Last weekend, my family and I visited Portland. This
added a new twist to my vegan challenge: how was I going find tasty things to eat in airports and hotels? Because I was
traveling with my children, I didn't have the luxury of scouting out the hottest vegan restaurants in Portland. I
had to be able to eat where my kids ate. Thank goodness for Gardenburgers. I ate a lot of them this past
weekend.
In the airport I was able to track down places that sold veggie sandwiches, lentil soup, vegan
pastries, and fruit cups. Granted, I was traveling from San Francisco to Portland, Ore., two vegan-friendly
cities. I don't know how I would have fared if I had traveled elsewhere. (I did keep an apple and some pretzels
with me, just in case.)
Once we arrived in Portland, the brew pubs (O, how we love the Portland
microbrews!) we chose for dinner both had Gardenburgers as vegan options. One of the restaurants also had a veggie
pasta, but unless I'm makin' it, I just don't trust it. Soggy vegetables and over-cooked pasta? No
thanks. I stuck to the known quantity: the Gardenburger.
We ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant
and there were also plenty of choices from home fries to cereals with milk alternatives. No problem there.
When going vegan, it helps to be able to shop at a grocery
store that works with you. In San Francisco, that store is Rainbow
Grocery. The grocery store contains no meat, poultry, or fish so there are no "temptations of the flesh",
as it were. It does carry dairy products and eggs, but along side those are an abundance of vegetarian and vegan
alternatives. Rainbow Grocery is more than a supermarket. It's sort of a "healthy lifestyle mercantile"
selling everything from yoga mats to vitamins to juicers and sprouting kits.
Rainbow Grocery is where I
found my favorite cookbook right now, Vegan Planet. I've been cooking from it for the past two weeks, and the recipes
haven't disappointed me yet. One I particularly enjoyed was the Pesto Polenta with Mushrooms (recipe follows). It was
bursting with bold flavors, although I have to admit that the polenta was crying out for a little butter and cheese.
Aside from that, though, I enjoyed the dish and it would make a tasty and impressive dish for entertaining, vegan or
not.
Heading into week two of my veganchallenge, I've successfully managed to
entertain twice and it wasn't any harder or any less tasty than if I had included animal products in my menu.
Over the weekend, I had a friend over for brunch and I served assorted bagels with two different spreads: cream cheese
for the omnivores and buttery Fuerte avocadoes (my personal preference) mashed with lime juice and nutritional yeast for
me. I set out a big platter of sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, and spicy radish sprouts, and I only missed the
lox a little. (Sigh!) I also served a big bowl of mixed berries, and to drink I offered chilled fruit juice and
coffee.
A few days later, friends came to dinner and after perusing through my new, favorite cookbook,
Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson, I decided on a menu of lemon risotto with peas and a "Pseudo"
Caesar salad. For starters I sliced up a chewy Judy's Breadstick (a staple in
my house) and served that with Annie's
cashew-sesame-pimento spread. The spread is made locally in Santa Cruz, California and it was sublime.
For a week now, I've been challenging myself to eat as close
to vegan as possible. It's part of my month-long, "Going
Vegan" experiment. So far, I have to say, it hasn't been hugely difficult. The hardest part has been not
drinking milk with my coffee. I have given up my beloved double cappuccinos for plain drip coffee. (Hmph. Maybe that's why I've been so grouchy lately...)
So what have I
been eating? Lots of salads. I eat a salad everyday anyway, but I've been making them more substantial mixing in baked
tofu, roasted veggies, nuts, and/or beans. I roasted sweet potatoes and spring onions and tossed them with balsamic
vinaigrette to make a warm salad (recipe follows). Another day I roasted some fingerling potatoes and tossed those with
an olive oil-horseradish emulsion and served them on a bed of baby watercress.
I've made two soups. One an "every-kind of vegetable" soup.
The other a simple, comforting puree of leeks and garbanzos enriched with a little soy milk and margarine. I'll have
bread shmeared with mashed avocado and sprinkled with sea salt. I've made paninis with veggies and Tofurkey deli slices which, I'm surprised to admit, are
pretty good.
Last weekend, my family and I visited Portland. This
added a new twist to my vegan challenge: how was I going find tasty things to eat in airports and hotels? Because I was
traveling with my children, I didn't have the luxury of scouting out the hottest vegan restaurants in Portland. I
had to be able to eat where my kids ate. Thank goodness for Gardenburgers. I ate a lot of them this past
weekend.
When going vegan, it helps to be able to shop at a grocery
store that works with you. In San Francisco, that store is Rainbow
Grocery. The grocery store contains no meat, poultry, or fish so there are no "temptations of the flesh",
as it were. It does carry dairy products and eggs, but along side those are an abundance of vegetarian and vegan
alternatives. Rainbow Grocery is more than a supermarket. It's sort of a "healthy lifestyle mercantile"
selling everything from yoga mats to vitamins to juicers and sprouting kits.
Heading into week two of my vegan challenge, I've successfully managed to
entertain twice and it wasn't any harder or any less tasty than if I had included animal products in my menu. 
For a week now, I've been challenging myself to eat as close
to vegan as possible. It's part of my month-long, "Going
Vegan" experiment. So far, I have to say, it hasn't been hugely difficult. The hardest part has been not
drinking milk with my coffee. I have given up my beloved double cappuccinos for plain drip coffee. (Hmph. Maybe that's why I've been so grouchy lately...)
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