Santa Barbara Vegan: Adama

This is a review I was planning to make a few days ago, but pediatric inpatient is actually pretty busy - also awesome - and I'm just now sitting down with a little time.

I was in Santa Barbara visiting last weekend and my dear friend Christina agreed to try out a new restaurant with me: Adama, Vegan Comfort Food.

Locals may remember Chamomile Cafe & Bakery in Carpinteria - a great vegan-friendly place close to the ocean, but it was closed a while ago.

Lucky for all of us, the genius behind Chamomile Cafe has opened a new restaurant called Adama. All-vegan and delicious, I only wish I lived there again so I could try everything.

The inside layout's a bit unexpected, like it used to be a house, and decorations are minimal, but I loved it - it kept the focus on the food.

Coffee for both of us.

I got the Protein Scramble - seitan, tofu and veggies with a side of quinoa served with liquid aminos and topped with pumpkin seeds. Christina was even brave enough to try the seitan: I give her honorary vegan status.

Christina picked the Pumpkin Pecan Pancakes, served with Earth Balance, maple syrup and fresh banana.

They were very different flavors, and it was great to be able to have some bites of both.

There's lots more on the menu I want to try. Road trip anyone?

 It's Labor Day weekend - what are your plans?

Gosh I Missed You.

During this weekend between rotations, I'm taking the opportunity to visit some favorite college friends that I no longer get to see nearly often enough.

Yesterday I stopped to see my beautiful college suitemate Candida - she's a middle school teacher. Getting the young ones excited about science. I got to briefly see her teach and catch up a bit. I miss you!

Another couple hours in traffic brought me to Santa Barbara. I got to catch up with my friend Bri - she's 32 weeks pregnant and gorgeous. I forgot to snap a picture, but I'll be back up in a couple weeks for the baby shower.

The beach was enjoyed. Volleyball was played. 

I'm staying with college roomie Christina. Rocking the super-cute zinc lips - no sunburn up in here. I pulled a rookie sunscreen move though and somehow burnt a tiny part of the front of my shoulders. You would think at age 23 I could successfully cover all my skin with sunscreen. You'd be wrong. 

A late lunch of vegetable fajitas at Little Alex's. I didn't finish all the tortilla or beans and rice but I definitely vanished all those veggies.

Followed by iced coffee. With my name spelled "Cary." I don't think any barista has ever spelled it right.

And some downtown shopping. I found a professional-looking dress that feels like a sweatshirt. That's like preparing for my rotation on Monday right?

It's so nice to see so many people I love so much. Hope you're all having a great weekend. 

Before and After

Before: I had a blog header shoddily designed in Paint.
After: I have set a really bland one until I have time to make a new one pay someone else to make me a decent-looking one.

Before: I didn't know what to do if I'm ever consulted about how to treat a chemical burn.
After: I've studied for my surgery test this morning, and I can tell you to wash it. Wash it well. Get the hose and irrigate that wound until you've used up all the water in southern California (or for 30 minutes). Then go to the ER.

Before: I had no idea how my sister Emma was doing in her first week of college.

After: I had an awesome skype convo with her and now I get to be jealous of her enormous dorm room and interesting classes.

Before: I had pretty serious roots growing out and general hair maintenance hot mess troubles.

Making my parents proud one crazy-eyed picture at a time.

After: Katie has restored me to presentable. All ready to start my new rotation on Monday (Pediatrics!) It's been over a year since I dyed my hair any color but dark red. I haven't decided if I like it better or not.

I felt soups awk (that's a Katie expression - for super awkward) standing on my front porch trying to take these pictures. Especially while trying to angle my face to minimize the break-out visibility.

Before anything else today I have to take that surgery test. After I'm going to Santa Barbara. Happy almost-weekend!

WIAW: Back to School

It's What I Ate Wednesday!

The strangeness of this week is that my time is suddenly my own again. Except for the OSCE (standardized clinical exam) I took yesterday, we've had lecture and study time. No hospital. No clinic. Like first and second year for the most part. It's nice to eat breakfast when it's light outside.

Breakfast: Yogurt bowl. Blueberries and peaches = summer.

However, even though we've only been rotating 10 weeks, this return to class makes me feel mentally really far away from the first two years - my ability to sit and listen for hours at a time has made an exponential decline.

I love the healthcare environment - seeing patients, learning that way. The classroom feels like the wrong place to be.

Especially for 6 hours! I guess there's just a lot to cover before we take the Surgery exam on Friday.

Lunch: Tofurky sandwich on Ezekiel bread. My go-to packed lunch returns for the hours of lecture today.

And if I survive all the lecture wide awake, a SIAWG (Smoothie in a Wine Glass) reward...

Snack: SIAWG

Dinner: Spaghetti marinara with white beans and broccoli. Leftovers from Monday.

Confession time: Not a single one of these pictures is new. Apparently WIAW today is also recycled picture/leftover day.

That's all. Time to take my lunchbox and go to school. I don't know why it feels so odd. I feel like I should track down my graphing calculator and my protractor. Maybe some tape for my glasses.

Do you switch easily into different routines? Do you have any advice about it?

Tuesday Goes from Average...

...to Awesome.

Look what arrived in the mail today!

The Joy of Vegan Baking and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

All right, who want some vegan dessert?

No seriously - you can't leave me alone with all this sugar.

It Was a Weird Monday

It started with a run and a yogurt bowl. I can't remember the last time I had something other than oatmeal, but I don't know why - this is awesome.

However, the morning did not continue with a trip in to the hospital or clinic. In fact, I didn't go anywhere today but the grocery store. It's end-of-rotation test preparation time. 

I had a raw snack. I really liked that this bar wasn't skimpy on the nuts. And the cardamom was an interesting twist. 

For lunch, despite being home, I kept my study flow going and went for a new-to-me freezer meal: Morningstar Sweet and Sour Chik'n. The sweet and sour was super-strong and sweet, but I liked this dish. It could handle some extra veggies, if my veggie drawers hadn't been completely bare at the time. 

For dinner I spent like an hour feeling ambivalent about everything. I finally settled on whole wheat thin spaghetti with steamed broccoli, tomato sauce and white beans with nutritional yeast. It all came together in about 10 minutes - and so good. 3 more servings to spare. 

And for dessert I might blend up a little smoothie.

Tomorrow is the OSCE - when we see standardized patients, get videotaped and graded for the interaction, our assessment, information-gathering, physical exam and treatment plan. 

I get really nervous, but it'll be done at 11 am tomorrow. 

Zpizza: The Vegan and the Omnivore

It's not quite Beauty and the Beast - seriously, Boyfriend's way too good-looking for that - but you could qualify us for Beauty and the Beast-eater I suppose.

John eats very healthfully, and he's a champion of trying new and slightly questionable vegan dishes and products. A couple months ago I offered him some mashed potatoes and didn't tell him they were half mashed cauliflower. Sneaky vegetable-pushing girlfriend. Understandably, sometimes he just wants some predictable meat.

Enter Zpizza - which I have written about before, but had terrible pictures, so that warrants an update. The Berkeley Vegan is a pizza with Daiya cheese (I ask them to go light on it - I actually don't like Daiya much), burger crumbles, veggies and a nice crisp crust. Boyfriend and I get a large - half BBQ chicken, half vegan. We always get raised eyebrows with this order. 2 slices are about perfect for me, so I end up taking home another meal's worth.

So for all those times you want everyone to be happy (and don't have the energy to trick anyone into vegetables) I really like Zpizza.

Have you ever tricked someone into eating something good for them? Or something bad for them - actually those are even better stories.