Gardein Seven Grain Crispy Tenders

Tonight, I was in the mood for a quick dinner, so I decided to make Gardein Seven Grain Crispy Tenders with a side salad.  The Gardein tenders took 15 minutes in the toaster, but, in retrospect, I should have left them in a bit longer, as the breading didn't crisp up as much as I would have liked.  I'll cook them for longer the next time, but, in the meantime, I prefer the Mandarin Chik'n.

I think it's also funny that the "serving size" is two tenders.  Does anyone eat two little tenders?  And the five tenders I had aren't really even that scary from a nutrition standpoint: 250 calories, 12 grams of fat, 20 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber.  The sodium would clock in at 600mg.  Maybe they thought the fat to calorie ratio was a little scary?  Also, after 75 minutes of vinyasa yoga, I am still hungry.

My side salad was baby spinach, raw mushrooms, grape tomatoes, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.  We've had half a lemon in the fridge for awhile.  I've wrapped it tightly in foil, and I've been squeezing the lemon on my salads over the past few days.  Much better than bottled lemon juice!

I Have Found Shangri-La and it is Vegan Cream Cheese

I love bagels and cream cheese.  I'll just throw that out there.  They may very well be my desert island food.  I love me a good chewy bagel and a huge schmear of cream cheese, the thicker the layer the better.

So, needless to say, when I decided to follow a vegan diet, I missed my bagels and cream cheese.  I'd have bagels and Earth Balance or bagels and hummus.  But, it wasn't the same.  And, since most vegan cream cheeses, if not all, are soy-based, with my allergies, I resigned myself to not having them.  And, to be honest, bagels and cream cheese were what usually made me fall off the vegan wagon.  They are my vegan kryptonite.

However, with my recent discovery that I can tolerate non-GMO soy products, I decided to check out Galaxy Nutritional Foods' Vegan Cream Cheese.  While it's not a dead ringer for cream cheese, it hits the spot enough for me to not miss the dairy variety.

Nutritionally, the Galaxy is neck and neck with Philadelphia, so if you're looking for what's "healthier," it's a draw in terms of fat, saturated fat, protein, and sodium.  So, you might choose the Galaxy if you don't eat dairy for ethical reasons, or if you're lactose intolerant or otherwise sensitive to dairy.

For me, this product is a perfect example of how you might use processed foods in moderation to make a plant-based or vegan diet more manageable.  I still absolutely believe that a healthy plant-based diet focuses mainly on . . . well . . . plants.  Today, I had a big bowl of avocado and tomato for breakfast, a ginormous spinach, carrot, broccoli, onion, cucumber and sunflower seed salad for lunch, an orange and peanuts as my pre-yoga snack, and leftover farro alfredo with carrots and broccoli for dinner.   But, if eating vegan cream cheese on my (whole grain!) bagels makes me less likely to throw up my hands and start eating dairy again, I'm all for it.

Vegan Farro Alfredo

I was all set to just do a quick concoction with my farro and whatever I had in the fridge.  But, right before I left work, I saw a Facebook post by Made Just Right by Earth Balance for Vegan Fettuccine Alfredo that looked absolutely delicious.  I had a number of ingredients already in the fridge at home, so I decided to do a farro alfredo.

I followed the recipe fairly closely, with a few changes.  First, I cut the tofu a bit smaller than the recipe suggested, and broke it up with a spatula as I cooked it.  I used Nasoya's Extra Firm Tofu Plus, which is fortified with B6, B12, D and Calcium.  It never hurts to get extra of these vitamins!  There's only 8 grams of protein per serving, which surprised me, especially compared to last night's Gardein dish, which had 17 grams.

Anyhow, I don't think I drained the tofu as well as I should have, as it didn't brown as much as the picture did.  I did also elect to season it with white pepper and sea salt before adding the veggies, rather than wait to season at the end as the recipe suggested.

I also omitted the peas, as I am not a pea lover.  In retrospect, I could have upped the broccoli and the carrots to compensate, but it didn't occur to me at the time.  Since I had pre-cooked the farro last night, I added it into the veggies with a few minutes to go to warm it through.  Also, I used unsweetened almond milk instead of soy milk, since I had an open carton of almond milk in the house.  I also used Italian Seasoning rather than just basil, and I reseasoned the whole mix with sea salt and white pepper after adding the sauce into the veggie and farro mix.

I was definitely happy with this dish - it was creamy and flavorful, but perhaps a bit on the heavy side for a weeknight dinner.  Granted, it was a lot lighter than the non-vegan version of an Alfredo.  To lighten it up a bit, you can probably omit the tofu.  Also, the husband was even willing to try it and pronounced it good and repeatable.  I have some leftovers in the fridge, so we'll see how it reheats!

I Am Jack's Human Science Fair Experiment: Or How I Learned That I May Not Be Allergic to ALL Soy Products

When I was diagnosed with a soy allergy in the early 2000's, I assumed that it was something I randomly developed.  After all, as a kid, I lived on terriyaki chicken from Yanagi Too at the Cherry Hill Mall Food Court.  However, when I was reading John Robbins' Food Revolution and Diet For a New America, he mentioned that in the late nineties, a new variety of soy that was genetically modified came on the market. 

The timing of the "new soy" piqued my curiosity.  Could I only be allergic to certain varieties of soy, just like I can't tolerate walnuts and hazelnuts, but I have no trouble with other tree nuts?  It's not impossible to follow a vegan diet without soy, but being able to eat the occasional soy product would sure be helpful.  So, I made a note to one day test this theory that I'm allergic to the "new soy," but not the "old soy."

Last weekend, I finally decided to bite the proverbial bullet and try some organic, non-GMO tempeh.  To be safe, I cooked it separately from some veggies, even using a separate spoon.  I ate it and had no reaction.  Not even a runny nose.  It didn't taste so hot, probably because I burned it a little due to my inexperience cooking tempeh, but it was improved the following night when I reheated it in a homemade tomato sauce.


Tonight, I had experiment #2 - Gardein Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick'n.  I was excited to experiment with Gardein because I've seen it on a number of restaurants vegan menus and I wanted to see if it might be an options for me if I eat out.  Gardein has both fresh and frozen vegan meet substitutes, and the ingredients actually aren't so scary - soy protein isolate, vital wheat gluten, pea protein, carrot and beetroot fiber, etc.  It's also got 17g of protein and 20% of the DV for iron.  On the sodium side, it's not too bad either - 260 mg without sauce and 325g with sauce.

I prepared the Gardein according to package directions, sauteing the Chick'n in oil on medium high heat.  The package said to use a non-stick pan and I definitely will do that next time, as a lot of the crust stuck to my stainless steel pan, but a little bit of wine and the sauce packet helped remedy that.  Unfortunately, that did mean that the breading came off my Chick'n, so I'll use our non-stick next time.

It wasn't bad at all - it reminded me of the chicken you get with Chinese take-out.  Granted, it's been about four years plus since I've eaten chicken, so my memory might be a little fuzzy.  More importantly, no sneezing, no wheezing and no upset stomach and other unpleasantness, so we can mark Gardein on my safe to eat list! 

Needless to say, I have been a bit like a kid in a candy store over the past few weeks, bookmarking recipes I had normally written off as unattainable (Tofu Scramble!  Tofu Lasagna!  Tempeh Bacon!).  Yeah, it's great that I've found food that doesn't make me sick, but I do know that a lot of the soy-based products, GMO-free or no, are still processed foods.  And, we're still not sure if I'm going to have a bad reaction to other soy products I haven't tried.  However, being able to eat organic/GMO free soy does give me a lot more options, especially when eating out at restaurants.  Also, in my mind, it makes it especially easy for me to really kick dairy products, which make me almost as miserable as the "new soy" do, but I tend to eat when I felt a yen for "comfort foods," like a bagel and cream cheese.  Case in point - I found a GMO-free soy cream cheese by Galaxy Foods that'll be checking out this week.

I am going to allow myself some minimal indulgence for a week or two, but also stick to my diet of whole, plant based foods - whole grains, beans, fruits and vegetables. I reminded myself of that tonight by having a small amount of Gardein and a big side salad of spring mix, red and yellow tomatoes and olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  And tomorrow, I'll be having farro and fava beans with some veggies.

I'll try and keep everyone posted on other discoveries!