Garden Fresh in Mountain View, that is. I've flirted with Merit Vegetarian, but I still prefer Garden Fresh. Even when it's 100 degrees out, and they don't have air conditioning.
Somehow on Wednesday I ended up meeting a friend for both lunch and dinner. It went reasonably well, from the vegan point of view, except for what I would have to admit is my biggest bugaboo: I usually don't think about asking if a restaurant's pasta has egg in it until I'm writing these daily food diaries.
I'm feeling sort of recursive.
It's ok, I'm with a board member.
That I don't even have time to throw out the empty boxes in my office. Or post to Vox yesterday. You'll get two posts today instead.
yesterday I took a new colleague to lunch at a new Mexican restaurant I've never been to before. They ahd something different on their menu...something outside my usual options. A potato and bean taquito...sounds yummy right?
I ordered it without cheese or sour cream, and I said "that comes with black beans, right?" "Yes."
The dish came while we were deep in conversation, and it wasn't until about halfway through the second taquito that I stopped to wonder what the hell I was eating. It was a taquito stuffed with some brownish mash. Was it brown because that's what you get when you mash potatoes with black beans? Was it brown because it was really refried beans in there, not black beans, even though black beans were on the side?
I don't know. I fear that was a non-vegan dish...which did slow me right down.
Breakfast:
Organic Banana
Organic Oatmeal
Lunch:
Diet Coke
Chips and Salsa
Potato-Bean Taquitos with Guacamole
Dinner:
Sauteed Seitan and "Chikn" Strips with Olive Oil, Garlic, Peas, Tofutti Sour Cream and Organic Avocado
Sourdough Bread
Tortilla Chips
The other day I mashed up my organic fingerling potatoes with wasabi. Yum. Monday night I mixed up some leftover spaghetti with avocado. Also yum.
Breakfast:
Coffee
Sourdough Roll
Organic Banana
Lunch:
Beans/Rice/Guacamole Burrito
Chips and Salsa
Organic Orange
Organic Apricot-Applesauce
Snack:
Vegan Donut Holes
Dinner:
Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Soy Margarine, Organic Avocado and Nutritional Yeast
Soy Pudding
Sunday was Mother's Day, and my family had its annual brunch at a restaurant called 231 Ellsworth. Which is at, you guessed it, 231 Ellsworth Street in San Mateo.
My brother had called again to find out if thy could accommodate both young children and vegans :)
Yes and yes.
And they did a great job. Seriously, if you're ever looking for a fairly upscale place to have a meal in San Mateo, check them out. (They also kept their wits about them and their sense of humor when dealing with our large party, including 5 rambunctious children.
Breakfast:
Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Soy Margarine and Vegan Parmesan
Lunch (231 Ellsworth):
Coffee
Orange Juice
Mixed Greens
Soba Noodles with Mushrooms
White Bean Cassoulet
Snack:
Walnuts
Dinner:
Organic Fingerling Potatoes mashed with Soy Margarine, Garlic and Wasabi.
Saturday I tried a recipe from La Dolce Vegan: Spaghetti and Tofu Balls. It's a quite quick and easy recipe, despite the fact that you're making your own tofu balls and sauce. I will admit I cut one corner, in that my jar of tomato sauce wasn't big enough for the recipe, so I instead used a jar of spaghetti sauce that I had (but I chopped up some actual fresh, organic tomatoes into the sauce to make up for it.)
I also didn't have a couple of spices on hand, but i didn't feel the lack of them.
Anyway, the Tofu Balls came out quite well. I made one mistake, in that after I fried them up in the olive oil as directed, I left them sitting in the pan for a while before throwing them into the sauce. I think that allowed them to continue soaking up oil and perhaps get too moist, so they didn't hang together quite as well as I would have liked once in the sauce. They didn't fall completely apart, but they were crumbling off at the edges.
The S.O. stated that he liked these Tofu Balls more than the meatless meatballs I buy at Trader Joes. I think he actually preferred the softer texture to the chewy texture of the meatballs. Bottom line: The recipe is quick, easy, tasty and definitely something to prepare, for example, for a family dinner when you want to serve hearty comfort food that non-veg folks can appreciate and relate to.
Breakfast:
2 Flax Frozen Waffles
1 with Soy Margarine and Lite Syrup
1 with Peanut Butter and Organic Jam
Organic Banana
Lunch:
Organic Grapefruit
Organic Fingerling Potatoes, mashed with Soy Margarine, Tofutti Sour Cream and Nutritional Yeast
Dinner:
Spaghetti and Tofu Balls, made with Whole Wheat Organic Spaghetti and Organic Roasted Garlic Spaghetti Sauce. (Lots of good veggies added per the recipe.)
Vegan Cookie
