9.24.2012

Vegan MoFo's coming! and a (brief) Colorado recap


I have officially signed up for the Vegan Month of Food (also known as VeganMoFo), a month celebrating vegan food blogging! I'll be writing an entry every day for the whole month of October. In the meantime, pardon my sparse posting.
Coming soon! Image from veganmofo.com
The summer went by incredibly quickly, with all the moving and settling in and traveling we did this year. One of the highlights from the summer, other than buying a house, was traveling to Colorado for the husband's cousin's wedding. The wedding itself was great, but we also loved being in Colorado! I'd  been once before, for another of the husband's cousins' wedding, but this time we took an extra couple days to explore the area more. We went to a bunch of craft breweries (the husband's area of interest) and vegan restaurants (mine). Unfortunately I was more about eating than about taking pictures, BUT I would love to tell you my favorite stops along the way:

I'd discovered Root Down in Denver through the PPK forums, where they said it was a great restaurant for vegans and omnivores alike. My in-laws liked it a lot that time, so we all went back for a fantastic dinner.
 

I had a delicious Chilled Pea Soup with coconut milk sorbet as my appetizer, and an equally awesome Rhubarb Risotto (not pictured because I ate it so quickly). Root Down has a small menu, but it already has gluten-free and vegan options in it, and they can adapt things to your needs easily. They were fantastic about my allergy list.

The husband and I went to Watercourse Foods in Denver twice, once on our own, and once with my in-laws. It's a vegetarian restaurant with the BEST vegan comfort food. Ever. I didn't take pictures, but the servings are enormous and filling.

We spent time in Boulder next, and had a fancy dinner at Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant. It reminded us of a ritzier version of Garden Grille in Rhode Island, which is the husband's favorite restaurant. A great meal! The desserts were fantastic, too.

But for me, the REAL winner in Boulder was Native Foods. Those of you with Native Foods in your cities have NO IDEA how lucky you are. They are a vegan fast-er food chain, with healthy, hearty meals. They have full ingredients lists of all their offerings on hand, which made ordering allergy-friendly meals a breeze.
Our first meal was lunch, which neither of us finished because there was so much food! I got a personal pizza heaped with greens, and some of the tastiest sweet potato fries of my life. The husband got tofu buffalo fingers, I think, and a big salad.

We liked it so much we went back for dinner that very night:

The husband got a burger of some sort, we split a cucumber seaweed salad, and I had a buddha bowl. I really want Native Foods to come to Boston; I would eat there alllll the time.

I found all the places we went in Colorado to be very food-allergy-friendly, and all the meals we ate we delicious. Vegan selections were pretty easy to come by even at the most non-vegan-seeming locations. Those of you who live there, count your blessings! Those of you planning to go there, make sure you arrive hungry.

One last thing: on a walk to visit a brewery on the outskirts of Boulder, we saw PRAIRIE DOGS!

I had never seen one before! They were so cute. Between the wonderful people, the beautiful weather, the awesome food, and the scenery (complete with prairie dogs), Colorado is quickly becoming one of my favorite states.