Sunday, June 26, 2011

Eating Out: Subway's New Avocado

I was never a huge fan of Subway, even in my meat-eating days. In my opinion, their meat is some of the grossest, lowest quality meat- probably the lowest of any "sub place" I can think of. I actually switched to veggie subs there years ago, but since going vegan, I've stayed away because I've heard that their bread has a lot of additives, and I don't like the idea of not getting any protein or healthy fats in my meal now that I have to watch that stuff closely!

All of this aside, Dustin and I have been pretty eager to try Subway's new avocado, since we're both VERY new fans of guacamole. We have found that drastically changing our diets has in turn changed our tastes pretty drastically. We have both begun to like a lot of things that we used to hate! I wasn't sure if plain mashed avocado would be good or not, so I made sure to get jalapenos so it would be more like guacamole. Here's what I ordered: a veggie sub on white bread (I heard their wheat isn't vegan, but it might just be because of honey. More importantly, the wheat is also lower in protein and higher in sugar,) with all veggies except olives, sweet onion teriyaki (probably full of sugar, but vegan and delicious,) and avocado.

It definitely surpassed anything I've ever had from Subway in tastiness, and I can even imagine craving it pretty often. I'm so excited to have another fast food (sort of) option that is vegan, delicious AND healthy! (Although I do wonder how they keep the avocado from turning brown... but that's the reason I cook my own meals most of the time now!)

Image is courtesy of Ingestibles @ tumblr.com, because I inhaled my sub before I had the chance to snap a photo! Whoops!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Super Easy Recipe: Zucchini Pizzas

At a red light on my way home from work today, I googled "zucchini recipes" because we have so much of it right now. HUGE ones were still only 75 cents each at the farmer's market, so of course, I thought I needed to buy like 4 of them for this week. I found a photo of something someone called "zucchini pizzas" and got really excited. I told myself that there was no way that they'd be as good as they looked, but I was going to try to knock them off anyway- just in case. Well, they were every bit as good as they looked... better, actually!

I sliced the zucchini, then topped each circle with Mid's pizza sauce, a tiny bit of garlic salt, all three kinds of Daiya, and some basil. Then I baked them at 350 degrees for like 20 minutes, then broiled them for a few more. Next time I make them, I will pre-cook the zucchini on the grill, because they ended up soggy and had to be eaten with a fork. Grilling them would crisp them up enough to be used as vessels for pizza toppings! Doing it this way was still really tasty and I'd definitely eat it this way again, but I think it'd be better suited as a healthier alternative to chicken or eggplant parmigiana (since it's not fried) on a sandwich or with pasta.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

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!)