a veg life

(posted by Emily) For the past month or so, Rick and I have been making a point to have "date night" more often. Yes, it sounds silly, because we got out to eat together all the time, but there's something different about setting aside time to enjoy each other's company. We've been making an effort to try new restaurants on said date nights, and this weekend, we visited Mohawk Bend in Echo Park.  We've been to Mohawk Bend before with friends, after eating at Sage . Mohawk Bend has a fun drink menu , with cocktails like the Thai Town Mule ( kaffir lime vodka, fresh limes, lime juice, ginger beer, and lemongrass ) and the Garden Salad ( vodka, lemon juice, lime juice, fennel, cilantro, cucumber, thyme, and ginger beer ), but this was the first time we were really focused on the food.  Mohawk Bend's menu is comprised of all vegan items, unless otherwise noted, Many of the items can be made vegan or non-vegan, which is a great option, too! W...

(posted by Emily) It was another busy, fun-filled weekend at our house! We wanted to be sure to take some time for ourselves, and a return trip to Crossroads has been on our to-do list for a while. Since we got a tax refund this year, we wanted to treat ourselves to a great meal. Coincidentally, date night on Saturday meant we could celebrate 8 months of marriage, too! As always, any great meal we eat starts with some strategizing. We looked over the menu , and decided on the things we thought sounded unique and interesting.  We started with the Cream of Fava Bean and English Pea soup. It has some almond milk Greek yogurt mixed and the flavors were very bold and fresh. I noticed the pea right away, while Rick latched on to the yogurt flavor. Though it looks thick, the soup was thin but very rich. An impressive start to the meal! Next up was the classic favorite--Artichoke Oysters. The oysters sit on an artichoke leaf, with an artichoke puree and crispy oyste...

(posted by Emily) Airport food leaves a lot to be desired on the vegan front. All too often, we are stuck with granola bars or French fries. Well, on our way to Maui out of Terminal 4 this morning, we found the exception to the rule in ine of LAX's newest restaurants-- Real Food Daily.  RFD is a staple of LA vegan cuisine (and I somehow missed it on our Top Ten list the other day?!?!!). There are locations in Santa Monica, West(ish) Hollywood, and Pasedena, and they are the first fully vegan restaurant to open in an airport.  We stopped for a quick breakfast before our flight. The menu items are limited and bit expensive, but once we started eating it was unbelievably worth it. We opted for a chocolate smoothie (how could I say no to a husband offering chocolate at 10am?!):  And the RFD breakfast sammie. The sandwich had tempeh bacon, Swiss cheeze, avocado, tomato, a tofu eggless patty, and some mayo on an English muffin. As a former connoisseur of the bacon, egg, and che...

(posted by Emily)  Recently, Rick and I had a chance to check out one of the newest vegan spots in LA. Gracias Madre is a fully vegan restaurant, serving Mexican-inspired cuisine. We ate at the GM location in San Francisco during the summer of 2012 and were thrilled to hear that location would be opening in West Hollywood. I stalked  followed GM WeHo on social media and we finally had a chance to visit during their first week open.  We went to the restaurant on a Wednesday night, around 8pm. Silly me to think it wouldn't be as busy at that time--it was packed! Rick and I ended up snagging two seats at the bar and ordered a margarita to split. We planned out our meal, deciding on two starters and an entree to share.  First up were the Papas al Horno. The menu describes them as roasted potatoes with olive oil and garlic, topped with chipotle cashew nacho cheese. We had had a similar dish in San Fran, with sweet potatoes that was outstanding, and so my hopes w...

Restaurant Review: Crossroads Kitchen When Rick and I first read about Crossroads in our LA Magazine , we immediately knew it was on our short list of new restaurants to try. After checking out the menu, we realized it would be the perfect place to celebrate our marriage with a special meal to ourselves. It took a few weeks for us to get there, since we needed to have a reservation on an evening we had free, and Saturday night was the finally the perfect night! Dinner was late, with our reservation scheduled for 8:30. We did not use the restaurant's valet parking and ended up finding a spot in the neighborhood. Even looking through the windows of the restaurant, we were immediately blown away by the decor and beautiful exposed bulb chandeliers throughout the restaurant space. We had to wait a few minutes, but passed the time by celeb watching as Tisha Campell-Martin 's birthday party got underway. You know a restaurant must be good if Don Cheadle is there! Once seated,...

And have we got something good for you! It's true confessions time:       - True Confession: It has been way too long since we posted      - True Confession: I can't even count how many recipes have been         photographed to post  on here, and now those photos are just         sitting on the camera.      - True Confession: We're really going to try our best to be better.  With all of that out of the way, I thought we'd celebrate the end of our hiatus with a very special restaurant review. As many of you know, we love Sage Vegan Bistro in Echo Park. It is our go-to restaurant for birthdays , brunch, and special occasions.  True Confession: Once we found out Sage was opening a new location in Culver City, I started stalking them via every form of social media I could. Were they open? Were they not? How was VegansOfIG able to plan a meet-up there when...

From a place that we love! There is one particular restaurant that will always be extremely special to us. Though we haven’t been to visit in a while, I wanted to be sure to tell you all about it. But first, a little background info—Rick and I met teaching drum corps in the summer of 2010. The group we were working with at the time is called The Academy and is based in Tempe, AZ. While spending the summer in Arizona, we had the chance to do some sightseeing and hiking in Sedona , which is about a two-hour drive from Tempe/Phoenix. That summer, I was still a cheese-loving, ice cream-eating omnivore, so living with a number of vegans and vegetarians at our staff house was an eye opening experience. When Rick and I planned our trip to Sedona, he was adamant about visiting a local vegan/raw restaurant— Chocolatree .  I will readily admit that I was nervous about the upcoming food experience. I had never had food from a dedicated vegan/vegetarian restaurant before, an...