Field Roast Vegan Mini Corn Dogs & Odwalla Vegan Shakes

I normally don't care for fake meats because I never liked the taste of real meat growing up.  Going vegetarian was overly easy for me because of that.  However, with all of the new vegan products coming out these days I'm not opposed to trying them at least once.  You never know unless you try, right?  There are very few vegan meats I would buy often.  I could probably count them on 1 hand, actually.  But then there is what I would consider 'convenience and social' storebought vegan foods.  By that I mean, if I am going to a BBQ or camping I might buy them just to have them to be more social.  I think this is one of those items.  Field Roast Mini Corn Dogs.  They were one of the more tasty products I have found but I would put it on that 'convenience and social' list of things.  I wouldn't eat this product every week but I'm glad it's an option.

2 other items I have tried for the first time recently have been these two Odwalla Vegan Shakes.  They are made with Almond Milk and are clearly marked VEGAN.

The first one is the Mocha Latte.  It was ok.  I didn't love it so much that I have to buy it over and over again but I was grateful I was able to find it locally and chug it down last week.  I really thought I would ADORE it but it was just 'ok'.

I'm not loving the press photos of these shakes because they look a lot lighter in color than they actually are when you hold them in your hand.  The photo is a bit misleading, I think.

Oddly, the other one I grabbed was this Snickerdoodle one and I thought I would try it and not love it but I ended up liking it way better than the Mocha Latte one. 

In other news - I'm having a hard time getting into Christmas Shopping and the Christmas Season this year.  One of these days I will elaborate on that more but not now.

This past weekend we attended our last craft/vendor show as Wildtree Reps.  We were involved with the product for 9 years and thought after MANY corporate changes this past year we would call it quits.  It was nice while it lasted and we still LOVE the product line but with everything else going on such as our full-time work, lots of volunteering, my niece and other family happenings, we thought the time has come to move on.

Get In My Belly!

Once again I have a lot to share with you but very little time at the moment to write one long and thought out post so I will have to do mini posts I guess.  Better than no posts at all?  I'll let you be the judge.

I'll start off by saying there is more where this comes from.  This first photo is one of the new-to-me Kombuchas I have tried lately.  I picked it up at The Whole Foods Co-Op in Erie.  This past weekend was the first time in a LONG TIME that I was able to make some great grocery hauls and SILLY ME I put everything away before taking photos so I will be sharing those trips with you individually at some point.

One of the highlights of Sunday was that we were able to travel to Mentor, OH, and visit Melt again!  YAY!  I LOVE Melt because there are MANY Vegan Options!  The first time DH and I went together we both tried the Vegan Tofu Wings!  He LOVED them!  Yes...HE...who is FAR from veg LOVED them!  Come to find out their TOFU WINGS are (one of their) best selling apps!  Even popular among the meat eaters!  This is the photo of the Sweet BBQ ones I tried this time around!  YUM!

In the photo above I chose the Vegan Ranch!  This next photo is are the Spicy BBQ Tofu Wings.  He got one order and I got another order but we ended up sharing both of them!  He ordered regular Bleu Cheese (not vegan) but I was stoked he LOVES these Tofu Wings so much!

We ended up ordering our dinner to go, too!  We learned a trick from the waiter.  If ordering to go and eating the sandwiches at another time you pop them open face in the oven or toaster oven at 350 degrees for 5 to 10 minutes and BAM!  Just like you ordered them at the restaurant!  Of course the sandwich he got - to go - wasn't veg - but mine was!  I went with the Mushroom Melt.  I will have to share that at another time!

At Melt they also have vegan Perogies!  They make their own from what I understand!  They are tasty!  I think they were supposed to be with vegan cheese and vegan sour cream.  I think they may have forgotten those items but they were still YUMMERS!  DH also liked these, too!  They have their own "kraut" which is different from what I think Sauerkraut would be but it's their own so I'm game!  It was cabbage and onions, I believe and they put it on just about anything!  I'm been a while since I have had perogies because most of them have dairy in them - at least the ones I see at the stores!  If I had more time and patience I would try making them myself...but I don't!

MidWeek Munchies - Vegan Snack Chip & Sticks!

Today is Wednesday and that means it's the beginning of another MidWeek Munchies week!  So if you have anything vegan to share link up below!  It can be a munchie you made or one you bought!  If you did an online purchase of interesting vegan products, found them locally, or were gifted them!  If you picked some items from your garden or farmers market we would love to see them!  Link up at the end of this post!

For my post, today, I wanted to share a few snack finds that I have grabbed this past week!  This first one is Eatrageous Sweet and Smokey BBQ (sticks)...they were yummers!

Next up are Better Chip Spinach and Kale Whole Grain Chips which were darned tasty!  I also bought the Chipotle flavor, too!  YUM!

BOTH were clearly marked vegan on the bag!  Why aren't all products so simple to identify, eh!?

I made an online purchase yesterday that I might save for next week's MidWeek Munchies.  I also have a pile of posts that I need to finish up!
Everything from recipes, reviews, and much more!  What do you have up your sleeve as of late?

An InLinkz Link-up

Recipes & Info for a Soup, Smoothie, and Jerky!

In case you are getting sick of seeing all of my vacation photos I thought I would get back to posting some food!  It's been extremely busy since we've been back home - I can't believe it's already been a month that we've been back!  WOW!  

Anyhow...to the food, eh!?

Above you will see some of the posts I have been doing for The Raw Food World NEWS Site lately.  I will try and be better about cross posting them here on my blog, too!  First up is the recipe I did for the Raw Vegan Creamy Tomato Soup.  I paired that with some info on how it can help strengthen bones.  Below that you will see a photo and excerpt from the Blackberry Orange Smoothie Recipe I did and I wrote about how it may help with healthier skin.  And in the last of those 3 posts you will see a recipe I did for Tofu Jerky that may help with Type-2 Diabetes.  As I post this I see that I have a typo in the first line - OH MY!  I will be changing that very soon!  It's supposed to read I am NOT a 'pro' when it comes to tofu!  Eeek!

Waste NOT! Creamy Carrot Garlic Dressing & EZ BBQ Tofu

There are just some things I can't stand CANNED.  Peas is one of them and Carrots are another one.  YES...FRESH is best and frozen is still good but sometimes I can't get around canned.  PLUS...somehow acquired a 'thing' of CANNED Carrots!  BLAH!  Instead of throwing it away I really wanted to USE the can of carrots in some way!  I THINK I FIGURED IT OUT!!!!  Last night I made this Creamy Carrot Garlic Dressing and it turned out pretty good, actually!  I used a half can of carrots, 2 heaping tablespoons of Tahini, the juice of 1 lime, 2 Cloves of Garlic, 2 to 3 T dried Cilantro, and some water.  It has a nice kick to it with a hint of sweet.

Another thing I did last night was an EZ BBQ Tofu Sandwich.  All I did was use what I had left of my Wildtree Cactus Pete's Agave BBQ Sauce and added about 2 T of Tahini to it.  I cheated and sliced some tofu and pan fried it first and then covered it in the sauce and baked it at about 400 for 20 minutes.  I was pleasantly surprised at this out come!  You can use just about any BBQ Sauce, really.  And instead of Tahini you could probably use Peanut Butter or any other kind of 'nut butter'. 

Just a quick post today - but I hope to be back tomorrow with another post!