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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

FINALLY MODERN LOVE!!!

Finally, after months and months of waiting, we got to taste what Omaha's very own vegan restaurant, Modern Love, had to offer! They have not officially opened yet (next week, August 5th and we will be there that night too ~ they are already booked up for like 2-3 weeks out on Open Table), but we got in on a sneak tasting with our Vegan Omaha Meetup group tonight!
Happy Birthday (a day late) to me!  Let's celebrate!!
 I matched her colors (on purpose). ;)
Some of the restaurant crew! Isa, the owner of the restaurant is on the far right with her back to me.
 Rosemary Lemonade. Delish! 

 We had assigned seating and we were placed next to this very nice couple! Danielle and Scott. We had a very enjoyable time talking with them throughout dinner!
We got one dish of each thing to share amongst the 4 of us. They put up with all my picture taking and were very patient with me! 
 We each got to have our own "shot". It was like a cold soup. It tasted like corn on the cob. I don't know what it was made out of, but it was yummy! Fun and different with edible flowers to boot! 
This was Farmer's Hummus. Roasted garlic hummus served with overnight tomatoes, roasted radishes, rainbow carrots, cucumber, and flatbread. 






 These pickled radishes were tangy and seasoned perfectly!
 I loved the rainbow carrots. So beautiful!
The flatbread was flaky and soft. Yummy!!!

These were JalapeƱo Corn Fritters over tomato jam, arugula and fresh basil. I am not a fan of spicy hot, but even though these has jalapanos in them, since they were roasted, it cut the heat and they had just the right amount of kick. Soft and tasty! Really good!



 Isa talking with our waitress. 

 This was her take on a Cesar Salad. It had quinoa and pine nuts, tempeh 'croutons' and bacon eggplant. The whole salad and dressing were delicious and the bacon eggplant pieces were very good. It did have a smokey flavor, just like bacon.

 This dish was called Mac N Shews. Isa's take on macaroni and cheese, but made with cashew cream cheese and a bunch of other yummy spices. It came along side a pecan crusted tofu, BBQ cauliflower and braised kale. 


 The BBQ Cauliflower had a smoky, tangy kick sauce on it. They were different and wonderful. Everyone liked it! 
 The tofu or like I like to say "vegan pork chop" was extremely good. Great texture, not rubbery or dry, it was fabulous.
This dish was the Seitan Marsala. It tasted like Mushroom Stroganoff. This was a root vegetable mash on the bottom, mushrooms, fresh herbs and micro green sprouts. The sprouts gave it such a fresh surprise. The Seitan had grill marks and tasted very good. This was Vernon's favorite dish of the night. Everyone in the place was raving about this dish. 


 John McDevitt. He is the head of the Vegan Meetup group, Vegan Omaha fb and blog, and Isa's boyfriend. I had to take his pict, because he is not in very many himself. He is always behind the camera! Such a nice guy. 
This was the Vanilla Bean Peach Pie. It was supposed to come with Ginger Ice Cream, but Vernon and I's did not. We got the luckiest plate in the joint. It had a vegan marshmallow ice cream on it. 

 Lets just get a better look at this, shall we? After every bite, I was trying to get right back to that creamy, chunky, smooth scoop of Heaven before Vernon could get to it (hee hee hee). That was MINE. There were huge chunks of VEGAN marshmallows and cashew pieces in it surrounded by fluffy (weirdly ~ not very cold) ice cream with chewy, candied ginger curls on top. Oh. My. GOD. Seriously people, this was THE best ice cream vegan or non vegan that I have EVER had in my entire life. What was Casie's favorite thing of the night? Hands down, no doubt this little scoop of creamy goodness. But everything really was delicious. I am so excited for the rest of Omaha to taste how freaking good eating Vegan can be! 


 I had to get a pict. with my celebrity chef, Ms. Isa herself! So wonderful of her to bring this exciting place to OMAHA of all places! Thank you Isa! Dinner was fabulous! We can't wait to be back every month to try the new monthly menus with seasonal veggies / produce! You rock!!! 
Still finishing up the outside sign painting! 

We had such a fun night with great food and meeting new friends. We can't wait to go back next week on opening night! How exciting!!! Book your table today on Open Table. Let's get the word out that Vegan food can taste fabulous!!!

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

My 36th Birthday!

My day started off by getting to sleep in. Then, I was brought breakfast in bed. Sophie gave me a back massage and had relaxing music playing on the i-pad and they made cute cards for me! 

 We snuggled for a bit. 
 The kids wanted to give me a birthday doughnut. 
 Ran to Costco, Sophie's therapy, I had a hair cut and got a workout in! 
 Daddy got home and we went out for dinner to Victor's Gyros, Falafel & Mediterranean Food on 40th & Farnam. We were the only ones in there. I thanked Vernon for renting the place out for my birthday! We love the food there! Sadly, we learned that Victor is going to have to close his restaurant. A big company came in and bought the lease on all the buildings there and will now charge him $1,500 instead of $500. He will not be able to stay there for that amount of money. He would love to find his own building and own it, so this won't happen again, but so far he hasn't had any luck. He has been there for 33 years! We were so sad to learn of this news. 
























 Eggplant Casserole
 Falafel Sandwich

 Baba Ganoush
 Lentil Soup

 The Falafels are my FAVORITE!!!
 This is SO good.

 We headed downtown to go on the slides and walk around. Ronan and I went down first. Glad there was no one at the bottom taking picts because we flew off the slide onto the ground, skirt and all. Good thing it didn't end up over my head. I was a little embarrassed to say the least. It was anything but graceful trying to get up, plus I was filthy dirty! YUCK! Anyway, I then stayed at the bottom and just took picts of the kids going down. They had fun!
 Vollen was cracking us up. He would lay down and spread 'em the whole way! Sophie and I giggled so much. He looked so funny slithering down over the hump. 


 Ronan is my screamer. He screams bloody murder when he is having fun. I think he is loving it, but scared to death. It again, is so funny and makes us laugh so hard.







 My kids did so well listening to me and posing wherever I told them. That was a wonderful birthday gift in itself! 


 Watching the fish and ducks.





 Being silly.
 My three puppies in the dog houses.
 Sophie liked the teal water. It reminded her of the Log Ride at Adventureland.
 Posers.




 We went to have some ice cream down at Ted & Walleys. There was no vegan flavors listed on the board, so when we got up to the front, I whispered to the guy to see if he had anything vegan. He said he had a little left of a vegan cinnamon ginger ice cream he would scoop for us and since it was my b-day he gave mine on the house! How sweet! It was delicious! I was going to be really, really bummed if they didn't have any. I had e-mailed them a week ago to ask them to make a good vegan ice cream for tonight for my birthday. They said they would. So, I am glad it ended up working out in the end. 




 We went to walk over to see the fountain. It was really cool. The kids loved it. We just missed the last boat ride of the night, but we just walked over to a bench and watched it anyway. We will do the boat another day. 
 What a lovely night. Cool air, no bugs. Is this my JULY 29th birthday???? because I NEVER remember having such nice weather on my birthday....EVER.

It was a wonderful day and wonderful memories!