Turns out, Veggie Grill’s plan wasn’t foolish at all. They’re opening some new locations up here (Beaverton at the end of January, Downtown in May-ish, another Portlandy one sometime after that, with a few Seattle locations thrown in there somewhere), so they wanted to give us a head start. Honestly, for the price of a couple of advertisements they got four vegan bloggers (and a couple of omni restaurant reviewers) to try their food and listen to their story. Of course we’re writing about it—we write about everything! And you know me, I’m going to be straight with you.

We’ll get to the food in a minute, but I want to talk about the company. These guys are on a mission. They’re smart—and now they’re vegan. What started out as a business venture to build a chain of healthy fast-casual restaurants has changed their lives and just might change a few more. In researching this concept—the founders are all seasoned businessmen—they learned that vegan food can be just as flavorful and enjoyable as any other convenience food. Sure, that may not surprise you and me, but it did surprise them. Hooking up with their foodie Ray White, formerly of Native Foods, they are out to spread accessible, affordable vegan food across the country in a way that hasn’t been seen before.

You can choose to be excited about or scoff at the mass-market aspect of that. I personally don’t have a problem with it. Much like my experience at Native, sitting in the L.A. Veggie Grills, I loved looking around at a packed dining room, full of all races and ages, all eating vegan food. It’s not likely all these customers were vegan, but every vegan meal eaten means fewer animals are suffering. If we can take that to the masses, awesome. It could very well lead some to experiment at home with vegan ingredients or encourage them to try other vegan restaurants.

All right, you’ve been good and listened to me think probably way too much about this than I should. Here’s some food porn…after this photo of the Sunset location, for which I was hassled by The Man.

That’s Jess walking with Ray, who was a great storyteller. I was really glad to have met him. He has a love of produce and animals and people alike; it was nice to see the heart behind the chain, you know?

Wanna talk accessible? Vegan nachos are a gimme. They use a house cheesy blend, chili, corn salsa, and the other usual suspects for some could-be-worse junk food.

Same goes for the Buffalo wings. These drippy, saucy strips are like a gateway vegan food. You’ll find this Buffalo chick-product in sandwiches and wraps too. I’m not even a fan of vinegar, but I ate two of ‘em.

The All Hail Kale salad, ladies and gentlemen. Kale, corn salsa, cabbage, carrots, papaya-ginger vinaigrette, and agave-roasted walnuts…guess who’s gotta try to make this at home! I cannot tell you how much I loved this salad. I’m not at all embarrassed that I was the one who flat-out asked that they box up the leftovers for us. And yes, I did eat it for breakfast the next day—it held up just grand.

The VG team all had words about the mac-n-cheese. They’re apparently still tinkering with it. It’s a quinoa pasta with their gluten-free cheese sauce, so without the breadcrumbs it’s completely gluten-free. If you’re not into quinoa pasta or a very mild cheesy taste, skip it. Kids dig it and can’t tell the difference.

In addition to burgers (you know what those look like), the menu has a bunch of steaky options. The top one there is the All-American Stack, with veggie steak, dressing, the usual fixin’s, and an onion ring. (Note: Onion rings are not an option as a side, and I for one am outraged. Hear my outrage, Veggie Grill, hear meeeee!) The next is the Carne Asada, with a spicy veggie steak. I still can’t bring myself to eat vegan steak—so dumb, I know, totally psychological—but others were into it.

The sandwich I did try (and was super impressed with) was the Bayou Chicken. Here it is wrap-style, bundled up for me to take to the airport. It’s spicy and grilled, and totally satisfying. It was my top pick along with the kale salad.

It’s 2012. Your menu has to have sweet potato fries or people just aren’t going to bother with you. (Maybe 2013 will be the year of the vegan onion ring—a girl can hope.)

Dessert sampler, yes! I had three of these chocolate chip cookies over the course of the weekend and I wouldn’t mind another. The pudding has a dark chocolate base, and it’s the standard tofu pudding we’ve all made. Then the carrot cake: I loved it. It was pretty moist and mild. The frosting wasn’t übersweet, again going for the accessible, comfortable, you-could-have-made-it-at-home-but-you’re-running-errands-so-here-you-go vibe.

And that’s that. Unfortuately, I had to get on the early plane to make it back in time for work while the others stuck around for the new menu items, including full-meal, fork-n-knife plates, so check out their sites. I guess the Beaverton location won’t get the new menu just yet—baby steps—but you’ve seen the old one and they’re doing pretty OK with it. See you there!

First I’m sharing this awesome cookie with you. So pink and sparkly! It’s a rosewater sugar cookie from Back to Eden Bakery. I was running errands today and started to get a headache—chocolate was in order and B2E was a worthwhile detour. Not pictured is the chocolate chip cookie I ate way too fast to photograph, kinda like Bruce Lee’s Chinese boxing.

Click on it--it's got a surprise for you!

I’m also sharing this song with you. Leslie Hall (of Gem Sweater fame) released a special little ditty for VeganMoFo Hump Day. Watch and listen to everything Leslie has produced. She is a force of nature and as sparkly as a rosewater sugar cookie. (I want to thank my friend Colleen for introducing me to her radness when we were grammar geeks for hire down in LA.)

I made the kolache recipe from Kelly Peloza’s The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur, replacing the jam with poppy seed filling, which I confirmed with Solo is vegan.

My mom makes these cookies all the time, but her recipe uses cheap vanilla ice cream instead of the vegan cream cheese this one calls for (and she spells it differently). I used Tofutti because that’s my favorite, so I can’t speak for other brands since they vary quite a bit in taste and texture. Mom’s are a bit sweeter (I think—it’s been a while), but these are pretty darn great. They’re light and flaky and subtly sweet…you know, the kind of cookie you can shamelessly eat for breakfast. And coffee. And midnight snack.

Now I’ve got a super long list of treats to try out, including the entire “Cookies Inspired by Drinks” chapter. Pink lemonade, root beer float, white Russians, mmmmmm.

And bonus! If you’re going to be at Vida Vegan Con, you’ll get to meet Kelly.

They’re Mrs. Fields cinnamon sugar cookies, twice removed. A friend of mine sent me a copycat recipe she found, knowing it would be easy to veganize. Sure was. I’ve never had the original cookie so I can’t tell you how close it is, but it was crazy good. The texture is light and fluffy yet has a tender chew to it. As usual, I used my Penzey’s cinnamon (by far the best cinnamon I’ve had), and I bumped up the salt a little. The recipe is just made for halving, which I always do for trial runs…or when I know something’s going to be so good I won’t stop eating until it’s gone. Both apply to this one—we polished these cookies off in what had to be record time.

I’ve been thinkin’ on what I should bring to the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale at the end of the month (April 29, at Green Microgym on Alberta, if you’re in Portland and want to support Try Vegan PDX and Vegan Iron Chef), and this might be it. I do have a few more experiments planned between now and then, so we’ll see.

Make ‘em your own self:
Rollin’ sugar
• 3 T sugar
• 1 T cinnamon (don’t scrimp!)

Dough
• 2½ c AP flour
• ½ t baking soda
• ½ t salt
• 1 c brown sugar (the darker the better, for that molassassy kiss)
• ½ c sugar
• 1 c Earth Balance (I used the original tub kind)
• Ener-G egg replacer for 2 eggs
• 2 t vanilla extract (again, go for the good stuff)

Cream EB and sugars with an electric mixer. Add Ener-G and vanilla, then beat until light and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients, which you of course mixed together in a separate bowl, and blend until combined—don’t go overboard. Cover and chill for a bit so it’s easier to roll into balls. Roll in 1-inch balls and coat in your cinnamon-sugar, then place onto an UNgreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart (these need some elbow room). Bake at 300° for about 20 minutes. Move them immediately onto a sheet of wax paper or cutting board to cool.

Exhibit A: melted semi-sweet chocolate chips and hempseed. At most this takes 10 minutes to throw together, even in a microwave-free home. You don’t really taste the hempseed, but it’s pretty and oh so good for you.

Exhibit B: blackberry jam. Home-friggin’-made blackberry jam. A friend gave us a bunch of his backyard blackberries so I threw them in my bread machine with some sugar, lime juice, and pectin and hit the “jam” button. If I haven’t said it before (and I know I have), I heart my bread machine.

Whatever shall I put on them next? I’m thinkin’ somethin’ peanutty.

Butter, flour, sugar, salt. It’s like the guitar, bass, drums of cookies. Shortbread tells you to leave the keyboard out of it. Because of its starkness, some people find shortbread abrasive and off-putting. It’s a serious cookie, eaten slowly between sips of a hot beverage. I wouldn’t bring a plate of these to family reunion picnic—face it, you’re the black sheep anyway, so why make it any harder on yourself?

I tried a seemingly popular shortbread recipe on VegWeb and it didn’t come out like shortbread at all, sorta puffy and sans, how you say, flavor? But Destiny’s Vegan Kitchen’s recipe worked marvelously. It’s called Smel’s Shortbread in honor of her sister (nickname), which reminded me of a gross sandwich I thought up: smelt melt. I’ve never had a tuna melt or smelt, but this just sounds like the most disgusting thing ever. Sorry, DVK’s sister.

Wow, these cookies are so edible! What are they made out of, foodstuff?

I wanted peanut butter cookies but didn’t have a recipe. The VWAV one sounded too crispy and the first couple I found on Vegweb sounded too healthy, so I headed over to Allrecipes and grabbed one that seemed like the recipe I used back in the dairy days, doing a straight veganization (and adding chocolate chips).

Wrong. These tasted like they came in a cookie bouquet. Not full of goodness, just that cheap sweet you can get from too much white sugar. Note: Next time use more brown sugar. And they were a little too fluffy and I think I could taste the baking soda. Note: Next time just use the baking powder and leave out the baking soda. A point to Michele for only making a half batch. Minus a bunch of points for not hunting a little longer for a ready-to-go vegan recipe.

But it’s a place to start, and I think I’ll give this another (half) whirl with some tweaks and see what’s what. Maybe then I’ll share the recipe with you.

And I’ve been meaning to show this for weeks. Remember a while ago I told you about the Keep-A-Breast auction. Well, I won one. This is from one of our favorite artists, Attaboy. It’s pretty dern striking in person, and it helped raise a bunch of money to save boobs, maybe even lives. I think I’ll start  a cash stash for next year’s auction. There are worse things to collect.

Dinner doesn’t get much more square than this. That is clearly a meat, starch, and a veg. The meat is my first crack at the Veganomicon chickpea cutlet. You can so believe the hype on this one—when I read about something on every vegan blog, the rebel in me figures it can’t be that good and I’m not getting roped into this one, but this recipe is most likely a new standby. It’s much like a fake chicken; I can see it in a sandwich, in a “chicken parm” situation, and I’m thinkin’ it might even be good cold. (I have one left over so I’ll find out tomorrow.)

The starch is cracked wheat bulgur, cooked with vegetable broth. I’ve never made this before, so I followed the soaking directions for fluffier results, adding boiling broth to the bulgur then letting it set an hour before simmering. I don’t know how it would have turned out otherwise, but I liked what I had.

And the veg is a French green bean (freedom bean?) steamed then sauteed with garlic and red pepper flakes. That’s some peppy beans.

What’s more American than chocolate chip cookies? These are from VWAV, but with some cinnamon, coconut, and replacer for one egg. I don’t know what I do but just following the recipe gives me a really dry cookie. Adding the egg replacer just works for me. What I forgot this time is that I usually halve the recipe. So now I’ve got four dozen—well, three and a half now—cookies.

Now I just have to sit and wait for the fireworks. And to my family in Chicago, maybe next year. (I know I say that every year, but I mean it. And you guys don’t even blow stuff up the way you used to. We’ve all gotten old.)

I friggin’ love cookies. I often make my own. Usually it’s just cookie dough for the sake of cookie dough, which I pare down to the basics of EB/peanut butter, sugar or agave, oats, ground flax seed, and chocolate chips. I call it “kukido,” since you couldn’t actually bake it. Anyway, sometimes I get the urge at the store and pick up some real, ready-made cookies.

Then you’re left to read labels again. And you’re left wondering what “sugar” means. Is it beet sugar, which isn’t refined with bone char as cane sugar often is? Is it unrefined cane sugar? Well, I did some searching and wrote a few e-mails, and here’s a bunch of vegan sandwich cookies:

Back to Nature: These are sweetened with organic evaporated cane juice, raw sugar (turbinado), and brown rice syrup. And if you don’t like any of their products, there’s a money-back guarantee (up to $5). I haven’t had to take them up on the offer yet.

Nabisco: According to PETA’s I can’t believe it’s vegan! snack list, the following Oreos are vegan: Double Delight Mint’n Creme, Halloween, Thin Crisps, Uh-ohs, Spring, and Chocolate Creme. Not mentioned, probably because it’s new, is a “natural” line with organic flour and such, sweetened with organic evaporated cane sugar and brown rice syrup. Huh. I’ve never actually seen these, but I have to admit I’ve never looked.

Newman’s Own Organics: The site has a list of vegan products in the FAQs. The “whole Newman-O’s line” is on there, along with these guys: Wheat Free/Dairy Free Fig Newmans, Tops and Bottoms Chocolate Wafers, Chocolate ABC Cookies & Wheat Free/Dairy Free Chocolate ABC Cookies (Cinnamon and Arrowroot ABC is vegan except for the honey added).

Trader Joe’s: Probably the best-tasting of them all, in my humble opinion. I’d seen them mentioned on other vegan blogs so I figured they were safe. But then I was checking out the vegetarian and vegan lists online and noticed the Joe Joes were on the vegetarian list yet not the vegan one. Bad form! I e-mailed Trader Joe’s and got this response:

Thanks for your email.  These are vegan.  It was an oversight that they
weren’t on the list. We will be correcting that.

 Oh happy day.

Whole Foods 365: I e-mailed Whole Foods and got a reply within hours, confirming the sugar is not refined with bone char and they would be suitable to a vegan diet. Too bad they taste like crap.