Tag Archives: So Delicious vanilla bean coconut milk ice cream

PRODUCT REVIEW – Virgil’s Zero Diet Sodas

I am not a big soda drinker, however I do enjoy a root beer float from time to time since soda seems more like dessert to me than a drink to quench my thirst.  Reed’s recently sent us some of their Virgil’s Zero all natural sodas to try.   I have to say that I really enjoyed making floats with Virgil’s Zero Rootbeer and their Black Cherry Cream Soda along with some So Delicious Vanilla Bean Coconut Milk Ice Cream.  My kids were on cloud nine when they came home from school and I handed them root beer floats.

What I really like about Virgil’s sodas is that they are sweetened with Stevia and their ingredient list is small and pronounceable!!!  If I am going to have soda as a treat I don’t want it to be loaded with sugar and artificial flavors.  Virgil’s Zero Sodas have:

“No preservatives, no caffeine and no artificial anything in addition to being gluten free!”

The flavors that we were sent to try were Virgil’s Zero:

  • RootbeerSuper yum!
  • Cream SodaJust like the original I remember as a kid
  • Black Cherry Cream Sodagreat flavor and really nice with vanilla ice cream
  • Real ColaOur least favorite…my husband (aka Mr. Diet Pepsi) was not a fan…bummer because I would really like to get him off Diet Pepsi.
  • Dr. BetterMy son LOVED this one.

I recommend you give these sodas a try if you are looking for a better alternative to conventional soda and diet soda which are loaded with HFCS and artificial sweeteners respectively.

For more information about Virgil’s Zero brand sodas click here.

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Filed under Product Reviews, Vegan, Vegetarian

APPLE CRISP – Vegan and Gluten Free

In my post on Wednesday (click here to view the post)  about our trip to Los Rios Ranch apple orchard in Oak Glen, I mentioned that I made an apple crisp for my daughter’s B-Day.  I thought I’d share with you the recipe I came-up with.  Keep in mind that this is definitely a treat (sugar and vegan butter) and thus reserved for a special occasion, not an “any night” dessert.

 
INGREDIENTS
 
TOPPING
½ cup gluten free flour mix (I used The Gluten-Free Goddess’s mix)
½ cup organic brown sugar
½ cup Bob’s Red Mill GFree Whole Grain Rolled Oats (not instant)
¼ teaspoon Rumford aluminum free baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ of a stick of vegan Earth Balance
 
 
FILLING
4-6 cups sliced apples
Sugar to taste (more for tart apples, less for sweet apples)
2 Tbs. cornstarch
1/3 cup fresh apple cider
½-1Tbs. lemon juice
Cinnamon to taste
 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Mix together the flour, sugar, oats, baking powder, and cinnamon.  Cut the cold Earth Balance into cubes and mix it in to the dry mixture with a pastry cutter or your hands.  The goal it to keep the topping crumbly and not mash it into a ball.  You want the butter to be distributed evenly throughout the mix so you end-up with a crumble that filled with pea-sized chunks.

Slice the apples and mix them with the sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, cinnamon.  Place the apple mixture into a glass dish.  Evenly distribute the topping over the apples.

Bake for 40 minutes.  Check to make sure the topping does not get too brown.  If the topping is browning too quickly, loosely cover with a piece of foil.

Serve warm with So Delicious Vanilla Bean Coconut Milk Ice Cream.

For a printable version of this recipe click here.

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Filed under Dessert, Gluten Free, Pie / Crumble / Cobbler, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

THE SECRET RECIPE CLUB – Deep “Un-Fried” Ice Cream

Last month I heard about a fun way to add some spice to my blogging.  Amanda from the blog, Amanda’s Cooking started something really neat called The Secret Recipe Club back in April with 19 participants.  Basically, you sign-up to participate and you are assigned a blog to make a recipe from once a month and you are encouraged to make the recipe work for you by i.e. making it gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan…basically whatever you need to do to make the recipe work for you.  You don’t reveal whose blog you were assigned until Reveal Day (much like the Secret Santa concept).  There are now over 150 participating blogs.  How’s that for growth?

I was assigned the most charming blog, Peas in a Blog, which was started by two friends who now live across the world from each other.  They started sharing veggie recipes and fitness tips with each other almost daily and decided that they should start a blog together to share their tips with everyone.  Carolina is a Columbian living in Florida and Katie is an American living in South Africa.  It is so much fun to follow their friendship and tips!

While surfing through their blog I came across a lot of recipes I wanted to try.  First I made their Grilled Peach Delight Salad and really enjoyed it.  To completely veganize the recipe you can easily sub out the honey for agave (I made it with the honey).  The dressing was really tasty and grilling the peaches adds such dimension to them.

The second recipe I made was their “Fried” Ice Cream which wasn’t fried at all!  It was a TOTAL WINNER and thus the subject of my first entry for the Secret Recipe Club!  I made the dessert for a dinner party I was hosting and no one believed it wasn’t fried.  My father-in-law isn’t usually a sweets person and he said he really liked it (he finished the whole bowl!).

I did make a few changes to the recipe since I needed to make it gluten-free and vegan for my family’s needs, but that was easily done by switching out the traditional Corn Flakes for Erewhon’s Organic Gluten Free Corn Flakes and by using  So Delicious’s Coconut Milk Vanilla Bean Ice Cream for the ice cream.

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INGREDIENTS

1 Small pint of your favorite Ice Cream (They used Dulce de Leche…I used Vanilla Bean)

1 Small box or container of Corn Flakes Cereal (…I used gluten free)

1 TBS Brown Sugar (…I used coconut sugar)

1 TSP Ground Cinnamon

Parchment or Wax Paper

Zip-Lock Bag

Your favorite topping sauce (Caramel, Hot Fudge, Honey, chocolate shell, whatever you like. I used vegan Hard Chocolate Shell)

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Cover a large plate or cookie sheet with some parchment or wax paper.  With an ice cream scoop, try to get good circular scoops and place them on top of the paper (I used my hands to reform the balls into nice circles once I had scooped them). Place the plate with scoops in the freezer for at least 10 minutes (I prepped them ahead of time and left them in the freezer for 2-3 hours).

In the meantime, pour the package of corn flakes into zip-lock bag along with the sugar & cinnamon, close the bag. Have fun by crushing the flakes until they’re almost powder form (its up to you the texture you’d like on the scoops…My kids had a blast doing this), mixing them with the sugar & cinnamon. Once you’ve reached your desired texture pour contents onto a plate. Note – this will make A LOT of topping, so you will have more for later…yay!

Take scoops out of the freezer. Place a scoops on the mixture plate and coat, one by one. Serve drizzled with your favorite topping sauce. Add cinnamon sticks or fruits for garnish. Note – I played around with making them different ways by putting the hard shell on some of them before coating them with the corn flakes (you will have to work quickly) and for others I rolled them in the corn flakes and then covered them with the hard shell afterwards.  Both were amazing!

How easy was that?! Trust me, these taste like fried ice cream. Delicious, impressive and ready in a flash. You and your dinner (or dessert) guests will love them, guaranteed. Buen provecho!

It was so much fun to participate in the Secret Recipe Club.  Get ready to see one of my SRC posts monthly…it’s fun to mix it up.

For a printable version of this recipe click here.

Click here to view Peas in a Blog’s “Fried” Ice Cream post

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Filed under Dessert, Frozen Treats, Gluten Free, Ice Cream, Kid Friendly, Quick, Recipes, Secret Recipe Club, Vegan, Vegetarian