Davis Square

...is quite possibly the most amazing place near boston (besides Union Square, which has Peace O' Pie-Vegan pizza!!! & Grasshopper-Vegan Thai!!!). It has a great atmosphere with all sorts of interesting, quirky restaurants and shops. One time I went there to write in a cafe and traffic was held up because THERE WERE ALTERNATIVE MARCHING BANDS PERFORMING. Ones with funky outfits and playing peace activist songs and things like that. I didn't even know such a thing existed!!

Also, another reason I'm a fan of Davis Square? It's home to a Buffalo Exchange-used clothing/fashion store and Diesel Cafe.

Diesel Cafe is just about my most favoritest place in the world right now. And they're hiring-so I submitted an application. (Cross your fingers!) Today, I got the tempeh burger without swiss cheese, on rosemary focaccia instead of Brioche. I was a numbnuts and forgot that Brioche has tons of dairy and egg and the guy at the register was like "Are you trying to make this vegan" and I was like "yeah" and he was like "well the brioche-" and I was like "OH SHIT! Thanks!" and he was all like "No problem. We look out for ya and ourselves. We have french bread and whole wheat and rosemary focaccia" and I was like "I'm so all about the rosemary focaccia."

I'm pretty sure like half the staff there is vegan which explains why there are so many vegan-friendly sandwiches (most are not actually vegan, but you just have to take away the cheese to make it vegan). And they have vegan baked goods (which I had to force myself to not get since I'm forgoing processed sugar).

Anyways, I practiced mindful/meditative/FRENCH eating on this sandwich by taking a bite and savoring the texture of the focaccia and tempeh, the slide of the avocado, how long it took to chew the focaccia and the flavor of the salsa mixing with the avocado and the tempeh. It was divine. I have not had an experience like it in a long while. I would then put the sandwich down and wait for a moment, paying attention to my level of fullness. I ate past my level, but only just. My legs were starting to do the "lets get movin'" signal, which apparently is one way your body starts to signal satiety. (According to the Self-Compassion Diet)

I started soaking black beans last night, so when I got home this evening, I went through a bunch of books, looking for a simple vegan black bean soup. No such luck, there was a chili, there was a chipotle corn black bean stew among other things, but not the simple black bean soup I was looking for (I was craving Panera's black bean soup). So after some cajoling, I made my own. No pictures, sadly. Way more colorful than Panera's, since it had spinach, cilantro & tomatoes in it. But delicious anyways. I added a tiny bit of liquid smoke to it (which I've never used before) and I feel like it added a lot of flavor, really enhanced the black beans in a way that I was looking for.

I also made spelt rolls. (Half white and half spelt flour) They were decent, but I didn't use nearly enough yeast. I had added a cup of sourdough starter, hoping that would help, but my starter isn't very strong, so it didn't rise all that much. They still tasted good though.

What'd you eat for dinner?