Category Archives: Reviews

Nov 15 2012
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Reviews

The Other Lazy Vegans: TV Dinner 3

Amy’s has been doing well so far with their tamales so we’re branching out to try some of their Indian dishes.

This is their Mattar Tofu. It’s vegan and gluten-free.

It looked good right out of the box and went into the oven for a quick easy meal. So check this out: after heating it looked appetizing and smelled even better. We didn’t do much to it as we were eating.

This is an improvement on the tamales. I added some flake red pepper but no extra salt needed. The rice was a good texture (even if it hadn’t been previously frozen) and the veggies weren’t mooshy.

The ingredients and nutrition were pretty good. Like the other dishes in Amy’s vegan and gluten-free offerings, it contained a modest amount of oil and was salty but it was tasty, easy and not terribly expensive. I’ll probably make my own next time but I might buy this again.

This is Christie, signing off!

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Nov 06 2012
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Reviews

The Other Lazy Vegans: TV dinner 2

We’ve been giving Amy’s frozen dinners a try lately after a recent success with tamale with roasted vegetables so we went ahead and decided to try their tamale with salsa verde.

It looked a lot more appetizing right out of the box. This is because the rice is recognizable compared with the puddle of beans in the other package.

We prepared this in our microwave and it was quick and easy to follow the instructions.

We ended up adding some flake red pepper and garlic salt but that’s just how we roll. The ingredients were unobjectionable and it was tasty all by itself.

The ingredients were good and it was reasonably priced for how much time and cleanup it saved me. I think I need to learn how to make my own tamales, but I’d buy it again.

This is Christie, signing off!

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Oct 31 2012
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Lazy Vegan, Reviews

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween from Turning Veganese! Um, now here’s the part where I apologize because this isn’t really a Halloween-themed post, but a Lazy Vegan review of Amy’s Rice Crust Roasted Vegetable Pizza. I liked Amy’s products a lot in my pre-vegan days. Their stuff is just better than other frozen prepared foods in many ways.

This pizza is single serve and topped with shiitake mushrooms, sweet onions, and roasted red peppers. It has no cheese (dairy or otherwise) and is gluten-free. It’s easy to cook in the oven, but what I really loved is that they provided toaster oven directions as well. I love using my toaster oven!! Bonus: no cheese means no potential mess in your oven or oven rack. Sadly, it is not soy-free. It’s not a thousand calories and was the perfect portion for a dinner, though I did make a salad to accompany it.

At the first bite, I was kind of weirded out by the rice crust. I got over it quickly, though. The crust had a nice crunchy texture. The sauce was good and not slimey like on other frozen pizzas. The veggies were good; the sweet onion was the real star among them. I have to admit that the pizza was kind of bland. I sprinkled some garlic salt and red pepper flakes on it and topped with some fresh cilantro that I had in the fridge. It made a HUGE difference!

Here’s a photo of the salad I made. Doesn’t it look delicious? It was!

So, yeah… mine doesn’t exactly look like the version on the box. It might look a little burnt on the edge, but there was no burnt taste and it was just as edible as the rest of the slice. I am likely to buy this again, but I might watch to see when it’s on sale or I have a coupon. Amy’s has a lot of great products, but, unfortunately, you won’t find their vegan products in many (or any) stores outside of your neighborhood Whole Foods.

Now, I have to go back to resisting all the non-vegan Halloween candy I have! –Melissa

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Oct 26 2012
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Cooking, Reviews

Speaking of Shrimp…

After posting about lobster mushrooms I did get a hankering for shrimp. So these exist…

I know, right? They look vaguely like the real thing and I’m here to tell you about it.I was excited that they’re gluten-free and soy-free. The ingredients are pretty good, mostly starch and flavorings. They’re low calorie and non-GMO. I thought they were a little expensive at $8 per package, particularly considering the ingredients, but I also don’t know how to make pseudo-shrimp at home.

I decided to cook them like any self respecting lover of shrimp would; I heated up a pan with copious amounts of Earth Balance butter and garlic.

They smelled divine, not fishy. Shrimp shouldn’t smell particularly fishy anyways as long as they’re fresh.

Sauteeing them I got a better idea of their texture. They’re slightly rubbery, like shrimp that you’re likely to find at most restaurants. I personally like the texture a lot.

After adding some pasta, sun dried tomato and Teese mozzarella to the mix, things were starting to look delicious.

We topped it with some fresh basil. It was a welcome change so far as dinner goes. I think they’d be great in stir fry or in gumbo but I’m not sure about as a shrimp cocktail. I’d buy these again. Let me know what you think if you get to try them!

 

This is Christie, signing off!

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Oct 23 2012
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Reviews

Kale Chips

I’ve got a thing for kale. It’s among my favorite green leafy vegetables and I love a lot of them so that’s saying something. This is a little known fact among carnists but I know most vegans out there are nodding their heads when I say that kale makes great chips. Today I’m telling you about 3 different brands that Brent and I have tried.

Kaia Foods makes 3 different flavors of kale chips: barbecue, cheese and sea salt and vinegar. I found the taste to be bitter and the chips were crushed in their bags. They’re gluten-free, nut-free and soy-free. They’re fairly inexpensive so far as kale chips go at $5.89 per bag.

New York Naturals is one of my favorites. It comes in Bombay ranch, cheese, spicy miso and sea salt and vinegar flavors. Bombay ranch was my favorite with a creamy, tangy flavor with a hint of curry to it. The sea salt and vinegar was very salty which is saying something because I dig salt. The kale chips were huge [mostly] intact leaves covered in delicious flavorful cashews. Just watch out for the stems… they’re like twigs. They’re fairly high in calories but are a great alternative to junk food that’s made from junk. These contain soy and nuts but are safe for people with nut or gluten allergies. They cost $7.99 ber box but I think they’re at least worth giving a try if you’ve got some spare cash for a new mouth experience.

Pacific Northwest Kale chips come in cheezy, cilantro lime jalapeño and Stumptown original. Stumptown contains hazelnuts and the other 2 contain cashews so be aware for those with nut allergies. The flavors are kind of awesome and I particularly liked the Stumptown original; it was subtly spicy and cheesy. Unfortunately they did get stale quickly in the Florida humidity but I think that’s unavoidable here. They also got crushed in the bag so it was difficult to get both the flavoring and the kale into my mouth (not as bad as Kaia Foods). They cost $8.99 per bag. If you’re in the market for kale chips, I’d recommend the New York Naturals.

What New York Naturals did that the others didn’t was to put their chips into a box. This keeps the flavoring on the kale and the kale intact so you get chips instead of crumbles. So now you know Brent’s and my favorite is NYN but if you’ve got a dehydrator you’ll end up with the best product if you make it yourself. Kale with a touch of olive oil and sea salt is my favorite of favorites.

This is Christie, signing off!

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Oct 19 2012
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Reviews

Cava and Caviart

Brent and I like to celebrate for no reason whatsoever. And sometimes there’s a reason like reaching the 20K milestone for visits to Turning Veganese!

What better way to celebrate than with champagne and caviar? Okay, well it’s cava and Cavi-art but who’s counting.

We started with the traditional black Cavi-art and the red chili varieties. We paired it with some regular rice crackers and some home-made cashew cheese. Both varieties of Cavi-art are pretty amazing both in appearance and texture relative to the real thing except that neither is driving a species to extinction. Sturgeon are really cool fishes. I want future generations to get to meet them. It’s still a little pricey for most budgets but compared to the real thing is relatively inexpensive at $10.95 for 3.5 ounces

Caviart is made from seaweed and has half the calories of the real thing. They’re also rich in flavor and come in varieties like wasabi, ginger, ‘salmon’, black, red, yellow and balsamic (which I recommend with pesto).

So Brent and I got to have a decadent celebration with some of the old school players. I want to make a quick note about sparkling wines. I’m a big fan of cava, which is the Spanish equivalent of French Champagne.  We’re big fans of Cristalino cava which has actually won awards as a value sparkling wine and I think it’s as good as some $70 bottles of champagne for a tenth of the price.

Why sparkling wine? Most high quality sparkling wines are fermented in the bottle and then clarified by a process called ‘riddling’ which was invented by Madame Nicole-Barbe Clicquot, also of my favorite champagne, Veuve Clicquot. Riddling is animal friendly so if you’re trying to figure out which wine to order at a fancy dinner party but don’t want to bust out your cell phone to check barnivore.com, look for a sparkling wine (cava, prosecco, champagne, etc.) and ask to see the bottle. If the bottle says “fermented in this bottle”, you’ve got a winner. Now go forth and celebrate for no reason whatsoever.

This is Christie, signing off!

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Oct 17 2012
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Lazy Vegan, Reviews

Viana Organic Veggie Gyros

Gyros sandwiches are something that we typically had as a treat growing up. I’ve had birthdays where my dinner request was a gyros sandwich. If you haven’t figured it out yet, gyros is one of the things I really, really miss since turning veganese. Luckily, there is a packaged vegan version at the store for when I’m feeling lazy.

I was initially hesitant to try Viana Veggie Gyros.Some vegan substitutes can be a little heartbreaking. But I had a gyros craving so bad that I just needed to pick this up.

Here’s the good: it’s tasty, good texture, none of that grease, organic, and chock full of protein (it is a tofu/wheat product).

The bad: None.

The could-be-better: I’m used to gyros meat that is thinly sliced and these were more like ‘meat’ strips. In addition, the ‘meat’ was packaged in a way that made it a task to separate the pieces, and it many cases, I ended up breaking the pieces into much smaller chunks.

This didn’t fill my gyros craving 100%, but a lot of that was my fault. I didn’t have any pita or appropriate ingredients with which to make a vegan tzatziki  sauce, so I ate the ‘meat’ with brown rice, tomato, and onion. Since I’m used to a greasy, saucy gyros sandwich, the dish felt too dry.

I’m glad to know that this product is out there (you can buy it from Vegan Essentials) but I think I would be better off making my own vegan gyros. That will have to wait for a day when I’m not feeling like a lazy bum.

Have you tried Viana Veggie Gyros? Have you made your own? What was your experience? –Melissa

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Oct 11 2012
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Reviews

Vegan Beer : New Planet’s 3R Raspberry Ale

What up thugs and thugettes? We’re back with our fourth installment of vegan beer reviews. In this post we take a look at New Planet’s 3R Raspberry Ale. It’s Barnivore approved, and pretty freaking tasty!

Enjoy. And from Brent and Christie, peace out, my vegans.

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Oct 04 2012
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Reviews

Vegan Beer : New Planet’s Tread Lightly Ale

Hey gang! Back again for the third installment of our vegan beer vlog posts, we sample New Planet’s Tread Lightly Ale. New Planet is another awesome company who found their niche in making gluten-free beers. Be sure to check them out.

As always, check to see if your booze is vegan at Barnivore, like the awesome vegan you are / want to be!

From Brent and Christie, peace out, my vegans!

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Oct 03 2012
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Reviews

It’s a Miracle!

Let me begin by saying that this post was supposed to be a review of a vegan frozen pizza until I read the finer print and realized that the pizza contained milk protein. Darn! I ate the pizza because I didn’t want to waste it, but I was seriously disappointed.

I found some consolation in a sweet treat: the Chocolate Almond Butter Miracle Tart by Hail Merry:

I have seen this several times but never bought it because, well… it’s not cheap. Having made my own raw desserts, I think the price is perfectly reasonable, but I couldn’t justify the investment until I made the mistake of going to the grocery store while on a crazy salty/sweet craving binge.

The tart itself is beautiful and dense. It’s not greasy and the best way to eat it was to just pick it up and take a bite out of it. I could definitely taste the coconut oil in the product and the almond butter was delicious. The tarts are small, but they’re perfect for sharing: there are three servings in one tart. I felt myself wanting more of a sweeter chocolate taste. For that reason, I don’t think I will buy this particular flavor anytime soon. There was a lemon tart that I am curious enough to try sometime.

Have you tried any Hail Merry products? What did you think? Let us know in the comments! –Melissa

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