The day had finally come where Chris and I had our parents meet :) It was nerve wrecking for me, and I am not sure why. His parents are so kind and personable, and I already knew that they would hit it off, but I guess it was just one of those things, a step in our relationship that I had butterflies in my tummy for. I did not vlog the day for my YouTube channel as I was not sure how they would have felt about it, and it was one of those in the moment events we had to be fully immersed in. We all sat out on our back patio on our couches and just chatted for hours about everything. Well, more so our parents, Chris and I got up here and there cause I needed a break LOL but trust me, after all the cooking and bouts of stress, you would too.
Okay so onto the food....we blew it out of the park! We rocked this vegan brunch spread and our parents were thoroughly impressed by all of the food, especially the bagels and lox, it made us so happy <3 We always want to be able to show that vegan food is delicious, easy, and so fun to make & share with your loved ones. Being able to show people new and creative ideas we have in the kitchen is something that I honestly find so much joy in. Both his and my parents are not vegan, so of course it is even more of a plus that they loved the food. I mean, they all are so open to our lifestyles and have made positive changes in light of our own, but anything we can do to give them that extra push, we are going to do it!
Here is a summary of the brunch that we served to our parents, I hope you can try these recipes! They were actually very easy to make, and I was surprised by how less of a stressful night/morning it actually was. The most time consuming part was the bagels just because of the rising time and extra time for boiling, but other than that, we were able to prepare things ahead of time (two days ahead for the lox, night before for the bagel dough, night before for marinating the veggies, and salad), so that the morning of we just put the final touches.
Homemade Bagels + oil-free cream cheese, homemade carrot lox, capers and red onions
Melt-in your mouth good yet they ain't too sweet! This is the second batch that I have made in the past 2 weeks and they are already almost gone. Not only are these brownies da bomb (dot com), they are also jam packed with plant protein, oil-free, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, sweetened with dates. Phew, that was a mouth full, and I definitely need a big deep breath after that one.
There is of course a 
One of my favorite things to "make" when I was younger were cinnamon rolls. And I say "make" as we used to just pop open those pillsbury cans, bake the pre-made rolls and slather on that frosting made of who knows what.
Well thank god times have changed, and still are a-changin', and healthier alternatives are being shared for our childhood favorites. Vegan Richa, I bow down to ya girl! I can't even count how many of her recipes I have made because there are just toooo many, and I don't think there was ever one that I did not love. 
I got my hands on some frozen pitaya packs, and one of my go-to recipes with it is these smoothie bowls. Not only do I love pitaya for it's beautiful color, but it has a slightly tart flavor that is a good change from the typical acai bowl.
The best part of putting a smoothie bowl together is the toppings...and I know I'm not alone here! Not only do they make the dish beautiful and 
Crunchy, chunky AND oil-free? Could this be true?
I needed to find an easy go-to granola recipe that I could start making weekly for my home, as I started making smoothie bowls almost daily that the temperature has shot up here in LA! My combos vary based on what I have in the kitchen, but I got my hands on some frozen pitaya packs, and a frequent recipe lately has been this 
West coast bagels {in Los Angeles} don't even compare to those on the east coast. I've only had two in my life during my visits to the east coast, but dannng were they good.
