Vegan with jam

Tag: Travel

  • Traveling Veganman

    These past few days have been a whirlwind. Since Tuesday, I’ve been in Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, Georgia, and then back to Kansas through Missouri again. Then with 5 hours sleep continuing on to New Hampshire through Detroit and on to Vermont and my current location in Upstate New York by yesterday evening in time to make dinner. Spaghetti. The day’s meals:

    Breakfast: Beginning the day with coffee at 5 AM to create my presentation for the client meeting and on the nearly two hour drive north through the back roads of New Hampshire, I had one of the PB&Js. It did the trick. I nearly had peanut butter running down my chin, but managed to not make too much of a mess. It wasn’t a problem for me to avoid the bowls of available candy the agency had scattered about.

    Lunch: The agency hadn’t made any specific plans so we each ordered off a take-out menu. I selected the hot veggie sub with no cheese, dairy, eggs, or mayo. I was very specific and that turned out to be a successful strategy. The sub was good, and was very probably 100% vegan. It was “meaty” with mushrooms, broccoli, onions, peppers, and a light oil dressing. Much better than I expected. I had a few potato chips as well. Water to drink. That was about it.

    Dinner: Sunny and I went to Hannaford’s grocery store and failing to find any Earth Balance spread, settled on some 100% Organic Canola stuff to learn after later reading the fine print that it contains some (nearly insignificant amounts, I’m sure) dairy flavour extract… whatever that is. I had it on a slice of WW bread for dinner not knowing that. The WW spaghetti just had the usual onions, peppers, garlic and tomato paste sauce, pretty much my quick and easy standard.

    Breakfast Today:It wasn’t until after consuming the WW toast this morning that I learned about the dairy in the spread. Not a severe infraction and a good lesson in summary. When I get more time, I’m going to look for more available butter substitutes – maybe even SmartBalance would be OK. I’ll have to check. Casey and I also discussed this topic during a chat session later in the day. Last night I also couldn’t find the hummus, but Sunny managed to buy some during a break between classes and was nice enough to bring me some before lunch.

    Lunch: I decided to eat PB&J #2 even though they were beginning to look a little less appetizing. I didn’t want to waste them. There is one left. I don’t know about that one. We’ll see tomorrow.

    Afternoon Snack: Sunny and I went to an EMT banquet this evening where they made me a vegan meal. Not knowing in advance what I might find there, I thought a good snack might get me through anything that might come up. So, I had a sliced apple with garlic hummus dip. It was great.

    Dinner: The dinner surpassed my expectations. It was a vegan chili – all vegatables, but oddly no beans (this is especially odd from either a New York or Texan perspective. In NY all chili has beans, in Texas chile never contains beans and always meat. The flavours were definately chili pepper in the front and very tomatoful. And it was stuffed into a baked egg plant! Beautiful plate presentation. The chef did a great job. Vinegarette dressing side salad and a small par baked hard roll. It was about the size of a chicken egg. I chose to assume it was vegan and it probably was. Glass of wine and coffee for dessert. I by-passed the cheese cake with not a node in that direction. I’m going to have to try variations on this egg plant theme during the coming weeks, maybe with some grilled portabellas.

    During the social hour of the recognition banquet, ladies in pretty dresses and men with neck-ties, I was introduced as Sunny’s brother appropriately enough. And because Sunny has now taught nearly 3 generations of children going through her English classes, she knows just about everyone. Of course, I was the only one to have a “special” vegan meal, and this drew attention to everyone involved. So, I was Sunny’s brother and the vegan. Somehow I got a chuckle out of that thought. “Hi. I’m John. Sunny’s brother. I am Vegan. I am from planet Vega. The Veganman. Ha!” That’s funny. I wonder if I can get that like on my license plate, or maybe a T-shirt.

    During an on-line chat with Casey today, he suggested pizza made with hummus as a cheese substitute. We volleyed recipe suggestions back and forth for five minutes and I think both came away with some ideas. Then I read on the hummus container some of the same thoughts. I’m going to try these ideas also. Oh, and the hummus container said to use pita bread and cucumber slices for topping. Can’t get much simpler than that. Enough for now.

  • Day Three on The Road

    And almost consecutive. Does it count that I spent the night in my own bed? Probably not if it was for only 5 hours.

    I was prepared today. And like when you bring an umbrella and it doesn’t rain, there was no shortage of vegan fare. I packed, not one, not two, but THREE PB&Js in the luggage. (Well, I was using up a loaf of bread…) The bomb squad probably wondered about that. I see they did inspect my bags, though they were probably more interested in my piano tuning tools. Those must have raised an eyebrow. Here is the day:

    Breakfast Today: Breakfast at home, even briefly, is great. So, I had more of the lentil stew Mary and I made sometime ago. Remember that? Look back, I don’t remember either. But the funny thing is, that when the food doesn’t have animal product in it, it is less likely to spoil (properly refrigerated, of course…). It smelled and tasted good (maybe even better) and filled the tummy for a good morning of travel. As I was flying from MCI to MTW, I thought about how good I felt. It was a peaceful feeling. Just wait. I’m just getting started.

    Lunch: I was all prepared to have a PB&J, made this morning on WW bread. But I thought I’d look around to see what I could scare up. I found – yes, in the Detroit Midway Airport – an Internet Cafe (though they charge extra for the I-part…) that had some middle eastern cuisine on the menu – completely vegan. So, I had that with a cup of coffee. I figure A+ for me being prepared and then trying something new anyway! Ha!

    Dinner: Actually considered having PB&J in the room, but the staff here at the hotel knew what vegan was and recommended an Indian restaurant six short blocks down the street. So, I had to try that. I had Malai Kuftha and Garlic Naan. Near as I can tell, the Malai Kuftha was some kind of veggie “meat” ball, served in lots of curry sauce. It was good. This is one of my first Indian restaurant experiences so it is hard for me to judge. I would say it was good, but not great. The lingering flavors were wonderful. The garlic naan was basically pita bread with garlic toasted on top. So, another A grade for the evening meal. And I have three PB&Js left! The good news is, these sandwiches are not like those served on Wonder Bread. They are so dense they can last probably for two or three days and still be edible.

    As I sat in the “Indian Palace” (yes, that was the name of the place) tonight, I wished my friend from Maple street were with me. He would have liked it. I think they could have toned down the “Indian Artwork” on the walls. More like Elvis Velvet paintings with mirrors and fake jewels. Really over the top. And they had 5 wait staff, and one customer, me. I was well attended, though I think I would have been less conspicuous in the Temple of Doom (a cultural reference…)

  • Day Two On Road

    Well… the morning was marginally OK in terms of adhering to a vegan diet. In retrospect, I probably could have done without the Danish, fruit based though it was. It probably contained some type of dairy/egg products, though it would be hard to have gathered that information. And from a nutritional standpoint, it didn’t add a thing.

    Lunch Today: So, the agency changed my lunch order to a veggie roll up without cheese. Seems pretty simple. So, I was thinking of the way I would make a veggie roll up with out cheese and that seemed pretty good! I never would have thought to put RANCH dressing on it. Well, there was little of it, but still, not great marks in terms of planning. And of course, there were potato chips, something I never eat unless really hungry, and I was, and did. Then there was the cookie, in retrospect, also containing sometype of non-vegan food. I succumbed and ate that too, however to be fair, it contained no discernable chocolate or, thank god, coconut. So all together, it was a not great lunch. Another “C” grade on the report card, I fear.

    Now that I’m in the Dayton airport waiting to catch the connecting flight to Atlanta and then to MCI, hopefully things will be better. At least there are nuts. And beer. It is going to be a busy evening of travel. And tomorrow I’m off to Manchester.

  • Passing Grade on First Road Trip

    Yesterday evening was quite a challenge. It was my first exposure to attempting a vegan diet in polite company. And I’d give myself a good solid “C+” for the experience. Here is how the day went:

    Breakfast: An early one of WW toast, two slices with hummus. Was a little nervous over preparing for the trip so didn’t have anything else.

    Lunch: PB&J – WW bread. Made the sandwich before leaving the house. So, I give myself an “A” for planning ahead.

    Afternoon Snack: While on the plane from MCI to CIN, I had two tiny bags of peanuts. Good enough.

    Dinner: Here was the part that had me concerned. I joined three female clients for dinner at a Mexican restaurant, “La Fiesta’s”. This place is really very nice and the food is great. And cheap. Remarkably cheap. And they had a special on margaritas for $1.99. How can you beat that? So, I had one of those and a Negra Medelo with the meal. So, looking at the menu, they had a vegetarian section. So, how hard can that be? I ordered a veggie burrito with no cheese. That should be pretty straight forward. The waiter didn’t speak very good English so I had to say it a few times. It was noisy and he couldn’t hear me very well either. So, without grandstanding, I tried to get my point across as well as I could. The three ladies were beginning to wonder, I think. Anyway, the burrito looked great, and it was, but it had about a tablespoon of sour cream in it. And I didn’t know it until I was a third into it. So, I took it apart, as much as possible and scooped out as much as I could. And then proceeded to eat whatever didn’t look like sour cream. It was somewhat of a mess but we managed. I also had ordered beans and rice, but didn’t get that. So, I had to order that separate. And the beans came with a drizzle of cheese melted across the top of that. So, I had to fuss with that also. All totaled, I probably consumed a teaspoon of dairy. Lesson learned, you have to say “No diary” also. And my advisor warned me about that, I just forgot. I’ll do better next time.

    Breakfast Today: The classic Hot Hotel Breakfast. I had mixed fruit, orange juice, a fruit danish, oatmeal, two slices of bread (almost WW), bran cereal, and three pads of margarine. That should hold me…

    I understand the agency has chicken salad for me to eat for lunch. They said they would order something else for me when we got together this AM.

    Guess I better get my notes together for the meeting.