It's Tough To Eat Vegan In Disneyland!

We arrived in Disneyland Wednesday afternoon and I knew I would face food challenges not only for myself but for my ever resistant boys. It's much easier to eat healthy foods when that's all there is. But who wants a carrot stick or apple when there is cotton candy, deep fried corn dogs and gigantic cookie ice cream sandwiches? Holy crap...!!!

So in my attempts to eat and not live on prepackaged fruit alone here is my journal of what I ate and where. And I used the 2% rule which if I really new what I was eating probably would resemble a 20% rule. Ouch...

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Small coffee from McDonalds with some rice milk (most of the rice milk spilled in my purse, so I had just enough for my little coffee), one hash brown and one piece of English muffin (the side without the cheese from the breakfast sandwich my son had to have but didn't eat!)

Lunch: Vegetable soft tacos with no refried beans and extra vegetables. The vegetables were delicious, carrots, zucchini, onions, bell peppers. My guess would be the vegetables were cooked with butter and the rice with chicken broth. But that's OK for now. I'm making much better decisions. No cheese, no sour cream, and no animal protein. This was at Rancho del Zocalo in Disneyland.

Snack: shared a couple of bites of my 5 year old's monster rice crispy treat. (Can't we just consider marshmallows vegan? Please?)

Dinner: At the Pizza Port my 8 year old ordered spaghetti with marinara and meatballs. He ate the meatballs and we shared the pasta. My 5 year old had a huge piece of pizza and he gave me some of his crust. Kids don't like crust anyways and I love the crust of the pizza.

Normally I don't eat much pasta or bread. In fact I tend to avoid it like the plague, but it's a part of my life right now so we'll see. I prefer 100% whole wheat pasta and bread but it's not an option here at The Happiest Place On Earth.

Thursday:

Breakfast: I brought Rice Milk and TJ's version of Cheerios. I think they're called Joe's O's.

Snack: TJ's Whole Wheat Crackers or whatever they're called. I think they have flax seed in them.

Lunch: At the Farmers Market I bought the fresh fruit cup with apples, grapes, blueberries, pineapple, cantaloupe and mango, a veggie tray with grape tomatoes, baby carrots and celery. My sons and husband had corn dogs with french fries and apple slices. My sons don't like the corn breading. So they ate the hot dog and I ate their corn breading. I know, I know. There was probably egg, dairy &/or butter in the corn bread not to mention it was deep fried!

Snack: Back at the hotel room I had a TJ's Rice Noodle Bowl. It was delicious.

Dinner: I had a small garden salad with a little bit of Italian dressing, a bread stick and a kids portion of pasta with marinara sauce. Again with the pasta and bread! Oh yeah, and a huge serving of green beans but I'm pretty sure they were coated with butter. And a biscuit with strawberry jam. Is there anything else I haven't remembered?... I think that's it.

Friday:

Breakfast: Once again I had some Joe's O's and Rice Milk and coffee with Rice Milk.

Lunch: In California Adventure we ate at the Wharf. My husband always has a chowder bread bowl and shrimp Louie bread bowl and the boys follow suit. But I ate vegetable soft tacos again with no refried beans or cheese. They were delicious once again. I did however eat some of the boys bread bowl. It's sourdough. It's fine! Right?

Dinner: We went to a jungle and animal themed restaurant outside the park, where I had the worst veggie burger ever. It just didn't taste good not to mention there was an unidentifiable sauce that I didn't remember being in the menu description. Besides that being the only close to vegan option on the menu there was not one appetizer that didn't have dairy or chicken. I understand maybe the demand is low, but it sucks for me. I did have a moment of weakness with the fried calamari my husband ordered. Oh, and then there was dessert. I closed my eyes and with the shovel-sized spoon they brought out I dug in. Yes I did. I dug into chocolate brownie, a little bit of ice cream and a lot of whip cream. Again, a weakness. I'm still a young vegan with some weaknesses. And I know it. I won't kid myself. I'm sorry.

So that's my Disneyland food journal. Needless to say, being vegan at D-Land was difficult for me. There were plenty of fresh fruit options but I'm not much of a fruit eater, let alone fruit for every meal. I was hoping our one outside the park restaurant would have provided me better choices but it didn't.

However, I felt great. I didn't get a stomach ache once, which usually happens every night. We saved a little money on food because I planned who was eating what better. And maybe I will get a little more creative next trip. And then again maybe I will just bring my own food with me!