I'm back!

Actually I've been back, but I've been really lazy about blogging recently-- oops. haha. While in TX, we visited Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. (Sorry that we weren't in Houston, Stacey! Thanks for wanting to give suggestions :D) While in TX, my diet consisted a lot of toasted bagels and chips and pico de gallo (haha). BUT! I was able to go to a few veg establishments!! Hooray!! Here we go--

Spiral Diner! (Dallas)

My dish: neatball sub! I loved the texture of the neatballs!!!! The sauce was a bit on the sour side, but other than that, it was really good! On the side is potato salad. It tasted strongly of dill which is a good thing because I love dill! :)

My mom's dish: Spring Roll? Wrap? I don't remember, but it was super good! This was my first time having seitan at a veg restaurant and it was unbelievably good. oh dear.

My dad's dish: Tofu Mitch Club. This was good beyond words!!! ohhh. My mouth waters at the thought :)

Here are my omniparents with their veg food! :)

We shared :)

After that, I was super full, but I wanted to get something for the road ( I mean, how often can I get fresh baked vegan cookies[that i haven't made]?). So cookies it was!

Chocolate Chip Cookie(!): ZOMG. I loved the chewiness factor! Totally yummy for my tummy! The amount of chocolate chips was perfect too. Hooray!! I was really sad when this ended :(

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie: yum.Yum.YUM. That pretty much sums it up :) It was less chewy than the chocolate chip one. I really enjoyed this cookie.

If I could have eaten at Spiral every day of vacation, it wouldnt have been enough. :)

Next up: Mother's Cafe (Austin)

My dish: Chili melt with the veg cheeze sub. Layered tortillas, brown rice, black beans, and nutty chipotle sauce. It was pretty good, though the cheeze got to me in the end *shudder* =/

My dad's dish: barbecue tofu, black eyed peas, and mashed potatoes. The barbecue sauce was a bit peculiar. They use peanut butter, so it tasted sort of off (to me at least). The mashed potatoes had an interesting flavor and texture. I can't really describe it, but it wasn't that great.

My mom's dish: artichoke enchiladas(veg cheeze sub), brown rice and black beans. It was alright, but I don't think I like enchiladas in general-- too mush-ish.

For dessert, we ordered the Peanut Butter Chocolate Tofu Pie to share. It was alright-- a little too (dare I say it?!?!) tofu-ey.

Overall, Mother's was pretty meh for me. Not great; not bad. Just meh.

We spent New Year's Eve in a hotel room which, very conveniently, had a kitchenette. We put it to good use by using the stove to heat up some Thai noodles. This was from some random Thai place in Austin. (Rice noodles, tofu, and mushrooms in a sweet/sourish lemongrass broth) Yum!

My last veg restaurant was New Start Veggie Garden in Dallas. It's an all vegan korean buffet.

My plate consisted of broccoli (good. not great), sweet and sour chik'n(pretty good), a pumpkin-rice noodle dumpling(YUM), brown rice nori maki(pretty good), a potato croquette(good but on the bland side), miso soup(standard), Mapo tofu(bland), and brown rice with some veggie meat dish that I don't really remember(it was good though!)

Nachos: They had these all individually 'built' at the buffet. These were comprised of veggie beef, salsa, tomatoes and a tofu "cheez" that was pretty good, albeit lacking in salt.

Pumpkin Tofu Cheesecake: This was pretty odd. To begin with, the piece was about a 3/4" square. It was also really dry and sort of bland. The pumpkin overwhelmed it and made it pasty. BLECH. Not recommended.

Citron(I think) Tofu Cheesecake: Once again, these pieces were roughly 3/4" squares. Haha. This kind tasted better than the pumpkin one. It was sweeter and more creamy.

I liked this place, and so did my parents (they enjoyed the asian food after having meals and meals of Mex and Tex Mex haha)

On a non-food related note, check out this super cute squirrel that we saw in San Antonio!

Have a great day! :)

Veg Hawai'i: Part II of III: Tofufreak eats O'ahu

Sorry for so few pics on this island; I got lazy :P Plus, many times, my food was narrowed down to boring choices like the ubiquitous BOCA burger or (even a veggie sandwich that was just lettuce, ketchup, mustard, and onions on a bun!!!! gahhhh!) and things of that nature, so I just took whatever pics I could.

Check out this hilarious pic my brother got! It looks like their spirits are coming out, lol!

Gasp! The horrors!!

We spent a lot of time driving around, so lots of times, we had snacks on the car to satiate our hunger after the activity(ies) of the day. I used to love eating puffcorns or whatever those puffy popcorn-esque snacks are called, so I was pretty excited upon eating Veggie Booty. It is really quite delicious! It's made with spinach and kale too so that's a plus! ^_^ AND........I finally got to try Tofurky and Soy jerkies! Tofurky is DEFINITELY the better choice, as soy jerky has a weird aftertaste. I also bought some roasted edamame, 'cause that stuff is just SO GOOD. Yeah, if you haven't tried it before, I highly recommend you go and try that NOW!!!

This was a bamboo roll at some random Japanese place that we went to. It was pretty good, consisting of avocado, cucumbers, assorted roasted Japanese veggies, nori, and some other stuff wrapped up in the ever-so-chic soy wrappers that seem to be all the rage now.

You might be wondering, "Tofufreak, what IS that?!" Perhaps you remember my last post in which I spoke of the ramen-type noodles. This was a different flavor, made in the coffee pot on our last morning in O'ahu (clever, I know ^_^) This version has dried chinese mustard greens with dehydrated seitan that rehydrated once the water was added! hehe; it was very exciting!

Check out that fruit! I love Hawai'i for this reason. The pink glass in the back is ..... FRESH GUAVA JUICE! It is so amazingly good and difficult to describe. This was my breakfast everyday at the hotel we stayed at. Called "the healthy" breakfast, this plate of fruit+juice cost...... $17. Seriously. It actually would have been cheaper to go out and buy the fruit and juice, but oh well.
Sorry for the shortage of pics! Kaua'i has the Lotus Root pics which will make up for these!

what i've been up to (MORE FOOD!!!)

first off! mini cupcakes! it's funny how no one gets sick of them BUT ME. yea they're good and all, but how much can u take before you break? (i guess ppl can take a lot because my friend paid me $1 per cupcake! and these are MINI cupcakes(!)

yummy vegan goldfish that i made! (recipe is from schmooed food website) hehe. they are addictive.






teddy bear cakes!!











MORE MINI CUPCAKES!!!










FRENCH APPLE TART!!!!











WHO SAID VEGANS WERE DEPRIVED?!?!?!?!?! lol