A Very Vegan Weekend

This weekend was kickass on the friend and vegan front.  On Friday night, Becca and I were housesitting at her old boss's house.  They have a washer and dryer so we literally washed the mountain of laundry that we had accumulated, including but not limited to a dozen towels and blankets. My friends, Beth and Cathy came over and drank while we watched Cooking Network and Entourage.  It was a rocking good time even as I constantly swapped wet clothes for dry.

On Saturday I attended a Comfort Food cooking class with the Spork sisters.  It was literally THE BEST MEAL I'VE EVER HAD!!!!  If the Cooking Network called and asked me to describe the best thing I've ever eaten, I would most definitely point to this meal.  Here's a pic of what we made. First, we had a salad with homemade "bacon" ranch dressing then beer battered tempeh nuggets with chipotle ketchup.  The most amazing part of the meal, however, was the twice baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese. I've tried to make these before and though they turned out great but they were NOTHING compared to these bad boys.  Even though I was stuffed full I still had a second spud because they were simply too good to ignore.

Then there was CAKE.  Vanilla cake with the sweetest most amazing vanilla frosting ever that makes me want a cake pedestal, cover and Kitchenaid soooooo badly. Absolutely yummy through and through.  If you've never taken a class at Spork Foods, sign up asap! The prices are competitive and the sisters never repeat a meal so it's always new!  So good and you feel good about yourself when you leave. Plus you take home your recipes to make yourself, which I will be doing with the twice baked potatoes tonight.

Then on Sunday, I blew off my sewing class (boo me) but Becca and I wanted some snuggle/hang out time.  We went to the Farmer's Market on Fairfax.  There is an Italian gourmet pizza place with VEGAN pizza! Score. It's called Deano's and although the vegan options are not listed on the menu, they will totally add Daiya to any pizza. I got a personal cheese pizza on whole wheat crust.  Though technically for one person, there was plenty of pizza. My only minor qualm is that they actually used too much Daiya (I know, I know I didn't think it possible either!)  However, I peeled some of it off and it was delish, especially the crust. In the picture below, you can totally see that I went a little crazy with the red pepper flakes, which had my mouth burning for more than 20 minutes.  Of course the beer helped immensely :).

To cap off the evening, Becca and I went to our favorite LA dive bar the Short Stop where we met up with my friend Alexis and played UNO.  Yes, in the bar. We had wanted to go to Barcade but recently learned it was closed (silent tear trickles down my cheek.)  However, in spite of a few missed appointments and some disappointing bar closures, this weekend was fantastic, vegan and just what I needed.

Now the rest of the week I will continue my fitness bootcamp (Lord have mercy) every day at 6:30 am in Griffith Park. Wish me luck!