Food Crawlin’

This past weekend was full of favorites for me and Mike. We spent the weekend at Resort at Squaw Creek in North Lake Tahoe. We stayed at this resort for the first time last year and got upgraded to a fireplace suite. Whoever upgraded us should get some sort of promotion because the resort has become a home away from home for us during the past year! And we splurge for the suites because having a fireplace (and a stove, a toaster, a master bedroom and 2 TVs) in your hotel room, never gets old!

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Aside from staying at the resort, we partook in a pretty amazing food crawl. If you don’t know what a food crawl is (like many of the waiters and waitresses who wanted to be sure we only wanted a salad… for both of us… to split…), it’s when you “crawl” from eatery to eatery having your appetizer, salad, soup, entree, dessert, etc. all at different restaurants. Food crawls are great because they allow you to sample a lot of different foods, especially on vacations when there are so many restaurants to try!

We started at the welcoming event the resort offers on Friday evenings with beer and app samples and then went to the pub located on the property. Here we each ordered a cocktail and decided on the pretzel bites (you might remember when I wasn’t eating meat in March and ordered these same pretzel bites for dinner).

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Next we took the free shuttle service to The Village and stopped at a bar(?) called 22. If I’m being honest, I have to say this was my least favorite stop on the crawl. We split a steak salad with fennel and beets. I enjoyed the salad but the atmosphere, in my opinion, was lacking. It felt a little old world and stuffy… (and I thought it smelt weird but Mike didn’t feel the same so, who knows?)

After our salad, we went to another pub (this one Irish) and ordered the potato skins and sliders which were so unhealthy and full of fat and cheese and calories amazing! We ended our food crawl with a pear tart at a pizza place (not photographed) and a nightcap back in our suite!

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The next day, we took the tram to the top of the mountains where there was a pool, hot tub, cafe, bar, and a mini-museum from the 1960 Olympics that were hosted at Squaw. At the cafe we split 3 appetizers (another good way to try a lot of different things!!); the bruschetta with an avocado drizzle, a flat bread with spinach, figs and a balsamic glaze, and BBQ wings. I had higher hopes for the flat bread and the bruschetta – which were both just okay – but the wings were the NOM and Mike gave me the last/uneven extra one so ya know… I fell in love with him all over again, type thing.

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Lunch trio!

For dinner (I fell in love, yet again;), Mike treated me to a fancy-schmancy steak dinner at Six Peaks, the resort’s restaurant. We started with a cheese and meat sampler that I could have had all to myself and called it a meal. We also ordered/split (do you see a common theme here?) a rib-eye and a fillet with truffle mashed potatoes and asparagus. Seriously. So. Good.

Last, but not least, we ended the night with my FAVORITE chocolate covered Oreo’s with mini M&Ms on top (I don’t even like Oreo’s in “real life” but put me on top of a mountain, charge me Mike $4.50 per Oreo and #bliss).

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Cheese and meat eats

So, to recap, obviously my attempt to stop eating meat during The Veg Voyage has been derailed (steak salad and wings and rib-eye, oh, MY!) but you know what they say………………….. Oreos are vegan.

Stay tuned and eat your greens.


** Note this blog went through a rebrand and is now veg vibes; which aligns better with the direction I organically gravitated towards. It’s all about your vibe **

Nashville, TN

This past weekend I went to visit my friend Leslie, who is attending business school in Nashville. Honestly, I was a little nervous about trying not to eat meat in the south. Was it going to be possible?

To my surprise, it was very possible! Read on about what I ate during my southern adventure.

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My soup and salad during my layover

My trip started off rocky with a canceled flight and then a four hour layover in Saint Louis. I had a banana, a poppy seed muffin, and earl gray tea while still in San Francisco. While in Saint Louis, I found a California Pizza Kitchen in the airport and ordered the split pea soup and a $9 salad with mixed greens, two slices of onions and like, 5 cranberries. Ugh! Luckily, my soup was nom and was so filling that I was able to save my salad for dinner when I (finally) arrived at Leslie’s house. For dinner, I added some organic chicken (because Leslie is also a health nut) to my salad and paired it with a tortilla and hummus. Carbo loading before the bars is a must, people!

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Bar bathroom mirror pics! #basic

The next morning we got brunch and coffee. I ordered a breakfast wrap without the sausage and the best latte I’ve had in a while. (I think milk in my coffee would be the hardest thing to give up if I ever try veganism….)

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One of the best lattes I’ve ever had!

For dinner, we went to a place called Adele’s to celebrate a birthday! Leslie and I split the salmon, risotto with shrimp, and a side of sauteed spinach. A lot of food before a night out at the Honky Tonks!

After some barhopping, we ended the night with slices of veggie pizza (at 3:30am, which is later than I’ve stayed out for at least 2 years).

The next morning we went for another coffee run at The Frothy Monkey and then headed to The Loveless Cafe for a seriously southern breakfast. The Loveless Cafe is a major tourist spot with a wait of TWO HOURS! This was my last day in Nashville and we had places to be and things to see (!) so we ordered our food to go and ate cheese grits and biscuits and gravy in Les’ car. (Pure class!) Disclaimer: I’m pretty sure the gravy was not vegetarian. Oops!

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The Loveless Cafe. Nashville, TN

And then it was time for dinner and HOT CHICKEN, which Nashville is famous for. Being from California, I sufficiently embarrassed Leslie and ordered my chicken grilled instead of fried…!

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Les and her HOT CHICKEN

Overall, Nashville was an all around good time filled with good music, good food (even if it wasn’t all vegetarian…), and the best company!

Added bonus: if you’re a fan of the show Nashville, like I am, the Blue Bird Cafe is just like it is shown of the show. …Expect a lot smaller and right next to a McDonald’s…

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A must see in Nashville!

Stay tuned and eat your greens.


** Note this blog went through a rebrand and is now veg vibes; which aligns better with the direction I organically gravitated towards. It’s all about your vibe **

Veggie Vacay

This past weekend my guy and I went on a mini weekend get away to one of our favorite spots in Tahoe, Resort at Squaw Creek. This was the first time I vacationed with my new vegetarian lifestyle change and it was a bit of an adjustment but also offered some good learning lessons!

We stopped at Panera for dinner on the drive there and my options were plentiful here …if all I wanted was a salad. Which is normally fine except it was dinner and I was going to be in a car for the next 4 -5 hours so I wanted a little more. I settled on cheese tortellini and a chocolate chip cookie. Hello to all of the carbs and ZERO veggies…

I did better as the weekend progressed, I promise.

The next day we went to Chili’s for lunch. I’m not usually the biggest fan of chain restaurants but I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised with lunch. I ordered the black bean burger (open faced) and it was amazing! There is a possibility my taste buds were swayed because I was still having some major guac cravings, which were satisfied on top of my BBburger, but most likely, it was just really good. And guacamole counts as a vegetable(fruit?) serving, right?!

Dinner was a little more difficult simply because the restaurant we went to in the resort didn’t have many vegetarian options. I think my only option was a portobello wrap and portobello is one mushroom I just cannot get behind…

Soooooo I turned to sides! (Side note: side dishes are my secret weapons when it comes to menus. Pair 2 or 3 together and you have yourself a meal when nothing on the menu looks good or you have dietary restrictions.) I ordered a side of veggies (I told you I got better;) and mini pretzels with a side of jalapeno cheese dip. This was not only a pretty delicious vegetarian dinner for me but also a learning lesson on portion control

Honestly, when my tiny bowl of veggies and like, 6 mini pretzels came out, in my head I quit right there. I was HUNGRY and this was all I got to eat for DINNER?! Oh, well. I thought, at there is always potato chips…? But, it turns out, I wasn’t hungry after I ate my food (and a few bites of Mike’s mash potatoes….). I was completely satisfied and didn’t overeat simply because there happened to be more food on my plate. Most of the time, serving sizes are out of control at restaurants but it’s what we get used to.

The next 2 days were a little different because, well, I ate meat. But this wasn’t like the nachos incident. I ate meat because Squaw Valley is this awesome place that only uses locally sourced meat. And while the lines and definitions for things like locally sourced and organic fed can be blurry, I still had half of a steak on Saturday night and had bacon in my salad on Sunday. (BTW, bacon is not MY LIFE like most carnivores so my salad was just a salad with some bacon on it. Sorry bacon lovers!)

Overall, I learned the following things on my first Veg Voyage vacation:

  1. There are vegetarian options almost everywhere – even if they don’t seem apparent at first (sides! remember?)
  2. Meat does not have to be the default. A black bean burger at Chili’s is as good and satisfying as a cow burger.
  3. It is possible to be satisfied on a lot less food than I am used to.
  4. I still have A LOT to learn about compassionate eating and what things like locally sourced actually mean…

Stay tuned and eat your greens.

PS. I will actually take pictures of my veg noms on my next vacation… This weekend in Nashville!


** Note this blog went through a rebrand and is now veg vibes; which aligns better with the direction I organically gravitated towards. It’s all about your vibe **