Vegan Rob's Cheddar Puffs

These are good. Try some.

Bean Taco Minus Cheese At Taco Bell

This is a "hard shell taco with beans instead of meat and no cheese". That means the taco is a shell with beans and lettuce inside. New vegans, don't bother ordering it fresco style unless you're prepared to pick cheese out of the pico de gallo. It's in there almost every time. Trust me. Keep it as simple as possible at Taco Bell. If you try to make it fancy, you'll end up with all kinds of unwanted garbage in the food. This very simple taco was very good!

Taco Bell does have several options for vegans, and we really do appreciate their efforts to offer us something we can eat. The food tastes pretty good, even without meat and cheese. Try the Bean Taco minus cheese, Bean Burrito minus cheese, the Spicy Tostada minus chipotle sauce and cheese, a side of Black Beans or Refried Beans, Chips and Pico De Gallo, and Cinnamon Twists. You can try to order a custom nacho plate, but that's really pushing it. At some point, changing the order that much is not even worth the effort or the price. Keep it simple at Taco Bell. They don't have time for your complicated order.

The main thing to remember is that the employees must throw this food together as quickly as possible, so the kitchen could be a mess with little bits of cheese or meat scattered across everything. You will often find cheese melted into the beans, meat stuck to the bottom of your Tostada shell or on the burrito tortilla, cheese mixed into the lettuce and pico de gallo, or worse, chunks of meat in the beans. I'm not picking on Taco Bell. All fast food is like this. But I still go to Taco Bell. I've been a regular customer for decades, and I've seen it all. I'm just giving you the truth. Vegans can enjoy food at Taco Bell, but we need to keep it very simple and inspect the food before eating.

Click here to see the Taco Bell website

Home-made Vegan Taco Casserole

Another vegan in my family made this taco casserole. It included canned black beans, Gardein Beefless Ground, Daiya vegan "cheese", cheap tortilla chips from the dollar store, fresh zucchini and onion, and spices. This was pretty good.

She said this dish is good for beginner vegans to take to vegan potlucks because it's so cheap and easy to make. Everyone loves casseroles!

Veggie Wrap at Osa's Garden in Florence AL

I discovered Osa's Garden recently. They offer a vegan Veggie Wrap. It comes with romaine, tomato, cucumber, broccoli, olives, avocado, and a choice of tortilla. The price was $7.99, and it came with apple cider potato chips. This wrap was huge!

Veggie Wrap at Osa's Garden in Florence AL

This monster-sized wrap was perfect in every way. It was so big I had to take half with me. The ingredients were fresh and chunky. This was made with real food from the earth. Vegans don't have many choices in Florence AL, but this is an excellent one. The price almost scared me away, but this gave me 2 satisfying meals. I enjoyed every bite.

Osa's Garden is on the north side of Highway 72, just east of Florence. It's easy to miss, but it's worth finding.

A Vegan Breakfast at Honest Coffee Roasters in Huntsville AL

Honest Coffee Roasters has a few items on the menu that are clearly marked vegan. I ordered the Daybreak Bagel with black coffee at the Huntsville AL location. Look at this beautiful vegan breakfast!

Daybreak Bagel at Honest Coffee Roasters in Huntsville AL

This was excellent! Everything about this breakfast was perfect. The Daybreak Bagel is a blueberry bagel topped with almond butter, strawberries, bananas, blueberries, and chia seeds. I will definitely be back for more of this!

Click here to see the Honest Coffee Roasters website

A Vegan Lunch at BurgerFi in Montgomery AL

This is my first visit to BurgerFi. The restaurant was clean and modern. I went early to ask questions and avoid possible cross-contamination.

According to the website, the Vegan Beyond Burger and fries are the only vegan items on the menu. That is what I ordered.

The Vegan Beyond Burger came with lettuce, tomato, mustard, and ketchup. The manager said the burger is cooked separately from the meats. The burger looked and felt just like a beef burger. The taste was very mild, and it didn't really taste like beef. But that's good for me. Vegan food that tastes too much like real meat scares me. This was a pretty good plant-based burger.

The fries were nice and crisp on the outside. The serving size was larger than I expected. I was told the fries have their own frying oil, which is peanut oil.

I was pleased with my vegan meal at BurgerFi, however this meal was quite expensive. It was about $20 with a drink. While it was all very good, my opinion is that it was a bit overpriced. I would like to return, but the price will scare me away on most days. I'll reserve this for special craving days.

At BurgerFi, lacto-ovo vegetarians have the option to order the regular Beyond Burger (it comes with mayonnaise and a white bun), the VegiFi Burger (a veggie patty made with eggs and milk and served with mayonnaise), and onion rings (made with milk).

Click here to see the BurgerFi website

Fresh Gourmet Crispy Jalapenos

Fresh Gourmet Crispy Jalapenos make a good vegan snack and taste good on salads. And they're non-GMO!

Vegan Halloween Candy: Chick-O-Stick

Happy Halloween, everyone! It's time for some candy! Vegans usually can't eat candy because of the milk, eggs, and gelatin found in so many candy products. But here's a classic candy that we can eat (as long as we don't mind the possibility of eating sugar that has been processed using a non-vegan method). Here's a rare treat. Chick-O-Stick!

Boca Original Chick'n Veggie Patties

I used a Boca Chick'n patty with Dave's Killer Bread, Vegenaise, and cherry tomatoes from the garden to make this sandwich. This Boca product is really good.

Dark Chocolate Peanut Clusters

Vegans can have chocolate too! Sometimes. I found these in the bulk goods section of Sprouts Farmers Market.

These are really good. It's been so long since I've had chocolate and peanuts. Most chocolate contains milk. This product is all plant-based.

When shopping for vegan chocolate you'll need to assume almost all chocolate has milk in it, because that's a fact. Look for 100% cocoa and dark chocolate. But even those are frequently made with milk. Always read carefully.

Vegan Lunch From Steak-Out In Huntsville AL

Steak-Out is a local delivery and take-out restaurant in Huntsville AL. Steak-Out is known for their meaty meals, but they do have some items for vegans and vegetarians. They have good baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, and sweet tea. They also have grilled onions and grilled mushrooms. I tried to get more information about those. All I could get from Steak-Out is that they're soaked in "soy sauce and other seasonings". Are they cooked on the same grill as the meat? Are they seasoned with cow blood? I don't know. It's a secret. Vegans, eat ate your own risk! I ate the onions and only tasted soy sauce and onions. I didn't get diarrhea, so that makes me feel a little bit better about it.

Here's the baked potato with grilled onions and a sweet tea. It came with butter and sour cream in small take-out packages. I just gave those to an omnivore.

This lunch was very good. Every part of it was perfect. Carnivores and omnivores have plenty of options at Steak-Out, but it seems that herbivores are limited to ordering the baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, and drinks.

Lantana Yellow Lentil Hummus with Pita Bread

One of my favorite vegan foods is hummus. Here's a good one. I ate this with pita bread.

Peppered Tofurky Slices

Tofurky has a product made to be much like peppered pastrami slices. Unsure if I've ever had pastrami, my ability to compare the two would be inadequate and dishonest. I can say that this is an excellent product that satisfies every time. This is one of my favorite Tofurky products, and I buy it frequently.

This is so good I occasionally eat it straight from the package. To maximize my lunchtime pleasure, I gently place separated slices of Tofurky between toasted Dave's Killer Bread with a generous amount of Vegenaise.

With vegan sandwiches this good, there's no reason to think about animal flesh.

Banh A Long Time At Happy Tummy In Huntsville AL

I went back at Happy Tummy in Huntsville for another plant-based lunch. This is the Banh A Long Time wrap. To make it vegan, I just ordered it with no mayonnaise. This was so big the wrap almost didn't close. It was stuffed full of fresh veggies like cucumber, pickled daikon & carrot, cilantro, jalapeno, bean sprouts and cabbage. I added jerk tofu for an additional charge. It came with my choice of chips, which was Lay's original potato chips.

Banh A Long Time at Happy Tummy in Huntsville AL

This was a very good lunch. The jerk tofu and jalapenos really made it hot, which is what I expected. The fresh ingredients were crisp. There was a hint of exotic spices, probably from the jerk sauce. The service was great as usual, and the cafe was peaceful and quiet at the time of my visit. I will return!

Click here to see the Happy Tummy website

Lantana Black Bean Hummus

This is one of my favorites! Lantana Black Bean hummus is slightly spicy and tastes even better than the bean dip I learned to love as a kid. This goes perfectly with corn tortilla chips!

Vegan Liquid Part 2

Liquid Vegan Part 2

This blog entry highlights some of the many vegan beverage options. I just picked some of my own favorites. These drinks do not contain blood, pus, or bee vomit. Drink up!

Core Hydration pH Water

Hot Spiced Tea at P.F. Chang's

GT's Muliti-Green Kombucha

Alo Awaken Aloe Vera Water

One Pure Coconut Water

Hint Blackberry Water

Dr Pepper with real sugar

Tazo Jasmine Green Tea

Lucky Spring Rolls, Chicken Flavor

This says it's chicken flavor, but it's vegan. This product is really good. The exterior wrap is nice and crunchy. The interior is soft. It comes with a dipping sauce.

This was my first time buying this product. Here's my first impression thoughts. The filling could have been a bit more filled and textured, and the dipping sauce was a bit watery. But this was a very satisfying snack. The taste was great. The price was right. It's so good to eat spring rolls again. Most spring rolls are not vegan. My conclusion is that they aren't perfect, but they're good enough for me. I'll buy these again.

OnYums

These were purchased at a dollar store. This was a good find. OnYums are much like Funyuns except these are vegan. Funyuns are made with milk. OnYums win!

Thai Dynamite at Pei Wei Asian Kitchen in Charlotte NC

I finally got the opportunity to eat at Pei Wei Asian Kitchen, not to be confused with Mei Wei Asian Bistro which I've posted on before. This Pei Wei experience was in the University area of Charlotte NC near N.Tryon St. and Harris Blvd.

Pei Wei focuses on fresh, hand-made foods with no preservatives or artificial flavors.. It's like a healthier version of P.F.Chang's with a walk up counter and a self-serve drink station.

To order a vegan meal at Pei Wei, I chose the Thai Dynamite with just veggies. I also chose the white rice. I could have added tofu as well, but I wanted to save money. Just to confirm, I asked the guy at the counter what he recommended for vegans. He knew the V word and immediately suggested this dish and the Honey Seared, both with veggies and tofu. The Honey Seared doesn't actually have honey in it.

This was really good. It did have an unexpected smokiness from being wok fried, but it didn't taste like meat or anything. It was slightly spicy. The veggies were cooked but still firm and brightly colored. Imagine a hot salad with a spicy soy sauce. I will try it with the tofu next time.

Also the Sweet and Sour with veggies and tofu should be vegan. They have edamame too.

A Vegan Breakfast at SpringHill Suites

SpringHill Suites had some pretty good breakfast choices for vegans. Here's the oatmeal. They had brown sugar, raisins, walnuts, and almonds to put on top.

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