The French Broad Chocolate Lounge

(Just a note--all 3 of these pictures are pretty bad.  I have been really lazy over the past several months and I haven't brought my nice camera with me anywhere.  Therefore, I take pictures with the Retro Camera app for my phone.  I need to get better about this!)

One of my favorite places to go in Asheville is the French Broad Chocolate Lounge.  It serves chocolate and coffee....what more could I want, really?!  Because I am mostly not eating chocolate during the week, the Chocolate Lounge is a nice weekend splurge.  I love the French Broad Chocolate Lounge because they stay open late, they serve vegan chocolate cake, truffles and sipping chocolate and it's a much better environment than a bar.  It's a great place for us to take guests when they are in town because everyone loves chocolate (well, maybe there are a few weirdos out there who don't) and it's a great place to just sit around and talk.  They have two floors and 3 separate rooms so even though there's almost always a line out the door, you can find a place to sit.  They also have live music on certain nights too. 

There are some other things I love about the chocolate lounge.  They have stevia available for my coffee instead of other nasty artificial sweeteners, they pay a fair wage to their employees, they have a focus on the environment and sustainability and it's a great local establishment that pumps money back into the local economy.  It's kind of expensive for us to go to the chocolate lounge but it's definitely worth it and it's a nice, decadent splurge. 

When I go to the chocolate lounge, I ALWAYS get the vegan olive oil chocolate cake....AMAZING!!  Once again, excuse the terrible picture:

They also have a line of vegan truffles called the Buddha collection, but I can't resist the cake.  The truffles are excellent but I just really enjoy the cake more.  R usually gets 2 or 3 of the truffles and we both share some of the french pressed coffee.  It's just a great way to spend a Saturday evening.  

A Great Birthday Weekend!

Look!  My new watch is telling me it's time to eat cake!  Yay!  :)

I had a great birthday weekend!  My birthday celebrating started on Friday night with a trip to Plant in Asheville.  I think it might be the most amazing restaurant I have ever eaten at!  I've been to some great vegan places, but Plant is just outstanding! 

I also got to open one of my birthday presents.....R got me a subscription (kind of as a joke) to Gothic Beauty magazine.  I don't really know much about "Goth culture" and I think that's why I LOVE this magazine.  R and I have this Barnes and Noble competition going.....everytime we go we have to try and find the most unusual/unique/obscure magazine that we can.  R found Gothic Beauty last year when we were in Atlanta and I found "Pole Fitness" this year.  Those are the top two we have found!  I read the issue of Gothic Beauty from cover to cover that night at Barnes and Noble last year.  Now I know how to make black roses on a budget....SCORE!  :) 

My actual birthday day was full of more surprises!  I got to open my "real" present....R got me a new Polar HRM since my last one broke.  We have a membership to REI now so if anything goes wrong with it, we can take the watch back without any problems.  It was great to be able to keep track of my calories burned while hiking this weekend. 

Steps to Mingo Falls....lots and lots of steps!

That leads to the next surprise......waterfall hiking in the Smoky Mountains National Park!  I love the Smokies and now that we are in Asheville, we are just about an hour away from the Cherokee side of the Smokies. 

Mingo Falls

I knew after my 30th birthday last year, that I wanted to incorporate health and fitness into my birthday celebrating.  It's a goal of mine that I try to get healthier each year I get older.  I know I was healthier at 30 than I was at 29 and I am healthier at 31 than I was at 30.  So naturally, I wanted my birthday to be full of hiking and nature. 

Smoky Mountains National Park trail

Indian Creek Falls-Smoky Mountains National Park

We also did some exploring around the town of Cherokee, NC.  My blog isn't really the platform for political and social debates, but I do have to say that I was very frustrated by the conditions that the Native American people of Cherokee live in.  I am from Oklahoma and I am not going to say things are perfect for Native American people there (far from it) but I feel like there's more of respect for Native culture in Oklahoma.  It just felt like the Native people of Cherokee were a spectacle to tourists....not cool, in my opinion. 

Anyway, we did some exploring around the town and I did see this awesome retro hotel sign.  I love old retro signs and I love taking pictures of them with my retro camera app!

Pink Motel-Cherokee, NC

The only thing about my birthday this year that was not cool was getting stung by a yellow jacket yesterday and then having an allergic reaction to it!  It was scary!  We went hiking with friends and we were almost finished hiking and back to the car when a few yellow jackets stung me and one of my friends.  He didn't have an allergic reaction, but I did on the way home.  I got blurred vision, my hearing was weird, I started seeing things that weren't really there, then my skin started itching.  Eventually I was covered in hives all over my body.  Yikes!  R bought me some benadryl and we had an epipen in the car (luckily, we never had to use it).  Today, my arm is still really swollen but luckily all of the hives went away.  It was a pretty scary experience!  I looked like one of those bumpy gourds you see at the pumpkin patch....not a pleasant feeling on my skin.  Even my scalp had the bumps all over it.  Anyway, I guess I will be carrying Benadryl and an epipen with me from now on! 

Overall though, it was an excellent birthday full of great surprises and fun!

More Exploring and More Lessons Learned

It feels like I am finally starting to get settled into a routine.  I have been at my new job for about a month and a half now and we have been living in Asheville since the beginning of July.  I struggle mostly with the weekends....there's always a festival or some opportunity for amazingly delicious vegan food to be lurking around every corner.  To say that I am getting the hang of this would be a lie.  I have put on about 5 pounds since we moved.  I am very aware of this and I am working to get it off and then the last 15-20 pounds I need to lose beyond that.  With that being said, this weekend is my birthday weekend and R has some surprises for me.  I love that she is putting this time and energy into something for me, but I am really going to have to keep it in check.  When we first moved, I was able to eat lots of great vegan food on the weekends and then by the middle to the end of the week, I would have the weight back off.  Now, that's not happening so quickly.  The weight is starting to creep up on me and I refuse to let this get out of control.  Not an option.....

But there have been some positives along the way too with my weight loss journey.  I have been exploring the local Asheville trails for walking and running.  I have found some great parks and I have been able to switch up the scenery during the week and do some hiking on the weekends.  Here are some of the highlights:

Also, about 3 weeks ago I decided to go without chocolate for 2 weeks.  Well, I was mostly successful.  I went without chocolate for an entire work week and then had a piece of amazing chocolate cake on the weekend from the French Broad Chocolate Lounge.....and that was it.  What I discovered is that it's not really the chocolate that's a trigger but it's just the sugar.  If I have high sugar treats after dinner (or any other time for that matter), it sends me into a binge.  I can do this on almost anything sugary.  I know this doesn't seem like such a monumental discovery, however, it was an eye opener and lesson learned for me.  I decided that I would treat chocolate and other desserts as a treat....because that's what they are.  I am not eating chocolate to satisfy my hunger.  I am eating it because I like the taste of it.  That's basically it.  I will eat things like this when I go out on the weekends.  I will treat chocolate like a special indulgence.  Maybe once a week on the weekends, I will let myself have some ice cream from the Hop or a piece of that amazing cake from the French Broad Chocolate Lounge or one of the many sweet treats from Firestorm.  I will plan for this and keep my calories in a range that will allow for this indulgence.  I don't need to keep sugary desserts, bars, etc. in the house.  It just sets me up to fail.  Lesson learned. 

I still snack too much at night and this is something I will continue to work on but Rome wasn't built in a day.  Baby steps.  That's how I am going to approach this journey.  Rather than beating myself up about the choices I make, I am going to learn from them and proceed.  I have a plan this week for the nighttime snacking.  We will see how that goes. 

Also, I have a few random pictures from the past few weeks.  I feel like Asheville is full of photo opportunities all of the time!  Speaking of photos, I am signed up to take a photography class starting next month at the community college!  Hopefully I will start to get a handle on my new(ish) camera! 

In the meantime, here are some random photos from the past few weeks  (all of the photos from this blog post are taken from my cell phone and mostly the Retro Camera app):

Asheville Graffiti is hardcore!

Free apples from an apple fest at an eco-community

I just loved all of the bumper stickers on this van...so Asheville!

Peaches from the big farmers market

This has sort of become a ritual for me every week....picking up the Mountain Xpress and a Cofee Light Frappuchino

Life is good.....I just need to stay motivated and focused.  Life is full of learning opportunities and I am trying to learn something from everything I do and every choice I make.  Like the title of my blog says, this is a journey.  I am not in a race.  This is life and I just have to figure a few things out. 

Have a great weekend!

Plant: Asheville's New All Vegan Restaurant!

I am FINALLY getting around to blogging about our dinner at Plant!  We went over 2 weeks ago and it was AMAZING!!!  Delicious and ALL vegan!  They had only been open a few days when we went and it worked out perfectly because our friend Allison was in town and she is also vegan.  We decided to make it a special dinner and we did it up right!  R and Allison ordered wine, we ordered an appetizer, dinner, dessert and coffee.  We weren't playin'!  :)

The atmosphere at Plant was really nice.  We went for a later dinner and all of the tables had candles and the lighting was low (you will notice this with my dark pictures).  The music they had playing was also great--lots of good Indie Rock songs that I love!  Good music make for good ambiance.  

It was so nice to go out and enjoy a fancy dinner in Asheville!  There are a lot of GREAT vegetarian restaurants in Asheville, but plant is by far the fanciest and most sophisticated as far as the food and atmosphere go.  We wouldn't be able to afford Plant everyday but it will definitely be a special occasion restaurant for us.  

We started off with the "cheese" platter.  (Everything at Plant is vegan so the "cheese" was cashew based.)  It had a great taste.  There were 3 of us sharing the platter so we had it polished off in no time.  They brought out some extra cucumber slices for us because R has to eat gluten free.  It also came with some bread but when I took this picture, we didn't have the bread at our table yet.  The cashew cheese was delicious.  It would have been nice to have a little more cheese but it was wonderful and I am not complaining!  :)

Peppercorn Crusted Seitan

Raw Enchiladas

Jerk Charbroiled Seitan

We all ordered something different so we could try each other's dishes.  I ordered the Peppercorn Crusted Seitan and it was amazing.  I am not even sure what else I could say about it!  I loved it!  R ordered the Raw Enchiladas (she was limited on options because of eating gluten free).  She liked them a lot because she loves spicy food.  I am not a huge fan of spice, so probably not the best option for me.  Allison ordered the Jerk Charbroiled Seitan and loved it. She said she was inspired to go home and make the Southern Bowl from Get it Ripe by Jae Steele.  

Raw Parfait

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie with Banana Walnut Ice Cream

I am not sure, but dessert may have been my favorite part!  Allison and I both ordered the Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie with Walnut Ice Cream and R ordered the Raw Parfait.  All of it was excellent.  They make their own ice cream in house and it was outstanding.  They also had a mocha ice cream that we didn't get to try but I am very curious about it because I love coffee flavored ice cream.  

We had coffee with dessert which made everything just perfect and complete.  I asked for almond milk for my coffee and because they didn't have any on hand, the chef whipped up a batch just for me so I could have almond milk with my coffee and dessert!  

(There's my almond milk on the counter!)

They even had a zero calorie stevia option sweetener.  I always get excited about this because I don't use Splenda, Equal or Sweet N Low which is usually what restaurants have.  When restaurants or coffee shops carry a stevia option, they always get bonus points in my book!  

It was such a great meal and evening.  What a great way to spend an evening with a great friend in town!  All of us loved Plant and definitely want to go back (on a special occasion)!  Wonderful food, all vegan, fresh, organic, local ingredients.....awesome!  Another great veg option in Asheville!  

(Looking into the kitchen of Plant from the outside parking lot)

If you live in or near Asheville or if you are visiting Asheville, try Plant!  You won't be disappointed.  Plus, everything is vegan so you don't even have to think about it!  I love when I go into a restaurant and I don't have to worry about the ingredients at all.  Thank you for a wonderful evening, Plant!  

Asheville Veg Fest!

I'm finally doing a post on Asheville's first Veg Fest!  It was a great festival--it was small, but there were a lot of great vendors and even better food.  I had some amazing food!  

Here are some of the food vendors and pictures from the festival:

(Veggie Love-a new food truck in Asheville that's set to officially open in September)

(Some amazing raw food from Veggie Love)

(I didn't actually have a veggie dog, I just thought it was cool that they were selling them!)

(Green Light Vegetarian Kitchen is an all vegetarian restaurant in Asheville that I still haven't tried yet.)

(A bit of the menu from Green Light)

(This cake was AMAZING!  It was a raw cake from Veggie Love.  R got a piece that we shared and then I ended up going back and getting my own!)

(Veg-In-Out is one of TWO local vegetarian/vegan meal delivery services.  They provide a week's worth of food for you.  The other service was also at the festival and it's called Wingbean.)

(Veg-In-Out was serving up some samples of some of their meals.)

(Gypsy Queen Food Truck makes some amazing Lebanese food--she made everything vegan for Veg Fest.  This was the first time I ate at GQ and I had the best falafel I have ever eaten!)

(This shirt is from Chai Pani-an Indian restaurant that has a lot of veg options on their menu.  I just thought the shirt was funny!  I have not tried Chai Pani yet.)

(Some of the books that Firestorm was selling.)

(Firestorm was also selling some of the Herbivore stickers.)

(I loved this shirt but didn't end up buying one.  It's from a company who makes tofu out of Virginia called Twin Oaks.  I did buy one block of their tofu though.)

(This is the woman who owns the Gypsy Queen Food Truck where I had the amazing falafel.  She is fighting pretty hard right now to make it possible for food trucks to stay in Downtown Asheville.)

(I have not tried the "Farmacy" yet but love the name.)

(Thoroughly enjoying the best falafel ever!)

(Twin Oaks tofu!)

(R trying some of the samples from Veg-In-Out.)

(The Hop is a local ice cream shop that usually has 2 or 3 vegan ice cream flavors each day but all of the ice cream they sold was vegan for Veg Fest!  Yay!)

Some other random photos from the festival and around Asheville

(Could a veg fest be complete without a sweet animal mascot?)

(Her tattoo has a rabbit on it and says "vegan"--you really have to be committed to the cause to get a tattoo!)

(I LOVED this quote!  So true.)

(Green Sage should have been representing at Veg Fest--they always have great veg options and are all about sustainability.  They are a great local business to support.)

I hope that Veg Fest continues to grow in the future.  For it being the first year, I thought it was great!  Asheville's veg scene seems to keep growing.  It's such a great town to live in and be vegan!