Farewell Quarrygirl

Dear Quarrygirl:
Thanks for creating a blog which introduced me to yummy vegan food and helped make my move from Alabama  to California and from vegetarianism to veganism less painful. Thanks for introducing me to Ronald's Donuts, Veggie Grill, Vegan Pizza Day, Frankenstand and all the other wonderful things that made your blog so awesome to read.I am really gonna miss reading your blog and still hope to meet you someday.

Thanks,
Tamara

Restocking my emergency chocolate via vegancuts.com

I love chocolate and was super stoked when I saw that vegan cuts.com was having a deal on 40 mini bars of chocolate for the price of 20.I was extremely happy when the mini chocolate bars arrived and after eating one of each bar, I was definitely impressed.

These chocolate bars were made from Newtree natural born chocolate company in Belgium.

The flavors are as follows: Blush contains cherries, Refresh contains mint, Renew contains blackcurrant and sexy contains ginger.

Here is a photo of all of the Newtree mini chocolate bars

Starting a juice fast

Yesterday I watched the documentary "fat, sick, and nearly dead" on Netflix's streaming channel. It was an inspiring story of Jim Cross, an Australian man who was tired of being sick (on medication) and overweight,who decided to go on a 60 day fast of nothing but juice made from fruits and vegetables. Seeing this documentary has inspired me to do a 10 day juice fast starting tomorrow. I hope that doing this fast will help break my addiction to junk food and processed food. Wish me luck!

had an awesome time doing my part to be a foodsoldier for Christ;can't wait till next week.

Just ran my first 5K!

After several months of training, I'm happy to report that I just finished running/walking my first race in a time of 1 hour and 11 minutes! When I did run a race several yeas ago (2004), I didn't train for the race at all so when I ran 2K, I finished third from last in 29 minutes. Today me and Den participated in the 3rd annual Conquer the Bridge race in San Pedro, California which was actually a 5.3 mile run/walk. I alternated between walking and running and although I had planned to finish within 1:10, I am proud of my finish time today (1:11) as well as my pace during the run (13:31) and am definitely making it my goal to finish within an hour next year.Den also walked the course and finished in 1 hour and 30 minutes. We're both really proud of our achievements today.

is super excited that we conquered the Vincent Thomas Bridge in 1:11 (tam) and 1:30 (den)!

is excited about the upcoming Labor Day holiday and running Conquer the Bridge in San Pedro

today was a good day

is thinking about restarting my blog/journal

had fun seeing "friends with benefits" with
hubby

will be so happy when the weekend starts.

Vegan Restaurant Review: Evolution Fast Food-San Diego, California

This past Friday, me and Dennis (my husband) decided to take a trip to San Diego. After checking the happycow.com app on my cellphone and seeing what vegan restaurants were there, we decided to go to Evolution Fast Food.   



Evolution Fast Food Sign


Once we arrived at Evolution, I was completely surprised that they have drive thru service as well as a place for customers to go inside and order food. Their menu was pretty extensive and I was really impressed by the variety of desserts they had such as cookies, cakes, cheesecakes, and parfaits.

 While we were there, they set out this tray of green goddess pasta salad which was pretty tasty.

Den ordered himself some vegan "chili" cheese fries. These fries were topped with vegan chili and mozzarella dayia cheese.The fries were the perfect blend of spicy (due to the chili) and melty (due to the cheese). I could tell that Den loved them too because as he was eating them, he was humming a happy song.

 
I ordered the mushroom swiss burger which contained an amy's vegan burger, veganaise, tons of button mushrooms, dayia cheese, lettuce and tomato.As I bit into the burger, I could taste a variety of different textures combining together;the crunch of the veggie burger along with the smoothness of the mushrooms. I also liked that while the burger was topped with dayia cheese, it worked well with the veganaise and was not overpowering at all.

We also ordered some chick'n tenders and I was completely blown away by how close in both taste and texture these were in comparison to real chicken strips. Evolution is great in that they provide three different sauces for your dipping pleasure: bbq, ranch, and chipotle.

Den also ordered a Bacon Chesseburger with their homemade black bean burger patty. His burger contained the black bean patty, veganaise, vegan bacon, dayia cheese, lettuce and tomato. He said it was pretty awesome and it hit the spot considering he had been craving a bacon cheeseburger for a while now.

For dessert, I had a slice of their chocolate cake and it was okay. The cake itself wasn't as moist as I expected it to be but the icing was perfect!All in all, we had a great time at Evolution Fast Food and plan on heading back there the next time we're in San Diego.

Becoming a Vegan Food Critic

Me and Den were talking today about my future and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Although I am currently working at a community college in the library, I'm not sure if this is what I can really see myself doing for the next thrity or so years. I asked Den said what is something I excel at, something I do better than anyone else and his response was simple: be a vegan food critic. While initally I was hesistant considering that there's not a large amount of people professing to be professional vegan food critcs; I realized that he did have a valid point. We do travel alot and  have had the opportunity to eat at various wonderful vegan restaurants as well as the fact that I have a background in Enlgish and grammar so this so help with my reviews as well.  I look forward to any comments you have regarding my reviews and happy reading and happy eating!

Vegnews and photo controversy

Sorry I have haven't written in a while but after reading Quarrygirl's and Babe in Soyland's responses to the fact the Vegnews magazine has been using non vegan stock photos and photoshopping them to make them appear vegan, I've decided to add my own opinion in regards to this upsetting development. Keep in mind that what follows is my opinion only so you can feel free to agree to disagree with me.Although I'm sad that Vegnews has been using stock photos made with non vegan ingredients, I'm still going to support the magazine because it is the only vegan periodical out there. While I've read Vegetarian Times in the past, it seemed boring ,clinical and serious Vegnews is a more fun and informative read. People should realize that anytime you see a photo in a magazine, it's highly likely that it has been altered in some way. I think Vegnews can save face and regain some dignity by hiring vegan photographers and apologizing for their error. I love reading the magazine and hope that they can fix this issue in a timely manner before they lose anymore online and print subscribers.

Happy Vegan Pizza Day!

I know it's been forever since I've posted, life's gotten a little crazy but now I'm back to write about celebrating the first annual vegan pizza day. This holiday was created by fellow vegan blogger Quarrygirl and Chicago Soy Dairy and I was totally excited be able to celebrate eating vegan pizza. Yesterday me and my hubby celebrated by going to some place new for vegan pizza in Valencia. While we usually go to Whole Foods for my vegan pizza fix, I had heard great things about Tomato Joe's so we decided to celebrate vegan pizza day there.Although I've never tried the brand of vegan cheese they use (follow your heart), I was excited to try something new and hoped that Tomato Joe's wouldn't disappoint.

Once we got there, we decided to order the Sally's Secret Garden pizza with artichoke hearts instead of green peppers, added veggie chicken and had it on the beer battered crust. Here's a photo of this pizza perfection!

Oh my gawd I can't tell you how good this pizza was. I went with the promise to eat only two slices and keep two for tomorrow but once we started eating, we didn't stop till the pizza was all gone (I know, we're so bad;-) Here's a photo of me enjoying the Sally's Secret Garden pizza (please forgive me for looking so geeky)

and here's a photo of my hubby enjoying the pizza:

Even though my husband is vegetarian, he really liked the follow your heart cheese as did I. I liked that the beer battered crust was flaky yet crispy and the flavors were incredible. We'll definitely be going back there soon!