Vegan Turkey Sammich

Well, there's nothing fancy about today's lunch so there probably won't be too much to talk about. Today was one of those days that I really just wanted to bring a plain old sandwich. It's been a while since I've had one in the lunchbox, plus I didn't feel like cooking too much stuff last night, so it all worked out. I was really wanting to bring a Bologna sandwich, but the Turkey was all that I had. Of course, I'm not talking about real Bologna or Turkey. I'm talking about the Light Life Deli Slices. I just love the Bologna style on some bread smeared with a bunch of Vegenaise. YUM! But, like I said, all I had in the fridge was the Roasted Turkey style, so the decision was kinda' made for me. I really like it too. In fact, I think it's kinda' scary how close they actually got to the taste of real turkey. Definitely a good vegan product if you like deli-style stuff on sandwiches. The Light Life Deli Slices are obviously based on Seitan, but they have really got the texture thing down. I'm not sure which ingredient it is that makes it so similar to the texture of deli meat, but whatever it is it works. I notice there is Tapioca in there, and I've seen that in a few seitan recipes as a texture modifier, I assume, so maybe that's it. I've never even bought Tapioca before, but I did notice all kinds of it at the Asian market last week, so maybe I should get some and experiment with it in my homemade seitan and see what kind of effects it has.

I made my Turkey Sammich (I just like to say that sometimes instead of sandwich) using some Light Bread that only has half the calories of regular bread. You would think it would be smaller since it has fewer calories, but it's actually larger than the regular bread I buy. It looks like they either do something with the yeast or add a bunch of baking soda or something to get the bread to really poof up full of air pockets, a lot more than you would normally see in regular bread. So it's a lot more "airy" than my usual bread, which makes it bigger, and also lower in calories since all that air is in there. I just noticed this because with my old bread I can cram two sandwiches into this lunchbox, whereas with the Light Bread, only one would fit. Heck, if I'm using Light Bread trying to cut back on calories then what the heck am I doing trying to pack TWO sandwiches in my lunchbox. IDIOT!

Anyway, it's hard to see the Light Life Roasted Turkey Deli Slices, but they're under the Spinach leaves there. I think I put about 4 slices on this sandwich. I also sliced up a Roma Tomato and put that in there, and I spread a little Vegenaise on the bread. I went a little easier on the Vegenaise than I used to since I want to continue losing some weight this week.

To go along with my sandwich, I brought some more of Joanna's Lemon Butter Rice. This stuff is probably my favorite side dish now because it is so easy to make and has such intense taste. It just tastes healthy too you know, Brown Rice and fresh Lemon. Mmmmmmm...

For dessert I just threw in some Raw Almonds & Raisins. Keeping a few different kinds of dried fruit and raw nuts around usually makes it easy to improvise a dessert for lunch if I don't have anything special to bring. Just grab one or two different types of nuts and one or two different types of dried fruit and throw it all together. If you have enough different types of nuts & fruit, you could come up with different combinations for days before you had to repeat yourself.

Well, I guess that does it for Friday's lunch. Nothing fancy, but kinda' noteworthy since it's something that most people (i.e. omnivores) don't even know is an option if you stop eating animal products. I just wish more people realized that stuff like this is available and how super easy it is to be vegan now with all of these meat replacements just sitting there in the coolers at regular grocery stores. I guess that's why I'm blogging huh?

So thanks for coming by today and I'll see everybody on Monday.

Everything's worked out at home and my housesitter/babysitter (for my Yorkie and my kitty) is coming to stay at the house later this weekend so that I can go on my little trip to Savannah, GA next week. I've got to go for work, but I plan on taking in some of the sites and having a little fun too. It looks like my dining options are going to be severely limited there though. It looks like my only choices for food are going to be an Indian restaurant that's classified as vegan-friendly, a coffee shop that sells some vegan stuff, and a pizza place that has some fancier toppings, but no vegan cheese. I've really got more options than that HERE where I live, but I guess we'll see how it goes. If all else fails I can always call Papa John's. So, don't be too disappointed if the posts aren't all that exciting next week. I'll do all I can to make it as interesting as possible, but if it ends up being a vegan dining wasteland, then I don't guess there will be too much I can do except eat salads. It'll be interesting. Who knows what my blog posting times will be like either. In other words, next week may be kinda' screwy here in my blog, but I'll try to make it entertaining. Hopefully it will be fun.

Actually, now that I think about it, since I didn't go anywhere on vacation last year, this will actually be my first time travelling somewhere new, for more than one night, as a vegan. So I guess we'll see how big of a challenge it will be for me to find some decent vegan grub huh?

Have a great weekend. See you in Savannah!