Weekend of Eating All the Food

Finally, AP and I are both back to 100%.  This past weekend we celebrated our good health by going out and Eating All the Things.  Even though the weather report cautioned rain on Saturday, it was a gorgeous weekend, so we spent a good deal of time outside enjoying our last California spring.

Friday night I peaced out of work early and met up with AP at Quinto Sol for kick-ass margaritas.  I got the enmolatas which are vegan as-is on the menu.  I love their mole sauce, but I'm always afraid to recommend it to others.  NorCal folks take their mole seriously.

I could drink this sauce with a straw, mmmmm......

On Saturday morning, we woke up early and trained into Oakland for the first ever Oakland VegFest!  I'd never been to Lake Merritt amphitheater before and didn't realize it was basically a small open park- I'd been expecting it to be bigger, and enclosed.  I have to say it was a pleasant surprise; it was a very laid back setup and the view was gorgeous.

Beautiful view, crappy pics, my bad. 

We got there before the 11am start time so we were able to score one of the goodie bags they were giving away.  Free samples, whoot!  I loved the Beanfields chips- the volunteer gave me a fistful of coupons that I can't wait to try out.

WTF am I supposed to do with the coffee flavored "mylk"? Anyone?

Since it was a small event, we'd seen what there was to see fairly quickly.  AP was getting hungry and cranky, so we headed down to Jack London Square to one of his fave restaurants, Souley Vegan.

AP's plate: southern fried tofu with ranch, mac and cheese, rice and beans.  The mac sauce is a basic nutritional yeast concoction that we are both fans of, although this batch went a little heavy on the garlic powder.  Still delish though.

My plate: BBQ tofu, collards, mashed potatoes and gravy.  These collards were insanely good.  I just ordered them to get a green veggie on my plate, but I was beyond impressed.

We weren't hungry for dinner until about 8.30pm, so I threw together a salad.  Gardein chicken strips, toasted tortilla strips, southwest blend, and spicy marcona almonds.  For the dressing, I mixed vegan ranch and BBQ sauce.

A salad that AP actually enjoyed.

AP was getting pouty about the lack of vegan baked goods in our home and in Starbucks (his home away from home).  I decided to test out the Pinterest trend of soda cupcakes.  You take a box of cake mix (Duncan Hines has a ton of vegan ones) and instead of adding the eggs, oil, water, whatever, you just mix in a can of soda.  Coke for chocolate cakes, lemon-lime for vanilla cakes.  I used a Duncan Hines devil's food and a can of diet coke.  They turned out pretty good- AP liked them better than regular cupcakes.  Fluffier.

I just bought a can of frosting to top them with, because laziness.

On Sunday morning, I tried out another cheater recipe, canned biscuit donuts.  This one turned out pretty good as well!  The dough wasn't as sweet as traditional donut dough, but I counted that as a plus.

I used the recipe off the Pillsbury website, with some changes- I used the regular sized biscuits instead of Grands (so they'd be mini sized- also they cooked in about 10 seconds per side), I coated them with powdered sugar rather than granulated, and for the icing I halved the recipe and used 1/4 c Nucoa margarine and 1/4 c coconut oil.

How cute are these??

Pups and I did take a break from our gluttony to get some nice walks in around town.  We also found the time to stalk some geese.

Not pictured: six geese flying frantically into the bushes.

Soon, ducks... soon...

Lunch on Sunday was sandwiches from the place across the street.  They have a ton of veggie meats, but I kept mine simple with a veggie-only version.

Lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, mushrooms, marinated artichokes and a little soy cheese.

We finished off our weekend with the traditional Sunday evening pizza.  Routine is the best way to end a week of adventure. 

BBQ sauce, Follow Your Heart mozzarella, pineapple, chopped up Field Roast patty and scallions.