What We Eat In A Week - Episode 033 (Phoenix Edition)

Welcome back to our vegan newsletter showcasing what we eat in a week!

If you’re new and want to learn more about us and why we started this series, read our About Section :)

I wanted to note that this episode was delayed a day because I didn’t have my laptop with me on our trip.

At the beginning of this week, we had a few simple and quick meals, and tried decadent dishes made by Brianna like homemade vegan bacon and vegan carbonara! We also got vegan sushi from NoW Sushi and went on vacation to Phoenix, Arizona!

This week we talk about all the amazing (and the not-so-amazing) food we tried on our trip to Arizona. We tried vegan food in Phoenix, Sedona, and even the Coachella Valley on our way back home — everything from vegan ramen, açai bowls, empanadas, Impossible kebabs, burgers, brunch, and more! You’ll have to read through for details :)

We hope you enjoy this edition and don’t forget to let us know what your favorite meal was in the comments!

Thursday, July 29th

Breakfast - Smoothies

For the smoothie base, I used Rader Farms Fresh Start Organic Smoothie Blend, Frozen Mango Chunks, and Frozen Pitaya (Dragonfruit) all from Costco. Then I added plenty of peanut butter, 1 tablespoon of moringa powder, and a drizzle of maple syrup. For the liquid portion, I used oat milk and Suja’s Citrus Immunity juice. Smoothies are great to have especially during hot weather!

Lunch - “Angry Vegan” Pizza from Mohawk Bend LA

Our absolute favorite pizza EVER is Mohawk Bend’s “Angry Vegan.” This is what’s on it: tomato sauce, mozzarella, cashew ricotta, parmesan, serrano chiles, Calabrian chiles, chili oil, and oregano. Yes, it’s all vegan and phenomenal! If you’re a chili lover like us this pizza is a must-try. We truly can’t recommend this pizza enough! We had ordered 3 pizzas when we went on Wednesday — my brothers ate one pizza, we ate one pizza, and we saved one pizza to have the next day (this day).

Dinner - Kimchi Fried Rice + Vegetable Gyoza’s

In one pan I heated up Trader Joe’s Japanese Style Fried Rice. After a couple of minutes, I added in 4 tablespoons of Nasoya’s Spicy Kimchi which is vegan friendly! In a separate small pan, I placed 8 vegetable gyozas in 1/4 cup of water, 1 teaspoon of oil, salt, and pepper. I covered the pan and waited until the gyozas were cooked through. Lastly, I plated everything along with half of a small avocado. This was so delicious!

Friday, July 30th

Breakfast -  Breakfast bagel + protein shake

I wanted something light for breakfast and Fahim wanted something more filling so I made him a bagel and made myself a protein shake. First, I cut a Trader Joe’s Everything Bagel in half and toasted it.

While the bagel toasted, I made myself our go-to protein shake for breakfast. I used Shaklee’s Soy Protein Life Energizing Shake Café Latte flavor, Silk’s Oat Milk, a few frozen strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. I then topped off the shake with some cinnamon powder.

Next, I spread Miyokos Creamery Organic Cashew Milk Cream Cheese over the toasted bagel. I washed and thinly sliced a cucumber and tomato, then topped one slice with cucumber and the other with tomato. The Miyoko’s Cashew Milk Cream Cheese was good — it didn’t necessarily taste like cream cheese but it was a good spread! I was happily surprised since we don’t like their original cream cheese for bagels.

Snack - Vegan Bacon on croissant toast made by PLVNTFOOD

While I was at work Brianna toasted La Boulangerie’s Vegan Crossaint Bread and spread Follow Your Heart’s Garlic Aioli over top and topped it with her homemade vegan bacon. Her homemade vegan bacon is spectacular and is now the only bacon I will ever want! All other kinds of bacon are now mediocre in comparison. You all need to keep your eyes open for her cookbook — let me tell you!

Lunch - Vegan sushi from NoWSushi

We went to our favorite vegan sushi spot in San Diego for lunch! We ordered their Sunny Fire, Rocky, and No Worries rolls. Their rolls are delightful!

Dessert - Double Chocolate Cherry Cake from NowSushi

We decided to try their dessert this time since we were eating in. We ordered their double chocolate cherry cake — it was the perfect amount of sweet and perfectly sized to share!

Dinner - Taylor Farms’ Thai Chili Mango Chopped Kit

I found Taylor Farms’ Thai Chili Mango Chopped Kit at Grocery Outlet and had to pick up 3 bags. Pre-made salads help so much for quick meals! This particular salad is one of my new favorites. I cut up a small avocado as an extra topping.

Snack - Frozen Mango Chunks

I snacked on frozen mango chunks. This is a refreshing snack during the summer!

Saturday, July 31st

Breakfast - Dunkin’ Beyond Breakfast Sandwich

To veganize Dunkin’s Beyond Breakfast Sandwich omit the egg and cheese. We like to stack hashbrowns into our sandwiches and add Green Pepper Cholula too! For pictures check out Episode 9!

Lunch - Vegan Carbonara made by PLVNTFOOD

I heated up some vegan carbonara that Brianna made the other day. It was heavenly!

Dinner - Nongshim Soon Veggie Noodle Soup Cup

This Nongshim Veggie Noodle Soup Cup is tasty and really comes in handy for quick meals. We get ours from the Costco Business Center in San Diego.

Dessert - Guava

I cut up some guava for us to snack on.

Sunday, August 1st

Breakfast - Protein shakes

I made protein shakes for breakfast before we left for our road trip to Arizona. I used Shaklee’s Soy Protein Life Energizing Shake Café Latte flavor, Silk oat milk, a few frozen strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. This is our favorite protein shake to have in the mornings!

Lunch - Vegan Veggie Sandwiches from The Sandwich Spot

On our way to Arizona, we made a pit stop in Palm Springs for lunch. We ordered 2 Dream Killer sandwiches — to make it vegan ask for no mayo and no cheese. Their “secret sauce” is vegan friendly, from what I remember it’s made with olive oil, vinegar, and herbs! We chose their dutch bread/crunchy bread for our sandwiches. Their dutch bread is scrumptious! All of their bread is vegan friendly but we recommend getting this one.

Pick me up - Coffee + Black Tea from Gré

Fahim ordered us some drinks to go from the coffee shop next to The Sandwich Spot since we were running low on sleep. This coffee shop was so cool and is a record shop too — their decor is awesome as well! We ordered a Cortado with almond milk and 3 shots of espresso, and 1 iced black tea. The coffee and black tea were so smooth!

Dinner - Vegan Shoyu Ramen from The Clever Koi

We got to Phoenix around dinnertime so we quickly unpacked and browsed for restaurants. We ended up deciding to get ramen from The Clever Koi. We ordered their vegan Shoyu Ramen and it was absolutely delicious! I will seriously crave this ramen from now on. I also tried a Moscow mule for the first time and loved it!

Monday, August 2nd

Breakfast - Açai Bowls from Berry Divine

We were craving açai bowls this morning and decided to try this place out! I ordered a “Maui Wowie” bowl with no pee pollen, no honey, added agave and substituted their regular granola for GF granola. Fahim ordered a “summit bowl” with no honey, GF granola instead of regular granola, and cacao nibs instead of chocolate shavings.

This place has the best açai bowls! I really wish they had locations in California. I greatly appreciated how attentive they were. While I was ordering, they told me before I could even ask that their regular granola has honey but their GF granola is vegan! We highly recommend this place!

Pick me up - Dragonfruit Guava Lychee Refresher + Coffee from The Human Bean

Before we drove over to Sedona we stopped by The Human Bean coffee shop. I ordered a dragonfruit guava lychee refresher that was wonderful! Fahim ordered an iced americano with 3 shots of espresso.

This coffee shop tops their drinks with an espresso bean covered with white chocolate by default — we couldn’t eat them so we gave the candies to my brothers.

Snack - Fries from Jack In The Box

On the road to Sedona, we made a pit stop at Jack In The Box. We ordered some curly fries and regular fries for us to snack on since we were already starting to get hungry.

Lunch - Salad from The Secret Garden Café

We stopped for lunch at The Secret Garden Café. We ordered their southwest veggie cobb salad made vegan, and their Caprese sandwich made vegan with vegan cheese and vegan chick’n. The salad was really good and filling!

On the other hand, we didn’t like the sandwich at all. The vegan cheese they have was eerily similar to dairy — so much so that I spit it out and had to double-check it was vegan. The server said yes and told me the name of the brand they use, but I forgot since I didn’t like it. Fahim didn’t mind the cheese, but didn’t like the sandwich itself (which I agree with) — because the vegan chicken was unseasoned and had no flavor.

Dinner - Vegan Empanadas + Vegan Impossible Burger + Vegan Impossible Kebabs from Dellepiane Sedona Burger Joint

We found this Argentinian restaurant on accident while stopping to get a fridge magnet and I’m so happy we did! They have an entire separate vegan menu as well as their Impossible Burgers on the main menu.

We ordered their vegan empanadas, vegan Impossible burger, and vegan Impossible kebabs.

Everything was amazing! Their first location is in Argentina and this is their second location. The atmosphere inside was so cool too, everyone else was eating outside so we basically got the entire restaurant to ourselves. If you’re ever in Sedona this place is definitely a MUST try!

Tuesday, August 3rd

Breakfast - Chilaquiles + Fried Guacamole from The Coronado PHX

We tried The Coronado PHX for breakfast since we had seen it on Instagram and a few articles, and least to say it did not live up to it’s hype. We ordered fried guacamole and 2 plates of chilaquiles. For my plate, I asked for no beans because I forgot my IBS medication at home.

The fried guacamole was the only thing we enjoyed from here. The chilaquiles had no actual chile in it and no flavor whatsoever. We had to add our own hot sauce to it to finish our plate.

We also ordered their horchata cold brew and it wasn’t sweetened at all.

My brothers ordered burritos, both were very small and not up to par with our burrito standards. We will definitely not be coming back here, their food and drinks are overpriced and don’t have much flavor. If you really want to try this place, the only thing I’d recommend is their fried guacamole.

Lunch - BYO Salad + Mediterranean Plate from Bowl of Greens Fine Salads

We stopped by this place for a quick lunch. I ordered their Build Your Own salad, with romaine lettuce, spring mix, chickpeas, cucumber, kalamata olives, and avocado. For the dressing, I asked for their BOG House dressing which is vegan friendly!

I also ordered a Mediterranean platter (which I made sure was vegan friendly) because I wasn’t sure how filling the salad was going to be. The platter was underwhelming and not that good, but the salad was top notch and surprisingly filling!

Sweet Treat - Softserve from Bristlecone

We’d been wanting to try this place ever since we saw it while we were browsing for vegan eats in Phoenix. Bristlecone is an all-vegan soft serve and milkshake shop and it’s attached to an all-vegan burger shop. We ordered the following soft serves: Grand Royal (vanilla soft serve with banana, peanut butter, and nuts) and Kid A (chocolate soft serve with oreo cookie crumbs, chocolate sauce, and gummy worms).

As good as it looks, we won’t come back here again. The soft-serve flavors had a watery consistency, came underserved with toppings, and didn’t taste that good.

The service was also weird due to the setup not being very clear. The restaurants share a space but you can order at either counter. It took them about 10 minutes to take our order even though they had seen us waiting.

Once we ordered, we sat at a table waiting for them to call us for our ice cream. After a while they still hadn’t called us, so we got up to check if our order was ready. Sure enough it was and the ice cream had started melting from being left out.

My brother got their cold brew milkshake which was actually good — that was the only dessert we’d get again.

Dinner - Burger + Fries from Beaut Burger

We weren’t very hungry but wanted to try one of their burgers from the burger side of their store since we were already there. We decided to order a burger to go and split it! We ordered the B5 which had zhoug (jalapeño pesto), ranch, cucumber, lettuce and their house-made vegan patty. The burger was decent for a "healthier” whole foods burger. Although it was a housemade veggie patty it had flavor. We were fans of their jalapeño pesto! But the burger was small and for that price, we’d want a full-size burger.

Personally, we won’t be coming here again.

The rustic fries with the spice rub were a 10/10 though.

Wednesday, August 4th

Breakfast - Waffle + English Muffin Breakfast Sandwich + Turtle (coffee) from Urban Beans

This was our last day in Phoenix so we stopped to get breakfast at Urban Beans before heading back home. Urban Beans is an all vegan cafe! We ordered a waffle with strawberries, breakfast of champions sandwich, and a “turtle” coffee. The waffle was okay — it was a healthy waffle and I was expecting something different. The breakfast sandwich on the other hand, was great!

The “turtle” coffee was also yummy!

Lunch - Chupacabra Chick’n Sandwich + Coachella Forever Salad from Chef Tanya’s Kitchen

On our way back home we made a pit stop in Palm Desert for lunch because the waffle and the breakfast sandwich from the morning didn’t keep us full for too long. We finally decided to try Chef Tanya’s Kitchen in Palm Desert, which I’m happy we did because everything was SO delicious!

Chef Tanya’s Kitchen is an all-vegan restaurant that has two locations here — one in Palm Springs and the other in Palm Desert. They also have a deli and a shopping section with so many things! We ordered the chupacabra chick’n sandwich and the Coachella forever salad with no beans (again I forgot my IBS meds on this trip).

The sandwich was excellent and so was the salad! This is now one of our favorite places and honestly, I can see us going to the Coachella Valley more often just so we can stop by!

Dessert - Lemon Cake + Peanut Butter Cup Parfait from Chef Tanya’s Kitchen

We also couldn’t help picking up dessert. We tried their lemon cake and their peanut butter cup parfait. Both items were delightful!

We also grabbed a refreshing orange mango drink!

Dinner - Mole Rojo con verdolagas y papas (Mole Rojo with purslane and potatoes)

My mom had given us some of her homemade Mole Rojo a few days ago that I had saved because I knew I’d want to eat it when we got back from our trip. She made her homemade Mole Rojo and she added verdolagas and papas (purslane and potatoes). My mom’s mole truly hits the spot every time — it’s perfect!

I cooked some white rice in our rice cooker to eat with the mole.

Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoyed this episode or one of our meals, please leave a comment below with your thoughts! Don’t forget to subscribe to get new posts sent directly to your email inbox every Thursday! I hope August is treating you all well! :)

See you next week! \(◔‿◔)/ ♥

-Mariana & Fahim