Product Review: Jovial Foods Vegan Mac

I was sent a couple boxes of Jovial Foods Gluten-free Vegan Mac to review, and though I'm not gluten-free, I sometimes prefer the texture of gluten-free pasta over whole wheat pasta. Now, white pasta absolutely wins the prize for best texture in my book, but I try to limit my refined carbs so that I only have them around workouts (or special occasions).

So gluten-free pasta is a great go-to for a healthy everyday meal. This box has brown rice pasta, which is probably the most superior of the gf-pastas, texture-wise. This particular one only has one ingredient — organic brown rice flour. That's it! As for the cheese sauce, it's made with pea protein, rice syrup solids, palm oil powder, corn starch. Not the most wholesome ingredient list, but at least every ingredient is organic. 

One of my favorite ways to eat boxed mac is Mac & Trees & Peas. 

You cook the pasta according to package directions, but throw some frozen broccoli and a drained can of chickpeas into the boiling pasta water when there's about three minutes left on the timer. The frozen broccoli will slow down the boil, so I just wait until the water starts to boil again and test the broccoli and pasta for done-ness. If it needs more time, I'll add a minute or so.

This Jovial Foods vegan mac made a fantastic and quick weeknight dinner. The cheese sauce was super-creamy, thanks to the addition of soymilk and vegan butter. I would absolutely buy this!

Not Chicken and Healthy Bowls

A while back, I was shopping at Sprouts when I noticed about half the products in the vegan meat section were on closeout sale. While this concerns me (does this mean they’re not selling well?), I was also happy to stock up on some things I probably wouldn’t buy otherwise.

One of those products was a fiesta-flavored vegan chicken shred, and I wish I could remember the brand name. But I can’t. It was in a yellow and red box, and it was a brand I’d never heard of. Anyway, it made for a perfect taco filling! The bad part about buying products on closeout is that I can probably never buy them again.

Another product I found on closeout were these Hungry Plant vegan chicken patties, which made for an excellent chicken sandwich. I always top my chicken sandwiches with vegan mayo and pickles. It’s the only way!

When I’m not eating fake meat, I’m turning to healthier options, like bowls. This was a very tasty and filling Bean & Rice Bowl with pintos, kale, brown rice, and avocado. Yum!

And this Miso Glory Bowl of Goodness was a recipe from a Complement e-cookbook that I downloaded. The miso-based dressing had a little Complement Gut Nuture mixed it. Gut Nuture is a prebiotic powder (that tastes like ginger!) that I take daily to help my gut microbiome. I usually just mix it with water, but it’s fun to use in recipes.

Indian Corn Pudding, Taco Tuesday, and Fancy Avo Toast

I'm still catching up on posts of my random eats, so these are all foods I ate a long time ago! Like March! I made this Makai No Chevdo (aka Indian corn pudding) from Plant-Based India, and it was soooo good, especially in those cool spring days. The savory dish is seasoned with curry leaves and lots of other Indian spices, and it's topped with crunchy sev. On the side, I made the Blueprint Pakoras from the No Meat Athlete Cookbook. These were baked pakoras stuff with lots of veggies, which you can't see under all that chickpea flour batter. I served them with some sprout chutney that I made months ago and froze ice cube trays.

Taco Tuesdays are back at Global Cafe! A couple years ago, the cafe's manager, Juan, started Taco Tuesday specials where you could get three tacos with free chips and salsa and a $4 margarita. And I loved Taco Tuesday. But then Juan moved away, and so did Taco Tuesday. But he's back in Memphis and managing Global again, and he's revived the old taco special. I always get the Black Bean Tacos. Juan's margs are the best in town. 

Way back on St. Patrick's Day, I met up with a coworker for coffee at Vice & Virtue, and since it was around lunch time, I ordered this Avocado Toast. Best avo toast ever! The homemade bread is super thick and toasty, and they add garlic pepitas and fermented jalapeno. It also comes with chili-garlic butter, but it's easy to ask for that to be left off. 

And here's a quick meal from a can! I discovered these Heyday canned, seasoned chickpeas at Sprouts, and they're perfect for busy nights. Sadly, after trying a few flavors, the cans disappeared from Sprouts' shelves. Bummer.

Memphis Vegan Festival 2023

The annual Memphis Vegan Festival was Sunday in Fourth Bluff Park. Our vegan fest, organized by Memphis event planner Cynthia Daniels, isn’t your typical vegan fest with speakers and free samples. Instead, it’s a gathering of local (and regional) food vendors selling food.

The fest is free to attend, but you definitely need to plan on spending a good amount of money to eat. Which is fine by me because I love using my money to support small, local, Black-owned, vegan businesses. The vast majority of the businesses at this event are Black-owned (perhaps all of them were this year).

I arrived just after the fest opened because these tend to get very busy later in the day, and then you have to spend time standing in food lines. But when I arrived, most vendors were just getting started. I spotted Little Rock-based Utopia Deli right away, and since I can’t eat their food very often, I went there first for this Hot Chop Sandwich!

This was a fried vegan pork chop (but it had the same texture as vegan chicken) covered with agave-gold sauce and served on a brioche bun with garlic aioli and pickles. It was sooooo good! I sat on a park bench and enjoyed every bite.

Next up, I spotted Thicc Ass Vegan, who was selling alfredo pasta and milkshakes. I was too full for pasta, but I’d been wanting to try her milkshakes for a while. So I ordered this Cinnamon Toast Crunch Milkshake. It had little bits of cereal mixed in, and wow!! Who knew cereal would be better in milkshake form?

Somehow, milkshakes are very filling. So I didn’t have room for any more food at that point, and I’d spent plenty on two items. So I headed home. But I wish I had all the money and all the room in my belly because I wanted to eat so many more things: burgers, tacos, loaded fries, mushroom wings, cinnamon rolls, vegan ice cream. Everything looked so good!

Father's Day Fun with Papa Crunk!

I went back home to Arkansas on Friday for an early Father's Day with my parents. First things first, I gave my dad his gifts (a Yeti beer coozie, a Busch beer shirt, and a six-pack of pickle beers). I picked up the shirt and coozie at the Budweiser gift shop in St. Louis when Paul and I visited there back in April. And I thought it'd be fun to buy family Bud shirts. I got myself a Bud Light shirt, my mom a Budweiser tee, and my dad a Busch shirt (because that's his beer of choice). Now, I much prefer craft beer, but I do enjoy the political statement that supporting Budweiser makes these days. Happy to support any brands that celebrate Pride!

After our family pic, we headed to a new Thai place in downtown Hardy, Arkansas. Sabai Thai was super vegan-friendly. When I asked to have my Pad See Ew made without fish sauce, the server asked me if I was vegan and said the chef was always super careful with vegan orders. Quite surprising in a small Arkansas town! And awesome!

I also got the Thai Salad Rolls with no egg. These were really great salad rolls.

After dinner, we went to the Spring River Draft House to meet up with my parents' friends for a beer and live music. They typically have cover artists on Fridays, and the guy played a bunch of 90s songs!

And we rounded out the night with my mom's Vegan Peanut Butter Pie topped with PB Oreos. Sooooo good. She used the Philadelphia vegan cream cheese for this, and it was definitely the best version she's made over the years. That cream cheese is so good.

The next morning, I went to Loberg Park in Hardy for a 10.5-mile run, but about four miles in, I had to use the bathroom. So I went to the little bathroom building next to the playground, and well, I got stuck. The metal door didn't lock because the lock didn't line up with the doorframe, so I closed it extra hard. And then when I went to open the door, it wouldn't budge. I tried with my weight and might. And nothing.

Luckily, my parents live about 20 minutes away from the park, so I called my dad. And he was there as fast as he could be to free me. He was able to put his weight into the door and push it in. Whew!! That was scary. My dad is a real hero!

After that, I finished my run in this beautiful park overlooking Spring River. 

And then I headed back to my parents' house for brunch. We had vegan Breakfast Casserole with Just Egg, Impossible Sausage, biscuits, and Chao cheese, plus some Hash Browns and mimosas. 

My mom and I got a little kayaking in on their lake, too, before I had to drive home.

Carb Week: Grains! Bread!

As I mentioned in my last couple posts, I've been slowly adding carbs back in after doing Phil Maffetone's Two-Week Test with very low carbs. During those 12 days (cause I cut it short), I felt pretty sluggish and gross. My energy was low, my run paces were slow. But as soon as I started working carbs back in on Sunday, I instantly felt better. 

On Sunday, I added beans, and on Monday, I had fruit. Tuesday was grains! Grains were one thing I didn't miss as much because, some days even in my normal eating patterns, I'll go a whole day without grains. But I was amazed at how much better I felt with a little brown rice in my tummy. I started with brown rice on the side of a Tofu Stir-fry. I'd made the dish for Monday and served it then with just extra tofu since grain day was the next day. But I added rice to my leftover desk lunch at the office, and it sure did make a different in my energy level.

Later that day for dinner, I made this quick Curried Lentils & Kale dish over quinoa with Roasted Bhinda (okra). The rice and lentils was an easy dish made on the fly with canned lentils and kale, but I used a recipe from Plant-Based India for the bhinda. It was loaded with Indian spices, like coriander, cumin seed, hing, and amchur powder. So good.

The next day, Wednesday, was bread day! I may not have missed grains that much, but I missed bread so bad. I make my own sourdough, and I had some in the freezer just waiting. I couldn't wait to whip some out and butter with Miyoko's oat butter. I had some Upton's Naturals vegan tortilla chicken soup on the side. 

The soup was just okay (a little too lime-y), but the bread was everything. I ate one slice, assessed how I felt (great!), and then I ate the other. Still great! Clearly, my body does best on carbs. Later in the evening, I made a bean and rice burrito on a white flour tortilla. Very satisfying!

Today is sugar day! Rather than have a big dessert (because I've got pie planned this weekend), I spread my sugar out over the day with some grape jelly on my morning toast, a little sweetened peanut butter bite snack with a banana mid-morning, and some barbecue mushroom jerky with a little added sugar in the afternoon. I try to never go over 25 grams of added sugar per day, after reading the Alzheimer's Solution a couple years back. I felt just fine after each sugar snack! Now, I know when I eat a big dessert, I do typically feel a little gross after, but I so rarely do that so I think that's fine. Splurges are good for the soul. 

Carb Week: Fruit!

I'm slowly adding back carbs one by one this week after two weeks(ish) of Phil Maffetone's Two-Week Test. I did the low-carb thing as part of the Born to Run 2 training program, and the goal is to add carbs back and see how you feel — to check for "carb intolerance," if that's a real thing. Ha, it sounds iffy to me. But I did it!

On Sunday, I added back beans, and I instantly felt alive again after two weeks of feeling like trash. And then Monday, it was fruit! Now, I've never been a huge fruit eater — meaning, I rarely just pick up raw fruit and eat it. I'd rather have something salty. But my post-run fruit smoothies are different. 

I rely on protein smoothies with fruit (always a banana, usually some berries, sometimes mango or peaches or dates), flax, walnuts, and other add-ins after every run. I would prefer to sit down to a hot and savory breakfast. I just don't have time on weekdays, and smoothies are an easy way to get my carbs and protein.

But during the Two-Week Test, my smoothies got super lame. They were just protein powder, almond milk, nut butter, and seeds. No fruit. Not very thick or tasty. So I was super-glad to have my Banana-Blueberry Smoothie with Complement Protein on Monday (and every day since!).

How did I feel after that fruit? Just fine! No noticeable spike in blood sugar, no bloating. Just energized and powered for my day.