Vegan Day 2 & 3: Parties, Popsicles, Pedicures & Pei Wei

Happy 4th of July weekend, everyone!

We had a party at work yesterday to celebrate the occasion. I celebrated by making this cake I can't eat, and ostracizing myself by not eating any of the food ANYONE brought. Being a vegan is fun!

Seriously, though. It was a little bit awkward bringing my own food to a party, especially because I really didn't feel like explaining to everyone why I wasn't eating hot dogs, cheese dip and cole slaw. They are sort of used to my healthy ways so it didn't phase them too much. I just used the excuse "I'm not eating hot dogs right now" and they took it as the quirky healthy girl doing her quirky healthy thing. Instead of their spread I made a burrito out of my leftover rice and beans. Honestly, it was really good and way tastier than a hot dog so I didn't feel like I was missing anything by not partaking in the party food.

That night I was feeling really lazy so I made a totally lame vegan dinner: a giant plate of roasted vegetables.

This is potatoes and beets from my CSA and carrots from the regular old grocery store tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper and baked for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees. Of course, ketchup was added post-picture for the potatoes. This tasted great but didn't really fill me up. I should have roasted the tofu I have in the fridge for some protein.

This morning, I slept so late (9:30am!!!) my breakfast was more of a brunch: homemade granola with a sliced banana, a scoop of Barney Butter and some unsweetened soy milk.

I totally dominated this bowl. Why is Barney Butter so much better than other nut butters? If it wasn't so expensive (and if I didn't have to make a special trip to a grocery store in a neighboring suburb to get it) I would eat like a jar a week.

After breakfast, I only wanted to do two things: get a pedicure and eat a paleta. Paletas are Mexican popsicles, and they are amazing. Nashville's local shop, Las Paletas, is pretty famous (they beat Bobby Flay on Throwdown!) and rightly so. Their popsicles are seriously on a whole other level of deliciousness. My favorite is the spicy chocolate one, but since I'm not doing dairy right now I was really just planning on ordering whatever fruit popsicle they had today with chili involved. Of course, I got there and NO fruit flavors were chili-infused! However...there was a mysterious vegetable chili flavor. A vegetable popsicle? Oh, yes, my friends. Yes indeed.

Behold the cucumber chili paleta. This. Was. INCREDIBLE. It was sweet, salty, spicy and sour all at the same time. It tasted sort of like one of those Asian cucumber salads, and I wish I had ordered two because I want another one right this very second. Wow. (Sorry for the terrible pic, I forgot my camera and had to use my cell phone. Considering my cell is like one step up from Zack Morris' giant phone, it turned out sort of okay.)

After this paleta revelation, I got a pedicure. The lady cut the crap out of one of my cuticles. Boo. Still, it looks nice. No pictures because I don't want to attract foot fetishists. (If you're already a foot fetishist and read this blog, I'm not saying go away. I'm just saying go elsewhere for your foot jollies. I'll stick to food and television.)

I really hate cooking my own dinner on Saturday, so I ended up getting Pei Wei takeout. They have a really great nutritional guide online so I was pretty positive I could come away from there with a vegan meal. That link is pretty entertaining and informative, by the way, for a couple of reasons. First, did you realize that all of the meals served there are technically two servings? Yeah, I didn't. Also, I love the section where they claim they won't commit to calling any of their food 100% vegan because, and I quote, "there are many vegans who do not eat sugar because it is processed with animal bones." I'm not attempting to mock people's choices or beliefs, but MAN it would be hard to be that strict of a vegan. (Um, and I had no idea sugar was processed with animal bones? That is weird, right?)

Anywhoodle, here's what I got:

This is Honey-Seared Tofu and Vegetables and a Vegetable Spring Roll. Note: there is no actual honey in this. It's just in the name. Which is...odd. What do they put in there instead? And why don't they just call it something else? Marketing is weird. Luckily, this was delicious and by far the best thing I've ever eaten at Pei Wei. I've been pretty disappointed in the past because their meat-based dishes are very light on the veggies and heavy on the sauce. This was the opposite, full of crunchy vegetables and very lightly sauced. No matter what happens at the end of these 30 days, I will only be ordering vegetarian meals at Pei Wei in the future. (Also? This is only half of the food they gave me. Now that I know there are supposed to be two servings I will feel awkward eating the whole portion!)

Whew. That was long. Have a great night, everyone! I'm off to babysit the cutest baby in the world. I heard a rumor there will be vegan brownies involved. Mmm, chocolate.

5 Comments

Those veggies look good. I try and try to like beets, but I really can't. I love the greens, but not the beets. Although, I have grated them into some dishes and liked the dishes. Nice cake!

Posted by: Pablo | 07/03/2010 at 06:23 PM

I just realized I ate the fortune cookie from Pei Wei without thinking. Definitely not vegan. FAIL.

Pablo: I like the greens better than the actual beets. But I do like the beets as well. That pizza you made when I was still living with you guys with beets in the sauce was awesome.

Posted by: Carrie | 07/03/2010 at 06:27 PM

If I attempted a Vegan diet ( I have to say, I think I have no desire to ever try) I would probably eat way too much processed foods to make up for things like protein. Sounds like you are doing great so far. Although, now that I have been doing it, I could maybe give up dairy and gluten for good. Don't know if I really want to though? I may find they make me sick when I go back to them!

Posted by: Nea | 07/03/2010 at 06:59 PM