brunch at The Chicago Diner: (all shared with Marcy… hi Marcy!) cinnamon roll; breakfast bowl (potatoes topped with tofu, fake sausage, biscuits & country gravy); sweet potato quesadillas (marinated seitan, black beans, mashed sweet potatoes, cheeze, spinach) with salsa and guacamole; coffee

from Marcy’s coffee shop (Senem’s): hot cider; hummus and vegetable sandwich with cranberries

snacks at O’Hare: dark chocolate bar; BBQ potato chips; banana

breakfast: smoothie (same as yesterday, but without apple, sugar and maybe something else?)

on the plane from urbana, il to chicago: tomato juice

at the chicago ohare airport: almonds, cashews, raisins, dried blueberries; leftover tofu dill sandwich; black bean tamale from common ground coop

I bought dinner at Chicago Ohare airport: Cibo express sells a lot of vegan food (they even advertise that they have vegan food.  I bought spicy buffalo tofu with celery and garlic mayonnaise made by soul vegetarian east.  other soul veg dishes they sell: jerk tofu wrap; healthy hoagie wrap; southwestern wrap; kale salad. I also found a new type of chocolate bar to try: Nugo Dark- mint chocolate chip (i’m going to save this for awhile)

on the plane from chicago ohare to dc: cashews, almonds, dried blueberries and raisins

dinner: spicy buffalo tofu (organic tofu, soy milk, wheat flour, lemon juice, hot sauce, ketchup and spices) with celery and garlic mayonnaise made by soul vegetarian east; leftover nordic winter vegetable soup

breakfast/lunch: an entire bag (a day’s worth of food) of cvs trial mix asian blend

soy latte from argo tea at the chicago airport (they label their vegan food!)

tomato juice on the airplane from chicago to washington, dc

dinner: toasted  sourdough bread with vegan “tuna” salad and tomatoes

snack: apricot nut bar

breakfast: margarita cupcake with grapefruit zest (made by Marcy!)

lunch at Victory’s Banner (Chicago, IL): freshly squeezed orange juice; coffee; vegan french toast with vegan butter; tofu scramble (potato, vegetables, brown rice, tofu); bread with vegan butter

soy latte, sip of raspberry limeade, and vegan cappuccino cheesecake at Bleeding Heart Bakery (Chicago, IL)

pre-plane dinner: leftover beans+rice+toppings sope

post-plane dinner: miso soup; toast with Earth Balance; remainder of cappuccino cheesecake

breakfast: Cheerios with banana slices, blueberries, and soymilk; coffee

lunch: toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwich

cashews and s’mores (sara & sweet vegan marshmallows, dark chocolate, and honey-free Nabisco original graham crackers) in car

dinner at taquería: tortilla chips with cilantro salsa and pickled vegetable salsa (with carrots, cauliflower, green things that were either cactus or okra); sope with lettuce, tomato, cilantro, onion, beans, and rice. Not knowing the Spanish word for lard (Google translate lists 1. manteca de cerdo, 2. pella, and 3. empella), Marcy and I ended up with 70-80% confidence that the beans had no lard.

PBR at The Chicago Outfit roller derby bout

bites of cinnamon crispy pastry from fiesta bakery; toasted oat cereal with banana, peanut butter, soy milk (8th continent brand, very sweet and creamy and almost desserty)

coffee with soy milk; tons of watermelon with lime; glass of soy milk

snacks at airport: leftover lentils with salt and pepper; red delicious apple; salted peanuts on plane

dinner from the counter: veggie burger on multigrain bun (specify no butter on bun!) with grilled pineapple, roasted red pepper, black bean and corn salsa, tomatoes, and hot sauce that i added; regular fries and sweet potato fries; chocolate-hazelnut-raspberry cake with trader joe’s vanilla soy ice cream and fresh raspberries, made by my mom for my sister’s birthday

fiber one with banana, soy milk, ground flax seed; strawberries

lunch at blind faith: mushroom tamale with chipotle-guajillo sauce; sweet potato-pumpkin soup garnished with toasted almonds; roasted beet salad with caramelized pear, frisee, red wine-herb vinaigrette; tastes of kung pao gardein with bok choy and rice; tastes of macrobiotic plate (butternut squash, brown rice with shiitake mushroom gravy, black beans, kale, seaweed salad); raspberry thumbprint cookie

carrot; peanut butter and blueberry lime jam on sprouted grain bread

lightly salted peanuts, orange juice on plane

dried mango

mix of cheerios and fiber one with raspberries and soy milk

lunch at harmony grill: annie’s vegan burrito (chipotle hummus, grilled tofu, black beans, spinach, red peppers) with fries and ketchup

bread with raisins, golden raisins, dried cherries, pecans from bleeding heart bakery

bite sized everything crackers with red pepper spread and eggplant garlic spread (all from trader joe’s)

homemade pizza with bob’s red mill gluten-free pizza crust, trader joe’s pizza sauce, sauteed peppers and onions, garlicky mushrooms, black olives, tofurkey sausage; small piece of carrot cake with tofutti cream cheese frosting (adaptation of my mom’s recipe, i’ll post it)

dragon joose (grape flavored… or just purple flavored?)

carrot cake

cheerios with strawberries, blueberries, soy milk; raspberries, blackberries, pineapple; spoonful of peanut butter

black bean soup in a bread bowl, 1/2 classic salad with balsamic vinaigrette at panera (not certain about the vegan-ness of any of this, but it was my best option in merrillville indiana)

apple with peanut butter

dinner at irazu: boiled yucca with mojo; 1/2 vegetarian plate (yellow rice, black beans, cilantro cabbage salad with tomatoes cucumbers and beets, sauteed zucchini and bell peppers, fried plantains) and 1/2 potato taco plate (potato tacos with guacamole, same cabbage salad, gallo pinto, fried plantains); avena (oatmeal) soy shake

vanilla rooibos tea from adagio teas

lowfat almond granola (trader joe’s) with soy milk; strawberries

banana

mussuman curry with tofu, extra veggies, and brown rice from en.thai.ce (huge portion of curry for $6.95 and tons of extra veggies for $1 is a great deal, but $1.50 more for brown rice is not)

honey crisp apple; medjool date; decaf coffee (sulawesi kolassi beans from anderson’s in austin, mmm)

half a pizza with daiya cheese, marinara, mushrooms from whole foods; cowboy cookies; soy milk

oatmeal with banana and soymilk

banana, watermelon, two tortillas with hot sauce at the post-race picnic

vegan breakfast burrito (seitan chorizo, potato, avocado, lettuce, green salsa, pico de gallo, i forget what else), sides of black beans and rice, and 2/3 of a peanut butter and jelly fried pie (like an empanada) at handlebar

half a cowboy cookie from ‘vegan cookies invade your cookie jar’ (thanks mom!)

a little of every vegetarian dish at lalibela, which is my favorite ethiopian place in chicago because it’s byob and the owner, who is also the waiter, is okay with you ordering a little of everything and can make exactly the right amount to feed however many people there are; bell’s oberon (i miss you midwestern beer!); dogfish head 60 minute ipa; peanut butter brownies made by marcy

katherine, i am totally in for running a marathon in a few years! i’ll start training.

breakfast burrito with amy’s traditional refried beans, fried potatoes, roasted tomato salsa, spinach in a mission tortilla; grapefruit

mesir wat (see previous); beer bread (see previous); dried pineapple, some of it dipped in really good, really spicy chili powder i bought at patel brothers grocery in chicago

lundberg mochi-sweetened organic rice cake

365 organic no-salt creamy peanut butter and central market organics strawberry preserves on defrosted and warmed beer bread; little gala apple

split pea soup with salsa huichol; dried mango

breakfast: oatmeal with pb, banana, cinnamon, brown sugar, soymilk, salt

lunch: spinach salad and a smart dog wrapped in bread with katsup

dinner: @ the counter burger, home of my favorite vegan burger in chicago. they also have amazing sweet potato fries! one note thing to know about counter burger: they put butter on the bun, so you have to specifically say no butter. apparently a lot of places do this, so if you’re getting a veggie burger you might want to ask about it. anyway, my burger had grilled onions, cranberries, greens, tomato, and sauteed mushroom on top, and came with a soy ginger glaze.

snack we snuck into the movie theater: reed’s ginger brew (so good! my first time having it) and homemade banana bread which i’m not going to link to because it turned out super dense, just like my banana bread always does. does anyone have a solid banana bread recipe which does not produce a block of cement?

pho place on n. broadway: vegetarian spring rolls, vegetarian pho

satsuma

leftover channa masala, aloo gobi, flatbread, tamarind-date chutney, wildwood plain soy yogurt, plus red lentil dal and chai spice cookies, both from the vegan table; chai tea

cereal and soy milk

at leona’s: minestrone soup; psychedelic salad with italian dressing; the big fat vegan burger (my new favorite vegan burger in chicago) with avocado and black olives

coffee

channa masala and aloo gobi from the vegan table; grilled flatbread from a recipe my mom found; soy yogurt; tamarind-date chutney from patel brothers grocery (a great place to get bulk spices, beans, grains, and some interesting produce); old moon zinfandel from trader moon wine co (vegan??)

mamajuana

trader joe’s everything bagel with tofutti better-than-cream-cheese; orange juice

sweet potato and black bean enchiladas made by my mom; green salad with raspberry vinaigrette; mango and pineapple with grated dried ginger

dinner at sabai-dee, chicago’s only laotian restaurant.  there weren’t a lot of vegan (or even vegetarian) options on the menu, so we talked to our waiter and he told us we could substitute tofu for any chicken or beef dishes.  a lot of stuff was also made with fish sauce, and he said he could just substitute salt, but it wouldn’t taste quite as authentic.  we ended up having a spicy green papaya salad minus the fish sauce, the coconut-galangal soup with tofu instead of chicken, and a tofu curry, all excellent, plus warm tapioca in sweet coconut milk for dessert (all the desserts were vegan, and also included mango sticky rice and custard sticky rice).  probably wouldn’t be my #1 choice to take vegan friends since so much of the menu was off limits, but they certainly did a good job of accommodating.

the restaurant is byob, so we brought a bottle of cheap red wine from the grocery store down the block.  here’s the issue with my wine habits and veganism: i drink really cheap wine!  if i have wine needs outside of the vicinity of a trader joe’s, i usually grab whatever’s on sale or the second-cheapest bottle (to retain a semblance of class).  the problems: 1) when i try to figure out if the wine was vegan, usually hours or days later, i can never remember the name of it, and 2) now that i have started noting the names and looking them up, there’s usually no information to be found on these random cheap bottles.  this one was a shiraz from kanga reserve, which i could find nothing about on the internet.  it kind of looked like yellowtail, so i looked that up and found that yellowtail’s red wines are vegan, but the whites and roses contain gelatin and therefore are not.  good to know!

banana

fritz pastry: blueberry muffin (ask about vegan options at fritz pastry because it’s not obvious; for example, all their cupcakes are vegan, they just don’t tell you unless you ask!), raspberry green tea

cedar’s: pita w herbed olive oil, salad, veggie-hummus sandwich, fries

amy’s cheeseless roasted vegetable pizza w added avocado

mango

i’m a little embarrassed about how much sugar i ate today

breakfast: vegan cinnamon streusal at fritz pastry, along with white peony tea and a banana

lunch:  half of a hummus veggie wrap at cedar’s, comes with fries, a salad, and pita

tea: more pumpkin thingies, a chocolate/peanut butter bar that andrea made, grapefruit, apples, clementines, orange ginger tea cookies. lemon lift tea.

i just realized i forgot to eat dinner ):

and a gin and tonic (with lime!) at some bar in the loop