Vegan Dining @ Cootie Brown's (again)

Okay, I admit it. Cootie Brown's IS my favorite place, here where I live, to find good food that can easily be made vegan. If you've been reading my blog for very long, then you've seen me go there several times. This time, however, I swear it wasn't my fault! Our entire group at work decided to take our Secretary out to eat (in honor of Administrative Professionals Day) and today was the day that was decided on. We let her pick the place, and lucky for me, she chose Cootie Brown's. So see, everybody can find something that they really like at Cootie's; omnivore, vegetarian and vegan alike. In fact, I think it was the very first time that my Group Leader had ever been there and I heard him make the comment as we were all leaving that he really liked it. So hopefully, more work-related lunches will be taking place there in the future. If I have to go out and eat in a restaurant, it really is the best vegan option around here that I have found.

I think I ordered Pizza the last couple of times that I featured Cootie Brown's on my blog. So this time I went back to the veggie burgers. They have three different types of veggie burgers, and they are all homemade. There's a Black Bean Burger, a Sundried Tomato Burger and a Spinach Burger. They all have a similar base, but just with different ingredients blended in. I'm not sure what all they put in there, but it seems like it's one of those veggie burgers based on Lentils, Bulgur Wheat, maybe some Potato, maybe Chickpeas? Who knows. Whatever they put in them, they are deeeeeeelicious. In order to make sure that my burger was vegan I had to make sure they left off any cheese and mayo. Plus, I did the whole "no butter on the bun" thing as well. I'm not sure if they put butter on their buns before they grill them or not, but better safe than sorry. My bun came out just toasted, which is exactly what I wanted. This Spinach Burger is really good too because it comes with those yummy Grilled Onions on top. EXCELLENT!

Instead of ordering French Fries, or some other side like that, I opted for the dish of Roasted Vegetables. It's just a dish of Spinach, Artichokes, Garlic, Roasted Red Peppers, there may have been Onion in there too. Anyway, it's all roasted in this ceramic dish in Olive Oil and herbs. It normally comes with Blue Cheese all over the top of it, but I, of course, asked them to leave that part off. End result: TOTAL VEGAN YUMMINESS!

I have been meaning to try those vegetables for quite some time, but I was a little worried about how much Olive Oil would be in there. I AM trying to lose weight. Actually, they had just the right amount on them. They weren't swimming in oil, but there was enough in there to flavor the veggies and keep them from drying out when they were under the broiler. If there had been too much oil on them, then my stomach would be complaining right about now. But it's not. The burger and the veggies were delicious and made for a nice combination. I really like it when I eat a meal that really fills me up, but doesn't make me feel all sick after I eat it. Those are good meals. And this was one of them. It was a good amount of food that really filled me up, but it was healthy enough so that I still feel good after eating it.

So that was my lunch for Thursday. I've been trying to be really good this week so I can get back in the groove of losing weight, but I went out and ate Mexican with my parents last night, and then we had this lunch today. Oh well. I chose fairly healthy options both times, so maybe these two meals won't have too big of an impact on my week and I'll still come out a pound or two lighter on Monday.

I purchased a new pedometer today and I love it! They've got a program going on here at work where you can register and log your total steps online everyday and win prizes and all that. I was already walking anyway, so I figured I might as well join the program. Every little bit of motivation helps. I hadn't replaced my last pedometer since it quit working, so I did a little research online and ended up purchasing the Omron Premium Pedometer. It's really nice and I think it'll really help to keep me motivated with my walking.

So thanks for coming by today.

I'll be back with the lunchbox tomorrow. See you then!