Bluff City Vegan Eats: Tonica

Last week, I made plans to catch up with some former coworkers, and we decided to check out Tonica — a new Spanish tapas place in the Evergreen neighborhood. I'd just made tapas — potatoes bravas and espinacas con garbanzos — at home last week, and so I guess I've been on a bit of a tapas kick. I just love a snacky meal that pairs well with wine or cocktails. 

Tonica, as the name implies, specializes in gin and tonics, and they have several variations. But I went with the Ginraw, their classic gin and tonic. A friend of mine on Facebook asked why there were raisins in my drink! Ha! Those are juniper berries! This was a fine gin and tonic, by the way.

I scanned the menu at Tonica before we went and saw several options that looked vegan. And I double checked with my server before ordering the Pan con Tomate. My server said it was "100% vegan." Yay! This traditional dish features baguette toasted with olive oil and topped with tomato sauce. The tomato sauce was garlicky and delicious.

I should point out that, after posting this on IG, one commenter said she'd also inquired about this dish and was told it contains eggs. But I cannot imagine where the eggs would factor in. So I'll certainly double check before ordering it again, but I'm very certain, after eating this, that it was indeed vegan.

Another dish my server confirmed to be vegan was the Espinacas con Garbanzos, or chickpeas and spinach. This is another simple dish made with chickpeas, spinach, and garlic. I'd recently made this at home, but theirs was better. 

I spied several other potentially vegan dishes on the menu, so I can't wait to go back and try those!

Product Review: Nutpods Barista Oatmilk

Since I started limiting my daily sugar intake, I've been exclusively buying Nutpods creamers for my coffees. Their unsweetened almond-coconut creamers are the best on the market, and I especially love their stevia-sweetened flavored creamers (cookie butter, I'm looking at you). And now they've just released two Barista Oatmilks, and I AM HERE FOR IT.

They sent me two cartons — plus a cute Nutpods frother — to review, but I actually already had a carton of the Cinnamon Dolce blend in my fridge when they arrived. I spied it at Sprouts and couldn't wait for my review shipment, so I bought it. That said, I did not own a frother until the Nutpods review package arrived, so I had just been adding the oatmilk straight to my coffee. And that was good. But frothing makes it next level. 

I mean, look at that foam! I've never seen plant milk do that, outside of a fancy coffee shop.

The Cinnamon Dolce Barista Oatmilk is stevia-sweetened, and the Original is unsweetened (but it has some natural sweetness, thanks to the oatmilk). I've been frothing and adding a bit of monkfruit sweetener to create some very tasty lattes. 

I feel certain these blends would make some beautiful latte art, but having never worked in a coffee shop, that's a skill I just don't have. But latte art or no, these barista milks are my new favorite coffee addition! If only they'd make a cookie butter flavored one next ...

Spanish Tapas, Quinoa, & Bitchin' Snacks

Yesterday, I posted about last Saturday's Big Buffalo 50 relay race. I was on a 50K relay team and ran a 6.2-mile loop, along with four others (completing a total of 31-ish miles). My friends Peter and Laura provided the snacks for our booth, and they made salted, boiled potatoes. I snacked on plenty of those during the event, but we had leftovers, and they were going to toss them. But I said, "No! Give those to me!" You can do so much with a salted potato!

The next day, I used those salted potatoes to make Potatoes Bravas, the Spanish tapas dish with smoky tomato sauce. I wish I could share the recipe, but I can't remember where I found it. Somewhere on the Google. On the side, I made Espinacas con Garbanzos, another Spanish dish of smoky chickpeas and spinach. All that smokiness came from smoked paprika, by the way. This weekend was also National Make Up a Holiday Weekend (or something like that, according to my calendar), so I declared March 27 to be National Boiled Potato Day!

In non-potato news, I had this Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl from Raw Girls for lunch on Monday. I stopped by there, as usual, on my way to work Monday and selected this bowl because it looked good and filling. And it was! Lots of tomatoes, kalamata olives, and parsley.

On my last trip to Sprouts, I spied this cute little Bitchin' Sauce snack pack! It had a cup of the Bitchin' almond dip with tiny tortilla chips. I love that sauce, but it's a little spendy so I never buy it. But the snack packs were only $2. 

Big Buffalo 50K Relay!

Last Saturday, I was on a 50K relay team for the Big Buffalo 50 in Shelby Farms. This is the same race that I ran for my second 50K last fall, and it was too soon to run another 50K. But I love this party race and wanted to be involved, so I convinced my friend Peter (who owns a running coach/race directing company) to put a relay team together. And so he did. Here we are — the Motivated Trail Misfits. 

But let's back up to the night before. I always have pasta the night before a long run or race, so I made Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Beyond Sausage, Spinach, Mushrooms & Marinara. Perfect!

Each of us had to run 6.2 miles of a looped course that was mostly trail (and a little pavement), and since there were five of us, that totals a 50K distance. They changed the route a bit from last year when I did the 50K on my own, and it was much better. I was fourth in line to run, so I spent a lot of the day hanging at the tent and waiting around to run. While I waited, I snacked on peanut butter pretzels, salted potatoes and dates. Carbs!!

Here I am ready for my loop!

My leg of the run went great, and I made pretty good time for a trail race. I'm typically a slower runner, and I was worried about holding up my team. But luckily, we had a good mix of all paces in our group, and we weren't worried about winning any awards.

After my loop, it was finally time for beer and tacos! El Mero Taco truck was there, and when I went to order, I noticed they were out of veggie tacos. But before I had time to be sad, my vegan pal Ranise (who works on the truck) popped her head out and said, "hey, I know we're out of veggie tacos, but I can whip you up something." YAY! Vegans look out each other! Here's what she made me — Sweet Potato Tacos with Avocado Slaw. These hit the spot.

What a fun day! The Motivated Trail Misfits are already talking about what kind of team events we want to get into next. Stay tuned!

Granola, Ramen, and a Mashed Potato Pile

I've been working my way through the snacks I was sent from Bite Society, and the Kiyami's Granola has been a favorite breakfast lately. I'll slice up a banana and throw in some berries, then top with granola and soymilk. Since I've been limiting sugar, the granola is a little sweeter than what I'm used to for breakfast. But on the days I eat this for breakfast, I'm just counting that as my dessert for the day too.

On Sunday, I brought back an old tradition — ramen in my PJs! I used to always have ramen for breakfast on Sundays, while watching Netflix in my PJs, but I fell out of the habit while I was 50K training (since I had to run every Sunday morning). But yesterday, I slept in and made this bowl of Vite Sichuan Ramen to enjoy while watching Maid. 

Here's some more ramen that I had last week. I had some BOGO coupons for Halo products, so I got some of these bowls. The Vegan Beef Ramen was really good! It has a big portion of noodles and a dried veggie packet. Surprisingly filling for an instant bowl. I had this for lunch at my desk one day with a small side salad. 

And finally, here's what I did with some St. Patrick's Day leftovers. I had leftover mashed potatoes, peas, cabbage, and onion gravy, so I piled it all up and added some chickpeas for protein. Not pretty at all but very tasty. 

Burgers, Pasta, & Bubble Tea!

Imagine Vegan Cafe's dining room has FINALLY reopened. It closed during the early days of the pandemic, and they've been doing takeout only for two years now. But Covid case numbers in Memphis are super-low, so they finally reopened. I met my friends Melissa and Anthony there for dinner on Saturday and ordered their new Impossible Burger with Fries. Imagine now has three burger options; you can choose between Impossible, Beyond, or Gardein. 

I've been picking up baked tofu on every grocery trip lately. I typically cube it and use it as a bowl topper, but one day last week, I made a Tofu & Cheese Sandwich with Sriracha Baked Tofu, Follow Your Heart provolone, spinach, and some Bite Society Pepperish. 

Here's last Friday's pasta night dinner. Every Friday, I eat pasta, because every Saturday, I have a long run. This whole wheat pasta was topped with sauteed garlic chickpeas, kale, and homemade tomato sauce. I served it with toasted sourdough topped with Boursin Garlic-Herb non-dairy cheese. Y'all, this is THE BEST fancy vegan cheese I've had. 

And finally, here's some Strawberry Bubble Tea! I met a friend at Sugar Ghost for a bubble tea happy hour last Wednesday. I LOVE BUBBLE TEA SO MUCH. I need to make bubble tea happy hour a regular thing.

Some Whole Foods I've Been Eating

I'm in a pretty good place right now with my balance of whole foods and indulgent meals. I go through times when I'm a little too heavy on the junk food, but here lately, I've been following a mostly 80% whole and 20% indulgent formula. Here are a few of the whole food meals I've enjoyed. 

I made this awesome Avocado Kale Salad for lunch one day this week. The kale was massaged with avocado and lemon juice, and I added some bacon-y air-fried chickpeas, bell pepper, carrots, raisins, hemp seeds, and nooch. On the side, I had some Raw Turmeric Flax Crackers that I picked up from the Raw Girls downtown location on Monday.

Speaking of Monday, here's my weekly Raw Girls lunch! I go into the office on Mondays, so I've made it a tradition to stop into Raw Girls on the way to work to grab something for lunch. This week, I had their Baked Falafel and Quinoa Bowl with romaine, marinated beets, homemade pickles, olives, and tahini. This may be my fave Raw Girls dish to date.

Not something I made, but look!!! There's a new Larabar flavor!!! I go through about fifty 'leven Larabars a month. Ha! So this was a big deal.

And finally, here's some Sloppy Vegan Chili I made last night from The Plant-Based Athlete. The recipe came from vegan bikini athlete Natalie Matthews, and it's basically a mash-up of chili and sloppy Joe mix with black beans and TVP. Man, I always forget about how awesome plain ole TVP is, but it's just perfect in chili. I had some frozen corn muffins that I thawed out and plopped on top, plus a green salad because I'm trying to eat salad every day.