Vegan Food Products

International vegan cuisine, oil free vegan recipes, Plant Based, Vegan, Vegan Food Products

Creamy Greek Style Vegan Polenta & Greens

Posted on March. 2023March. 2023 by writinstuff

Have I ever told you how much I enjoy polenta? I’ll let you in on a little secret, as much as I love it, my husband has a fanatical love of polenta.

Well, in Romania it’s called Mămăligă and it’s a little stiffer than polenta but they are basically the same. His favorite is mămăligă cu branza which translates to polenta with cheese, and I have to admit that it is super delicious. And I happened upon some vegan Greek white which is an excellent version of vegan feta cheese, and a perfect ingredient to mix into your favorite version of polenta.

I’ve talked a lot here and here about what makes a really good and creamy polenta, so check it out for tips on getting the best polenta you can.

I paired this polenta with a Beyond “steak” patty and kohlrabi greens with garlic and grilled onions because, well because it is wicked delicious.

What’s your favorite thing to pair with polenta?

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Sandwiches, Vegan, Vegan Food Products

Childhood Classics Revisited ~ Vegan Fish Stick Sandwich

Posted on February. 2023February. 2023 by writinstuff

Okay so today’s recipe isn’t so much of a recipe as it is just sharing a childhood favorite among friends.

Things have been so busy lately with my clients keeping me busy and trying to edit my back catalog (shameless promo here if you love romance books and small town romance in general: ), that I haven’t been doing a lot of cooking. Okay, that’s not true either. I have been cooking but mostly things I’ve made thousands of times before.

Vegan salads and Noodles. The end.

But we decided to try out a new vegan food product, more fish sticks. Why do I keep trying these recipes when they inevitably disappoint me? The honest answer is that my husband is responsible for this latent sense of hope that I feel, always with my fingers crossed that I’ll find some I like.

But the truth is that I’m not a fish sticks (fish fingers for my UK friends and readers) fan. Back in my childhood days I would suffer through it because it was that or nothing but I’m just not a fan and these new vegan fish sticks? They taste just like I remember.

So instead of wasting them by tossing them out, I did what I used to do back in the day, turned it into a sandwich! It was my own homemade kiddie version of a filet-o-fish and this time, it was veganized.

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International vegan cuisine, Plant Based, Soup, Travel, Vegan, Vegan Food Products

Vegan Soup Recipes ~ Ciorba de Burta vegana (Vegan Romanian Soup recipes)

Posted on February. 2023February. 2023 by writinstuff

So there’s this Romanian soup and it’s called Ciorba de Burta, and my husband used to love it. When we lived in Los Angeles there was one Romanian restaurant and they served it every single day. I used to (and still do) call it brain soup, but it’s not made of brains.

…Or so he says.

Anyway I won’t bore you with the details of Ciorba de Burta, only to say that recently we went to Bucharest and decided to enjoy a vegan lunch before we headed back home.

We’ve been to this place, Vyro, before and it is fantastic. It is a completely vegan restaurant and they also serve raw vegan food, which is pretty damn good too.

My point, and I’m getting to it right now, is that this place served a full on vegan ciorba de burta and it was fantastic.

How do I know?

I don’t, not really. There was a creamy mushroom soup on the menu and I was like, “Yum, that sounds delicious. I’ll have that.” When it arrived at the table, my Hubs recognized the scent, the look and everything else, as Ciorba de burta.

We shared it, because of course we did.

It was fantastic.

So delicious that he insisted I attempt to make it at home, which I totally did.

And it was just as (possibly more) fantastic.

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oil free vegan recipes, Plant Based, Potatoes, Vegan, Vegan Food Products

New Vegan Food Find! – Vegan “Luncheon Meat” AKA Vegan Spam

Posted on December. 2022December. 2022 by writinstuff

I already know what you’re thinking because I was thinking the same thing. “Isn’t SPAM already vegan?”

Despite the fact that it looks like something run through a blender, that luncheon meat product as well as all the others contain animal parts. Still, when I saw this can of vegan weirdness beside the vegan tuna, I frowned. I mean regular luncheon meat is pretty gross and I thought so even when I had no choice but to eat it as a kid, yet I knew that I had to give it a try.

So I decided to try it. Okay, the truth is that my hubs loved this stuff when he first left Romania and ate it often and he put it in the cart–2 cans of it, in fact–and so I figured I’d have to share at least one recipe with you.

So…here we go.

I decided on something simple. My first option was burgers because I used to do that as a kid because there was so much fat on that luncheon meat that it crisped up nicely so you could slather it with ketchup and mustard and pretend it was a much better burger.

But there was a problem; this vegan luncheon meat wasn’t quite as malleable as it’s more famous non-vegan cousin. It was next to impossible to mash up with a fork so I knew that wasn’t going to work. Instead I had to grab a knife and chop it up and that’s when it hit me, Vegan Corned Beef Hash.

Of course this wasn’t even vegan corned beef but it was close enough and I paired it with vegan mashed potatoes and peas to give it that old school Americana recipe appeal.

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Bar Food, Plant Based, Sides, Vegan, Vegan Food Products

New Vegan Food Product ~ Vegan Fish Sticks

Posted on November. 2022November. 2022 by writinstuff

Who remembers being a kid and constantly craving fish sticks?

Not me and that is the honest truth. I barely tolerated them even back then and not because I was some budding little gourmand, but because they were always…off. The breading would be super crispy but bland and the fish parts in the middle were always dry. So dry that you couldn’t eat them without drowning them in ketchup or tartar sauce.

I do not have fond memories of eating fish sticks as a kid.

So why, you might ask, would I dare bother to test out vegan fish sticks the moment they hit the shelves in my local grocery store? Honestly? I guess maybe I am a glutton for punishment or maybe I just love to see if the vegan version can make me love something I previously tolerated.

Or maybe I’m just crazy. Who knows?

The point is that the same brand that makes a delicious vegan canned tuna, has some out with breaded fish, white fish and now fish sticks and I decided it was worth the price of admission to give it a shot. The real question is, was it worth the calories on my backside?

Keep reading to find out!

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Vegan, Vegan Food Products

New Vegan Food Product ~ Unfished Vegan White Fish Fillet

Posted on November. 2022November. 2022 by writinstuff

When it comes to vegan food products, I am always on the look out for something new. And when I say new I mean something that is new to the market or simply new to me. So when I walked through the aisles of Carre Four and I found these vegan white fish fillets, I knew that I had to try them.

Before we go any further I have to tell you that I am NOT a vegan who needs for my vegan alternatives to taste exactly like the dead animals they’re replacing. In fact, I’d prefer they not to because if we’re all being honest with ourselves, there were things about that we all found unpalatable. So personally, I prefer the alternatives to have an ‘essence’ of the old while being something totally new and delicious.

I had…hopes, we’ll say, about how I thought these Unfished vegan fish fillets would taste. High hopes.

Such high hopes that I paired it with one of my favorite comfort meals from my grandmothers on both sides of the family. Fish and mac & cheese.