Cheap Temp Tats!

What does Jade do on her FREE day? Walk around NYC lookin' for FREE and cheap fun things to do. She stumbled across Perfect Brows on 2nd and 60th and popped in for a $10 Henna tattoo! Looks good to me. Fun! ~MvL

FREE weekend getaway!

We all need to cut corners in today's world and who doesn't like to get out of town on-the-cheap? I scored a FREE weekend in Atlantic City and want to share the secrets to freebies.

1. Keep your ears tuned in to all FREE offers. My man and I received a FREE night at Caesars which included FREE train to boot. FREE! So join travel deal websites like Travelzoo and get weekly emails of last minute deals. Jade and I are fans of last minute deals!
2. Pack your own food! My boyfriend is a fan of power bars, I prefer almonds, Jade and her man love soy jerky.
3. Coupons coupons coupons! Yes, it's Grandma's M.O but coupons rock! Casinos offer cards that track your gambling and with the card you receive a FREE green tote bag and a coupon book! FREE drink coupons, $10 off brunch, FREE bar snacks with the purchase of one martini (yummy) and discounts at virtually all the stores. We dropped these coupons as if it was real dough yo. Don't be shy, clip and cut in every way you can! All the cool kids are doing it.
4. Make your own cocktail! Drinks can be pricy at resorts so bust out for a hot minute and find the nearest liquor store. Buy your favorite bottle with mixer or lime and, vuala, happiness in a glass. We picked up some Patron and poured a drink or two while we were getting ready for dinner.
5. Don't be afraid of the doggy bag. We did dinner at a buffet and you bet your bottom dollar I stashed some bananas and muffins for breakfast. Not buying even one meal saves mucho dinero so bring a big bag when you dine.
6. Share entrees. Do the "splitsy". The price of one meal feels better on the pocket then the price of two. :)
So go out there and save ladies and gentlemen! Drop us a line with your on-the-cheap or FREE pointers. We love the FREE and on-the-cheap. ~MvL

An Anniversary and Match Foods...love, love,love

Sunday was my and my man's sixth year anniversary (YAY US!) Anyway, we decided to stay in for a special romantic dinner after a day out at the Ninth Avenue Food Fair ending in a theater visit to see Star Trek (awesome, by the way). We wanted to try our new and exciting frozen protein (sounds so much better than fake meat...) food...Match 'Beef'. This stuff is AMAZING! It's like a ground beef substitute that you season as desired and form into patties or a loaf or ..whatever and bake or fry or....whatever! So we decided to make "steaks" with cremini mushroom red wine sauce and braised baby bok choy. We seasoned the 'beef' with pepper, chives and soy sauce, formed them into oval shapes and pan seared them. You SERIOUSLY need to check out Match products http://www.matchmeats.com/

Match is so great! We have tried the 'chicken, the 'crab' (our fave), and the 'pork'. So versatile.

So, long story short, we had an amazing meal. I am sure what made the meal was the 1982 Antinori Tignanello wine that was a gift from Dad and we had been storing for a special occasion such as this... And since we cheaped out on the 'not-going-to-dinner' part of our anniversary--we certainly made it up in wine.

Live long and prosper! Jzb

The Official Grain of Minnesotta don'tchya know

Long Grain Wild Rice!
My boyfriend and I just arrived back from Wisconsin. We were visiting his family in the North Woods, translation: way the hell up there in the middle of nowhere (no offense Ty). As a vegan, he promised me an open minded family and plenty of grains for dinner! Low and behold he delivered on both!! Well, not exactly. We introduced his family to quinoa and tofu, ate tons of lentils but never got around to making real wild rice. So we stole a bag of his mother's long grain rice and stashed it in our carry-on. Boy is this wild rice yummy! We made it two nights in a row. The top picture is wild rice with Morning Star Farm's Italian Sausage with sauteed red and green peppers. The bottom photo is "grandmas no-meat meat stuffing to stuff in the meat". Thank you Tyler for the fabulous recipe name. We stir fried TVP with mushrooms and peppers and then added it to the Minnesota state grain. TOO GOOD!
Eat up y'all and buy some good wild rice. -MvL

Saturday nights alright...

I went to an awesome rock show this past saturday at Irving Plaza..oh, now it's called The Filmore..but Mastadon ROCKS! We went to the cheapest bar in the city Bar 119--$6 bucks a drink. Got away with buying no rounds there..all FREE. At the show, I only bought one round of drinks ($26)---so all things considered it was an incredibly cheap night out...ok, forget the price of the drunk cab ride home -because, i'm not sure, but i THINK my sister paid for it... The band was awesome...but I don't seem to remember from Mastadon's past shows..that the entire rest of the audience was huge dudes- 6'2" and over..the average being 6'5". Regardless, me likes what I did not see! -JzB

So here's the deal...

Jade wrote a vegan cookbook (Melissa was the guinea pig, got food for FREE) and Melissa is a professional photographer and is going to do the food portraits for Jade's book (got pics for FREE)!

Together we deliver FREE tips all day long on eats, drinks, shows, bars, bikes, clothes, you name it, we know it!

We meet in '05 while on the job assisting a fabulous New York writer and explorer, an all-around icon (who was our on-the-cheap mentor). Fast forward three and a half years later we found our own and perfected our talents. So here we go!

Who are we??

We are two vegan chicks living in New York City, loving living on the cheap and still finding and doing all things fabulous. We are here to help you! Learn tips to eat healthy and have fun with the budget of a wannabe rock star.