fruits and veggies sleeve

It's been a long time coming, but after years of searching I finally found the perfect artist to make this dream a reality. Terry completed my sleeve in just five sessions over two short months and I'm extremely happy with the finished product, I really couldn't have envisioned it better!

For those of you interested, the magical tattoo wizard was Terry Ribera owner/tattoo artist at Remington Tattoo in San Diego, California.

Portland Paradise

My five days in Portland during the Fourth of July was perfect. I honestly couldn't have picked a better week to visit, there wasn't a drop of rain and the weather was simply put: incredible.

I'm convinced that Portland is the Holy Grail of vegan food. I ate at so many wonderful places, almost all of which happened to be 100% vegan.




celebrated America's birthday


Dick's Kitchen. Portobello Burger.
The view at Pittock Mansion with Madeline, Ryan and Anthony.


Brunch at Gravy.


Biscuits and veggie gravy, hash browns and tofu scramble.


Sizzle Pie. Spiral Tap and Bad Reputation slices.
Fell in love with this little one, Lilly.




Brunch at Paradox Cafe. Green Benedict.
...with this lovely lady, Melanie.



Took a stroll over to OMSI and saw some amazing exhibits,
including my favorite, the fetus room, displaying over 30 stages
of the fetus and tissue samples during pregnancy. Pretty miraculous.


Acai bowls from somewhere not worth mentioning.
Dinner with Katherine at Casa Naranja. Yes, you eat on swings.

Alotto Gelato for dessert.


Salted Caramel and pineapple sorbetto (also at one point tried the
cheesecake and stracciatella aka "stretchy vanilla" gelato) Woke up at 4am to watch the most breathtakingly beautiful sunrise
I've seen to date at Multnomah Falls.











The tastiests of brunches at Portobello. ALL VEGAN.
[tofu "eggies", vegan ham and added tomatoes on a toasted
english muffin and topped with cashew hollandaise sauce]







Thai food cart heaven.
We made a vegan BBQ pizza: seasoned soy curls, onions, olives,
pepper jack daiya and Annie's natural BBQ sauce.






The last supper. Anthony and I made garlic sauteed asparagus,
field roast seitan, roasted rosemary red potatoes, corn on the
cob and vine ripe tomatoes with homemade herb salt seasoning.


Thanks for the hospitality, my friend.

[all photos were taken by Anthony or myself]

Baby Ains on a Hardtail

I grew up riding on the back of my Opa's Dyna Wide Glide Harley Davidson, so when I drove up to Manhattan Beach to see my good friend Kingston last weekend it was an honor that he not only allowed, but OFFERED for me to take his motorcycle around the block.





Don't bother mentioning the shoes, this obviously wasn't planned and definitely spur of the moment... plus, I survived! Cross that off the bucket list.

Here's a video Kingston sneaked:

Foodie Friday: Slappy Cakes

When I went to Portland last summer the one place I wanted to visit and didn't have time for was one of the first destinations on my list this time around.

Slappy Cakes offers a totally unique and fun way of going out for breakfast. Aside from having a full service breakfast menu, they have griddles built into each table where you make your own pancakes right at your seat!

Basically you choose your made-from-scratch batter (multiple choices including gluten-free and vegan), any sweet or savory add-ins from their lengthy list of fixins and all sorts of toppings/syrups. Not only was customizing so much fun, it was an awesome experience getting to make your cakes.

Each bottle of batter makes 6-8 pancakes, so Katherine and I shared a batch. We chose the whole grain batter (this one's vegan!), chocolate chips, walnuts and bacon for the fixins and lavender honey and lemon curd as toppings.





[chocolate chip pancakes with honey lavender syrup,
vegan sausage, hash browns, toast and eggs for me!]
Location: 4246 SE Belmont Street Portland, Oregon 97215
Neighborhood: Southeast