on the road again…

hello from st. louis! i drove down yesterday afternoon for another quick less-then-48-hour weekend. when i got to brad’s house, he greeted me with a big hug + kiss and….these! 🙂

aww, what girl doesn’t love getting flowers?? these made my day! it had been a while since i got a surprise bouquet.

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vegan for a week challenge

today was easy for me to make vegan choices, but i made a LOT of them – i had insatiable hunger all day! i don’t know why….

breakfast was a smoothie in a bowl with a side of lemon water.

i used the same smoothie combo as yesterday.

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i ate lunch on my drive down to st. louis.

can you tell i’m excited?!?

first, i stopped at starbucks to begin my trip.

then i enjoyed a big container of celery sticks and grape tomatoes.

i had an apple, that i forgot to photograph until i finished it – oops!

and an unphotographed larabar!

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after i got to brad’s house, i knew dinner was hours away and i was hungry again, so i had a lemon ginger kardea bar.

kardea sent me a pack of 4 bars to review on my blog. i wasn’t paid or compensated in any way for my review and my thoughts are my own. i’ll post a more formal review after i’ve tried all 4 flavors, but of the two i had so far, banana nut & lemon ginger, the lemon ginger is by far my favorite. the citrus and the spice are subtle but spot on. i’m a fan and i’d definitely buy that flavor again.

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we stopped at starbucks AGAIN on our way out to brad’s clinic for my chiropractic appointment.

brad got a white chocolate mocha and i had a grande iced decaf coffee with light ice and soy milk. i’m definitely a picky orderer at coffee shops!

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i’m so excited about our dinner because it was my favorite meal of vegan week so far! we made mexican bowls! that’s just my name for throwing together a bunch of veggies and salsa. 🙂

we layered in our bowls: chopped spinach, diced red onions, diced tomatoes, black beans with diced jalepenos, cheese (i’ll explain), chunky corn & black bean salsa, and guacamole. we served them with garden of eatin’ flax tortilla chips!  brad also unveganized his with real shredded cheese and shredded buffalo chicken.

ok, so that cheese. i’ve been CRAVING cheese all week and several people recommended daiya, but we couldn’t find that at brad’s supermarket. so we tried this rice-based cheese instead.

well, it sure didn’t taste like cheese. 😦 it tasted like mushed brown rice pretty much. and there was definitely a distinctive rice aftertaste. but i mixed it in my bowl anyway, since we bought it and i actually liked it in the mix. the spiciness of the rest of the ingredients hid the aftertaste, and it added great cheesy texture to the dish. not a total loss, but i do not recommend this “cheese.”

on the side of our bowls we had some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and dried basil to dip some (vegan) bread in. 🙂

puppy-face thought our dinner looked delicious too.

he was trying to snuggle the whole time we were eating. to go with our dinner, brad made an exciting (to him) discovery at the store.

he loves miller lite & has been asking the stores in st. louis if they carried these mini kegs, and he FINALLY found one! he poured me a pint right away.

after a sip or two, i realized i wasn’t really in the mood for beer (even though it did taste good), so he had my glass too! he was fine with that, trust me. 🙂

brad also spoiled me one other way this weekend. we found this almond ice cream at the store, and since he already had real ice cream for himself, he got me this almond dream.

we both really liked it! it is a perfect treat. capone wanted some of it too.

lots of delicious vegan food for me today!

have you ever tried any non-dairy cheese? vegan cheese? what do you think of it?