At Dema's school, there is an age old annual tradition called Hot Dog Day. Ugh! It is fun in a lot of ways, but not a blast for a vegan kiddo. The first two years, I sent a vegan hot dog in his lunch and called it a day, but this year his school band played for the families as they ate their hot dogs and chips so I decided to join in the fun...in our own way.
I made Dema a vegan hot dog lunch with Vegenaise, mustard, and ketchup (he really likes sauerkraut, but the last time I added it in his lunch, it made the bread soggy) on whole wheat hot dog buns, organic red grapes, siracha popcorn, and tuscan herb veggie pop chips.
Josie and I ran errands and barely got home in time for her to pack a lunch for herself and walk to Dema's school.
This is the lunch Josie packed since she is not a fan of hot dogs (vegan or not). Organic red grapes and dried cranberries, toasted vegan cheese on whole wheat bread, an apple cinnamon fig bar to share with her brother and a square piece of vegan chocolate.
Dema is getting ready to play his clarinet. I talked to a few of the moms with food allergies and they suggested I ask for vegan hot dogs next year. This year they did provide gluten free and dairy free buns so they might be open to vegan hot dogs. We'll see. I'm happy to provide my own and it was fun to hang out with Dema and his school friends for a beautiful afternoon.
A local health food store, Strawberry Fields, went out of business a while back and a local entrepreneur and store owner decided to revamp the place and bring it back. It used to be a great place to find vegan sweets, but started to offer store made vegan cupcakes again. I bought one for Dema and one for Josie for after school. Dema's is banana cream with chocolate chips.
Josie's cupcake was strawberry, but the other day I had a hibiscus blueberry cupcake and it was really great. The cake part is pretty dense and I'm not a big baker so I don't know what to tell them to improve the texture, but the taste is good and the icing is spot on. The old Strawberry Fields used to pile on the icing (ick!) and it was just so so. Now there is just the right amount of icing and the taste is very flavorful, not too vegan buttery or bland. I think the icing might be the best vegan icing I've had the pleasure to eat.
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