Veggie Vacay

Published on by ashley@vegvibes5 Comments

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 **

A rocky start to my meatless March

Published on by ashley@vegvibes2 Comments

It is March 2nd and my goal for being a public vegetarian has already been shattered. Why? Two words: carnitas nachos.

Growing up and living in California, delicious Mexican food has always been available to me. I am obsessed with all things beans, cheese, and tortilla. Enchiladas, tacos, burritos, quesadillas. Let’s.go.

And nachos? NACHOS! I can’t resist them even if I tried… the light and perfect-crunch fried tortilla chips smothered with melted cheese and beans? the creamy avocado and flavorful pico de gallo sprinkled on top? I CAN’T SAY NO! With or without a side of animal on top okay!?

So, today, when a friend/co-worker asked if I wanted the rest of her carnitas nachos (key word: NACHOS), I grabbed some of her napkins and didn’t breathe again until all of the ooey gooey goodness was gone. Granted, I probably only ate about 5 chips with meat on them, I still ate meat. I still failed.

Hopefully this is my only slip up for the month week but we’ll see… Did I mention I’m going Nashville in 2 weeks? Is it possible to survive in the south without meat…?

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 **

No More Sausage

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It is the week before the start of my Veg Voyage – starting with public vegetarianism – and I have one package of Trader Joe’s sausages in the freezer. This particular sausage isn’t worst on the market, by far. However, I’m not so sure about the quality of the chickens they used to make them and how they were treated (!!!!) so, based on my last post, I won’t be buying them again. For now.

I can’t help but wonder about the social impact my new lifestyle will have on my life outside of my house. For example, this past weekend I went to a wedding and ate pork, bacon and steak. (Oh, my!)

In perpetration for March, I thought it would be helpful to breakdown the options offered and what I will still be able to eat once I give up meat in the public sector.

For appetizers, I sampled a mini caprese salad on a toothpick (word to the wise, don’t plop the whole thing in your mouth at once… not cute.), seared tuna on crackers, a small potato pancake with a dollop of cream cheese, and tiny pulled pork sliders.

Then dinner came which consisted of a nice green salad followed by filet, mashed potatoes, and asparagus.

Dessert was made-to-order crepes with Nutella and whip cream.

Next up were homemade empanadas – that I am assuming had meat – with a side of chips and guac.

So? say this wedding was next month. What would I have been able to eat? Being vegetarian the following items would be have still been okay to eat:

  • mini caprese salad
  • small potato pancake with a dollop of cream cheese
  • green salad and whatever the veg option was (I believe it was pasta)
  • crepes with Nutella and whip cream
  • chips and guac

Still plenty of delicious options that I think would/will be totally doable but we’ll see how March goes…

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 **

The Veg Voyage: What and Why?

Published on by ashley@vegvibes2 Comments

I could barely get through the documentary Vegucated without pausing and Googling all things veg related like; nice farms to animals + Bay Area,  where can I visit an organic farm near San Francisco?, can you own a chicken in a condo?, how much are chickens?… the list went on.

Ok what you should know about me right off the bat is I have a tendency of getting REALLY INTO THINGS for a few days? ..weeks? ..months? and then, eventually, it fades.

This isn’t my first love affair with a documentary about vegetables… (Or my first Google binge.) I’ve seen Forks Over Knifes and Food, Inc. and other films that leave me furious, sad, and weary as the credits roll. I’ve read Food Rules, Skinny Bitch and The Kind Life. I’ve been informed about the meat industry and studies linking animal bi-products to disease. I’ve thought about changing my lifestyle and becoming a VEGAN but, honestly, my enthusiasm for kale, quinoa, spirulina and acai haven’t been backed with the energy to only.eat.plants.

So? I’ve decided to go on a voyage to try and discover if I really need meat and/or dairy in my life.

Right now I eat meat and dairy relatively regularly but consider myself to be health conscious. I only buy organic half and half for my morning coffee and substitute almond milk for baking, hot cocoa, and cereals. I am obsessed with vegetables. I eat at home 80% of the time, plan my meals, and try to shop at farmer’s markets as much as possible. In 2014 (and again in 2015), my S.O. and I made a new years resolution to only buy fresh cut meat from Whole Foods. I took it a step farther and only buy organic. However, sometimes I can’t resist the convenience, deliciousness and price of the $4 Trader Joe’s chicken sausages.

It’s a give and a take. right?

Although, despite my overall good intentions and efforts to eat healthfully, mindfully, and balanced, I have this nagging feeling that I could be doing better. While my diet is mostly balanced, pretty healthy, and takes a lot of brainpower to shop, plan, prep and eat accordingly, I feel I am missing a huge piece of the puzzle; compassion.

I am a big believer in the old saying, you are what you eat. Because, well, you literally are! According to WebMD, our skin regenerates itself appropriately every 27 days. I believe your skin is regenerated from the cells in your body that are formed by the food that you eat. Therefore, for me, it makes sense to want to eat high nutrient, high quality foods because I believe they literally become me. Based on this, I eat a salad almost every day and consume as many whole, real foods as possible. This lifestyle puts me in good health but what about the rest? What about the health of our planet and the animals I do eat. Where’s the brainpower dedicated to these issues? Where’s the compassion in my diet, my fuel, literally my life, for other living things?

I’ve decided my first step (starting March, 1st 2015) is to stop eating meat anywhere but my house. This makes sense to me because I can control this meat consumption and can make sure it is top quality. As mentioned, buying organic meat is already pretty much the norm on my grocery runs, however, I don’t have any standards when it comes to meat outside of my house and I want to change that.

Step one on The Veg Voyage? Public vegetarian.

I don’t anticipate this being overly difficult as I’m not much of a meat eater anyway. Just a few tweaks to some eating-out favorites and I’m golden. Also, a key point here is that I live in California, where the vegetarian and vegan fare is plentifully!

Stay tuned and eat your greens.

** Note this blog went through a rebrand and is now veg vibes, which I believe aligns better with the direction I organically gravitated towards; more about a vibe than a specific diet **