Hi there!

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while.  My family and I went on a vacation to Nevada, Arizona, and then to California.

First we went out to Las Vegas.  My husband and I don’t go on many dates because the only people allowed to watch my child right now are close family friends or family members.  Fortunately, my mother was able to take some time off of work to meet us in Vegas to be our babysitter.   I really enjoyed what Vegas had to offer; delicious food, museums,  shows, and shopping (although I didn’t do too much of it for myself).

We didn’t go to any buffets, but we were able to enjoy a lot vegan food from Whole Foods and some pretty cool restaurants like “The Red Velvet Cafe” and “Pura Vida Bakery and Bystro by Chef Mayra”.  I really wanted to eat at the Wynn, but we just ran out of time.  Note: Steven Wynn is a vegan and his hotels have restaurants that are VERY vegan friendly.  They even have separate vegan menus.

Here are some photos of the food that we had at Pura Vida Bakery and Bystro (vegan empanadas, kale soup, tofu scramble sandwich, and burritos):

It was oh so yummy!

If you are ever in Vegas, I recommend you check out the vegan restaurants there, you won’t regret it!

After we left Vegas, we visited my husband’s great-grandfather, which is my daughter’s great, great- grandfather in Arizona.  It was such an awesome visit.  He told stories from long ago, he played cards with the husband, he tried curry for the first time in his life (my vegan curry panang), and he read with Savannah.

After Arizona, we went to California.  We visited more family members, Disney, more vegan restaurants, and more Whole Foods.  Seriously, we were able to eat healthy throughout this whole trip because of that place!  All of our snacks and to-go meals were from Whole Foods.

 When we went to Disneyland, we packed a cooler full of nuts, non-dairy milk, multi-grain pita bread, hummus, veggies, fruit, Lara Bars and Kind Bars because I wasn’t sure how healthy or vegan-friendly the restaurants were and didn’t have the time to find out.   Thank goodness for my STRONG husband who carried the back pack full of food most of the day!   Thanks, husband!

We even took a family photo.  There are lots of people missing from this pic though. 

Looking at these pictures are making me wish I were closer to my family.  I am missing them very much right now.

In Los Angeles, we hung out in Santa Monica and Playa Del Rey.

I fell in love with this restaurant called, Leaf Organics Vegan Cafe.  I have to say, the food was absolutely delicious!  I am a huge fan of raw dishes, and I was very happy with what they had to offer.  Here is what we had:

We also ate at this restaurant called Local 1205.   I ordered a raw vegan falafel sandwich and a raw vegan chocolate cupcake.  I inhaled the sandwich pretty fast, which is why I don’t have a photo of it.  I was pretty hungry!  But here is a photo of the cupcake:  dates, cacao, agave, coconut, avocado, etc.  Delicious!

We also visited Bakersfield for a couple of days to visit some more family members.

The child had such a wonderful time entertaining everyone.  She played her favorite songs from her piano book, danced around like a maniac, and showed off her math and reading skills.  She read everyone books, solved multiplication, addition, and subtraction problems, and played on everyone’s pianos.

It was difficult to leave everyone because I knew Savannah loved being around her family.  This visit made me really wish we lived closer to them.  I wish we were closer to California.  I really do miss it.

We had a pleasant little adventure, but now we are back home and ready to get back to our comfy day-to-day routine.

I will post a new recipe soon.  I am thinking about raw vegan sushi with Brazil nuts and almonds….yummmm.