Almost Vegan

Apple Cinnamon, Blueberry, Brown Sugar Cinnamon, and Strawberry Pop-tarts are vegan!
But the ones with frosting are not vegan.

Tragic email I received today (below). Ellen, has (I believe) lived in Austin all her life. Her parents are vegetarians and she is vegan. The sad part is, for whatever reason, she has to move. She is going to a town called Beaumont, in Texas also, and it doesn’t sound good. Check her comment on Wal-Mart has Soy Yogurt — YEEEEHAAAA!!!!
What she has done for us is celebrate her home town of Austin by sending me an email listing her favorite vegan restaurants. Take a look and thanks Ellen.
——————–
Wow. I live in Austin. I’m about to move and I’ve had a really sheltered life if you think about it. Two vegan restaurants and countless vegetarian restaurants (including a vegetarian coffee house that’ll make anything vegan).
I thought that you might find these restaurants interesting. I suggest that anyone who wants good vegan food, take a trip to Austin.
Nu Age
Has a vegan custard even! Vegan risotto! (And I found it hard to find vegetarian risotto.)
Veggie Heaven
All vegan items clearly marked on the board! Wonderful food, wonderful lemonade.
Cafe de Luz
Vegan restaurant. The only one I haven’t been too. Supposed to be wonderful.
Mr. Natural’s
Not my favorite. The food is a little bland.
Bouldin Creek
The coffee house I was talking about earlier. When I’m craving breakfast tacos, I can get vegan ones here.
West Lynn Cafe
Upscale vegetarian restaurant with plenty of vegan options. My vegetarian parents love to go there.
As you can see, Austin is quite veggie friendly.
–Ellen

Thanks Green Giant for quick and easy Garlic & herb potatoes that are vegan.
After a weekend with my family of: “Can I eat any of this stuff? What’s in the wild rice?” family: “Chicken broth, I’m sorry.” Cheese and cream in the potatoes, creamy-cheesy Cesar salad, yesterday they finally put the cheese sauce on the side instead of right on the cauliflower so I had something to eat.
Thick steaks Friday night, chicken Saturday and a tenderloin Sunday night, all grilled to perfection by Ryan with ooohs and aaahs all around.
I am starving.
(Potatoes were Angela’s tip – thanks)

I have been cooking with Gimme Lean Sausage Style a lot lately. It is really tasty and adds a good shot of protein, where if I only used the veggies to make the same meal (which I often do), I would otherwise miss out on.
Try this excellent pasta dish. It is fast, easy and not too messy to make. One skillet and one pot to boil the pasta.

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I found these VAN 100% Vegetarian Egg Rolls in the “deli” (it’s not a deli, it’s just a refrigerated island of packaged food) section of my super Wal-Mart. Right next to some brats and brie. It’s funny, I never look in there, but wandered over and found these. I read the ingredients and couldn’t believe it.
They are pretty good for egg rolls minus the eggs.
Be warned, they make 4-5 different kinds, the rest have meat in them.
*(of note) Angela, a new reader who has taken a great interest in Almost Vegan, emailed me about these egg rolls the very next day after I found them. I think they must be new, at least at Wal-Mart.

I found one.

Now I have been looking for a vegan granola bar for some time now. I don’t know how many bar’s ingredient lists I have read and it surprised me that I didn’t find one that was vegan. Always milk in them. I had almost given up.
But then I noticed the Full Circle brand on this package and because I have recently discovered Full Circle, (Hey, I live out in the middle of nowhere) I thought what the heck.
Score.
I tried the wild berry. Yum. They have a little, Rice Crispy Treat-like texture to them. Don’t be fooled though, their Cobbler Cereal Bars do have milk in them. Rats!

I received this email today, and by God I’m gonna make this my post. No, it is not entirely because I have been working really hard lately so I have not had the time to post much (true), but it is a really good email and I liked it a lot.
(Especially the part about the potato wedges at Wal-Mart)
Enjoy:
——————————-
Hi Denise!
I ran across the almost vegan website just a couple days ago, and I
was delighted to find every day commercial things listed. I wanted to
contribute a post, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it. I’m
guessing the only way to get a post up is to email you, so here I am!
I’ve been a vegan for 8 months or so now and I’m constantly reading
the ingredient lists for this. I put together a little webpage with my
usual things on it because other people wanted to know what I could
eat as well. All three of these pages have pictures too:
http://www.brick.net/~izaah/diet/katdiet.html
http://www.brick.net/~izaah/diet/newstuff.html
http://www.brick.net/~izaah/diet/newstuff2.htm
Here are some other things that I didn’t list that are vegan:
Snyder’s of Hanover Jalapeno Pieces
Website and Picture:
http://www.snydersofhanover.com/Pages/Bakery%20Selections/products_pieces_jalapeno.html
The Potato wedges sold at walmart in the deli are also vegan. I got to
see the box of ingredients!
The spaghetti marinara at Fazoli’s is vegan (they used to put parmesan
on top, but now they only put parsley)
Domino’s thin crust pizza dough is vegan…remember to leave off the cheese.
Thanks!
Angela

I always feel the need for protein and this Tofu Mate is a good help with that. It makes a nice sauce and is great over rice.

I actually am trying to cut down on hydrogenated fats so I went to the store and looked for some popcorn. Gosh, what trouble finding some without butter flavor! This Full Circle brand has no hydrogenated oils and is also organic.

www.fullcirclefoods.com
Most of them were in fact vegan, but one after the other had hydrogenated oil in there and simulated butter flavor. They were all way too flavorful, even for me, which is saying a lot.
I found this brand and it was nice and clean tasting. The popcorn? I joined Netflix. No late fees.

Ore-Ida’s Fast Food Fries are just one of their many offerings that are vegan. Check the ingredients, (please).

The tater tots are legal and even some of the seasoned curly fries have no animal products in them. Hard to believe, cause they are so good. I started eating these because my family, big meat eaters who think I am nuts, make these thinking they probably have some sort of animal ingredients in them.
HAH!
Ore-Ida Website