April was a fun and busy month–my bff Ely came to visit from LA, and we drove to Dallas to go to go to ComicCon, among other things. I also celebrated my birthday, tried a bunch of new makeup and beauty stuff, and was busy working as well! Keep reading to find out what some of my favorite things were throughout the month.
Food- Recipes
I may be a little biased, but two of my favorite recipes this month were my PB&J Smoothie Bowl and Blueberry Coffee Cake. Seriously though the cake is so moist, delicious and addicting, and the smoothie bowl is basically like dessert for breakfast.
I also made some of Minimalist Baker’s Chipotle Aioli go to on some vegan burgers (it’s so good!) and an epic breakfast sandwich that was a combo of recipes I found from Chocolate Covered Katie, Minimalist Baker, and The Misfit Baker.
Food- Restaurants
I ate out way more than I usually do this month since Ely was visiting and because it was my birthday, so I got to try some new delicious vegan food as well as enjoy some old faves!
One new dish I tried and loved was the sweet potato arepas from Bistro Vonish–I didn’t even know what arepas were when I ordered them, but they are amazingly delicious! If you’re in Austin and haven’t tried them, do yourself a favor and get some ASAP!
My favorite restaurant that we tried while we were in Dallas was Spiral Diner–it’s an adorable all vegan diner, and I had a big yummy plate of migas and home fries. I want to go back to Dallas soon so I can go back and try one of their huge nacho plates as well.
I also took Ely to two of my fave vegan comfort food places in Austin–Arlo’s and The Vegan Nom. Arlo’s burgers are top notch (and they have gf buns, yay!), and the tacos at The Vegan Nom (especially the breakfast tacos!) are so good. Ely commented that the corn tortillas are as good as the ones she has when visiting family in Mexico.
For my birthday I finally went to The Beer Plant with some friends and was blown away by how amazing the Blacksmith Burger was. Both my friend Julien and I ordered it, and as he said, that burger will haunt your dreams. We loved it so much that we even decided to remake our own version. My aunt also took me out to Mother’s Cafe for the first time for a late birthday lunch, and I got their Tempeh Enchiladas, which were oh so tasty.
One last food thing, I swear! For my birthday Lucas got me a delicious vegan/gluten free cookie cake from local bakery Zucchini Kill, and I was so excited because I used to love cookie cakes as a kid and hadn’t had one in forever. Can it be my birthday every day?!
Beauty
Since I wrote a post specifically about all of my favorite (and least favorite) makeup and beauty items lately in my April Beauty Faves & Fails post, I won’t go into detail here, but I love the M.O.T.D. Lux Vegan Makeup Brush Set (get 10% off M.O.T.D. with code pennysportal!), Styli Style Precious Metals Palette, and ColourPop lippies, among other things–check out the post to find out more. I do want to mention Schmidt’s though–after trying another vegan deodorant that made me smell, I realized how much I love my Schmidt’s Lavender Sage deodorant stick!
Fashion
I love this humane meat is yuppie bullshit shirt from Herbivore Clothing that Lucas got at Rabbit Food Grocery (an all vegan store in Austin!) recently. If you’re interested in learning more about the idea of “humane” meat, check out this post.
Check out this Chiaralascura shirt I also got at Rabbit Food recently–#VeganPizzaGang! Also I love these 90’s jean shorts I found at one of my fave vintage stores, New Bohemia vintage. Every time I go there I find something cool!
Movies/TV/Books
As per usual, this month I watched another movie from The Spooky Vegan’s Most Anticipated Horror Movies of 2017 list, The Love Witch, and loved it. The first time I watched it I was like this movie is so weird, but I was mesmerized by it, and ended up watching it again….and again, and then found myself doing Love Witch inspired makeup and dreaming of a gothic Victorian house with witchy artwork and decor. #Goals.
I’m late to the game on this one, but one of Lucas and I’s fave shows this month is Better Call Saul. I’d been avoiding it because I was skeptical that it would be good, but we were quickly hooked–the characters really pull you in. I’ve also been watching and enjoying Grace and Frankie lately, which is also on Netflix.
On that note, if you’re interested in learning about health you should also watch the new documentary What the Health. I won’t say much about it because honestly I think you should just watch it and find out, but I will say that you will probably be shocked and enraged after seeing it. I wish I could get all of my friends and family to watch it.
Blogs/Vlogs
This month I found two rad vegan bloggers/vloggers–Sweet Simple Vegan and Caitlin Shoemaker. Both of their blogs/vlogs feature yummy and healthy vegan recipes and food ideas as well as vegan lifestyle tips. Sweet Simple Vegan recently posted a Vegan Taco Pizza recipe that looks so epic!
What were some of your fave things this month? Let me know in the comments!
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