Vermont

How Easy Was That?

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Good Morning! Neil and I had a crazy busy afternoon yesterday running errands and then spending a little quality time together over a drink and dinner. Remember our elliptical? Well about 6 months ago it stopped working. KAPUT! Just like that. After having it for just over a year, the display decided to just stop working.  Well, we finally got around to contacting Costco about what they suggest we should do and they told us to return it. We were shocked at first, could it really be that easy? Just take it apart, drive it over and we’ll give you your money back?  We asked my dad to help us move it in his truck and we returned it last night and received cash back for our faulty elliptical.  I am very impressed with Costco’s return policy and their service.  How easy was that? 

We ended up picking up a few goodies on our way out including this giant 4lb bag of organic quinoa (swoon).

Following our Costco trip we took my dad out for a “thank you beer” and then we both headed on our way. Since it was getting late and Neil and I hadn’t spent much time together over the past few days we decided to have a spontaneous date night at El Gato Cantina where we dined on delicious Mexican food and I caught Neil up on Gossip Girl.

A few weeks ago I e-mailed El Gato Cantina to inquire about vegan options and this was the response from their chef:

“So, for our vegan options, we have the vegan taco(sheffield seitan marinated in a sweet and spicy ancho chilie sauce), veggie tamales (the veggies in the tamales changes due to seasonality, as of right now they are sweet corn, pablano peppers and tomato), guacamole and chips, all 4 of our salsas, black beans, all of our meat dishes can be subbed out for seitan, and we have two veggie tacos that can easily be made vegan sans the cheese.”

Just FYI the rice is not vegan but they will happily double up your order of black beans which are amazing.  The staff is also very knowledgeable about which options are vegan. Last night I had my heart set on the seitan tacos but just before we ordered, our waiter informed us that they were all out of the seitan. WAH! Well I decided to try the black bean tostada with no cheese and extra beans and it was amazing.  Neil also ordered the tostada and added a veggie tamale which was so good.

After a busy afternoon and a late night (for us) we headed home to do our yoga session for 30 Days of Yoga.  Probably wasn’t the greatest idea, since I was filled to the brim with Mexican food,  but a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do.

I am now off to get ready to conquer the day which will involve work, organizing my elliptical free office, running and yoga.

What’s on your agenda? 

Dining Out: A Single Pebble

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Whenever fellow vegans are visiting Vermont I always suggest my favorite vegan friendly restaurant-A Single Pebble. The Hubz and I went for a Saturday lunch a few weeks ago and it was just as good as I remember (it’s been a few months since we last went). The other thing I love is that at lunch everything is less expensive but you still get a ton of food- we ended up taking half of ours home with us.

Our favorite dishes: Vegan Buddha’s Beef (request vegan), Mock Eel, Double Garlic Broccoli, Vegan Dry Fried Green Beans (request vegan) and Vegan Dan Dan Noodles (request vegan).

Chrysanthemum Tea

Vegetable Potstickers

Vegan Chow Fun Noodles

Mushrooms with Sesame Sauce

Double Garlic Broccoli

Run, Coach, Rewind

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Today has been a busy day between blogging and freelance work this morning and then I headed my day job where I started my day with a mug of this delicious tea.

Shortly after getting to work I was ready for a snack so I broke out my homemade trail mix. In the mix there is raw cashews, almonds, pistachios, tamari-wasasbi almonds, fruit sweetened cranberries, raw pumpkin seeds and mulberries- such a good combination.

Lunch was leftovers from dinner chickpea chili in a wrap, a quick and easy way to transition dinner to an easy lunch. I love wrapping leftovers in a tortilla.

My work day ended and I head straight to the gym to get out 2.5 Miles for Ashley right on track for my half marathon training plan. After my run I stretched and foam rolled, holy hell I haven’t foam rolled in awhile and the foam roller was having a love-hate relationship with my IT band. Reminder to self: FOAM ROLL MORE!

Following my gym sesh I had a health coaching sesh which went really well. I have great clients and I love working with them.

Now it’s time to relax a.k.a. work on the couch for a bit while I ice my knees and enjoy a glass of vino.

REWIND

Anniversary Dinner:
Tuesday was Neil and I’s 5 Anniversary since we got together. We have been married for 3 years and we don’t usually celebrate our dating anniversary but since it was 5 years it was a big deal and the Hubz decided to surprise me with dinner at a new restaurant, The Bobcat Cafe.

Neil called, checked on vegan options and made a reservation (big deal he never does this) and I swooned. Then we enjoyed an amazing dinner:

Started the Night with a Beer- Bobcat Cafe is also a brewery!

Then we started with the Black Bean Gazpacho and...

a Green Salad with an amazing Roasted Corn and Basil Dressing

The star of the show was the 5-Spiced Tofu A-M-A-Z-I-N-G


Overall Bobcat Cafe was amazing. The food was incredible, the service was great and the beer was good. The atmosphere was a mixture of classy restaurant and a pub- which made for a wonderful place to eat.

Q. If you’re married to you celebrate your dating anniversary?

Camping: Underhill State Park

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Camping supplies for one night...for two people.

Our accommodations for the night

Getting the Fire Started

Onions sauteed in beer for the Filed Roast Sausages

Fresh Sweet Corn

Field Roast Sausages with Creamy Chili Sweet Corn

Hubz Homebrew disguised in Sam Adams Bottle

Relaxing Fire Side

Early morning hike on Mount Mansfield

Hiking sights

More hiking sights

Post hike Vega Smoothie in a jar

Date Night In Deutschland

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Last week Neil and I decided that we needed to have a date night. Lately we have been so busy with our own things and home things that we haven’t been spending enough quality time together.

Our date night started at the driving range where we shared an extra large bucket of balls.

After we emptied our bucket of balls we headed to the batting gages.  I watched while Neil hit a few balls and then it was time to head downtown for the second half of our date.

We debated over a few places to go for a drink and dinner but I wasn’t really that hungry so we decided to go to the German brew pub for a beer and decide on what we wanted for dinner later.  Once we sat down and perused the menu we saw that there were a few potential small plate options for us to have and since we were enjoying the quiet night on the patio we decided to stay and order food as well.

Grilled Asparagus with olive oil and lemon

Giant pretzel with horseradish mustard (no butter on the pretzel)

Spicy Fries (more liked seasoned)

The Verdict: delicious beer (we stayed for a second) and tasty food. We sat and enjoyed each others company while sipping beers and snacking on the food. Overall one of the best nights lately and I can’t wait to return for more of the asparagus-SO GOOD!

Will Run For Beer

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We started our day off with a run in preparation for our race next Sunday

Before heading to the Brewers Festival we filled our stomachs with brunch

And rehydrated with Coconut Water

Then it was time to wait in line for the Brewers Festival

TIme to drink some yummy beers!




Some beers we loved...

ANd others.... like this one

we hated!

Now I’m home relaxing and trying to sooth my crazy sunburn.

Do You Want a Small Chicken? or Big Chicken?

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Neil and I have been so crazy busy this week that we just haven’t had a lot of quality time for each other so last night Neil proposed that we find a patio to go have dinner on. So I did my nails and put a cute dress on and we headed downtown to find an outdoor dining spot.

New nail color thanks to Beauty Without Cruelty– review and giveaway to come

Apparently everyone else had the same idea, to head downtown and eat al fresco.  So we finally settled on Italian and waited a bit for a table.  When we finally got a table we ordered a small chicken of Chardonnay to share and decided on salads and flatbread.

Neil's Arugula and Apple salad with candied walnuts and maple-sherry dressing

My Arugula, Apple and Strawberry Salad with candied walnuts and raspberry dressing.

Our flatbread with leeks, lemon, shiitake mushrooms and micro greens.

How we felt about the flatbread and the service.


Overall we had a nice night together but the service was awful! The waitress got our flatbread order wrong and then she disappeared for most of the time and it was just not ideal. The salads were good but Neil’s was way better. The flatbread was blah not great, really dry and boring.