Adventures of a veg*n.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Family Vacation (Pt. 1)

My family is on vacation for the first time in 7 years! We've been in Virginia Beach since Wednesday afternoon. Last night we went to a neat restaurant in nearby Norfolk called Amalfi Ristorante. It's an Italian place with a ton of vegan/vegetarian items on the menu. I got the Roasted Vegetable Risotto with Vegan Sausage. There were red peppers, artichokes and mushrooms in there. Very neat.



Christine (the vegetarian sister) had Penne alla Vodka that she said was excellent. And then I had to get the vegan raspberry cheesecake of course! It was pretty neat, I'd like to try making a cheesecake myself sometime. (I got it to go, as you can see.. I'm sure it looked much prettier before the car ride.)



Tonight for dinner we went to Waterman's Beachwood Grill right here on the main strip. Christine and I split the Morrocan Hummus Platter, it was excellent. Their pita bread was awesome.



We also found a very cool health food store and cafe called The Heritage. They had an awesome bulk foods aisle. All the mixes that might be questionable (and that we would normally have to read the ingredients for) had labels that said vegan if they were. It was awesome, and I got one called Maple Nut Deluxe. Below is a picture of the labeling, cool huh? Christine and I also got the Peanut Butter Blast smoothie in the cafe, it was natural pb, banana, soymilk, honey and vegan chocolate (I got mine with no honey.) Very awesome!



Oh yes, and one more thing. We found a grocery store a little further away called The Fresh Market that was great. About half the store was fresh fruits and vegetables. They had a really large dried fruit and nuts section too. I got some food from the bulk aisle.. a Wasabi Rice Mix, and Oriental Rice Mix and a mix called Mexicali Fire. A very cool place. I also got a Luna tea. I'll show you guys later.


Well here's me and the little brother during some night beach frisbee.


And here.. Christine and myself. I don't have any good pictures of me and Nick yet. He's Christine's twin. Haha and don't worry, it ends there, there's only four of us kids!


Now I'm off to bed.. tomorrow we are heading to Annapolis, MD, and Sunday we're going to my cousin's high school graduation party. More later!

Monday, June 04, 2007

German Chocolate Cupcakes!

Well.. I was pretty determined to make cupcakes tonight!

I wanted to make chocolate cupcakes.. but alas, no cocoa powder. Well I decreased the oil in the recipe (from VCTOtW) and added some melted chocolate chips. It's all good.. then I realize.. no baking cups! Whatever. I just greased up the pan. They baked and came out fine.. but now they're all sticky.. because they don't have baking cups. I put them on the nice serving platter to take to work and they're all sticking to it!!

Ah well.. I figure I will just find some forks and plates and tell everyone to eat them that way. Oh yeah and then I made coconut topping. So here you have.. German Chocolate cupcakes.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Tiramisu Cupcakes!

Tonight me and Christine made the Tiramisu cupcakes from VCTOtW! We're taking them to work tomorrow. I didn't have any chocolate-covered coffee beans so.. a chunk of chocolate goes on top.. I don't think there will be any complaints.


I've had this book since it first came out.. but these are my first fancy cupcakes. I'm excited!

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Cookies and Busy

Well, I've been busy lately.. working Monday-Friday 9-5.. blegh. I'm staying with my sister (we work together) in her apartment right outside of Philly. We just got home this past weekend, so I did some baking! I left some at home, sent some (hope they last in the mail) to my friend for his birthday, and gave some to the boy for him and his apartment-mates.

I (finally) made the Sparkled Ginger cookies from VWaV!

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And Squirrel's chocolate cookies with peanut butter again. Chris actually requested them.. they're a hit!

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Oh yeah, and I don't have any pictures, but last weekend I surprised Chris by showing up at West Chester with a picnic. Since I'm staying in Philly this summer we don't see eachother much. I took ham and cheese for him, and I had a peanut butter and ricemellow creme sandwich, at Ridley Creek State Park. It was nice!

In other news.. even though I won't stay there much, I'm moving into my apartment either tomorrow or Friday, woo! Pictures to come!

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Camping Trip!

Last week I went on a camping trip with my brother and sister! We stayed in a cabin at World's End State Park. The second night we made Smart Dogs over the fire. Hehe.


Here's me and my brother on a hike.

For lunch one day I made a sandwich with some soy cheese and some Lightlife bologna.

And on the hike I had a tempeh salad sandwich.

Oh yeah and we made s'mores too! I used Ricemellow Creme, it worked out better the second time and actually melted but I didn't get a picture of that.