My Vegan Experiment Day 7 – Traveling While Vegan

Hi there:

This was my first time traveling while vegan (at least for the next three weeks).

I was sitting at the airport bored out of my mind when I started this post. My flight was delayed by a couple of hours.

In my rush to finish packing and get to the airport, I didn't have time for breakfast.  I thought it would be hard on a gluten free vegan at the airport and that I'd probably have to wait until I got to NYC before I could find something “legal” to eat. I'm happy to report that I was wrong.

I grabbed some steel cut oatmeal at a “Food Network” restaurant  at the airport. It came presweetened and I should have tossed the nasty tasting dried fruit on top but otherwise it was fine. I also grabbed a vegan Nugo Organic Double Dark Chocolate Protein Bar. It's soy based and boasts 10 grams of protein and 2 grams of fiber. Unfortunately, it also has 15 grams of sugar making it more like a candy bar. I didn't know that Food Network had restaurants. I'm probably just late to the party.

Needless to say, the replacement plane (the original aircraft had maintenance issues) didn't arrive at 12:30pm. It was after 4:00pm when we landed at LaGuardia and then we sat on the tarmac for 40 minutes before deplaning.

They had limited options for lunch on the flight. I should have opted for the kale salad and water. If I ever find myself traveling while vegan again, I'll do that. Instead, I ended up buying a vegan and gluten free snack box with hummus, Mary's Gone Crackers, a gluten free pastry and a chocolate snack bar. I also scarfed down a bag of chips.

Having only had oatmeal and essentially sugary junk food all day, I was starving by the time I got to my room. That process was prolonged by the fact that the front desk first sent me to a room that was already occupied by someone else.  When I opened the door and saw someone else's open suitcase inside, I calmly backed out and headed to the front desk. They upgraded me to a larger room with a King-sized bed without charge.

After unpacking, I headed down to the Grand Central Terminal in search of a vegan dinner. I ran across a vendor selling Indian food and ordered vegetable rice, chickpea curry and a spicy cabbage mix. It was so good.

I later whipped out the electric kettle I'd brought with me, made myself a mug of hibiscus tea, and settled down with Echoes in Death* by Nora Roberts.

All in all, traveling while vegan wasn't a completely traumatic experience for me even though I was new to it. Now that I have some experience, I'll make better food choices going forward.

Today (this post is late) was my trip to FBI Headquarters. I'll let you know how that went in my next post.

Peace,

LJ

*This is an Amazon affiliate link.  If you click on it and buy something, I will get a small commission.  You should know that I only recommend products I enjoy myself.