Joe’s Oat Patties: A Product Review

I started to see these little bags of oats and spices pop up on store shelves around here in the past few months. It turns out they are a new veggie burger that is sold in mix form called Joe's Oat Patties. They have a few flavors, including Taco, but the one I selected to try is the “Meatless Chicken”. Part of the reason I selected this is that their website has a recipe for “Chicken Salad” to use in sandwiches. Since I was still putting my food list together for starting back to work, I thought that if this worked, it might be nice to use as something to bring for lunch to work. And since it is soy free, that is a big bonus.

The mix is basically oat and quinoa based, with various spices and other ingredients, depending on what type of veggie burger it is supposed to make. The directions to make each mix are the same: for one bag of mix, combine it with one cup of hot water of broth, let sit for 10 minutes, stir well. Once the mix is cool, then shape and fry up. You can also scramble the mix, which means to cook it up and move it around until you get smaller pieces until they are done. I did two things with the mix. I used the single batch directions to make a single pattie, and then I scrambled the rest to turn it into a “Chicken Salad” sandwich spread.



Here is the single pattie mix made as to mini chicken patties on some potato rolls (acting as buns). The sauce on the bun top is some Annie’s BBQ sauce. On the side is some steamed green beans and simple potato pancakes (leftover mashed potatoes and flour, and then pan fried). Amazingly enough, the patties do taste chicken-like. And you would never know that this is just grains and other ingredients mixed together and cooked up. I don’t know if you can get 6 patties from each batch, they would be quite thin.



The other thing I did with it is make a “Chicken Salad”. I was going to use the recipe on their website, but decided to just make a traditional recipe with mayo, mustard and pickle relish. I “scrambled” the rest of the mix by making the left over mix with ¾ cup of water and then putting spoonfuls of it into the pan. As they cooked up, I broke them into smaller pieces until it was all in fairly small pieces and cooked through. At that point I put it in the refrigerator until cool and mixed in the mayo, mustard and pickle relish. It may not look that great, but tastes quite good. I took the last of it in my lunch on Monday, and it was a nice way to start the week.

So there you are. Quite an interesting new product and the best thing is that it is made here, near Orlando. I don’t know if this will ever go national or overseas, but this is one of those things that is worth a try if you see it on the shelves in your area.

Last day of Vegan Mofo

Ok, today is officially the last day of Vegan Mofo. I have missed a few days this week, but have made up for them with weekend posts, so I don’t feel that bad. In fact I think that I have posted 23 as of today, so that isn’t half bad for just planning to post on weekdays.

Today let me show you what I had for breakfast today. And it will make all of you soy free very happy, because we again have a sausage replacement that we don’t have to make. When I was shopping yesterday at Rollin Oats, I found that Sunshine Burgers has a new product, a breakfast patty. I looked at that and realized that it could have some possibilities, so I picked up some English muffins, knowing that at home I had rice cheese and some of Bryanna’s Chickpea Chilla mix still in the refrigerator. Vegan Egg Muffin, here I come.



The “egg” was an idea that I has been floating in my mind for a while. I knew that it cooked up quite well as an omelet or crepe, but wondered how it would do if I cooked it up in a smaller mold to make an “egg”, that could be put on sandwiches. So last night, I tried out my idea using ¼ cup of the Chickpea Chilla cooked in a 2 ½ size biscuit cutter (that is open on top). As you can see from the sandwich, it worked quite well and looks most egg like. I got two from what was left from the batter and put them both in the refrigerator till today.

This morning, I toasted the English muffin in the toaster oven and then heated up the Chilla “egg” in the toaster oven as well, while heating the breakfast patty on the stove. Then it was just a matter of assembly. Bottom of the English muffin, breakfast patty, “egg”, rice cheese and then the top. This was quite good, but I forgot how thick these sandwiches can get. However, it would be great for taking into work and reheating in the microwave, since all you would have to do is reheat it from the refrigerator. You don’t even have to cook the breakfast patty, since it just needs to be defrosted and heated to eat. And the Sunshine Burger Breakfast Patty is a very acceptable sausage replacement. I just wish they gave you more than three in a box.

Wayfare Cheese: A Product Review

This may be the best soy free cheese to come onto the market (which I say never having tried Playfood cheese). You open the continuer and it looks like something you would make at home. The amazing thing is that it is oatmeal based and all the ingredients are pronounceable. If you have ever made your own cheese sauce at home, then you may have noticed that the oatmeal based ones are a bit smoother than the nut based cheese sauces. And for some lucky reason, we Floridians get this early in the game not late (like MimicCreme, which I found today I can no longer buy).

I first saw this at Nature’s Food Patch in Clearwater around Labor Day and bought some of the Cheddar Cheese style spread to try on crackers over the holiday weekend. I was quite impressed, you could put this in a dish and no one would realize it was vegan cheese, let alone soy free. I would have said something before now, but wasn’t quite sure how to use it, since neither the company’s website nor the containers give any suggestions. Then I saw this over at A Bear’s Fare and realized it may be more useful than I thought. Even though, just to have a soy free cheese spread for crackers is a big win in itself.

Today I bought some of the Cheddar Cheese style dip and have used it twice, for a quesadilla (lunch) and a grilled cheese sandwich (dinner and suggested by A Bear’s Fare). I didn’t mean to use it twice in one day, but was not really hungry, so wanted simple things to eat. All I can say is that you have to at least give this a try. The dip is more like a semi set cheese sauce, when you open the container. And I find you can scoop it out and spread it with a spoon quite easily. The cheddar flavor isn’t overwhelming, which may or may not be a good thing. The cheese does actually melt, much to my surprise, since it has no cornstarch or arrowroot in it (per the ingredients). Needless to say I am quite pleased and can’t wait to see if it will also make a nice rotini and cheese for one.

Now I haven’t tried the other flavors yet, but would suspect that they are also quite good. What I really would like to get my hands on would be the sour cream, since there are no vegan sour creams on the market that are soy free. Alas, I have not been able to find that yet in the one store I know carries this line. I am not really a sour cream user, but there are some recipes where you need it as an ingredient and it is a bit of a pain to always have to make it yourself.

Nufu Tofu and Sweet Potato Cakes

No, you are not misreading the title of this post. That is a new product from Sunergia Soy Foods and it is a tofu made from peanuts and seasoned with wither ginger or herbs and hickory. And how do you make a tofu from peanuts you ask, why just like regular tofu. First you make peanut milk, then you add nigari, then you press it. Viola, peanut tofu. Oh, and it doesn’t taste like peanuts.

For dinner I had BBQ Nufu Tofu with Sweet Potato Cakes and a simple salad. The tofu cooks up just like regular soy tofu and even looks white when one takes it out of the package. It has the same feel and slices up quite easily. Place it in a pan and it browns up, just like tofu would do. After it had browned on both sides, I put some BBQ sauce (Bryanna’s Bourbon Barbeque Sauce, page down to find), turned off the heat and let it sit in the sauce. I don’t know if it soaked up any of the sauce, but since it comes pre marinated and seasoned, that may not matter. The Hickory and Herb did meld well with the BBQ sauce I used, and would most likely work well with almost any BBQ sauce.

On the side I have Sweet Potato Cakes. This is something I found up at Vegweb. The base is sweet potatoes, but they also have corn and shredded zucchini. Oat flour and panko breadcrumbs act as a binder. If you like sweet potatoes, needless to say, this is a dish for you; since it is a very different way to eat your sweet potatoes. These would be great to bring in a lunch, since I think they would reheat well in a microwave or could be eaten at room temperature.

My other side dish for tonight is just a simple salad of romaine, shredded carrots and grape tomatoes. On top is some Annie’s Naturals French dressing. Annie’s makes a quite good French dressing, which is both vegan and soy free.

As for my kefir experiment, I think I was overloading my system a bit; so I have cut back to only 2 oz a day. Since I don’t want to try to eat the soy yogurt until I have had at least two quarts of kefir, that will push off the final test at until early September. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Two Product Reviews

No pictures of food today, but I did want to let you all know about some fairly new vegan soy free products that have hit the shelves in the last few months.

The first is Soy Free Earth Balance, which I have finally been able to try, even though it hit the shelves in June. After eating it a few times on rolls and using it in a grilled "cheese" sandwich, all I can say is "Wow". This is as good as any margarine I have used and has no aftertaste, at least for me. It melts well, and is somewhat soft even right out of the refrigerator. I haven't tried cooking with it yet, but don't see that as a problem. The people at Earth Balance made it soy-free by not using any soybean oil, replacing the soy protein with pea protein and using sunflower seed lechitan. And they made the container red along with Soy Free on the label, so that you cannot miss it in the dairy section. For those of you that are soy allergic, this margarine is obviously a godsend, since it has no soy products in it at all. I found the price to be in line with the other Earth Balance products where I got it, but this will run you about 4-5 dollars for a 15 oz tub.

The other newer product is from Amy's and it is a soy free Chocolate Cake. (Picture borrowed from Amys website, forget to get one of the box.) I got one this past week, simply because I was tired of making my own dessert all the time. I would say that this cake is easily as good as or better than one could make at home. It is moist, and really tastes like chocolate. The best thing is that is requires no work to make. All you have to do is take it out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator about 2.5 hours before you want to eat it. Then just slice and eat. You could take it out of the packaging, take it to work, feed it to your colleagues and they would never realize that it was not only soy free but vegan. The TeddyBear tried some and pronounced it most acceptable, which for him means that he likes it. And if he likes it, it has to be good (he's a picky eater),

So if these are not in your stores yet, just annoy management till they get them in. And better yet, get as many people as possible to annoy the store as well. In some places they will not stock soy free products because they have the idea that there is no market demand for them. Why don't you show them that they are wrong.

Burritos for Dinner

Tonight was about using two of my leftovers in the refrigerator. One of these is made with the Southwest Sweet Potato mixture. The other is made with some of the lentils and peppers that I cooked with some of the Simple Mole. In each of them, I used a slice of the Galaxy Naturals Rice Vegan Cheddar Cheese slices. I am glad to report it melted from the heat of the fillings alone, which is good to know. This will make them very useful in wraps and sandwiches. On the side is some corn, just to round out the meal.

Celebration Roast Sandwich

Dinner was leftovers tonight, so I think that showing you lunch is a good idea today. Strangely, lunch is leftovers from Easter. (Which I hope as a happy one for all of you.) Fortunately, I found a few weeks ago that the natural foods store I got to on a weekly basis (generally) now carries some Field Roast Products, the 1 lb Celebration Roast and Italian Sausages. Haven’t tried the sausages yet, but decided that the Celebration Roast would be the perfect thing for Easter. The best thing is that it takes no prep to cook. Just unwrap, place in a pan, put in the oven, take out when hot and slice. Easy as pie. I did find that it takes more than 15 minutes for the roast to heat up in the toaster oven, however. So will know that for next time. Some of the leftovers are on the sandwich I had for lunch, on top of some Dijon mustard. It was quite good. The cold roast sliced easily and the stuffing even stayed in place. And on the side is the Sesame Broccoli Salad. Nice little lunch. I finished off the Mexican Rice Pudding as well with dessert.

I also have done some experimenting with the Turtle Mountain Coconut Milk this weekend. So far I have: drank it plain, put it in a smoothie, used it as a coffee creamer, put it on cereal and I even used it in the mashed potatoes on Easter (the TeddyBear didn’t even notice). I would have to say that this quite a good product. In fact, I may now be addicted. It will be hard to go back to rice milk after this is gone. If any of you are missing 2% or above milk and can afford this, I suggest you try it. It has no coconut taste nor odor. It does not separate in hot liquids, such as coffee. Smoothies are very creamy and rich. You can easily drink it plain out of the refrigerator (and I haven’t drank milk plain since switching to skim milk in my pregan days). Turtle Mountain has managed to create the perfect non diary milk.

Caponata and Grilled Rice Vegan Cheese Sandwich

Missed lunch due to a job fair today (why do these have to start at noon). So had my lunch for dinner instead. The Caponata you have seen before. However, I don’t think I’ve talked about the cheeses from Galaxy Foods. They make both rice and soy based cheese, vegan and vegetarian. The Rice Vegan is distinctive due to its purple borders on the label. It also specifically says that it is soy free, gluten free and vegan. The best thing about this cheese is that it does actually melt. And if it melts for a grilled cheese sandwich, then you know that it will melt in whatever food you may want to use it. There are really only two bad things about their Rice Vegan line, however. One, no mozzarella is available. And they only come in slices, no blocks or shreds. So its usefulness is somewhat limited. However the slices are just fine for sandwiches, wraps or quesadillas. But I have yet to try these cold, so I cannot say if they also taste good cold or at room temperature. As a guess, since the American one tastes fine on the grilled cheese sandwich, I would bet that they also taste good un-melted as well.

Oh and one good thing did come out of the job fair. It allowed me to swing by the Indian store and buy some tamarind paste. And if I happen to have everything needed to make the Tamarind Lentils from VCON, they will be made tomorrow. These have been on the back burner for me for a long time, simply because I could not find any of this darned paste. This is the only store that I know in the area that even carries it. At least it is a cheap 8 oz ($2.49) and will last me for a long time.

Seitan and Rice Milk

Tonight is leftovers (the last of the Gobi Aloo and some more of the Seitan Vindaloo), so I thought you might like to know some of the other things I have been doing lately.

First of all, I found that the Baked Seitan Steaks also works well if you do it on the stovetop with cutlets. Just for fun I tried it on Sunday, making 8 cutlets for one batch of the seitan. I cooked them on the stove top with 2 cups of water and 4 tsp of Bryanna’s Homemade “Chicken Style” Broth Powder. I set my stove on 1 and was going to let them sit for an hour, but upon checking them after 40-45 minutes, they were done. The broth was simmering, but the cutlets were not airy or brainy looking. They tasted good as well, which was good since they were our dinner. I ended up using three and the rest are in the refrigerator in the broth. They should get used up this week.

On the rice milk front, I made an important discovery today. My problems with the base were that I skipped a step in making it. I had made the decision that since it was going to be mixed up in a blender that I could skip the mixing step once it was cool Big mistake. I just blended the last of the base and it totally changed its character. Instead of being hard and stiff, it became smooth and more fluid. So I decided to make a small batch of the milk and put it in the refrigerator. This one tasted much better. It did not have the grittiness I had previously found. So this batch may be a winner after all. I just needed to add a step.

And on a surprising finding, I actually found the Turtle Mountain Coconut Milk at one of my grocery stores on Saturday. Much to my surprise since I still cannot get MimicCreme (Vegetation and Mandee you may get it before I do). I haven’t bought it yet, since I am not sure I can validate the cost in my mind. Even though the cost does not seem to out of line for a half a gallon of product, 4.50 for a half gallon. Just have to see how my budget works out.

And on another surprising finding. Earth Balance will be coming out with a soy-free (yes, that is correct), vegan margarine in May. I just found it on the site today and can verify that it is soy-free. It uses no soybean oil, soy lechitan or soy protein. I have already started the wheels in motion, with a few emails, to try and get my local Publix to carry this. If I have to choose between this and the coconut milk, this wins; hands down. Can soy free tempeh be to far behind? Products page has been updated.

Stir Fry Veggies with Soba Noodles

This was a much better dinner than last night. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of veggies in the bottom of the bag, mostly broccoli; so I also added some peppers and onions from that stir fry mix to up the nutrition a bit.

However, tonight is not about the stir fry, but about the noodles. I do love soba noodles and contrary to how they are usually eaten, I like to eat mine warm in a stir fry or a lo mein. Cooking for myself, as I do most nights, however; I very seldom buy them because I don’t want to be stuck with a big bag of uncooked noodles or have leftovers. Also trying to portion them out is a pain as well. But I found this bag at one of my grocery stores that solves both problems. The bag has the noodles proportioned into single servings and it only has three servings in it. This is just perfect for someone like me. Once it is open, just stick it in the refrigerator for safe keeping until the next time. And no mess of trying to portion out the noodles and having all of them fall out of the bag and onto the floor. Now the next time I want to make some, just get the bag and pull out a bundled set of noodles. Easy as pie.

All for tonight. See you tomorrow.

Road’s End Shells & Chreese

Well last night has come and gone. Where I live we didn’t get a hard freeze or a freeze at all, thank goodness since it did rain. However, inland it got as low as the high 30s and it was in the 50s all day. So not your expected sunny and warm Florida (Vegatation and Mandee if you want to get away from the heat in Australia, this is the time to come to Florida). A perfect day for Mac & Cheese, or in this case Road’s End Shells & Chreese; with some broccoli and cauliflower.

I actually have had this for a few months, just haven’t got around to eating it yet. For those of us who can’t eat soy, gluten or nuts, this chreese mix is a godsend, since it contains none of these and is manufactured in a soy, gluten and nut free facility. And the best thing is that it tastes like cheese, or at least a very good approximation. It is also exceedingly easy to make and only takes about 15 minutes once, the water is boiling for the pasta (boxes with gluten free pasta are also available). Now mine looks green, since I added some broccoli and cauliflower to the pasta when cooking. I didn’t plan on them falling apart when mixing in the chreese sauce, but that didn’t seem to affect the flavor. And if someone wanted to sneak some cauliflower into a picky eater, this would be a good way to do so.

Road’s End also has gravy mixes, the chreese mixes by themselves (single packet and in bulk) and also nacho chreese in jars (ready for use, but dang expensive). I have yet to dislike anything from them that I have tried (so far two gravy mixes and the Shells & Chreese). I just wish the chreese mixes were available locally. But if I have to, at some point in the future I will order the chreese mixes in bulk.

Now if you would like to try this, but can’t find it locally or are spending to much money on it already, there is a cloned recipe for this over at Fat Free Vegan. Apparently Susan V’s daughter is quite addicted to this and she was tired of having to mail order it. I tried it in my pregan days (when looking at going vegetarian) and to my surprise, liked it. This was one of the things that convinced me that I could eat this way, even without soy.

Pizza and a Product Review

Dinner was pizza on a pita bread made with VeganRella mozzarella like cheese topped with tomatoes, green pepper and onions. The pizza was good, but the cheese was slightly disappointing. It does melt, as advertised, but the flavor is a bit bland. I also found the package difficult to open and reseal close. Considering the directions on the back, one would assume that the package has a top that tears off and reseals; but I could not find anything like that on my packaging. At least I can confirm that the cheese is soy free (but made in a factory that makes soy products) and may also be gluten free (since rice flour is a major ingredient). Unfortunately, they do not have a website, so I have no where to direct you to find more about it. Also this stuff is not cheap, I found it at $ 4.39 for an eight ounce package. So don’t expect this to be a regular visitor here. I might get it for a dish, now and then; but will most likely stick with making my own or might buy the Road’s End chreese in powder and use that instead. Their dry mix is cheaper, makes up just enough for one pizza and is easier to deal with; since it stays a liquid until it sets while cooking. Also their dry mix is labeled as soy free and gluten free, unlike VeganRella.

So now I can say I tried it, but was underwhelmed. However, if you do not want to make your own faux cheese and don't mind the price, this may be an option for you. Oh well, win some, lose some. See you all tomorrow.

Coconut Bliss Ice Cream

I am sure that this has been said before about this ice cream but to say it again; run, I repeat run, do not walk to your store and buy this if at all possible. My only complaint about this brand is that they do not have a cookie dough ice cream, like Purely Decadent. Other than that, I have none.

Now I have only had the chocolate so far, but it was wonderful. And as a plus, the coconut milk does not seem to really put a heavy underling coconut flavor; which was my problem with Purely Decadent Cookie Dough. Either that, or I am just getting used to the it and not registering the coconut flavor when eating the ice cream. Coconut Bliss also has different flavors than Purely Decadent. And the next one I have to try is the Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge. Will it taste like frozen Nutella? Hope so. And the one after that would be the Cappuccino. Coffee flavored ice cream, can’t wait.

And as another stamp of approval, even the TeddyBear likes it. Since he has refused, so far, to try any of the non-milk ice creams I have floated his way, this is amazing. He also said that the coconut taste was not to pronounced, so maybe I wasn’t imaging it wasn’t there when I was eating it. Now if I can only get him to drop his Haagen-Dazs addiction, which he shouldn’t have since he is partially milk intolerant any more. This just might retrain his taste buds.

So let me say it again, run to your nearest store and see if they carry this yet. If not bug them until they do. Unfortunately, they are not shipping this internationally, as of now. However, that could change in the future. Even MimicCream is making plans to ship overseas. Vegetation, you may get MimicCream before I do. Don’t you just love it, I can get coconut milk ice cream, but not a soy free cream substitute (unless I mail order) and may get it later than people overseas. The irony.

Product Review and more Burmese Tofu

Okay, guys. Today you get a bonus. Both lunch and dinner, along with a bit of excitement in the Republic of Bunny today.

First the product review. I had a Sunshine Burger for lunch with the Mustard Sauce from VCON and some celery with peanut butter. Now in case you have yet to hear about the Sunshine Burger products, let me tell you they are just what you are needing to find. The entire line is vegan, organic, soy free and gluten free. Yes, you did read all that correctly. I know, sounds impossible. The company that makes these uses sunflower seeds as their base instead of either TVP or gluten. The variety I’m eating is the Garden Herb, but they also have 3 other varieties as well. If the other three are as good as this one, they are worth it. The patty was well seasoned and really didn’t need anything else on the bread. I just used the Mustard Sauce to add a different flavor profile. However, one could also use a curry ketchup, mustard or a curry mayonnaise as well. Please, do not use BBQ sauce. It really doesn’t work with the seasonings. The celery with peanut butter was really just to round out the plate, because you would not believe how nutritious these patties are. The only bad thing is that they only come three to a box. Now if they don’t sell these in your neck of the woods and you want to try them, Sneaky posted a clone of the Original variety up at PPK forums. So if you can’t buy them, you can make them.

This is what I had for desert today. I only usually have desert with lunch, not dinner. This is the Amazing Hupia (Coconut) Pudding with some thawed strawberries and some walnuts. Since this didn’t get made last week, it got bumped to this week. If you like coconut, this is for you. The recipe is only coconut milk, water and cornstarch. However, if you are trying to watch your weight, then you might want to skip this. Not low in calorie. As for the walnuts, I try to have some everyday. They provide some extra calories, have good fats, and also are a great source for Omega-3s. Besides, I like them.

Dinner again was the last of my previous batch of chick-fu. Again it is coated with the batter I am trying to use up (almost done). The stuffing patties are the last of the leftover stuffing from Thanksgiving. So one more item cleared out of the refrigerator. This was really just to clear up some odds and ends in the refrigerator and make room for next weeks food. And I am so happy to finally be out of that stuffing. Now the question is, do we have more for Christmas, in which case you will see this again till next year. Considering how well the bread in the stuffing mix is seasoned however, I may buy it again and only make a small amount. The rest would be great to use in making a batter for the chick-fu for baking or frying. All I would need to do is run it through my Magic Bullet.

I am making more the chick-fu tonight, so hopefully the tutorial will be up in the next week or two. And tomorrow will be the big experiment, marinating the chick-fu and then baking it. I figured that if it should fail, I would have a great batter for making Socca or maybe use it to make an omelet.

Now for the excitement today. As I was walking in to my kitchen, this morning I went Eek!!!. What was on the wall. Why an anole. How it got in our apartment and then into the kitchen, we will never know. It took me half the day, but he is finally out of the kitchen, but still in the apartment, as far as I know. That picture you see was taken about 11:00 this morning, long after we woke up. Now does anyone know how to catch one of these creatures. And I do mean catch and release. Personally, I think that they are cute little creatures. But not in my kitchen!!!! (was I shouting there) My fear is that he will die in the apartment or that we will accidentally step on him, since he seems to be able to blend into his environment. Any help is appreciated.