Product Review: Soy Yogurt

Soy yogurt was something that I used to find myself unable to tolerate. It was soupy. Grainy. Flavorless. It was just not tasty. And it certainly didn't taste like yogurt.

I had switched to goat yogurt - which I still find to be a delicious alternative to dairy if you can handle goat products. But recently because of the high pollen count this year I had to seriously think about giving soy another go. So I did.

I am not quite sure what changed, but something did. It's tasty. The texture is right. The flavors are good. And it's a nice healthy alternative to dairy if you can't have it. Besides, when I eat key lime flavored yogurt its almost like desert. So, if you can't have dairy treat yourself to this!

As far as brands go, you'll have to give the ones near you a try. For a long while we only had Silk, and now we have silk and stonyfield and that's about it. If you find one you like better, I'd love to hear about it.

Product Review: Hemp Milk

Living Harvest Hempmilk is a girl's best friend. No, really, it is. See, being a long time allergy sufferer I learned that milk is pretty much off limits in the Summer. Or Spring. Or pretty much any time the pollen/dust/mold count was too high. It tends to make the mucus linings thicker and therefor exacerbate any congestion I might have.


So, sometime in high school while working for Starbucks I started to switch to soy milk. And it was tasty and wonderful....except with all the other tasty and wonderful soy products I was consuming I was consuming way too much excess estrogen. This really isn't something you have to worry about if you happen to be a guy, or if you're not on some sort of hormone based prescription or if your body naturally has a lower amount of estrogen. I, alas, am none of those things. So I began to branch out and explore other non-dairy options.

I found that I only liked rice milk over cereal (which soon became an issue when I stopped consuming most cereal due to the gluten/corn content). It's really thin and watery to me, and tastes overly sweet. But I was thankful that my college carried it for the days the dining hall was out of soy. It's always nice to have more than one option available to you.

After the rice milk I tried Almond and Hazelnut milk. I will say right off that Hazelnut milk was not for me. I just couldn't deal with the taste. I am not even sure to this day what I would describe that taste as other than "off". Almond milk, on the other hand, I find quite delicious. Of course this doesn't really work for anyone with a nut allergy. And evidently anyone who has cold sores. (Are we seeing a theme with food and medical anomalies and me?) Pretty soon after I started drinking Almond milk full time I started getting a plethora of cold sores. Which meant that I needed to start looking at other options.



One day whilst browsing in whole foods I stumbled upon the hemp milk, which I had never seen before. And the two brands they carried were on sale. So we picked up a carton of each and brought them home to try. I can't say I even remember what the second brand was, other than it paled in comparison to Living Harvest. It was the first time I remember having a milk-alternative product that didn't scream "wow, this is NOT milk" at me. That isn't to say that it tastes like dairy, because it doesn't. However it does have a smooth, rich texture without being grainy, chalk like or leaving an after taste. And it comes in chocolate and vanilla as well. I like having flavor options for things like protein shakes and hot cocoa and baking.

I also really like that Living Harvest ensures that their product is gluten free. It's good to know for people with serious allergies and medical issues that they're insuring the quality of their product. I would recommend people who like milk alternatives to give it a try as it's tasty and full of healthy protein and omega-3 and omega-6 fats.

Happy drinking!

Product Review: Stevia

Stevia Natural Sweetener

I discovered this wonder through reading Skinny Bitch. I had never heard of it before. I am not usually one for "no calorie" sweeteners of any sort. Lets face it aspartame is scary stuff that, amongst other things, causes cancer in white lab rats. Splenda is equally, if not more so, scary. I remember reading an article (I wish for the life of me I knew where it was so I could link to it) about the "Science Behind Splenda" describing how people had concocted this miracle sweetener. I then remember how wide my eyes got when they announced, with a weird sense of pride, that it was made through combining part of the sugar molecule with part of the chlorine molecule. Wait.... chlorine? The stuff that if the pool had too much of I wasn't allowed to go in? Yeah.... I stopped consuming it right then and there. Which was really too bad because I quite liked the taste.

So I was a bit hesitant, needless to say, with the idea of even an "all natural" zero calorie sweetener. But I did my research on this new found wonder and decided to invest in some to see if I even liked it.

I bought the packets originally at Whole Foods (my usually stop for alternative foods and such as it is within walking distance of where I live). I found that for my sense of what is "sweet" a half packet was more than enough for a 16 oz glass of iced tea. Other people may think that's not sweet enough, or entirely too sweet still. But I will say one thing, when they say Stevia is an herb 300 times more sweet than sugar, they're not pulling your leg.

I then experimented with the liquid version of the same while baking. It just combines better with baked goods than the powdered stuff. Plus it was quite a bit easier to figure out how much to add to the mixture to make it "sweet enough" and since I was making frosting, this was quite important. I found that it had a bit of an aftertaste at first, however this was quickly countered with my use of vanilla extract.

All in all, if you're looking for a low calorie, low carb solution to sweeten your life, I think that Stevia (being an all natural herb) is your best bet.

Product Review: Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

As any American would, there are times that I like my food (and my baked goods) easy. In other words: from a box. Today I decided to try out Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix. There were a couple of reasons I decided on this particular cake mix. 1) I like Bob's products. They're consistently good quality as far as taste, texture and appearance. 2) They included a vegan egg-free option on the back of the package. 3) Wednesday is knitting night (one of my other hobbies) and there is an individual at knitting who has an enormous amount of food allergies and is having a hard time adjusting to his new diet, therefore I decided that I would bake treats that were both tasty and available for everyone to eat. It's no fun being left out of the cup-cake party after all.

So, for this particular endeavor I substituted chocolate hemp milk (since its a chocolate cake) for the milk, safflower oil for the butter and milled flax seed + water for the eggs. As eggs are a really hard ingredient to substitute, I was unsure how this was going to work. Nevertheless, when I popped those cupcake pans in the oven the batter puffed right up like a regular cake and smelled delicious the whole time.

The other interesting thing was that right before I finished mixing the batter, the instructions had me add 1/3 cup of hot (110 degrees F) water to the mix. I was thinking on why this might be
and concluded that it must be to activate the baking powder. For those who are unaware, baking powder does not activate until it is heated. I think I can attribute this factor to the fluffy texture and supreme rising power of the batter. I will have to try adding a little hot water to other recipes in the future.

After they cooled I had one of the not-so-large ones and it was very, very tasty. I have to say I was impressed that the cake was light (so many gluten-free items are super dense) and moist and tasted like a chocolate cake should!