Category Archives: vegan

by | May 13, 2013

Soyummi Rice Pudding Review

I am a big fan of pudding in general. I find tapioca is king in my heart, but I won’t say no to pudding in general. I thought I would ‘treat’ myself to some and purchased Soyummy Rice Pudding. Bad, bad mistake. I don’t know if it is the batch that I got, but something was off. How is it that the rice felt crunchy and there was barely any of it? Usually rice pudding is rice in a creamy kind of sweet pudding, not the case here. For some reason this rice pudding felt licking a lemon rind. Don’t get me wrong, I love lemon pudding, but this was the wrong taste and the wrong texture. The whole thing felt like a rip off and something was askew.

1-rice puddingThe smell is the only thing that I liked about the pudding. Sure we know product pictures are enhanced for texture, but when you see the side by side, it looks NOTHING like the original. I had to actually look for rice grains. It’s as if rice was suddenly expensive? It’s not like this product is fully organic and thus the ingredients are sparingly used? I don’t know what the justification is exactly, but rice pudding should have more than 10 grains of rice in it.

I can’t say I will buy this product again. Mat told me he didn’t like their chocolate pudding either, so that’s that. Too bad too because their packaging just suckered me in. So pretty!

 

 

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by | April 16, 2013

Liebster Award 2013

The very kind and sweet Nicole from Willow and Thyme nominated Air Eater for a Liebster Award.

 

There are rules about these things and here they are:

The Rules:
• Post 11 random facts about yourself.
• Answer the 11 questions made by the person who nominated you|
• Create 11 questions for the bloggers you pass the award to.
• Choose 11 bloggers to pass the award to and mention them in your post.
• Go to their blogs and let them know that they have been nominated
• No tag backs.

11 Random Facts about me:
1. My favourite colour is green. My eyes are also green. I own quite a number of green shirts.
2. My favourite number is 3, multiples of 3, I am the third child, my birthday is 06.30, no way I’m giving you the year!
3. I am allergic to kiwi, I never cared for it anyway.
4. I was supposed to be left handed, but I can still do things with my left hand.
5. I truly hate cheesecake. I don’t care for the texture, the taste, oh it’s just beyond me how anyone likes this thing. Thank God Mat also hate this vile dessert.
6. My favourite band is Radiohead, I am very fond of British rock. I used to rock out to the Beatles as a little girl.
7. I love Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory, I could watch it for hours, even though I hate musicals I love this movie.
8. I have a fascination with old keys, they really spark my imagination for the stories behind them.
9. I’ve been writing since I was 6. Wrote my first ‘book’, the school physically made my story into a book and I still have it today. I’ve written a play about a 1930′s radio show and how the producer planned to kill everyone. Yeah, just your average kid.
10. I love the smell of wet denim because it reminds me of being caught in the rain during summer thunderstorms while riding my bike.
11. When I can’t sleep I picture myself in a fully loaded 1950′s kitchen making a cake. I never get past sifting the flour.

Nicole’s Questions:

1. What is your favorite local restaurant (and extra credit: what’s your favorite dish)?
Mengrai Thai in Toronto – their pad woo sen – FANTASTIC!

2. If you could live in any city/country where would it be?
San Fran, we visited a few years ago and it stole my heart.

3. Are you currently working on any personal or professional projects you’re excited about?
I’m always working on Concept Branding (social media/copywriting services), Vegan Bloggers Unite! and reviving my beloved Air Eater.

4. What’s your favorite way to wake up and what’s the first thing you do?
Other than looking over and seeing my dear husband? I enjoy when the cats decide to nibble or lick my ear. The first thing I do is yawn, rub my eyes and look bewildered, then prepare a very big proper brunch: tofu scramble with veggies, tofu sausage, cucumbers/tomato and mixed green with fresh juice or water.

5. What’s your favorite holiday and how to like to celebrate?
I suppose that would be Christmas. I enjoy putting up the tree and decorating. Each year we buy a new ornament to celebrate another year together. I enjoy the festive drinks, not eggnog, that’s just nasty, but more so hot chocolate variations.

6. What would you have for your “last supper”?
What wouldn’t I have is the question. I’d have my very guilty pleasure of sweet potato noodles with a vegan version of Kraft dinner cheese. It sounds nasty, but my goodness is it ever tasty. That plus a plethora of other foods: raw coconut ravioli with cashew sauce, raw coconut cannelloni with strawberry sauce and sweet cashew cream, raw tomato bread sandwich with alfalfa sprouts, avocado, cashew mayo and tomato, I could go on.

7. What is your idea of the best weekend ever?
Waking up late, having a big proper brunch (tofu scramble with veggies), tofu pups sliced and sautéed, tomato/cucumber/mixed greens with balsamic and vinegar and home made potato cubes fried up nicely. THEN – go out with Mat to see a bunch of cute shops out of the city and go on a picnic adventure.

8. What is your professional job and do you love it?
I am currently focusing on my social media business Concept Branding. I do love it. I enjoy writing copy, helping clients figure out their social media strategy and I don’t have to wear nylons.

9. What do you normally have for breakfast?
Currently, Silver Hills gluten free bread and Tofutti cream cheese. I do not drink coffee. Ew.

10. Currently what is your favorite song or band?
Radiohead – they rule all.

11. If you could be any fictional character who would it be and why?
Alice in Wonderland. She had all the fun.

My questions for the nominees:

1. What was the first dish you ever prepared by yourself?
2. How adventurous are you in your cooking/baking?
3. What gave you the inspiration to write your blog?
4. What’s your favourite movie?
5. What book can you not live without?
6. What’s the best concert you’ve ever seen?
7. How many times have you moved in your life?
8. Who inspires you?
9. What’s been the best dish you’ve ever made?
10. Do you have any fur babies?
11. What are your blog goals?

My nominations:
1. An Unrefined Vegan
2. Marty’s Flying Vegan Review
3. Rachel in Veganland
4. The Vegan Kat
5. The Veggie Nook
6. Until We Eat Again
7. Vegan ESP
8. Vegan Monologue
9. The Trim Vegetarian
10. What Will We Eat?
11. Your Daily Vegan

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by | November 19, 2012

Air Eater Hiatus

Sometimes you have to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em. Right now Mat and I are focusing on the Vegan Bloggers Unite! ConFest (happening hopefully in Oct. 12-13, 2013) and I have to put Air Eater aside to make that happen. In between Air Eater, running VBU!, Concept Branding (Toronto’s only vegan social media company), a day job and I’m currently working on a novel –  I realize that I am being pulled in too many directions. I will still continue to keep VBU! running, but my beloved Air Eater will have to hold on until I am able to devote more time.

I do not want to abandon my blog, so this is a time out to focus on the ConFest. Now why am I calling it a ConFest and not a conference? One half of the venue we pick will be the conference part for vegan bloggers (speakers/workshops/product demos) and the other half will be a festival with vendors for anyone welcome to enjoy.

With that in mind – thank you everyone for being so supportive. I love the very kind emails I receive asking about ingredients or my experience with certain products. Thank you for thinking of me!

A big hug goes out to all of you and I hope you’re able to attend the VBU! ConFest in Toronto 2013!

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by | November 14, 2012

Vegan Deli Style Lunch

Every day we’re faced with a dilema – what the heck am I going to eat? Some people like to plan in advance and have pre-cut/washed vegetable ready to go and some like to fly by the seat of their pants leaving things to chance. Sometimes you just say screw it, I want something different, let’s see what’s out there.

Today is a screw it kind of day.  Mind you gluten free readers, you always have to check with the deli you shop at, and if you’re very sensitive I’d skip this as you never can be sure with cross contamination. I do try to eat at least 80% gluten free, but I am human as well and as I don’t have an issue with it I do like to enjoy it in small quantities.

I am a huge fan of variety and keeping to a budget. If I can get a little bit of what I like I am an extremely happy camper.

Sorry I didn’t take close up pictures I was very eager to eat. As you can see I was able to get a decent amount of food for $6.03! Not bad for a local grocery store. I haven’t had couscous in a very long time and I must say I liked it, but not as much as I thought I would. I would much rather have ordered more quinoa and perhaps another option. What I like about these kinds of portions is the nutritional labels. I am a bit obsessed with looking at them and who wouldn’t be interested in knowing how much sodium is in something before ingesting it?

Needless to say I had a great lunch followed up by organic apple sauce and an organic banana. When I eat items raw I tend to be picky about them being organic, I suppose in my head I assume the pesticides are killed off when cooking with conventional items. I suppose sauces, salt and other tricks can be used to mask a taste. Nothing beats eating a fully clean meal with organic ingredients. Recently I tried a conventional apple and I couldn’t finish it. I don’t know if this is mental or not, I like to think I can tell the difference after eating organic for a while. There’s something about conventionally grown food, it’s waxy, stale or is missing some lack luster.

Do you eat organic?

 

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by | November 12, 2012

Whole Life Expo 2012

We went to the Whole Life Expo and I think this year it was better than last. The show is divided into three sections: 1) Food, 2) Health related products and 3) Health related services. As foodies we tend to stick to the food section and were happy to see a bunch of familiar faces.

This picture makes the show look calm, but let you tell you when people have their back packs on and aren’t paying attention this get crowded FAST.

First, we stopped at Upaya Natural’s booth – they had a wide selection of raw, vegan, organic foods and appliances. I took pictures, but I realized after we left they were blurry. I’d go so far as to say they have the most selection of any raw/vegan store, they will most likely have anything you can think of and they are always adding more products to their mix. We bought our Blendtec and Excalibur dehydrator and Omega Juicer through them – oh, and our spiralizer as well. They are more than equipment, they have every raw/vegan food item you can imagine from: dehydrated mulberries, to enema bags, to Earthings grounding shoes and more.

Giddy YoYo is a company out of Orangeville, Ontario and they make raw chocolate amongst other things. They recently change their packaging and increased the size of their chocolate while maintaining the same price. That is pretty impressive. You don’t hear of a company giving you more of a product and not charging you for it. We are addicted to the mint raw chocolate. I cherish it and eat it one square at a time. Too good. I asked Mark, one of the owners, about the shelf life of the chocolate and if it’s okay not to seal it once opened. He mentioned it was fine, oxidation does not occur, but chocolate can age like a fine wine. Mind you raw chocolate from 1960 wouldn’t be suitable to eat, but month old chocolate is okay.

Cruda Cafe was very busy with their raw tacos and desserts. These were the same tacos I reviewed at the CNE this summer. Cannot say enough good things about how good the tacos were then, we had already eaten before we came, but that really shouldn’t have stopped me now that I think about it. Ah well. If we’re in St. Lawrence market on a weekend I’m sure we’ll venture to the basement level to find the storefront of Cruda Cafe.

Rawfoodz is an organic raw vegan salad dressing company and they recently started making a raw chocolate spread that’s not on their website. I tried it during the Raw Food festival. What is on their site is their new Butter style spread both in original and garlic. That I can totally get behind – freaking tasty. I’ve tried the dressings and the spread and each are pretty darn good. I have a preference to Italian Idol, but don’t let that discourage you from trying others. They’re creamy and intensely flavourful, it’s hard to believe the dressings are raw. The dressings are great on kelp noodles, raw coleslaw, veggie dip just to name a few uses.

A new face on the raw vegan scene is Rawlly Delicious. They are operated by a husband/wife team Natalie and Derek Neal based in Caledon, Ontario. On my high raw days I have resorted to carrying nuts and seeds with me to snack on. Sure that does the trick, but why not have a fulfilling treat that provides 5g of protein per serving. Rawlly Delicious has five flavours of Energy Ball: Hulk Energy, Nuts About Hazel, Almond Crunch, The “Seed” and Coconut Bliss. They have since added one NEW product: Chaga-Maca Brawnie.

Chaga-Maca Brawnie

What I love about these Energy Balls a) they all taste amazing, yes I have stuffed my face with them and b) they’re sprouted/raw/organic. I asked Natalie how long does it take to make each Energy ball batch and her answer – four days in total. That’s commitment. I like the idea of having a product that I can eat on the go and not feel guilty about. In fact, I feel pretty darn good after eating them just because they are easier to digest. Rawlly Delicious has an auto-ship program so you can opt to have a customized order shipped to you so you never run out. I can see this being very helpful in keeping up with my new addiction.

This is the six pack of all of the Energy Ball products. At the show the price was $20. I’m not sure if this is going to be sold on their website, but hopefully it will. 

What kind of Air Eater post would this be without the Nutritional Value information? (Click to enlarge) The Chaga-Maca Brawnie info is missing as it’s still being finalized. Here is a link to their Facebook, Twitter and Youtube account. Amazing that this little company has already been featured on CTV.

Overall, I am very glad we went to the Whole Life show, it was worth the parking and crowds to get the great deals we did. I felt hilarious walking around with so many raw food items, but I refuse to feel guilty about healthy pleasures.

Happy eating!

 

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by | November 6, 2012

Vegan Gluten Free Veggie Pot Pie

Here’s part two to the lentil loaf that I made for our Canadian Thanksgiving. I always saw pot pies as a comfort food and something that I’d love to bite into. The challenge of making a gluten free crust that isn’t horrible was a tough one.

Here’s how I made it:
2 cup of millet flour
1 cup of sweet sorghum flour
1 cup of tapioca flour
1 tbsp xanthum gum
3 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tbsp parsley (dry is fine, but if you use fresh make sure it’s really dry)
1 tbsp raw minced garlic
1/2 cup of Earth Balance
1/4 cup of water

Place all dry ingredients in a bowl, mix well, then transfer to a food processor. Using a S blade mix the dry ingredients, then add in the garlic and water. Keep adding water until the mixture balls on its own in the machine. I honestly can’t recall how much I used, it might have been a cup, it might have been 1/2 a cup, so it’s safe to use 1/4 cup increments.

At this point you can measure out your bottom/top crusts as you’ll be too busy with the filling once you’ve made it. This is a very forgiving dough, so it can be pinched together if you don’t roll it out properly. Do make sure the dough is thin because if you make it more than 1/4″ thick it will just be gummy and gross. Try to make it as thin as you can. I would highly suggest using a French rolling pin if possible, they’re really quite handy. If you don’t have much counter space or don’t want to roll it out on your counter, you can roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper. I used a cutting board and dusted it lightly with millet flour to roll mine out.

Lidia Le François, vegan, gluten free, Air Eater, veggie pot pie

The filling:
1 cup of carrots roughy chopped
1/2 cup of corn
1/2 cup of cut string beans
1/2 cup of chopped celery
1 red pepper
3 small red potatoes (you can use any colour)
1/2 cup of white chopped onion
1 tbsp raw minced garlic (you can use more if you like up to 3 tbsp)
1/2 cup of shiitake mushrooms (I reconstituted dehydrated mushrooms – fresh is fine)
1/2 cup of millet flour
2 tbsp corn starch
3 cups of vegetable broth (I used 2 bouillon cubes in a quick pinch)

Use a large pot. First place 2 tablespoons of oil/coconut or vegetable in a pot and swirl around to coat the surface. Keep the pot on medium heat. When hot enough add the chopped onion and stir until almost translucent. Add in the garlic and the vegetables. Stir for roughly 8 minutes. Then add in the broth and mix for another few minutes to allow veggies to simmer a bit. If you have used dry mushrooms, keep the water that you used to soak them in, makes an excellent mushroom broth. Then add in the flour, stir for another few minutes and then add the corn starch. The corn starch should thicken up the filling, if it’s too thick just add more water. When cooking like this I like to keep a kettle handy for adding hot water quickly.

After the filling cools slightly, give it at least five minutes to breath, you’ll transfer it into your dish. Here’s where there are two schools of thought on pot pie. You can either have a bottom crust or just a top crust. I opted to go with a bottom and top crust. If you are of the top crust thinking, you’ll only need to use half the dough recipe. Mind you, you might have a bigger or smaller casserole dish, so that’s really up to you.

Once you’ve established whether or not you need a bottom crust, add the filling and cover with a top layer crust that you’ve carefully rolled out before you started making the filling.  You can make slits through the top crust or poke about with a fork to make small vent holes. Continue reading →

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by | November 5, 2012

Vegan Gluten Free Lentil Loaf

What a few weeks it’s been! Vegan MoFo gave me a lot to do on top of keeping up with Vegan Bloggers Unite! (running the blog and planning for the conference). Plus being the host site as VBU! for Virtual Vegan Potluck, and the other things I do (Concept Branding), I’ve been run a bit ragged. Safe to say, I will not be participating in Vegan MoFo next year, I don’t think I can keep up with it.

During the Canadian Thanksgiving I made a few things that I will be adding to my dinner table on an on-going basis. One of those lovely dishes is a recipe from Tasty-yummies.com. I made Beth’s Lentil “meatloaf”.  Please do check out her site, she has many vegan/gluten free recipes. This is not a paid endorsement – I just think she is neat. I believe she is not completely vegan, but still a good resources for recipe that can be converted.

The first picture is the loaf uncooked. Here’s how my loaf turned out:

Lidia Le François, vegan, gluten free, aireater lentil loaf Continue reading →

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by | November 1, 2012

Virtual Vegan Potluck Nov. 2012 – Air Eater Vegan Hot Chocolate

Welcome to the November edition of the Virtual Vegan Potluck! Thank you for visiting Air Eater. My name is Lidia, I am also the host of the VVP through my other blog Vegan Bloggers Unite! If you’re a vegan blogger and you’d like to join the VBU! family, please feel free to check out the instructions/directions and drop a line.

Please feel free to sit back and relax. My recipe below is a part of the beverage menu.

Had to pull this goodie out of retirement. What’s more comforting on a cold night than a warm cup of hot cocoa? Just because we’re vegan, doesn’t mean we can’t have the same comforts. I’m particularly fond of almond milk, vanilla unsweetened to be exact and that is my personal preference. You can use any milk alternative be it coconut milk, rice milk, hemp milk, etc.

So how did I make my hot cocoa?

Ingredients:
2 cups almond milk
2 tbsp Cocoa Powder or more
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tbsp Maple syrup

I boiled the milk and whisked in the ingredients. Simple really. You can adjust these measurements to your tastes.

I am a huge Alice in Wonderland fan and I couldn’t resist buying this mug. It’s incredibly oversized and holds two cups comfortably. I’m sure you have a favourite mug. Be sure to use it when making this recipe.

Please feel free to go either way up or down the chain.

Alice: Oh, no, no. I was just wondering if you could help me find my way.
Cheshire Cat: Well that depends on where you want to get to.
Alice: Oh, it really doesn’t matter, as long as…
Cheshire Cat: Then it really doesn’t matter which way you go.

Either way you click you’ll be off on an adventure. Enjoy!

To visit the blog before me click the BACK button. (veganosaurus)



To visit the blog after me click the FORWARD button. (spinachrevolution.com)

 

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by | October 26, 2012

Vegan MoFo: Week 4 – Creamy Cashew Spinach cheese rustic pizzza

Sometimes I find watching cooking shows, it seems the chef just throws things together. I figure, why can’t I do that with raw food? Here I’m using the week’s crust and cashew cheese, but I mixed in a bit of sweet basil. What a difference basil makes. I can’t say I was upset if I got some on my fingers, I was licking the spoon after I transfered the cheese out of the food processor.

cashew cilantro red pepper cheese

How creamy is this? Who can miss regular cheese when you have such a lovely cruel free substitute? Totally worth trying for yourself.

This time I broke the buckwheat groat psyllium seed husk crust by hand into a rustic rectangle and I think this gives the pizza its own character. It’s not perfectly cut, nor is it too awkward a shape.

The toppings: tomato, pineapple, red pepper and sprigs of parsley.

Can’t beat this with a side salad or veggies.

 

Happy eating!

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by | October 24, 2012

Vegan MoFo: Week 4 – Mini Mushroom Pizzas

The wonderful part about making a lot of one thing is you have the fun of dressing it up in different ways. Today’s pizzas has the same crust/cheese as yesterday’s. The toppings are: reconstituted shiitake mushrooms then soaked in gluten free soy sauce, spiralized carrots and corn. I know soy sauce is not raw, but I don’t have Nama shoyu. If you want to be completely raw, I would suggest you use that instead of soy sauce. The mushrooms really come alive after being soaked for 20 minutes in warm water.

mini phyllium husk buckwheat groats marinated shiitake mushroom pizza

mini phyllium husk buckwheat groats marinated shiitake mushroom pizza 3

To get the perfect circles, I used a cup sized measuring cup as a cookie cutter. I could never make such a perfect circle by hand. I cut out this shape before I put the base in to be dehydrated and popped them out when complete. I didn’t feel guilty at all after having a few of these. They’re healthy, filling and are lovely with a side salad.

 

Happy eating!

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