15th Anniversary with Paul!

Paul and I celebrated 15 years together this weekend! Our actual anniversary is June 28, but Paul works in Nashville and couldn't be home until Saturday, the 29th. He arrived pretty late, but we still had enough time for a quick game of pool at Newby's, the bar where we met — over a game of pool — on beer bust night back in 2004. We celebrate at Newby's every year!

Paul's a sentimental guy, and he always makes us pose with the numbered ball for the number of years we've been together. Here we are with the 15 ball.

We stayed for a couple beers and then headed home for bed. On Sunday morning, we slept in, and then I made the BEST vegan pancakes we've ever had! I used this Tasty recipe, and they were so fluffy! I've struggled with flat pancakes for years, but this recipe makes super-fluffy ones. This will be my new go-to recipe.

I mixed chocolate chips and strawberries into my batter (just plain pancakes for Paul though) and topped mine with extra berries and vegan Reddi Whip. Simple Truth vegan sausage on the side. Plus, mimosas of course.

After pancakes, we did some yard work (very romantic, huh?). And then we headed downtown to take the Old Dominick Distillery tour. Old Dominick is a new-ish Memphis whiskey distillery, and we'd been wanting to go on the tour for awhile. We met the distillery cat, Waldo. He's a lover!

And at the end, we got to taste vodkas, whiskeys, a moonshine, and some not-on-the-market-yet gin.

We had dinner reservations for Seasons 52 at 6 pm. We've been going here for the past few years on our anniversary because they have great vegan options for me, and Paul can get his meat stuff.

The menu changes seasonally, but I was glad to see the Avocado Toast appetizer was still on the menu. We split this while we waited for our food. Also, while we waited, Paul gifted me a dainty diamond necklace that he had designed by a local jeweler. :-) He also had 15 roses sent to me at work on Friday. He's a good dude. Love him!

The vegan entree for summer is Roasted Vegetable Gnocchi, and OMG. This was AMAZING. Best meal I've ever had at Seasons 52 (and I've had some good ones!). I LOVE potato gnocchi.

After dinner, we enjoyed some drinks at home on our back patio with a fire going in the fire pit. A perfect 15-year anniversary celebration!

Chef Pancho's Vegan Plate at Global Café

I finally got a chance to stop into Global Café to try the new Venezuelan chef's vegan plate! Chef Pancho started working at Global Café, the international food hall in Crosstown Concourse, a couple weeks ago after the beloved Nepalese chef, Chef Indra, moved out of state.

Chef Pancho has several vegan options, including vegan empanadas and vegan arepeas, and I cannot wait to try those. But today, I had to order his Vegan Plate. A girl needs her rice and beans, y'all!

This is warm, steamy seasoned black beans (they're flecked with bell pepper), perfect white rice, and sweet fried plantains. And it was just what I needed. This is the kind of meal I can eat and feel really great all day.

All three chefs at Global Café offer vegan selections. I recommend the Sudanese falafel from Chef Ibti and the rice-stuffed grape leaves and baba ganoush from Syrian chef Fayha.

Fresh Breads! Breakfast Tofu!

Last weekend, I finally made it downtown to the Memphis Farmers Market. First time this year! I used to ONLY go to this market cause it's the biggest with the widest selection of produce. But when Don started selling Lulu's Baked goods at the Cooper Young Market, I switched to that smaller one. But now he's selling at both markets! He has more loaves of bread downtown and more pastries at the CY market. But Saturday, I needed bread. And I got it!

Pictured here is my haul: Marbled Rye and Focaccia from Lulu's Baked, plus fresh tomatoes from Ripley, Tennessee and pickling cucumbers (my fave).

I've been enjoying that marbled rye for breakfast this week with Breakfast Tofu from the No Meat Athlete Cookbook and hummus.

Here's that same tofu one morning on store-bought whole wheat toast with mashed avocado and sriracha. Breakfast of champions.

I made the Orzo Pasta Salad from the first No Meat Athlete book (not the cookbook, the fitness book that has a few recipes) to take to a Summer Solstice gathering at my friend Pam's house. I had a little leftover so I enjoyed some with a side salad Saturday night. The pasta salad has orzo, avocado, cherry tomato, oregano, and a citrus dressing made some olive oil, orange juice, lemon zest, and minced shallots and garlic.

Finally, here's a yummy Tempeh Stir-fry I whipped up last week. Tempeh, cauliflower crumbles, broccoli, and mushrooms over brown rice. 

Lentils & Beans & Burgers!

I've been on an Indian food kick lately. I CANNOT. GET. ENOUGH. LENTILS. Y'ALL. Here's a quick Lentil & Rice Bowl I made with canned lentils (they're awesome and mega-convenient), baby spinach, fresh turmeric, and brown rice). Topped with mango ginger chutney from Trader Joe's.

The cafe at Crosstown Arts (where I work) had an Indian Bowl on the menu the other day. Had to get it! Lentils, basmati rice, pineapple cilantro chutney, and warm pita. 

They do a lot of stuff with toasted pita in the cafe. I don't know what kind of pita bread they're using, but it's amazing. And it stays warm the entire meal, like magic. One day last week, I ordered the Harissa Tofu & Veggie Skewers with couscous, tomato salad, and warm pita. The skewers were amazing with super-firm tofu, eggplant, and mushrooms. 

Imagine Vegan Cafe has been dealing with a lot of repairs lately. They've had to close twice for plumbing problems, but they're FINALLY open again after several weeks of being closed again. I've missed them so much! I stopped in on Tuesday for the Southern Staple, a tasty bowl with brown rice, black beans, collards, and lots of garlic aioli. It's served with a slab of sweet cornbread that's generously coated in vegan butter. YUM.

Yesterday, I blogged about Chef Indra's Vegetable Chow Mein at Global Café, which is no longer served there since Indra moved out of state a couple weeks ago. I had some leftovers when I ordered it for the last time, so the next day, I sauteed the leftover noodles with extra veggies and tofu.

I finally made another trip out to the Trader Joe's in Germantown a few weeks ago. I was sooooo excited that we finally had a TJ's in the area when it first opened, but the store is still about a 40-minute drive from my house. So I rarely get out there! When I do, I stock up. I got these Masala Burgers (they're Indian-spiced) and served them with TJ's mango-ginger chutney.  Love these! They're true veggie burgers with an all-veggie base. 

Speaking of burgers, here's a Red Bean & Brown Rice Burger (made using the No Meat Athlete Burger Formula) that I made forever ago and froze. I thawed one out a few days ago to enjoy on one of my friend Don's (of Lulu's Baked) tester hamburger buns. He offered me a few buns to try out, and he plans to start selling these at the downtown and Cooper-Young farmer's markets soon. These are the best buns I've ever had! They're like brioche buns but vegan! He's also testing hot dog buns like this!

Nepalese Food, Cobbler & Bagels!

Global Café, an international food hall in Crosstown Concourse (the building where I work), hosts three chefs from different countries, and one of those chefs — Chef Indra of Nepal — just moved to a new state with her family. There's a new chef now (Chef Pancho of Venezuela), and I'll be checking out his vegan offerings later this week! But I had to get one last bite of Chef Indra's Nepalese specialties before she left!

I had her Vegetable Chow Mein the week before she left. It was my very favorite dish at Global Café, and I am so sad to see it go! These noodles were seasoned so well and topped with raw onion, fresh jalapeno, and lime.

We had our May Vegan Drinks meet-up there as well, and I got Indra's Mo Mo Dumplings (that red sauce is super garlicky and amazing) and her Vegetable Samosas (the best I've ever had).

I'll check in with another post about Chef Pancho soon! He has lots of vegan options! Other Global Café chefs are from Syria and Sudan, and they have vegan offerings too.

My family and I celebrated Father's Day a weekend early since I was at Bonnaroo on actual Father's Day. Daddy LOVES Genghis Grill (which he calls Chaka Kann — inside joke!), so they drove to Memphis to eat there. I got my usual build-your-own Tofu Stir-fry Bowl with Brown Rice. 

On that trip, my mom brought me a portion of her Strawberry Cobbler, which she made with some frozen strawberries that she found in my granny's deep freezer. This was so amazing, especially topped with Reddi Whip almond topping.

Here's a random bowl of Savory Oats with cooked zucchini, spinach, nooch, toasted walnuts, and pepita salsa.

And here's a Dave's Everything Bagel from Otherlands. When I have freelance writing work to do, I like to take my computer up to this coffee shop and enjoy a bagel with vegan cream cheese and an almond milk latte. Gets the creative juices flowing!

Camping Food from Bonnaroo 2019

Last night, I posted about all the amazing vegan festival foods that I purchased at Bonnaroo Music Fest last weekend. Bonnaroo has long been a super-vegan friendly music fest, but as with all festivals, the food can be a little pricy. So I can't afford to eat every meal for 4 days from the vendors.

Every year, I bring lots of easy-to-prepare meals for breakfast and lunch at the campsite, and then I usually have my dinner out on the festival grounds (Centeroo). I have a camp stove (thanks dad!) to boil water (from a bottle), but I have no way to wash dishes there. I can't cook real meals without water for washing, so thank goodness for oat and soup cups!

Before I get into the food though, here's a picture of Paul and I at our campsite this year. This was our home for four days and three nights.

For the past 3-4 years, we've lucked into getting the exact same campsite right next to the Port-a-Potties, which sounds smelly but it's not so bad. And it's really convenient when you have to pee in the middle of the night (some campers have a half-mile walk to the potties!).

Most days, breakfasts are oat cups! This year, I brought oats from Trader Joe's with Justin's nut butter packets to round them out as meals. Check out our Obama tapestry that we hang on our shade tent every year! Miss that guy!!

This year, I brought some Kitchens of India boil-in-the-bag meals for lunches, as well as some already cooked basmati rice (from a bag). The Indian meals come in a silver bag that goes directly into a pot of boiling water. As for the rice, it's supposed to be microwaved to heat, but I just didn't heat it. And that was fine with the hot curry on top!

Sadly, I spilled half of this Potato & Pea Curry on my pants!

Paul said this Kidney Bean Curry looked like poop, but it tasted really good.

We always bring lots of instant ramen cups for snacks and breakfasts. I had this Toasted Garlic Brown Rice Pho as a late-night snack before catching The Lonely Island's show Saturday night.

Paul found these Nissin Very Veggie Cup O Noodles at Walmart and brought a bunch for us both. They're vegan and so goooood! They're loaded with dried edamame, carrots, and greens that rehydrate with boiling water.

Vegan Food at Bonnaroo 2019

Paul and I attended our 9th annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Fest last weekend (it was the 18th annual Bonnaroo but our 9th year going). Since we started going to this massive music fest in Manchester, Tennessee, in 2010, vegan options have always been readily available. But the offerings just get better and better every year. I actually look more forward to the vegan food at 'Roo than the musical acts!

Tonight, I'm posting about all the food I ate in Centeroo, the main festival grounds. Since we camped at the fest, I had plenty of meals back at the campsite too. But I'll save those for a post tomorrow. We arrived on Thursday morning, but we didn't venture away from the campsite until mid-afternoon.

There was a new EDM stage called Where in the Woods, located in the general camping grounds (we stay in guest camping since I'm there to work as media), and we wanted to check it out. So we made the couple-mile trek to general camping. And that's where I saw The Beet Box (in Plaza 4), my favorite food vendor from last year! I tried their beet philly in 2018, so I wanted to try something new this time. I made a great choice with this Beet Burger!

The patty was made from beets and other veggies, served on a buckwheat blini with sunflower aioli and beetchup! SOOOOO good, and I felt like this was a pretty healthy start to my weekend.

Every year, there's a doughnut vendor by the Which Stage handing out free samples, but they're not vegan. Still, I had to pose with their doughnut!

The next day, I ate breakfast at the campsite, but we had to get out fairly early for Yoga-aroo! I've been doing yoga at Roo for years, and last year, I finally convinced Paul to do it with me. He had a great time!

After yoga, we had to pick up our bibs for the annual Roo Run 5K (set for Saturday morning). The bib pick-up was held in Plaza 2 in general camping, so it was another long walk from our campsite. I started to get a little hungry on the walk, so I stopped at Solar Cafe for a Tofu Scramble Wrap.

I've seen Solar Cafe on Bonnaroo's food vendor list on their website for years, but I've never made it over there. It's so far from where we camp, so when I saw it, I knew I wanted to stop! But I didn't realize that everything there is made to order, so my wrap took about 30 minutes. We were standing in the hot sun the whole time, so that was kind of a bummer. But when I finally got my food, it was worth the wait. Noochy sauteed tofu with broccoli, beans, salsa, spinach, and other veggies!

I shoot photos of musical acts for the Memphis Flyer when I'm there. That's my old job, but I still cover Roo for them! I had a few acts on the list to shoot Friday night, including the Avett Brothers and Griz. But I wanted to get something for dinner first. Luckily, these Chana Masala Fries were hot and fast! What a great idea!

You can see the pics I took for the Flyer here, and here's a fun crowd shot at Griz!

Saturday morning was Roo Run time! Paul has been dealing with an achilles injury, but he managed to get 3.1 miles in and still beat me! It's a hot race around the Roo farm with very little shade. My fave thing about this race is that it's hosted by ultrarunning legend Charlie Engle! I got a high-fave from him after the race. 

Later Saturday afternoon, we were wandering around near the Food Truck Oasis (where trucks from all over the country park) when I spotted Vegan Nachos at the Nectar Urban Cantina truck. These were amazing! Topped with a homemade noochy cheese sauce, beans, sweet potatoes, salsa, and lettuce.

On Saturday evening, like 12:30 am (so technically Sunday morning), I saw my favorite act this year — The Lonely Island (Andy Samburg's comedy rap group). Hilarious!

We planned to leave mid-day Sunday so we could get home by the end of the night. Manchester is about six hours away from Memphis. But we took one last stroll through Centeroo to shop for souvenirs and get our last taste of festival food. For me, that was a Vegan Arepa with guac, roasted red peppers, and caramelized onion from the Alma food truck.

This Venezuelan corn cake sandwich was delicious, but it was more snack-sized than meal-sized. Luckily, I knew just the thing to make it a meal! YUCA FRIES! No Roo is complete without a basket of hot, starchy yuca fries. What a perfect way to end a lovely weekend.