So I have had some desire for “comfort foods” lately. I remember loving those Morton Fish sticks and filets and of course the horribly bad for you “fish and chips” as you might find at any Florida seafood restaurant.
Part of what makes those filets so darn good is the delish crispy and flaky crust as well as the way the fish kind of flakes when you cut it open with your fork. I totally wanted to try Gardein’s Golden Fishless Fish Filets because hey let’s face it if anyone can do it Chef Tal & his team are the ones that will!
I have to say the filets did NOT disappoint. While they aren’t as flaky as I recall fish being they flake very nicely and give the same visual appeal. The batter is crispy and not heavy. Absolutely perfect if you’re trying to go for a vegan fish n’chips! I used some of my Earth Balance Mindful Mayo and mixed in a bit of spicy mustard (I used Koop’s Horseradish mustard) and some horseradish as my “tartar sauce” and then proceeded to devour these yummie treats.
If you need a treat this will not disappoint you!
Go grab some and enjoy!
So it’s one thing for most ethical vegans to convert their wardrobe choices and food choices to completely vegan but for vegan women it becomes a different sort of investment to switch your beauty routine over.
I had always tried to purchase “Cruelty Free” but it’s a whole different story when you determine to purchase vegan toiletries.
When I had my beautiful princess baby in June of 2013 one thing that was highlighted for me was dental care. A blogger I read via Pinterest talked about Earthpaste so my hubby did some research and really liked the ingredients as well and we got some. It’s pricey at $7.99 a tube via Amazon or Whole Foods but the lemon flavor was delightful and left my teeth feeling smooth like I’d just been to the dentist.
It doesn’t contain fluoride which is NOT vegan and a big nasty thing maybe or maybe not linked to cancer and other nasty stuff. Well being a mama my girl gets only the best. Organic produce, good food, and vegan toiletries. So I thought sweet we are set. Well my weirdo husband decided his teeth didn’t feel “clean enough” after using it for a few months and gave up.
I was still attempting to finish my giant stash of “garden toothpaste” as my hubby jokingly calls it from Trader Joe’s so that I could make the switch. (I use their Fennel, Myrrh and Propolis toothpaste and personally I love the flavor lol…hubby says it tastes like a garden.)
Enter the glorious Vegan Cuts I had been blessed with 3 months of food boxes for my birthday last year and 3 months of beauty boxes for Christmas. I LOVE that I can eat anything in their snack boxes as its ALL vegan and that the beauty boxes are ALL vegan.
So I have tried and loved some great products because of Vegan Cuts and I think their boxes are very well priced for what you get and every month is a fun treat! Since they’re a company I trust I went looking for toothpaste and found The Dirt Now this is their direct website and I bought via Vegan Cuts and got the powder and copper tongue scraper. I believe it was much less expensive via Vegan Cuts as well.
So my beautifully packaged Dirt arrived and I was anxious to give it a whirl. Now I was only a tiny bit hesitant as it is branded as having cinnamon and orange as flavors. Both of which are flavors I am not fond of. I loved some cinnamon in my homemade apple pie and I love fresh oranges and orange juice but not things flavored with either generally. So just to be clear this isn’t a tooth paste. It is powder and you wet your toothbrush to get it on there and then brush as usual.
I have to say I really really enjoyed the flavor. It was really good. The thing that made me laugh, and this could have just been because I am somewhat obsessed with The Walking Dead at the moment, but I didn’t quite realize I had to spit and it kind of ran out of my mouth. And yes, it literally looked like I was eating dirt. So I played out the awesome zombie moment.
I have been using my Dirt paste ever since I received it and I love the way my teeth feel. I have receding gums from grinding my teeth and the exposed roots are extremely sensitive. I have noticed a big difference in my teeth not being sensitive at all. So my reviews for The Dirt is buy it. It’s yummiest tasting and leaves your teeth feeling like they’ve just been cleaned by the dentist except without any chemicals or anything unnatural. I’ll let you know if the promise of the jar lasting 6 months is accurate. Hubster and I are currently sharing it so by my guesstimate it should run out sometime mid to late December.
Check it out! If you’ve got a dirty mouth, clean it up with The Dirt!
So…I had a hankering to try Gardein’s “meat loaf” when I saw it in the freezer section. Now I have to say I made a wicked good meat loaf when I wasn’t vegan. With brown gravy and onions and it was phenomenal so I had that memory to contend with.
As soon as we put it in the pan to cook and it started heating up I smelled the familiar aroma of a meatloaf. This kind of brought me back because the smell reminded me of being a kid and my mom’s meatloaf. I know it’s no fancy meal but meatloaf and mashed potatoes was always a favorite meal when I was a kid. And when I was 11 it was the first full meal I ever made and I cooked for our extended family for my mom’s 40th birthday.
Now between memories and pure enjoyment Gardein had a whole lot to contend with. The smell hit the spot and had me waiting very impatiently to devour my meatloaf.
As soon as it was served up the smell and texture when I cut into it were just as I remembered. So the final test was gravy and the taste. Now on a scale of 1-10 I would give this meatloaf a 9. It would be a perfect 10 for me without celery. I have this WEIRD aversion to celery that I literally hate it so intensely I rarely eat anything if it shows it in the ingredients. However, every bite didn’t have celery and once I was made aware I completely removed any remnant of celery before I ate any more. I know this sounds mental but you truly cannot comprehend my disgust for celery.
So I applaud Gardein for a job WELL done and highly recommend this product to anyone who misses Mama’s yummie meatloaf. I will say this isn’t meatloaf as some friends I knew growing up ate it: with ketchup and red sauce. This is good old authentic meatloaf and it is well spent money and a fast meal to fix! Next time I might throw a side of Earth Balance Mac n’Cheese onto the plate to really get nostalgic!
I shamefully admit to devouring my meatloaf prior to taking a photo to document the beauty and deliciousness but I promise to do so ASAP as we will absolutely have this again!
If you know anything at all about me you know that I LOVE Annie Shannon of Meet the Shannons also the famous author of Betty Goes Vegan. If I hadn’t found Meet the Shannons I am not sure I could have survived year one of being vegan. Annie’s pantry checklist helped me be a smart shopper and her comfort food recipes helped me not miss any meats.
Anyway, when I finally decided to give into my quiche craving, what better source than a recipe from who I believe the be a vegan goddess!!!
So I found this recipe by Annie for quiche lorraine and decided to give it a whirl.
It wasn’t too difficult to make (I used my Kitchen Aid instead of hand rolling the dough,) and we didn’t add any liquid smoke, but somehow we messed it up. It had a funky after taste, which I have NEVER encountered when following an Annie Shannon recipe precisely. I did enjoy it as it had a great quiche like texture but we didn’t devour it like I wanted to because it had an odd taste.
I am absolutely going to try to make this again using my own pie crust recipe, (I also messed up by using butter for 8 tbsp of the required shortening which definitely affected the crust texture,) and following the quiche recipe to a “t” minus the liquid smoke.
The photos are decent and so was the quiche but I still highly recommend trying it out!!
I don’t know about y’all but are you as addicted to Pinterest as I am?!?!
There have been some beautiful photos of heirloom tomatoes and being a lover of a good tomato, you know I had to hit up my local Whole Foods and check for some lovely organic heirlooms. They did not disappoint.
As a vegan people think we can’t have pimp breakfasts or awesome and amazing meals because we can’t eat dead animals. Well I have to say why eat something dead when you can eat something vibrant and dripping with ripe goodness?!
I pimped my breakfasts for a few days and got my everything bagel topped with some Go Veggie cream cheese with garlic and chives and then some fresh chives and finally a beautiful heirloom tomato with a sprinkle of Pink Himalayan Sea Salt and a dash of fresh ground pepper.
If you haven’t indulged yet get them while they last!! What’s your favorite tomato? I think green heirlooms are mine!!
Oh Earth Balance why do you make me love you so very much?!
What’s a better night then a night at home to watch crappy movies (well good movies in my opinion, however, the movie review will secede the product review,) eat some vegan and cruelty free Mac n Cheese and have a beer or two?! Not to mention a night alone. And by alone I of course mean a sleeping baby upstairs, and four cats sprawled out on my lap.
So as any good vegan mama would do I tucked in my precious girl and headed downstairs to make some nommie Mac n Cheese brought to vegans and lactose intolerant worldwide by the lovely folks at Earth Balance. (Who may I add make my favorite “butter,” and I have officially switched to their “mayo” after a CRAZY sale price offer I couldn’t refuse and now they make my favorite Mac n Cheese!!!) I popped open a Kona Golden Ale which is also made lovingly vegan. And may I add a super light and slightly sweet perfect summer time beer! Then I set to work on my Mac n Cheese.
First off it is AS easy to make as that blue box junk made by the non-vegan company (who I really hate now with their “kale is nasty and needs fatty death laden ranch dressing to taste good campaign” Kale is my favorite veggie. Who needs nasty ranch on it?! But I digress.) It was box to bowl in about 20-25 mins as it took mine the full 12 minutes to cook and of course you’ve got to add time to boil in. Then you add the magical “buttery spread” and I used Whole Foods organic unsweetened almond milk as my milk. The consistency is NAILED as the Mac n Cheese I remember. The taste is super nice.
Now I’ve been vegan for 5 years so my taste buds have had a chance to reset and I don’t really even eat cheese except the occasional Daiya grilled cheese when I need comfort food and my monthly treat of Kite Hill White Alder which I would eat every single day by the pound if it weren’t for the price, which this stay at home mama can’t swing! SO for me to love this stuff says a lot. I love Daiya melted on a pizza every now and then or a grilled cheese, like I mentioned but I don’t “crave” cheese.
This Mac n Cheese may have changed ALL that. Wow is it a tasty treat and the $2.99/box price tag was a gasp for me as I expected it to cost far more. So for creamy, dreamy, Mac n cheesy look no further. I have only tried the white cheddar as the regular was out but I will review the regular once I’ve had it.
I tasted a few spoonfuls of it in the “natural” state then kicked it up a bit more gourmet and added about 1/8 cup Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce and two Dorot Garlic cubes and I had some killer Marti-style Mac n Cheese!!!! Which ironically made the color look super similar to that non-vegan brand!
The “sausage” next to it is one of my favorite treats and is Tofurky Italian Sausage with sundried tomato Truly delish. And I always dip my sausage in Koops Horseradish Mustard
This dinner proved to be every bit worth the wait for my solo night.
Dear owners of Kite Hill Nut Milk Cheeses,
Can I please have you adopt me as your own? I realize this could be an inconvenience as I am married and have a baby and 4 cats but you happen to make THE most delicious Brie like cheese I have ever eaten.
I haven’t had Brie in at least 4 years since I became vegan. Even when I ate cheese it was maybe 2-3 times a year that I would treat myself to it. But I spent the $13.99 for the little wheel of White Alder and had great anticipation.
To say I LOVE your cheese is an understatement. I LOVE this cheese. It’s like crack, and no I haven’t ever had it but it’s like really good sex, shoot I don’t want to get obscene but I can’t tell you in appropriate words how much I love this cheese.
I actually allow myself one wheel per month lol. The first week of every month I buy myself some at Whole Foods. I allow myself to indulge and I eat it on the original Ezekial Bread (the orange loaf) with a light spread of Earth Balance Buttery Spread and a light spread of White Alder. Then I add on the side 4 pieces of LightLife Smart Bacon and I could literally go to heaven in a bite.
I am not sure how you have nailed the texture of the “outer crust” of the dairy brie, but you did. I’m not sure how you made the middle creamy and soft and slightly sticky like dairy Brie, but you did.
I am not sure how you have created a vegan masterpiece or why you can’t make it multiply when I open my fridge to find one more packet but I love your cheese. I do. If I could marry a cheese this would be “the one.” My cheesy soul mate.
This is the cheese that you “wait” until you get married for. Daiya is the good time cheese, the trusty one. The one you bring home to meet your parents. But Kite Hill White Alder Cheese…you ARE Prince Charming. White horse, Ferrari, mansion, pool, piles of money…satin sheets…yes. You ARE the one.
So, in closing, would you be MINE and mine alone? Seduce me with your slightly savory, oh so creamy, perfectly textured amazingly flavored cheese. Never leave me. Just promise you can stay. Forever. Oh how I love you!
xxxx
Please know, Kite Hill has in no way paid me to stalk, endorse or love them the way I do. I’m just obsessed. And please don’t get a restraining order. Because I can’t love without this cheese!!!
My cruddy iPhone pics of Kite Hill’s beautifully designed package:
Well I am officially 26 weeks and a few days pregnant. I can’te tell you how worried practitioners and friends are about a vegan getting enough protein. I really have to laugh in hindsight, because their panic caused me to really be worried. My hubby and I use an iphone app called “Lose it” which you can also log online at www.loseit.com because prior to getting pregnant I was on the road to wellness and losing weight. We decided to ensure I didn’t gain too much weight while pregnant and to monitor my intake of food, calories and nutrition, we would continue to use the app.
Thank goodness for this app. I can see every meal, every food, every day how much of my key nutrients, including protein, that I eat. And most often it is 80-100 + grams of protein per day. I now have my ‘loaded weapon’ of proof when people ask “how do you get enough protein?” There are so many annoying things about people making assumptions when you are pregnant. Like touching you…NO it’s not okay to touch my stomach, as my t-shirt that my wonderful hubby got me says “If you didn’t put it in there, don’t touch it.” It’s odd, and rude to be honest. You don’t just grab someone because they are pregnant.
I also get a bazillion questions on my vitamins…well how do you get your DHA? I get it from the source, which is seagrass/seaweed…not from the fish that eat it. They DO in fact make really good vegan prenatal vitamins AND DHA! I get plenty of vitamin D from the Florida sunshine and the rest of the vitamins, minerals, amino acids, I get from food! It really IS possible!
I started off my pregancy strong eating loads of kale, spinach and tons of greens and salads and fruits and veggies. Then the second trimester came…and as it progressed so did my desire for carbs, cookies, ice creams, cake, cupcakes, sweets, etc. I have a total aversion now to greens really. I still love my kale & tofu that the hubby cooks up, and in fact I think we’ll eat that tonight, but I can’t stand the idea of a salad. SO…thank goodness for the Blendtec! I just make smoothies…pack in the greens then throw in my fruit and almond or coconut milk and some vegan protein powder and BAM! A healthy fruit/veggie packed snack that I can count on to give me those healthy vitmains and minerals from my greens.
I honestly think it would be much harder to eat meat while you’re pregnant. I developed such strong food aversions in my first trimester that subsided a bit in the middle of my second trimester but have come back with a vengeance. I cannot stomach the smell of any kind of burger cooking…meat, boca, vegan, etc. Enter Hillary’s Adzuki Bean Burgers which just smell like a blend of spices since they are seasoned spectacularly and are totally plant based! Delicious!
So basically if I WERE a preggo carnivore, I wouldn’t have any real protein options since the smell of everything is off putting. I am so thankful I can enjoy tofu, seitan and tempeh! And hello BEANS and quinoa and grains are also loaded with proteins and rich in vitamins. Keeping it real with whole foods is the way to go…vegan or not!
Some people have attributed my lack of morning sickness and general great healthy pregnancy to being vegan, I attribute it to a blessing. No one knows WHAT causes some ladies to get morning sickness and others not to but I am glad I didn’t deal with it. I just can’t wait for her to be born and show everyone it is SO possible to have a healthy baby that was a vegan pregnancy AND a baby that is raised vegan with a breast feeding vegan Mama!
Hungry Tiger Too left me feeling well, hungry and unsatisfied. I am all about second chances, and because this place was recommended to me by QuarryGirl I will definitely try it again during my next visit to Portland. We arrived slightly before 7pm, and outside service ends at 7pm. It was a warmer day, and inside was unquestionably too warm for us. SO we decided to get takeout. Mind you, it was a 15 minute ride back to our hotel, so everything was pretty cool and soggy by the time we got back to the hotel. THAT said, I found the food just okay. There was nothing exceptional about the flavor or taste and I thought the prices were high for what you got. Having eaten at places like Prasad and Blossoming Lotus I was really disappointed. AGAIN, I said we will try it next time we’re in PDX AND dine in because QuarryGirl said it’s one of her favorites.
I ordered Biscuits & Gravy with vegan sausage patties on the side. For $6 I got the picture below of 2 biscuits (they are cut in half so you see 4…) and the sausage patties were literally two tiny patties for $3. Maybe it’s because I am from the south, and I know what Biscuits & Gravy should taste like as I ate it OFTEN at Cracker Barrel when I was not vegan. And these were a far cry from real biscuits & gravy. Not enough pepper in the gravy, the sausage wasn’t spicy enough and the biscuits were really dough heavy instead of fluffy. I am no restaurant owner, but I could have done a WAY better job on these myself. In fact, we do our own biscuits, thanks to a recipe from Annie Shannon which is identical to the Red Lobster ‘Cheesy’ Biscuits. We use those, make our own sausage gravy and any southerner would appreciate our dish. TRUE biscuits & gravy. LOADED with sausage and quality fluffy biscuits. BIG thumbs down there.
My hubby ordered the Cougar Club, which was firm local tofu, tempheh bacon, vegan cheese sauce, jalepeno with lettuce, tomato and onion on a Kaiser roll. That was $9.75 and he got a side of fries with it. That was pretty good. I will definitely try that again as we microwaved it and it was good, but I bet fresh at the restaurant it would actually be pretty darn good.
I was told on day 1 to skip Hungry Tiger Too and I probably could have, but I will give it another shot when we are next in PDX. But if you’re a true southerner like me…from the ‘deep south,’ skip the biscuits and gravy because you’ll just be sad afterwards!!!
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- From down the street….food awaits.
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- Finally arrived at Hungry Tiger Too
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- The Cougar Club with a side of fries
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- Biscuits and gravy?
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- “side” of sausage
Oh Prasad how I love you. Let me count the ways…2 visits in 2 days in Portland. And I have replicated your meals for lunches for myself back home. Now I just need the garlic tahini dressing recipe because I LOVE that stuff.
We had the pleasure of stopping at Prasad a few times while in Portland, OR. We thought that it would be a great lunch to take on the road the first day, when we went to Seaside and Cannon Beach, Oregon. It turned out we were absolutely correct. I ordered the Dragon Bowl and it came with quinoa, red beans (my favorite,) wakame (sea vegetables,) avocado, kale sesame seeds, scallions and red cabbage. And I opted for the garlic tahini dressing. Not only was this a huge and filling meal, but it was protein packed and left me feeling energized and great as we enjoyed a beautiful cool day outside. I did try my hubby’s meal, and he got the Chili Bowl with brown rice, roasted garlic chili, steamed kale, avocado, scallions, cilantro, green chili and garlic tahini sauces. It was lovely as well but I preferred mine.
Mom got a salad and ordered up the Bliss Salad (we don’t have pictures of hers,) with dried currants and figs, walnuts, quinoa, beets, carrots and mixed greens with lemon ginger dressing. She said it was awesome, flavorful and delicious.
One common denominator in all of our items was FRESH. The food was SO fresh and perfectly cooked. We had it cold by the time we ate it but we all felt that the flavor and quality was awesome nonetheless.
Day two of Prasad I wanted to try something new and I got the Mighty Bowl with quinoa, steamed kale, red beans, and garlic tahini sauce. Oh man was it good. I think I liked the Dragon Bowl better only because of the wakame and cabbage. But this was excellent.
My hubby tried the Urban Bowl with mixed greens with olive oil, steamed kale, cabbage, sea vegetables, avocado, carrots, scallions sesame & hemp seeds and got jalepeno cashew cheese dressing. That was also awesome. The dressing was great and such a wonderful flavor combination!
And Mom ordered Pasta Fresca with zucchini noodles tossed in sun-dried tomato pesto, with carrots and spinach, topped with cashew ricotta. For a non-vegan, she really really enjoyed that as well. And for me, it was a really nice tasty treat!
Prasad we love you. I so wish that there were something remotely close in FL, but alas, Portland awaits me. I sure did leave my heart there. The other thing I loved about Prasad was its friendly and kind staff. Each time we were there we interacted with several staff members, all of whom were extremely polite and they seemed to work together as a team flawlessly. GREAT place to eat and I can’t wait to hang out more when I become an Oregonian!
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- The Dragon Bowl with Garlic Tahini
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- The Chili Bowl
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- The Mighty Bowl
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- The Urban Bowl
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- Pasta Fresca
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