Hello Computer, Hello Blog It's Been Awhile.

   I swear my computer doesn't like me. I have had more problems with this computer then I can even count. All the money that has been spent could've gotten me a new computer by now. So anywho for the past week or more I lost the thing to charge my computer. I've looked everywhere and seriously can't find it. I had to go out and buy a new charger! One word can describe how I feel now about this UGH!

Between the time of the not having the computer I've tried a few new things, I went to the grand opening of a new whole foods(It's huuuuuuge!), went to the inside farmers market, went to the mexican grocery store(I found sweet potato flour and purple corn flour...now what to do with it?) went to Omar's Rawtopia(my first actual raw meal it was delicious and expensive, but it was nice to treat myself!), painted my bathroom blue, and made a somewhat life changing decision! All of this I had taken no pictures of. How sad.

Since there's no pictures this blog post is kind of boring, but on a exciting note I've decided to go vegan for a whole year! I'm not going to be starting on this right exactly now, but in the next couple of weeks I will on my way to a adventurous vegan journey. I figure I have a small block of Queso Blanco cheese in the fridge and I don't want to waste it so once that's gone I'm done with any cheese. I will still be having some honey every now and then, but I will limit my amounts. This step doesn't seem overly dramatic to me since I already eat mostly vegan, but it's still exciting to take on the full time vegan.

Hopefully I'll be back blogging soon about more food and i'll tell you about how the vegan thing goes with the family. I told my dad I was thinking about it and he wasn't happy at first, but then he calmed down. So we'll see what the future may hold. 

Have a nice day! and sorry for the boring-ish blog post!

Diva's Cupcake & Coffee

    

     The other day I had the pleasure of going out to lunch with my dad. I wanted to try some place new to eat. So he suggested we go to a place called Diva's that I've said I have wanted to try. Diva's wasn't far from his work so to Diva's we went. 

Diva's is a popular place most popular for their cupcakes(or so they say). There's a vegan and a gluten free(not vegan though) cupcake daily which I think Diva's gets a bonus for. They also have soups, sandwiches, coffee and other sweet pastries. Diva's has been open since fall of 2008 by Gordon Wilkins.

   I didn't take pictures of my lunch, but I got the Veggie Hummus Wrap without the avocado and a side salad. The salad has a nice dressing which i'm guessing was balsamic and little olive oil. My wrap was loaded with veggies such as carrots, mixed greens, beets, cucumbers, plus more and gouda cheese. It came with a balsamic dipping sauce too! I loved my lunch and would order this again. Lucky me I still had the other half left to eat for lunch the next day. My dad ordered a side of chips and Ham & Brie Panini on White that included avocado, cucumbers, spinach & homemade apple butter. He figured this would hurt his bladder less(side note: I will most likely do a post soon so you can understand his bladder disease better). He said he liked it and that having warm cucumbers was a weird touch. He did complain about that the chips were to salty though. I will definitely go back to Diva's for the food.

   

   I've heard mostly bad reviews about the cupcakes at Diva's. I've heard my cousin complain that the cupcakes frosting have no taste. I've heard reviews at Urban Spoon saying they are dry. My dad got the vanilla bean cupcake(I didn't get a picture). I stuck my finger in the frosting to taste it and it tasted like pure sugar! Blech. The frosting does have this interesting smooth silky soft texture. I did try a bite with the cake and the frosting together. Somehow the cake made the frosting taste plain and not so sweet. It still wasn't any good though. 

I don't know why, but I still got the vegan cupcake of the day which happened to be chocolate coconut topped with toasted coconut to go. It came in a perfect cupcake to go with a nice dome top. Well I was hoping it would be different and better. Sadly it wasn't. Starting off with the frosting it was overly sweet I had to scrape most of it off besides a thin layer. Before scraping off the frosting I got chunks of coconut oil(i'm guessing) in it. Two words NOT PLEASANT! Now want to hear about the cake? I liked it first bite, it was nice and moist and had a lovely deep chocolate flavor...then it crumbled apart. Let's say i'm glad I didn't eat this there because I made a mess. 

I hope no one gets their first vegan cupcake their because they might get the idea that vegan cupcakes suck which is not true.

I do not recommend getting the cupcakes at Diva's at all either vegan or non-vegan. I wish they could be better because they decorate them perfectly and so cute. Don't let the cupcakes stop you from going to Diva's though because the food really is nice, but just look at the cupcake case and admire their decorations just not their taste.

Diva's Cupcakes & Coffee

1560 E 3300 S

Salt Lake City, UT 84106

A Vegan Cheesecake Review!

       The second to last time I went to Whole Foods I was going to get some of my favorite bread when I walked past the little dessert case. I was quite shocked to find this from Candle Cafe!

        Sometimes I'll look at that little case just to see what they have. I'm not normally a huge sweets person. Recently I have been though...which I need to stop. Any who I figured I haven't had any cheesecake in a while and certainly not a vegan cheesecake so I put this baby in the basket. They also had a chocolate mouse tart which looked yummy, but my dad can't have chocolate and I didn't want to eat the whole thing so we stuck with the vanilla cheesecake.

      I've heard of Candle Cafe before and would love to go if I find myself in New York. For those of you that don't know about Candle Cafe it's an all vegan cafe in New York, New York. Candle Cafe has been serving Vegan food since 1994. They also strive to use the freshest and organic produce when possible. Candle Cafe was so popular that the owners opened Candle 79 a few block away from Candle Cafe. If you've been to Candle Cafe or Candle 79 and liked the food you can make it at home with the Candle Cafe Cookbook. Even if you haven't been to either restaurants you can still get the cookbook to cook some yummy vegan food. 

(close up of the vanilla cheesecake, can you see those vanilla bean specks? yum!)

     Now onto the review. This was good. I wouldn't call it world changing good, but good. You can easily taste the vanilla. It wasn't overpoweringly sweet which I loved. The only thing I didn't like about this was the texture. It was really light and fluffy. I like my cheesecake more dense. My dad didn't say what he thought about it besides that it was good. I'd give this a 2 and 1/2 stars out of 4 though.

     If you ever happen to come across this I would say buy it if you like a more lighter cheesecake or vanilla dessert. That is if the price is good because I can't remember how much I(I should say my dad) bought for it.

Maybe next time i'll try the chocolate mouse tart if they still have it. Chocolate is more my thing anyways.

Have you tried Candle Cafe or Candle 79 if so what'd you get and did you like it? Do you have the cookbook or is it on your wishlist?

I know the cookbook is on my wishlist, but what vegan cookbook isn't?

Happy Vegan Pizza Day!

HAPPY VEGAN PIZZA DAY EVERYONE! Sorry was that a little to loud for you?

I hope everyone is celebrating this fantastic day. 

Now I didn't used to like pizza at all. I always felt like an outsider when we had pizza parties at school and everyone was excited about them except me. I didn't like pizza because of the tomato sauce I was not a cooked tomato type of girl. Oddly enough now my taste have changed and I am growing to like tomato sauces sometimes even crave it. I still prefer to have a pizza with a hummus or pesto based sauce though and loaded with veggies and very little cheese if any at all. I guess you could say i'm more of a non-traditional pizza lover.

So for vegan pizza day my dad and I will be going to Este Pizzeria. I'll blog about it tomorrow most likely. So now go enjoy some pizza I know I will because I've been craving some!