Bluff City Vegan Eats: Lulu's Bakery & Cafe

I've posted about Lulu's, my friend Don and Stephanie's vegan bakery, about a million times. But until recently, they were just selling stuff at the Cooper-Young Farmers Market. But now they have their very own brick-and-mortar, and it's officially open! They did briefly have a stall inside Puck Food Hall in downtown Memphis, but Puck closed during the pandemic, and they lost their space. But now Lulu's is in a stand-alone space at 3119 Poplar Avenue, across from East High School. 

They've been softly open for a few weeks, but their official grand opening was this past Saturday. I've been trying to make Lulu's a Friday lunch habit since I'm off work very early on Fridays. Here are a few things I've since they've opened in their new space.

Last Friday, I had this Blackeyed Pea Sausage Biscuit with Tomato Jam. YUM. I love savory-sweet combos more than just about anything, and this is just that. The sausage is handmade with blackeyed peas, and it's super meaty. The biscuit is flaky and soft.

The Breakfast Sando is probably my favorite thing. It comes on a sourdough roll, which is delicious. But sometimes, I like it on a bagel. This has tofu egg, smoked carrot bacon, and cashew cheese.

There's also a Mushroom Sando if you're feeling more lunch-y. This has blue oyster mushrooms, sweet and sour cabbage, and a beet sauce on sourdough focaccia. That bread is delectable.

And you can get a soup of the day on the side if you need more — though the sandwich is pretty big! A couple weeks ago, I got this Bean-Kale-Sweet Potato Soup on the side of my sandwich. And it came with even more bread!

Lulu's also has lots of sweets to choose from. There's usually coffee cake, muffins, and cookies. Last Friday, there were also Blueberry Lemon Miso Scones. These were perfect. And that miso is made from scratch! You can buy their homemade miso by the tub.

Product Review: WunderEggs

Y'all, vegan hard-boiled eggs are here!!! When I went vegan in 2004, eggs were the hardest thing for me to give up; not cheese, like most people. I just really loved eggs, and there weren't any good vegan alternatives back then. We've had vegan scrambled eggs in the form of Just Egg and Follow Your Heart Eggs for a while, but we finally have a vegan hard-boiled egg with WunderEggs!

As soon as I heard Whole Foods stores carried these, I went out to my Whole Foods. And sure enough, there they were, right next to the chicken eggs. 

Inside the package are six hard-boiled WunderEgg halves, which is basically like three eggs. And they're not cheap at $8 a package. So this will definitely be a special treat. 

These are made from coconut milk, almonds, and cashews, but they legit taste and feel like eggs. It's wild! The white part is a little gelatinous, just like the white of an egg, and the yolk is a little pasty, just like hard-boiled egg yolk. Each package comes with a little pack of black salt, which of course provides the eggy flavor.

So far, my favorite way to eat these is just plain, on their own. Since they're pricy, I'm not sure I want the flavor to be lost in a larger dish. But I did have to try one on a bowl of Veggie and Tofu Ramen! I always see ramen served with an egg on top, and now I can do that too. By the way, this ramen is Pumpkin Curry by What If foods, and a full review of their products is coming soon. 

By the way, I recently went on the Plant-Based Morning Show podcast to review WunderEggs (and Philadelphia vegan cream cheese). You can listen here. 

Valentine's Day Snack Box!

Last week, I got a very special delivery! My dad told me to be on the lookout for an Amazon package from him and my mom. They ordered me a surprise snack box from The Good Grocer for Valentine's Day. Few things make me happier than an unboxing!

Here's what I saw when I opened the box. Snacks!

The box had several bags of popcorn, chips, corn nuts, and Paleo Puffs. I've already dug into the Lesser Evil popcorn, the Boulder Canyon jalapeno chips (a perfect post-long run treat!), and the sea salt Pop Chips.

And under all that goodness was even more snacks — pistachios, peanuts, tiny chocolate coconut bars, fruit leather, sesame thins, rice crispy treats, a cookie dough bar, peanut butter bites, and a birthday cake cookie. I love having all these snacks!

Thanks to my awesome mom and dad! Love y'all. 

Blue Zones Challenge: Soups, Stews, and More

I'm nearing the end of my 30-day Blue Zones Challenge, and honestly, it hasn't been challenging at all. Well, it has. But that wasn't the challenge's fault. The hard part was getting sick about a week ago — the flu, I think — and having to cancel all of the fun social plans as I'd made as part of the challenge.

The Blue Zones program is about more than food. It requires you to spend time with people in real life, but you can't do that when you're sick. So I canceled a wine night, a drop-in plan at a friend's open studio, and a 5K trail race last week. Bummer. But I'm hoping to make up some of those plans soon!

As for the food though, that's been easy. Granted, I haven't been able to taste much of anything for the past few days because my nose is stopped up, but I just ate anyway and pretended I could taste. This Black Bean & Potato Soup from the Nicoyan Blue Zone was awesome. It has chayote squash, which I'd never cooked with, plus potatoes and carrots. Perfect with a corn tortilla.

Paul and I both loved the Lasagna Soup from the Adventist Blue Zone. This has lentils, tomatoes, red wine, and brown rice lasagna noodles. I loved the big chunks of pasta. I topped mine with a little cashew cream.

On Friday night, I made the Tomato Orzo Soup from the Ikarian Blue Zone, but the whole wheat orzo absorbed all of the liquid so it was more of a pasta dish and less of a soup. I made this because my long run was scheduled for Saturday, and I always eat pasta the night before. But of course, I couldn't run while sick, so we just ate pasta for nothing. Not that you need a reason to eat pasta. It just feels like a performance food.

I loved the Longevity Dal Palak from the Blue Zones Challenge book. This was one that didn't come from a specific Blue Zone but rather was one of author Dan Buettner's recipes. You know Indian food is my favorite!

And finally, last night, I made a big batch of Slow Cooker Beans with Quick Cornbread from the Adventist Blue Zone. Soup beans and cornbread are one of life's greatest pleasures. This will be even better when I can taste it. My tastebuds are kinda coming back today, but they're not there 100% yet. 

Blue Zones Challenge: Adventist Meals

As I'm working my through the 30-day Blue Zones Challenge, I've been trying recipes from all five Blue Zones (Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Sardinia, Italy; Ikaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, California). And I've loved everything I've tried. But the recipes that are closest to my heart are those from the Seventh Day Adventists in Loma Linda. That's because they're more familiar, I guess. And it's 100% old-school hippie vegan food, which isn't far off from how I eat typically. 

Here are a few of the Adventist meals I've made from the Blue Zones Kitchen. One was Adventist Haystacks, which let's be real, are nachos. Or you could call this taco salad if you wanted to make it sound healthier. But it's corn chips topped with lots of veggies, beans, and cashew cheese, so I call that nachos. This was also the only Blue Zones recipe I've made so far that called for a little optional vegan ground burger. I used some Beyond burger, and this was a very tasty dinner!

I also loved this Hearty Kale and Barley Bowl. This is your standard grain/green/bean bowl with barley, kale, carrots, and white beans, and it has a vinaigrette dressing. Seems pretty normal, right? But then it's topped with pickles, kalamata olives, and dates! Yes, pickles and dates in the same dish. Super weird but I had to try it. And you know what? It was delicious. Salty, sweet, tangy, all the good flavors. 

Here's an Adventist Granola that I've been enjoying for breakfasts this week. It's a simple homemade granola with oats, maple, pecans, almonds, walnuts, dried apricots, dried cranberries, and raisins. And I made some unsweetened soy yogurt (in my Instant Pot) to eat with it. 

Blue Zones Challenge: Okinawa

I'm almost done with my 30-day Blue Zones Challenge, though I plan to continue practicing Blue Zones principles going forward. And I'll probably continue trying a lot of recipes from Dan Buettner's books. They're just so good! And simple! 

There are five Blue Zones in the world, where people live the longest, and one of those is Okinawa. The Blue Zones Kitchen book is divided by region, and here are a few meals I've made from the Okinawan chapter. One of my favorites was this Tofu Steak with Miso Mushrooms and Mashed Purple Sweet Potatoes.

So you may notice that those potatoes are not purple. They were purple-skinned but white inside. The recipe called for the ones that are purple on the inside (they have higher antioxidants), but I grabbed the wrong ones from the Asian market. Still yet, they have a similar starchy texture and taste to the purple ones. These are mashed with coconut milk (from the can), and they were heavenly. As for the steak, these tofu slabs were topped with tangy, salty shiitakes and leeks. This made for a fancy (but fast) weeknight dinner.

I also loved the Three-Minute Okinawan Somen Noodles. This took no time to make (though maybe more like 10 minutes instead of three). The recipe just calls for noodles, spices, and tofu, but I added some sauteed cabbage to get more veggies in. Paul loved this dish too!

And this is the Veggie Champuru with tofu, broccoli, mung sprouts, and carrots over brown rice. Champuru just means stir-fry, so that's what this is. Simple, quick, wholesome.

Blue Zones Challenge: Eating Out

I started the Blue Zones Challenge on January 1, using Dan Buettner's book of the same name. The challenge extends beyond the plate to include social interactions, movement, and stress reduction. But I'm focusing on the food in my posts. Most of my meals have been from the challenge book or from The Blue Zones Kitchen cookbook, and they're very heavy on whole foods. But of course, I have to eat out sometimes. So here are a few meals I've eaten from restaurants during the challenge.

I love to stop by Raw Girls on my way to the office when I actually go in (I work from home several days a week). And their Mung Bean Noodle Bowl is one of my faves. The winter version of this has butternut squash, pom seeds, pecans, and pesto, and it's awesome.

They also have hot soups in the winter, so one day, I grabbed some Curry Dal Soup with an order of their raw Flax Crackers.

A couple Fridays ago, my friend Shara had her 40th birthday. And she's doing Dry January, so she wanted to do something that didn't involve booze. After brainstorming for a while, we all decided that it would be fun to go to the Wolfchase Mall and walk around like teenagers. So we did! And of course, that meant dinner was in the food court. Lucky me, they have a Chipotle, so I got a Tofu Sofritas Bowl. This was two meals for me. One of the Blue Zones concepts involves stopping eating when you feel full, so I tried to practice this here (and it worked!). By the way, the mall lighting was terrible.

And finally, Paul and I went to dinner at RP Tracks after a 3K race a couple Sundays ago. And I opted for the Vegetarian Club Sandwich (tofu, vegan tomato aioli, coconut bacon) and Sweet Potato Fries. By the way, if you're local and order that sandwich, be sure to them to swap the bread. It comes on honey-wheat, which is the only thing that makes it not vegan. I like to sub on the rye.