I must admit I've been waiting for my trip to Willy's Mexicana all week. I love the Mexican flavors of Willy's food. The variety of ingredients I get to create my lunch with 
are remarkable -- and all the ingredients are fresh every day. After I put rice, pinto beans and cheese in my bowl I continued down the Willy's food line and added seven more ingredients to my lunch. Ten ingredients total. That's so many items that I didn't even notice that a red meat protein was missing from my lunch. The jalapeno peppers added wonderful the required heat to my Mexican Salad. The red peppers, green salsa, and fresh guacamole was not only pleasing to look at, but, when I mixed them with the beans and rice, created a flavor explosion that can only be described by one word: CARUMBA! Oh, the corn chips made excellent little shovels to scoop my salad into bite size pleasures that had me talking in Spanish. OK, I admit it -- I was really just repeating carumba in between bites.
Willy's Mexican lunch stop ends five days of meatless lunches. This was a good experience for the GLOB Master because it is easy to see that meatless lunch opportunities abound all over Gainesville. If it had been the GLOB FAB Eight I would have included the Reggae Shack Cafe for a host of veggie entrees, Joe's Place for one of the better salad bars in town and La Fortuna for some of the best beans and rice around. So it is all about choices. I am going to do my best to be more responsible about the proteins I eat, especially on Meatless Mondays
- GLOB Master
The Jones Eatery on NW 23rd is recognized as one of the best organic, healthy and lunch stops in town with excellent meatless options. Along with Tasty Buddha, the Jones is a favorite lunch option of GLOB Content editor Lynn Dirk. It was difficult picking out a favorite lunch item on The Jones menu, but Lynn suggested I try Jones Eastside Falafel Burger. This uniquely green, mashed chick pea and fava bean falafel burger is served on a toasted bun drizzled with tahini ginger dressing served with green leaf lettuce, tomato, and red onion. This sandwich was a very beautiful green plus had great flavor, especially with the fresh veggies and dressing complementing the mashed chick pea texture. The bun had a perfect grilled flavor. The side of home fries also had a rich grilled flavor. This was a good meatless lunch alternative. Getting into the idea of being on the Mediterranean coast, I imagined wearing a giant white turban while munching lunch and outside the Jones window there were several Arabs sitting on camels in The Jones camel drive Thru.
- GLOB Master
I'm a bagel guy. Nothing is more fun than looking at rows of baskets chock full of different kinds of very tasty bagels. Jalapeno cheddar, sun dried tomato, everything, multi-grain, and onion are my FAB FIVE bagel choices. When White Apron Catering maven, Jules Gollner, called me and said let's have lunch at Bageland in Thornebrook, my brain went directly to the Black Bean Burger on a Sun Dried Tomato Bagel dressed out all the way. Oh man. I don't how they squeeze all the spices into this bean burger patty, but this sandwich packs a punch. This is an excellent sandwich that has your taste buds remembering the heat, spice and flavor combination long after lunch. The crunchy lettuce and onions add a nice refreshing crisp texture to the flavorful chew of the bagel. And then they pile on cantaloupe and an orange slice for a very filling lunch entree. Let's think about it for minute. I have five favorite bagels, so technically I could have a different black bean bagel sandwich every day of the week. Should I order my sandwiches alphabetically by the bagel name or by the number of ingredients included in the bagel?
- GLOB Master
I think I've mentioned before that I don't think there is really any bad pizza. It might be all about the crusts. Vellos Brick Street Grille flat bread pizzas have the thinnest, crispiest, crunchiest thin crusted pizza in Gainesville. They also have an assortment of mouth watering delicious toppings. A Vello's Roasted Vegetable Flat with tomato pesto, mushrooms, onions, red peppers, and spinach is a wonderful combination of flavors, and the pizza is large enough to share. GLOB Staffer Lynn Dirk joined me for this lunch so we also included a Wasabi Wedge salad, which includes romaine lettuce, tomato, cucumber, blue cheese, bacon, and wasabi dressing. This salad was enormous. Since it was a meatless lunch, we asked that the bacon be excluded from our salad. That wasabi dressing has an eye opening taste sensation that will give your lunch a kick start. Bacon is not necessary with dressing like that. This was an excellent lunch and an amazingly yummy pizza. I'm going back to Vellos for more!
- GLOB Master
When the Gainesville Lunch Out Blog decided meatless lunches would be the next GLOB FAB FIVE lunch out experience, my first thought went to Midtown's Designer Greens across from the UF campus. With more salad choices than you can imagine, DG has a Half 'n Half salad and flatbread sandwich special I could eat for lunch every day. The friendly staffers behind the counter are quick to accommodate your request. My most recent Half 'n Half was the Avocado Salad and a half of the Chicken Pepperjack Flatbread Sandwich. It was at the suggestion of the 'Designer Greens Girl' that I substituted a portobello mushroom for the chicken breast. The pepperjack and mushroom combination made for a nicely spicy sandwich on toasted flat bread that satisfied all my protein needs. The melted pepperjack cheese did an excellent job of melding the earthy flavored mushroom and flatbread together into a gooey, flavorful sandwich.
The DDG also suggested the Avocado Salad because it contains a lot of ingredients, including romaine lettuce, mandarin oranges, corn, red onions, hard boiled egg, candied sunflower seeds, and goat cheese as well as the avocado. I not a big fan of sweet items in my lunch, however the orange slices and citrus dressing brightened this salad and presented the GLOB Master with a very fresh, surprisingly tasty, crunchy salad experience. Designer Greens is a no brainer for GLOBers looking for a Meatless Monday alternative.
- GLOB Master