Product Reviews: Pancake Breakfast!

For Saturday breakfast today, I made this:


In addition to fresh, organic blueberries and real maple syrup, I used two different new products in this one:[image courtesy of wellsphere.com]This is one of my most exciting finds yet, because I LOVE ice cream. Everyone else seems to make a huge deal over cheese, which I also love, but I feel like vegan ice creams are usually not only not good replacements, but they're usually not even EDIBLE. (Seriously, have you tried vanilla Rice Dream? It made the ice cream lover in me weep!) Anyhow, Trader Joe's Soy Creamy vanilla is the BEST commercially available vegan ice "cream" I have found yet (Chicago Soy Dairy's chocolate is AMAZING, but there are few places that sell it, and they are restaurants.) I see that Trader Joe's also makes a chocolate, but our store appears to only carry the vanilla, cherry chocolate chip (which is also great, but has limited applications,) and mango vanilla (not a fan of mango.) I'd prefer chocolate, but the vanilla is more versatile anyway, and I'm completely amazed by the perfect combination of texture and flavor. The texture is spot-on; it's creamy and has the same mouthfeel as one expects from ice cream. The flavor is still a little soy-ish at first, but after a few bites, that goes away. I'm glad that my search for a good vegan ice cream can finally end. I'm tired of throwing away containers of overpriced, inedible crap. Now I'll be buying Trader Joe's exclusively!

Believe it or not, this one was a find at Big Lots! I don't usually buy Bob's Red Mill Stuff because I think it's overpriced, but this 7 Grain Pancake and Waffle mix was too good of a deal to pass up. I'm glad I got it, because I was able to use soy milk and Ener-G egg replacer to make some really tasty, dense pancakes! Ever since I stopped eating exclusively white bread, I've found that I don't expect everything to be "light and fluffy." In fact, I'd rather something feel heavy and dense, because that usually means it's more nutritious, filling, and flavorful! I'm really happy with this stuff and will be buying it again, because it's worth the money.

These all combined really well and made for an awesome 400 calorie breakfast(this photo is of Dustin's plate, and I gave him a little more of everything!)