Cows, Disney and Kale Chips
by Amanda • July 12, 2012 • Articles, Chips, Dips & Flips, Dehydrator, Eating Out, Everywhere Else, Power Blender, Shout outs • 20 Comments
Last week Andrew and I went to Long Beach to meet our friends Colin and Jenn and their 2 year old Liam. Although it was the first time meeting them, it felt more like a reunion. Colin and Jenn are vegan, have been for awhile and have helped me be a better vegan mom to Andrew. It was such a delight to be around like-minded people and it gave me joy to see Andrew devour everything Colin handed him without question. It must be exhausting for Andrew to eat. He scrutinizes every label, he basically doesn’t eat anything I don’t make from scratch, wait it is exhausting for me to feed Andrew! Colin and Jenn introduced us to a few new favorite things
- Veggie Grill. If you don’t have one of these restaurants in your area, start petitioning to get one! I can’t convey how good the food was with words or pictures, but here is one pic to give you an idea. This place will satisfy carnivores!
- All American Stack, steak strips with Onion rings and sweet potato Fries, Buffalo Wings with Ranch dipping sauce
See better photos and like them on Facebook at http://www.veggiegrill.com/
- Colin told me about VegNews magazine awhile ago and I love it
This magazine comes every other month, has great recipes, fun facts like:
Cows have BFFs—really a study measured the heart rate of cows who were isolated, paired with random cows or penned with their preferred partner. Those alongside their best friend exhibited reduced levels of stress compared to those who were with a stranger-cow.
and excellent articles. You can subscribe and get an online newsletter: http://vegnews.com/ I just got a yummy recipe for Hot Chocolate Ice Cream
that I can’t wait to try, you can see it here, http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/211087/5e7d1eceb2/379000935/f9858e713c/ if you make it let me know how you like it!
3. Ranch Kale Chips. I have made plain ones before and love them, but found these at whole foods and couldn’t stop thinking about them, so I figured out how to make my own—unfortunately I ate them all before I remembered to take a picture.
Ranch Kale Chips (Andrew approved)
1 cup raw cashews
1 bunch of kale, spines removed, torn into 2×2” (about)
¼ cup water
2 Tbs nutritional yeast
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp sea salt
¼ cup chopped red onion
1 tsp rice vinegar
Method: blend everything in your Vitamix until smooth, coat kale with mixture, place on tinfoil lined cookie sheet, sprinkle with a little more sea salt. Cook on 275 for about 20 minutes, or until kale is crispy, I had to turn mine a few times to get it crispy on all sides. Next time I am going to throw the whole mess in a dehydrator for a few hours to get a more even crisp.
We also spent a few days in Disneyland and learned what the vegan options are—not many.
- Plain Mickey Mouse pretzel (we had more than 1)
- Popcorn (not healthy, but so tasty)
- Best Meal was in Carnation Café on Main street, they had a certified Vegan Burger, it was ok, Andrew thought it was outstanding, but that was because he was starving.
- I had a “veggie” sandwich in Adventure land and it was GROSS.
- We found Vegetarian chili in Frontierland, that you could make Vegan by holding the cheese and sour cream, but didn’t get to try it
- Blue Bayou had a Portabella meal, but we didn’t try it
We had cows growing up. I loved Rosie and Spotty. Spotty was our milk cow. I hid in my room and cried the day she got sold.
At disney they also have an amazing fruit stand next to the Indiana Jones ride and the pizza place in tomorrowland has lots of yummy salads…
That veggie grill looks amazing, we need one!
Seriously, petition them to open one here! We need one.
I second Somer- yum on the Veggie Grill.
oh yeah, the fruit stand next to Indy is excellent. I never found a yummy salad.
Gosh that sounds really good!!!
the fruit or Kale chips? it must be getting close to lunch, both sound good to me
Both LOL … Time for lunch!
I love the video!! You have to check out the new Vegan Health and Fitness Mag too: http://www.veganhealthandfitnessmag.com/. I think you’d really like it. Thanks for your fun blog.
Thanks for the tip on the magazine, it looks like a good one.
Great post Carolyn, so much wonderful information all in one post
The veggie grill sounds awesome and so does Vegnews, and I loved the YouTube!! Thank you!!
The YouTube made me smile. The “meat” the Veggie Grill uses is Gardein if you haven’t tried it, find some–smith’s sales it in my area. It is delicious, best vegan meat I have had
I think it’s incredible that you went on a trip to Disneyland and did so well! It’s too bad they didn’t have more to offer. I bet you will see more options in 1-5 years. The Kale Chip idea is awesome. I keep reading different Kale Chip recipes- but shamefully I have not made them….. yet! Great blog
Bookmarking for the future!
I am sure you are right about DLand, it is so much better now than it was two years ago, we ate rice then.
I am fortunate to live in Southern CA and have 8 Veggie Grills within an hour’s drive. It makes a quick solution to “I’m starving and don’t feel like making anything for myself” problem. Next time you’re in this area or Chicago/Boulder/Portland, you’ll also want to check out Native Foods (www.nativefoods.com).
The ranch kale chips look amazing – a must-try. A similarly amazing recipe, although with a slightly different flair, is this for Sour Cream and Onion Kale Chips (http://blisstree.com/eat/original-sour-cream-and-onion-kale-chips-recipe-from-vegan-chef-douglas-mcnish/). In my pre-vegan junk-food eating days, sc & o potato chips were the best, and these are exactly the vegan replacement…..
Thanks for the top on native Noods I will be in Boulder shortly and plan to check it out. These Kale chips sound so good, I will try them next!
Must try those kale chips – have a bunch of kale on the table waiting for a purpose…
I love Veggie Grill. I found them a couple of weeks ago and drove over for lunch a few days in a row, and I live about 40 minutes away from them
we ate there twice in one day! Andrew LOVED the Sante Fe Chicken Sandwich. What did you get?
I love VegNews magazine, such a great publication – thanks for sharing your Vegan finds at Disney, totally helpful!