Happy Mother's Day! May 8th

I hope everyone is enjoying the day with their mom! But first in other news, I've passed both my real estate exams on the first try and will start working this week! :) So I'm going to be a lot busier now, but will try to squeeze in blogging when I can!

My mom and I went to brunch today, rather than dinner (which we normally do). We decided to go to Omonia Cafe, which I'd been to once before and liked. One of the reasons I like it is because it's such a good value! For $12.95 you get...

Choice of 2 beverages, one alcoholic and non-alcoholic (I got an apple juice and a screwdriver), entree of your choice (I got the strapatsada again)...

and an amazing dessert! This time I tried the "amygdalou" (which is an almond creme cake), while my mom got the strawberry shortcake (which I got last time).

Yesterday while running errands I stumbled upon the best pizza place yet in Astoria! It's called Dino's and it's at 30th & Broadway. Next time we'll definitely be ordering from them!

And of course, even though I'm not a "real" mother yet, I am a "kitty mother" lol, so this day DOES have some special meaning to me!

Peanut may look cute, but he can be a handful... like when he "blackmails" me. How, you ask? Let me explain...

I may have brought this up before, but sometimes when Peanut wants my attention and I'm busy doing something else, he'll deliberately "threaten" to bite my computer wires! He's actually done it before too and he knows it makes me really mad!

But generally he's a good boy. He's very quiet and most of the time he just goes about his business, like...

Playing on the back of the toilet seat (chasing his tail mostly)...

Playing in paper bags...

And of course, cat napping!

He can get grumpy if I disturb him! lol

But I did force him to take a "mommy and me" picture today! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

My Birthday :) February 20th

It's that time of year again... my birthday! I decided to have my birthday dinner at Blossom, and I invited fellow bloggers Melissa and Shannon. Peanut was a little upset he wasn't included! lol

Earlier today I went to the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle (where they filmed one of my favorite more recent movies, Enchanted!). I did some shopping at the gigantic Whole Foods there first and got a "peach perfection" smoothie at Jamba Juice.

Then I headed over to Blossom. It never ceases to amaze me how good their food is. If I only knew their secret, I'd be the happiest vegan on the planet! :)

Melissa and I shared our appetizers because we both wanted to try more than one!

I started off by getting their porcini flutes.

And Melissa got their ravioli with cashew cream.

I really liked both, and they tasted very similar (both were mushroom filled). Don't let the green (pesto) sauce on mine scare you, it is SO good! And normally I wouldn't touch something that looked so, uh... odd!

I also got a side of their mashed potatoes, which truly was their all-star dish. I have NEVER eaten better mashed potatoes than this! It was worth the extra $6!!!

For my main course I got their lasagna. It never ceases to amaze me how good this is. You really don't miss regular cheese at all!

(Melissa took the photos of the food because her camera's flash was working better than mine. So thanks Melissa!)

And here we are at dinner!

(Our nice waiter took the photo)

Afterwards we ran into Cocoa V (Blossom's vegan dessert place across the street). I further bankrupted myself by getting a cupcake (hey, it's my birthday, and what's another $3 after what we had already spent?!).

This was really good and it was a closer vegan dessert place than Babycakes. The cupcake is chocolate and the frosting is vanilla (and my favorite color too!).

Overall, I'm okay being another year older. I'm not that old anyway. And I feel like I keep learning and growing. I'm in a better place in my life, healthier, and you know what? It shows! :)

I'm going to be doing a post on product reviews and recipes next, so more soon!

Lightlife Event ~ February 9th

I truly owe Lightlife a lot. Not only for the lovely event that Melissa and I attended last Wednesday (Feb. 2nd), but for all the free products they've sent us (which I will be reviewing over the course of the month)! Here are some of the professional photos from the event, taken by Diane Bondareff Photography...

Melissa and I...

A very staged pic (lol) of me getting food from one of the adorable male waiters!

And here are some of my favorite foods from the event (all are vegetarian, some are vegan):

Stuffed mushrooms

Quiche

Potstickers

Burgers

Lemon chicken with tasty brussel sprouts

Overall we had a really good time and for once I actually ENJOYED the food at one of these events! It's so hard for vegetarians (especially vegans!) to "fit in" and actually eat the food at most cocktail parties. But this was truly the exception (a good one), and I had fun!

To see more, please visit Melissa's blog (Missy Maintains). She took so many great pics that evening, including more of us and the food!

More to come with the Lightlife reviews too, so stay tuned! :)

Christmas re-cap & more! December 26th

I was up at my grandparent's house for Christmas eve & Christmas day. We were going to leave this morning, but ended up leaving late last night instead because of the blizzard heading for NY! We may get up to 2 feet of snow here. I'm praying it won't be that bad, but it's going to be a rough next couple of days, that's for sure! Anyways, my Christmas re-cap has no food in it, but instead, cute animals! :) Here are some pics I took from my grandparent's house, starting with me and the tree:

Now, on to the puppies! :)

My grandparent's dog, Mae, who you can see more of here. (She's my favorite dog in the universe! :)

And my aunt's dog, Chiclet, who visited us on Christmas Eve. (What's really cute is that Mae and Chiclet are friends and Mae actually greets Chiclet at the door when she comes over! lol)

Now I know what you're thinking, what about Peanut?!?!

Don't worry, he got his Christmas presents before we left!

One of his gifts was a mint scented toy that you can see him with here:

And I also got Peanut his very own mini box of Q-tips! lol I decorated it for him too!

(Also, please note that Peanut is MONITORED when I give him a Q-tip to play with! NEVER let a cat play with a Q-tip or any other small object unsupervised because they could choke!!)

When I got home today, despite the blizzard, I went out to the Chelsea Whole Foods to pick up a few things. First I stopped for brunch at Blossom.

(The view outside Blossom's window earlier today... they were decorated nicely for the holidays.)

I got my usual, their tofu scramble. I swear, after eating pretty much nothing but junk food the past two days, it felt SO good to eat something healthy (and delicious!). Which brings me to my next announcement...

I'm really going to be making an effort to eat vegan as much as possible for the new year! I've been a vegetarian for years anyway, so it's not that big of a jump. I'm not going to become obsessive with it (and I'm still going to eat the NYC pizza that I love!), but I do want to clean up my diet some, and the less animal products I eat, the better!

I'll probably be updating one last time before 2011, and posting more food then! But first, how was everyone's holidays so far?

New Eats! October 14th

I know I keep apologizing for my absence, but a lot has happened over the past few weeks... I am back together with my boyfriend and have been spending a lot of time catching up. :P Plus, I'm still looking for an actual job, as the magazine I was working for pays nothing. :( So it really is endless.... Anyways, I did have time to try a few new "eats" though. Here is my report:

MorningStar Farms makes new frozen entrees. I tried their new sweet & sour chik'n one (I have a lasagna one to try too that I will be "reporting" on later).

While this tasted pretty good, it was the portion size that shocked me. It was just absolutely TINY!!!! My jaw dropped when I actually got it out onto a plate. I did like the bits of chik'n though. MorningStar Farms really does have the most convincing "meats!" Still, I would not be buying this one again.

However, the real love of my life is this:

Trader Joe's meatless meatballs!! They are AMAZING and I've been finding every excuse to eat them! lol

First, traditional spaghetti and meatballs (or in my case, wagon wheels and "meatballs").

Then, a "meatball" hero! And this was FANTASTIC with a little parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

And here are some new shots of Peanut, doing what he does best-- being cute!

Here's a picture I took of Peanut and I (sorry the lighting isn't good, but it was last minute when I actually got him in my lap!).

Thanks for your continued patience as I keep taking big breaks from blogging. But I do still enjoy it and hope to have some posts for Halloween (my favorite holiday) coming up!

Brunches & Lunches! August 21st

Just a quick update today with some delicious brunch and lunch dishes that I've had recently...

Last weekend I went to brunch at the Blue Water Grill... I don't think I've been there since last August (see here)! Wow, a year goes by quickly!

I started off with their amazing bread... they always have great breads at brunch. I had two slices of their cinnamon raisin bread (at least that's what I think it was!).

Then I had their grilled asparagus and wild mushroom omelette, but I opted for cheddar cheese instead of goat cheese (which I hate!). Their omelettes always come with tasty potatoes too (plus, a free beverage-- I always get their fresh squeezed orange juice!).

One day this week I ordered lunch in from Suzie's. I got their lunch special which is a great deal. I got the bean curd homestyle, which is basically tofu and vegetables. And it comes with vegetarian wonton soup, a vegetarian egg roll, and vegetable fried rice.

Another great lunch I had was at Sacred Chow. I had been there for brunch many, many times, but never for lunch. I have always heard good things about their soy meatball hero, so that's what I ordered!

It was really good and tasted very authentic (Italian). It was very filling too, I couldn't finish it all!

And for brunch today I went to a little place in the village (but really popular brunch spot), Elephant & Castle (on Greenwich Ave. & West 11th St.).

I ordered the eggs n' apples benedict on french toast with maple syrup. How amazing does that sound?! And it was! They are famous for this dish and I can see why. It was like a spiced up version of eggs and toast.

And when I got home, I forced Peanut into another picture with me! lol

Here's a better shot of him though, up-close. He really is such a beauty!