Tag: Gardein

Lazy Vegan Fish Friday – Gardein’s Fishless Filets

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Gardein Fishless Filets

After last the lazy vegan Friday post about Gardein’s Breakfast Sandwiches, one of you wonderful readers were kind enough to tell me where I could find Gardein’s Fishless Filets (thanks Dan!) After my attempts to find it at Essence of Life were fauxfishless. So this weekend we took a little trip up to Fiesta Farms, a great independent grocery store at Christie & Essex Street, with lots of plant-based options, and checked out the freezer section. They had the Fishless Filets, and I filled up my basket. As a courtesy to other people – I did not take all of them, but I was tempted. After trying them at this year’s ExpoWest, I had some idea of what to expect from this product, but everything tastes a little different when you make it at home, so I was interested in seeing how it would translate when a non-gardein rep (me) was making them. Upon opening the package, there are six pieces of fishless filets, and, although they’re frozen, they look golden and brown already (but a little too hard to eat). I followed the baking instructions the three times I’ve made them so far, with positive results. I find for ultimate laziness, it’s best to only do one step, rather than the microwave + pan frying step. It only takes around a half an hour which is fast enough for me, though it’s nice to have options. So what did I think? I’ve loved this product at first bite, so…

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Lazy Vegan Friday – Gardein Good Start Breakfast Sandwich

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Earlier this week I was wandering through Kensington Market in search of Gadein’s new Fishless-Filets that I had tried at ExpoWest, but my dreams were foiled, and replaced by new dreams – trying the (also new-to-me) Gardein Breakfast Sandwich. I found it in the Freezer section of Essence of Life, and haven’t seen it anywhere else (but if you have please share where in the comments!) Today was a lazy morning, so it seemed appropriate to crack open the box and try them out. One box had two breakfast sandwiches in it, and two slices of vegan cheese. While I usually avoid the microwave, I opted to follow the microwave instructions for maximum lazy factor and for science. The instructions for microwaving say to wrap it in a paper towel, and heat on high for 1 minute and 20 seconds. Then add the slice of cheese – and blast it for another 20 seconds. And voila, it’s on a plate, and has melted cheese on it. Ready to be eaten. For science. First impression: I LIKED it. I feel like’ I’ve heard some negative reviews of this combo, but I thought for what it was – a quick microwavable breakfast sandwich – it was surprisingly good. Actually, really surprising. The bread didn’t turn into mush, and was chewy like a toasted English muffin, the breakfast patty was tender and lightly spiced, and while the cheese wasn’t perfectly melty, it fit my requirements for what I remember of the flavour and texture…

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Awesome Vegan Stuff We Saw At ExpoWest – Part one – Meat

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I went down to California last week to check out ExpoWest and soak up some sunshine. It was a pretty spectacular show and an amazing point of convergence for distributors, promoters, exhibitors, marketers, health professionals, and bloggers. I originally went without intending to blog about it. I was focused on finding out out about new products and their distribution schemes and availability – especially in Eastern Canada (consider that some foreshadowing to some potentially exciting future event.) I might also have misinterpreted the ExpoWest guidelines that said no photos (for non-press folks). But eventually, I couldn’t help it, there were so many exciting things there, that I wanted to share and started posting a  bunch on facebook, instagram, and twitter as I stumbled upon it (check out the #VegansAtExpo hashtag for a fun time.) Every time I asked a company rep if they were okay with me taking photos they seemed really excited and friendly about it, so that encouraged me to keep doing it. I cant even begin to cover all the cool stuff I saw, at least not in a single blog post, so I’m breaking it up into a few sections. First, I’d like to start with all the meat alternatives. There were LOTS at the show. Some of them were new, or just new-to-me, but here are some of the ones I tried and liked. Fishless Fish Products Sophie’s Vegan Toona There were three different fishless fish products that launched at ExpoWest, but I only really…

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