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 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.

Since one of the goals of my website is to try to convince others that they too can be vegan (or at least incorporate more vegan items into their diets very easily), I have decided that I will do “product reviews” when I try faux dairy or meat products meant to mimic traditional products.

One that I’m particularly impressed with is the ZenSoy brand of soy puddings. While out at a local health food store, Emma spotted banana pudding in the dairy case. She was super excited that the package had both a bunch of bananas on it and a panda. I checked out the ingredients and they looked pretty safe– and the packaging confirmed that it is completely organic (which means no GMO’s), totally vegan, and enriched with vitamins D2, B2, and B12. Since I am trying hard to get her off of cow’s milk, I thought the pudding could be a relatively healthy treat for her with many of the same vitamins.

The banana pudding is indeed very banana-y. It’s good, but I think it would be better as a frozen “yogurt” style treat. I’ll have to try it out and see if they are freezable. BUT, while at Whole Foods yesterday, they had all varieties in their dairy case and I decided to try the chocolate pudding. The chocolate one is awesome! Emma and I highly, highly recommend it.