Butter Pee-can

I came across Soy Dream's new flavor, Butter Pecan, at Fred Meyer's tonight and I was feeling old (have you ever heard a 5 year old ask for some Butter Pecan ice cream? I didn't think so...), so I bought some. My sister, our housemate Helena and I usually watch the new episode of Greek on Tuesday nights together, so I thought ice cream (I mean, non dairy frozen dessert*) would be a nice accompaniment. Helena was missing, but Kim and I dug into the pint of Butter Pecan. We thought it was good, especially when you had a lot of pecan pieces, but it wasn't great. I don't think it's something I would buy again unless it was very on sale. It's just that with the greatness of Trader Joe's/Double Rainbow Soy Very Cherry Chip, you feel ripped off when something else you bought just doesn't make you as swoony. It makes me wish they had more flavors at Trader Joe's. The problem with the Butter Pecan was the soybeany aftertaste and the ice cream didn't have the luscious creaminess that Double Rainbow's has. 

I give this 3 out of 5 stars.

* Did you know that in America, your product has to be at least 10% milk fat for it to be legally called "ice cream"? Stupid. To me, that's like saying you can't call a vegan sausage a sausage because it doesn't have real meat in it. I've encountered people who have gotten up in arms about the ice cream thing (I'm talking to you, commenter dude, on Grant Butler's vegan blog!). I sorta get it because you want ice cream to mean literally iced cream...but no. Actually, I don't get it. As long as it's labeled correctly, with either "non dairy" or "vegan" before the words "ice cream", why does it matter? Those words describe what it is, or trying to be. "Frozen dessert" could be anything; push pops, fudge pops, creamsicles....Ok, rant over...

Trader Joe's Soy Creamy

It's organic, it's vegan, it's about $3.50 for a quart (or whatever that size is that's bigger than a pint), it goes well with fruit. I've been a big fan of the Very Cherry Chip (i don't remember the exact name ever) flavor, but had never done the plain vanilla before. I think i had intended it for something-or-another, but i had gotten a big thing of strawberries from Uncle Paul's for only 99 cents and had cut them up and thought, gee, that would go well with vanilla ice cream. And i was right. I also had gotten some cheap mangos from Uncle Paul's and that was like a party in my mouth, it was so good! The other day i didn't have any fruit and just ate the ice cream plain and it was....not the best. It was ok and it was do-able, but the flavor was definitely soy-y. Does anyone know if any of the vegan ice cream makers makes a "vanilla bean" flavor? I don't think i've seen it yet and i would think the beans would make a difference when it comes to covering up the soy taste. Turtle Mountain does have a Vanilla Bean in their coconut milk ice cream line....

I'm currently jobless, so if anyone knows of any jobs out there that i would be qualified for (i have medical clinic, restaurant, and natural food store experience),  please let me know!

Ice Cream!!!!

We all scream for it, don't we?

Recently I had the chance to pick some flavors out from the Turtle Mountain company and give them a try. I had had some before so I knew they weren't going to suck. Here's a list of the flavors some friends and I tucked into:

Snickerdoodle- this has a nice cinnamon flavored ice cream with bits of snickerdoodle cookie dough. I didn't like the cookie dough part. Partly because I'm still cookie doughed out from when cookie dough was popular when i was a young teen, and partly because it tasted like i was eating small balls of brown sugar...weird......My other friends that tried it and loved it, so apparently I'm the only one that disapproves of the dough...

Coconut Craze- this is one of my favorites. The ice cream is just damn straight delicious. I believe I've already spoke my love of this flavor before here. 

Turtle Trails- caramel sauce and praline pecans in vanilla ice cream. I thought I would fall for this flavor completely. I didn't. Not that's bad. I would just buy other flavors before I would buy this one.

Peanut Butter Zig Zag- I don't think I like peanut butter in my ice cream. A friend of mine and his 8 year daughter love this stuff and helped polish off the pint. 

And I also tried some of their new Coconut Milk line as well. These aren't totally soy free (they use soy lecithin and other soy products depending on the flavor), but for those looking for a little less soy in their life, it's great. The flavors:

Cookie Dough- I liked everything about this flavor except for the dough part. I loved the ice cream flavor and texture and the chocolate chips, but I ate around the balls of cookie dough. I'm just so not into frozen balls of dough....which is sad, because this ice cream is good.

Chocolate- good, i would like to make a banana chocolate milk shake with these. Sip has probably already done that.

Coconut- this is probably my favorite coconut ice cream I've had. A lot of people like the Coconut Bliss brand and though it's not bad, it doesn't have the creaminess I look for in an ice cream. 

I've also previously tried the Blueberry Cheesecake and Cookie Avalanche. The Cookie Avalanche is a cookies-n-cream flavor that I really like. It nostalgia from my days back in high school when that was my favorite flavor. I love the idea of the Blueberry Cheesecake, but it didn't quite do it for me. The chunks of crust are very dough-like....meaning I'd rather they weren't there. Also, I'm not a huge fan of blueberries in food except for scones and muffins. Oh, and beer. That's food, right? I once heard it called "liquid bread." 

Oh, also the Blueberry Cheesecake is gluten-free for all you gluten-free peeps out there.

Sorry, this is pictureless, I forgot....

another ice cream rave....

UPDATE: Trader Joe's now sells this as their own brand, still the same ice cream, but cuter packaging..

i don't think i've talked about this ice cream yet. i'm starting to lose track of what ice cream i have blogged about and, of course, i'm too lazy to look it up.
This here is the Double Rainbow Very Cherry Chip that seems to only be sold at Trader Joe's in these here parts. I think it's $3 something? all's i know is that it's cheap in comparison with the pints you can buy (this is the bigger "pint"...a quart, right?).
so this stuff reminds me of when my dad and i used to drive near our house to a drive-through Farm Store (pretty much a convenient store that has their own brand of ice cream) and he would buy the Cherry Vanilla 1/2 gallon. But this here stuff has chocolate bits in it, which makes it even better. also there's no animal products in it, so less guilt for me (the dairy industry is a bitch, in case you didn't know. Read Meat Market or The Food Revolution to find out what i'm talking about) so i can truely enjoy the ice cream. the ice cream itself is of the most love-a-lee consistency. almost chewy. which sounds gross, i know, but you'll have to try it to know what i'm talking about. then there's the dark cherry halves that are delicious and makes you eat more ice cream than you intended (because i don't scoop out into a dish, i eat out of the container, b/c heck, i live alone, i can drink straight out of a carton if i want to...and the less dishes the better) because you're digging around trying to find more cherry halves...
go get you some!

Blossoming Lotus Ice Cream

It must be summer, i'm doing another post about ice cream. This isn't something you can buy anywhere. This is pretty much a restaurant review, but i don't care. Blossoming Lotus is a all vegan organic restuarant here in Portland (though the original restaurant is in hawaii somewheres). It's inside a yoga studio in the Pearl district and they serve vegan soft serve. my gosh, it's a delight! They only have one flavor at a time and it's not surprising when you get there and they're out or the machine's not working. It's $1 for 2 oz which is just right in terms of size. It's unbelievably rich and creamy for vegan ice cream. The flavors they've had:

Chai- i haven't had this but i want to hella bad (yes, i used the word "hella"...)
UPDATE 8-11-07: i tried their Chai today(this is what is pictured above). there was some flavor in it i was totally not liking. kinda like anise or black licorce. my sister disagreed with that assessment and really liked it and said that it tasted like real Chai tea (as in not like Oregon Chai).

Chocolate- yum

Vanilla Bean- at events they usually serve this with chocolate chips and hazelnut pieces and it's so good!

Orangesicle- they called it something else, i normally don't like this flavor but it really grew on me when i had it the second day in a row

Raspberry- i don't like this flavor in anything i eat, but i tried my friends in it was more like a *hint* of raspberry and it wasn't so bad, tasted more like vanilla ice cream with taste of berry

Strawberry-Kiwi- or something, i don't know, it was a mix of fruit and it was weird and i didn't care for it...i don't really like when they have berry flavors b/c really i could go to any gelato place around here and have one of their vegan flavors, which is always fruit.

Banana Nut- tasted like Banana Bread and it was delicious.

Chocolate Cherry- chocolate, which is always good, with a hint of cherry.

Vanilla Almond- good, but i prefer the pure Vanilla Bean


My sister and i really wish they would do 2 things:
1. open an only soft serve place in the SE
2. get a machine that can do 2 flavors, with chocolate all the time (also so you could swirl!)

if you're in Portland, go get you some!

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, and it tastes good!

This blog is just all about vegan items that are out there. Keep eating wholesome fruits and veggies, etc, but don't ignore all the yummy stuff now available to us vegans or near-vegans. I will be "reviewing" everything and will give my opinion on it. Feel free to give your own opinion. Also let me know if you have any suggestions.



First up, Good Karma Carrot Cake Rice Dream. I was really surprised when i first tasted this. Gluten free usually = not tasty in the past (and present). This actually tastes like pumpkin pie ice cream with little bites of carrot cake mixed in. I'm not someone that has to eat gluten free, but i know some people that do and i really feel for them. Their choices are slim and they usually taste blah and/or gritty.

Good Karma comes in some other flavors such as Mudd Pie, Coconut Mango, Very Vanilla, Mint Chocolate Swirl, Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl, and Banana Fudge. Mudd Pie is the only other one i've tried. It was pretty good, but i like the Carrot Cake better.