Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I am a huge fan of the Gigantes they have - jarred giant white beans in a yummy Greekish tomato sauce. I serve those on toast points and the kidlet loves them. She also INHALES the organic baked beans when I serve them on toast (Ezekial sprouted bread).

I think the vegan hummus I've bought has the shared equipment warning, but is still marked vegan. I wonder if there is natural flavoring that is animal derived. Also, mmm chunky speculoos.

Someone, either here or on another vegan board said that they wrote to TJ's asking about the sugar, and they wrote them back confirming that it was bone char. boo. I am trying to find the letter, but I can't.

Also, there is a vegan that works at the one near me, and they also told me about it...they said they knew because they were vegan themselves and checked it out

So boooo. That is too much info for me to eat it without feeling guilty (but that's just me. I aint no vegan police! do whatcha wanna!)

Again, the way I read it was that the source could not be verified and it may even vary but honestly, that is like everything else with sugar that doesn't say vegan on it. You never know.

I'm pretty sure the letter is somewhere in this thread. I don't remember the exact wording (whether or not it was "can't confirm it's not bone char" or "it is bone char") but I know they don't put the "v" on things that they can't verify are vegan but probably and potentially are vegan. Isn't that what happened with the chocolate chips? I'd still eat the cookie butter if that were the case.

Yeah, that is different than something else I read. You take the risk with sugar in general. I personally wouldn't have a problem eating it but its not something I'd buy anyway.

went to TJ's and made a beeline for the crunchy speculoos, almond bark (pretty sure i'll be tasting the two of these together, just because), and sweet potato tortilla chips. thank you, thread! i shall gorge myself later.

My sweet potato tots were seemingly never-crisping : (

Sweet potato fries and tots never get crisp for me either. Actually, they always seem mushy. Yuck. I think sweet potato stuff needs to be deep fried, so I stick to regular for baked versions.

mushy here to...

I got some sweet potato tots from Whole Foods that came out nice and non-mushy. Maybe it's just bake time? I always accidentally bake things for too long at my bf's apartment because his timer is super quiet. I'll try the TJ's ones because the WF ones are EXPENSIVE so I never get them. Sadface.

What the... the almond bark is vegan?? The stuff I looked at had dairy in it. Regional difference?

Actually, I really like that they're that anal about it. I eat things made on shared equipment all the time, but I appreciate knowing that their standards for the "V" label are quite high/serious.

We had the same experience last night. I wish I would have checked this thread before I bought them. My husband was very sad.

softness is a common trait among almost all sweet potato tot/fry-type things; i don't think it's a tj's fail. the alexia ones are coated in rice flour, and that helps a bit, but they're still pretty floppy unless you come close to burning them (which i sort of recommend).

These are all the reasons I've never tried the sweet potato tots at TJ's, I've never found a brand that isn't soft. I think it's more the nature of the type of potato, sweet ones aren't really that starchy/dry like a russett.

Now that I'm craving them they were out of the coconut strips today.

I really, really tried to overbake and even sprayed with oil....wouldn't get again. There's a Cuban cart in Portland with deep-fried sweet potato tots that I'll stick with for the next rare craving.

i just checked again... it has the shared equipment/may contain traces disclaimer, but nothing on the ingredients list looks scary to me...?

If I just misread the label, that would be FABULOUS NEWS. I will check again - thank you for posting this!! To clarify, this is the almond bark in the baking section meant to be melted down for making almond-bark covered things, right? Not the almond bark thins?

I believe everyone's talking about the almond bark thins. I just bought some bark thins yesterday, after reading this thread. I read over the ingredients list, and yep, no scary ingredients. Does TJs sell melting bark? Not sure about its vegan-ness if they do.

So I have a TJs story, but it's more of a NON-tasty eats from Trader Joe's story. My hubby was out of town for 10 days and just got home on Friday, so I wanted to make a fancier dinner to welcome him back. I made this lovely lasagna, using Isa's puttanesca sauce from AFR, the madacamia ricotta recipe from Artisan Vegan Cheese, the spinach and mushroom filling portion from the lasagna recipe in V'con, and some almond parmesan from Hearty Vegan Meals. I was so excited and it smelled absolutely amazing while it baked. Then, for some reason, I thought to double check the box of Trader Joe's no-boil lasagna noodles I had used. Well, oops! They contain eggs! I guess I had bought those noodles back when I was vegetarian transitioning to vegan. Anyway, I felt totally stupid and ridiculous, but my saving grace is that my husband is omni, and he ate it and loved it. But no lasagna love for me!

So yeah. Just FYI, don't buy the TJ's no-boil lasagna noodles.

oooh, no, i'm sorry, i'm talking about the almond bark thins that mel c posted a picture of about a page ago. whoopsie.

Ahhhh, this explains a lot : ) Thank you for clarifying!

What do you guys do with baby bok choy? I've been buying the boxes of it at TJ's (although I hate how much packaging is involved) because it's cheap and cooks up really quickly. The first time, we tried just following the garlic and ginger and oil directions on the back, but it was missing something. Tonight I added some soyaki sauce and that was good, but I still feel like there must be... something else. What do you guys do with baby bok choy?

Anytime I get bok choy of any sort, I seem to make the Ginger Bok Choy & Soba from AFR.

i put baby bok choy in hot n sour soup. there is an awesome recipe in the 'venturesome vegetarian' cookbook