Vegan eats at a Caribbean Restaurant

A few friends of mine and I went to eat at a Caribbean restaurant. I was not sure that they would have something to eat that I could have but to my surprise they had a few vegetarian items. I inquired about what was in one of them and was happy to find out I could eat it. They had a jerked spice tofu, a vegetable chop suey, I forgot one of them and the rasta pasta... I was in the mood for pasta that night so the rasta pasta it was.. I had penne style and it had a vegetable like spinach (I can not remember the name), red, green, yellow peppers and a wonderful flavor to it.. I have a picture to follow. The music and atmosphere were wonderful. It was great to sit and eat while listening to jamming Caribbean music played by a two man band. It is really a nice surprise when you go to a restaurant that you did not expect to find a dish you can eat and see some nice options on the menu. I am finding more places seem to be expanding their menu to suit a variety of dietary types. Happy vegan eating. I will definitely go back and inquire about the other vegetarian dishes for some more Caribbean dining.






Thank you for coming to my blog. I hope you come back again soon.

Gnewvegan

Veggie Pride Parade

On May 18, 2008 the first veggie pride parade in America was held in Greenwich Village, New York City. I was very excited to have been able to be a part of this day. I have never marched in a parade in New York City and this was a wonderful experience. Some people were dressed in costumes such as banana's, peppers, pea pod, and a pig to name a few. Various signs showing support for the vegetarian, vegan, and going green lifestyle where soaring for all eyes to see. One guy was ringing a bell from his window as we walked by. We marched through the streets and onlookers were taking pictures and smiling. What a feeling actually walking in the street as traffic had to be diverted or wait for us to pass by... It really was an amazing feeling.. The march ended at Washington Square park where there were various booths and a performance by the Cheryl Hill band. Even when it started raining the pride in this day could not be dampened. Below are some pictures of the the first veggie pride parade..



Thank you for coming to my blog and I hope to see you again soon.


The chant of the day was be green, go veggie!!!



Gnewvegan

Interesting vegan websites

While I was on the internet I came across the vegan society web site and a hospital catering book that they made.. I looked at it and it is interesting. It has information on what vegan is, why people become vegan, vegan foods, and some recipes. I thought it would be interesting to share. I am also posting another website that has useful information on being vegan, substitutes, etc.

http://www.vegansociety.com/images/HospitalCateringBooklet.pdf

http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/

http://www.veganoutreach.org/starterpack/foods.html

Thank you for coming to my blog.. Please come back again soon.

My Vegan Chit Chat :)

This is just a post for chit chat. As I have written about before I enjoy trying new things more now since I became vegan. It is a nice feeling to add a new addition of food style to my food choices. When I was not vegan and I would have something with cheese I never like pieces of cheese, only melted or in a ravioli for example. So when I eat tofu I prefer thin or small pieces. I had not tried tofu scramble before and thought it was time. I was reading a blog that talked about options for tofu scramble. A seasoning packet made for tofu scramble was mentioned (I can not remember the name) and Amy’s frozen entrees was also mentioned. She has a tofu scramble entree. I had mentioned Amy’s entrees before in a previous post. Once in a while I may use a frozen entree and it was nice to find good tasting, vegan, frozen entrees. So, I decided to try Amy’s tofu scramble before I start trying other’s recipes and then making my own variety.. Well, it was filling and very tasty. Of course it does not taste like scrambled egg’s but It hits the spot.. I will now be trying recipes and a creation of my own will be in the works.. :)
One of the last restaurants that I went out to was an Indian restaurant. And there I experienced the dosa.. I had never heard of a dosa and when I first saw it I could not imagine eating it all. But I did and it was yummy.. It looked like a giant crepe in the shape of a log. In it you can have choices such as potatoes with spices and rice mixtures . It is served with varieties of chutney. I believe I had coconut, lentil, and I forget the third type of chutney. I folded the dosa in half as I saw others do and broke off pieces dipping it into the chutney. It was yummy. Some of the chutney was spicy to me so I had plenty of water.. But it was worth it... Chatting that night I learned that Southern Indian food is usually vegan. You have to just make sure there is no Ghee in your food which is a form of dairy. So now I know to ask for no ghee in my food when I go to an Indian rest. Here is a website that tells you about ghee.
http://www.food-india.com/ingredients/i001_i025/i007.htm
Next time I will take a picture of my dosa but here is a website which shows you a picture of a dosa.
http://www.top-indian-recipes.com/indian-dosa-recipes.htm
Some time ago I wrote about another Indian restaurant I had went to where they had a buffet and one half the buffet was vegetarian and the other vegan. I am really enjoying my taste of Indian food and experimenting at home. I also find it very interesting to go into an Indian grocery store. There are so many varieties of spices and foods.. And it is there I found ready made dough in various forms without egg. I had been looking for that and was so glad to have found that. It is really nice to add different cultures into my eating habits as it opens up new doors of food enjoyment.
And on a sweet note , one night I wanted a sweet treat and remembered a post on a blog I read "A vegan life" (It is on my list of blog’s I read). The author showed a picture of a french twist vegan treat and gave the website to the products. Here is the website:
http://barrysbakery.com/
Well, I went into the grocery store and saw french twists in two flavors and they said non- dairy, no eggs.... I read the ingredients and happily bought them because they were vegan.. It was the store brand not the one posted on the latter blog site.. But I thank Allie for that post because my craving was fulfilled. Happy Vegan eating...



Thank you for coming to my blog. Please come back again soon.

Gnewvegan

A weekly menu of what I have eaten as a vegan

One common question people ask me is what do I eat. I did a post a while back on that subject and decided to make a table of a week’s menu to show some of my days eating as a vegan. As I have said before in previous posts I am not a nutritionist so my information is not a substitute for you to seek advice on what you should eat from an MD/NP/Nutritionist. This is just to help show new vegans there are many food choices out there. I did have this originally in a table but it does not copy and paste well so I typed it this way.

Sunday:

Breakfast-
Oatmeal, 2 pieces of wheat toast with soy margarine, and tea with soy milk and vegan sugar.
Snack-
soy nuts: raisins
Lunch-
potato /squash soup
Snack-
apple, steamed broccoli with peanut sauce ( peanut sauce was posted 12/23/07. One of my recipes is steamed broccoli with peanut sauce)
Dinner-
pasta
Dessert/snack-
Handful of shredded wheat/sugar coated

Monday:

Breakfast-
oatmeal, 1 slice wheat toast with apple spread, tea with soy milk and vegan sugar
Snack-
apple
Lunch-
Moroccan tofu with sweet potatoes and couscous (Posted on 11-13-07)
Snack-
carrots
Dinner-
Tofu cutlet with vegetables; cherry tomatoes
Dessert/ Snack-
Banana; Air popped popcorn

Tuesday:

Breakfast-
cereal with soy milk and banana; tea with soy milk and agave nectar
Snack-
soy nuts
Lunch-
sauteed spinach; soy dog and baked beans
Snack-
apple
Dinner-
veggie burger on wheat pita bread; mixed veggie’s with vegan butter

Wednesday:

Breakfast-
oatmeal with sliced banana; tea with soy milk and agave nectar
Snack-
raisins
Lunch-
Peanut butter and jelly on wheat bread; carrots; handful of shredded wheat; crackers
Snack-
soy nuts
Dinner-
Stir fry veggie’s with tofu crisps over rice (stir fry recipe posted 11-13-07 and the tofu crisp strips were posted on 12-18-07- you could make this without the tofu and just follow the recipe on 11-13-07)
Dessert/snack-
apple

Thursday:

Breakfast-
cereal with soy milk; coffee with soy milk and agave nectar
Snack-
banana
Lunch-
Peanut butter and apple spread on wheat bread (posted 11-13-07); carrots; soy nuts
Snack-
small salad; raisins; carrots; soy nuts
Dinner-
store bought vegan veggie loaf with veggie’s

Friday:

Breakfast-
oatmeal/banana; 1 slice of wheat toast; coffee /soy/agave nectar
Snack-
apple
Lunch-
salad; steamed veggie’s over rice
Snack-
raisins; soy and edamame nuts
Dinner-
Vegetable shell and soybean soup (posted on 1-9-08)
Dessert/snack-
Tofutti icecream

Saturday:

Breakfast-
French toast/ vegan breakfast sausage links; coffee/soy/agave nectar (I will post my french toast recipe soon)
Snack-
banana; soy/edamame nuts
Lunch-
Lentil soup/ crackers
Snack-
sliced tomatoes/cucumbers mini salad; apple
Dinner-
veggie quesidilla; pickles

Thank you for coming to my blog. Please come back again soon.
Gnewvegan

Eggs and becoming vegan

When I first was learning about why someone would choose not to have eggs or dairy, I thought that maybe if I used organic eggs, or cage free that would be better. I even thought that maybe I could find a local farm where the chickens were raised properly and not have a dreadful outcome. So I bought the latter eggs, but still could not bring myself to have it. Then after research I knew that organic eggs or cage free were no better then the regular ones. The conditions and final outcomes for the animals were the same. I am writing about this to tell other new vegans that it is normal for you to doubt why you may or may not be eating something. This is a new way of life and sometimes we may tend to try and justify why doing certain things is ok. I thought I had to have meat and milk growing up because that it was the surrounding society and my upbringing seemed to focus on as the mainstay of meals. Even on pasta days we had the meatballs. The milk moustache commercials telling you that milk does your body good and meat always being the main course with veggies as your secondary was a way of life. At weddings I would see three choices which are fish, chicken or beef. And please , I do not want anyone to take offense at me mentioning society/ family as a reason behind food choices. I think it is a combination of what you are raised in and what you see in your surrounding society. And I was not raised in a vegetarian family. Now as an adult I learned things I never knew before and made a choice for me that I feel is the right one. I learned and realized that being vegan is a way of life that is not harmful to me, and makes me feel better as a whole. I have added here some web-sites that I found when making my decision on eggs in the beginning in case a new vegan is wondering about my earlier thoughts as well. As with any new journey learning is the key and is a powerful tool.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1027/p15s01-lifo.html

http://www.goveg.com/organic_products.asp



Happy vegan Living. I hope to see you again.

Gnewvegan

Going Green

I know this is not about how to be vegan however in my profile I stated how being vegan has expanded on my world of living. I had always recycled before but as I began to learn to become vegan I wanted to do more to help the environment. I thought about buying the canvas grocery bags before. I remember one day I was in the grocery store and saw a young man in front of me with a canvas bag. Of course, maybe he was not doing it for the same reason I am. But, for whatever the reason, it will help by decreasing the amount of plastic used. I saw the stores selling them more and more. So, I decided to buy my green bags and use paper bags more often to decrease the plastic use. I was watching the Oprah show one day and it was on going green. I try to use some of the suggestions. I have the power plugs and do my best to remember to turn them off to conserve energy, replace regular bulbs with CFL bulbs when it is time to change, conserving water, and I started buying eco-friendly products as I need to replace them. Step by step, person by person. You never know what will inspire you. The person in front of you, changing your way of eating as I have done with veganism, or an array of things. It is true, I think, one person can make a difference. Because one person can turn into two people, and so on. So, I am not only proud to say I am vegan, but that I am doing my best to go green. April 22, 2008 is Earth day.. I read on another blog about an act of togetherness called “Earth Hour” which was on March, 29, 08.. When cities globally turned out the lights at a certain time for their support of the environment.. Here is the website:

http://www.earthhour.org/

I wish I had known about it but I know about Earth day and thought this post would be appropriate. Here are some web sites about Earth day:

http://ww2.earthday.net/

http://www.earthsite.org/day.htm

I will end this post with a poem I have written and say Happy Earth Day everyone..


The purity of the sunlight is in the path,
The light of life, to start a new,
The path that is within our reach,
The ocean waves reaching over the horizons,
The height of nature is the power we breathe,
The wind, snow, birds, flowers and trees,
Mountains, rivers, animals, living beings,
The purity of our earth is for us to seek,
It is the choices one makes,
That will encircle what is to be,
It is the color we choose,
And I choose green.

By Gnewvegan

Thank you for coming to my blog. I hope to see you again soon.