Portland: Vegan Paradise

    I am blogging more when I travel about great places to get vegan food. I prefer San Francisco, L.A. and Portland for amazing vegan options. Recently I traveled to Oregon with my husband and we made so many fun friends there. People are extremely friendly not to mention the amazing cafe's, breweries and food there. At every restaurant I went to there were so many veg friendly options and most of it was organic. I love Portland and I will definitely be back. It was one of the few places where cafe's offer not only almond milk but rice milk as an option. Even some of the corporate places there are experimenting with coconut milk for their latte's. Very cool. I went to mostly indie coffee shops but it is good to know that there are so many great options for people who might have allergies. One of my favorite things about the culture there were the food trucks. A lot of those had vegan options as well.
    Aside from all the delicious vegan food there was so much beautiful nature and places to hike. We also visited the Portland rose garden and Japanese garden. I hope some of you are able to visit this wonderful place if you haven't already and to the people of Portland, you guys and gals were so super friendly! Thanks for making us feel at home. I think it was probably the friendliest city I have ever been to. I can't wait to check out Seattle, Washington next time I am there.

Delicious vegan donut at Blue Star donuts. 

Voodoo Doughnut also had vegan options! 

Breakfast at Stumptown with vegan muffin :> 

This food truck was awesome and had vegan option. 

There is a rad arcade called Ground Kontrol where you can order beer at night and get hummus and pita or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So rad! 

Veggie Grill review

This is seriously my new favorite place to eat! The staff is super friendly and the food is amazing! It is advertised as entirely plant based with no dairy, meat etc so I was pretty excited!!! :D I was like "What??? An entire vegan restaurant right next to Palo Alto!!" It is located in Mountain View right next to the edge of Los Altos and Palo Alto. I was very happy, elated actually. I always get sick of having to sift through all the ingredients in restaurants but to have one that caters to vegans is really rad. It went beyond my expectations. I honestly wan't expecting to have another vegan nacho that could rival the one at Real Food Daily in L.A. I was sad because I couldn't find any vegan nachos here in the Bay Area and always had to make my own so I decided to order the Mondo nachos and also a side of onion rings to share with my husband and a vegan chocolate chip cookie to top it off. Their cookies are pretty big so I will be sharing that too. the portions are very nice. I could feed several friends with the nachos. My dad and mom and I munched off of them and finished them off. My mom kept looking at me wide eyed "These are vegan??" the cheese sauce is sooo good and I loved the protein veggie chkn bits on top mixed in with the taco sauce. The guacamole was to die for and the whole thing was topped with yummy dairy free sour cream type sauce and it was delicious. Usually I don't think much of onion rings but they had some of the best I have ever tasted. They weren't overly saturated with fats and they didn't have a weird after taste like some do. I usually make my own but these will do in a pinch. I can't wait to try their other veggie options. I think I have found my new place to eat. If you try the Veggie Grill please let me know what your favorite dishes are! :D

Vegan Makeup

Check out your local Whole Foods market for coupons. Often they have cool deals. This week I got $3 of of any one item from the Gabriel or Zuzu Luxe makeup lines or any one item from the Dr. Hauschka decorative cosmetics line. I used my three dollar off coupon for a lip liner from Zuzu Luxe and also found a nice dual powder/foundation that was on sale there. The best part is the makeup was organic and vegan! I love finding products not tested on animals and super organic and good for my skin.

Spring is here!

Spring is here which means a few April showers, warm tea, iced tea, good movies and lovely floral blooming! I am excited to get outside and plant some new things! 

This was an awesome film! Go see it :D 

Vegan Comfort Food

       It has been a while since a post. I am going to be updating a lot more. I have been living elsewhere for quite some time and also traveling so I haven't been on here much lately but I will be posting some delicious food soon.

     Even when it is Spring/Summer months I love vegan comfort food. In SF and Oregon they have some amazing places with delicious vegan comfort food so that inspired this post. I love teavana because I always love warm tea in the summer months. Usually I make fresh cut ginger lemon and put a bit of whole, organic sugar in or some agave but in the Spring when it starts to get a bit warm I switch to iced teas in the day. Teavana is a bit pricey but to me it is quite  a treat and worth it. I love all the delicious smelling loose leaf teas and if their bar is open they will make you something!

       Another food that I crave constantly that brings me comfort is vegan grilled cheese. Daiya cheese slices make the best grilled cheese ever! So creamy and delicious and the slices melt really well. I put some on whole grain and try not to over cook. The other item that brings me comfort is vegan nachos and a good salsa. During the summer I make salsa not too spicy and add fresh cucumber to make it taste a bit "cooler" and more refreshing. My favorite thing to dip is no salt chips or blue corn chips. I ate an entire bag of organic blue corn chips the other day. It was pretty awesome.

My vegan salsa recipe: 

* 2 Persian cucumbers chopped small

*Half sweet onion

*Hot pepper (only use part if you want it less spicy)

*vine tomatoes (they are super sweet but you can also use roma)

* can of black beans (for extra protein/optional) 

*1 lime

*cilantro (handful) minced

*Blue corn chips to dip

Happy Thanksgiving

I enjoy spending time with family and promoting veggie eating. I took my dog for  a long stroll in the park with my husband and spent time with family. We had stuffing and veggies, made two pies and when we got home we made an amazing vegan casserole we saw in Vegetarian Times. We forgot the chickpeas (whoops) but it was delicious anyways.

Beautiful fall leaves. 

My tall and handsome husband and pup.

Not the most amazing photo but you get the picture :> it was delicious!! 

Chewy chocolate chip cookies

I got this recipe from Nom Yourself. These were seriously the best vegan chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. My husband and I were really craving warm, chewy cookies and I happened upon a picture on instagram. Check out that site. I can't wait until the cook book comes out!! I need to make more recipes from the site.