Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Sweet on San Luis Obispo, Whole Foods Southern California, & "Sweet Justice"; a Benefit.

Please head over to my new blog at TheUrbanHousewife.com, where you'll find this post & more!

While this weekend was hardly a relaxing getaway having done 14+ hours of driving in less than 3 days, we always take the time on trips to find delicious vegan options along the way! Our first stop was halfway between San Francisco & Los Angeles in San Luis Obispo, our former home & the current home to our good friend Josh. Josh is always kind enough to let us crash at his place, any hour of the night, any day of the week, seriously ANY time, so I decided to surprise him with a delivery from Amy Bakes Cupcakes!

A popular Central Coast special order bakery, Amy Bakes Cupcakes has options for the vegan & gluten free folks & will deliver right to you! With Josh being a lover of Peanut Butter & Chocolate, I opted for a dozen of the "PB Kiss" cupcakes, a moist, flavorful peanut butter cupcake, topped in sweet chocolate frosting! He was completely surprised & they disappeared quickly! We can't wait to pass through & place another order, I have my eye on the S'mores cupcakes next!

Another sweet treat in San Luis Obispo is the newly opened chocolate shop, Sweet Earth Chocolates. Formerly housed in Splash Cafe, this company making organic, fair trade confections has opened their own storefront location & seems to have more vegan options than ever! While my favorite will always be the rice crispie & cashew flecked caramels coated in dark chocolate they call Turtles, I certainly would not turn down their other chocolates! I opted for an assortment for myself & friends, including Vanilla Caramels, Chili Orange Walnut & Almond Clusters, plus Cherry Almond & Peppermint Bark. They also have Truffles, Fruit Gellies, & Peanut Butter Cups! Luckily, you can order online if you won't be making it to San Luis Obispo any time soon.

I have heard time & time again that Southern California Whole Foods are the best around. Well, even though we only made it to Thousand Oaks & not the vast locations further south, we were pretty well impressed. Signs declared that we were in the midst of vegan options & we found everything from organic cotton candy to Gardein Curry Salads & even a vegan friendly taco bar. Sure, those all sound great, but we were there for the "Surfboard Pizza"! Whole Foods in Southern California offer large, surfboard shaped pizzas with the soy free, non-dairy cheese Daiya, that has been taking the vegan world by storm. We opted for a Garlic, Tomato, & Spinach pie which was topped in Cheddar Daiya, baked to perfection in a wood fired oven, & set us back a mere $13.99! While I prefer my pizza topped in Cheezly, this was a pizza definately worth eating & sharing with friends!

For those of you in the Bay Area, there's a benefit coming up on August 28th at 8pm to support the AETA 4. "Sweet Justice" will be a night of vegan desserts with a silent auction, raffle, & more to benefit 4 activists currently jailed due to the Animal Enterprise Terrorist Act. Please see the AETA 4 blog post for more information! For those of you who can't be there, please sign this petition to repeal the Animal Enterprise Terrorist Act!

Finally, if you haven't checked out Veggie Thing lately, you're missing out! Sure, I might be a bit biased because they just featured the Peanut Butter Cup cupcakes my company Sugar Beat Sweets made for Sky at Eats Well With Others, but they also bring you the best in vegan eats across the United States, submitted by vegans like YOU! Be sure to check it out!

39 comments:

vegan.in.brighton said...

Surfboard pizza? That's awesome and those chocolates look delicious too.

Unknown said...

dammit, woman, this entry makes me weak in the kneeeeees!! cupcakes! pizza!!

Heather said...

We *finally* got a Whole Foods here in Jacksonville, Florida this year, and I thought I was in vegan nirvana. But, what you describe makes me want to gear up for another trip out west! The surf board pizzas sound fantastic! I haven't yet tried daiya. You mention you like cheezly better; what's the difference between the two?

Lisa said...

mmm, pizza!

Sal - AlienOnToast said...

dang, I wish we had whole foods (and daiya) in the UK cuz that pizza looks rad.

PB choc cupckaes too - yum!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

AHHHHH those chocolates!!!! :-D

Tami said...

ohmygod, that pizza. Wow. I still haven't tried daiya.

Jess said...

Love this post, Melisser! Everything looks great, and I think I am going to order some of those vegan truffles. I still haven't tried Cheezly! I must!

quarrygirl said...

$13.99 for a surfboard pizza! that's just plain insane, isn't it???

i am so glad you finally got to try it.

oh man and i am craving chocolate now, thanks to you.

Bianca said...

The surfboard pizza looks awesome! I wish our crappy Whole Foods would serve something with vegan cheeze.

dreaminitvegan said...

Wholefoods does rock in regards to vegan food choices. They have a great food court area. I'm patiently waiting for the one in Santa Barbara to open. The one in Thousand Oaks is really nice.
Thanks for sharing the chocolate shop in SLO. I'll hit that place up next time I'm in town.

Penny said...

Hm, maybe it is southern California that I need to be moving to.

aTxVegn said...

Hmm, I thought Austin had the best Whole Foods, but I haven't seen surfboard pizza. Then again, we don't surf here....

Those Mexican chocolates sound incredible - what unique flavors. And I could always go for a chocolate pb cupcake.

n/a said...

Oh, wow, I can't believe how many varieties of vegan chocolates they have - peanut butter cups and turtles?!!! I know what I'm giving people as gifts for the holidays!!

Unknown said...

loved meeting you/seeing you again! thanks for sharing the word on Amy Bakes Cupcakes!!

Hannah said...

Such gorgeous sweets! You always manage to seek out the best eats when you travel... And man, I'm impressed by all that time in the car. I couldn't do it, no matter how many vegan cupcakes I was promised! I guess that's why you're better traveled than me. ;)

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Anonymous said...

Drooling over just about everything )- damn! The Sweet Justice bene sounds excellent - hope they can raise a heap of cash.

Adriana said...

The Gardein curry salad is one of my favorites and I always order a little even if I'm not hungry... Just to have in the fridge. It's comforting ya know?! WF also makes an amazing roasted garlic pizza with gardein... To die for!

EB said...

greeeaaat.... thanks for the crazy, intense chocolate craving.... fabulous....

The Voracious Vegan said...

Wooowwww....those 'pb kiss' cupcakes look beautiful! How do they get the frosting to look so lovely and fluffy like that???

This whole post made me feel a little woozy, too much amazing food for my mind to handle in one go.

That pizza, especially, looks SO good. And vegan truffles? Yes please!

Andrea said...

I've got to try cheezly and daiya. I suppose I'll have to make my own surfboard pizza to do that.

Erin said...

The SoCal Whole Foods do sound pretty awesome - that pizza looks great!

chow vegan said...

Thanks for the rundown on SLO sweet treats. I never even heard of those places and I'm from the area.

It's sad but true, the SoCal Whole Foods are better. Why is that? Why can't we have an awesome Whole Foods in the Bay Area? :-(

Amy said...

It all looks amazing and I definitely have a sweet tooth but I have to say, this post leaves me desperately wanting surfboard pizza!!! (And desperately hoping that Daiya cheese is the one vegan food to make it across the ocean ever!!)

East Village Vegan said...

I wish the Whole Foods here in NY would offer the surfboard pizza with Daiya cheese. Yum!

Jen said...

I'm dying to try your cupcakes. They look amazing! I'm going to try to make it to the AETA4 benefit.

P.S. Thanks for your comments on my blog! :)

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Weekend Carnivore said...

Oh dear, it is SUCH a good thing I live so far away or I would ear all of that.

Oh, and there are a couple Whole Foods in the UK but they are all inner city London and very hard to get to unless you live right in the middle of the city.

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