So far our family visit to Florida has been relaxing and pleasant, I’ve been trying to run 3+ miles each morning in the warm weather here and taking in the local sights, like this group of egrets cruising through yards.
And waterfront dining with views like this.
Trust me, the views and happy hour margaritas were much better than the food, the edamame appetizer never made it and the vegan tropical salad I ordered with mango, almonds, and coconut had cheddar cheese in it for some reason which the menu did not say. Who serves cheddar cheese with mango? Not a very good restaurant! Oh well, how about more of the view?
I also made a trip to Publix to load up on some vegan essentials for the rest of the week while we’re staying with family – organic produce, tofu, tempeh, almond milk, and these fun little salads from the deli department I’ve been enjoying for lunch the last two days – Cedar’s Mediterranean Foods salads.
The Couscous salad was fabulous to me, great texture and mild curry flavor.
The chickpea salad has a nice tangy and sweet flavor.
And the taboule has a strong and kicky garlic flavor and crunch.
And all three mixed together on a bed of spinach is just fabulous. Especially with a couple of the raw crunch balls I packed for the trip.
But dinners out have been a challenge here. Last night we headed to Sonny’s BBQ, not a typical place for a vegan, but a fave of the family we’re visiting.
The menu was lacking in vegan entrees. Well, there weren’t any.
My only choice was the all you can eat salad bar and less than half of it was vegan, there were more cheeses, egg, meat, and creamy dressings at this salad bar than actual fresh veggies. But I got a little of every vegan option at the salad bar.
And, since we’re on vacation, a Corona to wash it down.
Thanks for the review of the cous cous salad – I see it at the store all the time when I’m in New England and it always looks good.
what a great post!
glad you guys made it, 49.5 lb luggage, and raw crunch balls and all.
have fun down there!
Aww, sorry your food options have been so limited– but the views ARE gorgeous!!!
yay for Florida! Michelle is going there for Christmas as I was just there for Thanksgiving with the family!
hope you have a great time!
bummer having to go to a steakhouse, but i’ve been in the same situation. i often get a baked potato, since people like to have those with steak. but a salad bar is good too.
where were you in florida?
I’m glad I found your blog! It’s really beautiful and I love the layout, your writing style, your recipes and all your beautiful pictures!! :)
Aren’t those Cedar’s salads yummy?! They are a vegan god sent when travelling or if you need a quick, light, easy vegan snack for the beach. I love your idea of mixing all three together. I live in NE FL so I shop at Publix all the time. Publix also has vegan sushi- and you can get it with whole grain brown rice. It’s a little pricey but one of those can last me 2-4 meals depending on what I use it with, and its quite portable.
It’s tough going out and finding there are no vegan options. I’m glad they had a salad bar though it looks like slim pickings for a salad. Sad!
We went to eat with some friends not too long ago and they assured us there would be lots of vegetarian/vegan options at the place they chose, and there were none and unfortunately no salad bar. We ended up getting a quesadilla (white flour) without the cheese and asking for veggies to be added to it but all it had in it was salsa, they didn’t have any veggies to add (and we still paid full price for a quesadilla even though we had a tortilla and some salsa!) We could have probably just ordered chips and salsa instead had we known that for half the price.
We are on a very tight budget and don’t get to go out to eat much so it was even more disappointing to waste our dining out budget on such dissatisfying food. Also we like to eat healthy so eating things like white flour tortillas aren’t really our thing. (They did have french fries but we didn’t want to eat only a fried food for our meal).
Needless to say we will never eat there again. We’ve made some big adjustments in how we handle things like that now after one too many bad experiences. Now we will eat somewhere else first and join friends just for drinks if they go to a non-vegan friendly place. We tend to eat before parties/potlucks too after having too many of them where the only item we could eat was the item I brought lol. It’s worth the extra thought and planning though to live the lifestyle I believe in and not end up hungry. :)
Hi and welcome to my site. Glad to have found yours too. :-)
Yes, those salad were very good, I especially liked the curry.
So sorry on the dining out experience, I’ve been there too! I usually just end up ordering a few vegan sides to make a meal or pleading with the server for a little off-menu ordering. Agreed on going out to eat, we haven’t been doing a lot of that lately either with holiday expenses.