Passionate About Being Compassionate

One of the most vivid memories of my childhood was how our neighborhood had a bunch of tight-knit families. All of the parents got along and there was only a minimal amount of drama. Every neighborhood has it’s drama, but no-one is writing a script based on the stuff that went down on Juniper Lane.

As a gregarious cluster we shared lots of meals. Do you remember when eating at your friends house was a thing? You’d either have to run home or ask to use the landline phone to see if your mom was ok with it. One family in particular was very odd to most of us at the time, at least when it came to what they ate. We knew them as vegetarians! Ohh scary right? They had tofu regularly, ate lentil loaf instead of meatloaf. “Why,” we often asked ourselves. “Why would they do that,” we wondered. The food tasted so… ummm… weird and bland to our youthful and finite tastebuds.

Food Review: Parma!

Up front, as most of you know, I am not a vegan. It’s something I may strive for eventually, but right now a vegetarian diet suits my lifestyle. That doesn’t mean I don’t eat, and or try, vegan products. I try to eat them as often as I can, so the transition will eventually be easier. Anyway…

When a couple samples of Parma! showed up in the mailbox I was really excited to try it out. Both the original flavor and the chipotle flavor were included, loving spicy stuff I was extremely impatient to try out the chipotle flavor.

I read the ingredients and was unsure how well they would gel but was amazed at the similarity with real parmesan cheese. To me, this tasted better, waaay better. To be perfectly honest, I hate parmesan cheese. Anytime we are having some sort of pasta dinner my kids look at me like I have three heads because I’m the only one who doesn’t really use the parmesan.

Food Review: Dominex Eggplant Burgers

With all the choices out there, it’s hard to find a decent vegetarian/ vegan burger alternative. Dominex has broken the mold a bit with their Dominex Eggplant Burgers.

Combining textured soy proteins, flavorings and most importantly, fresh eggplant, these burgers are a nice flavor change. Dominex claims to use the skins and seeds of the eggplant, which is evident upon inspection of the patty. The eggplant is a strong flavor, but not so much here. You can taste it, there is no doubt about it, but it is not overpowering.

There is a nice smoky flavor to the patty as well, which after grilling it, made it taste a bit more like a real burger. But don’t be fooled, it really doesn’t taste like a real burger, it tastes like an eggplant burger.

If you are an eggplant aficionado  these burgers will be right up your alley. If not, and your taste for eggplant is iffy, it’s still worth trying. Like previously mentioned, I was never a big eggplant fan, but recently I have reintroduced it into my diet and have been pleasantly surprised at it’s likeability.

Food Review: Bumble Bars

I love seeds and nuts so I was pleasantly surprised when I tore into my first Bumble Bar. For lack of a better description, the bar resembles a suet cake. I don’t mean that in a negative way, it’s unfortunately the only way to describe the look of this bar.

As you can imagine, the flavor is very earthy with the seeds and nuts, but there are a variety of flavors one can choose from to “enhance” the Bumble Bar experience. The base of a Bumble Bar is made from sesame seeds and quite a bit of flax. Both the sesame and flax seeds have huge amounts of health benefits. It’s quite amazing actually that something so small could be so beneficial to one’s health. Both have been used for hundreds of years, the sesame seed actually being one of the worlds oldest condiments.

I tried 6 different Bumble Bars (Mixed Nut, Almond, Hazelnut, Lemon, Original and Chocolate). My favorite was the lemon, reminded me of the lemon cakes my mom used to make for me. She always thought lemon was my favorite flavor, and year after year she would make me a lemon cake. This carries on today, as she told my wife about my supposed lemon obsession, so she does everything in lemon flavor as well. Yes I like lemon, but not as much as everyone think, getting off topic here though.

I enjoyed every one of the Bumble Bars. While they are not a meal replacement, as I’m sure they are not intended to be, they are quite a filling snack. This will tide you over between meals and is way better for you than a snickers or some other overly processed snack product.

Bumble Bar is organic and gluten free. They also claim to be ethically sourced, whether that be their recycled boxes, cornstarch packing peanuts to the biodegradable cleaning products they use in the processing facility. They deal with farming co-ops throughout the world, where the money goes back into local communities instead of the hands of some corporation that barely gives farmers anything for their hard work.

I love these bars and hope you’ll give them a shot. If you’ve tried them, I’d love to see your thoughts in a comment below.

Butternut Squash Apple Curry Soup

Yes, the overall theme here is apple. Yesterday my family and I went apple picking. The other day at work, someone was giving out butternut squash from their garden, so I figured I’d make some soup with it.

Going to try it over some rice to, I’m sure if you enjoy it as much as I do you can too!

Apple Bread

This recipe still needs some tweaking, it was a bit dense. It is a vegan recipe, so no eggs were used to bind it, maybe that’s the reason?

But, overall it was tasty and the almond crust was so good!

Any ideas on making it a bit lighter would be appreciated!