Back from Florida for the List

It is nice to be back home, we spent last week visiting family in Florida that started with a late flight Sunday night out of Sacramento.

I tried to sleep on the flight and maybe got a decent 3 hours of sleep, but I am not a good plane sleeper. We arrived at Atlanta very early to catch another flight to Orlando and enjoy the interesting scenery at the airport.

And after grabbing a rental car, we arrived to Central Florida early Monday to stay with family. My sweet mother-in-law made some wonderful vegan dishes for the stay including sweet potato, chickpea, and kale soup, vegan jalapeno poppers, a plate of three different types of vegan salads, and a great stuffed pepper with rice and lentils served with a delicious side salad.

I was able to get in a few morning runs while visiting and enjoy the change of scenery from our area – lots of greenery, impressive trees, and humidity – lots of humidity!

We mainly had smoothies and Larabars for breakfast. Finding decent vegan options for eating out was a bit tricky in this area, but we did find Third Culture Kitchen with many vegan and veganizable dishes on the menu and made two trips there to try the unique items.

The Yuca Fries with Banana Ketchup was delicious with a crispy texture and we found banana is very interesting blended in ketchup and worked well with the yuca flavors.

The Vegan Rice Bowl was very hearty and delicious with added cauliflower and a fried plantain.

We also tried the vegan Stir Fry bowl with plenty of noodles and added cauliflower and Phanaeng Curry rice bowl which was nicely spicy and huge. They were great about offering plant-based additions to veganized dishes such as adding more beans or veggies.

We also tried Playalinda Brewing Company Brix Project where they had two veganizable options on the menu, Tuscan Herb Flat Bread and Bohemian BBQ Sandwich with jackfruit.

Both were delicious, I was very impressed with the flavors of the jackfruit, but not so much with the flavorless peppers it was served with.

We arrived back home late last night and have spent the day grocery shopping and doing laundry for the work week. And taking sweet Miko for a long walk since he made it clear we owe him.

Okay, to the list:

• The Best Vegan Friendly Restaurants in the Country. This is an, uh, interesting list.
• This eggplant recipe looks delicious!
• 19 celebrities who ate vegan wings on Hot Ones.
• How to make a vegan Thanksgiving dinner.
• Vegan copycat fast food recipes.