Tag Archives: wheatsville co-op

New Wheatsville South Finally Opens, South Austin can now Secede!

For almost ten years I have lived in South Austin, certain that there is nowhere else I’d rather live in the continental US. We have the friendliest people, the most beautiful greenbelts, the best restaurants, the biggest dog park, so many great taco stands, and the most amazing swimming pool I’ve ever been too, Barton Springs. My friends and I often laugh about how we rarely go north of 12th street but there has always been one holdout in North Austin.

One reason to cross the river.

One place I could never avoid.

One place that has everything from local organic produce to buffalo popcorn tofu pizzas to-go and products like vegan chicharrĂłns and vegan condoms.

Today the magic finally happened and after months of planning Wheatsville South finally opened! The new store is gorgeous! It’s so big and beautiful and shiny and I am just so excited that I won’t have to go to 6 stores anymore to get what I want. The new Wheatsville is right on my path on South Lamar and they open early enough for breakfast tacos and close late enough for to meet my ice cream cravings. I am just freaking stoked.

breakfast tacos

You should have seen me there this morning, beaming at everyone while I picked up my tacos and free coffee.

Meanwhile, Austin’s First Trader Joe’s also opened this morning too and Whole Foods is trying to hang on to customers with a buy one get one free local products sale.

Say what you want about Austin but we are lucky to have some awesome grocery stores. And I am so happy to never have to drive all the way across town just to get an awesome sandwich. Hallelujah.

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Our semi-homeade Thanksgiving

We had a surprisingly good Thanksgiving considering half the dishes were store-bought. Since we live in Austin and have so many wonderful vegan friendly companies it shouldn’t have been so shocking. I mean, is there anything the Wheatsville co-op can’t do? The only real disappointment I had was the Hazelnut Cranberry Roast En Croute which is made by Field Roast.

I love hazelnuts, cranberries, and filo dough but none of those tastes really came through for me in the roast. It just seemed like a giant seitan sausage which would have been fine except it was thanksgiving! Next time I will buy Mr. Natural’s roast or just get a tofurkey if I can’t make my own roast like I usually do. The star of our show is always the stuffing and this year was the best ever, I found this “Diner Dressing” recipe in Vegan Diner, I think on Thanksgiving day and it sounded a lot like my Mom’s so we tried it out (sans cranberries) it was absolute perfection and most of our dinner conversation was about why we only have stuffing once a year. The other big standout of the day was the cranberry orange dressing which I bought at Wheatsville. It had slices of almonds and was easily the best cranberry sauce I ever had. We both absolutely loved it. I’m glad I got the giant container!We also had the cauliflower mashed potatoes from “Appetite for Reduction” and though I usually adore these, for Thanksgiving I should have stuck with the traditional kind with a half cup of earth balance because they didn’t seem quite right. I can’t wait to make mashed potato pancakes with them though. We had gravy to go with them of course so I shouldn’t complain about the added health of the cauliflower! They were still really good!We also had miso glazed brussels sprouts, like we always do but with onions because I forgot shallots at the store. The were tasty as always. We are kind of Brussels sprouts fanatics in my house so I am glad there is some still leftover.Here is my plate in all it’s glory. I did not have any room left in my belly for pie, but I ate some anyway.We got out pie from Kristen of Sugar-Skull and it was so so good. I loved the crust, and the filling… and the whip cream. It went so well with coffee for breakfast the next day. It’s almost 24 hours later and I still don’t want to eat. Oh, Thanksgiving, how I love thee. This year I am especially thankful to Dan for putting everything together while I lounged in the hammock. Check out his plateHappy Thanksgiving!

Beagle wins Puppy Bowl MVP

Ding_overshoulder, originally uploaded by fikustrees.

That’s right, a beagle became this year’s most valuable puppy this year at the Puppy Bowl V! I submitted this picture in Bissel’s pet photo contest since it seems like this year everyone loves beagles.

I had the perfect day on Sunday of laying on the hammock with the dogs and then watching the puppy bowl and eating vegan queso. Why did it have to end.One of my favorite parts about Austin is that I can go to wheatsville, pickup some fresh salsa (in this case raosted pineapple) and vegan queso and be on my way.