Product Reviews

I believe eating whole, plant-based, one-ingredient foods is by far the best for our health as well as animals and the planet, but once in a while a  processed food could have it's place. Here are a few that I feel are worthy of buying occasionally. 

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 The Vegg (Vegan Egg Yolk)

I was at the Texas VegFest this past weekend, and one of the exciting finds there was The Vegg, a brand new vegan egg replacement product.  I heard from the director of COK, Erica Meier, that it makes delicious French Toast, and since this was a former favorite food of mine and my husband's, so I had to buy it!  Now I don't think it would be a good egg substitute for baking, flax seed, chia seed,  and flax-eggs or Ener-G do a good job there, but this product is for when you want  a real egg taste  (or to fool an omnivore into eating compassionately and cholesterol free). According to the official website, http://thevegg.com, you can also fry it sunny-side up, make custard, hollandaise sauce, ice cream, and lots more too!

The Vegg is all-vegan, which is great news for the more than 250 million egg-laying hens in the US, most of whom spend their lives intensively confined inside barren wire cages. And since it’s made using 100% plant-based ingredients it’s also 100% cholesterol-free, which makes it heart-healthy, too. It is a dry powder that pretty much looks like nutritional yeast, with more intense color. It contains Fortified Nutritional Yeast, ( dry yeast, niacin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, thiamin,hydrochloride, folic acid, B12), Sodium Alginate, Black Sea Salt, Beta Carotene.  A1 tsp. serving size has:

10 calories 

0g fat

130 mg sodium

1 g carbohydrate

<1g dietary fiber

1 g protein 30% RDA Vitamin A

Plus, every time you buy The Vegg, you can have an even greater positive impact because 10% of net sales will be donated to Compassion Over Killing until 2014!

We not only tested The Vegg on two gluten free vegans, but also on an omnivore who regularly eats eggs. This will be interesting, eh? 

So I opened the bag (which looks to me more like an MRE package, I think if it were my product I would want amore colorful packaging) and put it in the Vitamix with water as the package says.Here is the entire packet of the product combined with 1 liter of water and blended in the blender. (I later visited the website and saw this, which really should be on the package: "For Vegg users who wish to not mix all at once, use this conversion: Blend 1 teaspoon of The Vegg powder with 1/4 cup water equivalent to about two to three yolks!"

Then we started making French Toast, or rather, trying to remember how to make French Toast ... it has been over a year since we did this!!  1 inch thick  bread slices would have worked better, but I am using a packaged gluten free bread (and as you know gluten free and vegan options are quite scarce, and as far as I know limited only to small, thinly sliced loaves) . Cooking with the heat set at medium was too high, so I turned it down a bit, to 4 out of 10 settings on my cooktop. We are mostly oil free now, so of course I started without oil,  just spraying cooking spray on the pan. Bad idea. The "batter" when used just as the package indicates, is too thin. I later wen t to http://thevegg.com/

and learned that for French Toast you should combine The Vegg with nut milk instead of water, which I am sure adds some to the taste, but really, the water version is amazing! They also  advize 4 tsp of The Vegg mixxed with 3 cups  nut milk, not making the whole pkg. I wish those instructions had been on the package!

 The stuff stuck very badly to the pan, the bread was so saturated that it didn't hold it's shape, and the bread was wrecked before it ever got cooked. So, as I used to do when I made "real" French Toast, I added some all purpose flour to the batter.  I also added enough EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) to just cover the bottom of the skillet. To our disgust, the bread soaked up all of the oil! I added more All Purpose gluten free flour and stirred until it was thick like pancake batter, this seemed to do the trick, insulating the bread from the heat and from being able to soak up the oil as readily. I also decided that cooking just one at a time was more manageable in my 10 inch skillet. Now I was getting the hang of it! It looks great, smells great,  but how was it going to taste?

It looks like real egg yolk, smells like real egg yolk, and tastes like real egg yolk, and we loved it! The omnivore bravely tried it too, knowing it wasn't actual egg, and said she couldn't tell, and in fact said she thought it was even better than actual egg-made French Toast!

CONCLUSION:

I love The Vegg! It's an amazing cruelty free and cholesterol free substitute that works wonderfully for French Toast. Be prepared to make an awful lot of it though, or do as I have and after cooking 8 slices of French Toast, I stored the remainder (I used less than half of the mixture) in a jar to use in Tofu scramble or maybe a custard tomorrow.  There are several delicious looking recipes at http://thevegg.com  where you also find a complete list of who's carrying it.  I think I will try using some in asian recipes like Pad Thai, egg-drop soup, or fried rice! I am so thrilled with this product that I keep thinking of things I can do with it!

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Tofu Shirataki Noodles

Shirataki noodles appeal to me as a low (practically zero) net carb value. When I tried them for the first time, I was stunned at first by their firmness. Though Shirataki  are perfect gluten free, low carb pasta substitute and provide more protein than rice noodles, their texture takes getting used to, and the ones made of tofu are softer and more like pasta. It comes in a spaghetti style, angel hair, and flat fettuccini style noodle. Shirataki comes from the root of a plant (Amorphophallus Konjac, or a few other closely-related species) grown in various parts of Asia, and given many names in different places, including Konnyaku potato (or just konnyaku), konjac, konjaku, elephant yam (although as far as I can tell, they are not related to any other plant commonly called “yam”), and others. The fiber is also known as glucomannan.Because these noodles are almost totally a beneficial type of fiber, they have almost no "bad" carbohydrates. There are some indications that they may have other health benefits as well. Shirataki noodles come "wet" - packed in liquid like tofu, found in the refrigerator case of the store, some mainstream stores, most health-food stores, and Asian Markets. They are ready to eat out of the package. I usually just rinse them under hot water, and add them to my recipe. Shirataki noodles don't have a real taste of their own. Although in some cases, the liquid they come in does have a bit of an odd flavor, I find this can be easily washed off, and some people like to use a short period of boiling. I find the texture of the ones containing soy to be much softer, and rinsing them and then boiling them helps soften them.

Benefits of Shirataki Noodles:

There is some evidence that glucomannan, when tested as a powdered supplement, can play a role in blood sugar control, as well as improve cholesterol control and weight loss (see this report). It also contributes to fiber intake and can be a substitute for starchy noodles.

Tofu Shirataki Noodles:

Plain Shirataki noodles tend to be a bit “rubbery.” Although this can be somewhat reduced by a short period of boiling, one food developer found that adding tofu to the shirataki produced a “tamer” texture. It also adds a bit of protein and carbohydrate (1 gram protein and 3 grams carbohydrate per serving). This product is a little easier to find, at least in my area, than plain shirataki noodles.

CONCLUSION

 I recommend the tofu shirataki over the plain because of the texture. Try some Shirataki if you feel like you are in a gluten-free pasta rut, you might be surprised how versatile they can be!

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 El Burrito Breakfast Soy Sausage

I finally found a fake meat Breakfast Sausage style that does not contain wheat or gluten. I believe that a vegan, gluten free diet without processed foods, the healthiest way to eat, and the only way to have control over what goes into your body. However, sometimes you may have omnivore guests to feed, or  a newly transitioning veg family member, in which case fake meat can be very helpful! This works well in my San Antonio Scramble recipe!

hope you can find this in your local store,  I found it in the local Sprouts (formerly Sun Harvest) Here is a look at the label. I like that it contains several non-GMO ingredients. As far as a processed food,  I suppose it is not too bad, though the 'caramel color' and maltodextrin  worry  me a bit.

CONCLUSION 

 It has a good flavor, and is one of the very few 'fake meat' products that is gluten free. I have no desire to make this a regular item in my house, but I will definitely use it again for feeding omnivores!I used it in my San Antonio Scramble recipe that I placed into a casserole dish and baked about 15 minutes, and took it to a breakfast at church.  I placed a card on it that it was vegetarian, egg and dairy free (because people don't know what vegan is, LOL) and everyone (all omnivores) who tried it loved it, and said it was better than the other casseroles!

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 Amy's Bistro Burger

 I love these! Look no farther for a frozen vegan, gluten free patty that is delicious and non-GMO!  This is the one! These are great to have on hand for those too-busy-to-cook nights, or when you have to leave your hubby or the kids home alone, you know they won't starve with a box of these in the freezer!

 CONCLUSION
"A good veggie burger is hard to find. Finding a great veggie burger, especially one that's gluten free and contains no dairy, is even harder to do. But when you try Amy's Bistro Burger, you'll say, "Eureka ... I found it." That's because this veggie burger, made with organic brown rice, pinto beans, an assortment of vegetables, plenty of mushrooms, and a touch of barbecue sauce to give it that "just off the grill" flavor, is truly delicious." ~ quoted from the package, and I totally agree!

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Rhythm SuperFoods: Raw Kale or Sweet Potato Chips

The Kool Ranch Kale chips taste like ....Kale! They have a delightful spiciness and texture, and are very good! Great item to have on hand for "snack emergencies"! Another Rhythm product I have tried is their Hickory BBQ Sweet Potato chips. They don't taste like sweet potato, and in my opinion don't taste like BBQ either, but I liked them! It was more of a spicy potato chip!
My husband didn't try either, I think he was afraid to. I have my doubts how appealing these products would be to little ones, unless those youngsters were raised vegan and not afraid to try new things.  

CONCLUSION
I love that these Rhythm SuperFoods are raw, organic, gluten free, and vegan, produced with minimal processing. So if you feel you must have some type of chip, you might choose some from Rhythm Foods, but I find they are way overpriced.

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