I Want!

This shirt from Screened.com!  Awesomeness!

Spark People Shared My Story with Yahoo!

(Spark People put this photo montage together.)

Spark People contacted all of the vegans on their site awhile back asking for their stories about being vegan and losing weight.  I decided to share my story.  That was probably a month ago or so and then they contacted me again on Thursday asking me to answer more questions and to send more pictures.  They told me that they wanted to "pitch" my vegan success story to the Ellen Show and they also had an article in mind for Yahoo.  So I did my best to get everything rounded up and had it all sent to them by Thursday night.  On Friday, I received e-mails, a text message and even a phone call from Spark People saying they had the story ready to be reviewed!  That was quick!  I realized that it was already put on Yahoo's website by Friday afternoon!  Here's the story......

Some of you may know that I was vegan for a few years before becoming a HEALTHY vegan.  A vegan will not lose weight by eating processed junk like I was doing at first.  That's the only issue I have with the story...I just want to clarify that it took me focusing on healthy vegan foods to start losing weight.  But I truly believe by being vegan, I am healthier, am stronger and have more energy. 

Weekend Fun in Atlanta

Since moving to Asheville, we have not been able to take little road trips here and there.  We decided that in order to make living in Asheville a reality, we would have to give up our travels for awhile unless it was trips to see our family.  But we decided to get away this weekend to Atlanta to visit some friends.  It was so great to just have a break from the day to day!  We managed to fit a lot into just one weekend!  Friday night, we met up with our friend Allison who lives in Hawaii but was in Atlanta for work.  We went to Cafe Sunflower for dinner.

(Fried Green Tomatoes with Hummus for an appetitzer at Cafe Sunflower)

I have been to Cafe Sunflower a few times now.  When I first became vegan about 6 1/2 years ago, I went to Cafe Sunflower when I was in Atlanta for work.  In the process of trying to find the restaurant, a coworker and I got lost in one of the worst parts of Atlanta and almost didn't make it to the restaurant at all before they closed.  But we did and that was one of my first experiences of being vegan at an all vegetarian restaurant.  Since then, R and I went last year and then we went again Friday night with Allison.  Last year when we went, I remember loving the Power Bowl (a special entree on the vegan portion of the menu at the Buckhead location).  I kept thinking about that dish and how I could recreate it at home.  So, of course, I ordered it again Friday night.  Unfortunately, it wasn't as good as what I remembered.  I am not sure if I just built it up so much in my head from before or if it truly just wasn't as good.  Either way, I was definitely disappointed.  However, these fried green tomatoes in the picture were pretty amazing.  In between each tomato was hummus.  That made a great combination and as you can see in the picture, they made the dish very pretty! 

Another disappointment was the service.  We had a really bad server.  He was pretty rude and didn't do a good job.  That kind of put a damper on the experience.  It's amazing how much service can affect the dining out experience.  But we did order dessert and I have to say that the peanut butter chocolate mousse pie is one of my all time favorite vegan desserts I have ever had.  It was amazing.  Definitely NOT healthy, but it was delicious!  I have had this dessert before and it continues to be delicious everytime.  :) 

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and just enjoyed the short amount of time we had with Allison.  Her flight had to leave at 10:50 on Saturday morning so we really did not have much time together.  But we did manage to make a trip to Dulce Vegan Bakery before dropping her off at the airport.  Everything I had was amazing! 

I had 3 noteworthy things at Dulce Vegan Bakery.  I had the breakfast sandwich.  You can choose the items you want to go on your breakfast sandwich and you can also decide if you want it on a biscuit, english muffin or bagel.  For me, that was a no brainer.  Vegan biscuits are a delicacy so, of course, I had to have it on a biscuit!  :)  So, my breakfast sandwich consisted of a biscuit, tofu "eggs," "sausage" and Daiya vegan cheddar cheese.  Amazing!  (I ended up getting the exact same thing Sunday morning before we left town!)  I also got a cherry almond scone that was right out of the oven and delicious.  I usually am not crazy about scones, but I decided to get one because they were right out of the oven and their cinnamon rolls wouldn't be ready while we were there that day.  Serious bummer!  But the scone was awesome!  Also, I got an orange mocha.  I have never seen this coffee drink option anywhere.  I have always loved the orange chocolate combination so I knew I would have to try this out.  (Side note***I also ended up getting this the next day too!)  :)  The orange chocolate combination never disappoints.  I think I might try to figure out how to recreate this at home!  R was a little bummed out because she could not get a gluten free breakfast sandwich option and their gluten free biscotti would not be ready while we were there that morning.  So we ended up making another trip to Whole Foods so she could get some substance for breakfast that morning.  Before we knew it, it was time to send Allison off to the airport. 

(Allison, R and Me at Dulce Vegan Bakery)

After we dropped Allison off, we also made a trip to Trader Joe's to stock up on some stuff.  Asheville doesn't have a Trader Joe's....that seems crazy to me but who knows?!  I buy a lot of stuff other than food at Trader Joe's like toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, facewash, soap, etc.  I love Trader Joe's!  Please come to Asheville, TJs!!  :) 

After we left TJs, we met up with another friend of mine.  I have known my friend Megan since junior high!  We have really only been good friends since college though.  We reconnected in college and have kept up with each other ever since even though she moved away to Baltimore (and now lives in Atlanta with her husband) and I moved away to North Carolina.  I told Megan that I would like to do something active during the day to burn off some of the delicious vegan food I had been eating.  We decided to go to Stone Mountain.  Stone Mountain was an interesting place!  We decided to hike to the top of the mountain and what's funny is that once you get to the top of the mountain, they have a ski lift that can take you back down (I guess you could ride it up too) and they have a concession stand where you can buy popcorn, sodas and other junk food!  Crazy!  R did decide to take the ski lift down to preserve her knees for Zumba though.  So I guess it is a really good thing for people who can hike up but have problems hiking down because of their knees. 

(At the top of Stone Mountain where the ski lift and concession stand are!)

After hiking at Stone Mountain, it was time for more vegan food!  Megan made us some hummus and an artichoke dip that we ate with crackers....delicious!  Then we went back to get ready for dinner.  We went to Soul Vegetarian Two.  I love vegan soul food, but the service at this place was so slow!  Also, all of the servers looked like they were miserable being there.  I am not sure what religion the people were, but they had some religious background music and preaching in the background while we were eating.  I would have to say that the slow service, unhappy servers and the weird religious rantings/music took away from the experience.  However, there was some really good vegan food mixed in there.  We all shared the onion rings and they were delicious.  Then I had the country "steak" that was made of something they called "kalebone."  I have never heard of this before but the description basically sounded like seitan.  Maybe they don't like to say "seitan" since it sounds like "satan?!"  Not sure.  Anyway, it came with side dishes so I had the vegan mac and cheese, collard greens and sweet potatoes.  The "steak" was a little chewy but it was good and the mac and cheese was pretty good too.  I can't say I would come back to the restaurant again though.  Before we left, we also got some of their ice cream. 

(Yes, that says "Eternity Ice Kream Parlor.")

The ice cream was pretty good but, once again, I was not really blown away by anything at the restaurant.  Don't get me wrong, it was all good food.  Just not enough for me to go back with all of the other things I mentioned before. 

After going out to dinner, we explored a little bit of the Atlanta night life scene with Megan and her sister, but we really didn't end up staying out too late.  The next morning we woke up early, went to Dulce Vegan Bakery (they had cinnamon rolls on Sunday that were AMAZING and they had the gluten free biscotti this time!) again and then headed back to Asheville.  It was great getting away for the weekend!  I even made it back in time for my Sunday spinning class!







It's the Weekend!

I have been struggling this week to come up with a blog post.  I have a million ideas floating around in my head, but I am not motivated enough to compose the post.  I REALLY want to do a post on being vegan and frugal and how I manage our grocery budget, but I just can't seem to get it together.  Hopefully that will happen soon.  In the meantime, life is still just moving along.  We are actually getting away this weekend to Atlanta to visit some friends.  I realized that this will be the first trip we have taken together (not including trips to visit family) since we moved to Asheville.  In order to afford living in Asheville while still having a mortgage where we used to live, we had to eliminate travel unless it is trips to visit family.  However, Atlanta is just 3 hours away and we will be able to visit two different friends while we are there.  So, we decided that we could keep the cost of this trip relatively cheap.  So, hooray for trips!  :) 

Here are some random things going on in my life this week:

We discovered a new coffee shop just a few minutes from our house.  I love little coffee shops! 

We bought some coupons awhile back for a vegan meal delivery service in Asheville and we finally used the first one this week.  We actually bought two different deals.  One was with Wingbean and the other was with Veg-In-Out and the one we cashed in on this week was Veg-In-Out. 

We got all of this food for $35.  Normally this amount of food is $70 but the coupon was for half off.  Everything we got was gluten free since R eats vegan and GF.  The food is supposed to be enough for one person to eat lunch and dinner for 6 days.  I think that might be the case if you supplement the food with extra veggies but otherwise, I don't think it would be enough food for 2 meals everyday for 6 days.  I did LOVE the way they prepare their tofu.  It's extra firm and delicious!  My favorite dish was something that had veggies, tofu and grits.  It was excellent!  It was really a nice treat this week having these meals instead of preparing dinner. 

I had the day off on Monday so I got to work out in the morning and then take my dog out for a walk.  It was a great day reminding me of how much I love my summer breaks!  :)

Have a great weekend!