Review: Lonely Planet's The Vegan Travel Handbook

I don't get out much. I rarely travel anywhere further than a few hours' drive from Memphis. Paid-for work trips are about the only times I fly anywhere. Paul and I did go to Florida this year, but his work paid for almost everything! I've only left the U.S. once when my parents and I spent a few hours in Mexico on a cruise. But I'd like to see the world one day. It's just hard when you have so many pets.

But hey, a girl can dream! Paul and I are hoping to travel to Holland, where his maternal family lives, within the next year. But we've been talking about that trip for years, so we'll see. Whenever we do finally get out into world, Lonely Planet Food's new vegan travel guide (coming December 2019), The Vegan Travel Handbook, will come in handy.

Lonely Planet, the travel guide company, sent me a review copy of their new vegan travel book, and it's a beauty! This illustrated guide is filled with fun graphic elements and full-color photos that make one feel as though they're jet-setting from Ethiopia to Bali to Spain and beyond.

It opens with tips on packing (they suggest always including a jar of peanut butter for emergency PB sandwiches in places where vegan options are hard to find), budgeting (eat breakfast in your hotel room), and vegan apps and travel blogs to help plan your trip. There's even a section on how to tell people you're vegan in 10 languages.

From there, the book breaks down into different countries, which are categorized based on whether you're seeking adventure, relaxation, culture, wildlife & nature, a tropical vacation, or a road trip. Countries include Argentina, Ethiopia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Bali, Japan, Nordic nations, Switzerland & Northern Italy, Eastern Europe, India, Israel, Spain, Brazil, British Columbia, New Zealand, South Africa, Cambodia, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Malaysia, Austria & Germany, East Coast Australia, the UK, and the West Coast USA.

Each section suggests hotels, experiences (such as places to see local music, shop, hike, etc.), ways to order vegan versions of the local cuisine (very cool!), and vegan restaurants.

I will definitely use this book when we finally make that trip to Europe. I was a little sad to see The Netherlands wasn't included, but other nearby areas, like Germany, are. And I imagine we'll be taking the train around Europe while we're there.

The Vegan Travel Handbook is a great resource! It's coming out in December and is currently available on pre-order from Amazon. It'd make a great holiday gift for your jet-setting friends!

LuLu's Sunday Brunch at Crosstown Arts

As I sadly mentioned here on the blog a few months ago, the vegan-friendly cafe at Crosstown Arts stopped serving lunch and dinner, moving more to a coffee shop model with pastries and coffee drinks. Since I work right outside the cafe as the communications coordinator for Crosstown Arts, I was really bummed.

But since then, we've been trying to program vegan food events in the cafe space to keep the vegan dream alive! I've been organizing monthly No Meat Meet-up potlucks (though we're skipping November since some local vegans are hosting their annual Thanksgiving potluck at their house instead). And last Sunday, we partnered with LuLu's on a Sunday pop-up brunch!

LuLu's events always bring a crowd, and this was no exception. It was packed! They started at 11 am and ran out of food by 12:30ish! I know to show up early for these, so we were there before opening. And I enjoyed this amazing platter of Biscuit Sliders!

One has tofu egg and housemade vegan cheeze; one has smoked shiitakes; and one has blackeyed pea sausage and jam. I ate every bite! Well, except for the arugula. I wish I could like arugula, but I just don't.

Art Bar — the bar at Crosstown Arts — hosted a satellite bar for the event, offering a build-you-own Bloody Mary and Mimosa Station.

Brunch is not complete without a Bloody Mary, but it's so hard to find vegan versions. The pickled green tomato in this was an especially nice touch!

Vegan Stuff I Ate in Nashville/Franklin

I spent part of my weekend in Nashville visiting Paul, who goes back and forth between Memphis and Nashville for work. He comes home often, but I rarely go there (or anywhere that requires an overnight stay) because traveling means finding pet-sitters.

But I have some extra vacay days that needed using, so I took Friday off and headed to Nashville on Thursday night. Around dinner time, I stopped in Jackson, Tennessee — about an hour away from Memphis — for an Impossible Whopper. Yay for vegan fast food on the road!

I'd planned to keep with 80/20 Plants as much as possible on the trip, while still leaving plenty of room to enjoy some decadent vegan meals. So on Friday morning, I had some oatmeal with bananas and coconut almond butter (no pics, sorry). And for lunch, I picked up a salad from the Kroger salad bar. Shout out to the Hendersonville, TN Kroger for having an amazing salad bar.

That left plenty of room for me to enjoy a nice dinner at Graze with Paul on Friday night. Graze is our favorite vegan restaurant in Nashville. Paul's not vegan, but he always enjoys a meal at Graze. 

I started with The Dude — a vegan White Russian cocktail with kahlua, vodka, and almond milk. They didn't add enough almond milk at first (as you can see by the dark color), so I asked for a smidge more. 

And for my entree, I ordered a dish I'd always wanted to try but never chose — Mac & Chorizo! Not sure why I waited so long to try this because it was EVERYTHING! Creamy cashew cheese mac with aioli and spicy seitan chorizo! 

We got a hotel room in Franklin, TN, just outside Nashville, for Friday night. It's fun to hang out in hotels and watch cable! The next morning, I needed to get in my planned 13-mile run, and that meant I needed a way to eat my usual pre-long run bagel. I'd brought along Blueberry Bagels and Miyoko's Cream Cheese from home, but of course there was no toaster in the room. So I googled "how to toast a bagel in a hotel" and learned you can use an iron! Sure, it's a little gross. But I've definitely eaten grosser things. Just be sure and wipe down the iron thoroughly before and after toasting (and out of courtesy for people using the iron on their clothes, DON'T butter or oil it first). 

For the run, I set out on the Franklin Greenway and managed 10 miles before I realized I needed to get back and shower before hotel check-out time. Some days, you just can't get all your miles in! While on the run though, I passed The Grilled Cheeserie in downtown Franklin and saw they served vegan grilled cheese. I headed over there for lunch and enjoyed this awesome Vegan Grilled Cheese with Smoked Jalapeno Relish, Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Soup, and a Vegan Coconut Milkshake (!!!). Amazing!

Vegan Shakshuka + Burrito Bowl + Free Ice Cream!

I made some homemade harissa paste last week for my Halloween Buddha Bowl, so I've been trying to find fun ways to use it. There's a recipe in The No Meat Athlete Cookbook (I'm trying to work my way through cooking all of the recipes!) for Harissa Baked Tofu, a veganized version of the traditional Middle Eastern shakshuka breakfast. Traditional shakshuka is made with poached eggs, tomatoes, and peppers.

This vegan version is made with tofu in place of the eggs. The recipe calls for harissa seasoning, which I'd already used to make the paste, so I just subbed harissa paste for the tomato paste and left out the seasoning. It was perfectly spiced and great with toast for sopping up the juices.

Lunch today was Butternut Squash Soup with Soy Yogurt & Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, plus LuLu's Brioche on the side. The soup was from last Sunday's Vegan Soup Swap and lovingly made by Allie. Very good!

Last Friday was World Vegan Day, and Ben & Jerry's was giving out free non-dairy scoops! I needed to go out east for shopping anyway, so I stopped there first for a yummy free Coconut Almond Chip.

I also needed to eat some dinner out east before shopping, so I stopped at Chipotle cause it's cheap, healthy, and vegan-friendly. I got a Tofu Sofritas Burrito Bowl with brown rice, black beans, corn salsa, guac, pico, and lettuce. Hit the spot! I should eat at Chipotle more often.

And finally, here's a quick lunch from last weekend. Big Ass Salad with Sundried Tomato Cashew Ranch and Avocado Toast.

Bluff City Vegan Eats: The Doghouzz

There's a new vegan-friendly restaurant in Crosstown! After months of construction, The Doghouzz is finally open! This new gourmet hot dog bar is just across the street from Crosstown Concourse in the old Metro nightclub building.

Metro was a gay bar back in the early- to mid-2000s, and we used to hang out there. So it's cool to see something fun happening in this spot again. The inside looks similar, only they've taken down the wall that used to separate the bar from the dance floor. The back patio, where we usually hung out, looks the same!

The Doghouzz serves a Vegan Braised Carrot Dog, and it can be customized in all kinds of ways. I went in for lunch today and ordered the carrot dog on a poppyseed bun with added mustard, avocado slices, and raw onions. The braised carrot was just the right texture — soft but still firm enough to be toothsome — and it was massive. So big that it barely fit into the bun!

It's cool to see a carrot dog offered rather than a plant meat dog since that's available elsewhere in Memphis. Plus, I feel better sticking with whole foods, like carrots, as much as possible.

Vegan sides include pinto beans or chips. I went with the beans and they were mind-blowingly good! Owner Steve says they're prepared with his secret recipe.

The Doghouzz is currently only open for lunch until they get their beer license and liquor license, but they'll eventually be open til 3 am!

Since the place is named The Doghouzz, there are plenty of dog-themed touches, including these adorable bathroom signs.

The Doghouzz is located at 1349 Autumn Avenue.

Vegan Souper Sunday!

I'm no fan of cold weather, but I am a fan of soup. Soup, plus the fun fall/winter holidays, are the only things that keep me sane when the temps drop below the 70s.

Lucky for me, my friend Nichelle organized a vegan soup swap on Sunday, and now I've got seven different vegan soups stocked in my deep freezer — ready to keep me warm this fall and winter! Look at all this frozen soup!

Each person who signed up was instructed to bring nine quarts of soup — eight for swapping and one for sampling at the event (one person dropped at the last minute so we ended up with one extra bag of our own soup). We met at Nichelle and Sean's place and enjoyed snacks and wine before soup tasting.

We each grabbed tiny bowls and went around the kitchen, tasting each soup. There was Nichelle's Sweet Potato Peanut Soup and Mindy's Cannellini Bean & Greens Soup.

Sean made Tortilla Soup. Allie brought Butternut Squash Soup. And Jennifer made Split Pea Soup.

Stephanie made a Black Bean Soup, and I brought Smoky Tomato Soup.

And Nichelle also made the best Kale Salad with Pecan Parm as a side dish. Definitely the best kale salad I've had! She used this recipe from Oh She Glows, and it's literally called The Best Shredded Kale Salad.

Everyone's soup was so good, and I'm so excited to have a freezer-full of lunch and dinner options! I've been eating a lot of the Smoky Tomato Soup I made over the past couple days. I used this recipe from Olives for Dinner. Perfect with vegan grilled cheese & avocado. 

Halloween Eats!

Halloween/Samhain is my second favorite holiday (right after Thanksgiving, which always wins because FOOD). I love witchery, costumes, skulls, pumpkin spice, scary movies, and any excuse to eat candy!

This year, I was Daria Morgendorffer from MTV's Daria, which was among my favorite TV shows in my high school years. Deep down, I'm a bit misanthropic and sardonic just like Daria.

I think I made a pretty decent Daria, no?

Y'all know I love a good food theme, so I had to start my morning with pumpkin! I made Pumpkin Pie Yogurt by mixing pumpkin puree with homemade soy yogurt (made by my friend Jennifer), maple, and pumpkin pie spice. Topped with coconut clustersa and rawnola. This was REALLY good!

When I got to work, my vegan co-worker Lily had made Vegan Vanilla Banana Skull Cakes! I chopped off about a third of one, and they were really good.

Lunch was more tofu stir-fry, but I wish I'd planned a Halloween-themed lunch. Snacks were popcorn and salad (with pumpkin seeds, of course!).

I snacked on candy throughout the day — Nerds, YumEarth lollipops, Bottle Caps. I also had some Biscoff cookies, which a couple co-workers were giving out as part of their pilot/airline stewardess costumes. We have an annual trick-or-treating event at Crosstown Concourse, so I stayed late to pass out candy.

And then I headed home to do my annual Feast of the Dead. Every year on Samhain, I honor my dead friends and family with a dinner. I cook a nice meal, pour some wine, and sit down to break bread with them.

This year, I made a Fall-inspired Buddha Bowl with roasted butternut squash (from the farmers market), avocado, balsamic roasted chickpeas, spinach, quinoa, and homemade harissa paste. I'll be posting that harissa recipe soon! The bowl idea was inspire by this recipe on Fit Foodie Finds.

For dessert, I had my last slice of Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake, which I'd frozen after last Sunday's potluck. This is from a recipe in the latest issue of VegNews.