The Lazy Vegan

I hate dealing with tofu.  The brand I buy comes in a plastic tub.  It seems so sloshy!  Even though I open it over a bowl, I end up spilling some on the counter every time.

I bought a tub of the Nasoya Super Firm Cubed Tofu.  Don’t even have to cut it up!

Opening the tub may be worse than the other type.  Instead of a big block of tofu to wiggle out, you’ve got hundreds of little cubes.

I was curious as to what the texture would be.  Would the ends be dry or colored because the tofu is cut up?  Nope!  This stuff is every bit as good quality as the tofu that comes in blocks.  The texture was fine and there was no discoloration that I could fine.  It tasted pretty good too.

At least now, I won’t have to cut any up.  All I have to do is open the ziploc bag and pour a few on my plate.

I’m not sure I’ll buy this again, though it tasted as good as the other brand I normally buy.  I’m just not sure it saves all that much time not having to cut it up myself.

Yachana Jungle Chocolate sounds interesting, doesn’t it?  A product with such an intriguing name is just asking you to try it! I bought two varieties:  Jungle Chocolate with Macadamia Nuts and Jungle Chocolate with Coconuts and Raisins.

First, I tried the Macadamia Nut version.  Reading the nutritional information shows this is a very basic snack.  These are the ingredients: beans, macadamia nuts, and sugar cane syrup.  The chocolate is in melted looking little chunks and the nuts are separate.  I tasted a handful and this stuff is good!  It would easily pass as my chocolate craving for the day.

There are only 3 grams of sugar, but the serving size is a bit deceiving.  The box is a little larger than a pack of cigarettes, but claims to have 6 servings inside. I did get seven servings out of but I was being pretty conservative.  I don’t think you could eat the whole box in one sitting, but even still that’s only 18 grams of sugar.  Far less than most low sugar snacks.

Next, I tried the raisin and coconut version.  The ingredients include: Cacao beans, raisins, coconut, and sugar cane syrup.  Again, their are very few ingredients in the product.  This has the same 3 grams of sugar/6 servings ratio.

I thought this tasted pretty good.  I found the raisins a little over powering.  I’m not a big fan of raisins, though.  I loved the coconut!

There are two more varieties:  Jungle Chocolate with Pineapple (don’t think I’ll go there!) and Jungle Chocolate with Brazil Nuts and Essense of Coffee. I’d like to suggest my own variety of Jungle Chocolate with Macadamia Nuts and Coconut.  That would really be good!

All in all, this is a good bite sized treat.  It’s tasty and doesn’t have alot of sugar.  Even if you devoured the whole box, you’d still be sitting at 18 grams of sugar.  Divide the box by 3 and you’ve got 6 grams a serving, which isn’t bad at all!

You can learn more about Yachana Jungle Chocolate by going to their website.

I loved radishes as a kid.  We would eat the red radishes raw mixed in with salad greens. But, their burp factor made them impossible to eat as an adult.

Until recently I had no idea of the variety of radishes.  I thought “red” was it!  And, I didn’t know that people cooked them.  So, why shouldn’t I give it a try?

I bought a bunch of Easter Egg radishes, which come in white, pink, red, and lavender.  I decided to steam them  in the microwave.  I scrubbed a small white one and small red one, figuring if it didn’t turn out, at least I wouldn’t be wasting much.  I left them whole, but removed the greens. I put them in a small glass bowl with a little water on the bottom, then cover them with the lid with a crack for ventilation.  I microwaved them on high for 2 minutes.

They turned out very well.  Soft but not chewy.  I chopped one up and put it on my vegetable salad.  It was pretty tasty.  Four hours later and no backlash.  I’ll eat the second one just to tempt fate.

It looks like I might be able to add radishes back to my diet.  I can’t eat them raw, but it looks like cooked radishes are okay.  I’m always happy when I can add something back.  It happens so rarely!

Pure Fit bars are another entry in the health/speciality nutrition bar category.  They are designed for celiacs and are supposed to be good for diabetics.

I tried the Pure Fit chocolate brownie nutrition bar.  I was a little dismayed at the 16 grams of sugar, so I cut it in half.  It’s a thick, chocolate bar, which a brownie texture.  I found the half a bar fairly filling.  Even though the bar didn’t seem very long, it was thick.

The taste is slightly bitter, but it was tasty.  Though it’s fruit juice sweetened, it didn’t seem to have that fruity taste that many of these products have.

Overall, it was a pretty good treat.  I wish it has less sugar though.  I don’t like to consume that much and I prefer a dark chocolate taste to a regular chocolate taste.  Not bad though.

I’m beginning to think that I need to get my eyes checked.  Every snack I’ve bought over the last couple of weeks appears to be smaller.  Is this a sign of the bad economic times we’re in?  Shrinking food?

Case in point, Nature Valley bars.  A year ago, they seemed to be longer and thicker.  I could eat one bar and feel satisfied.  The bars are shorter and thinner now.  When I eat one, I’m already reaching for the second.

Though they are shrinking, they seem to have the same amount of sugar and sodium.  How the heck does that work?

It’s not just Nature Valley bars.  I’ve noticed it with others stuff.  I’m not sure if they don’t changed their packaging or they add something to the mix that fluffs up the weight and makes it appear to be the same size.  Either way, they price hasn’t come down and it makes me feel like I’ve been cheated.

I bought a bag of the Uncle Ben’s Garden Vegetable Ready Rice. It proclaims “with peas, carrots, and corn”.

I didn’t really read the nutritional facts until I got it home.  Woah! 830 milligrams of sodium per serving, two servings per bag.  That wasn’t going to do!  I had some rice already made, so I mixed the two together.  At least, that cut the sodium level down.

I’m glad that I made vegetables to go with it.  I think there were 5 carrot pieces, 4 peas, and about 8 corn kernels in my serving.  Uncle Ben’s garden must be really wimpy if this is all that it can produce.

It was a tasty bag of rice without a plasticky taste.  It cooked well.  But, it had way too much sodium and didn’t live up to the Garden Vegetable name.  More vegetables, Uncle Ben!

I noticed that Target had a few varieties of Uncle Ben’s Ready to Serve Rice Mixes.  I bought a couple to test them out.

The first one I made was the “Whole Grain Brown Rice”.  It has no fat and only 15 mg. of sodium.  It cooked well.  The rice had that steamed texture and wasn’t clumpy.

The only thing I didn’t like is it’s mixed with oil.  Why do people cook rice with oil?  It makes it, well, oily.  The first night I ate it that way.  The second night I mixed it with Kashi Original Pilaf.  That worked well.  The rice texture was no longer oily.

Target only has 3 varieties, but I see on the Uncle Ben’s website that they sell many different types like Garden Vegetable, Jasmine, and Basmati.  I will probably buy more, but it will be something that I’ll mix with something else.  The oily texture is a turn off.

I was down with some sort of virus this week.  I didn’t feel like cooking, but I really wanted a warm bowl of soup.  Luckily, I can make up a quick bowl with a little ingenuity and my microwave.

All I needed was a fresh box of Pacific Vegetable Broth, cooked veggies, fresh garlic, and a rice cake (plain, unsalted preferred).  I poured some broth into my bowl and thinned it with a little water.  Then I added as many vegetables as I wanted.  I chopped up a clove of garlic and added that.  I put the whole mess in the microwave for 1 minute, 30 seconds.

After it’s heated, I broke up the rice cake into my bowl.  I mixed it all up and I had a pretty good meal!  It took me less than 10 minutes to put together a good bowl of soup.

I really like turnips, but they always seem to take a long time to boil on the stove.  I found out that they are much easier to cook in the microwave.

I wash the turnips and get rid of any rough spots.  Then I put them in a glass bowl with just a little bit of water so they won’t stick to the bottom.  If they are small, there is no need to cut them in half.  Though, I would cut larger ones in half to cut down on the time.  If you’re cooking them whole, poke a couple of holes with a fork. Put a lid on the top of the bowl, but leave an opening for the steam to escape.

Depending on the size of the turnips, microwave on high for 2 to 3 minutes.  They’ll be soft.  You can mash them or cut them up after they are cooked.

I’m not one for making New Year’s resolution because they seem destined to fail.  With the US economy doing so pourly, I have been forced to take a look at some of my own habits.  How can I get the most for my money, where can I cut back?

I noticed a terrible habit that I have.  I buy stuff to eat and then two or three weeks later I find moldy mush in the back of the vegetable drawer.  My intentions are noble, but my forgetfulness is legendary.  Vegetables that sounded good on Monday are forgotten by Wednesday.

I decided that my resolution would be to buy only what I need and only what I plan to use.  If I buy it, I have to finish it.  No throwing away a full bag of potatoes because I forgot they were there or I wasn’t in the mood.  I would attempt to eat everything I buy within reason.  Hey, I’m not eating anything moldy!  LOL

How I am I doing?  I got off to a rocky start.  With my family member in the hospital five days, my mind was on other things.  Then when he was released and brought home, we had some adjustments to make.

But, I reaffirmed myself on February 1st.  Since then I’ve done pretty darn good.  I’m throwing out less.  I get a certain sense of satisfaction when I empty a bag of vegetables.  It taste much better as a sandwich than it does in my garbage can.  It saves me money.  The more I make meals out of and the less I throw out is money saved.  Plus, I don’t feel nearly as guilty.  There are people starving all over the country in this bad economy.  It’s no time to be throwing out perfectly good food.

So that’s my new year’s resolution.  Did you make any food related resolutions this year?