Gelatin Has Left the Building. – Sweet & Sara Marshmallow Review and Giveaway!

Sara from Sweet & Sara was kind enough to send us a Marshmallow Variety Sampler, which contained four of each marshmallow flavor (vanilla (which we pronounce vaneeya), toasted coconut, cinnamon pecan, and strawberry), to taste test and review.

She will be sending one lucky winner a Marshmallow Variety Sampler as well!

All four flavors are “deeee eeeee lissssh us” and have a great texture. Our favorites, however, are the coconut and cinnamon pecan flavors. These marshmallows are great just by themselves straight out of the refrigerator. The vanilla and coconut flavors are also great for making Vegan s’mores. They melt and get all gooey mmmmmm. They are especially good if you have access to Rice Milk bars (we HIGHLY suggest Terra Nostra’s Ricemilk Choco Bar). We have not tried making s’mores with the other two flavors but we are sure they would be vair tasty too.

And if you don’t feel like making your own s’mores? Then Sweet & Sara has you covered with their Original and Peanut Butter flavored S’mores. They are good cold, at room temperature, or heated up. Our favorite is the Original but the Peanut Butter variety is also nom worthy.

You might be saying to yourself right around now “Wow, that is a lot of tasty looking products. There is no way they could have even more.” If so, you would be wrong! This is one of the times it pays to be wrong though so don’t worry . S&S now offers mini vanilla marshmallows that could go great with some Vegan hot chocolate or maybe you could add them to a bowl of cereal . And finally there is the Rocky Road Bark which has a big bite.

Wozzie used to own and run her own Shoppe and she sold S&S marshmallows and s’mores. They were some of the best selling items in the shoppe! Woz says that Sara was great to deal with too. We would like to end the review by begging Sweet & Sarah to bring back the Mexican Chocolate flavored marshmallows. Please, please, please, please Sara!!

Now for the giveaway. To enter leave a comment telling us your favorite Sweet & Sara marshmallow flavor. If you have not tried any of the flavors let us know which one you look forward to trying the most. Is one entry not quite enough for you? Then follow us on Twitter (we are HHVeganos) and Tweet about the giveaway. Then make another comment on here linking to your Tweet to get a second entry into the contest. The winner will be chosen at random. Winner will be chosen on Friday, November 27. Good luck to all of you! Sorry, contest is for the USA only.

The Most Amazing Candy Bars on Earth (and Beyond) – Contest, Too!

We can’t say enough about how amazingly nom nom nom these Go Max Go candy bars really are. Nevermind that at some locations they can be close to $3 a pop, they could be $40 and we’d still buy them. They are THAT FLIPPIN’ GOOD! Dairy free, no trans fat, no cholesterol, totally Vegan, no hydrogenated oils, and 100% tasty in a wrapper.

Behold the wonders known as Mahalo, Buccaneer, Jokerz, and Twilight:

The fine folks at Go Max Go sent us these to sample and review. So we rallied up two willing omnivores to also join us in this taste test to get a good gauge on how these bad boys really measured up. The omnis were pleasantly surprised at how good these candy bars were, with the Twilight being their favorite. “This is Vegan? Really?” seemed to be the question at hand. Yes, yes, they are Vegan and damn good, too.

Although tasty by their own merits, the appeal of these to many Vegans is they are quite similar to the candy bars we loved before we knew any better. Twilight is the cruelty free version of the Milky Way bar, Buccaneer is the modern day Three Musketeers, Mahalo is the twin sister to the Almond Joy, and Jokerz is the Snickers bar that no cows had to suffer for to be so delish. These candy bars are rich, quite tasty, and simply amazing. The only criticism received came from both the Veganos and the omnis: the Jokerz needs more peanuts to truly stack up and satisfy. Make no mistake, however, it did the trick and then some.

So, here’s where you come in. Tell us your favorite flavor and why. If you haven’t tried them yet, tell us which one you’d like to nosh on and why. We will randomly pick THREE WINNERS next Tuesday with the prize being your very own Go Max Go bars sent directly from them. Okay, go (Max, go)!

NOM.

What Could Possibly be Better Than Vegan Gourmet EnglishToffee?

Vegan Gourmet Merikan Toffee that’s what. No,but seriously, FREE Vegan Gourmet English Toffee is better!

I (rahzh) entered a little contest that @foodoro tweeted on Twitter which was actually being held on their Facebook page for a prize on their website (confusing I know but try to keep up because it is worth it). The first two people to guess what the Mystery Item was had the choice of Vegan Gourmet English Toffee or Vegan Gourmet Coconut Brittle. The toffee is made by Chocolate Inspirations, INC and you can find several other delicious looking Vegan options on their site as well. I chose the toffee because chocolate covered toffee is one of my most favorite things ever. I used to love Heath and Skorr bars. And I am pretty sure I haven’t had any toffee (chocolate covered or uncovered) since becoming Vegan almost exactly four years ago. If I have had it I do not remember, that is for sure.

The toffee and the brittle come in a bulk 1 pound bag or a 1/2 pound gold tent box.

They are $15.00 and $20.50 respectively. The 1 pound bag is a much better buy at about $1.29 per ounce compared to the 1/2 pound which is around $1.86 per ounce. The toffee is crunchy and nomilicious while the Swiss dark chocolate couverture covering is rich and smooth. The chopped pecan topping is just the right amount making this dessert all around delectable. The toffee and brittle are just two of the many Vegan products Foodoro carries and if the rest are even half as good as the toffee then they are worth trying.

As of this post Foodro has 278 Vegan items, but be careful as they do have a lot of non-Vegan items and I do not recommend those as the animals would not appreciate it . Just make sure to search the term Vegan and you shouldn’t have any worries.

*Edit*

*Foodoro now has a Vegan Shopping Guide that can break items down into multiple categories based on price, craft, health&nutrition, foodmaker,etc.*

Finally,here is what you have been waiting for, the toffee and all its glory.

We Heart Coconut Bliss (Remembering Eugene – Pt. 2)

There are few things we love love love like we love love love Coconut Bliss. It is hands down, no ifs ands or buts, the BEST non-dairy ice cream on the market (and made in our beloved Eugene!). We are going to say this once, and only once, so pay close attention…all vegan ice creams are NOT created equal. We admit that there are some other yummy non-dairy frozen desserts out there, but nothing, and we mean nothing, comes close to Coconut Bliss.

The good folks at Luna & Larry’s (the creators of Coconut Bliss) were kind enough to send Wozzie a t-shirt for being such a fan. Say soy cheeeeeeeese!

In addition to the fabby shirt, they also sent coupons for their yummy dessert. Oh how we heart them! So, although we’d LOVE to use those coupons to get our little hands on the Bliss, we are going to pass along the happiness to YOU! We promised you a contest and here are the details to win a pint of any flavor Coconut Bliss your tummy desires. All you have to do is leave a comment telling us your favorite Coconut Bliss flavor and how you like to eat it (in a float? in a cookie sammie? in a bowl at 5 a.m.? You get the picture…) Haven’t tried the Bliss? No worries! Simply go to their site and pick a flavor you’d like to try and let us know why! We will be choosing TWO winners; one will be chosen at random from the comments and one will be for the most creative way to partake in the Coconut Bliss. We’ll be choosing the winners on October 10 (which happens to be Rahzh’s 4 year Veganniversary).

Still craving more Bliss…and really, who wouldn’t? Be sure to enter Luna & Larry’s A Night of Bliss contest! On November 7th, Coconut Bliss will be making people smile with fifty simultaneous parties across the United States. They’ll provide the Coconut Bliss and you host the party. Together you’ll create a critical mass of ecstasy that will ripple across the country, awakening joy and delight from Petaluma to Poughkeepsie. Not a bad way to spend an evening, eh? Click here for complete details. Be sure to hurry, the deadline has been slightly extended until October 7!

With so many ways to get your hands on Coconut Bliss, what are you waiting for?

NOM.

Healthy Can = Yummmmmmy

Cookies are yummy, we all know that. If the cookies are yummy and actually healthy, well, it just doesn’t get better than that! We decided to try this recipe that was featured on Vegetarian Vixens blog because it looked way too good to pass up. While petsitting for the adorable Molly, we took full advantage of her fully loaded kitchen to get our bake on. These beauties were soft, chewy, a little more oatmealy than we thought they’d be, but oh so vair delish!

And here’s how you can have them, too!

The Heart-Healthiest Chocolate Chip Cookies in the World

• 2 cups walnuts
• 3 T canola oil
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups oat flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t salt
• 1/4 t ground cinnamon
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (or 10 1/2 ounces vegan bittersweet chocolate, chopped)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 2 baking sheets with cooking spray, or line with parchment paper.
2. Blend walnuts in food processor 30 seconds, or until ground into a fine meal. Add canola oil in a stream with the food processor running, and blend for 2 – 3 minutes more, or until mixture has the consistency of natural peanut butter, scraping down the sides of the food processor occasionally. Transfer to a bowl.
3. Whisk together brown sugar and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan, and bring mixture to a boil. (Watch this, as when it starts to boil it can quickly boil over.) Pour brown sugar mixture over the ground walnut butter, add vanilla extract, and stir until no lumps remain.
4. Whisk together oat flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Stir oat flour mixture into walnut mixture. Cool 10 minutes. Fold in oats, then chocolate chips.
5. Shape cookie dough into 1 1/2 to 2 inch balls (I used a spring-type ice cream scoop, and I used 2 different sizes, varying the baking time), and place two inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Now the original recipe calls for flattening the cookies with a glass dipped in water. I forgot with the first batch that went into the oven, and they turned out just fine with a lovely cracked top to the cookie. They did take a little longer than the recipe called for when I made them this way.
6. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until cookies begin to brown and tops look dry. Cool three minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
7. Enjoy with a tall glass of rice or soy milk!

So satisfy that sweet tooth of yours and don’t worry about feeling guilty one bit. NOM.

Chocolate Upside-Down Pudding Cake

Our copy of Vegan A Go-Go! is already getting some chocolate fingerprints on it from making this yummy recipe. Just being introduced to this super easy and super yummy lava cake of sorts was worth the price of admission alone!

What was almost as fun as eating this dessert was baking it in our latest yard sale find. We found this happy little toaster oven over the weekend for only $2. We were so pleased because we’ve gotten so tired of cranking up the entire oven when a little guy like this could easily do the trick! We also love that we don’t have to keep opening the oven door to see how something is doing since ours in a model with no window. Toastie has solved that problem and happily baked her first Chocolate Upside-Down Pudding Cake!

Smelled sooooo good baking!

Add a side of any vegan ice cream (our choice for the evening was So Delicious Neapolitan).

Very happy tummies! NOM.