Vegan Food for the Soul

My dear pal Leslie is in town from North Carolina. She moved to Asheville last year, which she claims is some sort of vegan, hippie mecca. I'm super jealous! Anyhow, she wanted to try Java, Juice, & Jazz, the new vegan-friendly soul food restaurant on Elvis Presley Boulevard.

Stef from vegan blog Poopie Bitch and Vaughan (my partner-in-crime in our local vegetarian society/animal rights group, Food Awareness) joined us too.

On the menu today were tofu-stuffed cabbage rolls in an herbed tomato sauce, okra & tomatoes, and collard greens:



They were also serving veggie medley, tofu fried rice, grilled cabbage, and some kind of fried sweet potato chips (but they had honey, so they weren't technically vegan).

Man, the cabbage rolls were tasty! A little hard to cut with a fork, but the tofu stuffing inside was really yummy.

Unfortunatley, Java didn't have any vegan desserts available today. Their menu rotates daily, and the iced layer cake was not vegan. But that was okay because Stef brought Mud Cookies, or Cow Patties as some people call them. You know, those peanut buttery chocolate no-bake cookies with oats. They were amazing. The wait staff and cooks at the restaurant sampled them too, and they were very impressed. If you haven't seen Stef's blog, you should check it out. This girl has been baking like crazy, and her treats always look delectable.

Tonight, I warmed up some leftover Tofu Surprise from Monday night's dinner. I had plans to meet my friend Autumn's brand-new baby, which she just popped out a couple weeks ago. His name is Ansell, and even though he's definitely not food, I thought it'd be cute to post a picture of him here. Isn't his "Automatic Sprinkler" shirt adorable?