Silver Hills Bread

Recently I received a coupon for a loaf of free bread from Silver Hills. All of their bread is made with organic, sprouted whole grains without any flour. There are quite a few different varieties, including flax, chia seeds, apples, etc.

For my loaf I chose “The Big 16″ which is made up of 16 different grains (sprouted wheat, oats, flax, sunflower seeds, millet, sprouted triticale, sprouted rye, sprouted barley, buckwheat, corn, brown rice, sprouted spelt, sprouted kamut, sesame seeds, amaranth, and quinoa).

I quite liked this bread. As is the case with most sprouted bread, it is ‘denser’ and ‘chewier’ than regular bread, so if you are not used to that you might find it weird. However I found it to be much lighter than Ezekiel bread. I don’t eat much bread and usually I don’t have any in the house, but when I do buy bread it’s typically Ezekiel. I think from now on I might switch to Silver Hills. I only with they made hot dog and hamburger buns like Ezekiel does.

Here’s a slice of the Big 16 bread smeared with peanut butter and jam….yum!

my new found appreciation for avocados

After my half-marathon I wanted something delicious to celebrate with. As I mentioned in my last post, I recently found out that I no longer have a food intolerance to avocado – hurrah! And so guacamole, chips, and Mexican beer sounded like the perfect way to kick back and relax.

I haven’t eaten much guacamole, due to being made ill by it, so I wasn’t sure which recipe to use. I thought of the recipe in Vegan Brunch, but alas, my cookbooks are now packed and I didn’t feel like digging through boxes to find it. So I went to Allrecipes.com and searched for the highest rated guacamole recipe. To go along with the guacamole, I picked up a bag of baked tortilla chips.

Guiltless Gourmet makes a few different flavours of baked chips. Not all of them are vegan, so make sure to check the ingredients. The blue corn (pictured above) definitely are. Are they as good as fried chips? No. But I like knowing that they are healthier for me and besides, once you dip them in guacamole or salsa or turn them into nachos, you really can’t notice that much of a difference in taste. The texture is a bit different though. Not necessarily in a bad way, but different.

I thought the guacamole was delicious. My husband (who has had guacamole far more often than I) said it was great, but the tomato should be omitted because “real guacamole doesn’t have tomato.” I have no idea about that. Anyhoo, here is the recipe as I made it:

Guacamole (adapted from Allrecipes.com)
-2 large avocados, peeled and pitted
-1/2 lime, juice
-1/2 cup diced red onion
-1 roma tomato, diced
-3 cloves garlic, minced
-1/2 tsp cayenne (decrease this if you don’t like spicy…we both love spicy food)

Mash together the avocados and lime juice. Mix in onion, tomato, garlic, and cayenne. Tastes best if it sits in the fridge for awhile.

A review of Gardein Herb Dijon Breasts

A couple of weeks ago I was out of town for a conference. I deliberately chose accommodations where I would have a kitchenette so that I could prepare my own food instead of being at the mercy of nearby restaurants. I figured this was healthier and I would be assured of good quality vegan food. The kitchenette had a fridge and a microwave, but no oven/stove. I went to the grocery store to stock up on fruit, veggies, hummus, and I was on the look out for things that I could microwave.

These Gardein cutlets have been out for awhile now, but generally speaking I am too cheap to buy them. I like to stick to my inexpensive legumes. But I figured they were microwavable and would be handy for my stay at the conference and so I picked up a pack of the herb dijon breasts, as I am a sucker for dijon.

The texture of the cutlet was great, very meat-like (from what I remember). However, I was NOT a fan of the sauce. It was overly sweet and just not very…good. This is the only Gardein product I’ve tried, so I’m not sure if this was a herb dijon fluke or what. It was edible, but the whole time I was eating it I was thinking that I could probably make a much better-tasting dijon sauce without much difficulty. I realize this isn’t very photogenic:

I know a lot of people really love these things, so I’m going to assume that the other flavours are better. And like I said, the cutlet itself was great, the sauce is what was the party-pooper. Overall though, I do feel these things are a bit over-priced and I probably won’t be buying them again anytime soon unless I come across a phenomenal sale.