Loving Cafe - Fort Wayne, IN

I figured today was the perfect day to blog about The Loving Cafe in Fort Wayne, Indiana, since I will be stuck in my house due to inclement weather.  Taking a look back on our fall road trip, I knew I had to dedicate a post about The Loving Cafe which is a 100% vegan restaurant in Fort Wayne.

The cafe was part of a plaza area that was pretty nice and had parking directly in front of the establishment.  The food was fast and fresh and full of flavor!  Hubby started off with a salad that had a nice creamy ginger type dressing.  

We decided to split some loaded fries.  There was a bean chili and vegan cheese they topped the plate with as you can see.  I decided to opt for the Mushroom Pistachio Soup and it was 'out of this world'!  Hubby chose the Cabbage soup and he said it was some of the best he ever had when it came to Cabbage soup...vegan or non-vegan!

I did sample some of his soup and it was darn tasty!  It was sweet AND savory.  I was surprised by the sweet and then realized they used raisins on the soup!  Clever!

Everything on the menu was clearly described and there were many creative dishes I was thrilled to see!  Ones I would have never assumed would be offered.  I took a few photos of the menus because I wanted to remember the food combos and ideas to see if I could make a version of some of them at home.

Some of them, I was a little afraid to try, because I thought they might taste too much like meat.  They seemed to do a lot with vegan shrimp which intrigued me but I couldn't seem to bring myself to try them at first day we were there.  I'm betting if I lived full-time near this place I would eventually have to try everything on their menu!

I loved the color of the cafe dining area!  The light fixtures were nice, too!  The prices seemed to be right in line with other non-veggie offerings in the area.  I'm so glad we were able to visit The Loving Cafe in Fort Wayne, IN, it was a great experience!

The Lunch Room - Ann Arbor, MI

I know I briefly mentioned our trip to Fort Wayne, IN (which ended up being our 'home base' and we hopped around to several other cities in the process) a few posts ago when I was doing my 6-packs of photo posts and recaps since I was so behind on blogging but I really wanted to dedicate a blog post to my experience at a few of those places because of their vegan friendliness!

First up is The Lunch Room - Ann Arbor - Michigan.  It was nestled in the Kerrytown District of Ann Arbor and I TOTALLY FELL IN LOVE WITH THIS PLACE!  It was original hippie meets new/millennial-hippie and I seemed to fall smack dab in the middle age-wise.  There were brand-new college kids straight up to the higher ages of the Baby Boomers and I couldn't have been more 'at home'.  Their menu was completely vegan.  Because was 'new to the place' I asked the guy at the counter if everything on the menu was vegetarian or vegan and he said with a big smile 'always been vegan - always will be vegan' to which I said AWESOME and THANK YOU!

In these first three photos you can see the outside of the building.  The first one was taken from the back of the parking lot and the other two are looking in on the middle section of the building...their courtyard, if you will.  I took one from inside the red tunnel and the other one outside from across the way.  They were all decorated for fall and it was lovely!

This was a pic of their counter area.  They showcased a slew of vegan desserts and goodies but by the time we were done with our meals I couldn't eat another bite AND the place was totally packed and wanted to make sure we weren't hogging a table.

We decided to get nachos to split.  They were HUGE!  The Loaded Nachos were about $10, I believe.  It was a meal for one (or two) by itself that is for sure! Tortilla chips, Cuban black beans & corn, avocado, their house vegan nacho cheese & pico de gallo. Gluten-free, too!

Next up...this GINORMOUS bowl of Vegan Mac & Cheese!  Spoiler Alert...I took most of this back to the hotel with me and ate it for another 2 meals!  So yeah...$8 for Gourmet Vegan Mac that lasts you 3 meals was TOTALLY WORTH IT!  The official description of this dish?  "The ultimate comfort food. The “cheese” is rich with butternut squash & red bell peppers. With a crunchy almasen (almonds, lemon zest & sesame seeds) & parsley topping."

And then there was hubby's meal...Queso Burrito Bowl.  It was a Gluten-free bowl with Black Pepper Tofu, Cuban black beans & corn, rice, pico de gallo, nacho cheese, chipotle ranch, avocado, baby greens, red bell pepper & tortilla chips.  I believe this was about $10 as well but DH the omni said he liked it.  However, and it was to no fault of The Lunch Room, between the vegan cheese on the nachos and the vegan cheese on his GIANT Salad/Bowl, we learned a lesson that day...Nutritional Yeast isn't a friend to those with Crohn's Disease.  I have been reading about it ever since and apparently SOME Crohn's people can't handle Nutritional Yeast.  DH hardly ever eats my food at home so he hasn't had much if at all any Nutritional Yeast in the past and even if he did it was in very small quantities.  He had a LOT that day and now we know he can't handle it.  YIKES!  But....everything was WONDERFUL tasting and SO FILLING!  I highly recommend The Lunch Room to anyone!

Get In My Belly!

Once again I have a lot to share with you but very little time at the moment to write one long and thought out post so I will have to do mini posts I guess.  Better than no posts at all?  I'll let you be the judge.

I'll start off by saying there is more where this comes from.  This first photo is one of the new-to-me Kombuchas I have tried lately.  I picked it up at The Whole Foods Co-Op in Erie.  This past weekend was the first time in a LONG TIME that I was able to make some great grocery hauls and SILLY ME I put everything away before taking photos so I will be sharing those trips with you individually at some point.

One of the highlights of Sunday was that we were able to travel to Mentor, OH, and visit Melt again!  YAY!  I LOVE Melt because there are MANY Vegan Options!  The first time DH and I went together we both tried the Vegan Tofu Wings!  He LOVED them!  Yes...HE...who is FAR from veg LOVED them!  Come to find out their TOFU WINGS are (one of their) best selling apps!  Even popular among the meat eaters!  This is the photo of the Sweet BBQ ones I tried this time around!  YUM!

In the photo above I chose the Vegan Ranch!  This next photo is are the Spicy BBQ Tofu Wings.  He got one order and I got another order but we ended up sharing both of them!  He ordered regular Bleu Cheese (not vegan) but I was stoked he LOVES these Tofu Wings so much!

We ended up ordering our dinner to go, too!  We learned a trick from the waiter.  If ordering to go and eating the sandwiches at another time you pop them open face in the oven or toaster oven at 350 degrees for 5 to 10 minutes and BAM!  Just like you ordered them at the restaurant!  Of course the sandwich he got - to go - wasn't veg - but mine was!  I went with the Mushroom Melt.  I will have to share that at another time!

At Melt they also have vegan Perogies!  They make their own from what I understand!  They are tasty!  I think they were supposed to be with vegan cheese and vegan sour cream.  I think they may have forgotten those items but they were still YUMMERS!  DH also liked these, too!  They have their own "kraut" which is different from what I think Sauerkraut would be but it's their own so I'm game!  It was cabbage and onions, I believe and they put it on just about anything!  I'm been a while since I have had perogies because most of them have dairy in them - at least the ones I see at the stores!  If I had more time and patience I would try making them myself...but I don't!

Vegan MoFo ~ Gambit (& Strong Hearts Cafe)

Sometimes blog posts just write themselves, don't they?  Well, yesterday I was lucky enough to visit a place that has been on my bucket list for YEARS.  That place was Strong Hearts Cafe in Syracuse, NY.  It's a 100% Vegan Restaurant.  And YES my sister and I drove almost 4 hours just to have lunch.  Okay - Okay...maybe we did a few other things to but Strong Hearts was the main reason for this trip!  I'm so blessed that I have a sister who would go with me on this journey.  As I have said before she's not vegan or vegetarian just a really wonderful sister!  So get ready because not only will this be a LONG post but I will incorporate both a review of my experiences at Strong Hearts Cafe AS WELL AS tie it into today's Vegan MoFo prompt which is "What [insert well known person] would eat if they were vegan."


Here's how I'm taking this Vegan MoFo prompt challenge...

Here's what Gambit would eat if he was vegan.  First I will start of by explaining who Gambit is.  For those of you who don't know he's an X-Men Character.

Gambit is also known as The Ragin' Cajun at times.  His powers are: Kinetic energy control and manipulation, Static generation, and he's a Skilled card-thrower.  Being a skilled Card Thrower I had to point out one of the nice touches while visiting Strong Hearts Cafe.  Once you order they hand you a card as seen above to determine your order and table for delivering your food.  (Keep reading to see how I connected the dots with the Ragin' Cajun reference, too!)

Taylor Kitsch has played Gambit in a few movies already and when I read THIS ARTICLE I knew I had to include him in this post.  If you don't know Taylor Kitsch he's also starred in the movie John Carter AND Friday Night Lights!  I also have to confess that X-Men is my favorite "Superhero" and/or "Comic Book" series that has been made into movies!  I LOVE the characters and make it a point to watch the movies when a new one comes out!  So for today's Vegan MoFo Challenge I would say Gambit and/or Taylor Kitsch would be my choice to blog about.  I think if he were a vegan he would like what I had for my MASSIVE meal while visiting Strong Hearts Cafe which was a Caramel Cookie Dough Milkshake, Cajun Seitan Sandwich, and Pumpkin Spice Walnut Cheesecake!

First up...the sandwich!  Take a look at this bad boy!  Cajun Seitan Sandwich!  I was lucky enough to meet one of the owners/founders of Strong Hearts Cafe JOEL.  He was super nice and I chatted with him a bit as well as one of the other employees.  Both were great!  I knew I wanted to try one of their Seitan sandwiches because I don't really eat a lot of Seitan.  When I asked both Joel and the other girl working which of their Seitan Sandwiches they thought I should get they both quickly said CAJUN.  That settled it for me!  Cajun it was!  

I'm so glad they suggested it - the sandwich was AMAZING!  It had just the right amount of heat to it!  And they certainly do NOT skimp on ingredients!  Their sandwiches were jam-packed with healthy contents!  I mean LOOK at these photos!  YUM!  The Cajun Seitan Sandwich had Cucumbers, Lettuce, Tomato, Cajun Seitan, Cheddar Cheese (I think they use Daiya), and I believe it was on a rye panini type bread!  Because this was a fantastic Cajun flavor I think the Ragin' Cajun himself would appreciate this vegan sandwich!

Next up...is this wonderful Milkshake!  It seemed like Strong Hearts Cafe had about a billion different flavors of vegan milkshakes - okay - that might be an exaggeration - but - they did have A LOT!  It made it difficult to decide but I did it!  I went with the one call Farm Sanctuary which is of course named after the farmed animal sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY.  It was Caramel Cookie Dough flavor.  And is was out-of-this-world!  My sister had a Peanut Butter/Chocolate flavor and I had a sip of that, too, and it was amazing!  My sister LOVED her milkshake AND sandwich.  She opted for the Roasted Vegetable Hummus Sandwich.

As you can see we both chose the "greens" as our side but you could choose 'chips' if you wanted to as an alternative.  My sister said that the hummus they used for her sandwich was a Cilantro flavored and she thought it was terrific!  The greens had a light Italian Dressing flare to it, too!  I wanted to make sure that I pointed out the MASSIVE size of these sandwiches.  Now...I didn't take a tape measure to them but they were comparable to the size of an iPad.  And not the newer, smaller iPads...the earlier version that were larger.  Just to give you a visual!  But that's NOT ALL...we still haven't talked about the impressive cheesecake...don't worry...I will...keep scrolling!

As for the Vegan Cheesecake I KNEW I had to have at least one piece!  After all I LOVED cheesecake before dropping dairy and it seemed the one place I knew of in the region (Pizza Plant in Buffalo) never seemed to have it available the few times I have dropped by!  Anyhow...check OUT this large slab of Vegan Cheesecake GOODNESS from Strong Hearts Cafe!  When I order a slice I thought it was just going to be regular cheesecake but vegan but BOY was I wrong!  Apparently depending on the time of year they may do different types of cheesecake.  This one was a Pumpkin Spice topped with a few large Walnuts!  WOWZA!  And YUMMO!

So YES my sister and I had a wonderful time at Strong Hearts and everything was AMAZING.  I was going to try and grab some stuff to go but after we were done eating I was so stuffed I couldn't even think about eating anything else so instead I bought one of their t-shirts!  Everything was affordable.  Everyone was so nice.  This place is a Utopia of sorts and I would urge everyone to go if they can!  Gambit/Taylor Kitsch if you are out there - GO - GO to Strong Hearts Cafe!  You'll thank me later!

Vegan Food Trucks & Food at WNY VegFest

This post rounds up the rest of my WNY VegFest chatter and photos.  As you can tell I had a great time.  Today I want to share with you the photos from the food stations, tables, and trucks!

Starting off with this one...The Whole Hog!  Eventho The Whole Hog is a food truck that serves the Buffalo and Western New York area with foods using meat raised locally and supporting local farms - they can also go vegan when the opportunity arises!   For the VegFest this truck went Vegan on Sunday!  I was VERY tempted by almost everything on this list and REALLY wanted to try it but by the time my sister and I got back over and ordered the race was done and this truck was PACKED with potential customers.

Of course my sister LOVED this truck since it was PINK.  She's a PINK Freak...I for one...can't stand the color pink...but I WAS very interested in what they were serving!

After Googling the company they have a domain but I wasn't able to view it so I decided NOT to link it.  Maybe down the road, tho!

We took a few steps to the right and went to this truck instead.

They were more of a vendor type truck but they did have options!  The line was shorter so we opted for PIZZA. 

They used Tofurky Products for the most part.

My sister had a Veggie Pizza - it didn't have cheese but it did have TONS of Broccoli, Onions, and Black Olives on it.  She said she REALLY liked it.

I ended up ordering a slice of the Taco Pizza.  Mostly because I don't remember having Taco Pizza as a vegan or even as a lacto/lacto-ovo veg prior.

They used Daiya Cheese, Tofurky for the Taco 'meat', and a nice sauce with some black olives.  Eventho I was really hungry when I first started eating this slice I was completely full when I finished it.  It was VERY filling!

Because my sister isn't vegetarian I thought pizza was a good option.  She's fairly open to other foods, tho, and does eat vegetarian meals more than most people I know who are not vegetarian.  She tried a bite of mine and said she liked it, too!

The Food Table & Tent was PACKED, too!  Which is a GREAT thing for the festival but not-so-great if you had a 2 hour trip back like we did so that's another reason why we went with the Pizza.  Next year I really want to try one of the food companies featured in this tent, tho!  I spoke with a few of the people when they were setting up and one of the store owners told me about her place, asked if I was a blogger, and invited me to stop by their location in Orchard Park.  I think at some point I just might try and do that!

One of the many places I wanted to try - but wasn't able to - was this Indian Food Table.  I didn't see a sign with the company's name but they had some decent prices.  I regret not getting in line specifically for their Samosa's.  My sister doesn't do fried foods because of her stomach issues so one of these days her and I will have to try and make some and bake them instead.  I think she would really like Samosa's.

GoVeggies was another section and they featured about a half dozen of their from-scratch veggie burgers that were all vegan.  They also had some spring rolls incase you weren't into veggie burgers. 

Last  time I was in town I saw that they were moving and wasn't able to catch them while they were open. 

After checking out their website I noticed they are now located in Tonawanda.  I want to do a day trip and visit soon!

I'm totally digging their 100% Vegan Menu!

Again, I'm so grateful that I was FINALLY able to attend a VegFest that was within driving distance.  I'm also thankful for my sister for making the trip with me eventho she's not vegetarian!  I hope to go to more in the future and I REALLY hope that Western New York has them each year now.  For the rest of this week I will be catching up on Fair Week posts and I'm starting to 'bank roll' some food posts for next week, too!  Another thing I want to start doing are "Happy Emails".  I want to start sending 3 short Thank You Emails or Happy Emails each week to not only try and brighten someone's day but to give credit where credit is due!  I think I will start off next week with notes to WNY VegFest as well as the Vegan Zombie Crew!