Airplane Food, Orlando Eats & More!

We just returned from a trip to Florida to visit Mr. Vegan Eats & Treat's family. Our flight landed in Orlando, so Mr VE&T had the good idea to grab some vegan yumminess in Orlando before driving over to his hometown, which - suffice it to say - doesn't have any all-vegan restaurants located down the street from any all-vegan markets and around the corner from any all-vegan bakeries, the way that Orlando does. Who knew Orlando had such glorious vegan offerings!?
While we were driving around downtown Orlando, looking for our restaurant, we just happened to drive past an all-vegan bakery I'd seen on Happy Cow, called Rhapsodic. Of course we had to stop!!! Mr. VE&T made some selections of his own - which disappeared down the legendary Mr. VE&T Pie Hole far too quickly for a proper photo shoot. I think he got a lemon cupcake and some kind of banana cookie? They were down the hatch in a flash!

I picked out a Mocha Cupcake, a Lemon Ginger Cupcake, and a Double Chocolate Cookie. I thought the cookies were just so-so, but the cupcakes proved to be deeeeelicious. I gobbled up my mocha cupcake right away, and brought the lemon cupcake along and ate it later on our trip... when it was very much appreciated! I love the idea of combining a lemon cupcake with candied ginger chunks and I think I will steal this idea in the future.

Having done a little research (on Happy Cow and on the PPK forums), I decided we'd go to Ethos for dinner. Isn't it funny how usually you only have one or two options when you go out to eat (best case scenario!), and so when you find yourself in an all-vegan place it's just completely overwhelming!!??

After much deliberation, we got two entrees and shared them between us. We got the Sheep's Pie, which is like a Shepherd's Pie, but meat-free (obviously!). I thought this was pretty good, but I would have like it a lot more if were a little less oily, had more gravy, and had some seitan or beans or something protein-y in it. Definitely tasty, but I was glad we had another entree on hand too.
The other thing we got was the Black Bean Burger, which was HUGE and super delicious. We were both super stoked on this giant fella, and in fact, it has come up in conversation a few times since then. I may need to investigate some good black bean burger recipes.

Also, even though we had just gotten sweets at the other bakery, we got some more cookies, because we are not stupid an they looked positively amazing. We got a cowboy cookie and an orange sugar cookie. YUM. Perfect delicious cookies, 100% worth every penny. I wish I could go back for more!

Once we made it to our final destination (Vero Beach), we had fewer stand-out vegan moments. But one night we had a lovely family dinner with two of Mr. VE&T's nephews (including this sweet fella, Evan). Their mom had borrowed a copy of Viva Vegan from a friend and made the Feiojada and also a big wonderful orzo salad with broccolini and cherry tomatoes. It was all so delicious and such a treat! It's so special to have a home-cooked vegan meal that you didn't have to cook yourself! I was really grateful. :)

By the way, did you know that Alaska/Horizon Airlines has an all-vegan, all gluten-free meal option available for purchase on all their flights?? How awesome is that!? Multigrain chips, olives, hummus, almonds, fruit leather, and a chocolate. Right on, Alaska Airlines! That is really rad. I didn't buy one, because we were on this particular flight at 7:00 am, and I already had a carry on full of carrot sticks and sugar snap peas and hummus packets and luna bars. You know how it is... A vegan never travels with an empty carry-on!