Evolve Restaurant- DC | Vegan While Out

I met up with my girl Monique for soul food and conversation at Evolve restaurant in DC last weekend.

The food and atmosphere is on point! 

I know this sounds random....but I love vegan restaurants with a bar.

Not just because I like to have a sip (I do lol) but because there's this misconception that veganism is boring, too strict and not a lifestyle that you can do long-term.

Being a vegan is as fun as you make it!

Evolve has a sports bar feel, so I like that people can come to the restaurant for a drink, watch the game and then order some vegan wings to go with it.

This was my first time at their DC location (even though I eat their food at DC Veg Fest). 

I ordered vegan fried chicken, macaroni & cheese and garlic kale salad.

Oh and cherry vegan cheesecake for dessert....

#fatveganlife

I wish I took more pictures but I wasn't planning to do a blog post, so I ran my mouth the whole time.

I have no regrets. :-)

I don't have the recipes for the food I ate at Evolve but I do have a vegan fried chicken recipe here; kale salad recipe here & and a vegan macaroni & cheese recipe here.

Enjoy!

Date Night Tips For Vegans

I love date night.

Eric and I try to have it weekly and the rules are:

• No talking about work/business
• No talking about the kids
• No phones/Internet

We eat, laugh, dream out loud-always a good time.

When I first started this vegan journey, date night used to be a bit like this....

#itsnothatsimple

Posted by Vegan Memes on Friday, March 27, 2015

*Sigh* I was so used to eating whatever....the thought of inspecting the menu for vegan options and grilling the server for details overwhelmed me. 

7 Tips for a fun vegan date night:

*Use happycow.net to find local vegan-friendly restaurants near you (this app is handy for travel, too).

Infused water with gin for me...beer for Eric

*Not all beer/wine/liquor is vegan, so use Barnivore to see if what you're drinking is 

*Don't be afraid to ask for help - Since so many people have food allergies, servers are used to answering a lot of questions about ingredients.

Don't just say you're a vegan because most people aren't too clear about what that means - Ask specific questions like, "does this bread contain eggs or butter?" or "Is this soup made from vegetable or chicken broth?"

*Consider what's in the kitchen not necessarily what's on the menu - A lot of times there aren't any obvious vegan options on a menu, so try to think about what ingredients are in the kitchen and make a meal out of that. For instance, if there's a mushroom burger (beef patty with sautéed mushrooms) on the menu - you know there's mushrooms in the kitchen, so ask for a mushroom burger (minus the patty) with lettuce, tomato & onion instead.

See this blog post for more details 

*Some vegan options you can usually find on any menu:

-Black bean/veggie burger (check to make sure there isn't any egg in the patty and ask them to skip the cheese)

-Steamed vegetables and rice (make sure there's no butter-you can season it with salt & pepper) 

-Basic salad (skip the cheese & croutons-use balsamic vinaigrette as your dressing) 

-French fries & baked potato

*Skip the restaurant - Sometimes it's just easier not to think about food at all. Consider eating at home before the date and going to a concert, basketball game, movie or play putt-putt golf instead

*Relax!-Try not to let food rule your evening. Enjoy your boo and have a good time

Like I said in this post, vegan life is not uptight.

It's fun and with a few adjustments you will be just fine.

Happy date night!

How to Eat Vegan At Chipotle | Vegan While Out

Being a vegan will definitely sharpen your culinary chops, but if you're like me, eating out is just as fun.

It's nice when my food options aren't limited to just french fries and salad (sometimes this happens lol), so I appreciate when companies make an effort to put vegan friendly options on the menu.

I came across this chart on Facebook that does a quick breakdown on how to eat vegan at Chipotle.

I usually order rice, black beans, fajita vegetables, guacamole and lettuce in my bowl or burrito.

Have you tried the sofritas yet? I wrote about my experience with it here.

I also put together a video with 7 tips on how to enjoy eating out as a vegan....

Happy dining out!

What We Ate Today #8 Vegan Family Meals | Video

 I love showing easy and delicious vegan meals that you can enjoy with the family. 

Check out the latest What We Ate Today vid...

Breakfast: Puffins multigrain cereal (the cereal featured in the video & picture is NOT vegan; here's a list of the vegan-friendly ones from the same company-scroll to the bottom of this page), almond milk & nectarine

It's crazy because when I skimmed the ingredients, I just knew this multigrain one would be vegan over their peanut butter, fruit medley & cocoa crunch (which is all vegan), since it's plain and has less ingredients.

This Puffins multigrain cereal contains vitamin D3 which is derived from an animal source (I believe sheep's wool).

At first I was pissed about featuring a non-vegan product in this video, but decided the lesson was too important to leave out that footage.  Even after 4 years on this journey, I still don't always get it right. 

I do the best I can daily and hope you do the same in your own journey. :-)

Progression over perfection, baby.

Lunch: Thai noodles from Forks Over Knives

My kids have a love/hate thing with sprouts, so I left those off. I doubled this recipe, so there was enough for lunch the next day. Get the full recipe here 

Dinner: Chipotle-white rice, black beans, fajitas, guacamole, mild salsa, lettuce

When buying or eating burritos out, be sure to check to make sure it doesn't contain lard (which is an animal byproduct). As far as I know, the flour tortillas at Chipotle are vegan-friendly. Articles here & here 

Another vegan option at Chipotle is getting the same ingredients in one of their veggie bowls. You can also ask for their vegetarian/vegan pinto beans, brown rice and sofritas. 

Dunkin' Donuts Offers Almond Milk | Vegan Victory

Dunkin 'Donuts is rolling out almond milk as an option starting this week! This is exciting news for folks looking for a more compassionate (and healthy) option for their morning coffee.

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At this time, there aren't any vegan donuts on the menu (their donuts contain eggs & dairy) but you can enjoy their bagels with your coffee.

Their plain, blueberry, garlic, salt, onion & sesame seed bagels are all vegan (here's the full list). Oh, and the hash browns are vegan, too!

Look for the "AM" label on their store locator to see if the location near you has almond milk on the menu.

The nearest location to me doesn't offer it yet but the one about 2 miles from there does. I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but I'm excited that my vegan friends on the go can enjoy almond milk in their coffee. I'm all about celebrating the progress and not trashing companies who aren't perfect. 

Will this change make you consider drinking Dunkin' Donuts' coffee while on the go?

Sources:

News Source

Dunkin Donuts Vegan options

Dunkin' Cruelty