I found these the other day at Whole Foods and was pretty excited to find a Jell-O like product that isn’t made with gelatin.  These are also great because they are made with natural ingredients– no unnatural colors, flavors or preservatives.  A definite bonus since I stay away from high fructose corn syrup, Red Dye #40…, and other weird stuff as often as humanly possible.  Yuck!

Having had Jell-O in my lifetime, but not in many years, that is the only product that I can really compare these to.  Texture-wise, these are less firm, like how Jell-O is when it hasn’t quite set all the way.  Flavor-wise, these are good (slightly sweet), but nothing that I need for my survival.  I bought them for the kiddo thinking she would like a “special treat,” but she doesn’t seem to be crazy over them.  She did eat part of one, but hasn’t had any interest in them since.

These may be more suitable for kids who are in school or in other social settings where they see their peers enjoying similar, non-vegetarian products.  Or it could just be that my kid doesn’t like ‘em, which isn’t to say that they are bad.

There are other flavors out there– Black Cherry and Orange, I think.  I would like to try the other flavors.  I wouldn’t buy them for myself, but if Emma wanted to have them again, I wouldn’t be opposed to it.  I guess the verdict is that we could take them or leave them.  You can find these at Whole Foods near the yogurt section.

When Emma was on vacation at my parents house, my mom picked up these ravioli for her.  She never got around to eating them and they have been in my freezer ever since.  I decided to make them for lunch yesterday since I had an opened jar of sauce to use up and was pleasantly surprised by how “cheesy” they are.

Emma even liked them, except she ate hers plain, of course.  She told me “no sauce, just cheese.”  Funny girl!  She didn’t understand that the “cheese” was inside.

While I have taken the time to make my own vegan “cheese” filled ravioli, I have to admit that it took a lot of time and is not something that I would be willing to do very often.  These are a great thing to keep on hand for the days that you need something quick to throw together.  You can find them at Whole Foods in the freezer section.

I don’t shop at Trader Joe’s much these days.  I go maybe once every other month and do my normal shopping at Whole Foods, since I have a hard time finding vegan products at TJ’s (especially the bread!).  I have a few items that I like from TJs and that I make a special trip for and today was my day to do that.  Imagine my shock, amazement, complete EXCITEMENT to find these:

So, for those of you who may not know, I’ll explain why I was so happy to find these.  Regular Rice Krispies Treats are made with marshmallows.  Marshmallows are made with gelatin.  Gelatin is made from boiling animal hooves, bones, and connective tissues.  Yep, definitely NOT vegan.  When I find things like this made vegan, I get excited.  See, TJs doesn’t have a type of marhsmallow treat that is non-vegan, so the fact that they thought (1) let’s make a marshmallow treat and (2) let’s make it vegan, that’s something special.  Thank you, Joe.  I may be coming in more often now.  And, hey!  They’re made with brown rice instead of white.  It doesn’t get much better than that?!

Now for the taste.  It’s good, albeit a bit dry for my tastes.  I like my Rice Krispies Treats ooey gooey (in fact, I would often add more marshmallows than the recipe would call for).  The next time you find youselves in TJs, I highly recommend picking up a box of these.

After receiving my copy of Vegan Lunch Box, I really became convinced that I had to have one of these Laptop Lunch Boxes.

There are little compartments to keep everything separate and it even comes with an insulated carrying case (if you buy the “system” as opposed to just the “box” pictured above).  Emma isn’t too far away from preschool where she will have to bring a lunch everyday and I would much rather her use something like this instead of just a box where everything gets packed in plastic baggies.  So wasteful!  I wouldn’t even mind one for myself, even though I rarely have the occasion to pack myself a lunch.  It’s such a great idea!

Of course, I haven’t actually bought one of these yet, but I did check them out for myself the last time I was at Whole Foods.  They really do look super useful and handy, but I can’t bring myself to spend $40 on something that I would only use occasionally before Emma starts school.  You can rest assured that I will definitely get her one before preschool starts, though.  I think one set may even include an insulated thermos, which would be great for packing soups and vegan hot chocolate.  Let’s just hope that she manages to get all of the parts back home without losing them first!

A couple of weeks ago, I tried to make my own coconut milk yogurt. Emma likes soy yogurt, but I don’t and I’m also trying to weed out unnecessary sources of soy from our diet, since there is some debate about whether or not it actually is good for you. Some tofu now and then is fine, but I thought it would be great if I could make a better tasting, non-soy yogurt for us to enjoy. A vegan yogurt starter is expensive (about $30 for a small jar), so I tried to use a soy yogurt as the starter. It didn’t work out too well, but I now have renewed hope.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised today when I went to Whole Foods. In addition to their line of soy yogurt, So Delicious now makes a very delicious coconut milk yogurt. They were on “sale” 2 for $3– not much of a sale. I bought one in passionate mango, raspberry, strawberry banana and plain. I plan to use the plain to start my own homemade batch of yogurt. I’ll blog about that for sure. So far, we’ve tasted the passionate mango flavor and it was excellent. The only problem with this yogurt is that it is really fatty- about 6 grams per carton. That’s fine for Emma to have often, but something that I will only indulge in once in a while.

MimicCreme, as the name suggests, is a cream substitute that is made from cashews and almonds.  I first saw this at vegan essentials, but I thought I could save myself the shipping by finding it in a store nearby.  It isn’t carried by many stores (and I certainly wasn’t going to make a special trip for it), so I have been waiting for an opportunity to snag some.  Well, I was finally able to find some and I can’t wait to try it out in a vegan ice cream.  I have only used it once, when I made the sauce for my homemade ravioli, but I can already tell that this is a great product that will be so versatile.  They say that it can be substituted 1:1 in any recipe that calls for dairy cream, so stay tuned for many more recipes featuring this product.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about a good reinvention for quesadillas and I think I’ve come up with something. I used to buy these frozen quesadillas that were so good– they were full of veggies and a spicy cheese sauce. So good, but obviously not vegan. I’ve come up with something that was pretty close, though.

Vegan Quesadillas

1 cup cashew cheese

2 jalapeños (or to taste), roasted

1 ear of corn, roasted

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 zucchini, chopped

1 onion, sliced or chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp dried oregano

S&P

Several tortillas

Preheat broiler and roast the corn for several minutes per side. Rotate as needed to avoid burning. When all sides of the corn have been roasted (i.e. are golden brown), set aside to cool. If you can, roast your jalapeños using this same method. The slats between my oven rack were too big and the jalapeños kept falling through (and I couldn’t find any foil to put underneath), so I ended up roasting mine on the stove. To roast on the stove, heat a large burner to medium high and put the jalapeño directly on it. Rotate as it starts to char. When the skin of the jalapeño is charred all the way around, put it into a bowl of ice water for several minutes. Peel the charred skin off, remove the seeds and membranes, and mince. Add the pepper to the cashew cheese and set aside. NOTE: Two jalapeños made this very, very spicy. It was almost too spicy for me and I will only use one next time.

In a large non-stick skillet, heat about 2 TB canola oil over medium high heat. You’ll want to avoid olive oil here and go for an oil that can take the high heat. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until the onion begins to get some color. Add both bell peppers and the zucchini and cook until the veggies have some color to them. Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes, but stir often to avoid burning. Cut the corn off of the cob and add it to the skillet. Remove from heat.

Heat a second skillet to cook the quesadillas in. It’s up to you whether or not you want to oil it. When it is hot, put down one tortilla and spread with roasted jalapeño cashew cheese. When the down-side of the tortilla has become crispy, remove it from the skillet and set aside. Put another tortilla into the skillet and top with the veggie mixture. Put the first tortilla (the one with the cashew cheese) down on top of it. It’s done with the down-side of the bottom tortilla has crisped up. The reason for assembling them this way is because all of the veggies would fall out when you flipped it, if you were to make it the way a traditional quesadilla is made.

I served ours topped with some Tofutti BTSC (love that stuff!), some sliced avocado and a little jarred salsa. As I said, they were almost too spicy and I will cut back on the jalapeños next time.

On the side, I made some refried black beans. I cooked them up the same way I’ve made them before, except that I used black beans in place of pinto beans. These were also a tad on the spicy side, but would have been tolerable had the quesadillas not been so spicy. Must have been a very fresh batch of jalapeños that I got.

Emma’s quesadillas were pretty ingenious, I thought. Not to toot my own horn, but I do get excited whenever I find a way to reinvent a food that she likes (and she loves quesadillas). For hers, I smeared the whole tortilla with non-dairy butter (unlike me, she could benefit from the extra calories and fat). Then I smeared half of it with the cashew cheese (minus the jalapeños) and the other half with the refried black beans that I mixed some chopped frozen kale into. I put it into the skillet and folded it over et voila! She loved it!

Speaking of Emma, I have to say that she has been so good with the diet change. She never asks for milk anymore; instead, she’ll ask for “soy milk” or “chocolate milk.” Soy milk means any non-dairy milk (which is usually rice milk for her) and chocolate milk is chocolate almond milk. BTW, the sweetened chocolate almond milk is AWESOME! You should try it. Anyway, she has been so agreeable to all of the changes and doesn’t seem to miss anything. At playgroup last week, some of the kids were eating goldfish crackers and cheese sticks, but she was happy snacking on all of the food that I brought for her, as well as the vegan snacks provided by the playgroup hostess.

I made up a batch of focaccia the other day and turned two big chunks of it into two panini sammies. I made them exactly the same way as I did before, except that I used vegenaise instead of mayo. That’s right, I finally used up all my mayo and switched to vegenaise. I was overwhelmed by all the types of vegenaise at the store, but went for the original and I have to say that it has exceeded my expectations. I hate Miracle Whip and anything that tastes like it, which is what I expected this to be, but it really does taste exactly like mayo.

To go with our sammies, we had a side of fruit salad and my Mexican style tabbouleh salad, which we’ve been eating leftovers of for days and days.  That stuff is so good!

I have been a fan of the tofurky products since becoming vegetarian way back when.  I haven’t had it in a long time, but picked up a pack of the hickory smoked variety at the store yesterday.  This stuff is so good.  It makes the best “turkey” tasting sandwiches– I’ve used it to make “turkey” cranberry sandwiches when I crave them at Thanksgiving time, and today, I used it to make a “turkey” avocado sammie:

Yummy!  A little mayo (still trying to use the stuff up), a little mustard, some sliced tomato, dill pickles and avocado.  Doesn’t get much better than that!

I am a big fan of the Tofutti line of products.  Thanks to Amy, I had the opportunity to try the BTSC the other night (and then I was able to find it at Whole Foods),  It’s just as awesome as the BTCC.