Manna Organic Bread + Giveaway!

The winner is Christina @calmond! 
Check you email for details on how to get your bread!
Congratulations! 

I was recently contacted by the kind folks at Manna Organics about trying out their bread. Do I ever say no to bread? No. No I don't. So they shipped me four different loafs of their bread to try out. I really enjoy trying new products and am thrilled to tell others about products when I have the opportunity. Do you even know how excited I was?
Haven't heard of Manna? Here's a little info...
(from their website)
"Manna Bread is a cake-like, sprouted bread, yeast free bread, organic bread, free of salt, no oils, no sweeteners, no leavening agents. Manna is a moist and delicious, high in protein and fiber. Available in 9 delicious flavors in your favorite health food store, and most Whole Foods markets, in the USA and Canada."
Learn more about Manna by visiting their website, Manna Organics.
(Disclaimer: though the company sent me free product, I did not receive monetary compensation for this review, nor am I under obligation to provide a review.)

I sampled 3 different sprouted breads and 1 sourdough. Carrot Raisin Sprouted Bread, Fig Fennel Flax Sprouted Bread, Sunseed Sprouted Bread, and Multigrain Flax Sourdough Bread.

Carrot Raisin

Fig Fennel Flax

Sunseed

Multigrain Flax Sourdough

The sprouted breads were just as the website describes- super moist and cake like. My absolute favorite were the carrot raisin and fig fennel flax. Biting into the carrot raisin was like eating carrot cake- with big, sweet, chewy bites of raisins and shredded carrots spread throughout. Perfect for breakfast and much healthier than having cake in the morning. The fig fennel flax has delicious pieces of fig which are a really interesting compliment to the fennel seeds, which you can taste but are not overwhelming. I especially loved that the top of this loaf is covered with a crunchy crust of pumpkin, poppy, sesame and sunflower seeds. I can definitely see these 2 breads becoming the star at brunch tables everywhere.
The sunseed was good, but not my favorite. The taste of caraway seeds made me want to spread on some dijon mustard or have a side of garlic dill pickles, but maybe that's just me!

Sourdough lovers- run, don't walk, to pick up a loaf of this artisian sourdough bread! For me it was a little too "soury" but I think it would make a really awesome tempeh rueben sandwich with tons of sauerkraut.

The breads are pretty dense so I could only eat a little bit in one sitting, but I really enjoyed tasting them.

Would you like to taste some? Well guess what? Manna Organics wants to send you bread too!

Giveaway details:

1. Leave a comment here telling me which breads you want to try. 

2. For additional entries: (leave a comment for each please)

-Follow A Vegan Food Snob on Facebook

-Follow Manna Organics on Facebook

-Follow @MannaOrganics on Twitter

3. One (1) winner will receive 4 loaves of bread! 

4. Sorry, the giveaway is for U.S. residents only.

Winner will be announced on Friday, December 9th!

Earth Balance Coconut Spread

At Vida Vegan Con I had the absolute pleasure of sampling Earth Balance's brand new margarine type spread, Organic Coconut Spread. As soon as I got home I knew this was going to be the first product I'd purchase. Not to mention the fabulous people at Earth Balance gave us a coupon for a free tub of the stuff in our swag bag. (Free coupon aside, I would pay mucho dinero for this product.)

Seriously, Earth Balance, could I love you anymore? It's no secret that I want to run away and have a secret Las Vegas wedding with this company. Their soy milk is my go to beverage, I devour both their peanut butter and almond butter right from the tub and my fridge is always stocked with not only a margarine tub, but also margarine sticks. A peek in my fridge and you'd swear I work there or something. (Disclaimer: aside from the coupon I did not receive any monetary compensation from the company for this review, nor am I under any obligation to do this review. I just genuinely enjoy the products put out by this company and do use them in my everyday life.)

Also no secret that I'm coo-coo for coconuts.

I've tried this spread in several ways. The first being simply on a piece of bread. For me this is the ultimate "bread and butter" snack (also my most favorite guilty pleasure). The spread melts as it hits your tongue with the creamy taste of butter and just a hint of coconut. So good. I could eat this stuff with a spoon. (Which I realize is not healthy, both nutritionally and for my mental health.) Clearly, I am not afraid of any fats in my diet!

Secondly, I was eager to use this spread in my baking. I made a batch of mini apple pies and used the Coconut Spread in place of the margarine and shortening in a basic pie crust. The result? A perfectly flakey, creamy, smooth texture with a slightly sweet and salty coconut flavor. I can see this spread baking up beautiful cookies, perfect pie crusts, and to die for cakes & cupcakes.

I want to be clear that the taste of coconut is not overwhelming, but you do gets notes of it in the background. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that even people who do not like strong coconut flavor will actually enjoy this product.

I have yet to saute or stir fry with it, but that is surely to come.

Now for a few details. Earth Balance Coconut Spread is organic, non-GMO and (get ready, food sensitive friends) gluten and soy-free.

In conclusion, this is the closest tasting thing to "real" butter that I have found. Even in a side by side taste test of the Coconut Spread vs. the Organic Whipped EB margarine, I still think the coconut tastes more like the buttery flavor that I remember.

NYC

Well by now you know I moved to NYC. Yay!


Back a few months ago we were visiting NY and had our own veg restaurant crawl which ended in an all out schmorgasboard! Mind you, at this point we didn't even know we were moving!

So here is my very, very delayed post on our NYC eating experience, surely with many more to come. (Edit: I'm practically at Curly's everyday.)
It all started at Franchia.

This was just a quick stop for lunch before we went to the Affordable Art Fair (which was fantastic as well.) We started with tea, iced ginseng for me, and iced pomegranate for T. 

Accompanied by a plate of assorted (fried) dumplings. Then for T was a a platter of sushi containing the mountain greens and roots roll and the California roll.

 I had the pumpkin noodles salad, which may be the best salad I've ever eaten. Seriously, I've not only pondered for hours how they make these pumpkin noodles, but also have had dreams about this salad! I also had a hand roll, the crispy tofu skin in teriyaki sauce. Wow, I love this place. Needless to say, we left pretty full.

The next day we got a little indulgent...

Angelica Kitchen was supposed to be a small lunch. Well... our small lunch was made up by the Agrarian Salgado as a starter as well as the famous Angelica cornbread. Then I had the Tempeh Reuben Sandwich and T had a salad... which one I can't quite remember/figure out but it was loaded with beets, lentils, onions, tomatoes (I think) and lord knows what else. It was huge. Everything was delicious, and when it was all done, I had to be rolled out the door.

 We strolled around a little, at least I think we did. I may have been in a food coma...
Anyway, dinner was very exciting. We had reservations at Pure Food & Wine. Oh my gawd, it's exciting even just thinking about it...

We sat in the garden and it could not have been more perfect. After tons of debating we decided on the tasting menu. I just wanted everything on the menu, and well, this was the closest I was going to get in one sitting.

Let me tell you... so worth it!

Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any photos of the food because the sun went down and the lighting was too dim. Plus at least half way through I couldn't even think about anything except what was coming out next. I did, however, manage to scribble what each dish was onto a random receipt that I found in my purse. Let's hope I can still read all this chicken scratch, here it goes...

-Heirloom tomato & fennel salad w/ honeydew vinagrette & cashew cheese
-Spinach strawberry salad w/ pistachios
-Portabella crostini
-Kabocha squash soup w/ maple burbon syrup & clove oil
-Pad thai kelp noodles w/ peanuts & cilantro
-Avocado asparagus rolls w/ wasabi aioli, fresh ginger
-Spanikopita w/ cauliflower, grapes
-Vegetable lasagna w/ zucchini & heirloom tomato & macadamia pumpkin seed ricotta, sundried tomato ricotta & spinach ricotta
-Orange limonata sorbet
-Lemon cheesecake w/ strawberry rhubarb sorbet
-Trio of dark chocolate

This was easily the best meal I have ever had in my entire life. Nevermind the fact that I had to be wheeled out in a gurney because I was so full that I could not even stand on my own two feet. Ok, well maybe that didn't actually happen, but trust me, we could both barely walk.

Please, please do me a favor and the next time you have something to celebrate with someone special, take them to Pure Food & Wine, sit outside and get the tasting menu. Trust me!

Ronald's Doughnuts

Yes, I did it. I traveled through the barren desert for vegan doughnuts.

I cannot tell you how excited I was for these doughnuts. I'm sure many of you reading already know that Ronald's carries yeasted doughnuts which are in fact vegan. Are they purposely vegan, or just a happy accident? I don't know and I don't care. They are delicious, and so worth the trip.

So, my best, dearest, long time, childhood (and veg) friend and I were taking a trip to Las Vegas. Before we even had it booked, we knew the first thing we had to do was get to Ronald's and devour doughnuts.

It was surprisingly easy to get to Ronald's from the strip. Just walk to the Fashion Show Mall, and jump on the bus that stops in front (I forget the #). Then it's only a couple of stops until the little shopping center that Ronald's is in (you have to walk about 2 blocks from the stop you get off). Luckily we were there during a heat wave, so it was only slightly sweltering out.

We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the doughnuts are SOY FREE! So we ordered a few and sat down to enjoy the treats we journeyed across the country for.

jelly & boston Cream (my all time favorite)



plain sugar coated

YUM!



I'm in doughnut heaven!

We of course had to get a box to go, but it didn't last long...


 Later that day...

Well. That's one more thing crossed off my vegan bucket list...

Pasta

Since I've been talking a lot about pasta, I thought I would do a quick mention of a new favorite of mine. I'm routinely in search of an alternative to plain white pasta. Not that I don't enjoy it, oh no. I just feel like I want a little more bang for my buck, so to speak, nutritionally.

I've taken a liking to Barilla's whole grain pasta and the Whole Foods brand whole wheat pasta is high on the favorite scale, but recently we discovered einkorn pasta. The pasta tastes great, not grainy at all, with a subtle earthy-ness. Go ahead and give it a whirl!

Teese - an unsolicited review

As part of a Vegan Pizza Day giveaway, I was sent 2 packages of Teese vegan cheese from the lovely people at Chicago Soy Dairy (Dandies <3). I was quite excited, as I've never tried Teese before. In the past, I would have had some nervousness around trying a vegan cheese, but I've heard many good things about Teese, so I was thinking positive.

I received my samples just a few days before Super Bowl and used that as an opportunity to try out the cheddar cheese sauce. I mixed the package of cheddar Teese with about half a jar of salsa and heated in a saucepan until the Teese was nice and melty. I picked up organic blue corn chips to serve with my cheese dip. I know one of the golden rules of veganism is never serve vegan cheese to omni's, but my omnivorous aunt, uncle and boyfriend all enjoyed the dip (or at least it seemed like it, since there was none left).

I really was please with the Teese product. It was definitely much more pleasant when the cheese was warm and melty, but that didn't stop us from eating it cold too. Although I am a diehard Daiya fan, I can definitely see the cheddar Teese becoming a regular in our macaroni and cheese dishes.

I still have a package of Teese mozarella still just waiting to be melted on top of a pizza. I'll let you know how that goes.

Danielle('s) Snacks

Since it's the time of overindulgence, let's talk junk food. Gourmet junk food. And by junk food I mean chips. My all time favorite junk food snack. I prefer the sea salt kettle chips, but a close second are the Terra Chips Sweets and Beets.

Danielle Snacks

Tonight while shopping in Marshall's I stumbled upon the "Danielle" royal sweet potato chips. I examined the package making sure the expiration date was okay (2012), and promptly made my purchase.

These really came in handy when I was suddenly starving and waiting for my aunt and grandmother in the middle of the mall. I tore open the package and dove in. Inside were delicious, crunchy, sweet little pieces of heaven in a bag.

What I loved other than the sweet and slightly savory taste was the thicker cut of these chips. It made them extra crunchy and actually quite filling. Still, this didn't stop me from devouring the whole (2 oz.) bag in a matter of seconds.
Only 2 ingredients, fresh royal sweet potatoes & non-hydrogenated palm oil and a surprisingly low amount of sodium (10 mg), for chips. Not to mention, these were a steal at half the price you would pay at a specialty shop, or even Whole Foods.

I also found a bag of banana chips, but historically I've never liked banana chips, so I passed on those... for now. However, I happen to know there is a bag of the roasted coconut chips waiting for me in my stocking...
I definitely cannot wait to try all of the flavors, and just might splurge and pick up a few bags on my next trip to Whole Foods...

Coming up after Christmas- kitchen appliances, my pantry staples, a few words on the word "vegan" and my Sunday tradition of macaroni and gravy (otherwise known as, sauce).