Dorothy's Kitchen Table had a fantastic vegan night tonight! The set menu included four courses of veggies straight from local gardens. They served Cesar salad, squash blossom soup, lentils and brown rice with lavender braised radishes, and a raw brownie bite with orange and beet purée. Rachel put together an amazing menu and everything was so good!
If you haven't experienced Dorothy's before, you should know that it's a special place. Patrons can trade services or supplies for their food or leave money in an envelope. Volunteers make it happen every week. Pictured above is a list of needs we saw, just in case you want some ideas. The other lovely thing about this community restaurant is that everyone is so friendly and supportive. To everyone at Dorothy's, thanks for doing what you do! We appreciated vegan night so much and hope to see many more! www.dorothyskitchentable.com
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Have you guys met Steven yet? He's a super nice Denton vegan who works at J & J's and suggested this amazing pizza tonight! The crust was stuffed with mushrooms, which really took it from a regular cheeseless pizza to something a vegan could get excited about. If you want to make a special vegan request, call the restaurant and chat with him. Thanks, Steven!
Check this out - a fancy vegan dining opportunity in Denton! Doesn't this look amazing? You can purchase tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vegan-pop-up-dinner-at-940s-tickets-19684942192
I get a lot of questions about what my children eat during lunch at school. They, like many other vegan children, often pack their lunches. It's tried and true. There are some times that they just want to go through the line and buy a hot lunch.
When my older son started public school, we were working toward being vegetarian. He was aware of his choices and crossed his fingers for pizza without meat bits. Sometimes it was a little challenging, but nothing like eating vegan. When we cut out dairy and eggs, the boys would still buy their lunches on occasion. We would study the menu and choose a day of the week when there were good sides offered. The main is almost always a meaty or cheesy thing, so we just ignore that part. Things were awkward at times with the cafeteria staff, but the boys could explain their dietary choices and work it out. Occasionally things would get sticky and I'd have to write an email, like the time they were told they must take a meat or a milk, then they could just throw it away. This did not go over well, especially with the younger boy. He cried at the wastefulness. This year, the rules tightened as fruits and vegetables can no longer be sold a la carte. Younger son came home with a note to call the cafeteria manager. She very kindly explained the situation to me and gave me the number for her supervisor. I spoke to her and she suggested I get a note from the doctor, then send it to the school nurses. It would eventually get to her office and then they can see what they can do. I did as requested. My husband and I wrote a kind explanatory letter to the nurses, included the note from the doctor and a vegan food pyramid with a quote from the American Dietetic Association: It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the pre- vention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the lifecycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes. I received a phone call days later from another person in the child nutrition department. She thanked me for my kind letter and asked if the boys would like to have soy milk to solve this issue. Yes! I was given the option of chocolate or vanilla, and told that it would be there in two days. So now they are able to enjoy their hot lunches again! The other great news is that she said they are working on some vegan menu items for the menus later this year or stating next school year. Hooray, Denton ISD! The soy milk is kept behind the counter, so unfortunately it is not available to all children. With so many people affected by dairy intolerance or allergies, it seems like the kind of thing that people need to know about. So if your child would like nondairy milk with their lunches, please request it. Thanks to the child nutrition department of Denton ISD! You've made this family very happy indeed. Now... what can we do about those styrofoam trays? :) Tonight and on the fourth Friday of every month this fall! Join us for a vegan potluck and recipe swap at the Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. All are welcome! Donations for the use of the space gratefully accepted. Hope to see you there! I'm working on having a plan when I go to the store. Not just picking up stuff we like, but ingredients that actually form meals several times a week! I looked around online for some printable menu plans, but ended up making this little guy myself. I like it because it folds in half to take along, and it's simple. Oh, and it doesn't use up my expensive color ink. If you like it, print it and try it for yourself!
We have family in the San Antonio area, so we have been traveling there for years. For a while, there wasn't much to get excited about, until we found Vegeria. But this trip was even better! Vegan and vegetarian restaurants aplenty! The first place we hit was Señor Veggie. They serve a mix of Tex-Mex and Mediterranean favorites, which makes it really hard to choose. We started with the nachos, which are big enough to share. They had a great mix of tempeh and black beans, and no faux cheese! Instead, there was this swirl of cashew créma that was just right. After that, we followed up with the jackfruit veggie street tacos with the chile carrots on the side. Oh, my! So good. Not pictured are the huge chocolate chip cookies and strawberry oreo donuts we took to the hotel for dessert. Everything there was fresh, homemade, and great! The next morning, we knew we wanted to eat at Green. We had been to the Houston location on our way to our cruise, so it was a no-brainer that we had to try this location. This vegetarian restaurant makes it easy to eat vegan with substitutions and a clearly marked menu. We ate breakfast at the Pearl restaurant, then went back later that afternoon to get cupcakes. Which are ALL vegan, and there is a separate case for GF. And who can resist that sweet little almond-winged honey bee on a honey-free treat? The other thing we love about Green is the chalkboard art. Go and check it out. See if you don't just adore this place! *note* They are closed on Saturdays. The newest vegan place in town - literally - is La Botánica. This one reminds me of Denton the most. They have a big outdoor space with lots of picnic tables and serve their food with style. All of the alcoholic beverages at the bar are vegan. For non-drinkers, there are other options as well. I had the limeade with chia seeds. Pictured at left: Sugarbomb's Strawberry Calas (fried goodness with strawberry filling), Ms. Bella's Fried Red Beans and Rice Balls, the daily salad #1, and the fish-less street tacos made with oyster mushrooms. It was all super delicious! So there you go! Time to take a road trip and sample the vegan wonderland that is San Antonio!
Last night we were introduced to the sweetest little cupcakes! These are chocolate peanut butter and coconut cupcakes from NV Cupcakes on the square, near Hypnotic Donuts. Two days a week, you can stop in and pick from two vegan options for $3 each. Advance orders can be placed by the dozen for $33. Currently, you can find vegan versions there on Wednesdays and Fridays, and the flavors change often. Have a special request? Just give them a call! In the summer months, they are only making a half dozen of each flavor, so stop in early or call to reserve.
Thanks, NV Cupcakes, for making your very tasty creations vegan-friendly! As a part of a service at Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship called "Sustenance," I was asked to speak on veganism and spirituality for about five minutes. This is what I said: My name is Tesa. My family and I practice veganism. What does that mean? Usually the answer involves a whole list of no-nos. No eating beef, chicken, pork, turkey, fish, eggs, dairy, or animal products in general. But I have to tell you, while it might sound limiting to many people, we don’t really feel that way. Instead of focusing on what we don’t eat, let’s talk about what we DO eat. We love vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, seeds, beans, nondairy cheeses and milks, and cupcakes. Lots of cupcakes.
For us, being vegan is a very joyful and peaceful way of life. It is also our spiritual path, although we didn’t realize that when we took the first steps. We started off from a place of poor health. By age 30, my husband, Matthew, was on prescription medication for high cholesterol. This meant regular trips to the doctor to manage the medications and to test his liver for possible damage. Since his dad died at 49 from heart disease, we were feeling the fear of inheriting the past and not being around for our children. The idea of Matthew being on this medication for the rest of his life wasn’t great either. We decided to try another route. We did lots of learning and decided that giving up beef would be a good place to start. This was one way to reduce the risk of heart disease. The more we read and researched, the more we realized there were other issues with eating any type of meat, such as animal suffering, water consumption, and pollution. Within a few months, we expanded to being pescatarian, meaning the only meat we ate was fish. While this was somewhat comforting to us to keep some perceived normalcy in our diet, it felt good to continue on and move to veganism. It was also very rewarding to watch Matthew get multiple blood tests that showed that he no longer needed to take those cholesterol medicines. For us, this journey to vegetarianism and ultimately veganism was a lot like finding a religion. It was a personal journey that we felt happy about, but others had a hard time understanding. It brought up strong emotions for friends and family and polarized some of our closest relationships. Social events left us feeling like outsiders when our preferences didn’t match others’, such as at a barbeque. We had to commit to defining our ideals and ourselves. We were those nonalcoholic vegans in the corner, sipping on a Sprite and making plans to go to dinner after the event. But like good UUs, a difference in opinion didn’t keep us from going to the party. We learned how to enjoy ourselves in those situations and respect everyone’s freedom to choose what they eat. The commitment not to eat animal products honors several spiritual ideas and guides. The first rule of magick is do no harm. The first principle of Unitarian Universalism is the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We should extend these ideas to animals. For some reason, society thinks it’s okay to keep a pig, cow, or chicken in a tight cage its entire life until it is killed and eaten. However, we routinely punish people who do this to dogs and cats. For many vegetarians and vegans, all animals have worth and deserve to live a life free from suffering. Animal lives matter, too. The Seventh UU principle is respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. Growing plants for food is less taxing on the environment. Growing plants for food uses much less water and fossil fuel than growing meat. Growing plants for food creates fewer emissions and can feed more people per square acre of land. It helps us use the land more efficiently, therefore preserving natural resources for generations to come. In addition to this being our spiritual path, it is also our social action. Every meal gives us an opportunity to support our beliefs and our commitment to the environment. And I know that eating vegan sounds pretty extreme to a lot of people. It did to us before we started this journey. Believe me, we never thought we’d do it. But now that we’re here, we don’t want to turn back. I recently saw an image on Instagram that summed it up quite nicely: Nothing tastes as good as vegan feels. We don’t miss the bacon or the steaks. Instead, we feel so much peace in this lifestyle. It blends well with our belief system. It is our spiritual path, social action, and our way to better health. I’d also like to mention that there are a variety of ways to make a positive change without having to go all in. The Humane Society supports Meatless Mondays. That’s a great way to try vegetarian food and wrap your head around other options for your meals. Author Mark Bittman wrote a book called Vegan Before Six. He advocates eating vegan before six o’clock as a way to reduce meat consumption. If you’re curious about trying vegan fare at local Denton restaurants, visit my blog at dentonvegan.com for a helpful list of where to go. Or just befriend a vegan and talk to them with an open mind and heart. And when you throw a party, keep the hummus coming. We’re always grateful! Last week, The Chestnut Tree put out a new menu with more vegan options! Rejoice! See the full article on my guest blog post at Discover Denton here.
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Author: tesaartist-vegan-family woman Archives
January 2023
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