Gardein Savory Stuffed Turkey

The lovely people at Gardein wrote to me sharing news of their award for "Product of the Year" from VegNews Magazine. In response to these accolades, they have released a special limited edition product called gardein™ savory stuffed turk’y. According to Gardein, it "is made with vegetables, ancient grains and plant-proteins (soy, wheat, and pea) and is a delicious meat-free main course with 22 grams of protein, 9 grams of fat and 270 calories per serving. The turk’y is breaded with toasted crumbs and is stuffed with celery, onions, cranberries, and bread crumbs."

As I zigzagged the crowded dairy section of Whole Foods tonight with my cumbersome cart, I found the turk'y in the back of the bottom vegetarian freezer shelf. I may not have noticed it if I wasn't specifically looking for it. It was a very good find.

It might be the lack of daylight, my busy workdays, or that I need more exercise, but I'm feeling quite tired lately. Today is the first Vegan MoFo attempt at a completely vegan dinner. I spent my extra time today shopping for vegan products to experiment with, which means I had little time to actually concoct something by the time I got home. So tonight's vegan adventure entailed resisting the urge to "cheese" my potatoes, and "buttering" my carrots with Earth Balance. Baby steps, I guess.

The turk'y was pretty awesome. It was crunchy outside (despite me par-cooking it in the microwave before baking), and the gravy topping was enough to top some mashed potato if needed. My husband asked if I didn't already know it was fake meat, would I think it was real turkey? I suppose someone could possibly be convinced it was processed turkey, but it doesn't chew like the real thing. My only complaint was that the filling was a little gooey-slash-gelatanous - but tasted good.

I sliced some yukon gold potatoes and tossed them with olive oil, sea salt and pepper and baked them on a sheet next to the turk'y for 20 minutes. I tried out the Earth Balance on some boiled carrots with salt and pepper. At first taste, there's some slight flavor of something, maybe the soy, that's a little wierd. Once it melted and mixed with the salt, it actually tasted alright.

So today I introduced my husband to turkey-stuffing-gravy, and both of us to Earth Balance. Let's see what happens next in the Vegan MoFo.