Food Reviews!

Vegenaise - I got some coupons from Follow Your Heart, one for vegenaise and one for their vegan cheese. The vegenaise was definitely my favorite product of the two. I've tried at least one other vegan mayo and I was not a fan. I never was huge on mayonnaise in general (even when I was an omnivore, something about it just grossed me out), but this stuff doesn't bother me as much. I'm still not about to go slathering it on bread or eating it plain, but I find that it complements a variety of recipes. So far with the jar I got I have made  a chocolate mayonnaise cake, blueberry cobbler, Chesapeake tempeh cakes, waldorf salad (from Peas and Thank You), tempeh salad, and tzatziki sauce (from Peas and Thank You). While I preferred some of these recipes over others (and I did alter some of them a bit), I think the blueberry cobbler wins the award for most creative use of vegan mayo. I've also seen a recipe for cinnamon buns using vegenaise; I might have to try that next. I know it sounds gross, but if you think of using it in place of Earth Balance or sour cream it takes on new possibilities.

 

Sjaak's Candy Bars - Sjaak's sent me a sampler back of their Eli's Earth Organic (and vegan!) Candy Bars. I really wanted to like these, but they just weren't my favorite. The bars were really hard, all except the one that had a lot of peanut butter in it (I don't remember which one it was) and that one almost had TOO much peanut butter. The chocolate didn't have a great flavor and was a bit waxy. I found the bars very sweet without a lot of authentic flavor (and the peanuts tasted stale). I hate knocking a product like this--maybe I just got a bad batch?--because I really wanted to like them. But I do try to give my honest opinion. These weren't awful, though, and I didn't have to suffer to much to eat them! : ) I just couldn't help thinking that they could be so much better. But maybe they just didn't appeal to me.

 

Mountain Zevia - Zevia (naturally sweetened soda) recently sent me a pack of Mountain Zevia to review. This is not a flavor I would've chosen, as I never liked regular Mountain Dew. Consequently, I wasn't too crazy about this. The color (like Mountain Dew) just unnerves me and I found it had a weird aftertaste. Plus, it's way too sweet for my taste--almost syrupy. I will drink it, but it's definitely not my favorite. That said, if you like Mountain Dew, you might like this.

Navitas Natural - Navitas send me some of their new Organic Raw Power Snacks, in Cacao Goji and Citrus Chia. I think I like the cacao flavor a little better than the citrus. Both are quite good, though. They are pretty filling and not too sweet. I found they made for a good snack. The flavor isn't amazing at first, but there is something subtly delicious about them that kept me coming back for more. They also sent me a Cacao Lip Balm. Unfortunately, this has beeswax in it! I will probably use it up because it would be wasteful to throw out, but it's definitely not something I would buy or support. On another note, Navitas wins my admiration for their attractive marketing and packaging. (For some reason I always notice stuff like that!)

I hope you enjoyed these reviews! 

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were sent to me free of charge for the purpose of reviewing on this blog. I received no monetary compensation for these reviews.