Food Blogging: Why Cracker Barrel Sux, and How to Be Vegan on the Road

Hey all! Some of you have expressed some confusion about veganism. Not the why, but the how. So, for the next three weeks I'm going to post everything I eat with recipes so you can try to individualize this journey for yourself. Keep in mind we're starting our vacation today, so this is some on-the-road eating. I'm also really excited about a new project I've started. I'm working hard on making a transition journal to veganism for the average omnivore. There's lots of other resources I'd be happy to hook you up with until I finish it, though. The Engine 2 Cookbook is a great resource. The Veganomicon is also a really popular cookbook among vegans. If you're really interested, be sure to contact me and I can show you some other great sources that got me going in the beginning. I tend to make up my own recipes based on what I have in the kitchen because I'm too poor to do much shopping. Thankfully that's the position I find most of you to be in as well. *College students unite!* So let's get started.

I walked the dogs for about an hour at 3 miles and hour with Mom. Stupidly, I didn't eat first. My blood sugar gets pretty low in the morning and I felt like I was going to pass out. But I made it home in one piece. Because I ran out of soy milk yesterday I had to get creative. So I made a strawberry smoothie with chocolate almond milk. It tasted like chocolate covered strawberries!
All it took was: 
1 cup of sliced strawberries
1 cup of chocolate almond milk (unsweetened)
4 ice cubes

Then I:
Blended the shit out of it and refrigerated it in a reusable Starbucks cup.

I was thankful to have it ready for me when I got home! I have a few smoothie recipes I'm pretty proud of that I'll be happy to share with you in the next few weeks. I was still hungry after that, so I made some cinnamon oatmeal.
Just mixed:
1/2 cup of rolled oats
enough water to cover it
a few shakes of cinnamon
one packet of Stevia
a drop or two of vanilla

Then:
heated it for one minute.

I couldn't finish it actually. With the smoothie it was more than enough food.

Pro Tip: One problem of mine is that I don't get enough water and I get dehydrated really easily. For me dehydration means insufferable bitchiness and shitty poop. Straight up. With the amount of fiber and lack of dairy I have in my diet I poop A LOT and without any water to grease the pipes I can get a little constipated. So I filled a water bottle with ice last night so I'd have some cold water on hand. I try to drink nothing besides water and tea to encourage more water drinking. Truth is. I hate the taste of water. Squeezing some kind of fruit inside is helpful. I love lime in my water if it's available.

Are you fucking serious?

My family had not eaten breakfast yet once we got on the road (only 21 more hours to go!), so we made a pit stop at Cracker Barrel (aka Vegan Hell). There are a total of 2 vegan items on the menu at Cracker Barrel. One is salad, which is not sold during breakfast hours, and the other is applesauce. Guess what I had! Good thing I'd already eaten.

The fact is that eating out as a vegan can be challenging, but is certainly not impossible. Googling restaurants is the easy solution. I used my phone to look up "what's vegan at Cracker Barrel?" I was then faced with articles about how shitty Cracker Barrel is for vegans. However, I still got the information I needed. Most people on the interwebz have already done the research for you. If you find that with a newer restaurant you can't find a blog post or article yet, you can always email customer service. They're almost always quick to respond and very polite (or apologetic if the situation calls for it). Those people are generally more knowledgeable than your server who smiling, suggests a chicken caesar salad or grilled cheese. I'm going to be eating out for the next few days because of being on the road. Hopefully this will give you an idea of what kinds of places you can eat at as a vegan and what kinds of things you can find on the menu.

Love me some nuts.

I'm not really a food blogger, so bear with me. I'm new to this. I also didn't get pictures of my breakfast at home because I didn't think of this idea until after. Oops. Imagine a burgundy shake and normal ass looking oatmeal. Genius.

For a snack on the road I'm going to have Simply Nuts & Fruit from Starbucks. Since we stopped for breakfast, I don't believe we'll be stopping for lunch. I'll post again later tonight with my dinner and more snacky goodness.


Peace, my friends.