Category Archives: vegan

Product Review: So Delicious Cultured Coconut Milk

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I have discovered a product that I really like:

So Delicious Cultured Coconut Milk. I have missed yogurt since going dairy-free, which is funny, because I didn’t love it when I could eat it.

My stomach’s delicate enough, though, that I’ve been looking for a way to get more probiotics into my system to help it out as much as I can. (I do take Align, but wanted even more.)

I tried Silk soy yogurt, but it has a lot more sweetener than I would like. Individual yogurts are pretty expensive and take up a fair amount of room in the fridge, so I was looking for something…else, even if I didn’t know exactly what it was.

I tried the strawberry first, since I don’t love coconut milk. It’s very good! I’ve purchased several of them, and it really does help keep things moving. After getting strawberry a few times, I tried vanilla on a whim. Also very good, and unlike its strawberry counterpart, it isn’t too sweet for my husband. So today I got two — strawberry for me, vanilla for my husband. They have less sugar per serving than other brands and types of yogurt, and they don’t take up too much space in the fridge.

I buy them here in Utah at Good Earth Natural Foods, and they cost $4.65. For me, they’re completely worth it.

 

Gluten-Free Product Review: Enjoy Life Sunbutter Crunch Bars

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I’m excited to get serious about my reviews, and happy to say that these Enjoy Life Sunbutter Crunch bars were my first purchase specifically for this purpose!

My blood sugar will sometimes suddenly drop when I’m out and about, so it’s nice to have something in my bag that has at least a little protein, and doesn’t take up too much space. These bars fit the bill.

I was initially hesitant to give these a try, because I don’t usually like protein bars. (Full confession: I think Larabars are gross.) I’m skeptical of anything that has dates or date syrup as an ingredient, because I don’t particularly care for the flavor, but I’ve heard of many people who like Sunbutter (sunflower seed butter) as a peanut butter substitute, so I decided to go for it.

Much to my surprise, I like them quite a bit. I enjoy the unique flavor of Sunbutter, and I like the texture of the bar. It’s perfect for keeping in my bag when those low blood sugar moments hit.

I bought this box of five for around $3.99 at Whole Foods, and I’m glad I did. I’m looking forward to trying other flavors, and I’ll definitely be keeping some of these around!

 

Candied-Pickled Apples with Star Anise

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One of my new favorite recipes in Canning For a New Generation is Candied-Pickled Apples with Star Anise. They’re sweet and sour, and they taste especially wonderful on pork.

Apples, spices, sugar, vinegar

 

The finished product

It took me too long to get around to these, because I thought I could only find star anise at Williams and Sonoma. Not true! I ended up finding some in the Mexican spice section at the grocery store. The other spices are really easy to find. Peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, and a couple of others.

Definitely fills my need for Sour Patch Kids — but real food, and no corn syrup!!

Real Sustenance: Butterfingers

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Twitter is a wonderful place for gluten-free and food allergy or other food issue people. I have “met” so many cool people there that I hope to meet in real life someday.

One of them is Brittany Angell of Real Sustenance.

She tweeted about a Butterfinger recipe she created, which immediately drew my attention. I miss them SO much.

I bought myself a candy thermometer and the (few) ingredients I was missing, and gave it a shot. I LOVE this candy, and I have lost track of the number of times I’ve made it.

sugar, agave nectar & water

 

"finished" product

I put “finished” in quotation marks because I haven’t actually broken the candy into pieces, you can see that I was…impatient, and wanted the peanutbuttery goodness before it cooled all the way. This is also my stopping point. I know I’m supposed to dip it in chocolate, and I know they’re supposed to be thicker, like Butterfingers are, but I love them just like this. Seriously, so so good, and super easy. Brittany has several little alternate suggestions, which is awesome.

As you can see, I use crunchy peanut butter (Adams brand), and I use agave nectar (which I buy at Costco).

MUCH easier than you think it’s going to be! Try it! You won’t be sorry.

Spiced Apple Butter

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One of my new-ish favorite things is the Bountiful Baskets program. Another one of my new-ish favorite things is: Apple Butter. It’s super easy, and so, so delicious. I use the recipe in Canning for a New Generation. Since I don’t have a food mill, or anything (yet), my wonderful husband peels all the apples, cores them and chops them for me. After that, they’re cooked, pureed, put in the crockpot, and we add the sugar and spices. It looks like this: 

Then after about 12 hours and the canning process, it looks like this (but more than one can):
It’s naturally vegan, gluten-free and allergy-free, delicious, and my house smells amazing. My current favorite thing is to stir it into oatmeal. It sweetens it, but not too much, and adds those lovely spices. Hooray for apple butter!

Manifest Vegan’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I *love* pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. It’s one of the things I missed the most going gluten-free. Nobody really made them gluten-free at the time, so I got mad and sad seeing them at the store — especially in the fall. No pumpkin cookies. No pumpkin bread. I was bummed.

Then I was introduced to Life Tastes Good Again (eatingglutenfree.com), and I tried the pumpkin roll. It’s a lot easier than it sounds, and it’s so good. My gluten-eating father has told me many times that I need to stop making it, because he likes it too much. My youngest brother “borrows” it from my parents’ house and takes it to his apartment. My sister-in-law (who did the very lovely design of this blog) has to fight with herself not to take some home with her so she can “be good.”

But I digress. I’ve been on the hunt ever since going gluten-free to find a really good gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. It’s Manifest Vegan’s Super Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie (with a slight adjustment — add one tsp. each of cinnamon and ginger, and a 1/2 tsp. of ground cloves). Voila! The gluten-free and vegan version of what I’ve been missing. I love it so much that I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve made it. Tonight I made a double batch. My husband LOVES them. He snarfs them as quickly as I do, and apologizes if he feels like he’s “ahead.” The ultimate compliment: the texture is so great that you probably wouldn’t know they were gluten-free if you didn’t know.

Make these. I promise you won’t be sorry. (Just a note: Make a lot, because they definitely won’t last long.)

The flours and spices
Creamed margarine, sugar and pumpkin
They smell delicious right out of the oven.

Product Review: That’s It. Fruit Snack Bars

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I’m going to make a confession: I don’t like the usual gluten-free “snack” or “energy” bars. I don’t like the texture, I don’t like the flavor, and they feel really fake and processed. I prefer real food that I make.

Since I’m all about the real food, I became interested in That’s It. Fruit Snack Bars. They’re JUST fruit. I ordered the “free samples” from their site, and got one of each of the three bars.

The one that isn’t pictured is one apple + one pear. I already ate that one, and it was delicious! I have enjoyed all three of them, but the pear is my favorite. My husband likes the apricot one the best (because it’s less sweet than the other two). It’s just fruit! They’re dense, they’re delicious, they’re chewy, they’re perfect for keeping around when you need a quick snack. I’ll definitely buy some to keep in my purse, in my desk at work, and in my car. I’ll take them to football games. They’re gluten-free and vegan. They’re definitely not protein bars, but that’s okay. They’re delicious, and they’re real.

If you’re interested in trying them, but don’t want to order an entire case, go to their ‘buy now’ page. On the left side of the page, you can see the ‘free trial.’ You just pay $5.99 for shipping, and they’ll send you one of each. I’ll definitely be buying more.

Thank you, That’s It., for making these bars. Thank you for making them gluten-free and vegan. Thank you for making them just with fruit. I appreciate the very hard work that goes into a good gluten-free convenience product that’s healthy. May your business continue to do well. Next step: Whole Foods! :)

Chocolate Trifle with Summer Berries

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We were invited to a little neighborhood barbeque a few weeks ago, which was a lot of fun! We got to spend some time with the people who live immediately around us. I offered to make a dessert, but was having a tough time coming up with what exactly I should make. I wanted to make something that I could have, and that’s a tall order.

There’s a chocolate frosting in the Babycakes cookbook (it’s the one on the bottom) that I’ve thought for a while now would make an excellent trifle pudding. I was right.*

I took that frosting recipe (I’ve posted it on here before), the chocolate cake recipe from Life Tastes Good Again, threw some summer berries in the middle, and came up with this:

Sorry for the glare, but you’re looking at two layers of: cake, berries, frosting.

Topped off with more berries.

Let me tell you guys, it was awesome. I loved it. It worked out great! It was so delicious. The best part was that several people just started gobbling it up! A few minutes later, it did come out that it was gluten- and dairy-free. I think a few people who hadn’t started eating at that point decided not to, which is both good and bad. Good, in the “more for me” sort of way, but bad in the “gluten-free = healthy = gross” kind of way. I wish we could get away from that perception, but all in good time, I suppose.

I didn’t add any sugar to the berries. The cake and frosting were sufficient, without even being that sweet! Seriously, a great dessert, and super easy. With most trifles, the idea is to serve it completely chilled, with the cake cooling all the way. I didn’t have time, though, so I served it warm, and people loved it.

I will absolutely make it again. It’s pretty easy to have the cake ingredients on hand, but the frosting ingredients take a little more searching and planning. Look for a post in the next couple of days about gathering said ingredients. Easy dessert, delicious. Chocolate. What more can you ask for?

*I believe when I last posted about the frosting, I made it in the food processor to see how it did. It’s definitely the smoothest in the blender. For some reason, the coconut flour is tough to get to blend, but keep the blender going, and it’ll become smooth.

Kale Chips

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I found out this weekend that I have family who read my blog!! It was so much fun to find that out. Thanks to Dietmar and Tammy, I have signed up for my first Bountiful Basket.

Sorry for such big gaps between my posts lately. I’ve been trying to figure out who I am and what I want out of life and this blog. Thanks for hanging in with me! I think I have found a direction, and now just need to go.


So…kale chips! My cousin Dietmar and I were talking about the awesomeness that is kale chips, and Tammy wanted to know what we were talking about. They sound hard, but they’re really easy, and really delicious. (Also, really good for you.)

Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Get some kale. Wash it thoroughly, pat it dry, and rip it into smallish pieces. Lay it out on a baking sheet. I put mine on top of parchment paper, just so it doesn’t stick to the pan. Drizzle a little olive oil, sprinkle a little salt, and put it in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until it’s crisp. Here’s the trick: You don’t want to use too much oil or salt. Too much oil, and the kale leaves will be soggy instead of crisp. Too much salt is, well, too much salt. I used too much salt the first time, and will never do that again. I have a sea salt grinder from Costco. Just a few quick grinds of salt while moving it over the kale will do nicely. Voila! Lovely kale chips. Delicious.

(If you take them to work, it’s a good idea to have a toothbrush or floss with you, because these get stuck in your teeth very easily.)

Gastroparesis or Food Intolerance?

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I’m always looking for ways to feel better, and I came across the Eat Right 4 Your Type diet. It’s not my silver bullet, but there are some interesting ideas worth considering, I think.

One of the things that’s on my avoid list (I’m type A) is eggplant. It’s a tragedy, because I *love* eggplant. I’ve had some success with loosely following this diet, and I hadn’t tried eggplant yet. I tried it last week — made a lovely stirfry with eggplant and tofu, drizzled with tamari, over rice. It was delicious. Immediately, though, the meal stuck in my stomach like a brick. It wasn’t moving. Taking domperidone before I went to sleep helped me sleep, but I woke up the next morning still feeling like there was a brick in my stomach. The entire next day at work, I felt awful. I could not seem to keep my blood sugars stable, and I had no energy. I hate taking sick time at work when I’m not actually sick or at a doctor’s appointment, so I stuck it out.

I took the rest of it down to my mom and sister, who also eat gluten-free and like eggplant and tofu. As I was lamenting the eggplant to my mom, she was wondering if it was because of the skins. Maybe if I had skinned the eggplant first, it wouldn’t have gotten stuck. It’s a possibility.

That’s the tricky thing with my health. Is it a food intolerance (since some people have real struggles with nightshade plants, which includes eggplant and russet potatoes), or is it that the skins messed with my gastroparesis (which totally happens)?

I have two options to figure that out: risk another day of feeling like crap to test eggplant minus skins, or just not try it at all. I guess if I try it, I’ll make sure to try it on a Friday so that I don’t have to feel terrible at work if it goes poorly. C’est la vie, right?