When a product comes in a package that has Buzz Lightyear on it, you know you’re in for a treat.
For this one, I let my non-vegan friend try some, to see how it compared to ‘real’ bacon, and let’s just say he was less than impressed. He said it “wasn’t even close” to the real thing, and that he didn’t like it at all. Said something akin to it tasting like wet cardboard.
But don’t fret fellow vegans – I liked it! This one tasted very similar to the Yves Veggie Bacon. It came with a comparable amount of slices (I didn’t count, but it was definitely more than 5) and had that familiar subtle smoky taste with that soft veggie deli slice texture.
If you cooked it in oil then patted it dry with a paper towel, it even got crispy! I wasn’t able to get a full piece crispy – part or half stayed floppy – but I’m chalking that up more to user error than a structural integrity problem.
This bacon also didn’t have an overtly bacon-y smell. You know the one I mean – it’s the one that the Beyond Meat products have. The one that’s a taaad too close to the real thing for comfort?
You definitely won’t fool any non-vegans into believing this came from an animal, but it should definitely satisfy your vegan craving without issue!
Alright, now that the terrible weather is finally gone, chances are you’ll probably find yourself at a BBQ/summer cook-out of some sort over the next few months. You’ll most likely need to either bring a faux meat with you, or tell the host which brand you’d like. I recommend telling them not to worry, and that you’re fine to bring my own, but if they’re insistent, well Tofurky is one of the easier faux meat products to find/remember the name of.
You could always make your own, but if you don’t have time for that/don’t want to turn the stove/oven on in the hot temps, well, I don’t blame you. Sometimes it’s just faster/easier to grab something from a store. That’s why having some faux options are great.
These Italian Sausages are great. They come 4 to a pack, (which, for 5.99 [Metro] isn’t bad at all) and are a pretty good ‘average’ length. I’ve seen a few other brands where their sausages are stubbier/not as long as ‘normal’ ones, which, I don’t understand – I mean, is it really that much extra work to make them a regular size?
But anyway, they have a nice smoky, taste, especially if cooked on a BBQ, and even if you leave them a bit longer than normal in a frying pan.
They have a good bite to them, too – they don’t quite ‘explode’ like non-vegan sausages that are in a casing, but they aaalmost do. I can’t say how close to ‘real’ meat they are, since I don’t really remember, but they’re definitely good.
I think that’s a good way to go into a lot of the premade vegan foods – if you don’t think ‘this will be a perfect replica’ and think of it more as it’s own thing, I think more people would like them. The taste isn’t really comparable, but they’re definitely good. They have that kind of generic spiced tofu taste you come to be familiar with if you eat a lot of the premade foods. And they have what I believe is tomato pieces (or possibly bell pepper) pieces in them. You can see them when you bite into them. They have flecks of what I assume are basil (since, they’re ‘Italian’ flavour) in them, too, though I can’t really pick it out as a flavour.
(The original packaging!)
They’re not too firm when they are raw – akin to a moist cake consistency – which makes cutting them sometimes a pain, as they may just squish down instead of being cut into pieces.
The sausages are also covered in a slime-y (ish) liquid. I’m not entirely sure what it is, it’s about the same consistency as oil, but it’s a red/orange-y colour. I don’t know if that has any of the flavour in it, but beware if you use them on a charcuterie board or as hors d’oeuvres. Also, if you wanted to just cut them directly on the counter, just be sure to wipe up after so it doesn’t stain.
I haven’t tried their other flavours of sausages yet, but even still, these are my favourites. They just taste very familiar… though that may be because I’m Italian.
If you haven’t tried these yet, what are you waiting for?
I don’t know why, but for some reason, almost no one I know in my adult life liked/grew up eating Miracle Whip. They all liked mayo. Let me tell you: mayo is straight up gross. All it does is taste like eggs. Who wants every sandwich they make to taste like eggs?
Needless to say, I was pretty hell-bent on finding a vegan alternative to Miracle Whip, and not just a vegan mayo. I even found one, that had unfortunately been discontinued. I thought I was doomed to using salad dressing for all my deli sandwiches… which is fine, but you can’t exactly put ketchup on a breaded chick’n burger. It just doesn’t taste right!
That’s why I was over the moon when I discovered Hellmann’s Carefully Crafted Dressing and Sandwich Spread.
This stuff is literally an exact replica of Miracle Whip, which I’m not sure if it’s because it came from the same company, or just because Miracle Whip isn’t exactly that hard to get right, but I am so glad I discovered this!
There used to be another egg-free dressing from the No Name brand, but I hadn’t had it in a while as they ended up changing the recipe and thus it was no longer suitable. I hate when companies do that, by the way. There was no reason to change the formula!
Anyway… this stuff does everything I expect a good Miracle Whip sub to do: lends itself awesomely to cold-cut sandwiches, chicken burgers, and even makes great pasta salad!
The only thing I don’t like about this product is the name. Having to memorize exactly this title to get it to show up search results and to ask about it kinda sucks. No one knows it as ‘Hellmann’s Vegan Spread’, when that would’ve been a much better name. (Or, pretty much anything with ‘vegan’ in the title)
Another good thing about this product, is that it’s actually comparably priced when matched with similar items. For example, at Loblaws, the Vegan Spread is listed as $5.99 for the 710ml container – which is the exact same price as the 710ml of the Extra Creamy Mayo. (‘Regular’ mayo didn’t come in a 710ml, it was only listed as a 445ml [which was $4.79] or an 890ml which was $5.99)
It’s so awesome to see it’s not $8 or even $10 for this product, unlike most other vegan subs that are out there. And I understand, Hellmann’s may be able to give us a lower price because they aren’t just selling vegan products (which is a smaller market), but it saddens me whenever I see vegan products listed well above the ‘regular’ items next to it – how can we expect more people to try going vegan when all the subs are priced so much more expensively? And again, I understand the basis of a (good) vegan diet shouldn’t be these subs, but still.
The taste of this product is very similar to what I remember Miracle Whip being. It’s light, tangy, and perhaps most importantly: doesn’t taste like eggs!
It was a breath of fresh air after forcing myself to eat Veganaise. I’m definitely a fan, and would like to personally thank Hellmann’s for making such an amazing vegan substitute! (And beg them to please never, ever discontinue this product)
With Valentine’s Day being tomorrow, I thought what better food review then a chocolate bar?
Whether you’re celebrating V-Day with a special someone, hanging with your friends, or flying solo, there’s no reason why you can’t indulge yourself with one of the best vegan chocolate bars I’ve tried.
One of the best/surprising things about this bar is that it’s made with rice milk. Why is that surprising? Well, usually, when something is made with rice milk, it has a certain taste about it, where you can tell it was made with rice milk. This bar, however, doesn’t have that taste much at all. Especially if you’re eating it by itself (instead of binging on a bunch of different vegan chocolates) you can hardly tell it has the ‘rice milk’ taste. It just tastes like… well, chocolate.
Another great thing about this bar is that it’s not bitter at all. Maybe it’s just me, but before discovering vegan chocolate, pretty much the only chocolate I could eat was the Lindt Excellence chocolates, and let me tell you, those are super dark chocolates. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s hard to enjoy more then one or two squares when something is that bitter.
Feeling like you need to chug water after eating chocolate is never a good thing. I’m just not a fan of extremely bitter chocolate. I’d prefer to leave that to my once-in-a-blue-moon coffee.
This bar also comes in a half decent size. I don’t know if you saw my Go Max Go Foods review, but let me tell you, as much as I love their Twilight bar, it’s so small! I know it’s the size of a regular non-vegan Mars/Snickers, etc. bar, but it’s so good, why can’t it be bigger? Maybe they do it on purpose so you buy more, or maybe they just don’t think someone would eat a bigger bar? (They’re wrong, I would totally eat a giant Twilight bar)
This bar is a half decent size, it’s about the size of the Lidnt Excellence bars. I also like that this bar is wider then it is thick – since this is their classic, there’s nothing fancy like caramel or nougat – it doesn’t need to be thick. As much as I love chocolate, biting into a solid thick piece of chocolate isn’t all that fun.
Since it’s the classic bar, I feel like there isn’t all that much I can review for it, other then it tastes pretty good, and doesn’t have any bells or whistles (like the aforementioned caramel or nougat), so if you’re someone who likes chocolate but not all that other stuff, this would be a good place to start. iChoc does make other bars with some ‘extra’ stuff in them (like their Choco Cookie bar has bits of cookie), but I’ll be reviewing those later.
The last thing about this bar I want to say is that it’s somewhat easier to find then the Go Max Go Foods bars. For Go Max, I had to go to a specifically vegan grocery store (like Good Rebel), but for the iChoc bars, I’ve seen them at Healthy Planet, and Foodland. It seems that stores that have a bigger vegan selection might have them (although I haven’t specifically checked Loblaws or Metro). That’s another bonus, I like being able to do my shopping all in one place, and unfortunately all the specialty vegan stores in Toronto are on the opposite side of the city I live in, so it’s a treat to find the vegan things I need in a non-vegan grocer (that’s not 50min away).
I’m not entirely sure if there’s Foodlands or Healthy Planets outside of Canada, but I would say, if you’re looking for the iChoc bars your best bet would be to go to either a specialty vegan store, or the grocer closest to you that has the biggest selection of vegan foods. And I think you could order them online, too.
These Italian Sausages are great. They come 4 to a pack, (which, for 5.99 [Metro] isn’t bad at all) and are a pretty good ‘average’ length. I’ve seen a few other brands where their sausages are stubbier/not as long as ‘normal’ ones, which, I don’t understand – I mean, is it really that much extra work to make them a regular size?
