Hi, I’m Kathleen, a registrar for an e-school and ESL teacher by day, and a board game host, amateur baker, and organizational nerd by night. When my husband Jon and I are not gaming and hosting, we enjoy hiking in the beautiful Canadian Rockies with our 16 year old poodle mix Gromit and traveling around the world. I’m currently at 31 countries visited! We’ve lived all over (New Mexico, Texas, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Michigan, UK, France, South Korea), but we currently call Alberta, Canada home. I grew up playing the classics (Monopoly, Scrabble, Clue, etc.). And while they were fine for their time, I was blown away when I started dating my husband and discovered more modern games like Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, and more. His parents worked for a game company for a few years and were aware of new hot games on the horizon. I soon learned that games, like any other genre of entertainment such as music or movies, had also continued to evolve!
Why Games?
Because of all the moving around, we discovered early in our marriage that games are not only a hobby we both enjoyed just the two of us, but also a great way of meeting people and building community. As a professed introvert, I sometimes find the usual dinner and hangout slightly stressful at times. That’s where games come in! Games allow us to chat if we want, or focus on the game. You can play with people of all ages and backgrounds, and learn so much about yourself and others. They teach us empathy, cooperation, sportsmanship, strategy, communication, and about a variety of subjects, all while having fun! We have around 200 modern board games and a rotating guest list of 5 to 20 people. We host a weekly ‘pray and play’ game night, a monthly ‘snacks and games’ night, a monthly ‘dinner and games’ night, and the ad hoc sessions in between. My life is a constant juggle of 10×10 challenges, last-minute RSVP pivots, and the eternal question: “How do I feed a crowd of gamers with various dietary needs, and without getting grease on the cards?”
What You’ll Find Here
The Cruelty Free and Component Safe Kitchen: Recipes that are 100% Vegan (and often celiac and nut allergy friendly), but minimal mess. I will be honest though, we are not the super protective type who sleeve the cards of our games and keep all crumbs away. Games are meant to be enjoyed! And while I secretly cringe if someone does (accidentally?) bend a card or something, we’ve learned that it’s not the end of the world if a crumb or two get dropped amidst a great game. The game table can always be vacuumed later. 🙂
The Logistics: How to manage a game night when 12 people RSVP but 9 show up. Which games scale? Which games are easy to teach while people are eating? What are the best methods of communicating with flaky friends?
The Goals
The 10×10 Journey and 1×200: Following my quest to play 10 games 10 times and each of our games once this year, one snack at a time. (My other not so secret goal in life is to teach as many different games to as many different people as possible. You never know what someone’s new favorite game will be!)
Disclaimer
I am not a professional photographer or baker, so do not judge the original recipes harshly based on my poor photography and baking skills, haha. While they may not look as pretty as the original, they almost always taste delicious!
You
Maybe you too are typically the host in your gaming group and want to know how to make the night feel special without being a “rules lawyer”. Maybe you too have struggled with providing snacks for friends with various dietary needs, all while coordinating people’s crazy schedules. Maybe you are an experience seeker who views board games like dinner theater and want thematic immersion (e.g., (non-alcoholic) wine and (vegan) cheese while playing Viticulture and Fromage). Or maybe you aren’t much of a gamer (yet!) but you’re trying to build community for yourself and others, and stumbled onto this page. Whatever the case, thanks for joining me here at Plant Powered Meeples!
More about me
(At Plant Powered Meeples, I only recommend games and ingredients that have earned a permanent spot at my table. As an Amazon Associate and affiliate of other sites I link to, I earn from qualifying purchases. If you choose to use the links in my reviews, it helps support the snacks and strategies I share here at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting this community!)
