We finally got to go visit our 20 yr old son who is stationed at Fort Carson, COS. We haven't seen him since his visit home in January so as you can imagine I am very excited! We have never been there before and I was really wondering what we were going to be able to eat for our 5 night 6 day stay. When he graduated from basic at Fort Benning, GA a year ago we stayed in Columbus, GA for 5 days as well. That experience was awful for us in regards to finding good food to eat. The two vegan friendly places were closed for the long weekend and we had to head to main restaurants like Olive Garden and Denny's which was very disappointing to say the least...but I digress.
Since going vegan I pretty much cook every night. Going on a trip is both exciting yet daunting in trying to figure out what we can eat. I know some of this stuff is a no brainer for experienced vegans but for inexperience vegans this can be very intimidating. Because my son eats Defac food most of the time - Army food, we try to save up our money to be able to hit great restaurants when ever we have him. If my hubby and I were doing this trip alone we probably wouldn't eat so rich every day. In fact a week later and my tummy is still getting over the being overwhelmed.
First off... I have to apologize about not taking hardly any pictures of the food we ate. I've made a habit to put my phone away when the food comes so I can talk and enjoy our company as well as the food. But it has not served me well in regards to blogging about our food journey here! I just downloaded Evernote's Food app and hope that will change as I keep blogging. Thanks for understanding.
Thursday -
We are very lucky that Portland airport has some yummy vegan options because we didn't have time to really eat before we got out the door mid day. Before we went through security we picked up two servings of veggie ratatouille with a rather large baguette and a veggie wrap at
Elephants Deli. This was enough to keep us from being hungry till after we landed, picked up rental car in COS and meet up with my son. The flight did sell food but the only thing we could have probably had was the salad and pretzels. We know better than to wait for the flight food to be an option so we always try to prepare before hand. We ended up eating Taco Bell at about 11pm because it was the only place open and yes we were starving by that point. We order beans and rice burritos and mexican pizza's without beef and cheese. It's not the best but it's always available no matter where we are, it's really cheap and open late. After eating we dropped of Jes at the barracks and got to see Ft. Carson at night as we headed to our hotel.
The weather there is hot and dry in the summer. We were told to take ibuprofen and drink plenty of water to deal with the dry air and high altitude. At the airport we did notice a slight shortness of breathe and thirst but we acclimated rather quickly. We did stop off at Walmart to pick up 6 gallons of water to keep in the hotel. We ended up going back for 5 more. We drank a lot of water for those 6 days. One great thing about the weather that I felt was how my hair did not frizz out like it usually does here in Oregon. I actually could have wore it down if I wanted to without blow drying it, something I can not do here.
*Breakfast can be hard for us if we don't prepare. Everything seems to be so egg base and I can't tolerate eating wheat in the morning. (Hispanic descent) So we carry with us instant organic oatmeal. We also pick up bananas where we can. So usually breakfast is something simple like that and tea for me and coffee for my husband. He carries SoyJoy powder creamer with him. It's not as good as say Trader Joe's soy creamer but it does the trick. There's always Starbucks. They carry soy milk and that does the job as well.
Friday -
We slept in a bit and picked up our soldier early afternoon and headed to
Tomo Sushi. I spent the morning looking up veggie friendly sushi places. I called 3 places and Tomo Sushi sounded the best. They were willing to make a Yakiudon with tofu for us even though it was not on their menu. The food was a bit less than ok. We appreciated the effort but unfortunately it just wasn't good. We also suspect that the waiter lied to us in regards to the small fried gyozas. He said they were tofu filled and they weren't. Maybe if we had never eaten meat we would not know that the filling tasted and smelled like pork. That us unfortunate because as it was the food was just eh.. at best and over priced. We ordered two veggie rolls (avocado and veggie) and the yakiudon which came with a small salad and small fried gyozas. I do not recommend the place but they did have vegan options so I thought I would mention it anyway since seemed like the most veg friendly sushi place in town. When we return I will probably try another place. My son loves sushi so I am determined to find a place!
That evening we went to see Batman Rises, yes the day after the awful shooting in Aurora, CO. We were a bit nervous but determined not to have senseless violence change our plans. At the movies we do eat popcorn. I always make sure they are using vegetable oil and they were, canola oil in fact. I have never asked what kind of oil the additional "butter" is made of. Movie popcorn already has so much oil that I can't imagine adding more. But I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask to pass on the info here.
After the movies we drove around looking for somewhere we could eat. We were supposed to take my son's friends to dinner but they decided to go another night I was not prepared for an alternative. It was about 10 pm and I was dreading eating at say Wendy's or Taco Bell on a Friday night. We passed by a really elaborate building that called
Fargo's Pizza Company. I could have sworn it was a Farrow's! But no it was a pizza restaurant that my son said his friends really like. So we stopped by to get him a pizza not expecting anything for my husband and I. When we entered we were really surprised at how elaborate the whole decor was. I just happened to ask the order taker if by chance the pizza dough had any egg or dairy in it and she said yes as I had suspected. I paid and we waiting for my son's pizza. About 5 mins later she approached me and said that she went to look at the ingredients and said that there were no eggs or dairy in the dough. She double checked with the manager and they agreed it was animal free. That if we ordered a veggie pizza without cheese it would be vegan. We ordered, got a salad and ate one of the best pizzas we've ever had animal free. If you grew up eating Shakey's Pizza...this is the closest to it that I have ever tasted. Their prices were very reasonable and we highly recommend it :) It was definitely a nice surprise after the sucky sushi experience early that day.
Saturday -
A good friend of mine just happened to be visiting Denver the same time we were visiting Colorado Springs. She lives in Michigan and we do not get to see each other but every 2-4 years. We decided to meet at a
Watercourse restaurant which she had heard really good things about. He little boy has many food allergies and she still breast feeds so they can't eat at most restaurants. Watercourse was excelent and very reasonably priced. The menu is mostly vegan and can cater to avoid some allergens. I ordered the sweet potatoes and black bean tacos. My husband ordered the quinoa burger and my son ordered the tempeh mustard sandwich. He loved it which is saying something because he's not even vegan. We tried their seitan buffalo wings with "ranch" dressing and gotta say they were the bomb! ;) The deserts were really creamy and delicious. We ordered the key lime pie and cheese cake. We will definitely return to this place again... I feel it was worth the drive from COS to Denver and highly recommend it! They have another location called City o City that they say is just as good. In other words... if vegan and in Denver it's a must!
We spent the afternoon with our friend at the Denver Aquarium which her little boy wanted to go to. On our way back to COS we stopped at
Mellow Mushroom, my sons favorite pizza places. We first discovered them in Columbus, GA when our son graduated basic at Ft Benning. They since have opened one near us in Portland, OR which we frequent often. So far we've been to three different Mellow Mushrooms and must say they are all very good. My husband loves the beer selection. They offer two different kind of veggie pizzas that are vegan, just ask for the daiya cheese and make sure they DO NOT put the butter and parmasean cheese on the crust. Some of the waiters do not know that the dough is vegan. I have actually spoken to the owners and they reassure that the dough does not contain any eggs or dairy. In fact if you look at the allergen list on their website you will see that is the case.
Sunday -
After the late night dinner and staying up even later, we decided to sleep in. We picked up
Chipotle, (one of the healthier fast food places out there) for lunch. We order the fajita burritos and get guacamole with chips. We then ran some errands. For dinner we knew we planned to take my son's friends to dinner at
Carrabbas so I emailed the website before hand for any suggestions. They emailed back saying that all of the dry pastas were egg free and that as long as we didn't order the fresh pasta we were good. They also said the pomodoro suace was vegan as was just using oil and balsamic vinegar. To our surpise, our waitress was very familiar with our diet. Her mother had been vegan for 25 years and totally understood what we were after. I was so relieved cause I didn't want to be to perceived as too pushy in front of my son's friends, hence why I emailed the restaurant before hand. (not that I am pushy but some people perceive it that way ;). The waitress suggested two plates and said that the simple bread they bring is also animal free. We shared a salad. He ordered the Tag Pic Pac with non fresh pasta and I ordered the Pasta Sostanza with penne pasta and no bread crumbs. I gotta say the Pasta Sostanza was so good that I refused to share. (my husband and I sometimes swap dishes mid way ;) We couldn't have dessert because everything had dairy but dinner was so good that it kind of didn't matter!
Monday -
Our son had PT most of the day so we wondered around for a while. I was in the mood for a smoothie since I hadnt' had one for 5 days! We headed to Jamba Juice. After leaving there we saw a Meditaranian place called
Garbanzo. We were sure to find a hummus plate to go with our smoothies. They had more than that... they had many options like a falafel plate, tabouleh and curry rice with many vegan salsa and pita bread. It was so good I could have had a second plate. We later walked around the Garden of the Gods taking pictures waiting for our son to call. After we picked him up we headed to another vegan friendly place called
Trinity Brewery close by. I ordered the portobello sliders and sweet potato fries, my husband ordered the asian wrap with the buffalo seitan kabobs. It was good...full of flavor but felt a bit pricey especially after eating at Watercourse a few days before. The beer was good. I had their Farmhouse Fantome...two actually which I rarely do. It went well with the food and warm weather out on the patio.
After dinner we went to see Pixar's Brave. Very cute movie. We said our good bye's to my son and dropped him off outside his barracks. I felt like I was leaving empty handed. No matter how old they are we still feel that empty feeling when we say good bye.
Tuesday-
I had decided to let Daniel sleep in till 11 since check out wasn't till noon and our flight didnt leave till 2:30. But at 9:30 my son texted that he was out and was able to maybe see us one more time before we left.... of course we hurried as fast as we could to check out and head on over there. With only one hour and half we headed to the closest Subway to base. My husband ordered the veggie delight. I took a couple of bites but all I wanted was a banana. I am not a big Subway fan..especially since I know they still use HFCS in their wheat bread. After saying good by to our son once more it didn't feel as sad as it had felt the night before in the dark so I felt much better. We got to COS Airport just fine. Unfortunately the food options were... well crummy. I ended up buying a bean and rice burrito that was supposed to have grilled veggies fajitas. The burrito was awful! but it was well worth spending that extra hour or so with my son so I ate it anyway.
Our trip home was quiet, I slept most of the flight home. When we landed we knew we had to wait for our 17 yr old son to meet us because he was heading out to Burbank, CA to visit his dad for two weeks. We decided to wait at
Laurelwood Brew Pub at the airport near the gates and not passing security so we could see our son off. We ordered a large hummus plate without the cheese and drank a great wheat beer. It was a perfect ending to a great trip. My husband and I talked about the possibilities of moving to Colorado Springs for our son if ends up marrying and starting a family there... but he lamented that the beers weren't as good as we have them here in Oregon. ;)
Who knows where our soldier will end up so I'm not making any plans...but I won't scratch COS off our list just yet. I know this is not the only time we'll be visiting COS and would like to explore it and Denver more.
