Getting Excited for Seattle!

In just a few short weeks, Ben and I will be heading to Seattle! One of my favorite vegan-friendly cities EVER. We will be going to Seattle for five days at the end of August and I'm stoked.

For those of you who don't know, Ben and I are going to Seattle for the yearly gaming conference, PAX Prime. This is Ben's fourth time going and my second (see a post about last year's trip here). But honestly, I am more excited for the food :)

I already have a bunch of restaurants and places lined up that I want to go to (too many, probably)--but I want advice from Seattle-savvy vegans and vegetarians! Any favorite restaurants? Places to visit?

Raw Strawberry Pie

Ben's mom brought us down two slices of her raw strawberry pie the other day. It got a little melted in the car, but the taste was not compromised at all. Macadamia nut crust, coconut strawberry filling, cacao topping.... I love you. Don't you wish you had the recipe? Yeah, me too.

Thrive Diet Eats

It has been a week and a half since Ben and I went off our juice cleanse and started The Thrive Diet. Well, probably more like a week and a day or so, since we were off it while we were in Park City.

So far I am completely loving it. I am seeing all of the 'side effects' that Brendan Brazier, the author, says will happen. Better sleep quality, elimination of junk-food cravings, improved mental clarity and moods, and eliminated need to rely on stimulants for energy. The only one I'm not seeing is the weight loss (ability to burn fat more efficiently and maintain lean muscle). But since I've only been on it for technically a week I'm not expecting much. I also haven't been working out, so that's part of it too. Ben is seeing the elimination of junk-food cravings, improved mental clarity and moods, eliminated need to rely on stimulants for energy, and weight loss (why can't I have this instead of him!?). He isn't really feeling the better sleep quality yet, so we will see what happens.

The first thing about The Thrive Diet we found out is that it is very, very time consuming. For the first week Ben was spending all day day cooking all of our meals, which meant that he basically just kept up with when we ate. He would get up, make breakfast and then eat it. Get started on lunch, and then eat it. Make the afternoon snack and eat it while working on dinner, and then eat that. Then right after dinner he would have to get to work on the evening snack and then eat that, and then we would have an hour or two before bed! But since then we have figured out how to do it much more efficiently. We got a bigger food processor, which helped a ton with saving time (he was having to do 4-5 batches of things for a single meal). We are also making dressings, dips, and snacks in advance so that the salads are just chop and toss and the snacks can just be pulled out of the fridge. We are also learning what meals are easier to make and sticking to those. Since then it has been much more manageable, and as we find a groove I am sure it will be even easier. But I still applaud Ben for being such a trooper!

The second thing we found is that is can be very, very expensive. For the first week Ben was spending $150-200 every two to three days on food. That's nearly $500 a week, and $1,500-2,000 a month on food! Absolutely no way I was going to pay for that. The problem was we had a ton of food in the fridge going to waste, too! We found that we had extras of a lot of meals and since we were eating with the meal plan when we had extras we didn't eat them. So, when planning our meal plan for this week we mixed and matched meals so we ate the same thing for two days in a row and then switched so that we didn't have any waste. We also planned it so we had foods that used the same dressings since the recipes for those make big batches, and then we were buying less ingredients every week. While this cut down on our variety a bit (though not a ton) it also cut down significantly on our costs. When Ben went shopping and bought a week's worth of food a few days ago he only spent $110. Wow! Since then we have had to go get a couple more things that we ran out of, but our total is still under $150.

So, those notes being said, I think this diet is amazing. The food is fantastic and it really works! I don't feel deprived or hungry and I feel better than ever. I can't wait to see if it pays off with my weight too :) Here are some pictures of our recent eats.

Popped amaranth rooibos pizza

Curry lentil crackers with fresh pineapple salsa

Cashew carrot ginger soup topped with cilantro

Almond flax seed burgers topped with sweet pepper hemp pesto and a side of spring greens

Homemade Banana Chips

Last week, Ben made banana chips in our new, wonderful, amazing, beautiful Excalibur dehydrator. They turned out so lovely and were to die for with dipped in a little raw cashew butter. Yum!

Slice banana chips about 1/4" thick

Place on sheets in dehydrator at 130 degrees. Dehydrate until crisp throughout (about 24 hours).

Cafe Trang in Park City, Utah

For our last dinner in Park City, Ben and I went to Cafe Trang. Ben's mom (vegan) and sister (pescitarian) have been there multiple times and had recommended it to us, so I was excited to go. When we first got there, I was immediately a little turned off. It was small and low-lit, and the table and benches felt sticky (something I HATE in restaurants). I found the vegetarian section of their menu, which was quite large, but realized that when they said vegetarian they meant pescitarian since a lot of the dishes had fish or oyster sauce on them (printed right on the menu!). I asked the waiter what could be made vegan and was surprised that even MORE of the dishes had fish sauce in them than listed on the menu! Thus the vegan portion of the menu was narrowed quite a bit.

So, after some searching, Ben decided on the La-Han Vegan (above) and I went for the Vegan Chicken with Broccoli (right). We got our dishes relatively quickly but I was not impressed at all. Ben's dish was very greasy and over-spiced with hardly any vegetables and a ton of noodles. My dish was just plain awful. The 'chicken' was made from seitan and had a horrid spongy texture. It was topped with 'sauteed' green onions that were more like slimy wilted onions and then it had this absolutely terrible gravy that tasted like it was turkey gravy from a package. Then it had half-steamed broccoli and carrots around it. Ick! I was not too happy. But, I was hungry and trying to see what Ben's mom and sister could possibly see in this place so I ate some of Ben's veggies, the broccoli and carrots around my chicken, and a few slices of it. Ben finished up his plate and tried a slice of my chicken and then left the rest. THEN when the waiter came to get our plates he had the audacity to say something about wasting food and not eating it all! First off, rude. Second off, the food was terrible. I just let it slide and said I was full because I wasn't in the mood to argue. $30ish later, Ben and I walked out of the restaurant feeling gross. Both of us felt gross and bogged down until the next day when we finally cleansed it out with a big green smoothie and some oatmeal. Phew.

I will give Cafe Trang a 1/5. They do have some vegan options and a lot of pescitarian options, but their food really sucks. I am wondering if the Salt Lake location is any better, but I don't want to waste my money to find out.

Squatters in Park City, Utah

While in Park City, Ben and I had a few places lined up for lunch. By the time we got out of our movie at around 1 we were both absolutely starving and ran to the closest place we knew of. After searching for it for twenty minutes or so we called them and found out they were out of business. We then ran to two more places, both of which were closed for lunch. Serves us right for not calling ahead. Anyway, by this time we were famished and decided to just to to the only place we knew was open for lunch, Squatters.

I had never been to Squatters before and was expecting to be able to get some fries or chips or something and maybe a salad sans dressing. I was so pleasantly surprised when I got there and they have VEGAN items on the menu, labelled VEGAN! And yes, items not just item!

So, Ben got the Mexican salad and I got the Greek salad. We also got the chips and salsa. Both of our salads were great and the dressings were awesome. The chips and salsa were good and we were very happy to have gotten a healthful, tasty lunch when we weren't expecting it.

I give Squatters a 4/5 for having quite a few tasty vegan options.

UPDATE: I have been here since and absolutely LOVE a ton of their menu items! I changed the rating from a 3.5 to a 4, which is pretty good for a non-vegetarian place!

Happy Birthday, Blog!

Exactly one year ago today at 2:59 pm I published the first post on this blog, Barbecued Seitan Ribs and Barbecue Baked Lentils. That same day I also posted my second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth posts, Seitan Fajitas, Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Zucchini Muffins, and a Reuben Sandwich.

It all started when I started posting pictures with recipes on the Facebook group created by a local friend of mine, What Do Vegans Eat? After a few recipes I realized I wanted to be able to save the recipes I was posting and not just get them lost in the blog feed. So, I created an photo album on my Facebook page and started posting pictures and recipes. After a little while my Facebook (originally created for keeping in touch with family and friends) was turning into a recipe book. I decided it was time that I went in to the big league--so I created a blog.

For those of you who have been following my blog since the beginning, you will remember that it used to be just recipes and pictures with hardly any explanation and no personal stuff. At that time it was titled "The Vegan Cooking Adventures of Meggie and Ben." About six months in, it began to be a blog more about all things vegan with product reviews and restaurant reviews so I re-titled it "The Vegan Adventures of Meggie and Ben," which it is still titled.

In the last few months, I have started writing about more life stuff. I still post recipes and restaurant reviews and other vegan-y things, but I also post about my exercise goals, what's up with us and the pets, and big life events (hello, wedding). I started doing this after I really analyzed my stats one day and realized that I get most of my hits from the personal posts. My recipes do pretty good, but I think the majority of the people who visit my blog are friends, acquaintances, and family checking in. Which I am totally cool with. It's also great because instead of just seeing my life through recipes I have a sort of online journal with photos that I can look back on in years to come.

So, here we are, a full year later. We now have 36 followers and an average of 100 hits a day. I am hoping that it will keep expanding, though the growth has been static for a few months. But we will see what happens, I am excited to see where we are a year from now!

Fairweather Natural Foods in Park City, Utah

For breakfast/brunch (we got up pretty late) while we were staying in Park City, we stropped by Fairweather Natural Foods' cafe. Fairweather foods is a small vegetarian whole foods store that has basically everything you could want. Since it's really the only one in Park City besides Whole Foods, I'm pretty sure they get a lot of business. Inside Fairweather is a small cafe that servers shakes, sandwiches, soup, tea and coffee, and baked goods.

For breakfast, I got the bran muffin (check out the ingredients, I was pretty happy with it!) and a blueberry, strawberry, banana, and flax oil shake. The muffin was absolutely amazing and surprisingly moist since there was no oil in it (bananas!). The shake was so-so, a little bland, but a perfect breakfast food.

Ben got the vegan chicken salad sandwich which had a ton of veggies and tempeh 'chicken'.

Overall it was a pleasant experience and the food was healthful and well-made. I would give it a 3.5/5 for having good, though not very exciting food.

The shop looking in to the cafe

Omar's Rawtopia in Salt Lake City, Utah

On our way up to Park City last weekend, Ben and I dropped by Omar's Rawtopia and got take-out that we had for dinner in our condo later that night. Though Ben and I have been to Omar's quite a few times before, some reason I've never taken pictures of our food or reviewed it. So, before we ate, I made sure we got pictures of our food so I could spread the word about how amazing it is. For those of you who think raw food is all about salads and raw vegetables, think again. I am pretty sure Omar's could convert anyone to raw food. (And I'm 100% sure that if Omar made me three meals a day I would become a raw foodie.)

So, for his entree, Ben got the raw pizza on greens. The pizza is a flax, sprouted buckwheat, and apple crust topped with a tomato sauce, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, other random veggies (this time there was broccoli), avocados, basil pesto, our famous nut/seed cheese, and love. As usual, it was fantastic.

For my entree, I got the falafel bowl. The falafel bowl is a bed of mixed greens topped
with zucchini, tomatoes, onions, celery, avocados, our nut/seed falafel biscuits, and live tahini dressing. Don't you love the little purple flowers on top?

All decorated

On the plate with the falafel and dressing

For dessert, we got a vanilla and a chocolate pie with strawberries and coconut. SO GOOD.

Anyway, everyone should definitely go there. It's a little pricey but so worth it, especially if you haven't had raw food before! 5/5, hands down. Check out their menu on their website (link above). Their entrees include some pretty cool things like a bean burrito, pasta, and even sushi!

A Weekend "Honeymoon" Retreat in Park City

So I say "honeymoon" because Ben and I are planning a real honeymoon to somewhere exotic sometime this winter (need to replenish the funds after the wedding!). Anyway, one of Ben's friend's parent's gave us a two-night stay at their condo in Park City as a wedding gift, so we had a short little getaway last weekend. It was actually really nice and very relaxing.

Our room

The kitchen

The living room

We headed up Friday afternoon and dropped by Omar's Rawtopia for take-out to eat for dinner. We also got some shakes to drink on the way (heaven!). We got up there and checked into the condo and then headed out to see Forks Over Knives! Amazingly enough, that just happened to be the day it was premiering in Utah on its way across the United States. The movie was even better than I thought it would be and I am now dedicated to buying as many copies as possible and giving them to everyone I know. Seriously, it will change your life.

Ben waiting for Forks Over Knives to start

The next day we woke up and had breakfast at FairWeather Natural Foods before heading to an early showing of the newest Harry Potter. After that we went to Squatters for lunch and then to historic main street for some strolling.

Me and THE CUTEST bronze pig statue

Ben and a cute-ish bear statue

A Banksy! I had no idea there were any in Park City (it is new, as of the last Sundance film festival). This is the first one I've ever seen! I was just strolling by and noticed it in an alley.

After strolling, we went to Cafe Trang for dinner, which was terrible. I felt gross all night and into the next morning (restaurant reviews of all of these places to come). The next morning we got up and grabbed breakfast at Whole Foods before heading home. Overall it was so great to spend two days dedicated to spending time with Ben. Most of the food we ate was awesome, and of course it's always nice to get away.

The Reception

The day after the wedding we all woke up at a reasonable time and had a lovely pancake and fruit breakfast (all vegan, thanks Becky!). Everybody packed up and got ready at their own pace. Ben and I were heading down the mountain by about 10:45 and dropped by India Palace for some take-out curry. My parents and their team of helpers headed directly to the reception location to set up while Ben and I headed home to take showers, unload our car, and pack up the stuff we needed for the reception.

Once we were ready, we headed over to Ben's friend Joel's Parent's backyard (a lovely place) and set up the sound system and dropped off some things. Then we headed over to my parents house so that my sister could do my hair and I could attempt to make myself as good as Flavia had made me look the day before.

We ended up leaving just in time for the reception (my make up took longer than expected), but it really didn't get going until a quarter past 5. The weather was hot with dry winds, which was completely unexpected. We had borrowed a canopy for the food table from some friends to protect it against rain but had to make some emergency calls to get a more heavy duty one to withstand the wind. Around 5:30 the canopy showed up and cast a nice shade for the easily-melt-able treats (see what we made in this post and see pictures in this post). Leo got some great photos and I could relax and greet guests.

The reception went from 5-8 and had a pretty good revolving crowd the entire time. A couple of people showed up a bit late and Ben and I ended up staying and talking until nearly 9. Ben and I had fun greeting the many people who weren't able to make it to our wedding (since it was close family only) and seeing friends and family we hadn't seen in years. Oh, and eating a million treats. They were all so amazing.

Once we finally left the reception we headed straight to my parents house where they had all of our gifts out so we could start opening. It was so much fun! See what we got here and here.

So, here are some pictures of the night. Again, we don't have our professional photos yet so these are just from the people who were there.

My cousin, Chelsea, and I

Our guestbook! Ben drew this tree himself in pencil and then we had people sign it by doing a thumbprint and writing their name next to it.

People hiding under the canopy with the food during a brief rain storm.

A double rainbow that showed up near the end!

Giving a thumbs up for the rainbow

Us opening presents

Wedding Video

My uncle Marc took a video of Ben carving our names and Leo taking pictures of us. Don't you love the earthy sounds of birds and trees?! Ah I love it.

Even MORE Wedding Photos

The view from the ceremony location

Mason playing the ceremony music

My parents

Ben's mom

Our moms

My dad and I

The Dotys--Penny did the flowers!

Ben's sister Becky who cooked dinner and breakfast for everyone

Ben's mom modelling my bouquet

Ben's dad