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Saturday, January 29, 2011

IGA Vegan shopping

Today was Grocery shopping day. I found some vegan products in IGA (mainly fake meat). Unfortunatly IGA only covers vegetarian food, you will have to look for somewhere else for vegan products.
For exemple; all there soy cheese contains Caseine (milk protein) which is really disapointing.
The only cheese substitute I found free from Caseine was this one : http://www.yoso.ca/product_spreads.html
It's good for bagels and such but I was a bit dissapointed of the lack of protein in it. But over all, it tastes great and definitly worth the purchase.
The Yoso spreadables are found with all the Soy and Rice Milk/Beverages next to the organic and wine aisles.
In that same aisles you'll find frozen vegetarian dinner by Commensal, you`ll have to read the label on the back to find the Vegan ones.
I bought this one and it was DELICIOUS!:
Chinese Stir-Fry with Seitan in red sauce. It's a small tv dinner (not like the huge swanson ones) but trust me, with 23g of protein, it does the trick to fill you up.
Next to the frozen dinner, you'll also find gluten free cakes, sorbets etc... The gluten free cakes are not vegan unfortunately.
If anyone knows where can I find Vegan cakes, please tell me in a comment.

Now, for the Fake Meat part, they have an extremly good selection of Yves Veggie cuisine (http://www.yvesveggie.ca/fr/)
Try looking for them in the green / vegetables aisles, they put them next to all the salad dressing and natural juices in a freezer, right next to pre-packed salads.
I bought a vegan pepperoni pack:
It is delicious! you can still taste soy product in it but you won't be able to deny the fact that they really did a great job with the spices and the olives in it! You'll end up with a delicious pepperoni taste in your mouth.
It's not that expansive, IGA has a sale going on on all Yves product: 2 for 6$.
But beware, There isn't a lot of pepperonis in the pack, they'll be just about enough for one big pizza.
I also tried out the Original Veggie Ground Round:
I wanted to try it in a macaroni dish and with just soy sauce as flavor. It was a bad idea and it didn't taste good.
Don't buy the Original pack unless you know your way with spices. If you're a new cooker like me, I'd advise you to buy a pack with spices like the Asian or Mexican Veggie Ground Round.
At least, this is what I'm going to do next time. It's definitely not a bad product, I just didn't know how to cook it well. I'll see if I can marinate it too.
There is also a large selection of Tofu in that corner. They sell most 500g tofu pack for around 2$
I bought an organic one for 3$
The brand is Soyarie (http://www.soyarie.ca/english/tofu.html). I chose the one with herbs. I`m planning on adding it in a pasta tomato sauce to replace the ground beef we used to put in it.
I'll definitely come back to tell you all about how I cooked it. It will be my first time cooking tofu. hah! excitement!
Here's a picture of the pack: (excuse the bad quality, it's my webcam. A new camera is definitely added to my TO BUY list) 

So that's about all the vegan shopping possible in IGA.
One last thing, some of the products sold in IGA have organic version of them, just check the organic aisles.
And No, it's not 10 times the prices. For example I bought an Organic Tostito Tortilla Bag for 3$ while the original was 2.60 or something like that.
I know some people will say that even if it's only 40 cents, it will add up by the end of your groceries shopping if you buy an organic version of everything. But in my opinion, your health and the cleanliness of your body is definitely worse much more than 40 cents by product. Save yourself a little bit of percentage of the chance that you might get Cancer with every product you buy as organic. :)
I'll come back tonight with pictures of my 1st Vegan dinner.
Since I took the 30 days Vegan challenge proposed by PeTA (well I saw it first on a youtube video that I can't find right now and it made me think), I'm going to write down all my 30 vegan recipes with pictures hopefully. I like sharing and especially helping. Who knows, maybe I'll help some other person going through the same challenge as me! hah!

6 comments:

  1. I love the Soyarie tofu, I think it is one of my favorites... and it is so easy to crumble it with your hands to make tofu scrambles...

    I know some IGA have GardeIn products, which are more expensive but delicious (fake meat products)... those products are available in many natural food stores.

    If you buy Mexican Ground Round, I highly recommend you make the chili recipe available on Yves's website. I tried it last week and it was amazing.

    Good luck on your 30 day challenge. I will follow you with great interest for the next week, but after that I'll be gone to Thailand =) for 3 weeks... I pre-programmes blog posts though for the month of February. Anyway, I will continue to follow you in March should you wish to continue the challenge. Good luck!

    You can find tofutti cream cheese at Viva Vegan (perhaps elsewhere)... it has 1g of protein per 2 tbsp... I personally don't like Yoso spreadables much, but I might give it another try. Their yoghourt are great though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Every IGA is different. For example, mine doesn't carry Soyarie tofu so I have to settle for another widely carried brand.

    Finding organic Tostitos for $3 is really good -- and rare. I used to pay $3.79 per bag at Loblaws. Now I settle for the multigrain rounds that are usually 2 for $6.

    If you get some of that Mexican ground round Babette mentioned, try making some tacos! http://meansoybean.com/2010/11/veganmofo-tacos-pebre-its-whats-for-dinner/

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  3. @Babette, I didnt find the chilli recipe at Yves's website (only a taco one) :( If you can please link it to me! I'm excited to give Yves products another chance since they are available at my local IGA.
    Also I just finished my 30 days Challenge! thanks for the wishes! they worked hah!
    I visited the Viva vegan store but couldn't buy the tofutti cheese even though i really wanted it *_* (next time ill get more cash...)
    I also stopped using Yoso spreadables.. I substituted it with earth balance on my toast in the morning (lol for making the unhealthy choice)but its sooo much better...


    @meansoybean First of all, thank you for reading :P I really have to try that taco recipe! My home made taco filling with black bean is getting kind of old :/ I think some fake meat will spice it up a bit! mmm... fake meat... yum (i never thought i'd say that in my life...)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Although my diet does contain a lot of vegan meals, I have to say I am mainly vegetairan.
    A number of these products are new to me, I don't think its available in the U.K, but I will look out for them. Thank you for introducing me to it.

    Well done on your determination and completing your 30 day challenge.

    ReplyDelete
  5. As they say, better late than never!


    Go to :
    http://www.yvesveggie.com/

    Click on Recipes.

    In Cuisine, select Mexican.

    Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  6. tofu is definitely my favourite vegan food

    ReplyDelete

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