Vegan Snacks We’ve Been Enjoying

On October 8, 2019October 8, 2019 By VictoriaIn Vegan ProductsLeave a comment

I wanted to share some of the tasty vegan treats we’ve been enjoying lately.

Harvest Snaps – Tomato Basil Red Lentil Snack Crisps

The tomato basil flavor is our favorite, but the original ones are really good too. I like these when I want something crispy, but I want something a little bit better than potato chips. At least it feels like I’m eating something healthier…

Not all of the flavors are vegan, so watch out for any milk ingredients if you try these.

Hippeas – vegan white cheddar

These are basically vegan cheetos. What else do I need to say? We bought a bunch of bags at Kroger when they were on sale and I’ve been having them as snacks during the work day.

Hey Boo Coconut Sea Salt Caramels

I haven’t had caramels in such a long time, and they used to be one of my favorite kinds of candy. We found these at Viridescent Kitchen and they are a great treat.

Also, if you’re in the Dallas/Plano area you have to check out Viridescent Kitchen. They serve vegan food and sell a lot of vegan snacks. Check out their website here.

Louisville Vegan Jerky Co. – Vegan Jerky

We also picked up this vegan jerky from Viridescent Kitchen. There are a ton of different flavors on their website, but we loved the Buffalo Dill flavor.

Trader Joe’s Cashew Fiesta Dip – dairy free cheese dip

This cheese dip from Trader Joe’s tastes amazing. It’s like a flavorful velveeta cheesy queso. We highly recommend picking this up and having it with your favorite tortilla chips.

♡

June Favorites // food, games, and music

On June 25, 2019June 25, 2019 By VictoriaIn Favorites, Vegan Products, video gamesLeave a comment

Here’s a few things that just made me really happy this month.

Juice Lab: another restaurant in Denton, TX with a lot of vegan options.

We’ve been to Juice Lab a few times to pick up juices and on occasion for food. We went a few days ago for lunch and ordered the nachos for the first time and they were amazing.

CCE755DF-02E3-4064-BE4E-3CEE51E312DB

Sloth friends for my succulent

I haven’t talked about it here, but I have on my instagram a lot. I’m not good at taking care of plants but I want to change that, so a few months ago we picked up a succulent and it’s still growing strong! My parents got us these really cute sloths that they found at Hobby Lobby to place on the pot.

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

Cadence of Hyrule

This just came out on the Switch this month and I’ve been playing it nonstop since. This has just made me even more excited for Link’s Awakening coming out in September.

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

Discogs – Catalog, Collect & Shop Music

I downloaded the Discogs app a few nights ago and finally organized my record collection. It’s nice to see what I have, especially because while I was going through them I forgot I owned some of the records I did! Here are some of the albums I’ve been listening to lately:

Say Hi – Bleeders Digest

Foxing – Dealer

Film School – Hideout

Vegan chik’n cutlet parmesan

Father’s Day was a few weeks ago, and my mom made us chicken cutlet parmesan for dinner. She made DJ and I our own tray of vegan chik’n cutlets and it tasted just like the original! She used Gardein’s crispy chik’n tenders and Daiya mozzarella cheese, plus they found a vegan loaf of french bread at Walmart and Earth Balance butter to spread on it. It’s so nice that it’s incredibly easy to veganize anything and we can enjoy a nice dinner with family, especially a meal I had all the time for special occasions growing up. ♡

3CB6FFC5-624E-46DC-B9BD-9D7A2815D7D9

Those are some of my favorite things that happened this month. What were some of yours? Let me know in the comments!

a junk food vegan day of eating

On June 18, 2019June 18, 2019 By VictoriaIn Creamy, cheesy, pasta recipes, Vegan Products, What I Ate TodayLeave a comment

I just did not want to cook today. Here’s what I ate throughout the day:

breakfast? (honestly it was like 2:30pm)

I was craving fish sticks, so I cooked three of Gardein’s fishless filets and made a dipping sauce with 2 tbsp spicy brown mustard and 1 tbsp maple syrup. I microwaved them for 1 minute, then air fried them for 4 minutes, flipped them, then air fried them for another 3 so they’d be crispy.

a very late lunch

For lunch I made a quick wrap out of Lightlife While Bean & Kale Deli Slices, Daiya American cheese, and spinach. I used the rest of the dipping sauce from earlier in the wrap too.

dinner

Mac and cheese with spinach and buffalo cauliflower. It didn’t turn out pretty, but it was so good.

For the sauce I used:

3/4 cup soy milk
2 slices of Daiya American cheese
garlic powder
onion powder
paprika
a few drops of lemon juice
2 tsp of tapioca flour

Also:

1 cup elbow macaroni
1 cup spinach
1 cup frozen cauliflower

For the buffalo cauliflower I took 1 cup of frozen cauliflower and air fried it for about 10-15 minutes on 400º. Once it was a little crispy I tossed it in buffalo wing sauce and air fried it at 320º for about another 10 minutes.

I made the sauce by heating up the soy milk on medium and melted the Daiya cheese in it. I added the spices then let that simmer for a few minutes. I added 2 tsp of tapioca starch and 3 tsp of water to a cup to thin it out, then added it to the sauce to let it thicken.This will be enough for about 2 servings of pasta.

and then oreos (mega stuf)

That’s what I ate today! It was a very lazy day of eating.

Savory Pasta with Veggies // easy vegan recipe

On June 4, 2019June 4, 2019 By VictoriaIn Creamy, cheesy, pasta recipes, Low Spoon Recipes, Recipes, rheumatoid arthritis, Vegan ProductsLeave a comment

Here’s the perfect meal for a low spoon kind of day.

I’ve been bringing this meal to work for lunch for the past few days because it is so easy and only takes a few minutes to put together.

You will need:

1 cup rice noodles
2 cups sautéed cauliflower
1 cup collard greens, or whatever frozen greens you want to add
1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes
1/2 cup vegan protein broth
black pepper
nutritional yeast
garlic powder

First, I steamed then sautéed the frozen cauliflower in a pan. I didn’t add any oil, just a bit of water so the veggies wouldn’t stick (but try not to burn the cauliflower and set off the smoke alarm like I did, hah). I defrosted the collard greens the laziest way by microwaving it for 1 minute in the microwave, then taking it out to mix it and add in some nutritional yeast and garlic powder, then heating it for another minute in the microwave. While the veggies are cooking boil the pasta. I make a lot of pasta at a time for easy leftovers.

After I drained the pasta I put it back in the pot and added the veggies, tomatoes, the protein broth, then the spices. I heated it over medium heat for a few minutes to warm up everything together.

The second meal pictured above is just with leftover penne instead of rice noodles and minus the cauliflower so it was much faster and easier to make.

And voilà! A really easy meal that’s really tasty. You can also serve it with more nutritional yeast on top or add some hot sauce, and use whatever veggies you like.

Some vegan junk food I’ve been eating lately

On April 29, 2019April 29, 2019 By VictoriaIn Vegan Products2 Comments

We go to Sprouts and Kroger on occasion to pick up some vegan junk food. Here’s some of the things we’ve been eating lately:

We always pick up something to drink, and on this trip I bought a Yerba Mate.

We also bought some everything bagels. When I was younger we’d pick up bagels for the weekend and have them with either cream cheese or with eggs and cheese for breakfast. Luckily that’s easy to veganize. We bought Miyoko’s Creamery cream cheese, which is in my opinion the best vegan cream cheese we’ve tried. I’ve also been enjoying them with tofu scramble and Daiya Cheddar Shreds. I season my tofu scramble with garlic powder, black pepper, paprika, turmeric, and cayenne pepper and it’s been such a nostalgic treat.

1df23464-383e-4420-a5bc-bd14cf624c44

0e9fef77-53f6-4d42-83fd-b572e9a270d8

White Castle now has frozen vegan black bean sliders. When I was in college we’d occasionally get the normal frozen cheeseburger sliders and heat them up in the microwave for dinner. Now there’s a vegan version! We had to try them, and they were pretty tasty. We bought Follow Your Heart’s vegan Gouda slices too, so we melted them on the burger and it added a really nice flavor.

I love baking cookies, especially now when the weather has been so rainy, so we picked up some pre-made cookie dough from Sprouts by the brand Just. These always turn out so delicious, especially in dough form (the best thing about vegan cookie dough is that you can eat it raw!).

Daiya Alfredo Style cheezy mac has been a favorite recently too.

And I’ve been lazy and eating a lot of rice noodles and avocado rolls.

0b3acf0a-c166-4555-9c31-0b02cd2fefad

(This morning I heated up the leftover rice noodles with sriracha and sesame oil, and air fried tofu. For the tofu I cut it up into tiny cubes and tossed it with black pepper, garlic powder, and paprika).

AF72A9B5-D3F0-4946-8E2E-956820967886

That’s some food that we, as junk food vegans, have been liking lately. Let me know what some of your favorite vegan treats are in the comments! ♡

Veganized 5-Layer Burritos

On April 16, 2019April 16, 2019 By VictoriaIn Recipes, Vegan Products1 Comment

One of the last things I ate before I made the decision to follow a vegan lifestyle was a 5-layer burrito from Taco Bell (I was vegetarian at the time and ordered it without meat, so it was more like a 4-layer burrito?). It was also my favorite thing to order at Taco Bell.

The normal layers in a 5-layer burrito are:

Seasoned beef
Cheese
Beans
Nacho cheese sauce
Reduced fat sour cream

Obviously that is not something that I’d order or could make “fresco style” (substitute dairy for pico de gallo), but I’ve been craving one recently. So, here is my decadent vegan version:

Seasoned beef:
- Instead of using the usual vegan ground beef replacements (my go-tos are Boca Veggie Crumbles or Beyond Meat Crumbles) I picked up some seitan from our local Sprouts. I warmed it up in a pan with some coconut cooking spray and it was really flavorful and savory.
Cheese:
- I picked up Follow Your Heart’s vegan cheddar cheese from Sprouts too.
Beans:
- Winco has some amazing refried black beans with jalapeno peppers and no lard.
Nacho cheese sauce:
- I made the cheese sauce out of 1 cup of cashews, enough soy milk so that it would blend and be creamy, 2-3 tbsps nutritional yeast, a splash of lime juice, black pepper, paprika, garlic powder, salt, a little bit of yellow mustard, and a few drops of hot sauce (sounds weird, I know, but it turned out pretty “cheezy”).
Reduced fat sour cream:
- I found a lot of recipes for vegan sour cream on Pinterest and chose to try this one from Loving It Vegan: Vegan Sour Cream – Tangy and Rich. It turned out SO good. The consistency and flavor were spot on.

Here’s the finished result! This was so amazing and satisfied the craving. I feel like I say this in every blog post, but you really can veganize everything:

♡

Air Fryer Review // why I try to cook everything I can in our air fryer

On February 12, 2019February 12, 2019 By VictoriaIn Lifestyle, Reviews, Vegan ProductsLeave a comment

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

My parents gifted us an air fryer for Christmas and we cook everything we can in it. I never want to put the oven on since it makes our apartment hot, but this doesn’t produce any heat and it cooks everything quickly and evenly. Here’s some of our favorite foods to throw in it:

1. Baked potatoes: Poke a few holes in a potato and throw it in the air fryer. We bake them at 400º (the highest temperature the air fryer can be set to) for 20 minutes and they turn out great.

2. Frozen burgers: (the one pictured is Hilary’s Veggie Burger) We just follow the recommended time for baking them in a conventional oven and set the temperature to 400º.

3. Frozen taquitos: We just follow the conventional oven directions on this one too.

4. Frozen hashbrowns / tater tots: 400º for 8-10 minutes.

We haven’t tried it yet but I’ve read air frying tofu is really good too.

Here’s an Amazon link to the one we have: Avalon Bay Air Fryer. It’s worked well for us so far. It’s a healthier way of “frying” food, plus it heats food up quickly without having to preheat. There are tons of air fryer recipes posted on Pinterest so check those out too!

The Beyond Burger: a review

On February 7, 2019February 7, 2019 By VictoriaIn Vegan ProductsLeave a comment

I got home from work last night and I just really wanted mac and cheese for dinner. We stopped by our local Natural Grocers but made the mistake of being hungry while grocery shopping and stopped to see if there were any vegan treats on sale.

That’s when we found The Beyond Burger for $5.84 and had to pick it up along with Daiya’s boxed cheezy mac.

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

This was our first time making The Beyond Burger at home. I’ve had it at restaurants before and absolutely loved it. The packaging looks just like meat packaging and it grills pretty quickly and similarly to meat.

DJ seasoned the burgers before we grilled them with onion powder, garlic powder, and black pepper.

We added Beyond Meat crumbles to the cheezy mac. I seasoned the crumbles with onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, and black pepper. The cheez sauce is usually creamier when mixed in with the macaroni but the pasta was cold by the time I added it. We topped our burgers with pickles, daiya cheese, onions, and ketchup.

These are such a good alternative to meat. They grilled well and have a taste and texture really similar to meat. I recommend trying them out whether or not you’re vegan. Let me know what you guys think about The Beyond Burger in the comments! Have you tried it? What do you think of vegan meats in general?

What I ate today // cosy winter treats

On December 11, 2018 By VictoriaIn Vegan Products, What I Ate TodayLeave a comment

Today was my day off, plus with the holiday season upon us and the changing weather I’ve been sick lately. This time I’m not alone though, and DJ has joined me this cold season. We got our sick butts off the couch and decided to make some tasty treats.

Brunch: tofu scramble with daiya cheddar cheese, waffles, Boca chick’n, and hashbrowns.

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

The only thing I had to make was the tofu scramble, and I threw everything else in the oven.

Dinner: leftover soup with pasta and dumplings (I forgot to take a photo of the dumplings).

I remember as a kid having this pasta in soups when I was sick, so I figured it would be the best pasta to cure us. I added the cooked pasta to some leftover soup DJ made a few days ago. He threw together a bunch of stuff we had in the fridge and freezer, including vegetable broth, corn, tomatoes, spinach, onions, and green lentils.

(Soy)nog:

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

I had a cup of this with some cinnamon sprinkled on top.

Winco brand Apple Jacks:

With cashew milk.

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

That’s everything I ate today during a super lazy day at home. More winter treats and comfort food will be posted soon!

A Vegan Thanksgiving // what I ate today

On November 23, 2018November 22, 2018 By VictoriaIn Cooking for the holidays, Vegan Products, What I Ate TodayLeave a comment

I ate a ton of vegan treats on Thanksgiving and I wanted to share it with you guys. Here’s everything I ate this weekend:

The day before Thanksgiving:

We made most of the food on Wednesday so we wouldn’t have to worry about it on Thanksgiving. For the main dish we made a vegan lasagna with homemade tofu ricotta, Daiya Mozzarella shreds, Boca veggie crumbles, and Tofurky Italian sausage. The recipe for the tofu ricotta is on this blog post that I made last year.

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

We also made a vegan apple pie that night too. We found a gluten free crust at Kroger that happened to also be vegan, and mixed together chopped apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and lemon juice.

That night we also wanted to try a new So Delicious ice cream flavor after all of our hard work (plus the self control it took not to snack on the lasagna and apple pie), so we had a little bit of that for dessert. It was a lot creamier than I thought it would be. I figured since it was blueberry flavored it would be a sorbet, but instead it was so creamy and so delicious.

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

Thanksgiving:

We started the day off with a late afternoon cheese platter. We’ve almost always had one for every holiday, so it’s nice that I can make my own vegan version to have.

I made this one with Miyoko’s Creamery vegan mozz, Lightlife veggie deli slices (White bean + kale and Chickpea + red pepper), Chao Creamy Original slices, Treeline Treenut cheese, and Go Veggie cream cheese. We also had some bread on the side including sourdough bread and bagel thins.

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

A few hours later we had dinner. My plate included sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes made with cashew milk and earth balance butter, cranberries, broccoli, spinach, and rutabagas also with vegan butter. I also drank some Harvest Pumpkin Ale from Blue Moon, which is also vegan according to the app Vegaholic.