Vegan Product Review - March 2020

Sorry it's been a while since my last product review, 2019 in fact, so some of these items might be seasonal. Hope there's something in here for everyone!

Normally known for regular beer, this Abita Root Beer, seriously amazing and not too shabby mixed with rum either! ;)

I confirmed with the company that the sugar they use is vegan - yay!

I was a bit excited when I saw this Dr Paw Paw ointment of the UK at (??Ross or TJ Maxx??) because I LOVE Lucas's Paw Paw Ointment of Australia and have used little else for decades but I hate that it contains petroleum jelly. This brand doesn't! This particular one was tinted Outrageous Orange which was cute but I'd be keen to find the plain one, might have to be an online find!

This was my pick of Xmas 2019, Theo's vegan Nutcracker Brittle chocolate. The orange cranberry one was good too. I'll spare you the details on how many I actually guzzled but I hope they are back next Xmas!

Didn't really do much for my b'day in December but I wanted cake (obvs) and I didn't feel like making one (and then being forced to eat it for breakfast for a week) so when I saw this Dolci di Maria single serve vegan GF Chocoalte cupcake I was like YES PLEASE! Pretty good actually! Found in the fridge isle of a health food store...no longer with us :(

These Made Good Granola bars/bites are AMAZEBALLS!! The Choc Chip one was my favourite but they were a hit with everyone!

I found this Seoul vegan GF Bulgogi Sauce in Wholefoods (I think, sorry!). My kids loved it and said it was pretty closed to the stuff in the Korean restaurant so yay!

This Miami Cocktail Co Margarita mix is the most vile thing I think I've ever tasted. Thank goodness I bought it at the discount store (for under $5) and didn't spend the price normally afforded it in the health stores (around $15). YUCK!

I've been really into Too Faced make up at them moment. I'm loving the coverage and smooth texture of the Born This Way collection. I went back to using the "Better Than Sex" Mascara and got the primer too which I've been liking. I had an expert tell me that it's best to by the primer in the brand that you're buying your foundation as they normally are formulated to work together. The more you know!

Oat milk is my new favourite thing. It's so creamy so particularly for putting in tea it is a really great substitute for milk, no strong flavour either.

  This is Planet brand but I've been using a few different ones.

I didn't think this Lavva yoghurt was very good, I wanted a plain Greek style vegan yogurt for cooking and this had a very strong coconut flavour. The Kite Hill plain unsweetened worked very well though.

This cream cheese is amazing!! I was having it on my toast every day - it reminds me of the Miyoko's chive artesian cheese (but half the price). It was great with cucumber too, yummy cucumber sandwiches mmmmm

 

Thanks to a sale at Wholefoods I also got a chance to finally try Miyoko's butter. O.M.G. Granted it's been a while but this tasted like butter to me. I had it plain on bread and felt so fancy y'all!

I LOVE this wine I found on sale at Whoefoods. This organic white Bordeaux by Les Hauts de Lagarde is a mix of semillon and sauvignon grapes. SO GOOD. The red looks almost the same label wise so make sure you get the white. The red was not nearly as good but both vegan and organic :) 

These Birthday Do Bites by Leah's Better Bites were such a cute idea, I got them for my son's birthday. I found them a bit doughy/dry but I'm not a fan of raw cookie dough, give me the cookie every time! I did think it was cool that these were vegan and GF though!  

Loving this simple and inexpensive yet effective vegan skincare range out of Canada called The Ordinary. They have difference skin care regimes so make sure you do their website test to see what products you need and how to use them. I love the caffeine eye serum!

This is a new meal I found of Amy's which was vegan and GF and tasted nothing like a Thai dish but was incredible. I still can't exactly tell you what was so great about it. The flavours just worked so well together. There was almost a fishy taste to it though, in a good way, if you like fish LOL 

This chocolate by Alter Eco wasn't bad at all. I got it on sale somewhere but I was intrigued by the quinoa part - it worked though! Like crunchy chocolate. Not too bitter for dark chocolate.

I really like this Marinelli's pasta sauce I got on sale, all very natural ingredients and a product of Italy. Their sauces are all vegan and have no sugar. I've really been liking Trader Joe's Organic pasta sauces too.

These La Panzanella were given to me by a friend who didn't like them because she said they were bland. But bland is exactly what I want in a cracker. I want to taste the expensive vegan cheese or topping not the salty flavours of the cracker! If you've been looking for a vegan gluten free water cracker these are the closest thing I've found.

Never tried this ice-cream brand before I saw it in the discount store. New Barn has very simple ingredients and the Coffee Bean and Banana Choc Chip flavours I've tried so far were really good, simple too like you made it yourself.

OBSESSED with Lesser Evil Organic Popcorn with Himalayan Pink Salt. Literally it's organic popcorn with coconut oil and salt but tastes like movie popcorn. 

I had never heard of these Dr. Praeger's Chick'n Tenders until I saw them on BOGO at Publix. They are vegan and GF and let me tell you, my kids went mad over them! I secretly love them too, the BBQ and Buffalo flavours are the best (not spicy) but the plain ones weren't great. Maybe better as an added ingredient.

Finally thanks to Publix BOGO sale had a chance to try Beyond Beef. So far just made meatballs but they were so good, very meat-like! Similar flavour to the Beyond Meat Burgers.

I grabbed these Falafel mix at Trader Joe's (vegan & GF). They were pretty good actually! They had really good flavour, not too salty or anything. Easy to prep too, just add water.

Hungarian "Hunter" Stew

This is based on a recipe from Taste of Home. I think it's delicious straight from the slow cooker but there's an added step if you have the time to do it. I thought it tasted great either way. Big hit with the kids too! You can add two red or green capsicum peppers too along with the tomatoes if wanted, no one in my family likes them except me so I omitted them. I've also just dumped everything from the first part of the recipe in the slow cooker (I did brown the sausages on the stove) and it still turned out great.

 With the optional step;

Straight from slow cooker with a dash of vegan sour cream; 

Hungarian "Hunter" Stew

Ingredients

4 medium potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 medium onions, chopped
1 pound extra firm tofu (cubed) or faux meat (I used Beyond Meat Sausages and it amazing)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1-1/2 cups water
3 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 garlic clove, minced
2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

Optional for after the slow cooker;
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cold water
1/2 cup vegan sour cream


Method
Place potatoes and onions in a 3-qt. slow cooker.
In a large skillet, brown tofu or vegan meat in oil on all sides.
Baking the tofu would give it a nice firmness and add to potato mixture.
Pour off excess fat from skillet.
Add water to the drippings, stirring to loosen browned bits from pan; heat through.
Stir in the paprika, salt, caraway seeds, tomato paste and garlic and pour into the slow cooker.
Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
Add tomatoes; cover and cook 1 hour longer or until meat and vegetables are tender.
With a slotted spoon, transfer meat and vegetables to a large serving bowl; cover and keep warm.

Optional step;
Pour cooking juices into a small saucepan.
Combine flour and cold water until smooth; gradually whisk into the pan.
Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.
Remove from the heat; whisk in sour cream. Stir into meat mixture.

Orange & Poppy Seed Muffins

This was a mix of two different recipes from the following sites; Rhian's Recipes and One Green Planet.
I think royal icing would work better if you weren't serving them straight away. I made mini muffins for the kids (they loved them with out the drizzle too if you wanted to leave out that added sugar) and muffin/cake pods in ramekins for the adults. :)
Makes around 12 muffins/24 mini muffins

Orange & Poppy Seed Muffins

Ingredients

For the muffins:
1/4 cup coconut oil
200 ml unsweetened non-dairy milk
6Tbls 6 Tbls orange juice
2 Tbls orange zest
10 Tbls maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch salt
3 Tbls poppy seeds
150 g (1 1/4 cup) ground almonds (almond meal)
150 g (1 1/4 cup) gluten-free flour blend
2 heaped tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

For the drizzle:
1/2 cup vegan powdered/icing sugar
2 Tbls orange juice

Instructions
For the muffins:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit)
Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if using any other oil)
Once melted, add the milk to the same bowl along with the lemon juice, lemon zest, maple syrup, vanilla, salt, poppy seeds and ground almonds
Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda
Mix well, adding a tiny splash more milk if it’s looking too dry
Transfer the mixture between muffin cases in a muffin tin
Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean
For the syrup:
Whilst the muffins are baking, mix together the lemon juice and maple syrup
Drizzle it over the muffins as soon as they’re out of the oven - it will soak into the muffins better when they're hot or wait till cooled for royal icing.
Nice to heat up slightly once they've been in the fridge.