Review: Nasoya Silken Creations

Nasoya contacted me awhile ago to review their new Silken Creations. I was admittedly curious about them anyway when I saw them in the store, so I jumped right on it. What could be better then easy dessert? Nothing, that's what. The first sweets attack hit a couple nights after we bought the packages, and Michael wanted to just eat the vanilla as straight up pudding. Fine with me! I wanted to see what the texture was like directly out of the package anyway. And there is truly no faster way to cure a sweets craving than 'open...eat'.

love at first bite

We grated a little fresh nutmeg onto it in order to at least have a slightly more complex flavor dimension. And it was surprisingly delicious! I do admit that at first I was a little weirded out by eating...well, basically silken tofu right out of the package. But don't be deterred! The flavor of the vanilla is right on target, and nicely sweet. The texture was like slightly runny pudding. Like when you make pudding, but can't wait for it to set up all the way, so you just eat it anyway. Don't act like you've never done it.

Next I really wanted to see how this stuff set up when baked. Naturally, a chocolate pie was in order.

heaven

Nasoya nicely puts a couple of recipes on back of all the packages, and the chocolate came with a nice basic pie recipe and a minty frozen pie recipe. We didn't want to wait for the stuff to freeze that night, but we did want a mint chocolate creation...so we combined the two. We blended the tofu with some cornstarch and mint extract, poured it in the shell (yeah, that's storebought, sue me), and baked it. Waiting for it to cool was absolute torture, but worth it. Look how well it set up:

i ate both of those

Oh, I forgot that we also added about 1/4 cup of chocolate chips to the mixture before baking. If only I'd had some soy whipped cream to go on top...alas. It was perfect as is. The chocolate flavor rules. (I've also eaten this one straight out of the package and it makes an even better pudding than the vanilla.) And you guys. This was so easy. This pie has literally 4 ingredients, and that's only because we made it complicated. If you leave out the mint extract and chocolate chips, it's even easier. So good. This pie did not last 24 hours, by the way. The chocolate was by far mine and Michael's favorite flavor.

It took me awhile to think of what I wanted to do with the strawberry. I'm not a huge fan of fruity/sweet things unless someone else is making them. They tend to be complicated with all kinds of peeling and chopping and cooking down. Granted, there was no need for that in this instance, but because of my general aversion to working hard and making fruity desserts, I had a serious lack of recipes in mind for this. Luckily, there are loads of recipes up at the Nasoya website, and their lovely PR person steered me in the right direction. I knew I'd be making this one as soon as I read the ingredients.

strawberry lemonade pops!

1 package of the strawberry tofu and 1/3 cup lemon juice. Gotcha. I also wanted to see how well it froze and how that affected the texture, so I could give a well rounded review. Guess what? It freezes really well. It does lose a bit of its creaminess, but I like the icy texture of these popsicles. I do have to say, to be fair, that the strawberry flavor was my least favorite. I think it had a bit of an artificial taste that left me wanting more... More chocolate, that is. Although maybe it would be better in something baked.

Still, I wholeheartedly say that Nasoya Silken Creations are definitely the lazy girl's guide to fast and easy desserts, without sacrificing any on flavor, especially the chocolate and vanilla. I can't wait to try more. Frozen chocolate/blueberry pops! Vanilla/peach pie! Chocolate/vanilla swirl frozen pie of greatness! And other things besides pie and frozen pops, that I will think of once my brain wakes up! So buy without fear, my friends. This stuff is good.

review: Vega Smoothie Infusions

Hello there.  In case you hadn't noticed...it's summertime (at least around here).  You know what summertime means for a lot of people?  Increased smoothie action.  Yeah that's right.  We all know that smoothies are pretty darned good for you, but there is nothing wrong with adding a little power punch to your morning meal.  In fact...it's an awesome idea.  

Recently, the lovely people at Sequel Naturals contacted me to try and review their Vega Smoothie Infusions.   

These infusions are the power punch I'm talking about here.  They are full of awesome stuff such as protein and fiber and Omega 3s.  They're organic and completely allergen free.  So, uh, you basically have no reason to not add them to your smoothies.  In fact, if I may quote, 'each serving of Vega Smoothie Infusion provides more protein than 2 large eggs, more fiber than 2 slices of whole wheat bread and more Omega 3 than 6 oz of wild salmon.'  Huh.  Take that, omnivores.

my superhero smoothie

Ok, I'll admit, I don't really drink that many smoothies.  It's not that I don't like them, because I do.  I just don't...think about them that often.  And the fruit I buy rarely lends itself to smoothies without being a pain in the butt, like peaches or cherries or pears or whatever.  Actually, that sounds like a delicious combination, now that I'm thinking of it.  Anyway, it's silly because smoothies are so easy to make and so easy to take with you on the go if you're in a hurry and are so awesomely good for you!  Thus, I'm back on the smoothie bandwagon.  The powder provided to me was easily blended up with this combo of banana, peach (no less a pain than usual, mind you), and blueberries and I could barely taste it...though it did have that taste of 'Hey, I'm eating something really healthy.  Cool.'  

But...um...you know what I like about a million thousand times more than smoothies?  

that's right.

Brownies.  So here is the totally rad thing about Vega Smoothie Infusions:  they can be used as a flour substitute for part of the flour in baked goods.  Uh huh.  You read that right.  You can effectively hide the healthy from yourself in a big old batch of brownies, if you so choose.  And if you take that path, I might just say that you are a very wise person.  Since that's what I did.  These brownies were downright amazing.  They weren't too sweet, were super chocolatey, had the best texture of a vegan brownie I've ever had (cakey, but also somehow fudgey...don't ask me how it happened)...  And never have I ever felt so good about eating 3 brownies in one sitting.  I mean...they're healthy.  It just felt right.  It wasn't just me, either.  I made these with my friend Becca and she proclaimed them sufficiently awesome, and I had to basically fend Michael off with a chair to get a freaking picture of them before they all magically disappeared.

And so, I have a recipe for you, in case you already have some of this wonder product.  Oh, and if you don't, I reccommend that you go buy some as soon as possible.  You'd be doing your health a serious favor.  I mean, athletes eat this stuff.  Like, good athletes that are vegan and not into selling you crap like regular athletes are.  Gatorade.  pfffffft.  

Super Brownies a la Jessica  (I adapted their original recipe)

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup coconut milk

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup white whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour, or a gluten free flour)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup sugar (I used Florida Crystals)

1/2 cup Vega Smoothie Infusion

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/3 cup vegan semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F and grease an 8x8 inch glass baking dish.  Mix the wet ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix the dry in another, then add to wet ingredients in thirds, making sure to not overblend.  Fold in the chocolate chips, then pour mixture into the prepared baking dish, spreading evenly.  Bake for 35 minutes.  The toothpick won't come out totally clean, if you use that trick.  That's fine.  Allow to cool, if you can stand it, and then gobble them up.  These are lovely with a glass of soymilk, by the way.

All in all, I've been very pleased with my Vega Smoothie Infusion experience.  They make healthy food healthier and junk food healthier and me healthier, all in one go.  Visit their website for more product information!

Product Review: Zukay Live Foods

There are already a lot of reviews out there for these awesomely raw, fermented condiments.  The folks from Zukay must have gotten to me a bit late, but I was still more than happy to try out their salsas and relishes!  The really cool thing about Zukay products is that they have probiotics in them, from the fermentation.  As a vegan who takes a probiotic supplement because I don't really eat that many fermented foods (I used to do the Activia thing as a vegetarian, ha!), I was pretty excited to see what these were all about.  I read up on them and was interested to see the bubbling up out of the jar thing that happens when you open them (because of the live cultures), but ours arrived super cold (or, frozen, some might say), so this didn't happen.  Still!  I am a huge salsa fanatic (it's one of the few things I don't skimp on at the grocery store) and was psyched to try out something new.

Michael and I immediately dumped the entire jar of hot salsa in a bowl and started munching away.  I was already prepared for the fizzy feeling from the FAQ on their site, but honestly, nothing can really prepare you for fizzy salsa, guys.  It was effervescent to the extreme!  Kind of like salsa flavored soda.  For those of you (like me) who might be a little weirded out by that fact, do not fear:  the effect dies down (literally?) the longer the salsa sits out.  Or maybe I just got used to it.  Whichever is true, I know that by my 5th or so mouthful, I was not longer bothered by any fizziness.  The flavor of the salsas are really nice and full...fresh tasting.  But the hot left a lot to be desired in the heat area.  We ended up putting a bunch of hot sauce in ours to give it more heat.  Still, we just had a conversation like 2 days ago about how what we used to think was hot isn't anymore and how we both just put crazy amounts of hot sauce on practically all of our food.  So maybe that's just us.  However, if you are looking for an extra healthy, very flavorful salsa, do check these out!

As for the relishes, I am in love.  The garlic dill relish has graced every single sammich I've made this week.  I've gone out of my way to make sammiches just to put the relish on them.  I tried to convince Michael to add it to our ruebens last night (no go).  The horseradish is yummy as well, with just enough punch.  I highly reccommend these relishes!  They make an ordinary sammich (or!  they would be SO GOOD on a soydog!  by the way, I always get Yves brand soydogs, for those of you who were curious from my last post) taste like something out of a gourmet restaurant.  I didn't notice any of the fizziness with them, probably because it was diluted by the rest of the sammich.  Go order some of this relish, right now!

Also, I hear from Scott at Zukay that a line of salad dressings may be in the works, so keep your eyes open for those!

p.s. this was my second bit of news, but it is highly diluted in the excitement department, as most people have already heard of these products by now.  still!  it's the first time that i was contacted by a company to do a review and that made me all squealy inside.  yay!  sorry if all my news was uber disappointing, haha...  i do have something else up my sleeve, but i'm only mentioning it to make you all crazy.  :)