This is maybe one of the most picture-heavy posts on BA, ever, and editing the photos I was like “Really? This was all one day?” And it really was. It was a loooong day, and a spectacular day, and most importantly for our purposes – a delicious day!
It started like this:
Because obviously. This was a Thursday, and I have Waits Thursday mornings. I asked him what he wanted for breakfast and instead of the usual “chia!” or “o-pume” (that’s oatmeal), he said quite specifically – “bread with strawberry jam, please”. And so it was.
While he ate I prepped his lunch. Damian picks him up from school on Thursdays, so I was heading out of town. And that means lunch was a fridge dump.
I also fixed myself something to hold me over on the long drive to LA – a Shakeology shake!

Like I said, I *love* these shakes for super rushed mornings. I dropped the little bug off at school, said my goodbyes, and hit the road.

On the way down to LA I had a business call that was rather bittersweet (also, hands-free headset for the win!). It was a call with one of my Vegan Lifestyle Coaching clients, and it was our final session together. What I love most about my work as a coach, is getting to know and getting to help such awesome, impressive people. Sometimes I feel like they teach me as much as I teach them, and this woman in particular I found deeply inspiring.
So it was wonderful to talk with her, but sad to have to say goodbye after months of such great work. My coaching calls usually last for 30-45 minutes, but we ended up talking for almost an hour and a half! It was just such a pleasure, and certainly made the LA gridlock more bearable . . .
I got to my not-boyfriend’s house while he was out running errands, and immediately set about making us a kickass lunch. He’d said he was craving salad something fierce, and requested “one with ALL the vegetables”. So I’d cleaned out my crisper and we were set.
Good tunes on pandora, too.
The final result, two kitchen-sink salads with: spinach, cabbage, homegrown tomatoes, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, Persian cucumbers, broccoli slaw, shredded carrots, and avocado, topped with smokey mustard maple tempeh. SO GOOD.
After lunch we lazed around a bit, did some errands, and then it was time to get all gussied up. Because that afternoon, we were attending a party! A product launch party, actually, for the new line of shredded cheese from Follow Your Heart (which used to have a grocery store and cafe in Santa barbara – I totally grew up going there, haha).

It took us like, 2 hours to get there, which is CRAZY. But anyway, it was worth it! Such a fun party at the Follow Your Heart headquarters. There was mingling:

. . . and finger foods featuring the new cheese shreds . . .



. . . and a tour of the factory floor!

But mostly it was about the party. The whole thing was a kickoff of the Vegan Gourmet Shreds, but actually my favorite new(ish) product of the night was this stuff:

SERIOUSLY it tastes just like real bleu cheese, and that, my friends, is a flavor I haven’t tasted in over five years! The really-for-real stinky cheese flavor. I don’t know how they did it but they nailed it, and I feel like I could drink that stuff. Hey, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do!
The best part of the evening was, of course, the company – meeting new folks and reconnecting with old friends. There were lots of bloggers and vegan foodie-types, of course, and I was so thrilled to run into one of my very favorite cookbook queens, Joni Newman.

I love this lady and you should check out her incredibly prolific body of work!
We left the party a little before sundown, and stopped by Whole Foods on the way home to grab our very own bag of the new shreds. What?! They were good and we wanted dinner!
We were in the mood for Mexican (because always) and decided on a sort of layered enchilada pie type of thing, with a homemade mole enchilada sauce.




Into the oven (covered) for just under an hour, and ohmigoodness that house smelled amazing!


We served it with salsa and guacamole, naturally. It was an epic success. We polished off an entire half of the pan, haha.

We stayed up late, like we do, and played cards, like we do, and talked and talked and talked and plotted to take over the world . . . like we do!
Like I said – loooong day, spectacular day, delicious day.
♥ ♥ ♥
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Kylie – FotV
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leinana
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Blake Martin
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Meg M
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Chrissy
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http://www.carrieonvegan.com/ Carrie @ Carrieonvegan
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http://www.ladiesholiday.com/ Ladies Holiday
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http://veganchai.wordpress.com/ veganchai
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http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal
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http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal
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http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal
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http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal
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http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal
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http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal
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http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal
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http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal
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Shannon C