Valentine's Feast - #WhatVegansEat

Hello my lovely readers! Long time no post huh?

I mentioned in an earlier post that Mike an I would be celebrating at an all vegan restaurant for Valentne's. I know most of you are meat inclined and might have been thinking, "ALL vegan restaurant? Like a salad bar??"  Nope. We're talking delicious, hearty food here people.

I've actually never been a salad person. With the exception of Cafe Metro (omg magical salads), I've never really gotten excited about a salad. As a result my vegan journey has involved a lot more beans and grains than leafy greens.

When I ask Mike about going vegan, he usually says that number one thing that's stopping him is having to think so much about what you eat before you eat it. He actually loves all the vegan dishes I make at home and has no problem finding something he likes on a vegan menu. This is why I love taking meat eaters to vegetarian and vegan restaurants. I'll push you right into the deep end, but guess what? The water's warm :)

Here's a look at our Valentine's meal at Soul Vegetarian:

Appetizer: Kalebone, the menu describes this as "Sould Vegetarian's super protein recipe made from wheat-gluten" which means it's basically their house-made seitan. They are like breaded crunchy chicken fingers.

Salt and Paprika on the table :)

I've also had the BBQ kalebone, and it was just like eating ribs, minus the bone. It actually freaked me out a little, and I ended up swapping half my dish with Mike.

Mike's Dinner: Lentil burger, your standard veggie burger with a side of "Hebrew bakes" (potatoes).

I should mention that the owners of Soul Vegetarian are vegan for spiritual/religious reasons. In fact, Genesis 1:29 is painted on the wall.

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.

My Dinner: BBQ Cauliflower with a side of vegan mac n' cheese

Oh man, that mac n' cheese...nom nom nom

I've made similar battered cauliflower dishes at home. Most of the time I make it General Tso's style. I've also seen people make them buffalo style. If you haven't tried breaded cauliflower, it's worth looking up a recipe.

If you are interested in trying out some vegan food in your area, a great resource is happycow.net. You can search for restaurants near you that offer vegan options. Let me know if you find any winners!

Happy Wednesday! HUMP DAY!!!

Changes Ahead?

Hi Hello! Happy Monday.

Sorry for the radio silence last week. I have a post in the works, but got pulled away from my computer every time I tried to make some progress on it. 

On Saturday, Mike made his way to IL for a couple of on-site interviews and the annual Academy meeting. After a crazy week of late nights at work, I was beyond excited for Friday night. We decided to try out a new place for dinner: Uncle Maddio's. 

I love that they made the bald dude with the mustache vegan. 

It's this really awesome fast-casual pizza joint where you build your own personal pizza Chipotle style. They bake it up and deliver it to your table hot and fresh. I was especially excited because they had vegan options!

After dinner we did a little shopping. We went into Best Buy just to browse and came home with this new toy:

Meet my new baby :)

Funny Sidenote: On Friday night I texted the pic on the left of my new camera box to Bethany. She responded with the pic on the right of HER new camera. Great minds think alike!

Sometimes I think it's actually Bethany and I who are soulmates.

All this brings me to a bit of an announcement type deal...

Changes Ahead??

While the above mentioned camera does take nice pictures that I hope to use on here. The main reason I bought it was for vlogging. I started this blog as a sort of digital scrapbook for Mike and I to look back through and for you peeps to check in on what we are up to. After seeing other people's vlogs, I really felt like it would be a better medium to capture the memories. 

I still plan to put posts up on here, but I think I might move more of the life updates to vlog format. Why tell you when I can show you right?? I'm toying around with the idea of daily vlogging. Obviously it's something Mike and I need to think through. 

The upcoming months and even years will probably hold some bigtime life events for us. I want to capture all these starting out moments. Us as newlyweds. Moving to who knows where. Maybe even babies further down the road. 

So what does this mean for you, my readers? There are times I might link a video on here, but more often than not, they'll stay in the YouTube universe, especially if we decide to daily vlog. The best way to make sure you don't miss a video would be to subscribe to my YouTube channel (click here to be linked to it). Then just hit the subscribe button! New videos will show up in your My Subscriptions box.

Without further ado: Daily Vlogging Day 1 & 2

Happy Monday! Let me know what you think in the comments!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cue the mushy, gushy music. It's V-day Baby!

I'm  proud to announce we survived the ice storm. Also I should mention that people in general overreacted to this storm. It was in fact less intense than expected, but still Southerners + Winter Weather = Chaos

Mike and I spent our snow ice days eating delicious breakfasts, watching the Office non-stop, and beating Lego Indiana Jones...oh and working remotely...but that's not very exciting. I also found time to finish another sewing project (more details below). It's amazing how much extra time you can save by not needing to get all fancied up and drive in in the morning.

Homemade cinnamon rolls...no better way to kick off  the day :)

By the way it's Valentine's day today. Our first as a married couple. Our big plans include dinner at Soul Vegetarian followed by dessert at Honey Bubble. I think I'll stop eating now in preparation.

Romantic snow picture just for you.

In other news, I made another dress! And I scored on some bargain fabric again. Woot Woot.

Please excuse the awkward halo light effect on my hair.

I think it turned out really nice. If I make it again (which I might if I found another cool fabric) I would use a smaller size on the bodice pieces. I think you can tell in the pictures that it looks a little baggy on top, but the waist is perfect. I didn't want to over complicate things so I stuck with one size on the whole pattern. Next time I'll go down a size or two for just the bodice.

The fabric is light and soft with the perfect amount of drape. I love the polka-dot/floral combo and the pops of red and gold are just what I wanted for this simple dress.

Close-up on the fabric and pleating detail at the hem of the skirt...and my awkward knees

Next up is another dress with a little more flowy-ness and some biased cut draping. I'm thinking I might try to find a really edgy fabric for it. I'd love to included some pops of neon in the details. As always I'll keep you posted.

Happy Valentine's Day! Don't forget to treat yourself with something nice today too!

An Early Valentine's

Hi Hello! Brand new week comin' at ya!

I mentioned on Friday that Mike would be getting his v-day surprise over the weekend. Turns out I got mine too! Let's start with his.

Lombardi Party!

Here's one thing you should know about ATL: the radio sucks. There really isn't much variety, and the few stations not playing pop or country hits have pretty spotty reception. Combine that with lots of traffic and you've got a pretty boring ride. Seriously I've found the same song playing on 3 different stations at the same time before. GAAAAH.

On one of my rides home, I found myself reading bumper stickers for entertainment...yup it was bad. Well things took a turn for the better when I noticed a bumper sticker for WABE, Atlanta's public radio station. Do you know what happens when you start listening to local talk radio? You hear about a local theater putting on a play about Vince Lombardi.

Happy Valentine's Hubby!

So on Saturday afternoon Mike and I got dressed up and made the trek out to Aurora Theater in Lawrenceville, GA. Free parking, beer, and my favorite green and gold. It was pretty cool.

For dinner we FINALLY made it to Chinese Buddha. I was recommend this a loooong time ago by a fellow vegan and have been dying to try it out. It was totally worth the hype. They have TWO menus! One for the veg folks and one for the meat eaters. I got the vegetarian General Tso's chicken.Om nom nom.

Happy V-Day to Me!

Mike had to tutor on Sunday, so I decided to head over the the fabric shop to pick out a new sewing project (this is the year of cultivating hobbies, remember?). Before I left Mike started asking about a million questions about what I was planning to get at the store...very unlike him. Finally he told me to hold on while he got something form the bedroom. He came back out and, "Surprise!"

Colette Sew Handbook and Sew Serendipity

He had gotten me two of the sewing books I mentioned in the past couple weeks. Yay! I dove right into the Colette book, reading until I got to the first pattern: the Meringue Skirt

I wrote down everything I needed, did a quick skim through the instructions (invisible zipper, eeeip!), and made my way to the store. I scored big time when I found the perfect fabric on the discount table. All in all I made it out the store under $25. Yay! 

Sewing your own stuff rarely saves money these days considering stores like Target and Old Navy where you can find trendy styles that are moderately well made available at low prices. In addition, not many people sew their own clothes. So as demand for fabric has dropped, prices have risen. That's enough with the econ lesson. Let's get back to the good stuff.

I was a little sewing demon all day yesterday and it paid off because look what I'm wearing today:

It's crazy to me that I'm wearing a skirt that didn't even exist this time yesterday. How cool is that? 

Over lunch. I'm hoping to pop back over to the fabric store to pick out fabric from my next project: the Pastille Dress.

First stop: discount table!

Small Weather Update: It's been lovely the past few days with highs in the 60's, but it looks like winter isn't done with us yet. Snow storm 2 is heading our way. ETA tomorrow morning. In fact schools are already cancelling activities tonight. After the mess from the last storm, I think most people are taking serious precautions to avoid getting stuck away from home. I'd say we've got an 80% chance of more snow days this week.

Happy Monday! 

Snow Day ATL...A Video!

Hey Guys! Two posts in one day...cray cray...

I put together a little video dealio of our snow day. Check it out!

And give me one of those handy dandy thumbs up's...if you want to...no pressure.

Friday Favorite: Daily Blog List

Aloha! It's Friday! Weeeeeeeee!

This weekend I have surprise Valentine's plans for Mike, and since on occasion he manages to read my posts on the actual day they are published I can't share the details here. I'll give you the full scoop on Monday.

In the meantime, how about a Friday Favorite?!?!?

My Daily Blog List!

I've mentioned my love of YouTube before. That love is a new love, a young love. So what was my main squeeze before the Tube? BLOGGERS!!! 

I've got a nice list of blogs bookmarked across the top of my browser and everyday I click, click, click my way through them. Here's the (abbreviated) list with a quick reason why I love each. Click on the titles to check them out yourself!

Iowa Girl Eats - Easy meals that seem complicated, but are a breeze to throw together. Lots of step-by-step pictures. She even sneaks in family updates from time to time.

Enjoying the Small Things - Beautiful photographs and lots of upliftment. Her 2nd daughter has Down syndrome, but it's about so much more than that.

spencedaniel - Beautifully nostalgic, cozy up with a cup of tea type reads. Sue, when will you be writing a book for adults??

Bee in Milwaukee - Quirky and random and totally Bee. 

hilary clair - H and I like to visit an imaginary world together where everything is perfect and adorable and awesome and amazing and wonderful... Well H actually lives in that world more often than not and gives out sneaky peaks on her blog.

Healthy. Happy. Life - Healthy vegan food blog. TONS of smoothie recopies.

One Good Thing - A new life tip of trick EVERY day. Tons of awesome ideas.

Tilly and the Buttons - Tres chic sewing blog. Can I just be her? Please?

That's all I'm willing to give away for now (I could seriously do a whole post of food blogs). Seriously just the tip of the iceberg. Let me know what some of your favorite blogs are!

Happy Friday! Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Liebster Schmiebster

I got tagged in a thing...with stuff!

Go check out Bee's post here for the background story. Basically she gave some Q's, and I'll be giving the A's.

1. What is your favorite book? Impossible question. Is that not an acceptable answer? Fine, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I loved reading more about the school and relationships and just awesome wizarding stuff. Also, it feels to me like this book was a tipping point in the series. Voldemort returns, and we witness a character's death.  No more happy times at Hogwarts. Sh*t just got real.

2. What toppings would you put on your pizza? Pineapple!!!! And either tempeh or roasted red peppers. Vegan cheese optional.

3. What Hogwarts house do you think you are in and why? Hufflepuff...ain't no shame in my game. 

4. If you could go on vacation anywhere, where would you pick? Euro Trip! Ideally I'd like to take a month and go everywhere, but I think Mike and I will only have 10 days this time around. So Finland and London are on the itin for now.

5. Coffee or tea? Am I at home?? Tea please!! If we are talking about what you order at a coffee shop, that would be coffee or more specifically an iced latte with soy and a shot of coconut :)

6. What is your favorite color to wear? Persimmon!! Look I'm even wearing it today!

7. Holden Caulfield…yay or nay? His name did not ring a bell at all til I googled it and was bombarded with images of a dude in a hunting cap. Though I know this is one of the high school lit books I actually read front to back, I remember almost NOTHING about it. Except that there was a carousel and he swore....Guess that's a nay. 

8. What is your favorite TV show on air right now? How I Met Your Mother - gaaaah final season feels...blerg. They are doing a really good job wrapping it all up for us though aren't they??

9. What is your motto? (Good question, Alice).  Can blerg be a motto? It's probably my most said thing, but that's kind of depressing. How about some motivational quotes instead??

Here's a quote from Barbara Brown Taylor that I have hanging in my cube:

Click here to see the quote if you are having trouble reading that one.

Also my dad once told me the following:

"No one has any money until they are 36. My dad said that to me when I was your age, and now I'm telling you" 

Sometimes it's nce to be reminded that no one has their ish together in their 20's. We're all just working on figuring things out...and that's ok.

10. What song pumps you up when you are in a bad mood? In answering the last question about mottos, this song actually came to mind. Dig in Baby!

So what did you think? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments below! I'd love to hear about your words of wisdom and get psyched songs :)

Happy Hump Day!

Weather Mood Swings & Water Lilies

Hi hello! How was your weekend? And more importantly, what the heck is up with the weather??

This winter could not be more different than last year's which was 80% nice and 20% yuck. This time around things have shifted  more toward 80% yuck. Based on reports from my weather delegates in the Midwest and on the East Coast, we've all had it rough. 

Here's a question for you, is it better to have random awesome weather days amid the yuckiness as a sort of break from the winter, or is it just a cruel tease? I personally go back and forth.

Sunday was definitely one of those random awesome days. Mike and I signed up for a paint along class a little over a mile from our place and decided that the weather was looking nice enough to walk. 

No more than two blocks away from the house, we were both feeling way too hot in our jackets and ended up walking the rest of the way in just our t-shirts. It is in these moments that I love it down here. T-shirts in February. Who'd have thought?

The paint along was held at an actual bar, Publik Draft House, in the private loft space on the second floor. Mike and were both digging the ambiance in the bar and decided a return trip is in order.

Drink One: The Sour Patch Kid. Drink Two: Sprecher Gorilla Grape Soda

The class itself was pretty fun. We met up with a couple from Mike's program which definitely increased the entertainment factor. 

Earth...UFOs arrive...oh no wait, it's water lilies.

I think my painting turned out ok. I'm happy enough with it to hang it on the wall. The most exciting part of the painting came at the very end.

Still not 100% used to the new name.

Yesterday was our 6 month anniversary. That might have been the fastest 6 months of my life. Although I have a feeling the next 6 will be even crazier.

Happy 6 Month-a-versary Mike!