I'm back! (from GA)

Okay, for starters I found the best gourmet-type vegan restaurant in Atlanta! It is called Cafe Sunflower:

We almost didn't find it. I had looked up 'vegan restaurants in georgia' and found the menu for it which looked irresistible. vegan lasagna!? Yes, please. I called one number and it was a fax or something, my GPS would NOT find the address and when I called the other number noone picked up. I tried again a little later and finally!...an answer w/ directions. We later find out that they close for a few hours between lunch and dinner so I guess that's why I couldn't get through.

We got two appetizers, two meals, two teas, and two desserts as follows:

Sampler Box containing spring rolls w/ sweet-n-sour sauce, hummus w/ pita bread and veggies, soy nuggets, i can't remember what those things are called you get in like wonton? soup, and stuffed mushrooms. DELISH!

fried green tomatoes! with hummus in between them, SO DELICIOUS!

Marc got this, some kind of lemon crusted tempeh w/ mashed potatoes and veggies

I got this eggplant orzo lasagna w/ tofu ricotta!!

These delicious sugar and caffeine free all-natural tea.

and two pieces of pie!! Peanutbutter (front) Chocolate (back)

We asked for a dessert menu and they literally brought out a tray of pie slices to choose from!! ALL VEGAN! I was in heaven and teared up on the inside. Some of the other pies were chocolate raspberry, carrot, coconut creme?, strawberry shortcake.. but my mind was set on peanutbutter!!!

So why Georgia? ...to see this man!

aka Billie Joe Armstrong! Whom, sources tell me, is totally veg! They are Marc's favorite band and we got a guitar pick and one of tre's drumsticks so that was awesome. Two days before this we went to an 8-hour ska show called the Mass Ska Raid at the Masquerade, get it? and.... they had tofurkey kilbasa and boca burgers!! SCORE!! It was only $4 for two kilbasas and a bag of chips. The same price as two cheap hotdogs and a bag of chips :) I thought that was awesome. In between this, we went to a place called Little 5 Points with our friend Mike. Him and his wife were gracious enough to let us stay at their house while we were up there. (THANKS!) We went to this restaurant (the name is escaping me) and they had really awesome veggie chili, burgers, zucchini chips, sweet potato fries, tater tots, etc.etc.

All in all, a very good trip!! On the way back to FL we stopped in Gainesville to get some icecream and a cupcake, brownie, and cookie from Karma Cream!! It used to be 24 hours but I think right now they close down for a bit at around 2:30AM? Not sure..there was some kind of sign on the door but I slightly ignored it due to the fact that I LOVE their icecream. I got toffee w/ vegan whipped cream and vegan hot chocolate fudge :) Marc got a chocolate & pumpkin shake. So good!

Oh, we also saw that Will Ferrell movie "The Other Guys." I thought it was a lot better than the trailer made it seem, so no disappointments! Also got a Rat Fink doll and a Tank Girl comic book!! hehe.

I really need to figure out how to do my own layout on this thing, as a side point.

So we got back Wednesday at 1/2AM. Interned that day.. I ate my leftover lasagna :) and made my favorite 'beefless' beef tips w/ noodles and gravy for dinner, started reorganizing the house (trying to get this done before school starts up--11 days!)

Today I worked 11-8 and literally ate an entire dish of nacho dip for lunch and dinner. I'm addicted!!! Tofutti now makes a sourcream & guacamole together. I actually bought in on accident but it tastes SO good with salsa. I always thought normal sourcream was kinda nasty but the tofutti one is so addicting!! It has the same taste except without the gross feeling of eating curdled milk. Just mixing that with salsa is good enough..with some daiya cheddar cheese on top. Refried or black beans are always good as another layer and you can make veggie crumbles with taco seasoning for meat. mmm I love vegan taco nights!

I went through all of my nail polishes and threw away the ones that weren't good anymore. I then went on to paint them pink with white polka dots! I love painting my nails (which I happened to stop biting while in Georgia). It's weird because the last time I stopped biting them was when I went up to South Carolina and when school was starting and here we are--vacation and school is starting!! Coincidence?

I rearranged the furniture in the living room maybe two weeks ago. It seems so much larger and inviting-like a living room should feel! The record player is now in a corner on my old tv stand and all of our records (currently) fit on the shelf below it. The guitar stand even has its own space. I actually spend time in here and can even have boardgame nights after the redo. Hooray!

That's all to report, intern again tomorrow. Work Saturday and Sunday.

corn yarn!

I have thai food photos to upload!

My Mom knits and whatnot and is going to make me a killer scarf for the winter. Of course, we were looking up different colored yarns (wool-free yarns)...and she found this awesome yarn made out of corn!!!



They have a lot of other awesome colors, too. She uses this site called yarnmarket.com that has links to tons of different places that sell the stuff. I am super excited to get my cruelty-free scarf!!!

Other not necessarily vegan-only updates:
Phenylalinine: That stuff that is all over labels with a giant "caution" or some kind of bold color around it! I looked it up... Here's the chain: In large quantities, it inhibits your body's ability to produce serotonin. It's in aspartame so it's in a whole lot of sugar-free stuff. That's why aspartame causes mood swings.. the lack of serotonin!! I knew aspartame caused mood swings but never knew the scientific reason behind it. It's also been linked to cancer. So, any sugar-free eaters or diabetics out there (my boyfriend's diabetic) beware!!

..because it's not just a bite.

I am just terrible at blogging!! It's been a good two weeks. I always have such great blogging intentions but I don't really like writing unless it's 3AM and I'm home alone. Being awake at 3AM and by myself is not going to happen...so my body must adjust!! I randomly send really crappy phone pics to facebook but I will update you with what has been my quickest/tastiest find this week. *drumroll..............*


voila!! I call them 'bagel chomps'... get it? (bagel bites...but theyre' really big. The name has already grown on me and rolls freely off my tongue whenever I am making them. I use everything bagels, some kinda dairy-free fancy spaghetti sauce I found at the grocery store (forget the name..it started with a 'b'?) and DAIYA cheese...which is amazing and actually melts (I could have melted it more but I am extremely impatient and 1) don't cook things long enough and 2) eat things when they are extremely hot and burn my mouth. I can't help it, I love food!! These were honestly delicious, though. Daiya has a pretty strong flavor so you don't even need that much.. and the sauce was like basil and garlic so that added to it as well.

I used to use "parma" but I can't find it anywhere around here. I get Daiya down in Tampa. The best thing is it's dairy, gluten, and soy free! So my Mom can eat it, too :) (she does the gluten-free thing.)

Other vegan updates:
Toms Shoes added two new vegan wrap boot colors! Olive and ash! Still haven't decided which color to splurge on.

I've also gone on questioning what "caranauba wax" is. Well, it's vegan!
"Carnauba, also called Brazil wax and palm wax, is a wax of the leaves of the palm, Copernicia prunifera, a plant native to and grown only in the northeastern Brazilian states of Piauí, Ceará, and Rio Grande do Norte.[1] It is known as "queen of waxes"[2] and usually comes in the form of hard yellow-brown flakes. It is obtained from the leaves of the carnauba palm by collecting them, beating them to loosen the wax, then refining and bleaching the wax."

So Frances and whomever she is with (Ian/Emily? just Emily?) are coming over. We might make vegan whipped cream! :D

This past update-less week.

I know, not blogging lately. I've been incredibly busy. Work has been okay, getting a bit busier now, for whatever reason...yet more strict (no cellphones aka texting haha, no drinks without lids, no food which--doesn't USUALLY apply to me since copious amounts of chocolate is often NOT vegan..) One of the warehouse guys is having a baby so I need to go find a gift from Target (my favorite store ever). I LOVE buying baby things!!! I honestly have this outfit I got at Old Navy for $1 JUST BECAUSE. Too bad it's a girl and not a boy, this is definitely a "boy" outfit..it'll have to sit in my closet a bit longer, ha.

Internship-running smoothly. About a month and a half to go (before school starts). I've been more or less keeping the journal running smoothly but have yet to start the 20 page paper. I'm hoping I get the inspiration next week to start working on it. Perhaps my house will be a little more put together....

THE HOUSE! I'm in an incredibly creative and COLORFUL, might I add, mood lately. I went shopping at the usuals (Ross, Marshalls, Target) and got some wonderful things. Bright orange curtains, an owl stuffed with potpourri, 200 colored cardstock squares, awesome wedges with colored stripes on the sides, Marc got the movie Igor...we need to watch it again before he brings it to work. I know there's more!! New orange ceramic bowls since I'm probably throwing away most of our old dishes.. Marc got a giant glass boot, like Beerfest, except we don't drink so it's either going to be 1)gifted to a deserving individual or 2) turned into a plant pot!! :D So then, TARGET!! had these 4 packs of plastic dishes (yes plastic but it's TARGET so it's decent) plates/bowls/cups for $2 each!! Then they had these huge square plates with splattered colors (which happened to match the colors in one of the sets I bought) and giant cups soooo...got two of each of those :) also $2.. Then they had HUGE mixing bowls so got one black, one pink :) I literally walked up to the cashier with my arms full of dishes but I think it was well worth it. Oh yeah! and this awesome cheetah print mug from Marshalls..for tea drinking, solely :)

So the cardstock, I made little origami birds and hung them above my reading chair in our room! They are SO cute!! I'm trying to make the house look nice before the summer is over so that it's not frustrating me once school starts. I want to have my mom/stepdad over for *vegan* dinner one night, too. I think I know just what to make. Thus, I am looking for a nice little dining room table that can fit four if need be.. any ideas? I know I can get one from Ikea and Target... I think I'm going to buy the chairs from Target that Marc hates, I'll just make my own cushions for them. I need someone to get this twin bed and other bs out of my house!!! It's just sitting there and it's hard to clean when theres a mountain of things you just want out of your house. I need to hit up Goodwill ugh no it's this huge chain store now, I'll probably bring everything to St. Vincent's or something instead.

School! I just redid my school schedule and it's so beautiful I could cry...and hopefully it won't make me cry for other reasons once I'm halfway into it..like last semester (HA), oh, last semester was a trainwreck.

Here we go!! Chinese I/Lab, Chinese Cinema, International Human Rights, Totalitarianism in Film and Lit., and a research paper on Animal Rights Philosophy sponsored by Tauber :D I am beyond excited. I moved some things around so I could have a semester to just really enjoy myself BECAUSE:

I really wanna get an ETSY store running! I know JUST what I'm going to make.

Speaking of making, I have not been a good chef lately! Believe me.. takeout takeout and more takeout??? Chinese, Taco Bell, Thai.. really not that $$ but still. The kitchen just honestly needs a massive overhaul before I make anything fancy. I did, however, bring the vegan cupcake book to work with me. If I am somehow super full of energy tonight, I'm going to tackle enough of the kitchen to attempt making cupcakes. We'll see how that goes. If it's a success, there will be pictures.

Oh! Went to Harry Potter world on Monday--amazing. The ride was ridiculous (you know, the good kind of ridiculous) but it made me pretty sick. The only thing we didn't do was the wand picker but I wanted to save something for next time (we have passes).. Butterbeer is just cream soda. Bummer? eh. The pumpkin juice was REALLY good though!!! Chocolate frogs are $10--you are warned. Everything is totally worth it though, it's Harry Potter!! And note, Mythos--the "Lost Continent" restaurant right outside HP has Pad Thai right now!! VEGAN! and my favorite, ever. It doesn't come close to the Thai restaurant here, it's very light, but it was still an awesome find. And City Walk has Moe's for dinner after the parks close :D There's also a burger joint in each park that offers veggie burgers. Finally breaking through? haha!

Oh! I made mac-n-cheese with ramen noodles. I've decided ramen noodles SUCK and I refuse to ever try to convince myself otherwise ever again..same goes for oatmeal. BLECK! The cheese sauce I made was really good though.. mix of daiya and nutritional yeast. Tonight I'm probably going to make spinach stuffed ravioli with spaghetti sauce--next week I'll try to tackle the alfredo sauce :D

I promise, pictures soon. I'm in serious need of getting the house together so that's all I've been doing every night. Yes, it's going to take that long. and then I have so many ideas sometimes I just sit there and stare.

Tonight: Tackle kitchen, make cupcakes, finish bedroom, SIGNUP for traffic school.

I think I can handle that?

Pizza time!

Okay, I know I haven't been updating this thing. Did go to my faaaaaavorite thai restaurant ever the other night. I hadn't been in over a week!!! I just can't go that long without peanut sauce (best thing on this planet, more or less.)

Tonight (since there's still a ton of cheese left over) I decided to make a pizza. Half green peppers (my half) half mushrooms (Marc's half) all pepporoni :) I don't remember the name of the pepperoni I used, I threw the label away a while ago, but I got it at Whole Foods. It's Pillsbury pizza dough crust. Touch of italian seasonings in the sauce. VOILA! Bon appetit.