Wow, I can’t believe it is already November!

I surprisingly didn’t eat too much candy on Halloween, but did drink my share of wine and eat pizza, so I was a little slow-moving this morning. Nothing a little coffee, water and work can’t fix. Sometimes its best to just throw yourself into it!

Peet’s Coffee was completely decked out for the holidays – an overnight transformation complete with red & green sprinkled almond bark, holiday blend beans and holiday music. I’m ready for the holidays, but that seemed like a bit much!

I returned home (cousins home, we move into our place Thursday!!) and promptly made some breakfast. I’m looking forward to getting back into a routine once we get settled. My type-a personality is freaking out!

Breakfast: French Meadow Sprouted Cinnamon Bagel + pat of butter + hard boiled egg + strawberries.

Both strength and cardio were on my list today so I did a quick weight routine before we headed out to run a few errands in our new neighborhood!

Lunch: Being that it was World Vegan Day (pointed out to me by Pepperoni is not a Veg – thank you!) I really wanted to eat vegan all day, but because I don’t have my own fridge, usual food options, etc. I wasn’t able to make it the whole day. (Soon I’ll do a Vegan Day!) But, we did have an excellent vegan lunch at Veggie Grill. I’d been wanting to try Veggie Grill since I saw one of them and figured today was a perfect reason to try it out. I was starving and needed more than a salad so I tried the VG Cheeseburger, which the guy in line behind us said was amazing. I ordered it with the red cabbage slaw side and I gobbled it up in no time at all. 

Then it was time for some more work. I loooove being able to work outside. In November.

A 50 minute walk with Ruby (the dog) was “cardio” for the day. Not necessarily a great workout, but because I had a dog with me I wasn’t worried about a certain length of time or getting in so many miles, I just enjoyed the walk and the afternoon. It was really, really nice.

We made dinner tonight for my cousins and the Taster decided to make a Minnesota speciality, the Blucy. (Blue cheese stuffed hamburger) No shortage of burgers (both real and not) for me today!

Dinner: An amazingly delicious blucy sans bun + salad + sweet potato fries + sriracha mayo for dipping.

Dessert: I was gifted some unwanted halloween candy.

Now I’m sipping tea and getting ready for bed, lots to do today!

To say that I’m excited for all of the restaurants that come with a new city, is a huge understatement. We’ve already got a pretty long list going and I’m sure we’ll be adding to it faster than we cross them off.

Apartment searching was a great reason to head out and try a few restaurants in potential neighborhoods. Food after all, is a huge factor in picking out a spot to live…for us.

I’d been intrigued by M Cafe after seeing it many times on Lynn’s blog and I was really excited to try it out. For our inaugural trip (there will be many, many more) I tried the M Chopped salad which was wonderful. It had hearts of romaine & mixed greens, avocado, cucumber, chickpeas, herb-baked tofu, scallions, umeboshi pickled radishes, carrots, beets, tamari-roasted almonds, crumbled tempeh “bacon” & tofu-peppercorn ranch dressing.

All kinds of flavors and textures going on for a perfectly filling salad.

The great thing about macrobiotic food is that fish is a-ok (unlike vegan/vegetarian food) which makes the Taster very happy. He went with the Grilled Tuna Burger that was delicious. Not just any old tuna burger – a tuna burger glazed with teriyaki sauce & garnished with sliced avocado, pickled red onions, daikon sprouts, spicy yuzu mayo, fresh shiso leaf and served on a house-baked whole wheat bun.

Oh yes. You also get to pick your side dish with sandwiches and while I urged him to choose the Kale with Peanut Sauce, he went with the soba salad. Good, but I have a feeling the kale will be better.

Next time we visit M Cafe (which will be very soon – I just picked up a groupon for it) I’ll be getting the deli salad plate so that I can try that kale.