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Beaming Vegan

A blog on life by vegans.

Weekday Breakfast Sandwiches

We all luuurve a good breakfast sandwich here, right? As much as I love breakfast food, it doesn’t always sit well at actual breakfast time… But I rarely skip it. I usually opt for a smoothie or coffee in the morning and don’t eat real food until late in the morning.

What I TRY to do is this –> Warm lemon water, green smoothie, latte, then when I feel like both myself and my digestive system are awake I’ll throw in breakfast. LOL I’m laughing at myself saying this right now because talk about high maintenance, yikes! It’s kind of embarrassing once I actually say it.

There once was a day when I’d wake up and roll with the tides, whether that meant a big breakfast or no breakfast, and no coffee was required in order for me to feel awake. What have I become? :’D

Beaming Vegan Breakfast Sandwich

This breakfast sammy is perfect for cooking up before work and taking in a to-go box. I mean, it isn’t called a “weekday breakfast sandwich” for nothin’! I hope you’ll spoil yourself during the week instead of saving all the goods for late weekend mornings.

10-minute breakfast sandwich perfect for weekday mornings  It seriously takes 10 minutes, and all the ingredients are basically ready to go when you buy them. I encourage you to play around with different brands and flavors of waffle, vegan bacon, and cheese. What do you come up with?? Seriously- Let me know how you “style” yours and I’ll try it that way next time! Would be good with veganaise, hot sauce, onion, pancakes in place of waffles, you know… just make it yours ;) You have my full support

Print Recipe

10-Minute Weekday Breakfast Sandwich

Because all the ingredients take 10-minutes or less to go from refrigerator to incredible drool-worthy breakfast sammy, I'd say there's no better time to indulge in such a breakfast than on a weekday morning. Ditch the cold cereal and granola bar for a day or two and replace it with this melty goodness! Bet you'll have a muuuuuch better day!
Prep Time5 mins
Cook Time5 mins
Total Time10 mins
Keyword: breakfast, morning, vegan bacon, vegan cheese, vegan egg
Servings: 1 Sandwich

Ingredients

  • 2 Gluten-free vegan waffles I used Nature's Path Organics brand, in the buckwheat wildberry flavor. Any would do the trick.
  • 1 Tomato
  • 2 Slices Vegan cheese I used Follow Your Heart brand (my personal favorite and the most affordable option at our store)
  • Extra firm organic tofu
  • Vegan bacon Sweet Earth brand "benevolent bacon" is great for this recipe because it most closely resembles bacon and is perfect for folding onto a sandwich, in my opinion.
  • 1 Tsp Turmeric
  • 1 Pinch Black pepper
  • 1/4 Cup Nutritional yeast
  • 1 Tsp Himalayan salt
  • 1 Tbsp Oil I used vegetable, if I had a choice I'd have used avocado or olive for sure!

Instructions

  • Heat oil in a cast iron skillet.
  • Cook the bacon in skillet until heated through, or follow cooking instructions on package. (Most vegan bacon is ready to eat- just needs heated) Transfer to a plate when finished.
  • Drain the water from the tofu. Set it on it's longest side and take about 1/3 of the width slice from the block.
  • Add tofu to the skillet and cook on each side for a couple minutes over medium heat, then add salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, and turmeric and cook for another minute on each side.
  • Prepare the frozen waffles according to package instructions. Top each waffle with a slice of cheese and melt cheese to waffle either by putting on skillet with a lid over the top or broiling a few seconds in the oven.
  • Wash and slice a tomato and assemble sandwich by adding tomato, bacon, and tofu to cheesy waffles.

My Favorite Eco-Friendly Etsy Finds

Eco-Friendly Etsy Finds

  1. Small glass spray bottles with aluminum lids:  I think you’ll find a trend among these items, and it’s that they all serve multiple purposes. An important part of going green, I’ve found, is being able to reuse and re-purpose items. These pretty little spray bottles are perfect for traveling, keeping in your beauty cabinet, misting plants, and making homemade essential oil mixtures. It can be pretty hard to find zero-waste spray bottles, as most of them are plastic and the few glass bottles usually have plastic caps. These are glass and aluminum, so they’re eco-friendly and actually zero waste!
  2. Mason jar cozy:  If you’re following along over on Insta, you’ve already seen that I swapped single-use cups for the biggest reusable drink ware I could find, which happened to be a regular-mouth 25oz mason jar. I tracked down a drinking lid and already had a straw for it, but I’m realizing now that I use it everyday that a cozy would be extremely handy! The jar sweats and gets slippery, and being 25oz it’s pretty large and hard to grasp. A cozy would also be handy to keep a big ol’ lemon water warm until I can finish it! The main concern is grip and comfort, though. Seriously, if you’re going to use a jar, don’t skip that accessory… I bet you’ll really appreciate it. They come in most jar shapes and sizes, too!
  3. Plant based brush head: Zero waste, plant based, unique, multi purpose! Yaaas! I’m dreaming of adding this to our kitchen for dishes, cleaning fruit/veg, and cleaning around the kitchen.I also LOVE that it can be used alone or attached to a handle to get hard-to-reach spaces (like the inside of my jar…) If you have time, I highly recommend checking out the other items in this shop. They’re all so dreamy and zero waste!
  4. Reusable gift wrap: Around the holidays, I researched a lot of zero-waste gift wrap ideas although I wasn’t considering fully giving this eco-friendly thing a try yet. I saw newspaper, hand-painted paper, towels, blankets, etc. but nothing truly traditional and attractive. This gift wrap doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb and can be used for birthdays, Christmas, anything!
  5. Zero-waste tea bags: I recently learned standard tea bags (which I use allll the time… peppermint tea, though…) are plastic lined. Uuuuugh! Why must everything be so wasteful! The good news is I know of tons of good spots to buy loose leaf tea/herbal tea, and this reusable tea bag is affordable and a perfect addition to an eco-friendly kitchen!
  6. Unpaper towels: Every kitchen needs unpaper towels. We ditched paper towels about 3 years ago and have just been using hand towels ever since, but our hand towels have taken quite a beating because of it! I’d really like to keep the hand towels for drying our hands and dishes and add these “unpaper” towels to our kitchen for quick clean-ups. This pattern is super cute, but there are TONS to choose from in this shop, including plain white ones! The shop also gives you the option to have snaps on the towels or not, I haven’t used them yet so I can’t recommend one way or another, but if you’ve tried them let us know what you prefer!

The Actual BEST Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies!

How many “best chocolate chip cookies ever” recipes do you have stowed away in recipe boxes, cookbooks, and Pinterest boards? If you’re anything like me you’ve got an awful lot of these recipes stacked up, especially if you’re vegan! It seems like as soon as I figured out how to make the “perfect” chocolate chip cookie I went vegan and was left searching once more.

I was almost vegan for a year and a half before finding this dandy. That was a lot of chocolate chips being wasted in too-crumbly or too-tough “best ever” vegan cookies… Like a LOT of chocolate chips :’D

Thank goodness this cookie came along during the holiday season when so much baking trial and error was happening anyway. It was one of the first ones I tried of the season, I tweaked it multiple ways each time I made it, and rested on this being the absolute BEST result.

THE BEST VEGAN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Beaming Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies- Vegan Best Cookies Ever

I mean, that fluffiness though… And just as dense as it is fluffy. There’s nothing I don’t like about this close-up. 😉

I knew these batches of goodness would be a hit with everyone else, too… But I tried to contain my excitement. To perform a true test of tastiness I presented them at both my family holiday gathering and a dinner with G’s boss, but I didn’t say a word about them. I mean even through all this crazy cookie lady crap going through my head, I sat the cookies on the counter and walked away not saying a word.

I patiently waited until the first person of each group took a bite and exclaimed their shared excitement over these bad boys. None of these people were vegan, and they both wanted to know how the cookies could possibly be vegan. I told them it’s much like a “regular” cookie recipe, but with vegan butter, eggs, and chocolate. It’s true though, they couldn’t be more simple.

Recipe adapted from Vedged Out

Print Recipe

The Actual BEST Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Super soft but also dense and chewy, these cookies earn the blue ribbon hands down. So simple and easy to make with ingredients you probably already have in your pantry, these are way easier than most vegan cookies that require uncommon ingredients and half a day in preparation. If I mixed these up with the best bakery-fresh cookies you would not know the difference. That's how quality these babies are!
Prep Time35 mins
Cook Time10 mins
Total Time45 mins
Keyword: chocolate chip, Cookie
Servings: 16 Large Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1/2 Cup Earth Balance vegan butter
  • 1/2 Cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 Cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 Tsp aluminum-free baking powder
  • 1/2 Tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 Tsp himalayan salt
  • 1 Tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 Tsp almond extract
  • Bob's Red Mill egg replacer mix 1 tbsp with 2 tbsp water and let sit for 10 seconds before adding to recipe.
  • 1 1/4 Cup unbleached organic all purpose flour
  • 1 vegan german chocolate bar chopped- separate from the tiny chocolate crumbs, only use the larger ones or you'll have one giant melty chocolate cookie.

Instructions

  • Cream together butter, sugars, vanilla, and almond extract.
  • Mix 1 tbsp of egg replacer with 2 tbsp water. Let sit for 10-15 seconds.
  • Add egg replacer to creamed ingredients and beat well. You'll want the egg replacer to be fully and evenly incorporated.
  • In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  • Slowly combine the dry mixture into the creamed sugars.
  • Fold in chocolate chunks and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes. About 15 minutes after putting dough in the refrigerator, preheat oven to 350.
  • Once cooled, spoon dough by the tablespoon into uniform balls and place onto greased or lined cookie sheet.
  • Bake for about 10 minutes or until spread into a flat round cookie, fully cooked around the edges. Remove from oven and let cool in the pan until the cookies are stiff enough to remove with a spatula and place on a cooling rack.

 

 

 

 

 

Creamy Vegan Hot Chocolate

 

Print Recipe

Hot Chocolate [Vegan]

Creamy, rich, and chocolate-y... all words I would use to describe this divine winter beverage. I definitely recommend adding a thick layer of your fave non-dairy whip + a drizzle of caramel. Peppermint oil would be a fantastic mix-in as well! Mix it up and make it a party! Whip with crushed peppermint on top? Yum!
Prep Time5 mins
Cook Time10 mins
Total Time15 mins
Keyword: chocolate, Christmas, coffee, drinks, hot chocolate, winter
Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

  • 32 Oz Almond Milk
  • 1 Cup Cacao Powder
  • 1/2 Cup Caramel Non-Dairy Coffee Creamer
  • 1 Cup Sugar
  • 2 Tsp Vanilla

Instructions

  • Whisk all ingredients in a large pot.
  • Place pot over low heat and let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often.
  • Remove pot from heat and serve hot chocolate warm.

Cannabis-Infused Sugar Cookies

Cannabis Infused Christmas Cookies, sugar cookies
Print Recipe

Cannabis-Infused Christmas Cookies

These delightfully fluffy, perfectly sweet cookies are perfect for breaking out the Christmas tree and having a relaxing evening of decorating. They'd also be great on any other holiday, as they can be cutout in any shape and decorated for any occasion. The perfect cookie, if you ask me. This recipe is a keeper FOR SURE... My new favorite thing: taking them to family gatherings. 😛 Give everyone a heads up, of course!
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time10 mins
Cooling Time15 mins
Total Time20 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Christmas, Cookie, Cutout Cookies, Sugar Cookie
Servings: 20 Cookies
Author: Beaming Vegan

Ingredients

  • 2 Cups Flour
  • 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
  • 1 Pinch Salt
  • 1 Tbsp Ground Flax
  • 3 Tbsp Water
  • 3/4 Cup Dosed Coconut Oil (Ours was Blueberry/AK47: 5 grams to a 14 oz. jar of coconut oil. If you haven't yet, test the potency of your oil before cooking and cut it with vegan butter to your liking for this recipe.)
  • 1/2 Cup White Sugar
  • 1 Tsp Vanilla
  • 1 Tsp Almond Extract
  • 1 Tsp Cinnamon
  • 1 Tsp Allspice

Instructions

  • In a small bowl, thoroughly mix flax and water. Let sit for about 5 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 375.
  • In a large bowl, cream together oil and sugar. Add vanilla, almond extract, spices, and flax mixture.
  • Combine flour, salt, and baking powder in a separate bowl. 
  • Slowly add flour mixture to the wet mixture. 
  • Mix your little heart out to ensure the coconut oil is evenly dispersed through the dough. (If you skip this step, some cookies will be more potent than others, meaning you may get a "dud" of a cookie while another person eating them feels it set in way stronger.)
  • Refrigerate for 30 minutes if dough isn't manageable yet, but it should be ready to roll out right away. Roll out on a lightly floured surface and cut with cookie cutters. Rolling into balls will not work for this recipe as these cookies don't spread at all.
  • Place on a baking sheet (they can be somewhat close together- like I said they don't spread! Its magic!) and bake for 5-7 minutes or until they're fairly stiff to the touch. You can bake longer if you like them crunchy. They'll also stiffen up a little as they cool.

Notes

Recipe adapted from It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken.

18 [Vegan] Household Necessities

This post is not sponsored. I genuinely adore that these staples are part of our home. Each one of them makes our life better, easier, cruelty-free, or all around healthier. I have each product linked to my favorite online source for purchase (sources I trust and use regularly). These companies are close to my heart because they open an entire world of products for people who live in the boondocks and they’re both extremely reliable.  While this post isn’t sponsored, if you shop through my unique code provided at the bottom of this post I will receive a small credit through the app you used.

If I’m being real with ya, it can be pretty hard to find quality household products in a rural area. I mean it’s not that it CAN be hard, it IS freaking hard!

When we lived on the farm in Kansas I had no idea we were missing out on anything because I wanted to keep my house vegan as much as possible so badly that the struggle to find the products to keep me in line with that goal was not an issue. Truth be told I was going to do it whether it came easily or was a huge feat.

Now we once again live in the middle of nowhere, this time the desert instead of the plains, and it’s the same situation. We have a tiny grocery store in town (11 miles away) which offers a small produce variety and a couple brands of every “necessity”. Thank goodness they have one brand of vegan soap… every time I go snatch it up I hear how they have a hard time keeping it on the shelves and think hmm… is there hope that other people in this small town are making conscious purchases?

Whatever the grocery store doesn’t have, the pharmacy probably does. So when I went to the grocery store for shampoo only to find that none of the three brands they offered were cruelty-free or vegan, I went to the pharmacy. There I found some better options that were still super questionable. (So I ordered it online… FedEx…A rural vegan’s SAVIOR)

When we moved to Spokane though… holy smokes! Before our move I spent weeks on Google Earth pretend-cruising around our future neighborhood imagining all the sights I would see and places I would shop at. I had a mall literally across the street (plus I was about to work in one) and Target, HobLob, and Trader Joe’s within minutes of the new house! I just thought about how convenient and fun it would be to have anything I could imagine so readily available that I could “swing by” to grab something on my way home from work.

This is all a huge deal for a girl who spent half of her life in small town USA. I imagined it getting me in a lot of trouble too, because goodbye paychecks! (Starbucks run, anyone? How about vegan takeout for dinner?) But it wasn’t that bad. I knew I would have access to healthier products because I had access to stores with more variety, but I didn’t know I was about to get schooled on this subject. There are literally stores that cater to natural products. I knew Trader Joe’s had some purposefully vegan groceries which I was stoked to try… but I didn’t know I’d be within walking distance of a half vegan grocery store! What?! Game changer. We still make probably weekly trips to our beloved Natural Grocers. We won’t even talk about all the vegan restaurants right now.

I made this list of our favorite products because we have tried multiple brands of each one and these are the ones we rested on. As a bonus for you, a lot of these are PNW brands that aren’t on shelves across the US but here’s your hookup! Trust me, it’s your lucky day. Oh how happy I’d have been if someone would have cut out the hard work for me when I was in rural Kansas so I could go straight online and order these bad boys…. So, so happy. We’ve also learned a lot about what ingredients are in products we use. When we walk through the store and see vegan fabric softener, we question if our fabric softener is vegan (it wasn’t). And we wouldn’t have known.

As with many other homes now days, it’s become important to us to keep a couple items we love instead of a bunch of items we like. These are a few of the necessities for our home. What’s on your list? Is there anything I MUST try? I’d love to get a peek into your home’s essentials! Let me know in the comments.

For 25% off your order at Thrive Market, use my link: http://thrv.me/a5DP7N 

For $10 off your first order of $50+ at Jet use this link (SUCH a good deal!): https://jet.com/referafriend/001C86

Beaming Vegan Blog Household Products The Mountain Valley Water

AROUND THE HOUSE

ECOS Laundry Detergent

So yeah… as I mentioned before there can be some nasties in your clothing products. This means you’re snuggling up to animal product covered blankets and drying off with not actually clean towels… Make sure they don’t contain animal products and are labeled cruelty-free! This one leaves clothes smelling soooo clean and fresh and works better than so many big names I once used. It’s also significantly cheaper than leading brands and has built-in fabric softener that actually works.

Natures Gate Shampoo and Toothpaste

Vegan. Cruelty-free. Need I say more? Fine, I will… The shampoo (all scents) smells like heaven’s garden and the toothpaste tastes fresh and minty but also perfectly sweet. It leaves your breath fresh and mouth feeling clean for hours

Pacifica Beauty + Skincare

I was searching high and low for completely vegan beauty products and basically despised them all. I was struggling with rashes on my arms and legs that popped up and drove me insane for a couple months at a time. Then, TADAAA! Pacifica accidentally came into my life and healed my woes. I started with a tiny tube of hand cream gifted to me from my mother-in-law, and when my rashes completely vanished I bought another tube. Then a full sized tube. Then perfume and other makeup items. Please don’t take this lightly: Pacifica has the best rollerball perfume I’ve ever used. Honestly the lilac one could very well be the best thing I have ever smelled.

Reuseable Dish Cloths

We got two for Christmas and they’ve saved us so much $$ on our previously used sponges. Just throw it in the wash after a couple uses… Use one while the other is in the wash! Ours are handmade, the ones linked above are the closest to what we use.

Mountain Madness Soap Company

Local to us, but you can order online! They have the absolute best deodorant and lip balm I’ve ever used. The deo allows your body to perform natural functions but keeps you fresh until you wash it off. And we have tried so many “vegan” lip balms… some claimed to be vegan and had bee products. Mountain Madness has been my absolute favorite and most effective. Plus they have so many yummy scents!

Kiss My Face Soap

We keep a bar of soap, bottle of shampoo, an exfoliator, and a razor in the shower. Nothing extra! Our soap is always either coconut oil soap from our store in town or Kiss My Face brand. So affordable, cruelty-free, and you’re not rubbing nasty animal product on your body in an attempt to get “clean”.

IN THE KITCHEN

Celtic sea salt

So many benefits from this salt. I beg of you, do not use regular table salt in your food. This packs even better flavor and bodily value from minerals that are absent from our regular diet. We like the Eden brand!

Califia coffee creamer

AHHHHH so good!!! For some reason I think the creamer in the plastic bottles tastes way more flavorful than the cardboard variety, though… Just a heads up.

Pacific hemp milk

This was one of the first vegan products we picked up from our new fave stores, and it was an instant hit. Everything you want in a milk alternative. AMAZING to drink plain (especially the vanilla) but also the best for baking and cooking.

Vital wheat gluten

Necessary for seitan. Mmmmmm, seitan. Just don’t use the recipe on the bag… It’s pretty bad lol. Try Hot For Food’s seitan recipe from her Philly Cheesesteak Recipe.

Cocomels

Favorite. Candy. Ever. I melt over these. They are incredible. Please treat yo’ self.

Mountain Valley Spring Water

*Sparkling water…. So refreshing, tastes amazing, and is perfectly bubbly. It also stays bubbly for days after opening, which is a plus if you can’t finish the entire giant bottle! Price-wise, it’s less than a regular smaller bottle of water.

Nutiva Butter Flavored Coconut Oil

Please, please, please, please treat yourself to this butter! OMG! Use it anywhere you’d use butter. (But try it on popcorn at least once)

Chao if you need cheese

You need Chao. Get it at your closest Natural Grocers or find other retailers online! It’s the most similar to the cheese I ate growing up. It’s creamy, melts perfectly, and packs a lot of quality flavor for a little price. In my book, there is no other vegan cheese. You’ll have to snag this one at your closest retailer, though. There’s places to order online but I haven’t tried any and therefore will not recommend them to you!

Larabars

Ok, a little story about Larabars… When we first went vegan these were the first convenient snack we purchased (skeptically, might I add). They’re made of only a few ingredients, but regardless of this, each unique flavor tastes exactly what it’s supposed to. Coconut cream pie, for example… just like pie. The fruit and greens flavors taste like fruit roll ups! We get great deals on Larabars on the Jet app, so even when we go to the store we don’t really buy them there unless they’re on sale. On Jet, you always get the store’s sale price 🙂 #protip

Penzey’s curry powder

If you’re like everyone else on the planet and appreciate a super quick dinner, add this curry powder to steamed rice and veggies. Done!

Cast iron skillet

We went too many years without. Cooking on Calphalon and thinking we needed a ton of different pots and pans to match each meal we wanted to cook… Which is ridiculous, because all you need is cast iron. We got ours at an antique store for next to nothing. Griffin fixed it all up for us, we seasoned it, and it’s been rockin’ and rollin’ ever since. Every meal. It serves every purpose. And to top it all off, I swear everything tastes better when cooked on the skillet. #minimalism101

Chain Mail

To accompany your new beloved cast iron. A true Godsend. We use it on all of our dishes, honestly… it makes cleaning the stubborn stuff a piece of cake. Easier than sponges, scrubbies, washcloths, and brushes combined.

FAMILIES BELONG TOGETHER

Is it not a human mother’s worst nightmare to be separated from her newborn?

Did we not panic as a nation when we realized families were being separated at the border?

In the dairy industry, dairy cows have their newborns stolen from them so we can then steal the milk produced for that baby.

Griffin and I have lived on two separate cattle farms now, each in a different part of the country, and it’s all the same. The mothers scream and plead in agony for days when their babies are taken from them, never to be reunited. It’s a completely unbearable thing to hear from the comfort of our home where we were once supporting this lack of compassion. It definitely helped us realize we didn’t want to be the reason they mourn.

But let’s rewind a little… if it’s not bad enough already… dairy cows are forcefully impregnated in the first place. They endured a human violating their most intimate privacy. Making them pregnant until their bodies can’t physically take it anymore. We quite literally take everything from them. We pretend to be “humane” while playing God, giving life to creatures just to exploit them until we take the life back.

[Note: This is for the purpose of mass producing milk that was not made for us and will never be healthy for us to consume.]

What happens to that mother cow? She’s put through this non-stop agony for the span of her entire life until she’s physically exhausted and sent to slaughter. Don’t be fooled by any farmer who tells you their dairy cows are living their best lives. It’s impossible. If the cows are making it look painless it’s because they have no choice but to endure it.

The babies? The females endure their mother’s same fate, and the bulls are sent straight to slaughter. These creatures that can live for 20 years, being born just to be killed again.

(P.s. there’s no humane way to end a life that desperately, instinctively wants to live. THERE IS NO WAY.)

It is your responsibility as a meat and/or dairy consumer to seek the truth behind your food’s origin. See for yourself what “free-range” actually looks like. Take a look at a vegan activists visit to a dairy farm. Understand that you’re being trained to disassociate with the reality that is the dairy industry. Why is this happening? Follow the money.

Dairy is hurting you.

Dairy is hurting them.

Dairy is hurting the EARTH.

Imagine a human woman being forcefully impregnated and having her baby stolen from her at birth. On top of that, imagine this happening to her continually until she finally can’t take it anymore and is sent to be killed.

Every dairy cow ends up at slaughter.

We don’t have to condone to this. We are so privileged to have so many other options! Delicious, harmless, plant-based options.

You have so much power and influence. Use it wisely.

-Impossible Burger//Cascadia Public House Review-

On the Table:

Appetizer- Buffalo Tofu Sticks with House-Made Ranch, Carrots, & Celery

Meal- 2 Impossible Burgers, Garlic Fries with Vegan Aioli, Salad with House Ranch

Ahhh, back to the food side of blogging. This is where it all started for me, back when Brindle & Bo Blog was in operation, and it’ll be a huge part of Beaming Vegan as well. (Hello, we’re talking veganism here… it’s more than conscious decision-making, it’s also yummy food!)

Cascadia Public House, which we just call “Cascadia” when discussing it in real life, is a trendy gastropub with a focus on locally sourced ingredients.

 Since living in Spokane I’ve become entirely too aware of where my foods have traveled from. Once when I was shopping I wondered why I never had any of these amazing vegan foods in Kansas. Upon further inspection of labels, I discovered everything I had was from WA, CA, and OR. Ever since I noticed that my cart at Natural Grocers was accidentally full of Pacific Northwestern brands, I have exercised a great appreciation for the quality of local ingredients. They’re fresher, taste better, and support the trustworthy companies operating right in our own backyard.

Cascadia serves up goodies from a number of PNW food vendors and never skimps on quality.

Not only is their mission of providing locally sourced ingredients a respectable one, but so is their style! They have a beautiful bar, a partially open kitchen, and gorgeous patio gathering area all while encompassing an industrial minimalist feel. Let’s not fail to mention that the staff is always incredibly welcoming and friendly, too!

Of course we first hit up Cascadia for the vegan food options. Their menu is not entirely vegan, but the vegan food they offer is some of the best in Spokane. We toss around the idea of strictly supporting vegan-only restaurants, but it’s hard to beat a place that makes everyone happy when you’re dining with non-vegan family or friends [as much as I’d love for them to just go vegan 😉 ]. I feel like letting them order flesh but showing them that vegan options can be just as good or better is an OK start.

About that food though… some of the vegan options on the menu include Vegan Curry Mac, a Bean Beet Burger, a vegan avocado-filled take on the classic BLT, and of course, the Impossible Burger. The vegan appetizers never disappoint, especially the House-Made Pretzels with Cashew Queso and Stone Ground Mustard.

Griffin and I have tried a range of foods here from the sandwiches to just about every vegan appetizer on the menu, our favorite entrée being the Bean Beet Burger. That is, until we tried the Impossible Burger.

When you’re craving Chinese as a vegan in Spokane, you go to Red Dragon. When you’re craving pizza (or a BA brunch), you go to Ally’s. When you don’t know what you’re craving but you want a plethora of deliciousness, you go to Cascadia.

On this particular day that we visited, we had no idea what kind of treat we’d be in for. We were just hungry. We ordered buffalo tofu sticks with vegan house ranch (which turned out to be the best tofu we’ve ever had) and stared at our options for a good five minutes.  I pointed out that we’ve never tried the vegan staple, the Impossible Burger, and Griffin decided he’d order that. I didn’t want to order the same thing as him (and I always, always, always get mac and cheese at vegan restaurants), but if it was delicious I was going to regret not getting my own… so I went for it. That’s when I decided this would be a review-worthy experience. Because you don’t know that it’s worth it until someone writes a review and tells you, “ORDER THAT BURGER”. I’m telling you, order it. Now. Go.

The Impossible Burger by Impossible Foods is, to put it simply, the best vegan burger on the market. It still seems difficult to come by, but I read on their Insta that they have been busy increasing supply to meet demand for their product. (Yay!) If you’re not sure where to find one in your area, check their website for a list of locations serving up this goodness.

By taste standards, this is the burger with the power to convert meat eaters. It’s been difficult to show non-vegans all this time that plant-based burgers are superior to beef in terms of taste because, let’s face it, a “pretty patty” of sweet potato and beans or a mock-meat tofu patty has never been the classic burger’s equal in the eyes of a flesh eater. The Impossible Burger is not equal, it is leaps and bounds better. It has a perfect savory flavor, juicy-ness that most vegan burgers are lacking, the exact texture of a meat patty, and from what I’ve seen it even cooks from pink to brown like a beef patty would.

The best part of the Impossible Burger is that you can scarf up the entire thing and not feel an ounce of the greasy, guilty, fatty feeling of a flesh burger. You’re more likely to feel fueled up! Griffin and I went on a walk through the park after leaving the restaurant. If we’d have just eaten a non-vegan burger meal as we did just over a year ago, we would have felt like napping for the rest of the day (and probably would have been mad at ourselves for doing that to our bodies!).

Now, after all of these convincing words… I do have two minor complaints with Cascadia. The bigger of the two is that they’re typically super packed. There have been multiple occasions where Griffin and I have driven to this side of town for the sole purpose of eating here, walked in the door and walked right back out because it was so crowded we either couldn’t find a table or didn’t want to sit so closely to other customers. The second complaint I have is that we paid more for two burgers and sides than we used to pay for a steak dinner. This one is understandable considering many vegan foods are costly to prepare, but I’m looking forward to a day when veganism is more mainstream and us plant-eaters don’t have to pay more than a flesh-eater does for the same meal! I totally get why, but I still have a hard time coming to terms with paying less for a stolen life than for something you can grow in abundance from a .10 seed packet.

The good news is you will always get your money’s worth at Cascadia Public House, it’s a perfect go-to for dining with non-vegans whom you love regardless of their diet choices (lol), and unlike most restaurants I have found serving “vegan options”, their vegan menu would actually satisfy a person’s hunger and includes entrees from the entire spectrum.

 

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Vegan Camping with Non-Vegan Family

Check out Camping July 2018 for Part 1 of this Expedition!

Notes before reading: We were able to coordinate our meals with the family’s for the most part. We communicated the meal plan well in advance and brought extra snacks and produce just in case!

Hopefully this post will give you some insight and ideas for how/what to pack for camping with non-vegan friends or family. It’s way easier than it sounds I assure you! I’ll be doing a detailed vegan camping post eventually, but this trip wasn’t our usual camping style, as we usually go pretty minimal with our packing and simple with our food.

Day 1:

Morning

We loaded our stuff up and took off on the journey around 7am. We made one stop at Natural Grocers in Coeur d’Alene to grab vegan breakfast burritos, road trip snacks and drinks. We arrived at our campsite around 11am. Grandma reserved a huge secluded group site with a private river beach and Griffin and I were the first campers to arrive. We sought out the perfect place to pitch our tent and set up doggy camp and jumped in the river until everyone else came an hour or two later (grandparents, good family friends and their pup, aunt and her beau and pup, another aunt, uncle, and three cousins).

Mid-Day

Part of the day was spent helping everyone set up camp, complete with a kitchen area in the heart of the campsite, 6 tents and two campers.

Evening

We drank good beer and grandma-made cocktails relaxed at the river until gathering for dinner. I was informed well in advance of the meal plan for the trip, so Griffin and I hit Natural Grocers and bought vegan alternatives for each meal. Night one was hotdogs, easy enough. So we got a pack of vegan dogs and chips that my grandparents cooked up for us and we ate with everyone else without missing a beat (or a flavor). Grandma also made a scrumptious coleslaw Griffin and I love that’s vegan!

My cousin informed me that her little sister (also my cousin lol) was an avid writer, filling notebook after notebook with her own words. I told the little one I’m a writer too and asked if I could read some of her work. To everyone’s surprise, she agreed and let me skim through a couple of her notepads! Pretty much made my entire day.

We ended the night sitting around a huge fire pit watching a little learn to start a fire with nothing but wood and his hands and sharing stories until eventually everyone was settled in for the night. Word is a telescope came out after Griffin and I hit the hay so we missed that chance to scope out the stars and planets but I took note of my aunt mentioning how the Milky Way appeared to the naked eye.

We were kind of ill-prepared when it came to our sleeping quarters. We brought a sleeping bag and two fluffly blankets… but decided against bringing our air mattresses or foam pads (bad idea, if you didn’t already guess). We woke up freezing multiple times (as did everyone else) and got up pretty early on day 2 since we couldn’t sleep anyway… Marble was shivering when we woke up too, so we’ll take her a blankey next time. Lesson learned!

Day 2:

Morning

Up with the sun, Griffin and I bundled up and took the snoops for a walk. On my way to the restroom I was startled by a buck walking out from behind the restroom toward our driveway. He was slow, handsome and unalarmed by the humans walking toward him!

We were the first people awake after the grands, so we quietly snuck out of the campsite and walked the dogs up the road, through a little piece of the forest. We attempted to get to the river from a more remote area and walk the beach all the way to our campsite, but we were stopped by a jungle of pokey thorny plants.

While we walked and talked, I absorbed all the beauty around us, leading me to notice a huge owl sitting on a branch on the side of the road watching me back. I had never been so close to an owl before and it was pretty gorgeous!

When we got back a couple more folks were awake and we decided to build a morning campfire to warm up until the sun rose over the trees. We drank coffee and woke up beside the fire in the most peaceful way. My uncle and cousin found huckleberries and berries of some other sorts and brought a handful over for us to taste.

Once everyone was awake the family prepared chorizo and cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Griffin and I cooked vegan maple sausages over the fire while they cooked chorizo on the grill. We added the sausages to a breakfast sandwich along with a couple slices of vegan cheese and we all ate breakfast casually as we got hungry.

Mid-Day

I’m kind of spacey on what happened between breakfast and the next activity, but I’m sure this time was spent chilling on the beach with a beverage in hand.

My grandpa drove my aunt and cousin up river with a raft and let them float back to the campsite. Griffin and I went next and kind of lazy, kind of adventure floated back down. Let’s just say Griffin made sure to steer us toward the “rapids”. As soon as we pulled the raft back to shore, my cousin (the writer) approached me cute as could be to tell me she didn’t have anyone to help her float. So, as you can assume, I went back up river with her next. Soon after we took off our raft was spinning around and we were laughing, and about half way through the trip after not hearing a peep out of her for a while she informed me she was sleepy! Me too, girl, me too.

Griffin and I snacked on chips, crackers, avocados and hummus periodically throughout the day and we had burritos with the fam for dinner. Theirs with pork, and ours without of course. Oh, did I mention we brought vegan nacho cheese? Ughhhh so good.

Evening

Day #2 also finished around the fire pit. We roasted marshmallows in celebration of my aunt’s birthday. Griffin and I used Dandies brand vegan mallows that were easily roasted to the perfect gold-ness with melty fluff insides! These were our first vegan marshmallows and we were equally impressed.

Griffin and I’s tent was a little off in the trees compared to the rest, and my aunt’s tent was even further into the trees. As we all headed off to bed this night, Griffin and I heard some branches breaking and leaves crunching in the woods past my aunt’s tent. Then we heard her dog start barking, so we went over and shined our flashlight in their direction, hoping to see whatever (large sounding) critter was in her neck of the woods. A second after we put our flashlight on the area we saw hers poke through the trees too and heard her ask “Did you see anything?” neither of us could figure out what it was but I’m sure our flashlights and dog barks scared it off!

The dogs. The sweet lil dogs. They were completely exhausted after socializing, swimming, and exploring all day. No sooner than Griffin and I got comfy in bed, the dogs were already snoring (loudly) outside of our tent. We mentioned not having a mattress in our tent and just about everyone jumped at the opportunity to offer mattresses and foam pads, so we slept comfortably the second night. I woke up in the middle of the night and I was completely astonished by how dark it was outside. I quite literally could only see what was within the beam of my flashlight. I did remember to look up to the sky and was happy I did, because I have never seen so many stars in my life, and I have definitely never seen the Milky Way. Even without my contacts, I stood in the middle of the campsite for a few minutes a little scared of not being able to see around me but also completely lost in space.

Day 3:

Morning

We made a routine of waking early, walking the dogs then drinking coffee around the fire til everyone was awake. Our DEER friend stopped by our campsite one more time, making his appearance to the rest of the group for the first time. He was also spotted in the woods around our site after I saw him that morning, but I’m unsure if that was day 2 or 3… regardless, what a friendly little buck he was!

Griffin and I had a fruit buffet of pears, apples, bananas, and grapefruit on the tailgate of the Tundra while everyone was getting up and ready for the day. They had pancakes and bacon for breakfast and we took a hike while they prepared their food. Sweet family friend, Linda, was disappointed in herself for not having something to cook for Griffin and I (which we never want to burden anyone with!) and insisted that we eat blueberries she brought. Once everyone was done eating about half of us took off for a little hike to a couple of waterfalls nearby, which were a sight for sore eyes to say the least. Griffin took off on a little expedition of his own and found a geocache full of interesting goodies.

Mid-Day

When we got back Griffin and I packed up our stuff and then made the BEST vegan burgers for lunch (Field Roast brand fieldburgers) over one of the fire pits. After lunch Griffin and a couple other men from the group went off to shoot guns while I loaded the truck and sat by the river for the last time.

When Griffin got back we took the dogs for one last swim/hike, said our goodbyes to our Kansas family, and headed home!