Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Vegan Cheeseburger

The awesome weather here has got me thinking about cookouts again, so for today's lunch, I made myself a vegan cheeseburger by taking a storebought whole wheat hamburger bun (I didn't have time last night to make my own) and then topping it with an Amy's Texas Veggie Burger and a slice of Tofutti American Soy Cheese. I just tried the Amy's burger for the first time the other day and I really like them. It says on the label that it has barbecue flavor, but it really kind of reminds me more of a Sloppy Joe. Anyway, they taste very good and the walnuts in there really give it a nice texture that you can sink your teeth into. The Tofutti soy cheese is also the best vegan replacement for American cheese slices that I have been able to find. Unfortunately, soy cheese is one of those things that you have to be really careful about because a lot of them, even though they are labeled as soy cheese and even lactose free, will still contain casein, which comes from milk, which makes them NOT VEGAN. Tofutti doesn't though, so it's all good.

In the red container I've got some lightly steamed broccoli, green beans, onions & mushrooms. This was just some "Asian" blend of vegetables that I picked up in the freezer section of the local grocery store.

I also included some garlic-stuffed olives that I found on sale at the store. Mezzetta's Napa Valley Bistro Garlic Stuffed Olives are a yummy treat. I only put five in the lunchbox since they contain so much sodium, and aren't cheap. They are the very large size Queen olives though, so it's probably about the right amount to put in a lunch.

For dessert, I threw in some fresh blackberries that I also found on sale at the grocery store (they still weren't inexpensive though). I really need to start getting out of the house early on the weekend and start going to the local farmer's market to buy my produce. There is also a fairly large flea market not too far from my house which should be getting started up right about now. You can usually find some pretty good deals on fruits & vegetables there too. Of course, if I really wanted to get the freshest berries that I could, for the lowest cost, there are several berry farms around here where you can go and pay and then just take your own containers (or use theirs) and pick your own berries. Maybe I should try that this year too. Mmmmmm... blackberries are so good.

Well, that does it for Wednesday. Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you tomorrow!

2 comments:

Susan Voisin said...

Ken, do you warm the burger up before you leave for work, or can you do it at work? I'm always afraid to send one to school with my daughter because I don't think it would taste good cold.

kennyboy said...

Yeah Susan, I can heat it up at work. You are right, it probably wouldn't be very good cold, so it's probably not a good thing to pack for a youngster.

As for the cheese hunting jane & danielle, I just got mine at the local health food store, which isn't a big chain or anything.

If your local health food store doesn't carry it, you might want to ask them if they could. I did that once I discovered the Follow Your Heart Mozzarella at a big store an hour away. I told my small local store how good it was and how they should carry it, and now they do, and they are sold out of it a lot. So they're probably as glad they carry it now as I am.