Field Roast Vegan Chao Cheese Slices

Chao is the new Vegan cheese from Field Roast. It was announced out of the blue a couple months ago and I have been anxiously awaiting its arrival. One of the cool things about Chao is that they are pre-sliced and sandwich ready. The three flavors are Creamy Original, Tomato Cayenne and Coconut Herb. The cheese is called Chao because that is the name of the fermented tofu used in the making of the cheese. So now that I have all three flavors of Chao in my possession, it's time to chow!

I really enjoyed all three cheeses, but I think Creamy Original was my favorite. It's the string cheese of the bunch. You can nibble on this stuff all day. A nice mellow flavor that has a butteriness to it. You just eat it. And eat it.

Tomato Cayenne is similar to a cheddar with some kick that would spice up any sandwich. Nice little bits of red and cayenne pepper inside the cheese.  Of course my thoughts turn to dicing the cheese up and putting it on nachos, but that's just me. It melts, just like the other two cheeses but be careful not to overdo it. Melting takes only a couple seconds.

Coconut Herb is an interesting mix -- coconut flavor infused with herbs and black pepper. I feel like yellow mustard would be a good accompaniment on a sandwich. Definitely the weirdo of the three, but in a good way.

Field Roast is pretty ingenious in general and Chao Slices are no exception. Artisan Vegan food continues! Go seek it out and as always, let me know what you think.

Natural Products Expo West 2014

I finally decided to stop being jealous of Quarrygirl's Natural Products Expo West blog posts and go visit the mecca for myself. Safe to say, I was blown away by the size and the quality of the Expo. I got to see some great products, meet tons of awesome people and, of course, get my name printed up on a press pass. The Expo is held in Anaheim, which is nice because it's right next to Disneyland, so you can really make a vacation out of it. Also, you're still close to LA (just don't drive there on a Friday night) so you can check out all the Vegan eats and catch a concert.

So, day one of the Expo, I really lucked out and caught Sarah from The Spooky Vegan in the press line. This was the first time at the Expo for both of us, so it really worked out because we didn't know what the hell we were doing. Sarah is the best Expo buddy you could ask for!

Ever since I've been back everyone is like "what was your favorite product???" I had a few that I loved, but the Gardein Golden Fishless Filet was my top pick. I still haven't seen it in Omaha yet, but I can't wait to get reacquainted.

So what else did I love? Well, Amy's Tofu Breakfast Sandwich was killer. Mr. Dewie's Cashew Milk Ice Cream was off the hook amazing. The Field Roast Hand-Formed Burgers (and Apple Maple Breakfast Sausages) were delish. And Phoney Baloney's new Coconut Bacon flavors (especially Apple Fennel) were mouth-watering good!

My favorite moment from the Expo is when I spotted Amy Berliner serving food at the Amy's Kitchen booth. I told Isa "look it's Amy!" and Isa was like "what are you talking about?" and I was like "look, It's AMY!" Isa finalllly got it and we were able to snag a pic. I'm happy to report that Amy is super nice and down to earth. And I finally got to tell her I put her through college. Life complete! Shout out to Allie Drew for making it happen.

And my second favorite moment from the Expo was getting Vega formulator Brendan Brazier and Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness creator Robert Cheeke together for a pic. Two cool dudes doing good things in the Vegan community.

So many awesome booths with great food! The Chicago Vegan Foods peeps brought the nacho cheese pump, so you know this expo is official. Follow Your Heart had yummy grilled cheese sandwiches right off the grill. Team Phoney Baloney was ready to greet the Vegans and all the people who ask "how can coconut be bacon?" One of the Qrunch team members was from Nebraska, gotta love my home state folk!

Sarah and I LOVED the Beyond Meat "Taco Beyond" booth. Their tacos were AMAZING. Cobra Corn is a product you need to try, headquartered in Chicago. The Bombay Seasoning Cobra Corn is worth getting shipped from Vegan Essentials. Daiya had a MASSIVE booth with tons of "Daiya Girls" walking around, giving samples. Mr. Dewie's had some really great ice cream and they entertained the heck out of us bloggers. Cybele from Cybele's Free to Eat told me she appreciated my putting up a pic of her cookies on Facebook. I thought that was pretty cool! And it took all three days of the expo, but I finally caught up with Jackie from Vegan Yack Attack. She's always the life of the party!

Nature's Path had some cool new things to sample and their rep was cracking us up. Dr. McDougall's had some new soups I hope to see soon. Vegetarian Plus had tons of stuff I've never seen before and I got to sample it. Sweet Earth had a sweet new Hickory and Sage Seitan Bacon that I can't wait to try again. Morinaga had a pamphlet with Terry Hope Romero on it, so we had to chat it up with them. And the Hail Merry ladies were super nice and gave us a heads up that Costco carries them now!

Always a treat to see Dan and Nicole from Upton's Naturals. Their Bacon Seitan is in my fridge 24/7. Happy to see the Liz Lovely booth, but they broke my heart by getting rid of the chocolate dipped cookies and pretzels. Wildwood got harassed by Isa about their creamer, I'm sorry. Vega had this nifty dispenser for Vega One. Oddly I didn't take any because it wasn't 6:20 am and I wasn't driving to work. Tofurky had a new gluten-free pizza I'd like to try again. I had a sample, but I need a whole pizza of that stuff. And Peanut Butter & Co. was in the house as they should be.

Sjaak's was very sweet and gave us bloggers a metric ton of candy to split amongst ourselves. I love their chocolates so much! JJ Sweet's Cocomels out of Boulder, Colorado was representing with their amazing caramels. Bee Free Honee gave a taste of everything. The honee is made out of apples, it's really good stuff! Endangered Species Chocolate had this amazing Raspberry Orange Creme Filled Dark Chocolate Bar that was to die for. I can't wait to find it here in Omaha.

So that was Natural Products Expo West 2014 in a nutshell! I didn't post half of what I actually saw, it really is a lot of stimuli. Lots of food, people and more people. Thank you to everyone who hung out with me and made my trip so special. I look forward to 2015!

Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella Cheese Shreds

I don't know about you, but Follow Your Heart Cheese was the first Vegan cheese that I really liked. Before that, there were numerous blocks of orange-ish clay that called themselves "cheese" but tasted like salted play-doh. Vegans at the time just accepted that Vegan cheese would taste a little funky. Follow Your Heart cheese really changed that (it melted!) and I'm forever thankful. In the last five years though, brands like Daiya and Teese have taken away some of Follow Your Heart's shine. So for me, it's exciting that Follow Your Heart has introduced three new shredded cheese products. For this review, I'm only sampling the Mozzarella, but the other two flavors are Cheddar and Fiesta Blend. And the best test for mozzarella is pizza, right? I think so!        

I've got the cheese all ready to go, but now I need a couple toppings. One of my favorite faux meats is Field Roast Smoked Apple Sage Sausages. If you've never had it, you're missing out big time 'cause it's tasty as heck. As for a veggie topping, I'm gonna be lazy and throw some black olives on this thing. I love my black olives. In a perfect world I would have had green pepper on hand, but alas...

As you can see the cheese melted nicely. I used the broiler for a couple minutes after the pizza was done to melt whatever cheese hadn't already melted. Texture-wise, I liked it more than the recently reviewed Trader Joe's Mozzarella Style Shreds. This was thicker and more cheese-like. It doesn't have the elasticity that Daiya does, which  I don't mind, but some of you might. Taste-wise, it was richer than I thought it would be. Not as rich as Daiya, but not as mild as the Trader Joe's. It has nice mozzarella flavor, maybe a hair salty, but still good. I liked that the flavor didn't overpower the pizza, kinda like Daiya sometimes does. But even though it was a dream melted on the pizza, eaten straight out of the bag it was a little blah. And I know you might be curious, yes it does have palm oil, but thankfully it has been sustainably sourced and bears the Rainforest Alliance certified logo on the packaging.

Overall, I was very satisfied with the mozzarella and I'm excited that Follow Your Heart finally has a shredded cheese on the market. It's a nice alternative to the other Vegan shredded cheeses out there.

Field Roast Hazelnut Cranberry Roast

Next up on my faux turkey conquest, is the Field Roast Hazelnut Cranberry Roast. I've seen these in the store for the last couple years and I've been dying to try them. One thing that sets this roast apart from the others is the fact that there's no soy. Perfect for you soy sensitive people. Ok, I'm starving! Let's warm up the oven and make dinner.     

While taking the roast out of the box, I noticed there was no gravy. It's not the biggest deal in the world but the other two brands of roasts do come with gravy. I popped the roast in the oven and went about my business. The cranberries, hazelnuts and whatever else in the roast made the kitchen smell good! A little over a hour in the oven and the roast is ready to eat.

My favorite aspect of the roast was the flaky crusty pastry outside (I guess that's what "en croute" means.) It reminded me a little bit of a pot pie. The meaty part was also a winner, typical Field Roast gourmet wheat meat with a hazelnut twist. The inside is a mix of cranberry, ginger, apple and sausage. Overall I enjoyed it, but after my second and third piece, I felt the cranberry flavor was a little too overpowering. Good news for you cranberry lovers, cause you will be in heaven. I guess I'm just not a huge cranberry fan.

For the most part I was happy with the Field Roast Hazelnut Cranberry Roast. Minor things like the lack of gravy (Tofurky does sell an individual gravy if you are as lazy as me) and the overpowering cranberry flavor couldn't hinder the fact that this roast is a high quality product and an excellent option in the wide world of Vegan holiday centerpieces.

Toronto Vegetarian Food Festival 2012

A couple weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend the 28th Annual Toronto Vegetarian Food Festival. It is without a doubt one of the most successful Veg Fests in North America, if not the world. The impressive Toronto Vegetarian Society is the driving force behind this yearly mecca. My first visit to Toronto just happened to be during the 24th Annual Veg Fest four long years ago and I was really excited to return and check out all of the venders and speakers. Oh, and did I mention it's free?  
   

One of the first places I had to stop was the Field Roast table. Field Roast is one of my all-time favorite companies.  I've never eaten something of theirs I didn't love. I was told that Field Roast distribution is a little wonky at the moment in Canada, but keep asking your local stores to carry it. Their table was packed with people all weekend!

Apiecalypse Bakery, located straight outta Toronto, was a pleasant surprise. Not only did they have Vegan Marshmallows out the yin yan, they also had S'more Pie! Really nice people who rock!

You know I had to stop by the Vega table! It was crazy packed most of the weekend, which is awesome. I've been using Vega products for 5 years now and it's amazing to see how much the company has grown in that time. I guess if you have a great product it's going to be successful.  

A couple products from Bio, MozzaRisella and Muscolo De Grano that looked interesting to me. I'm not sure if I'll ever see these in the states, but you Canadians can gloat that you have something we don't!

Of course, a lot of the heavy hitters were in Toronto, too. I had my first taste of the Jalapeno Garlic Havarti Style Wedge from Daiya and I liked it! Gardein brought some Teriyaki Chick'n Strips that I thought were amazing. But the Coconut Earth Balance is freakin' out of this world! I've never been an Earth Balance connoisseur, but you gotta' try this stuff.

But  the greatest product of the entire Veg Fest, by a long shot, was this Aureeva Creamsicle Soya Beverage. It was liquid gold, I swear to god. If anyone can get this imported to the US, I will love you forever. It seriously tastes like creamsicle, kids will love this stuff!

I wasn't able to see most of the speakers, but I did get to go to most of the cooking demos. Strangely, even though I don't like to cook, I find cooking demos entertaining and informative. The genius known as Isa Chandra Moskowitz (no, she didn't make me say that) was funny as usual. Terry Hope Romero made Seitan Gyros and won the crowd over. Taymer Mason introduced everyone (especially me) to Carribbean cuisine. I found out Taymer is a fan of my blog which is totally awesome and unexpected!

So that was a little snapshot of my experience at the Toronto Vegetarian Food Festival. I barely scratched the surface because there is so much going on. If you've always wanted to go to Toronto, you should totally go during the Veg Fest. It's a humbling experience that will reinforce your choice of going Vegan or Vegetarian.

Field Roast Smoked Tomato Deli Slices

Field Roast has been one of my favorite "Vegan Meat" companies for quite awhile now. Whether it's the Smoked Apple Sage Sausages or the Frankfurters, I really dig 'em. Last week I saw their Smoked Tomato Deli Slices at the store and didn't think twice about adding them to my cart as I'm always down for a kick ass sandwich. For my version, I used Grapeseed Vegenaise, mustard, tomato and lettuce on sourdough bread. 

My first impression was, "holy crap, that's good!" The texture and consistency of the slices are heavenly. They're thick but seemed to fall apart in your mouth. The taste is outstanding, with a smoked hearty flavor. I like how it stands on its own and isn't trying to replicate salami or ham. It's creating a new genre of Vegan deli meat! You could totally ditch the bread and eat the slices by themselves. So if you are in the mood for some truly kick ass sandwiches, Field Roast Smoked Tomato Deli Slices get a thumbs up from me!

Field Roast Frankfurters

I was introduced to Field Roast Sausages by Lauren, aka Whoa Wren, a couple years ago. At first I didn't want any part of them - I just wasn't a fan of sausages or hot dogs growing up. Even when I covered them up in mustard and ketchup they were hard for me to eat. Fast forward to present day and the Field Roast Apple Sage Sausages are one of my favorite meals. Even eating them plain is a treat. So you can say I'm a fan of Field Roast and I really enjoy their products, which brings me to their new Frankfurters!

Forget every Vegan frankfurter you know, there isn't anything like this! The spicy, meaty frankfurter is the best I've ever had. The texture is nice and firm with a hearty bite. I can eat these without condiments or I can fix it up with ketchup, mustard and sauerkraut. I made mine on a cast iron grill but I can't wait to throw one on the gas grill outside.

Even if you are not a fan of hot dogs, Vegan or otherwise, try these Field Roast Frankfurters and you will be converted!

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.