Tag Archives: Vegan

Emmy’s Organics

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A little while back, I was sent a lovely package from the owners of Emmy’s Organics, an excellent up and coming company dedicated to producing delicious goodies that are made in a dedicated vegan and gluten free facility. From their website:

Our Mission

At emmy’s we are committed to YOU having it all. We pride ourselves on the quality, creativity & sustainability of the products we offer. In respect for our bodies & the earth, we use the finest non-GMO ingredients in everything we make & biodegradable, earth-friendly resources for our packaging. Our food is derived from nature, which in return nourishes us in the best way possible. Vegan & Gluten-free foods are our passion, so you can always feel good about choosing emmy’s. All of our goods are made in a certified vegan & gluten-free kitchen.

Cool, huh? Well, after learning a little more about their company (which got its start in the co-creator, Ian’s, mother’s kitchen), I was not at all surprised to find that their products were just as great as the company’s ethics. I was able to sample two types of granola, chocolate sauce, and five flavors of their macaroons. These products are not only vegan and gluten-free, they are also raw! I especially love this aspect because, as I’ve mentioned in many previous posts, I would consider myself a raw food devotee–even though I still eat the cooked stuff too. Balance, baby.

Here’s my thoughts on emmy’s:

The Granola: I had two varieties to choose from: Apricot Flax and Original. They both had a ton of delicious, fresh tasting ingredients and a ton of flavor. Unlike other gluten-free granola I have tasted, this packed the crunch and punch of the granola that I have come to expect since growing up with the regular omnivorous varieties. There is no puffed rice, no corn, no oats!!, and no added sugars in this granola–only sprouted buckwheat, fruits, nuts and seeds that made this some of the best packaged granola I have ever eaten.

The Chocolate Sauce: I seriously put this chocolate sauce on just about anything I could find. It was unbelievably rich in chocolate flavor, and I had to keep looking at the label to make sure it was indeed a raw product. It tasted exactly like a favorite–definitely not raw nor healthy–brand of chocolate sauce that I used to devour back in the day… only better. It worked beautifully stirred into ice cream (add some crumbled up macaroons and it’s pretty much Heaven), drizzled onto my famous Apple Nachos, as a fun addition to a peanut butter banana panini, and it went effortlessly along with my family and I on a picnic with its resealable and reusable packaging. Definitely a keeper, and great to have around for when those random chocolate cravings strike!

The Macaroons: As I mentioned, I got to try a whopping 5 flavors of these wonderful macaroons: Choco-Orange, Mint Chip, Coconut Vanilla, and Chai Spice, and I truly adored every flavor. My favorites were the Mint Chip and Chai Spice, mostly due to the fact that the flavors were very prominent, and the coconut taste seemed more of an undertone. Whereas in the Coconut Vanilla and Choco-Orange, the coconut seemed to dominate, which is apropos for a macaroon.

If you are not familiar with emmy’s delicious products, you certainly should get acquainted soon. You can thank me later.

Emmy’s also sells a variety of other products that are deliciously vegan, gluten-free and raw. Check them out and spread the love. Their simple and dare I say “hip” (environmentally friendly) packaging is cute enough to give even as a gift!

 

 

Gluten-Free Vegan Comfort Food

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Author Susan O’Brien brings easy and delicious vegan and gluten-free recipes to your kitchen in Gluten-Free Vegan Comfort Food featuring over 125 recipes covering all types of foods from breakfast staples to condiments.

At the beginning of the book, the author goes into an extensive (25 pages!) ingredient guide, which is important for folks who are new to gluten-free and vegan cooking. The guide touches on everything from vegan ingredients every home cook should have on hand to a descriptive list of gluten-free flours. O’Brien explains her choice of ingredients used for recipe development and that one of the main driving forces was reader feedback and requests. One of the requests was to create recipes with no soy, and O’Brien worked hard to remove the common allergen from the equation in many of the recipes.  I think that this is a wonderful way to reach out to those of us with multiple food allergies or intolerances, but I do wish the recipes were labeled as such as I flip through the cookbook trying to choose which recipe to prepare. This is my only — tiny– complaint in the entire book. Although, there aren’t actually very many recipes that do contain soy based ingredients, and the ones that do are actually quite obvious (Scrambled Tofu and Vegetables, Tempeh Tacos) so this is not too much of a concern as those looking to avoid soy are generally aware that these are soy based.

The recipes themselves are plentiful and O’Brien uses an array of interesting ingredients to livin’ things up. Chia seeds are used often throughout the book, as well as coconut flour. The recipes also vary in how the author approaches them, for instance she uses a basic gluten-free flour blend in some recipes and in others she opts to make her own blend. I appreciate this approach as long lists of multiple flours can sometimes feel overwhelming to a newbie gluten-free baker, so it’s nice to have some “less intimidating” recipes to lean on.

Starting with breakfast and working her way through 10 chapters of classic comfort foods O’Brien really nails what I consider to be the epitome of All American Family Style Cooking. In the chapter “Get Your Morning Breakfast Going!” the Strawberry Applesauce caught my eye, and I love her recipe for Dried Cherry Granola because it is oat free–which is a grain I personally can’t tolerate–and it’s still an authentic, traditional, delicious granola.  The section for “Kids’ Favorites” is spot on for foods that not only I loved as a child, but my (not gluten-free) vegan children now love themselves, such as Fried “Chicken” Nuggets and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. The chapters go on and on, but the last one is the most intriguing for me, which is the chapter entitled “Everything Else”… but it contains some of the most important recipes in my humble opinion, from Pesto to Cashew Milk and there’s even a recipe for Avocado Mayo which is perfect for the gluten-free vegan eater who doesn’t have access to specialty items wherever they happen to live.

“Gluten-Free Vegan Comfort Food” is a very comprehensive guide for anyone looking to eat Vegan, Gluten-Free or both, and I highly recommend reserving a space for this informative title on your bookshelf. It’s not only a great resource for vegans who need to eat gluten-free, but for anyone looking to expand their cooking knowledge and try out new and exciting flours and ingredients in classic, comforting recipes.

* Thank you to the publisher, DeCapo Press, for sending me a copy of this book to review.