Bianca Phillips's Blog, page 157

Abundance Diet, Days 4-7

I'm back! And I'm still on this 28-day Abundance Diet, using recipes from Somer McCowan's The Abundance Diet cookbook. It's a whole foods-based, gluten-free, sugar-free plan that's perfect for my annual January cleanse.

I'm following the meal plan included in the book, and as I mentioned in my last post on Wednesday night, the plan includes leftovers. So on Thursday, Day 4, I pretty much ate the same stuff I ate on Monday — tropical colada green smoothie, falafel salad with quinoa tabbouleh, quinoa minestrone, spinach & artichoke dip, and tofu & veggie stir-fry.

But I did try one new thing from the book on Thursday. I had the Ultra Green Juice right upon waking, before doing my morning yoga. I changed a few things based on the produce that I had in my fridge, but this had pear, celery, cucumber, bok choy, spinach, parsley, lemon, and lime. Really yummy and such a lovely shade of green! Tasted even better in my awesome Memphis Grizzlies Choose 901 glass.


On Friday, I had leftovers of what I ate on Tuesday — razzleberry lemonade green smoothie, Greek chopped chickpea salad, white bean & kale stew, oil-free hummus, and Mexican casserole. But on Friday night, I had my first dessert on the cleanse! Somer's plan includes two desserts a week, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. But I'd rather have my desserts on Fridays and Saturdays because those are the nights I consider to be the real weekend nights, and they're the nights that, when I'm not cleansing, I'm usually imbibing. So having dessert on those nights make not having a glass of wine or beer more tolerable (note: I will be having some wine throughout the cleanse, but I'm saving that for special occasions). 
Anyway, about that dessert. On Friday night, I made Somer's super-yummy No Bake, No Stovetop Cookie Bites. These are like the raw version of Mississippi Mud Cookies. They're made with a base of cashews, dates, and cocoa powder, and they're flecked with carob chips (Somer's recipe calls for dark chocolate chips, but I didn't have any all-natural, cleanse-friendly ones. Plus, I love carob!). I'll definitely be making these again after the cleanse. They'd be perfect pre-workout snacks. By the way, Somer has published the recipe online here. You need to make these!

Weekends on the Abundance Diet call for solid breakfasts! Every weekday, I've been drinking green smoothies, which are awesome because I love smoothies. But sometimes, I like to chew in the mornings. And I finally got to do that on Saturday morning with this Florentine Tofu Scramble, made with fire-roasted tomatoes, spinach, and scallions. I ate two servings! So good.

The rest of Saturday's meals were the same as Wednesday's meals — vegan egg salad, laksa with rice noodles and tofu, cucumber tzatzki with steamed veggies, and cauliflower & potato bake. But I did get another dessert on Saturday night. This Applesauce Snack Cake cured the cake craving that's been brewing these last couple days. This is an oil-free, sugar-free, gluten-free cake, so it wasn't quite the same as one of Cassi's buttercream-topped Pink Diva cupcakes. But it was still warm and fluffy and cake-y. It was date-sweetened (yes!) and stevia-sweetened (which is a flavor I'm still not used to in baked goods). For some reason, I love stevia in tea and smoothies, but it's not my favorite thing in baked sweets. 

By the way, I don't think I've mentioned yet that my co-worker Susan is doing this cleanse too! So I was able to halve the dessert recipes and split them with her. Teamwork! I definitely need help eating them since the desserts don't repeat as leftovers on the cleanse.
Sunday morning meant another solid breakfast — Chocolate Buttermilk Pancakes! These were also gluten-free, sugar-free, and oil-free, but I couldn't tell as much with these. In fact, I could barely tell they were gluten-free. Maybe the thin-ness makes a difference in the concentration of that gluten-free flour taste? Whatever it was, these were delicious. I used maple syrup to sweeten, and I served these with bananas.

I still plan to eat out a few times throughout the month, while I'm on my cleanse. But when I do, I want to do my best to stay within the parameters of the cleanse. Every Sunday, my friends and I brunch at Imagine Vegan Cafe, so I kept that plan going today. We usually meet around 11:30. The pancakes held me over until about 11, and then I was hungry again. Just in time for brunch.
Imagine's menu is heavy on plant meals and indulgent fried stuff, which is typically what I order there. But there are a few menu items that are on the healthier side. So I opted for a couple of those — Vegetable Soup.

And a Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Not oil-free of course! But that's fine with me. I'm not really sticking to the oil-free/low-oil thing as part of my cleanse. It just so happens that the recipes in the book are low-oil or oil-free. But I'm fine with having oil throughout the month. The soup, which was loaded with garlic, really hit the spot on this cold January day.
The rest of Sunday was another repeat of Thursday and Monday's meals. But tomorrow, there's a whole new line-up of food! Can't wait!

Abundance Diet, Day 3!

It's the third day of my 28-day commitment to eat a whole foods-based diet free of processed foods, gluten, and white sugar. I'm using Somer McCowan's meal plan from The Abundance Diet , and if you've been following along, you know that "abundant" is the right word for it. SO. MUCH. FOOD.

I started Day 3 with another 4-mile run, so I had a little almond butter-stuffed date upon waking to fuel me through. I don't need much before my short morning runs because I literally wake up, feed the fur babies, throw on running clothes, and head out the door. After my run, it was green smoothie time. Today's smoothie was the ChocoNana Green Smoothie, and it was HUGE. It literally made enough for two pint glass-sized smoothies.


This recipe called for not one, but TWO bananas. I considered just using one anyway because I've never made a smoothie with two bananas. But I knew it was going to be an active day (with my morning run and a scheduled Cardio Hoop Fit class after work), and I figured I'd need the calories. This also has almond-coconut milk, cocoa powder, and spinach. I also added a scoop of Vega One Chocolate protein powder since I ran this morning.
That smoothie was pretty filling, so I wasn't super-hungry for my first lunch at 11 a.m. But I wanted to stay on schedule, so I had this Vegan Egg Salad with Cheesy Gluten-Free Crackers anyway.

Vegan egg salads are one of my favorite foods! And this was one did not disappoint. It was sort of an egg salad/potato salad hybrid. The base was a mashed, boiled potato, and cubed tofu is folded in. The creaminess comes from homemade cashew sour cream, and there's black salt for eggy flavor. 
The cheesy gluten-free crackers are like homemade cheeze-its! I didn't get nearly as many from one recipe as Somer suggests I should in the book. She says the recipe makes about 100, and I got 64. But nonetheless, these were tasty and crispy. It's only day three, but I do kinda miss crackers already. And I've got an unopened box of Earth Balance vegan cheddar crackers just waiting for February so I can bust them open. But for now, these much healthier ones will do.
The egg salad wasn't too filling, so I was ready for second lunch at 1 p.m. This Lightened-Up Laksa was sooooo good.

It's a Malaysian soup made with coconut milk, peanuts, red curry paste, baked tofu, noodles (I used brown rice maifun even though the recipe called for bean thread noodles), carrots, bok choy, and cabbage. I'm such a fan of anything with coconut milk, and this hit the spot. Because it called for lite coconut milk and only two tablespoons of peanuts, the meal was really light even though it looks (and tasted) decadent.
My afternoon snack was Cucumber Tzatziki with Steamed Vegetables. I had this at home around 5 p.m. before my cardio hula-hooping class.

The base is Somer's homemade cashew sour cream, which is used in a ton of her recipes. The cream tastes like sour cream, but it has more of a yogurty consistency, so it was perfect for this recipe. It's so well-seasoned with garlic, dill, and mint that it tastes fantastic. 
After Hoop Fit, I came home and heated up some of the Cheesy Potato & Cauliflower Casserole in the microwave. I baked it last night so it'd be ready when I got home from class because I knew it'd be a late night.

For this, potatoes and cauliflower are coated in a homemade cashew cheddar sauce and then baked in the oven for about 45 minutes. The sauce gets very thick and coats the veggies in this awesome orange-ness. It made for a hearty, warming dinner on yet another cold January night.
I typically blog every Sunday through Thursday, but I may skip tomorrow night because, beginning tomorrow, my meals repeat every day through Sunday. Tomorrow's food line-up is exactly the same as Monday's line-up. I love this because it means using up leftovers. But there will be a few exciting new things over the weekend — solid breakfasts, healthy desserts. So I'll check back in on Sunday!

The Abundance Diet, Day 2!

In case you missed yesterday's post, I'm doing Somer McCowan's 28-day meal plan from her book  The Abundance Diet for my annual January cleanse. And by "cleanse," I just mean I'm eating whole foods for the month, and I'm cutting out gluten, white sugar, and processed food. That's basically Somer's plan in a nutshell, and it goes right along with my style of a clean eating "detox."

I'm also doing Yoga With Adriene's new 30-day Yoga Camp throughout the month (and likely through February). If you don't know about Yoga with Adriene, you must check it out! Adriene is this cool vegetarian chick from Texas who makes the best free yoga videos, and she just launched a 30-day yoga camp. Since I run three days a week, I'm not doing the yoga camp daily. I just don't have time to run for an hour and do yoga for an hour before work. But I'm doing yoga on non-running days like today. So before I launched into Day One of Yoga Camp, I made this quick and easy Chia Limemade from The Abundance Diet.


The picture is a little shadowy because it was 6 a.m. and still dark outside, so I was working with my kitchen light only. But this drink of fresh lime juice, water, stevia, and chia seeds was really refreshing after waking up all parched. I made it the night before, so the chia seeds gelled up nicely. This wasn't on the 28-day meal plan but rather from The Abundance Diet's optional juice fast chapter. I'm not doing a juice fast this time, but I will work some juices in as pre-yoga snacks throughout the month.
After yoga, it was time for my green smoothie. There's a green smoothie every weekday on the Abundance Diet. Today's Razzleberry Lemonade Green Smoothie doesn't look all that green, but it's loaded with two cups of kale. Also, there's mixed frozen berries, banana, and lemon. 

Every day for lunch, you get a soup and a salad. But the portions are quite large (but still remarkably low-cal), so I'm splitting this up each day into Lunch #1 and Lunch #2. I'm basically a hobbit. 
Lunch #1 was this Greek Chickpea Chopped Salad with tofu feta, balsamic vinaigrette, kalamata olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onion. The flavor was amazing. LOVE anything with tofu feta! I had this around 10:30 a.m. because why not? I get two lunches!

That was a very hearty salad, and it definitely would have sufficed as a stand-alone lunch. But I wasn't too stuffed for my 1 p.m. second lunch of Creamy White Bean, Kale, & Potato Stew with Mushroom Sausage. This creamy stew is made with mushrooms that are seasoned with sausage spices, like fennel and red pepper flakes. And there's potato, kale, and white beans. It's all thickened with a cashew cream. I could eat this all week honestly. So creamy and delicious. I'm halving all the recipes so I'll have this one more time, but I wish I had made extra to freeze for later.

My snack was Oil-Free Olive Hummus with steamed veggies. I'm usually a big fan of oil, but Somer's plan is low-oil. And this hummus is really just fine without the oil. The olives are listed as one of the variations of the recipe in the book, and they were a little oily since I used kalamata. So it definitely wasn't a totally fat-free hummus, but it's lighter than what I'm used to. 

Dinner was another hearty meal. Here's the Mexican Homestyle Casserole with black beans, brown rice, corn, bell pepper, tomatoes, and a homemade cashew cheddar sauce. It's topped with Somer's cashew sour cream. Definitely hit the spot on this cold evening. The cashew cheese flavor is phenomenal, and it gets all thick and creamy in the oven.

That's it for day two! I just spent three hours in the kitchen prepping all the meals for tomorrow, and I cannot wait to eat them! There's a LOT of prep a few days a week on this diet, but after tomorrow, the meals will start to repeat for a few days to make use of leftovers. So I'll get a break from the kitchen.

The Abundance Diet, Day 1!

It's January, and you know what that means? Cleanse time! Or, more technically, "eating habit reset time" (but that doesn't have the same ring to it). Every January, I do a three- or four-week cleanse, usually based off a meal plan from one of the many healthy eating cookbooks on my shelf.

I've done the Crazy Sexy Diet a couple times and an earlier version of it called the Adventure Cleanse Tune-Up. I did the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine's 21-Day Kickstart one year, and I did Thrive Forward a couple years back. Last year, I did Gena Hamshaw's meal plan in her Choosing Raw cookbook. This year, I'm using Somer McCowan's The Abundance Diet cookbook! I received the book to review months ago, and after flipping through, I knew it'd be perfect to save for my annual detox.

One note: Although I'm calling this a cleanse, I don't actually believe my liver is going to magically rid itself of toxins and my body is going to become some alkaline palace, resistant to disease. For me, a cleanse is more about resetting the mind and the way I look at food. After pigging out over the holidays, my body is craving veggies. And these annual cleanses are the kickstart I need to get some healthy eating habits back.

Each day, I'll share what I ate from Somer's meal plan. Her plan is totally vegan (of course) and free of gluten, white sugar, and processed foods. I'm also cutting way back on booze, though I may allow myself some red wine on a few special occasions this month (red wine is basically fruit, right?). I am continuing to have coffee and tea daily though, because I learned a few cleanses ago that I do not do well without coffee.

Due to an unfortunate printing error, the 28-day menu plan was mistakenly left out of The Abundance Diet. But the meal plans are available online here!

Okay, now onto the food! I started the morning with a 4-mile run in the cold, so I snacked on an almond butter-stuffed date for fuel. Dates make the best pre-run snacks for hop-out-of-bed-and-onto-the-street runs. After my run, I had this Tropical Colada Green Smoothie.


Each day (except for weekends) on the Abundance Diet begins with a green smoothie. This one was loaded with almond-coconut milk, banana, orange, pineapple, and coconut flakes. I added a scoop of Manitoba Harvest Hemp Pro70 vanilla protein powder since I like to have lots of protein for post-run muscle recovery. This was creamy and tropical and delicious. 
The meal plan is structured into five meals a day (and six counting dessert on weekends). There's a breakfast, salad, soup, snack, and dinner every day. So around 11 a.m., I had my "first lunch" of this Falafel Salad with Quinoa Tabbouleh and Tahini Cream Dressing.

Falafel balls made with chickpea flour, onion, and herbs are baked in the oven and served atop a salad of quinoa tabbouleh, red onions, and red leaf lettuce. It's all coated in an oil-free tahini dressing that's just to die for. Somer's book isn't totally oil-free, but it's definitely low-oil. Just so y'all know, I'm not against oil for any reason. Love oil! I'm just trying to eat lighter for a few weeks.
That salad was very filling, but I also had soup to get to. I wasn't even that hungry around 1 p.m. when I pulled this Quinoa Minestrone out of the breakroom fridge, but I knew if I didn't eat it then, I wouldn't be able to eat my snack later in time to be hungry for dinner. So much food! Abundance Diet is a good name for it.

Even though I wasn't really hungry, I wasn't super-stuffed before I ate this soup either. And I realized about mid-way through the bowl of veggie-filled soup that the portion was actually just right. This was probably my favorite meal of the day. It's a super flavorful soup with quinoa, carrots, green beans, spinach, tomatoes, and kidney beans. Perfect for this blustery cold day.
Around 4 p.m., it was snack time! I sat at my desk and worked on writing a quick news story while munching on this Hot Spinach & Artichoke Dip with steamed veggies. Wow!! I've made some low-fat spinach dips before that were just okay, but this one was fantastic. It has a cashew base, and it's topped with homemade cashew mozzarella that gets melty in the oven. I reheated it in the office microwave, and the cheese melted all over again. Dreamy.

It's a good thing I had a snack packed because, by the time I finished cooking dinner, it was 6:30. I had a few things to get done around the house right after work, so I got a late start cooking. But that's okay because my snack tided me over just fine. Dinner was this hearty bowl of Roasted Tofu & Vegetable Stir-Fry with Garlic-Ginger Sauce.

Firm tofu is coated in Bragg's (I actually used shoyu) and baked in the oven while veggies — broccoli, snap peas, carrots, bell pepper, zucchini, and squash — are sauteed in a little water on the stovetop. It's all coated in a garlicky, gingery sauce that's thickened with cornstarch. Like Chinese takeout but way healthier. Also, the recipe didn't call for any grain. I considered adding some brown rice, but when I saw how many veggies were in a serving, I figured that was plenty of food. And it was! It's 10:30 p.m. now, and I still feel satisfied.
Loving this diet so far! It has me basically eating ALL DAY, which is kind of my dream come true. 

The Last Supper!

Happy New Year!! This is my last post before I embark on a 28-day detox diet, so I wanted to share some meals I enjoyed over the weekend. My last suppers (and brunches!), if you will. Beginning Monday, I'll be following Somer McCowan's Abundance Diet from her cookbook of the same name.

It's a clean-eating plan with green smoothies for breakfast, salads and soups for lunch, healthy snacks, and wholesome dinners. There's no gluten, no white sugar, and no processed food. I have nothing against those things of course, but every year in January, I like to adopt a temporary super-clean diet to get my eating habits back on track after the holiday indulgences. But here are a few last indulgences enjoyed over my last weekend before the cleanse.

For New Years Eve, we went to my friend Andy's house party. I had LOTS of vegan pigs in blankets, vegan cream cheese & chili dip with Scoops, and plenty of booze. Here I am with my friends Nicole, Pam, and Sheila. There was champagne in that red solo cup because I'm a classy lady.


Four years ago, my friend Greg and I decided to start a new New Years Day tradition of having Banh Xeo for lunch. They make amazing tofu-stuffed Vietnamese omelets (banh xeo) at Pho Saigon, so that's where we go every year. A couple years ago, we asked Cassi to join us for our tradition. Well, Greg moved to Indiana last year, so Cassi and I kept the tradition going without him on Friday at lunch. These crunchy, greasy omelets are made with rice flour and stuffed with deep-fried tofu and bean sprouts. So good. Perfect for New Years Day hangovers.

Like a good Southern girl, I simply cannot let a New Years Day go by without my good luck foods — black-eyed peas and greens. Eating these on New Years Day is believed to bring luck and good fortune throughout the new year. This year, for New Years dinner, I tweaked the Hoppin' John recipe in Cookin' Crunk to use Tofurky Italian Sausages instead of my usual sauteed Gimme Lean. This also has brown rice, cabbage, and black-eyed peas. Also, lots of hot sauce.

Finally, this morning, I had my very last indulgent meal for the next 28 days. I wanted to make it extra special, so I went to brunch at Imagine Vegan Cafe with my friends and ordered the Vegan Philly Cheesesteak with Mushrooms & Onions. On the side are French Fries with Garlic Aioli. This was the PERFECT last pre-cleanse meal since I can't have any of this on the cleanse. It was all carbs and fried stuff and processed foods. And I loved every bite.

All of that food and booze this weekend was great! But I purposefully over-did it a bit just so I'd be good and ready for my cleanse to start. And to be honest, I cannot wait to eat clean for 28 days!! Looking forward to tomorrow's breakfast green smoothie. I'll be back tomorrow night with a recap from day one on the Abundance Diet.

Stuff I Ate in December!

I've been trying to wrap up my vegan product reviews over the last couple weeks, so I've neglected to do any random "stuff I ate" photo dumps. Beginning January 4th, I'll be embarking on the 28-day Abundance Diet from Somer McCowan's cookbook. So with my reviews caught up, it's time for a photo dump. Here's everything I've eaten in December that I haven't already shown you in another blog post.

Inspired by the so-not-vegan Turducken (I think that's a duck stuffed into a turkey or something), my friend Cassi of Pink Diva Cupcakery created vegan Piecaken to sell in her shop. This was a mini cherry pie stuffed inside a chocolate cupcake. YES! She used a vegan whipped topping since the pie-cake was a little on the heavy side.


She's started a new women's-only event at Pink Diva called Cupcakes, Cocktails, & Cursing. It's basically a bitch sesh with cupcakes and wine. I went to the first event, and she had these Mini Champagne Cupcakes.

Speaking of weird things Cassi is recreating at Pink Diva, she's also veganized the Phorito — a Vietnamese-style burrito with hoisin tofu, noodles, & mint.

Other meals I've eaten at Pink Diva lately have included the Veggie Pasta, which is loaded with tempeh, kale, carrots, zucchini, and mushrooms.

And BBQ Tofu plate with Vegan Mac & Cheese and Avocado-Kale Salad. She uses an awesome mustard-based BBQ sauce for the fried tofu, and it's just the bee's knees.

I also got this yummy brunch plate for lunch one day. She only serves brunch on Saturdays, but I made a special request and got it on a Thursday. Pancakes, Vegan Sausage, & Hash Browns.

While we're on the topic of vegan restaurant meals, here are some I had at my home away from home Imagine Vegan Cafe. This Vegan Steak Quesadilla is one of my favorite meals on the menu! It's loaded with Gardein beefless tips, vegan cheese, and sauteed peppers and onions.

I'm trying to eat as much fried food as possible before my cleanse, and this Fried Eggplant Parm dish from Imagine hit the spot. Slices of fried eggplant are topped with marinara and a house-made vegan white cheese sauce. Served with the BEST GARLIC BREAD EVER (because they basically soak it in Earth Balance).

I wish you could see inside this Breakfast Burrito from Imagine cause it was stuffed with goodness — tofu scram, vegan sausage, vegan cheese, salsa, and guac for topping. I had two hash brown patties on the side because two hash browns are better than one.

This is a crappy photo of the Reuben from Imagine, but trust me — it was delicious. Thinly sliced vegan salami with lots of kraut and homemade Thousand Island dressing. I had mac & cheese on the side.

Speaking of mac & cheese, I recently spruced up some So Delicious boxed Pizza Mac by adding Match Meat Italian Sausage. Tasted like pizza and mac & cheese at the same time. MAGIC!

Mmmmm ... these So Delicious Peppermint Star ice cream bars are so creamy and pepperminty. Tastes like the holidays!!

On Tuesday, we had our monthly Vegan Drinks meetup at Pyro's Fire Fresh Pizza, a build-your-own pizza place with vegan options. They use Follow Your Heart vegan cheese and place it on the pizza in cubes. It's different, but I like it! Reminds me of those margarita pizzas with the blobs of mozzarella. My pie had a base of BBQ sauce, and I added vegan cheese, roasted mushrooms, roasted broccoli, caramelized onions, black olives, banana peppers, roasted bell peppers, and roasted garlic.

I've shown this sandwich on the blog a number of times, but I had one again, so here's another. It's the Bianca Banh Mi (yes, named after yours truly!) from Midtown Crossing Grill. It's a tofu banh mi with hummus, and it's DELICIOUS!!! Definitely proud to have my name on it. Had a salad with wasabi vinaigrette on the side.

Looking at these pics, I'm thinking I definitely need a cleanse! Ha! But I swear December wasn't all pizza and sandwiches and cupcakes. I did have this super-healthy Mung Bean Pasta with Butternut Squash, Pom Seeds, Sage Pesto from the Raw Girls vegan food truck!

SuperSeedz Pumpkin Seeds!

I'm kind of a snack hoarder. Okay, not "kind of." I am total snack hoarder. My co-workers know that I keep a giant stash of nuts, seeds, crackers, and chocolate in my desk, and sometimes when they've forgotten their lunches, a few have been known to stop by asking for a little something to tide them over. We have a snack machine in the breakroom, but I tend to keep healthy snacks around, so some folks come to me before hitting up the chips and other junky snacks in the machine.

Every morning, around 11 a.m., I have a little snack at my desk. Usually a handful of nuts or seeds is enough to tide me over until noon, when I can break into whatever lunch I've packed. Pumpkin seeds, which are great sources of protein, iron, and zinc, are a personal fave. And I think I've found a new go-to snack in SuperSeedz Gourmet Pumpkin Seeds. They sent one a bag of every one of their flavors to review!

There's Sea Salt, Curious Curry, and Tomato Italiano.


And Really Naked, Somewhat Spicy, and Super Spicy.

And Coco Joe, Cinnamon & Sugar, and Maple Sugar & Sea Salt.

Whew! That's a lot of pumpkin seeds! But I've done the "tough" research of sampling every one, and I'm here to tell you my thoughts. Overall, I'm really impressed with the very distinct individual flavors of SuperSeedz. The spiced and sweet ones — excluding Really Naked and Sea Salt — are coated with lots of herbs and spices or sugars, so the flavor really shines. And all of these dry-roasted seeds are flavored with all-natural ingredients I can recognize and pronounce. No artificial flavors or preservatives. The Really Naked and Sea Salt varieties may not have as much spicy oomph, but they're delicious in their own right and allow the natural flavor of the seed to shine.

Here's a rundown of each flavor:
Sea Salt — Just the right amount of salt. These remind me of roasted sunflower seeds, and they're perfect for snacking before a meeting when you don't want garlic breath. Paul actually preferred these over all the flavors, and he ate a bunch in the car on the way to my parents' house for Thanksgiving.
Curious Curry — Seasoned with madras curry powder and non-gmo soy sauce, these are my fave of the bunch. I love anything with curry, and I could eat these all day long. 
Tomato Italiano — Tastes like pizza! These are loaded with fresh Italian herbs, tomato, and garlic. I appreciate that the herbs are fine-ground, so they don't get stuck in your teeth. You will have garlic breath though! But who cares?
Really Naked — Pure pumpkin seed flavor. I was afraid these would be too bland for me since I'm a salt-a-holic, but they're actually perfect. I prefer these sprinkled over a salad. You wouldn't want to use the super-flavored ones on a salad, but these are made for that.
Somewhat Spicy — We love spice in our house! Paul grows hot peppers, and we put sriracha on everything. These get a slight amount of heat from cayenne pepper, so they're just a tad spicy. I'd label these as mild. They also get great flavor from garlic, onion, black pepper, paprika, and herbs.
Super Spicy — Now these are spicy! They're seasoned with habanero pepper, and if you eat just one or two seeds, they don't seem too spicy. But when you eat a full serving — 1/4th cup — the heat builds. I love it, but I do have to blow my nose a few times while eating these. Definitely my second fave of the bunch. 
Coco Joe — I'm always prefer savory snacks over sweet ones, but sometimes, you need a little chocolate. These are seasoned with cocoa, coffee, and vanilla, and there's added sweetness from organic sugar. The coffee is a nice touch. Good snack to accompany my morning cup.
Cinnamon & Sugar — These were my least fave of the bunch. They're delicious. But compared with the rest, they're just not my favorite. They're coated in cinnamon and sugar and taste a little like cinnamon toast. I think they'd be best enjoyed as an ice cream topping.
Maple Sugar & Sea Salt — Out of the three sweet ones, I loved these the most. Probably because I adore the combo of sweetness and salt. Plus, there's a strong maple flavor that reminds me of pancakes.
These are so good that I really don't want to share! So if you work with me and you're reading this, stay out of my pumpkin seeds! :-) Jk. I may share a few.

Raw Vegan Fruit Roll-Ups

Remember Fruit Roll-Ups? Those were the best! They still make them, but I haven't seen (or tasted) one in years. I just googled the ingredients, and it looks like they're vegan. But they appear to have just as much (or more) corn syrup as they do real fruit. I probably wouldn't feel good about eating that as an adult, but when I was a kid, I'm pretty sure corn syrup was a big chunk of my diet. And I totally didn't even care.

I've seen recipes for homemade raw vegan fruit roll-ups, and while I do have a dehydrator, I've never tried making my own. But this small vegan company called Perky Fruit Bodies makes organic, raw, kosher fruit roll-ups with all-natural ingredients and superfoods, and they sent me some samples to review.


There's Strawberry Banana, Cacao Banana Coconut, and Coconut Banana. They look similar to the fruit roll-ups of my childhood but minus the artificial color.

But they taste much better than those artificially flavored fruit roll-ups! The Strawberry Banana roll-up is my fave. It's made with fresh, organic strawberries, sun-dried red banana powder, sun-dried cane juice crystals, and alkaline water. The strawberry taste is very prevalent and isn't overpowered by the banana. It's chewy and only slightly sweet. It does tend to stick to your teeth a little though. I was picking out dried fruit for a few minutes after eating a roll.
My next fave was the Cacao Banana Coconut. It's made with the same sun-dried banana powder but also organic shredded coconut and organic raw cacao powder. The chocolate taste shines through and leaves a rich flavor in your mouth long after its gone.
The Coconut Banana was great too, but after trying the Cacao Banana Coconut, it just didn't live up. Because when you can add cacao to something, you should! 
These Perky Fruit Bodies snacks have been excellent pre-run fuel over the past few weeks. They're 130 calories per roll, which is just about what I like to have before a morning run. And since they're made with pure fruit and all-natural sweetener, they break down easy in the body for workout energy. 

Kite Hill Yogurt Taste Test!

Typically, when I do a review, I test the product and write a post based on my own experience with whatever I'm trying out. But Kite Hill recently contacted me asking if I'd do a comparison taste test between their vegan almond milk yogurts and other vegan yogurts on the market. It sounded like a fun idea, but I've already professed my love for Kite Hill yogurts on this blog. I didn't think I could offer an unbiased opinion since I've pretty much stated that I think Kite Hill is the best thing to happen to vegan yogurt since Whole Soy.

But I wanted to do the taste test. I just needed some unbiased opinions. So I turned to my mostly omnivorous co-workers at the Memphis Flyer (the alt-newsweekly where I'm a reporter/editor). Kite Hill shipped me a box of their yogurts, and I went to Whole Foods and picked up other vegan brands in the same flavors as the Kite Hill yogurts.

Then I set them all out on a counter at work with little scoring sheets. Each person who tried the yogurts was instructed to write their names under their favorite of each flavor (with any notes they wished to add).


Here's a yogurt testing palette!

First up, we had So Delicious Cultured Coconut Milk Vanilla versus Kite Hill Almond Milk Yogurt Vanilla. Out of eight testers, six chose the Kite Hill over So Delicious. Comments in favor of Kite Hill included notes about its superior texture. One tester who voted for So Delicious said she preferred the coconut milk yogurt because it had less of a nutty flavor.

As for me, I love both of these! But I think Kite Hill has a more authentic yogurt texture. The So Delicious yogurt has more of a pudding-like feel. Here's an inside shot of both.

Next up was Kite Hill Almond Milk Yogurt Peach versus Daiya Peach Dairy & Soy Free Greek Yogurt. Six testers tried both of these, and ALL SIX voted for Kite Hill. The texture seemed to be the deciding factor here. The Daiya yogurt has a very thick texture, and even though it's supposed to be like Greek yogurt, our omnivore testers said it was too clumpy and thick for even a Greek style.

One tester voted the Kite Hill Peach as her favorite overall of all the yogurts. She said it had the best flavor and was most like dairy yogurt. She also appreciated the bits of real peach inside the yogurt. Here's an inside shot of both.

We pitted Almond Dream Strawberry Non-Dairy Yogurt against Kite Hill Almond Milk Yogurt Strawberry. There were seven testers for this one, and six chose the Kite Hill as the winner. The seventh tester actually said she didn't like either one, stating that the almond flavor in both was too prevalent (clearly, someone doesn't like almonds!).

All those who chose the Kite Hill Strawberry said it won by a landslide. Many were turned off by Almond Dream's chunky texture, and one tester even said Almond Dream "tasted like chemicals." For the record, the ingredient list for Almond Dream shows only natural ingredients. Another tester said Kite Hill would have won on appearance alone even if he hadn't tasted them both. Here's an inside shot, and as you can see, the Almond Dream doesn't look all that appealing.

Silk Dairy-Free Yogurt Alternative Blueberry went up against Kite Hill Almond Milk Yogurt Blueberry. This was a tough call for some of our testers. One chose Silk over Kite Hill, citing a better color, flavor, and texture. Another tester called it a tie, and one said she preferred the consistency of Silk, which was more like dairy yogurt, but she said it was too sweet. Three of the eight testers on this one said Kite Hill was the definite winner.

As for me, I felt like Kite Hill was better for two reasons — it wasn't as sweet and had slightly more yogurt-y tang. But both are great! Close call. Here's an inside shot.

Finally, So Delicious Greek Style Plain Cultured Coconut Milk went up against Kite Hill Almond Milk Yogurt Plain. Kite Hill won across the board with four testers, and one other tester said she didn't like either one. 

Some testers who tried other yogurts were too intimidated to try these plain yogurts at all because they weren't as sweet, and those who did said the Kite Hill was better because it had just a tad more sweetness than the So Delicious. But I'll tell you that if I were using these in a savory application, like a tzatziki sauce, I'd pick the So Delicious. The lack of sweetness would be appealing for that. But if I were to eat these with granola and agave for breakfast, I'd pick the Kite Hill.

Kite Hill was the winner in every taste test, but I'd say So Delicious and Silk were close calls. Personally, I really do think Kite Hill is the best yogurt on the market right now, but several other vegan yogurts are delicious too. Almond Dream definitely needs to step up its game, especially since a far superior almond milk yogurt is available now with Kite Hill.

Holiday Eats!

I hope you had a lovely holiday. I definitely did! Here's a recap in pictures.

I went home to my parents' house in Arkansas on Christmas Eve. It's just a quick hour drive from Memphis, so I arrived a couple hours before dinner. First things first, we let Datsun have his presents — a chew bone and a new dog bed. That way he'd have something to play with while we were visiting. (And yes, I do allow Datsun to have non-vegan chew bones). Most of my animals stay at home when I visit my parents, but my eldest dog Datsun and eldest cat Akasha (both 13 years old) get to come with me.


Then, my mama and I went to visit with my Me-Maw (mama's mama) and exchange gifts with her. We visited with her for awhile, and when we got back home, we got started on cooking dinner.

My daddy had seen a post on my blog a few weeks back about Kathy Hester's Drunken Sweet Potato BBQ from The Easy Vegan Cookbook, and he'd said he wanted to try it. Most years, on Christmas Eve, we drive around to every Chinese joint in Jonesboro looking for one that's open late. Since it's a fairly small town, it's tough to find a place that's open. This year, I figured we should stay in and cook dinner together, and it seemed like a good time to let my dad try the vegan BBQ. So my mama and I whipped up this dinner of Drunken Sweet Potato BBQ Sandwiches with Vegan Coleslaw, Baked Beans, & French Fries.


The grated sweet potatoes are slow-cooked in a yummy homemade BBQ sauce made with hard apple cider and bourbon. Both of my omnivore parents loved it and even declared it better than pork BBQ! Mama says she's going to start making this dinner often. Vegan win!
After dinner, we all drove over to my Granny's house (daddy's mama) to exchange gifts and visit. My great-aunt Carolyn and great-uncle Doug were there with their two adorable wiener dogs! I failed to get any pictures of anyone there except for this one of my dad in his Santa hat.


When we returned to my parents' house afterward, my mama and I heated up some of her AMAZINGLY MOIST Chocolate Coca-Cola Cake with vegan ice cream. (Mama, if you're reading this, I want this cake for my birthday next year).


Later in the night, I met up with my BFF Sheridan to exchange gifts. She lives in Little Rock, but we're childhood buds, and we both grew up in Jonesboro. So she was at her in-law's house.


She got me a squirrel nutcracker, Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Love Notes daily affirmation cards, an e.l.f. eyeshadow kit, and The Taco Cleanse!

And I got her Follow Your Heart Vegan Egg, some Leahey vegan gravy packets (Sheridan LOVES gravy), Soy Curls, the Vegan Bowls cookbook, some homemade chakra soaps, and some earrings made from beer cans.

After our gift exchange, I headed back to my parents' house and went straight to bed. The sooner you get to bed, the sooner Santa can drop off all those presents, right? Most years, my parents and I exchange gifts on Christmas Eve, because I typically have to drive to Nashville on Christmas morning to visit with Paul's family. But this year, Paul had to come home early, so I didn't go to Nashville. And I was able to stretch my holiday with my parents out longer. So we agreed to open gifts on Christmas morning.
But before any unwrapping, we had a leisurely Christmas morning breakfast. My mama made Tofu Scramble, Veggie Bacon, Biscuits & Gravy, and Hash Browns! 

And then we got to work opening gifts! Lots and lots of gifts! Here's my mama with a Harley Davidson necklace from my dad. My parents are bikers, if you couldn't tell.

I got LOTS of great clothes from H&M (my new favorite store), a FitBit Charge HR (I've been using the FitBit One for a couple years, but this one is a step up because it measures heart rate), this adorable singing holiday squirrel, and so much more. 

After presents, my mama took the tree down. She just can't wait every year to take it down! We hadn't even cleaned up the mess from unwrapping before she had all the ornaments packed away. We snacked on Sheridan's homemade vegan zucchini bread (another gift from her) and hummus and pita chips. Then I packed up my pets and my presents for the short drive home. 
Once home, I had the house to myself for a bit. So I called around to Chinese places and found that my very favorite Chinese restaurant, New Hong Kong, was open until 11 p.m. on Christmas Day. I stopped by and picked up some New Hong Kong Special Fried Rice (with mock chicken, mock beef, and mock ham) and a Spring Roll. Who needs veggies when you can have mock meats?

I ate this in my PJs while binge-watching Lost and drinking Chimay — a fine way to end Christmas day if I do say so myself!