Vegan by Valerie

Mission Impossible: Vegan in Vegas (and a giveaway winner)

I’ve never talked about this on the blog before, but….. I’m married to a man with a gambling problem.

Just kidding…. kinda

Mike, his parents, brother, and grandmother love everything about Vegas from the gambling to the pool and try to go every summer.  While it’s not my favorite choice for a vacation destination, I go because it’s fun to hang out with the family, it’s relaxing, I get to read by the pool, and I get to eat at buffets!

But wait, you ask, aren’t you a vegan?  How can you eat at the prime rib-laden, cheese tray filled buffets?

Funny you should ask.  As it turns out, Vegas is very vegan-friendly, if you know where to look!

This year we stayed at The Mirage, which is my favorite Vegas hotel I’ve stayed at so far (compared to Planet Hollywood and The Monte Carlo).

One of the best parts about The Mirage is that The Beatles Love Cirque de Soleil show is playing there….

…which means that I got to go!! My mother and I went one night while the boys gambled.  The show was amazing….. I had high hopes, and it absolutely surpassed all of my expectations!  Made me soooo jealous of those that have actually seen a Beatle live in Concert (yes, I’m talking to you, Abby!)

We got decent-priced tickets ($50) which was a steal compared to their regular value of $100-$150.  I definitely recommend it, especially if you are an obsessed Beatles fan like myself!

Here’s our hotel room (coolest pillow ever):

We ate about 6 meals at The Mirage buffet, which ended up being a great thing.  While as you can expect, about 95% of the buffet was off-limits to vegans, I did find a few items that I loved and was happy to eat over and over.

I won’t show you 6 plates of the same thing, but I got a TON of avocado sushi (complete with loads of ginger and wasabi, of course) with either peanut butter/maple syrup oatmeal or peanut butter and honey on wheat bread – a girl’s gotta have her dessert!  I also had a side salad (sometimes a large plate of salad) with chickpeas, olives, hummus… lots of good stuff.

I had at least 15 sushi rolls per meal.. sometimes much more.  Thankfully for my waistline, we only eat two meals a day in Vegas!  This plate had some extras (guac, etc) but I soon realized that only the salad and sushi was worthwhile, so that’s what I stuck to for the rest of the meals at The Mirage.

Fruit and PB oatmeal (this was about 1/3 the amount of oatmeal I had in one serving though, FYI)

Another perk of The Mirage is their amazing spa/gym! I was given a complimentary gym pass, otherwise you have to purchase a pass.  However, it might be worth it – all of the machines have TVs on them, there are ample cardio and weight machines, free water bottles, and the kind employees come around offering cold towels.

This ‘gym membership’ was quite wonderful and during the 5 days we were there I easily squeezed in an 8 mile run, a 4 mile run, and two other days of cardio and weight training.

Though I didn’t use the spa services, I did peak around and the sauna and hot tubs looked very swanky.

(I do have to note, however, that while I didn’t use it, there did seem to be another, smaller gym (by the pool and the frozen yogurt shop) that had a few machines and may have been free??)

Our one ‘non-buffet’ meal was at Stripburger, where we also dined last summer.

I got the veggie burger but asked for it sans bun (I didn’t like the bun the last time I ordered it) on a salad and with extra avocado on top.  It sounded good in my head….

We all split the sweet potato fries, which were delicious!

Thankfully I had quite a few fries since my entree came looking like this…

Ummm…. this is what you call a salad?!? The burger itself was pretty flavorful and once I smothered it in avocado and ketchup it was edible…. but if you go there, perhaps be a little more clear than I was when you are placing your order.

Mike and I <3 outdoor escalators!  Why don’t they have these in Chicago?  Oh right… perhaps it’s the bitter cold and treacherous snowstorms…

I snacked on a Gnu bar before my 8 miler, along with some Vega Sport Optimizer (forgive me for posting these pictures out of order)….

I read an amazing book by the pool… I can’t wait to talk about it with you soon!  It’s quite possibly the most inspiring/motivational book I’ve ever read.

Sippin on some sizzuuuurp tequila + squirt, one of the two drinks I had while in Vegas.  See kids, it’s possible to have fun in Vegas even if you don’t gamble, drink, eat junk food, or tan….

The lounge at The Mirage was called Revolution (the name of a Beatles song).  Love that!

One of those lovely salads I spoke of earlier:

We ate at the Paris buffet one night, which was decent but nothing special.  Basically my dinner consisted of an enormous salad plate, times two, olives and hummus, and fruit for dessert.

I supplemented this lackluster meal with a Flying Vegan bar – much better

Five days in Vegas is a long time to be without green smoothies and fresh juices!! Thankfully (and shockingly), I found a juice bar in the Vegas airport.  I got a wheatgrass shot (unpictured) and a carrot juice. Just what the doctor ordered!

Don’t be fooled, Mike definitely did not get a carrot juice (his shirt simply made a nice backdrop for the photo!) and instead got something manly and carnivorous…. I don’t want to embarrass him in case any of his friends are reading

The juice may have hit the spot, but it didn’t fill me up.  For satiety I turned to a YouBar, the Lala flavor.  This was the second YouBar I had in Vegas and they were both soooo delicious!! My mother in law is begging me for more.

The kind folks at YouBar are going to give me a coupon code for you guys to get a discount when you purchase their bars, but I don’t have it yet.  I’ll try to get that to ya soon….

Speaking of fun discounts/giveaways, the winner of the CSN Shopping Spree giveaway is….

Lea from Healthy Coconut! Congrats Lea… email me (VeganByValerie@gmail.com) with your full address.

Tomorrow I’ll be back with (hopefully good) things to say about my 16 miler.  Til then, Happy Saturday!

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