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[Recipe] Screw The Food Rules – Eat The Veggie Dogs

October 5, 2017 by Lindsay Ingalls Leave a Comment

This post was created in collaboration with Lightlife.

When it comes to eating I don’t have any major “rules”. I prefer to eat foods that are nutrient dense and nourish my body but there are times when I like to enjoy some pizza, fried foods and the occasional sweet. If you’re looking for nourishing bowl inspiration I post a new one on my Instagram or IG stories most days but if you are looking for something that is delicious but not so healthy read on.

When I was a kid growing up in Vermont (and not plant-based) we used to go to a spot called Charlie’s Red Hots. They had this hot dog that was basically the Vermont version of a Michigan dog. To be honest I don’t remember what it taste like 20+ years later but I thought I would go ahead and attempt to recreate this legendary hot dog but make it a bit healthier and plant-based. Of course it would only be appropriate to make this dog when my parents where in town to give it a try.

Lindsay's Red Hots Dog

2017-10-04 17:41:15

The vegan version of the legendary Charlie's Red Hots

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Ingredients

1 package of Lightlife Veggie Dogs
1 package of Hot Dog Buns (New England style if you can)

Sauce

1 tsp Chili Powder
1 Medium Onion, diced
1 package Veggie Ground Round
2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 a cube of Not-Beef Boullion
1 cup water
1 tbsp vegan Worcestershire Sauce
½ tsp Cayenne Pepper

Condiments (optional)

Yellow Mustard
Dijon Mustard
Ketchup

For the Sauce

Saute onions over medium-high in a bit of oil until translucent.
Stir in one package of veggie ground round and add all remaining ingredients.
Cook over medium until heated through and thickened.
Heat veggie dogs per package directions.
Toast your bun, add a veggie dog and top with sauce. Add on some yellow mustard (optional).

By Lindsay Ingalls

Adapted from Based of Original Charlie's Red Hots Recipe

Naturally Lindsay https://www.naturallylindsay.com/

These dogs would be great for Fall camping trips or tailgating; simply make the sauce ahead of time and heat up when ready to eat. We enjoyed ours during a rainy trip to the Oregon Coast.

Okay, but lets get to it how were they? They were so delicious! Although they would have been better with a New England hot dog bun but the West Coast just doesn’t seem to stock the best kind of hot dog buns. Also these are best enjoyed with a great Vermont beer.

What did my meat eating, Charlie’s Red Hots loving parents think? Well as soon as my mom got home to Vermont she sent about 12 text messages desperately requesting that I get this recipe post live so they could make the sauce at home.

What is a food from your childhood that you love to recreate at home?

Psst: If you need a great place to stay on the Oregon Coast my friend Lisa’s #beachvibescottage is perfect– you can find it on airbnb plus use this affiliate link and get $40 to travel.

Coffee Talk | VT & Cross Country Travel with Kids

February 9, 2017 by Lindsay Ingalls Leave a Comment

Coffee shop dates are some of my favorite and I wish I could sit and have a coffee with all of you. If we were sitting down to a cup of coffee it would likely be something single origin and African. I would also want a bagel with tofutti to go with it. While we are sitting enjoying our coffee I’d ask about your day, what’s been going on in your life and how your family is doing. I would then share with you about our most recent family adventure to Vermont.

Our last trip to Vermont was nearly three years ago, in April 2014. Edith was 21 months at the time of our last visit so she didn’t remember much of it and this would be Alder’s first trip to Vermont and first plane ride. We don’t often make the trip to Vermont because the cost for all of us to travel there is expensive and trying to coordinate time off for Neil and traveling with kids is always complicated. Plus my parents are both retired and are able to visit us regularly.

Our flight out to Vermont went really well. I was nervous that Alder’s weak stomach would get the best of him especially after the Blue Star Doughnuts that we had right before our flight but I came prepared with a roller bottle of DigestZen that I applied before the flight and a towel and barf bags ready just in case we did have an accident. We lucked out though and Alder’s stomach was fine and both kids did amazing on our very long day of flying.

Most of our trip was spent with my grandmother and parents. We spent hours upon hours playing Hand and Foot – a variation of canasta. The kids also got to take advantage of the snowy weather and play outside for a bit – although I will say they weren’t quite as enthusiastic about the snow after all the snow we had here in Portland just before our trip.

We spent the last few nights of our trip in Burlington where we visited a few of our favorite places and got to spend an evening chatting and laughing with friends. We tried to find some fun activities for the kids and ended up taking Edith and Alder to see their very first big screen movie – Moana. We also took them to ECHO where they had a blast.

I will say after our visit to Vermont that I still love Vermont and will always be a Vermonter but I right now Portland has my heart. I love the community we have here in Portland, how family friendly Portland is and of course the food and coffee scene is far superior here – with the exception of TOMGIRL Juice which had the best juice and fresh rolls – we need a TOMGIRL in PDX.

By the end of the trip we were already to get back home and doing so was kind of a big mess. Our flight out of Burlington ended up departing late because they had to defrost the plane before we could leave. Combine our late departure with a far too short layover we ended up finding ourselves running through the Chicago airport to make it to our flight. We made it though and finally arrived home late Monday night.

Now that we are home we are attempting to catch up on a few weeks worth of laundry and I’m trying to get over the jetlag. So happy to be back home in Portland though.

Coffee of the Week: Holderness Hunkute -Ethiopian. I have to thank Holderness Coffee for sending over this bag and I am hoping they will make their way out of Corvallis and up to Portland coffee shops and stores because this was one good cup of coffee.

Dinner Was A Deal, But What An Expensive Nap

November 17, 2011 by Lindsay Ingalls 5 Comments

Yesterday afternoon the Hubz declared that last night would be date night, and who am I to pass up on date night. We decided to do dinner and a movie since we have been talking about going to the movies for weeks now and there was finally something that we both wanted to see.

How could I pass up a date with this hunk?

Since we are trying to be more frugal with our dining out we decided to use one of our Living Social deals to Asiana Noodle Shop, a favorite spot of ours where I usually get a giant bowl of noodle and vegetable soup that I could fit my whole head in. Last night neither of us were in the mood for noodles so we flipped to the back of their extensive menu and decided to both get sushi.

Neil got the

Vegan Chirashi
Shitake Mushroom, Sweet potato, Seaweed, Oshinko, Kampyo, Tofu, Yamagobo, Asparagus ,Wakame, Spinach, Avocado, Cucumber and Tofu skin

It was so delicious and came with a bowl of miso soup that he kindly shared with me.

I ordered the Union Maki which was so delicious and MASSIVE but don’t worry I had no trouble eating the whole thing, I even ate the salad on the side. I was hoping that Asiana had a description of the roll on their online menu but they don’t seem to but basically it was filled with asparagus, fried tofu, cucumber and sesame peanut sauce rolled and topped with tofu skin and avocado- DELICIOUS!

After dinner we walked around, popped in Stone Soup for a vegan macaroon and then we were off to the movies to see Margin Call.

So this is when I proceeded to have the most expensive nap of my life. The movie cost $9.25 (remember the good ol’days when movies were like $5?) well I made it about half way through and I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. The movie wasn’t bad or boring so much as just really slow and not that exciting. I decided it just wasn’t a theater movie for me. I would have done so much better watching it at home while multitasking. The Hubz on the other hand really enjoyed the movie, he agreed that at times it was really slow moving but he really enjoyed all the character development.

Have you ever fallen asleep at the movies?

A Single Pebble

November 5, 2011 by Lindsay Ingalls 2 Comments

I hope that everyone racing this weekend has a wonderful time and good luck! I’m not racing this weekend but I did get a nice run in yesterday afternoon and I have a 5-Miler on the schedule for tomorrow. I also finally got myself back to the yoga studio yesterday for a wonderful 60 minute community class. I am loving the 30 Days of Yoga and have been finding it so relaxing and calming. I might just have to do 60 days (we’ll see).

After my run and yoga class Neil and I decided to take ourselves out for a dinner at one of our favorite restaurants A Single Pebble. Honestly some of the best Chinese food that I’ve ever had and always great service. Last night I started with a seltzer, decided I needed to hydrate after all of my activities.

For dinner we had the scallion pancakes, general chou’s mock chicken (requested vegan), dry fried green beans (requested vegan) and double garlic broccoli.

Everything was delicious and we had tons of leftovers, which we ate for breakfast, whoops!

Now we’re off to the farmers market and to run a few errands. Enjoy your Saturday!

How Easy Was That?

November 3, 2011 by Lindsay Ingalls 2 Comments

Good Morning! Neil and I had a crazy busy afternoon yesterday running errands and then spending a little quality time together over a drink and dinner. Remember our elliptical? Well about 6 months ago it stopped working. KAPUT! Just like that. After having it for just over a year, the display decided to just stop working. Well, we finally got around to contacting Costco about what they suggest we should do and they told us to return it. We were shocked at first, could it really be that easy? Just take it apart, drive it over and we’ll give you your money back? We asked my dad to help us move it in his truck and we returned it last night and received cash back for our faulty elliptical. I am very impressed with Costco’s return policy and their service. How easy was that?

We ended up picking up a few goodies on our way out including this giant 4lb bag of organic quinoa (swoon).

Following our Costco trip we took my dad out for a “thank you beer” and then we both headed on our way. Since it was getting late and Neil and I hadn’t spent much time together over the past few days we decided to have a spontaneous date night at El Gato Cantina where we dined on delicious Mexican food and I caught Neil up on Gossip Girl.

A few weeks ago I e-mailed El Gato Cantina to inquire about vegan options and this was the response from their chef:

“So, for our vegan options, we have the vegan taco(sheffield seitan marinated in a sweet and spicy ancho chilie sauce), veggie tamales (the veggies in the tamales changes due to seasonality, as of right now they are sweet corn, pablano peppers and tomato), guacamole and chips, all 4 of our salsas, black beans, all of our meat dishes can be subbed out for seitan, and we have two veggie tacos that can easily be made vegan sans the cheese.”

Just FYI the rice is not vegan but they will happily double up your order of black beans which are amazing. The staff is also very knowledgeable about which options are vegan. Last night I had my heart set on the seitan tacos but just before we ordered, our waiter informed us that they were all out of the seitan. WAH! Well I decided to try the black bean tostada with no cheese and extra beans and it was amazing. Neil also ordered the tostada and added a veggie tamale which was so good.

After a busy afternoon and a late night (for us) we headed home to do our yoga session for 30 Days of Yoga. Probably wasn’t the greatest idea, since I was filled to the brim with Mexican food, but a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do.

I am now off to get ready to conquer the day which will involve work, organizing my elliptical free office, running and yoga.

What’s on your agenda?

Dining Out: A Single Pebble

October 3, 2011 by Lindsay Ingalls 4 Comments

Whenever fellow vegans are visiting Vermont I always suggest my favorite vegan friendly restaurant-A Single Pebble. The Hubz and I went for a Saturday lunch a few weeks ago and it was just as good as I remember (it’s been a few months since we last went). The other thing I love is that at lunch everything is less expensive but you still get a ton of food- we ended up taking half of ours home with us.

Our favorite dishes: Vegan Buddha’s Beef (request vegan), Mock Eel, Double Garlic Broccoli, Vegan Dry Fried Green Beans (request vegan) and Vegan Dan Dan Noodles (request vegan).

Chrysanthemum Tea

Vegetable Potstickers

Vegan Chow Fun Noodles

Mushrooms with Sesame Sauce

Double Garlic Broccoli