Nature's Path Gluten Free Cereals

Vanilla to the max!

I was given two samples of Nature's Path's new gluten free cereals. I have an on and off love affair with breakfast cereals. I'll eat it everyday for weeks and then I'll get sick of it and not eat it for at least a few weeks, if not months. I have been dabbling with eating less gluten and so this offer of free gluten free cereal excited me.

My first taste of both was a dry run, if you will. It was in my car when I picked up my salmonella-poisoned sister from Urgent Care and she thought she should eat something, so we opened them both up. Kim's opinion: Gross. My first, initial, opinion: Meh. But they grew on me! The Whole O's practically have no sweetness to them (actual nutrition facts: 4gm sugar per 2/3 cup...is that much?) and the taste is...off. But the more I ate them, the more I wanted to pop the little spheres in my piehole.

The Crunchy Vanilla Sunrise was a bit better initially. Again, it grew on me. I think I've mentioned before that I am suspicious of vanilla flavor in cereals. It usually comes off as too vanilla-y to me. I ate some of this with plain soymilk and thought it was good but that the vanilla flavor could be kicked down a notch...so I took the flavorless Whole O's and added them to the mix and it was good! It just evened out the vanillaness a bit. I've enjoyed bowls of the merry mix now, it makes a lovely snack or breakfast!

Thank you to Nature's Path for the free boxes of cereal! Thank you for making gluten free products for my celiac friends and for those trying to eat less of gluten!

Helen's Kitchen, Part One

A few months back I noticed Helen's Kitchen products in the freezer of a grocery store I was at and I was intrigued. So I was happy when I heard that they (or a PR person) wanted to send me coupons to try out a couple products. I picked up GardenSteak TofuSteaks and the entree Thai Red Curry. Not all of their products are vegan, so keep that in my mind when purchasing.

The first item I tried was the Thai Red Curry. It's a small entree so, thankfully, I was not completely famished and this filled me up just right. It's all organic, gluten free, gmo free and has 13 grams of protein in it. The red curry sauce was the perfect amount of spice for me (I'm just a bit on the wussy side of spicy). The TofuSteak chunks are extra extra firm and have a nice slight chicken-y flavor (the TofuSteaks come in both regular and "chicken"). The peas and butternut squash in this are tasty as well. I actually really enjoyed this meal, but, honestly, I'm unsure if I'd buy this if choosing a frozen meal. It's mainly because if I'm going to get Thai food, I'm going to head over and pick some awesome to-go at Pad Thai Kitchen. When eating frozen, I tend to go for nonAsian dishes. Just my preference, I guess.

Have any of you tried their stuff? I look forward to trying the TofuSteaks! I love love love firm tofu!

Stuff I ate

This past Friday I was at Sweetpea and Katie told me that some biscuits and gravy were just about to be ready to eat, so I waited patiently and soon I had some pretty Bacon Chedder Biscuits & Gravy in front of me.

or should I say, Bacun Cheder?

That's some Daiya cheese (well, I assume, I wasn't told, but Daiya has a certain shredded look about it, wouldn't you say?) and some Bac'uns on top. It was also in the biscuits themselves. I do so love a white, peppery Southern gravy. I have yet to really be impressed by Daiya cheese. I don't notice a flavor to it and haven't had it on pizza to see meltiness of it. 

These biscuits and gravy were good, but I think I do prefer sausage rather than bacon in my biscuits and gravy. Also, neither the biscuits or the gravy were hot, more like lukewarm. (Note to Katie who may or may not be reading this: don't roll your eyes at me! I love you and Sweetpea!) 

On Saturday I went to Sweetpea, as per usual, with my beloved roommate Missy. They had apple fritters again so I went with that. Missy got the Glazed. We both ogled the Chai Spice.

mmmm....fried dough with apples in it....

Apple fritters are a bit greasier tasting than the regular donuts. They're delicious!

Today I'm hanging out at the New Cascadia, a gluten free bakery in the SE (near the big Goodwill). My friend Leila works there and she told me I needed to come in and try one of the vegan cupcakes she decorated special for Hallow's Eve. So I did. (I take instruction pretty well. Like when Katie told I had to come to Sweetpea on a Wednesday, a day I normally don't go, and she had made Pigs in a Blanket. So much delicious pastry dough that day....)

I chose the chocolate with vanilla frosting. (Other choice being chocolate frosting)

oooo.....a mummy!

The cupcake itself was good. You could still taste the glutenfreeness of it, but as these go, it was good. The cake was moist and the frosting was tasty. The other vegan option had a spiderweb with a spider on it. Leila says she plans on doing a vegan one with a bleeding brain on it as well.

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....

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.