Vegan Mountain High

I was introduced to Denver Vegan culture via the 2008 Denver Veg Fest. It really opened my eyes to how many of us there actually are. It was exhilarating! Denver and Boulder are very Vegan friendly with tons of restaurants, health food stores and even Vegan shoe stores. Here are some of my local finds, some you may be able to able to procure at a store near you!

Sweet Action is an Ice Cream Parlor in Denver that always has a couple Vegan flavors on hand. When I was there they had a Vegan Almond Cardamom Ice Cream Cookie and I couldn't turn it down!

A trip to Whole Foods revealed this local, pre-packaged burrito from Burrito Del Mar. Pretty yummy!

Falafel King is a local Mediterranean restaurant chain who sells their falafels prepackaged. If you are to lazy to make you own or even too lazy to go the restaurant...here you go!

Cute little peanut butters made by Justin's. Great for trips!

You've seen Larabars all over but they originated in Colorado. Simple snack bars that are good for you, nice concept. Oh, and they actually taste like pie!

Portland Binge: Part Two

Part two of my binge brought me to a Portland Whole Foods. For the most part, all Whole Foods are similar but you can usually cop a couple local things. I found some odds and ends that stood out and of course I had to buy them.

I haven't been to Seattle yet but when I do Mighty-O Donuts will be one of my first stops. Needless to say I ate these suckers right when I got home. Hopefully I can have the real deal soon.

I never knew what a Marionberry was until I came to Portland. My first thought is a D.C. Mayor who smokes crack (apparently everyone says this) but there is actually a berry called Marionberry. Now I can have as much Marionberry as I want!

I thought this was cute only because I like calling it an Oaty Bar. I said Oaty Bar for like 3 days straight.

There's nothing like some yummy kettle corn. Popped across the pond in Vancouver, Washington.

Healthy but tasty, these chips are crunchy goodness! Other flavors are Zesty Nacho and Kool Ranch.

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.

Frozen Foodie

Remember back in the late 80's when microwave pizza was all the rage? Well I think this new pizza from Ian's will take you back! My newest find is French Bread Pizza with Soy Cheese that's not only Vegan but is also gluten free! But how does it taste? I love it! Great pizza to listen to the Rocky IV soundtrack to while playing Rad Racer. My only complaint is that the individual pizzas are pretty small, so buy a lot.

Amy's has a new line of Vegan Tamales. I picked up the Roasted Vegetable and the Black Bean dinners. Taste wise I thought they were delicious and flavorful. It's great to see Amy's innovate and not rest only on their classics. But you'll have to pry Amy's Enchilada dinner from my cold dead hands.

Fairly new to the Vegan frozen food game is Kashi. I've been eating their Black Bean Mango dinner for a while now and I have to say I love it. The mango is a really great touch, nice and tangy.

The Tuscan Veggie Bake is one of their newest Vegan offerings. It was hearty and filling. Unfortunately, the dinners aren't organic, but I really appreciate that it says Vegan on the front of the box.

Cereal Love

Everyone likes cereal! There are so many Vegan and organic options out there, from cereal with real fruit, sweet cereals, chocolaty cereals, whole wheat cereals, gluten free cereals...the list goes on. Below are some of my faves, let me know which ones you like!

Kashi has a wide variety of natural and organic cereals. Strawberry Fields is without a doubt my favorite. I can eat this stuff dry. Cinnamon Harvest is a great shredded wheat cereal and Heart to Heart Blueberry is delicious!

Around the time I went Vegetarian I started to eat less sugary cereals. Puffins and Gorilla Munch (aka Monkey Munch) were two of my favorites. Puffins has a wonderful peanut butter flavor and Gorilla Munch is lightly sweetened. Not only did they taste good, they were still fun to to eat. Annie's Fruity Bunnies follows that trend.

As some of you know, I've been baking in Vegan bakes sales recently. The one thing I make every time is organic rice crispy treats using Nature's Path Whole Grain Brown Rice - it's worked well so far! My other Nature's Path favorite is the Hemp Plus Granola. The peanut version is great too, extra peanuts!

And last but not least, the milk! The Blue Diamond Unsweetened Almond Breeze is by far the greatest thing I've ever had with cereal. If you've never had it before please give it a shot because it's creamy and delicious. I think you'll love it.

Whole Foods: Health Starts Here

For the last couple months I've seen these prepackaged Vegan meals for sale at my Whole Foods. I was intrigued but I'm more of a frozen dinner kind of guy, the fresh stuff goes bad too quickly. Right now I have my house up for sale so I need my kitchen clean at all times. Could there be a better time to give this stuff a try? Probably not. So in one fell swoop I bought all of these Health Starts Here meals and tried them out. I heated everything up in the oven because I thought it would taste better that way. So here's what I thought...

I had really high hopes for this enchilada because it looks like something I'd totally love. Sad to say I was disappointed. The first couple bites were fine but after that it seemed like a chore to eat. Bland is the one word that comes to mind. I suppose some salsa or taco sauce would have helped. I wish I could have loved you Mr. Enchilada. :(

The grain loaf was decent, it reminded me a bit of Amy's loaf. The veggies were just ok. I guess if I had to pick a favorite it would be this one.

I'm not even going to waste my time on this one...bland and boring.

This was the first thing I ate. It didn't look very appetizing but I gave it a shot anyway. If play-doe had meatloaf flavor, it I would taste exactly like this. The texture was like clay...not good.

I ate this along with the meatloaf. Mixed with the meatloaf sauce it was decent, by itself it was kinda blah. I just can't win with this stuff.

This Vegan pudding isn't in the "Heath Starts Here" line per se but it's in the same section. Everyone deserves a treat and this was a pretty good one.

So I think the bottom line is that the Heath Starts Here is mediocre at best. I hate to shit on anything that goes out of the way to cater to Vegans but I know Whole Foods can do better. And yes, Whole Foods made these for health conscious people but dear lord, come on! My only hope is that a non-Vegan will not judge all Vegan food on the basis of these dinners.

Daiya Day!

Quite possibly the biggest story of the year for Vegans, Daiya Cheese becomes widely available at Whole Foods Markets nationwide today. Why all the hype? Well Daiya is unlike any other Vegan cheese. First of all it has no soy which is pretty rare for Vegan cheese. Second of all it melts as if it were real cheese. I have a feeling that non Vegans looking for a cheese alternative will jump all over this. Third of all it tastes amazing! So the bottom line is Vegans now have a easier way to get Daiya and non Vegans will now have another option to try. In the end the cows win!

To celebrate this glorious day I decided to cook with Daiya! I know, I know, Laziest Vegans is all about not cooking. This will be one of the few times I cook for this blog so don't get used to it. Basically I whipped up some of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Chickpea-Hijiki Salad Sammiches and topped them with Mozzarella Style Daiya. For the last step I broiled them in the oven for 5 minutes.

As you can see, the Daiya melts and browns as if it were dairy cheese. If you want to get REALLY lazy you could buy some English muffins and spaghetti sauce and make mini pizzas. And if you are REALLY REALLY lazy, Daiya is already in some prepackaged Vegan foods.

Amy's Rice Macaroni with Daiya

Gardein Marinara Chick'n Good Stuff with Daiya

The Higher Taste Vegan Supreme Burrito with Daiya

Out of these three the only one I've had is The Higher Taste Burrito. It was amazing as I'm sure the others are.