Grocery Outlet is the shiznit!

Oh man, if you have one anywhere near you and you haven't been yet - get your ass there, stat! I saw mention of one in the Hollywood district that I didn't know existed on VeganShizzle's blog, so I got my girlfriend to drive me over there this morning. The stuff they have changes frequently, so you can't count on anything sticking around, but it will always be an adventure in cheapness! Sadly, there was no Wildwood garlic aioli, but I did score all kinds of other amazing deals. They had LOTS of good quality wine for $4-6, and Stephanie even got a crazy 4 bottles worth boxed shiraz for $2.99! I went a little nuts on Tasty Bite style Indian meals (I bought 7), but omg they were only $.99 and they had 5 different vegan varieties! Take that, Trader Joe's! Some other highlights: $.99 spiced tofu, ginormous organic peanut butter for $2.99, Health Valley to-go soups with those funny plastic tops for $.99, 32 oz. Naked Mighty Mango for $1.99 (I usually pay $2.99 for the dinky one!), raspberry Tropical Source bar for $.50... the list goes on and on! At the end of your receipt, it tells you how much you saved by shopping there, and mine was $62.54, after spending $63.51. Booyah!

As if that wasn't enough to make my Sunday totally awesome, we had breakfast at Sweetpea first! It was McBrunch day, so there were hashbrowns, apple turnovers, tofu McMuffins, McMuffins with pancakes instead of english muffins, and some kale for us iron-deficient vegans (ha!). The idea of a McMuffin scares the shit out of me, so I ate my pancakes like a normal person with syrup, and my tofu and seitan on the side. (I still love you, weirdos!) I seriously cannot believe I got to eat so much for $10. Portland love!!!

The first brunch serving, after I wolfed down my kale...

Seconds. I totally ate it all!!!

Anatomy of a shopping run

Well... actually I was just stopping by Whole Foods after work to get fruit. Yeah right! I was way too hungry for that :) I only spent $30.05 though, so it could have been much worse!

Here's what I got:
3 bananas
3 Granny Smith apples
3 Bartlett pears
Naked Green Machine
1 firm tofu
1 extra firm tofu
2 lbs. red quinoa
miso soup
3 cashew Lara Bars
package of dulse seaweed
Tofutti Sour Supreme
1/4 lb. nooch
pecan sticky bun

I don't usually buy bananas because they are shipped from so far away and because of the labor issues associated with their production, but my Whole Foods just started carrying Earth University bananas, so I grabbed some. From the website, "For more than fifteen years, EARTH University faculty, staff, and students have been experimenting on EARTH´s on-campus banana farm. Together, they have developed new techniques to increase quality and reduce the environmental and social impact of commercial banana production. Several of the environmental management techniques developed at EARTH over the years have become banana industry standards." Pretty cool, huh?

Have a lovely evening, everyone! I can't believe I'm posting before it's dark out - now I can catch up on all of your fabulous blogs!