Lily's Vegan Adventures

It was my birthday last week, which means my weekend was filled with lots of good food and fun. Friday night, my mom made our family a beautiful build-your-own-taco spread. We had homemade corn tortillas, pan-fried veggies, refried beans, guacamole, salad, and quesadillas. For dessert, my mom baked a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and blackberry jam. The next morning, my partner and I drove to Victoria to spend the day eating vegan food and exploring. Our first stop was Fern Cafe and Bakery, which is one of our favourites. I was excited to see the pumpkin spice latte was back, so I ordered that with whipped cream. I also ordered their featured menu item, the “eggs” benny. Everything was delicious. The eggs were made out of tofu, and they were topped with tomato, cheese, and soy bacon, covered in a cashew hollandaise sauce. My partner ordered the fried chick'un and pancakes. Yum! After brunch, we drove to Hatley Castle in Colwood. The castle sits near the ocean on the Roy...

Tucked away in a quiet farmland neighbourhood is a trail called Nanoose Bay Loop. With a mix of old and new growth, as well as large clusters of trees, the loop made for an interesting variety of scenery. The first part of the hike reminded me of the Hundred Acre Wood with its plush, mossy ground and the towering tree we found. My mom took me on this hike a couple weeks ago. The weather was beautiful that day, with lots of sun shining through the trees. We lucked out with the weather that day, as Vancouver Island weather has been all over the place lately. There were a few small patches of snow on the trail, but besides that, it was nice and warm. Going further into the loop, we found a bike trail called Five Amigos. The name comes from the cluster of Arbutus trees that stand just off the side of the trail. As you can see from the second picture below, they were huge! (Please appreciate my parents' photogenic dog, Jackson) Further down the path, the trees grew sparsely, making the ...

Welcome to another What I Ate Today post, where I share the meals and snacks that I eat throughout the day. These posts are not meant to be taken as dietary advice, but more to give people some ideas on the foods you can eat as a vegan. This day includes some fun takeout food because we decided to do a mini road trip and explore Courtenay, BC. Breakfast I started my day pretty much the same as I do every morning: coffee with oat milk and toast. I wanted to change things up a bit by adding some mango, but as you can see, the mango was unripe and I ended up not eating much of it. My toast this morning was an English muffin with peanut butter and jam. I have to share the jam I used because it is so good: It's made on Vancouver Island, and it's delicious. Lunch #1 My partner and I decided to do a spontaneous road trip to Courtenay for lunch, but we wanted a snack along the way. We stopped at Cobs Bakery for one of their plant-based pizzas (it has roasted red peppers and Beyond crum...

I found a new favourite hiking spot over the Thanksgiving long weekend, thanks to my mom, and I am excited to share it with you.  It is a great workout, but is still doable as an afternoon hike - the perfect balance! The name is pretty self explanatory:  Lantzville Lookout Loop.  It is located in Lantzville, BC, and at the top, you get a gorgeous view of the ocean and forest below.  You can also see Notch Hill, located in Nanoose Bay. We calculated the hike to be about 5.1 km, although Alltrails says it’s 5.8 km.  We took the shorter route, which is a steady climb for a good portion of it.  I recommend wearing proper hiking shoes and bringing lots of water.  I didn’t think to take any pictures of the trail, but I took pictures of some cute little mushrooms we found along the way. As you can see, the view is well worth the climb.  We stayed up there for a little while, and it ended up getting quite cold, so I would recommend taking a light sweater ...

Last weekend my sister and I went to Victoria to try Virtuous Pie’s pop-up brunch , which was held on July 24 and 25.  It was 100% worth the trip there!  Virtuous Pie is always amazing, and their brunch menu was just as delicious as their regular menu.  Hopefully the brunch menu will become a permanent addition to the restaurant. To start, we ordered the Pineapple Orange Dreamsicle Soda.  The drink had pineapple and orange juice, mixed with vanilla soda.  It tasted like a creamsicle and was very refreshing.  Virtuous Pie donated $2 from each Dreamsicle Soda they sold to the Victoria Native Friendship Centre , which is an organization that provides a variety of resources to Indigenous people living in Victoria. We ordered a few food items to share so that we could try as many of the dishes as possible.  For the main dish, we tried the Huevos Rancheros Pizza.  The Huevos Rancheros Pizza consisted of a black bean sauce instead of tomato sauce, and wa...

Today I'm going to talk about my experience hiking Mount Benson. But first, I must tell you about our newest family member. Meet Olive: We picked her up a few weeks ago at SAINTS Rescue , which is a rescue in BC, and since then we have been very busy! SAINTS Rescue is mainly a rescue for senior animals, but a group of puppies who were supposed to be for sale were brought in to SAINTS after a couple of them had gotten sick. Luckily all of the puppies recovered and found their forever homes, but it is an important reminder to adopt, not shop. I've learned a lot about puppies in the past few weeks and am absolutely in love with her. Just look at that face! Okay, now let's talk about Mount Benson. If you are on Vancouver Island and want a good workout, try hiking Mount Benson.  It takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to hike the orange route - it is definitely a climb, so be prepared!  There is another route that you can take that is less steep, but I hear it takes a bit longer to ...

One of my favourite hiking spots on Vancouver Island is a place called Morrell Sanctuary.  Each trail is different – you can take a short stroll through the forest, walk around the lake, or hike up the Maple Trail to the Moonrock Bluff lookout.  A map at the beginning of the trail shows all the different paths you can take and how long they are.  There are signs throughout the sanctuary that talk about the different types of animals and plant life you can look out for during your hike.  These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago.  I highly recommend walking through the sanctuary in the fall once the leaves begin to change colour. This particular morning, we hiked around the lake and then went up Maple Trail to connect to Moonrock Bluff.  At the top, there is a beautiful view of the forest (as seen in the thumbnail).  The hike up is not super strenuous, but the leaves and rocks on the dry ground made it slippery on the way down.  I slipped a c...