Birthday Juice!!!

I've been a super busy little vegan these past few days. First off, it was my birthday last Thursday so on Wednesday night Patrick took me out on a date to Freesoulcaffe in Tustin.

http://freesoulcaffe.com/

I got a vegan BLT sandwich, which came with a salad with their amazing special dressing (soooo gooood), Patrick got a vegan Tuna sandwich and salad, and we split asparagus soup, and it came with amazing bread and vegan butter. And Patrick got a rootbeer, which is vegan. Absolutely everything in this place is vegan, which is so nice because you can order whatever you want, no worries! And it is all delicious. Patrick didn't love his tuna, but then again, what is vegan "tuna" anyway?? I don't like tuna period. It was a lot of food!

This was our dessert at Freesoulcaffe: Oreo Cheesecake! I found out this week that Oreos are vegan. Obviously I won't be eating them all the time since I am doing this for health reasons, but it is good to have something to indulge in every now and then. Warning though: Oreos are not vegan in Europe.

Then on my actual birthday I had to work until 10pm, and when I came home Patrick had prepared a wonderful dinner of spaghetti and salad, then he surprised me with another dessert from Freesoulcaffe, a vegan chocolate cupcake!!!! I really do have a sweet tooth. So delicious. Blowing out my candle...

Then on Saturday night we celebrated our combined birthdays (mine Jan 26, Patrick's Feb 3) with friends at Souplantation! If you have never been, they are all about fresh ingredients and an awesome salad bar. It's all buffet style. I found two really yummy vegan soups, salad, and Oreos for dessert :) It's not an all vegan restaurant though, so there were plenty of choices for everyone to enjoy! The staff was super friendly too!

One of my birthday presents was this juicer:

so this (apple, carrot, cucumber, spinach, and celery):

becomes this:

It may not look that appetizing (the glass is black, so that doesn't help), but it is actually not that bad tasting! and it is awesome nutrients! and I wouldn't necessarily eat kale or spinach, but I will drink the juice! It is fun experimenting with different fruits and veggies. And it leaves leftover pulp, so I am going to make veggie burgers with that! And try to find other fun things to make with the pulp.

Well that was a lot of vegan power for one blog! I'll let you know how the pulp cooking turns out.
Happy eating!
-Gina