Wine Tasting

Part of our day today was spent wine tasting at Rocky River Vineyards, with our friends Adam and Meghan, along with their adorable and well-behaved baby Annaleigh.

North Carolina seems to produce a lot of sweet wines (not my preferred type of wine). However, Rocky mountain had a few dry wine choices to taste and we ended up buying a bottle of Cabernet to share.

Adam made a good point... the wine was definitely drinkable. Which is a compliment for North Carolina wines, so we aren't complaining. We drank our drinkable wine on their quaint, breezy front porch.

And Annaleigh enjoyed her drink of choice.

She is such a happy, sweet baby!

After we finished our wine, we took a short walk to the vineyard. Adam just got a new camera so he was practicing his photography skills. He already looks like a professional, doesn't he?

Nate had to test out his photography skills too!

This vineyard is only 4 years old!

Here are some mini muscadine grapes on the vine.

After we left the vineyard, we decided to go to the Whitewater Center. It is absolutely Adam's kind of place- as he put it, he felt like a kid going to Disney World. He was serious. Foxy (their dog) was pretty excited too!

Lilly got to share a stroller with Annaleigh and she loved it- she didn't want to get out.

After eating dinner there and walking around, it was Annaleigh's bedtime. I learned that this is how you leave the Whitewater Center when you have a stroller.

If you were hoping for a recipe today, you may be in for a disappointment. If you don't like bananas (*cough* Meghan), you are definitely in for a disappointment. This is not my own recipe, but I found it on here. They are called healthy banana cranberry oat bars. I turned them into banana chocolate chip pepita seed bars. Banana lovers- they were yummy!

If you are in North Carolina and enjoy drinkable wine and a laid back atmosphere, go wine tasting at Rocky River Vineyards (or many of the other ones!) If you enjoy sweet wines, all the more reason for you to go! And bring along some banana bars... and a cute baby.

RAW vegan

Tonight, I made a raw vegan meal from my book Living Raw Food. If you are wondering why raw? Click here. I just love trying all different kinds of recipes and ideas! The health benefits are an added bonus! Here is our sesame mixed vegetable "noodles" with herbs.

It was good, but I am going to experiment more with different dressings. This dressing was very heavily sesame'd (if that is a word). A little too strong for my taste. But overall, I was very impressed with our meal. Nate and Lilly approved too. I will share a dressing recipe once I find one that isn't too overpowering. The noodles were made from zucchini and summer squash, with my new spiral slicer. I love it!

Tonight, Nate read, "Once you go Raw, expect to feel the effects of alcohol more quickly and strongly, as your body will have become very efficient at absorption. Until you discover your new, lower tolerance for alcohol, be very careful when you drink, especially if you'll be driving" from here. I have to say, after ONE raw meal, this is true, (we shared a bottle of wine) so I can only imagine what it would be like after a few weeks on a raw diet. 

I also recently received this in the mail and can't wait to try some new recipes.

 FYI: This is how Lilly "begs"-if you can believe it, mostly for fruits and veggies. I think she wants to go raw vegan :)

While we are on the topic of Lilly, here she is after she took out her bow today. As you can see her bow is for function as well as fashion!

We ate dinner outside tonight. Check out our beautiful sky!

Oh, and our sky last night, right before we went to bed!

I can't wait to experiment with more recipes this week and I will be sure to share successes with you! In the meantime, I'm going raw so I don't have to buy as much wine ;)