TLC series includes a vegan diner on its list of 10 best and “The Today Show” helps us green our kitchens. Just two more reasons to say “I Want My Green TV.”
“Best Foods Ever” Goes Vegan
Typically, when a foodie TV show travels around the country looking for yummy treats, the meals discovered are filled with meat and cheese and all sorts of unhealthy fare. TLC’s new show, “Best Foods Ever,” switched it up this week by including a vegan locale.
The six-episode series is narrated by “Rosanne”/”Treme” star John Goodman and each show covers a list of 10 places in a category. This week’s episode, “Darn Good Diners,” visited greasy spoons from Massachusetts to Memphis, and included an all-vegan establishment.
They stopped by The Chicago Diner for a taste of their acclaimed Radical Reuben. Bet you’re asking the same thing we did. A Reuben? How do you make a Reuben without meat?
Well, the Chi-town haunt uses seitan roast beef (made from wheat gluten). Throw on some grilled onions and peppers, sauerkraut, soy cheese and vegan dressing and put it all on some nice fresh rye bread. Voila. A meatless and delicious Reuben.
The diner has been meat free since ’83 and still manages to include comfort foods from chili to meatball subs to enchilada pizza, all without harming a single living being.
The episode of “Best Food Ever” also covered nine other diners. And while we were intrigued by the Monkey French Toast (caramelized bananas and mangoes between two pieces of challah bread) served up at Sam’s Morning Glory in Philadelphia, we were delighted that they at least put one vegan stop on the list.
“‘Today’ Goes Green”
Everybody else might have been firing up the grill, but we carved out a piece of our Memorial Day Weekend to reorganize our kitchen. And thanks to a segment on last week’s “Today Show” we not only made it look prettier, it’s now way more eco-friendly, too.
The morning show’s diet and nutrition editor Madelyn Fernstrom walked notorious foodie Al Roker around the kitchen set with some really helpful tips as part of their ongoing “‘Today’ Goes Green” series.
We plan on employing the very useful tips like installing a water purifier to cut down on plastic bottles and cooking with a crock pot that not only is less of an electricity drain than an oven, but keeps the kitchen cool. We’re also going to clean all the extra junk out of our fridge so that it uses less energy. And we might skip the tip about ditching our electric can opener for a manual version, but we’ll make up for it by composting.
And, in case you’re wondering, the segment went off without a hitch – almost. Ann Curry did accidentally walk in through the kitchen door mid-segment. It was her her second faux pas of the week. Her first? Naming grads from Wheaton College in Illinois during her commencement speech at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts.
For more green kitchen tips visit “The Today Show’s” website.
Tune in next time to see what’s cropping up on green TV.
Image: Jason Anfinsen