Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Here’s a recap of mine…

Started the drive down to Asheville with a green smoothie in hand – Lots of Kale, Celery, Cilantro and Pear. 

We got to Asheville super quick, like less than 2 hours!  We checked into the cutest Bed and Breakfast called The Biltmore Village Inn – Our cozy room was awesome and equipped with two fire places – one in the bedroom and one in the bathroom. This was perfect – because it was FREEZING when we got up the mountain. We headed out downtown for a night of restaurant hopping.  We started at Zambras Tapas and had some amazing Cabernet from Spain and some light tapas.
We then headed to Cucina 24 where my co-worker suggested we get the Pumpkin Ravioli – It was good but I’ve definitely had better, maybe my expectations were too high?Then we headed to Laughing Seed Cafe, where we went a little crazy with the dessert menu.  When I see the words “Organic” and “Dessert” on the same menu – I want to sample everything – Having a sugar craving or not! Can you tell which one we tried? I enjoyed it of course we a big cup of Ginger Tea. The next morning at the Inn, when we woke up, we immediately had some hot lemon water and our Green Vibrance Superfoods pack.

A little later,  we were presented a three course breakfast before our planned hike.  It started with a Vegan Pumpkin Bundt Breakfast Cake…And followed with by a Pear Poached in White Wine and topped with Walnut Crumble…And then the main atrraction was a “Bird’s Nest” stuffed with Broccoli, Arugula, Tomatoes and Red Peppers and topped with a local egg. I love love love having vegetables at breakfast – so this was AWESOME. I ate out the inside of the nest and left the outside which was basically pastry dough.Then we went onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and got our Hiking on!  It was beautiful – especially the unexpected visitor on the trail – A very cute black bear. It ran away as soon as it saw us. Thankfully. Those suckers can be dangerous!
Of course we had some Coconut Water to hydrate… Notice It was not the “Naked” brand of Coconut Water.  Naked is owned by Pepsi Co and is currently going through a lawsuit for putting all sorts of crazy unnatural additives and genetically modified ingredients in their “all natural” products – What JERKS.  Read about it Here…After the hike, we went back to Laughing Seed Cafe – When we like a place – I always like going back even if it is on the same trip. This cafe had a perfect vegetarian menu with local and organic ingredients.  This is a must visit if you are in Asheville.  I started my meal off with a green juice. It was lovely and tasted as if I made it myself.  We then sampled several things off the menu – I was completely side tracked by the Vegetarian Cubano Sandwich and the Indian Inspired Quesadilla  that I completely forgot to take pictures.  This just means I will have to recreate them at home to share how good these were! Yeah for you!Then we booked it back to the Inn to get ready for the wedding.

Rachel and David’s Wedding was so gorgeous – the church was breaktaking… the party after ward was an absolute blast and of course the couple of the hour was SMASHING! Check out their glow when leaving the Church after being pronounced husband and wife…. awe….. I definitely cried.At the reception we had little adorable passed appetizers…. And some roasted vegetables, fruit and a trout cake…. along with some vino… 
My husband enjoyed a couple of these…  I think this is the first wedding we’ve been to with Organic Beer – Go Rachel & David! An impromptu serenade for the Bride by the Cleftones featuring Anoop Desai  – Do you remember him from American Idol?  He was one of the groomsmen! We seriously danced all night long – The band was rockin!

Oh and check out Rachel’s feather in her hair – So unique and beautiful, right?Me and the Gorgeous Bride at the end of the night… The next morning we got up late… like 9:30am late…. I loved sleeping in!  We immediately turned on both fire places to enjoy them a little more….  We finally motivated to leave our warm room and joined the other house guests in the parlor for another 3 course breakfast.  It started with a hot vegan cranberry muffin.  (BTW – Not everyone got these vegan/vegetarian choices – The Inn called me the week before our visit to speak with me about any food requests I might have (why don’t all places do this?)… They did this all special for us. Pretty amazing…

The second course was unexpected… lots of nice ripe strawberries topped with gently warmed green figs! And then a crepe filled with lots of vegetables – Eggplant, Tomatoes, Onions and Arugula. Yeah for getting plenty of vegetables for breakfast! 🙂After checking out of the Inn – we headed into town to walk around and see different shops and things. We saw a lot of neat new products like this one…

And we witnessed lots of protesting… I just love protests. Showing my enthusiasm – They even asked me to join in today!  LOL.

In the afternoon we walked over to Greenlife and ordered a fresh juice. I had the Green Goddess and my husband got the Beach Bunny.  They were great… but the best part of our visit was running into the Newlyweds having lunch with their family.  It such a nice ending to a great weekend!
Before heading back home – we had to try a recommendation we received from the Laughing Seed Cafe Staff for the best Pizza in Asheville – Digable Pizza, who uses as many organic and local ingredients they can!

Whenever getting pizza, I always start with a huge salad… and then order the pizza with even more vegetables 🙂

I definitely over did it and had too many pieces of this wonderful Spelt Crust Pizza…. I slept like a baby in the car, while my husband drove home – and I didn’t wake up until we reached Earth Fare to load up for the week!

I’m looking forward to the next couple of posts I am going to share with you – They are going be a bit controversial – so get ready!

XOXO!

Food Babe

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