BIGGEST ORANGE EVER!!!!!

I popped into a grocery store in Irvine that is beside our bank. I'd never been in it before. It's called Wholesome Choice - grocery store and international food court.

Let me preface this by saying, Albertsons, the grocery store that we have been going to regularly now since it is close to us and reasonably priced, does not have too great of a produce section :(

But as soon as I walked into Wholesome Choice I was so excited! They have the best produce section I have ever seen in any grocery store. Reasons why it is so great- It is huge. It is completely fully stocked. It is well labeled. It is clean. The prices are decent (cheaper than Albertsons, more expensive than our Santa Ana grocery store Smart & Final, but better stuff than at Smart & Final and not that much more expensive). The quality of the produce is wonderful too! And they have a huge variety. Even their nuts and beans are huge in quantity, awesome in quality, and super well organized. And it didn't have that snobby overpriced feeling that I get at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods or other "healthy" "organic" stores. It seemed approachable. Don't get me wrong, I would love to shop at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods on a regular basis, but they are just ripping off your bank account on certain items you could get for much cheaper anywhere else. Don't hate me for saying that...

Anyway, I wasn't really even in need of buying anything, but I got some granny smith apples and TWO GIANT ORANGES!! Seriously, they are the biggest oranges I have ever seen.

Just a taaaaad bit smaller than a grapefruit! I don't know why, but I just found the size of these oranges to be crazy.

I walked around Wholesome Choice for a bit, just to check it out. Their regular grocery section was alright, but we'll probably still go to Albertson's because it's closer and a bit better priced. Wholesome Choice is like a midway point between regular grocery stores like Albertson's, Smart & Final, or for you east coasters, Stop & Shop, Harris Teeter, Food Lion and the more expensive stores like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. And it also has a food court inside of it with food stations from all around the world. The food looked awesome, although I didn't get any.

Well that's all for today. I'll be throwing in some past vegan blog-worthy experiences as I go forward with current stuff. There's a lot of stuff from my mom's trip to Cali that I still haven't blogged about yet.

Happy Eating!
-Gina

Great Find - Vegan Cafe in Santa Monica

There need to be more vegan bakeries... or all bakeries need to have vegan baked goods as a choice. Because vegan baked goods are so delicious!

When my mom was visiting southern California we ate dinner in Santa Monica one night. We had a wonderful dinner at Fritto Misto. It is an Italian restaurant, reasonably priced for a nice night out. The food is great, and they have plenty of vegan options...

I got an awesome vegetable pasta dish...

And the waitress was super great. She brought us a free dessert in honor of my mom celebrating graduating college!

Oh, also, kind of random, but I guess there were a lot of kids at our surrounding tables, so at one point the waitress brought out a bucket of dinosaur toys and gave one to each kid. Patrick got a stegosaurus.

So Patrick and mom enjoyed splitting the dessert, because it wasn't vegan. As they ate it I looked up vegan desserts in Santa Monica on my phone. I found a vegan bakery and then I made them walk several blocks so I could have dessert too. We were pretty tired from all of our site-seeing, but it was totally worth the walk, well, for me anyway. I got this strawberry shortcake, completely vegan, completely delicious. They had chocolate cake as an option, but the person working there recommended this one. It was so yummy!!

If you're ever in Santa Monica I highly recommend the Golden Mean Vegan Cafe!

Happy Eating!

-Gina