Strawberries

English Tea and Biscuits

Vegans can have tea and biscuits too! Here you see PG Tips tea with no milk or sugar and two Burton's Rich Tea biscuits.

Stir-fried Garlic Spinach

I stir-fried some spinach with a generous amount of minced garlic and added some soy sauce. Very cheap. Very easy. Very simple. Very good!

Home-made Skillet Corn

Nashville Ribz Plate at The Wild Cow Vegetarian Restaurant in Nashville TN

This is the Nashville Ribz Plate. The Wild Cow never disappoints. This was very good, but it's not on the menu. It was a "special of the day". Too bad you missed this one! This plate included barbecue seitan ribz over a bed of lettuce, a side of barbecue sauce, house baked beans, and Nashville potato salad. There was nothing light or mild about this meal except the lettuce. This plate was full of flavor!

I'm not much into meat substitutes, but the special of the day on this particular visit was something I've never had at The Wild Cow. I decided to give it a try since it was vegan.

The ribz were very good but so much like real meat that it was scary. I almost couldn't eat it. I needed more information to convince me it was not real meat. The taste and texture was exactly like ribs with no bone. There was a firm chewy side that was stringy and had crisp burnt edges and also a fatty soft side that stretched and appeared to be juicy like real fatty meat. It freaked me out for several minutes. But once I knew it was really veggies, I ate it and enjoyed the flavor. The sauce was very spicy. The lettuce added a good contrast with the spicy sauce and helped balance it out.

The beans were spicy, tangy, smokey, and sweet. I really noticed the celery. The sauce tasted like it possibly had the barbecue sauce in it too. It was a very similar bold flavor.

The potato salad was very chunky, creamy, and tangy with noticeable hints of dill, citrus, and celery. This also had a bold flavor. I also noticed some crunchy ingredients like onions and possibly grape tomatoes. This was very good but so flavorful that a small amount was plenty.

This was a great meal. The bold flavors were a bit more than I was expecting, but I enjoyed the meal and would recommend it to anyone who likes the traditional versions of these foods. This was a very convincing plant-based substitute for a classic omnivore meal. I will probably not get this again because it was just too much like eating real meat. Meat eaters, try this if you can! This is not the rabbit food you would expect.

Click here for The Wild Cow Vegetarian Restaurant website

Home-made Veggie Balls

I had left-over veggies that I needed to eat, so I used an altered version of my cornbread recipe as the foundation for these Indian-inspired balls. This was surprisingly good.

These balls are made with corn meal. whole wheat flour, a vegan egg replacement, white flour, sugar, corn, potato, spinach, garlic, Sharwood's Mild Curry Powder, fennel, cumin, chili powder, salt, black pepper, oil, and water. I combined the ingredients and rolled the nasty mess into bite-sized balls. I coated them with oil before baking them. I couldn't find enough ingredients to make a chutney so I just topped these with Huy Fong Sriracha sauce. Next time I'll go heavier on the fennel and cumin and lighter on the sriracha sauce.

Pepper Power Hippeas

This is my first time trying Hippeas. I really like these! They have a very interesting and unique flavor. These are like crunchy cheese puffs but with salt and pepper flavoring. Now I'll need to try the other flavors. I'll be buying these again!

Tofu Rancheros at Graze in Nashville TN

The Tofu Rancheros at Graze in Nashville TN is described as tofu scramble, black beans, pico de gallo, guacamole, vegan sour cream, green onions, and cilantro served on two grilled corn tortillas.
Everything about this was excellent. Even the tortillas were delicious. 

Click here to see the Graze website

Sesame Tofu at Mei Wei Asian Bistro in Huntsville AL

This was excellent! I do wish it came with more broccoli. This meal came from Mei Wei near downtown Huntsville AL.

Sesame Tofu at Mei Wei Asian Bistro in Huntsville AL

Click here to see the Mei Wei website

A Vegan Lunch at Wendy's

Wendy's doesn't have much for vegans. My original plan was to get a side salad and a baked potato, but the salads have cheese on them, so I just got the potato. This is a plain baked potato with black pepper and a large sweet tea.

I only had to pay $3.90 for this meal. It came with butter and sour cream, but I told them to keep those. This was a pretty good snack. Wendy's often over-cooks the potatoes, but this one was good. This Wendy's was rough. Very rough. The whole place smelled like a dirty bathroom, the 1990s interior was sun-bleached and sticky, and the people inside looked scary. I won't say where it was. I will choose another Wendy's next time. It's good to know Wendy's does have food for herbivores.

Santa Fe Quinoa Salad from Ale's Kitchen in Straight To Ale Brewery in Huntsville AL

This is the Santa Fe Quinoa Salad from Ale's Kitchen at Straight To Ale Brewery in Huntsville AL. This is without the ranch dressing. This was fresh, chewy, crunchy, and creamy. The avocado sauce was spicy. This salad was huge!

Santa Fe Quinoa Salad from Ale's Kitchen in Straight To Ale Brewery in Huntsville AL

Click here to see the Straight To Ale website

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Nutritional Yeast

Nachos with an Upgrade at The Wild Cow Vegetarian Restaurant in Nashville TN

I thought the Nachos at The Wild Cow could not possibly get any better. I order them almost every time because they are irresistible! But I discovered a new level of perfection. I went with an upgrade option and got them with fajita style seitan, peppers, and onions. This upgrade took the Nachos from amazing to fabulous! It was worth the extra charge. I've been missing out on it all this time. Now I know. This is the way to do it. Check this out!

Click here for The Wild Cow Vegetarian Restaurant website

Gas Staion Snack: Nutter Butter and Dr. Pepper

Here's another gas station snack. This is vegan unless you consider the sugar that could be processed in a non-vegan system. This isn't a healthy snack, but it is an option for a vegan when no real food is available.

Home-made Sriracha Southern Plate

I made more home-made vegan southern food. This just has some basics. I cooked collards greens with olive oil, corn bread, and refried black beans topped with cilantro. I added some sriracha sauce to make it interesting. This is a modern twist on an traditional southern meal. And this was all non-GMO organic ingredients!

Home-made Vegan Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients: potatoes, water, minced garlic, crushed black pepper, salt, Zoe's Spice of Life.

Lightlife Smart Dogs with Sauerkraut

I've never been a big fan of meat or meat replacements, but every once in a while I like to experiment with vegan versions of "normal" foods just for an interesting experience. Here's a good meal for anyone transitioning to the veggie lifestyle. These vegan hot dogs taste just like regular hot dogs (maybe real hot dogs are not real meat?). And look. This is a non-GMO product!

I usually eat these hot dog wieners as a quick snack with a little bit of ketchup. This time I wanted to do something different.

After I lightly fried the sliced wieners in the skillet, I dumped a small amount of sauerkraut in there and added some spicy Boar's Head Delicatessen Mustard and just a tiny sprinkle of other spices. This is a very quick and easy meal.

This is not something I personally would make very often. It's not a favorite, but this is a good idea for anyone who may want to make the plant-based lifestyle a bit more interesting.

Hilary's Spicy Thai Veggie Burger

I just tried Hilary's Spicy Thai Veggie Burger for the first time. All I had was the patty and a left-over ketchup from Chick-fil-a. But this patty was so good it needed nothing else. Even the ketchup was unnecessary. This had a good spicy flavor, but it was mild. When I was cooking this it smelled like a fancy restaurant. I like this burger patty!

The instructions say microwave heating is not recommended. I can understand why, but I had to use what I had at the time. I do believe this would be excellent if baked or pan-fried. I plan to get this again. It's vegan, gluten-free, organic, and non-GMO! It's also very good!

Click here to see the Hilary's website

Another Vegan Breakfast at Om Sanctuary in Asheville NC

Here's another vegan breakfast at Om Sanctuary in Asheville NC. This was part of the complimentary breakfast buffet. In this photo you can see beans and rice, tempeh, and kale.

Click here to see the Om Sanctuary website

Sensible Portions Garden Veggie Straws

This is my first time trying Garden Veggie Straws. These are pretty good. They taste very much like french fries. The difference is these are crunchy and have less oil. Very good!

A Vegan Breakfast at McDonald's

Orange juice and coffee! Unfortunately, McDonald's doesn't have much for me. I usually get black coffee, tea, or orange juice.

Vegan Breakfast at Om Sanctuary in Asheville NC

Om Sanctuary in Asheville NC is a good place to escape. And for those not on a fasting retreat, they have food. Here's a vegan breakfast. This is toast with jam, orange juice, coffee, and granola cereal with almond milk and berries.

Click here to see the Om Sanctuary website

TaDah! Falafel Street Wrap With Fresh Lemon-Garlic Hummus

Vegan Valley Jalapeno Cashew Queso

I just discovered another excellent product from Vegan Valley. This cashew queso is one of my new favorites! Don't let the jalapeno scare you away. This does have a nice earthy pepper flavor but it's not too hot. It has just enough heat to give it a kick. This tastes as good or better than traditional cheese. Vegans aren't missing a thing! We have great plant-based products that can make animal products obsolete. Try this one. You won't regret it! Vegan Valley Cashew Cheeze is amazing!

I heated some Vegan Valley Jalapeno Queso over 365 Everyday Value Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips and topped it with organic cilantro and organic avocado chunks to make a great non-GMO snack. You can clearly see in the photo that I went too light on the queso. I should have used twice as much, because it's that good!

Roasted Garlic Hummus from Ale's Kitchen at Straight To Ale Brewery in Huntsville AL

This was great. The hummus was thick with a heavy but delicious bean flavor. It was drizzled with oil and topped with spices, basil, and kalamata olives. The olives were the best part and almost had a grape flavor. The corn tortilla chips were pretty firm but thin. The heavy flavor of this appetizer goes well with the Straight To Ale beer.

Roasted Garlic Hummus from Ale's Kitchen at Straight To Ale Brewery in Huntsville AL

Click here to see the Straight To Ale website

Vegan Chicken Fried Tofu

The Anansazi Burrito by Sweet Earth

Sweet Earth makes this good product and several other vegan burritos. This is non-GMO!

365 Everyday Value Chickenless Nuggets

Cinco De Mayo 2018 at Local Taco

I chose to celebrate Cinco De Mayo at Local Taco.

The Trio
The Trio is a basket of tortilla chips with 3 dips. It usually comes with salsa roja, salsa verde, and queso, but I got guacamole instead of queso to make it vegan. It was all excellent!

Veggie Bowl
The Veggie Bowl usually comes with Poblano Cream sauce, but that's not vegan. I substituted it for the Chimichurri sauce. Then I added avocado and peppers. This bowl includes black beans, Mexican rice, sauteed veggies, and pico de gallo. This is all vegan!

I had a little chat with the chef. He was very friendly and helpful. He let me know how to order this food to make it vegan. I also found out Local Taco makes almost everything from scratch with real ingredients. This is real food! And it tastes like real food. They do not specialize in vegan food, but they know how to make it. And it's excellent!

Local Taco currently serves delicious food in Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky.


UPDATE:
My experience was good enough that I returned to the same Local Taco and ordered the same thing as above except with the Chipotle Barbecue sauce. This second time was not as pleasant. I started nibbling at my beans and rice, then I moved to the roasted veggies. As I prepared a fork full of veggies to dip into the sauce I noticed something in my food. It was either chicken fat or pork fat. It ruined my meal! Management remade my meal as a bowl of just beans and rice. That seemed to be a good replacement.  However, they charged for the Veggie Bowl instead of beans and rice. If they got my order wrong that would be completely acceptable, but the order wasn't wrong. The issue was that something really disgusting was in my food! If a non-vegan customer ordered the pork taco meal and found a pubic hair, piece of glass, roach, cigarette butt, Phillips head screw, or severed fingertip in the food, that customer would receive an apology and a free meal or discount. During my visit, they made it seem like I expected too much from them. It didn't seem to be important to them at all. So this visit did not leave me feeling good about my experience. I currently have no desire to return.

Click here to see the Local Taco website

Cinco De Mayo Work Party

Finally, my company has a vegan option at a company party. They don't know there's an herbivore in the crowd. The Cinco De Mayo party offered a nacho bar with chips, chili, nacho cheese, salsa, and peppers. I got to eat at work today! I had chips with salsa and peppers.

I don't feel comfortable telling my coworkers I eat only plants. I don't want special treatment. That usually doesn't go well. Around here, they probably don't know what "vegan" means. No one notices I get only a drink and maybe potato chips at each of the company parties. The others often get barbecue sandwiches, hot dogs, slaw, pizza, baked beans, fried chicken, eggs with bacon and biscuits, or hamburgers. I usually go into the party and quietly look over the food. I may say "Oooh, that smells really good!". But I almost always get a Solo cup of Coca-Cola and stand around like I just finished eating.

Lay's Dill Pickle Potato Chips

Here's another gas station snack. Most flavored chips contain milk. These do not.

Loaded Potatoes at Graze in Nashville TN

The Loaded Potatoes meal at Graze is awesome! This includes oven fries, cashew cheese, seitan chorizo, guacamole, vegan sour cream, pickled jalapenos, green onions, and cilantro.

The Loaded Potatoes meal is a classic breakfast with a secret. The secret is that it's all plant material! Even meat-eaters could be deceived. This had a heavier, meatier flavor that omnivores would love. The smoky grill flavor makes this taste like something your grandma could have made in the skillet or something you could get at a greasy spoon on the old highway. Meat substitutes this good make vegans nervous! But everything at Graze is vegan.

Graze is a vegan restaurant specializing in breakfast and brunch comfort foods, dinners, smoothies, and juices. It's around the corner from Wild Cow Vegetarian Restaurant in East Nashville. This place is a funky, comfortable place that looks like a combination of a clean dive bar and a vegan version of Waffle House. They have vegan mixed drinks and they serve breakfast-style foods all day and night. The portion sizes are smaller, but the food is more filling than most other vegan food. The service is friendly. The environment is casual and relaxed. This is a great place for artists and musicians to socialize. Everything I've tried at Graze was awesome. I have not yet explored the entire menu but have plans to visit many more times.


Click here to see the Graze website

Bulgar Wheat Veggie Burger Patty

Mellow Mushroom Bruschetta (Vegan Style)

This is the Bruschetta with no feta and no butter at Mellow Mushroom. This was excellent!

Click here to see the Mellow Mushroom website

Vegan Cinnamon Roll with Sweet Potato Icing