Our 'Real' Honeymoon: 18 Days to Go

NOTE: Be forewarned, this is a long post about something that may seem very trivial. Ben is already asleep (it is 8:30 pm, seriously??) and I am bored and letting my fingers fly.

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Faithful followers will remember our short weekend honeymoon directly following our wedding in July. We went up to Park City and stayed in the condo of one of our friend's (a wedding present to us) for a few nights and it was quite lovely and relaxing.

Weddings

We wanted to go on a 'real' honeymoon right after our wedding, but since we paid for our own wedding it was pretty much out of the question until we could replenish our funds and get some money together. Originally we were thinking Christmas in Hawaii. I have a week and a half off from work already built in at that time of year, so it seemed like the perfect time to get away. We started saving and planning immediately after the wedding. However, as we looked more in to it, we realized a really good Hawaii trip may be out of our price range. We could have made it happen, but I when I finally do go to Hawaii I want it to be all luxurious and fabulous, not budgeted and frugal.

Soooo we decided to do something different. We still wanted to do Christmas, and we still wanted to to tropical. We knew that you could get pretty good deals on cruises so we started looking in to that. I wanted a looooong vacation, so we started by looking in to 14-day cruises to the Caribbean and the Bahamas. But as we thought about it we realized that neither of us had ever been on a cruise and we didn't want to be stuck on a boat for two weeks with who knows how much vegan food and possibly not even having fun.

So we started looking at 7-dayers and found a PERFECT 7-day cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines sailing from New York City, down to Florida, and then to the Bahamas before returning to New York. It leaves a bit earlier in December, so I am taking an additional week off before my holiday break. What was so awesome about this cruise is that we decided while we were in New York we might as well spend a few days there. Neither Ben or I have ever been, so we extended our trip and will spend a few days in New York City over Christmas right after our cruise. It's so awesome! Ben and I call it three vacations in one--New York City, Florida, and the Bahamas.

What is really, really exciting about it is all the amazing excursions we are going to do during the cruise and the fun things we have planned to do in New York.

Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure

First, we are going to Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure in Florida, which I am super excited for because I love theme parks and haven't been to any of Universal's parks. Next we are taking a kayak tour around Great Stirrup Cay, NCL's private island in the Bahamas. We will of course also have some serious beach time on Great Stirrup Cay. After that we head to Nassau for some sailing and snorkeling, followed by some touristing and some more beach time. Ben and I also plan to have some treatments done in the on-board spa (which looks AMAZING, btw) and have a 'night on the town' while on the ship, I hear they have their own pub crawl.

Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas

Nassau, Bahamas

After that it's back to New York for a fancy night out on Christmas eve--two plays in the heart of Broadway (booked CRAZY CHEAP thanks to my play-fanatical friend, Dwight) and dinner at Candle 79. For those of you who don't know, Candle 79 is one of two very fancy vegan restaurants in the US. It's supposed to be utterly divine and I already have reservations to make SURE we get a good table. The next day is Christmas and Ben and I plan on just lazing in our hotel room and wandering Central Park--which our hotel is only a block away from. Hopefully some ice skating will be open on Christmas, because I really want to go. Over the next few days Ben and I are sure to do some very touristy New York-y things, which will include the MET, Times Square, the top of The Rock, Nintendo World (Ben's idea), Greenwich Village (I found a Bob Dylan walking tour online! AHHHH!), Moo Shoes, Lula's Sweet Apothecary, and Babycakes NYC.

New York City

BOB FUCKING DYLAN

Anyway, I think that's basically it about our trip. I'm crazy excited and am even worried I am building it up too much because I am so excited. With all the uprooting, changes, and stress happening in our lives these last few weeks it seems like the one think we can look forward to. And, crazily enough, it's only 18 days away!

Vegan Stock Photo

Whaaaaaaa? I just stumbled upon Vegan Stock Photo. A new website trying to build a collection of vegan food stock photos! I love it. Best thing is you can upload your own photos and share them with people! I'm totally going to help out. Hopefully this way we can avoid something like the VegNews photo scandal going down again.

Some people may think it's a bit silly/unnecessary to have a whole website of vegan stock photos, but I think it's cool. I know how it is to try and find, for example, a picture of a Thanksgiving spread for a vegan event and not be able to find one without a dead turkey in the middle. And yes! I got the above photo from vegan stock photo!

THE Thanksgiving

Whew. Our 'real' Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving day last week was our THIRD Thanksgiving. Granted, we only had to cook for two of those Thanksgivings, but I'm still pretty Thanksgiving-ed out. Done with rich, fatty, sugary foods and on to healthy, clean, yummy foods that make my tummy happy!

For our 'real' Thanksgiving, Ben and I went to my parents house and enjoyed it with some of my family. See the above picture for the lovely festive table my mom set.

For dinner, we made/brought the following things:

Spinach artichoke dip from Vegan Celebrations and pita chips
French onion dip from Vegan Celebrations and kettle chips
'Chicken' Seitan from The Real Food Daily Cookbook
'Beef' Wellington (recipe here, 'beef' recipe we used here)
Coleslaw
Cheesy sage gravy (recipe here)
So Delicious coconut vanilla ice cream
Pumpkin cheesecake (recipe here)

My mom also had cut veggies for the dips, vegan stuffing, cranberry orange sauce, vegan cornbread, salad, and vegan apple pie. She also had some non-vegan items, but everything was vegetarian! Oh, and my aunt and uncle brought a turkey for their family (ick). So... it wasn't totally vegetarian/vegan, but it was super close. I was so proud of everyone for being cool with a veg Thanksgiving, and even prouder for almost all of my cousins, brothers, and sisters who took seitan over turkey. I think everyone at least tried the seitan, which I also thought was awesome.

Oh! And everything we made turned out amazingly. I am loving my Vegan Celebrations book that I got both of the dips out of--everyone was really impressed. I also decided that the 'beef' wellington is much better without the criss-crossing of dough over the top. This time Ben and I just cut slits in it and it cooked much, much better.

Here are some pictures of the food and the day:

Spinach artichoke dip

French onion dip

'Chicken' seitan

'Beef' wellington

Salad, coleslaw, and cranberry sauce

My very, very full plate

Pumpkin cheesecake with a graham cracker crust

We used our springform pan for the fist time on this--doesn't it look lovely?

My cousin, brother, and Ben playing Just Dance

Ben and I in a dance-off

My sister, cousins, and us

Animal Allies Club Vegan Thanksgiving

Last week we celebrated Thanksgiving again with the Animal Allies Club. The Animal Allies Club is Utah Valley University's animal rights club that I was once the president of and am still involved in. N. ow the president is our friend Holly and it mostly serves to host vegan outreach, potlucks, and social events. We have been having a vegan thanksgiving for the past four years and I always love them!

This year, Ben and I made rosemary and chive biscuits (above) from the cook book Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations. They were a huge hit and definitely a new favorite.

We also made 'beef' wellington which was a big hit at our Easter dinner this year. This time we made it a bit different. We made the seitan roast 'beef' from last year's Thanksgiving and then followed the same basic instructions for creating the pastry shell from the 'beef' wellington recipe. I definitely prefer the roast 'beef' recipe over the original recipe, but I think we have decided that we prefer our seitan plain rather than wrapped in pastry dough. This may have something to do with the fact that we are too lazy to make what would probably be a really good pastry dough and thus opt for the freezer kind, but whatever.

The Thanksgiving overall was a bit sparse. It was definitely fun and enjoyable, but the meal was mostly breads, main dishes, and dessert. Some people had committed to some side dishes but never showed up, so we just got to enjoy bits and pieces :) One thing that was great about it is that it was mostly new faces. Ben, Holly, Russel (Holly's husband), and I were the only 'original' AAC members that were in attendance. Holly is doing an amazing job at vegan outreach!

After dinner, Holly, Russel, Ben, Christian (another friend), and I drank coffee and played Castle Ravenloft in to the wee hours of the morning. Overall, a very successful night.

New Haircuts!

Ben and I got our hair cut today at Landis salon in SLC. Landis is an Aveda salon (meaning most of their products are vegan) and their stylists are awesome! Check out our new dos:

Ching Vegan Thanksgiving

Another successful Ching Vegan Thanksgiving. I let myself have a serious cheating day and loved every minute of it. I ate so much! Below is the event in pictures.

My (first) plate

Candies on the tables

Ben as a candy vampire

Ben coloring his picture

My glitter scarecrow and Ben's gangster turkey

Live band

The speaker

Nick and his friend

Russell and Holly

NOTE: Our friends Eric and Stephanie were also present, but they left before I remembered to take a picture of them.

Us

My dessert

Ben's dessert

More Pottery

Some of you will remember our wedding gift pottery set from my grandparents and parents. I'm not going to re-hash the whole story, so if you want to read about it check out this post (it has a ton of pictures too!).

Soooooo when we got married we also got a gift certificate from my great aunt and her family to the same potter's shop. On Tuesday we finally went up there and redeemed our gift certificate for some lovely new dishes.

We got two mugs which I am absolutely in love with and two bowls and a plate to go with our current place setting.

Nutrient-Packed Breakfast Smoothie

I eat a smoothie every morning for breakfast, and it usually consists of the same thing. It's a huge nutrient boost in the morning, gets me my first serving of veggies right off the bat, and helps hydrate me after a long night of sleep. If I have one before I'm heading to the gym, I will add some Vega powder for extra protein.

A banana
A mixture of frozen or fresh fruits
Some kind of leafy green (usually kale or spinach)
Aloe Gold
Maca Powder
Spirulina Powder
Vega Shake & Go berry powder

My Birthday!

For my birthday, Ben and I decided to do the simple dinner and hang out thing. I didn't take work off or anything, we just went to dinner after work and spent the night doing nothing together. Originally our plan was to do a nice weekend away, but I decided to spend all that money and splurge on some really nice presents for myself (coming later...). It was a really chill and uneventful birthday, but that's kind of how I like it.

For dinner, we went to Omar's Rawtopia. We both got a combination plate with a wrap and a salad. Ben got the burrito and kale salad (right), and I got the Lebanese wrap and special of the day, coconut curry rice (below). Both were super yummy.

Aaaand here are lovely collages of pictures we took while we were waiting (click to enlarge). Adorable, no?

After dinner we came home and had cake that Ben's mom bought me from City Cakes. It was gluten-free and made with beet sugar. AND beautiful. I felt I could splurge a little since it WAS my birthday :)

The next night, we went to my parents house for dinner. Every year my parents and I have a tradition of making something new together. This year my mom decided to try lettuce wraps. She did a tofu-peanut-fried noodle version and a Mexican version. Both were fabulous! We finished it off with the rest of the cake.

Ok, so here comes the good part. Instead of spending money on a weekend away or a pricey three-course meal, I spent a good chunk of money on myself. I don't think I've every gotten so many presents before! I got two new pairs of winter pajamas, a whole new underwear wardrobe, a few new bras, and a bathing suit. Then Ben and I splurged on a few sets fantastic 600 thread count sheets and a new comforter. WHOA.

Our bed

All in all, I think is was a great birthday. I'm still getting used to telling people I'm 22 and I feel older than ever (DUH).