Vegan Eating Out: my go-to meals

One of the common myths about being Vegan is that you have to cook every meal you eat. SO NOT TRUE. I thought this at first too, and killed myself trying to cook every meal just so I wouldn't go hungry. It was exhausting after a while...and made my new vegan lifestyle seem daunting. Don't get me wrong, I love cooking (my blog is my testament to that) however, after working a full day, going to the gym, and coming home to laundry, cleaning, etc.....sometimes it's nice to order take-out. :-) Can I get an AMEN?

There are two hard and fast rules about dining out vegan I like to stick to:
1) Do you research before you go. Scope out their on-line menu so you aren't standing there holding up the line...or making you other people at you table wait for you to read every item.
2) Don't be afraid to ask questions.With people having so many allergies and dietary restrictions now-a-days servers are used to getting questions ( I know this from years as a server) Plus, they can always ask the cooks and people in the back if they don't know.

So, I thought I would share some of my favorite go-to dining options.

WHOLE FOODS: 
You can never go wrong with the whole food salad/food bar. They are mostly nationwide and ALWAYS have vegan options and I love that they are clearly marked and have all of the ingrediegnts of their dishes listed.

I also love that most of their locations have seating so you get the full sit & eat experience. :-)

Below I got: Curry Tofu and Brown Rice & paired it with a salad with tons of veggies and pomegranate seeds!

PASTA: 
The great thing about pasta is that (1) almost every restaurant has a pasta dish and (2) most pasta is vegan. The pastas you want to stay away from are egg noodle pastas, when in doubt ask. Also, if they have rice noodles, you can do a gluten free vegan pasta. Also, sometimes a restaurant will have pasta, but it comes with meat or white sauce. So I'll just ask the server if they can make a veggie and tomato pasta for me instead...I've never been denied. I also ask them to make it without oil....to keep down on the fat content.

Below is pasta from my favorite work-lunch locale: Pastalini. It's like a subway for pasta and SO GOOD.

 

AN AMAZING SALAD:  

Who says you need meat, cheese, bacon, and creamy dressing to make a salad good? I got this salad the other day at a deli by my work: Mixed greens, sprouts, tomatoes, three bean mix (black, chickpea, kidney), avacado, cucumbers, onions, peppers. It was amazing. I paired it with some balsamic vinegar and it was SUPER delicious and filling. 

Confession time: they also had sweet potato fries so I ordered a side. They were sinfully delicious :-)

 

OTHER GO-TO MEALS: 

1) Quiznos or Subway's Veggie Sub

2) Pei Wei (or other healthy asian restaurant) brown rice and tofu entree (make sure you get a dish they don't use fish oil or chicken/beef stock in) 

3) Chipotle Veggie Burrito Bowl. 

Happy Cow App = amazing!

So I discovered while traveling this past weekend my favorite new app! They have it for iphone and android, which is even more awesome since I haven't hopped on the iphone bandwagon just yet.

It's a SERIOUSLY amazing App that will show all the vegan, vegetarian, or veg-friendly restaurants around you (or whatever zip code you want to enter). It also has links to their menus. Click here for all the info:HAPPY COW 

This weekend while we were in Tucson, Happy Cow helped us find a restaurant called "Loving Spoonfuls". It was a SUPER tasty restaurant with a big menu. If you ever make it to Tucson, stop by...and you MUST get their Crispy Mushroom appetizer...they were amazing!

Happy Cow also helped us find a FANTASTIC Indian place while we were up in Phoenix. It was called "Bombay Spice". They even offered a seperate Vegan menu. We got some $3.50 Sangrias, a naan appetizer, and a Veggie and Tofu Curry. Everything we ate was so good....we basically rolled out of there we were so full. I would highly recommend this place to anyone...even non-vegans!

All in all, if you have a app-capable phone you should totally download Happy Cow. It's free and will introduce you to some pretty amazing restaurants. You're missing out of you don't!!!

Vegan Chipotle

The other day I ran out of the house without a lunch...which always leaves me in a bind when noon rolls around and I'm starving. But, I decided to go to Chipotle. Even pre-vegan I liked Chipotle mostly for the fact that they are consience of where their products come from. Much of their produce is organic or grown locally, which I appreciate.

So anyway, I sort of forged my own vegan path. I made a half salad/ half veg burrito bowl. Mine included: Romaine, rice, black beans, fajita veggies, corn salsa, pico de gallo, and guacamole.

It was just as amazing as the Chipotle I knew and remembered from my pre-veg days....didn't miss the meat at all.

I'm loving the Loving Hut!!

Tonight Izzy and I tried a new restaurant that's just down the street from my place. It's called the Loving Hut (and yes, I too think their name is kinda lame) but they have a 100% vegan menu, which is awesome. It's kinda nice to go to a place and not have to ask the poor server a million questions about the contents of their food. Anyway, I got their spicy Bun Hue....it had noodles, mushrooms, soy slices, and tofu. They served it with mint, bean sprouts, and cilantro/mint on the side. It was quite tasty.

Izzy was feeling less adventurous and opted for a burger and fries. He wasn't really big into Asian food even pre-vegan....so I couldn't really blame him. Plus I stole a couple fries...so then I REALLY couldn't blame him ;-)

Starbucks turns Vegan!

 Yay Hooray! Starbucks has jumped on the Vegan train! I was in a crunch for a last minute meal because I had a pop-up meeting at work. I quick ran to Starbucks thinking I might be able to scrounge up a soy latte and some almonds or something....but to my excitement I found this vegan bento box. It's not explicitly advertised as vegan, but I checked the ingredients...then double checked by googling it when I got back to the office. Yay! 

It included some yummy soba noodles in a sauce, these little yummy crunchy sesame clusters,  cucumber salad, and tofu. It was super yummy. I paired it with a soy vanilla latte. 

Dinner 10/7/11

So, tonight we headed out for a Brewer victory celebration. GO BREWERS!

But, I had a depressing discovery. Pre-vegan one of my favorite restaurants for a burger was a local change called Burger Lounge . After checking their website we saw they had a veggie burger....but we found out their veggie burger has cheese in it :-( Boo!

So we ended up at a restaurant across the street called Luna Grill, and to our surprise they had a TON of vegan options. We're still working on the avoiding "processed" food, which is hard when you eat out...but I had a veggie burger and salad. Iz opted for the falafal burger with a side a fries (his treat for a rough first week ;-)

Lunch 10/7/11

Last night we went to the AMAZING Mexican place we love called Rancheros in North Park. We loved it before we turned Vegan.....and we love it even more now that we've discovered there totally vegan options. They are this cute little hole-in-the-wall local place, which is amazing. So delish!

Lunch today was leftovers....sorry I must remember to snap a pic BEFORE I devour it. Can you tell I was starving?

I had the Veggie Trio Enchiladas ( 1 Blue Corn Avacado, 1 Entrijolada w/mole & 1 Tofu ). There mole sauce was TO DIE FOR!! YUM!