2010 for Vegan Gal

So as 2010 is quickly approaching (as in less than 12 hours!!), I felt it quite appropriate to get back on here and update one last time in 2009! (ooh i'm quite the poet..kind of)

Anyway, I'm very excited for the start of this year. 2010 = my graduation year!
one more semester to go..for undergrad anyway!
Also, as exciting and amazing that 2009 was for me, I feel that 2010 can only get even better..so that's definitely something to look forward to :)

I don't have any recipes or food reviews or pictures to post right now, I have plenty of them from the past month or so..but I want to dedicate this post to saying goodbye to 2009 and hellllo to 2010! But no worries, I'll get to them eventually ;) Let's just say I got a spiralizer for Christmas and I know how to use it..woo!

What was so amazing for me in 2009?
Well within the first month of it I met Jason, who is amazing beyond belief and I've fallen quite in love with him..so that alone can make the whole year amazing ;)


In March I saw Chelsea Handler, my favvvvorite, live at the Tower Theater. Which was ...awesome!


I also spent 5 weeks of the summer in London with Emily. Which I posted a ton about all the awesome vegan places and cool spots we found. It was definitely a life experience that I will always be very grateful for.


I got through my first semester of my senior year in college, which was a toughie- (hellooo advanced research project) but managed to get through it with quite good grades! (hellooo A in advanced research!! awesome!)

I was able to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas at home with my family, which is something I am very thankful for. And also that I saw Chloe one last time before she passed away this past month.

(My brother, me, and my sister last year..my mother hoarded all the pics from christmas and thanksgiving this year!)


So! That brings us to this new year. And like many others, I definitely have some resolutions that I am going to be working towards.

For one, This Blog. Vegan Gal is something that I never want to give up. I know I've become less connected to it as far as blogging as much as I used to (used to be a couple times a week! now i'm lucky if its been a couple a month!). I still read others blogs all the time though, and love getting inspiration from them!
So my resolution for Vegan Gal is to blog at LEAST once a week. I'm really hoping I succeed at this one.


Two - In connection to blogging at least once a week, that means I'll have to get cooking more often! Being in college, things get quite hectic and leaves very little time to make fun vegan meals. So, I'm going to try to get in the kitchen more often and cook cook cook! :)

Three - This one is more of something I want to continue doing as opposed to start doing. This past year I've realized I've finally let myself rid of the things that I was not happy with, and fill them with things that do make me happy. I want to continue this and not let myself fall into places that I was not happy with them. Examples being - for many years of my life I was in a relationship(s) that I knew myself I was not happy with at all. But I stayed there, comfort perhaps? But I finally got rid of that and now I'm in a relationship where I'm very very happy. Also, I worked at Applebee's for 2 1/2 years..not liking the food I was serving people, not liking some rude customers I dealt with, and not liking the way management was - in other words I didn't like it at all! Finally, I no longer work there and now I work at Mugshots and I'm much happier there :) So I'm planning on keeping this up!!

Four - Do well in my last undergraduate semester!!! Crucial, peeps. This is the last of the last until I finally get myself to grad school, so these grades have to come out looking quite nice :) I feel I can do it!

Five - FINISH one of the bunches of songs I've been playing on the piano! Currently I'm working on "We're So Far Away" by Mae, and it's a beauuutiful song on the piano, it really is. But I don't want to start another song until I finally finish this one. Yes, this means more banging on my keys in frustration (i can be quite the frustrated pianist sometimes, haha pianist..) BUT I am determined to finish this one, and I know my sense of accomplishment will be great once I do!

Okay. I think that's basically the gist of what I'm hoping will come from the new year! My plans for the evening? Going out in Center City! woo! Hope everyone has a wonderful and fun New Years!!
See you in 2010!

how is there a countdown to a countdown??

I definitely wanted to get a review-post up about austin before thanksgiving, because I know (hopefully) I'll have tons to share about that!

Anywayy, about a month or so ago I went to Austin, Texas with my fantabulous boyfriend and aside from the warm, beautiful weather (except for the last rainy day..) the super cute town atmosphere, and the fun/interesting street of bars and restaurants...it was aweeeeesome for vegans! quite perfect, i must say :)

Thinking of texas, one wouln't exactly imagine a vegan friendly place admist the hamburger loving cowboys it would be known for. howeverrr..it was quite the opposite, at least in Austin anyway.

Within walking distance of where we were staying, was the biggest Whole Foods I've definitely ever been to. Aside from the huge salad and hot food bars that are in most Whole Foods, they have a ton of different food stations to get food to go from as well - including a sushi bar, mexican food, "american" food with grilled sandwiches, and a bunch others. it was quite overwhelming, and seemed impossible to actually make a decision on what to eat!



Although there were so many choices and it was hard to pick, I'm definitely not complaining..choices are always nice ;) just hard when youre only there for a short time! After wandering around the aisles, we found yet another station near the produce..the all vegan and mostly raw food! definitely found my pick...



Just this station though had SO many options that all sounded great! I've never had spiralized veggie pasta before, and they had that in a bunch of different vegetables with a few sauce options, so I decided on that.



This is what inspired me to ask for a spiralizer for Christmas (wink wink, mother!). Wow..it was a mix of beets, carrots, and zucchini all spiralized to pasta-shaped with a pad thai sauce on top. They also had an alfredo and a marinara sauce as well..which I'd love to try.



I was torn between the pasta and the taco salad they had, which had cashew sour cream, seitan on top, and guacamole. Luckily, Jason got it so I got to try a bit anyway :) It was definitely really good..and the sour cream was much better than some vegan sour creams I've had before..

Honestly, I could've spent all the days we were there in just the Whole Foods...but I suppose theres more to Austin than a grocery store :)

While wandering down Guadalupe Street, we went to this cutesy little toy store which had some of the most random stuff in it. But next door I spotted a sign (I always have my vegan-radar on) that said vegan soft serve. Uh...yeah?



How cute is the dancing vegan softserve??



Knowing we were about to go to dinner somewhat soon after this, we decided to split something instead. I definitely had to try something! We shared a Butter Finger Milkshake which was awesome! I've heard of the vegan butterfinger pieces, but I've never tried them..they were great in the shake though, I'm sure they'd be great to bake with sometime..

Soo dessert before dinner, but that's okay ;)

Since I have quite the obsession with New Harmony in philly, the a-mazing all vegan chinese place, I was suuuper excited to hear that there was a vegan chinese place in Austin as well!



Veggie Heaven! Indeed it was. It was pretty small and crowded inside, with not much of an attentive wait-staff, but the food definitely was awesome.



We started off with spring rolls -- his fried, mine steamed. I'm pretty sure this was the first steamed spring roll I've had, and as much as I like the crispy-ness of the fried ones, the steamed was quite good!



I had ordered the Lucky 7, after much debate, which was 7 fried tofu balls made of celery, carrots, chestnut, vegetable protein, and breadcrumbs are cooked with broccoli, baby bok choy, cauliflower, carrots, napa cabbage, onion and garlic in a slightly sweet and spicy red sauce The "balls" tasted more like a type of falafel, but were reallyyy tasty, especially with the sauce.



Not gonna lie, I don't really remember the specific name for what Jason got..but it was pretty much the same sauce I had with veggies, and fried strips of tofu instead of the balls that I had. They were both really good, although the sauce did have a bit of a spicy kick to it! As did many of the things we had while we were in texas haha...

Austin was definitely an awesome place..and I'd looove to go back sometime, since there was so much there that I loved, and I'm sure tons that I didn't get to see that would be great :) I guess it does kick the stereotype a tad bit, doesn't it? :)

can you tell me which flowers gonna go?

so it's been a month..and between my computer not working, my camera breaking and then getting a new one but losing the battery..it's been a tough one to blog ;)
i've definitely been having some awessssome vegan eats though, so no worries on that one.

a couple of weekends ago the roomie and i went down to baltimore for a concert. oh, but not just any concert.. we saw Hanson with HelloGoodbye.
Quite a show, I must say. My inner 12-year old hanson fan was just bursting out of me and I was quite pumped for them!

While we were in Baltimore, we looked up a vegan place (which btw...emilys gone pescitarian, soo AWESOME for her! :) )
we found there was a "soul food" type place in the city..which we love the Nile Cafe in philly which is kind of vegan soul food, so this place sounded good. It's called The Yabba Pot and i was definitely amazed by how delicious their food was! You know this girl loves her veg soul food ;)

The Yabba Pot was a very hole in the wall place but the inside of it was decorated beauuutifully!


I loved the decor for the seating area, the tables and chairs were all so unique and cute. and the huge gorgeous butterfly on the ceiling was definitely something to look at :)



Where you ordered your food, they offered some wraps and sandwiches, but once emily and I saw the hot food buffet and saw that you could get 6 different things for a sampler, we were sold. We do love our food all together..and we wanted to try everything, so this was perrrfect for us. They also have a lot of juices that you could get, which we did not, but i've heard they are quite good and refreshing!



Our sampler plate. We chose to get one with the 6 different things on it to split, wanting to save room to try their desserts! Over brown rice, we got a raw kale salad, a black bean saucey dish, a chickpea curry, a collard greens and cabbage dish, seasoned mushrooms and tomatoes, and the most AMAZING tasteing "chicken" i've ever had. honestly, i tried to cut it..and thought I hit a bone so I was a bit freaked out at first, only to find it was on a toothpick (silly me) but the chicken was SOO delicious, i'd definitely get an order of that again.

Everything was awesome, and it was a perfect amount to split between the two of us, and still want some dessert.
Unfortunately though, all they had on the dessert front was a pumpkin pie..which neither of us are too fond of (i know, i know, everyone loves pumpkin..except for this chica) but we did venture to the awesome Whole Foods in baltimore and split a peice of raw strawberry shortcake. No picture available, but trust me..it was deeelish. :)

Also! I finally got to try the PB&J Larabar
Bloggers were not wrong..this bar is AWESOME. I'm not a huge fan of larabars, some flavors I like, and some I don't..but this one is definitely a keeper!

And for the hanson concert?
Let's just say it was prettttttty awesome!


Me and Zach Hanson..;) you know you have mmmbop on your itunes, don't even pretend..haha.

Also when I was home on sunday my mother made me a deliish dinner that I must share. It's not often..ever..that I get dinners from my mom soo this was quite exciting since usually mine are quick meals the roomie and I make up in about 10 minutes. :)




Butternut Squash Chili! And mannn this was tasty. the squash and the beans were quite delicious in it :) thanks mom!

As for the recipe, because I definitely recommend making this soon! especially with butternut squash in fullll bloom right about now..

Butternut Squash Chili:
2 T olive oil
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2″ cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 Tblsp mild chili powder
1 1/4 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp chipotle chili powder or cayenne pepper to taste (for spice)
1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup water
1 15-oz. can kidney beans
salt and pepper to taste

Peel and chop squash and set aside. In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Sautee onion and bell pepper until soft – about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sautee 2 minutes more.

Add seasonings and stir well to coat. Add tomatoes (and their juice), water, squash, salt and pepper to taste, Cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook 20 minutes.

Add beans and adjust seasonings, if necessary. Cover and cook until squash is tender, but not disintegrating – about 30-40 minutes.

Have a good week! Soooon I'll be posting about the how AWESOME austin texas is for vegans..oh it was wonderful!

my heart like a kick drum..

school has been keeping me quite busy lately with papers, mid term exams (how is it midterms already..?? i do not know.) and whatnot.. so sadly this makes my blogging fall to the back of the to-do list.

but i do have fun stuff to share about being in new york and a deliccccious veganized dessert recipe that i made last week!

a couple of weekends ago i was in new york with the boyy and of course, had a fabulous time :)
but we made some more stops at some fabbulous vegan places in the city.
on friday night we went to Baby Cakes for dessert after eating some tofu chinese food at a random spot.
Since I had been to Vegan Treats the weekend before, I was expecting something as awesome as that.



the outside and the sign-age was definitely very cute :)



I apologize for the bad and dark picture quality..I recently got a new camera and haven't quite figured out all the good settings to use..but i'll get the hang of it soon, hopefully..

Up first to try from BabyCakes was the frosting shots!



Ever since I heard that they had shots of frosting there I was already excited..i loove frosting so this sounded like an amazing idea. We both tried the chocolate and the vanilla..I was a bigger fan of the chocolate.. Oh and isn't he a great hand model? ;)



Minnne.. I chose the chocolate mint brownie cupcake.. it was reallllly tasty, and the frosting was perfectly minty without being too much. The cake was also super moist, de-lish!



If they didn't have the cookie sandwiches, jason would have been pretty upset haha he'd been looking forward to trying those..and luckily they had them. it was quite delicious as well :)

I will say that even though everything I had from BabyCakes was verry scrumptious, they had a much smaller assortment than I had been expecting, but there was still a few really good options there. I'd definitely love to go back and try another cupcake sometime though! :)

For dinner on saturday night we went to try out Candle 79.
Last time we came to the city we went to Blossom, which was soo awesome, so we had our expectations high for Candle 79 to hopefully be justttt as amazing.
I'd definitely say it was..

For an appetizer, we shared the Guacamole Timbale, no picture was taken though, but i assure you it was delicious and gone :) The description - chipotle black beans, caramelized onions, tomato-cucumber salsa, tortilla chips, ranchero sauce ...the caramelized onions in it was a really good combo with the salsa.



My dish was really good. I liked it more than what I got at Blossom I think, but they were both different so it's hard to tell. I got the Carribean Jerk Grilled Seitan which was brown ale black bean sauce, sautéed collard greens, caramelized onions, plantains, mango-papaya salsa, jalapeño-cilantro coulis

talk about amazing. the fruity salsa was perfect with the spiced veggies and plantains.



Jason got the Seitan Piccata, which is their "classic"..everyone talks about how amazing that dish it.
creamed spinach, grilled potato cake, oyster mushrooms, lemon-caper sauce
It was really good, and the sauce was really good over the seitan. It reminded me a lot of what he ordered at Blossom..which was also quite good.

Definitely too full after all this to try dessert at Candle 79, but I have heard good things..the specials of the day all sounded really good as well!

Also while we were in new york we stopped in the Whole Foods..i'm not sure which one it is or how many there are in nyc..but it was jam-packed! all I wanted was some almond butter and rice dream chocolate, but the line was wrapped around and it seemed pretty silly to wait for that. guess people in ny love their whole foods ;)


So last week for my sorority we were having a bake sale to support one of the sisters causes.. I dooo enjoy baking for bake sales, especially for non-vegans!
I wanted to make something that I hadn't had in a while, I mean cookies are great..but it's nice to switch it up a bit.
I remembered last years bake off someone made Magic Cookie Bars and I kept thinking how much I used to love those pre-vegan days!



These were soo good! Just as I remember of Magic Cookie Bars..soo many good flavor combos with the walnuts, chocolate chips, and coconut over a tasty crisp graham cracker crust. perrrfection. People at the bake sale seemed to enjoy them as well ;)

Magic Cookie Bars:
1/3 cup extra firm silken tofu
1/3 cup vanilla soy milk ( i used almond breeze)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
1/4 cup earth balance
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2/3 cup flaked coconut
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray and 8x8 baking dish with baking spray. In a blender, puree tofu, milk, sugar, and cornstarch until smooth. Put margarine in a bowl and melt in the microwave. Add graham cracker crumbs and mix until well moistened. Pour into baking dish and press to coat the pan. Pour tofu mixture over the crust. Sprinkle with nuts, coconut, and chocolate and press all into dish firmly with a fork. Bake for 30 minutes, until lightly browned and the coconut is crispy.

I found this recipe on Fat Free Vegan and was soo excited to try it out! have i mentioned how much i LOVE her site? no? well i do. :) a lot. i'm even in the group on facebook..haha..

well i'm off to enjoy some vegan mexican food, margaritas, and enjoy whats left of the weekend! happy saturday! :)

party in the usa

so i'll be honest and admit that i'm a huge miley cyrus fan..and her song party in the usa is constantly getting stuck in my head lately... don't hate, you know her songs are catchy! ;)

haha on that note..
last weekend my fantaaaabulous boyfriend and i went to Vegan Treats in Bethlehem, PA...you know, the super amazing all vegan bakery that sends their delicious-ness to TONS of places in philadelphia, nyc, and all over the east pretty much!
linkage - Vegan Treats
caution: by looking at the menu, you'll feel the urge to go there immediately..or at least whip up some delicious desserts yourself ;)

most people probably don't get this excited over a bakery...but being a vegan..you all can definitely understand how excited I was. :)

anyway!
I definitely got to try a few things, and they were all a-mazing, of course!



despite the silly stop-and-go traffic, we finally got there..i'd say it was worth it.



I thought it was super cute inside..it was very pink and adorably decorated. They had a ton of articles from VegNews and other vegetarian magazines on the wall of their reviews and such.



We were going to each get something, but seeing how big this one dessert was, we decided to split it..gooood idea. Awesome for me, they had peanut butter soft serve! That was a must to get..but I wanted to try something else as well. I promise under this mountain of soft serve, there was a scrumptious peanut butter cup brownie. The peanut butter on that brownie was the most amazing thing I've had in forever. oh my love for peanut butter <3

We got some stuff to go as well, and I wanted to bring something for the roomie, of course! My first instinct was to get her the raspberry bar, but there were so many choices I really didn't know what to choose..so I called and of course she picked the raspberry bar as well haha.



She said it was quiiiite tasty..i figured ;)

I also brought home a Cookies N Cream filled donut..



I was really hopeing that they would have a boston creme donut, since those were my favorite before going vegan, but a cookies and cream filled donut was definitely good enough! The frosting was soo creamy and delicious..

No wonder people go a bit crazy for this place, everything we tried was SO good. I definitely recommend heading out there if you're not too far away! Or you can order stuff off the website as well..which might be an easier idea ;)

This weekend I'm going to New York and trying out Baby Cakes..so I'll see how that is up against Vegan Treats! I'm sure it'll be just as delicious :)
have a fabulous weekend!

birthday recap

so between not having a camera for a bit and having trouble uploading pictures from my phone...i am FINALLY posting about my birthday..which was last week. :)

i can definitely say that i had a really good birthday..
when i got back from class that day (boo for classes on your birthday!!) i had a package from mi familia!
it was an all vegan snack basket!!



so pretty! i didnt want to mess up the wrapping and basket..but i was definitely eager to see what all this fun stuff was!



So what do we have here? Lara bars! Cherry pie & Ginger snap..i've never had the ginger one before so that should be fun to try.
Panda black licorice! I loooooooooove licorice..which not many other people do, haha but its one of my faves :)
All-natural potato crisps..
Cocoa-Java Almonds.. ooommmggg these were so amazing. i usually go for the more salty / spicy types of nuts...but these were so delicious.
Dried Pear Crisps by the same people of the potato ones.
These fun crunchy things called "Sticks & Twigs" which kind of make you think of pretzels except they dont taste like pretzels and aren't pretzels..haha they're made from quinoa, flax, and a bunch of other awesome things! they're realllly good :)
there were also a few more granola bars from brands i had never heard of..but they were all organic and natural and delicious! :)
Thanks Ma! ;)

So for dinner on my birthday we went to this restaurant in Mt. Airy called The Black Olive. I saw it on vegpa.org, which has a listing of all the vegetarian and vegan restaurants in pennsylvania. they have a website, but it really doesn't have much information on it at all except for its an all vegan restaurant.. i read some reviews and they all said it was great though and had vegan cake..which was what i wanted haha. i'm really glad we went though, all the food we ordered was really delicious!

as an appetizer, we shared the vegan crabcakes..
i took a picture, but it came out really bad and does them NO justice..thus i wont waste posting it..however, these were SO delicious! i don't think before being vegetarian i ever had a crabcake, so I can't exactly make a good comparison..but "the omnivores" at the table haha thought they tasted just like the real deal..

For entrees, after a LONG debate of which one to get, I finally decided on the spinach lasagna.



i made quite a good choice. it had a delicious layer of vegan cheese on top that melted perfectly on it..yum. i haven't had lasagna in forever so this was just perfect. it also came with a side salad that had this really good berry vinagrette with it..

the lovely roomie got the tofu wrap



i didn't get to try this myself, but she said it was quite delicious. it had a bunch of different veggies and beans and tofu in it.. :)

the lovely boyyyy got the seitan steak!



The "steak" came with mashed potatoes and asparagus as well. I tried a piece of the seitan and it was pretty good! The sauce on it was really good.. it tasted a lot like the seitan you can buy prepackaged in whole foods or tj's though..but they cooked it really well so it was quite tasty.

Annnd for my favorite part of the meal..I mean you can't have a birthday without cake, right ?? ;) Luckily Black Olive had a few choices..

I chose the German Chocolate Cake



I've had a lot of german chocolate cake in my lifetime, haha considering its my dads favorite, and even last year I made a vegan version for him! But I was really excited they had it here too. It was so delicious, the cake was perfectly moist and the frosting was definitely deliciously coconuty and scrumptious. The frosting was definitely my favorite part ;)

I didn't get a shot of emily's cake though..she got the lemon cake, which was really good and not too tart. the frosting on it was delicious though, of course...that is my favorite part of any cake though haha.



They had one other cake, which was the double chocolate cake, that jason got..and that was really good too! luckily my german chocolate cake had the same frosting as the double chocolate on top, so i got the best of both worlds haha ;)

So this place was really delicious and I'd definitely love to go back again, especially since there were a few things on the menu I still had my eye on as I ordered my lasagna ;)

My birthday night was quite good as well..definitely a 21st ;)



don't you just love the sash and tiara? haha bit much, but it was fun :)

one more time with feeling..

While I was on vacation my camera decided to be really awesome *note sarcasm* and the stop the display screen from working...
i can still take pictures on it/upload pictures from it..but I just never know what I'm taking a picture of..and that can usually be a problem! :)
I have a nicer camera as well, but the battery on that one seemed to die just as I got home as well! Such luck, no?
Thus I am camera-less, but hopefully that will change soon and I'll be able to take more pictures/do more reviews as much as i want.

I did however make some cupcakes for a party my roommate and I had last week..and I used her camera to snap a picture..they were WAY too cute to not take a picture of!

kind of spring-esque, aren't they? maybe not the right season, but i thought they were cute anyway ;)
plus lets just say i didnt even get to try one..they were gone by the end of the party, but that might be because SOMEONE ate 6 of them!! i won't put the blame out there, but i was a little bummed i didnt get to try one, however, from everyone else i heard that they were quite delicious!

I used the vanilla cupcake recipe from Joy of Vegan Baking, which I haven't used before. Usually my go to is always Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World .. (which BTW I need to get on getting Vegan Brunch VERY soon!!) I thought they baked the same, and I guess they tasted good too so that's a good switch up recipe!
For the frosting..I noticed we didnt have any powdered sugar in the house at the last minute, so I made one using regular sugar?
I found it online..and I have to say it didn't come out as "fluffy" as using powdered sugar..
I also used a pre-packaged thing of pink and yellow fondant that I had gotten for Christmas that I never got a chance to use yet! Fondant is SOO super easy and makes everything look adorable..I'll definitely have to use it again :)

So other than that I've just been attempting to "live up" the rest of my summer.. school starts up again in 1 week from today!
However..it will also be my birthday in a week and 1 day from today!!
Not just any birthday, though..
In recognition of my favorite game as well..
I'll be the big bad

Okay maybe not that big or bad..but i'm still super excited ! :)

hope everyone is enjoying the rest of their summers as well and hopefully i'll be able to post and do some reviews soon!
<3

conclusion of my euro-trip ;)

So since I've been back to the states, I really haven't had much time to keep my blog up to date with the last of my food-finds in europe as well as stuff i've made since i've been back! no worries though :)

Rewind to being in Dublin, Ireland..
where the mentioning of being vegan was looked at like it was a disease..
even trying out a chinese buffet, i had thought before going in that there had to be at least an all vegetable dish or tofu or something!
not hardly..i ended up with a plate full of cut up tomatoes and cucumbers with some soy sauce.
however!
while trying to find something else in the city, we stumbled upon a Govinda's!
And I had just recently learned that the Govinda's in Philadelphia actually IS an international chain and the one in Dublin and London are all connected! how coooool ;)



The food was set up in a way that you picked your size plate, and then chose from the "buffet/bar" what you wanted on it.. unfortunately not everything was vegan..a majority of it was just vegetarian, but the things that were vegan were really good!


This was my plate, which consisted of basmati rice, vegetable samosa, whole grain bread, lentil curry, and a mix vegetable dish. it was quite delicious :) finally..some vegan food in ireland !!

Despite the food, Dublin was still absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!

The Dublin Castle!


Howth area of Dublin, right on the water. Quite a lovely view :)

Fast forward back to London...
After we got back from Dublin, we only had 9 days left in London to explore and do everything else we wanted to do before we had to come home..so that meant a really strict schedule that we TRIED to go by..haha some things got a little rearranged though ;)

We found a really awesome health food store really close to our apartment though, so that was exciting! We had bought sandwiches to take on the plane with us incase the food wasn't good...but realized they might not let them take us through security, so we ate them while in london and they were delicious! Mine was a vegan stromboli sandwich! :)

Also in the health food store I really wanted to try the soy chocolate milk, but none of them were cold..so I picked strawberry instead..

This was AMAZING! I'm glad I got to try this flavor instead.. it reminded me exactly of those nesquick strawberry syrups with milk..except a million times better and better for you :)

Another RANDOM find that we stumbled upon while going down a wrong street, was a vegan cafe literally down the street from our apartment! I hadn't even seen it on Happy Cow or anything like that.. but I'm really glad we found it because it was suuuper awesome.


The board..it seemed as though they changed up the menu & soup everyday..which is definitely a good idea. I cannot remember the name of this place actually..and it was so tiny that i couldn't even look it up online!


A lot of the vegan places we had gone to throughout London did the same sort of concept..you choose the side of the bowl and then fill it with whatever you want. Emily & I really LOVED this idea..because we definitely dont mind our food touching, and we think it tastes better all mixed together anyway. ;)
My bowl was a bed of greens and a potato salad, a lentil and chickpea dish, and a vegetable dish. it was all really good mixed in. :)

While we were in London for the 5 weeks, we kept passing a TON of McDonald's..and they all advertised for this "spicy veggie burger"...i was intrigued..so we looked it up online and checked if it was vegan or not.. it IS if you get it without the ranch sauce...
Although I am not one to support McDonald's...I think it was pretty cool that they were willing to have a vegetarian and vegan option for customers if they choose so instead of choosing their gross burgers. SO it was one of our last days in London, and i tried it..


See the bite taken out of it? That was the only one that was...
Unfortunately, I WANTED to like it..so I could think wow way to go mcdonalds!
but it was soggy..and the first time I got it they messed it up and put the sauce on it, so I had to go back and get a new one.. but it was just mushy and not very good..nor was it spicy at all!
Sorry McDonalds...at least you tried.

Now that I've been back in Maryland and Philadelphia..I've done a little bit of cooking, definitely not as much as I'd like to..so hopefully the baking will shine through me again and I'll be back in the kitchen with some new things soon! :)