One of the biggest challenges of being vegan isn't always the food — sometimes it's finding restaurants that make everyone at the table happy. My hubby isn't vegan, so we end up looking for places with options for both of us. We definitely have our 4 or 5 "safe" restaurants, but every once in a while we stumble across a hidden gem. Last night we found a NEW one. What I loved most wasn't just that they had vegan options, it was that they had an entire vegan menu. I LOVE LOVE LOVEmexican food and sadly not one single restaurant in my area has vegan options — until NOW 🌮🌮🌮🌮🌮🌮🌮 I didn't have to ask them to leave the cheese off. I didn't have to swap ingredients or piece together a meal from side dishes. I got to order straight from a menu that was created with vegans in mind, and honestly...that felt pretty special. No impossible meat, no fake cheeses. Just whole food YUMMINESS 💚 Rice. Beans. Veggies. Fresh salsa. Pickled onions. Roasted veggies. Vegan slaw. Vegan house made sauces. Even vegan cookies for dessert! 🍪 I had my first vegan chocolate chip cookie in a year and a half!!! It was mouthwatering delicous!!!!! The crumb was spot-on PERFECTION! And I discovered something new!!! Date butter. 👀 Housemade date butter made from housemade vegan butter! (The co-owner is vegan — huge score!) Where has this been all my life?! Now I'm curious?!?!?! 👇 When you're looking for somewhere new to eat, what do you look for? Do you search for a separate vegan menu? Check HappyCow first? Read Google reviews? Or just take your chances? If you've found an amazing vegan-friendly restaurant, drop the name below! Whether it's a fully vegan spot or just a restaurant that genuinely welcomes plant-based eaters, I'd love to hear about it. Let's help each other discover some new favorites! 🌱💚 Pictured below — I enjoyed The Jules Taco on housemade corn tortillas (like WHAT???) and The Ojai Bowl. I also grabbed a vegan chocolate chip cookie and a vegan date cookie for a later snack 😆

One of the hardest parts FOR ME PERSONALLY of being vegan isn't what I eat. It's what I feed the animals I love. I'd love to have an honest, judgment-free, NICE conversation because I suspect many of us have wrestled with this too. For a long time, I felt conflicted. I love animals. I care deeply about reducing suffering. Yet I also have a responsibility to care for the animals who depend on me. Over the past year and a half since becoming vegan, I've had to sit with some uncomfortable questions, challenge some of my own assumptions, and ultimately make peace with the choices I make for my own dogs. This absolutely isn't a debate post. It's a curiosity post. I know there are people on all sides of this conversation, and my hope is that we can simply listen to one another with kindness. If YOU'RE vegan and share your life with dogs, cats, or other animals... How do you navigate it? Have you ever felt conflicted? Have you found peace with your decision? Do you avoid talking about it because you're worried about being judged? No right OR wrong answers here. No shaming. No pile-ons. Just an honest conversation that I suspect more of us are having privately than publicly. 🐾💚 Pictures of our newest addition, Dexter. He's a week shy of 4 months old 🐾

My hubby took me out for a burger today. Yes, I still crave a good burger and fries every so often! And yes, I indulge. Now, if you're plant-based, you know the drill. You order the veggie burger with cautious optimism and prepare yourself for disappointment wrapped in a bun. 😂 Every. Single. Time. Not today. Today we went to Wisconsinburger, where our good friend is the head chef, and I can honestly say this was the best plant-based burger I've ever eaten. Crispy edges. Juicy center. Big flavor. Messy in all the right ways. The kind of burger that has you stopping mid-bite just to stare at it. And because I'm me — I got the recipe. 😎🌿 So naturally I'll be heading into the kitchen to see if I can recreate the magic. My husband may have accidentally created a monster. Stay tuned. There may be burger experiments, flying chickpeas, and an unreasonable amount of taste-testing in my future. 🍔💚 Question for my fellow plant-based food lovers: What's the best vegan burger you've ever had? Homemade or restaurant? 👇

The exciting conclusion of the exploding tofu saga Somewhere buried in comments from the past couple days was a chit chat about exploding tofu. The headline caught my attention on an IG reel so I had to look into it further. The theory is that adding baking soda to tofu before it’s air fried gives it a fluffy inside and a crispy outside. This sounded irresistible so obviously I had to try. I saw two versions of the recipe: one using baking soda with cornstarch to dust the tofu then airfry. The second version was dissolving baking soda in boiling water and then submerging a full brick of tofu into the brine and refrigerating overnight, then cutting and airfrying. I did both versions a few different ways and will probably continue to experiment until I’ve perfected all aspects, but for now, I can safely recommend the second version. By dissolving 1tsp baking soda in 4 cups of boiling water and leaving the block of tofu in the mix overnight, I got a much fluffier and chewier version of the tofu than with the other ways. @Jenny Rader-Bakos and @Kate Galli I hope my science experiment passes inspection lol.

On today's episode of "How Many Ways Can Jenny Put Tofu On One Plate?" 😂 ✨ Pickled tofu ✨ Shredded tofu-chickpea "tuna" ✨ Tofu blended into a ridiculously creamy sauce All piled onto crispy smashed potatoes and loaded up with quick-pickled onions, pickled ginger, sauerkraut, black sesame seeds, and more tofu (crumbled and pickled) 🔥 Honestly? This plate is chaotic in the best possible way. Tangy. Creamy. Crunchy. Salty. Crispy. Fermented. Pickled. Saucy. If a loaded baked potato and a vegan deli had a baby — this would be it. 🌿💕 Best part — lunch was ready in 15 minutes 🤘🏻 Question of the day: What's your favorite way to eat tofu? 👇👇👇 If you're not a fan of tofu MAYBE we can inspire you to try 🫣