A Vegan in the Maritimes

Family things have unexpectedly brought me out to Saint John New Brunswick. I was hoping to have a little travel break for a few weeks, but it was not to be. So here I am.. eating in airports again and working up the energy to explain my dietary choices to everyone out here. It is tricky, because I don't want to offend people here and there are lot of elderly that just can't see beyond meat and potatoes.

I had a very pleasant surprise when I arrived, 'fresh' of the red eye and starving. I am staying with my Aunt and Uncle and they have another family member that recently made the switch to a full vegan diet. He switched for health (high cholesterol) and apparently loved it ever since. When I got to the house, I expected not a lot I could eat beyond grains and veggies, but to my surprise, there was bruschetta pizza and vegan cupcakes! They were super good too!

I did a bit of a search before heading out here to see what the vegan food situation would be like and it seemed grim at first, but yesterday I had an excellent meal at a Thai restaurant called Suwana Restaurant on the west side. All of the entrees had a tofu option and the pad Thai was vegan. I also had a great salad with carrots, cabbage and a tangy spicy dressing. It was really, really good. The restaurant is in an old, old house so the surroundings are really neat. Something you don't really get in Edmonton.

Saint John has also got sushi now and apparently a very decent range of veggie sushi is available. I heard the restaurant to go to is A Taste of Sushi in uptown SJ. I likely won't have a chance to go this trip, but it is comforting to know it is there. Previous trips have gotten me and my sister to drive 90 minutes to fulfill a sushi craving.

One thing, that I have forgotten about that is really a maritime delicacy is cherry cream cheese sandwiches. I am planning to attempt the vegan version when I get home as I could not find toffutti out here. The sandwich is simple and very pretty looking. To the non-east coast people out there, it seems odd and to some... gross. Once you try, you will love.

Maritimer Cherry Cream Cheese Sandwiches

• 1 tub of toffutti cream cheese (regular about 16 oz)
• 1 large jar of maraschino cherries
• bread
• Margarine

Simplest recipe ever. Get a tub of cream cheese and put it in a bowl and soften. Cut up the maraschino cherries and add them to the cream cheese with a little of the juice. Stir well. Get some sandwich bread (you can make in tea style sandwiches or you can roll them) and remove the crust (I know the crust is healthier, but I have never seen them with the crust). spread a little margarine if you want on the bread and add a generous dollop of the mixture. If you want rolls, simply role the single slice of bread up and then cut into 1-2" slices.

So good, it is almost like cheese cake in sandwich forms. I forget about these little sandwiches, but they have an appearance all maritime functions. Perfect for tea, receptions, showers etc etc.

I think I will be making these at home when I get back. It is time Alberta got a little taste of maritime traditional food :)

Sorry, no pictures again. I didn't bring my camera. It makes for a less interesting post, but hopefully it's not too bad. I can't believe that Vegan MoFo is almost finished. It has been so much fun trying to post everyday. I hope I can keep it up as much as possible. I hope everyone out there reading has been enjoying and would love to hear topic suggestions if there are some out there. I tend to not plan these posts and write them as I go. Makes it more fun to me and keeps me cooking!

Tomorrow night I am getting treated with vegan chili. I will try and snap some cell pics of it and maybe even steal the recipe to share!

100th Post! Attack of the Vegan Protein/Snack Bars

Man, I wish I had planned for this. I didn't. I have not grocery shopped and I am about to hop a plane again.

So.. This post will be unfortunately without many pictures. If I ever get some time to get organized, I will add them on. Last week while I was out of town, I decided to test out vegan protein and snack bars to see what was out there, what was good, what wasn't etc, etc.

I find as a vegan that travels a lot, I need to always have a protein bar or two with me at all times. You never know when you are going to be stuck somewhere hungry and all you can get is a green salad. For me that is never enough!

My problem has always been that I never know what is vegan and what isn't and I never know if the bar is going to be good enough that I will even bother finishing it. In my opinion a protein bar or snack bar is not really ideal, but in a pinch it works for me. I went to a few different stores to see what was out there. I found lots. I also went online to see what people recommended and some said that bars that I am sure were vegan, were not. I read the ingredients, so hopefully I didn't miss something.

Before I review, here is a few of my overall learnings from this experience:

I don't like protein bars. In general, protein bars are going to pack the bigger punch when you're hungry. Every protein/meal replacement bar I tried, I didn't finish. I didn't like any of them. I found that protein bars were more dry, less sweet and really just not my favourite. Snack bars, on the other hand are pretty good. Lots of sugar and not so cardboard like. Such is the story of my life! :S

They are expensive! Across the board they are $2-3 each. That adds up. If you can find a way to get real food, I would say go for it. Next time I am in the US I think I will stock up, they are about half the price there from what I saw.

Ingredients... too many! Almost every bar I tried had an ingredient list that barely fit on the packaging. That is too much if you ask me. The longer the list of ingredients, the more suspicious I get about how healthy it really is and whether it is actually vegan. I am learning there are a lot of things out there that are derived from animals that I didn't know about.

Check the labels - a lot fo the bars I tried said vegan right on them. That makes it so much easier!

Flavour - I was hoping to make this a better experiment by only trying chocolate flavoured bars. Unfortunately my assumption that chocolate would be an across the board flavour was very wrong. I also found out that chocolate is probably my least favourite! Lesson learned.

So what bars did I try? There are probably more out there, but these are the ones I attempted to eat.

Protein Bars

1. Vega Bar - I was excited about this one. Mostly because it gets promoted a lot on my twitter feed. Unfortunately, I did not like it at all. It was kind of dry and didn't taste that great. However, it did the job as I ate it as a meal and I wasn't hungry after eating about half of it. From that respect, this maybe was not as bad as I thought at the time. It doesn't seem to have a lot of other flavours going on which is good for me. It has 10g of protein and 6g of fibre. Most of the ingredients were not chemical looking on the label (date, hemp, almond, flax, even dulse!)
   
2. Pro Bar - This one I hated, to be honest. Mostly because it was chocolate, but had dried fruit in it, including pineapple and I just don't like that combo. The ingredient list is insane, with over 35 listed. Most of which were, again, real foods and not processed stuff. If you like fruit and chocolate, this could be a good choice. It has a lot of calories (370) and 20g of fat! This one is seriously a meal replacer. Be warned if you eat this as a snack!
   
3. Clif Bar - This one was one I heard online isn't vegan. I couldn't find anything non vegan in it, so I tried it. I did not like it. Not at all! Dry and kind of tasted like cardboard. I didn't finish it and I did not feel full from it.
   
4. Bumble Bar - I am not sure if this is a snack or protein bar, but I was told it was supposed to be a protein bar. I love the packing on these, but to my surprise when I opened it, the bar looked like those sesame snacks you can get at the grocery store. It tastes like sesame and brown rice syrup. It was good, sort of filling (not as much as the other two), but to be honest, I could make this at home pretty easy and probably better. 

Snack Bars

1. Lara - This was the first vegan snack bar I have had. I don't like the chocolate flavour, but the fruit ones are great and there are tons of options which is good. My favourite is key lime and peanut butter and jelly. They do have quite a bit of calories and not a lot of protein and fibre, but these are something that I often take with me on trips. Easy to pack and I know they will taste good.
   
2. Luna - I saw online that these are not vegan. I have gone over the ingredients many times and can't see why they aren't, so I am listing it. If they really are not, let me know! I love Luna bars, but only one flavour, Smore's. Chocolaty and sweet they make a great little snack or packable dessert. This is another one I take with me a lot.
   
3. ReBar - First time eating this. I had the banana walnut flavour and it was really good. A little less in calories at 170, these to me seem like a good option for a snack. not much in the way of protein and fibre though. It tastes kind of like a fruit roll up.

Chocolate Bars

1. Twilight - this bar is basically a vegan mars bar. It was so good. Has a lot of calories in though, but if looking for a treat, this is a good one.
   
2. Mahalo Bar - Made by the same people as the Twilight bar, this is another yummy treat. Made with coconut, chocolate and almond. I ate this after sitting at a staff pizza party where I did not have much for food. I was so glad I had this. I think it kind of tastes like a bounty bar.

So there you have it. If you are looking for a snack bar, meal replacer or a treat, there are lots of options out there for us vegans. These bars never replace the real deal which is a good balanced meal, but in a pinch they are better than nothing. I am so glad I tried all the different ones out there and have added a few now to my vegan travel bag so I know I will never truly go hungry.

Did I miss any good ones out there? If so, leave a comment!

** I may not be blogging for the next few days, I will try, but you have been warned. I will be back for sure on Monday though! Have a good weekend!

Pizza Pizza Pizza

Another day of not cooking. I don't like it. Not at all! I have an unexpected trip tomorrow and haven't even unpacked from the last, let alone meal plan or do groceries.

Normally in instances like this, I would hide away from the blog world and take a few days off. This time, I am trying not to do that.

I was really hoping to make a vegan pizza during Vegan MoFo, but unless that happens on Oct 31, It will be something for down the road.

Today for me was a day of pizza. It all started at lunch. The dreaded pizza lunch. This is something I fear more than almost anything of the non vegan world. Even more than going to meat-fest BBQ's. At a BBQ, I don't want to eat whatever people have there that isn't vegan. Pizza parties on the other hand... It smells so good. Grease and Fat and Bread encased in cheese. That is a tricky thing for a vegan to compete with. Especially if you are like me and you are not so big on vegan cheeses.

My work made sure they had a salad for me, but unfortunately it showed up with feta cheese all over it and even trying to pick around it, I couldn't eat it. Instead I went and found my left over rice and ate that with a vegan chocolate bar for dessert. Everyone kind of looked over and was a little angry. This is not the impression I want to send out to non vegans. I don't want them to see being vegan as a sacrifice or a struggle. Unfortunately, once in a while when you aren't prepared, this can happen.

In the future, I need to take control on these pizza lunches. I have had enough of the sad looking salad (that still has cheese on it!) any pizza place can make a vegan pizza. They may not believe, but all they have to do is leave the cheese and meat off! sometimes, it will take a little explaining, but just tell any pizza place to put tons of veggies, sauce, but no cheese. I wish I had done, this... but I didn't. Lesson learned!

It was a sad lunch for me today and all afternoon, all I could think of is pizza. I didn't have anything to make a pizza at home, so James and I headed out to Famoso Pizza. Possibly one of the best pizza places in the city.

Photo Credit: http://eatingisthehardpart.com

Over half an hour wait and we finally got in. At least while waiting, they provide wine and flatbread. Famoso has always been somewhat vegan friendly. They have a non-dairy cheese option for $2 on any pizza. They also have salads that can be done vegan. In the summer I have seen sorbetto there as well which means you, as a vegan, can go to this non-vegan labelled restaurant and happily eat a full meal. how nice is that?

Tonight, I discovered better news. They have switched their cheese to Daiya and they are no longer up-charging for it! My favourite pizza there is the Primavera Pizza. They give a very good serving of veggies and they put the cheese underneath so it stays together. You can also make your own pizza. They have hummus and bruschetta as well.

If you are looking for a vegan pizza place that delivers, you can also try Funky Pickle. They make a really good vegan pizza with tahini on it. It is good. Very Mediterranean Inspired.

Coming soon, I hope, will be my version of the ultimate vegan pizza. There will most certainly be pesto involved in this recipe. I can't wait!