Alena Swanson: Create, Design, Inspire

Last night, Mike and I went for dinner at P.F. Chang’s, and visited family. We hadn’t been to Chang’s in a long time! So, it was my first adventure being vegetarian and eating fancy Chinese food. I must share with you that their menu is totally veggie friendly and amazing!

We had their Veggie Dumplings (New Recipe btw) which were awesome, their spring rolls, which I have always enjoyed, and then my new favorite entree….yum!

This is their Ma Po Tofu…. Wow, so good!

I took this on my BlackBerry, so don’t hate… I know it’s not an amazing photo. But, I’m telling you, this dish doesn’t need a good photo to be inciting. It’s good all by itself!

This is my Fake bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwich. It’s that, plus wheat bread and mayo… or soyo (Nayonaise)… whatever.

It’s way good. It’s lower fat than real bacon and tastes like the real thing. I’m a huge fan. Yummmmmmyyyy!

It’s good for BLD…. Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner. LOL! As long as it has bacon it’s an acceptable breakfast food right?

Yesterday, I said that a coworker once accused me of bringing the whole kitchen to work for lunch. It was because the same week I brought my chili, I also brought tostadas. (Another one of my favorite things!) Since tostadas are really not something you can prepare ahead of time, I really did bring all of these ingredients with me and assembled them during my lunch.

Tostada shells

Vegetarian re-fried beans

Diced tomato

Shredded/chopped/ripped green lettuce (whatever!)

Diced yellow onion

Shredded cheddar or a cheddar mix

If I’m feeling fancy, I use those veggie crumbles I mentioned yesterday. These crumbles are awesome! If you prepare them in the skillet ahead of time with taco seasoning, they taste just like taco meat! Don’t use the pack of taco seasoning from the store! You can just use Chili Powder, Cumin, Oregano, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, and a little Paprika. Typically, that’s the order of ingredients and you probably already have them!

I once had a taco bar dinner party and the non-vegetarians ate all my fake meat because it tasted better than the real stuff. They thought it was the beef.

Mike took these pictures of me stuffing my face with tostadas, btw.