It’s been a great weekend so far, hubby is home safely from business travel. I felt like a silly girly girl being home alone last week which is not like me. But one night someone rang our doorbell at an insane hour which set the dogs off and jarred me awake. Probably just some stupid kid and I wasn’t about to go to the front door in the dark to find out, but scary thoughts swirled in my head as I tried to go back to sleep and put me on edge listening for other strange sounds. Then we lost power another morning just before I was supposed to leave for work, the power company was having an outage and I didn’t want to leave the dogs home until power was back on because it was supposed to be 100 degrees. And getting my car out of the garage was not fun, I had to call hubby to remember how to release the track and ended up being an hour late for work by the time the power came back on. It was an annoying week.
But it’s cooler this weekend and we got a little rain!
Not enough to get excited about, but still nice. Miko has been a cuddly little sweetheart as always.
I’m enjoying relaxing mornings sipping on smoothies and working on fun projects like graphic design ideas for our upcoming local VegFest.
I volunteered my graphical design/Photoshop skills to help out awhile back and they took me up on it. I’ve already designed the logo and working on some sketches for other forms and mailers, fun stuff. Maybe I’ll get around to updating graphics on this site soon!
Still eating tons of spaghetti squash, I’ve got four more huge squashes ready to harvest from the garden this week. And I like it simply steamed in the microwave or baked in the oven with a little seasoning, salt, and pepper like here with a massaged kale salad.
Our eggplant plant has just started going nuts too, so I might be eating a lot of those in the coming weeks.
Lots of simple oil-free tofu stir fries this week, probably my favorite simple and fast high-protein meal after a weeknight gym workout.
And I made a simple cabbage and carrot salad with a blended cauliflower miso ginger dressing that came out good, I need to perfect that recipe to post.
We have another new local vegan restaurant here, how cool is that? There were no vegan-only restaurants locally when I first went vegan back in 2010 and now we have three and a few more vegetarian/vegan places. Things are changing for the better! Pho Vegan Asian Cuisine just opened 2 weeks ago.
And it’s a fun, casual place with a loaded menu.
Where you can buy other vegan goodies too.
We started with Thai spiced pearl drinks with chewy tapioca balls at the bottom.
That’s still a fun and odd thing to me, but they were tasty and refreshing.
I tried the Pho soup with vegan “chicken” in it.
The texture on the vegan chicken was okay, but I’m over vegan fake meat and probably should have just got the veggie loaded version. The bottom was loaded with bean sprouts and cilantro and the broth was very tasty with a little chili pepper oil and sriracha drizzled in.
Hubby had the chow mein with fried tofu and really liked it.
The noodles were a nice texture with the savory sauce blended in. He liked it even more after adding a lot of sriracha, we go through a lot of that here.
Thumbs up for the place and I plan to go back more to try new dishes and support another positive business. I’m also planning another long run this morning and catching on on house work today for the week. But first the list!
This violent new video game is an interesting twist on slaughterhouses.
A bike racing team with a higher purpose.
Dr. Mark Hyman clarifies good versus bad carbs and Dr. Greg Feinsinger talks about hardening of arteries.
Japan has too many centenarians, what’s their secret?
The vegan transition was an easy joy for this woman.
Options keep getting better for vegan and vegetarians.
But is a vegan pregnancy safe?
Stuff you can do to wake up energized and ready for the day.
The Western Diet is infecting Ireland.
Some exercise myths busted, turns out my lack of stretching before runs is a good thing.
What’s comfortable in a running shoe varies for people.
Foods you should never feed your dog. And a lot on this list people shouldn’t be eating either!
Recipe inspiration overload for seitan, or wheat meat.
This is a fun way to serve broccoli and cauliflower.
Finally, I want this raw vegan chocolate cake.
Still haven’t been to a vegan restaurant but I’d really like to try one. We just don’t have them here. Would love a sample. Spagetti squash is amazing, it really does make a pretty good pasta substitute I think! So tasty and filling. Have a great week!
I hope you get one soon, maybe at least a restaurant with decent vegan options. So true on spaghetti squash and it’s fun.
Awesome about the new place to eat! I’m still jealous! LOL But in a GOOD way!
I HOPE that later this month my sister and I will be traveling to Strong Hearts Cafe in Syracuse. It will be a 3 and a half hour ride but I’ve been wanting to go for YEARS!
Thanks, hopefully you get more options in your area soon! And that you make it to Strong Hearts, I want to try them too!
I don’t think you were being a “girly girl” at all. I would have been completely freaked out if someone rang my bell in the middle of the night. And you’re a great dog mom for not leaving those two cuties home without air conditioning. :)
Great links. That video game. :(
Thanks and no way I was answering the door in the dark, ugh!
So cool that it’s an all-vegan pho restaurant! That’s one you don’t often see. Too bad that the food sounds like it could use a few tweaks, but I would still go back for the bubble tea. What a treat!
True, grateful to have more local vegan options and they’re still new working out the bugs and I still have a lot more on the menu to try. :-)