Stuff I Ate

More random meals! Yay! These are always my favorite posts. As usual, I've got more random pics than I have time to post tonight, so I'm posting a few today and some more tomorrow. Today's theme is breakfast and brunch!

I'll start with Sunday brunch since it's the most important meal of the week. Most Sundays, my bitches and I go to Imagine Vegan Cafe. But this past Sunday, only Megan was available, and she was scheduled to work at Imagine that night (side note: all of the brunch bitches work at Imagine, except for me). She was willing to eat there and then go to work there, but I suggested we meet at our friends Nigel and Andrea's secret brunch club instead so Megan didn't have to spend all day at Imagine. Megan was all for that!

Chef Nigel does Sunday brunch in his home, supper club-style. You have to RSVP, and it's best if Nigel knows you. Thankfully, we're in the know because his food is AMAZING! Megan and I ordered two different sandwiches and split them, so we could try more things. I ordered the Breakfast Sandwich with sides of Roasted Potatoes and Sauteed Kale.

Here's a close-up of the breakfast sandwich — tofu scramble, spinach, vegan cheddar, and veggie bacon. So good

Megan went with the Black Bean Wrap and Sauteed Kale.

We each took half of one another's sandwiches. I'm usually one who prefers plant meat over beans, but Nigel knows how to do a black bean wrap right! This was amazing and probably my fave over the breakfast sandwich. Black beans, quinoa, carrots and some other veggies, all seasoned to perfection and grilled in the wrap.

My breakfasts at home have mostly been smoothies and vegan egg & sausage breakfast sandwiches (on gluten-free bagels, but I'm saving those pics for an upcoming gluten-free bread review post). I've also been eating plenty of post-run protein waffles. Y'all know I love me some FitQuick Protein Waffles, which have 22 grams of plant-based protein! Here's a Birthday Cake Waffle with Maple Syrup and Banana Soft Serve. Like a birthday party in my mouth!

This morning, I took a cue from Lacy Davis's @lacycrushesfood Instagram account and made these FitQuick Java Chip Protein Pancakes with Maple, Tahini, Bananas, and Blueberries. She'd made the same thing recently (only with the lemon poppyseed Fitquick instead of java chip), and I couldn't stop thinking about that tahini on those pancakes. It was my first time making FitQuick waffles as pancakes, and they were awesome! Light and fluffy and gluten-free and protein-packed!

Okay, more pics to come tomorrow!

Handcrafted Vegan Soap!

I'm kind of a soap addict. Any time I find myself at a craft fair or festival, if there's a soap vendor, you can bet I'll be there asking about ingredients in their soaps. If they're vegan, I always buy a bar or two. Last holiday season, I even started making my own soaps with vegan soap base and essential oils to give away as gifts (but of course, I made plenty of bars for myself too! One for you, one for me, right?).

Of course, I'd rather have soap that someone else lovingly made because that saves me time. And now there's a vegan soapmaker in my area, so I can get locally made, vegan, all-natural soaps. Epiphany Soapworks — a soap maker out of Newbern, Tennessee — contacted me to ask if I'd like to try their handmade, vegan soaps. I browsed their website and opted for the Detox Bar.

This bar is made with activated charcoal, which is said to remove toxins and impurities and can help with acne and eczema. I don't have acne, but I do have a touch of eczema, and my skin could use all the help it can get. Plus, I've been using charcoal toothpaste and face masks for awhile and love them, so why not charcoal soap?

The bar, like all their bars, retails for $8, and it's a hefty bar. It'll last awhile. I tried the bar in the shower this morning, and it had a silky-yet-rough texture that's hard to describe. Like you could feel it digging in and washing off the dirt (and I had just come in from a run, so I was sweaty and nasty).

The scent is very light, just a clean and fresh aroma. But they do have other bars that are more scented, like Relax (lavender), Energize (peppermint and citrus), Rejuvenate (it has coffee grounds in it), and Exfoliate (lemongrass and poppyseed), to name a few.

Not only is Ephiphany Soapworks cruelty-free and all-natural, they also donate part of their proceeds to the ASPCA! So you're helping animals with every purchase! As a special for Vegan Crunk readers, Ephiphany is offering 10 percent off bar purchases if you use the code CRUNK10. Offer starts Tuesday, July 12th and runs for 7 days.

Vegan Eats at the Stem & Spoon Cafe

I grew up in Jonesboro, Arkansas, a small college town that honestly didn't have much to offer in the way of vegetarian food when I was growing up. I went vegetarian there in 1994, and I pretty much lived off of mac & cheese, cheese pizza, veggie burgers, and my mom's meat-free versions of her homemade meals. But there were no vegetarian restaurants, and later, when I went vegan in 2004, there certainly weren't any vegan restaurants. I was living in Memphis by then, but my parents were still there, and dining options were few when I visited.

But slowly, things have been changing. More and more vegan options are popping up on menus. There's a place with vegan cheese pizza. There are Asian places with tofu dishes and veggie sushi. And the Tropical Smoothie Cafe has Beyond Meat. And by some miracle, a few months back, an independent health food store opened, and there's a vegan-friendly cafe inside!

The store is called The Truck Patch, and it's the kind of place where the lovely aroma of fresh green juice and patchouli hits you as you walk in. It smells like a hippie, and it's amazing. The Truck Patch has all sorts of vegan products I can't get in Memphis (we only have Whole Foods and Sprouts in Memphis — no indie stores here). And there's a little cafe called The Stem & Spoon Cafe. My mom and I ate there this weekend.

The cafe offers two vegan sandwiches, or you can build your own (and they have Field Roast Chao cheese!). My mom and I both ordered the Foxtail Sandwich — roasted zucchini, tomato, onion, bell pepper, avocado, chao cheese, and pesto vegan mayo. It's served on vegan sprouted grain bread. This sandwich doesn't photograph well, but I promise it was delicious. The pesto mayo and avocado really give this sandwich creamy flavor, and the chao is a nice touch. My non-vegan mom loved it, and now she wants to buy chao cheese (which the store was actually sold out of that day).

On the side, you can get chips, a fruit cup, or a side salad from the salad bar. So of course we chose salad bar!

They have an AMAZING salad bar! We loaded up our tiny salad plates with almost everything on the bar — mixed greens, seasoned baked tofu, black beans, corn, peas, rainbow carrots, red onion, sunflower seeds, cauliflower, red cabbage, dried cranberries, and wasabi peas. I went with the Asian ginger vinaigrette.

This is such a big deal for Jonesboro! After dinner, I stocked up on some hard-to-find-in-Memphis items (like Tofurky hot pockets and Justin's nut butter pretzel snack packs). I can't wait to go back and visit my parents so I can try the other vegan sandwich (it has sweet potato and avocado!).

July Goddess Box Unpacking!

It's that time again! Goddess Provisions box time! I subscribe to the monthly box from Goddess Provisions (a company run by the same folks who run Vegan Cuts), and I always dedicate a post to each month's box because unpacking is so much fun! If you're not familiar, the goddess box contains a mix of crystals, essential oils, teas, chocolates, personal care items, and jewelry, and the boxes always have a theme.

This month's theme was the Solar Plexus Chakra — my favorite chakra! The solar plexus, located near the navel, is the source of our identity and ego. It's where we draw willpower, self-esteem, and self-discipline from, and since I'm a super Type A person, I'm sort of a solar plexus nerd. Anyway, here are the contents of the box.

There's a Love Rope bracelet, a solar plexus aromatherapy spray by Scentual Goddess, a solar plexus essential oil blend by Soulful Body, a wooden crystal grid by Cave & Canyon, a tumbled golden tiger's eye crystal, a small art print of a citrine crystal by Lexy Olivia, and meyer lemon tea by Stash. There was also a free download of a solar plexus chakra guide from The Moon Sisterhood, but the person who runs that page hasn't sent me my copy yet.

Oh yeah, and if you couldn't tell, the solar plexus is represented by the color yellow! 

I think I'm most excited about the crystal grid! I've been really into crystals for about a year now, but I've never used a grid. Grids can be used to pull together the power of various crystals to manifest whatever you need. I haven't tried it yet, but I did arrange some lovely tiger's eye, orange calcite, quartz, and goldstone while I was just playing around.

Speaking of tiger's eye, the one in my box was gorgeous. I only have one other piece of golden tiger's eye in my collection, and it's pretty small. This stone is much larger.

I REALLY love the bracelet! Love Ropes are made with customized silver plates and vegan "leather" cord. On their site, you can have them print whatever you want on your bracelet, but for the boxes Goddess Provisions had "GODDESS" stamped on them. So pretty! And it matches my Bonnaroo friendship bracelet.

Most boxes come with a fragrance of some kind, but this box had two! The Scentual Goddess aromatherapy spray is more for meditation and intention-setting, and it's supposed to help you connect with inner strength. The Soulful Body oil is an uplifting blend of peppermint and lemongrass for your pulse points. Both of these fragrances have tiny crystals in the bottles, doing special crystal magic.

And finally — the tea! I'm not a big hot tea drinker, but I'm always trying to get into that. I do love iced tea though. I am a Southerner after all. So this morning, before work, I steeped a meyer lemon tea bag in hot water with fresh lemon and lemon balm leaves in a mason jar, and I took it to work like that — tea bag and all. By the time I got to work, the water was cool, so I added ice and stevia. Made an awesome, refreshing summer drink!

That's it for July! Such a great box this month! By the way, if you ever decide you want to subscribe or even check out a single box, use this link. I'm an ambassador for Vegan Cuts and Goddess Provisions because they're awesome vegan companies that I believe in (and give lots of money to out of my own pocket).

The Little Vegan Cookbook

Fair Winds Press has a new vegan cookbook out. It's called The Little Vegan Cookbook, and while the book is, indeed, diminutive in size, it's big on content. The small book, which is larger than pocket size but small enough to toss into a purse, contains 500 vegan recipes culled from other Fair Winds-published books by vegan authors we all know and love.

You'll find recipes from J.L. Fields, Joni Marie Newman, Celine Steen, Tami Noyes, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Josh Ploeg, Gerrie Lynn Adams, Megan Roosevelt, and Matt Ruscigno.

There are chapters for apps, breakfasts, sandwiches, main courses, salads/soups/sides, desserts, and beverages. Throughout the book, there are photos spreads featuring tiny postage stamp-sized pictures of many of the recipes.

And everything LOOKS SO GOOD. I had a hard time deciding what to try first, and what I chose really just came down to recipes that called for ingredients I had on-hand.

First, I made the Tahini Noodle Bowl — pasta (I used gluten-free rice penne) tossed with a creamy soy-tahini sauce and sauteed tofu, broccoli, carrots, green peas, and edamame. It was a super-healthy bowl-style meal that really hit the spot. Look at all the green! I felt really good about myself after I ate this.

And then, on the Fourth of July, I made the Creamy Potato Salad to serve as a side to our grilled veggie dogs, corn, and grilled squash. Paul's super-picky about potato salad (and all food, really), and he likes his potatoes cooked until their practically mashed potatoes. And he doesn't like much mustard, so I cut the mustard back quite a bit. Still yet, this was a solid, classic potato salad that did not disappoint. I love the bits of celery and red bell pepper for color and crunch.

As with all cookbooks I review, there are just too many delicious recipes and not enough time. My wish list includes the Seitan Sandwich with Fried Pickles, Fiesta Soy Curl and Rice Casserole, Indian-Style Black Bean & Veggie Burritos, Not Beans on Toast (breakfast beans are served on waffles!!!), and the Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies to name a few. 

As amazing as the recipes look, I do have two small complaints with The Little Vegan Cookbook. One is an issue of aesthetics — fitting 500 recipes into a tiny book means using tiny print. And while my vision is 20/20, I'm guessing that people with vision impairment might struggle to read the fine, small print. Maybe it would have been better to make it a giant book and call it The Big Vegan Cookbook?

Also, while the recipe authors are credited in the back of the book, I'd also like to see each recipe author's name attributed to their own recipes throughout the book. As it is, there's no indication of which author is responsible for which dish. I recognize a number of Joni, Celine, and Tami's recipes in the book without even needing a byline, but that's because I'm a vegan cookbook nerd (and I have all of their books!). 

All that aside, it's worth checking this book out for the recipes alone. Maybe just make sure you have your reading glasses handy.

12-Year Anniversary!

Paul and I celebrated 12 years together on June 28th, but he's working at a job in Nashville now, and he wasn't able to get home to celebrate until this weekend. I'd been wanting to check out Seasons 52 — a high-end chain with a vegan menu — for a couple years, but we're not usually fancy dinner people. So we reserve those places for special occasions, opting for Vietnamese takeout or Korean noodles or Thai food on casual nights out. And I kept forgetting about Seasons 52 when occasions came up. But I finally remembered!

We had reservations for Sunday night at 6 p.m., but I'm usually hungry by 5 p.m. So I toasted some crusty bread and set out some olives and dipping oil, and we enjoyed that as a little pre-dinner snack at home with some sparkling pinot grigio.

After our little cocktail hour, we headed to Seasons 52 in East Memphis. (Yes, I am wearing a sweater in July. We took this pic after dinner, and it was pretty cold in the restaurant, so I still had my sweater on).

When I made our reservations, they asked if we were celebrating anything. I told them it was for an anniversary, and look what was waiting for us at our table! It's a card signed by the staff. So sweet.

We both started with wine — a petite syrah for me and a chardonnay for Paul. 

I'd scoped out Seasons 52's menu online, so I knew the vegan options looked great! Plus, the place had great reviews from my buddy Barb over at That Was Vegan? The menus change seasonally based on whatever food is fresh, and the summer menu was filled with veggies and light salads. For starters, I ordered the Hummus Duo with Plain Lavash — that's edamame hummus and roasted red pepper hummus.

Now, you may notice there's no lavash bread in the above pic. Somehow, the kitchen confused my order with the gluten-free option, which subs fresh veggies out for bread. And I'm all for veggies, but I really love bread. So I asked the server if they could fix it, and they were happy to bring out lavash so I got both veggies and bread with my hummus. Bonus! The hummus dishes, by the way, were fantastic. I preferred the red pepper hummus, and Paul loved the edamame. Here's the lavash. It was delightfully crispy!

For my entree, I chose the Vegan Tasting Menu, which comes with a small portion of several other dishes on the menu. Perfect for indecisive people like me! This came with Cedar-Roasted Tofu, a Black Bean Taco, Quinoa-Citrus Salad, Roasted Rainbow Carrots, and Sauteed Snap Peas. WOW! I was blown away by how awesome this was. The black bean taco was my favorite. The beans were bursting with flavor, and it was filled with fresh veggies. And I loved the cedar-roasted tofu with its slight hint of cedarwood. The quinoa salad was crisp and light, and the rainbow carrots were roasted to perfection. 

I'll spare you Paul's dinner since he ordered a meaty entree. But he was extremely pleased with it, despite a mix-up in the kitchen that led to them bringing out the wrong dish at first. Since it was our anniversary, we got free dessert. But the desserts they brought out to choose from weren't vegan, so Paul got to enjoy that part. They do list fresh fruit as a vegan dessert option on the menu, and I probably could have asked for that instead. But I was full, and I'm not that into fruit.

We had a lovely dinner there, and the staff was super helpful and accommodating (even when things got mixed up with our order). We'll definitely be back.

After dinner, we kept up a tradition of going to Newby's for after-dinner drinks. Newby's is the casual college bar where I met Paul 12 years ago. No, I wasn't in college then, but I was just a few years post-grad (I was 24), and I'd gone to Newby's with a friend for beer bust night. Paul was there with friends too, and his friends were friends with my friends. And we played pool together, and he invited me to a party he was throwing. And the rest is history. We don't really hang out at Newby's anymore, but we still go once a year on our anniversary.

Even though I suck at pool, it's tradition to play at least one game. 

We ended the night at Zebra Lounge, a piano bar close to our house, where our friends Emily and Brandon were hanging out. They taught us how to use Snapchat (I still don't understand it), and we visited for about an hour. It was a lovely night! I'm especially happy that we had such a great experience at Seasons 52. We'll have to find an occasion to celebrate next season, so I can try the next menu.

Fourth of July Grill Out, Chill Out!

It's been a laidback and delicious Fourth of July! Paul and I grilled out with friends and lit a few sparklers leftover from last year. Sadly, it rained super hard today, so we opted out of buying more fireworks.

Paul and I celebrated our 12-year anniversary on Saturday night (more on that in tomorrow night's post), so I may have had one too many celebratory beers the night before Fourth of July. And I woke up feeling kind of icky. But I had a 5-mile training run planned, and I'm stubborn as hell. So, while Paul was still sleeping, I snuck out for a run (after I hydrated with lots of water spiked with Nuun electrolyte tabs, of course). Running really is the best hangover cure. I felt totally fine after I sweated it out. The key is staying hydrated the whole time.

While I was running, I passed an abandoned lot closed off with a chainlink fence decorated with lots of American flags.

After my run, I downed a quick protein shake (just Vega One chocolate powder and coconut milk). Then I showered and headed to Imagine Vegan Cafe. They were offering a Fourth of July Vegan Cheesestick special! Chef Don made these with homemade cashew cheese, and they're available while supplies last. My friends Stephanie and Pam were working at Imagine today, so it was nice to see them while I noshed on these amazing cheesesticks with marinara and vegan honey-mustard dressing.

When I got home, the sky was about to open up! We didn't bother to check the weather, so we'd planned on getting fireworks and grilling out. But the rain came down hard, and there were multiple thunderstorms and flash flooding. In a break between storms, we set up a shade tent in the yard, and we thought we'd put the grill underneath. But then another storm came through and completed devastated our tent (it was already kind of broken). Finally, we just decided to move the grill to the covered porch. 

Paul made some meat, but the rest of our food was vegan. I threw some Field Roast Frankfurters on the grill, as well as some corn on the cob. I basted zucchini and squash slices with garlic-parsley salsa verde. And I made some creamy potato salad. Our friends Tyler and Donna came over and brought a yummy tomato-cucumber salad made with produce from their garden.

For dessert, we had slices of a super juicy watermelon. Tyler and Donna's kid Otto loves watermelon, and even though he wasn't interested in eating dinner, he had lots of melon.

I wish we could have eaten outside since it was Fourth of July, but everything was all wet. So we ate at the dining room table like real adults.

While I'm bummed that we didn't get to do fireworks this year, I'm glad we didn't give up on grilling! Such a good meal, and I have leftovers for lunches all week. I did catch a few minutes of the official Memphis fireworks show downtown though! It'd stopped raining by the evening, so the fireworks went on as planned. And honestly, since I always buy cheap, crappy fireworks, that professional show is way better than doing fireworks at home anyway.