Stuff I have Been Eating

Jenga garlic sticks via Plant Based Pizza in San Jose, CA. They were good - I liked the presentation best. It is really cool to have an all vegan pizza place. We had two pizzas and while they were okay we have high pizza standards and felt these were a step up from frozen.

More San Jose eats. Cauliflower wingz from Veggie Grill.  My first time here and sadly I am allergic to a lot of the food - even all of the salads due to my quinoa allergy. I ordered a sandwich as well but they never brought it out to me. The wingz were okay I think they need more sauce on the side. I really enjoyed the tea here and the fact they serve beer!

These Brownie Crisps from Trader Joe's are insane! Crunchy and tasty - like the crispy parts of brownies that people fight over. I bought a bag and had to go get two more in a week!

Pig-free pigs in a blanket, weenie roll ups or crescent dogs - whatever you call them. I added cheeze to mine. The sauce on top is a chipotle ranch sauce. Also plated is the roasted broccoli from Healthy Happy Vegan Kitchen and Annie's new vegan mac & cheeze. The Annie's mac & cheeze was disappointing. It had 0 flavor yet tasted rancid at the same time. No thanks! 

Vegan beans and weenies - yes more comfort food!I had left over tots and naan so I added that and a side salad to round out our dinner.

Loving Hut's Crispy Rolls - big fat panko coated egg roll perfection.

Last Two Weekends In Sacramento

So the last few weekends Matt and I spent time in Sacramento. Tattoos, to get, food to eat, death culture to explore. Fun times!

We went to midtown to have lunch and the first spot we chose did not have lunch hours so we were very hungry and decided to eat at Garden to Grill . We wanted to see if the place had improved since it was Sugar Plum after reading a bit about the changes in SN&R. I ordered a plate of pesto fries, a beer (to split) and Matt got a burger. It was $30+. My plate of fries above was cold, soggy, with a bit of pesto and a sprinkling of Daiya. Matt's burger looked more promising in the picture and even though he opted for the house made patty everything else from the bun to the sauce was store bought. I do not understand how a place can call themselves Garden To Grill when everything is heavy with Daiya and Gardein - which are great products but not something that I want my dine out meal to be made from the bulk of.
We liked Sugar Plum when it first opened. We would go there twice in one day if we were in town. After about a year in the place changed and then it went down hill. They do make really good whoopie pies and cookies you can pick up at Whole Foods and the co-op and at $2.99 they are really big and worth the price! I would not spend $30 there to dine again - in fact I would not even spend half that on stuff I can make at home and better.

Pushkin's Bakery has us covered with a tasty assortment of vegan cupcakes and muffins!

 El Papgayo has the best vegan Mexican food ever! The Baja tacos above is one of my fave dishes. Tangy, sweet and savory - all together and perfect in each bite!

My go to at Loving Hut in Elk Grove (and any LH) is the bbq vermicelli bowl. At the Elk Grove location I have to tell them no fake shrimp - not only do they creep me out I find them gross. Matt got a veggie burger and asked for no onions. I found fake shrimp in my dish under the noodles but luckily the giant slab of onion on Matt's burger was able to cover them up on the plate once removed. Ugh - seriously?

 
I was still riding on a cemetery high though after talking/interviewing a Buddhist master about life and death at the Ching Ming festival in East Lawn cemetery. I will be sharing the insight and bits of the conversation in an upcoming zine. 

We ended up back at El Papagayo - like always and this time around we both got the massive taco salad bowls - one of our faves. It is a massive fried flour tortilla with rice, beans, salsa, guac and choice your of filling spilling out.  I got the chile Colorado (potatoes, soyrizo) inside and was very happy while Matt opted for the fried tofu - his go to. This place is the best and everyone should go!

Sacremento, Sizzling Tofu And More

We went to Sacramento on Saturday. We had not been up there for awhile and wanted to do some shopping and eating. We had lunch at Pita Kitchen which is always tasty. The headed over to the mall and did shopping. My score of the day is this Juicy Couture ring:

I have been wanting this cuff  in black but it was leather and I have not found an alternative. I figure the ring captured the style and it was on sale!

We stopped into a new fave store in the K Street  mall called Good Stock. I found some fun jewelry and Matt found a hat. We then made our way to Lush were I spent way to much. I am in love with Let The Good Times Roll, it smells like candy!After that we went to Whole Foods and were disappointed in the selection of to go stuff, no vegan pastries and hot case items...boo! Oakland Whole Foods really worked it's magic on us.

Dinner was Loving Hut in Elk Grove. I ordered a stand by noodle bowl and it arrived with faux shrimp, I had to pick those out, the make me squeamish. Matt tried a new special, a sizzling tofu plate, pictured above. I sampled it and it is really good!

Fun day and it made me want to go back to Sacramento again soon to the stores we missed out on.

Blogs and Weekend Fun

Last week I was featured on Vegan Craftastic's blog. Check out the interview and stay around for her awesome knitting! Thank you again for featuring me!

My boyfriend Matt started a blog: http://www.alwayswrongfilm.com/ this weekend.Expect more film and music reviews from him!

Speaking of Matt we made a day date to the Stockton and Elk Grove on Saturday. Matt and I stocked up on hard to find movies and music at Rasputin, looked at the Halloween goodies at Home Goods (my mom and aunt love this place so I wanted to check it out), checked out the mall and discovered a 40% off Blue Ray special at Barnes and Noble (our store does not have a movie/music section or a section on film in books!).
We took a different route to Elk Grove and wanted to check out some fancy houses, so we made a U turn in the parking lot of  Nugget Market, I have never been and was curious to what was inside. I found some vegan beauty goods and cereal bars that I cannot find in Modesto. I guess Nugget Marget is like Whole Foods mixed with a traditional store. Further down the road we stopped at Loving Hut and had Thai iced tea, drum sticks and the best ever veggie burger! Matt ordered off their new menu, he had the BBQ soy protein with mashed potatoes, now I want to try to find out what the soy protein was! We packed up some flan and headed home. It was a fun day!

Sacramento Birthday Fun

My birthday is officially tomorrow but my boyfriend took me to Sacramento on Saturday for birthday fun since I did not want to have a get together this year.


First up Sugar Plum Vegan really hooked me up for my birthday meal. We ate for free (Matt gave them a good tip though!). I had the antipasto panini - so tasty. They have stepped up their game with the tempeh bacon and Daiya - in the past it was a bit scarce or dried out - this time perfect! Across the street Never Felt Better was having a bake sale, we dropped off some cakey moist brownies and low cal chocolate muffins (recipe testing these for the next issue of my zine).


At the bake sale I bought the magnet above, a tasty Sweet Cups that I shared with Matt and a doughnut that I shared with Matt and Mar when we got home later that night. I could not buy much due to the fact it would have been melted in the car since we were running around all day. I also bought some gifts at Never Felt Better and dropped off The Easy Vegan zine (which is 32% off in my Etsy right now till June 30 for my birthday. Use code HAPPYBDAY when checking out).


At Phone Select where the bake sale was hosted I bought some zines and then we walked a block over to Dragatomi and I bought a few blind box toys! I love the best Friends Forever series!




While in Sacremento we looked at a few tattoo shops, did some shopping at Lush and Whole Foods and the Lego store for Matt. I even tried out some crackle nail polishes, I do not paint my nails often - but I get a urge now and then!


We made our way on home stopping at Loving Hut for dinner. I had the Heavenly Salad which was light but filling!

Thank you Matt for a fun day!

Anniversary - Easter Weekend

Over the weekend my boyfriend and I celebrated our five year anniversary. We headed up to Sacramento for a day of eating, shopping and having fun.



First stop was to Never Felt Better where we restocked the store with our goodies and picked up some stuff - like Nacheez - which I will review this week! Jen always carries the coolest stuff!


We had lunch down staires at Sugar Plum Vegan. I had a yummy tofu frittata!


We walked off lunch around mid town. We heard about a designer toy store on our last trip to Sacramento so we searched it out. Dragatomi could easily clear out my bank account. Matt bought me a Bossy Bear and I bought a blind box Miss Cupcake - which was turned out to be the strawberry character - awesome! I am lusting after the kitties pictured! We also discovered Spanglish art gallery/store/work space! I was really into the photos on display by Amanda Lopez. I can't wait to take a screen printing class in the summer!


We looked around Ikea and got some ideas, bought some vases then headed to another part of town. At the mall Matt stocked up on Lego bricks as we sipped a supper yummy blueberry - pineapple kona pop iced tea from Teavana. We stopped at Whole Foods and made our way back home.

In Elk Grove we stopped at Loving Hut for dinner. We had golden rolls and for dinner I got the Golden Beauty with brown rice. Super crispy tastiness!


The Easter bunny brought Mar a cat bed that is shaped like a cat face - he loves it! Also he got a natural paper poof ball as you can see in the corner!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!