Veg*n products available in Australia: which one have you tried today?

I'm a huge coffee addict, I'll eat it, drink it, snort it. I also love those damned Kopiko lollies but they have milk in them...



Today I found vegan Kopiko! Only tastier and better! Some wonderful, European coffee lozenge that's vegan and has a caffeine and sugar kick like a mule. I left them at work... I'll report in later with the name but they are awesome.

Woolworths had vegan mint slice biscuits by "leda" I think it was. They weren't half bad. don't know if it's a new line or not but I had never seen them there before. They actually had a whole bunch of vegan biscuits - Chocolate Montes, Tim Tams, chocolate chip. I'm going back for more when I finish the "mint slice".

Green and Black's Organic Cocoa ... for hot chocolate ...



This stuff is great! I know its not that different from other Cocoa, but something about it being fairtrade and organic seems better. Unfortunately they are owned by Cadburys ... but no one is perfect.



Tastes great with soymilk warmed on the stove.

One of my favourite (though infrequent) snacks is tofutti cream cheese on a cracker with sliced gherkins and thinly sliced red onion.



Something that I have only just tried for the first time recently is nutritional yeast aka savoury yeast for us Aussies. I made this vegan lasagne recipe that included it and it was great. Nobody could believe that it was vegan!

Toast with vegemite and avocado. Saw it advertised in Woolworths. Kinda tasty - definitely a "will have again". Only in my case I had Mighty Mite because I avoid buying Kraft.

I love Tofutti cream cheese....we go through a few tubs a week in our house



* That smilie's a bit weird, it doesn't look like eating something tasty, it looks like someone chucking up blue vomit

I should point out that there's more than one vegan in my house though...it's' not just me being a gutz

It was good. It's got an avocado sushi with soy sauce vibe. The salty and avocado works well. The picture in Woolies hand pretty slices of avocado on vegemite toast but I just mushed the green bugger.



I generally try to buy as locally grown and owned food as possible. Eg: I try and buy South Coast apples, local beer etc. Vegemite is owned by Kraft which is US/multi-nationally owned. I buy Mighty Mite because it is locally owned by 333's. 333 is a family owned, Australian brand who's products are all "accidentally vegan". (Or were about 2 years ago...)

I can vouch for the vegemite and avocado on toast - it's REAL good. Kiz, Woolworths have a range of biscuits called "Free From" in their health food section - have you seen them. My sister called up the company and they are made by the Leda brand, but cheaper and I think even nicer. They have Choc Crunch and Golden Coconut - really nice.

Ok, so this isn't a first time experience with any of these ingredients, but it's the first time I've thought of putting them together to make a salad dressing....



So today for lunch I had a salad (lettuce, carrot sticks, capsicum, mushrooms, tomato, pepitas and suflower seeds and chickpeas) and I made a dressing out of: 1 tablespoon tahini, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1/2 tablespoon Udo's oil (I'm a big fan of Udo's) all mixed together and poured over my salad. OMG.... YUM!! I can't believe I haven't thought of this dressing before, it's great!

Earlier this week I tried So Natural rice milk. It's very sweet and watery (I've never had rice milk before.) I've found that I don't like to drink it straight due to the sweetness factor, but it's very nice on my cereal or porridge in the mornings; it turns breakfast into dessert!

That brand is very watery.



Have you tried Vitasoy rice milk? I find it's a lot better.

I tried So Good Essential soy milk. It's the one that's packed full of nutrients, including B12.

I tried it after smelling rotten cow milk and oh it was delicious!



I bought So Good caramel soy ice cream. Oh god it was amazing. Better than dairy



And tonight I had Tofutti American Soy cheese on my pizza. Also frakking amazing.



Vegan food is delicious

Lisa and I had a productive stroll around Newtown today.

I bought, but am yet to try:

Green and Blacks Organic Hot Chocolate Drink [powder/vegan]. It smells fantastic! Will have to find it somewhere else though because the store I got it from, the woman at the counter had no personality and did not seem at all interested in giving friendly service. I'd rather send my whopping $12.60 elsewhere.



From the Vegans Choice Grocery I only bought roasted sesame seeds [I would live on sesame seeds if I could. Source of calcium at least, lol], Berry jam, and Vegetable Brittle ['vegetable flavour'?]. It's all written in Asian on the packet, but I trust a store that is called Vegans Choice Anyway I think they taste a little bit like Chicken Crimpy shapes. I remember those biscuits to be fantastic tasting...but things that are flavoured or textured to be like meat, put me off regardless of being vegan friendly. [I'm a bit weird in the head?]. There were other cold items I wanted, but had no cooler bag so it can wait til next pay day!



Also popped the Green Gourmet cherry. woo! Good food, good price, filling, the restaurant has a cat [omg! I don't even like cats that much but I think this is awesome!], good company, surroundings, good patrons to look at and go 'omg look who it is' lol. Will definitely go back.

well it wasnt today, but a few days ago i got organic nut butter, 100% almonds, brazil nuts and cashews.. its yum!! tastes so much better than peanut butter.



i also cooked vegan muffins from orgran... they are yum! nobody else liked them cuz they are made with brown rice flour/ brown sugar e.t.c so they arent crazy sweet like normal cakes!



i also brought "vegetarian mince" from planet organic.. ( ive had the sanitarium mince before which is good, but i couldnt find it! ) this one comes dry its JUST the soy protein. so i will tell u how it goes, im going to make it into a lasagne.



i find i always end up trying new things cuz shops NEVER stock the same stuff consistently.. i have about 5 different shops i visit regularly to buy one or two things.. yet ALL of those shops stock meat/chocolate e.t.c grr !

Hey Kristen if you love sesame seeds, you would love this recipe for Gomasio You use it as a general condiment and/or instead of salt. It's great on just about everything!

Yeh, it's a pain in the arse having to do that isn't it.