Vegetarian Plus is launching two new East Indian products and they asked if I would like to try their two new products. They sent me a sample of their Vegan Chicken Tikka Masala, featuring bite-size vegan chunks in an aromatic vegan masala sauce and their Vegan Lamb Vindaloo, featuring vegan lamb chunks in a warm and exotic vindaloo sauce.
My Thoughts:
I thought that the vegan lamb was the better of the two. The sauce was pretty good, the texture of the “lamb” was good and it was easy to make (just warmed in a pot). The vegan chicken masala was not a favorite of mine at all. The texture was good but I really didn’t like the sauce, there was something off with the flavor and I just couldn’t eat it. I have one more of each and I’ll give it another try but overall not my favorite. I did like the texture and would be interested in trying one of the other selections such as the vegan orange chicken or vegan kung pao.
Have you tried any of the Vegetarian Plus? Which did you like (or dislike)?
Disclaimer: Vegetarian Plus provided me with a sample of their products to review and giveaway, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway.
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!
1. Five Bamboo Travel Skirt– Five Bamboo sent me a sample of their skirt for review and I have been wearing it all the time. Unfortunately I have yet to get a picture of myself in it because well I am usually behind the camera, however this weekend we are traveling and it will be perfect for the trip. This skirt is ridiculously comfortable and so soft! I am in love with it. I am so in love with how cute it looks on and how comfortable it is, especially right now in this crazy hot humid Vermont weather. Now I just have to find someone to get me their Rohre Dress for my birthday next month- any takers?
2. Fearless Matcha Green Trea & Peppermint Chocolate: A few weeks ago via a twitter conversation myself and another tweeter got to talking about green tea chocolate and I of course had to chim in that Fearless makes the best kind (I have ever had) and to top it all off it has peppermint in it too. Neil and I have been trying to savor this bar but like most chocolate it didn’t last long in our house. Oh well! Luckily we have a few other flavors to try and they sell it at a number of different shops in Burlington now.
Ingredients: Organic Raw Cacao, Organic Rapadura, Organic Matcha Green Tea, Organic Peppermint
3. Running! I never thought that I would say this but I am loving it. I actually have the urge to go on runs now and I look forward to my next run day. On top of that I am loving running in the morning- yes 6am runs are way better than my old 3pm runs.
4. The Japanese Iced Coffee Method. We used to do cold brewing in our french press…untile we broke it. Lately we have been trying this different method and it makes really wonderful coffee.
Source
5. My Man. Supportive. Wonderful. Helpful. Loving. and so much more xo. (I know you’re either awing or gaging right now but it’s true.)
oh and one thing I am hating- my sunburn that has blister. GROSS.
Disclaimer: Five Bamboo and Fearless Chocolate both provided me with a sample of their products to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway.
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.
Wrentham Village Premium Outlets where we spent four hours shopping our butts off. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed getting some shopping done while still being able to walk around outside. For lunch we packed up wraps and fruit and enjoyed a nice little picnic on a green patch that we found next to our car. As for the success of the shopping….well the Hubz purchased a bunch of tops and a pair of shorts and I left with a pair of earrings and a tennis skirt; not so successful on my part.
After our shopping trip we were left with a huge dilemma- what do we do now? Honestly there isn’t much happening in the Wrentham area and our hotel which was in Franklin well was just not what we’d hoped for on our anniversary. So we decided that since we got a steal on the room via Hotwire that we would eat the cost and find a new room in Boston so we could enjoy a nice night out. Again turning to Hotwire (seriously addicted) we chose a 4 star in Cambridge and ended up with the Hyatt Regency- WIN!
Our accomodations went from:
Room at Hawthorne Suites - Franklin MA
Room at Hawthorne Suites - Franklin MA
To this:
Hyatt Regency Cambridge
Not only did the romance factor increase so did the ability to get out at night and enjoy ourselves. I mean as much as I loved that evening trip to Target and Shop & Save I’d rather be galavanting around Boston. So we checked in at the Hyatt Regency and headed straight to our room to change and take advantage of their gym – we were in need of a good run to stay on track for our training plan.
View as I Ran
After our run and a good shower we got all done up and took a walk across the bridge to Boston to catch a T to our next destination, Addis Red Sea. We had made reservations at Addis Red Sea because it has in the past been one of our favorite restaurants to visit in Boston. We love the atmosphere and the Ethiopian food and have always had a good experience ….until this past visit. We arrived 2 hours before closing and were seated. We were super hungry so we decided to order a lentil sambusa and the vegetarian plate for two along with a few beers. Well once the girl finally took our order we settled in to what we hoped would be a great night. About 10 minutes later the waitress returned to tell us they were out of the lentil sambusa but they had the veggie if we wanted that instead; we said yes and 10 minutes after that she returned with two sambusas. I had a feeling something just wasn’t right so instead of biting right in like I normally would have I tore a corner off only to find that our veggie sambusa was actually beef; can you imagine if I had taken a big bite!! Well 10 minutes after that I finally got the waitresses attention and told her of the mistake and that we would rather not have an appetizer at all and we would just like our meal at this point.
After waiting a bit longer our meal finally arrived with two lentil sambusas (I guess they found more?). We started into the food immediately since at this point we were ravenous after waiting for almost an hour for our food. After a few bites the Hubz noticed that we were missing our salad that was to go with the meal and that most of the food was cold and in addition to that when we finally took a bite of the sambusas they were freezing in the middle. Overall we had the worst experience ever at this restaurant ever and we have been here many times. Unfortunately, after this experience I wouldn’t recommend Addis Red Sea and wouldn’t return- there are enough other great restaurants in Boston to eat at so don’t waste time (or money) here. Oh and we got charged for the sambusas after the whole mess and the fact we told them to disregard the order since they couldn’t seem to get it right.
Oh well! We didn’t let the dinner get us down instead we headed out for a celebratory (for our anniversary, not the horrible dinner) Manhattan down the road. Honestly one of the best Manhattans ever and I had the best company with me too. Love.
I had the best intentions of writing a Fitness Friday post last week and then our Anniversary Getaway took over and I decided to postpone my Fitness Friday and MPG Sport Giveaway until today. I did post my May Fitness Follow Up and June Goals earlier this week so you can head over to that post to get all the details. So far we are only 3 days into June and my workouts have included:
Wed-June 1: C25K Week 6 Day 1
Thurs-June 2: 30 min cross training
Fri-June 3: 20 min AM yoga; C25K Week 6 Day 2
MPG REVIEW & GIVEAWAY!
Savvy Top and Stance Bottom
Mondetta Performance Gear (MPG), a Winnipeg based active wear company, contacted me a few months back about doing a review and giveaway. I decided that they would be a perfect fit for the blog and a great review/giveaway for a Fitness Friday post. MPG allowed me to choose two items to review and provided me with the link to their Fit Guide to help me decide which size would be best. I decided to go with:
Top: Savvy
Sparkle jersey workout tank with contrast laser cut details.
Nylon-spandex blended jersey
Four-way stretch, moisture wicking, quick dry
Self fabric taping details
Ergonomic performance seams
Contrast laser-cut sonic welded inserts
Built in Coolmax bra liner with removable cups
Full support
High visibility logo
RECOMMENDED FOR: Light to heavy workouts, yoga, training, general exercis
Bottom: Stance
Performance capri legging for all types of exercise.
Polyester-spandex blended jersey
Four-way stretch, moisture wicking, quick dry
Breathable mesh leg panels
Zippered storage pocket
Built in gusset
Adjustable draw cord in waistband
Semi-low rise, fitted throughout, 21″ inseam
High visibility reflective logo
RECOMMENDED FOR: Low or high impact workouts, yoga, dance, running
The Stance capri leggings are now easily one of my favorite bottoms to run and do yoga in. I love them so much that I am planning on getting another pair after I finish writing this post. They fit perfectly just below the waist (on me) and have a nice adjustable draw cord which is really beneficial for runs. I also love the breathable mesh leg panels. I am not a short wearer so the breathable mesh leg panels allow my legs to be covered but not over heated when I run. The other thing I love is the zippered storage pocket on the back; it is perfect for keeping a single key and ID.
The Savvy top was nice but not a favorite top of mine. I love the color and the material but although it is described as having full support I didn’t find that it provided full sport when I was running. However this may be a case that I require a large top and my bust requires a medium. However, I found that it did provide good support for yoga.
Overall I was impressed by the items I tried from MPG. They are high quality items at a reasonable price. I have washed and worn the items a number of times since I received them in April and they still look brand new! In addition to making impressive active wear MPG is also involved in charitable activities, the Mondetta Charity Foundation (MCF). Our founders were all born in the East African countries of Kenya and Uganda and have decided to support an an orphanage in the former and a school in the latter. Most of the children directly benefiting from the MCF’s efforts have either lost their parents to AIDS or are themselves living with the disease that has ravaged most of the African continent. One percent of total MPG sales are contributed to the MCF, which is a completely separate entity from the parent company, Mondetta, meaning all operating and administration costs are covered by the company and all donated funds received go directly where they should: to help those in need.
To learn more about the foundation and its initiatives, please check out the link below.
Also, 1% of every MPG garment sold goes to the foundation. For more info on the charity please check out Mondetta Gives Back.
So the best part about this review is that MPG has agreed to giveaway one of their products to a Cook.Vegan.Lover. reader. For the giveaway, MPG would like to offer one reader anything from the website in both active and lifestyle tops and bottoms. Additionally, I would like to mention that MPG makes both active and lifestyle tops and bottoms for men and women so guys don’t forget to enter!
To Enter Giveaway: Open to US and Canadian Residents. Winner is Ashley! Congrats!
You must head over to Facebook and “Like” MPG Mondetta Performance Gear and then come back here and leave a comment letting me know you did so by June 8th, 2011 at 8pm EST.
Lastly, MPG is providing Cook.Vegan.Lover. readers with the following discount code to receive 25% off a one-time purchase that expires 6.30.11: veganloverlovesmpg
Want to read more? Head over to Brittany’s MPG review at her blog Eating Bird Food.
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.
oh and one thing I am hating- my sunburn that has blister. GROSS.
New nail color thanks to 
