SunWarrior is AWESOME!!!

My good friends over at Sunwarrior have been so amazing and offered my readers and friends a discount. How awesome right? When you go to their site and make a purchase, use the code VEGVAN and you will get 5% off! BOOM. You'll also be getting an awesome product which is so tasty and nutritious. Back about a month ago I did a review, check it out here. I really enjoy this protein powder a lot. Its so clean, delicious and not grainy. It really dissolves very well. Better than most others. Its raw, hypoallergenic, plant based, alkaline, non-GMO and gluten free. 

They have a bunch of other products too, so take a look around. 

Their main site is here but the store is here. The first site will take you there once you click on store, but I included them both. 

So make sure you book mark this and don't lose that code! Discounts are always great!

So thank you to Sunwarrior and Raw Elements for offering my readers a discount! Thank you thank you! :)

Don't forget: www.sunwarrior.ca and www.rawelements.ca with code VEGVAN 

Peace

xoxo

K

Restaurant Review: Cactus Club at English Bay

I'm not a big fan of Cactus Club to be honest. The food is average at best and well I'm a woman so its not my first choice to go to a restaurant with hot lady servers. lol That being said, its a good place for drinks and its always bumping cuz what guy doesn't want to hot lady servers. ;)

Cactus did open up a new location in my hood, English Bay. Not just in my hood, but right in the Bay, on the water. AMAZING view, obvs so I had to check it out eventually. My long time child hood girlfriend took me out for birthday drinks and eats on Saturday. I have the never ending birthday. Its awesome! It was a total surprise and I think that's what also made it even more special. 

Cactus has some summer drinks on special, one which is quite delish. I'm wine, vodka soda or the occasional beer drinker. I almost never have sweet cocktails or sugary drinks. BUT I could not resist the Sunset Soda which is a vodka soda with a splash of bellini!!! YUM! Perfect for the hot summer day we were having. 

Sunset Soda

We decided to share a couple items. Nicole isn't vegan or vegetarian but eats uber healthy like me and is wheat and gluten free. So it works out pretty well actually when we eat together.

Szechuan green beans

They were tasty and delish! Could be spicier but no biggie. 

I can't remember what this was called and for some reason I can't get onto cactus's menu. Weird. But is a salmon bowl with veggies.

We shared this dish and they were so awesome and split it up into 2 bowls. This dish was fresh, savoury and tasty. It had some of my fave veggies: broccoli, snap peas, daikon and edamame. We subbed the salmon for portobello mushrooms. The only part I didn't like was that their hot sauce was Frank's Red Hot. Although its tasty, its far too salty and its flavour is overpowering and changes the way your food tastes. But of course I love hot sauce and still used it. lol 

SOOOOO, I have to say I was pretty impressed with Cactus. Probs the best meal I've ever had there. The view, drinks and sunny Saturday might have played a part in it, but I'd def go back. Although, the line up for the patio was crazy, we were super lucky to get a spot right away with no line up. No big deal. :)

Peace

xoxo

K

Restaurant Review: Yew at the Four Seasons

Yew at the Four Seasons in Vancouver launched a vegan menu a couple weeks back and I've been dying to try it. I haven't been to Yew in a few years because, well there is nothing for me to eat other than a modified salad. The regular menu is pretty phenomenal though, even as a vegan it looked pretty delish. The seafood sounds just amazing. My girlfriends ordered off the regular menu and I tried the vegan one. It was so nice to have a nice fancy vegan meal as the majority is just casual dining.

I think its pretty amazing when restaurants launch vegan or vegetarian menus or at least have more than one option. Even people who just want to eat healthier like to eat a veggie meal but it also lets the restaurant tap into a growing market. Its just smart. I love going to vegan/vegetarian restaurants but its nice to go to a place that has options for everyone. So my meat eating friends can get what they want and so can I. :)

Saffron Risotto

I got the saffron risotto with roasted sweet peppers, zucchini, cured tomatoes, and lemon olive oil. It was SOOOOOO yummy! I ate every last morsel. I also loved the presentation. Love the paella dish it was served in. It was flavourful, savoury, and just down right satisfying. My girlfriends got the bouillabaise and the arctic char. Looked amazing but I didn't take a pic of their meal.

The service was also very good. They were very attentive and treated us very well. We even got some chocolates and power cookies after dinner! I can't wait to go back to try more of the dishes and especially the lunch menu. It looks delish. AND I noticed that they have 50% off bottles of wine on Sundays!!! Yes please!

So go check out the new vegan menu at Yew. You won't be disappointed. 

Peace

xoxo

K

Vegan Sushi Bowl

I had some leftover sushi rice from making sushi at home so I put together a little sushi bowl. So yummy and pretty easy to assemble.

Vegan Sushi Bowl

Ingredients

1-2 cups brown rice (or sushi rice)

1 cup shelled edamame

1 carrots, sliced

1/2 cucumber, chopped

1 cup tofu, cubed

garlic powder

cayenne powder

1/4 avocado

sesame seeds

seaweed, chopped

Tamari (or soy sauce)

sriracha (optional)

Directions:

If using frozen edamame, cook for 2 minutes in microwave in water and drain. Pan fry cubed tofu (I used smoked tofu) in 1 tsp sesame oil with garlic powder and cayenne. I didn't measure it, just sprinkled a little bit on. Be careful with the cayenne as its spicy, if you're not into spicy, just omit it. cook tofu for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

To assemble layer the bowl: brown rice, edamame, carrots and cucmber, tofu around the edge, avocado in the middle then sprinkle sesame seeds, seaweed, soy sauce and sriracha if you're using it. And then enjoy!

TIP: if you have wasabi on hand then mix it with your tamari or soy sauce. I was too lazy to make it so I used sriracha. lol

This was very yummy and satisfying. Kinda cool to eat a deconstructed sushi roll with all the fixins'. :)

Peace

xoxo

K

Restaurant Review: Panz Veggie

I had the pleasure of going to Panz Veggie twice this week. Lol I had some dinner plans out this week and neither of them had been so off we went. Obviously if you've read my blog you know that I'm a big fan of Panz Veggie and so is my Dad. Its fantastic. I'm not gonna go on and on about it because you can read my previous posts but I will show you the pics of the dishes we tried cuz I tried a couple new ones. Oh happy day! :)

Battered Yams

Cashew Veggies

Buddha's Feast

Apparently they have 2 dishes with the same name. This kinda annoyed me cuz we wanted noodles. And they didn't ask which dish we wanted and we didn't know there was 2 with the same name. I didn't complain or anything, I did ask about it. Kinda weird that they have the same name, that should change. But either way, the dish was tasty and had some cool unusual mushrooms that I don't normally eat. And I LOVE trying new foods! LOVE.

Hot and Sour Soup

YUM! Tasted more like a traditional hot and sour soup than Paradise Noodle House. But that one was Vietnamese style. This was yummy, the broth was tasty. I enjoyed this quite a lot.

3 Wise mushrooms with Chow Mein

Braised Tofu Sheets with Chinese mushrooms

I've had this one before as well as the 3 Wise Mushrooms. I gotta say that the braised tofu sheets dish is my all time FAVE. Those crispy tofu sheets are amazeballs. Like woah. And I really love Chinese mushrooms. They are really strong in flavour but no other mushrooms tastes like them. Just delish. 

If you wanna know more about Panz Veggie, check out their site. I linked it at the top. Or you can check out one of my reviews here 

Peace

xoxo

K

Brown rice veggie sushi

I just had to have homemade sushi the other night. I will def go out and pick up sushi when I'm too lazy, but I like to make my own. I'm no sushi expert, even though I am Japanese, but I'm no slouch either. I like to put non-traditional food in my sushi though. Sometimes I use fried rice, quinoa, guacamole, leftover stir fry. Just whatever I've got laying around. I did have some avocado but I also had some guac leftover that I didn't want to waste so I used that instead of just plain avocado and it was yummy! Made it spicy and stick together better. It can be tougher with brown rice cuz its drier than sushi rice. I think next time I will put a little bit more water when I cook it.....

And so it begins! I went with just the guac, carrots and cucumber in my roll. Cuz I had other parts of my meal being prepared at the same time. Mix in a little sushi vinegar with the rice before putting it on ur seaweed. DO NOT USE OTHER VINEGAR. If you don't have mirin, then just use nothing. Sushi vinegar is special. lol You can use more rice if you want, but I don't like it like that. :)

Load up ur fixins'. I put guac, cucumber, carrots and sriracha. 

Roll that sucker nice and tight. Use a little water to seal it shut. make sure its not loose. Oh and a tip for your rolling mat, cover it with saran wrap so that if any rice escapes its nice and easy to clean! Seriously, everyone does this. My Baba taught me that trick. :)

This is the part I'm the WORST at. But this time not so bad. Use a serrated knife and cut it however you like it. Mine into six. I make my own wasabi, from a powder. Mixed it with some water and then soy sauce, gluten free tamari. I used very little soy, trying to eat as little salt as possible. But I can't cut soy sauce out all together. Its pretty much in my blood. Yup, soy sauce blood. :) Its the Asian in me. ;)

I also steamed some broccoli, spinach and bok choy and topped it with garlic mushrooms and hemp seeds. The mushrooms were sauteed with water, garlic powder and a sprinkle of sea salt. YUM! Seriously my addiction right now. I eat them almost daily. As a snack. What a freak! LOL

If you've never tried making sushi, give it a go! Its not that hard and you can be way more creative when you make it yourself. And healthier. Some times I don't even cut them and just eat them whole. Or make cones. 

Hope you all had a great weekend!!!

Peace

xoxo

K

Guest Post: Ethical Deal

If you don't follow me on twitter or facebook then you may not be aware that I did a guest blog post on Ethical Deal's blog last week. I feel very honoured to have been asked. You can check it out here. You can also sign up with them for daily deals you can feel good about. They have various criteria for companies they work with such as promoting wellness, cares for the planet, respect animal rights or benefits the community. So when you purchase a deal with them, you know you're supporting a business who is doing something good for the planet/community in at least one of these ways. I've been a subscriber and customer for some time now. Check them out! And my guest blog post. I hope there is more to come!

Happy Sunday everyone!!!

Cheers

xoxo

K