Almost Vegan

Score!
Now I do this blog because I had a hard time figuring out what I could eat as an “almost vegan” (<– I eat casein) when I first started over 5 years ago. I do not do it for fame or fortune, but I got a bit of good fortune today. I happened upon SoyMoon Feta, soy cheese a few months ago and loved it so I put it on the blog and sent a note and a link to SoyMoon to thank them for their tasty feta cheese. (which I so missed as a vegan, actually almost vegan. *Note: SoyMoon soy cheese contains casein)

This is what I got from them today and a lot more, eat your hearts out! A very nice woman at SoyMoon loved Almost Vegan and wanted me to try the rest of their cheeses so she sent me samples of all of them!
I went to my local coffee house/bakery afterward and got a nice fresh epi and had the gouda and bread with fresh veggies: carrots, green onions, radishes, baby spinach and Italian dressing. Yum, yum, yum! And that’s just the first one of the samples…thank you Mary Kamm, Vice President, research and quality control.
Here’s the note that came with the cheese.
———————
Nov. 3rd, 2004
Dear Denise,
At long last, I am finally able to send you samples of all our SoyMoon soy cheeses. I was waiting on the new samples to make it through production and they have finally arrived.
Please let us know what you think of them. Everyone in our company loves your “Almost Vegan” concept…and I think your web site is a great idea. The vegetarian movement is only going to get stronger…thanks to people like you!
Sincerely,
Mary Kamm
——————-
I love this woman.

George Bush beats John Kerry? Animal crackers!

Yes, these old favorites, Nabisco Animal Crackers are vegan. I just ate a giraffe.

Here’s another surprise cookie treat from Nabisco. I read the package and these are totally vegan.

I find it hard to believe Nabisco is making these products to appeal to vegans. I think it’s a very hopeful sign: It must be becoming cheaper to mass produce food with vegan ingredients than with butter, eggs, or animal products.

Happy Halloween

The secret to really easy vegetable soup is Knorr’s Vegetable Soup, Dip and Recipe Mix.

Instead of creating your own stock, which is messy and takes much longer than I want to spend cooking. Just take two boxes of Knorr Vegetable Soup Mix, 8 cups water and whatever vegetables you have on hand. Cut up the veggies, toss them in the pot with the mix and water, bring it all to a boil. Turn down the heat, simmer for 10 minutes and you got some tasty vegetable soup.
I tossed in a can of garbanzo beans for extra protein. Yum.

I made this last night in just a few minutes (plus 1 hour for baking) and it was extremely tasty, if you can stand to peel the apples.

I go to a fruit stand/market near me called Ridgeway Market. It started as just a stand put up by a local farmer to sell his crop directly to the public and has progressed into a full fledged little market where they still sell their home grown fruit and vegetables. I got a half a bushel of apples and saw this box of Concord Foods Apple Crisp as I was checking out. For 99 cents I thought I’d try it and it was a great pie cop-out, concordfoods.com.
Really, really easy. Just sub vegan margarine for the butter and yum!

I have been really busy lately and so I have been resorting to fast food.

I really like BK Veggies and always feel so normal getting a “burger” and fries at Burger King. Just remember to tell them to leave off the mayo. I feel a little less normal after that, but @#%$ it. I don’t let the look on the person’s face who is giving me my food spoil it for me.
Stop Right There!!!
It has come to my attention that these BK Veggie Burgers are not vegan. An Almost Vegan commenter broke the sad news to me and gave me this link to prove it. Here’s the info contained in the link:
BK VEGGIE

A friend gave me a lot of tomatoes out of their organic garden at the end of the summer, and before they rotted I saw this packet of Concord Foods, Salsa Seasoning Mix.

Now you must be willing to chop onions and slice tomatoes, but it’s really worth it. It only takes about 5 minutes and you get a big bowl of very fresh salsa for a lot less than half the price if you bought it, and it’s great.

I tried freshly made hummus for the first time just a few years ago at my local, very cool at the time, coffee house. I had always had it store bought out of those tubs, which is good, but is not like fresh at all.

Bill, the great chef who used to work at my coffee house made it with fresh flat leaf parsley mixed in after you blend it up(or it turns green). It adds a really nice fresh touch.

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Another tasty meal courtesy of Zatarain’s.

It says right on the Zatarain’s Dirty Rice Mix box – Add meat to make a complete meal. While I did not actually add meat, I did the next best thing. I added 1 package of Yves, The Good Ground (or whatever your vegan ground meat preference is), browned it a bit, followed the rest of the package directions and had myself some dirty rice. Jazzmatazz!

Of course A Taste of Thai, Peanut Sauce is vegan, (also creamy and delicious) you make it with coconut milk, I used lite.

I put this sauce over a nice cauliflower and peas mixture that I stir-fried with Thai Kitchen Rice Noodles, which were great and easy to make. The sauce was quite spicy in a very good way.