Food Post

Lots more food pictures coming your way! I hope you enjoy! 

 

 

This is tofu marinated in rice vinegar, soy sauce, liquid aminos, and sesame oil. It was very yummy! sometimes I just really want tofu. I used to eat it every day on my salad at lunch in college (before I went vegan). I've always loved the texture and taste and just want to savor that when I can.

 

 

Tofu pad thai with extra peanuts. Again, pad thai is a long-time favorite dish. That was my home made attempt that turned out to be pretty yummy. 

 

 

This is vegan cream cheese and tomato vegan pate type food I brought from the vegan store. I just stuck it on toast and ate it cold. 

 

 

Rosemary sea salt bread with tofutti garlic and herb better than cream cheese. A lovely breakfast of champions! 

 

 

Gardein chicken tenders, garlic dill pickles, and my special sauce (vegenaise, ketchup, and mustard). The pickles really pack a punch of flavor to compliment the sauce. 

 

 

Tofu with rice noodles, soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar.

 

 

I tried this because I love the almond milk ice cream, but this was horrible. I literally spit it out and threw it away. It had a tangy taste I didn't like and tasted like fake almond syrup that you put in coffee. Never again! This was such a fail! I love the coconut milk yogurt in most of the flavors, so that will be what I stick to in the future. 

 

 

Wide rice noodles with soy sauce and sesame oil. 

 

 

Frozen foods time! I went with Indian and got Kofta Curry and Spinach Rice. You can check out the nutritional information here. Very yummy! I highly recommend. 

 

 

And last but not least, another bowl of wide rice noodles mixed with sesame oil, soy sauce, and happiness! 

Stay tuned for more reviews of food products and beauty empties. I've been working on a bunch of posts that are finally ready! 

More Food Pictures!

I have more food pictures coming at you! Check out what I've been eating!

Angel Hair with vegan burger and pesto. While this looks rather strange, it was very tasty and filling.

Earth Balance Mac and Cheese. It was too salty for my liking, and it made me have indigestion, so I probably won't be getting this again. It was good to try it out though, as I had been wondering for a while how it tasted. This didn't live up to my expectations.

I love this coconut yogurt. Strawberry banana is my favorite flavor so far. 

Potatoes, bell peppers, and salt. Baked in the oven with a bit of olive oil. So yummy and filling!

Teese  nacho cheese sauce and corn chips. 

Green tea mocha I found at World Market. These were different tasting than some I have had in the past, but they were ok.

Bold Organics vegan cheese pizza... I'm addicted to the cheesy goodness of this pizza.

Santa Cruz salad (I think? ) with tempeh and house dressing from nutrition company. 

Hibiscus tea at the English Tea Room. 

Leftover veggie fajita filling from Caretta's Mexican Restaurant.

Basil potato gnocchi and vegan basil pesto. Oh so wonderful basil goodness. This was a great meal!

Soba noodles from world market

And the soba noodles with soy sauce, sesame oil, and chili oil. 

Wide rice noodles with tofu, chili oil and soy sauce. I put way to much chili oil in this and it was very spicy. Look out! You only need one or two drops, not 20!

I've Been Away and Now I'm Back

So it has been a while since I posted on here. It has been a long few weeks.

Last week, I went to Baton Rouge to visit my friend Ashley. I needed to get away from home, and we needed to celebrate her new job, so we met up and had some fun. We went out to eat Mexican food of goodness, went shopping at the LUSH at the mall (I LOVE LUSH!), found our way to Whole Foods, ran by Trader Joe's, and found some cute Dollar Tree Halloween decorations. We decided to dye our hair (Ashley needed to for her job, and I wanted to try henna in my hair again) so we did! Ashley did a deep red ombre and I went with a copper color. I absolutely love my hair color right now. It is a gorgeous copper color and the natural highlights in my hair turned to an almost pinky rose gold copper. It is slowly fading, but I am trying to not wash it too much. I don't wash my hair everyday anyway, so it isn't too hard to not over wash it.

While I was visiting Ashley we decided to go to Target late at night. Of course, when we got back to my car, my battery had died. We had to wait for a while until the pop-a-lock guy came to jump me. In the morning, I got to buy a new battery (yay!) so now my car purrs when I rumble down the road.

I started singing in a choir in my community and it is taking up more of my time. Because I've been spending about 6 more hours a week driving, I haven't been able to work on my blog posts like I want. I am actually really behind in a lot of things (I have about 300 videos in my watch later list on YouTube and I haven't done any of my readings for bible study).

The good news is that I watched the season premier of Agents of Shield last night and LOVED it. I'm not going to give any spoilers, but it was a fantastic new episode. I was excited to see what they did with Ward and Fitz, but I hate Skye's new haircut. I think it makes her look really young and would get in the way in a fight. I just don't like it. I do like how bad ass Coulson is being the new Director. Not too much on the action side of things, but more of a build up for this new season. I'm excited and looking forward to the rest of the year's shows.

My favorite new show is FOREVER, also on ABC. It stars Ioan Gruffudd (Reed Richards from Fantastic Four) and Judd Hirsch (a great actor... so happy he is a part of this show!) and is about a man, Dr. Henry Morgan, who cannot stay dead. He keeps dying and reappearing naked in water and is over 200 years old. It is a cop show/medical show/drama/person who won't die show and I love it. The two episodes I've seen are the Pilot and Look Before You Leap. This has the makings to be one of my favorite shows. I'll keep you posted on the series as it continues.

That's all for today. I will be posting more at the end of this week. Go enjoy this first week of fall!

Teese Nacho Sauce Review

Teese Vegan Cheese Nacho Cheese Sauce Review

It's smaller than I thought it would be, but it holds a lot.

 

First off I have to say that this stuff is fantastic! It's da bomb!

 

I haven't had many nachos in the last year or so since I went vegan. I used to make nachos once or twice a week in college, and I have tried many different kinds of queso. I've done jars, cans, blocks of cheese, and mixes.

 

This vegan cheese is better than any other nacho cheese I have had (with the exception of the nachos at the superdome... those things are addictive).

 

It comes in a plastic casing that needs to be cut open which is messy and a little hard to do. Don't do it with a knife. Do it with scissors. Over a bowl. Trust me!

 

This is so messy!

After I put it in the bowl, I nuked it in the microwave for a few minutes, stirring every minute or so. 

The cheese before microwaving. It is a little gelatinous, but yummy.

This is the cheese once it is heated. It is very smooth and a great consistency for dipping or drizzling on chips.

These are the chips that I used. They are very thin, but didn't break when I used them to scoop up the thick cheese. I like these chips because they are not very oily and not very salty.

Here you can see the thickness of the cheese sauce.

It is enough to feed a couple of people, but if you are going to use this for a party with more than four people, I would get more than one. It is supposed to serve ten, but those would be tiny servings.

I highly recommend this product to any vegan (or non-vegan) who really likes nachos.

You can find more information about this product here.

Friday Afternoon Ramble

Hello All!

 

Today you are getting a ramble post because I am in a very ramble-y mood. I have been having a lot of trouble concentrating on things recently. I'll start reading a book, then get distracted by an email, then read a few texts, all while watching a show on Netflix.

 

Netflix is a black hole of time wasting goodness. I have recently discovered the Ultimate Spiderman is on Netflix... such a hilarious show. I love the bad puns and the levity Coulson, Spidey, and Fury bring to the cartoon. I've watched both seasons available on Netflix and I can't wait to watch the next season when it comes out.

 

I've also been watching the X-Files. I had never seen the show before, and I am not sure why since it is totally up my alley. I love paranormal and alien investigations and the suspense in this show is amazing. I also love Moulder... his character is so awesome. I love how much he believes in everything and doesn't let everyone else's skepticism get in his way of finding out the truth.

Charmed is also one of the shows I been re-watching. I haven't watched this show in forever and I had forgotten how great it is. I'm still on the first season, but I will be making my way through it eventually.

 

In other news, I recently started using my Instagram account again to post pictures of plants and such. I don't really post any food picture there, but vegetation and cool architecture is fair game. If you want to follow me, feel welcome to check out my pictures: KnittingOpera

 

I also have a tumblr account that I update at least once a week. I post these blogs here as well as my Instagram pics. My name is: darksunnygirl.  You can see my reblogs about vegans and animals there. I reblog lots and lots of vegan food recipes.

I've been trying to get back into art and writing more so I've been journaling and sketching a bit. Nothing too groundbreaking, but something to focus on for more than just a few minutes. Maybe I'll post some of my sketches in a few weeks when I have more.

So... before this gets any more ramble-y, I'll go now. I'll be posting another food pictures post later! :)

Foods I ate

More food pictures y'all! These are some of the foods I've eaten in the past weeks.

This is the chili I was talking about in my last food post. It is ridiculously tasty and delicious as it says on the tin. I love this stuff. I looked online to find out why this particular product is "vegetarian" while others in the same brand are "vegan" and I cannot find any reason why this shouldn't be labeled "vegan" as well.  

This is the chili itself. It is pretty oily and fatty, but oh so wonderful. This would be prefect for making chili cheese dogs or chili cheese nachos. 

Potatoes with peppers and onions and Cajun seasonings. 

Veggie burger with tomato paste... I ate this with rice cakes. It's ok, but not the best. The texture is perfect, but the taste is a little strange. 

This is something I picked up at World Market last week. It's really tasty and easy to cook in the microwave. It was spicier than I thought it would be, but that was not a problem since I love spicy food.  

This is what the Hokkien Noodles look like. The bamboo shoots were a great consistency, and the sauce was thick and very peanut filled. 

This is another Bold Organics Vegan cheese pizza that I covered in vegan pepperoni. This is turning into one of my favorite junk foods. 

 

This looks really strange, but it is leftover vegan burger mixed with vegenaise, ketchup, and mustard with garlic dill pickles. 

I ate the above mixture on top of brown rice cakes. It was pretty great. 

 

And VEGAN MAPLE BACON CHIPS!!! These are wonderful and great for a junk food snack. 

 

That's all for now. I'll try to post another blog tomorrow!

Some foods I've been eating!

I've been eating some really great foods recently! These are some of them!

 Bold Organics Veggie Vegan Pizza that I added some vegan pepperoni to one side. I did not like the mushrooms used on this pizza. For some reason they made me feel like I was biting into some sort of strange chewy, gelatinous mass. I won't be buying this in the future.

 Bold Organics Vegan Cheese Pizza with vegan peperoni added on top. I love this stuff!

 Tofu and wide rice noodles, soy sauce, sesame oil, and happiness!

 These pasta chips are really amazing. I love the spiciness and crunch of these chips. They come in several different flavors, but not all of them are vegan.

 Vegan Fried Rice by Tasty Bite. I thought this was too oily but it was good for an already prepared food. I would rather just go down the street to the Chinese restaurant and order some veggie fried rice.

 Tofu pad thai from Ethnic Cuisine in the frozen section. It had lots of carrots this time.

Curly fries!!! I really love the curly fries. I usually add Cajun seasoning to them to give them a little kick.

Veggie Chili I found at the store. It says vegetarian on the can, but the ingredients look like they all check out (it can be so confusing when things are labeled vegetarian, but is really vegan). This is a super chunky and oily and thick goodness that would be perfect on a cold winter's night. I have a feeling I will be finding this stuff during winter.

 

I will post more food pictures soon!

Earth Balance Mac and Cheese Review

 

I like to think that I know a lot about macaroni and cheese. Before I went vegan, max and cheese held me together in college, helped me wallow in my problems when I was sad, and made good days even better. From my mom's eggy cheesey mac with breadcrumbs, to smoked gouda mac at my cousin's wedding, velveeta mac in the morning, and easy mac at midnight, a combination of pasta and cheese product was on the menu nearly every day.



Ingredients for the mac n cheese



Since going vegan, it was impossible to find vegan mac and cheese at the store (the exception being Amy's in the frozen section) so when I saw this at Pangaea, I bought it.

 

Like regular Mac and Cheese, you cook it, add a fat (earth balance) and a dairy substitute liquid (unsweetened coconut milk), then throw in the cheese packet and stir away. It takes about 20 minutes total to cook.

 

The tiny noodles are long like many boxed mac mixes.

Now, the taste... it's saltier than I like, but most processed foods are. I like it. It doesn't taste like real cheese or even e-z-mac cheese, but it is a pretty darn good imitation. If I served this to my non-vegan dad, he could tell it is vegan. But for a vegan missing Mac and Cheese, this is a godsend!

 

Next time I would use less earth balance spread and a little less coconutmilk. It was a little runny, and my like thicker sauce.

 

Earth Balance... Normally I would use a quarter this amount.

About three hours after I ate it, my stomach decided it didn't like all that fat (I eat a pretty low fat diet mostly, even if it looks like I only eat junk food on this blog). I ended up having to take an alkaseltzer to calm down my stomach. Because of that, I most likely will not be buying this again soon.

 

Coconut milk!

3 out of 5 stars

The powdered cheese. There was a good bit in there and it wasn't a horribly unnatural color.

Stay tuned for more reviews of my recent vegan purchases!