Cabernet Truffles

March 27

-a few bites of steel cut oats mixed with jam, raisins, and a tiny pinch of brown sugar

-1/2 piece of toast with jam (and I think it had a tiny tiny bit of butter, grrr I knew I should have specified dry)

-side of hashbrowns with ketchup

-coffee

-water

I was expecting to be "stuck with" oatmeal and hashbrowns as far as vegetarian/vegan options went and while I was, they were DELICIOUS. I expected quaker instant oats, but these were the real deal. Chewy and tasted slow-cooked and just..YUM. And I didn't even sneak in my peanut butter which I thought about lol. I didn't feel deprived at all, even when my grandma forgot for a sec and offered me some ham (the last time I ate there was about 6 months ago and I LOVED their ham). Yay. Too bad I could hardly eat any of it. My head is ALWAYS bigger than my stomach.

-another half of a half (lol) slice of toast

-water

The problem with me is I only eat a few bites at meals, but then I'm hungry again an hour or two later! I ate this to tide me over and surprisingly it did the trick. Who woulda thought? I thought I was gonna have to eat all the leftover toast, but nope!

-2 cabernet infused dark chocolate truffles

-water

OK, maybe these helped too. I picked them up at a little antique/gift shop in the middle of nowhere of all places, lol. Only after I got in the car did I realize the lady shorted me $1 change (completely by accident), the truffles expired in December, and they had milk as one of the last ingredients. DOH. I opened them anyway and figured any I don't finish before I leave on Tuesday I'll leave with my grandma. She tried one and loved it. They're really good! She liked them even more than her Sees chocolates we brought her, which are usually her faves.

We spent the afternoon in this old town called Virginia City. Their chamber of commerce website said the shops would be open, but only two were. Bummer. My Mom and I found a few rings for a great deal at the antique shop + we found some huckleberry popcorn (!!) to take home for my brother and I to share (+ huckleberry salad dressing and bbq sauce), so all in all it wasn't a completely wasted drive. The two shops (a jewelry shop and a candy shop) that we drove there for were both closed, but ya win some ya lose some.

Another creepy doll at one of the stores

-venti vanilla rooibos tea

The dumb girl only put in 1 tea bag in a venti and charged us DOUBLE (she charged for the tea LATTE), but hey at least I got my Starbucks fix in smalltown, Montana :-P

-side salad with huckleberry vinegarette (much better than the other place)

-fried veggies (zucchini, carrots, and broccoli) with cocktail sauce (I think. random, but I what I thought was ketchup tasted more cocktail sauce-y *shrug*)

-water

-2.5 glasses of riesling

The paper place mats at the fancy restaurant in town LOL

& the decor ;)

We went to a steakhouse-type place for dinner and I had very few choices. What I got was decent tho, if not good. My Mom ordered us a bottle of riesling, the only wine she likes, and even then she's REALLY picky. This was German, which is usually a safe bet, but this time? Not so much. She mixed hers with ginger ale (*eye roll*) and even then I don't know if she finished ONE glass. I always feel bad leaving drinks behind lol, so I tried to make up for it (I thought it was OK), but I didn't want to get drunk and feel bad the next day. I eventually had to just stop myself. I don't think I was even getting a buzz yet, but due to the high altitude, I was feeling my head get really heavy and cut myself off lol. At least the bottle was cheap.

-glass of heated organic chocolate soy milk (aka vegan hot chocolate)

-more water

-a few more vanilla-pomegranate cashews

The "milk" (what I've been craving for days, because I keep seeing hot chocolate everywhere around here) was SO GOOD, but then I was wayy too full.

xo,

Amanda

Fail Whale

Today was hell. I was on the worst flight of my life. Winds were about 50 mph in the air and we were bounced all around. I don't even go on rollercoasters, because I HATE that feeling, so it was basically torture. I refused to get on the connecting flight to go home and experience that torment for another 2+ hours, so I'm holed up in Salt Lake for the nite. Fine by me (sort of). My Mom and I are in one of our fave hotels in cozy beds and we got to eat at our fave restaurant here. Unfortunately, my fave dish is chicken-based and there was no way to make it veggie. :(. After my horrible day (and barely eating all day, to boot), I went ahead and ordered it anyway. FAIL. No worries, I'll pick back up where I left off tomorrow, but I still feel kind of guilty. Oh well.

Unfortunately our luggage is waiting for us in Dallas. We had to stop by Anthropologie and a local makeup store to pick up a few emergency items. I wish we had more of our stuff (HAIR STRAIGHTENER FOR MY BANGS to name one...), but c'est la vie. We hired a car service to drive us around and it was also hell. I don't feel like going into it now, but yeah....long, shitty day.

*fingers crossed that tomorrow is MUCH better*

xo,

Amanda

Twin Bridges

March 26

-biscuit with white gravy (forgot 'til after the first bite it was made with dairy. Boo)

-small styrofoam cup of coffee

-like one tiny scoop of fruit cocktail (so much for the fresh fruit I assumed was part of the hotel's breakfast menu boasting "mixed fruit"...doh)

Yeah, the free hot breakfasts are pretty (read: very) shitty. Should have just gone out.

creepy doll in my grandma's building window LOL

For lunch my Mom, grandma, and I went to a nearby-ish town, Twin Bridges. It was about a 30-45 minute drive or so. Not much else to do there, but there's a decent restaurant and it's not like we had anything else to do lol. It was pretty veggie friendly, so that was good for me.

-1/2 of a small spinach wrap filled with veggies (tomatos, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, green peppers, etc)

-small portion of spicy french fries with a boatload of ketchup

-2 iced tea's

My stomach hurt badly after and I'm not sure why. It was a weird stomach feeling I don't know I've felt before. A lot of pressure? Strange. My Mom thought maybe it was altitude related? But we don't know.

-zevia gingerale

-piece of crystalized ginger

I'm as surprised as I assume you are that in this town of less than 4,000 people I found a zevia, but there is this little health store I always pick up my "weird" health foodie things at (xylitol gum, etc). I was shocked they had tons of gluten free items this time though. Nice! The very first time I went there I got this quinoa "granola" bar. Omg it was good. I haven't seen it since tho. Boo. But I did pick up another coconut bar for the plane ride home.

-garden burger with only half the bun + mustard, tomato, and lettuce

-half an order of fries

-potato "jo-jo's"

-a few vanilla-pomegranate cashews I picked up at the health store (thought these would be amazing, but they're kinda bland....my new fave food word, it seems lol)

UGH HORRIBLE experience. They have a restaurant here that I used to think was pretty cool. I may have even said it was my fave restaurant in town, but now I have a grudge. It was packed, so my Mom and I asked for our food to go at the bar. The waitress made it clear she had a problem with me from the start for NO REASON. I was nothing but polite to her. I asked for the garden burger with jo-jo's (basically like a mix between a potato skin with nothing on it and a really thick steak fry....they're not quite baked potatoes not quite fries..). Anyway, the burgers come with fries, homemade chips, or something like that, but I asked (VERY NICELY) to substitute jo-jo's for fries and the waitress said no. I was like it's OK I don't mind paying more and she's like "nope, we don't do that." My Mom was like, "just give her an extra side of jo-jo's then, we'll pay, we just want extra." And she still said no. What the hell? They'll only serve them with fried chicken (which my Mom got, so she we did get some at least, but that almost makes it more ridiculous). How does that make ANY sense? So then she tells us the wait is 20 min, which was cutting it close bc I wanted to be at the hotel to watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, but that's not really their fault. So anyway, we wait, and then I (again, NICELY) ask for plasticware on our way out and she looks at us RUDELY, rolls her eyes at me, and says "we only have forks" in a voice like it was a HUGE inconvenience. Then she tries to run away and I'm like "& can I please have some ketchup for the fries?" And she looks at me like I have 3 heads and practically yells at me and says "well how many do you want?" and again rolls her eyes. I said I guess 3? I assumed they were just packets, but it turns out they use little plastic containers. Fine. So after she threw her mini tantrum she's like "we have to charge extra for that, 50 cents each." We'd already paid, but my Mom gave her $2 and then she gave us the 50 cents and ran away. No plastic forks in sight. We just got the hell out of there. I left in such a pissed off mood. I know I overact sometimes, but seriously what is the point of being rude? It's your JOB to serve me, you're a server. I have NOTHING against people in any job, I don't think I'm better than anyone, but don't act better than me. If you don't like serving then get a different job. Don't take it out on me. And if something is on a menu....SERVE it. Geeeez.

Sorry LONG paragraph lol.

By the way, the menu DOES say they charge extra for condiments, HOWEVER, had we eaten inside the ketchup and mustard bottles (and ranch dressing, actually) are already on the tables and you can use as much as you want, so I assumed it meant condiments behind the counter were extra. Maybe we were paying for the containers? But still. Theoretically, had I eaten inside I could have cleaned the place out of ketchup for free. It's just annoying.

And yes I know gardenburgers aren't vegan, but at least I'm not eating meat. Of course, it's the dairy that's going to (supposedly/hopefully) help me from feeling so crappy, so I'm still stuck there a little bit.

I'm eating way too many fries here.

-rice crackers

xo,

Amanda

First Day of Eating No Meat/Minimal Dairy

March 25

I really wanted to go all vegan today, but it's almost impossible here, so I decided that no meat + as little dairy as possible was a good start.

-coffee

-1.5 potato pancakes..first topped with apple sauce, then dipped in ketchup, then eventually topped with the rest of the applesauce + huckleberry syrup (the last combo was the best, I'm a huckleberry whore and can only get it when I'm here)

-side of fruit

I think the pancakes had flour (and possibly eggs?) I only ordered them thinking they'd be more like hashbrowns/panfried potatoes in the shape of pancakes. Fail. They were OK, but bland and not worth it if they weren't vegan. Oh well. They were HUGE too. The guy asked if I wanted 3 or 5 and I debated, but thankfully only asked for 3. He said they were fairly small though. WHAT? Huge.

-the other 1/2 of the lemon larabar

-1 serving 10 calorie vitamin water w/ vitamin c and zinc

-gluten free rice crackers

-athenos hummus (not great)

-athenos roasted red pepper hummus (much better)

-an apple

-about 1 tbsp white chocolate wonderful pb

I meant to have *A* snack, but ended up with more like 2, which was basically a meal. I wanted to workout after, but was stuffed. I needed rest anyway. An hour later my Mom wanted to go to dinner, but there was no way. I had a few bites and had to take mine to go. The place wasn't veggie (let alone vegan) friendly at all, but I did my best:

-side salad w/ huckleberry vinaigrette (SWEET! didnt know they had huckleberry dressing...it was just OK tho. The salad came with cheese, so I picked 90% of it off and I also threw off the nasty croutons)

-3 pieces of celery

-huckleberry wheat beer

-water

My grandma's blood pressure was sky high, so before eating my Mom and I stopped by the hospital, but she had a doctor's appointment the next morning, so her doctor just told her to wait it out. Seemed risky to my Mom and I, but my grandma insisted. She didn't come with us to eat though, she took some more bp meds and took it easy at least.

I took my actual "meal" (side dishes...) to-go and had them a couple hours later at the hotel....

-baked potato with baked beans stuffed inside

-3 more pieces celery

I originally wasn't going to stuff the beans, but I didn't want to use butter or sour cream (mmm....sour cream...). I also didn't want a plain potato if I didn't have to, so I thought of ketchup, but duh..the beans! It was a really good combo! I'm not 100% sure the beans were even vegetarian, but they seemed to be? If I was serious about it I'd have asked, but I'm still testing the waters, so decided it wasn't a big deal either way.

-the other half of the lemon meringue pie

I know, eggs, but I had to finish it ;). I love lemon meringue. Sigh. I usually only eat it here, but I found some great recipes for vegan lemon pies I'm eager to try out at home.

xo,

Amanda

Leaving on a Jet Plane

March 24

Travel Day.

-about 5 sips of a banana-banana "smoothie" (tasted more like an icy to me, it was weird. I didn't want to take it on the plane, so I tossed it pretty quickly. Bummer)

-2 cinnamon cookies

-hot tea

Yay for Delta still providing snacks on their flights. I'm usually an American-flyer, who only offer drinks, so this was a nice treat.

Sookie Stackhouse makes for some nice plane reading material :)

-coconut almond bar (no idea where it came from, but SO GOOD)

-1/2 a lemon lara bar

Window Seat

teeny tiny plane--only 13 rows! 2 seats each side

-peanuts

-hot tea

I never thought to order hot tea on a plane before, but that may be my go-to drink when I don't feel like wine (or when it's too early for wine, like in this case lol)

-chef salad with ranch

-iced tea

-water

Real food!

Last two times I had this salad I LOVED it, but this time it was mediocre at best. I'm not sure if the quality has gone down or if I was just put off by the meat, eggs, cheese, and dressing since reading Kind Diet, lol. I'm pretty sure a little of each, but the lettuce was very wilty.

Then, later dinner at Papa T's with my Mom and grandma!

-lightly fried chicken breast

-lightly fried chicken leg

-jo-jo potatoes w/ ketchup (kind of a mix between a baked potato and a really thick steak fry)

-toast

-water

-half a slice of lemon meringue pie

xo,

Amanda