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BRAND BALLOT'S TOP 100 MOM BLOGS FOR 2018!!
Re-cap of a Foodie WeekendHello There! New week beginning here as we are into the home stretch of Thanksgiving week. I'm just coming off a wonderful weekend! It was full of good food, fun and time with my girlies!! Yesterday's blog was a short one so I didn't get to tell you about my mall day on Saturday with Kelsey. We ventured to Roosevelt Field to have a security tag removed from Kelsey's new winter jacket, but the highlight of the day was our lunch at Le Pain Quotidien. This restaurant has quickly become mine and Kelsey's favorite place to eat in the mall.  Bread Basket - such amazing bread! (c) travelincousins.com  Vegan Lentil Salad (c) travelincousins.com  Kelsey's Chicken Tartine (c) travleincousins.com Today, we headed into Brooklyn, bright and early and made two foodie stops. First, into Williamsburg to Milk Bar, which Kelsey has been dying to visit. I had put this on our agenda to surprise my girl, but unfortunately, I asked her to write something in my phone calendar while I was driving yesterday and she saw "Milk Bar" typed in for today. She was very confused and then a big smile came over her face. Actually, it worked out since we were able to decide in advance what we would be purchasing. Here is what we purchased:  IN FRONT OF MILK BAR YESTERDAY  (c) travelincousins.com  Vegan Cookie (c) travelincousins.com  (c) travelincousins.com  Fruity Soft Serve (c) travelincousins.com  Kelsey with all of her cookies (c) travelincousins.com  (c) travelincousins.com  Milk Founder, Christina Tosi's signature Crack Pie (c) travelincousins.com  Kelsey eating her crack pie! (c) travelincousins.com  Cool street art on Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (c) travelincousins.com It was so cool to have soft serve that tastes like cereal milk!! I couldn't imagine how she achieved this after reading about it and watching her documentary on Chef's Table. But, trust me when I tell you, if love cereal-flavored milk, after a bowl of your favorite cereal, you will love Milk's soft serve! The Crack PIe is something else that is synonymous with Christina and we had to get it!! It was super great!! Kelsey wanted to get a tin of cookies which consists of 6, but we wound up getting two more in addition to this. The first was the "compost cookie" for which our server heated up; and the second, believe it or not, was a VEGAN chocolate cookie! We didn't think there was going to be anything for Gianna, but lo and behold, when I asked if they had anything vegan, we were directed to a refrigerator case which held some vegan varieties!!! Milk's cookies are pre-packaged and very well priced at $2.75. Kelsey and I LOVED the compost cookie - it has a very indescribable taste - a little chocolate chip, a little oatmeal and just other flavors. We'll be getting more of these in the future!! Next stop...one of our favorite Brooklyn foodie destinations - The Vegan Market at the Market Hotel. Our main reason for attending was to stock up on some food for Thanksgiving, but seriously, how could we even think that we wouldn't eat while we were there!! Gianna was intent on getting the baked pasta again from Anthony's East Side (which we all shared!) and we HAD to try one of Seitan's Helper's new buttermilk biscuit sandwiches, which I had read about on Instagram.  Headed to Vegan Market (c) travelincousins.com OUTSIDE VEGAN HOTEL YESTERDAY  Anthony's Eastside Baked Pasta with almond ricotta (c) travelincousins.com  Buttermilk Biscuit sandwich with bacon, tomato, spinach and hollandaise sauce (c) travelincousins.com But, here's the thing - once we got to their table, we saw that they were offering a turkey wrap. Decisions, decisions! So, we took one of those too! Gianna split both (however, I did have more than half of the biscuit sandwich!!!).  "Turkey" wrap (c) travelincousins.com Familiar faces and our Thanksgiving dessert suppliers included Vegan Brooklyn Foodie, where we purchased some seriously crazy sweets -- Brownie Sandwiches - one with sour patch icing filling and another with birthday cake filling (we tried both of these fillings and they are unbelievable!) We also walked away with two giant chocolate chip cookies with an Oreo baked inside!! Next, we treated ourselves to Anthony's Eastside's tomato sauce. The kids really enjoyed it on his baked pasta (as did I) and so we are going to actually implement his sauce in our own rendition of vegan baked pasta on Thanksgiving! And Last but not least, it was to The Baklava Lady, for several varieties of her amazing vegan version of this traditional turkish treat. Gianna and I agreed on pecan pie, traditional and pumpkin spice baklava. It's going to be a very fulfilling Thanksgiving!!  (c) travelincousins.com  Cool Street art near Market Hotel (c) travelincousins.com As for today, I'll be heading into The Big Apple to meet my dear friend, Elisa (yes - can you believe that with such an uncommon name, we are friends!) Having just moved to New Jersey from St. Augustine, Florida, Elisa is now close enough for us to meet mid-way between our two towns, in Manhattan. We don't have much time to hang out since i have to be back to get the girls from school, however, we are going to make the most of our three-hour get together, which will include yet another vegan foodie experience. We'll be grabbing some lunch at Cinnamon Snail. Doesn't it just seem as if I'm doing non-stop eating!!! I know. Don't worry, I'l be back to some travel destination chat again tomorrow! Well, I've got to run to catch my train. Enjoy the day! -Travelin' Elisa xoxo  | Vegan Sushi Cafe in Orange CountyHowdy folks! I've gotta say that after reading Elisa's blog and seeing all the pics of yummy eats. I just can't compare. While Elisa was eating her way through Brooklyn, I was on a shopping marathon. Thanksgiving is always a means to hit a ton of stores in order to find my exact recipe needs. Funny thing is that when Dave B., Dominic and I went to have a late lunch on Saturday at Loving Hut, a vegan gal that we know who works at Loving Hut happened to be there to take our order.  Spring Rolls (c)travelincousins.com  Burrito (c)travelincousins.com  Jackfruit Salad (c)travelincousins.com Now the funny thing was that doing a shopping marathon still causes you to work up an appetite. So without further adieu we were in Westminster and nearby to Kensho, a new All Vegan Sushi eatery. Only recently opened (August 2018), but already quite the little hot spot. Count me in! Plus guess who we ran into just as we entered the establishment... Chi - from the Loving Hut! After chatting with Chi and her table mate, Dave and I figured out our order and opted to try the Crunchy Cali, the Spicy Tuna-less and The Don - named after the owner and totally DELISH. All three of the rolls were great, but The Don was our fave.  Spicy Tuna-less (c)travelincousins.com  The Don (c)travelincousins.com  Crunchy Cali (c)travelincousins.com Plus to our surprise they also offered a coconut based vegan soft serve that Dave and I decided to share. We ordered the Green Tea & Chocolate swirl.  Green Tea and Chocolate soft serve (c)travelincousins.com Now you might be wondering where Dominic and Cosette were today... Because when they read this and they realize where we ate, I have a strong feeling they will be a tad upset with us for going without them. No worries because as you probably have guessed - we definitely plan on coming back! This place definitely gets a listing in our resource guide as being VEGAN APPROVED. In case you were wondering - Dominic stayed home with a handful of chores and Cosette was off at a birthday ice skating party. It was back to work for Dave and I once we finished eating and were back chipping away at the massive Thanksgiving shopping list. I think we finally called it a wrap at around 6pm give or take. I still have a bit more shopping to do tomorrow and on Tuesday before the marathon of cooking. But I really don't plan on leaving the house on Black Friday - no way no how. We do however have plans of hitting the mall over next weekend when it will hopefully not be anywhere near as crazy. So back to my story - the funny part about seeing Chi both yesterday at the Loving Hut and today at Kensho was that when we got back onto the car and I bopped on to FaceBook and who's picture and name pops up in my feed as a friend suggestion - Chi! What a wacky coincidence. Is FaceBook spying on me?!?! Anyway I have a ton to do between now and Thursday. Luckily I've postponed the IPC Board Meeting from tonight until next week. That's it, I'm outta here. Have a good one and I'll see you back here tomorrow, -Travelin' Tanya  |
