vegan

I am a fan of Yves. Their insanely quick (2 min.) microwavable vegan foods save me on days I cannot cook for one reason or another. Mostly because I am tired and hungry.

The Mac’n Soy Cheese has casein in it, but the rest are completely vegan. (for those who eat casein, the Mac’n Soy Cheese is really good) Both the Santa Fe Veggie Beef and the Thai Lemongrass Veggie Chick’n are quite spicy. Veggie Beef is my favorite.

This is about a previous entry – Taco Bell. I wrote that a rice and bean burrito at taco bell is vegan. (w/o cheese of course)
But then I received this comment in reply to that post:
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taco bell rice is made with chicken stock. sorry, hate to be the bearer of bad news.
Posted by: [Unsigned] at August 6, 2004 04:49 PM
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I wondered what the truth actually was so I emailed Taco Bell and asked them. That was 2 weeks ago, I had almost given up on them, but I received a letter from Yum! Brands, Inc. today – they own Taco Bell.

Now, I am a member of PETA, so I know that Yum! is not the best company because of their purchasing of chickens that are tortured and treated horribly. (reason I am vegan, animal cruelty) I am with Peta in their attack on KFC, but I have got to give credit where credit is due and I see from Yum! what I hope is a glimmer of hope.

There is no chicken stock in Taco Bell Seasoned Rice!

…but there is casein (sodium caseinate) in there, so Taco Bell’s Seasoned Rice is “almost vegan.” Legal for me, but if you don’t go for any dairy, don’t get the rice when you order a bean burrito with no cheese.

The rest of it is okay. The tortillas are clean, the beans are vegan, and of course so are the vegetables, and the hot sauce is too. As well as a number of different stuff on their menu. I got the entire low-down from them and I do appreciate it.

Here’s their complete Ingredient Statement – Taco Bell Ingredient Statements.

So I hope that Yum! will bow to the pressure that Peta is placing on them to clean up their KFC act and care more and more about the “ingredients” they sell in their restaurants.

I love these Sunspire [no longer available] (nice website) [gone] Vegan Carob Chips. Use these carob chips instead or Google it, I found a bunch of them.

I use them for everything, cookies, chocolate hazelnut biscotti (Stay tuned for that one!) cake, anything that calls for chocolate chips and beyond. If I have some too long I usually end up eating them by the fistful.

They make better than chocolate chip cookies.

UPDATE [2023] – They no longer make this vegan feta cheese.

Buy Vegan Feta at Trader Joe’s >>

——- original post ——-

Look what I found!

I must warn you, this cheese is not completely vegan, it contains casein. For me it’s a great find because I give in and eat casein. That’s what makes me “almost vegan” as I have said before.

Soy Moon makes 6 different Gourmet cheeses, the rest are Soy Gouda, Soy Provolone, Soy Mozzarella, Soy Mozzarella with Italian Herbs, and Queso Blanco Mexican Picante Style.

I happened upon the little tub (4oz.) of soy feta yesterday and it is gone today.

Very, very tasty.

I love Soyrizo and so do a lot of people. Almost Vegan gets found by people searching for Soyrizo 3-5 times a week.

Another of my fave quick meals is Soyrizo veggies over yellow rice. I used zucchini and yellow squash that I bought from my neighbor’s little farm down the street. He sells his wares out of an old camper parked on his front lawn a few yards back from the main road.

His tomatoes are the best, huge and very red.

You can use any combo of vegetables, but I didn’t toss in the tomatoes. (Recipe in pic – 3 zucchini, 3 yellow squash, 1 onion, 1 green pepper) Saute the veggies in a generous amount of olive oil and then squeeze in the desired amount of Soyrizo when the vegetables are just about done. The Soyrizo only takes a minute or two on high heat.

I sauteed a huge pan of vegetables and only used 1/4 – 1/3 package of Soyrizo. I could have used up to 1/2 package, but I was sharing with folks who do not like spicy food.

I just made this pudding and it is in the refrigerator right now thickening up. I have not had pudding for the 5 years I have been vegan, and probably a lot longer than that.

This Oetker, Simple Organics Cooked pudding and Pie Filling Mix, Mocha flavor, I found at my health food store.

The reason I thought to have some pudding was because I saw a package screaming “Soy Pudding” on the shelf. Well, I read the ingredients on this extremely expensive Soy Pudding and then picked up the Simple Organics and saw basically the same stuff in it for half the price.

The only difference was the Soy Pudding called for soy milk in the directions. So I bought the simple organics pudding, decided to make it with soy milk and felt kinda clever. Oh, one more difference – Mocha flavor. It is tasty!

Soy Boy Ravioli is amazing. I have fed it to die-hard carnivores and they love it. It’s just darn tasty.

The company who makes it, Northern Soy, Inc., is incredibly low key. I “hear” (rumors on the internet) that they make different kinds of ravioli — tomato with roasted red pepper filling, and spinach pasta with tofu-based garden herb filling — but I have not seen them in my health food store, only this “original” ravioli so my suspicion grows.

They would be great with pesto sauce and are also excellent with tomato Sauce. If you want to be really decadent, after you’ve boiled them, toss them in a pan with some vegan butter plus a little garlic and fry them a bit. Then sprinkle with vegan Parmesan.

***UPDATE — I found the ravioli Verde on the – Soy Boy Website.

The funny thing is these guys can afford to be eccentric cause they make kill vegan ravioli, and that is no easy feat.
These are a must find/try! –> Good health food stores.

Thank God for Amy’s. I just had a pack of company at my house. I cooked and cooked and I am beat. So luckily I have a bunch of Amy’s burritos on hand and I am not going to cook for days!

These Bean & Rice Burritos are great and so are the Black Bean and Vegetable, and the Breakfast Burritos, all vegan. Amy’s tries so hard to be helpful, from their very tasty frozen food to the totally informative Amy’s website.

All the products (vegetarian and vegan) have these little icons on them so you don’t even have to read the ingredients. If you want to read them, they provide a very clear and informative pop-up window providing nutritional information and ingredients for every one of their products.

At my family’s summer events they like to barbecue so I decided to join them in a hot dog. I would seem very all American eating a hot dog with them, not “weirdo vegan” as they usually see me.

So I tried these Tofu Pups, quickly slipping them out of the package and passing them to the cook to grill for me –> Yuck!

Then I noticed these Smart Dogs and thought that the “Smart” meant they had figured out how to simulate a hot dog –> Blaaagh!

I hope I am missing something and am not just incredibly hot dog picky because I am originally from Chicago. I like other vegan “meat” products. Now, I am on the lookout for a good vegan hot dog. (Not one with eggs in them!)

If anybody knows of a good vegan hot dog, please tell me.

Sorry about this entry Lightlife, I do like many of your other products. (Steak/Chick’n strips are great)

I had this Zatarain’s Black Beans and Rice for the first time last night. Yum!

Boy is this good, and it is vegan. Zatarain’s Red Beans and Rice is vegan too, and I bet it is just as tasty. You can buy it right from the Zatarain’s website if you can’t find it at your local grocery store.

They have a number of tasty looking products, but unfortunately no ingredient lists on their website.

But you can legally jazz up your vegan dinner tonight with their black/red beans and rice mixes. Thanks Zatarain’s!

*Note

A comment from another vegan, Carmen, suggests adding fresh or frozen veggies to the mix to make a meal. She said she loves the Black-Eyed Peas & Rice Mix so I assume that one is vegan too, but read the box to make sure.

I just went to another market today and found a few more Zatarain’s rice dishes so I can assure you that the Jambalaya Mix, Dirty Rice Mix, and Spanish Rice Mix are all vegan.

*Unfortunately the Long Grain & Wild Rice, Rice Pilaf, and French Market Vegetables & Rice Mix have chicken in them.