Vegan Black Bean Tacos

We watched Forks Over Knives a few weeks ago and have begun exploring a vegan diet. After a few weeks of trying to implement it here and there, I feel that I could fairly easily go vegetarian, but vegan would be hard. I love eggs and cheese! I can work around meat, but I want cheese on just about everything! But, my cheese obsession aside, it's been fun to explore different ways of eating, and I do find myself feeling a lot better. 

I have started to collect some really yummy and really easy recipes that I am excited to share with you. Since this is the first one we made, I decided this would be the first one we would share! Despite the fact that it sounds pretty boring and bland, it's incredibly flavorful! I was really surprised by this dish and find myself craving it a lot! 

Here's what you will need;

1 large head Romaine Lettuce
1 onion, sliced
1 bell pepper, sliced
1 jalapeno pepper, sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced (a garlic press is a must have!)
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chipotle pepper seasoning*
1 1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 can black beans rinsed
2 cups cooked brown rice
Salt and pepper to taste
Avocado
Pico De Gallo
Lime*
Cilantro*

First, cook your rice, and your beans if you are not using canned. I'm lazy, so I used canned beans, I just make sure to rinse them thoroughly.
Sautee your onion, peppers, garlic and seasonings over medium-high heat. If you find them sticking to the pan, just add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water.  Add black beans and 1 cup of water. Cook for 10 minutes, adding more water if it seems too dry, but careful not to add too much!
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve in lettuce with rice, topped with avocado, pico, lime, and cilantro.

*optional

Adapted from the Forks Over Knives Cookbook 

Hopefully you enjoy this recipe as much as we do! It is so quick and easy to whip together, and despite how simple it is incredibly flavorful! It keeps really well too and makes for a great quick lunch!

Enjoy!

Florida | May 2015 | Day 4

Tuesday was a bit of lazy day. We had talked about going out and collecting seashells, but I couldn't pull myself out of bed. We eventually got up and went off to get some of our favorite donuts. We ended up getting two dozen so we could share with the family. A little pricey, but worth it! Yummy stuff! Everyone else loved them too. Those caramel sea salt are to die for!

Mom, Zoey and I went out for pedicures and did a little shopping. Afterwards Dave and I went out to lunch to our favorite place we found last time we were in town, a little Mexican grocery store that also has a restaurant in the back. Just about the entire menu is in Spanish, but it's all so fresh, authentic and yummy! They seriously have the best guacamole I have ever had. So good.

We then just hung out with the family for a while, watching some shows. We planned to do a family session at sunset on the beach for Dave's older brother and his little family. But it was pouring rain. So much rain! So we pushed it back a bit, and waited for it to let up. 

The clouds were still pretty dark and gloomy, but I think we managed to get some good shots! It started pouring again, We were all soaked by the time we made it back to the car, but I'm excited to go through and edit the pictures! 

Then, off to dinner at a near by place for seafood on the water. From what I read online it's one of the oldest on the water seafood places in the area. It had tons of cool decor and pretty yummy food! Dave's shrimp was quite over seasoned, just pure salt and nearly inedible - but other than that it was all really good!

They ended up giving us some free desserts to make up for it. Very nice customer service. We couldn't get seated near the windows since we had such a large group and they only had small tables near the windows. Hopefully Dave and I can go again before the trip is over, just the two of us! But it was very fun to have a nice dinner out with the whole family. 

Dave and I went back to our hotel for the night, and tried watching some shows until we started falling asleep. Fun day with the family! Sad to say goodbye to D and Z and their little cuties as they fly home Wednesday night!

And this video was pretty easy to edit all together, thankfully! Enjoy!

DC Cherry Blossoms 2015

We are coming up on two years of living here in VA and have really not done any sight seeing in DC. As I felt that this might be our last chance, I wanted to make sure to see the cherry blossoms this year. 

I have had a lot of anxiety with traveling into the city. I hate the traffic, crowds, dealing with hard to find and pricey parking... But I didn't want to let my fears prevent me from seeing the cherry blossoms, for what could have been my last chance while living here.

I did plenty of research and reading online tips for getting to, parking at and enjoying the cherry blossoms. We decided to go on a Sunday morning at sunrise as I read that to be the best time. We left a little later than I would have liked, my fears trying to keep me home until the last minute, but we made it into the city by about 6:30, just at sunrise. 

Despite my extensive research I neglected to see that there was a run going on that morning. While from what I read, the place is normally empty until 8, but this morning it was busy as I think the run was starting at about 7. It took quite a while to get to where I wanted to park as lots of the roads were closed due to the run, but we finally managed to get to where we were wanting, and were able to still find plenty of free parking. 

From where we parked we had about a 15 minute walk to Tidal Basin, but the walk was along a pretty, blossom lined street.

Sadly there were already TONS of people at the Tidal Basin. It. Was. Gross. It was honestly a little disappointing as it was essentially impossible to get a clean shot without the crowds.

It wasn't a total waste though, I still got plenty of good shots, and could edit the people out of some of them.

Thanks to Dave for this shot of me!

We walked around for about an hour and then the crowds started getting really hairy, so we decided to hit the road to still try to make it to church (which we did!)

Tuesday I ended up having a free day, so we decided to take the last minute opportunity to head into DC one more time.

We decided if we could easily find parking easily and it wasn't too busy we would walk around. Amazingly, since there wasn't a run going on, and it was a bit rainy, we were able to find tons of open, free parking, only a couple minutes from Tidal Basin. 

It was perfect. There was hardly any people, everything was extra lush and green thanks to the rain, and the blossoms were slowly falling through the air with each gentle breeze, coating the grass, path and benches. It was heaven. I got the shots I was dreaming of, and without having to edit out any people (mostly)!

Then we made our way over to find a food truck - The DC Taco Truck. We had to do a few circles to get to the right street, but we eventually found it, I even parallel parked! That's a pretty big deal guys. 

We ordered tacos, with just 15 minutes to spare till closing time! The tacos, while over priced were really good, but tasted EXACTLY like the shrimp tacos I make. So they were good, but not worth the price when I know exactly how to make them myself.

We then decided to go to Lush since we were close to one of the few in the area. All that stuff is delightful! I want to try everything! Can't wait to get my hands on more! Another blog post on all that later!

I am so grateful for Dave for helping encourage me to not let my fears override and keep me from accomplishing my goals. Now that I have officially ripped the DC band-aid off and know It's Not That Bad, I am excited to make more trips in and now finally do some proper sight seeing and DC food eating! Yay! Thanks for reading if you stuck the whole way through!

xoxo

Florida Trip Part II

Read Part I Here

The next morning we visited some potential places for Dave's family to move into and then stopped by the beach. The beach was even more dreamy than I had expected. The sand was white and soft as flour, and the water was incredibly clear and beautiful. I don't know if we will even care to visit Virginia Beach now, haha. I knew Florida had some nice beaches, but it was even better then I had imagined. Stunning. This is Anna Maria Island. 

The weather was a bit gloomy, so we didn't swim, we just hung out and enjoyed the view. We saw a couple stingrays swim back and forth just a few feet out from where we were standing. Crazy! 

My collection from our little time walking on the beach

We went to a seafood place near our hotel for dinner. I actually wasn't a huge fan of it, but it was decent seafood at a fair price so I can't complain too much. We spent the evening watching a football game with the family at the hotel.

The next morning mom and dad did some more home hunting and Dave, Josh and I went to the beach. 

Taken by Dave, as spotted on the drive to the beach. 
You know you are in Florida when...

We went to one of the more touristy beaches - mistake, the sand wasn't quite as nice, the water was more on the murky side, and by noon it was packed with people - but it was still a good time.

I spent 90% of my time combing for seashells. Didn't find too many. When I was in the water I heard a splashing noise to my left, and looked down to see a stingray swim right past my leg! Scary!! Cool, but a little too close for my liking! (nervous laughter)

As it got later in the day the clouds cleared and we finally got to enjoy some sun! 

We then made our way to a yummy Mexican market for lunch. I looked up a bunch of places before we left home - as I always do - and this place was amazing! We ordered way too much food, but it was all so amazing! The best guacamole we have ever had! A.Maze.Ing!

Since we didn't really feel like going back to the crowded beach, we decided to do a little more swimming at our hotel pool. Around the pool, the chairs, tables and fences were covered in little lizards! So cute! 

The next morning Dave and I (tried to) woke up bright and early and made our way to the beach once again in hopes of finding some seashells. Sadly, there was already a good number of people there before us, we should have gotten there probably an hour earlier, so we didn't get any particularly big ones, but we still got a good share (that I have yet to get a picture of). While we didn't get really nice shells, we did get some really nice pictures...

Isn't that water amazing!?!

This was Bean Point, at the tip of Anna Maria Island

I could seriously spend all morning, every morning hunting for seashells.

Thanks to Bear for the pic.

Again guys, that water! Look! Look how clear it is!!!

We had to get a Geocache before leaving the state!

We then stopped at Anna Maria Donuts which was pure heaven. Warm and fresh, made to order. 

Classic glazed, maple bacon, cinnamon and sugar, white iced, white iced with raspberry, caramel with sea salt (incredible), chocolate and coconut (amazing) and chocolate iced chocolate chip. Heaven in a box.

We brought the delightful donuts back to share with the family. 

We took our car to a local car wash and got all the sand vacuumed out, and then hit a farmers stand to get some fresh produce for the drive home.

Don't be jealous. Despite how they look the strawberries were actually kinda terrible. 

And then we met the family at the Mexican market for one last lunch at our new favorite place before hitting the road.

We should have brought some of that guac home with us! 

And that's pretty much it! All in all it was a wonderful trip! Thanks for reading if you made it the whole way through! Here is a slideshow of all the pictures from the entire trip if you are so interested.