Tag Archives: green tea

Mochi ice cream is really becoming popular these days, but I remember in my college years buying them only in Asian food markets. But when I went whole hog vegan my options pretty much vanished. Now they are on trend and Trader Joe’s REALLY stepped up their game. They have been making some mochi over the years, but now they have a whooping 5 different vegan mochi to choose from when I was last there. I think this is the largest selection I’ve seen to date. I felt that everyone needed to know which was the best, so I reviewed these mochi from worst to best (but like they were all really good)

And a quick note about eating! Everyone says to not let the mochi thaw, it is good to go right out of the freezer. I beg to differ. Just take them out and let them sit for at least 2-5 minutes. Not much time is needed. But shoving it right into your face right away is a bad idea. It is too cold to really taste the flavors.

Buono Green Tea Mochi Ice Dessert

This isn’t a Trader Joe brand of mochi ice cream, though I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the company producing the Trader Joe mochi. Although I LOVE green tea, so I was a little surprised when I decided to bump this down to my least favorite flavor. I think the green tea is a little too grassy, and overall unimpressive. Texture was alright, but the overall green tea flavor way bleh. I mean, if this was the only mochi ice cream I would still buy it again, but when I bought the second box for this review it felt boring.

Mango Mini Mochi

Awhile ago Trader Joe’s had a mango mochi product, but it was big and had a sugary mango core. This one I was pretty excited to eat because of previous one. These little soft jewels are awesome, but clearly are mango sorbet, not mango ice cream. It was a little ice-y as a result, but I am happily eating them. Plus I really like the small bite size that I can grab and eat when I feel like a need a tiny snack.

Buono Strawberry Mochi Ice Dessert

Honestly speaking, I really like this strawberry mochi. I think they even added a little dye to the mochi wrapper to make it a little pink. So cute. But the strawberry is a little artificial tasting, and I can imagine totally putting some people off. The texture is just right and it makes me wish they carried the other flavors by this brand (mostly the black sesame)

Thai Tea Mini Mochi

I bought these Thai Tea Mini Mochi over the mango ones initially. I mostly was excited to get a flavor that wasn’t as common in vegan desserts. As with the mango ones, I love the ratio of wrapper to ice cream, and how they are quick little bits. The ice cream is yummy and creamy. At first I wasn’t a big fan, but they grew on me. Now I like them better than the green tea (which wasn’t the case at first)

Coffee Mochi

As you can tell from the group mochi shots, these are the biggest of the batch. They are also my favorite. This deluxe mochi has been on the market since 2017, and feature a coffee ice cream with a chocolate-y coffee liquid core. Mochi ice cream purists will probably hate it. Even I first didn’t like it, but this year it has become my absolute favorite. I gobbled this box first after making this review. But since they are biggest than the other kinds, you get only 6 pieces (rather than 8 for strawberry/green tea, 15 for the minis) So if you are short on cash, you might want to splurge on the others first.

So what about you? Any vegan mochi ice cream that you love? Which Trader Joe flavor is your favorite?


Welcome to Vegan MOFO 2015! The first prompt is talk about what you ate for breakfast. Most people get confused about what to serve a vegan for breakfast. Who can blame them? Pancakes, bacon, sausage, yogurt, milk, eggs, french toast, what is left to eat? Orange juice and toast? So we thought it would be a good idea to show a sample of what a typical breakfast is for us, including my husband.

Jennifer

Like a true (hippie-dippie) vegan, I start my breakfast off with a glass of homemade kombucha. I like adding the gut friendly bacteria to my diet each morning, and they are supposedly most helpful when consumed on an empty stomach. So I always pour myself a glass right away in the morning and drink it while I get some chores done, like putting away the clean dishes, washing any remaining pots and pans from the night before, or prepping a lunch for my husband and myself.

If I plan on working out, I try and have a very light “breakfast.” In the winter it is usually a small muffin, chia pudding, or a simple oat, water, and banana shake. But since I am swimming in produce, I ate a quarter of a giant yellow watermelon. This gives my tummy something to burn while I do my reps or go for a short run.

2d9baa927eef2aba83a8cade1f65603e

This morning I went for a run, so I had a shake when I got back. I always try to eat some spirulina in the morning to help with allergies and because it has so many good vitamins and minerals in it. There are pretty much two ways I eat spirulina– a chocolate shake or a matcha shake. This morning I ate a matcha shake. It is very simple and easy to put together since by the end of my workout I am always craving a cool drink with lots of calories.

Alexa

img_6310

This was a really fun and easy experiment for me. I’ve been seeing one of my coaches at the gym to help me with my nutrition and eating to help aid my work-outs. I told her I was mostly vegetarian in diet (still livin’ that flexetarian lifestyle) so she helped me set up a meal plan based around that. Normally for breakfast I’ll eat 2 egg whites or 1 egg and 1 egg white along with 1/4 cup oatmeal (with 1 teaspoon of coconut oil mixed in) and a 1/2 cup of berries. Jen suggested that I try to make a tofu scramble for Vegan MoFo, which I had always wanted to do because I LOVE a good scramble, but had always been hesitant because I thought mine would never live up to what I’ve had in the past. 

img_6311

Well, it was incredibly easy to make this. And it turned out pretty well too! I’ve heard several people say they add nutritional yeast, turmeric or cumin to give the tofu some flavor and that yellow color of an egg scramble. I only had cumin in the house, but I also added a bit of curry powder and chili powder to it (and later I added sriracha…because I live for that sauce). I sautéed some onions, orange bell peppers and tomatoes in with the tofu and spices as well. Normally the eggs are supposed to help with getting some protein into my body post workout, as I’ll normally take a morning class. When Jen pointed out that that tofu has about as much protein as eggs does I felt a little bit better about maybe adding this into my routine a bit more often, but in smaller portions. 

img_6312

Oatmeal used to be a very “meh” ideal breakfast item for me. When Karen said I should put coconut oil into it and mix it with berries and a sprinkle of cinnamon I first thought “hmm, that’s interesting…” . Now I’m hooked. The consistency is perfect and I love the flavor of the coconut oil with berries. On occasion, such as today, I’ll substitute the oil for almond butter instead. Both options are great and this breakfast really keeps me full until lunch time, which ranges from about 12:30-1:30 depending on when I ate. 

Jonathan

My husband is a creature of habit. My morning starts with kombucha sure, but each batch is different and I switch between types of tea to create the brew. Then my shakes and “pre-workout” food changes. Not my husband. When we first started dating he use to eat a bagel and cream cheese every single day. Then he found out that his tummy got upset by it, so he switched to oatmeal.

Boring plain oatmeal.

He was so proud of himself, he crunched numbers and found out that he would save so much by using the big container of quick cooking oatmeal. I asked if he wanted some sugar, cinnamon, anything else. Nope. Gross. I thought it might of been a family thing, perhaps his Mother and Father had plain oatmeal? When I asked about it apparently his mother doesn’t like oatmeal and his father was all “WHAT THE HECK THAT SOUNDS GROSS?!” So there is clearly something wrong with my husband.

BUT I did convince him to start adding granola to give a little boost since he was getting hungry too fast (duh, you are just eating oats!) And depending on the season, he will add some berries from our CSA or chopped apples that I prep for him. I didn’t take a picture of his oats because they are disgusting and I figured readers wouldn’t want to see naked mushy oats.

ca042debff6eb827279c32e079a9c94a

Then comes his second breakfast. Sure I have three different stages to my breakfast, but that is really just a “workout” thing. If I don’t run or lift, I just have one shake. But my husband is a calorie burning machine and needs to have a shake to drink when he gets to work. He is pretty boring, just chocolate or chocolate peanut butter, or just peanut butter. Lately I’ve been making him peach peanut butter shakes. But today was just chocolate.

The Coffee

We are all coffee people. Jon likes to have his coffee everyday and normally just gets the Wegman’s brand to save money. Jen finds this coffee too fruity for her tastes. But on special occassions Jen will buy him a special roast, like the Royal Mile Nicaragua Mama Mina that she got him for his birthday.

Jennifer on the other hand doesn’t drink coffee first thing in the morning. She drinks her cup around 10 am, probably because she finds coffee too harsh on an empty tummy. Sometimes she makes herself an iced latte before heading out to work using Black Cat Classic Espresso by Intelligentsia

Alexa gets her coffee from Booskerdoo or Rook. She liked to get the big jar of coffee concentrate from Rook when she can, but finds that it actually disappears way faster than she would like, and is trying to limit herself to 1 coffee per day, it used to be up to 4 COFFEES on a bad (good?) day. She also loves everyone who works in her local coffee shops and wants to give them patronage because they are just the sweetest and really know their coffee. 

So that’s it guys. Three vegan breakfasts. There are two shake recipes below if you want to be like us. Anyone else out there is a little freak and eats plain oatmeal? I think my husband needs team oats allies.

Continue reading


Rose Petal Green Tea

Hurray for Tea! Hurray for Tuesday! At least it’s  not Monday, right?

I am still (always will be) on my Green Tea kick, and now that it’s hot outside it is the PERFECT time to enjoy Green Tea over ice! I have only ever gotten tea from Booskerdoo once before and it was quite delicious. If memory serves, it was called “French Lavendar” and was unlike any sort of tea that I have ever tasted. So I figured it was worth a shot to try one of their green tea options. 

The Rose Petal has a very floral and earthy scent and flavor – go figure! But it isn’t heavy like some other floral teas that I’ve tried. Sometimes that kind of flavor can make or break a tea for me. I am sure this would taste great on a winter or fall day as a warm tea as well but it was extremely refreshing on my walk during my break. I love the fact that I can also still taste the “green” in the tea. I thought the rose petal portion might be too over-powering, but fortunately all the flavors combine to make one delicious summer drink.


It’s Tuesday! Do you know what that means? … no? Well hold onto your butts boys and girls, because I am here to kick off a new segment that I would like to call Tea Time Tuesdays. It’s quite exciting! 

I would consider myself relatively new to the “tea scene”, I still only have a few types that I stick to for the most part. Luckily for me (and for all of you lovely readers out there) the world is filled with different types of tea. Or even just different ways to drink each type of tea. That is what I am going to look into in each of these blog posts. Each entry could range from a different type of tea each week, exploring different tea flavors within the same brand, or different ways to prepare and enjoy certain types of tea. 

Without further ado, let me introduce – 

frapfar

– the Green Tea Frappuccino from Starbucks!  

Continue reading


greentealatte1

One of the most disappointing moment for some vegans is trying to get a hot creamy drink. Sure if you go to a coffee shop they almost always have soy milk (heck even almond milk sometimes!) but you might not be able to advance past a simple latte. See, most baristas are unaware of all the ingredients in their mixes. Although I read that Starbuck’s tea lattes are vegan, most smaller shops use powders that have whey in it.

Although I find that some chai tea mixes by Tazo (used at Starbucks) and Zhena’s Tea, they tend to be very sweet. In fact I have to mix them with unsweetened almond milk, and still find them to be too sweet. Not to mention, they are technically not vegan as they contain honey. I then go on a frenzy of making the perfect vegan chai teas. Most have resulted in being dumped in my kitchen sink.

Continue reading