15 posts tagged “whole foods”

You may have noticed I'm a creature of habit. I hope I haven't just started a new one.

Now, whenever I got to Whole Foods down my way in the South Bay and have need of a dessert, I pick up the Black China Bakery vegan chocolate cake. It's dense and rich. This is the Bakery that made my wedding cakes. I love this cake.

It has always disturbed me that when I go to buy cakes up near my office for office birthdays, they don't carry the Black China cake. Instead they carry a vegan cake with a bunch of fruit on top made in their own bakery, and in my opinion, severely lacking.

Until yesterday, when i saw a new breed of vegan cake in the Whole Foods bakery case: A Vegan Mousse Cake.

And it was yummity yummy.

Oh noes! Must. Not. Seek. Excuses. To. "Need". Cake!!!

Breakfast:
Soy Latte
Vegan Scone

Lunch:
Whole Foods salad bar, including Tofu, Edamame, Corn, Beets, Broccoli, Pumpkin Seeds, Giganta Beans, Celery
Cashews
Vegan Mousse Cake

Dinner:
Russet Potato with Corn, Soy Margarine, Tofutti Sour Cream and Nutritional Yeast

But dayum I love getting a big salad from their salad bar.

It's a quandary, and I limit myself to usually no more than one visit per week. And sometimes no visits per week.

Because $15 for a salad is too much, even if it's healthy and often fills me up enough that dinner becomes a mior nibbling affair.

Tuesday I felt entitled to such a salad. And it was good.

Breakfast:
Soy Latte

Lunch:
Diet Coke
Salad with Tofu, Edamame, Giganta Beans, Pumpkin Seeds (see all the protein?), Organic Romaine, Carrots, Celery, Mushrooms, Beets and Cauliflower (see all the veggies?), Corn (and some old-fashioned carbs) along with Vinaigrette (there's the fat!)

Snack:
Vegan Donut Holes

Dinner:
Organic Gold Potato, topped with Morningstar Farms "Steak" strips, sauteed with Garlic, Corn, Olive Oil, Nutritional Yeast and Tofutti Sour Cream.

This was a week of extreme Ups and Downs when it came to vegan food accessibility and quality:

The ups:

• Last Sunday we went to a friend's house, and they actually cooked a vegan quiche for me. I don't think I've EVER had vegan quiche. It was quite dense and heavy, so I'm not sure exactly what she made it with, but man, you gotta appreciate that kind of hospitality, huh?
• While the hotel in which I stayed while in NYC this week had MANY issues (see my blog post about my hotel hell here) one nice thing is that although they had no room service they did provide menus for local places that would deliver to your room. Amongst the places: Zen Palate, a 20 year institution in NY, and the first truly veg*n restaurant I ever at at, and a Burrito place that actually offered soy cheese and tofu sour cream, so you could veg*n up every kind of dis they had. I have had nachos (once a staple food) only once since I went vegan...at the Saturn Cafe in Santa Cruz during our honeymoon. I was in seventh heaven. (Yes, I am a sad case who stayed in my hotel each evening, ordered dinner in, worked and watched the American Idol finales. So, sue me.)
• While the Whole Foods Chelsea has a pathetic salad bar compared to Whole Foods salad bar here in the Bay Area (I mean, how can you really call it a salad bar when you have abut two fresh veggies to actually choose from, while mostly offering mixed, prepared salads instead) they did offer a vegan "chicken" salad that I've never seen here in CA that was quite tasty.
• I got to eat dinner with the S.O. at the Apple campus cafeteria. It was literally two minutes before closing when we walked in, so they had already cleared away a lot of stuff, including the vegan cookies and vegan entree choices that the S.O. swears they always carry. I did, however, have a very nice salad bar (with a much better variety of veggie than Whole Foods Chelsea, I might add.)
  

The downs:

• Starbucks in NYC do not carry the vegan scone I am now so addicted to from my local place.
  
• I neglected to give the conference organizers of the event I was attending the heads up that I was vegan, so there was no food for me. And the catering person looked at me like I was an alien when I asked if it was possible to get one of the veggie wraps without cheese inside.
• The combination of the two "downs" above meant that on both Tuesday and Wednesday I didn't really eat to much until the aforementioned wonderful order-in meals I got at my hotel.
• The result of Down #3 meant that when I was doing my usual if-it's-less-than-30-blocks-you-should-just-walk approach to getting around Manhattan, carrying my heavy laptop bag to boot, I was feeling both my lack of proper eating and my age!
  

Other ups and Downs were mostly all Ups:

• My presentation at MediaBistro Circus went well
• I did a radio interview on KPFK Radio in SoCal [Link is right to the MP3 file]
  
• And yesterday, in preparation for a long weekend which I intend to spend mostly relaxing if I can, I went to Whole paycheck and bought out the store.
  

The only Downs?

• I forgot to submit my monthly Silicon Veggie column on Wednesday per my official deadline. I have to write it this weekend, but I haven't given one thought to it, and have NO idea what to write about. Any ideas?
• Tomorrow at noon I'm meeting my whole family to celebrate three birthdays: my brother's, my nephew's and my brother-in-law's. I haven't bought them presents, and I guess I'll have to leave the house today to do so (which I wasn't planning to do...leave the house, that is.) Again, any ideas?

How was your week?

I can complain about the expensive salad bar at Whole Paycheck, and $10 is a lot. but the truth is that I didn't need to eat dinner after chowing down on that fine piece of work, complete with multiple sources of protein. I don't think that's unhealthy, do you?

Breakfast:
Soy Latte
Organic Banana

Snack:
Cashews

Lunch:
Salad, including Tofu, Edamame, Giganta Beans, Pumpkin Seeds, Corn, Artichoke Hearts, Celery, Tomato, and Oil & Vinegar

Snack:
Cashews
Fritos

I've run out of the little things I rely on...like the vegan margarine that I like. Like seitan, which always livens up any meal. I'm sure there are more thing I am out of, since I am engaging in that open-fridge-door-stare-in-it-close-door-open-pantry-door-stare-in-it behavior usually reserved for teenagers.

Whole Foods on a Saturday? Shudder. But I think it might have to be done. ironically, it is the hug new one in Cupertino that is actually less crowded because it is so big, and they have hired so many people. I think I'll go there.

Tonight we're meeting friends for Cuban food. They have but one item on the menu I can eat, but it is a good one, so I'm content.

And here's my conflict for the weekend: I have SOOO much work to do, but I haven't yet started my book club book that we're meeting to discuss a week from Wednesday. Read or Work?

Breakfast:
Organic Grapefruit
2 slices of Sourdough Bread
Organic Avocado
Teese "cheese" (On second try I'm deciding that this is best when melted into a sauce, like the spaghetti sauce I made last week. Trying to eat it spread on hot toast was, well, it was what inspired me to break out the avocado, let's just put it that way.)

Lunch:
Organic Golden Potatoes with Nutritional Yeast (Yes, really, I just sprinkled the yeast on it and ate it because I'm out of the margarine I like.)
Chips with Salsa Verde

Dinner:
Leftover Salad with Roasted Corn Salsa, Organic Tomatoes, Organic Romaine, and Organic Wasabi Dressing
2 slices of Sourdough Bread with Organic Peanut Butter and Organic Jam
Fritos and Bean Dip (Yes, this is what my ever-resourceful hunter-gatherer S.O. brought home with him...nothing like dinner from 7-11.)

Now, scavenging through leftovers from a Whole Foods meal isn't such a bad thing. I just wouldn't say it's particularly well-rounded :)

Breakfast:
Leftover Green Rice
Organic banana
Cashews
Vegan Chocolate Pound Cake (Since the name "Pound Cake" refers to using a pound of butter in the recipe, I really don't think it's right to call a vegan version "Pound Cake" at all...do you?)

Lunch:
Leftover Edamame
Chips and Corn Salsa and Guacamole

Dinner:
Vegan Pound Cake
Cashews

See how it all fell apart there in the end?

Must. Not. Fall. Into. Habit. Of stopping by Whole Foods in the mornings before work, that is.

That is what leads to $15 salads for lunch. And $3 Soy Lattes. And so on and so on.

It did fill me up enough that I skipped dinner...but still, a $15 salad bar is ridiculous, no matter how many fun, interesting things it included.

Breakfast:
Soy Latte
Vegan Banana Blueberry Muffin

Lunch:
Big, huge Whole Foods salad, including Tofu, Artichoke Hearts, Hearts of Palm, Gigante Beans, Corn, Peas, Pumpkin Seeds (I think I got about as much protein as I've ever gotten in my life i this meal)

Snack:
Vegan Donut Holes

The key to eating well whenever you're invited to a party or meal at a non-veg*n person's house is to offer to bring food. This is certainly the key to ever getting to eat dessert at a non-veg*n house.

They'll thank you. You'll thank you :)

On Sunday we celebrated my mom's birthday at her house. We all brought food, so she wouldn't have to do anything, and I offered to bring not only vegan food for me to eat, but cake. Yummy vegan cake from the Black China Bakery where our wedding cake was made.

Excellent idea, if I do say so myself. Of course, I always bring that cake to family get-togethers, so it was no revelation.

Breakfast:
Organic banana

Lunch:
Leftover Braised Tofu and Veggie Fried Rice

Dinner:
Chips and Corn salsa (which I brought)
Veggie and Vegan Garlic Aioli (which I brought)
Arugula Corn Salad (which I brought)
Kung Pao Tofu (which I brought)
Vegan Chocolate Cake (which I brought)

OK, so I spent my Whole Paycheck at Whole Foods, but I did eat well!

Yesterday was my bridal shower, hosted brilliantly by my two sisters, and attended by about 20 of my family and friends from all my different walks of life...theatre, the internet, the cable industry etc. It was fun, they did a great job!

My sister ordered catering from Whole Foods, and there were two different and interesting potential snafus, one that turned out OK, and one that didn't. First she discovered that the big green salad she had ordered (and intended to be vegan) was smothered in blue cheese. And even if she had thought I'd be OK with just picking it out it wouldn't have worked, because it was tossed in pretty thoroughly.

The other was cake-oriented. Whole Foods is a distributor for cakes from the bakery that's making my wedding cakes, Black China in Santa Cruz. Whole Foods had told my sister that the icing they used for lettering was not vegan, so they would do the lettering on a piece of saran wrap laid on the cake that she could just peel off. I'm having the same trouble that I imagine you're having imagining how that would really look good, but BlogSister was ready to gow ith it.

When the cakes showed up, however, there was just lettering right on the cakes...and the same icing was clearly used to embellish the rosettes on the cakes. Cue dramatic music.

BlogSister called WF, and they told her that Black China had done the lettering themselves, so it was vegan.

At the time I didn't think too much about it, so I ate some of the best damn chocolate cake, vegan or no, around.

Now that I think about it a little harder...that seems really unlikely. Oh well, I'm not sure I want to live in a world where Whole Foods would blatantly like about something like that, so it must be true.

Breakfast:
Puffins Cereal
Rice Milk

Lunch:
Watermelon, Pineapple and Grapes
Portabella Skewers
Veggie/Hummus mini-sandwiches
Chocolate Cake

Dinner:
Very Cherry Chip Soy Dream (Yes, a very healthy dinner indeed.)

I went to Panera's for the first time Monday night, and it might just be the new place I look for to meet people, rather than Starbucks or Le Boulanger. Free WIFI, but also more spacious and comfortable. They could use a few more vegan choices, but it's not like the other places are teeming with such options for me.

I also then walked over to the spanking new Whole Foods in Cupertino, purported to be the largest in the world. It is seriously the size of a Super Home Depot or Super Wal-Mart. It. Is. Huuuge.

That being said, though, I wouldn't say it's entirely overwhelming. It has some features, like a bistro and a coffee shop and a culinary center for cooking classes, that add to the space, but the store itself has most of the same stuff...just more variety, more options, and a more organized layout. Not sure I'd make a special trip out of my way to go to this Whole Foods rather than the one nearer to my house. Also have heard that the parking is a bitch, so that would be a deterrent. But if you work or live around Cupertino, I'd say check it out. It is beautifully done.

Breakfast:
Organic Oatmeal with Flax
Coffee with Soy Silk

Lunch:
Riblets with Organic Avocado

Snack:
Organic Applesauce
Walnuts

Dinner (Panera):
Black Bean Soup
Sourdough Bowl
Chips
Lemonade