Whole Foods Haul

First off today, a big thank you to Kristy for having the OATrageous Oatmeals giveaway, which I won! I eat oats nearly every morning, so I can't wait to delve into this cookbook. The savory oatmeals intrigue me.

This morning, Olivia and I attended storytime at Whole Foods. Afterwards we joined some friends on the patio, where we read the paper and let the kids run off some steam. I picked up a Suja Elements holiday flavor, Wassail To You. Oh my God, I want a whole case of this stuff! Cinnamon and vanilla...it's like drinking a cinnamon roll, you guys.

We also grabbed a Red Rabbit Cooperative Bakery vegan maple donut to share later.

Wearing Halloween tops after Halloween? That's how she rolls. There is no such thing as a fashion faux pas if you own it.

And we'll keep right on eating pumpkin spice everything, long into winter I'm sure. We brought home some So Delicious pumpkin pops. They have a strong coconut milk flavor that didn't really do it for me. Now they will probably linger in the freezer until after the Halloween candy is all gone.

I also searched for the new Field Roast sliced cheese, but my Whole Foods hasn't got it in stock yet. So I tried this Treeline creamy scallion cheese that always catches my eye, but I usually pass it up due to the price. It's really nice, great on flatbread or crackers. However, having just made a batch of Veganomicon cashew ricotta, I find the textures very similar and the homemade stuff quite a bit cheaper, so this may be a one-time purchase. Now, I need to track down that Field Roast! 

I also picked up a couple of The Bu kombuchas. Tropical flavor, with mango, passionfruit, and hibiscus, and also lavender flavor. $2 each, couldn't pass that up. I wonder why some brands of kombucha are $2 and some are like $4? #kombuchamysteries

A post-bath game of Memory...

She always wins.

Hanging at Whole Foods

The kids and I spent about two hours at Whole Food this afternoon. Kind of nutty. But the new WF by our house is super nice, with an awesome outdoor play area. So Jackson and Olivia played for a bit, then we went inside to grab lunch.

The kids had mac and cheese and fresh pineapple. I had a salad with mixed greens, kale, olives, and a falafel patty, dressed with olive oil and lemon juice. I also tried a little bit of patatas bravas. Guayaki mint yerba mate to drink.

After lunch, we headed back inside to pick up a lavender plant to give to my mom on Mother's Day.

My next batch of homemade kombucha won't be ready for a few more days so I picked up a jug of Buddha's Brew peach mint to tide us over. It's good but very sweet; I prefer the mint julep flavor.

A woman was offering samples of local Love Bean raw fudge spread, and it was too good to pass up bringing home a jar. We also grabbed some So Delicious almond milk ice cream to go along with it.

Friday has become ice cream day in our house.

After our frozen treat, the kids got to work making Mother's Day drawings for my mom.

Olivia wrote her name! First time. Proud mama moment.

Hope you have a nice Mother's Day, however you spend it. I was already treated to a brunch at Jackson's school yesterday. I get a kick out of these questionnaires the kids fill out each year. Apparently Jackson thinks I am the stereotypical vegetarian, always eating salad. Salad is pretty good, but pizza is better, haha!

Fossils and Gyros

The other day, I took Jackson and Livi to the Texas Natural Science Center with some of our play group friends. Jackson is getting slightly obsessed with dinosaurs, so I thought this would be a nice educational trip for him.

He was actually a little scared of the dinosaur bones, so we didn't spend a lot of time in that room. I guess he thought there would be "real" dinosaurs? It's hard to explain the bones to him, because he is only three. He doesn't know what "extinct" or "dead" means. Anyway, he really got a kick out of all the fossils that they had neatly catalogued in drawers. He kept opening the drawers and asking what everything was.

Olivia just chilled in her stroller, taking it all in. It's what she does.

For dinner, I made a recipe from Quick-Fix Vegan -- Seitan Gyros with Tzatziki Sauce. 

I needed some yogurt to make the tzatziki sauce, so I tried this So Delicious Greek Style yogurt, made with coconut milk. It worked perfectly -- didn't taste like coconut at all, and it's very thick and creamy.

I already had some seitan in the freezer, so I thawed out a portion and prepared it according to the directions. The thinner you can slice it, the better!

I stuffed whole wheat pitas with gyro "meat", lettuce, tomato, and olives. Tony and I enjoyed these gyros immensely.  The tzatziki sauce adds a lot of flavor, and the seitan is tangy (it's coated with lemon juice and red wine vinegar) and delicious. If you don't have this cookbook, I suggest checking it out.  As with all of Robin Robertson's books that I've owned, it's full of winners!

Miss Olive Fingers says hello.

So Delicious Review

Recently...OK, not so recently...back in July (sorry!)...So Delicious was awesome enough to send me some coupons to try out a variety of their dairy-free products.

The coconut milk creamer is rich and non-curdling in tea or coffee. It can also be used in cooking -- for example, to make a pasta sauce a little more decadent and creamy.

 

If you didn't know (I didn't), So Delicious coconut milk is nothing like the cans of thick coconut milk that you would use to make a curry. It's thin like a dairy or soymilk. It comes in original, unsweetened, and vanilla flavors. And it doesn't really taste like coconut at all, if you're worried about that.  I enjoyed it on my chia oats.

 

 

The only thing that stops me from buying it regularly is that one serving contains 25% of your daily saturated fat. So if you're using it on your morning cereal, and then you have some in your coffee, and then you have milk and cookies later, or whatever, you might be ingesting more saturated fat than you planned to. But I do buy it on occasion, just to switch things up from our usual soymilk.

We tried three different types of ice cream sandwich "Minis" -- vanilla (made with coconut milk), lowfat vanilla (made with soymilk), and lowfat neapolitan (made with soymilk).  They were all fabulous. A perfect little treat on a hot day -- which we had far too many of, back when we were sampling these products.

Next we tried the coconut milk yogurt.

We loved the chocolate flavor. It could be eaten as a dessert. I've bought it several times since I originally tried it.  I also sampled the mango flavor, but it had a tartness I didn't care for.

Next up, cultured coconut milk. I guess it's similar to a kefir drink. The live cultures are supposed to be beneficial.  We had the strawberry flavor -- there's also chocolate and vanilla.  It has a thick, smoothie-like texture that Jackson and Olivia love. I have bought this from time to time and it never lasts long, because they want to drink it all up.

Finally, coconut milk ice cream.  I love mint chocolate chip. I'm not sure why I bought the sugar-free variety, but there you go. 

Now this product, I would say, should be eaten as a very rare treat, as one serving contains 45% of your daily saturated fat. It's super rich, and pretty yummy.

I'm so very grateful to So Delicious for their generosity.  Do you like their products? Have you tried their holiday beverages yet? The nog has been calling to me, and then today at Natural Grocers I noticed there is also a mint chocolate drink. Yum!