FAST/VEGAN

Ok… chips and salsa. It’s a pretty standard snack. And guess what! It’s something that vegans and non-vegans can enjoy TOGETHER!!!!

It’s one of my favorite snacks, and I like trying different kinds of Tortilla chips and different kinds of Salsa. The other week the co-op had all of Desert Pepper Trading Co’s salsas and dips on sale so I decided to give them a chance.

Be careful, only the salsa’s are vegan! Desert Pepper makes a Black Bean/White Bean/Pinto Bean dip which looked good to me but when I looked at the jar they all contain milk! Very unfortunate. But the salsa is vegan.

I tried two different salsas, only one pictured here. The first one I tried (not pictured) was the “Roasted Tomato Chipotle Corn Salsa”. This salsa is excellent! It is thick, flavorful, has a lot of corn chunks in it, and is interesting to the taste without being spicy just for the sake of being spicy. I highly recommend it.

The second salsa (pictured) I saved for last because I thought it was going to be better… “Salsa Diablo”. I didn’t even expect it to be truly hot, but not only that, it was super watery, especially in comparison to the first salsa. I think it’s crazy that a company can make such inconsistent products! I’d almost call this salsa downright bad. I mean, its better than Tostito’s or other incredibly drab salsas, but it literally seems like they thought that by adding “heat” that no one would notice they were removing flavor.

Regular price: ~$4

The chips I used were also on sale, Kettle “Tias!” (Toasted Corn). These are Kettle’s take on plain tortilla chips and they do it very well. However, the regular price point of $3.49 is not super aggressive. I would probably choose a cheaper chip, as the salsa is really what makes it. That said , these chips are “golden” and well salted. They really pack enough flavor that you could even enjoy eating them on their own if you wanted to.

Ummm… I guess that is all.

Sorry for lack of updates.! More soon!

Well, today I am eating the Organic Stuffed Shells from Rising Moon Organics.

Honestly, not that different from the Lasagna I ate last week. This is pretty much the exact same product but with a different kind of noodle. However, I guess that’s really what matters when it comes to pasta. I mean… the noodle makes the pasta.

I don’t have a whole lot to say honestly! It’s good. It’s just as good as the lasagna. It cost the same price as the lasagna. I guess I might get this instead sometimes because shells are cool.

It’s a little sad that they only give you three shells, because when I was growing up and ate stuffed shells I would always eat five shells. If they gave me five shells they would have triggered an emotional childhood memory, but no, instead they just gave me three shells and no such memory was triggered.

Well…. 370 calories. Enjoy!

~$4.79

Today I’m eating Amy’s Indian Vegetable Korma. Found in your grocer’s freezer!

Anyway, I find Amy’s stuff to be really hit or miss. Luckily, this time I think it’s a hit! This is definitely one of the better “vegetable korma” frozen meals that I have eaten. No, that’s not a joke! I’ve eaten more of them! Seriously!

I’m happy with the amount of food inside as well - a lot of time’s with these you open it up and the amount of food is so much less than you would expect to get.

I’m a little disappointed by the representation of the food on the cover of the box. The beans look super brown, but when I made them they were almost greenish or something. Maybe this has to do with the oils soaking in, I don’t know…

This is a real flavorful dish. Super tasty and even the rice wasn’t dry!

It’s also a little sketchy that when I finished there was a nice neon coating the inner carton (see the last picture). I guess that just tells you this thing has a lot of oils in it. Probably not anything to be really worried about… but I just imagine the insides of my intestines glazed over, glowing in the dark.

~$4.00 (I lost the receipt, but I think?)

310 calories! 28% sodium, but also 28% dietary fiber!!!!! Whoa!! Sign me up.

Alright! Today I went to the store wondering what I would get to eat, since yesterday nothing good was on sale. Today to my amazement and happiness all the sales had changed! So needless to say, I stocked up on a few things which should keep me eating the rest of the week!

Today I’m eating something I’ve had before, but due to the price, not super often. This is Rising Moon Organics’ “Organic Lasagna (with sauce)”. Rising Moon Organics makes some pretty cool things, but not everything they make is vegan, so I was slightly surprised the first time I saw this and noticed the bad-ass Certified Vegan logo on it. Of course I was interested and had to pick it up, even though it was not on sale at the time.

The preparation is pretty easy. There are oven directions, which I imagine could be great because they might make the top of the lasagna nice and crispy. I used the microwave directions. Poke a hole, about 5 minutes in the microwave, stir it a little bit and you are done.

This product really is everything I love and nothing that I hated about lasagna. Hopefully this isn’t a gross comparison, but it sort of reminds me of a somewhat higher-quality school lunch from middle school or something. (We had pre-packaged school lunches for a long time when I was growing up). There are good herbs and flavors inside here, but no giant chunks of onions or garlic or something weird which I wasn’t expecting. I like my lasagna to be simple, unless I am choosing personally what to put inside it!

The taste is all there. I love the soy ricotta! It’s so good! I was a big fan of Ricotta cheese. I was the weirdo who would want to eat the leftover ricotta with a spoon after mom was done making the lasagna in the pan. I might have a bit forgotten what real ricotta taste like, but I think the soy ricotta comes real close. I would be surprised if you gave this to a non-vegan and they knew the difference.

Price point on this is a little high ~$5. However, literally everything for the most-part inside is organic. Organic parsley, organic oil, herbs, brown rice syrup, lemon juice, etc.

Personally, I don’t care that much if what I am eating is organic, and I wish that there was another company who made a non-organic version, as this is a serious reason why people think being vegan is expensive! Organic and vegan do not have to go hand in hand and though I do think organic is pretty cool and good, it would be great if more companies realized that it really stops a lot of people away from giving veganism a chance!

Ok now that I got all intense, I must say this thing is super great, and if you can justify paying around $5 for a meal (really not too bad) this is a decent choice, however only 380 calories. Usually leaves me feeling content/full at least for a bit! It’s actually better because I’d probably wind up wanting to eat a snack anyway.

Until next time… Don’t forget to take your multivitamin!!!

Alright, so this thing has been sitting on my desk for awhile. Kitchens of India “Red Kidney Beans Curry (Rajma Masala)” I decided it was time to eat it. I’ve had this before, need to be in the right mood for it. Actually, I am the ultimate lazy. Give me something I need to pour in a bowl and I probably won’t want to eat it for lunch because… I have to pour it into a bowl, I have to clean the bowl… ahhh!!!

Anyway, some people like Indian food and some people don’t. I personally really like it but going out to eat to get it always scares me a little because Indian restaurants like to say they are vegan and dairy-free but seem to always forget that butter (i.e. ghee) is an animal product, as well as yogurt, as well as cheese…

Well, the world could really benefit from an all-vegan Indian restaurant, but until that time I’ll stick to what I know!

Kitchens of India offers a variety of pre-packaged easy to make Indian food, which you can microwave, or heat on the stove if you are morally opposed to microwaves. For me, well, I don’t even have a stove at work so I’m sort of forced to use the microwave. Who am I kidding though, I’d probably use it at home also.

The box on the outside is really a waste of packaging. You open it and inside is just a pouch. Why couldn’t they just do their printing on the pouch itself? If you have ever eaten Tasty Bite (I will probably review it in the future) this pouch looks really familiar. Another thing that annoys me about this versus Tasty Bite is that Tasty Bite instructions say to tear open the pouch and microwave the pouch itself, which makes things a lot easier. Kitchens of India directions tell you to empty the pouch into a bowl… and the pouch looks “metal-colored” which makes me too scared to put it in the microwave anyway.

So… pour into a bowl, cover, microwave for ~2 minutes, burn your hands taking it out (something mostly avoided with the pouch!!!) and enjoy!

The taste, well, for this particular variety, liking beans is pretty imperative. It’s basically eating kidney beans in a tasty, spicy sauce, which I really enjoy… but it is pretty spicy!

Ugh… pretty delicious. Careful though… this pack has a crazy 1525mg of sodium!!! But, only 300 calories, so it might not even fill you up!!! I can feel okay about eating that once in awhile but certainly not all the time. I imagine my veins bursting and white table salt pouring out all over the place. Yikes.

OK so, I guess this review is a little confusing. But I highly recommend this product. It is very delicious! Just make sure you know what you are getting into.

$2.49 - Your price may vary.

So, I’m not really sure if I’m doing a good job at writing a food blog. My secret reason for making this blog was also to force myself to try new things, but here I am today eating another one of my favorite things, and here comes another biased review! Well, the beauty of the food blog is that I can’t write about the same thing twice. So no matter how uninteresting things might be, there will eventually be something new!

Anyway, today I’m eating Spinach Noodles by Macro-Vegetarian. I am a pretty big fan of most of their products, although some I have not tried yet. Hey, maybe in the future on this blog!

The spinach noodles are one of the best. You get a bunch of noodles, mixed with spinach (not an overwhelming amount though), carrot, onion(?), tofu, salt, pepper(?), spices, ummm.. yum?

I like eating it cold. It’s like eating a pasta salad, but without the dressing that I never liked. The tofu has a really distinct texture and flavor - it is not bland. It’s pretty much the tofu I’ve never been able to make at home.

My main issue with this thing is that it’s kind of just a little too big for my stomach, but to me it doesn’t make sense to save it and eat later. Sometimes I will buy one at lunch and eat 3/4 of it, wait an hour, and eat the rest… but I’m not sure it’s the kind of thing I would like to put back in the fridge and eat another day. Thing is I’m already a little skeptical of it due to the fact that it is “fresh” food in a pre-packaged form. Also, it comes from New York City, so it’s already at least a day or two old… and how long does something like that stay good? Now, I’ve never had a problem with this stuff being fresh - it’s always been good so far - I’m just saying I don’t want to get pushy.

I first tried this brand just because it has the words “Macro & Vegan” on it. Apparently eating Macro is really good for you, but you have to chew every bite of food like 35 times or something. That got tiring kind of fast. I didn’t make it, but I like the concept, and I feel good about eating it, and it’s tasty.

After trying a few kinds I gained some weird respect for this brand and I decided to check them out on Google Street View. Let me give you some advice: don’t do that. I still feel good about the company, but knowing my food is coming from a weird looking warehouse… well. I have convinced myself that they don’t actually make the food in that building and that it’s just where they receive their shipments of plastic containers.

$5.99 - 560 calories. 5g fat. 10g protein.

Until next time… eat!!!!!!!!!!

Today I decided to try Annie Chun’s: Roasted Seaweed Snacks (Wasabi flavor). There is also a Sesame flavor, which I might try later, and maybe even more flavors.

I don’t like wasabi at all, but I thought, hey I will give this a try because it’s probably more seaweed than wasabi anyway. Also that little heat bar in the bottom left corner of the packaging just sucked me in.

I’m not really sure who Annie Chun is. I have bought these products before and always feel a little weird about it because I’m not even convinced that Annie Chun is a real person. Anyway, the snack is pretty tasty. Seaweed might be an acquired taste, but I really think it has a nice crisp and a good flavor.

The wasabi distribution on these is a little bad. Some of the pieces were really covered in wasabi (and not good, in my opinion), while others seemed to have a more reasonable amount. This could be from settling, so your results may vary.

I like to tell myself that eating seaweed is a good way to get omega 3s since fish oil is not vegan. But I don’t really know if that is true.

This snack is tasty but it is little more than that. I recommend it for sure, but the entire package is only 60 calories. So… you devour it, it tastes good, but you don’t really feel like you ate anything. I guess I would highly recommend this snack for those times when you know you aren’t actually hungry but just want to eat something.

I snagged this item on sale for only $1.19. The regular price is a little more than that.

I’m not exactly sure that eating this is actually going to make you more healthy… so the packaging is a little misleading. However, it tastes a lot better than one might think. And you will look super high-class eating it.

Today for lunch I’m eating a ready-made Falafel Sandwich distributed from Sunneen Health Foods, Inc based in Allentown, PA. Now I’m usually skeptical of these ready to eat sandwiches and the like in the first place, so I wasn’t really sure it would be great. I’m sorry to say its not wonderful, but it’s about what I expected.

The package is pretty nice, the wrap itself is a good size and it comes with a decent side of tahini sauce. The portion is good - this thing definitely filled me up. The problem is that it is seriously lacking in flavor.

I might be biased, having eaten a lot of good falafel in my life. I think I would not buy this one again unless it was literally one of the only decent looking choices. The outer wrap was good. The falafel itself, a bit dry but not totally terrible. The lettuce, not good. It was green, it wasn’t spoiled, it just didn’t have any flavor.

By the end I was unwrapping the wrap and just eating the falafel and the pickles. And I don’t even really like pickles.

The cost: $3.99. Not too bad, but at local falafel establishment a falafel of the same size, only including hummus and hot sauce and just tasting generally better is only about a dollar more.

I will avoid this in the future unless I am desperate. But it is nice to know the option is there.