I finally ate at Sweet Tomatoes Restaurant. So now I understand that it's a vegetarian buffet. I wonder why no one ever said that - I mean no one ever said it was vegetarian. It's almost vegan except for ice cream and some other small items like bacon bits etc..

That doesn't mean it's totally healthy-eating; there are loads of unhealthy processed foods. It's like any other buffet: If you want to eat healthy, you have to carefully pick and choose the healthiest unprocessed items.

Personally, I think Golden Corral has a slight edge over them.

Is "vegetarian buffet" the new term for "salad bar"? I don't think it approaches vegan. They have pepperoni pizza, butter, sour cream, chili, meat based soups, cheeses, hard boiled eggs, tuna and chicken salads, etc.

We're you confused on which end to start? Did they make you pay when you went back for seconds? How did they know you already paid? Did you use a coupon?

They seem to offer a lot of vegetarian choices, but also turkey taco salad!

Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes : Locations & Menus

I believe the early bird special and The Villages resident discount are about the same. At any rate, the salad is good and the soups are even better. Price includes desert. They also have pizza, breads, baked potatoes, etc. Good meal for the money.

No subsequent trips are free. They know by the way you enter the line. I bring my receipt just in case they are super busy.

I didn't see any of the above items except one soup had something in it that was supposed to be meat, according to my friend. I tried some and it didn't taste like real meat; it might have been soy. There were no hard boiled eggs, no tuna and chicken salads, etc. No pepperoni pizza. The chili didn't appear to have any meat in it. Where were the cheeses? Oh, I think there was a salad dressing that included tiny little slivers of something that resembled cheese - could have been imitation cheese.

The tuna salad is on the line...................

Yeah, I made all that stuff up.

Sign up on-line for their loyalty program and you will have all of the coupons you want!

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I would love to be able to track how much time you spend shopping, selecting, reading about and preparing food. It must be a full time job.

And God Bless you if that's what you enjoy doing and feel that it's keeping you in the best of health.

We love most all vegetables; but I would imagine the two hardest things about being a vegan is the labor involved in preparing a meal and then still feeling hungry afterward.

As it is, it's not unusual for me and/or my husband to spend two to three hours a day in the kitchen just fixing three normal meals, nothing fancy.

I didn't see any turkey taco salad. I didn't see any meat dishes at all.

Here, I'll make it easy for you:

Shopping for food twice per week: Total time spent about 45 minutes.
Reading about health, food and nutrition etc. about 1 to 2 hour per week.
Preparing meals: About 1 & 1/2 hours per day.

Here's why people are often so wrong: Once a routine is established it doesn't require a lot of thought, same as for those who eat a poor diet routinely.