I recently had the privilege of trying samples of a new raw vegan protein powder shortly before it was made available to the public. This stuff is awesome!
While I usually take my protein powders unflavored to keep the calories as low as possible, the samples were chocolate and vanilla. They were delicious treats, and since only sweetened with stevia, the calories aren’t that much higher anyway. In the future, I’ll get the natural, but I’m glad I got to try these, since I probably would’ve passed them by otherwise.
Compared to some other rice protein powders, it mixed extremely well with just a spoon. I enjoyed mine in a warm beverage, like tea or Dandy Blend or (shhh…) the cup of coffee I allow myself each day.
As for the cost, it’s significantly more expensive than standard high-heat processed vegetable proteins, but if raw is what you want, raw is what they deliver. We’re talking sprouted rice that’s never been heated above 90 °F!
They also make some impressive claims about the amino acid profile and digestibility. I’m not sure where the 85% came from, as my math gave either 76% using grams or 91% by calories. Anyone??
My suggestion—the one I’ll be following—is to take them up on their bulk order deal to avoid shipping charges, which at 2.2 lbs per container could be quite the savings.
Most well-known for his blockbuster, full-length documentary, Supersize Me, Morgan Spurlock took that formula of a month-long personal challenge and created a television series that’s now in its third season. I really resonate with the concept seeing as it was a two-week experiment that took me from lacto-ovo vegetarianism to a vegan diet. And a similar challenge got me hooked on green smoothies.
Here’s how the FX website’s 30 Days section describes the vegan episode, airing Tuesday night, June 17th:
PARTICIPANT - George Snedeker, 42
RESIDES - Chapel Hill, NC
OCCUPATION - Handyman
AIRDATE - Tuesday, June 17, 2008
George Snedeker is an avid hunter who considers it much more than just a sport; to George, hunting is a way of life. George hunts mainly for deer meat and tries to use the entire animal in order not to be wasteful.
For 30 Days, George will live in Los Angeles with vegan Melissa Karpel, 29, and her vegan family: parents Don and Madeline Karpel and her sisters Stephanie and Kimberly, who are 25-year-old twins. Melissa is a Los Angeles Campaign Coordinator for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a non-profit organization that fights for animal rights on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade and in the entertainment industry.
George will participate in PETA initiatives including a demonstration at a popular fast food chain, work at a local farm animal rescue center and meet with various organizations such as Last Chance for Animals, a non-profit group dedicated to animal rights.
Should be interesting! I hope this reaches you in time to watch and share your thoughts here afterward.
Are you up for a challenge of your own? The “Declare Your Independence From Unhealthy Foods” group cleanse starts on the 4th of July at Green Smoothie Central!
Yeah, right, that’ll be the day! Hardly a single meal on that show is vegetarian, but I got a chuckle a couple episodes ago. Here’s why…
The hotheaded chef Gordon Ramsey had cooked up a little taste-test challenge for the contestants. He asked them to identify the missing ingredient in several main courses. While they guessed the usual herbs and spices, none of them noticed the very bulk of the dish was what was “missing.” In every case, the animal protein, spanning the species from fish to bovine, were all made from soy!
Of course, the chef considered this a major failing of their palettes, but I was cheering on the fake meats all the way. Not because I eat them anymore—too processed and high in sodium to be truly healthy. Rather, it suggests even die-hard carnivores have no excuse.
Unfortunately, such was not the conclusion of this guy, who after a week-long attempt at veganism, threw up the white flag and congratulated those of us who live it on a daily basis.
Clearly, he hasn’t had well-prepared vegan food, despite his claims in the, as you might expect, copious comments such a piece garners. Depending on your mood and experience, it’ll have you laughing, crying, sympathizing, or raging. Worth a read anyway, especially the well-educated responses.
Yesterday, I had some old college buddies over to watch the UFC and in general to just enjoy the beautiful day (we hit the mid-70’s), good food, and good company. One of these guys I hadn’t seen in years! It was good to catch up.
My friend Scott made the black bean burger mix from the Student’s Go Vegan Cookbook. Rather than patties, we simply packed a loaf pan and reheated in the oven. It was enjoyed by all. I had mine wrapped in collard greens and topped with my obligatory homemade salsa.
The plan had been to get all our food prepped and beers in hand before settling down to cheer on our favorite fighters. Alas, we started off with a taste-testing of a new line of vegan food bars, and we were all surprisingly satiated after the experience, so we held off on lunch until mid-program. That’s probably exactly what the folks at PROBAR would like to hear, considering they’re billed as meal replacements.
So, what the heck am I talking about? Well, one of the perks of being a vegan blogger is you occasionally get free samples of books or food accompanied by a request to review, without restriction. Of course, when you’re a CRONie, such reviews are bound to screw up your restriction for a day. These certainly did that! But, we had fun.
The products in question: The new “Sweet and Savory” line of meal replacement bars from PROBAR, consisting of five flavors (the ones currently labeled as “NEW!” on their website). The about page claims their bars are organic, raw, and vegan. That may be true of most of the ingredients and/or their first offerings, but with pretzel sticks, roasted corn, etc. in these, they’re clearly not 100% raw.
The testers: Me (vegan), Scott (vegetarian), and the three Standard American Dieters, Chris, Andre, and Ksawery
Our methodology: Seeing as there were five of us total, everyone got to sample a fifth of each bar. We tried to refrain from influencing the others while we filled out the questionnaires. Once the gorging was complete, then we discussed our impressions.
Conclusions: Interestingly enough, the two vegans had the least favorable opinions of the bars, while the SAD-eaters raved! I’d guessed it would be the other way around.
We all thought the packaging was gorgeous, but the consensus ended there. The favorites were the Cocoa Pistachio and Kettle Corn (which tasted like a rice crispy treat to me). The Maple Pecan was right up there too. The Cherry Pretzel was too sweet and the Sesame Goji just <shrug>.
Personally, I found them all too salty. Looking at their other bars, however, the rest are low in sodium, so it’s apparently how they approached the savory part of the line’s name. I might well like the originals.
The texture didn’t vary much across the flavors. I was expecting and hoping for more crunch and chunkiness. Instead they were chewy. Not everyone minded that though, so if you’re a smooth peanut butter person…
Finally, the price seemed a little high to everyone, but the winning flavors could probably command it.
Click below to view the completed questionnaires. Where a number is given it’s on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best. For the Expectations rows, the choices were Exceeded (Exc), Met, or Fell Short (FS) of flavor expectations based on the packaging. I hope you found this post interesting (it took me far too long to write ).
As promised, now that my blog is on a more professional host and I’ve time to come up for air, I’m ready to make my big announcement. I’m really excited about this and put in a lot of sleepless nights and weekends, installing and fighting software, crunching the nutritional numbers, etc..
As you know, there’s a lot of buzz these days about green smoothies. Even Oprah has whipped up a blenderful or two on her show. In fact, she’s currently trying a 21-day vegan challenge! It seems all my dietary modifications started with time-bounded experiments that continued past their fourth-dimensional boxes. Let’s hope it does the same for her and her fans.
My latest personal “challenge” (the quotes because it wasn’t challenging at all) was a couple weeks on a self-designed liquid raw healing protocol. Green smoothies were front and center. While there’s nothing new under the sun, I purposely avoided reading raw food books or searching the web for ideas during this period, in order to at least attempt creating just that.
I expected to emerge with twenty-one new raw blender recipes. Instead, I was having too much fun. With the habit firmly entrenched, I just kept going. Now, a smoothie a day is back in my repertoire. Back? Indeed. Funny thing is, before I went vegan, a yogurt smoothie was my breakfast of choice.
Toss the yogurt and replace with a tossed salad and you’ve got something closer to what I enjoy today. Ultimately, I stopped compiling the recipes at just over 50. After all, I’d told everyone they were on the way. And now, they’re here! Better yet, I set about creating a community forum where members can share their own creations, modifications, and in general just get to know each other.
Who’da thunk it? According to the Ericson Family’s blog, for ten years now, Pyrex has been quietly using a different formulation for their glass cookware. No longer does it contain the borosilicate that gave it that famed indestructibility. Now, it’s just, well… glass. Kinda sad.
There’s hope yet though as their labware still has it. So, why not bake that next casserole in a drying dish? Or a beaker for a measuring cup.
A quick heads up to my fellow chessplayers and their friends and family. . . I got an email today that Chess House is offering free shipping on ALL orders in the US through Mother’s Day, this Sunday, May 11th. You’ll need to use coupon codec3043. And even if you’re not in to chess, the sets make for beautiful decor. Just remember, it’s “light on the right.”
If you can believe it, just the other day I brought home my very first jicama root from the supermarket. Seems I must’ve had it in a Mexican restaurant before, but maybe not. <shrug> Anyway, it felt like a new experience, and it was so good.
Of course, I enjoyed it raw initially to get a sense of its flavors. It struck me as a combination of a potato and a cucumber—really juicy. Then I doctored it up by dry frying in a skillet with onions before splashing in balsamic vinegar at the end. This gave it a nice caramelization and is the same way I tend to make eggplant too.
It took me a while to find the nutrition information for it in my software, since it’s listed in the USDA database under Yambeans. Lower-cal than potatoes, I’ll be having this one again soon.
Not known for shying away from controversy, PETA’s latest proposal doesn’t even have full support within their organization. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is offering $1 million for the
Speaking of challenges, there’s another pretty cool one going on right now that fits right in with the spirit of Earth Day. The X Prize Foundation has added another technological contest to their line-up. This one’s for the first to design an affordable car that gets 100 MPG.
Get your body care from one of the good guys. Tested negative for 1,4-Dioxane in the Organic Consumers’ recent Coming Clean study.
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