Eating Out on the Abundance Diet!

Let's back up to last May. Sheridan, Drew, & I were in Austin for Vida Vegan Con, and we'd just found a place at the back of a very long line to get into Capital City Bakery, the all-vegan bakery run by the amazing Kristen Davenport. Capital City was having a special anniversary event, and most all of the VVC-goers were in line to get in the door for vegan cupcakes, cookies, and kolaches.

We ended up chatting with the guy behind us in line while we waited. He was super nice, and we just had the best conversation going. So good, in fact, that we barely noticed that we'd been in line for an hour by the time we made it into the door. Well, that guy was none other than Ted from Wok Wild Side. By the time we had cupcakes in hand, we'd become fast friends with Ted, and now we all follow each other on Instagram, and we're Facebook friends.

Ted, who lives in California, was in the Memphis area this week for work. So he shot me a Facebook message about meeting up for dinner. Yay! Vegan blogger meet-ups are best. I love how the vegan community is so connected, and we all have friends all over the country. Ted and I met for dinner tonight at Fuel Cafe.

Ted is an awesome chef (not his day job, but something he does for fun) and a master of cooking ANYTHING in a hotel room. This dude is seriously creative. 

As you may have been reading over the past couple weeks, I've been following Somer McCowan's Abundance Diet meal plan from her cookbook. It's a 28-day plan free of processed food, white sugar, and gluten. And it's also very low-oil. As you can imagine, it's a little difficult to dine out and stay within those parameters, especially the oil and sugar part. But most of Fuel Cafe's vegan options are pretty veg-heavy, so it was at least easy to avoid processed food.

I went with the Tofu Dragon Bowl — tofu, brown rice, red cabbage, kale, carrots, cashews, and teriyaki sauce.

The tofu was definitely fried, and the teriyaki sauce probably contained a little sugar. But overall, I think I did pretty well. There's kale in there and brown rice and raw cashews, all stuff I've been eating throughout this cleanse. It was delicious, and it was nice to have a slightly indulgent treat after a week and a half of eating low-oil meals.  

I've decided that I'll probably eat out every Thursday night on the cleanse (at various cleanse-safe places) and brunch every Sunday (probably at Imagine Vegan Cafe, as usual). That will allow me to treat myself a little more, and it also helps me get in the mindset of making healthier choices when dining out. That's really where I need the most help. I eat pretty well at home all year round, but I do tend to go a little crazy with fries and too much bread and desserts in restaurants. I'd like to reign that in a little this year and save really indulgent restaurant meals for special occasions.

Alright, well, I'll be back Sunday night with my weekend round-up. There are more healthy desserts and fun breakfasts planned for this weekend!