Vegan in Virginia Beach, VA

As a resident of Virginia Beach, I WISH we had more vegan restaurants to go to, but we do have a quiet variety of restaurants who serves vegan options. 

So I listed some my favorite/go to restaurants and what I order every restaurant on this page. 

However, don't you ever wonder what is the item on the menu look like? So I looked back some of my Instagram pics and added some pictures, if there is no pictures but title of a food item, that is a link to my Instagram page. 

Links on every name of restaurants are directly to their Yelp page, so refer them as you wish.  

Fellow vegans, enjoy Virginia Beach!!

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First and most "plant-based" restaurant we can think of in this area is Fruitive, of course. 

Fruitive was the first 100% plant based organic restaurant in Hampton Road. 

As a vegan, the best part being Fruitive is that I can choose whatever I want, and I don't have to worry whether if the menu item is vegan or not.  

Antioxidant Berry Blend

My second go to restaurant is Baladi Mediterranean Cafe. 

Baladi actually located in the same shopping area as Fruitive. 

Their customer service is always good! Good thing is that they serves dinner as well. ;)

Their menu is pretty easy to navigate, GF(Gluten Free), red V(vegetarian) and green V (vegan) to distinct from others. They also serves meat and seafood as well, so if you are meeting someone is not vegan, they might like Baladi.

Mezze Plater

Sautéed sabanekh

Moujaddarah brown rice and brown lentil bean

Lentil Cake

Masala Bites in Red Mill Commons is pretty good with Vegan as well. 

Unfortunately, their naan is not vegan but this cauliflower dish is really good! I can almost have only this dish and rice to go with it. Okla curry and Eggplant curry, both were really good too but a bit oily, so if you are staying away from anything with oil, I would not recommend it. 

Gobhi Manchurian/ Cauliflower Florets, Soy-Tomato Glaze

Pahadi Baingan/ Eggplant, Herbs, Sesame, Garlic, Onions, Tomatoes And Spices

Amchuri Bhindi Masala/ Okra, Peppers, Tomatoes, Ginger, Garlic, Mango Powder

Pho79 located so conveniently, right next to Trader Joe's in Hill Top area. I liked this place even when I was not a vegan.  So glad to see they have many options to make them into vegan. I asked them to make Bah Mi with Tofu. Forgot to ask them eliminated cheese, so I had to get rid of it myself, but if I can bring my own vegan mayo, would have been perfect! 

Bah Mi

Stir fried tofu with lemon glass and ginger -My absolute favorite. 

Vegetarian Pho with fried tofu (Vegan? Vegetarian for sure)

Vietnam Garden is an another option for us too. 

<Landstown Commons>

Peter Cheng is one of the gem! A little more sophisticated Chinese than regular Chinese in neighborhood. 
  

Marinaded ear mushroom

Kung Pao Tofu

Mapo Tofu 

Stir-Fried Tofu Skin with Napa Cabbage

I really like Zpizza 's whole wheat crust option. They can veganized most of their pizza! On Yelp, somehow it says this place is closed but I don't really think so. I will go and check that myself very soon. 

<Oceana Area>

Sushi Yama has a pretty good vegan option as well. It is not far from ocean front! 

Meadow  (Avocado, carrots and cucumber) was super good!

Jade Garden is for our family favorite Chinese take out! 
They even have online order system and pretty convenience. 

<Lynheaven Area>

Noodles&Company is right by Lynheaven Mall. When I am exhausted, I'd rather stop by and fuel myself. 

Indonesian curry noodle

<More around Hill Top area>

More than Fruitive, Balad, and Pho79, Hill Top has Whole Foods Market on our back too. 

Vegan Blueberry Cake

They also have vegan muffins, cupcakes, even vegan pizza, and more things are available. 

My Vegan Sweet Tooth just opened their door lately. 

AND  Green Cat (I believe they are vegan joint as well) is opening on May 23rd on its door at Ocean Front!!

Plus, lucky for us, every month, The Cruelty Free Kitchen host a dinner at various locations. Check their website for "upcoming events" page. Any profits made by CFK will be re-donated to the featured animal rights organization of the month! This month they are hosting....

Backyard Dinner Party

Featuring Live Music w/ Little Pants!!

WHEN & WHERE: Sunday, May 24th, 6:00 - 9:00pm @ 113 N. Oceana Blvd., Virginia Beach, VA 23454

PASSED HORS D'OEUVRES: sushi crepes with ume lime dipping sauce, charred shishito peppers w/ smoked sea salt, hot herb cheese puffs w/ homemade boursin...

SALADS: baby spinach and chevre salad, summer barley salad with preserved lemon and basil, pear and carmelized pecan salad w/ maple dijon vinnaigrette...

GRILLED: grilled vegetable skewers with orange coconut curry sauce, skewered filet of soul with lemon caper sauce, truffled setain skewers with duxelles...

SWEETS: miniature lemon cream tarts, individual cheesecakes with jellied peach jewels, strawberry mousse parfait...

BAR: sparkling holy basil apple shrub - with or without whiskey, summer white sangria, and home-brewed peach iced tea...

Does this sound delicious? or what? I am planning to heading over. Will see you there!! 

How am I doing as a vegan?

It has been over 1 year and 4 months since I became a vegan. I noticed myself I don't get sick/cold easily any more and all the breakouts used appeared on my jaw line and my back are never coming back. When I skip exercise, I don't gain weight easily though, when I visited Japan last Summer I lost 5lb! I guess because we walked everywhere we went. (I refused to drive in my country because I wasn't confident enough to drive tiny streets!) I ate and ate and ate all Japanese vegan goodies, still I could loose some weight! What does that tells me? I don't have enough physical excise my ordinal days being here. I've got another Groupon deal for a nearby yoga studio, hope it keeps me motivated and I decided purposely park my car far at campus like 13 mins away from my class room so hope it gives me at least minimum exercise I need. Wish me luck!

To be honest, I do feel fatigue once in a while, but it did not started just because I converted be a vegan. I experienced same symptom before and it turned out to be not having enough iron back then. I looked up how to intake iron efficiently and found out that having tannin contained beverages such as tea and coffee, right after a meal can cause iron deficiency. ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1168162 ) So I have been paying attention WHEN to have my coffee or tea, and trying to have a little more steel cut oats or some nuts and green veggies and adding molasses to my diet hopefully works for me.

I found interesting article Is a vegan diet healthy? on Jamie Oliver's Facebook page and I thought it is important to keep reminded myself to not forget to intake "calcium, vitamin D, iron, vitamin B12, zinc and omega-3 fatty acids." We found Flax Milk from Good Karma Company has pretty good balance on Omega 3s and of course, good source of calcium, vitamin D and B12 as well.

Another ingredients I started enjoy being a vegan is "Chia Seeds" and "Nutritional Yeast"

Bob's Red Mill Large Flake Yeast, 8 oz

Bob's Red Mill Chia Seeds, 16-Ounce Bags (Pack of 4)

Sorry, can't get pictures of them shows up but this Chia Seeds is the best deal I've seen so far. $27.96 on 4 16oz bags, total of 64 oz! As of today, 25th, Sep 2014.

As for zinc... I haven't thought of this just yet but it was a good reminder to look it up! However, it turned out be 7 out of top 10 of Top Foods Highest in Zinc was plant based anyways.  They are wheat germs, spinach, pumpkin and squash seeds, nuts, cocoa and chocolate, beans, mushroom. I don't think I have to worry about zinc, but speaking of cocoa, I usually have dark cocoa such as Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Cocoa, 8-Ounce Cans (Pack of 6) handy because it contains a lot more iron (10%) than normal cocoa(2%). As I looked up benefit of dark chocolate/cocoa and found many articles how dark chocolate/cocoa can benefit people like me! So I shall eat more dark chocolate without feeling too much of guilt!

Go Vegan!

Vegan@Trader Joe's

I am so thankful that we have Trader Joe's near by. Without them, it won't be this easy for me to being Vegan at all.

These are some of things I buy from them...

I don't use "meat like product" often, but if I do I usually get them from here or frozen section. Needless to say, these are very good quality tofu! Their Vegan cheese is okay. At least, it doesn't contain "casein"(milk protein) but not the best vegan cheese.

I hated Tofu when I was growing up! However, this is one of our favorite dish these day!!

Vegan cream cheese and onion dip mix. 

This Vegan Cream Cheese is very useful! I mix it with their onion dip mix with a splash of almond milk to make a spread. I baked up savory pastries and my boys loved them. I rolled them up with baby spinach in crescent rolls and baked them for lunch today. 

Along with my chia seed pudding with cranberry sauce and some salad. 

I hated avocado when I was growing up as well. Now I cannot live without them. I remember first time I even tasted this green weirdo at my grand mom's house....with soy sauce and wasabi! Now that's one of my favorite too! Avocado used to be a fancy FRUIT back then and could not believe she dipped with SOY  SAUCE!! Well, what can I say... she was very different. I miss her!!

Anyhow.... get back to the topic. Trader Joe's chia seeds and coconuts oil are really good price for those quality products.

I found a few chia seed pudding recipes with different ratios. 2/3 cup (or little less) chia seeds, 2 cups of nuts milk and a little bit of agave. Mix well occasionally and refrigerate it until it gets firm.  I like it with some fruits or 'nata de coco!'

Haven't seen this cashew pieces for a while, but it is the best deal for raw cashew. Now they have cashew meal (powdered cashew nuts) they might not carry this kind any more...

I make Vegan alfred pasta, creamy soup or nacho cheese with it.

Alfred pasta

I add garlic and nutritional yeast, very similar recipe is on here. This dish is our family favorite instead of mac n' cheese. ;) 

Soup

Can't add a photo of my vegan nacho grande but it's on my Instagram page, http://instagram.com/p/dQlsniwiLd/ check this out. :) 

These refrigerated jumbo cinnamon rolls and crescent rolls are vegan. :)

Sorry for this disturbing portion of this photo!

Speaking of sweet vegan dreams this Brown Rice Marshmallow Treat is a real treat!! It's a completely vegan too. :)

On the left hand corner. Only a few box left! 

Have not seen this Meatless Meatball for a while and they told me that they are working on making improvement so it might take a little while until it gets back on the shelf but if you find them, I recommend you to pick them up! These little balls are amazingly good. I used it for my vegan lasagna and everyone loved it. Their mandarin chick'n and chickenless strips are pretty good. I use chicken less chicken strips for sandwich sometimes and boys really like them. We also like Vegetable Masala burger. Pizza flavor one is vegetarian and we didn't really care for other veggie burger...

I've grabbed two more bags of Turkeyless Turkey after the sample turkey dinner the other night, I figured we'll need more. 

This picture showing only half of one piece. I cut one piece into four pieces, this bag contains two pieces. It also comes with the delicious gravy and it is enough amount to go with my own mashed potatoes. Can't wait for Thanksgiving dinner already! 

This gluten free and Vegan pancake is our boys favorite for special breakfast for weekdays. The pumpkin butter uses honey but I allow myself to have a little bit of honey. I found a new word from a book to describe me as "beegan" ha!

These are something I look forward to, in the morning. This cinnamon sugar grinder is crazy good. So watch out, if you are trying to cut down sugar!!

These cookie butter items are dangerously good as well....One with cocoa swirl got hazel nuts in it. That kind of remind me of Nutella and and it might be even better....but not nutrition wise. It said on its label "contain wheat, soy & coconut" and also said "may contain traces of tree nuts, milk and eggs." I spotted emulsifier (addictive; might be made out of egg yolk or animal source) this may not be vegan from the start... :( 

This Fried Onion has a big V sign, I had to get it this afternoon and this rosemary cracker that I found on Instagram is Vegan as well. I cannot wait to try it!!

I love Trader Joe's not just because people are so friendly, their store and packages are so cute, they have plenty vegan stuff, they are affordable or small enough to get in and out in 15 mins. On top with all that I love them because their products do not use GMOs. I am completely against GMO products so I don't have to feel suspicious while I shop there. Thanks Trader Joe's!! 

Very Vegan Pumpkin Muffin Recipe

It's the time of a year for pumpkin everything. I started baking pumpkin muffins and I finally got satisfaction with my recipe to share with you all. 

Very Vegan Pumpkin Muffins

Makes regular size 12 muffins

Start preheating oven, set for 400F(200C)

Oil spray a muffin pan or have liners ready

-A-
1 1/4 cups  Any kind of Flour 
   ( I mix spelt sprout flour, whole wheat sprout flour or  white whole wheat) 
1/4 cup      Almond Flour 

1 cup          Turbinado (Raw)Sugar

1 tsp           Baking Powder

1 tsp           Baking Soda

1/4 tsp       Salt

2 tsp           Pumpkin Pie Spice 

 -B-

1 cup        Pumpkin Purée (NOT Pumpkin pie filling)

1/4 cup    Grape Seeds Oil (or any kind of oil, like canola oil works well)

1/4 cup    Apple Sauce or mashed ripped banana

1/2 cup    Almond Milk (or any kind of milk, soy, coconuts, cashews..cow?)

1 TBS       Apple Cider Vinegar 

1 tsp         Vanilla Extract 

1. Shift the ingredients under -A- together. 
    I prefer using a clean plastic bag and put all dry ingredients together and shake them up!

2. Mix all the wet ingredients under -B- together.

3. Add the entire dry ingredient from 1. to 2.

 4. Using an ice-cream scooper, transfer mixture into a prepared muffin pan about 2 scoops each and bake them ABOUT 16 minutes. I always check about 2 minutes before suggested time so I won't over bake them. Remember, every oven is different!! 

Cool them on a baking lack and enjoy!

Here is another shot of my muffins that I made for Japanese Bazaar the other day. On this picture, I used Japanese turbinado sugar that make looks rumply. If using regular turbinado sugar, all those dots won't be there.  

I wind up making about 100 of them. I also baked up Green Tea Muffins as well and I got recipe from  this site. I've received really good compliments for both of muffins. They could not believe they are vegan! Really don't need  butter or high cholesterol eggs in our yummy muffins, plus it is less work. ;) 

Go Vegan!!  

Vegan Homemade Chocolate Turnovers

I have been wanting some good sweet pastries but wasn't sure which one I can purchase at stores. I found out that Pepperidge Farm's frozen Puff Pastry sheet is a vegan! 

The useful info is from this book. 

So I figure use the pastry sheet and make it easy and probably cheaper than any store-bought vegan goods.  

It was a huge hit, and I wanted more...that's how good! or bad... in a way. ;) 

You can easily look up recipes for "chocolate turnover"...but this is what I use. 

I know being a vegan isn't mean that being healthy and it is a good or bad example.

Well, at least it doesn't contain no dairy products.

Also this item helped make this easy! Oh how I love Trader Joe's!!

When it says "May contain traces of milk" I just wish it doesn't. So it is a vegan for me!

All I did was defrost the sheet over night in the fridge. Preheat the oven 425F. Cut a sheet into 9 pieces of 3 inch square. Place a little less 1 tablespoon of  chocolate chips on the middle of this cutted small square sheet. Fold it into half, like a triangle, seal them brushing with almond milk, press it with folk from top. Brush some almond milk on these triangles and then bake them for 12-15 minutes until they are golden brown.

I had it with my usual, iced cafe almond latte.




This chocolate chips melted perfectly! It can be really hot, so please careful if you are urge to try them right after taking it out from your oven!

I do have some healthy snacks available on the table as well though. 

My younger son could not stop eating those clementines. So cute and yummy, easy to eat!  

Good for afternoon snack or let them take as part of school lunch. 

I'll talk about boys vegan school lunch next time. :) 

Have a good one, everyone! 

Vegan Cakes

We've celebrated my husband's retirement last month at Nautica downtown Norfolk.

I ALMOST ordered cupcakes from a local bakery but figure we won't be able to eat non-vegan cakes and it would cost a lot more than I invest my time and purchase own ingredients to make them.

So I searched vegan cupcake and cake recipes here and there, I don't have list of sites where I've got all the recipes from anymore...but all the cupcakes and the cake both came out pretty good!

If we don't have internet, I don't think I could become a vegan at all! That's how much I depend on internet to search everyday meal's recipe as well as special occasions.

Anyways, I made vegan yellow cake, coconuts cupcake with pina colada frosting from sticky fingers cookbook, chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting.

Coconuts cupcake's recipe was from Chef Chloe. I bake just cupcake part and it is enough yumminess and people love them! I like how fluffy the cake part comes out.

Here is the cookbook, I've got pina colada frosting recipe from. It was a huge hit!

I've noticed the other day at our local Whole Foods Market, carries her cupcakes! I should try them soon!

Virginia Beach Whole Foods Market now has 6" Vegan Oreo Cake available for $17.99 as well.

Yes, Vegan shouldn't have to be all that healthy.... lol

Okay, I made plenty cupcakes ready since we weren't really sure how many guests actually come to the reception. So I made cake part a day before....

and frost and decorate them next day which was a day before the ceremony.

This peach filling was amazing!

Voila!  with an edible sheet on top. :)

I ordered these anchors from Etsy as well.

I tasted a bit of every frosting before actually decorated them on the cupcakes. Just a little bit of each but it was enough to give me SUGAR high!

Yes, sugar (regular sugar and powder sugar) for vegan is a bit controversy...but I used it since all the vegan recipes call for 'sugar' or 'powder sugar'.  

I could tell sugar was affecting me! Even after midnight I've got going until I've got done with my own satisfaction. 

I was lucky enough to get a few hours of sleep before we left!