The Pop Up

There was a vegan popup today at the Goodman Community Center in Madison WI. We attended. We ate vegan food there and also bought some vegan stuff to take home. Overall, a fun time.

We discovered a vegan pizza place there that is from Chicago and will ship frozen deep dish vegan pizzas anywhere in the USA. They are not cheap though.

The End.

REVIEW: Mosaic Foods Online Vegan Frozen Meal Delivery Service

I decided to try Mosaic Foods vegan (and vegetarian) online mail order frozen meal delivery, after seeing some positive reviews online.

I signed up for the 18 meal plan, the biggest plan they have (and the best value after discount and free shipping). I filtered for vegan only meals (although they have vegetarian options too, I'm strictly vegan). You have to choose a recurring order option; there is no one time only option like there is with MamaSezz vegan mail order meals. So, I chose to reorder every 4 months, and then paused all order until July. You can customize and pause shipments whenever you want, but you know how that goes. I'll probably cancel my subscription and then restart it when I am ready for more.

First, lets talk about the cost. My total order cost for the 18 meals I chose for my box, after discount and free shipping, was $176.78. That works out to $9.82/meal. Let's just round up to $10/meal for argument's sake. For a mature adult male of my activity level and energy needs, one meal is about one serving. More petite and sedentary people might get two servings out of one of these meals. They fill an average sized bowl. The meals range from about 400 to 600 calories each. However, one of my meal choices was a "4 serving" Thai peanut curry that would probably actually serve two hungry people of my size. So, I kind of got 19 meals for the price. One of the meals was a soup. Another was a smoothie, which I'll try tomorrow morning.

The meals are completely pre-made and frozen, shipped with dry ice (although the dry ice was gone by the time the box arrived in Wisconsin, by truck from New Jersey, so I might not order these meals in the middle of the summer). You microwave or bake them, and eat. I fortified the soup with some brown rice I had on hand, and generally I think you can make these meals go farther by adding rice or pasta to them.

The cost of these meals is competitive with other pre-made meal delivery services, and the cost can be justified by the minimal prep time to eat them. They are convenient.

The meals are pretty tasty too, thus far. I have not gotten through them all yet. These will be nice to have on hand in the freezer sometimes when we are too busy or too lazy to cook plant based vegan meals.

I endorse them.

The End.

Some Good Vegan Places to Eat in Madison Wisconsin

Hi Readers.

I've been doing my own research on good vegan places to eat in Madison WI (by eating at them), and here are some of the good vegan places to eat, according to my fairly thorough analysis:

Ollie's (separate vegan and conventional menus)

Green Owl Cafe (all vegan/vegetarian menu)

The Mad Rabbit (all vegan comfort food and plates/wraps)

Salvatore's Tomato Pies (vegan options, alongside conventional ones; also frozen retail pizzas)

Luigi's Pizza (vegan appetizer and pizza options, alongside conventional ones)

Toppers Pizza (plant based menu, alongside conventional one)

Ian's Pizza (vegan-izable pizza and customizable salads)

Mod Pizza (many vegan options, alongside conventional ones)

Nitty Gritty (vegan burgers and vegan nutmilk shakes, listed separately on the menu, alongside conventional ones)

Forage Kitchen (healthy vegan options alongside conventional ones)

Bar Corallini (vegan Italian food options on the menu, alongside conventional ones)

Himal Chuli (Nepali cuisine with vegan and vegan-izable options)

JustVeggies (100% vegan comfort food, with delivery available)

Sa-Bai Thong (Thai food with many vegan options)

Chocolate Shoppe (several vegan flavors of oat milk based ice cream)

Level 5 Donuts (vegan donuts)

Naf Naf Mediterranean Grill (it's a chain, but lots of vegan options)

Near Madison:

Taza (Mediterranean; lots of labeled vegan and vegetarian options on the menu - alongside conventional ones)

These are roughly in order of my personal tastes and preferences. There are other places too, but I have had the best luck at the places above. Leave a comment if you think another place should be on the list and I will go research it (if I haven't already).

Disclaimer: This is one vegan's analysis and experience. It is not scientific, nor comprehensive. But it's pretty accurate if you, like me, are an average vegan eating middle class American.

The End.