Epicurean Vegan

Healthy Eating for Discriminating Palates

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Product Review: We Can’t Say It’s Cheese Spreads/Dips

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Perhaps what the Nicotine Patch does for smokers, this product does for recovering cheese addicts such as myself. Even though it’s been three years since I kicked the dairy habit, Wayfare is helping me with those every-so-often cheese cravings with their cheese spreads and dips called, We Can’t Say it’s Cheese.

For around $3.60 for an 8oz container, you too, can satisfy any cheese cravings. I picked up 3 of their four varieties:

Cheddar-Style Spread (They also make this in a dip)

Hickory-Smoked Cheddar-Style Spread

and

Mexi Cheddar-Style Dip

The look and texture resembles peanut butter, but smells like actual cheese. For the taste test, I served these for a get together with my non-vegan friends and they were quite impressed! We liked them on crackers and a slice of apple.

As for the different flavors, I didn’t particularly like the Mexi flavor–all I could really taste was taco seasonings. However, the Husband liked that one. I have to say, that the Hickory-Smoked one was my favorite–but the Husband and another guest didn’t care for that one, yet admitting, they don’t like smoked products anyway. The Cheddar-Style ranks way up there, too. None of the flavors I tried had that fake taste like a lot of vegan cheeses can have–it tasted much like real cheese, minus the hormones and nastiness.

WayFare itself is an impressive company…all their products are Non-Dairy, All Natural, Wheat-Free, No Trans Fats, Soy-Free, No Casein, Vegan, No GMOs, No Canola, No Cholesterol, Kosher Pareve: Healthy Ingredients

In fact, here’s a list of ingredients from the Hickory-Smoked variety: (I can even pronounce them all)! Prepared non GMO whole grain oatmeal (water and oats), vegetable oil blend, sesame, pimentos, nutritional yeast, sea salt, natural hickory smoke flavor, calcium carbonate, onion powder, evaporated cane juice.

A serving size is 2 tablespoons–carrying 60 calories and 5 grams of fat, 3 of which is saturated. So not perfect. But better than the real deal. I’m hoping they’ll come up with a goat cheese style…

WayFare has a great website with more information on their products and recipes. (You can even make mac ‘n cheese with this stuff)! Give it a try and tell me what you think!

(Don’t worry…I had lots of help–wasn’t just me)!

Product Review: Tofutti Cuties–Cookies ‘N Cream

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Delicious. That’s about it.

Ok, so here’s the low-down: 1 cutie is 130 calories with 6 grams of fat. So not the healthiest, but c’mon, it’s fake ice cream! And when you’re a vegan, tasty fake ice cream is like striking gold.

Completely dairy-free, these ice cream sandwiches come in several flavors: Cookies ‘N Cream, Vanilla, Mint Chocolate Chip, Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Key Lime, Wild Berry, Coffee Break, Strawberry Wave, and Very Vanilla (I guess the other vanilla is just sort of vanilla).

Here’s a list of ingredients: water, sugar, corn syrup solids, contains one or more of the following oils: (Corn, soy, coconut, and palm), soy protein, tofu, cocoa butter, vanilla, crunch (unbleached wheat flour, cocoa sugar), soy lecithin, guar seed gum, carrageenan, carob bean gum, salt.

Wafer ingredients: unbleached wheat flour, sugar, caramel color, soybean oil, yellow corn flour, cocoa processed with alkali, modified corn starch, salt, baking soda, vegetable mono and diglycerides, soy lecithin.

They are the perfect sized dessert–at least for me (and kids)–and taste sweet, but not overly sweet. Compared to the ice cream sandwiches I had as a kid, these taste identical, if not better!

Check out Tofutti’s site for more info.

Product Review: Smart Deli Baked Ham Style

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I love it when I can find a tasty meat alternative that when you compare the nutritional facts to regular meat, the veggie comes out on top! I had always been a bit skittish around fake deli meats, thinking they were going to smell and taste like my dog’s rubber chew toys. I finally took the big step a while back and tried Lightlife’s Smart Deli Baked Ham and it’s quickly landed a spot on my weekly grocery list.

One 5.5 oz box will run you about $3.40 and give you 12 slices. They taste much like deli ham, but less salty. Sandwiched between two pieces of whole wheat bread, I layered on some Veganaise, 3 slices of these “veggie protein slices”, spinach, a couple of avocado slices, and a tomato slice or two.  Delicious!

Here’s a list of ingredients:

Water, wheat gluten, soy protein isolate, evaporated cane juice, less than 2% of: tapioca starch, natural flavor (from vegetable sources), autolyzed yeast extract, natural smoke flavor, sea salt, carrageenan, potassium chloride, tomato pulp, soy sauce (wheat, soybeans, salt), citric acid, fermented rice flour, salt, xanthan gum, paprika oleoresin (for flavor & color).

Now for the good stuff: (this is for my non-vegan friends who visit my blog to prove that I don’t sit around eating blocks of tofu wrapped in lettuce).

I serving size is 4 slices and you’re looking at 70 calories, compared to 91 calories for just 2 slices of regular ham. Smart Deli Ham has…drumroll please…just 1 gram of fat per 4 slices! while our beloved Miss Piggy has 4.82 grams–1.6 of those grams are saturated fat. While SM has 390 mg of sodium for those 4 slices, regular ham passes on a whopping 730mg of sodium–and that’s just for 2 slices! And for all those worried us vegans do not get enough protein, let me assure you that one serving gives you 12 grams of protein compared to only 9.3 grams for only 2 slices of Babe. And one last thing…Smart Deli ham is naturally cholesterol free, while the other has 32mg of the nasty stuff.

(It’s the little things in life that get me excited…) 🙂

Check out more products by Lightlife who uses organic ingredients and does not use soybeans that were produced using biotechnology. Gotta love it.

Product Review: Amy’s Roasted Vegetable, No Cheese Pizza

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I was excited to try this pizza since I’ve had good luck with other products from Amy’s Kitchen. A no-cheese pizza is a hard thing to make–and to make it tasty is a whole other ball game. This certainly isn’t a home run–more like a ground double. It wasn’t bad.

First of all, let’s check out the ingredients: (VEGAN) ORGANIC WHEAT FLOUR WITH ORGANIC OAT BRAN AND WHEAT GERM, ORGANIC ONIONS, FILTERED WATER, ARTICHOKES, EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL, ORGANIC ROASTED RED PEPPERS, ORGANIC TOMATOES, ORGANIC SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS, ORGANIC AGAVE NECTAR, BALSAMIC VINEGAR, SEA SALT, EXPELLER PRESSED HIGH OLEIC SAFFLOWER OIL, ORGANIC EVAPORATED CANE JUICE, ORGANIC GARLIC, ORGANIC LEMON JUICE, YEAST, SPICES. CONTAINS WHEAT.

Nutritional Facts:

Serving Size: 0.33, Servings Per Container: 3, Serving Weight: 113 g

Calories: 270, Calories from Fat:80

Total Fat: 9g 14%, Saturated Fat: 1.5g 8%, Trans Fat: 0g

Cholesterol: 0mg 0%

Sodium: 490mg 20%

Carbohydrates: 42g 14%

Fiber: 2g 10%

Sugars: 5g

Protein: 6g 0%

Organic: 85%

Vitamin A: 6%, Vitamin C: 20%

Calcium: 2%, Iron: 4%

I paid about $4.50 for this single-serve pizza, which is a bit on the high side, but that is also the price we pay for organic and having to not wait more than 10 mins for it to cook. The toppings left much to be desired.

I desired more toppings.

They tasted good–just wanted more of them. The “sauce” is some type of vegetable, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was–cobweb-like onions is all I can think of to explain it. It satisfied my hunger, but it was just, ok. The lack of toppings really killed it for me. The crust was good, however–not soggy or chewy like some frozen pizzas. Definitely take the few extra minutes to bake it in the oven–I can’t imagine how terrible it would taste coming out of the microwave!

Check out (better) vegan products from Amy’s Kitchen–they do have some winners!

Product Review: Boca Meatless Ground Crumbles

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These have been sitting in my freezer for a couple of weeks and so I finally got around to using them. I decided to make tacos with the crumbles and typically, I would add 1/2 a large onion, chopped to the pan, but I forgot. Oops. (I guess I was too focused on the review)!

The crumbles come out of the bag resembling frozen, cooked ground beef and breaks up easily in the pan. The back of the packages recommends adding to a skillet, sprayed generously with cooking spray. I used a Tbs of olive oil. Within 10-12 minutes, the crumbles were heated through and gave off an almost sweet, cinnamon-y smell. But the crumbles didn’t taste like it–in fact, there wasn’t much taste to them. I certainly recommend using a taco seasoning when making tacos–or any other seasoning when using these crumbles–they’re kinda bland. Fortunately though, they also don’t taste fake, or rubbery like some vegan meat. Overall, I was very impressed.

For around $4 for 12-oz, “ground beef” tacos are back, baby!

The tacos didn’t taste “altered” at all. Packed with Tofutti sour cream, vegan cheddar, diced avocado, lettuce and salsa, these were delicious, satisfying and very meat-like.

And here comes the really good part: These meatless ground crumbles have only 0.5g of unsaturated fat per serving–that’s 90% less fat than ground beef!! Not only that, there are 13 grams of protein per serving! It seems like a no-brainer.

As we were chowing down, we were listing off the different meals we could use these bodacious crumbles in:

Burritos

Lasagna

Enchilades

Tostadas

Chili

Taco salad (the back of the package features a recipe for this)

Really….these crumbles would work for anything requiring ground beef.

Check out Boca’s site for more info and ingredient list.

Product Review: Vegan Gourmet Nacho Cheese Alternative

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The quest for tasty queso seems to be a never-ending task for vegans. The queso recipe posted earlier, is pretty darn good, but does require a lot more ingredients, so if that doesn’t appeal to you, the folks at Follow Your Heart have a great alternative and just as they claim…it DOES MELT! And $3.69 for 10-oz is not bad.

I chopped the block and added it to my electric fondue pot. FYH says you can melt it in a sauce pan as well. It is thick and solid enough to shred over tortilla chips and microwave, too.

After about 15 minutes, the “cheese” definitely resembled nacho cheese and quite surprisingly, tasted like it, too. It certainly has a spicy kick, but at the same time, that was about all I could really taste. That cheesy taste just wasn’t there–which is good in a way, too, because fake cheese can taste, well…fake. This didn’t taste like that, but it just was lacking something.

So what’s a vegan to do? I decided to add about 1/3-1/2C of rice (Galaxy Foods) Shredded “cheese” and it really gave it a much more cheesy taste and texture. It was just what it needed. The only thing that changed was, of course, the consistency. It made it a bit more elastic-y. It didn’t really allow one to “dip” a chip, but more, “scoop” the cheese. The taste was outstanding though–the closest that pre-packaged vegan cheese is to regular nacho cheese.

Follow Your Heart not only makes many great products such as Veganaise and salad dressings, but they are one of the most environmentally conscious companies around. Their manufacturing plant in California operates on 100% solar energy and used all recycled products in their facility. Check out the April 2010 issue of VegNews for more!

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