Chi-Town Treats!

I just got back yesterday from Chicago, where I went this weekend for a good friend's bachelorette party!! It was lots of fun, of course, but it was also great because of all the awesome vegan food Chicago has!!!

First and foremost, I got to try Go Max Go! candy bars!!!! The Whole Foods downtown had all sorts of treats that I can't get back in Kansas City, so I stocked up. I tried all the varieties of candy bars, and I just can't decide which is my favorite! Pictured is the Buccaneer bar, which is the Three Musketeers alternative. So. freakin. good. I hadn't eaten a candy bar in soooooo long, so this was quite a treat!Also from the downtown Whole Foods: Jerk Tofu Wrap, made by Soul Vegetarian East, a local veg restaurant that makes some prepared foods for sale at WF. Yum!! I got to try Wildwood's Soyogurt, which was seriously awesome. My second favorite soygurt, only after Whole Soy and Co. This was suuuuper thick, too, which was very nice!Since I really love yogurt as snacks, I also tried the Ricera Rice Yogurt! I've never had rice-based yogurt before, so I had to branch out. It was pretty good! I am definitely more of a soygurt fan, but if you have a soy allergy, this would be a great alternative!

Now for some restaurant food!! I got to go to Karyn's Cooked for the first time ever!! Yay for me :) I am in love with this place! So much that I went there twice over the weekend! haha

Our appetizer: the Mixed Basket...a basket of fried mushrooms, fried BROCCOLI, and fried tofu. Served with Creamy Garlic Sauce and homemade BBQ Sauce for dipping. OMG fried fooooooood! A rare indulgence, sure, but it is just so tasty! Fried broccoli might be my new favorite food!Our entrees: I got the Grilled Steak Wrap....thinly-sliced seitan "steak," grilled onions and peppers, shredded lettuce, and chipotle sauce in a grilled whole wheat tortilla!! Like a Philly cheese steak on steroids. Vegan steroids. (huh?!) It came with Coleslaw--yum!--and Potato Wedges! With more BBQ Sauce! I was so full and happy!A couple of the girls I was with got the Jerk Tofu Wrap...jerk-spiced tofu, jerk sauce, creamy garlic sauce, and shredded lettuce in a spinach tortilla. Also with the slaw and wedges. This was seriously spicy and delicious!!Also ordered: the Taco Salad Bowl!! This salad is not kidding around, guys. It's a deep-fried taco shell bowl filled with lettuce, seitan taco meat, pico de gallo, guacamole, jalapenos, creamy garlic sauce, and chipotle sauce. Holy freakin cow. Just salty, spicy decadence. So good!

We split some desserts, of course! Banana Cake!! Moist as heck! With a carob drizzle.And Coconut Bread Pudding! Warm, gooey, rich, amazing! Another night, I got take-out from Karyn's--I just couldn't get enough!! This time I got the Green Enchiladas: corn tortillas stuffed with garlic mashed potatoes and topped with green tomatillo sauce and soy sour cream, with a side of spanish brown rice and refried black beans, with some tortilla chips. Mex-amazing!!One great thing about Chicago is that they have Trader Joe's stores!! We don't have them in Kansas City, so I loaded up on snacks and such. I wish I could go there every day with those prices!!

Vegan Brown Rice Marshmallow Treats!
Joe-Joe's!!!!!!

Chile Spiced Mango!!

And I just couldn't leave Chicago without going to Chicago Diner!! It's my favorite place ever!!

It was a rainy, snowy, cruddy weather night, so I got to go food and the girls and I all stayed in and watched New Moon. What a great night!!

I got the Radical Reuben with Sweet Potato Fries! This is the best sandwich ever made. Ever!

The reuben going....

Going....Gone.Room for dessert?? Heck yes!! Cookies and Cream Cake. For when you really want a food baby and sugar coma all at once. My favorite cake I've EVER eaten I think I can safely say! Thank you, Chicago Diner!!!

Man, I can't wait to get back to Chicago soon for some more great vegan food!!!!

Vegan MoFo: Denver, Part II

Hey! It's back to food on Vegan MoFo, Day 24! I am going to post the second of my three-part series on eating vegan in Denver, Colorado! I cannot emphasize enough how much delicious food there was!! I ate a. lot. in Denver. Totally worth it!

First off, I went with my friend and fellow dietitian, Sarah. She is awesome and went to all the vegan spots with me! She's an omni, but it's a slow conversion process :) But this girl knows good food, which I guess is why she hangs out with me! haha

Here we are at a local Denver bar, getting our dance on. We don't really drink, so dancing is what we do at bars! There were some awesome local musicians playing and really funny Denver natives dancing with us. Too much fun! I'm the one with the glasses, btdubs. And here we are at the American Dietetic Association Conference. The (kind of) reason we went to Denver in the first place. Besides to eat at good places and see cool stuff. But I guess we wanted to learn about nutrition and stuff, too!

Now for some foooooood! One night, I went with another friend named Sarah, who lives in Denver and is a baker there (woo hoo!), to go play bingo at a bar named Sputnik. Her boyfriend came with us, too. He's a sweetheart. Anyway, it was an adorable little dive hipster place with TONS of vegan options on their menu! The late-night special was their awesome Sweet Potato Fries and choice of dipping sauce...we got the Vegan Wasabi Mayo! Yuuuuum! Spicy in my nose and yummy in my mouth. All at the same time.
Another night, the Vegetarian Resource Group-- which promotes all things veganism and is awesome-- had a vegan dinner at the Mercury Cafe, a beautifully decorated and gorgeously "crunchy" natural foods restaurant. It had really dim, romantic-y lighting, so pics were tough to get. The food was delish, though! A must for dining vegan in Denver!!

The entree: Linguine tossed with Olive Oil, Local Spinach, Tomatoes, and lots of Garlic!

The dessert: Chocolate Cake with a Chocolate Ganache Frosting. Kind of vegan-y tasting (I know they don't all taste that way of course! hello!) but I loved it! Mmmmmm.

On yet another night, Sarah (the one from Denver) and I ate at City O' City. It's a hip/casual/cafe/bar atmosphere, and is owned by the same people as Watercourse Foods. The food is more bar-style, and very amazing!!

We shared the Spinach Salad, which had candied walnuts, apples, miso tahini dressing, and our addition of tempeh bacon bits. zomg. I love this salad!

For our main dish, we split a pizza. Because pizza is just awesomely awesome! We got the La Michelle Pizza, made up of their tasty homemade crust, fig sauce (!), fresh rosemary, sundried tomatoes, capers, and our vegan option of cashew ricotta. Probably one of the best pizzas I've ever had. Very gourmet and very good! If you go here, get this pizza, ya'll!For dessert, we got a nosh from the attached Watercourse Bakery! How convenient! We got the Apple Crisp Bar. Mouth-watering apples combined with tons of cinnamon and a crispy, dense, buttery crust. Love.

One afternoon, Sarah, Carrie (another dietitian from MO) and I had high tea at the Brown Palace Hotel. Very fancy schmancy hotel, very fancy high tea. I got Vanilla Rooibos tea and it was just delightful! I felt like a princess, I must admit. They did too...

There are still more Denver pics to come! Be prepared!

Vegan MoFo: Denver Part I

Welcome to Day 21 of Vegan MoFo!! Sorry for the hiatus....I've been on a trip in Denver! The American Dietetic Association had their annual conference there this year, so I got to go and learn about current research and hot topics in nutrition with other dietitians from around the country. It was lots of fun!! My friends, Sarah and Wendy, who are also dietitians, came to Denver, too! They were champs and went to all the veg restaurants with me :)
The best part was the awesome food I got to eat while I was in Denver! There are a lot of pics to show, so I'm going to post them in two parts...here's part I!

Watercourse Foods!!! This was by far the best place I ate in Denver. Everything on the menu was vegan or could be made vegan! So hard to find! Everything was delicious beyond belief, there was great service, and the prices were very reasonable. I got addicted. And ate there a lot. Here's some of the meals there!! Banana Bread French Toast...topped with Candied Walnuts,
Sliced Bananas and Strawberries, and Real Maple Syrup. Good gracious. This was sweet, but not overpowering, and the banana flavors rocked my socks off!

A side of Tempeh Chorizo...So spicy and flavorful!

Sarah got the Tempeh Burger...with grilled onions and BBQ sauce! So goooooood. She got a side of coleslaw and a side of sweet potatoes, too. Yum!

One night of our trip, we took an adventure to Boulder! I hadn't been there before, so we had to check it out. For dinner, we went to Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant. It was more upscale than the casual Watercourse, and it was awesome. The other girls got non-vegan entrees, so I'll just show you what I had.

Our complimentary homemade bread, with olive oil-balsamic vinegar for dipping. Loved it.

Our starter: Raw Collard Wrap, with Sunflower Seed Ricotta and Basil Pesto. This was so refreshing and delicious!

The insides. mmmm.

The entree: Jamaican Jerk Tempeh with Forbidden Black Rice and Sauteed Chard. This beautiful dish was garnished with a coconut-plantain sauce, balsamic reduction, a tart berry relish, and a crispy fried plantain strip. So many awesome flavors and textures came together to make this dish truly delicious. I was disappointed with how mild it was, since I love spicy food, especially with Jamaican food. But maybe that was just me.

The next day, it was back to Watercourse Foods! Yes, I became a bit obsessed :)

Biscuits and Gravy! Seriously the best biscuits and gravy I've ever had. Vegan or not. I could have eaten about a dozen of these!!

The biscuits had shredded carrots and zucchini INSIDE them! That gave them a really nice sweet flavor and moist texture. Looks like I will have to try that at home!

To go with the B&G, a side of scrambled tofu. Very, very good tofu. And it came with their homemade salsa....bonus!

On yet another trip to Watercourse (hey, it was close to our hotel!), I got my favorite thing I had there: the Buffalo Tofu Sandwich! It was a BIG block of fried tofu that was coated in a buffalo sauce and topped with coleslaw, all on a homemade bun!! It was awwwesome! I got sides of steamed kale and grilled sweet potatoes. Heavenly.

Look at this bite! The homemade buns had either sweet potato or pumpkin in them, not sure which, but it gave them a sweetness and color that was amazing. So soft and pillowy.

Dessert was a Maple-Pecan Cupcake. I loved it! It was almost too sweet and had TONS of frosting on it, but the maple and pecan flavors were really nice. I guess there's no such thing as too sweet when you're on vacation!

And I just can't have dessert without coffee! I got an Americano, and it was amazing! Really rich and smooth flavor that was a perfect compliment to the sweet dessert.

There will be more to come! As you can tell, Denver has some awesomely delicious vegan food!

Spring Break in Lawrence!

I just got done with my LAST spring break ever, folks. Sad, yes, but it was a lot of fun! I got to relax and eat lots of really good food in Lawrence, Kansas with some friends. I couldn't ask for more, really! Surprisingly enough, there is a vegan-friendly town in Kansas!! Lawrence has so many options for vegans, and you don't even have to try that hard!

Let's start with the BEST place to get vegan food (or any food, really!) in Lawrence: Nice Cafe!!!! It is located in the back of the all-vegetarian Casbah Market downtown, and it is sadly kind of hidden away....but my friend Anna works there, so I knew all about this hidden treasure! Mostly Jamaican-style food, but a few other veg classics and healthy smoothies/juices and salads. Just real, healthy, delicious food for cheap. WOW! My favorite thing they serve at the Nice Cafe is their Patties, which are Jamaican savory pastries, like empanadas, and theirs are baked and even made with whole wheat flour! Bonus.Hmmm....what could be inside that delicious little patty??? Anything your little heart desires!My new favorite thing in the world: the Jerk Tofu Patty.

Second favorite thing in the world: the Vintage Patty, which is the Jamaican rice and peas and jerk tofu all in the patty together all family-like. The sauce in the background is their Catch-a-Fire housemade hot sauce that is wonderful because it has good heat AND good flavor, which can be a hard combo to find!!

They also have all sorts of killer sides to go with those great patties: Lentil soup...drizzled with their Good Sweet Brown Sauce (made from yams!)
Housemade Jamaican Slaw, my favorite non-patty item!


Create-your-own-salads....sorry about the bad picture, lighting wasn't my friend. But they have two housemade dressings: creamy mustard and nice nori. mmm....

Onto another delicious eatery: Local Burger! While they do serve meats at this joint, I have to credit them in that everything besides the actual meat burgers is vegan. It's a really cool place and the people are really nice! I like that.

Last time I went there, I got their "Best Veggie Burger in the World" which is made with quinoa and such, but this time I had the Tofu Filet, which is their healthier, vegan version of a fish filet sandwich. It was delicious! Really savory and flavorful, with a little bit of a breading on it. Did I mention the whole wheat bun AND pickles?? How silly of me! And, it came with their side of the day, which was homemade Sweet Potato Fries. I was a very happy girl. They also had two different vegan desserts, and I got the Coconut Haystack, which was so yummy. Of course, I only remembered the whole camera thing after I gobbled it up. woops!

Another place we went for some tasty veg food was La Parrilla, a Latin American restaurant. There were a surprising amount of vegan options there! And the staff was really helpful in pointing out which items were "safe" and whatnot, which was cool.

We started out with the FREE (!) homemade Chips and Salsa...a must with Latino cuisine.

For my entree, I got the Grilled Veggie Rice Bowl, which had Oaxacan rice, seasoned black beans, and a big mound of grilled veggies, with a little dash of lettuce and chili verde sauce. Very filling and flavorful! I hadn't eaten Latino food in a restaurant in a long time, so this was very nice! Next time, I want to try their fried plantains!!!

So, I really did minimal cooking while in Lawrence. One, because I was on my spring break and I wanted to be lazy and served at meals. Two, because there are so many tasty options in Lawrence that I wanted to be able to try them all in just a week's time! But one morning, I did get up and make everybody my Egg McVegan breakfast sandwiches. Everyone has their own version of this, but I like to put a drizzle of maple syrup in mine, to mimic another well-known breakfast sandwich that will remain nameless. You know who you are.

Not pictured is the amazing La Prima Tazza coffee shop that makes killer soy lattes!! Mine didn't turn out so pretty, but it tasted great and was huge and really inexpensive and the barista was nice! Best coffee in town, I say!

I also bought a really old copy of Vegan Vittles at a used bookstore, The Dusty Bookshelf, downtown on Mass Street for like 5 bucks. Yay! Now if I could only find room on my bookshelf for it....