Beans and Rice Plate at Rosetta's Kitchen in Asheville NC

This is organic long-grain brown rice with organic pinto beans served with sweet southern style slaw. The cornbread was an add-on. This meal is just one of many reasons to go eat at Rosetta's Kitchen right now!

The Beans and Rice Plate is Rosetta's "pay what you can" meal. The price is $2-$6 depending on what you can afford. It's nice to know that hungry people can eat fantastic food even if they're low on cash. I no longer live below the poverty level, so I always pay full price to pass it on. It's worth it!

Click here to see the Rosetta's Kitchen website

A Visit to Vegan Vee Gluten-Free Bakery in Nashville TN

While traveling down 46th Ave. I accidentally discovered the location of Vegan Vee Gluten-Free Bakery. An investigation was essential. I was already familiar with some of their products, but I had never been to the actual bakery until this visit.

Upon entry, I was greeted with a smile from the person inside as well as the wonderful smell of freshly baked blueberry muffins. I scanned the cases to find more vegan treasures than anticipated.

There was no way I would leave without at least several days worth of goodies. I chose one of each doughnut available, a Lemon Blueberry muffin, a Samoa muffin, and a Lemon Poppyseed muffin.

Everything I got was absolutely amazing! I don't know how they do it. This was all gluten-free and vegan, but it was all so good! Most gluten-free and vegan sweets have obviously weird textures or aftertastes. Everything I got at Vegan Vee was just like the real thing unless I really put some effort into finding differences. If I picked it apart and ate just the cake part alone I could notice a difference. With the icing or coating added, it was all just as good as any sweets.....or better! The chocolate doughnuts were definitely better.

The doughnuts were fantastic as a cooled snack. The chocolate was my favorite. The coating hardened like a shell to encapsulate the fluffy mildly sweet interior. The Samoa muffin was rich with smooth chocolate and crunchy coconut. Food for royalty. The slightly tart Lemon Poopyseed muffin was heavenly and coated with hardened icing as sweet as love. The Lemon Blueberry muffin was sweet and tangy with thrilling flavors that blended like a fireworks finale. These sweets were sinfully good.

From experience I must conclude that there is no way to go wrong with this bakery. Of course I should try every item and double check my findings before I make such a claim. No problem. I will return!

Click here to see the Vegan Vee Gluten-Free Bakery website

Cascadian Riced Cauliflower

This stuff is really good! In my skillet, along with olive oil and crushed black pepper, I heated this bag of frozen riced cauliflower blend. It needed nothing else. It was perfect!

A Vegan Publix Veggie Sub at Publix Deli

Publix Deli can make an awesome vegan sub sandwich. I got the white bread with spicy mustard, all the veggies, and topped with oil, vinegar, and oregano. I also chose to get a Publix Deli Peach Tea. This is one of the best sandwiches around! And their tea is great too!

To make this vegan, order this with the white bread. The wheat bread contains honey. They may also have other vegan bread options available, such as the White Mountain bread. But do read the ingredients first. Just go next door to the bakery and read the bread labels.

NOTE: The bread shown here contains L-Cysteine and other questionable ingredients which may or may not be animal derivatives. So this option depends on how selective one chooses to be.

Publix Deli is well-known for cleanliness. The entire deli is thoroughly sanitized everyday. The machines are completely disassembled and sanitized several times a day. Even the floor gets scrubbed and sanitized daily. Also, Publix makes the employees wear those humiliating hair and bread nets, even if they have a shaved head and light casts a shadow on a cheek. But mustaches and long arm hair are allowed? The rules really do drift into absurdity and insanity. So the cleanliness of the deli itself is not usually an issue.

The problems to watch for as a vegan is the used bread knife and gloves, the deli clerk going to the slicer for fresh ingredients, and flies caught in the plexiglass bread box. If you get there early, these issues will be the troubles of other people. Vegans, Go early!

Firstly, it's a good idea to ask for a clean knife and a glove change if you suspect possible contamination at the sub station. Anticipate that the customer before you will have already ordered a bloody roast beef sandwich with provolone cheese and mayonnaise and that the knife is covered in animal residue. Secondly, the deli clerk will occasionally run out of veggies and use the cheese slicer (or even worse, the meat slicer) to slice more veggies. According to company rules, the veggies should be sliced on a separate slicer, but some people are nasty and lazy. And at busy times, all slicers are used for animal products, so there may not be a designated veggie slicer. And finally, on too many occasions, I've seen flies trapped in the bread box. The deli clerks will act like they don't see it.

Go early. They can make a sandwich as soon as the bread is done in the morning. Publix Deli veggie subs make great vegan breakfasts!

If you'd like to see another great vegan sub from the Publix Deli, check out the new Garlic and Herb Tofu Sub.

Tasty Bite Jodhpur Lentils

Another vegan Tasty Bite meal? Yes! They have many from which to choose! Like most other Tasty Bite products I've had, this one was very good. The seasonings and texture were as pleasant as expected. However, I regret not having some vegan naan or rice to eat with this.

 

Click here to see the Tasty Bite website

Chopped Collard Greens

Chopped collard greens from a freezer bag with olive oil, salt, and black pepper. That's all!

Bean Pie By Chef Will The Palate In Huntsville AL

This is my first time trying bean pie. It tasted like a milder pumpkin pie. This was smooth and slightly sweet. I wish I had another one.

Hot Tamale Bowl From Hippea Camper In Huntsville AL

The Hot Tamale is made with cheesy grits, black beans, home-made salsa, and guacamole. This simple combination of basic ingredients really makes a good meal. This is one of my favorite Hippea Camper menu items.

Hot Tamale Bowl from Hippea Camper in Huntsville AL

Click here to see the Hippea Camper website

A Vegan Snack At The County Fair

Popcorn!

Lance Peanut Bar

This is my favorite Lance product. I'm so glad it's vegan. This sweet, salty, crunchy snack is so satisfying it can replace a meal. This is one of the very few vegan items you may find in vending machines. It's also one of the very few vegan items available from Lance.

Oranges

Salsarita's Boca Bowl

Salsarita's now offers Boca Veggie Crumbles! And they keep it separated from the meats! Here's my Boca Bowl.

There's plenty of vegan choices at Salsarita's. For this bowl I included Mexican rice, refried beans, peppers and onions, mild salsa, cilantro, guacamole, lettuce, and fresh jalapenos. This bowl with chips, salsa, and a drink was about $11, but I had a $2 off coupon from filling out a survey.

The Boca crumbles did taste and feel much like beef. I don't think the veggie bowls need it to create a great meal, but it's a nice option. Meat eaters should like this very much. I may try the Boca Nachos next! Without queso of course.

Click here to see the Salsarita's Fresh Mexican Grill website

Charlotte Vegfest 2019

I had a fun day at Vegfest in Charlotte NC. They had plenty of food, free samples, coupons, food trucks, and vegan products. The event was packed full of people, but it was mostly well-organized for an event this size. The huge room was loud with excited people. Everyone seemed to be very friendly and patient. Getting around was still a challenge. Maybe because everyone is going vegan! The vegans are taking over!

I knew I'd better find food fast before the vendors sold out of tasty herbivore foods. I found Ve-go Vegan To Go and ordered some nachos. They were amazing! The vegan queso was great, the pico de gallo was fresh, the beans were smooth and had a nice home-made taste. The chips were crispy, and the peppers tasted like they were just picked from the garden.

Nachos by Ve-go To Go

My travel companion had the tostadas, said they were excellent, and pointed out that the beans were especially good.

Tostadas by Ve-go To Go

I also shared the Fried Veggie Rolls by Vietgrill Vietnamese Vegan Cuisine. It's been a while since I've had one of these. It was excellent!

Fried Veggie Rolls by Vietgrill Vietnamese Vegan Cuisine

A friendly stranger sharing my table allowed me to photograph her awesome choice of lunch. Here's the Loaded Pineapple Bowl by Lotus Land. It's served in a pineapple!

Loaded Pineapple Bowl by Lotus Land

I enjoyed chatting with vendors and trying some free samples. The Barvecue is a great alternative to jerky. They had another flavor but I tried the original. It was great! It tastes like beef jerky, almost. If I see it in stores I'll buy it.

Barvecue Original Vegan Jerky

No Evil Foods is usually at these events. Here's a free sample they were offering. It looks like No Evil Pit Boss vegan barbecue. I could be wrong. All of their products are excellent.

Free samples of No Evil

Whole Foods had a really good vegan chicken salad sample but my photo was blurry. It was one of the best samples at the event.

To end the visit I had vegan Mac and Cheese by Fern, a local vegan cafe. I knew their foods are excellent from personal experience, but I never tried their Mac and Cheese until this moment. It was heavenly! Some of the best vegan mac and cheese I've had! But I found a hair in the bottom of the bowl. I really wish that didn't happen. I couldn't eat that last part. I went from being in bliss to being grossed out.

Mac and Cheese by Fern

On the way out I bought a shirt. That's all I have for you about Vegfest in Charlotte. It was fun. Maybe I'll be back next time.

Vegan Doughnuts From Mason Dixon Bakery In Huntsville AL

These were really good! The texture of these vegan, gluten-free doughnuts was a bit soft like cake, and they were very sweet and sticky like real sweets should be. Foods like this make me wonder why people are so afraid of going plant-based. We can eat the good stuff too. Vegans aren't missing out on anything! Look at this pile of heavenly halos!

Click here to see the Mason Dixon Bakery website

Home-made Fried Plantain with Beans and Seasoned Rice

I bought plantains and chili peppers at the flea market. I used them with canned beans and white rice to create this satisfying meal. The plantain was fried in olive oil with Adobo seasoning.

Taco Bell Fresco Bean Burrito

The Fresco Bean Burrito is a good vegan option at Taco Bell. Fresco style means you get pico de gallo instead of cheese. The taco sauces are also vegan.

I usually don't order Fresco style. I just order the bean burrito with no cheese. When ordering Fresco items I almost always find cheese in the pic de gallo. I knew this would happen, and I had my camera ready. Surprisingly, my first burrito was great. But my second one was basically dog food because it had two kinds of cheese in it.

Vegans, please remember that Taco Bell is notoriously sloppy. They rarely have time to care about making food correctly. There's no need to argue over finding garbage in the food. Getting sloppily made food that contains bits of garbage is just part of the Taco Bell experience. If you can't deal with finding garbage in your food, don't go to Taco Bell. However, they do have several vegan options at reasonable prices if you're willing to risk it. And it tastes good if made correctly.

Click here to see the Taco Bell website