Vegan Coupon Giveaway!

Howdy! I haven't had much time to blog, but that doesn't mean I don't have time for a giveaway. I have free product coupons from So Delicious, Tofurky, Hilary's Eat Well, Coconut Bliss, EatPastry, Tofutti and Zen Soy. To win one of the coupons, just tell me which coupon you would like and what product you would get with it down in the user comments. Please leave an email account so I can reach you!

I have multiples of everything so there will be about 15 winners. Giveaway ends Tuesday, November 4th at 10pm Central time. Good Luck!

Tofurky Pepperoni Pizza Pockets

If you were alive in the 90's, you know what a Hot Pocket is..... a microwavable bun stuffed with assorted fillings. I was more of a Totino's pizza guy myself, but I've had my fair share of Hot Pockets. They were super convenient and perfect to eat on the go. Last year, Tofurky introduced three different kinds of Vegan Pockets: Turk'y Broccoli Cheddar, BBQ Chick'n and Pepperoni Pizza. Tofurky was gracious enough to send me all three Pockets to try. My favorite, of course, was the Pepperoni Pizza and that is the one I'm reviewing today.

OMG! These are seriously addicting. With two in a box, I dare you to just eat one. The Pepperoni Pocket filling is straight up old school. It actually reminded me of a pepperoni pizza from my childhood neighborhood arcade. Super flavorful with a sweet zing and perfectly melted cheese. The dough was a surprise, because it isn't the traditional white bread you would get in an a Hot Pocket. Thankfully, I thought the whole wheat pocket complemented the filling perfectly. One word of warning though, the pocket gets HOT! After you microwave it, let it cool for a couple minutes. Better yet, cut it open to let some of the heat out. I might have burned my mouth a couple time because of my lack of patience, wink wink.

So if you love pizza, you're gonna go gaga over these. The only problem is that they are a little hard to find right now. Do yourself a favor and contact your grocery store and request them. You'll be so happy you did!

Trader Joe's Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds (plus John's Laziest Pizza)

Trader Joe's has a new Vegan cheese and it's not Daiya! Trader Joes's Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds are basically Galaxy Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds, which I've never had before. Since it's Mozzarella, I thought I would put it to the true test and try it on a pizza. Lazy pizza anyone???  

I keep my pizzas pretty simple. First, I procured some Whole Foods pre-made dough and marinara sauce. Both are super tasty and obviously very easy to work with. For toppings, I grabbed Tofurky Pepperoni Slices and some black olives. The Tofurky Pepperoni Slices are great if you miss that old pepperoni flavor. I normally would do green pepper with the olives but I totally forgot. Now let's see how the cheese and pizza turned out!

The Trader Joe's Mozzarella was really interesting. If you eat it raw, it honestly doesn't taste very good. But when I melted it all over the pizza, I found it to be quite good! When it melts (and it does melt), the mozzarella gets a bit gloopy almost like a glaze. It's definitely a different beast than Daiya. So if love Daiya and think it has no faults whatsoever, this probably isn't the cheese for you. I like Daiya too, but I find it to be too rich in large quantities, the flavor taking over whatever you put it on. It's just nice to have another option out there. This cheese is pretty mild and didn't overwhelm the other flavors. The pizza itself was great and I really love those Tofurky Pepperonis.

In closing, I'm always happy to see new Vegan products, especially cheese. I thought the Trader Joe's Mozzarella tasted great when melted and had a nice neutral flavor. It is almost an anti-Daiya cheese, which I feel the world needs.

Tofurky Vegetarian Feast

I've finally come to the end of my faux turkey/roast taste test. So far I've tried the Gardein Holiday Roast and the Field Roast Hazelnut Cranberry Roast. So that leaves the one and only legend: The Tofurky Vegetarian Feast. It's been around since 1995 (respect goes out to all you Vegans who were around back then) and almost everyone knows about Tofurky. 

So let's get down to brass tacks. The Tofurky roast is stout, compact and pleasantly plump, but big enough to feed six. One difference between the roasts is that the Tofurky Roast requires basting, which wasn't hard, but necessary.  The taste of the roast is good and smoky, reminiscent of Tofurky lunch slices. The middle part with the stuffing was also delicious. Unfortunately, I wasn't as enthusiastic about the texture. It was a little rubbery and should definitely be sliced thin. The gravy was smoky and flavorful, I can see why they sell it separate.    

As an added bonus, Tofurky put an Amy's Chocolate Cake in the package. It's simple to serve, all you have to do is thaw it out. I've reviewed it in the past and while I'm not "Mr. Chocolate Lover", it is a solid dessert.   

So you've already ate the Tofurky Roast and the Amy's Chocolate Cake, but there's still more! You get two Tofuky Wishstix (make a wish and eat), a nifty Tofurky Land postcard that you can send to your favorite meat eater and a coupon book full of your favorite veg companies.

In the end, Tofurky puts together one heck of a feast. A meal for six, dessert and extra treats/bonuses make this the package to beat. My only concern is the texture and elasticity of the roast, but overall if you've never had a Tofurky Roast you should definitely get one. It's been around for 17 years so they must be doing something right!

Portland Binge: Part One

While most of you grilled out your veggies in 90 degree heat I froze my butt off in Florence, OR. But the exciting part of my trip out west was a trip to Food Fight in Portland. As you may have seen before, I go ape shit when I shop there. Here are some of my finds.

A nifty little bag to throw my shit in.

These look so cute that I had to buy them. The turtle cup is swell.

These Sjaak's Organic Chocolates looked equally as cute. I no eaty, gifts.

Bernod's Organic Cotton Candy. It was grape and obviously Vegan grape cotton candy must be eaten.

These are Vegan white chocolate chips. If you want to be a baking all-star you pretty much need these.

Sweet & Sara is amazing as usual so this was a no brainer.

Ironically it's freakin' hot in Portland today so I'm not able to fix these BUT I'm told they are fantastic. They gots that Daiya.

Soy Dreams

I can vividly remember the first time I ate fake meat. It was before going Vegetarian but I was at the point where I started thinking about cutting out meat. While in the frozen foods section I noticed a meatless meatloaf. I thought to myself "how the hell is it meatloaf without meat?" It was an Amy's Veggieloaf frozen dinner and it turned out to be one of the most delicious frozen dinners I've ever had. It was one of those a-ha moments where I realized I didn't need meat to have a hearty delicious meal. For a couple years I ate the shit out of those dinners but once I went Vegan I had to stop because it contained honey. I would LOVE it if Amy's could bring out a Vegan version or just get rid of the honey all together (pretty please!!!).

Anyway this brings me to the point of my post. For those of you that think you have to give up all of you meat/dairy convenience foods because you go Vegetarian or Vegan, you are just dead wrong. I'm not going to lie to you and say everything tastes just like the original, but in most cases it tastes better. Down below are a couple of examples where I think someone got it right.

Tofurky Deli Slices by Turtle Island Foods

I never had any desire to try these because I was never a big lunch meat person. Late last year someone very sweet made me a sandwich with Tofurky Deli Slices and it was amazing! Now I buy them fairly often for my sandwich fix.

Field Roast Smoked Apple Sage Sausages

These were forced on to me by Whoa Wren. I'm serious, she fixed them in my house! I wanted nothing to do with them because sausage used to make me sick. Amazingly they were delicious and now I keep a couple packs in my refrigerator at all times. I'm also anxious to try Field Roast's other products...all in due time.

Yves Meatless Pepperoni

I don't make pizza that often but when I do I usually go with all veggies. A couple months ago I had a Vegan pizza party at my house and my friend Jenny brought some Yves Vegan pepperoni. I thought it tasted great! If you are really missing that pepperoni flavor this should do the trick.

Teese Mozzarella by Chicago Soydairy

Teese is my favorite pizza-making cheese right now. I agree Daiya is hella good but until I can buy some at the store I'm rollin' with Teese.

Follow Your Heart Sour Cream Alternative

This is a must for nachos! I also enjoy the Follow Your Heart Nacho Cheese, good stuff! Oh and of course Vegenaise, the O.G. of Vegan condiments.