vegan chai

mmm, brunch

we capped off our convention visit to chicago by stopping at karyn's cooked for brunch (we had karyn's the first night for dinner, too... bookends!). we'd never been there for brunch before, but there were tons of great options. i had another smoothie (peach-banana this time), an order of banana french toast, and my husband and i split an order of potato pancakes (in addition to his scramble/skillet breakfast). everything was really tasty! we left feeling full, but not uncomfortable. i also snagged a gigantic cookie for the train ride home. thank you, chicago, for feeding us so well!

only two more meal posts, i promise

i know i just keep blogging about what i ate today, but i can't help it! i'm gorging myself on delicious vegan restaurant food and i feel compelled to share. ;) tonight, we decided to head back to the diner for another go. we had some "convention parties" to attend tonight (our own department's, as well as our alma mater's), so we headed over for a really early dinner before the parties started. i had the country fried steak, which comes with mashed potatoes, and i also had a little side of mac and cheese. ha! a side of starch with your starch, miss? the server didn't even bat an eye, and in fact he said with very good humor, "well it's not like people come here to eat health food!" awesome. i then, of course, had a pumpkin shake for dessert. that thing is seriously the best shake on the planet, no exceptions, no lie. 

tomorrow morning we have brunch in store, so i'll blab about that once it's been eaten, but then i promise to stop my obsessive meal-blogging. 

almost exploded from food

holy smokes did i ever overdo it tonight. yikes. after another day of near-fasting (i ate an apple cider muffin and a chocolate chip cookie for breakfast and snack, respectively--both procured from the diner last night), we headed out to a new (to us) place for dinner. we finally got to handlebar after hearing about it from all sorts of people, and it did not disappoint. it was busy, but we were seated right away, and our server was very friendly and helpful. we ordered an appetizer of samosas, and then we both ordered the vegan chicken buffalo wrap. i had a side of garlic mashed potatoes, husband had a salad (he's such a good boy). 

we realized right after our entrees arrived that our samosas had never shown up, and i should have listened to my instincts and just let it be, but instead i asked the server to bring them anyway. ugh, what a mistake. there was So Much Food i thought i would die. the buffalo wraps were *super* tasty, spicy and ranchy all at once. we both loved them. the garlic mashed potatoes were heavy on the garlic (yay) and really really good, and the samosas were good as well, but i really thought i was going to explode and we had to make ourselves stop before we regretted it. we left without dessert, and attempted to walk off some calories. urp.

more chicago eating!

yummers, we just went to the diner for dinner! we took the el and the place was jammed when we got there, but eventually a massive party left and everyone who had been waiting outside got to come in and sit down. i had a meatball sub with a side of sweet potato fries. the sub was a little unwieldy, so i just poured the marinara sauce all over it and kinfe-and-forked my way through it. the sweet potato fries were ridiculously awesome. after i crammed all of that in my mouth, i had to order the pumpkin shake, which is one of my very favorite things at the chicago diner EVER. they put chocolate sauce on the inside of the glass before filling it up with pumpkin shake, and then they top it with vegan whipped cream and a heavy sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg or summat. lovery.

sore feet, full belly

almost every nablopomo, i end up going to a convention and blogging from the hilton. this year is no exception! i also usually have at least one post cursing the hilton, because the internet dies right in the middle of my posting and i have to re-up and i get all cranky. but that won't happen this time, because this time our national organization sprung for free wifi in the rooms. woo hoo!

anyhow, we're in chicago for the next four days, and that means one thing: seeking out the vegan restaurants. tonight we headed to karyn's cooked, a place we've visited several times before. we walked about two miles, and halfway there i bought squishy gel insoles for my boots because my heels were killing me (they're crappy cheapo boots), but once we made it there, a lot of delicious food was waiting for us. 

i decided to order a strawberry-banana smoothie because it just sounded good, and i was not disappointed. it was perfect. the soup of the day was creamy sweet potato (omg! it's like they knew i was coming!), so of course i had a cup of that. it was amazingly good; i could have eaten it forever. and it comes with a side of cornbread, yum. for dinner i hemmed and hawed for quite awhile (it's always a blessing and a curse to be able to order anything off the menu), but eventually settled on the flautas. they came with a side of refried black beans, a side of guacamole, and some super-delicious tomatillo sauce. i also asked if they would bring me a side of their cheesy sauce, which they did. i pretty much cut up the flautas and mixed everything else in and went nuts. it was fabulous and i thought i would explode by the time i was done.

we walked the two miles back to our hotel, hopefully walking off some of the calories in the process, and now i'm being a slug in the hotel room. i'm not sure where we'll go next, but i'm pretty sure a trip to the diner is in store, and we'd also really like to check out handlebar. mmm, chicago food.

friendly face in the crowd

today after class, one of my students came down to the front of class to talk to me. my lecture is pretty big (260+ students), so i don't really get to know the vast majority of my students. usually, if they come to talk to me (rather than just going straight to their TA), it's either because they want to complain about a grade or they want to tell me a funny story that they thought of during lecture. (guess which one of those i prefer? heh.)

so anyhow, today as i'm packing up my laptop i hear a friendly girl say my name, and when i look up, she's handing me a piece of folded up paper. she said, "i thought you might be interested in this... it's for a vegan thanksgiving here in town?" i was a little surprised, because i never talk about veganism in class (although, to be fair, i have a "go vegan" message in my email sig file, and one of my TAs has talked about my veganism with her discussion sections, so i'm not exactly closeted, either). 

anyhow, based on what she said i think she saw it on my facebook page (i'm listed as the faculty advisor for a vegan outreach group on campus). i thought it was so cute and sweet of her to bring me the flyer for vegan thanksgiving! i thanked her, and asked if she was... "vegetarian, or...?" i went for the conservative guess because i didn't want to make her feel weird if all she was doing was bringing something to my attention, you know? she immediately smiled and said she was vegan. squee! i got all excited and said, "oh yay! i kind of want to hug you right now! can i hug you right now?" and she said yes and gave me a big hug. I AM SUCH A HUGE DORK. thank goodness there are people out there who indulge my dorkiness. 

i encouraged her to get involved in the campus vegan outreach group, and i'm going to make a point to tell her about meetup too. isn't it silly (but awesome) how we feel an instant connection when we find a random vegan? yay! 

bittersweet as usual

i really love volunteering at the humane society every monday, but i really see my share of crap, and it makes me hate (some) people sometimes. today, for instance, i met one of the cutest little puppies ever. she's probably about 3 or 4 months old, a black pit bull mix with adorable white markings, and she's friendly as all get-out. she's lovey-dovey and gives kisses and is everyone's friend. she is also horrifyingly skinny. and are you ready for the kicker? she arrived yesterday, covered in lighter fluid. some assface kids had poured it all over her, and were picking on her, and calling her "pit bull bait," when a woman who does TNR saw them and rescued her. this sweet little puppy, who was probably wagging her tail while they tormented her. it makes me want to vomit. all i can do now is keep reminding myself that she's in the right place, and now she'll have a chance to get healthy and go to a wonderful home... but wow, it's hard to focus on the positive sometimes.

bringing it to the masses

i have always loved ellen degeneres, but here is why i love her today: 

http://ellen.warnerbros.com/thoughts/ 

 that is all.

isa's cookie book

i'm pretty much chomping at the bit to get isa's new cookbook, vegan cookies invade your cookie jar. when the cupcake book came out, i became completely obsessed with cupcakes (like a zillion other people), and while i generally buy anything with isa's name on it with knee-jerk quickness... at first i thought i might not be a "cookie person." don't get me wrong, i looooove to eat cookies, but i don't typically bake cookies. i'm more of a cakes/cupcakes/bars/brownies type of girl. (the only exception is the veganized version of my grandma's chocolate chip cookies, which are delicious and i am always happy to make.) well anyhow, that has all changed. i recently made one of the recipes from isa's new cookie book after she gave a little preview on her blog (the mexican hot chocolate snickerdoodles, if yer curious), and they were SO delicious (and so easy!) that i made them twice in two days. i think i might just become a cookie person after all.

adopt a turkey!

i should have included this link in last night's post when i was whining, but for some reason i didn't. whoops. if you would like to sponsor a turkey, farm sanctuary makes it really easy (and affordable!) every year around this time. i've been sponsoring a turkey every year since i went vegan. this year, i'm going to sponsor gideon, i think. or hawthorn. i'm torn, but i will decide very soon.