Bits & Pieces Archives - Page 11 of 15

Arlo’s: Vegan Food Done Right

September 3, 2015 by Jillian Leave a Comment

Meet Arlo’s Bac’n Cheez Burger. Me and BCB (for short) are good friends.

Us vegans are just like everyone else. I know some people may think all we eat is tofu and carrots and hemp seeds (and yes, we do eat those things) but we want to indulge in comfort food too, dang it! 🍔🍟

That’s where Arlo’s comes in. If you live in Austin, Texas – aka Land of Vegan Bliss – then you are in luck. Arlo’s is comprised of two food trucks that are conveniently located in the downtown area. Also convenient, as least for me, is that they are parked right in front of two awesome bars 🍺🍷This pretty much completes my life. The main location is at Cheer Up Charlie’s, right in the heart of Austin’s famous music scene. And they have a new location along a very popular strip on the east side at Drinks Lounge. I went to their opening a couple of weeks ago and it was packed! Arlo’s is well loved here.

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Exciting News + Thrive Market Review + Your Feedback!

August 20, 2015 by Jillian 2 Comments

Before I get to the total awesomeness of Thrive Market, I have an exciting announcement to make. I’m now a contributor to a really cool food blog called Girls on Food. Yay! 🎉🎉 It’s completely run and written by women all over the country, sharing their views on food and contributing recipes, restaurant reviews, and personal stories. I’m doubly excited because I’m their first vegan blogger 🙌 so I think this will be a great opportunity to reach viewers that I wouldn’t normally cross paths with and show them how easy and delicious it is to eat plant-based foods. My very first post is up on their website. I chose my Berry & Herb Coconut Ice Cream Pops recipe to get the ball rolling because well, it’s so simple to make and who doesn’t like popsicles in the summer?

Okay, one more bit of exciting news before I get on to the real purpose of this post. Last month, I posted a recipe for Vegan S’mores Fudge Brownies. You can’t make s’mores brownies without marshmallows, right? I used Dandies Marshmallows because they’re vegan and yummy and awesome and yummy. I guess Dandies liked my recipe because they featured it all over their social media (not complaining) and I was excited to see that it was also featured in their most recent e-letter. Woo hoo! I have another recipe I’ll be posting in coming weeks that features these little puffs of heaven. You can buy Dandies at specialty grocery stores like Central Market and Whole Foods, and I’ve even seen them at some of my local HEB supermarkets.

Okay I lied. I have one more quick tidbit. And this is really important because I need your help. I’ve started working on my first E-Book that I want to make available for FREE to anyone that signs up for my weekly e-letter. But I need to know what you, the people are actually interested in seeing. So I have a question for you:

Which type of free e-book would you be more likely to read?

A cookbook that contains my top recipes and follows a theme (gluten-free, quick & easy, beets!)

-OR-

A realistic 7 day detox that I created that will give you oodles of energy, an instant mood lift, and beautiful nails?

If you have a moment to comment on this post (or hit the reply button if you’re reading this through my e-letter) and let me know what you think, I’d really appreciate your feedback. Or tell me if you have something else you’d like to see that wasn’t listed above.

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Vegans Love Pitbulls!

July 27, 2015 by Jillian Leave a Comment

Last month there were so many animal events going on in Austin that I could barely keep my head on straight! There were also a lot of vegan events, so as you can imagine, I felt like a kid on Christmas – if Christmas was in June and lasted the entire month. 🎁🎄

Since I’m really busy this week working on a film job, I thought I would just post some of my favorite pictures from a couple of those events. Scroll down to see cute pitties, delicious vegan food, and some of the fun happenings that make Austin such a cool city.

Weekly Reunion Rescue @ Spiderhouse

Reunion Rescue is a local pitbull rescue group and founder Cindy sets up camp at a popular coffeehouse near the University of Texas to educate people, get donations to help the dogs, and most importantly, get them adopted! On the particular day that I showed up, there were 3 adorable pitbulls with Cindy, all looking for their forever homes.

Meet Amber and her cute nose:

As you can see above, Amber was an abuse case and most likely had acid or something similar poured over her head. Yet when I met her, she was as sweet as could be and loves children!

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Elisabet Ney Museum in Austin, Texas

July 2, 2015 by Jillian Leave a Comment

All right, so I must admit that this post is less about vegan and more about women. But there is a vegan connection that I will explain below! This museum is one of my favorite places in Austin because it combines some of my most beloved things all in one place: history, art, nature, and independent women. It’s the original studio that Elisabet Ney designed herself in 1892 and named Formosa (Portuguese for “beautiful island”), after her previous home in Madeira.

Ney was born in Germany in 1833. She was the first female sculpture student at the all-male Munich Academy of Art (you go girl). After graduating she moved to Berlin and sculpted portraits for several famous Europeans, including Jacob Grimm (of the Grimm Brothers), philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, Italian military leader Giuseppe Garibaldi, King George V of Hanover, and Ludwig II of Bavaria.

She married Scottish medical student Edmund Montgomery, however, she refused to take his name and often denied even being married (!). She and Edmund immigrated to the United States and eventually settled down in Texas. They purchased a plantation near Houston, but Elisabet decided to build her own studio in Austin, where she lived & worked and occasionally went back to the plantation to see her husband. She had two sons, one whom died very young, and another who is rumored to have joined Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough-riders.

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10 Essential Facts To Gaining Happiness

June 19, 2015 by Jillian Leave a Comment

Do you ever look at your dog (or a friend’s dog, or a dog at the park) and think He looks so happy. I want to come back as a content dog in my next life! With all the research and studies being done on the science of happiness lately, you don’t need to wait until you’re next life. You can be happy right now.

Today I watched a documentary titled, simply enough, Happy. This 2011 film is directed by Roko Belic and follows happy people all over the world to find out what makes them so gosh darn happy. It’s an inspiring, feel good watch and I’ve jotted down the 10 key points of this film to help you get started.

1. 50% of our happiness levels are determined by our genes. This is called our genetic setpoint.

“Most of us are born with a certain range of happiness that we fall in most of the time.” -Sonja Lyubamirsky, PhD. Professor of Psychology at UC Riverside

The rest of the pie has to do with circumstances (job, social status, age, etc.) and intentional activity (aka what you do). The great part about the intentional activity is that you get to choose what that is. You can change your actions.

2. From your teenage years onward, you’re slowly losing dopamine synapses and dopamine neurons.

So you better use it or lose it – in this way, the brain is similar to any muscle in your body. Find experiences that release dopamine, the neurotransmitter in the brain that is responsible for feelings of pleasure and happiness. The best way to do that is through physical activity. Studies show that aerobic exercise is the best releaser of dopamine, especially if you do it in novel ways. Examples: exploring outdoors, playing sports, or just playing in general.

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