Review: No Cow

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If you're at all into fitness and you've been anywhere near Instagram, you've seen the craze about Quest bars. Low carb, low sugar, high protein and high fiber, they're great - unfortunately, they're not vegan-friendly. If you're plantbased, or just trying to go dairy free, then they're just not an option, since they lean heavily on whey protein.

Bummer.

Luckily, there's a bar with as impressive stats as Quest bars and a much more natural (and plantbased) ingredients list!

No Cow bars started as D's Naturals quite some time ago, but have since expanded and reformulated their bars. While I enjoyed the original No Cow bars occasionally (and I really liked their nutritional stats and virtuous ingredients lists) they were a bit dry/crumbly tasting sometimes. The flavors were delicious, though, the textures could just use some work.

The new formula has taken care of that!

These bars are moist, flavorful, sweet (but naturally sweetened and still incredibly low in sugar), and while they're higher calorie than the original bars and now some of them contain palm oil, they're not more than comparative sized protein bars, both vegan and not.

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Recipe: Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Spelt Cookies

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Who doesn’t love cookies? Especially when they’re lightly crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and full of melty pockets of dark chocolate. 

Most of us eat a lot of sweet treats during the holidays and, as much as our tastebuds might enjoy it, our bodies and faces don’t. These peanut butter chocolate chips use whole spelt flour instead of processed white flour to help keep you off of that skin-unfriendly blood sugar rollercoaster. Sweetened with honey and bound with chia and flax seeds, they’re full of heart healthy fats! If you’d like a vegan cookie, just sub the honey for an equal amount of maple syrup. Enjoy!

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(Green) Eating NYC: Top Veggie-Friendly Picks Around the City!

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With the weekend coming up, what better time for a post to help tourists, newcomers, and lifelong New Yorkers alike eat their (veggie-friendly) way around NYC? While I only moved back to the city at the end of this past spring, after a brief stint in Boston, I've cumulatively spent about three years living in New York.

To follow along on my adventures in real-time, follow me on Instagram @danaikadzere

In that time, I've had a lot of fun trying many different vegetarian, vegan, and veggie-friendly places in the city. Here's a list of my favorite standout places over the years - they're the ones I go back to and highly recommend!

Pure Ktchn

Location: 352 W 46th St
Price: $10-15 per meal
Great for: Quick healthy bite, vegans, a casual midtown dinner that won't weigh you down
My favorites: Their pure caesar salad!

Peacefood

Location: 460 Amsterdam Ave (uptown west) or 41 East 11th Ave (downtown)
Price: $15-20 per meal
Great for: Plantbased brunch, vegans, newbies to plantbased eating, and comfort food that's good for you!
My favorites: Raw sushi and the assorted veggies!

Hibino

Location: 10-70 Jackson Ave, Long Island City (there's another location in Brooklyn that's actually the original location, but I've never been)

Price: $15-20 per meal

Great for: Sushi, Fish, Pescatarians and omnivore/herbivore groups, a cute date night that won't break the bank

My favorites: Tsukemono, seaweed salad, and the salmon sushi!

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Review: Genuine Health Fermented Vegan Proteins+

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I'm not vegan and I'm actually not even vegetarian anymore - after 12 or so years of being strictly vegetarian, I'm now a pescatarian. That manifests itself as occasionally ordering salmon at a restaurant or, more frequently, enjoying sushi and sashimi. 

It's a recent change, but I've been positively surprised by how easily my body adapted to it! I have a sensitive stomach and worried it could cause me some pain, but my body has been happy having fish once or twice a week for the last month or two, since the switch to pescetarianism. Yay!

Still, I love vegetarian and vegan food and the vast majority of the time I still order vegetarian and vegan food when I'm out and still eat mostly vegetarian food at home. A mostly plantbased diet gives me energy, keeps my stomach and my skin happy, and just suits my tastes the best. Since most of my days are still vegetarian, I'm still always interested in learning about healthy plantbased sources of protein. 

So many protein bars and powders are full of ingredients that I wouldn't even want in a skincare product, much less in something I'm eating. Genuine Health is different - they're committed to creating products that are actually good for you. 

They're the self-proclaimed fermentation experts and the products in their fermented vegan proteins+ line feature fermented organic spirulina, fermented alfalfa, fermented mung bean sprouts, fermented organic quinoa sprouts, fermented pea protein isolate, fermented organic hemp, and fermented brown rice. I love that it's all stuff that I recognize as food!

Why choose fermented protein, especially when there are so few brands out there doing it? Easy - fermented plant protein is 40% better absorbed and utilized by the body than the same protein, unfermented. 

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Recipe: Flour-less Whole Grain Seedy Bread

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There's this general misconception out there, probably thanks to the carb-phobic diet industry, that bread is unhealthy. False! Bread can be unhealthy, just like anything else, but it isn't inherently unhealthy. There are all sorts of healthy bread out there and the best way to make sure that the bread in your sandwich/on your plate/drowning under your peanut butter is healthy is to make it yourself!

If you want to keep the carbs down and the healthy fats and proteins and fiber up, this bread is for you. It's wheat-free and, if you use gluten-free oats, is also gluten-free. It's chock-full of heart-healthy nuts and seeds, plus enough fiber to pep up your digestive system *cough, cough* from the chia seeds and whole psyllium seed husks. If you want to make it sugar-free, you can sub stevia for the maple syrup - but honestly, I don't see the point. It's a very modest amount of maple syrup, adds a little nice something, and a teeny-tiny bit of sugar won't kill you. But it's up to you!

Enough blathering on and on from me, here's the recipe. Happy baking!

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Review: Stabilyze Protein Bars

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I really like protein bars a handy, shelf-stable snack to keep in my bag during travel, long days on set, and general busy day-to-day life. But while some protein bars can make a healthy on-the-go snack, there are SO many protein bars out there and many are little more than glorified candy bars!

Since no one wants to waste time, money, and stomach space on protein bars that aren't worth it, I'm sharing a review of a new bar I've tried recently! Stabilyze sent me a few of their bars to try and here are my thoughts.

I tried three flavors - dark chocolate thin mint cookie, dark chocolate coconut cashew, and dark chocolate peanut butter cup. All three boast nutritional stats that fit into a low glycemic lifestyle, for the carb conscious and anyone else who's disinterested in riding a blood sugar roller coaster. 

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Recipe: 100% Whole Grain Dark Chocolate Coconut Quinoa Cookies

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Who doesn't love cookies? Especially when they're packed with coconut and dark chocolate? Unfortunately, most cookies can be nutritional black holes - fine for now and then, but not the best as a regular snack.

These cookies have all the chewy, sweet, chocolatey deliciousness of decadent cookies, but are packed with fiber and protein (they're 100% whole grain and feature protein-rich quinoa), and are pretty low sugar for cookies. 

I'll stop blathering on about them, because the best way to convince you will be if you try them yourselves. They're pretty quick and easy to make, so give the recipe a try!

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Recipe: Crispy Coconut Kale

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Kale can be very hit or miss and it's one of the most controversial vegetables out there. On the one hand, you have Those People who buy $7 bags of kale chips (with only two servings per bag) and wear Yale-inspired 'KALE' sweaters. On the other hand, you have the people who make taunting faces at bags of kale in the grocery store.

Yes, this is a thing that I have seen. Welcome to New York, city of characters.

Anyway, even for the most kale-adverse person out there, here's a surefire way to make the curly green enjoyable! It's crispy, it's spicy, it's flavorful, it's green and coconutty: 

It's hipster crack.

Another photo, because yum.

It's also super easy to make! I served it with coconut jasmine rice, roasted salmon, and roasted okinawan sweet potatoes for my first hosted dinner in my new (awesome) Upper West Side apartment. I must get around to writing up those recipes, as well, because the meal was a hit, but this crispy coconut kale was so good that I simply must share it NOW. Without further ado, here's the recipe.

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Review, Giveaway, and a Discount: Ambrosial Harvest Muesli + Granolas

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Cereal is one of America's favorite breakfast foods. It's one of my favorites, too! 

Starting the day with a bowl full of sugar and refined grains, however, is a questionable health decision. Sugary breakfast cereals aren't good for energy levels or blood sugar levels, they don't contribute much other than empty calories to your nutritional needs, and they're just not 'breakfast of champions' material. On the other hand, a bowl full of twiggy bran that both looks and tastes like shredded cardboard isn't satisfying anyone's cereal craving.

Luckily, there are healthy cereals that both taste great and are great for you!

I love Ambrosial Harvest cereals! Ambrosial Harvest makes whole grain granolas and muesli that are all USDA organic, gmo-free, gluten-free, vegan, certified kosher, free of refined sugars, and full of heart-healthy omega 3 fatty acids. 

As a bonus, they're also local! Ambrosial Harvest granolas are made right here in New York!

I love the creative flavors - their muesli has goji berries, big flakes of shredded coconut, generous pumpkin and sunflower seeds sprinkled throughout, and filling whole grain oats.

I'm half-German, so I grew up on muesli for breakfast and it has long been a favorite. This one didn't disappoint! While I would have liked a bit more of the dried fruits (I loooove dried fruits) the balance was sweet enough and the combination of flavors was delicious! I love it soaked in milk for 15-20 minutes, so the oats start to soften, but don't turn to glop.

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Juice Press comes to Boston!

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It's a new month and a new year. Happy 2017!

A lot of us like to take advantage of the new year to make positive changes. For many, that means making changes to improve our health!

Health affects everything - productivity, mood, energy, etc. It's so, so, so important. I can't stress it enough!

Health also encompasses a lot - mental, physical, emotional, and financial health all matter. There are so many great resolutions that can improve your health and they're not all about hitting the gym more.

You can eat more fruits and vegetables. You can get more sleep. You can take up meditation. You can work towards a healthier work-life balance. You can pay attention to your relationships. You can save. You can indulge in bubble baths and quiet cups of tea. There are so may options!

For those of us who resolve to eat healthier, it can be tough to stick to it when the realities of life get in the way. We get busy with work, school, and socialization and buying, preparing, and cooking fresh ingredients on a regular basics can get tough. Or, for those who aren't used to cooking healthy food, it can be tough to come up with ideas of what to make. Sometimes it just feels like too many decisions and that's when the temptation to throw in the towel rears its head.

When eating healthy doesn't feel super fun or I'm super busy, falling back on healthy meal delivery services or healthy cafes is really helpful for me. When I lived in NYC, there were great health food cafes everywhere. Boston has its fair share, too, but many of my favorites were missing.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I'm obsessed with Juice Press and, in particular, their Raw Falafel. After much waiting, Juice Press has finally come to Boston!

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Review: Wink Dessert Dark Chocolate

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There's a new flavor of Wink Frozen Desserts! 

It's Dark Chocolate (aka the best thing ever) and, like all other flavors of Wink Frozen Desserts, is a gluten-free, nut-free, egg-free, dairy-free, soy-free, non-GMO vegan substitute for traditional ice cream. 

Whether you have an allergy, a plantbased diet, lactose intolerance (guilty), or a diet, Wink's Dark Chocolate Frozen Dessert works for you.

And it's sugar-free, too, for diabetics and health-conscious ice cream lovers alike!

But how does it taste?

I'm all about honesty in my reviews, so I'll tell you right off the bat that it has a much icier consistency than dairy- or most coconut- or soy-based ice creams. Think more along the lines of Italian ice, though not quite. 

If you let it thaw for a few moments, it scoops pretty well.

The chocolate flavor isn't as intense as I'd expect for dark chocolate, as you're probably not surprised to hear, given the relatively light brown color.

That said, it is sweet, without a weird artificial sweetener aftertaste, and it is chocolatey.

Especially if you're planning to make an ice cream sundae or ice cream sandwich out of it, or top it with syrup or other toppings, I seriously doubt you'll miss anything over the sugar, fat, and dairy packed traditional alternative.

If you don't have allergies or intolerances, normal ice cream can fit into a healthy diet as an occassional treat. For something sweet and cold for every day, or that you can eat a pint of without feeling bad, however, this is a great option!

What's your favorite ice cream brand?

What's your favorite ice cream flavor? It's probably cookies and cream or southern praline for me!

What do you look for in an  ice cream? Creaminess, lightness, and lots of mix-ins.

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Review + Giveaway: GoMacro's Thrive Bars

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MacroBars are delicious and GoMacro, the company behind them, has recently released a new line of Thrive bars! 

Thrive bars are made up of a superfood ancient grain blend, are vegan, and provide plant-based protein, essential fatty acids, and prebiotic fiber.

I tried six delicious flavors - chocolate, nuts & sea salt, blueberry lavender, chocolate peanut butter chip, ginger lemon, almond apricot, and caramel coconut.

How delicious do those flavors sound? Especially chocolate, nuts & sea salt, peanut butter chocolate chip (noticing a trend?), and caramel coconut.

Thrive Bars are all USDA-certified organic, non-gmo, kosher, certified gluten-free, soy-free, and 100% vegan. There's nothing in them that you don't want in you! 

And unlike some bars, where it feels like you either have to suck it up and pay shipping fees or you have to go on an epic journey to hunt them down, Thrive Bars are available in stores at Whole Foods as of this month, October 2016. Yay!

I can definitely stand behind their front of package pitch 'Ingredients: Grown Not Made.' Works for me!

Especially because they're chewy, the right amount of sweet, and flavorful.

They're filling, hearty, chewy, and have a nice crunch from the ancient grains. I liked all the flavors, but was surprised to find that I liked the fruit flavors, like Ginger Lemon (above) a lot more than I expected! They're not boring or flat at all, likely due to the spices that they mix in.

But don't take my word for it - try them yourselves! The team at GoMacro is giving away one box of assorted Thrive bars (MSRP $26.28) to one lucky Living, Learning, Eating reader. 

Just enter below by midnight on 11/05. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you don't want to wait, get 30% off of your order of Thrive bars using the promo code Thrive30.

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Recipe: Eggplant Parmesan

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Do you know what's an easy, flavorful weeknight dinner that's a crowd-pleaser and a family-pleaser? 

Eggplant parmesan with angel hair pasta!

Some like a little extra spaghetti sauce with their pasta, so make a little extra and save it to serve on the side. Other than that, it's straightforward and simple and makes great leftovers! Read on for the recipe.

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Review: Halo Top Creamery Ice Cream

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Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved ice cream. 

Her very favorite ice cream of all time was Edy's Loaded Cookies & Cream Ice Cream. Her freezer was never without a tub and her wonderful mother always made sure to have some in the freezer when she came home for break from boarding school (because her mother was/is wonderful).

Then, one sad sad SAD day, Edy's discontinued their Loaded Ice Cream line. The girl experienced her first heartbreak and was inconsolable. 

But slowly, oh so slowly, she learned to love again. This time, she fell for Edy's Slow Churned Yogurt Praline Crunch. There were many delicious afternoon snacks, a toppling birthday ice cream cake she insisted on making out of her love, and infinite apples dipped into ice cream. Until...

...Edy's discontinued her love. AGAIN. The girl's faith in the ice cream industry was shattered. Alas! She was not meant to be allowed to keep a love. 

And then she met Halo Top Creamery during a leisurely stroll through a Whole Food's freezer aisle. 

Halo Top Chocolate Mocha Chip:

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Recipe Roundup: The Best of Autumn

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In what feels like just a week, summer magically transformed into autumn!

The leaves, dressed in autumnal yellows and oranges and red, lie on the ground. Tote bags of apples are at the entrance of every supermarket (um YUM). I need a sweater in the mornings and evenings! And sometimes I don't wear a sweater and just rock the pretty fall dresses and pretend I'm not cold.

Fall marks the beginning of baking season, too! Aka my favorite. So, without further ado, here are my favorite fall recipes, from a girl who loves all things apple, pumpkin, pumpkin spice, and nutty. Enjoy!

Cherry Pecan Bread

It's moist, it's perfect for banana bread lovers, and it's something different and delicious!

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Review: Toosum Bars

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I love snack bars! Skeptical? Just check out my comprehensive list of the many, many, many bars I have tried, photographed, and reviewed over the years.

Clearly, I like bars.

But when you're just feeling a little peckish and you don't want a big bar, or you're packing a snack for a kid at school and a full sized protein or granola bar is just too big. And who wants to eat half the bar and leave the other half in an open packet, to dry out?

Luckily, there's a solution.

The healthy, gluten-free snack bar:

Toosum bars are the perfect size for a small snack or a brown bag pack-along.

Toosum bars are 100 calorie gluten-free oatmeal bars. They call themselves 'bites with benefits' and live up to the claim. All four flavors (blueberry & greek yogurt, coconut & banana, cherry & plum, and cranberry & acai) are made of gluten-free, whole grain oats, brown rice flour, and healthy nuts, seeds, and dried fruits. 

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Review: Vitalicious Deep Chocolate VitaTops

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Sometimes it can be hard to marry a vicious sweet tooth and the desire to eat healthy. Fruits make a delicious and healthy dessert, but sometimes you just want chocolate!

VitaTops Deep Chocolate is the solution. It's whole grain, loaded with vitamins (but tastes way better than taking a multivitamin) and so, so chocolatey. I had tried (and enjoyed) VitaTops before, so I was excited to try the new formula. 

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Review: Arctic Zero's New Pints!

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I was SO bummed when, after an absolutely gorgeous labor day weekend full of lovely strolls on perfect high 60s-low 70s days, the summer decided to make a return visit and burn me up with 90-something scorcher days.

So I was SO thrilled when a surprise package from Arctic Zero showed up on my doorstep! Exactly what I wanted to help me cool down on these hot days.

The Flavors:

The original creators of healthy, high protein, low-sugar and low-fat 'ice cream' are constantly coming up with new brilliant ideas and their Chunky pints are the perfect addition to their line! 

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September Degustabox Unboxing!

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Degustabox is my favorite monthly subscription service! Every month, like a surprise care package from an in-the-know-foodie friend, a big box full of full-sized new treats (10-15 kinds!) shows up on my doorstep! 

I'd never even heard of many of the products before and, in two months of deliveries, I've already discovered some new favorites.

New Foodie Finds: 

Can we start with my favorite one? Good, because I am. 

Let's have a moment of silence to honor this amazing bar, which came to its delicious demise right as the mid-afternoon energy slump hit at work. I'm learning a lot at my new job and I need to be fully alert and fueled to do so! 

I was ravenous on Thursday and paired this with a granny smith apple for a satisfying, well-rounded snack that powered me through the rest of the work day and until I got home for dinner at 7! So yummy.

It's oaty, whole-grain, the perfect amount of sweet, and so good. I normally hugely favor snack bars with chocolate in them (or that are entirely chocolate-based) but I didn't miss the chocolate in this at all. I'd love to eat this as a work snack every afternoon!

Next up is a childhood favorite:

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Recipe: Shakshuka (Israelian Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce with Chickpeas and Feta)

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September is National Breakfast Month!

This is clearly my month to shine, because I make breakfast for dinner far more often than is likely acceptable for a twenty-something-year-old. What can I say? Breakfast foods are the best foods and I'm okay with never being a proper grown up if that would mean I can only have breakfast once a day!

This dish, an Israelian favorite for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, straddles the line between breakfast for dinner and a sensible grown up's meal. That's a compromise I can live with!

Even better: it's simple to make, full of healthy plantbased nutrition from chickpeas and tomatoes, a cheap meal that beats ramen by a mile (feta is the most expensive ingredient, but the core ingredients are canned chickpeas, canned tomatoes, and eggs), and you can eat out of a cast iron pan like a farmer!

I used Nellie's Free Range Eggs to make this a meal that's healthy, humane, and free of residual antibiotics or other icky things from the chicken's diet. I chose Nellie's Free Range Eggs because they're easy to find (I got mine from Whole Foods) and always free range, and free of hormones or antibiotics, and kosher certified. They're also great quality, delicious eggs!

Read on for the recipe. It's a 35 minute dinner!

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