The Nine Dollar Veggie Burger

Or, why it is better to eat at home.........

So, three days a week I have two hours to myself for the first time in almost ten years. I generally run my errands since that is much easier than doing it with three kids in tow. Sometimes I walk in the park, browse in the bookstore, or some other fun thing. Sometimes I take myself out to lunch in a place that the kids or the Carnivore would not enjoy.

Such was the case Friday. We have a cafe in town that serves lunch and fancy coffee. I had never been there, thinking it would be a typical omni place with not much for me. However, I recently saw a review in the paper that said they have started serving a tapas menu on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening. They listed all sorts of goodies including vegan lentil loaf and other creative things. I figured any place that actually uses the word vegan in its menu might be of interest, so I checked it out for lunch. Sigh. I was right about typical stuff. None of that creative vegan fare in sight on the lunch menu. Just wraps stuffed with meat and cheese. They did have a veggie burger. I asked what kind, because I can't stand those yucky soy based ones (I grew up in the 70's, a time when stretching meat for profit meant adding soy to school lunch hamburgers to make hockey pucks. This is what those vegan burgers taste like to me........). They told me it was a Dr. Praeger's, which is veggie based and tastes pretty good. I can't say it wasn't good - it was on an awesome whole grain sunflower seed roll, had avocado, and fresh sprouts. But I couldn't help thinking that for $9 I could have bought two boxes of those veggie burgers. Should have gone to Aunt Chilada's for the best black bean soup and grilled veggies ever!