Tag Archives: ice cream

Vegan Treats

1444 Linden St, Bethlehem, PA 18018
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I mentioned briefly before that I kind-of went MIA from the blog because I started to work for Aldi’s…. then I stopped working there. It wasn’t enough pay and we were getting sick for long periods of time too often. But any employee from Aldi’s needs to go to a welcome day for their region, and the meant a 2 1/2 hour drive for me. This was REALLY annoying, but kind-of nice because it meant I got compensated $80 for drive, but I was also told the wrong time, and had to wait an hour before the welcome day. *sigh*

But I figured if I was going to make long drive up, I would go out of my way to visit Vegan Treats, only a 15 minute drive from the Aldi’s headquarters, but apparently added like an extra 45 minutes to my drive home (how?! and why?!) You might of heard or seem Vegan Treats before, they are one of the first successful vegan bakeries. They provide vegan treats for a lot of different coffee shops and restaurants, even delivering foods to places in Philadelphia! Heck we even considered having them bake our wedding cake. If you haven’t been to Philly, but go to a lot of vegan fests, you might of seen a long line for their shop to get some baked goods. Or perhaps you have seen their very popular spooky chocolate sets.

What are the chances you will be making a trip to Bethlehem? Maybe slim. It is the seventh largest city in Pennsylvania, and it placed 88th on a list of “100 Places to Live” by Money. I vaguely remember the area when visiting Lehigh University for my older sister. It is a cute older town, that I bet looks beautiful during the fall. Luckily, Vegan Treats is not in an old part of town, where parking can be a pain. I was able to find a spot, no problem. They are located on a corner, so you may see the sign on one street, but the entrance will be around the corner.

Their set up isn’t about setting up a hip calming dining experience as say Papa Ganache, but they remind me more of the older styled bakeries (er… at least in the states) where you grab your desserts and go. There are some punk rockabilly decor, and an open kitchen so you can see the hustle and bustle of the kitchen. If you can’t make it, you might be able to find them (as stated before) at various shops in the Eastern Pennsylvania area. They USE to (I think) list all the locations that they provide baked goods for on their site, but they stopped.

So enough TALK! What the heck did we eat?! Well, I DIDN’T eat those beautiful unicorns. I wanted to get a confetti cake, but they only sold them in vanilla flavor and my husband wouldn’t of been down with that. Nor I for the most part. But I did get their salted caramel soft serve. I ate it mostly in the store because driving with ice cream is a pretty bad idea. lol. Fun fact, I was actually listening the history of ice cream by Stuff You Missed in History Class on the way up, so I was REALLY craving that stuff! If you are visiting this place, PLEASE GET THE ICE CREAM! It is glorious!

On the way home I got stuck in rush hour traffic, and there was a lot of hitting the brakes harder than normal going on. Sooo my cheese cake got a little damage making it not so photo-worthy. Plus the cannoli got it’s photo taken pretty late at night, so whoops on my blogging responsibilities. lol. Sadly, since this I I went, several months ago, like a quarter of a year ago, I can’t FULLY remember the flavor. It was cheesecake, it was blueberry, and it was AWESOME! I vaguely remember there being a little white chocolate decor on top, which was yummy as well. My cheesecake loving husband deemed it yummy and would eat it again.

As for the cannoli… hmmm. I got it knowing that it probably wouldn’t meet my expectations. It is hard enough to find a good non-vegan cannoli, what are the chances I find a good one veganized? It tasted pretty good, the shell was crunchy and clearly filled that day. The filling tasted like any other filling that I find so-so. It was still a nice treat, since I haven’t had any in years. But I wish there was a little bit more of that complex cheesy-nutty flavor that you would find in mascarpone cheese.

Aside from the mild cannoli flop, I love this place. I love their cookies and cream cake, which I would eat at The Last Drop (not sure if they still use Vegan Treats as a supplier) and I oogled all the treats at Govindas (again not sure if they still use Vegan Treats) They also travel pretty far for Vegfests. Heck they traveled all the way to DC! But it is still worth making a trip out to their brick and mortar store, you skip the lines, get tons of options, you can buy store merch, and even get some soft serve ice cream.


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Cookman Creamery

711 Cookman Ave, Asbury Park, NJ 07712
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I’ve been dreaming about coming here. I am a little more inclined to visit Alexa and the “shore” during the off seasons- Fall, Winter, and Spring. I don’t like summer, and I don’t like traffic. But I do like Alexa and I do love food (Alexa’s Note: I’m so pleased to see that as much as Jen may “like” me she “LOVES” food. I’m feelin’ it.), so it is very frustrating when places are closed for the off season. This is one of those places. I’ve been wanting to check it out, but during the colder season the store doesn’t have as many hours.

Cookman Creamery isn’t 100% vegan. They carry regular old ice cream and vegan ice cream. And not just vanilla and chocolate, like good flavors. As you can see from the photo above, they have many flavors, and when we went there was a little more than usual. Heck they even have vegan soft serve in vanilla OR cookies and cream. Is this a vegan’s dream ice cream shop or what?

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Our favorites? Well, Alexa got the Twisted Tree ice cream, which used ginger cookies from another local vegetarian/vegan cafe and restaurant Twisted Tree. We also tried the pistachio ice cream, which was yummy and super natural tasting. I am sure some people have had the problem where the pistachio flavor becomes so intense that it doesn’t quite taste, well, like pistachios. Alexa and I really loved the Blue Lavender ice cream, but I recently made purple basil ice cream, so I passed on it. I went for the balsamic strawberry ice cream (another favorite of Alexa’s). The balsamic flavor is very subtle, which I personally like a lot. 

Their website says their ice cream base is coconut cream, which makes them super creamy and rich. Truthfully that is what I want in my ice cream when eating out. I don’t think I picked up on ANY coconut flavors in the ones we ate. But I am sure other ice creams like the Almond Joy and Pina Colada they will play up the coconut flavor. My only complaint, is that the vegan ice cream is a whole dollar extra compared to the normal ice cream. A little bit of a bummer, but still worth the price I think.

asksalexaAlexa Here! I also love this place and luckily have been able to visit it somewhat regularly this season as opposed to last summer when I too dreamed of the establishment. Something I noted on when I went for the first time was all of the different flavors, like Jen mentioned. I expected some cookie-based flavors, but never thought of seeing something like the Blue Lavender or Strawberry Balsamic. I’m always adventurous when trying ice cream but honestly a little naive when it comes to the massive amount of (good) flavors there could possibly be. I also think Cookman Creamery tries to switch out different flavors depending on the week – I know that at one point they had a vegan matcha flavor but I haven’t come across it when I’ve visited so far and it honestly makes me cry inside. That being said, everything I’ve had so far is amazing. 

Jen also mentioned the coconut cream base for all of their vegan flavors, and I think this is a huge benefit for their ice cream versus something you’d buy in a store. While the new vegan Ben & Jerry’s is very good they’re all almond milk based and you can definitely tell. As someone who is a connoisseur of vegan – and sometimes – non-vegan ice cream I can usually tell when it’s not a milk or cream based flavor, but with Cookman Creamery you wouldn’t even notice. I only say this because I could even convince someone who is a non-vegan to try some of these and they wouldn’t even have an excuse not to! 

I think my only gripe about Cookman is that the prices are a bit high. I understand when you’re using vegan and ‘organic’ products that it’ll hike the cost up a bit more, but I almost can’t justify buying one of the pints of vegan ice cream from them because the pints run around $8.50, whereas I can go and buy a pint of Ben & Jerry’s or *insert vegan ice cream that can be found in Whole Foods/Wegman’s* for $3-$4 less. However, if that’s my only complaint then I would still consider it an amazing experience! The staff are all really nice and are very knowledgeable of the product, I recommend making the trip if you are in Asbury!


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I don’t need to do much introducing for these snacks. Most vegans are excited about the new additions to the Ben & Jerry ice cream line. I remember when first going vegan I made exceptions for Ben & Jerry ice cream, eventually phasing them out. Although I am pretty happy with vegan ice cream, my favorite being almond dream gelato, nothing filled the void of Ben & Jerry’s. They’re always packed with nuts, chocolate chunks, and various swirls. Yes, there are some vegan ice cream flavors that have these components, but they are always so sparse. So when Ben & Jerry’s made the announcement that they would be making a dairy-free ice cream I was so excited, even more so when they said they released them in February!

But I tried not to get too excited. A lot of vegan treats debut on the west coast in the United States. The company also released a statement saying they are working on distribution, and that people might not see them in their grocery stores until spring. Well, I was a little shocked when I saw these bad boys sitting in the freezer section of my local Wegman’s. I without hesitation, bought all four flavors and tried them out. The price is expensive- $5 a pint. I guess that is only a dollar or 50 cents more than most vegan ice cream flavors, but I would love to get a cheaper version that has more than one flavor (I’m looking at your Trader Joe’s! I want more than just cherry chocolate chip please!) But the good news is that everyone is excited. The cashier said she was excited about the new Ben & Jerry’s dairy free ice cream, which put me in a good mood. Then I brought my friend Justine over to grab a few for herself, and a new cashier was saying how pumped she was for the new almond ice cream. I really hope that maybe this will let other ice cream companies figure out there is a market for soy, almond, and coconut based ice cream.

So what is the verdict? Well, my husband said that he could still tell it wasn’t real ice cream. But I think it is still fairly comparable to most ice cream bought in an supermarket. Although he said that, he definitely thinks this is his favorite vegan ice cream yet. I love that they are adding more calories to almond milk ice creams since most vegan ice cream brands tend to be diet friendly. Although I like those types of ice creams sometimes I want something properly decadent.

I am a little confused why Chunky Monkey is the popular favorite ice cream. The banana flavor is really good, and it has great nut and chocolate chunks. But I am a little clueless, can’t I just make nice cream and toss in nuts and chocolate chips? Okay I know that isn’t the same, but it is a whole lot cheaper. It was good but it was never my favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor to begin with.

Chocolate Fudge Brownie was good, but I think my least favorite from the bunch. If this was the only vegan ice cream available I wouldn’t be complaining. The flavors are all there, but the texture isn’t the same as the other flavors. You need to let the ice cream sit for a while to thaw and soften up. If Ben & Jerry’s fix this problem, I would say it is my third favorite flavor.

So which was my husband’s favorite? Hands down the P.B. & Cookies. The ice cream is vanilla ice cream with oreo like cookie crumble and peanut butter swirl. The peanut butter flavor is really strong, which is good for any PB fans. At first I thought it was a weird mix, but then again I remember hearing so many people say that they like to put peanut butter on their oreos, so why not?

My personal favorite is the Coffee Caramel Fudge. I love the combination of coffee and caramel, but isn’t something I can do much now that I am vegan. Most caramel syrups in coffee shops aren’t vegan, so this ice cream really gives me my fix. The chocolate chunks make me think that they are chocolate covered coffee beans, but I know they aren’t. 

I was planning on posting this review earlier but I had a bad pint of Chocolate Fudge Brownie. The pint was filled fully, so I wrote to the company. And guess what? I got a letter back that wasn’t a stock answer. They explained what happened, and gave me a coupon for another ice cream. I am pretty excited about the great customer service. So clearly our favorites are Coffee Caramel Fudge and P.B. & Cookies. I know I will be using my free ice cream pint on the Coffee Caramel Fudge for myself.


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Finally getting around to posting a new recipe. I wanted to post it before Christmas, but I had lots of family gatherings to get to. So I was in the kitchen often cooking a bunch of foods, some were huge family hits, such as Angela’s Crowd Pleasing Chickpea Caesar Salad. I even had a cookie! My childhood friend Justine baked some vegan snicker doodle cookies which made me really happy.

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So this dish started out as an idea for Christmas day breakfast, but soon fell apart since it wasn’t a good dish for sharing. But instead really yummy for a single serving. It is easy enough to make, just a little planning. Just bake some apples, let cool, freeze, and blend. Simple enough right?

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It also tastes amazing with the gingerbread granola I posted earlier this month. But you can honestly use any type of granola. I put pomegranates on top, but you can use whatever you want. I thought the pomegranates added a nice sweetness, but didn’t have too distinctive of a flavor.

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