Adobo Mexican Restaurant

On Monday night, a few girlfriends and I met up at the new Adobo Mexican Restaurant which has now taken the place of the old Our Best on Bardstown Road in Fern Creek. It looks exactly the same, just with a new paint job and different decor on the inside. I’m glad we chose it as Mexican restaurants are usually a safe bet for me as a vegetarian and the location was good for all of us to meet up in the middle.

The restaurant wasn’t too busy when we walked in and were seated right away. As we walked back to our table, we spotted the “Guacamole Bar” which I wish I had gotten a photo of. Basically, they make their guacamole fresh right when you order it. We couldn’t resist!

This appetizer was $8 but I swear, it was enough for the four of us and then some! Totally worth it too, I’m not kidding when I say this is the BEST guacamole I have ever had. It was fresh, creamy and even a bit spicy. Sorry, Qdoba, you have been replaced!

Like many Mexican restaurants do, they offered 99 cent margaritas on Mondays, so I decided to try one, you know, to review for the blog 😉

It was really tasty. I usually don’t do “on the rocks” but I tried it because the frozen version was $1.99, which isn’t bad either but I thought I’d pick the cheap one this time 😉 I’m glad I did because I think I might like it better this way!

I forgot to take a photo of my entree but I ordered the veggie burrito with no cheese or sour cream. The vegetables in the burrito were surprisingly tasty and included zucchini, broccoli, onions, peppers and beans. It came with a side of rice.

Sometimes without the cheese and sour cream the dish can suffer (because they don’t try to do anything else with it) but this one did not. There was a nice garnish of lettuce, onion and spices on the side that I spread over it, plus a few dollops of guac 🙂

I enjoyed it very much, took the other half of it for lunch today and it was just as good reheated. It wasn’t the best Mexican restaurant I have ever been to but for a new place in a city with so many restaurants, it did stand out to me. The guacamole bar was really unique to me, I had never seen that before.

The prices were good too. For my entree, plus the drink, plus half the guacamole (me and a friend split the cost for the table) my bill came to $15 and I had leftovers so you figure that for 2 meals, not bad 🙂

We’ve all been bragging about it to our other friends and definitely want to go back soon. Although the veggie options are not plentiful, I’d be perfectly fine just eating the chips & guacamole!

Vegan cookout

In my 17 months as a vegan, I have been to many, many potlucks, a cookie exchange and other gatherings surrounded by food. It’s so nice to go somewhere and not have to say “what’s in this?” or “can I eat this?”

But it wasn’t until this past weekend that I went to a vegan cookout! And it was so much fun 🙂

Saturday was Derby Day here in Kentucky but the Louisville Vegetarian Club decided to have an “alternative” cookout held at Tyler Park here in Louisville. This event was sponsored by Tofurky and Rainbow Blossom (a local health food store) who both donated food items!

What a beautiful day it was!

And the food was yummy too!

Tofurky brat on a Rudi’s hot dog bun with relish, mustard, ketchup and some organic tortilla chips with Athenos roasted garlic hummus 🙂

And of course, the rest of the crew brought some really delicious food to share!

Carrie‘s black bean quinoa and Seana’s vegan macaroni salad

Somebody knew my birthday was the day before and made this amazingly decadent chocolate cake with ganache and strawberries 🙂

Thank you Carrie 😉

I also had some spicy pasta salad a la Karen and these insanely addictive peanut butter chocolate chip blondies. Let’s just say I did not need to eat the rest of the evening!

I have to thank everyone for coming out and for sharing some truly wonderful dishes. You guys are so wonderful and I’m so glad to have this group in my life 🙂

This is what I get…

…at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Not a lot of vegan options there. Even the veggie burger contains dairy. So it’s usually either chips & salsa or a plain salad & french fries.

To their credit, the salsa is very good and even somewhat spicy. So I guess it’s not the worst thing in the world. Some places are just better than others. I only go here because my husband likes it and it’s where we watch most of the UFC pay per views.

Speaking of the UFC, there is a vegan fighter — Mac Danzig. Check him out.

Happy Monday 🙂

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Queen of Sheba

Confession: Up until about a month ago, I had never tried Ethiopian food.  So, I was not sure what to expect when us girls got together and went out to Queen of Sheba here in Louisville.

After the waiter tried to talk us into ordering things other than what we wanted (how many times did we have to tell him two of us don’t eat meat?) we settled on the Vegetarian Combo for the four of us to share. We also got talked into an appetizer but oh well, it was our first time there.

The Vegetarian Combo included salad, and a serving each of Misir wot (“Lentil stew simmered in onions, garlic seasoned with turmeric and herbs”), Atakilt (“Sliced cabbage, onions, and carrots cooked to perfection in a mild tomato sauce”) and Gomen wot (“Collard greens, onions and potatoes cooked to perfection with garlic in a mild sauce”).

The food was absolutely delicious. My favorite was definitely lentils but I actually really enjoyed the cabbage dish too. The best part is you don’t use forks, you dip into each thing with injera (Ethiopian flatbread, not pictured unfortunately).

I would definitely like to eat this food again.

But, I think we were all a little put off by the waiter. First, he kept trying to get us to order certain things he was promoting instead of listening to what we wanted and accommodating us. He also had a little trouble splitting up the bill, which is also when we found out he actually got us to order TWO appetizers when we thought it was only one. I think in the end, we all just gave up and paid whatever it said so we could get out of there.

Granted, it was rainy, we were starving, everybody has an “off” night, and he kept our drinks pretty full. So maybe we should try to go back sometime and hope we get a different experience.

But I definitely took a copy of the takeout menu for future reference 😉

Beloved Seitan

Seitan is one of those foods I didn’t try for the longest time because I wasn’t really sure I needed to. I mean, I already had tofu. Then I tried tempeh and was very impressed. And I had no idea how to cook it.

But when I dined at Ramsi’s Cafe on the World over the summer (one of many times) I decided to finally give this seitan (say-tan, not Satan, haha) a try.

That’s a vegan seitan parmesan sandwich on cuban bread with roasted potatoes 🙂

I liked it so much that when I went back to Ramsi’s the next time, I tried the Jamaican seitan sandwich, which I posted about back in August.

I can’t really describe seitan, other than to say I find it just as delicious and versatile as tofu and tempeh. But I still have yet to purchase and cook any seitan myself at home. Maybe someday!

Have you ever had seitan? Do you cook with it at home? What are your favorite recipes to use it in?

Tofurky Pizza and Blog Evolution

I have to admit, this thing has been in my freezer for quite some time.

I was really excited when I heard that the vegan Tofurky Pizza finally came out and were being carried at my local Whole Foods Market. The best selling point for this pizza is the Daiya cheese, which is the best vegan cheese (for pizza) on the market, in my opinion. I tried it on a homemade pizza once and it was delicious.

I didn’t care much for the high price of this item (around $7) but you have to factor convenience into the cost. This would feed me for at least two meals and only took 12 minutes to cook in the oven. No time spent on preparation or chopping veggies for toppings.

I decided to get the Italian “Sausage” and Fire Roasted Veggie because a plain cheese pizza just sounded boring to me and the only other choice was pepperoni. I need my veggies! Plus, this may be the only time I try this product so I had to go all out!

The left side got bent a little bit from being shoved around in my freezer for several weeks.  But other than that slight defect, this looked pretty good!

The Good:

• I liked that the crust was thin and got a little crispy thanks to my cooking it directly on the oven rack.
• The vegetables were delicious!
• Short cooking time and easy to cut with my pizza cutter.

And the Not-So-Good:

• Even though this pizza tasted decent, it probably still isn’t worth $7.
• There was not nearly enough Daiya cheese on this pizza.
• The Italian sausage was just okay, I expected it to be a bit more flavorful.

Verdict?

I would probably buy this product again, perhaps another variety, if I need to get a vegan pizza to go and the store I am at is all out of Amy’s No Cheese Roasted Vegetable Pizza. The sauce they use on that pizza is so good, you don’t even need non-dairy cheese.

I had the leftovers for lunch today and I have to stick by my “just okay” review. But I’m glad I finally tried it!

Have any of you tried the Tofurky pizza? Did you like it?

Blog Evolution

I have not been blogging a whole lot the past few months and it’s had me doing a lot of thinking regarding this blog and it’s future. By the way, I’m happily taking suggestions on name changes. Ha.

I feel like in many ways, I have moved away from what this blog was originally intended for (an accountability/food journal) and that’s okay. A lot has changed in the past two and a half years that I’ve been blogging here.

But what hasn’t changed is that I still love to write and share the things I enjoy with people, which is what I want to continue to do here. I love this community!

While my weight loss is a big part of my “story” and a reason for blogging, I don’t want to focus on that so much anymore. I still struggle sometimes to maintain my weight but I’m in a good place now and have another system of accountability that is working well for me now.

I also went vegan more than a year ago and so much about that has changed my life and my views on a lot of things regarding food, health and other topics.

So anyway, please be patient with me as I work out the kinks and decide how best to move this blog forward. And if you have any advice, I’ll at least consider it 😉

Pumpkin Gnocchi

Yes, more pumpkin! I’m glad you liked my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins post from yesterday. Around here, it’s going to be all pumpkin, all the time. At least for a little while 😉

For dinner on Thursday, I decided to try a new type of gnocchi (thanks to Matt’s post from earlier that day).

‘Tis the season!

I was really excited when I found this at World Market, the same place I found my Pumpkin Spice Coffee!

The first time I had gnocchi, I tried the Whole Wheat version and enjoyed that. I was super excited to see a pumpkin version but I wondered how it would taste, since most of my pumpkin consumption is in the form of sweets or oatmeal.

I cooked the package as directed and used this pasta sauce that I believe I purchased at Whole Foods (don’t quote me):

I mixed it with the last of these Boca crumbles which had been in my freezer forever. It feels so good to use stuff up, doesn’t it?

All together! It doesn’t look like much but this really filled me up and I didn’t want to stuff myself anyway because I went to a Body Pump class about an hour after dinner! 🙂

I believe the sauce might have taken away from the taste of the gnocchi but the sauce itself was delicious. I wanted to get pumpkin sauce to go with it but most of the ones I saw contained dairy. However, I did take a bite of one without sauce on it and the pumpkin flavor was still very subtle.

This was a good, healthy meal and very tasty but I think in the future, I will stick with the whole wheat gnocchi. Or perhaps I will try my hand at making some myself?

 What products have you tried recently that left you just slightly disappointed?

Fleur de Lis Cafe

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of having dinner with an awesome group of friends at Fleur de Lis Cafe here in Louisville.

Fleur de Lis Cafe is located in the Deer Park neighborhood on Bardstown Road in the same location as the former Sweet ‘n Savory Cafe. With new owners came a new name and a new menu. Here’s a great review from the Courier-Journal: Fleur de Lis meant to be savored.

As a vegan, my favorite thing about the menu was the inclusion of several vegan items to choose from:

In fact, even though I was the only vegan in our group (we did have 2 vegetarians and 1 flexitarian), our entire table ordered from the vegan menu! 🙂

But first, we had to take advantage of the half price bottles of wine. For this particular selection, two glasses would’ve been $12, but the entire bottle was $11. No brainer!

Courtney and I split this one:

The blend was called Tenacious Red and we both really enjoyed it. It was quite smooth for a red wine!

As an appetizer, we all shared the fried plaintains, but I didn’t get a picture of them. Trust me, they were delicious! For being fried, they weren’t greasy and the salsa that came with it added a nice touch of spiciness.

For my entree, I ordered the black bean burger, which came on a bun with guacamole, greens and tomatoes, a side of fries, and a pickle.

Normally, I would complain about paying $12 for a meal, but this one was worth it! The bean burger was delicious and didn’t fall apart like the ones I make at home! And it was so comforting to order from a menu knowing what I’m getting is really vegan, without having to say “no cheese” “no mayo” and so on.

I should also mention that it’s quite a cute place, with lots of art work on the walls, white tablecloths and tiny flowers on each table. It’s the little things that impress me if you didn’t already know! 😉

I appreciate the Fleur de Lis Cafe’s willingness to offer such delicious vegan items. A few of our friends tried the lasagna, which got rave reviews from our table. I read on their Facebook page that they will soon be offering a new Fall menu, complete with new vegan items.

So it looks like I will be visiting again soon! 🙂

The Swan Dive

Have you ever heard of The Swan Dive?

I’m sure many of my vegan and foodie friends here in Louisville have. But, if you don’t fall into either of those two categories, you may not have. In fact, Josh thought I was going to a place where there were literally swans diving. Hmm…

Anyway, as my friend Courtney says The Swan Dive is exactly what it says…a dive.

But they also just so happen to have a 100% vegetarian menu, a good portion of which is also vegan or can be made vegan.

I can’t believe in my year as a vegetarian I had never been to this establishment. But, I finally made it there on Wednesday night!

They had a lot to choose from and it was really hard to narrow it down but in the end, tempeh bacon won me over! 🙂

Sorry for the gritty picture — bad lighting!

I got the vegan BLT (which comes with tempeh bacon and Vegenaise) which came with a side. They had vegan mac ‘n cheese and french fries, but I went with a side salad specifically because they have Goddess dressing, ha ha!

For “bar food” I did not find anything to be greasy at all. What I ate was really tasty and fresh. And it was so nice to have so many options that fit my dietary preferences.

I loved it and I can’t wait to go back. Just got a few other places to try first! 🙂

Mac ‘n Teese

In addition to the vegan mozzarella I made pizza with, Chicago Soy Dairy was kind enough to send me some non-dairy creamy cheddar sauce to try too!

It didn’t take long for me to decide that I wanted to make vegan mac ‘n cheese! Actually, mine turned out sort of like a casserole.

I cooked half a box of pasta shells and then heated up the cheese sauce with it. It was really easy to make and looked really good…but it smelled funny. This made me a little nervous to eat it.

I mixed in 2/3 cup of cooked mixed veggies and a serving of Morningstar Chik’n strips I had leftover in the freezer that I wanted to get rid of. It turned into quite the interesting dish!

I am happy to say that even though it smelled weird, this “teese” tasted AWESOME! I liked it a lot better than the mac & chreese that I’d tried before (which is okay, but this was better).

The batch I made was big enough for lots of leftovers, including some I had with half a Jamaican Seitan sandwich I got at Ramsi’s on Friday night.

The sandwich was pretty awesome itself, even the leftovers!

I will definitely be ordering some more of this stuff for whenever I’m in the mood for mac & cheese, vegan style.

Thanks again, Chicago Soy Dairy! 🙂