-Friday Noon-Midnight, Saturday-Sunday 10 a.m.-Midnight, Monday-Tuesday Closed
Theme: “Get Your Fair Face On!”
Website: www.ocfair.com
Admission: General $10, Senior (6+) $7, Youth (6-12) $7, Children 5 & younger are free every day
Parking: $10
Special Days: Kids Days (Thursdays, 12 & younger are free all day). Visit www.ocfair.com/promotions for more ways to save.

To Enter:

Comment on this post with your name and favorite thing to do at the fair.
Or comment on my Facebook Post with your favorite thing to do at the fair.
The winner will be drawn by Little T on Monday June 20th
I will contact the winner directly and gather their information to email to the OC fair

And just for fun, here are some new food additions to the fair this year, for all you foodies out there (I’m looking at you, Jenny and Anthony). 😉

Chicken in a Waffle On a Stick: Chicken Charlie’s making the popular chicken-and-waffles combo portable by cooking fried chicken tenders in a waffle and serving it all on a stick, with a side of maple syrup.
French Toast Bacon Bombs: Bacon A-Fair’s new breakfast-inspired offering will make French toast desirable any time of the day as sweet dough stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon is deep-fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar.
S’moreo Texas Donut: Bigger is better when it’s a soft, Texas-sized doughnut topped with chocolate drizzle, Oreo cookie crumble, graham cracker crumbs and marshmallow cream.
Bacon Nutella Pickle: Pickle O’ Pete’s takes the popular hazelnut cocoa spread Nutella and fills a dill pickle that gets wrapped in bacon, dipped in a funnel cake batter and deep fried.
Pork Belly Bacon Dog: At Biggy’s, two feet of bacon are wrapped around a slow-smoked pork belly that is dipped into a corn dog batter and deep fried.
Deep-Fried Pizza Log: Mozzarella cheese and pepperoni are wrapped inside of thin pizza dough which is deep fried until crispy and flaky. Served with marinara sauce on the side from the Apple Fries booth.
Diabilito Sundae: Fruit Caboose is going loco and adding to their creamy ice cream the Latin-inspired flavor of tangy Tamarindo and hot chili chamoy sauce.
Kool-Aid Hot Wings: Chicken Charlie’s taking his breaded wings and tossing them up with his new, slightly-spicy Kool-Aid sauce. He will serve the orange flavor exclusively at the OC Fair.
Dole Whip: Fairgoers can cool down with this refreshing, pineapple-flavored soft serve dessert available for the first time inside the OC Fair at Crutchee’s Ice Cream.
Bacon-Wrapped Baked Potato: At Bacon A-Fair, a giant one-pound potato is wrapped in a half pound of bacon and slow cooked in a wood-fired smoker oven. Served with butter, the Bacon A-Fair signature bacon-infused sour cream, grilled veggies, blue cheese and choice of hot buffalo sauce or nacho cheese and jalapenos.
Bacon Cheddar Brat Burger: Grant’s Tasti Burger is taking burgers and brats to the next level with this massive burger that combines a bratwurst and an Angus beef patty with cheddar, chopped candied pecans, Applewood smoked bacon, Sriracha Bourbon and chipotle sauces, lettuce and tomatoes and served inside a pretzel bun.
Pink’s Hollywood-Inspired Dogs: The Daenerys Mother of Doggies pays homage to the Game of Thrones’ queen of the dragons with a spicy Polish dog topped with sour cream, sauerkraut, onions, radish sprouts and Sriracha sauce. The Lord of the Rings Dog highlights the mystical movie with an all-beef hot dog encircled by fried onion rings and topped with barbecue sauce.
Juicys: New this year, OC Fair mainstay Juicys is serving up organic meat and nitrate-free hot dogs and sausages.
More Offerings: All American Reuben Burger (Grant’s Tasti Burger), Pickle Fries and Pickled Cheese on a Stick (Pickle O’ Pete’s), Shrimp Fried Rice on a Stick (Chicken Charlie’s), Som-Mor-Bacon (Fruit Caboose), Bison Burger (Juicy’s), Lasagna Sandwich (Pignotti’s Pasta), Oreo Churro (Dutchmen’s Funnel Cake).

Best of luck to you all, and I hope to see you at the fair! 🙂

Vegan eats and Treats

10 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by Momma J in vegan

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vegan family, vegan food, vegan meals

We’ve been spoiled this week. My birthday has made for delicious meals, and I’m sad that I didn’t get a photo of Chef Chloe’s Tempeh Picatta, because it was amazing. The tempeh made for good leftovers though. We grilled it with BBQ sauce and have had it for several days over. I think it may be a new favorite in our household. So here it is, a few of our meals over the past week or two.

Rice with faux sausage:

Roasted everything!

Chef Chloe’s vegan pumpkin cupcakes:

BBQ Tempeh, couscous, baked beans, and spinach:

Amy’s Vegan Mac and Cheese, faux lemon chicken, cooked baby carrots, and rice:

Little T’s favorite will always be rice. Cooked any way, as long as its on his plate, he’s happy. 🙂

Inland Empire Los Angeles Vegan Thanksgiving Options

24 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by Momma J in Meal Plans, The Family, vegan

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Inland Empire Los Angeles Vegan Thanksgiving Options, Vegan Thanksgiving, vegan thanksgiving los angeles, vegan thanksgiving meal plan, vegan thanksgiving options inland empire

I’ve often thought about the transformation of tofurky through the years. I remember many moons ago, when the first tofurky came out, my mom excitedly ran to the nearest health store and brought it home for our Thanksgiving feast. After waiting forever for it to cook, we finally displayed it on the dining room table and got ready to eat. What happened after that first bite kind of resembled the scene where they eat blue soup in Bridget Jone’s Diary. I’m not that big a fan of fake meats to begin with, but we all thought it tasted pretty gross. It could have been our lack of cooking skills, the fact that I’ve never really liked the taste of meat, or that tofurky was a new product that has come a long way since then, but in the end, we gave it to the dog and ate Thanksgiving spaghetti instead. The dog wouldn’t touch it, and also went for the spaghetti.

A lot has changed since then, and tofurky is pretty tasty now. A friend made it for me a few years ago and I actually really enjoyed it. We’ve been so busy that we were tempted to make something similar this year, but then decided on Chef Chloe’s Vegan Pumpkin Penne Pasta with Sage instead. It’s one of our favorite holiday meals and something I look forward to every year. For our full Thanksgiving Menu, check out my post from last year.

I also wanted to share some Inland Empire and Los Angeles area vegan Thanksgiving treats, in case anyone would rather go out this year.

Babycakes: I know it’s dessert, but they have a lot of Thanksgiving treats on their menu.

Cafe Gratitude: Will be hosting a free Thanksgiving feast, more info here.

One World Vegetarian in Covina will be serving a Thanksgiving special, and I if you call in advance you can purchase a vegan turkey for your Thanksgiving meal at home. Reservations strongly recommended.

And Native Foods usually has a wellington that they serve, but they may be done with orders.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Here’s to a year of health, happiness, family, and tasty food. 🙂

Good Eats

13 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by Momma J in Meal Plans, The Family, vegan

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vegan family, vegan food

We’ve been eating home a lot more lately, and it’s been pretty boring. We have had a few fun splurges over the past few weeks though that I thought I’d share.

Loaded baked potato soup, with chives, daiya cheese, and tempeh bacon:

Little T had vegan chili from Native Foods:

Salad for Momma:

And a portobello and “sausage” burger for Big T:

From Linx! In honor of Octoberfest, a pretzel roll with a soy dog, beer infused mustard, and Vidalia onions:

And a plain vegan dog with ketsup for Little T:

And for A spooky Halloween night, we made pumpkins, had dairy free vanilla almond I’ve cream with sautéed apples, figs, and cranberries on top!

Our day at the OC Fair

23 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by Momma J in The Family, The Travels, vegan

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oc fair, vegan fair food, vegan lifestyle

Last week we made the drive to the OC Fair. Grandma K and I surprised Little T by picking him up from daycare early, and telling him we had someplace special to go. When we got to the fair he gave us both an enthusiastic round of applause, which always feels good…even if it is coming from a two year old. 😉

Now lets get down to business, and by that I mean-lets talk food. For lunch, we had Vegan Dogs from the Pinks food truck. Mine had all the fixings, but Little T has a delicate palette and opted for a more conservative soy dog.

Later….okay, so five minutes later-we had a glass of champagne and berries from Terries Berries.

Once we were fed, we stopped to visit the butterflies.

And then we left to try a few rides. Little T is still talking about his bravery on the dangerous motorcycle ride. Please excuse the mis-matched clothes. Little T had a wardrobe malfunction. It happens to the best of us, Little T.

We also got to visit some really cool displays and exhibits:

After the fair, we stopped at Native Foods and had a strawberry parfait, peanut butter parfait, and a cupcake:

And we made a final stop at Mitsuwa Market, for some grocery items that I can’t ever find at other grocery stores:

It was a great day, I love going to the fair. Little T also had a great time and there were lots of food choices for us. According to Little T, it was also a day full of thrills, bravery, and danger, seeing how he rode that scary motorcycle and all. 😉

Good Eats and Full Tummies

30 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by Momma J in life, Meal Plans, The Family, vegan

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Vegan Marsala Pasta with Cashew Cream

Vegan Panna Cotta

English Muffin with Tempeh and Tomato

Sliced Avocado with Salt and Pepper

Heirloom Tomatoes and Broccoli

Vegan Tiramasu Cupcakes from Chef Chloe

Crackers, red pepper spread, olive tampenade, and vegan cheese

Vegan Ramen

English Muffins with Tahini Spread and Roasted Beets

Leeks for Soup

Jill’s Summer Minestrone Soup

Potatoes and Lentil Loaf

Vegan Macaroon

Helping Momma cook

Sneaking baby corn before dinner. :p

Things We Eat, These Days….

24 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by Momma J in Meal Plans, vegan

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vegan, vegan cooking toddlers, vegan toddlers

I feel like our meals have gotten a little easier, a little lazier. Big T and I both have been working so much, that’s we haven’t had the time to prepare the meals we used to. On days that I work from home, I start to cook dinner around 4:30. I try to have different options for Little T and I don’t pressure him to eat one thing or another. His favorite meal is rice, and would probably have it every meal if he could. Big T makes a lot of brown rice and freezes it in single serving bags for us to pull out and use for meals. Little T likes it the best with avocado, lemon, and a little Braggs Liquid Amino Acids. On days when I’m not home, Big T takes over for dinner.

I’d like to say that I make beautiful salads every night, but to make our life easier, I’ve been using the salad bar at Mothers Market on my way home from Disneyland. I get a lot of salad and chopped veggies dry, and we use it for meals through the next day.

So here’s what we’ve been munching on. Someday, we’ll start making those elaborate vegan meals that have been bookmarked in my cookbooks again….some day…..;)

Pasta, avocado, bread, watermelon, green olives, and salad:

Couscous, vegetable soup, peas, and salad:

Baked tortilla chips, beans and rice, vegetable soup, and veggies:

Couscous, mango, Amy’s brand vegan Mac and cheese, salad, and avocado:

Corn on the cob at the Fair (one of our staple fair foods).

Corn chips, salsa, and fresh squeezed apple juice from Mothers Market:

Deconstructed Home Made Black Bean Burgers with bread, pickles, and ketsup:

We were traveling on this day, so I packed rice, and in a separate container had avocado and half a lemon to squeeze in:

So that’s our not-so-glamorous food routine. Pretty basic, but it works for our little family. (P.S. Little T is in love with that Snow White doll).

Easter Sunday

09 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by Momma J in Photography, The Adventures of Little T, The Family, vegan

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For Easter we spent the day with Big T’s family at Grandma K’s house. We weren’t going to be able to eat a lot of the food there, so we made a vegetable pot pie and orange and strawberry cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I had bought these Peter Rabbit Cupcake Holders a year ago, and I was really looking forward to using them:

The cupcakes turned out delicious, there were only a few lonely cupcakes left at the end of the night.
As always, Grandma K’s backyard was beautiful.

We’d practiced opening Easter Eggs with Little T earlier in the day, so he ran to the yard when he saw that we’d put all of the eggs out there. In the eggs we had fruit sweetened vegan jelly beans, stickers, bunny grahams, and some vegetable snack crisps.

Little T wasn’t the only one who enjoyed the Easter Eggs:

After the Easter Egg hunt, we caught up with family members:

Yep, that’s a body bugg on my arm. I wear it because I’ve been sitting so much since I started editing, and I want to make sure I get my 10,000 steps in every day.

And Little T played trains with his Uncle D:

And then he played with Dad:

We always end the night by sharing a song from each family member in the group. This year Little T even had a song. It was “Nice N Clean” by Chromeo. Little T loved to dance to everyone’s music, he has the Night at the Roxbury head bob down pat.

I hope you all had a great weekend, and a great Easter for those of you that celebrate. 🙂

Portland Part 2

18 Sunday Mar 2012

Posted by Momma J in The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels, vegan

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This is soooooo late! But I don’t want to forget the second half of our trip.

By this point, Little T figured out we were going to fun places every day, so he’d spend the morning crawling into his stroller and looking at us impatiently. Big T had to work at the conference, so Little T and I took a trip to the zoo. He was really excited to test out his new animal noises. Whenever we’d see a bear or a lion he’d roar like crazy. I practically ran after him with the stroller the whole time. Kid was on the move!

Little T stared at this fish display for a while. He couldn’t figure out why they weren’t in the water where they were supposed to be:

After the zoo, we met up with Big T and walked over to another vegan food cart for lunch:

This is where I ate the best chocolate peanut butter cup I’ve ever had in my life:

I got a grilled cheese sandwich and Little T had a vegetable sandwich with hummus…well, that was the plan anyway. Little T fell asleep and there was absolutely no way to keep the little guy awake to eat. Talk about running out of steam!

That night we went to a restaurant that was really bad, so I won’t mention it on here except to say that at the end of our meal they wrote a suggested 25% tip? Even this ex-waitress thought that was a little high.

After dinner, we went to the Portland Art Museum.

The next day, Big T didn’t have to work and wanted to see the Children’s Museum himself.

And then we all went to the zoo, where it started….snowing. 0_o Because of this, we stuck to the underground areas.

By this time, we began to realize that Little T was getting pretty sick. He’d had a cough all week but it was getting worse and worse. We decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel to rest.

We ordered some Indian food and spent the rest of the day watching movies.

The next day we had to stay inside again because Little T wasn’t getting any better. It was a sad way to end the vacation, but not much we could do and we had to take care of Little T.

Little T entertained himself by finger painting on steamy windows.

And I think he enjoyed taking a rest, doesn’t he look like a content little guy? Big T and I, on the other hand, were going stir crazy staying in that tiny hotel room!

The next morning we packed up our things and made one more trip to the Sweetpea Baking Company to have lunch and pick things up for the plane trip.

Sandwich:

Bagel with vegan cream cheese:

and some (half eaten-teehee) baked goods:

Little T was great on the plane trip! Isn’t this picture of him sweet?

Overall, a great trip! I can see why so many people adore Portland. We came home and our schedules got crazy, so it was nice to have a week of fun before the storm. 🙂 And that’s it! Hope you’re all having a great weekend! I’ve been working as a photographer at Wondercon, I can’t believe how busy this month has been!

Portland Part 1

24 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by Momma J in Photography, Quick Snippets, The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels, vegan

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Pioneer Square:

Portland’s known for their food carts, and we had one we were dying to try:

The Vegan Food Cart: Homegrown Smoker

We got the side plate with Cornbread, baked beans, collards, MacNoCheese, and the STFU puppies:

Their menu brought back some sweet memories of my grandma from Oklahoma. Now, if only I can find some biscuits and gravy…

Later in the afternoon we drove over to the Vegan Mall to pick up a few things for my mom. Before we went shopping, we stopped at The SweetPea Vegan Baking Company and picked up some tasty treats.

Lemon Pastry, chocolate chip cookie, bostom creme pie cake:

I also ordered some vegan chili for Little T, but we didn’t prefer it. I was expecting a beany chili and we don’t usually eat a lot of fake meats, so it wasn’t what we were used to and Little T only had a few bites. I’m going to have to stop here again though, because there were some other things on the menu that I’d really like to try.

There was a beautiful park where I wanted to take Little T, but I couldn’t do it because there was a homeless person sitting on one of the benches and I’m still having a hard time from what happened last month. I usually wouldn’t have walked through the park anyway, but it was too hard right now. I’ve noticed that I’m also really jumpy when I hear police sirens. =/

After the park, we got lost and took an accidental scenic drive around Portland (teehee). Little T took a nap, and then we went to have dinner at Big T’s conference. On the way we stopped and showed Little T a living wall. We’re trying to teach him plants, leaves, flowers, branches, etc. Whenever we give him a flower to smell, he blows his nose at it instead of sniffing in to smell the rose. Ah well, he’s getting there.

Travleing by shoulders=Little T’s favorite way to travel in Portland:

We had a great time at the dinner, and Little T managed to obtain a tiny football from one of the conference vendors. We chatted and played with Little T until they started to take the tables down and we figured that was our cue to leave. 😉

During the day, Little T and I have been going solo while Big T’s been working hard at the conference, so the next day we took the metro to the Children’s museum.

On the way, we stopped in a building with some fountains and I snapped a picture of the other side of the street. I don’t know what it is about the colors in Portland, but the stones and the lights on the building are so beautiful. It’s peaceful, walking through the buildings.

On the metro. This is the only way I get pictures of myself on vacation (I’ve got to get Little T to stop relying so much on his pacifier, if any mommy out there has tips, please let me know):

The Children’s Museum was wonderful. Little T loved exploring the exhibits and stayed for three hours. I was planning on staying for only two, but after lunch I put Little T down to gather up my things for the metro, and he went running/screaming with glee back into the museum. Erm, I guess he had other plans for us. I couldn’t resist his enthusiasm and decided to let him stay.

The digging room:

The Train room:

The Theater room:

And playing with a giant light up peg board:

We didn’t get back until 2:00, and Little T slept until it was time to go meet Big T and some colleagues for dinner. We went to Persian food, and they had a very extensive vegan menu and homemade pita bread and we were in heaven.

After dinner, we walked by Powell’s Bookstore on the way to Voodoo Donuts. The outside of the donut shop was covered with glitter. (!!!)

I asked the lady at the shop which vegan donut she recommended, and she handed me a donut called, “The Old Dirty Bastard”.

It had dark chocolate, oreos, and peanut butter. It was a donut sent from the heavens and it gave my taste buds a ride on the flavor train to yumsville. My tummy was a little upset afterward, so I wondered if I’d been given a donut that wasn’t vegan by accident, but it might have been the sugar overload. Definitely stop there if you’re in Portland.

When we were finished, we walked back and listened to some street artists. One of them came up and hugged us because he said he was adopted like Little T. 🙂 Little T enjoyed the music and I think the artist got a kick out of watching Little T having such a good time.

So that’s what we’ve been up to so far. I bet you’re all looking forward to the weekend, I hope you have a great one.

This Little Blog of Mine

Category Archives: vegan

OC Fair Family Ticket Giveaway

Vegan eats and Treats

Inland Empire Los Angeles Vegan Thanksgiving Options

Good Eats

Our day at the OC Fair

Good Eats and Full Tummies

Things We Eat, These Days….

Easter Sunday

Portland Part 2

Portland Part 1