Downtown Richmond Gem: Ellwood Thompson's Market

"LOOK! A place for low emission vehicles. Cute!"

I discovered this place from my friend, LaNell (thanks Lanell!), who I have to give a shout out to. She is one of the most compassionate, selfless, helpful, animal-loving vegan I've ever met. Her and her husband are retired but somehow they find the resources to spend everyday rescuing animals, usually cats. She currently takes care of twenty plus cats, some of which have too many medical problems to be adopted. Love you, LaNell!

Ellwood Thompson's is located off of Cary Street in downtown Richmond. Some may consider it a little expensive but the products they carry is so worth the slightly higher price. They promote local fruits and vegetables and it really is a vegan's playground! They even have a raw food bar, albeit a very small one.

First, the bakery case...

Although there are more vegan options in this case, I only labeled my faves :)

Update: Since my labels can only be viewed by a fly, I will rewrite it here (chocolate chip cookies, double chocolate chip cookies, and toffee bars. Update: their)


Next, the vegan hot bar! Yes, everything here is vegan. The first dish to the left is Thai chicken curry. The second is some sort of steak or beef. The one after that is a tofu dish and I can't remember the fourth. The day before they had vegan lasagna and it was absolutely mouth watering!!!


The deli is one of my favorite areas. There are more vegan options here than what is labeled (eggless egg salad, mac n' cheese, barbeque, pizza, samosas [translation: fried potato dumplings], aloo tikkis [translation: potato patties]). There are also vegan chicken nuggets, grilled veggies, vegan potato salad, etc.)

Another one of my favorite areas. Desserts! They have a lovely variety of vegan cakes, cheesecakes, tarts, etc. Very worth trying! Next to the desserts are a variety of tofu, veggie, and vegan wraps and burgers.

Now you know what I mean about Ellwood Thompson's = Gem

Vegan Quesadilla

So I tried a vegan quesadilla from Sticky Fingers Bakery (shown above) and it was delicious! It was a black bean and cheese quesadilla and it cost $7.99. Not a bad price but how difficult could it be to replicate?

Not difficult at all it turns out!

Here are the ingredients you will need:

- Whole wheat tortilla
- Daiya cheese (I've used cheddar so far but seems like mixing the cheddar and mozzarella would be very tasty)
- Black beans
- Onion
- Tomato
- Tofutti sour cream

I sprayed some oil on each of the tortilla. Lay tortilla flat on pan and spread the Daiya cheese generously.

Add the diced tomatoes, onions, and black beans on it. Put another tortilla on top of it.

Put on very low heat since it takes a little longer to melt the Daiya cheese. Adding higher heat will only burn the tortilla. Be sure to flip the tortilla after one side feels crunchy. If anyone knows how to flip a whole tortilla without having any of the fillings fall out, please let me know :-/

Here is how the inside looks (mmmmmmm)....


This was SO delicious!!

I just compared my quesadilla to the sticky fingers one and it looks like they use one large tortilla, fill it, and simply fold it over. Clever!

Say Cheese!

There aren't many options for vegans when it comes to cheeses and that really is too bad. Giving up cheese and cheesy foods is hard for many people and is usually one of the main reasons those who would like to become a vegan do not.

When looking for vegan cheese, be sure to check out the ingredients. Soy cheeses almost always contain casein, which is a milk protein, hence it is not vegan. Vegan cheeses tend to use the word 'vegan' on their packaging.

There are a few popular vegan cheeses on the market. One of them, an old-timer, is Follow Your Heart. This cheese doesn't tend to melt very well in the sense that it doesn't have that melty, stretchy texture (or taste). It could just be because I don't make it properly. Btw, Follow Your Heart also makes other vegan products (sour cream, dressing, veganaise, etc)

Busboys and Poets uses this cheese on their vegan pizza and it is quite delicious. Maybe the mixture of the veggies and oil on it makes it much tastier.

Teese Cheese came out about two years ago and everyone thought it would be very close to the real deal. I wasn't impressed. Like Follow Your Heart cheese, this didn't seem to melt very well. Also, the taste just wasn't up to par.

My favorite, and I've mentioned it several times in previous blogs, is Daiya cheese. This cheese is relatively new (about a year or so old) and it tastes great! It melts and stretches just like regular cheese. It's rice based and comes in mozzarella and cheddar flavors. When it first came out, the distribution was so limited but the demand for this great tasting vegan cheese quickly made many more places begin offering it. Whole foods now carries this. This cheese come preshredded (which is fine since it melts easier and better that way), in plastic containers. For some reason, I haven't been able to find it in the Daiya prepackaged bag like in the picture I have posted above.

Even Zpizza uses this cheese as their vegan cheese. They used soy cheese in the past, however, again, that contains casein. It's used in limited locations but it is quickly growing to other Zpizzas. Most of the Zpizzas in Northern VA, DC, and MD have it so do make sure you ask for it (combined with the roasted garlic sauce, it's HEAVENLY!!).

Sticky Fingers bakery, an all vegan bakery in DC, also uses Daiya cheese in their cheesy meals (grilled cheese, tuna melt, etc).

I will update this post shortly with a picture of a grilled cheese sandwich using Daiya cheese

Vegan Alcohol

No, wines don't always just consist of grapes.

Some of you might be thinking, huh? What could they possibly put in alcohol to make it non-vegan? Well there is plenty, unfortunately. How frustrating was it for me to discover that they somehow managed to finagle animal products into what one would think consisted of fermented and heated, fruit, vegetables, and plants?

The most common types of non-vegan ingredients consists of gelatin, egg whites, dairy, and isinglass (a.k.a. fish bladder...delish!). Apparently they insert this stuff in during the 'finishing' process. Not sure why this is needed to 'finish' it. Perhaps to preserve it? What happened to good ole fashioned salt? Regardless, there are plenty of plant-based preservatives that could have been used.

Oh and don't mistaken organic for vegan. These terms are NOT interchangeable. Organic simply means free of pesticides and sometimes describes the process of how things are grown and I believe the amount of sulfites included. There are plenty of organic, non-vegan alcohols out there.

The good news is that most liquors are vegan. Of course all cream-based liqueurs are not.

The best site for looking up your alcohol is Barnivore. You can do a quick search by first clicking the category of alcohol (i.e. beer, wine, liquor) and then typing in the name of the alcohol.

This site does have major limitations though in that it doesn't include everything. There are SO many brands of wines out there that I guess it's impossible to include them all. It really is a hit or miss. I do enjoy wine, however if I can't find it listed on this site, I assume it's not vegan. For me it's better to be safe than sorry.

Whole Foods carries some vegan wines and you can ask the wine associate for help. There are usually only a few brands that they are aware of. Whole Foods definitely should step up their vegan wine selection or at least become more aware of which ones are vegan and categorize them accordingly.

I have memorized a couple of well-known wines by heart that are easy to find at stores and so I tend to stick with those. One in particular is Yellow Tail. All of their red wines are vegan. If I'm at a bar or party where there isn't any Yellow Tail or I'm unable to find the wine that is served on barnivore, I simply stick to liquor.

Wine is fine but liquor is quicker ;-P

Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale

Today was the day the vegan bake sale finally came around my area, Falls Church, VA. I had this on my schedule for weeks!

This particular bake sale was sponsored by Compassion for Animals however, it was done in conjunction with The Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale.

There was a plant and farmers' market going on at the same time so they had a lot more traffic than usual. There weren't many vegan things to eat at the farmers' market but I did find this vegan potato phyllo type dish. It was delicious. Probably more so because I didn't have breakfast :-P

As you can see from the pictures, there were plenty of goodies contributed by volunteers and even by a couple professional bakers. One such professional bakery/cafe, Natalia's Elegant Creations, donated coconut cupcakes, gluten-free peanut butter bars (those were unbelievably delicious), red velvet cupcakes (all gone by the time I got there), and peanut butter cupcakes. All vegan, of course. Natalia's is located in Falls Church and she will always have 1 or 2 vegan selections. It will sometimes sell out before I can get my hands on any. I have often wished she would offer more vegan items.

The prices were so reasonable and I had a few people I wanted to buy for that I ended up buying exactly $30 worth of treats! Hey, it's for such a good cause! I also wanted my 3 male housemates to try some as well, which is why I ended up buying a lot of peanut butter goodies -- what is it with guys and peanut butter treats?

The vegan bake sales happen a few times a year but this was the first time I had heard of a vegan bake sale where so many countries collaborated on the event.

Yes, this is what came home with me. Don't judge. I gave most of it away.

Lunchtime

I often get asked, "so, what do you eat?" Most non-vegans think all we can eat are salads. Luckily that isn't the case. I eat many variety of things. Some things are inherently vegan. Some things are not. I do often have cravings that stem from my vegetarian days. One in particular are cheese enchilada with a ton of sour cream.
How can one resist that? Seriously?

Lots of non-vegan things can be recreated to become vegan. One of my favorite lunchtime foods to eat (at work) is Amy's Enchiladas, non-dairy version, of course. The tortilla is full of veggies, corn, beans, and tiny bits of tofu. There is also a side of rice and a side of beans. So healthy!

Amy's foods are organic and are considered whole meals. You can find it in your grocers freezer although more variety of Amy's is usually found at Whole Foods. Amy's makes Mexican, Asian, Indian, and American foods. The majority of Amy's products are vegetarian and quite a few are vegan.

For being a frozen foods company, Amy's foods is full of nutrients and relatively low in sodium. Compare the sodium to the regular frozen foods and you'll see a significant difference. The fiber and protein is also very high, especially in the Mexican dishes.

To recreate vegetarian enchiladas using Amy's vegan enchilada meals, I put Daiya's shredded vegan cheese on it and once it's warmed up, I top it off with Toffuti's sour cream. It really tastes gourmet and is oh so satisfying!

Lunchtime!


I usually put a lot more cheese on here but I ran out.


Microwave and add sour cream


THIS is how I like to eat it!

Vegan Treats: The discovery of an amazing bakery!

My apologies for being away so long! I had a bout of Spring Break fever and was away mentally.

Now that I'm back, I wanted to blog about an amazing, possibly the MOST amazing, bakery in the world. Note, this is a vegan bakery, however, I don't specify that because their desserts are amazing, vegan or not!

Vegan Treats is this hidden gem located in Bethlehem, PA. I discovered them when I ordered a slice of cake from Java Green, which is a mostly vegan (some vegetarian) restaurant in DC. The cake was a super moist, rich, lovely, chocolaty....**drooooolll...** Ok, you get the point. I asked them where they got this lovely creature from and they mentioned Vegan Treats. Me being hungry, for more cake as well as the knowledge of the source of it, immediately went back and googled it. I read all about this small bakery. The owner/master baker, Danielle Konya, now one of my idols, is this talented, compassionate woman who started this bakery up to share her amazing treats with the world. She is even popular with certain celebrities (Gwenyth Paltrow, AFI, Alicia Silverstone, etc).

Now even though I'm in love with this bakery, I was weary of making a 3 hour plus trek to get there. Fortunately, I found out that they make deliveries to restaurants in the DC metro area every Friday so I simply place an order the day before and they will either drop it off at one of the restaurants or meet me at my work to deliver it. Since I'm only a mile or so away from one of the places they deliver to, they are OK with this. I also try to order enough to make it worth their while to deliver to me. They have mentioned that they are looking into opening up a store in the DC area. I would LOVE that although I'd be very afraid for my waistline!!!

They also make deliveries to restaurants in New York and other surrounding areas.

Many people have asked me if this is healthier than traditional dairy and egg based desserts. I say probably not because it still contains sugar, fat, etc., however because it negates any animal based product, it's cholesterol-free AND most importantly, it's cruelty-free and that's good enough for me!

It just really makes you realize that animal derived sources are totally unnecessary. The baker uses tofu. Yes, TOFU. You can blech all you want but that food source is so versatile and just plain awesome.

If you don't believe me, I challenge you to try these desserts and not be in love and/or realize there is no dairy or eggs.

You can find Vegan Treat's desserts at Busboys and Poets, Toscana Grill, and Java Green. If you don't live in or around PA, NY, or VA, contact Vegan Treats to see if they deliver to any restaurants near you!

Some of my past orders....***DROOL***