So I got a gift certificate for my upcoming birthday, which we will NOT be discussing here. But, I do like a good discount. It was for the Italian chain Zio's. In the past The Husband and I have both enjoyed Zio's a time or two, and enjoy sitting at the bar for fast and excellent service. But dining as a vegan, it seems, is a quite a feat at this meat-heavy establishment.

The Husband slid excitedly into his barstool and by the time I got into mine, I could already see the nervous look in my peripheral vision starting to spread across his gorgeous face. As I began to look over the menu, my heart started to race... where was a dish withOUT meat, or cheese? What dish could I possibly ask them to remove one of these items from? We had already ordered our iced teas. I WISH I had the kind of guts to just pay for our beverages and exit. But, we're too polite. We picked through the menu. Jake finally decided on pasta with marinara, and I ordered the greek pasta- minus the chicken and the feta. We also both ordered the house salad, sans cheese.

Minutes later our salads arrived, and guess what sprinkled minisculy on top? Ah, yes. Parmesan. It almost looked like someone put it on and then tried to pick it off. Again- new vegans- too nice. We picked around the cheese instead of telling them they got it wrong. The pasta was ok, but nothing worth $9. We could have made 10 bowls of pasta at home for that price. It was nice to not cook, but it would also be nice to find something a little more complex. This just confirmed my suspicions (although we ARE talking about a chain restaurant, and we should have known better), that it is going to be hard to find decent vegan faire in San Antonio. We have one vegetarian restaurant (which I haven't gotten to yet), and that's it.

I sort of like the process of a fine restaurant, when everything is timed right, the setting is enjoyable, the wine is smooth. We don't eat out very often, but I sure would like to think we'll be able to enjoy a night out now and again, even with our restrictions.

On a MUCH better note, I made some awesome Vegan French Toast this morning. You can find the recipe here. I made it with just a little bit of extra flour. I've been making weekend french toast for my guys for almost a year, and the new lifestyle had me concerned. But on the first try, this was ridiculously delicious, and tasted exactly like the regular kind- almost better if I do say so myself. I highly recommend it. I would say if you are using vanilla flavored milk you can probably nix the vanilla extract. I wish I would have taken a photo, as it looked as good as it tasted.

I'm really enjoying this journey so much- full of discovery and possibilities. It's a challenge but I love it, and every time I think about it and I realize I'm no longer contributing to the corporate greed that is responsible for the disgusting violence and mistreatment toward other living creatures, I know it's worth it. Being a vegan is a lot trickier than just being a vegetarian, but again, it seems almost to defeat the purpose unless you jump in with both feet.