Category: Reviews

For me, there’s something about breakfast that makes it seem so much more appealing than any other meal. Maybe it’s because I’ve gone so many hours while sleeping with no food, so anything would please my tastebuds. Perhaps the reason is that it marks the beginning of a whole new day, full of new oportunities and maybe even excitement. Or, most likely, it’s simple due to the fact that many breakfast foods just taste so damn good.

Of course the paradox here is that there is hardly anytime to make anything special for breakfast on school days. It’s really a marvel that I can manage to get wake up, dressed, pack a lunch, force something edible down my throat and run out the door in time to make the train. I do still enjoy all the cereals in the cupboard, basic toast with jam or nut butter, all the standard fare. Despite that, it can’t stop me from jealously eyeing all of those pictures on other people’s blogs of vegan french toast, pancakes… When do these people wake up to make it all?

This is one of those products that I swore I would never buy. You know, those things you see on the shelf and say “Pfft! I can make that, easy.” And the fact is I could… But only if I stopped sleeping altogether. And while that is a disturbingly tempting propsition (Just think of all the things I would get done..!) I think that’s one part of my schedule I would be smart not to alter. Thus, I introduced frozen waffles into my home.

The brand that I picked out was a branch of Nature’s Path called LifeStream. You’ve got plenty of choices looking only within this label, although most of them aren’t exactly for different flavors, but instead different health benefits. Most of them are varied based on the different grains they use or what added nutrients they provide. I went with the ones that I found most appealing to me (And were avaliable) so I can’t say for sure how the flavor may be different for the others.

FlaxPlus

Glancing over at my neighbor’s plate, I noticed that my waffles looked almost exactly like their Eggo’s as far as size and shape go. Mine were, however, darker and speckled with flax seeds, so it wouldn’t have been too hard to tell them apart. The indentations aren’t very deep, but I guess I’m just used to seeing Belgium waffles, as that’s the sort of waffle maker we use at home.

Slicing one of my waffles into a manageable forkful, I noted the abundance of flax seeds in each bite. Although they obviously don’t contribute very much to the flavor, I must say I enjoyed the added texture. They made the waffles almost chewy, but in a good way, not in an undercooked and rubbery way. The real trick to almost any frozen waffle is to make sure you toast them up for long enough so that you get that crunchy outside, soft inside, and then with these, the chewy add-ins.

At first I thought that the taste was a bit reminiscent of whole wheat pasta, although I can’t remember the last time I’ve had some so I can’t verify that assumption for sure. I did like the fact that they were really just basic, plain waffles, and could be accompanied by any sort of topping or side without clashing. I found the peanut butter made a very good pair, but you could always go for the more traditional maple syrup or jam.

 

And if you were really brave, I bet these could even go well in a vegan version of “chicken” and waffles.

 

Maple Cinnamon

 

Opening the package and taking a deep whiff of the aromatic scent of maple and cinnamon, they smelled absolutely divine. Two of my favorite flavors in one waffle, honestly, how bad could it be?

 

These also had the same sort of whole wheat healthy feeling to them, which is definitely growing one me as I continue to eat them. Unfortunately, I was disappointed to discover that the initial intensity of maple and spice had worn off after cooking, and they tasted more like just your average waffle. Not a bad thing, but nothing particularly special either. They wouldn’t have enough flavor to satisfy the syrup lover in you, so additional maple syrup could be a wise choice. I found that this type went very well with pumpkin butter, keeping the theme of spices entact. It just depends on what you’re most into, but you really don’t need to buy this specific flavor to get the same results. Sadly, it’s the toppings that make the difference.

So, I guess they were basically what I had expected; Decent, easy to prepare during an average breakfast time, and relatively tasty. In addition, these waffles are very healthy, so I don’t feel at all guilty about eating them for the first meal of the day. Still, I think we could all agree that nothing beats homemade.

It all began innocently enough – The simple quest to sample various vegan ice creams, not necessarily to compare to the “real thing,” but to see how they stacked up as an enjoyable dessert by themselves. How far wrong my search inadvertently veered, into that dark, unfriendly realm of vegan foods that make omnivores shudder and exclaim, “Ugh! With ‘substitutes’ like that, why would anyone ever go vegan?!” and further weakens my usually unfaltering belief that soybeans can be a reasonable substitute for just about anything that would usually be an animal or animal product.

I had previously bought the travel-sized boxes of of soymilk also offered by Soy Dream, which I found to be perfectly decent, (Really, how could you make bad soymilk anyway?) So I was sadly surprised that the quality and taste of their “ice cream” left much to be desired.

French Vanilla

At first glance as I opened the lid, I thought that perhaps something went wrong when coloring was added to the product inside, or maybe it had gone bad some how? Staring me in the face was this creamy, yellow soy-based ice cream. Not like taxi cab yellow, but much more pronounced than I would expect for something labeled as “French Vanilla.”

Digging in nonetheless, I found that the ice cream was at first touted a very bright vanilla taste, but as I continued to stuff my face, it soon became sickeningly sweet. How weird. As awful as it is, in my pre-vegan days, I had had to drink Ensure supplements frequently, but found the vanilla taste absolutely nauseating. Maybe this was due to the fact that one of the first ingredients was high-fructose corn syrup, followed by oil, and then more sugar. As much as I wanted to enjoy this, I really couldn’t stomach much more than ½ cup of this at a time, at generously spaced intervals. Maybe if eaten only once a week, it’s not completely vomit-inducing, but it just brings up some really awful memories for me.

Strawberry Swirl

Lifting the lid, I had to double check the label to make sure I hadn’t grabbed the vanilla again, considering how pale the contents of the container were! Atleast it looked a little more natural, without outrageous added colors, so I hoped for the best as I spooned out a bowlful. I noticed there were even darker spots of pink, indicating the supposed existence of real strawberries.

At first bite, I was taken aback by the intense flavor. Not at all what I had thought based on its appearance. Unfortunately, it tasted extremely… artificial. Nothing like strawberries found in nature, and more like those chemically enhanced children’s fruit snacks, only frozen. The darker spots even tasted sour, not at all pleasant, really. As disappointed as I was with the vanilla, the strawberry was downright repulsive. My greatest regret is having the remainder of the pint to go through.

Admittedly, theses are only two of the ten different flavors that are offered by Soy Dream, and in fact, I even have another one (Chocolate) sitting in my freezer, purchased by my mom. She reports that it’s actually very enjoyable, quite contrary to my reactions towards the contents of the other cartons I explored. Comparing it to something akin to a chocolate sorbet, she went further to say that it feels almost light and airy, as opposed to the standard density of cow’s milk ice cream.

Even after that glowing review… I find myself too scared to give this brand another try. Maybe somehow I managed to pick only their worst varieties, and all the rest happen to be the cream of the crop, so to speak. And who knows? These flavors I reviewed could still strike your fancy, but… I personally will not be buy them again.

Sometimes the best intentions aren’t enough to produce delicious food, and while I admire the attempt and appreciate the effort to put more vegan items on the grocery store shelves… If this is a soy dream, I may have some trouble getting to sleep tonight.

Lately, I’ve been seeing more and more vegan cookies around the market place, so it was really just a matter of time until I snatched a box to see how they measured up. I’ve baked a good deal of vegan cookies in my time, but never having tried any mass-produced, I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

The brand that I settled on is called Smart Treat, which makes a good deal of vegan cookies, as well as some cakes and quick breads. What I ended up picking out was a package of the classic chocolate chip for a fair comparison – I’ve probably had more chocolate chip cookies in my life time than any other sort. At a later time though, I’d like to get my hands on some butterscotch oatmeal, or spicy ginger cookies. How enticing do those sound!

I was a bit skeptical at first, examining the crisp domes of cooked batter, expecting rock-like cookie pucks. Simply breaking them in half revealed a happy surprise however, as the concealed innards were actually quite soft and fluffy. While I wouldn’t say they are the traditional chewy chocolate chip cookies that I tend to think of, the texture was still far than I could have really hoped for.

The distribution of the chips was excellent; Not so many that the chocolate became overwhelming, but still definitely a pronounced flavor throughout. I liked that it allowed me to actually taste the cookie part, since that was always my favorite as a kid. Years ago in my very first baking exploits, making chocolate chip cookies, I would actually try to make the last few cookies in a batch without any chips at all. The flavor of the dough used in the Smart Treat cookies was just as good as any non vegan equivalent I could remember.

Taste aside, they aren’t called a “Smart Treat” for nothing. All of their cookies are not only vegan, but also completely gluten-free, and it appears that they don’t use any refined ingredients in any of their products. Sounds like a good deal to me!

Making granola is the type of baking adventure that just about any one with the IQ of a garbanzo bean could undertake, which could explain why a simple online search will produce somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 million various recipes. Perhaps this is why I find it so intimidating to approach – All those options, I can’t make up my mind! Even browsing the aisles of the grocery store, if there were no time constraint I could spend hours picking through the countless boxes. I still want to make my own granola, but for now I’m starting at the top: The most simple but still tasty sounding packaged granola in my reach.

I’m not sure how readily available this one is, as I haven’t seen it before this my recent exploits. It could be that I just wasn’t looking for it, but they don’t have a very informative website, either. The most information I could discern from my research is that Heartland makes four varieties of granola; Original, With Raisins, and then fat free versions of both. As you can see, I went with the basics and gave Original a shot.

Sifting through my generous bowlful, its appearance was nothing extraordinary or particularly remarkable, just like any other granola. Full of little clusters of oats, there is definitely no skimping in the whole grain department.

A first spoonful revealed a very subtle kiss of sweetness accompanied by a hint of vanilla; Nothing overpowering but possessing a very defined presence throughout the cereal. Not exactly your “light” breakfast, but very hearty indeed, it kept me satiated and energized for the whole morning. It had a satisfying crunch without being so hard and impenetrable as some other commercial granolas out there, still having a nice give after the initial bite. I didn’t try it with soymilk because I enjoy eating my granola dry, but I’m sure it would have been a pleasant match, especially with vanilla soymilk. I’m guessing it would probably also take the edge off of that uber-heathy “crunchy granola” feeling, and may make it more palatable for kids, too.

Being such a simple, basic cereal, it naturally lends itself to any sort of add-in you could imagine to make it a bit snazzier. Dried fruit, nuts, extra cinnamon (Because I’m a spice addict and all) would only make it more addictive. It’s a dangerous thing to have a whole box on hand – I feel like I might go through it in only a handful of mornings.

It also made me think it could be an excellent ingredient in many baked goods: A crumb topping on muffins or cobblers, part of a pie crust, I’d really love to play around with this stuff and try out some experiments.

I’m so glad that took a stab in the dark like that didn’t end up a disaster! I absolutely adore granola, so I’ll try to not use such extreme caution and be more willing to just grab the first thing that sounds good. I guess you just can’t go too far wrong with granola, no matter how you choose to go about it!

Cupcakes, they’re the “trendy” dessert food of the moment, found in so many various forms and flavors that it was only a matter of time before vegan cupcakes became avaliable on the commercial market. Now I’ll admit, these aren’t just standard brand-name products that can be found anywhere so it’s not quite the same, but they’re still vegan baked goods that aren’t found in one specific bakery and require no baking on your part. Thus, it seemed worth investigation.

Originating from Whole Foods and sold in packs of six, these double chocolate cupcakes were a rather surprising find. Of course they would be more aware of veganism / vegetarianism, serving a more health-conscious and specialized market, but I would have assumed that these would still contain eggs or what have you. For the sake of all you lovely readers, I tried not to let my preference for non-chocolate items get in the way of the product review. Chocolate is not what I would generally reach for, but I wanted to give them an honest try, so I hope that my bias did not affect the overall impression too much.

My first thought was that the frosting is very cute swirled so professionally on the crown of the cupcake. It looked just like any other standard cupcake, so after a few minutes of hesitation, I dug in.

The frosting tasted just like pure chocolate. In its solid state, it was a bit harder than I had been expecting, so I opted it nuke it in the microwave for 20 seconds, and it oozed all down the sides, dripping like I had just melted a full chocolate bar across the top. I was relieved that it really wasn’t sweet, just intensely cocoa; a very decadent, adult flavor.

Moving downwards to the cake, I noticed immediately what a fine, soft crumb it had concealed on the inside. Very moist and again, chocolatey without being sugary, I was actually quite impressed with caliber of this cupcake. I’m sure you all know how difficult vegan baking can be – Cakes that are dense, but much more fudge-y than would be desired or even raw at the center. Whole Foods has really put some serious work into this one. An easily accessible, very decadent treat that will not disappoint any chocoholics. Talk about instant gratification.

If you have any skeptical omnivorous friends, one bite of this cupcake will dissolve every last doubt in an instant. Definitely not for the chocolate-shy though… I’m not so sure this is one I would buy again for myself, although I can assure you that it’s only due to my personally preference, which tends to be at odds with about 95% of the general population on the subject of chocolate.

This is one tasty way to spoil yourself after a difficult day, without the usual time necessary for baking.

Yes, I just couldn’t keep away from Tofutti after I’d been so impressed with the goods that I previously sampled. This time though, I decided to go with a product from one of their more savory lines of food: Tofutti Cream Cheese, to be precise.

Now that I look at the jar, I think it might be from their special “Non Hydrogenated” category, seeing as he outer appearance doesn’t match with their typical label for Plain. A better blunder than one could hope, the non hydrogenated has a number of addition health benefits, utilizing all organic sugar and no preservatives. What’s not to like there?

At first look, Tofutti Cream Cheese appears to be an exact match with tradition cream cheese; A soft white sort of paste in a traditional “easy access” tub. Smoothing it across the top of a whole wheat english muffin, it even spread as nicely as the real thing. Spreading is a huge point of importance to me – I remember buying some odd vegan replacement cream cheese or sour cream, I don’t remember, and it had about the same consistency as plastic. I’m pretty sure it ended up as a special treat for my dog, because no one else was brave enough to try it.

While it seems that 90% of all vegan “cheeses” and such leave quite a bit to be desired, Tofutti comes pretty damn close in my opinion. No, they don’t hit the nail exactly on the head, and I would bet that anyone, vegan or non, would be able to tell the difference. That aside, I honestly like this new version a whole lot better! Maybe from being vegan for so long now, I’ve really grown a taste for things that taste more like soy.

A first bite yeilds a smooth, creamy texture across the tongue, and a pleasant sort of sour tang, such as one might find in many soy yogurts. There is a definite after taste of soybeans, but I found it really enjoyable. I actually thought that very first taste was a bit odd and I wasn’t even sure if I liked it, but after a few separate breakfast tastings, it really grew on me.

I will say it’s probably not for everybody, and non-vegans may be disappointed, but you’ve just got to give it a fair chance. Personally, I’m very pleased to have finally tried it and plan on incorporating it into many meals in the future. As with anything by Tofutti, it also comes in many varieties, all of which are vegan except for the Smoked Salmon (Obviously.)

So go out and conquere my veggie brethren – Vegan cheeses (Or atleast Tofutii Cream Cheese) can be tasty!