totallyveg.com

NBC San Diego has a short article on a couple of healthy vegetarian friendly restaurants.  The vegan Nature’s Express and thevegetarian friendly Mexican restaurant Pokez.  Sounds like Nature’s Express is a true vegan fast food experience, complete with “burgers,” milk shakes, and a drive thru menu.  Pokez is a Mexican restaurant with both vegetarian and vegan options.  Both sound great and I will be looking to try them the next time I am done in the area.

Also over the weekend tried the Veggie Grill at the Irvine Spectrum.  Similar to Native Foods, the Veggie Grill offers some of your favorite non-vegan foods in a all vegan format.  It has more than a few items that are very similar to Native Foods.  The whole family had lunch there so we tried a number of items.  The Sante Fe Chikin Sandwich(correct spelling) with sweet potato fries, Papa’s Portabello Sandwich with a side salad, and a kid’s spaghetti meal.  The Chikin sandwhich was very similar in texture and taste to the Chicken Run Ranch sandwhich at Native Foods, which is very good!  Crisp and tasty, it is hard to believe it is not chicken!  The Portobello sandwich was also very tasty, for those of you that have not had a portobello mushroom before it has a very meaty texture and flavor.  My daughter liked the spaghetti, made with whole wheat flour.  She also got the sweet potato fries.  Probably the best part of the kids meal was the vegan chocolate pudding, I did not get to taste it but both my daughters swore it was the best chocolate pudding they ever tasted!  My wife tasted it and though it tasted very rich.  Anything that helps get my kids to go to a vegan restaurant is gold!

The Honolulu Starbulletin newspaper has a great article on Chef Eric Tucker of the Millinium Restaurent in San Francisco.  Although not a vegetarian himself, Chef Tucker prepares creative and tasty vegan dishes by utilizing the same spices and herbs that give carnivorous dishes their flavor.  He was in Honolulu to be the guest Chef at the high-end Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki.

I got busy towards the end of January and the beginning of February so I apologize because I was unable to track my eating habits but I did want to summarize the exercise. 

Like with any type of eating habits, we all tend to eat things we like and that we crave.  Since changing to a mostly vegetarian diet I have grown fond of a lot of Asian dishes and just replaced the meat or poultry with tofu or other vegetable based meat substitute.   I have found most ethnic cuisines (e.g. Asian, Italian, Mediterranean) have great flavors from their spices regardless of the other ingredients you put in them.   As you saw in my journal, I have had a thing for Thai food and making fried rice at home, they have just been what I have been craving lately.  However, you can see that no matter where you go, you can always find some sort of vegan or vegetarian dish, probably the hardest thing to avoid is cheese.

I hope this has given you some ideas on how to stick to a mostly vegetarian diet on a daily basis.   I may do mini journals every so often just to try and show you more ideas on what to make or get when you eat out.

One final note - On Superbowl Sunday we were invited to a party and I heard there was a hot dog machine so I brought my own veggie Italian sausage and warmed it up in there machine and it was great!   I also had the usual chips, popcorn, and some seven layer dip.   So I still had some good eats and stayed on course!

Early Breakfast - A small bowl of Soy & Flax Clusters cereal from Trader Joe’s with some Rice Milk.
Late breakfast  - Had a breakfast meeting and had some hash browns and eggs.
Lunch - Veggie burger and fries at The Clubhouse restaurant, also had a couple of bites of their white chocolate cheesecake for dessert.
Snack - A little mini chocolate bunt cake from Corner Bakery that was leftover from lunch in the office.
Dinner - Vegetarian chili with white rice and some mixed nuts and cheese puffs.   Had one thin mint cookie before I went to bed.

Breakfast - A small bowl of Soy & Flax Clusters cereal from Trader Joe’s with some Rice Milk.
Snack  - Mixed nuts and sunflower seeds.
Lunch - A spicey tofu dish with rice and some veggie potstickers at a Chinese restaurant.
Snack - Mrs. May’s Trio bar from Costco.
Dinner - Vegetarian chili with white rice and some mixed nuts and cheese puffs.   Had one thin mint cookie before I went to bed.

Breakfast - Half an everything bagel with Tofutti non-dairy cream spread, leftover fried rice, a little eggbeaters, and two Morning Star sausage patties (I was really hungry!).
Lunch - A mushroom/swiss cheese veggie burger and fries at Ruby’s.
Dinner - Some corn tortilla chips, guacamole, and veggie re-fried beans. Had an apple for a snack later in the evening.

Breakfast - Half an everything bagel with Tofutti non-dairy cream spread.
Lunch - Vegetable fried rice with asparagus, celery, garlic, and black olives.
Dinner - Another bad one, had something to celebrate so we went to Red Lobster and I had grilled lobster tail and shrimp with aspargus and rice pilaf and half of a biscuit.

Breakfast - A scoop of Naturade soy free veggie protein with rice milk.  Had a business breakfast meeting and had a egg white scramble with grilled vegetables with potatos and harvest toast at Corner Bakery.
Snack  - Mixed nuts and sunflower seeds.
Lunch - Veggie burrito with rice and beans at El Torrito Grill.
Snack - A Blueberry Crisp Cliff bar.
Dinner - This is a stange one but I had a late dinner at home so I had a couple of Tofurky veggie hot dogs on a slice of bread with some Kim Chee (Korean pickled cabbage) with some nuts and chips.  Once of those wierd combinations that I find delicious.

Breakfast - A small bowl of Soy & Flax Clusters cereal from Trader Joe’s with some Rice Milk.
Snack  - Mixed nuts and sunflower seeds.
Lunch - A veggie french dip sandwhich and fries at Native Foods.
Snack - None.
Dinner - The last of the leftover veggie curry and white rice with some mixed nuts and some crunchy cheetos.  One small brownie squares from Ralphs.

Breakfast - A small bowl of Soy & Flax Clusters cereal from Trader Joe’s with some Rice Milk.
Snack  - A veggie hot dog on a french roll with mustard, relish and jalepenos at a little hot dog shop while I was in between networking meetings.
Lunch - A vegetable tamale, beans, rice, and fried bananas at Habana Cuban restaurant.
Snack - Mixed nuts and sunflower seeds.
Dinner - Some veggies pizza with fried eggplant, black olives, onions, and garlic.  A couple small brownie squares from Ralphs.