Yesterday afternoon the Hubz declared that last night would be date night, and who am I to pass up on date night. We decided to do dinner and a movie since we have been talking about going to the movies for weeks now and there was finally something that we both wanted to see.
How could I pass up a date with this hunk?
Since we are trying to be more frugal with our dining out we decided to use one of our Living Social deals to Asiana Noodle Shop, a favorite spot of ours where I usually get a giant bowl of noodle and vegetable soup that I could fit my whole head in. Last night neither of us were in the mood for noodles so we flipped to the back of their extensive menu and decided to both get sushi.
It was so delicious and came with a bowl of miso soup that he kindly shared with me.
I ordered the Union Maki which was so delicious and MASSIVE but don’t worry I had no trouble eating the whole thing, I even ate the salad on the side. I was hoping that Asiana had a description of the roll on their online menu but they don’t seem to but basically it was filled with asparagus, fried tofu, cucumber and sesame peanut sauce rolled and topped with tofu skin and avocado- DELICIOUS!
After dinner we walked around, popped in Stone Soup for a vegan macaroon and then we were off to the movies to see Margin Call.
So this is when I proceeded to have the most expensive nap of my life. The movie cost $9.25 (remember the good ol’days when movies were like $5?) well I made it about half way through and I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. The movie wasn’t bad or boring so much as just really slow and not that exciting. I decided it just wasn’t a theater movie for me. I would have done so much better watching it at home while multitasking. The Hubz on the other hand really enjoyed the movie, he agreed that at times it was really slow moving but he really enjoyed all the character development.
November 1st marks the official (acceptable) start to the Holiday’s in our house and I have been soaking up the holiday music already. I have been listening to the new She & Him holiday album on repeat lately but this morning I decided to put on my favorite album: Christmas with the Rat Pack. I think I was born in the wrong decade. Evidence:
My celebrity crush:
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My top 5 all time favorite movies:
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I really wish we could bring the 50’s and 60’s back, at least the style, the cars, the music and the film. Something so much classier and intriguing about that time period than today.
Do you ever feel like you were born in the wrong decade?
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.
Over the past few months Neil and I have been working on watching the Bourne Trilogy with our good friend Laura who is obsessed with has all three of the movies. Since Neil and I had never seen any of the moveis we decided to do a series of movie nights with drinks and dinner.
Saturday night we finally were able to get together to watch the final movie, The Bourne Ultimatum. We were going to just do popcorn and pumpkin beers but Neil and I ate a late lunch and then both ran so we were hungry for something more substantial than just popcorn. We decided to pick up a vegan pizza from Leonardo’sto have with our popcorn and beer. The pizza was super tasty but unfortunately my stomach didn’t agree, as good as it tasted I ended up with a stomachache by the end of the night due to all the soy cheese.
THE VEGAN SALVATION- Olive Oil Garlic Sauce, Vegan Soy Cheese, Fresh Chopped Spinach, Freshly Sliced Red Onions, White Mushrooms, Plum Tomatoes, Black Olives
Along with our movie, pizza and popcorn we also tasted a variety of Pumpkin beers. Below are the ones we tasted starting with my favorite to my least. Sorry Blue Moon you were awful.
Tasting Beer- Giving it a good sniff first
Now that we’ve finished the Bourne Trilogy we need to think of new movies to watch …hmmm any ideas?
…and “Hello November!” I have am anxiously waiting and preparing for November first to come. For me the start of a new month means a start of new possibilities and November is going to be a crazy one filled with new adventures in my personal, blog and business life. I wish I could reveal everything right now but I am going to resist the urge and leave a little mystery until everything is more secure but trust me it’s exciting. Don’t worry though I’m not going to leave everything a mystery here is what is going on with each part:
Personal
Neil and I are finally taking a mini vacation to Philadelphia over Thanksgiving! We have been in need of a vacation for months now and unfortunately it seems nothing has worked out. We were supposed to go to Vida Vegan Con in August but then something (I can’t discuss here) prevented us from doing that. Then we planned to go to Philadelphia for a long weekend in August with our friends and then Irene decided she wanted to rain on our parade. Next my trip to NYC for an IIN conference was cut short because Neil went and fell of his bike and bumped his head. Also a result of Neil’s injury (which he has now recovered from- wahoo!) caused us to rethink our Disney World Half Marathon due to the fact he lost over a month of running time. So now we are taking the time to get away and enjoy a new city and each others company.
We also are doing a mini trip to NYC in December to meet up with our friends who we haven’t seen in years. This is my favorite kind of trip because we are flying down (thank you JetBlue for cheap flights) and we are renting an apartment via airbnb.com. It makes the trip so much less stressful when you don’t have to drive and stay in a hotel (which is 3x as much in NYC). I tweeted earlier today about doing a meet up in sometime between Dec 8-11, if you want to join our little meet up e-mail me lindsay@cookveganlover.com
Looking forward to these tasty treats
Running: I have been keeping up with running and even signed up for a half marathon in February! Neil is also going to be running this half. It isn’t Disney but the good news is that we will be able to run our second half at Disney because we were (luckily) able to defer our registrations to another race. We chose to do the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon next September/October (the date hasn’t been released yet) which I think will be more fun because it will be warmer and at night.
Also if you are in NYC and want to come out and run with us or cheer us on we are running the NYRR Jingle Bell Jog while we are on vacation in NYC on December 10th. We are so excited for this race!
Blog
I am planning a face lift for the blog. I am not loving the color and the layout and it just needs to be rejuvenated. I am also looking to add some new features which will be revealed as they finish up. In addition to visual improvements I am working to improve my photos, recipes and blog posts. Instead of just posting to post I have been scheduling time in my day/week to actually sit down and blog. I hope that this improves my blog and my writing. I love my blog but I know I need to make improvements to it.
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I am also offering a free teleclass on December 5, 2011 from 7:30pm-8pm EST that will discuss the top ways sugar is negatively affecting your health and happiness, tips to eat foods you enjoy and not deprive yourself, and ways your lifestyle affects your cravings. In addition you will also receive tips and suggestions on how to use natural sweeteners in your upcoming holiday baking.
Lastly, in January I will be rolling out a special CVL plant based health coaching program that you will find right here on the blog. I am in the process of developing the entire program and more details will be coming out over the next month. That being said I would love to hear what you would like to see in a program.
Other Events:
Hunger Mountain Coop’s 18th Annual Food and Wellness Expo
November 5, 2011
Location: Montpelier City Hall Time: 11:00 AM
Enjoy free samples of local and organic foods, free consultations with wellness practitioners and free massages! Bring a food item for the VT Foodbank and receive a $5 OFF coupon to The Coop!
A month ago I wrote a post debating the topic of daily blogging and eventually I decided that although time consuming that I would see how it went for awhile.
Moving ahead to today….
I haven’t blogged daily.
What have I been doing?
Playing nurse to my husband (okay guys lets keep this G rated).
Trying to find time to sleep; this has gotten better now the Hubz is starting to get back to his normal routine.
Working (day job). Working (coaching). Both of which have been keeping me super busy and is great because I have a few new projects in the works. I also have a number of workshops over the next month as well as a 5 Week Teleclass Series that I have partner up with fellow health coach Nicole Culver to do.
In addition to all that I am trying to keep our house in order, training for my first half round 2 (more about this tomorrow-second times a charm right?) and I am getting back in the kitchen with a notebook full of recipe ideas.
Needless to say but I’ve been busy. Which is really good but it means that daily blogging probably isn’t going to happen. I really want to go for quality over quantity. I am still planning to fill the blog with lots of recipes, Fitness Friday and personal life posts but maybe just not everyday. I also want to guide you over to my health coaching blog where I am featuring new recipes and healthy living posts that WILL NOT be featured in full on this blog- I will let you know when they go up over there though.
P.S. CVL is getting a face lift in the next month or so- any features you’d like to see? Tell me here Click here to take survey
Saturday morning Neil and I headed out early on a mission for Fall veggies from the Farmers Market and new jeans. First stop the Burlington Farmers Market where I picked up two types of kale and two types of squash.
YUM Kale! And Neil loves his delicata squash!
We did a little jean shopping around Burlington and well it was pretty unsuccessful so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and rode the ferry to New York and took a scenic drive to the outlets in Lake George. It was a relatively fruitless trip for me but Neil came home with a new pair of jeans.
It was a wonderful day with my main squeeze, my hunky hubz.
After our long day away I came home and made dinner of quinoa, kale and tempeh, ordered jeans from JCrew.com (on sale-win!) and spent some cuddle time with my furry little man.
Today we’ve spent most of the day relaxing on the couch watching movie trailers, a movie (Morning Glory- really cute) and drinking chai lattes. The benefit of staying home to watch a movie is enjoying a giant bowl of popcorn with nutritional yeast and homemade chai lattes. After relaxing on the couch all day the Hubz and I went on a three mile walk and watched the sunset before dinner.
