Update: The WordPress editor is so user-unfriendly it deleted an important paragraph:
The dinner was served with vegan bread, vegan olive tapenade, and DAIRY butter. Now that’s just crazy. They should just use plant butter for the whole restaurant because it’s not like meat eaters are going to taste it and be like, “I can’t taste the stolen lactation in this butter!” (Meat/dairy consumers should never be catered to anyway.) Remember when plant butter used to be called vegan margarine, then vegan butter? I suppose it got changed to “plant butter” because most brands have palm oil in them, which could be considered non-vegan when the oil palms are grown illegally in rainforests.
A long awaited culinary experience: I won the gift cards on KYXY almost five years ago, but didn’t have a chance to use them before moving out of state. So finally I got a chance to use my gift cards. At least they have two vegan entrees. (The concept of French cuisine can make my stomach turn when I think of people chowing down on snails and innocent frogs’ legs.) I got the roasted vegetables with quinoa and a balsamic glaze. Delicious. The veggies were Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, carrots, and microgreens (some of my favorite veggies.) I got a raspberry smash cocktail too (yes, Tito’s Handmade Vodka is vegan.)
They have no vegan desserts unfortunately, but this restaurant is walking distance from two vegan restaurants: Evolution and Donna Jean.
Because my trip was for only a week I didn’t have time to get all my freebies or use all my gift cards. (I would have taken a longer trip if irresponsible people hadn’t caused a stray cat to be dumped on me, which required me to hire a Rover sitter to drop in on him 30 minutes each day. We can also blame the government for allowing the pet trade in the first place and then using taxpayer money for legalized/subsidized murder instead of animal welfare.) (The day after Devil Cat showed up and demanded entry, I saw that Jerry Ashley had a “free kittens” flyer up at Allsup’s.) (Melrose, NM has a big feral/dumpster cat problem with rumors of evil people poisoning them, and no nearby Trap Neuter Return program. Dreadful. There is also a cat hoarder who would rather buy a lot of feed than pay for spay and neuter.)
But I did hit up my favorite food freebie place: the lemon orchard in Poway, CA. I picked a big bag of lemons and stuffed them in my suitcase, took them to where lemon trees aren’t grown, juiced them, and froze the juice. (I totally hate getting ripped off on lemons and limes, like when Mexican drug cartels caused the price of limes to skyrocket by controlling the farmworkers.)
Sprouts seems to have discontinued the “free sampling” digital coupon program, but I did have a digital coupon for Tate’s Bake Shop vegan chocolate chip cookies and lucked out by getting the last bag! (Yum!) I also got the Munk Pack Keto Nut & Seed Bar freebie again (pursuant to Ibotta cashback) and then the Chop app had promised to give a rebate for the full purchase price of Culina Yogurt ($3), but cheaped out by only giving $2 and lying about doing a “manual review” of the receipt within 72 hours. (But Ibotta gave me the missing dollar by counting it as Miyoko’s Organic European Style Cultured Vegan Butter for some reason. So, there’s a “vegan butter”; maybe Parc Bistro-Brasserie should use it!)
I went into Ralph’s to get two products I had freebie coupons for: So Delicious dairy-free cheese shreds and Sir Kensington’s classic vegan mayo. The Ibotta app had a BOGO offer, so I got two packs of So Delicious dairy-free cheese shreds for free, but I should have checked the app again before going into the store because there was another vegan freebie offer that I didn’t know about.
I used freebie digital coupons at Circle K and Ace Hardware and I mention those because the cashiers at both places had problems processing the coupons. (But I noticed that Circle K had Beyond Meat jerky!) Digital coupons become less of a gain and more of a pain when the cashiers have problems with them. If you have digital promo payment for use at Walmart you might as well just go through the self check-out lane because their cashiers are notorious for not following the simple accompanying instructions and making a big ordeal all over one freebie for a dumb drink or pack of chips.
And I also used my Minibar gift code (plus promo code.) It’s not available for delivery where I live; not just because it’s a dry town (with a high rate of alcoholism, addiction, and property crimes), but the delivery option is just not available everywhere. The order simply came from 7-11.
Vegan Town USA 