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DDOW: Scarlet Barley; Black Bean Veg Salad

Another treat from Delivered Dish of the Week! This week is Scarlet Barley as well as a Black Bean Veg Salad.

From the site:

Scarlet Barley. Vegan, soy-free, no added sugars; contains gluten. A brilliantly hued beets & barley dish from Moskowitz’ Appetite for Reduction vegan cookbook. Factoid: beets have 6 times the iron of carrots. Women, eat your beets!

Black Bean Veg Salad. Vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, no added sugars. Spiked with citrus & crunchy veg to complement the earthy barley dish.

Verdict: Both are delicious! My only regret is that I didn't order more than a pint. I mixed both together and added a kale/spinach mix to make a super-healthy and tasty salad!

Lumberg Farms Organic Brown Rice Pasta w. Veggies and Sauce

Not the best photo, I know. I way overcooked this Lundberg Farms Brown Rice Pasta with Mushroom and Leek Sauce, so it turned into a bit of a gloopy mess, but it was still edible. I added a ton of spinach, mushrooms, peas, and baby heirloom tomatoes from Trader Joe's.

I tried a different variety of this pasta and sauce mix a while back and enjoyed it. That time I was able to cook it perfectly and the pasta held together. Ah, well, live and learn - I am pretty hit or miss cooking gluten-free pasta, and this was a slight miss but only due to me, not the product.

Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers: Asian Potstickers

I stumbled upon these Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers and decided to try it out.

The "steamer" is a little steam basket that holds the potstickers, veggies, and rice above the sauce while the dish is microwaved. Then you mix the food with the sauce when done. It worked pretty well in my work microwave, but I could see the potential to overheat the potstickers.

I was disappointed that the rice was not brown rice - I rarely eat white rice and much prefer brown. The sauce was similar to a thick, gooey Americanized sweet & sour sauce. I added both soy sauce and sriracha to this dish.

Overall, this dish was not great, but not terrible. It was about $2.50 at Super Target, which is not a bad price, though I could get an Amy's frozen burrito for less than that and they would have a little better nutrition than this dish. However, if I just really need something quick and convenient and am in a different city or town, at least there is this option out there.

Vegan Cuts: March 2014

Here is the Vegan Cuts box I got for March! It came just in time - I was about to make a run to the corner store for snacks, and lo and behold, my doorstep was holding a box filled with yummy snacks.

Review:

The OCHO Mini Coconut Candy Bar was definitely the favorite of the box - so sad to only have one bite each for Mr. Coconut and me. But, oh, what a bite it was! Basically a vegan Mounds Bar. Yum!

We also enjoyed the Salt and Vinegar flavored Tortatos -- a corn/potato hybrid chip. The texture was really interesting - hard like a tortilla chip, but had some softness like a potato chip. Yum!

Vigilant Eats cereal was delicious and made for a really great, filling hot breakfast at work.

Explore Asian Soybean noodle soup sounded promising, but Mr. Coconut did not care for it at all. I thought the noodles themselves were pretty good, specially for being gluten-free. I didn't care for the broth too much, but would not be opposed to trying a different variety.

LOCA Diet Root Beer from oogave was actually pretty great for a diet soda.

Earnest Eats Granola Bar was pretty tasty - soft, sweet, and was a filling small snack.

This morning I tried the Raw Protein Powder from Garden of Life -- I put a handful of strawberries & 8-12 ounces (so... 230-340ml) of coconut water and the packet of the protein powder. It was fine, definitely filled me up and kept me from being hungry until lunchtime - a good 4-5 hours.

I have not tried the Roots Superfood Powder yet, but when I do, I'll post a review!

I also got a gift card for Vega -- I wound up getting one single packet each of: Chocolate, French Vanilla, Vanilla Chai, and a Vega Sport electrolyte booster. So far, I've tried the chocolate - just some ricemilk blended with the powder. It was tasty and pretty filling, not chalky like some powders can be. I will also review the other flavors after I tasted them.

Here is a photo of the Vega gifts I received:

Food for Your Face: Dry Winter Skin Edition

Faced with another avocado that went bad (I don't know why but lately I keep forgetting that we have avocado until it's too late) I hit up Google to see if there was another use for old avocados. Lo and behold, face and hair masks came up in more than one search result.

It has been a particularly rough winter - coldest in my lifetime for sure - which has been wreaking havoc on my face, hands, and other skin that gets exposed to the bitter wind chills. (Seriously, Minnesota has experienced 53 days at or below zero degrees F. Fifty-three. Yikes.)

I did a little more research with Google to see what else I can do to help my poor face. I wound up doing a sugar scrub - just sugar and a little water - to exfoliate first. Then I cracked open one of the avocados and spread a bunch of it on my face. I let it sit and absorb into my skin for 10 minutes or so, then gently wiped my face clean with a warm washcloth. I ended with spreading coconut oil all over my face as well. I've been using coconut oil as a hand/cuticle moisturizer for a while now and love it, and have used it on my face as well.

Result: fantastic! My face is soft and supple, not dry and irritated. I am totally going to continue to use up the avocado on my face!

I always wanted to use more food products as face cleansers, and look forward to making different masks I found online.

The Vegg Part 1: Chik'n Tofu

First thing is first: my Magic Bullet broke! NOOOOOoooo!

Second: has it really been four months since my last post. Yikes!

I was able to get a new Magic Bullet from Target, and I might be able to repair my old one. Whew. I finally opened my new bullet today to try out The Vegg - the vegan egg yolk product that has the vegan blogosphere excited. I was able to score a free sample from the kind folks at The Vegg, along with their cookbook. The Vegg is a powdery substance made of nutritional yeast and a few other ingredients that create an egg yolk liquid when blended with water.

Here is the package of the actual powdered Vegg:


And the cookbook:


I decided to try it out with some battered tofu triangles in a chik'n seasoned flour.

I blended up 1tsp of The Vegg powder with 1/4c water in the Magic Bullet. The Vegg transformed into a thick, egg yolk-like substance! Crazy! It tasted very egg-like as well, like a broken yolk on an over easy egg.

I pressed some tofu triangles to get the moisture out, then coated each piece in The Vegg mixture, and then coated in the seasoned flour. Put it all in the toaster oven until the outside was golden brown. I served with BBQ sauce, Goddess Dressing, and zesty steak sauce.

Verdict: The Vegg is fascinating, and I am excited to try it in more dishes. The chik'n tofu was a great snack, the coating of Vegg seemed to make a difference in texture, which is awesome.

Eggplant Fries from Señor Wong

Not the best lighting in a dim bar, but these are some new delicious eggplant fries with vegan cilantro aioli from Señor Wong\ in Downtown St. Paul. They were wonderfully crispy - coated in panko and fried. I am excited to have them again really soon!

Chik'n Dinner with All the Fixin's

Wow. This came out of nowhere!

After a long time of thinking about what to make for dinner, I settled upon some Gardein Scallopini Cutlets. I wanted to try them in the George Foreman Grill.

For sides, I initially wanted brussels sprouts, but found that our frozen ones were waaaay too old and freezer burned, so instead I used mixed frozen veggies. I really wanted gravy, because I always want gravy, and figured some instant mashed potatoes would be a perfect vehicle for that. I also threw together a lemon-butter-parsley sauce for the veggies and chik'n. Finally, some whole cranberry sauce pulled everything together.

Pho Noodle Soup with Tofu

Ack! This week completely escaped me for food blogging!

Hopefully this week I will be more consistent.

This week also marks VegFest Minneapolis 2013! It is coming up already! I will be volunteering at the festival, so come check it out!!!! Lots of fun and food!

OK. So the photo above is a quick soup I threw together. Again, I got major help from the Pacific Vegetarian Pho Soup Base that I added to thinly sliced garlic and onions. I threw in vermicelli rice noodles, then removed from heat and stirred in some "power greens" which was a mix of spinach, baby kale and baby red chard (mainly spinach).

For the tofu: I grilled them on the George Foreman Grill for a bit, then slathered on some quick cilantro-ginger-hot pepper sauce, cut into mini triangles and set on top of the soup.

What can I say? The temperature is dropping here and soup is comforting and fairly easy to make.

Kimchi Soup with Tofu, Shiitake Mushrooms, and Veggies

Confession: I have never had kimchi.

Until now!

It is really common for kimchi to have fish sauce in it, so...not vegan. However, vegan/vegetarian kimchi does exist! I picked up some from Trader Joe's and have been hanging onto it for some time, not sure of what to do with it. Well, tonight it became part of a soup.



I started with some thinly sliced onion and sauteed it in coconut oil until translucent. I added mini sweet bell peppers sliced into strips and thinly sliced garlic - 1-2 cloves. Then some frozen shiitake mushrooms, an entire container of firm silken tofu (the little ones in the aseptic containers). I cubed half the tofu block and just tore the other half into chunks. Then I poured in a bunch of broth - I used Pacific Vegetaria Pho Starter soup base, along with some water and soy sauce. I brought everything to a boil, then turned off the heat and added a handful of baby kale and some cilantro.

This was a pretty easy, tasty soup. I had a ton left over for more than one lunch. I would maybe use a different base if I made this again and I added a lot of spice later on because it was not spicy enough for me.

Pizza Tortilla Wrap with Vegan Ranch Dressing

This wrap came together because I was craving pizza, and then realized I picked up some Yves Meatless Pepperoni the other day from the co-op.



I started with an organic tortilla & spread out some strained tomato sauce that was kicked up with garlic salt, olive oil, & red pepper flakes. I sliced up 2 mini sweet bell peppers and fanned the pieces out on the tortilla. Then a bit of Daiya cheddar shreds, some pieces of torn-up peppered Tofurky deli slices, and then a few of the aforementioned Yves meatless pepperoni. Zapped it in the microwave until the cheese was melted.

I swirled on some "accidentally vegan" ranch dressing I found in the $1 area of Cub Foods for a final touch.



The ingredients of the dressing: water, vegetable oil (soybean oil), modified starch (corn or potato), salt, onion powder, garlic powder, oregano powder, pepper powder, monosodium glutamate, vinegar, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, bht, artificial flavor, caramel color, sucralose, FD&C Yellow No. 5 color. Contains: SOY

It tastes really similar to when I mix some powdered dip mix into Vegenaise. It's pretty good, does a decent job replicating ranch for me.

Masu Sushi & Robata - sushi, drinks, appetizer

Masu Sushi & Robata has made several "best-of" lists since it opened a few years ago. I finally made it out to the NE Mpls location (they have opened a second location at the Mall of America).

Masu is great! They have a separate vegetarian/vegan menu as well as a gluten-free menu.

For an appetizer, I had some vegetable tempura. Delicious! A good mix of squash, eggplant, and other veggies:



Also had a great vegetable sushi roll. I think this was called a firecracker? Had some veggies rolled up with rice and nori, then coated in crushed wasabi peas and some sriracha/hot sauce over the top. Awesome:



I also had a delicious drink and brought home a caterpillar roll (vegan-style) for Mr. Coconut.

Sandwich Saturday - Tofurky Bologna & Vegenaise

Whoops! Fell a little behind this week. Thought I would post a sandwich Mr. Coconut made last week that he insisted I photograph because it looked so nice. It tasted great, too!

Foxy Falafel - Restaurant

After finally making it over to the Foxy Falafel food truck, I knew I had to try out their brick-and-mortar restaurant soon.

I was able to pop in for happy hour with a friend, which features an incredibly exciting $0.25 falafel ball special. That's right, all the falafel balls you could want at a mere twenty-five cents a piece. The happy hour also includes a dollar off most sides and drinks.



We ordered two of each type of falafel (curry, regular, and beet) two sauces (spicy Harissa and green tahini) and a pickle plate.



I ordered the hard lemonade habanero Bellini, while my friend had a mimosa. Yum! I really want to go back and try some of the other dishes, like Harissa potatoes.

Chik'n w. Peppers & Pineapple

I've been imagining this dish for over a week.

I need to get pineapple. I became fixated on getting more pineapple into my life beginning a week and a half ago. At first, juice seemed the best way to incorporate pineapple into my diet. Then canned fruit, frozen, fresh - until I landed on whole, peeled, cored, pineapple at the grocery store. Two, please.

With about three quarters of one pineapple: dice the fruit up into medium-large dice. Add small dice red onion, chopped cilantro. Pineapple salsa.

Gardein Chick'n Scallopini pair nicely with sweet bell peppers, white onions, and brown rice along with the fresh salsa. Finish with a good dose of a chimichurri sauce and some creamy, fresh avocado slices.

Everything about this dish was tasty. The flavors really compliment one another and it was cool to see the flavors in my mind take shape in reality. Mr. Coconut quickly finished his dish and enjoyed it.

I was trying for fancy plating, but it did not turn out quite as I imagined. But it tasted great.

Gardein Breakfast Sandwich

Frozen, two to a package, veggie sausage, English muffin, rice cheez.

These are not great, but my main issue with the product is why Gardein chose to not use Daiya slices for the cheez. The cheez slice that they have is not very appetizing, does not melt very well.

Overall, I had high hopes for these and they fell a little short. Fine for me to keep at work for a quick breakfast or snack when I don't have time to make anything substantial for breakfast.

Silk Iced Latte

Ok. I have waited years...years to have a product like this on the market. Is it a sugary caffeinated mess? Absolutely.

When I was younger I was obsessed with This Stuff. That powdered "International Coffee" was a delicious sugar bomb that I loved.

Bottled Frappuccino? You better believe I drank an obscene amount of those in my day.

Alas...none of those drinks (as well as countless other coffee-based premade beverages) are vegan. I thought I would never be able to enjoy a premade coffee drink again. Until....



I enjoy these immensely. They come in vanilla and mocha, and are way sugary, but I don't mind. I love black coffee for the most part, with an occasional flavored coffee drink, but these just hit my nostalgia zone in a satisfying way. I keep seeing commercials for the Almond Breeze Iced Coffee but have yet to see them in real life.

Food Trucks! Hola Arepa & Red Smoker

This is probably the last time of the season I will be able to get an arepa from Hola Arepa. This time, I got guac on the side, and added some hot sauce.

I also hit up the Red Smoker BBQ food truck and got some vegetarian chili with no dairy. It was made with kidney or pinto beans, and topped with green peppers, onion, cilantro, and cucumbers. Not too bad, I added hot sauce, because I always add hot sauce.

DDOW Thai Coconut Farmer's Market Soup

Part two of this week's Delivered Dish...



From the website:

Thai Coconut Farmers Market Soup (V, Paleo, GF, soy-free, no added sugar) Like a vegetable chowder but with Thai flavors and coconut milk. Simmering it with corn cobs add extra sweetness. Expect some chopped collards or kale.

The soup was great. Nice coconut flavor. It had potatoes, corn, greens (collards?), carrots, and tomatoes. I added some spice because I love spicy food, but other than that I ate the soup as-is. Great as always.

Next week for DDOW: ratatouille and polenta!