Can Vegans Eat Here?

Eating out at restaurants can be difficult when you have food allergies or dietary requirements. I know with my family going out for a meal can be quite the novel when ordering what we want. Most waitresses now a days are really cool with taking our orders and usually say “oh you are one of ‘those’ families”. So that got me thinking about the chain restaurants and what they had to offer us vegans. Seeing that they are big box restaurants and all of their menus in Canada should be the same, I thought that they would be able to tell me what meals they could offer. So I set off to email 5 major restaurants, Montana’s, Boston Pizza, Original Joe’s, Chili’s and Earls and this is what I wrote:

Good Afternoon,

I was wondering if you could tell me all of your menu items that do not contain any meat, dairy or eggs. I am a vegan and would love to continue to eat at your restaurant. I understand that you cannot guarantee the cross contamination of the food in the kitchen but I was just wondering the actual ingredients in the meals themselves. Thank you and I look forward to your response.

Kindly,

Nikki Clark Murray

I didn’t know what I was expecting, maybe a them saying that I could safely eat the lettuce and the water and that’s all they could promise me or maybe a detailed list explaining everything. Any route I was just wanting to see what the upper management could tell me about the food that their company sells. And really, I can’t be the first one to email them about vegan food, surely they would already have this question answered. Right?

Well out of the 5 restaurants, I have received  emails back, Chili's still hasn't replied.

And these are their responses:

This is the email that I got from Montana’s in response to my question:

Dear Ms.  Murray,

Thank you for contacting Montana’s restaurants with your inquiry.
All of our allergen information can be found at the website below.http://www.montanas.ca/pdf/nutrition.pdf

Where cross contamination may be a concern regarding allergies, it is
important that you speak with your server at the restaurant so that they
can minimize the possibility of cross contamination occurring in the
kitchen. Please advise them of all allergy concerns you have prior to
ordering to ensure your concerns are addressed.

As well, please be advised that there is always the possibility for cross
contamination to occur and that we cannot guarantee your item will not
come in contact with allergens in our other food items.

We value your patronage and look forward to serving you in the near
future.

Sincerely,
Montanas Guest Services

Miranda

Well the link to the nutritional information didn’t work, but luckily it wasn't hard to find on their website. To access the PDF file you go to the website and click on the menu button, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on nutritional guide. You will get a PDF file which states all of the allergens in each menu item. The only problem with this is it doesn’t tell you what you can have with substitutions. Such as, the veggie burger has cheese on it so it is listed as having milk ingredients, but if I was to remove the cheese would it be dairy free? So this some what helps you in deciding if you can eat out at Montana’s but you are going to have to ask your server when you order. The only things that were safe on the menu was the guacamole, fries, sweet potato fries (if they aren’t deep fried with other meat or dairy), plum sauce, salsa, Thai sauce, and it says that the baked potato contains dairy but that is something I would ask about because it could just that they add sour cream to it. Other than that everything else contains milk, eggs or meat.

This is the response that I got from Boston Pizza

Hello Nikki,

Due to the periodic product substitutes from our suppliers we cannot provide allergen information except at the store level.

Please feel free to contact one of our staff member the next time we visit us and we will gladly provide you with any specific allergen questions you may have. For Boston Pizza locations and contact information please visit us at  http://www.bostonpizza.com/en/locations/

We value you patronage to our restaurants and once again thank you for contacting us.

Kind regards,  

Joe Avila

Guest Services Manager

Boston Pizza International Inc.

I looked on their website and they only have a gluten free menu listed along with the nutritional information. So as it looks right now you need to ask your waitress about what foods you can have and be specific in what you are asking. I had one waitress bring me fries with a mayo dipping sauce because she didn’t know that mayo was made from eggs.

This is the response I received from Earls,

Dear Nikki, Thank you for contacting us about our Vegan options. We understand dining out when you are a vegan can be limiting at times and as all of our recipes are made from scratch, we are aware of exactly what is in each product and all of our Chefs are trained to be aware of specific dietary needs so that we can easily accommodate vegan customers on the spot; however, if you wish to call the head chef of the Earls restaurant in your area, they will be happy to answer specific questions about any menu items and discuss your options for future reference. At this time we do not have a Vegan specific menu on hand but it is something that you will see from us in the future as we do pass all comments about our menu to our Product Development and Menu Teams for their review. We hope to see you in Earls soon! Sincerely, Miko Bryson Earls Restaurants Ltd

This was the response I was hoping for with the previous two restaurants. They are not giving me exact menu items but they are reassuring me that as a vegan I am able to eat there. Also stating that in the possible future there might be a vegan menu is an added bonus because it makes me feel that they are taking into consideration people's dietary need.
Plus I feel that the response wasn't just generated by a computer, it was actually written by a human being, which is always a nice touch. Like when calling a customer service line, you want to talk to a person not an automated answering service. 

This is the respsonse I got from Original Joe’s, by far the best response I received.

Hello Nikki,
Unfortunately we do not have a ton of vegan options available.  I have however, compiled a list of options that you may have with some simple modifications.  Please see the attached word document.

I hope this helps you to still enjoy a meal with us and if you have any other questions please feel free to contact me directly at jbates@franworks.com

Thank you,

Jason Bates |Operations Specialist |Regional Kitchen Manager |Franworks Group of Companies

This is the information he supplies me through a Word Document:

VEGAN OPTIONS

MAIN DISHES
**Dragon Boat Lettuce Wraps – ask for no noodles and no chicken.
Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl – ask for no chicken and no spiced yogurt.
Tomato Basil Linguini – ask for no cheese, bread or panko topping.
*Mixed Greens Salad – ask for no almonds and no cranberries. (cranberries are produced in a facility with milk ingredients)
Spinach Salad – ask for no cheese, bread, almonds or cranberries.
Thai Chicken Salad – ask for no bread and no chicken.
*West Coast Chop – ask for no cheese, bread, cranberries and almonds.
*Veggie Burger – ask for no bread or cheese and choose from the sides listed below.

SIDES
Broccolini – ask for no butter.
*Fresh Veggies & Dip – ask for no ranch, choose a salad dressing from below.
Home Cut Fries – ask for no gravy or dill dip.
*Sweet Potato Fries – ask for no gravy or dill dip.
*Mixed Greens – no almonds or cranberries
**Hummus – ask for no bread and have vegetables instead
**Quinoa Salad

DRESSINGS
Oil & Vinegar
Balsamic Berry Vinaigrette
Italian

* I have personally tried them
**my favourites

I don’t know about you but I am super impressed with the information and effort put forward by Jason. Not only did he get back to me within hours of my email, but he typed up a list of everything I am able to eat. Even stating that the cranberries were made in a facility with milk ingredients. This not only makes me want to go back to OJ’s it makes me want to promote them as a business. If only other chain restuarants could have emailed me back with a more indepth email I would feel the same about it. So I gues chalk one up for Original Joe’s!

Hopefully the other restaurant will get back to me soon, when they do I will post their responses!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N

Vegan Camping with Cheesy Burger Bush Pie

I just went camping this past weekend for the St. Victor Boogie, a motorcycle rally that is held ever year here in Saskatchewan by the Southern Independent Riders. It always promises to be a great time and this year it didn’t disappoint. I even got to sing on stage with one of the bands! So basically I am a rock star now! As for the food, I didn’t really eat like a rock star, because I wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked, but I survived and actually came up with some awesome things to eat.

The Burnout Pit!

Being vegan and going camping you have to be prepared. Everyone usually packs to much food so you could share, but most people usually pack lots of meat products. So now what? You could eat the grass right? Haha no I wouldn’t suggest that, and I hope you don’t get that desperate. Basically you need to be really prepared, so take some time and think about what you would like to eat, especially snacking food.

If you have a fridge I would strongly suggest you take as much fresh fruit and veggies as possible. I brought out avocados to make fresh guacamole for one of those afternoons when you are craving something salty, and fruit and my 3 Ingredient Cookies for when I was craving something sweet. If you have the time before hand I suggest making these cookies for your trip. They are the perfect substitute for granola bars because there is no added sugar or mystery ingredients in them!

The groceries I brought out were:

Dempsters Vegetable Bread

Daiya

Vegan burgers

Vegan hot dogs

Coconut oil

Bananas

Frozen Fruit to make smoothies (we have a small generator so I brought my magic bullet!)

Spinach

Avocados

Salsa

Blue corn chips

Banana oatmeal cookies

Things I forgot - my mangos and grapes

And last but not least – vegetarian beans that were generously given to me by my friend Amber

As you can see there is not a ton of fresh stuff, but I think I ate pretty good for camping. 

I would say that the one thing that saved my butt this weekend was the bush pie maker. They are the greatest camping invention ever and without it I would have probably starved (okay I wouldn’t have, but you get the picture). If your family goes camping and don’t own one, go to Walmart or Canadian Tire and get one now. There are two types out there, aluminum and cast iron. The aluminum ones are cheaper and you get what you pay for. My sister in law Jen put hers in the fire to heat up and the whole thing melted. Clearly that wouldn’t happen with the
cast iron version, so if you can spend a little more, splurge on the cast iron version.

These burgers turned out awesome!
And I love how they are vegan,
gluten free and soy free! 

So what did I make with my bush pie maker? First I made a grilled cheese. If you have ever had Daiya before you know that it takes a while for it to melt, well not in this baby. She was perfectly toasted in less than 5 minutes and the cheese was melted and stringy, YUM!

Second I made a grilled cheese but this time I added beans to it, which was even better! If you are cringing right now I don’t blame you, its not something you eat everyday, but if I could I would. When my sister Ashley got back from Europe she brought back this tasty treat with her and I have loved it ever since. Apparently it is something that they eat all the time, crazy Europeans!

Its always good to drink lots of water!

But you can sneak in a few Palm Bays too!

But the main star of the weekend was the grilled cheese burger, yup I said it and I made it, a grilled cheese burger. This was super simple to make and I was eating it in less than 10 minutes. First I took the vegan burger (Santa Fe variation from Big Mountain Foods) and cooked it in the bush pie maker for 5 minutes, then sandwiched it in between cheese and cooked it once more for 3 minutes. It was pure heaven, even my meat lovin friends were saying how awesome it looked.

Now that I have found a new delicious meal, I am now considering asking Devon to make me a fire this week so I can eat another one because I have never had a better grilled cheese in my life.

Also, there are so many different versions you could make:

Grilled chili cheese

Pizza (think of the toppings)

Fruity ones

The sky is the limit really, so go and have some fun with  your food!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Quick and Easy Curry Stew

I LOVE CURRY! Like L.O.V.E LOVE  I have made a couple different curry dishes and this is by far the easiest and best I have ever made. I know I have said this about every curry dish I have made, but honestly it just keeps getting better and easier. I was surprised at how quick this meal came together and how great it turned out. 
Like always, when trying a new dish I am always a little wary on if I will like it, but man this is good. Now, I can see a couple of you out there thinking that this might be too hard, you are wrong, it’s only 4 easy steps to awesomeness for this dish. If you are unsure of whether or not you like curry then maybe start off with no curry spices and add little by little instead. For me I used 2 tbsp of curry spice to really bring out that extra punch.

So if you are in the mood for something really fun tonight, why not try out my amaze-balls curry stew, I dare you!

Serves 2-6 people ( I ate the whole pot so really 1-6 people)

Stew
2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp of coconut oil

2 good-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 large yellow onion, chopped

1 large red bell pepper, or 2 small ones, chopped

1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained
1 lime

Sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

2 inch fresh ginger, peeled

2 heaping tablespoons peanut butter

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground red pepper flakes

2 tablespoon curry powder

1 tbsp maple syrup

½ can coconut milk

Directions:

Step one – chop up all the veggies

Step two – sauté the veggies, hick peas and oil for about 10 mins in a large pot on medium high, until almost fork tender

Step three – put all of the sauce ingredients into a blender and puree until smooth

Step four – pour sauce over veggies and let simmer for 15 minutes, the longer you simmer the thicker it gets!

Garnish with lime and serve over rice or noodles. Enjoy!

Substitutions

*coconut milk for any that you have on hand

*peanut butter for any other nut or seed butter you have

*sweet potatoes for regular potatoes

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Isn't All Wine Vegan?

Sorry to say its
not vegan :(

First you take the grapes and you crush ‘em, you crush ‘em, then you take the juice and  you pour it, you pour it… well maybe a little more high tech then this but this is how I thought wine was made. Basically fruit with yeast to ferment the sugars into wine. But sadly no, this is not true. One of the things I have just learned is that some alcohols, including wine, may contain things like, fish, eggs and even milk. Crazy as it sounds, but this is true.

How you may ask? Well it has to do with how the wine is clarified and a process called ‘fining’. Fining is the process of filtering out tiny molecules such as proteins, tartrates, tannins and phenolics in young wines. Which in the beginning look murky and cloudy. These are save to drink, but wine companies like a clear clean looking wine so they use this process to clean them up.

Some of the most common fining agents are casein (a milk protein), albumin (egg whites), gelatin (animal protein) and isinglass (fish bladder protein). These fining agents are not ingredients in the wine, they are just processing aids and are filtered out through the removing of the haze molecules. For the vegans out there who are mainly concerned about consuming the animal products, these are safe because it has all been removed. But this is now a problem for ethical vegans out there, just because there are no traces of the animal products doesn’t mean that they were not used in the process of making it.

There is hope though! There are new ways of filing wine that a lot of winemakers are using today. Carbon, bentonite clay, limestone, kaolin clay, plant casein, silica gel, and vegetable plaques are all suitable alternatives and are vegan friendly. Also in a move towards more natural wines, some wine makers are moving to not fining their wines at all, and leaving them to self-clarify and self-stabilize.

Captain Morgan is vegan!

So how do I find out if my wine is vegan or not? There is a great website called Barnivore that lists both vegan and non vegan wine and also beer and liquor. Another website that focuses on just wine is www.vegans.frommars.org/wine, it has a lot of foreign wines if that is what you tend to drink.

I have listed below some of the most common alcohols and whether they are vegan or not. Some wines I am pretty sad about because I really enjoyed them, but on the plus side I now get to experiment with different types of wine! Yummm!

The information I listed is off of the Barnivore website, if you have a favourite drink that you are curious about you can look it up on there or email the company and ask. Barnivore has a great template for you to use in an email, as well as a polite email response. Good luck with your findings!

Sadly not Guinness 

Naked Grape – no

Sawmill Creek – no

Jackson Triggs – no

Apothic wine – no

Martini Brand – no

Silent Sam Vodka – no

Skinny Girl – Pina Colada – no

Skinny Girl – White Peach Margarita – no

Skinny Girl – Cranberry Cosmo – no

Smirnoff Espresso – no

Smirnoff root beer – no

Grandville Island, anything Casked – no

Richards Honey Brown – no

Guinness beer - no

Absolute vodka – yes

Appleton – yes

Amerito – yes

Bacardi – yes

Say yes to Absolut 

Beefeater – yes

Bombay Gin – yes

Canadian Club Whiskey – yes

Captain Morgan Spiced Rum – yes

Alexander’s – yes

Coors and light – yes

Miller – yes

Molson – yes

Corona – yes

Thanks for reading!
xoxo -N

Vegan Sloppy Joes

Holy moly! These were so good! I had Chelsea and her boyfriend Taylor over the other night for supper to taste test one of my new recipes (now that I look back that was a mistake because I could be eating leftovers right now).As I am typing this I am wishing I made more so I could have one for lunch, silly me, I guess next time I will have to!  When I thought about making these I knew my sister would love them, she is vegan like me, so she appreciates the veganizing of traditional favourites. They were a huge hit with everyone including the meat loving men!

I honestly feel that this is something that anyone would love! Don’t tell them what’s in it because they might have some preconceived notions about lentils. Just let them try it before you tell them and I know they will be hooked on my new take on a Sloppy Joe!  

While I was making these I was snacking on my favourite blue corn tortilla chips and Bush’s vegetarian baked beans. I literally cannot keep these in the house because I eat the whole can by myself as soon as I get home. Not the healthiest snack, but something that I treat myself to on occasion. So as I was devouring my snack I realized that these would taste pretty good in the Sloppy Joes, so I used all of my will power and saved half of a can to throw in. I found that the sweetness of the brown sugar really complimented the spiciness of the chili powder. If you don’t have these at home, or dont like them, no worries because they would have tasted just as great without them!

Side note about Bush’s Baked Beans, all of their products are gluten free, do not contain any dairy, casein. And their vegetarian style does not contain any animal or animal by products! Yay! For more info go to their website.

 

I also thought I would bring to your attention a little nutritional information about my Sloppy Joes. I was thinking about this when I was eating them last night. They were not as heavy as I remember and that was because I had switched out the meat for lentils. So I naturally had to do a nutritional comparison between canned lentils and cooked ground beef, and this is what I found.

All the information is approximate depending on the brand and type of product you are using.

Canned Lentils – 250g

160 calories

1 gram fat

6 grams fiber

12 grams protein

Pan Cooked Ground Beef – 250g

445 calories

18 grams fat

0 grams fiber

66 grams protein

As you can see the calories are over double in the ground beef and 18 times more in fat. Plus the kicker as always, there is no fiber in meat which we all know is good for proper digestion. I know you are saying ‘but there is 66 grams of protein in the hamburger’ and to that I say, 'do you really need that much?' In my opinion no you don’t, at least not in one cup of anything. For more information on daily intake of protein for vegans please check out this awesome video by FreeLee.

Vegan Sloppy Joes Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 yellow onions, sliced

1 small pkg of cremini mushrooms, diced

2 red peppers, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 can diced tomatoes

1 tbsp chili powder

2 tsp paprika

1 tbsp oregano

1 can organic lentils, rinsed

S&P to taste

Optional - ½ -1 can of Bush's Vegetarian baked beans

Directions:

In a frying pan or pot over medium heat, add ¼ cup of the liquid from the tomatoes. Add one onion, peppers, ½ pkg of mushrooms, sauté for 7-10 minutes. Make sure you stir continuously adding more liquid if needed. Add tomatoes and spices and cook for . Pour mixture into a blender and puree until smooth. Set aside.

Using the same frying pan or pot, add some water and cook the garlic and the rest of the onions and mushrooms until soft. Add the blended mixture and lentils, reduce heat to medium and let simmer until it becomes thick, around 15 minutes.

I didn’t use all of my sauce because my frying pan wasn’t big enough, but that just made it so I could add more sauce to my plate to dip it in!

Serve on any type of bread with a salad and enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N

Vegan Pizza Pops and Vegan Pesto Pizza

I wonder if you are getting tired of my pizza posts? I am certainly not tired of making the pizza and eating it, hence all of the recipes I have posted!

This time I made a homemade pizza pocket, or a calzone, depending on how you want to see it. AND I made a mini pesto pizza. Two for one today folks!

When you really think about it, you can do a lot with pizza dough, and by simply changing up the toppings, shape or size of what you are making, it changes the whole meal. Especially when it come to kids. What kid wouldn’t love decorating his own pizza with the toppings they love, maybe even making it have a face. Its simple changes to the meals you and your family love that make the difference between the same old, same old into something new and delicious.

For those of you who read my Homemade Pizza post, this is the same dough recipe.

Pizza Dough – 2 Pizza Pockets and 2 mini Pizzas
1 ½ cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp ground flax
2 ¼ tsp quick-rising yeast
½ tsp salt
2/3 cup very warm water
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp. date honey *recipe below

In a medium bowl, combine flour, flax, yeast and salt. Mix well.
Measure warm water in measuring cup, then stir in olive oil and honey. 
Pour mix over dry ingredients and mix using wooden spoon to form a ball. 
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 2 mins. 
Grease inside of another bowl with olive oil and place dough inside. 
Cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm place until double in size (about 20mins).
Divide the dough between the number of pizza pockets or mini pizzas you would like (max 4)
Roll out dough over lightly floured surface into a circle. 
Put on toppings and bake at 425 for 15-20 mins.
**While the dough is rising I cut up the vegetables to have ready.

For the toppings I used:
1/3 sm can tomato sauce
½ red pepper, diced
3 mushrooms, sliced
½  zucchini, sliced
½ cup shredded Daiya mozzarella 

Date Honey - makes ½ cup
5 dates
¼ cup water
Blend in high speed blender until smooth, store the rest in the fridge.

 

Mini Pesto Pizza

Pesto Sauce

½ cup of cashews or sunflower seeds, soaked for at least 4 hours

1 lemon, juiced

1 clove garlic

1 large handful of spinach

5 sprigs of basil, de stemmed

Lightly chop up the spinach and basil, and throw all of the ingredients into a high speed blender. Set on medium high and blend until smooth.

Toppings

3 mushrooms, sliced

½ zucchini, sliced

Top with fresh spinach

Thanks for reading,
Xoxo -N