By: Sydney Mulvenon
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Today is a day to spend with your girlfriends and put on the best of the best of all the Mama Mia soundtracks! I have always thought of Valentine’s Day as a day where you spend time with your best friends! Like any good woman empowering show or movie like Sex and The City with Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha. The Cheetah girls with Chanel, Aqua, Galería, and Dorenda. Though this Galentines is all plant based. Of course this kind of holiday wouldn’t be complete without loads of sugar. For my first vegan galentines I’m going to share with you all the vegan based foods and sweets I had on the menu. First like any good brunch ya need toast with butter, eggs, fruit, potatoes and coffee.
Sydney’s Galentines Menu:
- Berry mix of blueberries and strawberries
- Vegan butter made from almond oil
- Vegan egg by the brand Justegg
- Sourdough toast from ozark natural foods
- Coffee from my favorite coffee shop Arsagas!!
- Last but certainly not least red potatoes courtesy of my roommate.
Don’t be discouraged by everything being vegan. The best part of any Galentines is the food and it can be a little nerve racking switching from eating meat and poultry to plant based. Here’s a shock, I fooled them. My gals had no idea that some of the food they were eating was vegan, especially the eggs. My friend cheerfully said, “It was so good and flavorful, I felt so healthy afterwards hehe!” This was exactly how I felt after I had eaten vegan. It’s exciting to know that you can eat all your favorite foods but in a much healthier way. By the way everyone’s favorite savory dish was the red potatoes. Oh. My. Gosh. They were just like the potatoes that my favorite restaurant Arsagas serves. It is the best comfort food of all comfort foods and especially out of all the foods I had planned for that day. They take a bit of time to make but so worth it because they were gone within minutes.
Potato recipe from Pinterest:
- 1 ¼ tsp of Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp of Onion powder
- 6 Yukon gold potatoes, large
- ⅓ tsp of Chili powder
- 1 ½ tsp Paprika
- ¼ tsp of pepper
- 1 tsp of Salt
- ¼ cup of Olive oil
- 1tsp of Cumin
Now bring on the SUGAR!!! I got this beautiful delicious looking cake from none other than the staple for anything Vegan, Whole Foods Market. There are a variety of vegan options you can choose from and order custom made. I basically ordered my dream cake, it was a lemon based cake with raspberry filling and vegan vanilla buttercream frosting with a massive fruit decor on top.Honestly I wish I would have added some cashews or almonds on top which is another great source of protein that you could add to any vegan cake. This was an absolute crowd pleaser, my gals loved it and it was so good that there was only one piece left which I ended up eating later that night. If anything the cake was far better than the cakes I remember eating before I was vegan.
My roommate said, “I’ve tried a lot of vegan food but this cake has by far been the best vegan kind of food I’ve tasted.” That is huge since she is one of the biggest meat and fish lovers I know. The fact that my friends were able to eat the foods they love and walk away feeling healthy had me thrilled. This year, treat the friends you care about and splurge on your favorite foods by using plant based ingredients. Also tip if you do get a vegan cake don’t be afraid to eat more than one piece because if it’s anything like the one I got you’ll end up having four pieces like I did. It truly was the best and healthiest sugar rush I’ve ever had.