This sandwich was disgrrrrrrusting.

So last night I had a bunch of papers to grade. Silly me for not taking them home over the weekend since progress reports came out today. Anyway, I needed to go somewhere where I could eat & then grade papers and Jake could eat & then waste precious hours of his life playing around online. So, we head to Panera. Let it be said that when we lived in Fort Worth we were at the Panera on University practically every single day. Seriously. The Panera by our new place sucks. For one, the internet is always down. If its not down then it is going so slow it might as well be dial-up. Anyway, I wasn’t totally bummed because at least they have decent food. Since becoming vegetarian I usually get one of their soups labeled with the “V” next to and a half a tomato mozzarella panini. Both of those are pretty delish.

There is this lady I work with who always raves about how much she loves hummus. So I decided to be adventurous and try their Mediterranean Veggie sandwich. Here’s what is on that: Zesty Peppadew™ piquant peppers, feta cheese, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and cilantro hummus on our Tomato Basil bread. Honestly, I don’t really know what a Zesty Peppadew piquant pepper is, but hey like I said.. I was feeling adventurous. Also, their tomato basil bread is gross to me so I switched it for the three cheese whatever. The bread was delicious. The sandwich was… disastrous. I felt like I was biting into an onion the entire time. I like an onion as much as the next person, but this sandwich was, in the words of Shane (a good friend from college), DISGRRRRUSTING! Yes, I am fully aware that disgusting is intended to be R-less. Anyway, it was a pretty presentation, but I was not pleased. I secretly envied Jake’s safe ordering choice.

I know that you’re looking at that picture going, “Did you eat ALLLLL that?”. No, I didn’t, but since I’m a fatty I usually do the Pick 2. I get half a sandwich and then soup. I was feeling nervous about getting a sandwich that I wasn’t sure about (and I was rightfully nervous!) so I decided to get my side soup in a breadbowl. Just so I’d feel like I was actually getting enough food in case I didn’t end up eating the sandwich. Again, I was right. I was so happy after two bites in to the Mediterranean Veggie that the fat girl wisdom inside my head told me to opt for the bread bowl. Bread = my guilty pleasure. I got garden vegetable soup, and honestly I could find something more flavorful in a condensed soup can at Wally World. That might just be me though.

I’m not hating on Panera though. I’m just telling my fellow herbivores out there to eat the Tomato Mozzarella Panini and the Creamy Tomato soup if you’re ever at Panera. Stay away from the Medi-Veggie. Do you guys have any restaurant ordering mishap stories? Anything that sounded good on the menu, but then you ate it & you wished you would’ve just got the usual? Let me know!

Veggie Mexi Bites

Is everyone ready for Super Bowl 44? I am! Are y’all going to Super Bowl parties? I am! Which got me thinking about what I could make that both meat eaters and vegetarians could eat and like! I did a bunch of Game Day Food research and was bombarded by chicken wings and pigs-in-a-blanket. Not happening. Then I found a Vegetarian Taco Pinwheel recipe. Though I liked it, I decided it needed some tweeking to fit what I want. So I headed to the store.

Ingredients you’ll need:
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
2 can (16 oz each) of refried beans.. mine are in the white bowl. I had already cooked them in the microwave before I realized I needed to take a picture.
8 flour tortillas (10 inches), room temperature
shredded lettuce
1 can of diced tomatoes w/ chilies
1 can of sliced black olives
1 bag of shredded cheese
Salsa

1. Cook refried beans
2. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and taco seasoning until blended
3. Stir in the refried beans and shredded cheese.
4. Spread the mixture over over each tortillas.
5. Top with lettuce, tomatoes, chilies and olives.
6. Roll up tightly.
7. Wrap in foil or plastic wrap. (I used foil).
8. Chill for at least 1 hour.
9. Then slice and serve with salsa!

Picture 1) Wrapped up chilling in the fridge.
Picture 2) Cut up, in the container and ready to go!
Picture 3) Look inside the container!

I had 8 tortillas. Each yielded 7 – 8 pieces. That means I have approximately 56 – 64 veggie mexi bites! Make them for your own friends and family and tell me how they turn out!

megCaze

“Happiness as expressed in pizza…”

Yesterday was my hubby’s 25th birthday. We went to Mellow Mushroom to celebrate with a group of friends. We’ve been to Mellow in the past. The parents of a former student of mine introduced it to us back in September. We went again with friends Lindsey & Andrew sometime in October. Both of these were before Jake & I were vegetarians and we enjoyed delicious meaty dishes.

Last night we had to try something new. No Funky Q Chicken for me. No Mighty Meaty for Jake. There were a few veggie friendly items on the menu but I couldn’t pick. Finally Jake chose Kosmic Karma, and it was the bomb diggity. This pizza is topped with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh tomatoes [I generally don't eat tomatoes because they're technically a fruit... I pulled the fresh ones off . Oh, in case I didn't mention this earlier... I am a fruit hater. All fruit. All of them. HATE THEM.], spinach, feta, and pesto. It was pizza heaven.

Mellow Mushrooms can be found all over the country. If there is one near you, check it out. Be on the look out tomorrow for my post about veggie friendly super bowl finger foods.

megCaze

May or may not be vegetarian.

Taylor, my best friend from college, had a super crazy obsession with Chilis. We were some Chilis eating fools back in the day. I haven’t been there since probably the last time I went with Taylor circa Summer 2008. Anyway, I saw a commercial for them yesterday and decided to check out their site. I went through all of the sections: salads, sandwiches, tacos, guiltess grill, big mouth burgers etc. I saw on the guiltless grill part that they have a black bean burger (yay!). Then I noticed below the regular categories: Download Vegetarian Menu.

I was excited about Chili’s being veggie friendly until I actually read the menu. Check out this disclaimer: “It is possible for any food item to come into contact with animal products during preparation and/or cooking processes. Additionally, fried food items could pick-up animal products during the cooking process. Therefore, we recommend that individuals seeking vegetarian menu items avoid ALL fried foods. Due to these circumstances, we are unable to guarantee that any menu entrées below can be completely vegetarian.” YIKES.

I guess Chilis is out for me…

Wait… these subs are meatless?

I’ve noticed that it is pretty easy to go vegetarian when eating a variety of different cuisines: Asian, Italian, and Mexican. However, American is quite tricky. Until now! Tonight for dinner Jake an I had “meat”ball subs! They were delicious. I, honest to goodness truth, could not tell that they were meatless. Whenever I find a dish that I think I could trick a meateater into liking (and they don’t know its meatfree), I consider it a win for the herbivore team.

Here is the simple way to prepare this food.

Head to your local grocer and find some meatless meatballs. Pictured to the right are the ones we purchased.  Tom Thumb has a wide variety (usually) of the Veggie Patch products. These meatless meatballs, cooked in our favorite sauce, topped with shredded cheese, and put on a wheat sub roll, made a perfect meatfree dish! We had ours with curly fries on the side and it was DELICIOUS! Try it sometime.

megCaze

No Twins for Vegans!

So a few weeks ago (or maybe it was last week.. who knows) my sister was telling me that you can increase your chances of having twins by eating yams. I thought this was pretty interesting because I (at least I think this now) would really like to have twins whenever it is we decide to have children. However, I don’t particularly like yams. So I decided to do some research on it and found a pretty interesting article.

A study was done by Dr. Gary Steinman of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center about how what you eat can actually make a difference in conceiving twins. The study included 3 groups of women: Vegans – people who eat no animal products whatsoever, vegetarians – people who do not eat meat but will eat animal products like dairy, and omnivores – people who eat both meat and animal products like dairy. The study showed that omnivores and vegetarians are 5 times more likely to conceive twins than vegans. Interesting, huh? So my heading isn’t exactly true but it they are less likely. The reason behind this: according to Dr. Steinman a hormone given to cows to increase their milk production causes women who drink milk from those cows to hyper-ovulate. Hyper-ovulation is where your body releases more than one egg during ovulation that can both be fertilized leading to fraternal twins.

Here’s the catch, for me at least. Jake and I gave up meat because of all the hormones and junk in the meat. That means we also gave up regular milk. We buy organic or silk milk because there would be no point in giving up meat if we kept ingesting the hormones somewhere else. So one would think that this brings me back to yams. Not quite. Did you know that women who are overweight are also more likely to have twins??? I definitely fall into that category.  If you want to read the article yourself here it is: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1064384/can_your_diet_increase_your_chances_pg2.html?cat=52

Hallelujah for Cheese Taquitos!

A few months before we became vegetarians I discovered a simple, easy, and delicious recipe: Taquito Casserole. No joke, it is one of the easiest things to make that doesn’t involve microwaving. Well, since going meatless I had been searching for some taquitos that don’t have beef or chicken in them. Not that you can even tell if they have that in them because they are so processed. Anyway, a few weeks ago at Whole Foods I saw some black bean and cheese ones but I didn’t buy them because that wasn’t what I was there to get. However, I was happy to know that meatless taquitos existed though.

Well, today Jake and I are at Walmart* (Sorry Wendy) grocery shopping. I’m walking around trying to figure out what to buy. We haven’t been to Whole Foods in a while so our faux-meat substitutes were out for the most part. That is when I see them: Three Cheese Taquitos!! I grabbed the box and read the ingredients… no meat! Hallelujah! So for dinner tonight I made taquito casserole and it was AWESOME. Wasn’t lacking anything at all in its new meatless glory.

Here is how you make it:
You need:
Box of taquitos
Can of refried beans
Two cans of enchilada sauce
Taco blend shredded cheese

Directions:
1. Cook the beans so they are easier to work with.
2. Cover the bottom of a casserole dish with enchilada sauce
3. Layer the bottom of the dish in taquitos (still frozen)
4. Spread a layer of beans on top of the taquitos
5. Sprinkle a layer of cheese on top of the beans
6. Poor enchilada sauce over the layers
7. Repeat until taquitos are gone
8. Cook according to the directions on the taquito box. The sauce should be bubbly and the cheese should be melted when you take it out. Allow it to sit for a few minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Here is a picture from a while ago of some taquito casserole using chicken taquitos. I didn’t take a picture of the meatless version before Jake and I devoured it. Sorry.

Well, that’s all for today.

megCaze

Vegetarian Frito Pie!

Did you just say vegetarian frito pie? Yes, I did. Thank goodness for Hormel! Shortly after I started this blog a guy I knew but didn’t really know know (he had a thing with a friend of mine back in the day and I went to homecoming with his friend in like 2004) read it and gave me some advice. He has been a vegan for a few years now and told me some foods that he enjoys and that have aided him in his vegan life. One of them was Hormel’s vegetarian chili. So I hit up the grocery stores.

I searched. I searched. I searched some more. No such luck. After a two or three weeks I gave up searching. Then this past weekend while grocery shopping I saw it at Target! I don’t know where it had been a few weeks prior when I searched that very store, but hey I’m glad it was there now. So I bought some cans. I contemplated stocking up on the stuff just in case it went MIA again but I suppressed the urge to spend money unnecessarily. I would like to take this time to applaud myself for not buying something I wanted simply because I did not need it. This is a gift that few women (sorry ladies) possess. It was especially difficult for me because I am a hardcore food addict.

Anyway, I moved in Louisiana in about 2002, yes there is a point to this, and before I moved there I had never heard of frito pie. I know, I know. Other Louisianians are probably shocked that there could be a person out there in this big ol’ world that doesn’t know about frito pie. Well, now that I do I am quite found of it and I made it for dinner tonight. I must say it is the best thing I’ve had in a long time. It tasted just like eating frito pie back in my meateater life. Jake is working late tonight so he wasn’t here to help eat my delicious creation but I could’ve ate enough for both of us. I was nice and saved him some

Anyway, in case any of you readers (all 15 or so of you) have never heard of frito pie here is how you make it:

Can of chili.
Fritos.
Cheese.

Step 1: Heat chili up
Step 2: Put fritos in the bottom of a bowl
Step 3: Put chili on top of fritos
Step 4: Put cheese on top of chili

The End!

megCaze

Meetup.com Dallas Vegetarians

First thing first, do you guys know about Meetup.com? If not you are missing out. Be sure to check it out AFTER you finish reading this post. Well, on meetup a few days ago I joined a group called Dallas Vegetarians. Technically I do not live in Dallas but it was the only group near by and I could drive to Dallas for some good vegetarian food! Well, I haven’t attended any meetups yet but I did notice that there are wayyyyyyyyyy more vegetarian friendly restaurants around here than I thought!

I’ll just throw out a few that I saw on their past meetup calendar:
- Veggie Garden, Richardson TX
- Extreme Pizza, Dallas TX
- Bliss Raw Cafe, Dallas TX
- Sweet Tomatoes, Arlington TX

Anyway, I’m excited about possibly attending some of their events soon! I’d really like to enjoy a nice meal with other people who can’t eat the same things I can’t eat haha.  Jake and I (okay really just me but it isn’t like I’d go by myself) have been wanting to try Sweet Tomatoes for a while. Hopefully we’ll get to do that soon!

megCaze

Two months :)

Today marks two months that Jake and I have been vegetarians. All in all I have to say that it has been a much easier transition that both of us anticipated. I have, and I’m being completely honest, only REALLY REALLY wanted to eat meat one time and that was when we were in Tom Thumb and I saw a box of Banquet fried chicken. However, I resisted the urge and made it out of the store without any carnivore purchases. Woohoo!

So I keep having people ask me, how do you feel? Do you feel any different? The answer is yes. Before when I ate I would always get sleepy or sluggish afterwards. Not anymore. I don’t feel as weighed down by my food. In the past, after a meal Jake and I would both want to do something but then say, “Well, lets let our food disgest for a little while.” That is no longer a phrase in our vocabulary. I feel, though I don’t think I’ve lost any weight, lighter. I have more energy and I just FEEL better.  Jake thinks he has lost some weight though. I don’t really listen to him when he says that though because for the past 6 months he has just been melting pounds off without even trying. We quite literally are the SlimQuick commercials.  (You know, where the lady says she hasn’t had carbs in who knows how long and lost like 2 pounds and the husband gave up soda and lost like 39375.)

I’ve also learned how to cook a lot of things I never would’ve made before. Since I LOVE to cook that has been really fun for me. I have really enjoyed trying to turn old favorites into something we can eat meatless. So yay for us for making it two months! Here is to many many more months of vegetarianism!