Vegan Dinner on a Carnival Cruise

Yesterday, I posted pictures from my vegan-friendly breakfasts and lunches on my Carnival cruise vacation from New Orleans to Cozumel. Tonight, I'm sharing pics of my dinners in the Paris Dining Room, one of two formal dining rooms on the Carnival Triumph.

Before embarking on my family cruise vacation, I did lots of googling for "vegan options on Carnival cruises." My searches yielded quite a few blog posts from vegan blogs I'd never even heard of. After reading several posts and chatting with some folks on the PPK, I gathered that Carnival could be very vegan-friendly so long as the dining room hostess or maitre'd is made aware of dietary needs. Most people said they had to make due with the vegetarian menu option on the first night, but after making the dining room staff aware of their veganism, every other night offered a special vegan dish just for them.

On the first night (Thursday), I started my meal with an appetizer of Fresh Fruit with a Tequila Sauce:

Since the staff didn't know I was vegan yet, I was lucky that the standard vegetarian menu option was an Indian Dinner with a chickpea potato dish, onion flatbread, crispy cracker bread, jasmine rice, a roasted veggie cake, onion slaw, and lemon pickle:

Underneath the bread was a ramekin of cottage cheese with peas that I couldn't eat. And I'm not totally sure how vegan everything else was, but I just ate it and hoped for the best. However, when I ordered the Indian dinner, I let my server know that I was vegan and that I'd been told that I should let the maitre'd know. The server was so nice. He said the chef would be happy to prepare vegan meals for me every night. He sent a hostess over to talk about my likes and dislikes. Lucky for the chef, I like everything so long as its vegan!

Dessert on Thursday was yet another plate of fruit. It was only thing on the dessert menu that I could eat:

Friday night was Elegant Cruise Attire Night in the Paris Dining Room, and despite my dad's protests about having to dress up, my mom and I convinced him to don some dress pants and a button-up shirt. I think I've seen my dad dress up maybe three times in my whole life!

Once in the dining room, I started my meal with a salad (not pictured). Our server told me the chef had prepared a vegan entree and dessert for me, but I didn't know what I was getting until this Potato-Stuffed Pepper with Spanish Rice and Steamed Veggies arrived on my table:

The peppers were burn-your-ears hot, but I love, love, love spicy food. So I totally devoured these veggie-stuffed peppers though my nose was dripping the whole time. Here's an inside shot:

My surprise dessert was a Raspberry Puree with Fresh Strawberries. It tasted almost like raspberry preserves and it was really, really sweet. Almost too sweet to eat without toast. But I ate it anyway:

Dinner on Saturday night (the night after we boarded back onto the ship from Cozumel, Mexico) was lighter fare — another starter salad followed by this Creamed Corn with Green Bean Bundles and Sauteed Mushrooms:

Since we stuffed ourselves at lunch in Mexico, the lighter meal was much appreciated on Saturday. The corn dish was very flavorful and creamy, and the mushrooms were absolutely perfect. My main course was followed by another surprise dessert — Pureed Strawberries with Blackberries:

This dessert was much better than Friday night's, mostly because it wasn't quite as sweet. Just fresh, pureed berries with only a hint of sugar.

On Sunday — our last night of the cruise — the vegetarian menu option was a spinach lasagna. My mom ordered the cheesy version, and I was delighted when our server placed a Cheeseless Spinach Lasagna in front of me:

Though I've had lots of vegan cheese lasagna in my day, I'd never tried a totally cheese substitute-less version. It was really tasty. The sauce was so good, and that really set the taste over the top. The inside lasagna noodles were a little chewy, like maybe they were undercooked. But I don't mind undercooked pasta, so I devoured the entire massive serving.

Dessert was another Raspberry Puree with Strawberries, and this one was even sweeter than Friday's version. I could only finish half before the sweetness became too cloying:

Overall, I'd give the Carnival's Paris Dining Room a B++ for Vegan-Friendliness. The staff went out of their way to make sure I had my own special dish every night. My entrees didn't disappoint in terms of taste, though the texture of the lasagna noodles could have used some work. And although I loved the hot, hot heat of the stuffed pepper, I know some spice wimps (like my mom) who wouldn't have made it past the first bite. Perhaps it could have been less spicy and served with a hot sauce to allow the diner to determine spiciness for him or herself. The strawberry dessert was fab, but the raspberry dishes were a little too sweet to be eaten on their own.

Vegan Breakfast & Lunch on a Carnival Cruise

I'm finally back from my Carnival cruise from New Orleans to Cozumel, Mexico. Though I was a little worried about finding vegan food on the ship, I barely touched the Larabars, Artisana nut butter go-packs, and rice cakes that I brought for back-up. Veggie food was everywhere!! The breakfast buffet offered plenty of early mornin' options. Several on-board restaurants catered to vegetarians, and the chef in the Paris Dining Room whipped me up special vegan meals every night. I even found delicious (and very carb-tastic) vegan food in Mexico!

Needless to say, I'll be breaking my trip photos up into several Vegan Mofo posts. I hope these posts over the next few days can be a resource to any other vegans researching food options on Carnival cruise lines. I know other people's blogs (and the PPK, especially from Great Garbonzo!) were a great help to me! I'll start tonight with a post on breakfast and lunch options on the Carnival Triumph (that was the name of our ship).

But first, here's a view from the top deck of the Triumph on day one before we set sail from New Orleans. You can see the skyline in the background (and yes, that is a waterslide in the foreground):

We set sail around 5 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. I had a lovely dinner in the Paris Dining Room that night, but more on that in a later post. By bedtime Thursday night, we were still in the Mississippi River. But I woke up on Friday morning to see this view from our cabin balcony. No land in sight!

My parents and I headed down to the Lido Deck for breakfast buffet. I wasn't sure if I'd find anything to eat, but I managed to pile plenty onto my plate — fried potatoes, grits and salsa, and whole wheat bread with peanut butter and jelly:

The Triumph has several little food counters for lunch options, and on Friday, I opted to try the Hong Kong Noodle Company. They were offering this Fried Tofu with Hearts of Palm and rice. The dish was delicious, but they were a little skimpy on the tofu. The food server guy only gave me three pieces!

Luckily, there was a giant salad bar on Lido Deck, so I filled my belly with this "everything salad":

I'll tell y'all all about Friday's dinner in tomorrow's post. But here's a shot of Saturday's breakfast from the buffet — thinly sliced fried potatoes (better than the ones on Friday), fresh cucumbers and tomatoes, oats with PB and jelly, and a bowl of melon. FYI: That's my dad's milk and my mom's eggs in the background.

Amazingly, I was still hungry in time for Saturday's lunch in Mexico. But I'll share my Mexican eats in a later post. I really want this one to focus on breakfast and lunch options on the boat.

We decided to forgo the breakfast buffet on Sunday in favor of a mornin' meal in the Paris Dining Room. You order off a menu in the dining room, so I picked orange and grapefruit sections (not pictured), tomato juice (not pictured), and hash browns:

I also ordered a bagel with guava jelly:

Since my meal wasn't as large as the buffet breakfast, I was hungry again by 11 a.m. My parents and I went through the line at the Coney Island Grille counter on Lido Deck, where I found this delicious Garden Burger with Fries:

You got to choose your own toppings, so I piled my patty with sauteed mushrooms and onions, ketchup, mustard, and relish.

Later on Saturday afternoon, I was hungry again. Something about having unlimited access to food makes me hungry all the time! So I stopped by the sushi bar for a Spinach Roll with Green Apple Sauce, Cucumber Salad, and the fixins:

We ate at the buffet again on Sunday morning, but my plate looked pretty similar to Friday morning's plate, so I didn't take a picture.

Well, that's it for breakfast and lunch. Not bad, huh? Granted, I didn't inquire as to the vegan-ness of the burger (I call those "don't ask, don't tell" burgers....horrible military policy but good policy for eating out as a vegan) or the breakfast potatoes. I believe one should be pretty adaptable when eating out. You don't want to turn people off of veganism by making it look hard. But that's just me. A more militant vegan might have had to ask a few more questions.

Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow night with a full report on eating vegan dinner on a Carnival cruise ship.

Vegan Mofo: Dinner with My Dead Friends

If you've followed this blog for years, you might remember my past two posts about Bryant Terry's Smoky South American Seitan Stew from his first book, Grub: Ideas for the Urban Organic Kitchen:

But honestly, even if you've been around that long, I doubt you'd remember this spicy stew because I only make it once a year. Every year at Samhain time (Halloween for all you Muggles), I make this stew to enjoy with all my dead friends and family. Sounds morbird, sure. But Halloween is the night when the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest. Seems to me like the perfect time to eat yummy food in honor of those who have passed on to the next life.

This year, I actually enjoyed my seitan stew — a hearty mix of homemade seitan, fried plantains, red potatoes, and a spicy chipotle-tomato broth — on Día de los Muertos (the Mexican Day of the Dead, November 1st).

Most years, I prepare fresh bread for my stew as a symbol of the Earth's fruitful harvest. But this year, I decided to try a new grain dish as my side — Bryant Terry's Coconut Quinoa, also from Grub:

In his book, Terry suggests serving the seitan stew over this simple quinoa dish made with coconut milk and shredded dried coconut. Though the coconut flavors are somewhat masked by the stew, I did love the way the quinoa really soaked up the broth.

As for the dead, I supposed they enjoyed the stew too. I always light a candle at the table for every dead person/pet I know — Aunt Ruth, my Grandpa Haas, my friends Smoky, David Ray, Xander, and Daniel, and my kitties Patches and Alexius. Thankfully, I didn't have to add any new candles this year!

Speaking of Mexican holidays, I'll be on a bit of a Mexican holiday for the next few days. I'm embarking on a Carnival cruise from New Orleans to Mexico tomorrow night. Since wifi on the ship costs like a million bucks, I won't be mofo-ing while I'm away. But I'm sure I'll have loads of fun cruise food photos when I return. I hear Carnival's pretty accommodating for vegans. Hope so!

Vegan Mofo: Veganizing Top Chef

About a week ago, I received an email from Laura over at the supremely awesome Vegansaurus blog asking me if I'd be down for veganizing the winning recipe from an episode of Bravo's Top Chef: Just Desserts show. It's part of a little series they've got going on over there where the Vegansaurus folks choose bloggers to veganize the winning dessert each week. Past week's have featured vegan superstars like Vegan Dad, Melisser from the Urban Housewife, multi-cookbook author Robin Robertson, and Celine of Have Cake, Will Travel. So I was a little, um, nervous to accept the challenge. Honored, but nervous.

But here's the catch: You don't know what you'll have to make when you agree to the challenge. And since I don't have cable, I had to wait until the day after the show — last Thursday — to watch the winning recipe video online. Turns out that last week's show — Dessert Wars — actually had seven winning recipes, so unlike bloggers from past weeks, I actually had a choice of what to make. I tried to wuss out and veganize the winning chocolate chunk cookie recipe.

Top Chef's Morgan workin' the fried pies with lemon curd (from Bravo.com)

But Laura told me, in the nicest way possible, that I was being a pussy. She suggested I go for the vegan gold and instead make the Fried Pie with Lemon Curd and Salted Caramel Ice Cream. So I did. It was actually pretty simple, but it did take several days of freezing ice cream, making homemade lemon curd (using a Melisser recipe that I found on Vegansaurus!), and finally whipping up a bourbon-spiked pie dough. Then I had to fill, fry, and finally eat the suckers. You can check out the post on Vegansaurus here (yes Meave and Laura, I will marry you ... we can be like the Sister Wives from TLC sans that skeavy husband).

Without further ado, here's my veganized version of Fried Pies with Lemon Curd and Salted Caramel Ice Cream:

Fried pie with lemon curd and salted caramel ice cream
Yields 12 pies and about 3 cups ice cream

Salted Caramel Ice Cream (adapted from The Vegan Scoop)
Ingredients
1 cup soymilk, divided into ¼ cup and ¾ cup
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. soy margarine
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups plain soy creamer
⅛ tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract


Instructions
Whisk together ¼ cup of the soymilk with the cornstarch in a small bowl. Set aside.
Place the soy margarine, brown sugar, and one Tbsp. of the soymilk in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until the margarine is melted and the brown sugar is dissolved. Add the remaining soymilk, soy creamer, and the salt. Bring to a low boil, stirring occasionally.
Once the mixture is boiling, stir in the soymilk/cornstarch mixture. Continue to stir until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature. A film may form on the top, but just stir that in. Transfer to a storage container and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
Freeze in an ice cream maker according to instructions.

Vegan Lemon Curd (recipe by Melisser Elliot)
Ingredients
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (from about 10 small lemons)
½ cup water
1 ½ cups sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
⅛ tsp.sea salt
Zest of 2 lemons, grated with a microplane grater
⅓ cup plain soy creamer
2 Tbsp. soy margarine

Instructions
Combine the lemon juice, water, sugar, cornstarch, and sea salt in a blender. Blend until smooth.
Pour the mixture into a medium saucepan and stir in the lemon zest. Heat on medium, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a full boil (about 10 to 15 minutes). Allow to boil for one minute undisturbed. The mixture will be thick and start to turn a little clear. Remove from heat.
Stir in the soy creamer and soy margarine. Whisk until margarine is melted and everything is fully combined. Allow the lemon curd to cool to room temperature in the saucepan. Transfer to a jar and refrigerate.


Fried Pies
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp.sea salt
1 tsp.baking powder
⅓ cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening
1 cup water
1 Tbsp. bourbon (I used Wild Turkey)
2 cups canola oil, for frying
2 Tbsp. sugar, for sprinkling over the cooked pies

Instructions
Sift together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.
Cut in the shortening. Pour the water and bourbon into the dry mixture. Stir to combine. Lightly knead the dough to form a thick dough ball. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
Separate the dough into 12 equal-sized balls. Lightly flour a clean surface and roll out one dough ball into a 5-inch circle.
Place one tablespoon of lemon curd in the center of the circle. Lightly spread it around, leaving plenty of room around the edges.
Fold half of the circle over and press edges to seal. Crimp the edges with a fork and transfer the pie to a plate. Repeat with the other 11 dough balls.
Cover the plate with plastic wrap and place the uncooked pies in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to chill.

To cook, heat 2 cups of canola oil in a large sauté pan with sides. Heat for about 10 minutes, or until the oil reaches 375 degrees—you can test the temperature with a metal candy thermometer.
When the oil is hot, place as many pies into the pan as will fit without touching each other. Fry for about 5 or 6 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.
Remove the pies from the hot oil using a metal slotted spoon. Allow to drain on a paper-towel-lined plate. Sprinkle pies with sugar while they’re hot. Repeat with the rest of the pies. Serve with salted caramel ice cream.

Chef’s notes: The filling sort of stuck to the sides of the inside of the pies, so they look a little hollow, but when I bit into one, lemon filling squirted all over my face so it’s definitely there. I also found that once cooled to room temperature, the pies can be wrapped in waxed paper and kept for a couple of days.

Also, you'll have about twice as much lemon curd as you'll need for this recipe. But it's delicious, so you'll want extra for schmearin' on your toast later. However, if you're crazy and don't want extra lemon curd, then feel free to halve the ingredients for that recipe. But just know that I'll think you're crazy...

Vegan Mofo: Halloween Recap

Halloween will be over in 15 minutes, but the Day of the Dead, World Vegan Day, and the first day of Vegan Mofo are right around the corner. In fact, by the time most of you are reading this, it will officially be November 1st. I'll be posting every weekday in November as part of Mofo with the exception of November 3rd through the 8th, when I'll be on a cruise from New Orleans to Mexico. But more on that later.

For now, I'd like to look back for a minute at Halloween weekend. Friday night, I went to my friend Shara's Halloween party. I dressed as a Crazy Cat Lady, which isn't too far off from real life since I have six cats.

I had cat toys in my messed-up hair and faux cat scratches and kitty paws on my face. And I pinned stuffed kitties to my clothes. I wore a Cat Lady Pride tee and an embroidered cat vest. Oh, and I had cat earrings and a cat necklace.

On Saturday, I judged the Monster Ball costume contest at Push Nightclub at Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, Mississippi. We dined at the Jack Binion casino steakhouse, and I actually found lots of yummy veggies on the menu — steamed asparagus, sauteed green beans, wild mushroom ragout with brandy, and a big ole plate of steak fries. The staff was really accommodating about my vegan-ness. I didn't take photos though since it was kinda fancy in there and really, really dim.

Today — on actual Halloween — I went to my Me-Maw's for our annual family Halloween party. My Me-Maw LOVES Halloween and she decorates everything in her house with ghosts, witches, pumpkins, bats, and goblins. So kitsch and fab! Here's Me-Maw and me in front of her Halloween tree (like a Xmas tree but with spooky decor):

As per tradition, we had Chili Dogs and Chips:

Mine was a Light Life Smart Dog with Hormel Vegetarian Chili, mustard, and chopped onion. My mom grilled regular meat dogs for everybody else, but I'm special. :-)

Question: What did you do for Halloween? Did you dress up?

"I Organize a Vegan Crunk Night"

Not a whole lot to say tonight, but I do have a yummy picture of my dinner to share — Creamy Cashew Mac & Cheese with Caramelized Brussels Pecan Saute:

Both are testers for my Southern vegan cookbook, and I'm sure some of you have seen them before. I've made the macaroni like 500 times or something, just trying to get it right. Its finally there. I'm a perfectionist, so I make everything over and over, tweaking it every time.

Since I don't post on weekends, it'll be the start of Vegan Mofo when I return. In case you don't know, Vegan Mofo stands for "Vegan Month of Food." It's a tradition that started over on the PPK several years ago in which vegan food bloggers post as often as possible for a month. Usually, Vegan Mofo happens in October, but this year, it's in November.

Nearly 450 bloggers have signed up so far. If you're interested in joining the vegan Internet revolution, click here. Or just stop by the Vegan Mofo Headquarters to see who's participating and make an effort to follow as many blogs as you can. Lots of folks come out of their cupboards for Mofo.

I'm gonna leave y'all with a catchy little dubstep sample called "Vegan Crunk Night" that I stumbled upon when googling my blog title. It appears to be an offshoot of the "Being a Dickhead's Cool" YouTube video that I posted last week.

A little background: The "Being a Dickhead's Cool" song/video is a hilarious jab at hipsters, and at the very end, a bespectacled hipster with a comb-over says, "I organize a vegan crunk night." Crazy. It's British, and I'm not sure if it's a reference to my blog or just some crazy coincidence. Click here to watch that video. Below is a short dupstep sample that I'm guessing may have been inspired by the Dickhead video. Who knows? I just found it while googling!

Dubstep, by the way, is a genre of electronica characterized by heavy bass and drum lines. It's pretty big in Memphis right now, although I believe it rose to popularity in Europe a long time ago.

VEGAN CRUNK NIGHT (mix) by Spare

Datsun Is a V-Dog!

My puppy Datsun is eight years old, and though I've been vegan for most of that time, he's remained an omni until very recently. At first, I simply couldn't afford vegan dog food. In fact, he was a baby when I was still in college and I could only afford less-than-desirable kibble. But that was years ago. For the past several years or so, Datsun's dined on Newman's Own Organics dog food and a few other "natural" but not vegan dog foods.

But as of about a month ago, Datsun is now a mostly-vegan* dog thanks to V-Dog Crunchy Nuggets:

Datsun loves his crunchy nuggets! I even tasted one out of curiousity (hey, they're vegan right?). Not bad for dog food. But I think I'll stick with my people food, thank you very much.

Why did I put my pup on a vegan diet after all these years? I'd actually been wanting to make the switch for Datsun for some time, but I incorrectly assumed that I wouldn't be able to afford V-Dog. It has to be mail-ordered, and I imagined shipping costs would be through the roof for a bag large enough to fee my 90-pound mutt. But turns out V-Dog actually offers free shipping! And the product costs less than what I was paying for Newman's Own at Whole Foods.

I did go through a phase where I'd decided to cook vegan meals for Datsun everyday, using the recipes from the Simple Little Vegan Dog Book. But Datsun was picky and only liked some homemade dishes. I'd make a big batch of something, only to have him turn his nose up.

I finally decided to give V-Dog a try when Datsun developed colitis a few months ago. That's an inflammation or irritation of the large intestine, and it caused Datsun to have bloody poo. Ew! The vet ruled out a parasite (the number one cause of colitis) and suggested that his problem may be diet-related. He prescribed some pills and told me to check back if the problem persisted.

Datsun took his pills and the icky poo seemed to clear up, but as soon as the pills were gone, the problem was back. I knew if I told the vet, he'd prescribe some vet-recommended food like Science Diet, which is filled with horrible ingredients and by-products (likely leftovers from the slaughterhouse floor). No thanks.

I read that V-Dog could help with digestion, and that it contained flax seed (for omega 3's) and taurine and L-Carnitene, two amino acids essential for several large breed dogs to prevent the possibility of cardiomyopathy. So I purchased two 20-pound bags.

One month later, Datsun's poop issues seem to have cleared up, and he loves the dog food so much more than the Newman's Own stuff, which would often sit untouched in his bowl for hours. He always gobbles the V-Dog right up.

Of course, the colitis remedy might also have something to do with Datsun's other new favorite food — pumpkin!

Ozzy the cat really wants in on Datsun's precious pumpkin puree, but Datsun's not having that. Look at him snarling his nose at Ozzy!

A co-worker suggested feeding my dog a little pumpkin puree everyday since the fiber helps aid digestion. I looked it up and found lots of information on pumpkin and helping pets have normal bowel movements. So he's been eating one half-cup serving everyday. He thinks it's a treat!

Anyway, I'm hoping that Datsun continues his good health on the V-Dog. Not only do I feel like my dog is healthier on a vegan diet, but I also feel better about contributing less to animal suffering by buying a cruelty-free kibble.

As for my six cats, well, they'll remain carnivores. Unlike dogs and people, cats are natural meat-eaters so I'll continue to purchase meaty cat food for them. Although it can be done, I'm not cool with switching cats over to a vegan diet.

* Earlier I said Datsun was "mostly vegan" because his grandparents (my parents) still like to slip him non-vegan contraband foods when I'm not around.

Question: Do you have a dog? Is he or she vegan?