WIAW #22: Bus Boys & Poets

Hello friends! I'm so sad I missed the WIAW party last week - but I was having a blast in Paris, VA & Washington DC with some school friends doing service on a farm! More about that later - I'm planning multiple posts describing my adventures - but for now, I'll be highlighting my favorite eats from the trip! And near the end I'll announce the winners of my EcoTrek Fitness Bars giveaway!
While in DC, we stumbled across this cute little restaurant/fair trade shop called Bus Boys & Poets, named after the great Langston Hughes. They had a lot of great vegan treats, as well as a variety of other goodies. I was madly in love with this place as soon as we walked inside!

Doesn't it look great? Those are pictures of the inside and the fair trade shop, as well as the menu. There are four of these restaurants all around DC - it had to be good if there were that many!

Clearly, not all these delicious items were mine...although I did eat or taste most of them! 
{clockwise} avocado panini, falafel pita, sesame kale, thin mint latte, vegan brownie & vanilla ice cream, tempeh panini, white chocolate banana bread pudding & coconut ice cream.
The tempeh panini was so good. It has vegan mayo (which was the best vegan mayo I've had, by the way), grilled onions & peppers, and lettuce. The bread pudding was also super delicious and different from any bread pudding I've had before. And the coconut ice cream? It tasted like the inside of an Almond Joy. Pure toasted coconut deliciousness. Loved it! 
I highly recommend checking this place out if you are ever in the DC area. It's worth a trip! I hope I get to go back someday!
And finally....the winners of the EcoTrek Fitness Bars giveaway are: Christopher Sorel, Billiejean, Linz @ Itz Linz, & Moonsword!
Please EMAIL ME within 48 hours with your contact info to claim your prize! Congrats to everyone!
Where is the best place you've eaten while traveling? Much love, 

I'm back and ready to blog!

Hey everyone! I'm back from my spring break trip in Paris, Virginia, and I had a blast! Although I did get really frustrated at times, the trip was overall a success. It reinforced exactly why I am a vegetarian. I also loved getting to know all the animals and seeing all their different personalities...and I think goats may now be one of my favorite animals! :)

More on my trip later...I have a couple posts planned where I will share pictures and my adventures, but for now, I just want to share some other exciting (or maybe not so exciting) things!

Things In My Fridge

I have to admit. I absolutely love grocery shopping. And doesn't my fridge look so organized right now? I went to Trader Joe's over Spring Break and got some new eats I'm excited to try, including masala lentil dip, egg white salad, and honey greek yogurt. I will be making an egg white salad sandwich for dinner tonight on my new TJ's bread (see below). SO EXCITED! 

You may also notice I have a slight obsession with hummus. I have roasted pine nut and caramelized onion flavors. The caramelized onion is my favorite - Whole Foods knows how to make some great hummus! The Gardein buffalo wings will be my first experience with Gardein, thanks to a giveaway I won from Celeste at Growing Up Veg. Yummy! This will also be my first time trying the Tofurky kielbasas (I couldn't decide between apple sage Field Roast or these...) and the GoodBelly coconut water. 

More love from TJ's! Mac&cheese, chocolate almond milk, and my most exciting purchase...sprouted wheat bread! When I was reading the nutritional information and discovered each slice has only 60 calories, I became really excited. I never eat bread because of its high calorie content, and I am ready to bust this bag open for dinner tonight. 

At Target I found these new "Peepsters" - has anyone seen them before? They are like chocolate covered peeps, only small candies filled with marshmallow creme! I can't wait to try them.

Things That Are New

I found this awesome new cereal at Target - frosted mini wheats that are filled with raspberry! They are delicious. I don't usually buy sugary cereal, but this is great. They also have a new vanilla almond (I think) Raisin Bran that I want to try. 

And, probably the best purchase of the week... my NEW RUNNING SHOES! They are the Brooks Adrenaline GT12... I went to Fleet Feet and they helped me pick out a stability shoe to support my flat arches and my newly discovered overpronation (my feet roll inwards when I walk). They are really comfortable, and feel a lot like walking on clouds. I love them! Although the store declined my credit card for some weird reason...and only that store! My dad had to come up and buy them for me... and then said I didn't have to pay him back. How awesome is that? 

Also, my newest cookbook... Chloe's Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli. I've loved her ever since I watched her win Food Network's Cupcake Wars. The recipes of hers that I have tried so far are delicious - I highly recommend her chocolate pumpkin bread pudding (find it on her website!) So yummy and I cannot wait to dig into this book!

New magazines. I'm excited for my subscription to Seventeen to end...and ready to start reading Whole Living and Vegetarian Times, whenever they get here!

Things from Virginia

I bought some raw, unfiltered lavender sage honey, which they collect from the bees on their farm, as well as some dried carrot chips and dandelion "honey" jelly. The jelly was something I've never heard of before, but the owner let me sample it before I purchased a jar, and it was delicious! It's made from dandelion leaves, sugar and lemon juice, and you can use it just like jelly. It definitely tastes like honey, too. So yummy. I couldn't decide if I wanted a jar of this or of the homemade banana butter - but after sampling both, I had to go with the jelly! 

I also jumped right back into my Couch-to-5K program. I've missed running a lot, and I expected to have to   go slower on my program after taking off for a week. However, today was my best workout yet - I completed the entire session without taking breaks, and I am extremely proud! It was a great workout and I hope it continues to go well!

Whew, that was a lot! Here are some upcoming posts to look forward to: 

- Pictures from my trip to Paris, VA and Washington DC

- Product reviews: Hail Merry raw snacks, Lucy's Cookies, Skinny Water, and more
- An abs workout
- An arms workout

And more! :) So please stick around and check back often...I'll also be hosting another giveaway very soon!

What is your favorite new snack that you've tried recently? 
Much love,