Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Ronald's Donuts ~ Las Vegas ~ Review

Doughnuts aren't vegan. Nope, those Krispy Kreme "Hot Now" little suckers just aren't. Two years ago, my daughter & and I went to Seattle and enjoyed Mighty O's and Portland treated us to Voodoo. Since then, nada. Until last week in Vegas. 

One of our traveling companions had checked with Isa and John for the must go places in Vegas. They both said Wynn and Ronald's Donuts. 

Wynn was on our list. We ate there last year and the setting and decor is terrific, and vegan food, amazing. And that was true for this visit, too.

But I digress, we're talking doughnuts, here. So, armed with a google search of Ronald's and a taxi we loaded up and headed out for vegan doughnuts. 

And when the taxi pulled up to a strip mall at the edge of China town, we were a little "hmmm." 

We walked into a 70's dinerish doughnut shop with the classic full glass case of donuts, lots of formica and paneling. A smiling man greeted us. And two gentlemen chatted and noshed doughnuts in one of the booths. We all wondered...the question bubbles were hovering over our heads...hmmm, is this the shop? Did we spell it wrong? 

Lindsey walked toward the counter. "Uhhh, which ones are vegan?" 

Mr. Donut smiled wider. "This rack, this rack and some down here." 

"So all of these are vegan, right here?" Lindsey asked. He smiled and nodded. 

We ordered. Three of us are vegan, two others are not. We each ordered several. (Won't say how many and we did share... even with a lovely British man who was walking down the street with us while we carried our bounty.) Suffice it to say that we ordered on Thursday, used the glass casserole dishes in the condo for freshness sake, and finished them on Sunday. 

Like children in a candy store, we debated, dreamed and ordered. Hopefully we didn't leave behind drool marks. 

Juggling cups of cold, creamy almond milk and our doughnut smorgasbord  we sat down at one of the formica booths. There was a moment of awed silence as each pulled a doughnut out of the boxes and sunk our teeth into them. Oh mercy. Every. One. Of. Them.  Amazing. Sweet, tender, puffy sugar bombs of airy magic. The non-vegans were just as much in love. And I'm pretty sure the regulars who came and went weren't there because the doughnuts aren't made with animal products. 

Nope, they seemed oblivious to the contents, just looking for their sugar fix. We may or may not have ruined our lunches and might have crashed into sugar comas later that day. But. Seriously. If you are vegan, or love delicious doughnuts and find yourself in Vegas. Ronald's Donuts. Nuff said. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Cafe Gratitude Kansas City Reviewed

Strangers on a subway pose?
We Iowa and Nebraska vegans certainly enjoyed our trip to Cafe Gratitude.

Love that their dishes ask what we are grateful for and
the water bottles are etched with uplifting words.
What was I grateful for? The delicious vegan food. 

A lemon almond cake that was my least favorite menu item. 

I am Extrordinary

Our big vegan restaurant blast included dinner at Cafe Gratitude. All but one of us had been there before and it's earned a stop every time we even get near Kansas City. 

Favorite items we've found items that we love. Their milkshakes for starters. Named, I am Beautiful, I am Cool and I am Eternally Blessed. Crazy good. A dreamsicle orange, a fresh mint and cocoa nib, and a coffee. 

We shared and were glad the portion sizes left us with room for dessert, however, we would have ordered it anyway. As it was we took portions back to our airbnb. 

A figgy nutty cheesecake. Good. But neither of these desserts
touched the unpictured orange chocolate mousse cake..

The starter potatoes were delicious. Heck, do I need to break it down. They were all delicious. The I am Terrific was probably the least favorite of the group and the I am Sensational was just that. Spaghetti squash, alfredo sauce with nut parm. Amazing. The green salads included on most of the entrees are light and delicious as well. 

The prices for organic and vegan with the care going into the preparation are definitely reasonable. 

I have to give Cafe Gratitude thumbs up and I totally recommend it to anyone looking for fresh and delicious. I also think omnivores should check out how delicious vegan eats can be. I honestly don't think anyone eating there could walk away disappointed. 

I am Terrific

I am Sensational

I am Grounded

So. Smarties being disobedient to the sign.
However, we were obedient to the hugging, smiling and warm fuzzy feeling part.
So much so I was afraid we'd be kicked out! 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Mud Pie Bakery, Kansas City, Reviewed

I love coffee. Since going vegan I've learned to love good coffee black. But when I go somewhere that has non-dairy milks (and an assortment at that) I always go for the unflavored, unsweetened latte. The best of both worlds, rich, creamy coffee deliciousness. Mud Pie Bakery makes a mean cashew milk latte. Mean. As in excellent, should you need clarification. :  ) 

A few friends and I traveled to Kansas City for a vegan food frenzy that lasted just about 24 hours. I had been to Mud Pie on a previous trip and was excited to go back. 

One of the gals got a box of goodies to take home. Two of us ordered a vegan sausage, cheese scone, one got a lemon blueberry muffin and I ordered this lemon baby bundt cake. 

We all shared bites and sips and nearly licked plates. Seriously. Everything was delicious. Tender, tasty, perfectly textured. The lemon blueberry was declared "best muffin ever" and the rest of us had to agree that it was top notch. 

In addition we each ordered a couple extra treats to share when we got home or eat on the car trip. 

I ordered a peanut butter cookie and a 7 layer type bar. They sat in a brown paper sack wrapped in bakery paper for 30 hours. Generally, baked goods treated like that get stale, or certainly lose a large chunk of quality. Right? 

These didn't. They were both delicious. I was a little sad I had to share with Rob. 

Bottom line. If you are going to KC and are vegan or not, give them a shot. Two thumbs up and I'll throw in both big toes, too. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Fud Kansas City Restaurant Review

 A couple vegan friends joined me for a whirlwind tour of Kansas City area vegan restaurant fun. That's right. We drove three ish hours to eat copious quantities of vegan grub and do a bit of shopping. An overnight stay via Airbnb helped us sleep off Friday night's food coma and prep for the Saturday's eating adventures. 

My first restaurant review is Fud. This was my second visit to Fud. We bought a sundae there a year of so ago and devoured it and felt the need to repeat that yummy experience. We entered the small restaurant with the groovy atmosphere and quickly ordered our treat. 

The Sweet stack is a huge sundae made with cashew based ice cream and covered with all the toppings they have on their menu. The four of us split one delicious sundae and ordered some mac and cheese on the side. 

The mac and cheese was a delicate, subtle bowl of deliciousness. Creamy, comfort food and mildly tangy. 

While enjoying our snack we discovered that Fud offers brunch on Saturday from 11 to 3. We returned and ordered three entrees to split four ways. 

They had a reuben tempeh "corned beef" hash. Purple cabbage and jackfruit provided the corned beef pink, A side of sour kraut added the perfect additional tang, fried potatoes rounded it out and it was truly amazing. 

Blueberry pancakes were our nod to traditional breakfast foods. And we weren't sorry. The others poured maple syrup on theirs but I stuck to the way it was prepared, blueberries, a little powdered sugar and a drizzle of blueberry syrup poured over the stack. The two plate sized pancakes had a hint of savory and we decided there might have been some cornmeal in the recipe. 

The last dish was a tofu open faced sandwich. Two thin slices of tofu, one smoky the other eggy stacked with greens, tomato and a delicious drizzle. The eggy tofu was amazingly eggy. I think it was a sulfurous salt that I'm going to have to add to my pantry. 

If you find yourself in the Kansas City area I definitely recommend Fud.