Soy Yogurt

One of the few things I thought I would miss as a vegan was yogurt. I love yogurt and frozen berries. I used to always start my morning off with Kroger's Carb Master Yogurt. (Not that I was counting carbs, but this stuff has only 80 calories and 12g of protein! Not bad!) But since the yogurt is not only dairy, but also has aspartame, I had to find a replacement!

Enter, Stonybrook Farms Soy Yogurt.



When I first opened the carton, there was a layer of liquid floating on top, and it was a slightly darker color than I expected. Needless to stay, we didn't exactly get off on the right foot. But after a good stir, it looked pretty good. I added in some frozen blueberries, and Bear Naked Fit Granola and this stuff was great! It didn't have quite the tang of normal yogurt, but this stuff was pretty darn good! My only complaints are the stats, which don't quite line up with my old yogurt. It's 150 calories, and only 7g of protein, but there are no artificial sweeteners in it, so I'd say it's worth the extra calories. I might try adding a little vanilla protein powder, if I feel like I need a little protein kick.


In the end, I'd give it a 9 out of 10. I think it's a pretty good swap for regular yogurt!

Vegan Cupcakes!

Last night I was in a baking mood (Thanks to Food Network's Cupcake Wars) so I decided to try this Vegan Chocolate Cupcake recipe from Everything Is Homemade. I didn't use the almond extract (because I didn't have any...) but they still turned out pretty well!!

I'm still on a quest to convince my friends that Vegan baked goods CAN taste good. I've learned the easiest way to convince people is to tell them that the goods are vegan AFTER they've eaten them. They actually turned out pretty well!



Please ignore the icing smudge from the plastic wrap. I forgot to take a picture until I'd actually wrapped them. My co-workers loved them!



Side story: In order to make the cupcakes, I needed to get apple cider vinegar from the grocery store. That was the ONLY thing I needed. This is what I came home with.


I'm hopeless at staying focused at the store. There are just too many things I want to try!


I was feeling lazy about making frosting, but I didn't want to use canned frosting, because they all had high fructose corn syrup and/or hydrogenated oils. (aka trans fat!) Thankfully, I came across this guy and decided to give it a shot!


I wasn't sure how I would like it, because when I opened the jar it didn't seem thick enough. It was certainly a little bit more difficult to spread, but it tasted delicious! It didn't really "set" like a normal frosting, but it didn't run off the cupcakes either, so I was quite pleased. It's what I used in the picture above (to be fair, the plastic wrap is the reason it smeared!) so I would definitely buy this product again. I also bought their cookie & cake mix, so I'm excited to try those out. I'm glad to finally find some vegan baking mixes!

That's all for now!

Liz

Dedication!

So this blogging thing is harder than I thought to keep up with! It gives me a new appreciation for all the blogs I read regularly. You guys rock!

It's not that I haven't been cooking lately, I've been cooking up a storm! Last night my friend and I made seasoned chickpea tacos a la Happy Herbivore So I was a little late (I think the post was back from 2008!) But the tacos were still delicious. We ate the with some tabouli salad and whole wheat pitas. Our dinner was like the UN of meals. Definitely a random assortment of flavors, but the chickpea tacos AND the salad both had lemon juice... so that tied it all together... ha!

The chickpeas were deliciously roasted in the oven, I'd never had them prepared that way before! For the tabouli salad, I used a boxed mix, and added in onions, cucumbers and tomatoes. It was quite delicious if I do say so myself! I'll try to post some pictures up here soon.

It was yet another successful vegan dinner!


Another highlight of the week, I made some vegan brownies. I took them to a "girls night" on Tuesday, and didn't mention they were vegan until AFTER everyone ate them and said they were good! Why do people assume vegan food isn't going to taste as good as "regular" food?? Needless to say, I think they were impressed!!! I used the recipe linked above, but I only had an 8X8 pan. So I split it into two batches, and for the second one, I added about 1/2 cup of shredded coconut. That was definitely a good idea! It added a nice texture to the brownies. Oh, I also added in about 1 cup of vegan chocolate chips. Can't get enough chocolate! Now go try that recipe!

Camera Shy

So as much as I want this to be a daily food sort of blog, I'm finding its hard to consistently take pictures of what I eat. When I'm at home, no big deal, but its difficult when I'm out with friends or family. I haven't "gone public" with this blog and I'm not ready to explain the constant table photo shoots. How do you guys deal with this? Do you tell people what the pictures are for? I'm sure for you veteran bloggers, people are used to it! But what about when you were first starting out? Just curious if you had any advice on this!

Since I'm at a work event all day, and probably won't be taking pictures of the eats, I think ill do some recent product reviews.

Arctic zero.
This stuff is hard to find in stores (I'm lucky enough to have it stocked at my local Whole Foods, but for those of you out of the distribution area, you CAN order it on Amazon. Anyways, back to the review!




First, let's talk nutritional stats. Its 32 calories per serving. That's right, 128 calories in the whole pint!! Obviously that's what originally piqued my interest... it comes in a new different flavors: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry banana and chocolate peanut butter. I've only tried the chocolate peanut butter, but let me tell you, this is amazing stuff!
Its not exactly like ice cream, more like a really good frozen protein shake. (Oh yeah, the calories that ARE in it come from whey protein. Its also lactose free.) I eat it straight out of the container, but I've also heard it makes a great base for a milkshake. This still is a little pricey (about $4 in the store, but its more expensive on amazon due to shipping and all that stuff.) But id say its worth it! Add some almond butter to it and its amazing!!

Alright, that's all I've got!
Liz

Favorite Food Books!

I've been reading some great food books lately. I just finished In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. GREAT book! I highly recommend it. It's not only informative, but also an entertaining read. You'll have trouble putting it down, trust me!

Now I'm reading a Food Politics. This one is much more... scientific. (Is that the right word? I'm not sure.) So it's a bit of a slower read, but it's still very interesting. It's making me very very skeptical about food marketing. There are some crazy tactics out there, and now I see how many of them I've fallen for!

I've also been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. (I know, I know, I was a little slow to catch up on this one! Thank goodness for Hulu!) It was so cool to see how involved he was in the lives of those families!

Being in the marketing field has definitely made me more aware of advertising tactics, but I guess I never thought they were so... deceptive, particularly with food and health claims. It's disappointing the way government regulations fail to push on these issues.

Does anyone have any other book or documentary recommendations for me?

Grocery Addiction

I spend entirely too much time and money at the grocery store. At 21, I think I'm supposed to be racking up bar tabs, not grocery bills! But I can't help it, I love the grocery store! Yesterday, I went to Kroger to get toilet paper. Just toilet paper. I left with onions, broccoli, soy crisps, make up, garbanzo bean flour and tabouli salad mix. That's right, the one thing I forgot was... toilet paper.

Am I the only one that goes to the store for one thing, and comes out with an arm full of groceries?? I hope not!

The good news is, the tabouli salad came out delicious! Good thing I picked up pitas at whole foods!


turned into:



Please excuse the bite marks and the messy plate. I'm still getting used to the food blogging thing, and I started eating before I remembered to snap a pic! :)

Other highlights of the day:

I finally tried the banana soft serve recipe from Katie and I added in some Dark Chocolate Dreams. This combination turned out to be fantastic!!!




That's all I've got for today!

-Liz

Deal of the Century!

So while perusing the grocery store, I came across a food processor that was on sale for $2.50. Yes, two dollars and fifty cents! I couldn't pass it up! I have a Magic Bullet Blender, but I really needed something that could do heavy duty blending. So I lucked out on this purchase!



Making homemade almond butter!!

What's your favorite thing to make in food processor?