Thank you Costco and avocados!

Peeps!! Costco started carrying gardein™ crumble. I really like these better than Light Life's Smart Ground®. The taste is a lot milder and is has a little more texture to it. Kris and I just threw it in some marinara sauce, heated and poured it over spaghetti noodles. It was so good!! Also great for tacos.

Speaking of tacos-  Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo and I made guacamole. I think all in all I ate about 3 avocados yesterday - whoops.

Here is my go to Guac recipe - 

2-3 ripe avocados (mine came from costco too - costco is just killing it for me right now)

1 clove of garlic

1 tsp coarse sea salt (really  the coarser the better)

lime juice from half a lime

2 Dolot cubes of frozen cilantro (find it in the Trader Joe's freezer section - so damn convenient)

Couple dashes of chipotle powder

a few food grinds of black pepper

Mash up your avocados and add everything but the garlic and salt. Put your peeled clove of garlic in your pestle with the salt - grind until it is a paste then add it to the other ingredients. Don't have a mortar and pestle? Get one. You can find them for like 9 bucks at TJ Maxx. I just throw mine in the dishwasher when I am done. It totally rocks. If you use fewer avocados, it will be pretty flavorful. If you use more, just add a little more lime juice.

Then pick up some chips.

In stunning chip news Kris and I have switch teams and are now team Don Pancho and no longer team Juanitas. WHAT? I can hear you screaming. Juanita's has always been the absolute best, but recently we branched out. (Actually I think it was an accident, or they were out of Juanita's, I am not sure what happened there.) But Don Pancho, hold up better in dip, are less oily (but not too much less) and are slightly saltier. Juanita's Chilipeno still take the trophy on flavored chips though.

Lazy Vegan - gardein™ mandarin orange crispy chick'n

Let me tell you one of my well known dirty secrets. Crap, I guess "well known" sort of negates the whole "secret" part of it, but anyway - I friggin' love Target. Like "carve our initials in a tree" kind of love. So imagine my joy when they started selling this in their frozen section......wait did you know about their grocery section?! Yeah some Targets don't have one yet, but two out of three in Vancouver, do (Vancouver Plaza and Fisher's Landing) and their prices are competitive. Back on topic, drum roll please! - 

That's right delicious, actually vegan, frozen products made by gardein™ (Think your frozen meatless products are vegan? Check again, home fries.) 

Today I sauteed the gardein™ mandarin orange crispy chick'n up with some steamed broccoli and had myself an easy lunch!! The sauce was good, not great, but what you would expect from any frozen meal. Next time I think I will whip up a szechuan sauce to drizzle over instead, but only if I am not lazy, because the sauce is good enough. The chick'n could trick children and drunk adults. It isn't a perfect match, but it isn't chicken, so how could it be. Honestly, I like it a little better, but that may be the self-righteousness talking.

We have our freezer stocked with a variety to try and tell you about. If you have had them or have any of the other gardein™ foods we must try, let us know!

*Small note - so far we haven't come across anything gluten-free. So watch out Celiac's sufferers.