Date night at Takanami

Cool Manhattan-chilling technology. Loaded miso soup. Seaweed salad. Takanami Vegan Maki. Lindsay Lohan waitress. Enough said.

Tortilla pizza with garden tomatoes, kale, oregano, and Teese

Tasty lunch. Spray ww tortilla with cooking spray or brush with evo, top with tomato slices, kale, oregano, and salt. Bake at 425 until tortilla and kale are crisp. Top with Teese, bake 5 min more. Cut in wedges. Devour.

Panko-crusted tofu over artichoke salad with local tomatoes andpeppers, plus oven roasted potatoes with thyme, Stallion CellarsReserve Maverick Meritage

Friday night dinner:  Dipped extra firm pressed tofu slice in panko, cooked in skillet with cooking spray.  Cut up fresh local potatoes, pepper, tomatoes, garlic, and herbs, and roasted in the oven with sea salt, chipotle powder, and Spike (and some cooking spray) at 400 for about 45 minutes.  The salad:  mixed baby greens with artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, local sweet peppers and tomatoes, and an olive oil vinaigrette.  The wine is the bottle we won at a Key West raffle at the Green Parrot.

 

Dinner at the Red Avocado, and Buck

Tonight, we went out for dinner again (decadent!), this time at The Red Avocado.  The occasion: the last night that the documentary Buck is playing at the Bijou Theater.  I just happened to see that it was here at all, and I'm so glad I didn't miss it.

But first, the food.  We started with a beer (shouldn't most meals?).  I had a Madhouse Brewery (Iowa) Honey Pilsner and Ben had a Bell's Two Hearted (which the menu called 'Double Hearted--what?), and an appetizer of hummus and white bean purée.

Next, Smoky Sunset--sweet potatoes and tempeh with garlic aioli, yum! I've been craving tempeh all day. It was absolutely delicious and the aioli tasted like smoke in the best possible way.  Ben had the Salad Organica.

Finally, the movie--a beautiful and moving documentary about Buck Brannaman, the man who was a model and advisor for The Horse Whisperer movie. Four stars.  A must-see if you like horses or animals in general.  Or even people.

Last day of summer breakfast

And it's chilly outside! Need...warm...food...can't...work...

This was exactly what I needed. Toasted sourdough bread topped with melted nacho Teese (from Chicago Soy Dairy) topped with pressed tofu fried in evo with sesame seeds, hot pepper flakes, and soy sauce, and finished with a slice of garden tomato. Steamy mug of Ginger Twist herbal tea. NOW I can get to work!

Date night at 2DOGS PUB

Wednesday is date night and we almost always eat out. Tonight we are trying a new restaurant in the neighborhood: 2DOGS Pub. It's burgers and bar food, which certainly has its place. I had Peace Tree Ramblin' Red Ale (brewed right here in Iowa), flash fries green beans with teriyaki glaze, the chipotle black bean burger, firestarter style (siracha chile sauce, giardiniero, jalapeños, and grilled pineapple, hold the cheese), and onion rings. Mmmm...bar food.

Summer's Over, MoFo Begins!

First of all, I can't believe it's time for Vegan MoFo again! If that doesn't kick me back into blogging on this site, nothing will. It's been a crazy-busy summer, what with two vacations and what-not, but now I'm back from my most recent foray to Key West and ready to dig back in, get back to work, and make it happen.

Second, I've got a new focus. As a co-author of many diet books, I feel compelled to perhaps at lesat consider practicing what I preach with a bit more rigor (i.e., Do I really need to make cookies again? Do I really need to eat that many Twizzlers while watching Project Runway? Do I really need the entire avocado AND the crumbled corn chips on top of my chili? I mean seriously...)

Third, about the yoga...I've had to take the whole summer off from asana because of a knee injury that is finally seeming almost better. I can almost do Uttanasa again, and for anybody who knows me, you know that's big because pre-knee-issue, I could practically rest my forearms on the darned floor. I have hypermobility syndrome which sounds really cool if you want to do lotus pose while in headstand, but is not really cool at all when you suffer one injury after another because you are too flexible and your muscles can't compensate and you have to stop doing asana altogether! Therefore, my new yoga focus is strength, strength, strength. Build it!

This third point dovetails nicely with the second point, since losing weight is of course easier on taxed tendons and lax ligaments. These both circle back nicely, like a lovely dhanurasana, to Vegan Mofo, where I will be blogging much more regularly about both these issues--with all the focus on the food, of course, as is required for MoFo. (Maybe November can be MoYo.)

In preparation for my renewed rigor on all counts, here are some pics of what I've been eating this summer, when I wasn't gallivanting around Key West or lazing about on Topsail Island or hailing the pool bar servers at the Don Cesar in Saint Pete. Oh what the heck, I'll share some of those pics, too.

Kiddos and me in the sea (Topsail Island, NC)

The gorgeous Don Cesar in St. Pete Beach

Uncle John and I on the St. Pete Pier

This is the car we rented to explore Florida. I think Ben took more pictures of the car than anything else.

Breakfast by the pool.

Hummus wrap on Duval Street at the Lazy Dog.

I swear he was posing.

One of the Hemingway House cats--he didn't feel like showing us whether he had six toes or not.

This guy owns the street.

We won a bottle of wine at the AIDS benefit raffle at the Green Parrot!

Roasted farmer's market vegetable platter with cranberry almond tabbouleh and ponzu-glazed tofu at Seasons 52 in Tampa, on our last night in Florida.

Good-bye Key West!

And with all that, I bid good-bye to summer and welcome fall with open arms. Let's do this thing!