Eating with the Common Folk
If you’re an ovo-lacto-vegetarian, you’ll be able to find lots of things to eat at family-style restaurants, no matter what time of the day you visit them. At breakfast, you can enjoy waffles or pancakes, omelets, and egg scrambles. Other times of the day or night, there are grilled cheese sandwiches, salads, French fries, egg salad, and other items. It gets harder, however, if you’re vegan. In fact, despite the size of the menus in these restaurants, vegans will find little that they can eat. This is where it pays to be creative and flexible. Ask your server if the kitchen will top a baked potato with steamed vegetables, or ask if you can just have a small salad, some veggies, and rice. It may not be the most delicious meal you’ve ever had, but it’s an adequate meal until you can get something tastier.
As mentioned earlier in the chapter, your better restaurants will have menu items designed with vegetarians in mind, and even if there’s nothing that’s just what you want, the chef will probably be amenable to customizing a dish to your liking. Most of the time, though, you’ll find delicious vegetarian appetizers—you can even make a meal out of two or three of those if there’s no entrée that appeals to you. But you’d be surprised how creative a chef can be when asked to come up with something new on the spur of the moment, and your nonvegetarian friends will be jealous of the special attention you receive!
Vegetarians on the road
Traveling can be a special challenge when you’re vegetarian, since you don’t know what will be available to you ahead of time. It helps to be prepared for the worst and anticipate how you’ll eat if there’s little or nothing available for vegetarians; you’ll need to be adaptable no matter what happens.
Car trips can be difficult if you rely on restaurants and fast food as your primary dining options. There are three very good reasons why you should make your own food to travel with: saving time, saving money, and eating healthy. By packing a cooler with your own food, you can control what you eat and when. Besides saving you the time you would spend looking for a vegetarian-friendly restaurant, you’re assured that you can eat foods that fit with your vegetarian lifestyle. And you’ll save money too—packing your
own food is always less expensive than eating out.
Take a look at the foods you have on hand and consider how well they can be carried along on a road trip. Bring a cooler for the perishable items, and pack up a small box with the rest. Just be careful if you’re eating while driving so you don’t cause an accident! Here are some foods that are as tasty on the road as they are at home:
Whole-grain muffins, rolls, and cookies
Carrot sticks and celery
Snack-size containers of yogurt, applesauce, and breakfast cereal
Juice boxes
Peanut butter (or almond butter) sandwiches
Pasta salads
Egg salad sandwiches
Bagels
Hummus and pita chips
Trail mix
Fresh fruit
Vegan snack bars
Bottles of mineral water
When you’re packing for a car trip, don’t forget the little extras that will make your roadside meals hassle-free. Get a bag or box, and stock plastic utensils, paper plates, napkins, or paper towels, a bottle opener, a knife for slicing fruits and vegetables, Ziploc Baggies for leftovers, a gallon jug of water for rinsing off food and your hands, and some disposable wipes for easy cleanup. Consider keeping your toothbrush and toothpaste easily accessible so you can brush after your meal!
If you’re into hiking or biking, make sure to pack foods that are easily portable and don’t have to be refrigerated. You’ll also want to pack foods that are rich in nutrients and provide you with lots of energy. Trail mix, dried fruits, vegetarian snack bars, Fig Newtons, crackers, and peanut butter are all good food choices. They will help keep you energized while you walk or bike to you destination.
Remember that the key to a healthy vegetarian diet is variety. Every meal doesn’t have to be an entrée and side dishes—some granola, a single- serving container of rice milk, fresh fruit, and a whole-grain muffin makes a great meal! Munch on foods that you like during the day, and then spend your vacation money on a nice meal at dinnertime.