VEGAN CHALLENGE: DAY 4

Maybe it's because the house is sick and I find myself being pulled in every direction, Or that for the first time in months the temperature is supposed to be above 10 degrees BUT rain all day; but I am losing the vigor of being careful about my diet. This is pretty typical of me, around Day 4 of any "Lifestyle Change" I usually get antsy and resort to breaking my new found eating rules. But for the purpose of this experiment, I WILL persevere and push through this mini wall.

Tonight I'm taking the easy road and trying a Vegan product instead of making a vegan recipe. I could argue that in order to squeeze a full Vegan experience into seven short days for the purposes of this challenge, I would HAVE to go into the world and see what sort of vegan options are readily available.

I perused the grocery store and while I was encouraged to find vegan options, I was a little disappointed in the lack of variety. I had one veggie burger option to choose from that specifically claimed to be "vegan" and it was "The Good Veggie Burger" by the Yves company.

So tonight we had "The Good Veggie Burger" by Yves. Years ago I remember buying a veggie burger made by the BOCA company that I really enjoyed but they have since either fell off the face of the earth or are no longer sold in Canada, so I have been on the hunt for a good alternative ever since and thought I would give the Yves brand a whirl. I am not a complete stranger to Yves Veggie products, and have tired the "Veggie Ground Round" with mixed results. While I liked it for certain applications with strong flavors (ie. tacos), it does not work well when attempting to form them into burgers (trust me, I tried) and there is a flavor added (presumably for preservation) that I cannot put my finger on, but do not particularly enjoy. Now that I have discovered unflavored TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein), I doubt I'd buy it again.

I Digress...Back to the Yves Veggie Burger...

I lured my partner into trying some and he agreed that it definitely had a meaty texture, but not a lot of flavor, since I am a condiment queen however I would never notice this if it had not been pointed out.

As an experienced meat eater I would say that is is a good option for vegans who miss the meatiness of beef. It came packaged with four burgers individually wrapped for $5.99 (a bit pricy for my liking), and they even added the quintessential grill marks! They thought of everything!

Would I buy these again? YES! All in all I thought they were tasty and best of all the were super fast to prepare, you can literally nuke them in the microwave. I opted to pan fry mine for 2 min a side. The only gripe about this product is the price tag, but that's just because I'm so cheap!

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Have you tried a veggie/vegan burger that you would recommend? One that's available in Canadian grocery stores? Please leave your comments below!