Usually being ill prepared is a bad thing, but if I had actually had the smarts to eat lunch or bring something before Brian and I went to a (not vegan) cake and punch birthday party, I wouldn’t have discovered Donnie’s Homespun in Decatur, IL. Decatur is a medium-sized town in central Illinois that is mostly known for smelling funny because of the soybean factory.  They also have a  university, which is usually the reason one finds vegan/vegetarian friendly establishments in places you probably wouldn’t expect.

Brian and I pulled over in a parking lot and soaked up some free wifi to check Happy Cow, and Veg Illinois to see if there was anything for me besides Subway.  Nothing!  Luckily, we went to Yelp and we found one review for Donnie’s that mentioned vegan options.  I was a little nervous because, I have been burned so many times by people saying some place has vegan stuff, and then I get there and they’re like, “Oh, we never sold any of that so we stopped making it!”

So imagine my delightful surprise when I opened the menu and saw the word ‘vegan’ staring me in the face! Specifically, a vegan antipasto platter and a vegan sweet potato wrap.  I decided to get the wrap, Brian had a pizza that he was excited about because one of the topping options was black beans!  My wrap had chickpeas , sweet potato, spinach, tomato, and onions in a coconut curry sauce with a side of hummus, all on pita bread.  Not only was it interesting, but it was really delicious.

I emailed Donnie’s to ask if anything else was vegan, like if you get a cheeseless pizza, and this is what I got back:

“Katie, our pizza dough and tomato sauce are vegan.  Other vegan dishes include falafel, vegan antipasto, sweet potato wrap, and hummus dip.”

So there you go!

Every time you don’t enter to win prizes and give money to Ride to Light, Josh Hooten cries.  Wait.  How about I will MAKE him cry if you give money?  That sounds like it will get more money.

At some point, I realized I have quite a few entries about vegan eats around central Illinois.  You know, that part that isn’t Chicago?  Down here, guys.  Anyway, I made a category just for these posts, so if you find yourself passing through the Land of Lincoln (or Carbondale, which is southern Illinois), and you want to know where you can stop, please check it out!

In July, my friend Felicia had an art show in Champaign-Urbana (Two towns that meet to form a college, and they often share street names so make sure to double-check which town the place you are going is in).  It’s only an hour away, but I haven’t been to Champaign in years, and i’ve only gone to attend a show and leave.  I knew that they had an awesome health food store, Strawberry Fields (fun fact, Katie from Sweetpea used to work here), so I wanted to make a day of it and see what else they had.  The good thing about college towns is that even if they’re not very big, they are usually way more veg*n friendly.

After snatching up Brian’s sister, we went to the show to get all full of culture.  The show was called ‘Of Dreams and Fables’, you can see the pictures I took (and all of my other pictures of her work) on Flickr.  Felicia is the one who did the art for my zines, and made me this bomb-ass Buffy purse that is still The Best Thing I Will Ever Own.  It has the name of every episode painted around the sides!

Okay, onto the food!

Once upon a time, when Brian might’ve been going to school in Champaign, I read about this place called Flat Top Grill that has vegan options. It’s a make-your-own stir-fry place, and I was really excited to finally try it out.  When I told Lauri where we were going she said, “Uh, you know there’ a Flat Top right across from my work, where you have visited me 20 times in the last year, right?”  Oops! And now I know that they are a Chicago based chain, with locations in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and one all the way down in Birminghan, Alabama!

1. I will tell you straight-up, Flat Top can be scary and confusing the first time.  It is usually packed to the gills, but we were there on a Sunday before school had started back up, so it was almost empty and that made it easy for Lauri and the waitress to take my hand and explain everything to me.  They give you a big bowl (and a small bowl if you’re getting meat, meat is kept separate), you write your name on a stick so they know who it belongs to, and off you go to the buffet.  Afterwards, you can add different colored sticks so they know not to cook it with the meat, to have it made into soup or wraps, to add a small piece of flat bread, etc.
2. I got so much more than I expected.  Not only did the have seitan, tofu, veet, vegetable pakora (and Quorn for egg eaters), not only are there the color coded sticks, but there is a HUGE chalkboard with every sauce on it, and a ‘V’ for vegan next to most of them.  Also, you can mix the sauces any which way you want to make your own flavor.
3. This is the perfect place for vegans and non-adventurous omnivores to eat together, since they have so many options.  If your uncle wants to eat rice and chicken with bbq sauce and nothing else, he can!  You can skip the carbs and load down your bowl with spinach and other fresh veggies, add tofu, and use a fat-free ginger water if you’re trying to be uber-healthy (I don’t think you can stop them from sauteing your food in oil, though).  The best part is, the difference between one bowl and unlimited?  $1!  If you really load your bowl up you probably won’t want two, but I was determined to get two, so I did.  Also, loading up on things that cook down a lot, like spinach, means you end up with a lot less cooked food, so you can easily get two, especially if you go in really hungry.

So here are my bowls.  Forgive me for the bad lighting, but we were in the back and it was kind of dark.

My first bowl was noodles, veet (I think, mock chicken), zuchini, sweet potato, garlic, spinach, and peanut sauce.

This bowl  was rice noodles, seitan (I think), pad thai veggie mix, peppers, tons of garlic, and a sweet basil sauce.

What they have at each location varies.  For instance, the one in Bloomington/Normal has tofu as an add-in (with the stick) option instead of ON the buffet.  Some places serve breakfast, but I don’t think any of it is vegan.

When we walked into Strawberry Fields (which is in Urbana) I said, “Maybe they have like, A vegan brownie at the cafe.”  Oh boy, was I in for a treat!  I ordered almost one of everything, but held back because there was so much more in the baked goods case than I could’ve hoped for.

That is Brian’s man-hand, to give you an idea of how big that sucker is!  The cupcake wasn’t my favorite, mostly because there was so much really sweet frosting, that I made to give half of it to Lauri.

Bars!  Apple crumb, peanut butter chocolate, strawberry shortcake, and a coconut chocolate almond thing of amazingness.  Brian and I cut them into 1/4ths and it took us three days to eat them.  Now I am really, really hungry!

So that’s that!  There is a place called The Red Herring that is vegan (I remember someone took over and tried to add cheese and eggs to the menu, but it looks like they’re back to normal now), but it’s a student run place, so they weren’t open in July.

Finally, after a few teases of nice weather followed by sudden bouts of cold/rain, summer is here.  We barely had any spring days, I pretty much went from wearing long underwear to sweating myself to sleep in a week.  We’ve had some highs and lows in the past few weeks:

First, I went down to Carbondale to kidnap Brian and bring him home with me.  Since he’s no longer in the flight program, there’s no point in him going to school down there.  So we get to live together like normal married people (weird) and we will save a lot of money since we won’t be paying for his rent and bills.  Yay!  Before we left we ate one last meal at Longbranch, where I had the Lemon Garlic Fettucine:

I brought home some beautiful strawberries from the co-op (which I will miss so much), which we immediately turned into a strawberry rhubarb pie.

I planted my garden, and now I can admire it from my bedroom window:

Last weekend, we had some big boos.  On Friday night, my father-in-law was walking his two dogs and one of our neighbors, as they frequently do, let their dogs run out of the house unleashed and one of them immediately attacked Coco.  Yes, this is a totally different dog than the one that killed Bonny.  When he came in and told us what happened, I almost threw up on the spot.  Luckily, Coco was smiling like an idiot and just had to get a lot of staples in her leg and wear a Cone of Shame until we were sure she wouldn’t pull the staples out.  Fun fact:  did you know that as long as a dog is in their own yard, even if it’s the unfenced front yard, they can attack whomever they damn well please and animal control will not give a shit?  I also find it kind of funny (in the horrible awful way) that they attacked the dog who spent most of her early life in a cage cranking out dogs for a puppy mill, so she has the defensive instincts of a turnip.  She doesn’t even understand that she’s supposed to chew her toys up.  Abby would’ve fucked that dog’s ankles up.

Then two days later, as Brian and I were about to head out to the art fair, Abby started coughing in a weird way.  When we got home and she wasn’t there, my stomach dropped and I immediately called my father-in-law to ask what was wrong.  Brian and I drove to the emergency vet clinic just in time to say goodbye to her.  Apparently she had a growth in her throat that was making it hard for her to breathe, so it was best for her to be put to sleep.  This house has had a rough year pet-wise, in less than a year we’ve gone from five dogs and four cats, to two dogs (Harley went to live in Maine) and three cats (not to mention that my sister-in-laws dog died).  Some people might think we’re better off, but somehow we managed to combine two households of animals and make it work, and it is very quiet in here now.

This post is getting kind of long and it feels weird to go, “Dead dog, anyway, art pictures!” so I will make a second post tomorrow.