Sunday while I was out doing errands I made a quick stop at Fritz Pastry for a vegan chocolate cupcake – DELICIOUS!  This isn’t the best photo but last time I went I completely forgot to take one for you   Isnt’ it cute how they do the frosting?  So different than everyone else

Yesterday afternoon we had a lovely meal at RJ Grunts in Chicago.  We live a few blocks away and have never been, so we finally made a point to stop over.  Everyone raves about the salad bar and they claim they were the founders of the salad bar idea.  To be honest, I wasn’t drooling over it.  So…I opted for the Portobello Mushroom Sandwich with their homemade cottage fries.  I had everything on the sandwich but instead of the cheese added avocado and it was delicious!

Sunday I checked out Sweet Cakes here in Chicago for the first time and was in heaven!  I can’t wait to go back!  I had an organic iced tea, but most importantly a PB&J cupcake!!!  YUM!  Forgive me, I forgot to take a photo so I borrowed on from Caitlin L on Yelp.  I was SUPER IMPRESSED with the amount of vegan goodies - cookies, scones, cupcakes, breads…and more!  There are NEVER that many vegan options at bakeries!  It was so much fun and so difficult to decide.  They have more seating than I expected and offer free WiFi!  Their flatware and cups are made from that corn based plastic which is always great to see.

Talk about some amazing vegan cupcakes at my wedding last Saturday!!!  Aren’t they pretty?  AND they were DELICIOUS!!  They were from Molly’s in Chicago.  I was enjoying the night so much that I didn’t even remember to have one until I was walking out the door and there were only a handful left!  Luckily I still got a filled one – cookies n cream – although my favorite are the chocolate with peanut butter filling, but apparently everyone else loved those too so I didn’t get one of those  

So…I’m getting married TODAY!  I can’t believe how fast this year of planning has flown by!!  Aren’t my leather-free shoes from Spring adorable for this fabulous occasion?  They’re now on sale for half price! – too bad I missed that deal!  Ha ha, I still only paid $40 which was far below what I’d budgeted!  Animal friendly, eco-friendly and budget conscious – I did well!

$19.98 - Spring Shoes

$6.95 - LUSH

$8.95 - LUSH

I purchased these adorable and yummy smelling massage/lotion bars from LUSH as bridesmaid gifts.  The one on the top is vegan, vanilla scented and has sparkles in it!  Super fun for the younger set of ladies.  The one on the bottom is a honey chocolate heart and minus the sparkles, a little better for the late 20′s early 30′s crowd   They both smell amazing and I’m sure my girls are going to be super excited to get them tonight

The other night Eric and I met a friend for dinner at Flat Top Grill with to start celebrating our wedding a little early.  I absolutely love Flat Top Grill.  They’re so accommodating for vegetarians and vegans.  They clearly label everything so you know what is safe and then you can have your stuff prepared on a separate, clean grill so it doesn’t mingle with the meat and dairy!  So awesome!

Thanks to Chic Vegan for her post about the Banana Soft Serve!!!  I’ve found my new summer love!  Choosing Raw had this absolutely amazing recipe and I know I’m going to be addicted to this all summer long.  I love that she titled it – “This Post Will Change Your Life” – she was serious!

If you click on the photo you can see the original post and get the recipe.  Essentially it’s just frozen bananas!  I added peanut butter which was amazing.  Also, be sure to give your bananas a little time to warm up – I tossed them directly from the freezer into the food processor and let me tell you, that was CRAZY!  The poor machine went nuts and started bouncing all over!  Winston (my dog) came running wondering what the heck I was doing!  In the recipe she tops it with a chocolate sauce made with agave nectar.  I was out of agave so I ran to Whole Foods and discovered coconut nectar and thus tried that instead – it was great!

I don’t think you can get any healthier of an ice cream than this!  I was skeptical about eating mushed bananas but try it and you’ll be pleasantly surprised!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

I was craving some all American style food today so I whipped up some vegan mac & cheese which was AWESOME!

I’m not much for measuring when and I like to just throw a bunch of stuff in.  I used a package of rice pasta, elbow macaroni (it’s gluten free and I was curious to try it – didn’t like the texture – it cooks for 17 minutes but even then didn’t seem done, I cooked it a little longer and then it started to fall apart but the center was still slightly uncooked – I think it’s just the way that pasta is – won’t buy it again but if I was celiac then it surely would be better than nothing!)  Anyway, after cooking the pasta I added:

1 heaping tablespoon of miso paste

3/4 package of Daiya shredded cheddar style cheese

1 heaping tablespoon of soy sour cream

1  tablespoon of arrow root starch

2 tablespoons of coconut milk

3 heaping tablespoon of nutritional yeast

1 clove of garlic (smashed through the garlic press)

lots of black pepper

this turned out SUPER CREAMY and delicious!