Random Stuff That Ended Up In My Belly

It's another photo dump night! Apparently, I've been dining out a lot lately because most of the pics I have to share tonight are from restaurant meals. Plus, I've already shown you what I've been making at home in recent cookbook review posts (stuff from Miyam's Vegan Kitchen and Everyday Vegan!).

Imagine Vegan Cafe, Memphis' totally vegan comfort food restaurant, just revamped their menu. Not only is the design way cuter, they've also introduced some new dishes. One of those is this Fire-Roasted Veggie Pasta with Garlic Bread that I ordered last week.

The tender spirals are coated in a garlicky white sauce and packed with all sorts of veggies (broccoli, pepper, carrots, kale, squash, whatever). Hopefully, this will please those folks who come to Imagine looking for more veggie-based dishes. Imagine focuses more on transition foods and plant meats, mostly because 1) those foods are the BESTEST and 2) many of their regulars are veg-curious and need transition foods. Even though I love Imagine's plant-meaty menu, I'm also a huge fan of this new pasta dish. The sauce is insanely good.

Also new on the menu is the Sheila Dog, a veggie dog topped with coleslaw, relish, onions, and vegan cheese. This is a variation on their Messy Dog, which has all that stuff plus chili. I had this last week with a side of Collard Greens.

There are some more new dishes that I've either eaten and failed to photograph or haven't had yet. But one of those is vegan chicken and waffles! What?! I'm sure I'll be eating that tomorrow night and a pic will be coming to this blog in the next photo dump!

From April through the first of June, there was a lovely pop-up beer garden at the old Tennessee Brewery across the street from my office. It's a gorgeous abandoned building that may be torn down at the end of the summer, and some folks brought craft beer and food trucks to the brewery's courtyard to celebrate the space. I often walked over there at lunch to grab vegan food during the work day. The Truck Stop food truck did wonders with avocado. One day, they had Rice with Veggies, Black Beans, and Avocado.

And another day, they were serving Loaded Avocados — one avocado split in two and topped with black beans, mushrooms, and strawberry-jalapeno salsa. I'm not sure why I've never thought of doing this at home, but I will start.

Speaking of Untapped, I've been using the plastic cups I collected from the beer garden for my morning smoothies. Yesterday for breakfast, I had the BEST smoothie of all time — almond milk, Justin's Maple Almond Butter, banana, and French Vanilla Vega One powder.

And while we're on drinks, I had this crazy soda on Sunday afternoon. It really tasted like PB&J!!!

On days that I don't run, I have a real sit-down breakfast with fresh juice. Lately, that's been Brown Rice Breakfast from Garden of Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tonya Bernard. I've been making this for years, and it's really a staple in my life — sprouted grain toast, crumbled tofu, cooked brown rice, flax oil, shoyu, and ketchup. This time, I used curry ketchup just for fun!

Tonight, I met my mama for dinner at my favorite vegan-friendly fast food joint — Tropical Smoothie Cafe. In case ya didn't know, Tropical Smoothie carries Beyond Meat chicken, and they will sub it in any menu item that contains chicken. I got the Thai Chicken Salad (Beyond Meat, wonton strips, peanut dressing) and a Blue Lagoon Smoothie (blueberry, banana, strawberry). This salad is one of the lowest-calorie (281) menu items they have, and it is so good!