breakfast: coffee

lunch: leftover tabbouleh with chickpeas, leftover bean soup

appetizers: a little leftover chili cooked by Jonah, BBQ vegan “chicken” from Trader Joe’s, pretzels, whiskey, Dogfish Head

dinner: pasta with Earth Balance, salt, pepper, and green onions (what everyone else was eating minus the caviar…. eewwwwwww); fava beans with broccoli rabe; shiitake and button mushrooms; wine

I learned recently that wine, particularly white wine, is often processed with gelatin or milk-derived ingredients and is not vegan. The Penguin Bay Percussion white wine I had tonight was NOT vegan, according to an article I later found about vegan-friendly wines of the Finger Lakes region on The Ginger Cat Bed & Breakfast website:

From the head winemaker (a friend of ours) for Swedish Hill, Goose Watch and Penguin Bay:
“- Not many of our wines are vegan. We use milk derived fining agents in some of our white wines before they are fermented. Because most of these treated wines are blended with all of the other (untreated) wines, it technically would make the wines they’re blended with non-vegan (at least by association).

I can safely say that any DRY RED wines from the 06 vintage (my first vintage as head winemaker) have not had any animal based agents added to them.”

Swedish Hill: Any DRY RED wines from the 06 vintage onward have not had any animal based agents added to them. These would include Swedish Hill Optimus and Cabernet Franc

Goose Watch: Any DRY REDwines from the 06 vintage onward which include the Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Lemberger.

Penguin Bay: The Only Dry Red, the Pinot noir, is vegan

Oops.  After seeing how many companies specify that none of their white wines are vegan, I am going to start assuming that white wine is not vegan unless otherwise specified.

breakfast at rest area coffee shop: double espresso, toasted everything bagel with peanut butter and strawberry jelly

lunch at The Feve, Oberlin, OH: Erica’s vegan burger (a Boca burger with portabella mushrooms, grilled red onions, and avocado) with lettuce, tomato and ketchup; Danimal spicy tater tots

Warning: some tater tots are made with milk and/or eggs (check the ingredients).

3-4 of my dad’s pepparkakor cookies and a chunk of grilled tofu in car

dinner in car: peanut butter and jelly sandwich, extra piece of bread

breakfast: bowl of Cheerios with vanilla Silk soymilk, 2 pieces multigrain toast with Earth Balance and grilled tofu

coffee from McDonald’s on the road (sorry, world!)

lunch at Subway on I-94 or I-90 to Chicago: foot-long veggie sub on Italian bread with sweet onion sauce, oregano, and all veggies (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, jalapeño and banana peppers, carrots, black olives, pickles)

Subway addresses veganism on their nutrition FAQ webpage:

What menu items at SUBWAY® restaurants are vegan/do not contain animal-derived ingredients?

The menu items that do not contain any animal-derived ingredients are the Veggie Delite® on Italian bread and the Veggie Delite® salad. These individual items do not contain animal-derived ingredients: all vegetables, oil, vinegar, mustard, sweet onion sauce and fruizle. The 9-grain wheat bread contains honey but no other animal-derived ingredients.

What the hell is fruizle?

more Jujubes in car (sorry, emily!)

dinner cooked by Aunt Jean and Muncle Mike’s: delicious vegan fondue (click for details), pinot noir (may or may not be vegan)

with Marcy and Emily: pumpkin bar brownies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

1am snack at Perkins: french fries and gumball (I am uncertain about the gumball being vegan)
Perkins product ingredients listed here. I would still ask to confirm that they are deep-fried in vegetable oil at your local Perkins; if the restaurants receive bags of frozen fries, they might be at liberty to cook it in whatever they want.

breakfast: Cheerios with vanilla Silk soymilk

lunch (well, 2pm is “dinner” according to my grandma) cooked by my grandma: boiled red potatoes, corn, peas, carrot and celery sticks, stuffed pimento green olives, pickles, slice of bread, decaf coffee

candy cane

Jujubes and pretzels in car

Jujubes contain Red 40. I have heard rumors that Red 40 can be derived from insects, but from what I’ve read this is not true. Please let me know if you have any information on the contrary. Carmine, another red dye used in food and other products, is derived from carminic acid produced by insects, and insects are ground up in the process of extracting the acid.

dinner: caffeinated coffee, salad (arugula, tomato, baby carrots, cucumber, cheap french dressing [vegan, but corn-syruped]); kale and green beans (sauteed with onion, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, olive oil, and white wine vinegar… is white wine vinegar prepared with gelatin, like many white wines? I will look into it); bowl of long grain & wild rice Rice-A-Roni (cooked with Earth Balance instead of butter); about 5 corn tortilla chips crumbled on vegetables

at Duluth’s Zinema cinema: Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale (according to Barnivore, most varieties of Bell’s are vegan. Some specialty or seasonal brews contain honey. Read more.)

11pm snack: bowl of homemade vegan chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream

Thanks to Aunt Jeanie and Muncle Mike for the ice cream maker! The ice cream was made with Silk creamer, sugar, vanilla, and arrowroot powder. It ended up being too sweet due to the creamer itself being sweetened; I will post a recipe after optimizing. Click for the cookie dough recipe (I use the same recipe for baking cookies).