I love date night.

Eric and I try to have it weekly and the rules are:

• No talking about work/business
• No talking about the kids
• No phones/Internet

We eat, laugh, dream out loud-always a good time.

When I first started this vegan journey, date night used to be a bit like this....

*Sigh* I was so used to eating whatever....the thought of inspecting the menu for vegan options and grilling the server for details overwhelmed me. 

7 Tips for a fun vegan date night:

*Use happycow.net to find local vegan-friendly restaurants near you (this app is handy for travel, too).

*Not all beer/wine/liquor is vegan, so use Barnivore to see if what you're drinking is 

*Don't be afraid to ask for help - Since so many people have food allergies, servers are used to answering a lot of questions about ingredients.

Don't just say you're a vegan because most people aren't too clear about what that means - Ask specific questions like, "does this bread contain eggs or butter?" or "Is this soup made from vegetable or chicken broth?"

*Consider what's in the kitchen not necessarily what's on the menu - A lot of times there aren't any obvious vegan options on a menu, so try to think about what ingredients are in the kitchen and make a meal out of that. For instance, if there's a mushroom burger (beef patty with sautéed mushrooms) on the menu - you know there's mushrooms in the kitchen, so ask for a mushroom burger (minus the patty) with lettuce, tomato & onion instead.

See this blog post for more details 

*Some vegan options you can usually find on any menu:

-Black bean/veggie burger (check to make sure there isn't any egg in the patty and ask them to skip the cheese)

-Steamed vegetables and rice (make sure there's no butter-you can season it with salt & pepper) 

-Basic salad (skip the cheese & croutons-use balsamic vinaigrette as your dressing) 

-French fries & baked potato

*Skip the restaurant - Sometimes it's just easier not to think about food at all. Consider eating at home before the date and going to a concert, basketball game, movie or play putt-putt golf instead

*Relax!-Try not to let food rule your evening. Enjoy your boo and have a good time

Like I said in this post, vegan life is not uptight.

It's fun and with a few adjustments you will be just fine.

Happy date night!