All Hail the Veggie Plate - Being Vegan at a Conference

I go to a lot of conferences - ones my office puts on for our members, ones in the industry and ones for my professional association.  While you may luck into a buffet where you can pick and choose your ingredients, conferences will almost always include plated meals, which means vegans like me need to be prepared.

Any hotel or conference facility can make you an amazing fruit plate, salad, veggie plate if you give them notice. Some organizations will ask you in advance if you have any dietary prefrences, in which case, happily tell them you're a vegan or a vegetarian.  If, when you register, there isn't a place to note this information, contact your conference organizer to ask if a special meal might be available, and be very clear if you are a vegan what that means. I've asked for vegan meals before and, because of confusion in the kitchen, ended up at first with eggs.

This past week, my office held a conference here in Washington, and our director of meetings was able to arrange for some amazing vegan meals for me! 

This is a plated breakfast - tofu scramble with grilled pineapple and roasted grape tomatoes:

Here's a lunch platter with butternut squash, carrots, cauliflower. green beans and grilled raddichio.

This is another lunch platter, including a grilled portabello mushrooms, carrots, sweet peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant and spinach.

Here's a dinner platter of butternut squash, broccoli, snow peas and rice.

What are some of your favorite vegan dishes you've had at a conference?  What suggestions do have for vegans attending these types of events?

Vegetarian on the Road: A Vegan in a Dallas Steakhouse

Greetings from Dallas!  I'm here for my professional society's annual meeting, and I have a week full of education and networking events in store.  With networking comes food.  The joke is that the organization's acronym, ASAE, is short for "Always Standing, Always Eating."

My first get together last night was a reunion dinner of colleagues who had served at one point on the Membership Section Council.  It was at Bob's Steak and Chophouse at the Omni.  You might think the odds of me finding something vegan friendly at an upscale Texas steakhouse was going to be a tall order.  But, this is an excellent case of "it never hurts to ask."

The restaurant provides contact information for the manager on the website, so I sent him a quick email earlier this week asking about vegan options and noting the time of my group's reservation.  Less than three hours later, I got a very nice email from the manager noting that the chef could make me "Julienne carrots, mushrooms, asparagus tips sautéed in garlic and white wine, tossed in fettuccine pasta."  Sounded good to me!  He also said they would make a note on the reservation so the server would be aware that there was a vegan diner in the party.

When we got to the restaurant, I noted that I was "the vegan" and the server was very friendly and said he did have a note that I was in the party.  (I contrast this to the time I went to Proof in DC for my bachelorette party and asked if I could have a pasta dish without ham.  The waiter's answer?  "Unfortunately, you can.")

The server did note that Bob's is known for large portions (my colleagues' steaks were, in fact, enormous).   And the pasta dish definitely fit the bill!  I think it might have been an entire box of fettuccine in there.  It was a nice, light dish.  There was just a ton of food, and I couldn't get through more than a quarter of it.  If I had a fridge to store leftovers in, it probably could have fed me for a week! 

I'll consider it good fuel for today's activities. I had a nice, light breakfast in the executive lounge (toast with peanut butter and fresh fruit) and then I'll be using my free gym pass to take a yoga class shortly. Then, it will be off to the convention center to pick up my badge and head to the North Texas Food Bank to volunteer for a few hours.  Then, more receptions and an opening party at Cowboys Stadium.  More food pictures and notes to come!

Vegetarian Travel Dispatches

The early part of the year is always quite hectic for me travel wise, so, having just returned from a trip to San Diego, I thought now would be a good time for me to revisit some tips that help me with maintaining a vegetarian travel lifestyle on the road.

Spicy Bowtie Pasta Salad from Starbucks, San Diego Airport

If you're checking luggage, consider packing some individual servings of shelf stable, non-dairy milk.  (If you're not checking and have access to a local market that carries them, that's also an option.)  Before I left on my latest trip, I bought two three packs of Enriched Rice Dream and stashed them in my suitcase.  I had a mini-fridge in my room, so I was able to chill them when I got to my hotel.  In the mornings, I brought them down to the buffet and poured some on cold cereal and drank the rest.  Granted, some establishments may frown upon you bringing your own food into their place.  In my case, the buffet manager was not only understanding of me bringing my own milk, but she also wrote down the brand name for her lactose intolerant daughter.   The cereal and rice milk, along with a slice of whole wheat bread and peanut butter and a bowl of fresh fruit, made for a nice breakfast that kept me going the whole day.

I also packed some individual cereal bowls I picked up at CVS for $1 a piece (Cheerios and Raisin Bran Crunch), as well as some Enjoy Life Very Berry Bars and Barbara's Multigrain Cereal Bars, both of which were handy snacks.

The last time I flew, I was still eating dairy products regularly, so I knew I could always pick up a cheese sandwich or a slice of pizza.  But, this time, I found some nice, healthy vegan options to share with you.

Veg Friendly Rice Bowl, Urban Taco, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport

On my way out and back to San Diego, I had layovers in Dallas.  On my way out, I grabbed a Mediterranean Wrap from Au Bon Pain.  By omitting the feta, I had a nice, filling and vegan friendly lunch.  Au Bon Pain also sells fresh fruit cups, which are a great vegan friendly option for any meal or snack.

When I was heading home, at the Starbucks in the San Diego airport, I picked up a Spicy Bowtie Pasta Salad and Pita, Hummus & Veggies and a fruit cup, all of which made for a nice lunch on the plane.  While the bowtie pasta portion was smaller than I would have liked, the flavors were quite good.

Finally, for dinner in the Dallas airport, I stopped at Urban Taco.  They can turn any of their tacos or sandwiches into a rice bowl, and I had a delicious roasted poblano, black bean and corn mixture.

Next week, I head to Berlin, Germany, where I'll continue my vegetarian travel adventures.  Stay tuned!

Vegan Kickstart Check-In

Source: etsy.com via Miriam on Pinterest

Well, I've finished the first two weeks of my version of PCRM's Vegan Kickstart.  While I've been eating almost entirely vegan since December, it was nice to take 21 days to really focus on what I've been eating. This was, I can see what's working well for me and areas that I might want to focus on changing.  Additionally, I wanted to challenge the concept that eating vegan on a regular basis is "too hard," and that it can be done with a busy lifestyle like mine.

You can see the recap of everything I've eaten so far on my personal kickstart page.  Here's what I've learned:

I eat a lot of toast.  Yep, I have little or no variety in the morning when it comes to breakfast.  To be fair though, with my seasonal issues, it's a miracle that I make it out the door in the morning, much less get up in time to make breakfast.  I used to dash out the door in the morning and grab a bagel and cream cheese, so this is a definite improvement.  But, as I start waking up better in the morning (aka, after the clocks go forward in the Spring), I'll explore more variety for breakfast

I eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Looking back at the past two weeks, I've noticed that I eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables with every meal.  Between the food I prepared myself and the food I ate at other people's homes or at restaurants, I had over 30 different kinds of fresh fruits or vegetables since January 2.  Let me list them for you!  I ate artichokes, arugula, asparagus, avocado, blueberries, brussels sprouts, butternut squash, cantaloupe, carrots, cucumber, eggplant, green onion, honeydew, kale, kiwi, lettuce, mesculun mix, mango, mushrooms, pear, pineapple, radishes, red cabbage, red onion, raspberries, spinach, sprouts, strawberries, tomatoes, yellow pepper and watermelon.  And that doesn't include the fresh herbs I enjoyed as well.  That's a cornucopia if I ever saw one!  If you focus on eating "real food," versus meat substitutes, you will have no issues with variety on a vegan diet.

Eating out is not a problem.  I went out to eat in DC, suburban Maryland and Southern New Jersey.  Nowhere I went had any issues putting together a vegan meal for me.  At sit down restaurants like Seasons 52 and Founding Farmers, our servers were wonderful about helping me find vegan options on their menus, and the kitchens were happy to customize dishes to make them vegan friendly.  It never hurts to ask a restaurant if there are vegan options - chances are, the restaurant will be happy to oblige.  On the "fast food" side, it helps to choose places that you know have vegan selections on the existing menu - I knew Cava Mezze Grill, Elevation Burger, Roti, Chop't and Sweetgreen would have options that worked for me.  So between a little advanced research and asking questions, you should be fine.

But, I need to be prepared and patient.  Sometimes, you may be in a situation where a vegan option isn't obvious.  When my husband and I were on the way back from visiting my parents, we stopped at a rest stop on I-95.  I was frustrated at the lack of apparent vegan options and ended up getting a plain bagel with fixins from the Roy Rogers station.  Had I taken the time to look harder (aka, been patient), I could have gotten a pita, veggies and hummus from Starbucks.  Even better, I should have packed a sandwich from the various vegan-friendly delights my mother had for us at home.  Granted, one less than satisfying meal in 15 days is really nothing to complain about.

I need to adjust my portions.  My husband gets credit for noticing this before I did - I am eating less food now that I'm not eating cheese or any dairy products.  Not sure if it's because I'm eating higher fiber dishes or if my body is less "confused" without dairy (I found it very easy to overeat when cheese was involved), but I've had tons more leftovers than I usually do.  So, I'll adjust my meal planning accordingly in the coming weeks.  I tend to get bored with eating the same thing three days in a row, so, now that I know I need less food to keep me satisfied, I'll make less to begin with to ensure I get more variety throughout the week.

I'm grateful for a supportive family.  I've heard a lot of people say that their families wouldn't support a vegan lifestyle, but mine have been fantastic about it.  They've also been supportive of my various food allergy issues.  From my husband taking me out for my favorite vegan burger and trying my various concoctions (even the green frankenburger), to my Mom making a vegan version of a favorite childhood soup and stocking her fridge with daiya, hummus and other veg friendly treats, to my husband's grandmother buying a veritable buffet of vegan prepared foods at Whole Foods, I'm downright spoiled. Talk to your friends and family about why you are making the choices you are and how your eating might change from what they're used to.  You may get questions - answer them politely, offer to bring a dish to the next family gathering, etc. 

What questions do you have about eating a vegan diet?  What excites you?  What are you hesitant about?

Vegetarian on the Road - East Coast City Edition

Well, so much for my editorial structure I promised to stick to last week.  One of the things about traveling often for work (I've been on two trips so far this month) is that it's hard to stick to any kind of schedule, much less an editorial one.

But, one benefit of a crazy travel schedule is the opportunity to sample vegetarian fare beyond my home base of DC.  To that end, here's a round-up of some of my recent dining adventures:

New York City
Let's start with an amazing fine dining vegetarian experience I had tonight at Blossom, a cozy restaurant in Chelsea.  All of the menu items are organic and vegan.  I spoke to the server about my soy allergy, and she noted that a number of the dishes were finished with a soy butter, but she made some recommendations that she thought I would enjoy.  I ended up having a black-eyed pea cake, a "crispy cake of yukon gold potatoes, black eyed peas and chipotle aioli."  The seasoning on the pea cake was impeccable, and I loved the smooth texture of the veganaise aioli.  I followed the starter with the evening's special, pan-seared seitan cutlets with a rosemary tomato sauce, yukon gold potatoes and hairicot verts that was so good I kept taking smaller and smaller bites so it would last longer.  I've never had handmade seitan before and I am not sure I can go back to the boxed stuff from Whole Foods now, which means you can look forward to a blog about my attempts to make seitan from scratch in the future.   But anyway, Washington, DC NEEDS a fine dining vegan restaurant like this.  Or maybe it doesn't, because I could eat at Blossom every day if I lived near enough!

Philadelphia
I was in my hometown for a quick conference last week, which meant I got to take a side trip to one of my favorite places, Reading Terminal Market, a historic building with a variety of food stalls - produce, candy, pastries, you name it.  There are a number of places vegetarians can happily dine at Reading Terminal.  For nostalgia's sake, I hit Spataros, which makes a mean vegetarian hoagie.  Some other good vegetarian options include Kamal's, Mezze and Basic Four Vegetarian Snack Bar.

I also had the chance to experiment with the salad bar at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian style steakhouse with locations around the US.  Some fellow conference attendees who I enjoy catching up with every year really wanted to go there, so I decided to give it a shot as a vegetarian.  In my meat eating days, I had happily eaten the unlimited meat and I remembered that Fogo has a wonderful salad bar.  So, while my colleagues enjoyed their meat meals, I feasted on marinated mushrooms, hearts of palm, tomatoes and bufala mozzarella, yellow peppers and more.  It is a little off-putting to be around so much meat, but it's good to know that if I have to attend a work function at Fogo, I'll have plenty of options.

Baltimore
My life hasn't been all work and no play this month - my husband and I spent Saturday evening in Baltimore, where we took in a Buddy Guy concert in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.  We originally planned to go to Little Italy, which has some amazing restaurants, but since we were running late, we instead opted to try a restaurant in Power Plant Live, which is the complex that housed our concert venue.  We decided to try Joe Squared, which had a sign outside that said they were "Named the Best Pizza in Maryland."  I tried the veggie pizza, which had "pink sauce, arugula, zucchini, eggplant, fennel, mozzarella and Boursin cheeses."  I was actually a little disappointed with it - the crust was meh and the veggies would have benefited from either being roasted at a higher temp or being sauteed first.  Overall, the whole thing was very bland.  However, my husband enjoyed his sandwich, they had a mushroom "cheesesteak" that looked good, and the servers were super nice, so I would be willing to give them another shot.

Washington, DC
It was my birthday recently, and my husband took me out to dinner at Poste, which is located in the Hotel Monaco in Gallery Place.  There isn't a wealth of veggie options, but the ones that are available are exceptionally good.  I started with an arugula salad with basil, mint, figs and sherry vinaigrette.  For my entree, I had the Autumn Vegetable Crepes, which included four individual crepes - one with beets & goat cheese, one with cauliflower, one with farro and chanterelle mushrooms and one with polenta and roasted red pepper sauce.  The presentation was gorgeous and the results were super tasty.   Via, twitter, I confirmed that there are different seasonal versions of the crepes available throughout the year, which means I have an excuse to pop in every few months or so to sample them anew.

Vegetarian Dining in Atlanta

Yummy lavender gin thingee

Greetings from Atlanta.  I'm attending a convention for work, so I've had a lot of events and catered functions.  However, I have had time to sample some vegetarian dining options around town.

Sweet Corn Ravioli at Loews Hotel

I'm staying at the Loews Atlanta, which is located in Midtown.  The lobby bar and restaurant are quite good and get quite lively.  The first day we arrived, the bartender was experimenting on new cocktails and made a lavender and gin martini that was just awesome.  We also had their margherita pizza, which was quite good.  But, the real star of the show here is the Sweet Corn Ravioli, which comes with a basil puree, corn and a spring corn box salad.  It was easily one of the prettiest meals I've ever eaten, and the texture of the crunchy corn with the softer ravioli and roasted tiny tomatoes was perfect.

Vegetarian Mole Enchiladas at Pozole

We also got to explore the Virginia Highlands area and ate at a neat little Mexican place called Pozole.  I had a Pomegranate Margarita, and then shared fajita nachos with my colleagues.  The kitchen was nice enough to put the meat on the side, so both my meat eating colleagues and vegetarian yours truly could enjoy the dish.  For my dinner, I had the Vegetarian Mole Enchiladas, which included one roasted corn & mushroom enchilada and one bean & cheese enchilada, with avocado, tomato & cucumber salad on the side.  Truthfully, I didn't realize until I checked back to look at the menu description that I had two different flavors, but it was a tasty dish and packed some welcome heat.
 

A Vegetarian Goes on the Road Part V: If You Happen to Be In . . .

I've spent a lot of time recapping my road trip and mentioning eating on the go - airports, rest stops, etc.  However, I also wanted to highlight some fine dining, aka "white tablecloth" restaurants in some of the cities I visited that happened to have nice vegetarian options:


Columbus, OH: Rigsby's Kitchen,  - Rigsby's Kitchen is located in the Short North area of Columbus, which is a vibrant downtown area with a number of restaurants.  We had a business lunch here, and I was very impressed with the menu.  I had the D'Angelo, a pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh parsley.  There weren't a lot of veg options other than that on the lunch menu, but, I took a peek at the dinner menu and saw some additional veggie choices - including a roasted beet salad and eggplant parmigana.

Windsor, ON: Nico Ristorante - Nico Ristorante is a tiny, elegant restaurant in Windsor's Little Italy, just a few blocks from the river that separates Windsor from Detroit.  The menu changes frequently - seven or eight dishes are handwritten in the front of the menu daily by the chef.  But rest assured that you will have a variety of vegetarian options!  I had an absolutely astounding tomato and fennel salad, as well as a gnocchi with a delicious mushroom sauce.

Grand Rapids, MI: Bentham's  - Bentham's is located in the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, an enormous historic property in downtown grand rapids.  At Bentham's, there are a few good vegetarian options on the dinner menu.  From the small plates, I sampled the kumato tomato salad and the asparagus hummus with grilled flatbread.  For dinner, there was an option called the "vegan vacation," which had roasted veggies, tofu, legumes and rice.  I thought about ordering it without the tofu, but I instead opted for the mac & cheese, which included smoked gouda, artichokes, broccoli and tomatoes.  It's listed as including chicken on the menu, but the kitchen was happy to leave it out.

Valparaiso, IN: Bistro 157 - Bistro 157 is one of a number of restaurants that opened as part of the revitalization of downtown Valparaiso.   I got a great tip from one of the folks we were visiting whose wife is a vegan.  If you call the restaurant a few days ahead, they'll be happy to have vegan options available.  We didn't give them enough notice, but I still was able to have a nice vegetarian meal from their regular menu.  The Greek Salad with Haloumi Cheese was very good.  I also was able to get a version of their rigatoni without sausage - it came with a tomato confit, broccoli rabe and roasted fennel and was quite good.

Bethesda, MD: Food & Wine Co.   - Okay, this is cheating a bit, as Maryland is home.  But, while I'm recommending higher end restaurants with good veggie options, I have to give a shout out to Food & Wine Co.  Located in the old Pizzeria Uno's at Wisconsin Avenue, Food & Wine has a robust menu with a number of veggie choices.  Last Saturday, I enjoyed a roasted beet salad with pistachios and goat cheese, as well as the Spaghettini with asparagus, heirloom tomatoes, eggplant and parsley.  The eggplant was cooked amazingly well, and the dish was very flavorful.  Other veg options on the menu include a portabello burger, tomato-watermelon gazpacho and a variety of interesting house made pizzas.

Here are some tips for vegetarian fine dining, no matter where you are:

Don't Be Afraid to Ask if It Can Be Made Veg: My experience is that most fine dining and higher end casual dining restaurants are happy to make vegetarian versions of menu items.  These types of restaurants are more likely to make your meal to order, so special requests are more easily accommodated.  You may have less leeway if the restaurant has a set, prix fixe menu, so in those cases, call ahead.

Use the Internet: Almost every restaurant has a PDF of its lunch and dinner menus online, so you'll be able to get a sense of veg options before you sit down.

Check out the Vegetarian Group's Resource Guide: This handy site has listings of vegan and vegetarian restaurants in all 50 states & Washington, DC, as well as the Canadian provinces and Puerto Rico.  And, if you're going further abroad, VRG also has some links to international options.  You can also send updates on your favorite restaurants to VRG!

Readers, what are some of your favorite vegetarian friendly fine dining restaurants?

A Vegetarian Goes on the Road Part IV: Eating Along the Highway

When I was about to embark for two weeks of business travel that involved a lot of highway driving, my biggest anxiety was what to eat for lunch on travel days.  In my mind, most places off highway exits and at rest stops didn't seem likely to have veg options, and I wasn't sure what I was going to get to eat on car trips.

However, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was for me to find filling and yummy veg friendly meals at fast food establishments.  Almost every fast food restaurant out there has a salad option, but most of them have chicken.  Good news - most fast food restaurants warm up their chicken before adding it to the salad.  Why is this good news for us vegetarians?  It means that it's amazingly simple to just get a salad without chicken.  I was able to do this at Burger King and Wendy's.  The Wendy's Almond Berry Salad (pictured above) was especially good.  It's a seasonal item, so it won't be available year round, but there will still be other salads on the menu and I'm sure they'll be just as good.

While we didn't eat at any of them, a number of the gas stations we stopped at had a full service Subway restaurant inside.  Subway is a good option for lacto-ovo vegetarians and not a bad one for vegans.

A number of rest stops/convenience stores had fresh fruit and vegetable snacks.  WaWa in particular had a good selection.  Pair the fruit or veggie packs with trail mix and you have a good back-up meal.

Readers, what are your go to options for vegetarian food along the highway?

A Vegetarian Goes on The Road, Part III: Convention Eating & St. Louis Restaurant Spotlight

Some of the Many Vegetarian Options available at ASAE 2011

The first part of my two weeks of epic travel was four days in St. Louis for my professional association's annual convention.  I have to give props to ASAE for providing terrific vegetarian options at every function.  Not only did fresh fruits and veggies abound, but there were entire stations in the exhibit hall that were purely vegetarian, and all of the seated meal functions had filling, veg options.  Additionally, at almost every event, meals were clearly labeled as vegetarian and clearly spelled out lists of ingredients.  It was great to be able to concentrate on business and networking and not worry so much about what I was going to eat.

Roasted Beet Salad from Lucas Park Grille

Since there were so many events at the conference, I only ate a sit down dinner at one restaurant, but it was a treat!  A group of fifteen colleagues and I came together for a reunion dinner at the Lucas Park Grille.  One of the vegetarian offerings was "Match Meatballs."  I was pretty sure Match had soy in it, but I decided to check with our server to be sure.  Normally, when I ask this type of question, the server runs back to the kitchen to check with the chef.  However, our server not only knew right away what the ingredients were, but was able to run through the menu to share which dishes were vegetarian or could be made vegan.  I was impressed at her preparedness. 

For my meal, I opted for the roasted beet & goat cheese salad, followed by a vegetarian risotto, which included mushrooms and frizzled leeks.  Both were delicious!  A variety of salads and sides are also veg friendly.

A Vegetarian Goes on the Road Part II: Getting Creative with Breakfast

A filling, veg friendly breakfast is just minutes away!

It's a cliche that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it's a cliche for a reason.  You've (hopefully) been asleep for at least seven hours, you probably haven't eaten in nine.  What you eat in the morning sets the stage for your energy level the whole day.

When you're on the road for work, breakfast is extra crucial.  You will likely have little control of your schedule or your meals, and you've got to be "on" for meetings, alert for navigating unfamiliar cities and maintain energy while you're away from home.  I know when I have a good breakfast, my day tends to go a whole lot better.

But, what do you do when you're a vegetarian and away from a well stocked home kitchen?  If you're lucky, you'll be at a first or second tier hotel where you'll have access to a breakfast buffet where you can get a variety of fresh fruit, and, if you're lacto-ovo, a veggie omelet.  At some of the nicer short stay hotels - Hampton Inn, Spring Hill Suites, Fairfield Inn, Hyatt Place, you'll get a free breakfast - cereal, bagels, apples, bananas, etc.  Since most of the short stay places have free wi-fi, you can catch up on work while you nosh.

But, what to do if your breakfast options aren't appealing, or if there aren't any at all?  I recommend the following back-up plan that I recently mentioned on Twitter: coffee maker oatmeal. 

This is a quick and easy breakfast you can make in any hotel room that has an in room coffee maker.  Before you leave for your trip, pack the following:

• Small bowl.  You may consider a few disposable ones if you don't want to deal with washing your bowl out in a bathtub.  The coffee cup that comes in your room will also do in a pinch.
• Spoon(s).  See above if you want to go disposable.  You can also likely grab one from a convenience store or restaurant if you forget to pack one.
• Instant oatmeal packets. I recently used Whole Foods Instant Oatmeal - Multigrain & Flax. 
• 'Fixins." Dried fruit, nuts, etc. - whatever you need to punch up the oatmeal.  I use dried cranberries and almonds.  Pack extra - you can eat a mix of fixins as a snack!

In the morning, pour your water in the coffee maker as if you were about to brew a cup of coffee, but don't add in the little individual coffee thingee the hotel provides.  You'll get hot water almost instantly.  Stir it into the oatmeal, add your fixins, and eat.  You can even sweeten it a bit with the sweetener that comes with the coffee if you desire.

If you are lucky enough to have a dual cup coffee maker like the one above, you can even make your oatmeal and your coffee or tea at the same time.

A Vegetarian Goes on the Road, Part I: Airport Dining

Those of you who know me in real life know I travel quite a bit in my capacity as an association executive. I go to conferences, visit members, staff events, etc.  As a result, I spend quite a bit of time in airports and exploring new places, large and small. Over the second and third weeks of August, I will have been/be on the road quite a bit.


So, as a special edition of this blog, the next several entries will be specifically focused on how to be a vegetarian on the road - navigating the airport food court, figuring out breakfast options, grab and go options off the highway, veg options at catered events and spotlights on veg friendly restaurants in various parts of the country.

This first blog will focus specifically on Airport Tricks.

Delicious Vegan Friendly Salad From Potbelly!

This particular trip had me flying from Baltimore to St. Louis by way of Chicago, and then looping back St. Louis -> Chicago -> Newark for the second leg of my trip.  Last Saturday, I departed out of BWI.  I wasn't sure what my food options would be.  In my opinion, of the three DC metro area aiports, BWI ranks at the bottom in terms of food options, so I was skeptical that I'd be able find a something veg friendly.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to find a good vegan option at Potbelly.  If you omit the cheese and egg on their Chickpea Veggie Salad,  you get a filling, vegan salad - chickpeas, cucumbers, tomatoes, onion and lettuce.

Black Bean Burrito Bowl from Burrito Beach

Usually, any layover in Chicago involves a massive sprint between terminals and inhaling trail mix. On my way to Newark, flight delays gave me the opportunity to sit down for a less rushed dinner at O'Hare.  The Food Court at Terminal 3, near Gate H has a variety of options (click here to see all the food available at O'Hare).  I elected to go with a bowl from Burrito Beach - lettuce, black beans, fajita veg and a tiny bit of cheese. 

As someone who spends a ton of time in airports, allow me to share a few tricks to make your air travel veg friendly:

• Plan ahead! A number of airports have dining guides, like this one from National Airport in DC.  The catch is knowing in which terminal your gate is.  I take this for granted given how often I fly, but you'll probably be able to tell from a terminal map.  You can consult the website and see what eateries will be available to you on your trip.  Also, get to the airport a little earlier so you have time to explore.  You'll thank me when you aren't rushing around at the last minute with no time to grab a sandwich or salad for your six hour flight!
  
• Pack What You Can.  Yes, the liquid restrictions are still in effect, so don't plan on bringing soup or a bottle of kombucha through security.  I wouldn't try and bring anything with refreezable ice packs either.You can, however, bring hardy items, like a nut butter sandwich, that you plan to eat that day, as well as non-perishable snacks you can plan to eat throughout the week.  For this trip, I packed Barbara's Bakery whole grain fruit bars and Annie's Cheddar Bunnies.
  
• You'll Find Something - You Just Have to Look.   Don't despair if it only looks like burger joints at every gate.  In my experience, you can get a fruit cup at almost every airport eatery, trail mix at the news stands and granola bars at kiosks.  Most airports also have Au Bon Pain, Subway, Great American Bagel Co., or another sandwich shop that will be happy to make you a veg friendly treat. If you luck into a full service Starbucks, look for the protein power pack or the fruit & cheese tray.  And if your only choice is a plain garden salad, you can punch it up a bit by buying nuts at a news stand and mixing them in.
  
• Bonus Tip: International Flights.  Most of you are aware by now that meals are no longer served on domestic flights.  However, if you're traveling internationally, or are fortunate enough to be bumped up to first class, you do get a free meal.  The three times (oh yes, I've counted!) I've been bumped to first on American Airlines, I was pleased to find that vegetarian options (fresh salads, yummy pasta, fruit) were easily available.  I will suggest when you are flying internationally, you contact the airline ahead of time to request a vegetarian meal in advance.  If you have flexibility in international travel, go with British Airways.  They have more than one vegetarian meal - my options on my last trip to and from Germany were lacto-ovo, Jain, vegan . . . and the list goes on!  When you book your international flight, you can request a special meal at that time.

Readers, what are your tips and secrets?  Or, do you have any questions about particular airports or train stations?