Welcome to Monk Island, a food blog with a new perspective. This blog documents my experiences as a roaming vegan with limited time, money, and resources. I search the land for simple, plant-based meals for one person, and I share those here with you. This blog is for herbivores on the go who don't live in the kitchen, don't have a kitchen, or don't have a home. No politics or extremist rants. Just peace, respect, and veggies.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Home-made Potato Chip Sandwich
To make my sandwich I included the following ingredients. I was generous with the mustard and chips since I now live above the poverty level.
I know what it's like to go without meals. Even before going vegetarian I had months and even years of wondering if I would be able to eat each day. Going vegetarian made that even more difficult because of the limitations I seemingly put on myself. To make it worse, vegetarians and vegans can't really ask for handouts. Donated food is very rarely vegetarian, vegan, healthy, and properly labeled with ingredients lists. People who get free food usually have only one choice; eat it or don't eat it.
I went to Walmart and spent $7.60 on the ingredients to make my potato chip sandwich. If my estimation is correct I should get about 6 sandwiches from this, more if I slice the bread more thinly. That's $1.27 per sandwich. I can eat 6 meals for the price of one 6 inch Subway combo meal. And I'll have left-over mustard. Not too bad.
I will not say this is a healthy way to eat, but vegans sometimes find themselves in a situation where this is the best choice. I've have many potato chips sandwiches at company cookouts and family reunions. With poverty food this good, I sometimes eat them just because I learned to like them.
Monday, July 29, 2019
Nachos with Chipotle Chorizo at The Wild Cow Vegetarian Restaurant in Nashville TN
Click here for The Wild Cow Vegetarian Restaurant website
Friday, July 26, 2019
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Salad Bar At Ingles
I didn't even have room for all the vegan items. See how many different items you can spot. I tried to get some of each, but this was about 75% of the vegan items available. This Ingles store reminded me of my old favorite, Hannaford. They had a good salad bar too.
Vegan Chili Cheese Fries at Rosetta's Kitchen in Asheville NC
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Jalapeno Business from The Juicery in Huntsville AL
Friday, July 12, 2019
Greene Street Market in Huntsville AL
This time I enjoyed a lunch from Hippea Camper, a plant-based food truck. Here's the Beats Meatball Sub. I also bought a tea from them (not pictured, because I only have 2 arms).
Beats Meatball Sub from Hippea Camper in Huntsville AL |
This meal was fantastic! I've reported on the Beats Meatball Sub before, so I'll skip the details. Trust me. It's good! The tea was equally satisfying. I took this over to the live music area so I could sit and eat this delicious but messy food while the guitar man played a classic Johnny Cash song.
After looking at everything, I went back to Suzy's Pops, a local popsicle vendor. I chose the Peach Basil pop.
Peach Basil Pop from Suzy's Pops in Huntsville AL |
Suzy's Pops has many vegan flavors. Just don't get anything listed in the "Creamy" category of the menu. Everything else is vegan. These are hand-made pops with real fruit chunks inside. They even have alcoholic pops for those who want to get drunk and brain freeze simultaneously. This Peach Basil flavor is so good I keep going back to it. I should probably try the other flavors.
That's all for this visit. I will return!
Thursday, July 11, 2019
Panko Battered Tofu with Dale's Seasoning Sauce
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Vegan Key Lime Tarts
Sunday, July 7, 2019
Real Roots Cafe in Fort Oglethorpe GA
I bought an Epic Nacho Plate. It normally comes with barbecue jackfruit, but they were sold out of that. So this included chips, lentil chili, vegan cheese, slaw, lettuce, and avocado. This was a large serving. I had to share this one with my travel companion. This was a beautiful plate of nutritious food. The slaw was excellent. The chili and cheese worked well together.
I also tried the Pizza Panini which included in-house mozzarella, fire roasted red bell pepper, black olives, capers, red onion, and vegan mayo. The filling was creamy with a slight saltiness from the capers and olives. This has a good amount of vegan cheese. The bread was nice and crunchy. It came with a side of chips. This was very flavorful.
The prices were higher than I expected, but the serving sizes were generous. The dining area was clean with a minimalist modern rustic styling. It was nice and peaceful until the loud blender came on. The service was friendly and fast enough. Overall, the food was good but did have a "health food" quality that reminded me of vitamins. Some textures were weird, probably because of the gluten-free ingredients. But don't let that scare you away. It's just a minor thing I noticed.
It seems that they specialize in jackfruit barbecue meals, smoothies, and juices, so I'll need to try some of those before I develop a fair opinion of Real Roots Cafe. I'll try to go back soon and get some jackfruit barbecue. I was excited to try that. What I ordered this time was good, but I suspect the missing jackfruit would make the nachos really come alive.
If you're traveling on I-75 and want some vegan food, check out Real Roots Cafe. It's just south of Chattanooga.
Thursday, July 4, 2019
Vegan Cocktail; A Homemade Black Russian Cocktail
Before photography began, I had to test this recipe. So this is actually my second cocktail for the evening. Forgive me for the sub-par composition. The other photos of this drink didn't turn out so well.
Vegan Fourth of July Cookout 2019
The kabobs included baby portabella mushrooms, onion, zucchini, red bell pepper, basil leaves, and home-grown cherry tomatoes. If you do this on the grill remember you should leave the lid off the grill when cooking veggies. You want the heat but not so much of the smoke. It's very easy to overdo the smoke on veggies.
My favorite part was the Brussels sprouts. I made these by quartering large raw sprouts and roasting them in hemp oil with a light sprinkle of Adobo seasoning. Excellent! The outer leaves got crunchy and delicious. This was as tasty as eating a bowl of potato chips! I almost ate all of them while the others where cooking.
Later I had some watermelon chunks. I kept these cool in the refrigerator. This is a really refreshing way to cool off in the summer heat.
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
The Stallion Italian Sausage by No Evil
No Evil Stallion Italian Sausage is very flavorful and spicy. This tastes great sliced up in vegan spaghetti or as a hot dog. I ate mine with spicy mustard on a vegan hot dog bun this time.
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Chili Garlic Green Beans and Stir-fried Eggplant at P.F.Chang's
The Stir-fried Eggplant is another great herbivore option. It comes with rice, and it's really good with a touch of hot mustard! This is too much food for one person. It makes a good breakfast though.
Click here to see P.F.Chang's website