Where to Find a Vegan Holiday Roast in Hampton Roads

With Thanksgiving just a few days away, and all the other winter holidays right around the corner, I'd say it's high time I share one of my favorite local vegan resources with you: the Organic Food Depot!

OFD, as I like to abbreviate it, has a couple locations in HRVA: one in Virginia Beach and one in Norfolk.

The Organic Food Depot's Norfolk store is conveniently located
at the corner of Granby St. and 20th St. | image from Google Maps

Why is OFD awesome? Oh, lots of reasons! But today I'm going to focus on just one: they should absolutely be your go-to for a vegan holiday roast.

Sure, you can get a Tofurky roast at Harris Teeter—at least, you can at the one in Ghent—but there's a whole WORLD of vegan roasts out there, so why limit yourself?

(That said, I do love me a Tofurky roast. It's a total classic.)

OFD has vegan roasts from Tofurky and Gardein (we had their holiday roast last year and loved it!), plus two different roasts from Field Roast—traditional and hazelnut-cranberry. Prices range from $10-$18.

Even more awesome? They also have a mini roast on sale right now for about $5. So, whether you're the only veggie at your gathering or you just want to take a veg roast for a little test drive before committing, this is the perfect solution.

mini (aka 1 lb.) roast from Field Roast, available at OFD

The OFD on Granby is one of my favorite spots for vegan food because they have an excellent selection, great prices, and the staff provides out-of-this-world customer service. I can't recommend them highly enough so make sure you stop by during your holiday dinner shopping this year. And even if you're just going in for a roast, take some time to wander around the store to see what else they have to offer. I guarantee you'll find something to get stoked about. (I always do!)

Two more tips before I send you on your merry vegan way:
1. Bring your own bag(s). OFD gives a bag credit (read: discount) to customers who bring in their own grocery bag. Plus, the environment will thank you for it.
2. Register to become an OFD member. It's free, it's easy, it allows you to place orders online, AND you get an extra discount. It's definitely worth it.

I hope this helps make your holiday a little more veg-friendly and a lot more yummy. And, whatever you eat (veg or otherwise), I hope you have a truly wonderful Thanksgiving.

Happy eating, y'all!


(P.S. This is all my own opinion and I'm not being paid or otherwise incentivized to say this. I just think OFD rocks!)

Thursdays in The 757: the Big Blue 5k

I’ll admit that I’m not always the best about exercising. I walk and bike around town more than I drive, but I’m not exactly getting the 30 minutes a day that my doctor recommended. But, I’m totally working on it!

One of my New Year’s Resolutions this year was to get more exercise and, while I’m not knocking it out of the park (yet), I have definitely improved. I’ve started doing yoga and running. Which brings me to today’s Thursdays in the 757 highlight: the Big Blue 5k!

The inaugural Big Blue 5k (in 2014) was actually my and my husband’s first race. We decided to it kind of spontaneously and it turned out to be a total blast. I even got to give my husband a tour of ODU while we ran (the race course winds through campus).

For whatever reason, I didn’t sign up for any more races for a while. But this year, as part of my resolution to exercise more, I decided that I’m going to do more races—starting with the Big Blue 5k next month.

image from BigBlue5k.com

The race benefits the ODU Athletic Department, so if you’re an alumni (like me) or a current student that makes it a fun and easy way to support your school. Plus, race registration gets you all kinds of cool extras. More information and registration are available on the event website: BigBlue5k.com. Hurry up and register soon (if you haven't already) before it sells out!

I’ve already registered and even started doing some race training. I want to do well to show myself what I’m capable of, but also to show people that the stereotype of the sickly vegan is wrong and that you don’t need animal products to be an athlete. It’s definitely some self-inflicted pressure, but I’m committed.

Are you a plant-powered athlete? What are your favorite local races?

See you at the Big Blue!

Toss-Up Tuesday: The DivaCup

Howdy and happy Toss-Up Tuesday to you all!

Tuesday's posts will vary from week to week depending on the season, the weather, my mood, or whatever else moves me at the time! Be prepared for posts about my various fandoms, my love for all things Emily Post, my cat, and who knows what else.

I'm not holding back either which is pretty well evidenced by today's topic: periods!

Ok, not periods so much as a product for dealing with them, but you get the idea. If you're not in the mood to hear about periody stuff, then you probably want to bug out now.

That said, here goes!

It was around ten years ago that I first heard about the DivaCup.

At the time, I was a college freshman and had traveled with a couple schoolmates to join some veg kids at CNU for a vegan potluck. That night is easily one of my fondest memories from college, in no small part because of the food. It was the first time since going veg that I had been able to eat everything in front of me. There were so many different kinds of food—and I could eat it all! So I did, and it was delicious.

Seriously. I ate some pumpkin bread there that was so good I have literally spent the past decade trying to recreate it. It was life-changing . . . but I digress.

Somehow, the conversation turned to the DivaCup. (Suddenly, I’m regretting not having made a mental note of the guys’ faces during this discussion.)

One of the hostesses used it and was a big fan. I was TOTALLY fascinated by the concept: the DivaCup is a reusable, a soft silicone cup that you wear inside your vagina to collect menstrual fluid. I found this especially interesting since I had done my senior science project the year before on contaminants in tampons. (No joke. But that's a story for another time.)

Ultimately, the DivaCup was pricey for my broke college kid budget and I was a little nervous about the DivaCup not working or me not being able to use it properly/comfortably so I put it off. I mostly forgot about it, once in a while remembering oh, yeah, there’s this other thing, when I was buying tampons or something. Mostly, though, it slipped my mind.

Then, within the past couple years or so, I started seeing articles popping up about the DivaCup and other alternatives to traditional pads and tampons. My friends were sharing them and, since they’re all pretty progressive ladies, I figured at least some must have been using them, too. (Translation: I'm not alone! Always a good feeling.)

So, the other day when I saw a DivaCup on sale at Whole Foods, I figured why the hell not.

The timing was perfect because, even aside from the sale, it just so happened that I was due to re-stock my tampon supply. I crunched the numbers in my head:

approx $7/month for tampons = $84/year

1 DivaCup at $33, lasts approx 12 months = $33/year

plus environmental benefit of less waste with DivaCup

Saving $50 and doing the environment a favor? Easy decision.

I grabbed the DivaCup and, knowing how dangerous it is for me to be in Whole Foods once I go Off-List, beelined to the register. Now, I am the proud owner of my very own, brand new DivaCup! *cheers*

Do you use a DivaCup or other alternative to traditional pads or tampons? What’s your favorite? Share your stories in the comments!

Click here to visit DivaCup’s website for more information.

Mmmonday: Is Your Favorite Drink Vegan?

Happy Monday morning, y’all!

Just like the rest of the week, my Monday posts will center around a theme. I'm calling them #Mmmondays, a nod to my love for Hanson as well as the ubiquitous "mmm" noise that means damn, that's tasty! On Mmmondays, I'll feature posts about food and drink. I’ll be sharing recipes, restaurant reviews, product reviews and suggestions, and that sort of thing. 

Today, I'm kicking things off with what I hope you'll find to be some helpful beverage-related information.

There are as many misconceptions about vegan foods/drinks as there are about vegans, and one of the more common ones is that all booze is vegan. The good news is that some beer, wine, and liquor is vegan—a lot of it is, in fact. But some is very not vegan.

Some kinds of alcoholic drinks are made using animal-derived products which, though they rarely if ever end up in the finished product, renders them firmly NOT vegan. Guinness, for example, is one of the most well-known beers to use isinglass (which comes from fish’s swim bladders—ew!) in the brewing process.

Many wines use animal products or ingredients, too. In fact, it’s been my experience that it’s harder to find vegan wine than it is to find vegan beer or liquor. (Some Yellow Tail wines are vegan though, including their cabernet sauvignon, which is my favorite and pretty much the only wine I ever buy.)

Now, before you get all bummed out thinking that you have this new hurdle to clear, as if you didn’t have enough already, I have some more good news for you: you don’t have to do all the research yourself!

Luckily for all of us, there is a fantastic website called Barnivore that is basically a big database of boozy products and whether or not they’re vegan. So, instead of having to contact all your favorite breweries/distilleries/wineries yourself, you can just type in the beverage you’re wondering about and—Bingo!—it tells you whether it’s vegan or not.

Barnivore.com Home Page | Screenshot from Barnivore.com

It’s a pretty comprehensive database, too, so even though some microbrews are missing (for now) they do an excellent job of covering the common and popular products that you’re most likely to encounter in a restaurant, grocery store, or other booze-buying establishment.

Sample Search Results Page | Screenshot from Barnivore.com

My personal advice? Take 5-10 minutes to do some recon on your favorite drinks. I did and was pleased to find that almost every single one of my go-tos was vegan. Now, I can go out and order my favorite beers and whiskeys with confidence.

Sample Detail Page | Screenshot from Barnivore.com
* FYI: almost every other Stoli product IS vegan :) *

I hope you find Barnivore to be as helpful a resource as I do. If you’ve tried it, let me know what you thought.

And feel free to share your favorite vegan beer, wine, and liquor recommendations in the comments!

Frugal Friday: Recycle Your Graphic Ts Into Cleaning Rags

We made it to Friday!

*rejoices*

But before the weekend can commence here at Vegan in VA, it’s time for Frugal Friday.

On Frugal Fridays I’ll share free or low-cost community events and activities as well as money-saving local resources, lifestyle tips, and more. Basically, if it helps you save money, I’ll be talking about it.

I’m an admitted cheapskate, always on the look-out for the best deals and ways to stretch a dollar. I love feeling like I’ve gotten the most for my money and I don’t hesitate to try new things if it means helping my budget.

Which brings me to today’s Frugal Friday tip: recycle your old t-shirts into cleaning rags.

If you’re like me, your home has an abundance of t-shirts and only a few of them ever actually get worn. I try to go through my clothes a few times a year to pull out things that I don’t like, that don’t fit, or that I simply don’t wear, but there were all these shirts that kept getting put back in the drawer even though I hadn’t worn them in ages.

Same with my husband’s clothes.

We had all these old shirts, some of which were in terrible shape, that we couldn’t bear to part with because they held some sort of sentimental significance for us. My Grandpa’s old work shirt, a favorite band’s tour shirt from 15 years ago, you get the idea. The stories behind them were endless and the pile was beginning to seem pretty endless, too, so I decided something had to give.

step 1: gather your supplies
(in this case, old t-shirts & fabric scissors)

So, I grabbed the scissors. Specifically, the fabric scissors, which are always sharper than I remember and, of course, I ended up cutting myself . . . but that’s another story.

Anyway, I grabbed the scissors and went to town. I cut out the main part of each shirt and set it aside. (Eventually I'll turn them all into a quilt.) Then, I hacked up the rest of the shirt. I cut off the sleeves and cut up the body, creating strips of fabric in different sizes.

step 2: cut up the t-shirts
(remember to leave the image intact)

I folded them all up while I watched TV (because I’m a multitasker like that) and then tossed them in a basket in the kitchen.

now your graphic t-shirts are conveniently quilt-sized . . .

. . . and you have all these handy new cleaning rags–
in a variety of sizes!

Done-zo.

That’s it. Really.

And now I have a ton of rags I can use to clean the house so I don’t have to use paper towels which, let’s face it, are super wasteful. Plus, if I use a rag for something so gnarly that it needs to be thrown away afterward, it’s no big deal because I know that, sooner or later, I’ll have new t-shirts to cut up.

My favorite things about my recycled rags are that they solved my paper towel dilemma, and helped me clear up some dresser space, all for $0 since I already had the fabric scissors.

If you don’t have fabric scissors, you can pick up a nice pair for less than $10 at any sewing or fabric store. You can even use a regular pair of scissors if your shirts aren’t too thick. Either way, BE CAREFUL. Nothing ruins recycle excitement like trying not to bleed all over everything because you cut yourself with scissors. (This is a serious problem for me, in case you couldn’t tell.)

So, that’s my tip for this week. Try it out yourself and let me know how it goes!

Thursdays in the 757

Well, we’ve made it to Thursday—that means the weekend is almost here!

Thursdays at Vegan in VA are going to be all about things that are awesome in or about the 757.

I'm going to start Thursdays in the 757 off with something I just heard about. It seems kind of odd to suggest an event that I haven’t personally attended before, but this one seems so interesting that I can’t resist sharing it with you.

the Slover Library in Downtown Norfolk

This Saturday, March 5, the Slover Library is hosting The Feminine Freedom Film Festival as part of Women’s History Month and the Celebration of Women in Film. I’m most excited about this because all of the films in the festival are written, directed, and/or produced by local women!

More information about this event is available on the Slover Library’s website. While you’re there, make sure to check out the other events the Norfolk Public Library (NPL) has in store for Women’s History Month.

inside the Slover Library

And don’t forget that metered parking in Downtown Norfolk is free after 6 PM and that the Tide is a great way to get into Downtown without having to deal with parking. If the weather is nice, I might even go by bike.

What’s your favorite way to get into Downtown Norfolk? Tell me in the comments!

Wellness Wednesday

Happy Hump Day!

Remember those Hump Day commercials with the camel? They were so terrible that I can’t even recall what they were advertising.

My husband found them hilarious, so every Wednesday he’d wake up and say, “What day is it?” And then, whether or not I’d answer, he’d say, loudly and with great enthusiasm, “Hump DAYYYY!”

Every. Single. Wednesday.
Sometimes more than once.
FOR MONTHS.

He’s lucky I find him adorable because that joke went on waaay too long.

Anyway, all of this is to say that it is, in fact, Wednesday. What does that mean here at Vegan in VA? It means it’s time for Wellness Wednesday!

My plan for Wellness Wednesday is to dedicate the post for the day to something that contributes to our wellness. Sometimes this will be a home remedy, an exercise or meditation tip, or information about the health benefits of a vegan diet while other times it will be an inspirational quote and photo. A beautiful image and some encouraging words can do wonders for our well-being, so some days I’m going to keep it simple and stick with just that.

I’m going to kick off Wellness Wednesdays with a phrase that I have been telling myself a lot over the past year or so:

What’s your latest favorite motivational or inspirational phrase? Share it in the comments!

Why I Made Vegan in VA

For the past year, I’ve been working on creating this blog and I think I’m finally ready to really share it—yay!

I’ve already told you a little about myself (in my Meet Me Series), so now I’d like to tell you why I’ve made this blog. There are a few reasons, really:

bike rack at Cogan's North

1. I’m a sharer. When I find a particularly useful tip, tasty recipe, cool podcast, etc., I immediately want to share it with everyone I know. Good news is meant to be shared, right? And anything that makes life better/easier (like finally figuring out the perfect vegan French toast recipe!) is definitely good news.

2. There are a ton of great local resources sharing info about community events, activities, and other developments in Hampton Roads, but very, very few that focus exclusively on veg-friendly things to do, see, or eat. I’m excited to help fill that information gap.

3. People often ask me for vegan recipes, for tips about how to cut down on meat/dairy/egg consumption, or how to make the transition to a fully plant-based, vegan diet. I LOVE when people ask me about this!

As I said before, I’m a sharer, so it’s like getting a surprise present every time I get to help someone on the path toward veganism. The only trouble is that I often feel like I am throwing too much information at a person at once. Like, I know that rattling off a list of my favorite faux meat products isn’t going to stick in a person’s brain for very long. I kept finding myself thinking, If only I could jot down some notes for them to reference later… (Not to mention that every time this happened my husband would say, "See, this is why you need to blog!")

vegan breakfast: scrambled VeganEgg
 with tomatoes, whole wheat toast, OJ, & coffee

So, that’s kind of a quick round-up of the reasons why I decided to launch Vegan in VA. I just want to share what I’ve learned with y'all so that your lives will become easier, healthier, and more compassionate.

Maybe I’ll save you some time so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel (like I have many times since making the switch to veganism) and maybe I’ll make it easier for someone  to commit to a plant-based diet or even a fully vegan lifestyle.

Maybe I’ll even convince everyone in Virginia to go vegan!

Ambitious? Sure. But a girl can dream.

Veganism on TODAY

screenshot from today.com

Yesterday, this segment about veganism aired on TODAY as part of their series about "diet trends."

Now, don't get me wrong, I think it's awesome that TODAY showcased veganism! Really, I do. But I can't help feeling like they missed the mark a little bit.

I'll take a pass on the whole veganism-as-a-diet-"trend" part, but there are a few other points that I'd like to take a moment to address:

1. You *do not* have to "go out of your way" to make sure you're getting enough protein. There is protein in practically everything, including beans, nuts, and especially meat substitutes. Also, Americans are largely over-proteinated.
2. B12 does not come exclusively from animal sources, that's why you can find vegan B12 supplements! The easiest way to make sure you're getting all your vitamins (including B12) is by taking a vegan multivitamin every day. Actually, I think just about everybody should probably take a multivitamin. Don't assume that a non-vegan diet is any healthier than a vegan diet, or that it guarantees you're getting all your vitamins and minerals!
3. There is so much more to vegan food than just hummus and stir-fry. I'm really disappointed that they didn't use this opportunity to showcase some of the more enticing vegan meal options available. I'm a big fan of the expression, "Anything you can eat I can eat vegan!"
4. Sorry if I'm bursting anyone's bubble here, but not all wines, beers, and liquors are vegan. Barnivore.com is a great resource for determining what is and isn't.

All that aside, this clip is a really great introduction to veganism, especially for those who might be confused about what "vegan" means. It would be a great resource to share with friends and family members who are having trouble wrapping their brain around your veganism, this is probably the perfect thing to send their way.

Or, if you're not a vegan or vegetarian but you have a vegan in your life, I HIGHLY recommend giving it a watch.

TODAY, I have a simple suggestion for you: next time, have your segment about veganism be presented by an actual vegan. :)

I assure you, nobody rocks at explaining how to be vegan quite like us vegans!

screenshot from today.com

[Click the image above to watch the full video of the segment on today.com]

Meet Me, Part 3: Veg Life

Welcome back to Vegan in VA for the third and final installment of my Meet Me Series.

I covered my basic bio in Part 1, VA life in Part 2, and now I’ll delve into my journey to veganism.
_________________

My husband and I have been vegan for over a year now, but this isn’t the first time on a veg diet for either of us. He was vegetarian for a few years long before we met and I was a vegetarian during high school and college.

teenage me with the fawn we rescued and raised

Growing up in the country, I passed cow pastures and chicken farms on my way to school. I often got stuck behind pig trucks on their way to the nearby slaughterhouse.

Once I started learning more about what went on behind the scenes in the leather industry, in the meat industry, and in the animals-as-entertainment industry, it all became too much for me and I made the easy decision to be a vegetarian.

At the time, I didn’t understand that the egg and dairy industries were just as bad as the meat industry and that, really, going vegetarian isn’t enough. But I was a teenager who was at the mercy of my parents, who bought the groceries and who didn’t share my desire to avoid eating animals. Plus, in a rural area that pretty much depends on the pork industry to survive, there weren’t a whole lot of veg options available.

I was vegetarian for a few years, eventually breaking during college. I was omni for about six years after that, during which time I was never able to shake the guilt that came with eating animal products. Images from the many animal rights videos I watched would pop into my head even as I savored the flavor of the food I was eating. Things you can’t unsee is how I like to put it.

Eventually, the guilt got to be too much. I couldn’t justify eating animal products anymore, especially when I knew better.

I did a lot of research and discovered that, in addition to being more animal-friendly, there are TONS of health reasons to make the switch to veganism. The decreased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and especially cancer (both my husband and I have an elevated risk of various cancers) were very appealing. Plus, I found out that a vegan diet is actually fantastic for the environment as well, even better than driving an electric car!

I took all this information to my husband who is totally amazing and wholeheartedly agreed to join me in switching to veganism. We set a date, made a plan, and dove in. Turns out, it’s an easy change to make when you have good reasons to do it. It’s even easier when your partner is committed to making the change, too.

this is how we grill now - vegan sausages and assorted veggies

So far, I have zero regrets. Switching to veganism has made me feel better both physically and mentally/emotionally. I feel healthier on the day-to-day and I’ve only been sick once since I changed my diet. I no longer have guilt about how my diet negatively affects animals or the planet.

Sure, sometimes people (who don’t understand) give me grief and sometimes it can be challenging to dine out in restaurants or at non-vegan’s homes, but those are tiny hurdles and they’re so, so worth it in the grand scheme of things.

Basically, it was a bit of a windy road to get me here, to this place of proud and permanent veganism, but I’m stoked to have ended up in such a great place!

I hope that, by sharing this with you, you’ll feel inspired to make a lifestyle change of your own. A life of compassion is always a good choice and I encourage all of you to take any steps you can in that direction.

Maybe you’re not yet ready to fully commit to veganism—that’s OK. Start small, with Meatless Mondays or whatever works best for you. Any step in the right direction is a good thing, and if easing into it is the way to make your veganism stick then it’s definitely the way to go.

But now I want to hear from you! Are you a vegan? Are you considering veganism? What was your journey like? Tell me about it in the comments. You never know who you might inspire. :)


Click here to read the previous post in this series
< Meet Me Part 2: VA Life

Meet Me, Part 2: VA Life

Hey, y’all! Welcome back to Vegan in VA for the second installment of my Meet Me Series. In Part 1, I gave you a basic introduction to me and now I’d like to briefly introduce you to my home - Hampton Roads, VA. _________________ I’d like to begin by clarifying something for those of you who aren’t familiar with my little corner of VA. The area where I live is referred to by several names: Southeastern Virginia, Tidewater, Hampton Roads, the 757, and, most recently, Coastal Virginia. It’s kind of a running joke that our area has a bit of an identity crisis and I honestly pity any non-locals who try to keep it all straight. I’ll probably use all of those names at some point so just know that, whatever I call it, I’m talking about the same area, which includes Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Newport News, Hampton, Suffolk, and Isle of Wight County.

Melody loves technology,
even if she's not always
the most helpful officemate

But anyway, let’s get back onto the topic at hand, shall we? I share an apartment with my husband and our grumpy (and slightly neurotic) old cat named Melody. We live in one of Norfolk’s many beautiful, historic neighborhoods, in delightful proximity to a ton of shops, restaurants, and places for entertainment. Best of all, we are in the best part of Hampton Roads (aka HRVA) that a vegan could be. We’re lucky enough to have a wide range of restaurants, grocery stores, and farmers markets that offer all kinds of veg-friendly fare. Living here makes a vegan lifestyle so easy! It’s really fantastic and we are grateful every single day to live in a place that is so understanding and accepting of our lifestyle.

that time a giant rubber
duck appeared in the
Hague in front of the
Chrysler Museum

As much as I love food (and I love food A LOT!) there are so many other reasons why living in HRVA gets me stoked. Living here means I’m just a short drive from the Atlantic Ocean. The beach is one of my favorite places to be, so this is a Big Deal for me. There are also various museums (many of which don’t exploit animals for entertainment, thankfully) that cover science (the Air and Space Museum), local history (the Casemate Museum at Fort Monroe), art (the Chrysler Museum), and much more. Plus, there’s an abundance of outdoor activities available like kayaking, hiking, surfing, and biking - which is my personal favorite! In addition to all that awesomeness, HRVA is also a great place to be a geek (and I’m a big one). We have locally-owned video game and comic book stores, the Tidewater Comicon, and an annual lightsaber battle every May. I’m a history nerd, too, and since VA is literally where America began there is no end of cool historic things to do - including visiting the Historic Triangle (i.e. Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown).

live music at Harborfest, an
annual event on the
Elizabeth River

What I love most though is that, even though I’ve lived my whole life here in Hampton Roads, I’m still discovering new and exciting things to do and see and places to go. Plus, with our wonky but awesome weather, you can do just about anything at just about any time of the year. Some people might find it lame that I’ve lived in the same place my whole life, but I tell you what: I love it here! HRVA has been a wonderful place to grow up and start my family. I can’t even imagine any place else being able to offer all that HRVA can. But what about you: What do you love about your hometown? Tell me in the comments! Click here to read the previous post in this series < Meet Me Part 1: Welcome to Vegan in VA

Click here to read the next post in this series

Meet Me Part 3: Going Veg >

Welcome to Vegan in VA!

Hello and welcome to Vegan in VA! Thank you so much for stopping by.

Before I get into all the fun that is veganism (and everything else I plan to talk about on this shiny new blog!) I want to take a few posts to introduce myself.

This post is Part 1 (of 3) in the Meet Me Series.

_________________

I'm a big fan of big sunglasses

My name is Shari G, but you can call me Shari.

I’m a proud Southern girl, born and raised right here in the 757. I spent my formative years in the country—literally living between a cotton or peanut field (depending on the year) and a corn field. I came to the city for college and have basically stayed here ever since.

Despite living in the city for a decade now, I still have some country tendencies (like only wearing shoes when it’s absolutely necessary), but they’re balanced out with a little bit of hippie-ness and a little rock-n-roll . . . and a heavy dose of my husband’s New York City Style!

My interests, like me, are pretty eclectic. I love all kinds of food, books, movies, and music. I like the mountains and love the beach. I’m happy to spend a day riding around on my bike or touring a historical site. I enjoy cooking and trying to master my Canon DSLR. Most of all, I love that VA is a great place to do all these things.

geeking out at the lightsaber
battle in Town Point Park

I don’t think VA always gets the attention it deserves, so I’m looking forward to sharing some of its awesomeness with the world—and especially you!

I’m also looking forward to sharing some of my favorite vegan-ized versions of traditional Southern recipes with you. Just because you’re vegan doesn’t mean you have to give up Virginia staples like BBQ and Brunswick Stew! And you might be surprised how easy it is to transform those kinds of dishes into cruelty-free versions.

That’s all for now, but get on down to the comment section and let me know what your favorite Southern dish is. Are there any that you haven’t had since you went veg?

Click here to read the next post in this series

Meet Me Part 2: VA Life >