Welcome back, y'all! This week on the show, we talk homemade sushi and Dave's search for the perfect coffee creamer and try Gardein's Stea'k & E'ggs Breakfast Bowl.
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Gardein Stea'k & E'ggs Breakfast Bowl review
We were pretty excited to try these bowls. They look awesome, and we are big Gardein fans from way back.
I can't stress enough how much we love Gardein products.
And, y'all, that's what made this bowl the biggest letdown, I think. We had such high hopes!
These are TV dinner-style microwaveable bowls, and they make a lot of different varieties. We are definitely going to try others, because even though this Stea'k & E'ggs was a disappointment, we don't want to give up on Gardein!
The first thing you'll notice about these bowls is that they have a strong smell when you cook them. Not just cooking smells strong -- intensely strong. It sort of smelled like soup to me. But intense soup.
When we pulled these out of the microwave, the thing that struck us was the color. It was pretty monochromatic, especially compared to the imagery on the box. Not super appealing, but I was definitely willing to push past that for some Gardein goodness. So often the best-tasting food isn't pretty!
Inside, there are chunks of Gardein stea'k, which on its own tasted good to me. If you've had their Beefless Tips, that's the same texture and taste.
The eggs and potatoes were also good on their own and mixed together with the cheesy sauce in the bowl.
In fact, we both agreed that the egg part was great, and we'd love to see Gardein get in on that vegan egg market. One hundred percent would eat!
It didn't all really work for either of us as a whole, cohesive dish, though.
So, the Stea'k & E'ggs was definitely a hard pass, but they have other flavors of breakfast and lunch/supper bowls that look good to me. We're going to give other varieties a try and report back for sure.
If there's a variety of these Gardein bowls that you like, let us know! I want to find a fave here so badly. Because -- and I can't stress this enough -- I am a huge Gardein fan!
Homemade Sushi
This week, we made some sushi at home, which was super fun! I did kind of a mash-up recipe combining my air fryer sushi technique with my sushi burrito rolling method.
I'd call it a medium success. This style of panko coating is more suited to a smaller roll that you slice into pieces. I actually ended up slicing my burrito into pieces instead of eating it as one whole thing, which worked a lot better.
Homemade sushi is always a hit around here, and I love that I can make extra to have leftover sushi for lunch the next day.
The only issue with leftover sushi -- and this is across the board -- is that the rice gets hard in the fridge overnight. It's not really something I've found a workaround for. It's not unpleasant, but it's definitely something that has a better texture the day you make it.
Dave's coffee creamer journey
Dave has been on a quest to find a great vegan coffee creamer for years at this point. I don't drink coffee anymore, so he's been on the quest solo for the past year or two.
One of the big problems he's had in finding a creamer is just finding on that is unsweet and not flavored. He's basically looking for a half and half replacement, and the options there have been pretty slim until relatively recently.
A popular plain option -- coconut -- is technically unflavored, but they tend to have a strong coconut flavor that comes through in the coffee. That's just not what he's after.
He shared his favorite plant-based creamers:
- Trader Joe's brand
- full fat Oatly -- This isn't a creamer, but it works great as one. It's basically vegan whole milk!
- Oatly Barista Edition
- Califia Farms Barista Blend -- He specifies that he strongly prefers the Barista Blend to their other oat creamer.
- Nut Pods -- We get into great detail about this in the episode, if you want Dave's and my very specific thoughts about Nut Pods in both tea and coffee.
Where to listen
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