Vegan Goodies at Natural Products Expo West 2015 + Giveaway! (CLOSED)

03 Apr Vegan Goodies at Natural Products Expo West 2015 + Giveaway! (CLOSED)

As some of you may have seen on my Instagram and Twitter accounts, I attended this year’s Natural Products Expo West, which is the world’s largest natural, organic and healthy products event! I went through my photos from the event, and I ended up taking around 200, WHAT?! I definitely could not post them all here, so I decided I would share with you all some of the highlights of the event, and products that stood out to me most. Since we looked at thousands of products throughout the 3 days, I narrowed it down to quite a few, but I promise you I made this worth the read! I categorized everything as best I could, so head to whichever you are most interested in <3

(There is no particular order for everything that is listed).

Of course I had to rock my Green Juice Tote at the expo, SSV represent 😉 I made sure I packed fruits for the weekend, and they really helped since I was on the go. The expo had a lot of sweets and snacks throughout, but nothing that I would want to make a meal out of. The one things I suggest to you all is to be prepared! You never know how your day is going to play out, and is better to be safe than sorry.

Beverages

• Forager: sprouted seed & nut milks and savory avocado blends
• Rawpothecery: Seed Milks
• Drinkme: whole food cold blended smoothies
• Revive Kombucha: a whole kombucha bar that was so beautifully designed and a hit at the expo!
• Flax Milk by Good Karma: a great soy-free, vegan, non-GMO milk alternative, and you can purchase it unsweetened, too!
• Harmless Harvest: Raw Coconut Water w/ Fair Trade Coffee Extract
• Macadamia Nut Milk by Suncoast Gold: DUDE, why didn’t I think of this?! So smooth, creamy, and delicious!

Snacks & Bars

• Attune Foods Cereals: Erewhon Gluten-free Crispy Brown Rice, Peace Cereals (non-GMO cereals in Blueberry Walnut and Vanilla Almond)
• Barnana: made from dried organic, non-gmo bananas. They are chewy, sweet, and the ONLY ingredients are fruit, coconut and nuts. My favorite was the plain banana one (the only ingredient is banana!). Just be aware that the chocolate covered ones are not vegan.
• Brad’s Broccoli Poppers: raw snacks made from dehydrated broccoli
• Nud: raw organic banana crisps
• Bearded Brother’s Energy Bars: raw, vegan, gluten- and soy-free, made with organic ingredients
• Squarebar: organic, non-GMO chocolate protein bars, I love pairing these with banana ice cream!
• Simply Dara’s Raw Balls: raw, vegan, gluten- and soy-free organic snack bites!

Ingredients In The Kitchen

• Soul Maize: non-GMO gluten-free flour mixes
• Color Garden: Pure Natural Food Coloring (100% Plant-Based) made from fruits and vegetables
• Explore Asian: Organic Edamame & Mung Bean Fettuccine and Organic Thai Brown Rice Noodle Vermicelli
• Munkijo: Organic Coconut Vinegar & Nectar
• Bob’s Red Mill: one of my favorite brands, and they had tons and tons of gluten-free flour options, all beautifully laid out in a wall of products!

Perfect For Kids

• Amara Baby Food: freeze dried baby food that you just add water or breast milk to. Plus, the only ingredients are fruit!
• Veggie-Go’s: ORGANIC chewy fruit and vegetable snacks with no sugar added: Pretty much like a health fruit-roll-up, with no added sugars or chemicals
• 3 Green Mom’s Lunch Skins: reusable sandwich bags (so pretty and sooo convenient!)
• Nutiva: ChiApple Organic non-GMO Superfood Snack, a blend of organic apples with chia seeds, fruit and spices.

Condiments/Add-Ons

• Bee Free Honee: a vegan honey alternative that is scarily ON POINT in flavor. No excuses not to protect our little bees anymore 🙂
• Emmy’s Organics: raw chocolate sauce
• Sio Si / Whole Superfoods: freeze dried avocado and guacamole, what?!
• Wild Brine: madras curried cauliflower sauerkraut. I am OBSESSED with this right now, and you may have seen it on my Instagram. I have been buying this from whole foods since the expo, and don’t plan on stopping soon 😉

Desserts

• Eat Pastry: vegan pre-made refrigerated cookie dough
• Nada Moo: vegan ice creams made from coconut milk
• Cocomels: vegan coconut milk caramels
• Vixen Kitchen: premium cashew based vegan gelato

Vegan Cheese

• Miyoko’s Kitchen: vegan cultured nut nut cheese’s
• Field Roast Chao Slices: a vegan coconut cheese alternative seasoned with a traditionally fermented soybean curd
• Follow Your Heart Vegan Cheese: they served it on a traditional cheese platter display, it was awesome!

Beauty and Hygiene

• Soapbox: Tea & Ginger Soap w/ Shea Butter, Aloe and Jojoba Oil, and they donate one bar of soap, vitamins or water to a child in need with every bar purchased
• Sunfood: Makeup remover, facial cream, natural raw haircare and body wash
• Pacifica: vegan beauty and skin products, including Tuscan Blood Orange moisturizing body butter w/ shea and mango butters, Vegan Chapstick w/ lip tint in Sugared Fig, Multi-Mineral BB Cream, Coconut Water Cleansing Wipes that are sulfate + paraban-free and Sea Foam Complete Face Wash
• Earth Paste: natural vegan, bentonite clay based toothpaste, my favorites are Lemon Twist (for kids) and Wintergreen
• Primal Pit Paste: Thyme & Lemongrass Deodorant (I already used this prior to the expo and definitely recommend it!)
• Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotic Kampuku Beauty Bar: a soap that is chemical-free, moisturizing, provides probiotic support, and is a natural deodorant

Superfoods

• Divine Organics: most specifically their Pili Nuts and Pili Nut Butter, originating from the Phillipines, and something my mother has told me so much about. It was awesome to try a snack she grew up with. The butter was out of this world, soooo creamy and dreamy and melt in your mouth delicious.
• Living Intentions: Raw & Sprouted Superfood Cereal in Radiant Raspberry, with the perfect balance of complete vegan proteins, healthy fats, antioxidants, and fiber.
• Baobest: a superfood baobab fruit powder and products loaded in antioxidants, and great for increasing energy levels and boosting the immune system
• Mushroom Matrix: medicinal mushroom powders that are flavorless, but still packed with nutrients. They have several different mushroom mixes, including reishi, chaga, cordyceps, etc. and are definitely something I suggest you all read into on their website.

Raw Vegan Wraps

• Wrawp Foods: Raw Vegan Flat Bread in Spirulina, Asian and Energizing Morning: I have used this brand on my blog before, in my Spirulina Beet Wrawps recipe, and I highly recommend them!
• Sunfood Raw Vegan Coconut Wraps: these were FIRE, I have no other way of describing them!

Appliances

• The Healthy Juicer: a manual masticating juicer for wheatgrass and leafy greens!

My Favorite Displays

This is in no particular order <3

1. Follow Your Heart Vegan Deli and Cheese Platter
2. Beyond Meat Mc Donalds Parody
3. Vegetable Wall by Naked Juice
4. Lettuce Wall
5. Pallet Planter: I repinned something similar on my gardening board on Pinterest, I neeeeed this in my home!

One of the booths was releasing a new jackfruit “meat”, so they decided to have fresh jackfruit on display! At the end of the expo, they cut it and I was in heaven <3 And a quick acai bowl break was necessary, thank you Sambazon!

Yeah, so I scored this banana costume and it was AWESOME. It was too hot for me to rock it on the expo floor, plus but this halloween, oh be ready for this.

The highlight of the event was the social aspect of it all. I got to connect with so many like-minded people, and meet a lot that I admire on social media as well. Here are some that I met at the expo, a lot being vegans and bloggers! There was even a huuuuge meetup during the expo, as you can see in the photo. It got crazy, the aisles were filled, and we definitely caused quite a bit of traffic just for instagram lol!

There was honestly no way that I could have covered all of the ground at the expo. We were there for three whole days, almost 8 hours per day, and still missed SO MUCH. Luckily, we were able to use maps and online resources to scope out which booths were worth seeing. The event had an app but I wasn’t fond of it, it was slow and did not work well for me at all. What I took from this is to plan ahead. We planned the nights before, but next year, I will plan once the booth list is up online, as soon as I possibly can.

Dinner Ideas Near The Anaheim Convention Center

• Native Foods Cafe: I ordered the OC Raw Chopper and recommend it for sure. It was freshly chopped mixed veggies, fresh baby greens, salsa pomodoro, avocado, almonds, angel hair beets, sprouts and a lemon garlic dressing on the side.
• Hao Sen: this is a vegetarian restaurant with tons of vegan friendly options! They were so kind in accommodating to any needs we had, and they let me order a side of brown rice and a HUGE bowl of steamed vegetables.

One of the highlights of the expo, as all of the attendees would know, are the samples! However, there were way TOO MANY samples. Haha I know that people are going to say what, there could never be too many! But there were! I had to sort through what I brought home for myself and what I brought home for you guys (oh yeah, giveaway below ;)), and it was tough, toooo much to choose from! Here are my favorite samples that I took home 🙂 Not to say that these are the only products I liked, but these were the only ones I could get my hands on haha! Everything I mentioned in this post is worth checking out, as it is all VEGAN! <3

…Oh but I didn’t forget about you guys!

I got my hands on TONS of vegan products for you all as well! I am giving away THREE vegan snack boxes from the Natural Product Expo West 2015! 

What you are entering to win is one of the three snack boxes pictured above + 1 box of Peace Cereals (either non-GMO Blueberry Walnut or non-GMO Vanilla Almond) 🙂

How To Enter

1. Head to my Instagram @sweetsimplevegan and follow me!

2. Repost this photo OR any of my photos from my Instagram onto your feed.

3. Include @sweetsimplevegan and #sweetsimplevegan in the original caption.

4. Bonus entry: Comment on my photo and tag your friends!

THREE WINNERS will be chosen. This giveaway is WORLDWIDE, ends 4/13/15.

No purchase necessary. Your Instagram account must be public on the day of the drawing in order for me to see your entry.

This post is NOT sponsored <3

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