Chickpea Salad Sandwich

Since becoming vegan I haven't been too creative in the sandwich department other than PB&J or grilled vegetables with pesto. Things like that. Pretty simple stuff. I have a few books with sandwich ideas but they all are pretty involved and unless I have hours to kill in the kitchen I look more for simple sandwiches that will last for a week's worth of meals. 

Enter the chickpea salad sandwich...

This isn't the best picture, and I meant to get one of all the ingredients I used, but I forgot, so I shall just tell you what they were. In the filling was cooked chickpeas, chopped celery and red bell peppers, some earth balance vegan mayo, salt, pepper, and celery salt. Mashed together until I got the consistency I wanted and then plopped it on some whole grain bread with lettuce. I even added chips to the inside of the sandwich posted above because I like the crunch. I make this every couple of weeks and I make a batch big enough that it makes at least 10 sandwiches, so when I am hungry and don't want to cook I can just make myself a sandwich easy peasy. 

Thats all she wrote. 

Eating Out: Tee Pee Mexican Food

One of my favorite places to eat Mexican food is Tee Pee Mexican Food in Phoenix. I have been eating here for so many years. I even had a birthday party when I was a kid here. I remember that one of my friends, who is the pickiest eater I know, ordered a hamburger there and I couldn't imagine why anyone would order American food at a Mexican restaurant. And then she squirted what she thought was ketchup on her burger which ended up being hot sauce. I always think of that story when I end up here to eat. There aren't many options for me, obviously, but there is one that I get every single time just because I love it so much. Even if there was something else I could eat, I wouldn't want to since this is the only reason I keep coming back here. Beware: The picture of this dish looks quite gross, but I guarantee it is quite delicious.

What I get is a bean chimichanga with no cheese, and no sour cream. Then I order all beans on the side and no rice. I have never asked, but I am pretty sure the rice is made with chicken stock, though I was never crazy about the rice here anyways. And surprisingly the beans are not made with lard, which is hard to come by in a Mexican restaurant. It is then topped with red sauce and guacamole. I hardly ever finish the entire thing, and I never take leftovers home because it doesn't reheat well. But every once in awhile when I am feeling like I want to eat something gross and full of calories, I come here and enjoy this meal. 

 YUMMERS!

Mexican Salad

I love salads. Especially ones with lots of flavors and goodies. I have never been one of those people who has enjoyed the "house salads" of iceberg and boring dressing served at restaurants, though I haven't come across too many of those since becoming vegan. Since one of my favorite styles of foods is Mexican, I decided to take the flavors that I love in those foods, and make them into a salad! This salad consists of home made pinto beans cooked with bay leaves and cloves of garlic, cooked frozen corn, cherry tomatoes cut in half, and diced avocado over chopped romaine lettuce. A spicy lime vinegarette is then drizzled over top. The recipe for that is:

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice

1 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons chili powder (I prefer a hot blend)

2 teaspoons cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

Mix the first five ingredients in a bowl or a glass cup measure (as can be seen in the photo below). Once blended, drizzle in the oil and mix until combined. 

Most of the time I end up adding more of the spices depending on how spicy I want the dressing to be on that particular day. I then drizzle it over the salad by the tablespoon full until I have reached the desired dressing amount. Usually two or three tablespoons. I LOVE this dressing. It is so fresh from the limes, and I love how the chili powder and cumin make the salad so much brighter. 

Now for a montage of salad pictures: 

Served with an ice cold Corona with lime, and this is the perfect dinner!

Eating Out: Jason's Deli

I don't often eat at Jason's Deli, mainly because the options are limited, but there weren't many other choices the day I decided to go here since I wasn't close to home and figured that this would probably be a safe bet. The sandwich that I go was the Zucchini Grillini, which was grilled zucchini with other vegetables, roasted red pepper hummus, and olives on whole grain bread. This usually comes with cheese but I had that removed for obvious reasons. 

I really love sandwiches, but I tend to find the ones at Jason's really boring and bland. They always sound and look better than they actually taste. There used to be a portabello muffaletta on the menu awhile back, but it looks like it is no longer there, which is sad. That was the reason I considered Jason's on this particular day. 

I do like though that they at least have a vegetarian specific menu with vegan options on it so there isn't any kind of a guessing game on what I can eat. So even though I am not crazy about the food here, at least I know that I can always find something here and not be left starving.

Oatmeal

I am probably the worst with meals when it comes to breakfast. Usually I don't have any time to make anything half way decent, so I end up eating toast with earth balance and jam or a quick bowl of cereal, or most often than not, nothing at all. When I do manage to drag myself out of bed early enough I make myself some oatmeal. Not the fanciest of breakfasts but I doctor it up so that it is as nutritious as it can be. I simmer some quick cooking oats on the stove, usually I do 1/3 of a cup of oats per person eating, so I make 2/3 cups of oats when I am cooking for my husband, with enough water to cover the oats plus a bit more. While that is simmering I add 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts to a bowl, 2 tablespoons ground flax, and a couple teaspoons of brown sugar for a little sweetness. When the oats are almost cooked I add a 1/2 teaspoon or so of cinnamon to the pot and then spoon it into the bowl on top of the other goodies. I then add chopped bananas and eat! 

As usual I forgot to take a picture of my bowl before I mixed it up so it looks half eaten here, so below is my husbands bowl. He likes his with mixed berries. 

Breakfast of champions!

Eating Out: Nami

There aren't many places in town, or at least close to where I live, where I can get a vegan treat. Nami is a bakery offshoot from the vegan restaurant Green, which I LOVE. Anyone who has been to Green knows about their famous Tsoynami's, and as well as those also being available at Nami, you can also get tons of other vegan baked goodies and coffee. If you go on Wednesday's and Sunday's, you can get vegan doughnuts!! Suffice to say they are freaking amazing.

Nami is so close to Gallo Blanco, that we almost always end up here afterwards, or any other time we end up on this side of town (don't tell anyone, but once I had a Tsoynami for breakfast). Today I decided on a cupcake they had on special, the cookie dough cupcake.

It is a chocolate cupcake topped with cookie dough flavored frosting dotted with chocolate chips. And just when you thought that was all....

There's a cookie in my cupcake!

There was a surprise nugget of cookie dough baked into the cupcake! So it was like eating a cookie and a cupcake at the same time! It was pretty great.

Eating Out: Gallo Blanco

By far and away, one of my FAVORITE places to eat vegan at is Gallo Blanco in Phoenix. I found this place a little under two years ago and fell in love with it. Happy hour is my favorite time to come because all of my favorite things are cheaper! Usually I start off with one of their classic margaritas, which are my favorite anywhere that I have found, but I didn't get one this time since my husband decided he wanted one. It is freaking delicious. I was jealous. Instead I started with chips and guacamole (no cheese).

I always forget to take pictures before I start to eat so excuse the messy half eaten bowl. I can tell you though that it is a pretty delicious guacamole. Along with all of the normal guacamole makings, they add citrus pieces, like oranges and grapefruits, which makes it pretty interesting. It isn't spicy at all, which I usually prefer in a guacamole, but I like that this one is a cool and refreshing take on guacamole. 

For my main I always get the veggie tacos, two or three depending on how hungry I am, and the beans with no cheese.

The veggie tacos come stuffed with fresh, local vegetables that change every time I come in depending on what is in season. Today it was some corn, mushrooms, squash, tomatoes, and spinach. They are then topped with some more guacamole. The beans are just a really tasty vegetarian refried bean. Usually they are more mashed than they were today, but I like to eat them with the chips so it doesn't really matter if they are mashed or not. 

If you have never been to Gallo Blanco I highly recommend you check it out. Even if you are not a veggie. My husband had the flapjacks for dinner tonight and loved them.