Hi MoFoers! Look, I'm actually sticking to a theme today! Welcome to my first Things I Love Thursday post. These are some of the things I brought back from the US of A, y'know, because I love them!
Chocolove! I tried the Chocolove Cherries & Almonds in Dark Chocolate bar last time I was in America and loved it so I knew I'd be bringing some home again. A lovely cashier at Wheatsville co-op shared a piece of their Almonds & Sea Salt bar with me whilst Nick & I were buying sandwiches and now I'm hooked. I brought back three bars!
To continue the chocolate theme, here a a few more of my favourites! You can buy the Go Max bars in the UK but not in Brighton and I was super impressed to find this Crispy Cat bar at the airport in Dallas!
Soy Curls are something that I've been wanting to try for years, I couldn't find them in New York or Chicago and I was super happy when some twitter friends alerted me to their presence at Wheatsville.
Another new and exciting thing we brought home to try is Food For Lovers Mild Queso. Crystal, one of the inventors of the queso is a PPKer and I followed her's and Chris' journey from popular blog recipe to full on Queso production. Awesome. The mild version of the queso was harder to find than the original but after some advice from the queso making team themselves we found it at Mr Natural. I can't wait to try this with some blue corn chips. Also as this is a local product it totally counts as a souvenir!
Cheap canned pumpkin is another hard-to-find ingredient here, I can usually find a jar for around £4 in Taj. Pumpkin stuff just isn't as popular here as it is the US and I absolutely refuse to buy the Libby's brand when it does pop up in Waitrose because it's made by Nestle who I've been boycotting for even longer than I've been vegan!
This is what the top shelf of my fridge is looking like now, upon unpacking one of our suitcases we found a little note from the TSA saying that they'd inspected the bag. Nick's first question was 'Not the Tofurky bag?!", yep, the Tofurky bag! The TSA inspector probably thought we were crazy...this isn't even all of it, there's more Tofurky hiding back there!!
We also grabbed some Yves Bologna, we discovered this on our last trip and loved it, and some Veganaise. If you used to love Helman's mayo then you need to get some Veganaise asap!
We'd never seen these packages of marinated tempeh strips before but we got some to try. I'm most excited about the smoky maple bacon and Nick's most excited about the sesame garlic.
Whilst we were hanging out in the mock meat section we also picked up a Field Roast. We both loooove Tofurky roasts but as they only come frozen we got this to try instead.
Moving onto the cheese section we grabbed some Daiya...
...and some Follow Your Heart.
I love Daiya for pizzas but Nick's really not a fan so we grabbed a whole load of FYH too so that we can half & half our pizza's. I like FYH too, the Cheddar makes a great cheese on toast and I'm excited about trying the Monterey Jack. I'm also excited to try the Daiya wedge, I've heard that it's different from the grated Daiya. What your favorite thing to do with it?
Last but not least we brought back some tortillas.
I know that I can make these but I can whip up a breakfast taco much faster if I can just pull a couple of these outa the freezer whenever I need 'em!
Those Almond Sea Salt chocolate bars are so addictive that I try not to buy the full size ones anymore. I'll eat them all!
ReplyDeleteSeriously! I'm eating one right now & there's one square left!!
DeleteLooks like a great haul! I love the twilight bar. I'm going to have to try the Almond Sea Salt chocolate bar.
ReplyDeleteHey Jojo!
ReplyDeleteLove your post, and as always your travel hauls amaze me. (You'll have to give me packing tips).
Those tortillas are flour tortillas, though, not corn (masa) ones.
xoxo
Awww thank you! I am actually the queen of packing even though I do say so myself! Nick was amazed we fit it all in & I haven't unpacked a single squished chocolate bar or broken biscuit yet! Gonna change the flour / corn tortilla thing too, you're totally right, silly jet-lagged brain!
Deletexoxo
I'm in awe of your haul. And now I have something to aim for on my trip. It's good to see there's so much that can be transported!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great haul! I'm so jealous of the soy curls, I've seen so many fantastic recipes that use them and I really want to try them.
ReplyDeleteWOW, that is one tremendous haul from the good ol' US of A! Was it hard to get back with so much food? I should give Follow Your Heart another chance. I've been on a Daiya kick for way too long. And they soy curls, yay! I can't get those anywhere near where I live, mail order only ^_^
ReplyDeleteFieldroast Deli Slices are delicious. I've tried the Wild Mushroom and the Lentil Sage. The Lentil is better. I think I like them, because they're not really pretending to be meat, just great.
ReplyDeleteGreat haul! I STILL have NEVER had soy curls! I guess I'll have to make a trip to Whole Foods to get some.
ReplyDeleteYou may already do this, but I throw my Daiya right into the freezer. I use mine right out of there and it lasts forever. Otherwise, it goes bad fast in the fridge!
XOXO
daiya and butler soy curls -- i totally couldn't live without them!!! such great products!! all these yummy pictures makes me want to take a drive to whole foods... ha!
ReplyDeleteYou picked up all of my favorites. I like the daiya wedge sliced on crackers. I really love it so much that it never lasts long enough to try it any other way. And the maple tempeh strips are delicious. Hope you enjoy them!
ReplyDeleteCool, I'll certainly try it on a cracker before proceeding with anything else!
DeleteWow! I am mighty impressed! How does that make it back to the UK without being refrigerated? I don't like Daiya very much, but will admit that it makes a lovely grilled cheese. FYH is my favorite vegan cheese and I eat that on crackers or all by itself!
ReplyDeleteI just make sure to do my shopping in the morning before we fly home, wrap everything up in clothes to insulate it and then hope we don't get massively delayed! The hold of the plane's really cold anyway so I always figure it'll be fine & I've never had anything go bad yet!
DeleteYou found it! I am so glad you had fun in Austin. <3
ReplyDeleteNo packaged tortillas in Brighton? That's gotta change!!! You loot looks awesome and glutentastic. And I +1 yummy the FYF, since I am a FYH kinda gal.
ReplyDeletexo
kittee
Oh man, both the Go Max bars and the Field Roast thing are just beyond amazing and totally worth the price. I got a chance to find some of each at the local health food store recently, and it was total mouth bliss. I'm curious too, does all that stuff travel well from the US to the UK? Do you bag it in ice or something? I'd love to bring some stuff back to Switzerland when I visit, but I'm always worried it's gonna go bad along the way.
ReplyDeleteIt travels fine, no ice! I just make sure to do my shopping in the morning before we fly home, wrap everything up in clothes to insulate it and then hope we don't get massively delayed! The hold of the plane's really cold anyway so I always figure it'll be fine & I've never had anything go bad yet!
DeleteI also wanna know how you transported it home. im trying to convince my hubby to bring some stuff back later this month. so far i only managed to convince him to bring back some curls.
ReplyDeleteI just make sure to do my shopping in the morning before we fly home, wrap everything up in clothes to insulate it, shove it in my suitcase and then hope we don't get massively delayed! The hold of the plane's really cold anyway so I always figure it'll be fine & I've never had anything go bad yet!
DeleteI'm so impressed with your packing skills! That's a really amazing haul. I hope you make loads of delicious sandwiches and pizzas.
ReplyDeleteHaha thanks! I didn't even photograph the 40 Clif bars we managed to shove in there!
Deletewow I wish we could get all that here in England and I know you go shopping in the same shops as me cos we live in the same town. I am looking forward to seeing what you make with it all.
ReplyDeleteBest. shopping. trip. ever! These are just about all of my favorite things!
ReplyDeleteOh wow, that is amazing! What a great haul back. Did all of it keep OK in transit without being cooled? Or did you take cooler packs??
ReplyDeleteNope no cooler pack & I've never had anything go bad yet!
DeleteThat is an awesome haul of stuff! I love america for its vegan awesomeness!
ReplyDeleteWhat a haul, you guys took so much stuff home - nice work!
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading this, I kept thinking "Oh, I need to comment on that...and that...and that" until I go to the end and realized I like just about everything you listed.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite thing to do with that Harvarti Daiya wedge is spread it on sour dough and make a grilled cheese sandwich.
Also, I love Go Max chocolate candy...especially the Cleo's peanut butter cups and the Mahalo almond coconut bars. I've found they are the most like the familiar, dairy, check out aisle candy bars (in a great way!!!)
I love Cleo's! I'm super lucky that my local HFS sells them!
DeleteThe Almonds & Sea Salt is my favorite chocolate!!! And the hickory smoked tofurky slices are the best.
ReplyDeleteIt's quickly becoming my favourite too!
DeleteTofurky and Follow Your Heart! I remember sitting in Prospect Park with you and eating that. Good times.
ReplyDeleteAwww, that was my first time! Best memories!
DeleteWow, you must have had half a suitcase full of food! Amazing! Buying tortillas there was a good idea. I miss the ready availability of Mexican food (after moving from the US to the UK)!
ReplyDeleteWe almost had a whole suitcase full of food!
DeleteI wish we could get all that stuff here! I especially want to try soy curls. I'm not even sure what they are but the name sounds exciting! I remember getting that cherry and almond chocolate when I went to Portland and it was sooooo good.
ReplyDeleteHow awesome. I would totally devote a suitcase to bringing home food! I wouldn't worry about the spoilage either--looks like you picked things that travel pretty well. I mean, I know certain vegan products can go a while without refrigeration.... I've taken plenty of perishables like these on road trips and such and everything has always held up just fine ;)
ReplyDeleteThe cherry and almond dark chocolate Chocolove bar is my favorite! It's so amusing to get a peek into your fridge -- I'm wondering what was going through the TSA agent's mind as s/he was going through the bag with all that food!?
ReplyDeleteHaha, who knows! They musta thought we were crazy!
DeleteI believe Loving Hut on The Level in Brighton stock some of the Go Max range, not sure which ones though.
ReplyDeleteGreat food haul! :-)
ReplyDeleteYou might already know this, but the big Whole Foods in London (the Kensington High Street one) has Tofurky roasts, and I think some of the lunch meats as well. I'm not sure which ones, because I hate Torfurkey. Sorry! Also, you can get good corn tortillas through the Cool Chile Co. which is based in London, but has a website that will ship to you. I think they're vegan (I'm vegetarian) but you might want to check first. Just in case you run out of supplies from America! I totally get it though, I always bring a whole suitcase full of food back to London when I visit my family in America.
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