Veggie Going Vegan

yesterday I took a new colleague to lunch at a new Mexican restaurant I've never been to before. They ahd something different on their menu...something outside my usual options. A potato and bean taquito...sounds yummy right?

I ordered it without cheese or sour cream, and I said "that comes with black beans, right?" "Yes."

The dish came while we were deep in conversation, and it wasn't until about halfway through the second taquito that I stopped to wonder what the hell I was eating. It was a taquito stuffed with some brownish mash. Was it brown because that's what you get when you mash potatoes with black beans? Was it brown because it was really refried beans in there, not black beans, even though black beans were on the side?

I don't know. I fear that was a non-vegan dish...which did slow me right down.

Breakfast:
Organic Banana
Organic Oatmeal

Lunch:
Diet Coke
Chips and Salsa
Potato-Bean Taquitos with Guacamole

Dinner:
Sauteed Seitan and "Chikn" Strips with Olive Oil, Garlic, Peas, Tofutti Sour Cream and Organic Avocado
Sourdough Bread
Tortilla Chips

The other day I mashed up my organic fingerling potatoes with wasabi. Yum. Monday night I mixed up some leftover spaghetti with avocado. Also yum.

Breakfast:
Coffee
Sourdough Roll
Organic Banana

Lunch:
Beans/Rice/Guacamole Burrito
Chips and Salsa
Organic Orange
Organic Apricot-Applesauce

Snack:
Vegan Donut Holes

Dinner:
Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Soy Margarine, Organic Avocado and Nutritional Yeast
Soy Pudding

Sunday was Mother's Day, and my family had its annual brunch at a restaurant called 231 Ellsworth. Which is at, you guessed it, 231 Ellsworth Street in San Mateo.

My brother had called again to find out if thy could accommodate both young children and vegans :)

Yes and yes.

And they did a great job. Seriously, if you're ever looking for a fairly upscale place to have a meal in San Mateo, check them out. (They also kept their wits about them and their sense of humor when dealing with our large party, including 5 rambunctious children.

Breakfast:
Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Soy Margarine and Vegan Parmesan

Lunch (231 Ellsworth):
Coffee
Orange Juice
Mixed Greens
Soba Noodles with Mushrooms
White Bean Cassoulet

Snack:
Walnuts

Dinner:
Organic Fingerling Potatoes mashed with Soy Margarine, Garlic and Wasabi.

La Dolce Vegan!: Vegan Livin' Made Easy

Sarah Kramer

  Saturday I tried a recipe from La Dolce Vegan: Spaghetti and Tofu Balls. It's a quite quick and easy recipe, despite the fact that you're making your own tofu balls and sauce. I will admit I cut one corner, in that my jar of tomato sauce wasn't big enough for the recipe, so I instead used a jar of spaghetti sauce that I had (but I chopped up some actual fresh, organic tomatoes into the sauce to make up for it.)

I also didn't have a couple of spices on hand, but i didn't feel the lack of them.

Anyway, the Tofu Balls came out quite well. I made one mistake, in that after I fried them up in the olive oil as directed, I left them sitting in the pan for a while before throwing them into the sauce. I think that allowed them to continue soaking up oil and perhaps get too moist, so they didn't hang together quite as well as I would have liked once in the sauce. They didn't fall completely apart, but they were crumbling off at the edges.

The S.O. stated that he liked these Tofu Balls more than the meatless meatballs I buy at Trader Joes. I think he actually preferred the softer texture to the chewy texture of the meatballs. Bottom line: The recipe is quick, easy, tasty and definitely something to prepare, for example, for a family dinner when you want to serve hearty comfort food that non-veg folks can appreciate and relate to.

Breakfast:
2 Flax Frozen Waffles
1 with Soy Margarine and Lite Syrup
1 with Peanut Butter and Organic Jam
 Organic Banana

Lunch:
Organic Grapefruit
Organic Fingerling Potatoes, mashed with Soy Margarine, Tofutti Sour Cream and Nutritional Yeast

Dinner:
Spaghetti and Tofu Balls, made with Whole Wheat Organic Spaghetti and Organic Roasted Garlic Spaghetti Sauce. (Lots of good veggies added per the recipe.)
Vegan Cookie

I may never want to go to Left Bank again, but I like to schedule meetings in Redwood City to happen at Pamplemousse, a little bakery on Broadway. Why? Because they have this awesome vegan chocolate muffin. I like my cakes, brownies and muffins quite dry, not moist and pudding-like, so this muffin is perfect for me. Consider it highly recommended.

I also had a lunch meeting, which was at Milagros, also in downtown RWC. Milagros doesn't have much on its entree menu for me, but I have had great success with their salads...they are big, hearty and come with lots of variety of vegan ingredients...no lettuce and tomato salads here. This one had portabella and avocado and beans. That's a fine substantial vegan meal there.

Breakfast:
Organic Oatmeal

Lunch (Milagros)
Diet Coke
Chips and Gucamole
Grilled Portabella Salad

Snack:
Vegan Chocolate Muffin

Dinner:
Riblets
Green Peas with Soy Margarine

Thursday night I moderated a panel of blogging experts for a small group at a new co-working space targeting parents in Menlo Park. I thought 90 minutes was going to be a looong time to keep the conversation going with such a small group, but actually those folks would have kept us there much longer if we had let them :)

Lots of passionate curiosity about how to leverage blogging!

It did mean I never ate dinner, which wasn't really a problem, because I had a late lunch.

Breakfast:
Soy Latte
Vegan Scone

Lunch:
Diet Coke
Chips & Salsa
Bean, Rice, Guacamole Burrito

Snack:
Vegan Holes
Lemonade

Left Bank is a nice place, and has two convenient locations...one in Santana Row and one in Menlo Park. My S.O. likes Left Bank. but the fact is: It is not a good restaurant for vegans, and every time I go back I am reminded that i usually walk away hungry.

You could probably say the same of any French restaurant, but I don't go to many. One of the issues is that they don't do pasta, so that standby option of getting a veggie pasta is not available. They also never offer a vegetarian entree of any kind, not even one. And they're not big on lots of veggie sides, so my starting materials are always weak.

They used to offer a portabella mushroom as an add-on to their burger, so I used to get a portabella sandwich, but no more portabella.

Finally, it's been a long time since I've had really good service there...the kind of service where the waiter actually helps you figure out what you can eat instead of just kind of looking at yu blankly and waiting for you to figure something out yourself.

So, after yet another meager Left bank meal on Wednesday I vow: No more Left Bank for me. Their Pommes Frites just aren't that good to make it worth it!

Breakfast:
Leftover Oranve Vegetarian "Beef"

Lunch (Left Bank):
Diet Coke
Sourdough Bread
Beet Salad
Side of Spinach in Garlic and Olive Oil
Pommes Frites

Dinner:
Fresca
Sauteed Seitan, Morningstar Farms "Steak" Strips and Corn in Olive Oil and Garlic with Nutritional Yeast and Tofutti Sour Cream

Some Survival Tactics for turning a non-vegan-looking restaurant menu into a vegan-friendly one without giving the restaurant kitchen a heart attack.

We'll just ignore the fact that I mostly didn't eat all day and focus on my lovely evening of American Idol and Garden Fresh with the S.O. and a good friend.

Because, seriously, I would be a much healthier, happier person if I could eat their salad bar for lunch every. single. day.

But at $10-12 a pop? Not gonna happen.

Why must I love jicama, tofu, edamame and other heavy items so?

Breakfast:
Soy Latte
Vegan Donut holes

Lunch:
A big, honkin' Whole Foods salad bar, complete with many protein sources, with Oil and Vinegar

Snack:
Vegan Donut Holes

Dinner:
Vegetarian Fried Rice, no Egg
Mooshu Vegetable, no Egg
Spring Roll