Drink Wholesome PB Chocolate Vegan Protein Powder

I have tried quite a few vegan protein powders. Most of them have not gotten a second look from me because I do not like the aftertaste of stevia. I find that I only like stevia in leaf form and not in powder form. I would rather items contain sugar. When I recently was contact by Drink Wholesome to provide an honest* review their vegan protein powder, I was a bit reluctant. Once I saw that stevia was not an ingredient I agreed to give the powder a try.

One of the things that caught my eye was that it was only 6 ingredients: chickpeas, peanuts, coconut, cocoa, sea salt, and monk fruit. Protein powders are generally filled with many ingredients that are often not things we would generally put into our bodies. I eat all of these ingredients with the exception of monk fruit. It is a fruit though, so I can support that! I was also drawn to the flavor. Chocolate and peanut butter? Yes, please!

My samples arrived and I tested them unsweetened soymilk. I did not follow the directions and tried to mix the powder with a spoon instead of using a shaker bottle or blender. Note to other users: follow the directions! This powder needs the force of a shaker bottle or blender to dissolve the clumps. Once I corrected the issue, I was able to enjoy the after workout drink.

I really enjoyed the taste! It was nice not to have the overpowering aftertaste of stevia. The drink was slightly sweet and tasted like chocolaty goodness! The powder does not have a lot of other vitamins and nutrients beyond protein and fiber, but that is okay with me. Soy milk has much of the added vitamins and minerals that I am looking for in a drink.

Overall, I really like this product and would buy it as an after workout protein shake. The current price is about $25 (it is currently on sale) for 14 servings which makes it a tad more expensive than the other vegan supplements that I am able to find in stores. I compared it to a couple of other brands in pricing and it is about 30-40 cents more per serving with the sale price. Once the product returns to its original price of $28. However, I think that the whole and recognizable ingredients make this powder excel above the rest. The cost is worth it to me!

* Do you have a product that you would like us to review? We are happy to accept samples of your vegan product for an honest review. Please visit here to read more

Oma’s Own FUNoodles and Soup Cubes

I was recently contacted by Oma’s Own asking me to try some of their products for an honest review to be posted on our site. I gladly accepted when I learned that their products were both vegan and gluten free. The package arrived with bags of freeze dried fruit chips, vegan soup cubes and FUNoodles. The soup cubes came in three flavors: Grandma’s No Chicken, Grandma’s No Beef and Grandma’s Vegetable. The FUNoodles came in two flavors: Spicy Noodles and Grandma’s No Chicken Noodles.

It took me a little while to try everything that came in the box, but I found both of the products in this review ended up being tasty and useful. Having the soup cubes ended up saving dinner one night as I ran out of my homemade vegetable broth and was able to use the cubes in one of my favorite soup recipes. I tried the FUNoodles during my first week of work at my new job and found that it was a nice solution when I didn’t have any leftovers in fridge and had not had a chance to run to the store. The FUNoodles were filling and delicious.

Product: Oma’s Own FUNoodles and Soup Cubes

Overall Grade: A

Pros FUNoodles: 

• They are convenient and easy to use.
• Lunch was ready in five minutes.
• It is a good option on days that you need a quick lunch, but don’t have time to pack food.
• Both soups had a nice flavor.
• The spicy flavor was just spicy enough for my liking, but not too much to overpower the true flavor of the soup.
• The Grandma’s No Chicken soup had a nice mild flavor reminiscent of meat broths.
• They are gluten free.

Pros Soup Cubes:

• The bullion cubes all have a rich flavor.
• The cubes dissolved quickly in hot water, unlike other bullion cubes.
• It is nice to have a no Chicken and no broth flavor that is different than the vegetable flavor. The variety of cubes offer more options for cooking.
• A half of a cube makes a full cup of broth, so the cubes will make a good bit of broth.
• They are a convenient solution when you don’t have broth on hand.
• They are gluten free.

Cons FUNoodles: 

• The cups came with a plastic throw away fork which may add to the convenience, but it adds to the waste of this product. These forks don’t seem necessary as it is easy to bring a reusable fork along.
• I like the convenience of this product, but I generally don’t buy products like this as they generate more waste than I am comfortable with- even without the fork.
• I would have liked to see more vegetables and/or a protein in the cups like tofu or beans.

Cons Soup Cubes

• I followed the instructions for the ratio to make broth, 1/2 cup per cup of water and the broth was a bit too salty for my taste.

Happy Cow Vegan Protein Shake and Meal Replacement

The makers of Happy Cow Vegan Protein Shake and Meal Replacement contacted us recently and asked if we would try their product.*  Smoothies are a regular occurrence in my household and we go through the protein shake mixes monthly. I happily accepted as I am always on the search for affordable vegan protein powders. The containers arrived quickly and I was pleasantly surprised by the design. It is different from other commercial shake containers with a picture of a cartoon cow and a black background. It stood out to me immediately that I it was a vegan product and that always makes me smile. I would be drawn to this product in stores. For now it is sold online through Amazon, but I would love to see this product in stores soon. Product: Happy Cow Vegan Protein Shake and Meal Replacement, Vanilla and Chocolate flavors

Overall Grade: A

Pros:

• Great packaging design with an adorable cow. I like that the company advertises boldly that it is a vegan protein shake.
• They have an offering of two common flavors: vanilla and chocolate. Nothing too weird or fancy.
• The products both have a delicious smell that is decedent and inciting.
• They list a good amino acid profile on the container. Many of the other vegan shakes/meal replacements either don’t contain amino acids or haven’t taken the time to label them on the containers. This is important to some people. The more nutritional information, the better.
• The serving amount is one scoop, whereas many other vegan shakes require two or more scoops.
• I have not compared pricing very closely between all other protein powders, but this seems to be on par (or a little cheaper) with the price of other vegan brands. Currently, it is listed for $25 on Amazon.

Cons:

• I wasn’t a fan of this product on its own (mixed with water only). Not many, if any, protein shakes taste good on their own. They all seem to have to be mixed with a vegan milk and other ingredients like fruits, vegetables, nuts and/or seeds.

 

*Please note that we are happy to try vegan products for an honest review. If you are interested, please contact us.

 

 

 

 

Go Veggie Grated Parmesan Style Topping

We took a little hiatus from writing reviews. During that time, we sampled a lot of products! We have quite a few products that we would like to share with you, so stay tuned!

When I think of Italian food, I remember back to my childhood and the shaker of fresh grated Parmesan that sat on the table for every meal. My mom and grandma used to grate it in the food processor and put it out at almost every meal. It was like ketchup, we put it on everything.  Since going vegan, I have been on the search for a vegan grated Parmesan that tastes like the dairy version from my childhood. The product from Go Veggie, is not this product. I was sorely disappointed. We believe in honest reviews here, so I am not holding back in my critique of this product.

Product: Go Veggie Grated Parmesan Style Topping

Overall Grade: D

Pros:

• It is a vegan cheese product.
• Unlike other vegan cheese products, this has protein and calcium. While most vegans know we don’t need the extra protein and calcium, having them in products helps win over omnivores.

Cons:

• This product tastes gross! I could barely stomach the taste. It doesn’t come close to the fresh Parmesan taste or from what I remember from the store bought shaker container.
• This product smelled like rotten feet. One sniff made me gag. I had to plug my nose when I sprinkled it on my food. This product is getting a D for this con alone. Food should not make me gag by the smell.
• This is not something I’d keep at my table or serve to anyone. No one in my family liked it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Melty So Delicious Mozzarella

It still feels peculiar as a vegan to exclaim “I like cheese!”, but I do!  When I learn of a new vegan cheese, or new to me, I jump at the chance to give it a try. On Instagram, I started to see buzzing that So Delicious created a line of vegan shreds. Being a fan of their ice cream treats, I knew I wanted to give these shreds a try. After a couple of months of waiting for them to appear in my local stores, I finally found them at an area Whole Foods and grabbed one of the last two on the shelf. I am now able to get all three flavors regularly in my area.

 

Product: Mozzarella Flavored Shreds, by So Delicious

Overall Grade: A

Pros:

• The shreds are gluten free, vegan, soy free and non-gmo verified.
• The shreds melt well. They melted instantly in my microwave testing and quickly in the oven. I have tried them in mac n cheese, nachos, and a sandwich.
• This cheese tastes good out straight of the package. Hold the presses! Yes, you read that right. I have tried the Mozzarella and Cheddar and they taste reminiscent of their dairy counterparts, as is. Watch yourself as you might eat the whole bag before it heads to food!
• They are perfect for pizza! I haven’t yet tried them on pizza, but seeing how they worked on other foods convinced me that I have to buy another bag and make pizza.
• This product would be a great one to share with your dairy eating friends to show them how delicious veganism alternatives can be!
• They have three flavors: Mozzarella, Cheddar, and Cheddar Jack. I hope to try Cheddar Jack soon!

Cons:

• If you are a reader of the blog, you can probably already anticipate the first con. Price. Like all other vegan brand name cheese options, the bag was pricey. I am pretty sure it was priced the same as Daiya at over $5 a bag! Vegans aren’t made of money!
• An area where I feel that vegan cheese makers are failing is in the nutritional content. Many people who eat dairy cheese do so because it has calcium and protein. Yet very few, if any, of the vegan brands have protein and calcium. This brand has zero for both. While I don’t need to get these from vegan cheeses in my diet, I know this could be a impediment to others switching to vegan cheese.
• It is fattening! It is made from coconut and has 7g of fat per serving. I looked up a brand of dairy mozzarella and it was only 3g of fat per serving.
• It is not available as widely as other vegan brands. I hope it will be soon!

 

 

 

 

 

GreenBeat Veggie Burger Press

We were recently contacted by Greenbeat and asked to review a three-in-one veggie burger press and the corresponding eBook.* We can only review and endorse the veggie burger press as the recipe eBook is not vegan.** The product comes with two different size presses, large and small, and wax paper sheets. There is also an attachment that pops off to for an option to make a large stuffed veggie burger.

 

The veggie burger press arrived quickly and I decided a plan of attack by finding, and changing, a veggie burger recipe that I wanted to make. I also bought Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger because I was excited to have stuffed veggie burgers with vegan cheese. The Beyond Meat burgers are too greasy to use in the press for small or stuffed burgers. Even with the wax paper, they did not work very well and ended up falling apart. The homemade veggie burger worked well with or without the wax paper. I tried the homemade burger as a large and small patty.

  

Product: Greenbeat Veggie Burger Press

Overall Grade: A-

Pros:

• This system allows for easy veggie burger forming, while keeping your hands mostly clean.
• The system is compact. The pieces all fit inside each other, allowing for the system to take up only a small space in a drawer or cabinet.
• Using the press allows for uniform sized, professional looking veggie burgers.
• The product is easy to purchase through Amazon.
• The cost is a little under $16 and should make homemade veggie burgers cheaper than buying packaged ones in the store on a regular basis.
• Helps reduce the consumption of processed veggie burgers. Especially if you use fresh and non-processed ingredients.
• It is a great way to be accountable to yourself by knowing what is in the food you consume.

Cons:

• Even though we are not reviewing the eBook, we found it to be a con since most of the recipes contain dairy and egg. They can be substituted with vegan items, but the dairy and egg industries are full of torture, pain, and death and we cannot promote that. We hope that the company will consider making more, if not all of its eBook cruelty-free.
• The attachment to make the stuffed veggie burger was very difficult to remove. I had to wash and dry off the press, and make sure my hands were dry, and I still struggled to open it. I only made two stuffed burgers, but making large amounts would have been frustrating.

  

* We will gladly accept vegan products for an honest review.

** If you purchase the veggie burger press, please note that the recipe eBook that you will get a link for is not vegan. Many of the recipes include dairy and egg and therefore, we do not endorse the eBook. We recommend using your own recipes.

 

 

Fresh Vegan Mozzerella by Miyoko’s Creamery

I have been waiting to try Miyoko’s vegan buffalo mozzarella for what feels like years, but I think it really has only been a year or two since it has been sold to the public. Every time I have tried to order it online, it was out of stock. It is finally being sold in stores and I jumped at the chance to give this product a try! It lived up to all my expectations and MORE! I am having a hard time locating it where I live, but was able to find it on a trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. I am hoping for it to be more widely available in my local stores that carry Miyoko’s cheeses and butter.

Overall Grade: A

Product: Fresh Vegan Mozz by Miyoko’s Creamery

Pros:

• This cheese is amazing! It had a texture and taste very close to what I remember fresh mozzarella made from cow’s milk.
• I find this cheese to be a huge win for animals. It tastes close to the original and is made without cruelty to cows!
• This needs another bullet point- the cheese tastes amazing and functions just like its dairy counterpart! It melts! It also tastes great straight out of the package.
• This is amazing on pizza!
• It is becoming more readily available in health stores across the country.
• It does not have a lot of ingredients. The ones it does have are all pronounceable and ones that I am familiar with.
• This product is free of cholesterol, lactose, eggs, gluten and soy!
• This product is organic and non-GMO!

Gluten free pizza (crust review coming soon) with Miyoko’s Fresh Vegan Mozz, Basil and tomatoes from my garden, and tomato sauce

Cons:

• The cheese is fattening at 10g a fat per serving. The serving sizes are small.
• The cheese has only 1g of protein and NO calcium. If we are going to get people to switch to cheeses made without the use of animals, we need it to mirror or come close to the nutrition of dairy cheese. I get my calcium mostly from greens, but new vegans or those thinking of making the switch would be more enticed by a product that had some nutrition to it.
• This product was $9.99 for 8oz! That is outrageous! I know this cheese is cultured, but this is not affordable for the average person. This will be a once-in-a-while purchase. I feel like I say this on so many reviews, but vegan products need to be more affordable for the average person.

Banza! It’s Pasta!

I have been hearing about this new pasta craze on social media and I was curious to give it a try. Since the pasta is sold at Costco, I only had the option of a large box. I held my breath and gently tossed the box in my cart, hoping that I didn’t commit to pasta we would not like. To my delight, we really enjoyed the flavor! I was also pleased with the high fiber and protein in the nutritional values. The best part for me was that it was a gluten free pasta that did not fall apart when cooked or reheated. Many rice based pastas do not last well as leftovers. They often get crunchy and/or fall apart.

Overall Grade: A

Product: Banza Pasta, Rotini Shapped

Pros:

• This product is becoming widely available in stores across the US.
• The pasta has a delicious taste. The flavor and texture seem very close to wheat pasta.
• It is certified gluten free and GMO-free.
• It contains only four ingredients and they are all things that I was familiar with – no funky ingredients.
• A serving has a whopping 14g of protein and 8g of fiber! Wowsa!

Cons:

• It is over $4 a box (if you look at the smaller individual boxes). Wheat pasta can be purchased for under a dollar. It doesn’t have the same nutrition, but if we want people to switch to healthier products, we need to make them more affordable.
• There are two serving sizes on the box, 2oz and 3.4oz. The 3.4oz serving is 340 calories!! I know this is equivalent to wheat pasta, but I wish it were lower calories. If you are not calorie-obsessed like I am right now, then please ignore this con.

The Beyond Burger Goes Beyond Expectations

I have to be honest, I have been excited about this burger since I heard about it a year ago. I have been waiting patiently, or not so patiently, for it to be available in my area. The marketing has wooed me and I have been dreaming of a vegan burger that can draw in omnivores. When I saw this was available at my local whole foods, I became diligent in trying to get my hands on a box or two. It was hard since they were selling like vegan hotcakes. When I got my hands on a package, I decided to make a cheeseburger on a gluten free bun, with onions, vegan mayo, and BBQ sauce. If I would have had pickles in the house, they would have been on top as well.

I had read reviews that my house would smell of meat when I cooked the burger and that I should be prepared to be disgusted by the look of the burger. Neither of those things happened. My home smelled delicious, but not of meat- it was more like a grilled veggie smell. The pinkness of the burger did not upset me because it still didn’t look like meat to me. I was a bit taken back by all of the oil in the burger and the calorie count. I knew this would only be an occasional treat for me. Fast forward to dinner and my first bite and I loved it! The texture was a bit “meaty”, but not anymore than other veggie burgers that are intended to imitate meat.  It has been decades since I’ve had meat and this reminded me of a good veggie burger. It had an aftertaste of what I remember Boca burgers tasting like, only better. I am very excited for the omnivores in my life to give this a try at their next BBQ. This seems like a great burger for vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores.

Overall Grade: A

Product: Beyond Meat, The Beyond Burger

Pros:

• This burger becoming more available in stores across the country. Right now it is in Whole Foods and Safeways.
• It is packaged like meat to entice omnivores.
• It is vegan, gluten free, soy free, and delicious!
• It has no cholesterol
• It has 20g of protein!
• This needs its own bullet point, it is DELICIOUS!
• It does well on a pan and on the grill.
• It looks like a burger to entice omnivores.

Cons:

• It is pricey! Whole foods sells it for almost $6 and there are two patties equaling a quarter of a pound. If we want to entice omnivores, this product needs to be cheaper or comparable to two meat burgers.
• It is too fattening for me. The amount of grease that came out, was a bit much for me. I don’t mind this food on occasion, but I can’t do this on a regular basis. The calorie count was also a bit high for my tastes.
• The plastic packaging is a bit much and seems wasteful. The container could be smaller.
• Most veggie burgers are offered in packages of 4 or 6. Two patties is just odd. We have a family of three, so we have to buy two packages for almost $12!!

Crab and a Clean Conscience- Gardein Crabless Cakes

Ahoy maidens and mateys!  Veganswashbuckler is back, or you may call me Squashbuckler for short, as me fellow Vegan reviewer Amanda will do.  The crew quite likes it, and I admit it be less of a mouthful than how I was christened.  Just don’t call me late for dinner, especially if Gardein Crabless Cakes be on the menu.  Arr!

These fine morsels deserve the grade of A.

Now, before I became a Vegan pirate, when I was a wee little corpse munching scalawag, methinks I tended to avoid the crab cakes.  I never cared for mayo, and even today I fear the Vegan version.  Nevertheless, if ye like the stuff, by all means check this out, from another of our Vegan reviewers, Dawn.  Nevertheless, blindfold any miserable corpse muncher and give them a taste test, and I dare them to tell me these cakes are crabless, ye scoundrels and crab steaming poltroons!  And, since they already be blindfolded, make them walk the plank unless they reform their ways!

These tender chunks of delight are a treat lightly fried, and they come out crispy on the outside and juicy in the center.  They have the essence of the briny deep, they do, and a fine texture that will leave ye in amazement.  Add these yummy fries as a side, courtesy of another of our Vegan reviewers, Julie, and ye will have yerself a mighty fine repast with little effort.  Tell the chef to have the night off, but to take it easy on the grog and bring yer ship back in one piece.

The only real criticism I have of these nuggets is that they’re a bit tinier than ye think, and they only come ten to a package.  Ye may be left a little unsatisfied, but the flavor is a big winner.