Hopping on the Meatless Monday bandwagon? Or going even further? Here are some great places where you can get your grub on without slicing into a bit of meat. You’ll still leave with a full belly!

1. Sunflower Vegetarian Restaurant — This is my all-time favorite vegetarian place. They also provide vegan meals. The flavors tend towards Asian favorites. You’ll find sweet & sour, General Tso, won-ton soup, and even a sort of sushi, all 100% vegetarian. In addition, there are many more creative vegetarian creations that I encourage you to try. The Seven Corners location is newer and more formal than the original location in Vienna, which is a bit cozier. But they are both equally tasty!
2. Java Green — When in downtown D.C., this is the best vegetarian sandwich available for miles. Their barbeque sauce is unbelievably tasty. It’s a small shop, but when the weather is nice, they have some nice outdoor seating available too. I very much recommend this for the doubting Thomas that doesn’t believe meatless can be filling.
3. Amma Vegetarian — There is a location in Vienna (the Georgetown location sadly closed recently) with carry-out available. It provides very tasty southern Indian cooking, all vegetarian and VERY spicy. If you like it hot, stop by and give this a whirl. Yum!

If you’ve got some other ideas, please share in the comments!

I just wrapped up my first year as a volunteer with GirlsRock! DC, and what an experience!

About 70 campers from all over the District, Maryland and Virginia put on an unforgettable showcase on Saturday morning at the 9:30 Club. As a girl, I had recitals for flute, violin and voice. I performed in plays and musicals. But nothing I ever did before college was like this.

These girls were so confident on stage, all performing original songs or DJ sets. It was really overwhelming, especially after spending two days with them earlier in the week as a workshop teacher. I’d seen them just learning to get along, just meeting each other, and here are all these great cohesive bands up on stage looking just as good as any college band. (Sometimes better…)

If you didn’t get the chance to attend the show on Saturday, I encourage you to click around the GirlsRock! DC website. See what they’ve done and check out some of the stories that have been written on them. (Donations would be appreciated, I might add!) This is really a super opportunity for families that rock to take in together, and for girls 8-18 to take part in.

For older girls like me, I encourage you to follow my lead and volunteer some time. It is all kinds of inspirational and FUN!

If you have been wondering why I’ve been so quiet lately, it’s because I found this great volunteer organization to donate some time to.

On August 14th at 11:00am, more than 70 Washington area girls will take to the stage at the 9:30 Club, just as many legendary rock stars have done before them. Girls Rock! DC (GR!DC), a volunteer-run, non-profit organization, is launching its third annual, week long rock camp for girls ages 8-18.

During the week of August 9th – 13th, a volunteer staff of female educators, musicians and community organizers provide campers instruction on electric guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, vocals and turntables. The campers form bands and are coached by counselors to write, collaborate and perform original songs and DJ sets before a live audience at the 9:30 Club.

The aim of Girls Rock! DC is to create a supportive, inclusive and creative space for girls to build community, stand up and rock out! With a base in music education, the camp will focus on building girls’ self-confidence, leadership and cooperation skills.

Campers also attend workshops on team building, performance and body confidence, songwriting and other skills young women need to take over the world of rock. I’m on the media literacy team. Whee!

I encourage you to join us (bring your kids!) at the showcase on Saturday to see these girls rock out. I can’t wait!

The girls will showcase their original works at Washington’s 9:30 Club on Saturday, August 14th at 11:00 am.
The showcase is open to the public.
Tickets are $10 at the door.
Free admission for youth 12 and under.
More information is available at the Girls Rock! DC website: www.girlsrockdc.org.

Girls Rock! DC is part of a national Girls Rock Camp Alliance. There are Girls Rock camps all over the world.

UPDATE: We got some coverage from NPR’s The Kojo Nnamdi Show (check out the video)

My friends who are not on Twitter constantly ask me, “Why are you on Twitter?” Yesterday I attended my first 140 Character Conference — #140conf — and like Twitter, it moved quickly and in short bursts, on various unrelated topics. Speakers had 10 minutes each, panels lasted 20 minutes each. Someone unfamiliar with Twitter may have felt that the conference had no direction or purpose. On the contrary, I left with a feeling of empowerment. Twitter, social media and the real-time Internet in general, can help one do many great things.

Listening — Hear what your neighbors, customers, clients, target market or constituents are talking about. Should you know more about some topics? What are they saying about you? Can you offer a solution? If you are in customer service, or looking for more business, this is a great way to use Twitter. But as @JustinKownacki reminded us, when you’re a business person trying to join the conversation around the community water cooler, don’t go into a hard sales pitch. Have a conversation like adults.

Discovery — Find news as it is happening. Read about it from primary sources or from your favorite investigative journalists. Discover stories (or restaurants or recipes or hotels) through recommendations from friends. Those on the media panel said they use Twitter as their personal news wire, both to know what’s being released by news media, and to get ahead of their competition.

Revelation — Find out more about yourself, your likes and dislikes. Do you have an expertise you’ve been keeping quiet about? You’ll be able to find a group of people on Twitter that appreciate your specialties. There are regular chat groups, like the #edchat education group, that bring together experts and interested folks around certain topics. Search and you shall find.

NOTE: People are often concerned about falsehoods on the Internet, but @acarvin of NPR said that Twitter is often where “rumors go to die.” Since so much information can be passed around so quickly, as fast as a false rumor is started, it is revealed to be a hoax.

Volunteer recruitment — Non-profits are having great success at getting volunteers and donations of time and resources (outside of cash donations) through Twitter. It’s easy to be specific and local. Even investors have been found, as @MelissaPierce found making Life In Perpetual Beta.

Amplify your voice — Remember that old ad, “I told two friends… and they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on…”? Twitter works like that, but it can be almost immediate. Instead of waiting for you to run into a friend, people can re-tweet ideas as soon as they receive them. And they are often telling hundreds of their friends as soon as they hit send.

Research — Some people argue that “lunchies” (thanks for that word, @doctorjeff) — those that tweet about what they’re having for lunch — are the problem with Twitter. But a writer like @girlinblack can use these minute-by-minute journals for character development, and our host @jeffpulver pointed out that these Twitter accounts may belong to someone’s grandfather one day. As the Library of Congress is going to archive all our tweets, even these little throwaway tweets may give us some valuable historical, biographical information someday. No? Well, imagine if you could read your grandparents’ tweets. Was your grandma excited to change her name or was it a hassle? How excited was grandpa on his first day back from World War II? Maybe not everyone wants to read their grandparents’ tweets. But check out @bus2antarctica.

Many people are hesitating to log on to Twitter because they anticipate it may be too involved, too much like Facebook, or because they feel they already get all the information they need from websites and e-mail. In actuality, Twitter is less complicated than Facebook, websites or e-mail and that is its strength. Some of the interesting new websites I learned about from the 140 Character Conference (#140conf) follow. I hope you’ll check them out. Know that you wouldn’t have found out about them without Twitter.

• JustCoz: Launched by conference host Jeff Pulver at the DC #140conf, this is a great way for non-profits to get the word out at no cost. If you are a non-profit, check it out right now.
• TroopSwap: an online marketplace that allows active duty military to connect with other service members, veterans, community members, and small businesses both locally and nationally to buy or sell almost anything related to military life. For now, these items fall into the categories of: gear, household items, cars and homes.
• BetterHumanRace.com: Search to benefit charities.
• Rock the Vote: 20 years old this year, and getting ramped up for the midterm elections.
• The Remarkable Power of Twitter: A Water Cooler for the 21st Century – by @doctorjeff
• Life In Perpetual Beta – a film by @MelissaPierce

Also read: Getting the most out of Twitter, Tips on being a corporate Tweeter, 10 tips to help you learn to fly on Twitter

After all the digging and seeding and planting and weeding and watering and weeding and fencing and weeding, it sure is nice to see some fruits of my labor. That’s right, I got some actual vegetables growing in my garden. And last night, I ATE one!

To be truthful, this little cherry tomato was slightly green, but it tasted oh SOOOO good, just because I nurtured it!

I can’t wait for more!

Not too long ago, there was talk about drilling off the coast of Virginia. I was not happy. After the BP incident in the Gulf of Mexico, I was frightened. Every year I look forward to visiting the beaches of Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, and I’d be devastated if MY beaches looked like the beaches in the Gulf.

Luckily we haven’t started drilling in the Atlantic yet. And our beaches still look awesome. We still have challenges with pollution from runoff to our rivers and to the Chesapeake Bay, but we’re working on it. Let’s keep it that way!

I just took a trip to Chincoteague, Virginia. I really enjoyed seeing the wildlife refuge there and all of the coastal and wetland creatures, including pelicans similar to the ones we’re seeing covered in oil down in Louisiana.

Let’s cut our losses. Damage like we’re seeing in the Gulf, like we saw from the Exxon Valdez, can’t happen if the oil rigs aren’t there.

It’s now been more than a month since this oil rig exploded, killing 11 people and in my mind demonstrating clearly that even the best minds in energy science do not have the equipment or plan in place for responding to the worst-case scenarios in deep-water drilling.

We’re still having a hard time keeping coal mining safe, and that’s been going on for decades. I’m personally shocked that the government would provide permits for drilling in an area where even the government doesn’t have adequate underwater vehicles. It’s apparently just too darn deep.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

On Hardball with Chris Matthews, I saw Sylvia Earle of National Geographic say,

We (the USA) haven‘t made the investment to have a garage filled with submarines, a garage filled with remotely-operated systems, (nor in) the talent to be able to go down independently of industry and respond. (video above)

In other words, the oil industry HAS to fix it because they are the only ones that HAVE THE TOOLS.

That is petrifying.

I am furious because I feel so helpless. I have worked hard to live an environmentally friendly life. But a worse case scenario in the Gulf could potentially ruin my visit to a North Carolina beach. Do you see how huge this thing is? This is right in our backyard, DC. Not cool.

The truth is that together we could have prevented this, and we can prevent another incident like this if we all do our part to get out of the oil slick. Go green. Ask for alternative energies. A wind farm will never cause problems like this. Solar panels don’t even have to change the landscape of your neighborhood. Recycle. Buy from farmers’ markets. Use public transportation. Every little bit helps.

Above all, write your Representative and Senator in Congress and let them know that offshore drilling needs to stop now.