But according to a post this week on the Mother Nature Network website, it might be getting easy to find tasty vegetarian fast food.

Robin Shreeves, who blogs about eco-friendly food choices, recently went on a hunt for vegetarian fast food options besides the usual salad or ben burrito and she turned up some pretty promising places.

Shreeves asked her vegetarian Facebook friends to tell her about their favorite vegetarian fast food options, and she was disappointed with the usual Burger King veggie burger, Wendy’s salad and Taco Bell bean burrito that were mentioned.

I don’t know about you, but none of those options sound worth going out to eat for to me. They could be made with the many of the same creepy mystery ingredients that fast food meals that contain meat are made from.”

She has a good point and she also has some persistence, because she found a four really good options from around the country, including a national vegetarian chain where you can get vegetarian fast food in your neighborhood.

Take a look at what she came up with:

1. “In Philadelphia, there’s Hip City Veg. It’s a vegan restaurant that’s ‘fast, fresh and 100% plant based.’ The independent restaurant offers salads, plant based sandwiches, sweet potato fries and more and does a bustling business.”

I’m seeing more and more of these types of places when I travel myself. I call them “vegetarian delis” and I love them.

2. “Chicago’s Brother Tim’s Vegetarian Fast Food has nothing but vegetarian and vegan options of foods you’ll find on regular fast food restaurant menus – burgers, dogs, chili, tacos.”

I love this place’s idea: taking typical diner or fast food fare and making it vegetarian. Chicago is known for forty and fifty-year old diners and burger joints and Chicagoans take their burgers and dogs seriously, so this place must be doing something right if it’s still in business.

3. “In San Diego, Evolution Fast Food specializes in plant-based burgers, fries, organic juices and shakes.” I’ve been to Evolution and I have two words for you: awesome food.

4. “The fast-food burger chain Elevation Burger that uses organic, grass fed beef in it’s burgers has veggie burger – one that’s fire roasted and has more of a traditional burger taste and one that tastes like veggies.”

I checked the Elevation.com website and locations are mainly in the Northeast, California, Florida and Texas. If you’re in any of those areas, you’re in luck. I have a couple within day-trip distance and will definitely be checking them out.

If you know of a great place in your area to get a delicious vegetarian burger, hot dog or other classics, share with the rest of us!

I was incredibly happy to accidentally find this blog post called “The Top 5 Vegetarian-Friendly NFL Stadiums“, even though our stadium isn’t one of them. It’s enough to make me hope that we could make a football vacation out of this, but I doubt that would impress my husband, who likes his home games and his games at home. However, it’s great to know that some stadiums have something to offer vegetarian fans.

The article, which is on the LivingGreenMagazine website (where “Green is Read”, I love that) is by Jeff Mackey of PETA and he relayed the results of PETA’s 2012 list of the Top Five Vegetarian-Friendly NFL Stadiums.

First up is Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles.

It took top honors for the third year in a row, because of its

Awesome array of meat-free options, which include a mock-steak sandwich, a ‘chicken-steak’ sandwich, a seitan brisket, and veggie burgers and dogs.”

In second place is Gillette Stadium, home ground of the New England Patriots.

Gillette gets a nod because of its variety of veggie options. It’s offered veggie burgers and veggie dogs for some time, but has now added to its menu

black-bean burgers, grilled portobello mushroom burgers, and grilled veggie flatbread wraps.”

Third place honors go to O.Co Coliseum, home of the Oakland Raiders.

Yes, I’m a Californian, but no, those aren’t my guys. The O.Co made the list because of it’s veggie dog, black bean burger and veggie burrito.

In fourth place is the Georgia Dome, the stomping ground of the Atlanta Falcons.

The Georgia Dome also offers veggie dogs and veggie burgers, but vegetarians adore the

mock-meat Sloppy Jane, made with peppers, onions, molasses, and brown-sugar barbecue sauce.”

Last but not least is the Detroit Lions’ Ford Field.

In Detroit, fans can scarf down

vegan sloppy Joes, hearty veggie burgers, hummus with vegetables, and fruit cups with chili lime salt.”

If your football stadium has some great veggie food, I’d love to hear about to. I may need to do an “on-the-road” assignment here. Wearing my tattered but incredibly soft Cowboys jersey.

Several years ago, it was discovered that although they were claiming that their food was vegetarian, the oil that McDonalds used in their deep fryers contained beef flavoring. Needless to say, in a country where a vast majority of the citizens worship cows, this faux pas wasn’t received well.

As a matter of fact, Ronald McDonald et al were nearly forced out of the country.

Since then, the chain that accounts for approximately 3% of the beef consumption in the US has tread carefully in India, and now their hard work is starting to pay off. Though many of their stores sell meat (but not beef), there are strict rules in place to ensure that there is no cross-contamination.

Now McDonald’s is wanting to add strictly vegetarian stores near the Golden Temple located in Amritsar and close to a Hindu shrine near Kashmir. Public opinion on these new veggie-based fast food establishments is mixed. The media and some of the public are excited abou the new restaurants but some Hindu groups are offended.

An official from Swadeshi Jagran Manch, a Hindu nationist group, sums it up.

The organization associated with cow slaughter” is openly seeking to humiliate Hindus by opening their stores so close to religious points. Simply stated, “We are definitely going to fight it.”

It looks like the hamburger-giant-gone-veggie has a battle on its hands if it follows through with its intentions. Some of the Indian people quite simply ARE NOT lovin’ it.

Personally, I think that we need fewer McDonalds, not more, vegetarian or not. I like a good veggie burger now and then and I admit that french fries taste good. But do we really want more fast food restaurants and do we want them pretending to be healthier than they are?

What do you think? Is a vegetarian fast food place any better than the rest?

Once we switched to vegetarian eating, I started seeking out new foods to try, especially new cuisines. I’ve enjoyed discovering them during our travels the most. Although most of our foreign travel has been focused on Europe, I’d gladly eat my way around the world. If I get that chance, a new blog post from the Smithsonian may come in handy. It’s from blogger and world traveler Alistair Bland and it describes in beautiful detail what the author considers the best of vegetarian dining from several exotic cuisines. Here are his picks for the best vegetarian foods from around the globe.

Mexico:

Corn tortillas, beans, avocado and salsa. It’s the bread and butter of Mexico and perhaps the most common table staple in Central America—yet there’s not much that beats a hot-off-the-skillet handmade corn tortilla, especially when stuffed with basic vegetarian taco fillings.”

The author does warn, though, that many Mexican cooks prepare their foods using lard (rendered animal fat) so you need to check before you order your meal.

India:

Chana masala. Chana masala is simply protein-packed garbanzos stewed with onions, tomatoes and a curry of spices, including coriander, cumin and turmeric—and is often served over rice or eaten with naan (beware of buffalo butter, called ghee, or, heck—just enjoy it).”

Italy:

White bean peasant soup. Italy is hardly a vegan’s paradise. But white bean peasant soup, or ribollita, was traditionally a vegetarian dish, and often without even cheese.With white beans, the dish provided protein and carbohydrates in one hit. For those trying this dish at home, add some dried porcini mushrooms and red wine to the broth for a heartier kick.”

Chile:

Porotos granados. porotos granados is a stew of pumpkin, cranberry beans, corn, onion, spices and broth. The final consistency is much like porridge, with the squash mashed into a purée. Flavor can be enhanced by roasting the corn over a flame first, and caramelizing the onions in the pot before adding the broth also enriches the dish.”

Greece:

Dolmas. Dolmas is rice seasoned with olive oil and spices and wrapped in grape leaves is the ubiquitous bread-and-butter comfort food of Greece. Like so many vegetarian staples, dolmas are as delicious and satisfying as they are simple.”

I’m beginning to think that we’ve been limiting our taste buds too much when we travel. Maybe we need to broaden our vacation horizons, or at least invest in some new cookbooks. Veggie lasagna’s getting kind of old, anyway.

This article in today’s Village Voice caught my eye this morning partly because I kind of miss my veggie lo mein from Ming’s.

The article is part of a series called “The Year of Takeout” and it focuses on navigating a Chinese menu when you’re a vegetarian. Some of what they had to say surprised me, so I thought you might need to hear it, too.

One of the facts that brought me up short had to do with my favorite sauces. I used to love General Tso’s chicken until I became a vegetarian. Now I ask for some of the sauce on the side so I can put it in my lo mein. But the authors of this article have a warning.

At the most bare bones of these places, you can typically get some type of vegetable and tofu stir fry, with toppings such as brown, white, sweet and sour, garlic, General Tso’s/sesame sauce, etc. But here’s the deal with these gravies — depending on how they are prepared, they might be made with meat stock and/or oyster sauce.”

I’m probably going to take a hit for this, but I never really thought about whether or not these restaurants used meat stock in these sauces. I also forgot all about oyster sauce, which is a pretty common ingredient in other sauces, even those used on vegetarian meals.

The article advises vegetarians to ask their favorite Chinese restaurant if meat or fish stock is used in all of their sauces or if there are some that are completely vegetarian or vegan.

However, they add another word of caution:

As with most restaurants, there is always the potential for foods to mix and mingle on cooking surfaces — which is why you might accidentally find a chunk of roast pork in, say, an order of green beans. Deep friers also might be used for both meat and non-meat products.”

Their advice? Seek out a Chinese restaurant that is completely vegan or vegetarian or talk to the cook/owner of a restaurant where you are known and appreciated. Most of them are happy to oblige special orders where allergies are concerned and will do the same for you.

One of the great things (and one of my favorites) about traveling is trying out the local foods. This is especially true if you’re traveling to another country. But what do you do if you’re in a country where meat takes center stage on almost every menu?

I found a neat post last weekend on SmarterTravel.com from guest blogger Cara Caulkins. The very fortunate Ms. Caulkins is traveling around the world and blogging about her journey. In this guest post, called “Eating Vegetarian on a Meat-Centric Continent“, she shares some tips she learned while visiting South America, a continent famous for its love of meats.

1. Research ahead of time.

Knowing a culture’s specialty will help prepare you to navigate veg-friendly items to try as well as help you plan for modifications you might need. Larger cosmopolitan cities, like Buenos Aires, Santiago, and Lima, tend to offer more choices in terms of dining options and even vegetarian restaurants. But don’t forget, smaller towns and villages can also specialize in great local and fresh produce markets. Decide what’s important to you in the planning stages of your trip.”

2. Check out unfamiliar local produce.

Many areas have fruits and vegetables that we don’t see in the US. Enjoy some of these exotic foods while you can and enjoy treating your taste buds to something new and exciting.

3. Visit farmer’s markets and street markets.

In nearly every country I visited there were weekend farmer’s markets and many of the larger cities have produce markets open every day of the week. You’ll be amazed at the color and size of vegetables compared to what you are used to seeing at home in the supermarket.”

4. Get expert advice on veg-friendly restaurants.

Some of my best meals abroad came from blogger friends like Vegan Backpacker or from a quick search on Happy Cow, which lists vegetarian or veg-friendly dining options in a certain mile radius (there’s even an iPhone app!).”

I’ll add that asking around at local markets is a great way to get information on good local places to eat, especially if you happen to see a chef shopping at a nearby stall. Chances are good that the seller knows who buys and cooks the freshest produce.

The whole point of traveling is to immerse yourself in another place and possibly another culture. With a little effort, you can do that without having to go hungry, even in a meat-loving country.

When we went vegetarian, we had also pretty much stopped camping, so our first camping trip as vegetarians took us by surprise a few months ago. It sounds like something that should be easy to do, but planning vegetarian meals while camping kind of stymied me for a bit.

Hot dogs, hamburgers and pork and beans were out, so I had to rethink camping food from a vegetarian standpoint. I got it, and we had a great time and some great food, but I would have loved to have had this list of vegetarian camping essentials from BlissTree.com beforehand. If you’re contemplating doing some camping before summer is over (or anytime) maybe it’ll help you!

I just want to share a few of the items that I didn’t think of when I was planning our meals.

1. Canned tomatoes:

As the article points out, you can use these to top pizza, fill tortillas, make salsa or even vegetarian chili. I’ll definitely remember that next time, as it never occurred to me to bring them along.

2. Dried beans:

Soak them overnight, start them in the morning and even make soup with the water you used to rehydrate them! I took canned Great Northern beans, but dried would have weighed less, packed better and been much better tasting.

3. TVP:

Bliss Tree suggests using dried TVP and rehydrating it to use for tacos, chili and other hot meals. This would have worked better for me than the small amount of tofu we took with us. I’ve never used dried TVP, but I’ll be checking it out soon.

4. Vegetarian boullion cubes:

Never occurred to me. I admit that I don’t use boullion cubes at home, but they are seriously compact and if you’re camping they can be the base for a lot of soups, stews and sauces.

5. Quinoa:

I took oatmeal in the little packets because i thought it would be simple, but we really didn’t care for it much so it was a waste of space and time and water. Quinoa can be a breakfast cereal, part of a great stew or soup or used as a side dish, so it’s a lot more versatile and takes up no more space.

Check out Bliss Tree’s list for quite a few more good ideas on what to take with you for great vegetarian meals while you’re camping. It’s a terrific site and their list might make your campfire meals a lot more enjoyable.

They’ve released the top ten and I have them for you right here.

#10 is Chicago, which would come as more of a surprise to me (what with all those midwestern steak places) if I hadn’t just done a post on Lady Gaga’s vegetarian week in Chicago.

#9 is Denver, which doesn’t surprise me much at all. Denver has always been a very health-conscious city and I’d expect to find plenty of dining options there.

#8 is Los Angeles. The only surprising thing there isn’t that it didn’t rank higher, considering all of the vegetarian and vegan celebrities and celebrity hopefuls.

#7 is San Fransisco. Since locavore dining really got its start (or at least became chic) in San Fransisco, the fact that it ranks high in vegetarian dining makes sense.

#6 is Austin, #5 is Dallas and #4 is Houston. I don’t want to offend our Texan readers, but that surprises me completely. What about all that barbecue, chili and cattle ranching? Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled. Just dumbfounded.

#3 is San Diego. As a Californian who visits San Diego quite often, I would have been surprised NOT to see SD. I’ve had some of my best vegetarian restaurant meals there.

#2 is San Jose. With all of the organic growers out that way, I’d say the vegetarian restaurants have some amazing supplies to work with and serve.

Finally, Seattle ranked #1 as having the most vegetarian, vegan and vegetarian-friendly restaurants per capita than any other city.

Again, this isn’t much of a surprise, as Seattle has always had a rep as both a health-conscious city and a progressive dining destination.

I may have to make a point of visiting some of these cities to check out their restaurant scenes. First will come Texas; I just really need to see that for myself!

It’s working for us.

However, when we do go out to eat, it’s always fun to try new vegetarian or vegan restaurants, which are becoming a lot more prolific in our area.

The other day, I found two search engines for vegetarian, vegan and vegetarian/vegan-friendly restaurants. Both let you search by area for restaurants that cater to the vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.

The VegGuide

The VegGuide.org has searchable listings all over the world, with over 10,000 in the US alone. It’s a very attractive and user-friendly site. Each listing tells you whether the restaurant is vegetarian, vegan or vegetarian and/or vegan-friendly. There are also reviews from diners for many of the listings. It’s a bit like Yelp for vegetarians.

Since we travel quite a bit, I love the fact that we can use VegGuide to find restaurants in places where we visit on business or for pleasure. They cover Mexico, Asia and Eurpose pretty extensively and those are places we visit most often.

Happy Cow

Who wouldn’t like that name? I love the Happy Cow site, which isn’t new but is new to me. They have plenty of great articles and lots of news related to the vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, but their search engine is what led me to the site.

They don’t have quite as many listings as VegGuide, though they are global and the US is very well-represented. However, they seem (at least from what I can see) to have more reviews on individual restaurants than you’ll find at VegGuide.

I’m thrilled to find these two resources and I’d like to thank both sites for making these searches accessible. It’s a lot easier than wading through Yelp or other sites trying to find restaurants that really are vegetarian or vegan.

Now, my husband and I love a cruise and we’re constantly hunting down last-minute or otherwise special sale prices on cruises so that we can afford to go. We’ve never taken a Holland America cruise, but I have a feeling that there’s one in our not-too-distant future. Finding enough meatless options on buffets hasn’t presented too much of a problem for us when cruising, but we love the idea of a vegetarian menu in the other dining options.

I also love the idea of supporting Holland America’s decision and hopefully helping it to become a trend.

Many more people are choosing a vegetarian culinary experience, yet the options can be limited,” Holland America’s executive vice president, Richard Meadows, says in a statement accompanying the announcement. “By offering a complete vegetarian-only menu and the largest vegetarian selection at sea, we are ensuring that all guests can take part in an exceptional dining experience while cruising with Holland America Line.”

This move includes a new, all-vegetarian menu that will be available in the dining rooms on Holland America’s 15 ships as well as adding of 30 new vegetarian dishes to standard dining room menus.These new meals are not only for vegetarians, but for vegans as well!

The all-vegetarian menu will be available upon request at lunch and dinner and include 22 vegetarian and vegan dishes.

Among the delicious-sounding choices are Portobello Mushroom and Chipotle Quesadillas, Vietnamese Vegetable Spring Rolls, Curried Vegetable Empanadas, Spicy Lentil and Garbanzo Salad, Sweet and Sour Vegetable Tempura, Vegetable Jambalaya, Grilled Vegetable and Tofu Kebobs and Baked Cheese Polenta with Mushrooms and Artichoke Hearts.

These sound a whole lot better than the baked potatoes, sauteed vegetables and meatless pasta dishes that we usually rely on when we’re fortunate enough to take a cruise! In my head, I’m already packing my bathing suit and a few good paperbacks.

With summer vacations around the corner, I’d love to hear of any travel options you’ve discovered that are of particular interest to vegans and vegetarians!