Category Archives: Grocery

Lucky Charms Taste-A-Like

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Lucky Charms was one of my favorite “sweet” cereals growing up. At that time, I wasn’t veg and would save all the marshmallows for the last. It was really more dessert than breakfast for me and honestly, my parents were so health conscious, I think we only had a few boxes my entire youth. And most of those were at grandma’s house.

Since becoming veg, I haven’t thought much about Lucky Charms until last night. My husband went to Trader Joe’s to pick up some food to re-stock our poor bear cupboards. He brought home Vanilla Almond Clusters cereal. Of course, I had to taste it almost immediately out of pure curiosity.

The first thing I thought was “Lucky Charms”. There are no marshmallows, but if you close your eyes and imagine dehydrated marshmallows, it tastes almost identical. You should try it. For dessert, of course. :)

Planet Organics

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I rarely read through the booklets of coupons/advertisements that come through our mail. But this time, I happened to flip through the papers and ran across one from Planet Organics. (I found it sort of ironic that they were joining the mass mailer bad for the planet train, but that’s a topic for another time).

Planet Organics is an organic grocery home delivery service with locally grown produce and natural & organic grocery items. You can sign up for a service where they deliver fresh produce and/or grocery goods in a variety of sizes and preferences. Delivery can be either weekly or every other week and prices range from $32-$75 per box.

I really want to try this. I’m forever buying veggies and fruits at the store and then running out or they go bad before I use them. I need a few veggies and fruits each week. Plus, I think something like this would make me branch out and use other vegetables in my meals rather than the same ‘ol standbys.

(If anyone uses this service, let me know how it is!)

Amy’s Organics

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I’ve always had a love for Amy’s Organics products. They are the perfect go-to meals when I have nothing else in the house and want nice, hot, comfort food. Plus, being all vegetarian (some vegan), I can get the old favorites in a meat-free, quick and easy version – veggie loaf, shepherd’s pie, pot pie, etc. And on top of my own love for their food, I support and appreciate what they stand for.

Since I already liked their food, you can imagine my excitement when I ran across their new line of Light In Sodium products. That’s always the problem with pre-packaged, frozen food. It seems to have way too much sodium. But now, I can get some of my favorite Amy’s food lower sodium (yay for me and for all the other quick meal loving veggies!). Tonight, since my husband was gone for the evening and I was starving after my hard gym workout, I decided to grab my low sodium veggie loaf for dinner. With only 340mg sodium (compared to the normal 690mg), I’m happy to report didn’t taste any different than the original.

Three cheers for Amy’s! I hope my local stores start carrying a few more products from their light in sodium line!

Things I miss

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I haven’t been veg all my life, I started eating veggie about 13 years or so ago. I seem to get asked this question frequently. “How long have you been a vegetarian?” After I respond, generally it’s followed by “Is your whole family vegetarian?” And then, inevitably, the last question will be something along the lines of “Don’t you miss meat?”

No, I really don’t miss meat. It’s been so long ago, that I think I’ve almost forgotten what it tastes like. In fact, on occasion I have to hand my veggie dog over to my husband and ask him if it’s really fake because I can’t tell. He nibbles on it, makes a yucky face and confirms that it is indeed faux meat.

What I do miss, however, are some items that have meat product in them – namely foods with gelatin. (For those non veg readers thinking “gelatin???”, here’s an article for you). These foods include marshmallows (i.e, rice crispy treats, s’mores, roasted on an open fire), jello, jello based desserts, Starbursts, etc. Sometimes I get lucky and find a veggie replacement at a health food store. But, not always. And some things just aren’t the same. They don’t taste right or the texture is just odd.

I discovered a place, however, that seems to do the trick at helping with the craving. The Vegan Store. An online/mail-order store with a bunch of very cool and very good replacements. I make an order about twice a year that typically includes marshmallows, gelatin, “fruit jel”, gravy, pre-made crispy treats, tofu jerky, and whatever else hits my fancy. The only problem is this: I gorge myself on the food when it comes in the house. For example yesterday, I made Strawberry Fruit Jel. I had about 3 bites of it last night. And today, I polished the rest of it off. 95% of the bowl to myself in one sitting (the other 5% was what I ate last night). Yum.

I went poking around online today trying to decide what to get in my next order. Unfortunately, they don’t have any more of the Fruit Gel in stock. (Or maybe that is “fortunately”). But just looking through the products online, my mouth is already watering for rice crispy treats. It’s been far too long since I’ve had one. They even have “ricemallow creme” now in either regular or strawberry flavors! Maybe now I can make one of those yummy fruit dips that everyone raves over and yet I have never tried. An order is definitely going to need to be placed – and soon. Gotta stock up for the holidays!