Loaded Potato Skins

Wow. These were a lot of fun to make and even more fun to eat.

I took about 6-7 russets and baked them in the oven until soft, about an hour. I let them cool down until I could easily handle them, and sliced each on in half. I scooped out the insides and set aside in a bowl. I wound up adding Tofutti sour cream, daiya cheddar and daiya mozzarella to the insides along with some butter and homemade bac-os, stirred it all up and scooped it back inside the potatoes. I baked a while longer, added a mix of cheddar and mozz daiya to the tops of the potatoes along with the rest of the bac-os and broiled until the cheese melted. I sprinkled green onions on the tops and devoured.

Here's a close-up of the potatoes:

Amy's Rice Mac and Cheeze

I already reviewed this in my previous post. Here's photo proof of the deliciousness. It's truly creamy, unlike any vegan mac and cheese I've had before.

Yum yum yum. Overpriced? absolutely. Worth it for the delicious convenience.

New Product Reviews: Daiya Cheese, Amy's Mac & Cheese, Rice Cheese Blocks,

So, this is a no-photo post. There is a very good reason for this.

I have found the best vegan cheese ever, and most (all?) of the dishes have resulted in not blog-worthy photos. What is this mysterious "cheese"? Daiya.

Seriously, check out that link. Gluten, soy, dairy free. Yet...delicious. It comes pre-shredded, in mozzarella and cheddar flavors. (At least at my local Saint Paul, MN, Whole Foods.) My chief complaint is that the package is not resealable and forces me to either dump the contents into another zip-top bag or to utilize my chip clips. (There are roughly 3 individuals who are laughing at my chip clips because they know exactly where they are from.)

Mr. Coconut and I have made several quesadillas and added the cheese to various burritos and pasta dishes. Not to mention just dipping the quesadilla slices in spicy taco sauce, awesome salsa and other dips. Yum! Other dishes in the past two weeks that added Daiya cheese: red potato hashbrowns with Daiya; red potatoes thinly sliced with garlic and onion and olive oil -- plus cheese at the end. I know, a bit potato-heavy, but other than quesadillas and potatoes and pasta, the Daiya cheese ran out quickly.

On that note, I also tried the Amy's Non-Dairy Rice Mac & Cheeze. Amy's previously had a "soy cheeze" mac & cheese that was not vegan. They also had a rice macaroni & cheese that was not vegan. However, this new stuff is made with the aforementioned Daiya cheddar. SO AWESOME.

Back story:

I loved making my own mac & cheese, and still love it even as a vegan. I'm a fan of Road's End mac and cheese mixes. I'm also a fan of making my own mac and cheese with nutritional yeast.

Long before I was vegan, I became obsessed with this frozen mac & cheese from Michelina's. It was creamy, dreamy, quick and comforting.

Guess what? The Amy's mac and cheese tasted just like I remembered Michelina's tasted like. Amazing.

Word is that Galactic Pizza an awesome local pizza joint, is using Daiya as its vegan cheese.

Another new product I tried in the past few weeks was the Galaxy Rice Cheddar block of cheese. I've talked about my love of the rice cheddar cheese slices. It's nice to have soy-free selections in the vegan cheese market. The block of cheese shredded finely was pretty good in Tofurky sandwiches after being heated up for 30 seconds. Not nearly as good as Daiya -- like no where near. This stuff is still the most awesome vegan cheese next to Daiya, though.

So now I have more Daiya and I plan on attempting photo-worthy dishes. My main thought is to make the best potato skins ever: baked up russets with sour cream, green onions, Daiya cheese, and -- possibly -- bacooo bits. (I have a plan on making my own Bac-O Bits with some TVP. Maybe, maybe even make some killer twice-baked potatoes, we'll see.

Teese Vegan Cheese Review: Teese Quesadilla

So this is a quesadilla made with Teese cheese (see below for long review and thoughts on this new product). I served it on a sprouted grain tortilla and garnished with cilantro. Green Mountain Gringo was also served with it. GMG is my favorite mass-marketed shelf-stable canned salsa, second only to Salsa Lisa which is a company based right here in Saint Paul. GMG has great flavor to it, and the "hot" is actually REALLY hot. Salsa Lisa always tastes really fresh and is kept in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Salsa Lisa also has a hot flavor I like because it is actually very hot.

The quesadilla wasn't too bad, but overall I don't really care for Teese cheese.

And now a thorough review of Teese:

Teese is a fairly new (though old news by now) vegan cheese. When it first became available to the public, it swept across the vegan food blogosphere like wildfire. It finally came to my local Whole Foods late last year, so we had to try it out.

I've made and tried my fair share of vegan cheeses. There will never be a true replacement for "real" cheese. It's been so long since I've had cheese (over 5 years) that I don't really remember it. What I look for in a vegan cheese is something vaguely reminiscent of what I do remember. I tend to favor homemade or restaurant house-made recipes over the mass-marketed cheeses. The one vegan mass-marketed cheese I like are the rice slices from Galaxy Foods. The mouthfeel mimics the over-processed Kraft singles. My thought is, if you're going to eat something that processed, why not choose the vegan version?

Okay, back to Teese. Word out in the vegan food blogosphere was that Teese melted awesomely and had a great texture, taste, etc. I tried the nacho cheese sauce, the "hard" cheddar, and the mozzarella. The sauce was weird, and I thought pretty gross overall. Of course, I'm spoiled because The Triple Rock, one of my favorite restaurants in Minneapolis for vegan eats, has mastered a vegan nacho cheese sauce which is nutritional yeast based.

I can't remember what we tried the mozz on, but I seem to vaguely recall we put it on a cheeseless pizza from Papa John's or something. It was adequate.

So last, but not least, I made a quesadilla with the cheddar Teese and a sprouted grain tortilla. I placed the tortilla in a warm pan sprayed with some non-stick oil. I shredded a lot of the Teese and placed it on one half of the tortilla and folded the tortilla in half. I cooked it by placing a weight (like a heavy lid) on top of the tortilla itself. I also flipped the whole thing at least once. The Teese got melty, that's for sure. However, it did not stay that way for long.

[I expected this as the thing that makes cheese melty is a milk-derived protein called Casein. A lot of "non-dairy" and "lactose-free" cheese contains this protein and makes it not vegan.]

Unlike the other main mass-marketed cheese available, Follow Your Heart(aka Vegan Gourmet), the Teese solidified into a more plastic texture. It was not very appealing. I also felt that the Teese did not stay in it's melted state for very long, at least it was a much shorter time than FYH. The texture & overall mouthfeel in Teese's melted state was pretty good, and I would say even better than FYH. Teese is interesting because it didn't disintegrate and morph into a pool of oil if heated too much, which is a major downside of FYH. Again, I couldn't get over how...plastic...it was. When bits of cheese fell out of the tortilla and onto the hot pan, it never turned to oil, it just became crispy and strangely plastic-like.

Overall, it wasn't too bad. I don't think I will be dropping that much money (something like $6-9 USD per what I believe are 10oz tubes). Those tubes are also a great disappointment compared to the resealable package offered by FYH. I'll stick to homemade stuff and my occasional indulgence of the rice-based single slices.

Eggplant Sandwich with Tomato and Cheez on Wheat Toast

The title says it all. I've been rather infatuated with these frozen eggplant cutlets from Dominex. They are vegan, pre-breaded, frozen eggplant cutlets. Great to add to pizza, pasta, make your own sandwiches, or baked with onions and garlic.

So, for this concoction, I toasted up some bread, pan-fried the eggplant cutlets with olive oil, then assembled a sandwich adding sliced tomatoes and a piece of Tofutti cheese. Pretty delicious.

Mac and Chreese with Spinach and Broccoli

The mac and chreese is from Road's End Organics, which has been mentioned a few times before.

This time around, it was shells and chreese, and for the side dish I sautéed spinach and steamed up some broccoli. I flavored the side dish with some lemon pepper and olive oil. It's simple and delicious, a common theme on my food blog, if you haven't noticed.

Motherbiker - The Triple Rock Breakfast

This is a breakfast masterpiece. Herbed tofu scramble mixed with veggie sausage is on top of a layer of homefries and smothered in vegan nacho cheese. Served with wheat toast. Giant portion, feeds me all day long, and into the following day.

Another picture:



Delicious.

Lentil Sage Field Roast Grain "Meat" Sandwich with Carrots

Well today I wanted to start what I'm sure will not continue for more than two days: blogging daily all the food I consume, even the boring foods. This may or may not force me to eat more healthy and/or be far too large of a task to keep up with, but since it's summer I decided to give it a go.

Of course, I started off with a bang by craving and creating this lovely sandwich this morning for breakfast. A sandwich consisting of Lentil Sage flavored Field Roast Grain "Meat," which I enjoy because it's a nice alternative to the soy deli meats. Field Roast is made from vital wheat gluten, which sounds gross but it is that protein which gives us seitan and more importantly, mock duck.

This sandwich consists of 3 pieces of said grain "meat," a few slices of tomato, some baby spinach, mustard and a piece of Galaxy Nutritional Foods' Rice Vegan Cheddar "Cheese," again a nice change from all-soy "cheeses."

I also enjoyed some baby carrots on the side, as well as throughout today. Sometime after the carrots, I had a Primal Strip in Thai Peanut flavor. I like these as a quick snack that fills me up and doesn't lead to mindless snacking.

So that's the food so far today. Plus lots of water and about one 8oz cup of coffee.

Pizza Luce Brunch - Breakfast Burrito, Hashbrowns, "Cheese" Toast

Pizza Luce brunch, once again!



I finally had the breakfast burrito, which is the last vegan item on the brunch menu that I had not tried. It was very tasty! It's scrambled tofu with peppers, onions, black beans, veggie sausage and soy cheese wrapped in a tortilla and smothered in quinto sauce (tasted like enchilade sauce sort of) and pico de gallo and more soy cheese. It's served on top of jalapeño hashbrowns and a side of salsa. I also had a side of their awesome vegan hollandaise sauce because it's great with everything.

Axel ordered their vegan cheese toast with soy cheese (they use Follow Your Heart mozzarella) as well as jalapeño hashbrowns with a side of the vegan hollandaise.

Nachos!

These are just nachos made with TVP "beef," though I hydrated the TVP with water mized with taco seasoning to give even MORE taco flavor. I also sauteed half an onion before tossing the TVP in the pan to give more flavor. Then I spooned the "beef" over a small pan of nacho chips which was on top of foil for easy clean up and transportation. I shredded a lot of Follow Your Heart mozzarella on top, and broiled it in the toaster oven until the "cheese" melted a bit.

It wasn't too bad, needed something more, like salsa or nacho cheese dip.