Eating...What's your reason for it?

Food for thought...
There is a story I heard a number of years ago. It goes something like this:

There was a particularly hard winter that caused deer to migrate from their homes in the mountains further down into a valley where a city resided below. The residents worried for the deer and decided to help. They put out bales and bales of hay for the deer and were happy to feed them.

The deer later died of starvation. Why?
The autopsy provided the answer. The deer's bellies were full of hay their bodies could not process.

A recent "dinner party" for pans I attended brought up the same point. Are we eating to be fed or eating to be nurished?

Normally I am content with my ability to nurish my family. I didn't realize how hard it can be for traveling folks until I went on a business trip with my husband. I felt like I was going to starve with so few options available to me in the airports and in cities with no vegan friendly restaurants. Yet, there were options (thank you grocery store for carrying Larabar's!) and I survived. I'm afraid my husband, thrilled with the tantalizing non-veg options in front of him, didn't fare as well. He ended up being more hungry than I was, even after eating his meals.

Rather than diet, maybe just take a look and answer the question: Am I eating to be fed, or eating to be nurished?

Your body will thank you for the nurishment, everytime.

Fabulous Affordable "ice cream"

I have a great friend. We planned a night out and she researched for me and found non-dairy ice cream for me.

"Chill" in Tempe, AZ has non-dairy gelatos and sorbets. AND, I just found, it is on groupon for the next couple days. http://www.groupon.com/r/uu12228044 Check it out!

A Gift To Touch The Heart

There are many gifts I've given and received. Yet as time progresses it's the intangibles that stand out. For me, in a season amidst dinners and goodies, this is the time the true thoughtfullness of family and friends comes to the forefront.

It is always appreciated when the response I get after telling someone my diet, to hear, "Tell me more." I feel that they are genuinely interested in the friendship between the two of us and want to deepen it by digging deeper and showing interest. Yet, I am deeply touched when not only does that someone remember my needs, but fills them.

Many vegans attend dinners by either eating prior to or taking their own food. I attended a party this Christmas where the hostess, bless her, had a spread of mostly vegan food. Her response, "well we can all eat your food but you can't eat all of ours, so we catered to you." She does the same for her celiac friends. True gracious hostess, true friend, truely felt.

There are simple adjustments easily made, with a little research. This hostess researched and found the consensus on Tofutti cream cheese, yes, it's as good as the real stuff. I'll add a few more hints to veganizing a dish. Veganaise is awesome, better than the real stuff. Earth Balance is a simple butter substiute, found for less at the biggest of big box retailers.  A simple google search can yield plenty of options for egg substitute (who doesn't have vinegar, water, and baking powder in their cupboard?). And lastly, keep a shelf stable box of non-dairy milk around. It's easily swapped out for the cow milk in recipes.

Thank you to friends and family that not only invited me to your functions, but also provided me sustance that I didn't have to make myself. It was truely a treat that fed hunger in both my stomach and heart.

When Life hands you tofu...Make...

We visited our favorite chain restaurant the other day. We ordered our favorite dishes, but forgot to request they change the tofu in one of the dishes. We really dislike the cubed silken tofu most restaurants serve. Well, they forgot, and served us fried silken tofu. We sent it back and they tried again, this time it was steamed silken tofu, and they insisted on leaving it on the table while they made it right again. I was fine with that. A light bulb went off in my head. Hey! I'll take it home and put it into the blender. It will be a perfect pre-seasoned creamy sauce. Indeed, I did just that, served it with the broccoli that was with the tofu, all over rice and it was pretty good. Reminded me of creamy crockpot chicken. Next time there's a mixup, I'll just accept the peace offering and blend it!

More dining in Utah

Again, while on vacation, I dine out much more often than when I'm trying to stay in a budget at home. Here's the result.

Pizza Factory: If you have ANY dietary restrictions steer clear of this place. The poor waitress ran to the kitchen several times for me while I seriously told my table-mates that all I could have was water with a lemon for dinner. Ultimately the sweet waitress was determined to help and created a pasta dish. $9 for a bowl of veggies with Asian sauce. Decent, but hardly a dinner.

Olive Garden: As a national chain this restaurant does better with diets. Ultimately I had a gluten-free pasta. Lessons at Pizza Factory taught me to make sure I at least order a drink in case the meal is less than satisfactory. Thanks to our wonderful server, he set aside a salad without dressing for me and brought me un-doctored bread sticks.

The best for last...
Gingers Garden Cafe: This is in Springville peeps, (15 minutes south of BYU, next to Magleby's) but it is the best vegan dining I've come across yet. They do offer some meat options and cater beautifully to raw foodists. I ordered the portabella burger and a salad. It felt good to taste ranch dressing again and all the sprouts in my salad just made me feel great! Ah, healthy eating.

Eating out in the Greater Salt Lake area

Here's a note to all those interested in vegan options in the greater Salt Lake area. I only tried a few, and since some of these are nation-wide chains, my experience can help a greater audience.

First: The favs
Vertical Diner. IGNORE the restaurant guide highlighted on vegcooking.com (endorsed by PETA). It listed four  restaurants, 2 went out of business at least a year ago. That leaves Sage's Cafe and The Vertical Diner. Both are owned by the same family, so I choose to sample the slightly less expensive one, the diner. It was good. They catered to the needs of a family member with gluten intolerance just beautifully. I loved taking a break from sending servers to the kitchen on ingredient verification and just knowing that whatever I ordered was going to be 100% guaranteed vegan. My kids inhaled their version of chicken strips, and we all loved the ranch dressing for the "chicken" and carrots sticks. They even gladly accepted my request for the order "to-go" which, upon receiving my paper plate wrapped very well in plastic-wrap, I guessed they don't get very often. My all time favorite vegan restaurant is still The Green Restaurant in Tempe, AZ; this one takes a close second.

Papa Murphy's. When a family gathering called for pizza, I put in a request for a veggie, cheese-less one. Papa Murphy's filled the request wonderfully. They don't actually have an option on the menu, but get the regular crust, marinara sauce, and veggies and it's great. I verified the ingredients on the crust, not the sauce. However, any tiny amount of animal product makes my morning sickness come back and the absence of this problem confirmed the sauce is a-ok.

Cheesecake Factory. My visits here with family mark the 5th and 6th since I've gone vegan. Everytime I visit I quiz the server, sometimes asking the exact same questions. Everytime I learn which chef is willing to have patience with the server, because the attitude is quickly translated in the server's behavior, and which ones actually know the ingredients of the items. I also do it to force the server to educate himself on the menu and let the restaurant know people with these needs come in, please accomodates us. Here's a run-down
*Bread basket. This has sourdough and a type of brown bread. While the chef's differ on whether the sourdough is actually 100% vegan, the culture usually originates in milk. I find that the fermenting process eliminates enough product that I can eat all the bread I want and not get sick. The brown bread I get differing views on. Honestly, I can't figure out who's telling the truth, so the risk is yours.
*Salads. There are about three you can veganize. You can't even depend on the vinagrette dressing to be vegan. Ordering this will require trips to the kitchen to confirm.
*Pasta. There is one. Evelyn's pasta. Beware, this dish is dripping in olive oil. I was assured the pasta is egg-free, but again, it never hurts to confirm. When we order this we eat a small amount, take it home, boil up a pot full of pasta, and toss in Evelyn's. It spreads the oil out a lot better and feeds all of us for that second meal.
*Dessert. Uh, duh it's the cheesecake factory, right? Don't even bother, right? Not so. I've only had one server with enough knowledge of the menu to point out, but not force the sell, of the bowl of strawberries - for $6.50.

And...the disappointment
Mimi's Cafe. This used to be my all-time favorite, now it's just the biggest disappointment. They have nothing for lunch and dinner. They do serve breakfast all day, and there's a glimmer of hope there. Order the bowl of oatmeal, side of fruit. They have no milk substitute, so I ordered cranberry juice instead, and asked for the sugar on the side, in case the juice was sweet enough.