Friday Night Special - Wildwood Southwest Veggie Burgers

Starting Friday nights I'll be featuring a scrumptious, picky-vegan worthy food product that I love and have made a must-have staple. As a straightforward, not-that-into-cooking vegan who just wants to find good food, fast with no fancy prep or work involved, I've scoured countless market shelves and freezers for the best edible vegan products, and it is my pleasure to share these tried and true treasures with you.

To kick off this new series, I am pleased to introduce to you to the Wildwood Southwest Veggie Burger.  Wildwood makes at least 3 varieties of veggie burgers, of which I've tried the Original and Southwest, and I can confidently say I only recommend the Southwest burger. Why? Because the Original, in plain terms, was tasteless, under-seasoned,  lacked a definite flavor personality, and was just not that good. The Southwest burger, on the other hand, is packed with bold flavoring and spices and will have you licking your eager fingers.

They come 2 in a pack for $3.79 at my Whole Foods are super simple to cook up. They're refrigerated which means you can simply throw 'em in a pan or heat one up in the microwave in under 1 minute. No complicated defrosting inside folded napkins or turning over on the stove. Nope! These are the simplest and simply one of the most delicious veggie burgers you'll have the pleasure to bring home from your local Whole Foods. Haven't tried them yet? Get out and buy one of these things! If you like a little flavor with your veggie burger,  you'll thank me.

Wildwood Southwest Veggie Burger

The Most Crave-able Vegan Candy Bar!

I've been vegan for about six months and outside of cheese the hardest food to look past and ignore in the grocery store is chocolate, especially that rack of flashy candy bars on the checkout line. And no, I don't really dark chocolate all that much. I'm talking about real, creamy, luscious milk chocolate. You know - the kind most people crave and are addicted to. I don't care how much sugar, fat and oil they're made with - Snickers, Kit Kats, Twix, Reeses, M&M's, Milky Ways, 5th Avenues, Watchamacallits, Nestle Crunches, Butterfingers and Hershey Bars are all freaking delicious. I especially have a hard time ignoring those bagged Dove Chocolates :(

But...like vegan cheese, wonderful change is appearing on the horizon and already in some retail stores. Vegan chocolate companies are springing up everyone online, and the best chocolate candy I've had the pleasure to try so far is this wrapped wonder:

I think I love you, Mahalo 

 Say aloha to Mahalo Bar! The vegan answer to creamy, chocolately-coconut Almond Joys. Funny thing is, before I went vegan I never liked Almond Joys - in fact I kind of hated them. I just wasn't a big fan of either the almonds or the shredded coconut, and it was the kind of candy I had no interest in if somebody gave one to me. But now, six months into this vegan thing and desperate for decent cruelty-free chocolate, I have become hooked on this yummy little bar!

How does it taste? Like creamy chocolate heaven with a gooey, sugary coconut filling bursting with full-blown dairy chocolate flavor. Go Max Go Foods makes these dream bars along with an assortment of other candy ( the Buccaneer is a nice approximation of a Milky Way) and I'd like to congratulate them for putting out the first mass-produced edible vegan chocolate bar. 

If only more food companies understood how badly vegans want their milk chocolate! But Mahalo is a sweet step in the right direction. Now if only Whole Foods would start selling them :|

In Miami you can find Mahalo bars at the Adventist Book Store located in Miami Springs:
1 S Royal Poinciana Blvd, Miami Springs, FL 33166

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