A Very Vegan Dinner {w/ restaurants}

We have two sets of vegan friends. 

Well neither are completely vegan -- one couple will eat dairy if they're eating out, but is vegan at home. 

The other is vegan 80% of the time, but with a gourmet-style chef for a dad, their cheat items tend to be duck confit and lobster. Quite the way to "cheat" if you ask me. 

a hidden oasis... {w/ travel}

I know this isn’t a very new trend, but man, succulents are really popular right now.

If you told me this ten years ago I would have chuckled, 

and silently wondered how boring cactus plants could ever be interesting enough to be trendy.

You see, I’ve grown up in Southern California, where cacti and succulents abound.

I never thought of them as beautiful or unique, 

but only as dry, dull and pokey. 

Interesting how opinions can change.

Now I absolutely love them and have half a dozen little pots around my house and backyard. 

I wonder if my opinion of them has truly changed (I am 10 years older now) 

or if I’m just jumping on the bandwagon. 

My thought is probably a little of both. 

But somewhere along the lines of life and trends and style and what is “popular”, 

someone decided that succulents were cool. And that someone was pretty smart.

San Diego Bloggers MeetUp

Have you ever been to a Meetup? No? Up until last Thursday, me neither. I had heard of Meetup.com, an online community connecting people with similar interests to literally “meet up” throughout the community. There are Meetup groups for people who love hiking, motorcycles, writing, videogames, and more. If you can think of it, there’s probably already a group meeting in your community. If not, you can start it.

A few months ago I joined the website to hopefully meet more bloggers in my area. It’s been amazing going through this whole blogging journey with one of my best friends, Katie from Unwritten. But I also know it’s important to network and meet other similar bloggers, as well as bloggers with a completely different agenda. It’s always refreshing to get a completely new view on something. Especially when you can meet in person. As much as I love this world wide web, there is nothing that beats meeting face to face with someone. Shaking their hand and looking them straight in the eye.

Monday Funday... not for me {w/ life}

almond crusted warm goat cheese w/ chips

hello friends.

Hope everyone stateside is enjoying a nice day off from work, celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  He was such a prominent figure in our country's modern history for freedom and equality. I am so thankful for the brave individuals who are not afraid to fight for change.

That being said, I am remembering MLK from my office today (or at least I will be when this post is published). No day off for me, boo hoo :(

But that's ok, this weekend was more than enough fun to hold me over.

What's for dinner? {w/ meal planning}

Hi friends! How's your weekend going?  

Friday night I went out with some of my girlfriends to downtown San Diego. We found primo parking (no charge!), chowed down on the BEST salsa, got sent a round of free drinks, and danced away the night to a 70s/80s hits coverband. It was pretty spectacular. 

We started the night at The Blind Burro, a new restaurant and bar in the East Village of San Diego. Menu items included sweet potato chorizo taquitos with candied jalepenos, achiote shrimp street tacos, and yummy Mexican style creamed corn with lime and cotija cheese (which I will be attempted to replicate someday soon). 

the view from a friend's rooftop

Little Cakes {w/ San Diego}

Anyone else out there addicted to Food Network's Cupcake Wars? I'm slightly obsessed. I love seeing what unusual ingredients are thrown their way in the taste challenge and how the theme of each show comes to life in fondant decorations and massive cupcake displays.

It was especially fun to see a local (very local) cupcakery take the cake on an episode that aired a few months ago.
Little Cakes Cupcake Kitchen is a boutique bakery in sunny Vista, CA. I remember visiting them a few years ago when they first opened and being wowed by the home-y feel of the kitchen style atmosphere. I've been back a few times since, not too often though since I prefer to make my own cupcakes (see here and here).

Once I saw my hometown cupcakery take the prize on Cupcake Wars I knew I needed to stop by again.

Steven and I had a coffee and cupcake date a few weeks ago.

On Mondays Little Cakes has a "happy hour" with buy one get one free.

 I selected a blueberry lemon cake and Steven had chocolate with chocolate ganache.

They were delicious!

It was a perfect way to end a Monday and start the week.
What is your favorite cupcake flavor?

Gourmet Lunch Trucks {w/ food}

If you haven't already noticed, food trucks are popping up all over the place.

And not your typical run of the mill greasy, fried food serving type of trucks.

More and more frequently they are hand-crafted, fresh, and even gourmet.

Discover SD wrote a post on the top 10 food trucks in San Diego back in February of 2011. On their list is my favorite, Miho Gastrotruck.


I discovered Miho last fall. The 2 Miho trucks drive around San Diego making stops in differents locations on different days of the week. They added Carlsbad to their rotation list and I was hooked. The food is amazing! It is a true farm-to-table experience with most of the fruits and vegetables being grown locally and the prepared products locally sourced.

Here are some of the items on their menu this week:

JERK BURGER

grass fed beef, farmers market stone fruit chutney, goat cheese, local arugula, jerk aioli, local gourmet bun / 8.25

LAMBURGER

all natural lamb, harissa aioli, goat cheese, caramelized onion, local arugula, local ciabatta / 9.5

SQUASH BLOSSOM QUESADILLA

local squash blossom, anaheim chile & citrus salsa, caramelized onion, local arugula, Spring Hill cheddar, cotija, local flour tortilla / 7.75

THAI SLOPPY JOE

larb-style all natural Berkshire pork, fresh local mint, local cabbage, fresh red onion, hoisin, whole wheat bun / 8.25

CARNITAS TACOS

all natural Berkshire pork, hand made guacamole, fire roasted salsa, house pickled red onion, cotija, local corn tortilla / 2 for 7.95

VEGGIE BURGER

quinoa, farro, beet & carrot patty, havarti, local butter leaf, grilled red onion, herb aioli, local whole wheat / 7.75

I seem to always end up getting some type of hamburger, but coworkers have also raved about the carnitas and these spicy chicken biscuit sammy's they have sometimes. Another amazing item? "The bello". A balsamic marinated portobello sandwich. It makes me believe I could be a vegetarian. But when it's not available I go for the beef hamburger. So maybe I wouldn't be a good vegetarian.

The menu changes fairly frequently, just enough to give a good variety.

Have you tried any great food trucks lately? If not I'd highly recommend it.

A Little Garden Update {w/ gardening}

hello folks.

Well, my garden has been growing like crazy. And I'm not even sure how. It seems like just yesterday I planted a few seeds and hoped for the best. Now I've got a jungle out there! Just water, SoCal sunshine, and a little plant food. I used EB Stone Organics Tomato & Vegetable Food and mixed it with the soil before sowing, and sprinkled a pinch in the hole for each seed. Now every week or so sprinkle a little around the base of each plant as I water.

In full disclosure, these photos were actually taken a few weeks ago. Everything is even BIGGER now. I will post some photos I took this past weekend in a few days, but wanted to show an update to give you a middle comparison step. Remember how everything looked a few weeks ago?  You can find the post here.

I added a small cucumber plant a few weeks ago (right after I first posted on my garden). This particular type of plant is supposed to do well in a container... fingers crossed.

See all that green in the top left and bottom right pictures below? That's my baby spring greens mix. It's already given us a handful of fresh salads. And the zucchini? Yep, they weren't kidding when they said they'd get huge. I still can't believe it came from a small seed.

So far only a few carrots have popped up, despite planting nearly 2 dozen seeds :(

I added some marigolds and pansies for color - plus I've heard marigolds are a natural insect repellant. Speaking of ... I've found a few snails lurking near my plants in the early hours of the morning. So far they haven't devoured much, just a few bottom leaves of my zucchini. The other bugs have been helping themselves to a small salad everyday (how rude!). 

The tomato plant has surpassed all my expectations. I've done tomatoes before, but only in containers. They've always been small, and only given a handful on tomatoes. Well this one has taken off. It started as a 6 inch tall seedling and has exploded. I had to get a larger cage to wrap around the plant for added support. I've been trimming away the sucker stems based on a tip from Life On The Balcony. Even after all that I've trimmed, it is still out of control... in a good way.

See that little baby tomato? Someday soon it will grow up and be so yummy in a caprese salad.

Do you garden? If you don't, what would you grow if you did?