Operation: The Great Switcheroo

 Mid-Week Meatless Mayhem Begins

I have endured the teasing when we go out and people make jokes about my only eating “sticks and leaves”.  I have brushed off the taunting when I prepare my meals of Chickpea Masala or Tofu Shirataki Noodles while my husband tries to tempt me with his beef tacos.  I have even laughed off people changing my name at work to, “Hey Vegan”.  Now, I have been pushed to the point where it is time to start teaching some lessons around here.  It’s on like Donkey Kong!

Me eating “sticks and leaves” for dinner on my wedding night

Last year I started to feel like our grocery bill was getting a little high.  With my husband fiercely holding on to his dedication to meats and my fiercely trying to remove all animal products from my livelihood, I was buying for two separate grocery lists and preparing two sets of meals each day.  One night I made a vegan chili and decided not to share with him that it was vegan.  He liked it so much that he decided to take it for lunch the next day.  Well, I was so pleased that my plan was carried out so successfully that I had to tell him.  That didn’t quite turn out how I thought.  I genuinely thought he would be impressed with my ability to transform a food he loved into the great tasting vegan version.  Instead, he felt deceived (I can’t tell this story without laughing, it’s so ridiculous!).  For a while after that he would watch me a like hawk when I cooked our meals.  In the past few weeks he has stopped watching me cook, yet the taunting still continues.  So, I am taking a stand.  My goal is to show him that the vegan diet is delicious.  He just won’t know it is vegan, not yet anyway. 

Eventually, I want to get to a full day’s worth of meals, but just to start out I will post one replacement “vegan-ized” meal.  I will rate each meal to reflect how intense I am getting with the cooking for that day:

• “Just dippin’ my toes”- For those who just want to experiment with a few vegan dishes
• “I’m kind of a hippy”- dishes that may be a little more advanced to prepare
• “Proud to be a crunchy, granola-eating, nutritional-yeast loving vegan”- This person won’t even eat animal crackers.  

Operation The Great Switcheroo Meal#1: Creamy Tomato Soup

Rating: Just Dippin’ My Toes

Click on the link to checkout this recipe for a delicious creamy tomato soup.  Being vegan doesn’t have to be all tofu and granola like most people tend to believe.  Try this recipe and let me know what you think!  Operation: The Great Swithcheroo, Initiated!

Vegan Soul Food… Is That Allowed?

 

Mac'n Food Truck

 

On the second Saturday of each month, a small section of Miami hosts an Art Walk.  The Wynwood Art Walk is held in Wynwood, just north of Downtown Miami, home to over 60 art galleries, complexes and collections.  It’s an amazing site.  Buildings, plastered with graffiti, litter the streets; hundreds of people, all ages and races, crowd the roads to take a peak in the minds of the newest artists; the galleries and complexes open their doors for this moment, to let the community see what their art is all about.  However, as amazing as this scene is, and it truly is amazing, that’s not what this story is about.  What was my goal of attendance on this humid summer night?  My focus was centered on that grassy knoll at the corner of NW 23^rd St and NW 2^nd Ave. 

A travelling vessel of food roaming from one place to another; entertaining large followings of people who anxiously await a much anticipated freshly cooked meal… out of the back of a truck.  Who would have imagined that it would become socially acceptable, even trendy, to buy food out of a truck?  Regardless of how it happened, the newest sensation is here and it’s getting bigger.

 

I was aware of the hype centered on the presence of the food trucks, but regardless of how “amazing” this newfound expression of food was, why would I care?  For me it’s just another rolling holiday of goodness that I won’t participate in.  Chicken, Beef and Pork- it’s in everything.  But then I heard those magical words… “Mac’n Food Truck”.  That hidden vegan gem nestled in the back of the grounds.  Surrounded by all of the meaty temptations but outshining those carnivores in all of its glory!  Yes- MAC’N TRUCK!  And to top it off, it’s soul food.  My grandmother’s greatest dishes transformed… for me.  As a devout vegan I too may now indulge in life’s most delicious food, soul food.  Mac ‘n “Cheese”, fried pickles, BBQ Pulled “Pork” Sandwich, and that’s just what I ate that evening.  The prices are extremely reasonable as well.  So a vegan food truck that is DELICIOUS and cheap- it doesn’t get any better than this.  Just so you don’t miss out, take a look at the Mac’n Food Truck site to find out where they are right now.

Fear not loyal readers.  South Florida vegans should not be the only people to be so lucky as to have an awesome food truck right in our own backyard.  These vegan food trucks are popping up in more cities around the country.  Take a look at this article by Mobile Cuisine Magazine for a list of vegan and vegetarian food trucks around the country.  If you don’t see your favorite travelling tank of tastiness, send me an email and let me know which trucks you like to dish on.