Eatin' Vegan in Nashville, Day 1

I'm back from my work trip to Nashville! I spent Thursday through Sunday morning in Music City for the annual Association of Alternative Newsweeklies conference. Each year, editors, publishers, designers, reporters, marketing folks, and ad sales staff of alt-weeklies from across the country gather for workshops and LOTS of party time. I'm an editor/reporter for the Memphis Flyer. Some years, it's far away (like last year in Miami), and other years, it's within driving distance (Nashville is just a quick 3 1/2-our road trip from Memphis).

I ate a ton while I was there, both at the conference, which was fairly vegan-friendly, and outside the event. Since I took so many pics, I'm going to break these posts up for each day I was there. My editor Bruce, our marketing guru Matt, and I car-pooled up the AAN conference on Thursday morning. We arrived at the downtown Sheraton before check-in, so we checked our bags in and headed out for lunch.

We were looking for something quick that would satisfy our varied diets, and only after walking a few blocks in downtown Nashville, we stumbled upon Pacifica Pan-Asian Cuisine. It was a casual, order-at-the-counter kind of place, perfect for a quick lunch after a car ride. I ordered Tofu Teriyaki with Steamed Rice.

This hit the spot. The tofu was fried but not like super-crazy fried. The sauce was sweet 'n' savory. And the dish was loaded with veggies.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel. But the rooms still weren't ready! They gave us free drink tickets and free appetizer coupons to use while we waited. I saved my app coupon for later (more on that tomorrow). But I put one drink ticket to use right away with this Turtle Anarchy Portly Stout, a beer brewed in nearby Franklin, Tennessee. Nice and creamy. Love me some good stout.

We FINALLY got our rooms around 5 p.m. (two hours past check-in!). I quickly changed into a dress and met up with the rest of my staff to head to a cocktail party at the Corsair Distillery, where I sampled Nashville-made quinoa whiskey. I wish I'd remembered to take a picture of that!

After that party, we headed to the next one at Robert's Western World, a honky-tonk on touristy Broadway.

I'm not a country music fan, but when in Nashville ... (Also, this band said they were actually from Memphis, so I guess that makes it okay).

You might notice the lack of food since lunch. That's because the only snacks that were vegan at the Robert's party were chips and salsa. I had a plate of chips, but other than that, I didn't have time to eat a proper dinner. My crew stayed out til midnight-ish, and when we arrived back at the hotel, a few of us realized were quite hungry.

Luckily, there was a little 24-hour cafe — Caesar's Italian Restaurant — just a block from the hotel. The selections were mostly cheesy/meaty pizza and burgers, but they did have a Veggie Sub. It was supposed to come with cheese, but I left that off and doused the black olive, pepper, tomato, and onion sub with ketchup and mustard instead. All that bread and chips was actually kind of awesome at 1 a.m.

That's all for tonight. Thursday was more about having fun than eating, but I did eat at two AMAZING vegan restaurants later in the weekend. I'll share more about those places tomorrow.

My 10K Celebration!

If you've been following my blog for awhile, you might remember that last year my dream to finally run my first half-marathon was shot down after I got a horrible stress fracture in my right foot. That fracture took six months to heal! That was far longer than the doctors originally told me it'd be, and at times, it felt like I'd never run again.

But by March, I was back out there! My foot still had some residual pain, but the doc okayed me easing back into training. And when I say ease, I mean, go slow as Christmas. I literally started over with a couch to 5K-style program. And from there, I moved on to a 12-week 10K program. I finally finished that program last week! I had a few uncertain moments about halfway through when my foot started acting up, but I think maybe it was just aggravated or something. The pain didn't last long.

At the time of my fracture last summer, I was up to 7.5 miles, so I still have a ways to go. But I'm almost there. In August, I'll start my half-marathon training program. And until then, I plan to run three days a week with one of those being a 6.2-mile run. Anyway, enough about running. You're here for the food, right?

Well, I promised myself that if I finished the 10K program injury-free, I could treat myself to a Cheeseburger, French Fries, and Vanilla Milkshake from Imagine Vegan Cafe.

I order Imagine's juicy Teese-covered burger every so often, but I usually try to balance that with something healthy, like a salad or sauteed kale or steamed broccoli. I hardly ever get the fries, but their fries are so good! They're loaded with seasoned salt, and if you ask nicely (like I did tonight), they'll give you a ramekin of Vegenaise for dipping euro-trash-style.

As for the milkshake, well, I usually can't justify washing a burger and fries down with ice cream. But dammit, I earned that milkshake. It was nice and creamy!

Bonus: Blog reader and awesome Instagramer @fecaled was visiting Memphis from Arizona and he recognized me at Imagine tonight. Selfie!

I won't be blogging tomorrow because I'm going to Nashville for the annual Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Convention for work. But when I come back, I'm sure I'll have plenty of fun photos of Nashville vegan finds!

Stuff I Ate

It's been awhile since I've done one of these "stuff I ate" posts, my (usually) regular round-ups of random meals. So I have a lot of pics tonight. Many of these are meals from Imagine Vegan Cafe, since I eat there once a week.

Like, for example this dish from Imagine — Mac & "Cheese" with Broccoli and Bacon Bits. It's not on the menu, but a few weeks back, Cassi decided to try ordering these two side items, mac & cheese and broccoli, as one dish with added bacon bits. It looked so good that I had to have it for takeout a couple weeks ago! That's two orders of Imagine's creamy mac topped with one order of broccoli.

Sometimes, when I eat at Imagine, I try to balance healthful dishes with not-so-healthful ones. Doesn't that cancel out the bad-for-you stuff? Here's an overflowing bowl of Imagine's Homemade Vegetable Soup with an order of deep-fried Hush Puppies. Perfect for dippin'.

Other times, I just say "screw it" and get whatever I want. That was the case with this platter of Vegan Chicken and Waffles from Imagine. They typically serve the giant waffle with two vegan chicken drumsticks. But they were out of drumsticks, so they subbed chicken nuggets and chicken tenders.

As I've mentioned many times before, my friend Stephanie bakes the desserts at Imagine. And one day a few weeks back, she made Chocolate Speculoos Cupcakes!! Of course, I had to have one. It was a chocolate cupcake topped with Speculoos buttercream, chocolate ganache, and a Speculoos cookie!

I eat healthier at home, I promise. A couple weeks back, I made a savory (but healthy) breakfast of Tofu Scramble Over Sprouted Grain Toast with Ketchup. Best way to eat tofu scramble if you ask me.

Every morning in my house starts with either a fresh juice and sit-down solid breakfast or a post-run smoothie. On juice days, I've been loving this Beet-utiful Power Glow Yogi Juice from The Oh She Glows Cookbook. It's made with fresh beet, green apple, cucumber, and lemon.

With the way I rave on and on about Imagine, you'd think it was Memphis' only vegan restaurant. But it's not! We have two more! They're just a much further drive from my neighborhood, so I don't get to visit them as often as I'd like. One is Cosmic Coconut, a vegan juice/smoothie bar with a small (and delicious) lunch menu. I was out that way during lunch one day a couple weeks back, so I stopped in for their special of the day — Homemade Lentil Curry Burger with Pita, Cucumber Salad, and Tortilla Chips. The burger was soooooo good, and that curry mayo in the center was out of this world. I may have licked the container. No shame.

While that was probably plenty of food for one meal, I'd forgotten Cosmic Coconut's burgers are served with chips. So I ordered a Raw Kale Salad too. It's topped with their fantastic house-made dressing.

Coconut Maple Bacon Smoothie

Yes, I did. And it was amazing.

That, my friends, is a Coconut Maple Bacon Smoothie. And I'm sad to say that it wasn't my original idea because I wish I'd thought of this first. But the fine folks over at Vega beat me to it.

I keep a board on Pinterest called Smooth(ie) Playa, where I pin smoothie recipes, mostly from the Vega website. I drink three to four protein smoothies a week for breakfast, so I'm constantly looking for new ideas.

Sure, I could come up with my own recipes. But it's much easier to have someone else do the thinking for me, as I've done with this Coconut Maple Bacon Smoothie. I stumbled across this recipe while pinning other smoothies in the Vega Recipe Center.

Their recipe actually includes a recipe to make homemade maple bacon, but I already had some Phoney Baloney Coconut Maple Bacon in my pantry, so I used that instead. The rest of the smoothie is Vega One All-in-One Nutritional Shake Natural Flavor, So Delicious Plain Coconut Milk Yogurt, Diamond Breeze Unsweetened Coconut Milk, maple syrup, and half a frozen banana. I did cut the maple syrup in the recipe quite a bit. They called for three tablespoons in one smoothie, and that seemed like too much, especially calorie-wise. And I added an extra half-cup of almond milk because I like big smoothies.

The coconut bacon gives the smoothie a salty sweetiness that tastes like pancakes topped with bacon and maple syrup. Yum!

Vegan al Fresco 4th of July Picnic!

Sorry I didn't post Thursday night. I had yet another car accident Thursday afternoon, so I went out for a few glasses of wine Thursday night instead of staying home to post. You might remember me posting about someone pulling out in front of me back in May. That car was totaled, and I used the insurance money to buy my favorite car ever — a Subaru Outback. Well, I've had the Outback for about a month, and someone pulled out in front of me on my street, just a few houses down from my home. Not sure yet if the car is totaled but I'm really hoping it's not.

So anyway, that totally blows. But there's no use stressing over something I can't change, so on Friday, I went ahead with plans to go on a 4th of July picnic with Paul and Greg. I recently received a copy of Carla Kelly's Vegan al Fresco: Happy & Healthy Recipes for Picnics, Barbecues, & Outdoor Dining, and I knew this would be the perfect time to put the book to the test.

We picnicked in Butler Park on the Mississippi River bluffs so we'd have a good view of the downtown fireworks show. Every year, there's a big display over the river. We got there at 6:30 even though the fireworks didn't start until 9:45 because we wanted to make sure we got the best spot.

Here's Greg looking all bored. Part of his schtick is hating everything, so he loves to look like he's not having fun even when he is.

I chose two recipes from Vegan al Fresco. Both Greg (a vegan) and Paul (not a vegan) like tofu, and this book is loaded with recipes for various flavors of marinated tofu (maple-barbecue, lime-ginger-tahini, rosemary-lemon, etc.). But the Mojito-Inspired Tofu was calling me (probably because it had rum in it)!

Tofu is marinated in an actual mojito drink. It's got rum, lime juice, mint, and agave. But there's also garlic and oil, so maybe you wouldn't want to drink the marinade. I fired this on my electric indoor grill just before we left for the picnic, so it was still warm when we ate it. It was quite lovely. The mint flavor was very prominent, but it was complemented by the agave and lime. I couldn't really taste the rum, but it was fun just knowing it was in there.

I also made Corn Slaw from Vegan al Fresco.

This isn't just any old coleslaw. It has corn and hominy marinated in a chili-lime dressing. And the slaw is mixed with Carla's vegan mayo-based Creamy Coleslaw Dressing, a separate recipe that she uses in several other dishes in the book. The slaw was light and crisp as the setting sun bore down on us. Perfect for a summer picnic!

Unfortunately, the boys don't like hominy because they're crazy. So when I packed the picnic, I had to pack the marinated hominy and the rest of the slaw separately. Then I topped my slaw with the hominy, and they enjoyed theirs without.

I just love this book. I usually go on several picnics each summer, but I often fall in the same picnic rut (bread, vegan cheese, fruit, wine). Vegan al Fresco will give me fresh ideas to liven up future picnics. There's a chapter on Bites, Nibbles, & Finger Foods, which would be ideal for picnic planning. Plus, there are chapters on grilled foods (the Seitan Burger and Groovy Multi-grain Burgers look fantastic!), dips and sauces (White Bean and Peanut Butter Dip anyone?), sandwiches (the Grilled Eggplant Sandwiches with Chive Butter and Massaged Red Onions & Cumin sounds insane!), ready-built salads (including a recipe for tofu croutons called Fu'Tons!), and of course, desserts (because what's a picnic without Hazelnut Latte Cupcakes?).

Here's a shot of my picnic plate. I also brought a Kroger bakery loaf of whole-clove garlic bread and a jar of Viana Red Pepper Creamy Sunflower Spread. And Greg made a roasted potato and onion dish. Of course I topped my tofu with sriracha.

After dinner, we had slices of the freshest, juiciest watermelon. I ate mine with salt of course.

Vegan Essentials Care Package!

As I've blogged about many times, my daddy loves surprising me with vegan goodies that he picks out online. He gets the Vegan Essentials newsletter since he signed up with his email address long ago, and when they're running good deals or advertise new products he thinks I'd like, he just orders them! And then he has them delivered to my office. It's the best kind of surprise! I like to blog about the stuff he picks out because 1) my daddy is awesome, and 2) he always goes for new and unusual snacks.

This time, he picked out the following.

From left to right: Earth Balance Vegan Sour Cream & Onion Kettle Chips, Dixie Diners' Club Beef Not!, Stonewall Jerquee in Hot Pastrami, No No's Milk Like Chocolate Candies, Primal Strips Hot 'n' Spicy Shiitake Mushroom Jerky, and Dang Toasted Coconut Chips.

In the very front is a can of Elianni Vegan Pate in Vegetable Flavor. That was actually the free gift this month from Vegan Essentials! I haven't tried it yet, but I saw this product at Vegan Heaven in Seattle and almost bought it. The main ingredients are nutritional yeast and oil so it has to be good!
Also, those Dang coconut chips, which he ordered me last time, are for him this time. I'll be bringing the bag to my dad on my next visit home.

I was most excited for the Earth Balance Vegan Sour Cream & Onion Kettle Chips!!

I've long said the one thing missing from the vegan junk food world was sour cream & onion chips. There simply was no substitute. But EB fixed that problem! These chips taste exactly like the sour cream & onion chips from my childhood. That was always my favorite flavor. I had some chips for lunch yesterday with a Hickory smoked Tofurky sandwich with Vegenaise and avocado. So good!

I was also way excited to try No No's!! I first saw these on John's Laziest Vegans blog, and I couldn't wait to sample them. (Check out how I accidentally perfectly framed the Sun-Maid lady from the bag of dried apples on my desk behind this bag! Look in the little hangy hole on the No No's, above the words "vegan approved.".)

These are vegan marshmallows coated in chocolate and then coated in a hard candy shell. They don't look exactly like they do on the bag, but that's okay because they are insanely delicious.

Think marshmallow M&M's. So good! Now No No's needs to make peanut ones! And peanut butter ones!

I haven't opened the Stonewall Jerquee yet, but I ripped into the bag of Primal Strips immediately. I can get the seitan Primal Strip flavors here in Memphis, but for some reason, no one carries the shiitake mushroom jerky. And that's my fave!

The Beef Not! is a "beef" TVP. It has the same dark brown color of beef, unlike most regular light-colored TVP. I think there's supposed to be a beefy flavor, but it kind of tasted just like regular TVP. I rehydrated some and then fried it up with salt, chili powder, garlic powder, chipotle pepper, and onion powder. And then it was ready for Taco Tuesday!

This is a gluten-free corn tortilla with Beef Not!, Daiya Cheddar, Tofutti Sour Cream, lettuce, tomato, and hot sauce. I loved the texture of the rehydrated Beef Not! It's very beef-like. Even Paul couldn't stay out of the leftovers, and he's not usually that into my vegan food.

Tresomega Nutrition Coconut Oil Giveaway!

Last week, I posted about some yummy vegan chicken & cheese quesadillas that I made by sauteeing peppers and mushrooms in coconut oil and layering them into a brown rice tortilla with Match vegan chicken and Follow Your Heart Fiesta Shreds.

That coconut oil in the veggies was Tresomega Nutrition Coconut Oil, an organic extra-virgin coconut oil made from 100% cold-pressed young coconuts. It's non-hydrogenated and free of trans-fats. Since it's cold-pressed and extra-virgin, the oil retains a very coconutty flavor that's light, fresh, and subtly tropical.

Tresomega Nutrition sent me that jar to sample and review, and as I confessed in that quesadilla post, I really love this stuff. I buy all brands of coconut oil, and while I've never met one I didn't like, I definitely favor some over others. I'm partial to the oils that retain their coconut flavor. They add fantastic flavor to raw desserts and smoothies. But they also lend just a touch of coconut — but not too much! — to sauteed veggies.

Tresomega wants to give away a jar to a lucky Vegan Crunk reader! All you have to do is leave me a comment letting me know your favorite use for coconut oil. I'll randomly select a winner on Sunday night (9 p.m. CST). Please leave your email address in your comment so I can contact you if you win (unless you have a blog with an email address in your profile). Also, we're gonna make this open to U.S. readers only because of shipping costs.

Just for funsies, here's something I cooked up with the Tresomega oil tonight. I made tacos (Taco Tuesday!), and on the side, I made my recipe for Jalapeno Hominy from Cookin' Crunk. But I subbed coconut oil for the Earth Balance I typically use.

Here's the recipe. If you've never had hominy, well, you're missing out! It's a Southern staple that's made when field corn is soaked with lye. The result is a chewy kernel with a lot of flavor. That flavor is complemented with spicy jalapenos (I used red and green ones in this batch) and lots of black pepper.

Spicy Jalapeño Hominy
Yields 4 servings

1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 jalapeño, minced
1 14-ounce can white hominy, drained
1 14-ounce can golden hominy, drained
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Sea salt, to taste

Melt the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the minced jalapeño and cook and stir for about 2 to 3 minutes or until soft.

Stir in the hominy, black pepper, and salt. Turn the heat up to medium-high and cook and stir for about 10 to 12 minutes or until hominy is heated through.