Recovering from Venice

This past weekend Matt and I visited Venice with our friends Shawn and Brett. We had an absolute blast, and I urge everyone to try to make it to that enchanting island one day.

Now, I am a strict vegan. There is no meat in our house, and none of our meals have any animal products in them. Sometimes Matt adds cheese, but that's his thing. As you all have seen with my meal posts, there are many vegetables as components to our lunch and dinners. But when you're on vacation, you may have a hard time finding vegan friendly restaurants, or at least variety when it comes to dishes.

This happened just a bit in Venice, but it is really my fault, as I gorged myself on pasta all weekend.

And, confession. While I am a strict vegan in every day life, I refuse to pass up on things I've always wanted to try, especially in other countries. For example, gelato. My entire life I've been longing to try Italian gelato. Yes, it contains milk. And yes, I tried it. Scrumptious beyond belief! I also tried tiramisu which has dairy, as well. But I'm sorry, they are iconic Italian desserts that I've been enamored with since childhood - I wasn't going to pass it up.

I believe that if you have always wanted to try something (exception: veal, just don't do it!!!!), you should. Especially when traveling. And everyone has different rules for their diet. I refuse to eat any meat, but if it's something like gelato, yes, I will try it.

Back to erratic diets...

When you return from holiday where you consumed unusual meals (especially starchy ones) you may have digestive issues. It's hard for someone with such a thoughtful diet to eat different foods and expect no problems. I knew this, and I did it anyway. After four days of eating nothing but pasta, well, it didn't bode well for me. So I came up with a "cleansing soup" to help one to return to normal.

I took a carton of organic veggie broth and started to simmer. Then, I added a chopped onion, red pepper, half a head of cabbage, a bag of cut baby carrots, four stalks of chopped celery, and a can of kidney beans for substance and protein. After it all started to simmer, I added a can of Rotel, and added about 2 cups of water. Simmer for 2 hours and you have a cleansing brew!

Now, I leave you with some pictures from our trip :)

B-E-A-utiful!

Me on the gondola

My husband, Matt (and me)

Brett and me in Murano