I Am Nacho Mom

I have three food weaknesses — chips, Ramen noodles, and vegan baked goods. No matter how much wholesome food I eat, these three foods find their way into my menu plan every single week. Thankfully, I've got enough discipline these days to only eat chips as part of a meal, not as a snack. For example, I almost always have tortilla chips with veggie burgers and sandwiches.

But chips are even better with dips. I keep several jars of salsa in the fridge at all times, and I often keep homemade vegan noochy cheeze dip on hand as well. That's why I was super-excited about Rick the Health Sleuth's recent Nacho Mom's Vegan Queso giveaway. He was offering some of this all-natural pre-made vegan queso to a lucky reader. I didn't win, but Rick had an extra jar so he sent me one anyway ... just out of the kindness of his heart! I sent Rick a bag of made-in-Memphis Groovy Foods granola in return. Vegan package swaps are the best!

Anyway, let's talk about this dip. Like I said, I usually make my own vegan cheeze dip, and it's tasty. But this Nacho Mom stuff tastes eerily close to the real thing. Granted, I haven't had dairy cheese dip in years, but this is how I remember it. It was the perfect topping for locally-made Las Delicia tortilla chips, but honestly I could just eat this stuff out of the jar with a spoon.

The Nacho Mom's is made with tomatoes, water, nutritional yeast, unbleached flour, green chilis, paprika, salt, garlic powder, and other spices. No weird ingredients. Just real food. The dip does contain citric acid (a natural preservative) and calcium chloride (a natural fining agent), but that it. So I might feel a little guilty about my chips, but at least the dip is healthy.

They sell this stuff on Cosmos Vegan Shoppe for $4.99 a jar, and I have a feeling I'll be buying more as soon as this runs out ... and that won't take long. I also see on their website that the Little Rock, Arkansas Whole Foods will begin carrying this stuff in January (Sheridan, are you reading this?), so I may be making a 2-hour road trip to stock up. Luckily, my BFF Sheridan also lives there so I have another excuse to visit. Not that I wouldn't drive 2 hours for this stuff without another excuse, but that's not very green, right?

One quick non-queso announcement: Ecolissa.com, a new online eco-friendly, vegan clothing shop is offering Vegan Crunk readers 20 percent off their purchase. They have some really cute tops and accessories, and you can even choose to shop by material (i.e. bamboo, soy, organic cotton, etc.). Use the coupon code "vegan20" for your discount.

And don't forget to enter my Caribbean Vegan cookbook giveaway. Click here for details.

What are your guilty vegan food pleasures?