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!!!

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!