Run Plant Based

Formerly The Raw Project - Running on a Healthy Vegan Diet

Day of Love

by

Wait, that should be everyday! Anyway, happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you’re having a great day! I am, hubby sent me a gorgeous bouquet of roses at work and I stuffed his work bag with a cute card and chocolate for a fun pre-gift. Then we exchanged gifts again after work and went out for an amazing dinner. I know it’s corny, but I really enjoy Valentine’s Day now. I’ve had my share of lonely ones in school, somehow I was always single for them in junior high and high school rolling my eyes at the girls flaunting wilted carnations and candy grams. But having a wonderful man to share it with has made me appreciate the holiday as a fun excuse to express love in fun and creative ways. Not that that should be limited to Valentine’s Day!

Being in elementary school during the 80s was fun because we got to swap cheap Valentine’s Day cards like these and these with classmates, even though I wasn’t thrilled with having to fill out one for classmates I didn’t care for. So I was a bit jealous at the Valentine’s gifts my nieces brought home from school, big bags of candy and toys obviously assembled by the parents. And some creepy cards like printed pictures of the kid with a love note and candy taped to it, glad my parents never felt compelled to do that to me!

Anyway, today was a great day at work – just mellow and not stressful at all, kind of how I’m feeling now after splitting a bottle of wine with hubby. He took me to one of our favorite places – Paul Martin’s American Bistro. The atmosphere is both classy and energetic without being too noisy. Unlike Friday, we were able to hold an uninterrupted conversation. As expected, it was packed for Valentine’s Day which wasn’t a problem at all thanks to OpenTable.

We actually had a blast checking out all the other couples seated around us trying to figure out who was on first dates, watching awkward gift exchanges and guys coming in with flowers. Yeah, Valentine’s Day is cliche and everyone and their brother goes out to eat on it, but that’s part of the fun I think.

As usual, we started with a nice red wine, a Malbec from a vineyard very nearby, Berryessa Gap. The bummer was they weren’t listed in my vegan wine app, oh well. Great wine as you can tell from my wine-induced blurry pics. Actually I wasn’t about to let my flash ruin the mood lighting for others, so sorry for the blurry pics.

As usual, I got the 3 mushroom burger, something I’ve probably had about 5 times now and am still not tired of it. Probably because it has a slightly different personality each time I get it being made fresh from different fresh mushroom varieties each time.

I think one of the reasons I’m so obsessed with this burger is I hated mushrooms with a passion as a kid, I couldn’t even take the smell of them cooking. My mom used to saute these cheap sliced canned mushrooms to add to green beans, etc. and I would never touch the nasty, slimy little buggers! This burger represents how much I’ve grown and matured since then now adoring an entire burger made from mushrooms. But also that even foods that might be nasty in a preserved, canned form can be fully appreciated and take on a hole new flavor when from high-quality and fresh sources.

Throughout and after dinner, we had a wonderful time chatting about cars, cameras, movies and everything in between – a perfect evening. He ordered a gorgeous cappuccino for dessert while I finished the wine, there aren’t too many opportunities to split an entire bottle of wine on a week night, gotta utilize that. :-)

How was your Valentine’s Day?

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Comments

  1. Happy Valentine’s Day to you! I’m glad yours was so nice, mine was pretty great too. I opted for cooking at home, my boyfriend and I go out to eat too often anyway, but it was great.
    I couldn’t agree more, every day should be a day of love!

  2. Happy Valentines Day! So glad you and your husband had a great one! So sweet he sent you flowers to work!!! I also stuffed a card and chocolates in Mikes Work bag ; ) We exchanged little gifts sunday but I figured I would give him his second card yesterday , he gave me both on sunday because he didnt want to wait, he was excited, lol!

    The mushroom burger looks delish! I LOVE mushrooms!

    A bottle of wine sounds amazing ; ) Im glad you got to enjoy girl! xoxo

  3. Looks like a great night! Funny—I hated mushrooms as a kid too, and now I would totally love that burger!
    My V day was totally low key, and good too. It really is fun to check out other couples on dates, and guess what their stories are!

  4. Great post! Agree, everyday should be a day of love.

    I LOVE that picture of the wine bottle and glass — the blur is fabulous, actually (a framer!) Glad you had such a nice time.

    I gave Dave a Transformer toy, “Scalpel,” when he got out of surgery :)

  6. I love the blurry pictures…it simply gives them character! I am glad you had a great date. The husband and i love to people watch and also think that is one of the best parts of dining out on Valentine’s Day. Dining out to us last night consisted of a Dairy Queen drive through and two dipped cones with sleeping babies in the back seat :) We had a great night though!

  11. Mushroom burgers sounds wonderful. I used to be a big mushroom person, now not so much. Not sure why, I guess I just crave other foods.

    Glad you had a wonderful Vday!!!

  12. what a great valentine’s day! i think as we grow we start to like many of the things we disliked as a kid. i used to hate brussel sprouts and mushrooms too, now i can’t get enough of them!

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