Stuff I Ate

Bright and early Thursday morning, I'll be hitting the road for the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. I've gone every year since 2010 as a reporter for The Memphis Flyer, and though I'm no longer on staff there, I'm going as a freelancer for the Flyer this year. So I wanted to do a quick Stuff I Ate post before I head out. When I return, I'll have lots of amazing pics of vegan festival food to share. Bonnaroo is very vegan-friendly.

Last Friday was National Doughnut Day! Although Memphis doesn't have a vegan doughnut option on the regular, Imagine Vegan Cafe made doughnuts just for the occasion. Owner Kristie made so many flavors, but I opted for a Maple Pecan Doughnut and Fruity Pebbles Doughnut.

Now before the vegan police step in, I should say that neither Kristie nor I realized that Fruity Pebbles contains a source of vitamin D that isn't vegan. A commenter on my Instagram post pointed that out. I actually don't worry too much about consuming occasional by-products in the form of a fortified food or something that may contain a tiny amount of honey or some other thing. I wouldn't buy Fruity Pebbles at home anyway because I try to stick with healthier cereals. But it was a fun treat, and now we know. I'm also of the belief that's impossible to be 100% vegan, and we should just do the best we can and not sweat the small stuff.

Anyway, I had those doughnuts at lunch, and I needed something savory to balance out the sugar. So I also ordered a bowl of Imagine's Gumbo. This is loaded with vegan sausage, vegan chicken, okra, tomatoes, and brown rice.

After my power came back last week, I was pretty low on fresh food. But I had a package of pre-cooked, heat-and-eat Seeds of Change Caribbean Brown Rice & Red Beans. I heated that and served with some of the green beans I'd gotten from the farmer's market before the storm. I didn't lose those in the power outage since fresh produce doesn't need to stay cold.

When I did get my frozen goods back from my friend Andy's house (he stashed my stuff in his freezer while my power was out), I realized that I had leftover Hilary's Eat Well Burgers. I had one with Chao cheese, ketchup, mustard, onion, pickles, and some BBQ protein crisps.

Hey look! A ramen bowl! Made with air-fried, breaded tofu from The Vegan Air Fryer. Full review of this awesome cookbook coming soon!

And finally, yesterday morning, I used the very last of my stash of Simple Truth Organic Meatless Breakfast Patties on a Breakfast Bagel Sandwich. Sadly, Kroger discontinued their line of meatless products, and when I found out that was happening, I bought several packages of these sausages to stash away. I LOVED THESE SO MUCH. Sadness.

Anyway, a breakfast sandwich seemed like the best way to enjoy my last one. Served with Follow Your Heart Vegan Egg and Chao Cheese on a locally made Dave's whole wheat bagel.

I'll check back in Monday night with pictures from Bonnaroo!