So the thing is that I’m seeing someone. There, I said it!
I’m not in any way ready to be all like “Hey everyone, meet so and so he’s my boyfraaan!!!1″ because, well, for one he’s not, and for two . . . I’m just not ready to put it out there all public-like. This thing, whatever it is, is tender-new and turtle-slow and that’s the way I need for it to be right now.
BUT. I’m sick of feeling like I’m hiding something from you guys. And of constantly thinking, “Can they see the change in the way that my eyes gaze into the camera now, that I’m obviously looking through the lens to the person behind it, in that sultry, charged, sort of twinkling sort of way?” Or I’ll wonder, “Wait, can they see his reflection in the window behind me as he’s taking the picture? Will they wonder who he is? Will they ask?”, or, like, “Are my readers noticing that I’m almost manically happy these days? And spending a ridiculous amount of time in LA? Someone’s going to call me out on this. Any. Moment. Now.”
Not so fun, that feeling. I don’t like being less-than-transparent with you guys. So yes, I am dating. And I am super duper happy and we are taking it super duper slow and I am also super duper not willing to get into the details of it. For now.
So there it is. I hope you understand.
Now, here’s what we ate one day on our “stay-cation”.
These are the iced coffee days of summer. Black tea has officially been ditched.
Sleeping in and a lazy morning meant breakfast was more of a brunch lunch, but never mind that. The important part is that we’re talking about pudla here.
For this pudla I pre-sautéed red onion, portobellos, and bell peppers with heirloom red garlic, then stirred them into the batter along with black olives, torn cilantro leaves, and plenty of fresh chopped spinach.
Topped with vegan cheese, diced green onion, and half an avocado apiece. Served alongside a huge green juice, to split. This juice was so freaking delicious we were fighting to guzzle it down, so here’s the recipe: 2 candy cane beets (or pink or golden beets) PLUS their greens, the bushy top off of one medium fennel bulb (the bulb went onto the grill), and 2 tart apples (I used Pink Ladies). DELICIOUS.
We actually ate outside in the backyard:

With our bellies full of awesome, plant-based fuel, we set out into the hills for an early afternoon hike on my very favorite trail. It was a perfect day.






We spent a lovely few hours up on the mountain, but alas we couldn’t stay. We had an appointment back at my house that afternoon . . . with a beekeeper!


So a while back, I noticed a bunch of bees buzzing around my backyard. And upon further investigation, it became clear that a hive had taken up residence in the back wall of my house, via a hole in the siding. I told my property manager and he was all, “Oh no prob, I’ll call an exterminator” and I was like “NOOOOOO!” *vegan head explosions* and that’s how it came to be that a nice young fellow named Nick came over, on this particular afternoon, to cut a hole in my house and gently remove over 3,000 bees.






After Nick left with all my bees, we finally got ourselves showered and cleaned up. By then it was nightfall and we were off to meet a friend for margaritas. And complimentary chips + salsa, naturally.

Afterwards, we invited said friend back to my place for a late-night dinner al fresco. I threw this together in like 20 minutes. It was flippin’ fantastic.





We talked and enjoyed the summer night, until it was time for sleeping. Which is exactly what we did, with our very full, very happy little bellies. Cheers!
♥
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