Another One Bites The Crust

I have the flu.  Boohooo.

I feel like I’m starting to get better, though.  Anyway, on Thursday I decided I was going to head to the comfort of my parent’s house for the weekend to recover.  Being home, I was able to whip up a couple of my favorite foods for myself.  Let’s get on with that!

For lunch on Friday, I wrapped up some hummus, spinach, carrot, cucumber, and broccoli slaw in an olive oil tortilla that I found laying around.  I love it!

My mom surprised me with a salad from Whole Foods for dinner that night.  Thank you, Mom!

I spy baked tofu, broccoli, roasted brussel sprouts and sweet potato, bell peppers, and onion! Yeah, my mom knows how to do it up right.

I was inspired to hold a pizza party tonight for my mom and I, after noticing these lovely pitas hanging around the household.  I topped my pizza with tomato basil sauce, broccoli, onion, artichoke hearts, and asparagus. Good combo, don’t you think?

Before Baking

After Baking

They were SO GOOD!  The pitas got nice and crispy after being in the 450 degree oven for a couple minutes.  I loved pizza party night.  What’s your favorite pizza topping?

Besides dining on these seriously good eats, I got to spend some quality time with my main man, Pokey.  We watched the food network, cuddled, and stared out the window.

Nap time for  me!  I hope I feel better tomorrow.

Despite feeling awful when I got up this morning, I jumped right out of bed and started to get ready to meetup with my friends, Erica and Yumna for lunch at Candle Cafe!  It was Yumna’s very first vegan meal.  Of course we had to do it up right for my girl!

It’s always so hard to choose when dining at Candle.  Soup is always a comfort food for me when I’m not feeling too hot, so I opted for a bowl of steaming hot butternut squash soup and the refreshing roasted pear salad.

Both of these were incredible!  The soup was so flavorful and creamy, while the salad gave the meal the crunch that I love.  The salad consists of shaved fennel, walnuts, roasted pear, and tofu cheese over a bed of spicy arugula.  Topped with the fruity vinaigrette, this was one amazing salad.

Yumna spotted the seitan burger across the room and knew this was the perfect choice for the first vegan meal.  The burger was huuuge!  Definitely a good choice.  She loved it!  The burger came with fries and an extremely fabulous coleslaw.

Erica decided on one of my favorites for lunch today, the paradise casserole.  This is one nutrionally stellar meal!  Layers of millet, black beans, and sweet potato over a bed of steamed spinach make for one terrific dish.  I think I’m going to try to make this next weekend, I can’t wait!

This meal was not going to be complete without a trio of some of the best desserts Candle Cafe has to offer!

Carrot Cake

Vanilla Cheesecake

Berry Cobbler

The star dessert for me was definitely the berry cobbler.  I am a sucker for warm, berry pie paired up with cold, vanilla soy ice cream.  It’s a winning combination, for sure.

Our lunch at Candle Cafe was fabulous!  I had a really great time hanging with these blog ladies, and I am excited for more vegan food adventures.  Woohoo!

Erica and I headed downtown to Moo Shoes to check out what vegan footwear they had to offer.  Moo Shoes sells all cruelty-free apparel, if you aren’t familiar.  I didn’t purchase anything today, but I am so glad I finally got to check it out.  This is definitely the kind of business I like to support.  The store was simply adorable and there were lots of cute kitties running around!

After working up an appetite for dinner, we wandered around the village until we hit Sacred Chow.

Still feeling quite ill, I went straight for the red bean and vegetable soup, while Erica chose the sweet potato and yuca soup.  I don’t typically like bean soups, but the one I ordered was fantastic!  It was brothy, but packed with chunky vegetables and soft red beans.

It hit the spot.  I’m telling ya, I always appreciate soup so much more when I’m feeling sick.

I have more pictures to post but I am feeling really awful right now.  I’m going to head off to bed, but I hope you all have spectacular nights!  I’ll leave you with this sign I saw today that made me laugh, aaand a sick me playing around with PhotoBooth.

Goodnight!

..keeps the blues away?

Unfortunately, I have seemed to have come down with some sort of virus so there were no real cupcakes for me!  I did, however, find these little gems hiding in my desk.  They surely brightened my day.

As I said before, I am pretty sick.  I hope I don’t have the flu!  I’ve stayed in bed all day, besides a run to the corner store, so I don’t have too many fabulous meals to post from today.  I do have some tasty eats to show ya from yesterday though!  Lunch was a super comforting meal at Angelica Kitchen with the best company!

We both chose the French Lentil Soup to start.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again- Angelica Kitchen is the ultimate soup joint!  This bowl was steamy, hearty, and exactly what I wanted.  The flavors were deep and the soup was spiked with chunks of vegetables which added to the depth of the dish.  Mmm!

We were both pretty curious about the Nori Maki at Angelica Kitchen.  I’m always hesitant to order sushi anywhere but Miya’s.  It just doesn’t seem worth it!  But anyway, we tried it.  It was alright.  This roll was stuffed with sweet potato, seitan, carrot, green beans, and cilantro pesto.  It wasn’t actually as flavorful as I thought it would be.  I have high standards for sushi, and I just wasn’t really feeling these.  Look at me, what a sushi snob!

We both ended up ordering the same exact thing for the main part of our meal.  The warm roasted vegetable salad never lets me down.  I love the warm chunks of sweet potato, butternut squash, carrots, onions, and other root vegetables, topped with two mini crustinis, spread with garlic hummus.  A healthy and hearty end to a great meal!

I also want to say hello to our waiter from yesterday, if he is reading!

After our meal at Angelica, we were definitely in need of some cake.  Yesterday was a really bad day for me, and comfort in the form of cake is what I wanted.  The staff at Atlas must have been able to tell how upset I was, because they served us up two huge pieces of these vegan treats.

We’ve got one monstrous piece of Carrot Cake, along side the equally huge slice of Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake.  The carrot cake was outstanding.  It tasted just as fresh as it would have been on delivery day!  In case you are wondering, Vegan Treats delivers their delights to NYC eateries on Tuesdays, so if you want the largest selection of cake, I suggest hitting up your favorite Vegan Treats dealer on Tuesday nights or Wednesday!  The chocolate peanut butter cake was so rich, spread with a fudgy chocolate frosting.  Hidden between the layers of soft, flavorful chocolate cake is a creamy peanut butter filling.

These cakes, along with a fantastic day with Erica, definitely helped me feel better.  I don’t know what I’d do with out her!

So, fast forward to lunch time today.  I was feeling pretty sick and definitely not in the mood to cook, so I headed over to a cute little deli a block up for their salad bar offerings.  I was very impressed!  While this isn’t a strictly vegetarian place, they offered a wide selection of hot and cold vegan options.  I piled up a box full of roasted and raw vegetables, soft tofu, and bean salads and went on my way back home.

On the way back, I noticed that Law and Order: Criminal Intent will be filming on my block tomorrow!!  I plan on spending a good portion of the day stalking them.  I am obsessed with Law and Order.  I am sure I am not the only one who falls into a trace while watching those marathons and before you know it, the day is over.

Besides being on the look-out for the stars of Law and Order, I am heading uptown to eat lunch with some great company at Candle Cafe tomorrow!  I am so excited

Another piece of cake, that is!

Have I told you about my love of Queen?  I’m sure you could guess by the name of this blog.  Have you ever noticed how everything seems so much more epic when you listen to Queen?  Today I was walking around the streets of New York City with Queen blasting in my iPod and I felt like I was in a movie.

I’ve been feeling very silly all day today, so I broke out my hula hoop before meeting up with Erica for tea time at Teany.

After the hula hooping shenanigans, I put on my jacket and took the train over to Teany.  I was starving, so I ordered a cup of tomato soup and an edamame hummus sandwich.  Mmmm!

The sandwich was so fresh and delightful!  A+ Teany, A+!  I wasn’t a big fan of the soup, however.  I’ve never been a fan of tomato soup though, I am not even sure why I thought I would like it.

You know there is always cake on the menu!  We tried the Chocolate Macaroon Cake today.  It was very meh to me, as I am not a fan of coconut.  I had a bite or two before I called it quits.  Coconut is not for me!

I’m going to go rock out to some more Queen!  I encourage you to do the same   Feel free to discuss your feelings about Queen/favorite songs/etc in the comments!

The weather in the city was just awful today!  At some points I was pretty sure I was about to take off and get blown away.  Sheesh!  Anyway, there are really only a few reasons I’d brave such conditions; one of them being lunch with Erica.  We thought today would be the perfect day to head back to the restaurant where we had first met.

I strolled on over to Cafe Blossom, which is conviently located near the Museum of Natural History and Central Park.  I was planning on ordering the same dish I had when we first visited this vegan paradise, but apparently it’s only served at dinnertime.  Boo!

I picked and paired up four of the sides that sounded particularly delicious today.  On my plate we have a big ol’ pile of brussel sprouts, steamed kale, arame seaweed, and grilled tofu.  The brussel sprouts were perfectly cooked, slightly crisp, and mildly sweet.  Yum.  Take a look at those grill marks!  Pretty, don’t you think?

Erica went with the familiar Rosemary Walnut Crusted Seitan dish that she feasted on last time we dined here.

Cafe Blossom is very generous with their seitan!  Under the two massive slabs of seitan is a creamy cauliflower puree, on top of a bed of spinach.  The whole dish was smothered in a cream sauce that was absolutely delicious.  I was lucky enough to snag a bite of the seitan and boy, was it good!  It was so tender and so boldly flavored!

I really, really love Cafe Blossom!  The staff is very friendly and accommodating, and of course, the food has never let me down.  Our waiter even wrapped up my tofu in a very cute way which I highly enjoyed.  It’s the small things in life, people.  I enjoy this location much, much more than the original Blossom.

We didn’t have much else to do, so we walked on down the road for a bit with not much of a destination.  Erica and I hadn’t planned on dessert today, but it just so happened that we were headed straight towards Josie’s.  You all know how I feel about Josie’s.

Of course we stopped in for some pie!  Do you think I could ever pass Josie’s and not sneak in for some pie?  I have no self-control!  We shared the warm, Apple Pie.  It was just as good as all the others.  Josie’s crumble toppings are just fabulous.

After the pie I had some serious grocery shopping to do.  My shelves are bare!  We wandered along in the direction of Whole Foods and eventually meandered into the set of Law and Order’s SVU!  Okay, we didn’t really see the set.. or any celebrities.. but I saw this sign (and dressing rooms) and it made me happy.

My mom and I really love this show, so that photo is for you mom.  Next time I’ll sneak in and get an autograph !

I wanted to ask you guys in the last post, how do you guys like the blog?  Is there anything you’d like to see?  Anything you don’t like?  I want to make sure I keep this interesting and exciting, so I thought I’d ask for suggestions.  Thanks!

I’m going to curl into bed with the last Twilight book and read until I fall asleep.  Later!

I’ve been blogging for exactly one year, today!  Gosh, this year has gone by so fast.  It has definitely been a journey.  I started my blog, Sweet Potatoe, with no real subject in mind and it slowly morphed into a vegan food blog.  It was only natural, as baking and cooking has been a passion of mine for a while now.  This blog has come such a long way since then, and I am so grateful that you all have joined me through my foodie journey.

I’ll get to what I did today a bit later, but first I’d like to recap yesterday!  I, unfortunately, woke up at 3 am and I wasn’t able to fall back asleep.  Booo!  Naturally, I stumbled into the kitchen and began baking.  As you probably have seen, I love Candle Cafe‘s cheesecake!  They don’t have the vanilla cheesecake recipe in the cookbook, but I adapted the blood orange cheesecake recipe to my liking!  This cheesecake is a vegan, vanilla cheesecake, topped with chocolate ganache and chocolate covered pretzels.  I also used a touch of chocolate extract in the recipe, but I am unsure if it actually had much of an effect on the taste.  I would like to share the recipe, but I am going to hold off until I’ve got it perfect.  I made a few mistakes due to lack of ingredients, but it still was pretty tasty.

I waited around, bored, until my family got up and we were able to drive up to New Haven for some shopping and dining.  We were starving when we got there, so we drove right over to Claire’s Cornercopia for some fuel.

Claire’s was so crowded yesterday!  We waited, waited, and waited until our food finally came.  I was served up a thick, creamy bowl of Split Pea Soup and a plate full of fresh salad greens and vegetables.  Mmmm!  It was the perfect warming meal on the chilly day.

My mom ordered chili to warm her up!  It definitely did that!  This chili was very spicy and extremely chunky!  I loved how they topped the chili with tortilla chips, they were the perfect utensils for the chili.

I had a very lovely time spending the day in New Haven!  Anyway, this morning I hopped on a train and I’m now back in New York City.  It is good to be back!  I spent today with Erica and we went out to celebrate our blog anniversaries.  We both started blogging a couple days apart, a year ago.  Isn’t that funny and kind of weird?  We have so much in common that it’s scary!  We’re like the same person, haha.  First up for us was a nice, light lunch at S’Nice, in the West Village.

More Split Pea Soup!  Yum.  Split Pea is definitely my favorite soup.  It’s always so hearty and flavorful!

Erica chose the Thai Salad for herself.  This salad is gorgeous!  Just look at those roasted peanuts, crisp edamame, and those crunchy sprouts.  Topped with the carrot ginger dressing, this was one flavorful and exciting salad!

My mind was made up when I saw that S’Nice was offering roasted cauliflower and brussel sprouts!  I ordered the House Salad, topped with all the vegetable side they were offering today.  It was just what I was craving!

I brought the cheesecake to S’Nice as a blogiversary/Valentine’s gift, so of course we had to break into it for an after lunch treat.

The desserts don’t stop there!  I hope you aren’t sick of seeing Josie’s desserts yet.  I’m sure I don’t need to describe these pies anymore!  I stuck with mostly the fresh fruit with my tea, as my stomach was feeling a bit off.

Are you drooling yet?  I am just thinking about them!

After dessert, we headed to Barney’s for my favorite exercise, shopping cardio   I tried on a couple pairs of jeans and decided that it would be alright to splurge on a new pair.  I couldn’t pass them up, they were quite perfect!

Oh, and we stopped in Magnolia’s to ogle their cupcakes!

I received my Valentine’s Exchange gift today!  Maddy from Bake, Pray, Love sent me this fantastic package!  It definitely made my night!  Thank you, Maddy!

I squeeled with joy when I saw the box of Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride tea and vegan cookies!  Thank you, girl!  I am so appreciative, you really put a lot of thought into this and it means so much.  You rule!

One more thing!  I want to introduce you to my kitty, Zelda.  She was jealous that Pokey got to be in the blog and wanted me to post a picture of her too.

I hope I didn’t overwhelm you with this monster of a post!  I do hope you all have a spectacular night

Back in Connecticut!  Yes!  Gosh, it is nice to be here.  I’ve spent a lot of time just relaxing and resting.  I’ve got a ton of photos to share with you guys.  Where to start?  There has been a lot of these..

Roasted Vegetables

and one of these..

Pokey!

Erica came into town yesterday and we ventured to New Haven to dine at some fabulous establishments there.  First on the menu was Miya’s Sushi.  We were a bit early so we stopped at the local vegetarian supermarket, Edge of the Woods, to pick up a breakfast cupcake for Erica.

Once at Miya’s, we were greeted with two steaming bowls of Pumpkin Miso Soup.

We chose a wide variety of different vegetable rolls to choose from.  First up was Curry Cauliflower.  Followed by Kiss The Smiling Piggie (sweet potato, mango chutney, and pine nuts), Charlie Chan (broccoli, black bean, and garlic), Artichoke Cumin, and Japafrican Queen (avocado, apricot, ethiopian spice, wrapped in a crepe).

One more Kiss The Smiling Piggie Roll snuck itself in there as well

Mmm, these were just as good as they look.  There is no sushi comparable to these fabulous creations.  I highly recommend getting yourself over to New Haven for sushi as soon as you can!

We browsed some shops and drank some coffee before meeting up with my boyfriend, Christopher, at Ahimsa, which is across the street from Miya’s.  As Erica and I had already had lunch, we stuck with dessert while Chris enjoyed this fresh, raw Zucchini Fettucine Alfredo.  The presentation is gorgeous, and he really enjoyed the meal!

Erica and I ordered a favorite dessert of mine that she has never tried before, Tirimisu.  I had the tirimisu the last time I dined at Ahimsa, and it was just as great today!  The layers of cake were light and moist with a subtle coffee flavor, while the cream was fluffy and sweet.  We also wanted to try one of the raw desserts, so we picked out the Raw Apple Pie.  Yum!  The crust was a mixture of nuts and dates, which tasted like a lara bar!  Yes, please!

Erica and I did have a lot of fantastic resturant eats, but we also were pretty productive and cooked up a storm!  Our baking adventure started out with some Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches.  The recipe is adapted from a Martha Stewart carrot cake cookie recipe, and is absolutely fabulous!  Sandwiched between the two cookies is a sweet and sugary, vegan cream cheese icing.

In between the baking adventures, we broke for lunch and hit up the local Whole Foods Market for some serious veggie and fruit action.  We packed our bowls high with vegetables and munched on the ripest fruit salad I’ve had in a while!

When we got back from lunch, we decided to give Polenta Fries a try!  As you may know, the polenta fries from Candle 79 and one of my favorite things to order and I crave them all the time.  Our polenta fries were super easy and almost just as tasty the Candle ones.

Want to give these a try?  They are so simple!  All you do is cook your polenta (we used 1 1/4 cup in 4 cups of water), seasoned them with salt, pepper, garlic, and parsley, poured it into a sheet pan, let it cool, sliced it into fry shapes, then baked them at 450 degrees for about 35 minutes.

We fired up the oven one last time before Erica left to bake up Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan’s Super-Charge Me Cookies.  I hadn’t had these before, and I am so glad I finally made them!  They are nutrionally fabulous, as well as super tasty.  We made mini cookies and it was so hard to stop popping them into my mouth continously.

Phew, that was one long post!  I’m beat.  I must go ice my sprained foot and rest up for a romantic Valentine’s Day tomorrow

Gosh, these past couple days with my mom have been so much fun!  It was great to be able to show her all the places I hang out, shop, eat and spend time with her.  Sadly, she had to leave late last night, but not to worry!  I am actually heading home today because I have seemed to have injured my foot and I’m going to the doctor’s office today.  I am quite excited to be able to see the rest of my family and my boyfriend!  Erica might even be stopping by later in the week for some Connecticut fun! 

I won’t bore you writing a whole novel about the week, so on to the food!  For lunch, we headed down to a favorite lunch spot, Angelica Kitchen.  As you may know, I absolutely adore Angelica’s soups.  Today was no different!  I ordered a cup of Creamy Carrot Soup.  The soup came garnished with a piece of whole wheat toast.  Mmmm!  It was fun to scoop the soup up with the toast.  Anyway, the soup was great!  It was subtly sweet and definitely creamy!

I wasn’t too hungry yet and I was craving broccoli- just plain, steamed broccoli.  With broccoli on the brain, I went with the basics.  They were, as you can imagine, pretty basic.  A big mound of broccoli and a pile of steamed greens, covering a couple blocks of steamed sweet potato and butternut squash.

My mom loved the chili she ate last time we were here so she decided to order it once again!  Just as hearty as last time, my mom really enjoyed it!  Angelica Kitchen has some fabulous corn bread, so next time you come here, be sure to try it.

Along with the same carrot soup I had ordered, Erica went with the Si Se Puede Salad.  It was a little plain, but photogenic, that’s for sure!  This salad had a base layer of mixed greens, topped with beets, chickpeas, and a few crustinis topped with a hummus spread.

While Angelica’s desserts are tasty, we opted out and headed uptown to Josie’s for a replay of last night’s dessert.

Look familiar?  I told you guys we’d be back, although I didn’t think it’d be quite so soon!   No complaints here, though.  The dessert there is hard to resist.

After a successful shopping trip, we stopped for dinner.  Man, it was good to sit down!  The past couple days we have been walking so much!

After such a pleasent dining experience the day before, Candle Cafe seemed to be the perfect place to dine before my mom left to go back to Connecticut.  I’ve said it before, but the staff at Candle Cafe is just so fabulous!  Everyone is so kind and friendly.  When we were seated, we were brought over a complimentry plate of Candle’s fabulous Seitan Chimmichuri.  We absolutely adored it!  The seitan is perfectly chewy and flavorful.

On a seitan kick, Erica and I both chose a seitan dish.  On the menu for me was a satisfying plate of Sweet and Sour Seitan.  My dish was like a healthier version of the sweet and sour dishes I always loved at local chinese restaurants.. but better!  The rice on the side was cooked perfectly, by the way.  The meal was rounded out with a serving of sauteed string beans and peppers.  Erica was in the mood for the fantastic Porcini Crusted Seitan, served on a bed of sauteed spinach and potato puree. We definitely are seitan worshippers!!

My mom went with the Quesadilla Appetizer as her meal.  The portion was pretty generous, and made a nice, light meal.  The quesadilla was filled with beans, mushrooms, and soy cheese. A winning combo, in my book.

It’s been a fabulous couple of days!  It’ll be nice to be able to sit back for a while, I’ve been running around nonstop.  Have a great Wednesday!

I am singing the laundry room blues!  You would not believe the amount of time my mother and I have waited, waited, and waited for a dryer to free up.  Geez!

Anyway, on to the good news!  My mom came to visit!  It’s been a super fun filled today.  I want to write all about it, but I am so tired.  I’ll give you guys a brief photo update, though!  When my mom first got to my place, she helped me organize my place a bit.  It’s not really that my room was so messy, but I lack organization skills!  It was nice to have some help.  We worked quite the appetite and chose to dine at Candle Cafe for lunch.

I can’t find the photo of my moms meal, but I got this tasty Lemon Basil Tofu special.  This dish consists of lemon-basil tofu, stacked high on a bed of wilted spinach, crunchy brussel sprouts, beluga lentils, surrounded by a fabulous tomato truffle sauce.  The sauce was perfect!  It tasted like pizza, in my opinion!

My mom ordered a fabulous and hearty Tuscan Parmesean Sandwich with a Mixed Green Salad, but of course I lost the photo!  Oh well.

As we were about to settle down to dessert, Erica showed up!  It was a fabulous surprise!  As it was my mom’s first time at Candle, of course we had to indulge in Candle’s decadent and luscious desserts!  Carrot Cake and Chocolate Mousse Pie, of course!

You won’t believe who we spotted while eating at Candle Cafe.  David Duchovny, once again!  We ran into a celebrity within the first two hours of my mom being here.  He must love Candle Cafe just as much as I do!

For dinner, we headed back uptown to revisit a restaurant Erica and I have dined at before- Josie’s.  The food at Josie’s today was pretty mediocre, though!  It was a big let down.  I barely ate any of my meal!  Boooo.

I ordered the Veggie Deluxe Plate.  I definitely would not order this again.  I’m not a fan of mushrooms, fennel, or beets, so it didn’t leave too many veggies after that!  The acorn squash was good, but nothing special.

Erica ordered the Seared Asian Tofu Salad.  It was pretty good, just like last time!  I do like this salad as it’s definitely hearty and they don’t skimp on the toppings.  Just look at all those vegetables and chickpeas!  She also ordered the French Fries, which were not as crispy as we’d like.  I think that is because Josie’s air-bakes them instead of frying them.

My mom was very pleased with her dish!  She chose the Organic Angel Hair Pomadoro.  Mmmm!  It looks so tasty, doesn’t it?

To redeem my not so great meal, we went all out with dessert.  Can’t argue with that!

Ginger-Berry Pie

Peach Blueberry Pie

Mmmmm!  I love the creamy, cool soy ice cream paired with the warm, fruity pies.  Delicious!  We also chowed down on the Chocolate Pecan Pie but I somehow misplaced that photo too!  Too bad, because that one was our favorite.

While the food at Josie’s was just alright, the desserts are out of this world!  I’ll definitely be back for dessert again.

The rest of my our night was spent staring into space in the laundry room of my building.  Ugh!  Thankfully, the laundry is all done and we can finally get to sleep.  I can’t wait to spend all of tomorrow with my mom too!  I am so happy she came to visit me

There is not much that can beat the fresh, organic atmosphere of a farmer’s market.  Union Square holds a fabulous farmer’s market a couple days a week, and I had to pleasure of checking out this afternoon with Erica!  I’ll get to the farmer’s market later, but first I want to show you all the good eats of the day.

Angelica Kitchen has some of the most fantastic soups that the New York vegan scene has to offer!  Erica and I decided to start our meal with a cup each of the special soup- Creamy Root Vegetable!  The soup had a fresh, sweet flavor, along with being perfectly creamy, as promised.

Erica was in the mood for one of Angelica’s delicious sandwiches- the Sam or I.  The sandwich featured baked tofu, a carrot ginger spread, nori, and other assorted vegetables. She mentioned that it tasted like sushi!  That is one fabulous sandwich, in my book!  I was craving some raw veggies, so I decided to go with the plain and straight forward House Salad.  It was just your standard house salad, but it was exactly what I was looking for to pair with my soup!

For once, I was not in the mood for cake- trying to give my sweet tooth a break, you know?  I ventured over to Atlas with Erica anyway so she could fill the Vegan Treats void!  When I saw her choice, I did have to try it out!  I sampled a bite of her Chocolate Mousse Cake.  Wow, it was chocolately!  It was so intense, so rich, so moist!  Vegan Treats does it again!  The Vanilla-Rasberry Cake was not consumed by us, but we did photograph it before it was packed up to take home to Erica’s mom.  Okay.. we did try a bite before it got all packaged up.  This was the first Vegan Treats cake that I wasn’t too fond of!  I’m not a big fan of raspberry jam, and there was just too much of it for me!

After dessert, we wandered around a while until we stumbled upon the Union Square farmer’s market!  This is fabulous place for photography.  Fresh produce is so photogenic.

The colors are beautiful, aren’t they?  I can’t wait to go back to the farmer’s market!  It is one of my new favorite spots here int he city.  We worked up a huge appetite with the photography, so once we filled our memory cards, we headed over to Candle Cafe!

Still craving lots and lots of veggies, I picked out the Ginger Miso Stir-Fry for dinner.  Chock full of broccoli, peppers, cabbage, brown rice, and tofu, this stir-fry was unbelievably satisfying and filling!  The ginger-miso sauce was out of this world!  I would definitely order this again.

Erica’s dinner was quite fancy-looking!  Candle Cafe had a special of Cashew Crusted Seitan.  The seitan was set upon a tower of wilted spinach, tender asparagus, and potato gratin.  How lovely!

It will come as no surprise that we ordered dessert!  After much deliberation, we ordered the Vanilla Cheesecake with Chocolate Drizzle.  Something about the cheesecake was a bit off today, boo!  It was still tasty, just not as amazing as usual.

I am beat, so I’m going to finish off this quick entry before I fall asleep at my laptop!  I just finished PS: I Love You, and I guess now it’s time to put another movie in to soothe me to sleep.  I love watching girly movies while falling asleep.  It’s just so comforting and relaxing!  What is your favorite chick flick?

I’ve also got to rest up as I’m starting my job search on Monday!  I am nervous and excited.  Wish me luck!