Day 6: February 6

Today was a big adventure day in Vegan Land!

First off, I went down to the village to see a movie with my friend, Leila.  I had some time to kill before the movie, and was hungry for breakfast so I figured I'd find something rather quickly.  Though I quickly realized know where I was going, vegan-wise.  I saw Gobo, but that place is a bit expensive for a quick bite.  Red Bamboo wasn't open yet. (First went there YEARS ago on a date with A VEGAN and would go later on today, but more of that later.)  And then I came upon Lifethyme Natural Market!

I had noticed the storefront years ago, which is a bit hippy-dippy.  This time, however, I ventured in, tentatively.  I quickly realized they had a full hot bar of vegan treats, salads as well, and tons of prepared foods behind a counter!  I got so excited, I whispered "Yayyyyy!" to myself  I spotted a Deep Dish Pie, which was chuck full of every vegetable under the sun, spinach, tomatoes, onions, butternut squash.  A quinoa crust.  The quinoa crust I wasnt CRAZY about, but I'm not a generally huge quinoa fan anyway.  But the filling of the pie itself was DELICIOUS and filling and flavorful.  I picked up a vegan chocolate chip raspberry cookie as well!  Which I munched on later on that afternoon during the movie.  The cookie itself was AWESOME! Crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside, rich, chocolatey and buttery!  Without the butter, of course.  I was very surprised about the cookie as all the vegan cookies I've tried thus far have been sort of thuddy bricks of doom. This thing was GREAT!  I poked around the store for a while as well, finding tons of confections and expensive chocolates and lots of fun grains.  Dehydrated raw fruit!  Such a cool place.  I'll definitely be going back!

After the movie, it was time for lunch.  We went over to Red Ramboo

which is sort of a cafe-soul food-diner kinda joint. I got the club sandwich, which was on kinda bland generic whole wheat bread, but with smoky tofu steaks, really, and DELICIOUS tempeh bacon!  The bacon was crispy and seemed kinda fatty and salty and was definitely reminiscent (ENOUGH) of bacon.  I want to try making it at home for special occasions.  I'm pretty sure there was a LOT of salt in this food, however.  I'm interested in finding more healthy-eating oriented vegan restaurants.  Red Bamboo is definitely kind of diner fare, but it's pretty fun! And it was nice to share the meal with a friend, who got a tempeh pulled pork sandwich, which she really did enjoy.  And she's a real live meateater!

On my way from the train, I stopped off at a grocery store near my house, the name of I can't remember.  I found some ground flax, pumpkin and coconut mixture that I intend on putting on my cereal tomorrow.  I looked for tofu dogs for a special super bowl treat, but I couldn't find any.  I'll be munching on some popcorn later during the game, or some such.  We'll see.  It's okay, I ate a lot today already. :)

Today was sort of a HUGE eating day and not too much about healthy eating, but more about just exploring vegan cuisine.  I have the feeling that the vegetable pie at Lifethyme was pretty healthy.  It was light and hearty. I'd love to try and make it at home.  There was nearly a quiche sorta thing going on, what with the tofu in it as well. I think vegan quiches is something I could get pretty excited about making at home.

And finally: last night, I made a Shepherd's Pie with a lentil and mushroom base.  It came out GREAT, and I used minimum salt throughout, much less than I would have previously.  Ebeth, the healthy eating specialist at Whole Foods, taught a low sodium cooking class the other night which I didn't get a chance to attend, but was inspired by.  I know I oversalt my food, and there's no need to do so throughout like the cooks say.  You can add salt at the end, really, as the taste of the salt diminishes throughout the cooking process but the sodium remains.  It's best to go light on the salt I'm thinking especially with my heavy hand,.  With the Shepherd's Pie, I used stuff like no sodium broth and Bragg's to impart tons of flavor.  Bragg's Liquid Aminos is a great Vegan trick--it's like soy sauce, but smokier and meatier.  Perfect accompaniment to the mushrooms and lentils.  There were tons of carrots and celery and onions in the mushroom ragout as well. I layered the Shepherds Pie with corn and then some russet mashed potatoes.  It was just delicious, and now I have dinner or lunch for the rest of the week. OH AND ALSO: NO OIL!!!!

This week, I'm going to have one really big salad a day, most definitely.  I've been eating lots of beans and tomatoes and such, but not so many greens during the day.  So time to impart that back into the diet.  I think I've been eating heavier foods that I normally would from day to day, and that's fine, what with the adjustment and all.  But I can't forget that green veggies are my friends!