Friday, April 17, 2009

Cokaru's Tour of Veggie Sammies

So I've established that Jimmy John's and their flavorless "avocado spread" and white bread subs can suck it, in my opinion. But what about other quick, "Dang it! I forgot my lunch again!" options?

The tour of fast options today begins with Mr. Goodcents Subs & Pastas.

I got their half veggie sub on wheat with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, spicy mustard, and vinegar (no cheese, mayo, or oil). With chips and drink, the total came to $5.80. It wasn't bad. Surprisingly, they had benches outside where you could eat. The one by my work has a pawn shop, tobacco store, tattoo shop, and a pre paid wireless / pager store all right across the street, so all your shopping needs would pretty much be taken care of if you went to this or similar locations.

I've also tried Quiznos' veggie on several occasions. I have to admit, I enjoy it a lot. I usually get one on wheat, no cheese, no mushrooms. They are generous with the coupons, but even with a coupon the total came up to around seven bucks (with chip and drink). Their sea salt and vinegar chips are awesome, but again, not vegan. A quick glance at the nutritional information suggests that even without the cheese, these sandwiches are fatty cakes - probably thanks in no small part to the black olives and guac. Yes, I know that's good fat and yada yada, but fat is still fat if you're worried about consuming too much of it.

Penn Station's veggie I have tried exactly once. I don't care that they have cut from real potato, or what the heck ever their marketing BS is, fries. Next!

So then we come back to good old Subway. You can get a foot of veggie sandwich for five dollars. They have the largest variety of breads, the largest variety of toppings, and the most available veggies (can I get a hell yeah for spinach?). The sandwiches are as low fat as you want them to be, and pretty tasty. Subway FTW.

Of course, if you're lucky enough to work near one, the grocery store really is the best "I forgot my lunch" option. I bought strawberries, sun dried tomato tortillas, tofurky slices, soy cheese, five bananas, a bag of baby spinach, and cherry tomatoes at Trader Joe's today for sixteen dollars and thirty five cents with tax. That's enough to make lunch wraps and a side of fruit for the week, at the cost of $3.27 a day.

TJs for the real win!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Jimmy John's Officially Sucks

I'll keep this post short, because the title really says it all.

There's a Jimmy John's fairly close to my work. Their website is great. There's a nutritional tracker that allows you to select ingredients and will show you the nutritional content of the sandwich as you add ingredients or take them away. Compared to veggie sandwiches elsewhere, Jimmy John's is pretty healthy (especially if you do it vegan style).

However, I've tried their veggie sandwich and the veggie sub several times now, and they just suck. I've tried them with and without cheese and mayo, added mustard, didn't add mustard....literally there is nothing you can do to fix this sandwich. I love that it has alfalfa sprouts and avocado spread, but the avocado spread must be made from some recipe specially designed to have no flavor what so ever. Next time I get hungry and I want a Jimmy John's sub, I'll just go buy a head of iceberg lettuce and bite into that instead.

So thumbs up for another franchise having veggie friendly offerings - thumbs down on the fact that it ranges from tasteless to tasting bad. Oh, and their sea salt and vinegar chips? Not vegan.

Life is nuts

I have been neglecting the blog. My excuse: I have a lot of life stuff going on right now. Work is nuts right now as the end of the semester approaches. I am also in the process of trying to buy a house, which is eating into my time. Most importantly, baseball season has started, and I am obsessing over every pitch.

In short, I have a lot going on. So, dontsurrender is the newest contributor to this thing. Cokaru has been picking up the slack nicely, which I'm glad. She's awesome.

Okay, I'm going into south city to eat, sit in Mokabe's and grade, and look at a house later. Maybe I will finally go by Whole Foods in Brentwood and get some vegan pizza.

I'm thinking I will get at least one more author to this thing, hopefully: this rad chick named Kelly. She's cute, sweet, annoying, and vegan. She is planning on moving here soon.