Dining Locally: Magnolia Bistro

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This is the first of my “Dining Locally” posts which will be a series of post about Vermont eateries.  Today’s post features Magnolia Bistro which is a certified green restaurant in Burlington Vermont that features a variety of breakfast and lunch options.  The Hubz and I visit here pretty often to enjoy there great food, atmosphere and of course the vegan bloody mary’s.

Magnolia Bistro’s menu is a vegans paradise.  Everything is labeled with a “v” if it is vegan and if you are gluten free you will be delighted to know gluten free dishes are marked with a “g”.  This make the dining experience relaxing, easy and enjoyable.

Sesame Tofu Scramble

Plate O'Sides- black beans, kale, home fries and toast with Earth Balance

The Hubz and I would recommend:

  • Garbanzo Burger
  • The Incredible Mr. Limpett
  • Sesame Scram w/avocado
  • French Toast
  • Bloody Mary

However, we have never had a dish we didn’t love!

Magnolia Bistro, One Lawson Lane, Burlington, VT

Pumpkin Love

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After hearing that the Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spiced Lattes aren’t vegan I have been wanting to make an “at home” version which is honestly way better on my wallet anyways.  I haven’t been out to the market to get non-dairy creamer so I was excited to come home and find a sample from Mimiccreme.

Well I saw that Mama Pea had come up with a wonderful pumpkin latte creation I had to try it. Unfortunately I only had the poser pumpkin (the good stuff is Libby’s) I decided to try it anyways.

My variation of Mama Pea’s Love In a Cup aka Pumpkin Latte

1 cup stove top espresso

3/4 cup non-dairy creamer

1/2 t pumpkin pie spice and more for garnish

2 T canned pumpkin pie filling

5 drops of liquid stevia

In a food processor blend the creamer through stevia.  Pour into a mug and then pour the espresso on top and sprinkle with more pumpkin pie spice

It was decadent and delicious and the Hubz is crying at work because he doesn’t have one so I guess I’ll have to make him one later when he gets home. Thank You Mama Pea!

You can read why the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte ISN’T vegan here.

Visiting Saratoga Springs

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After our visit to the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary we were feeling great but hungry so we snacked on our leftovers

and a few of these:

and one of these for our drive to Saratoga Springs:

After about an hour of driving we made it to our hotel for night which was a HUGE improvement over our Friday night hotel.  I used Hotwire my go to resource for great inexpensive rooms and we got the Hyatt Place in Malta NY just outside of Saratoga Springs.  Unfortunately my camera battery died during our visit to the animal sanctuary so I didn’t get a good shot of the room, however, the picture on the website is exactly what our room looked like so take a look:

After relaxing for a bit on the couch we finally headed out to see the town and get some dinner.  Our first stop was the Olde Saratoga Brewery which has a tasting room and the best part you can taste what you want and the only cost to you is what you want to tip- great right? Well we stopped in and tried 2 brews each before heading to dinner.

After brews we headed to downtown Saratoga Springs for dinner at Karavalli an Indian restaurant that I read about online and was drawn to their vegan menu options.  We started off with the Bhel Poori which was really interesting; it was like a savory rice crispy treat.  We then shared the CHETTINADU VEGETABLE: A Tamilnadu Specialty:Vegetables in authentic spicy black pepper and roasted coconut sauce and the KUNDAPUR VEGETABLES: A Karnataka Specialty:Vegetables cooked with coconut milk and dry red chilies, tempered with curry leaves and mustard seeds.

The food was amazing and there was so much of it that we had to take some with us for lunch on Sunday.  Although our meal was huge and we were pretty full we had a little room left (after a long walk around downtown) for one of these bad boys:

An Amazing vegan chocolate chip pumpkin seed macaroon.

Loving Fermented Veggies

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I am a huge fan of fermented veggies especially kim chee.  My favorite kim chee is Rejuvinative Foods Spicy Kim Chee which I have used in a number of different ways.  I have made kim chee spring rolls, kim chee fried rice and my favorite way to eat it is on top of a bowl of rice with beans and steamed veggies- or straight out of the jar!

Now you can get Rejuvinative Foods- Spicy Kim Chee in my OpenSky store.  Rejuvinative Foods Spicy Kim Chee is 100% organic, vegan, raw, gluten free,  and made from fresh, shredded and unheated vegetables.  It is also a rich source of lactobacilli and enzymes and of course delicious and  with high fiber content.

Buy Now

Reminder- use the Coupon Code: THIRTYVEGAN today! The coupon is good for the 1st five 3 customers who use it and expires on 9/30, so don’t wait!- I just purchased some myself!

Our Final Destination: Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary

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Meet the animals our new furry friends at the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary:

Pogo

Mickey & Jo- Named after the founders of the famously vegetarian Chicago Diner, these two domestic Muscovy ducks were rescued from freezing waters by a caring NYC resident.

I think this is Andy

Elvis

Timmy & Tommy <3

Running Away Part 2

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After a restless night at our less than desirable accommodations we were in need of a wonderful breakfast to start what we knew would be an amazing day. We headed to Woodstock, New York to eat breakfast at the Garden Cafe On The Green.

The completely vegan menu was filled with delicious sounding breakfast dishes that I wanted to order all of them from the Oatmeal “Crème Brule” to the scrambles and of course the French Toast.  However the Hubz and I finally made a decision and picked two amazing dishes, a side and coffee.

I had the Breakfast Burrito which was massive so I only ended up eating half and saved the other half for lunch.

It was really delicious.

Breakfast Burrito: black beans, tofu scramble, vegan cheddar, salsa and guacamole served with roasted potatoes

The Hubz had the Italian Scramble which was delicious as well and also a ton of food.  He took some of his with us as well and we shared our leftovers for lunch later in the day.

Italian Scramble: spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, herbs, served with grilled baguette & roasted potatoes

Oh yeah and we had some vegan sausages- had we known that the meals were going to be so huge we probably wouldn’t have ordered them but they sure were delicious!

After breakfast we wondered around town and visited the local flea market where I found a few pieces of costume jewelry and some beautiful figs.

I am sure that you have figured out our final destination by now however you will still have to wait until the next post to see all the fun.

Running Away

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Friday night I was ready to get out of the house and get on the road for a spontaneous weekend away.  My first thought was Montreal, one of our favorite destinations that we haven’t visited in quite some time.   I found my passport, our Canadian bank cards and even our opus metro cards…but, unfortunately, there was one thing missing… the Hubz’s passport. After searching high and low for it, it hit me…it was in our lock box and that some how got left behind at my parents house….an hour away.

We discussed going to their house for the night, getting the passport and then heading to Montreal first thing Saturday morning, but I wanted to do Montreal right and spend 2 nights there.  We then decided to jump in the car and hit the road to see where it would take us.  We debated New Hampshire and contemplated Maine and about 10 minutes down the road I said lets go to New York.  After picking up coffee and water we were on our way to the beautiful Catskills.  We enjoyed a few yummy snacks thanks to Rice Works who sent me a few samples to try out.

After 3 and half hours of driving we finally made it to our destination and then found a less than desirable hotel to stay in.

The Hubz showing how he felt about our accommodations

You may have been following my tweets on twitter, giving hints as to where we ran off to, and although there have been some great guesses only one or two people got it right.  This is just part one keep so reading to find out where we ended up.