My bestie had one wish for her 40th….she wanted all her friends to go away together for a weekend, so that we did. We found a house in the Poconos that slept 20 people and 20 people headed up for a weekend celebrating Heather.

As you could imagine there was a lot of planning that went into this weekend which was handled by myself and two other of her closest friends, aka MegaBitch : )

When it came time to menu plan we had two vegans and the rest carnivores. The two vegans made up 2/3 of the planning committee too. So we planned a spaghetti and meatball dinner for night one, a BBQ for night two, and a big farewell breakfast for our last morning. One of the main reasons I started VeganAbbey was to help non-vegan people see how easy and delicious a cruelty free lifestyle can be. So this was an opportunity to do that.

My bestie asked me to make the veggie “meat”balls on my recipe page for Friday dinner so that I did and boy were they a hit! Very quickly I looked at the platter and they were all gone. The next day for the BBQ someone made a delicious potato salad but used Just Mayo instead of regular mayo for us vegans, and everyone was pleasantly surprised how you couldn’t tell the difference. For desert naturally I made sure that Papa Ganache cupcakes made their way up there. The next morning while the boys cooked up the bacon and eggs I made the Olive Oil Pancakes and Tofu English muffins with some tempeh bacon. Throughout the weekend we snacked on crackers and Kite Hill cheese, figs, Lara bars, guacamole, veggie straws and more.

While packing up to head home we divided up all the leftover food as there was a ton. This is when the best thing happened……someone I didn’t know until that weekend picked up the Just Mayo and asked, “would you mind if I took this?” Of course I responded with an ecstatic “Yes!” I was thrilled that she had any desire for it. She said, “I never thought I’d ever be able to do vegan but you really opened my eyes this weekend. Everything I tried was delicious and even if I can’t do completely vegan I think I can definitely make some changes.”  So around the giant dinner table  for 3 days we all had open minds, open hearts, acceptance, understanding and knowledge. These are powerful things that can help make the world a better place.

Happy birthday Hez!

#noanimalsharmed