Treats From WF

Now I know that many people have issues with Whole Foods for several different reasons and while I would much rather support smaller, more local businesses, Whole Foods is a great place to go when I need certain things that I can't find at other stores. Also, every once in awhile I just don't feel like cooking or don't have much at home to work with and love heading over to Whole Foods to grab a quick lunch because it is one of the only grocery stores in my area that offers vegan prepared food options. I usually head over to the salad bar right away, but last week I decided to see what else WF had to offer. There were quite a few vegan dishes that looked good (tofu noodles bowls, spring rolls, roasted vegetables), but the Vegan Curry Chicken Salad really caught my eye. I only bought a small container of it since I had never tried it before, but I sure wish I bought more! This salad uses Gardein Chicken, which I had heard of but never tried before, and it was delicious! The texture and taste weren't "real" enough to make me worry or be disgusted, but it was firm enough to hold up in the curry sauce. The raisins and creamy dressing lent a nice sweetness to this dish, but it wasn't at all too sweet. I know that I won't be able to resist buying more of this every time I go to Whole Foods.



It is not secret that I have a (LARGE) sweet tooth, so it should be no surprise that another reason why I like WF is the dessert case. I'm usually pretty good about not buying tons of desserts every time I go there, but this time I couldn't help myself and bought two treats. The first was a parfait with moist vanilla cake crumbs, a silken tofu mixture, and fresh berries. This desserts is actually really special to me because, back when I first became a vegetarian, my dad bought this for my birthday since I didn't want a cake. I was shocked to see that this was vegan back then and this parfait was one of the first things that sparked my interest in veganism. I used to buy it all the time, but haven't been able to find it at WF until recently, so I was so glad that they finally had it! The cake crumbs and berries make up a lot of the sweetness of this parfait because the tofu mixture isn't very sweet and you can definitely tell it's tofu, but I really like that and I'm not sure why (I think I have an issue with overly sweet things and this is a nice change of pace).

The second and more decadent dessert that I found was a Blueberry Cheesecake from the Chicago Diner. As always, the cheesecake mixture and crust were fabulous! The blueberry topping was not quite what I was expecting- the blueberry topping on cheesecakes that I'm used to is more of a loose sauce thickened with cornstarch. The Chicago Diner's topping, however, seemed to be thickened with agar and was more jelly-like. The flavor was still great, though, and it was an excellent summer treat!