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Monday, February 22, 2016

More Stuff I Ate

I'm back with some more random pics of stuff I ate over the past week or so. On February 1st, the new downtown location of LYFE Kitchen opened, and my co-worker Susan and I were there for opening night dinner. But the official grand opening/media celebration didn't happen until last Thursday. Of course we were there for that too! The downtown is LYFE is dangerously close to my office, and the media event had free food and wine!

They had these little Vegan Beef Tip-Stuffed Cucumbers! These were stuffed with the filling from their lettuce wraps — Gardein beefless tips, wheat berries, and spices.


And there were samples of their Quinoa Crunch Bowl in little cups. This had quinoa, edamame hummus, avocado, tomato, broccoli, and hot sauce. So good!


My fave thing was the Chocolate Bundino! This is a coconut-based vegan chocolate mousse served in a pomegranate-chia sauce with toasted almonds. They have this on the menu at their East Memphis location (which I've visited many times), but I've never ordered it because I'm always too full for dessert. I have a feeling I'll be hitting up the downtown LYFE for this often, when my mid-afternoon sugar cravings kick in and I need a break from staring at my computer. It's a super-healthy dessert!


A few weeks ago, my friend Stephanie sent me a link for a free burrito coupon from Chipotle. I downloaded it, and so did Stephanie and Pam. On Friday night, we met up for burritos there! I got a Tofu Sofritas Burrito with black beans, guacamole, fajitas veggies, corn salsa, hot red tomatillo sauce, and lettuce. 


The Chipotle is way out in East Memphis, not far from the city's only Ben & Jerry's scoop shop. We'd been dying to try the new B&J's vegan ice cream. And I called ahead to make sure they had it. They didn't have it in bulk for scoops yet, but they did have the pints for sale! So we picked out a couple pints, grabbed some plastic spoons and a table, and dug in. I went with P.B. & Cookies — vanilla almond milk ice cream with chocolate sandwich cookie bits and peanut butter swirl.


OH MY GAWD. I seriously cannot get enough of this. I didn't really expect this to be better than my fave So Delicious Cashew Milk ice cream, but I do believe Ben & Jerry's has them beat on this. It's ridiculously creamy. I seriously doubt someone in a blind taste-test could tell the difference between this and dairy ice cream. Oh, and that peanut butter swirl!! It's salty and sweet. Can't stop, won't stop. The price is a little steep — $7 with tax! — but it's so good, I'd pay that again and again. Here's another scoop the next day at home. I think I've eaten some every day since Friday. It's pretty much gone now.


On Sunday morning, we went to brunch at Imagine Vegan Cafe as usual. I'd imbibed a bit too much the night before at Raiford's — a downtown disco — so I needed grease. I ordered the Memphis Slam (biscuits, gravy, tofu scramble, sausage, vegan cheese) and a side of hash browns (which comes with two fried patties). I plopped one of the hash browns right on top of my Memphis Slam, and it was heavenly. EXACTLY what I needed.


Tonight, I had a Field Roast Hand-Formed Burger with Parmela Creamery Chipotle Nut Cheese, tomato, lettuce, red onion, pickle relish, & sriracha mustard. I love these Field Roast burgers so very much!


That's it! We're all caught up now on random meals!

6 comments:

  1. Hi Bianca. I am a fan of yours so this question is honest. From a good place. Knowing all of Ben & Jerrys treatment of animals issues. Consuming their now vegan to make money product doesn't bother you? I get its great to get more commercial vegan out there. I just can't get past the company

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  2. Hi Girlrunner, it doesn't bother me one bit. And here's why: I support major corporations adding vegan options to their product lines. More vegan products offered to mainstream shoppers means more people are exposed to veganism. At the end of the day, there's nothing better that we can do for animals than to spread the influence of veganism. All businesses — vegan ones and non-vegan ones — have an end-goal of making money, so I don't see anything wrong with B&J's hoping to get a little of the vegan market. It's a smart move on their part. Consumers demanded vegan ice cream, and they created some. I'll definitely continue to support them for that.

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    1. I agree. I also want to add that once large companies start adapting and making vegan items the market will also follow- I anticipate other large ice cream companies will follow with vegan options much the way that Helleman's mayonnaise is developing a vegan mayo after seeing the success of "just mayo"
      Ttrockwood

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  3. This all looks so good, especially that ice cream! I'm going to see if I can get it here!
    I've actually never tried the sofritas at Chipotle!! I usually just get beans and veggies but I may switch it up next time!

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  4. $7!!! Geez. I got my vegan Ben & Jerry's for $5 each, and I thought that was steep, but then I realized that reg B&J was being sold for $4

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  5. I'm really hoping we get the vegan Ben & Jerry's here in Australia!

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