It felt so good to come home after just being away for 36 hours. Nothing like my own bed, my own hot shower, and my own kitchen to make me happy.
While I was in San Francico, I stumbled into a small natural-foods market, Harvest Urban Market, that was walking distance from my hotel.
It was a fairly small grocery store, but had a wide array of natural, organic, and specialty foods like Whole Foods does, and they also had some more mainstream products like Peanut M & Ms. Hotel beds while traveling alone are more inviting with a bag of M & Ms next to me.
I also curled up in bed with these Tropical Golden Nuggets.
I think the ingredients are probably tofu powder not power
And I have vanilla extract on hand but am fresh out of va if nilla extract
And diced fruit to medley. Wonder who wrote this ingredients list? My tastebuds don’t care about grammar errors, though.
I had to force myself not to eat this entire tub on the flight home yesterday because I wanted to take pictures of them at home and blog about them because they are that good.
The are a little dry and crumbly and normally I hate dry and crumbly but it totally worked with these.
I am thinking the tofu power powder (whatever that is, possibly protein powder?) was partly responsible for the “base” dough and the seeds, the nuts, the raisins and dried fruit, cereal, peanut butter, pineapple, va if nilla vanilla; what a delicious hodgepodge both in terms of flavor and texture. I must recreate these somehow.
Lately I have been on a tempeh kick and thinking possibly starting with tempeh and going from there.
I have a few ideas already.
Edited to add: A reader just commented that these nuggets are from Chunks of Energy in the Mixed Berry flavor, widely available at Whole Foods. Ironically, I partnered with Chunks of Energy 2 or 3 years ago and hosted a giveaway with them and loved their products then, and now!
The other thing I picked up while at Urban Market in San Fran was this empty cookie wrapper.
I wonder how that happened?
These were the best ginger spice cookies I’ve ever had. Period. And I am so picky with cookies! These were truly spectacular.
I had intended to not even open them and save them for the plane ride and then I ate one. And then ate the second one that was in the package. That good.
Full of ginger, spice, super super soft and chewy.
The bonus is that they are vegan, no dairy, no eggs, no refined sugar, and wheat free. How do they do that and make them taste so amazing?
If you like really soft, tender, and chewy ginger, molasses, or spice cookies with a strong hit of ginger, try a No Cookie Cookie. Amazing.
I make these Cookie Butter Spread Ginger Molasses Cookies (No Bake, Vegan, with GF option) but comparing baked and no-bake cookies (and one using cookie butter and chocolate) is like comparing apples and oranges.
Here’s another gingery twist in these Gingerbread Cookie Dough Balls (Raw, Vegan, Gluten-Free)
Have you found any golden little nuggets lately?
New foods, new recipe, new product, new eyeliner, new dishes, any fun gems that have come across your path?
When I was in Aruba over the holidays I found these crunchy peas. It apparently took leaving the country and shopping in a foreign grocery store for me to realize how amazing peas can be in that form.
Do you know of any storebought cookies, either “natural and organic”, vegan, or not, that are truly fabulous?
I’m of the mindset that when it comes to cookies, 95% of the time homemade is better because I can underbake them and keep them super soft and chewy or customize the dough how I want it.
But I make exceptions for Samoas, Thin Mints, and Oreos.
Thanks for the Kitchen Aid 7-Quart Stand Mixer entries
And the Tofu Xpress Tofu Press Giveaway entries
Haha- I think my new name for tofu might be tofu power- I like it!
Those molasses cookies look amazing.
So many fun bites + nibbles here. Gotta try those tofu powder nuggets :)
They’re actually Chunks of Energy I found out, which I’ve had in the past (and worked with years ago). You can get them at Whole Foods…they are so good. Right up your alley!
I love hearing about your visit to SF. I have never tried the urban harvest market but you have encouraged me to drive on in and give it a try. I love checking out local small businesses. Those tofu cookies and the ginger spice ones (I love ginger) look right up my alley. Lately, I have been eating “healthier” sweets. Is there such a thing? My kids are not on the bandwagon yet,can you blame them? I actually got them to like kale salad and I made a whole wheat pizza the other night with roasted red pepper sauce and they loved it. They never missed the tomato sauce. So, maybe or time or maybe thats asking to much of kids. I mean kids and sweets do go together.
I saw your tofu post the other day and I am starting to love tofu so I am going to try one of your recipes. BTW, if you ever hear of a conference or fun learning event in my neck of the woods that you’re going to attend, let me know! I would love to get in on it and join you.
xo, Jackie
Will do! And LMK if you try any tofu recipes. And the market was cute but it was just a little walking-distance lucky break thing…NOT worth trekking into the city from Marin for! :)
Ohmygoodness….that is hilarious!! Maybe they wrote it like that on purpose? Ha! too funny :P
I love how moist the molasses cookies look…
ummm.. want to have a midnight snack now.. must refrain!!
I think I overate tempeth. For a few months I had it with almost every meal and even with my tea. It was my golden nugget for some time. Now I can’t look at it. Same happened with chocolate, I overate it many years ago, and couldn’t stand any sweets for about two decades (I was 3 years old when chocolate overdose happened) :)
The coop where I used to live sold those nuggets in the bulk section and there were several favors. I tried a couple but never really got into them. Maybe I just didn’t try the right ones.
Tofu power reminds me of the teenage mutant ninja turtles – TURTLE POWER!!
Isn’t barley flour wheat? Is that gluten free? Not to be the gluten police at all, I’m just curious.
barley is a gluten-containing grain but it’s wheat-free, so not gluten free, but wheat-free
Barley, millet, couscous, etc. still contain gluten, just not wheat. Google obviously for the Alton Brown tech specs :)
That’s their mixed berry flavor “chunks of energy”
You are so right! I partnered with Chunks of Energy 2-3 years ago on a giveaway and have tried so many of their products but this is a new one to me and OMG sooooo good! Thank you for LMK that this was a C of E product! YAY!!! Now I know how to find more!
Those nuggets are made by a company called “chunks of energy”… Check out their website. They have tons of flavors. They sell them at whole foods as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halva <–it looks a lot like halva, it's dry and crumbly and delicious!
similar indeed but I’ve had halva and this is even better!
I’ve had nuggets like that and they are dry and crumbly…but oddly do taste good…Work your magic and make them awesome!
It’s on my to-make list, for sure!
OH MY GOSH!!!! I love, love, LOVE ‘NO’ cookies. Every time I go to San Francisco I stock up on them (which is not very often, sadly). They are the best cookies I’ve ever had, for all the reasons you mention – they’re dense and chewy and flavorful and just WONDERFUL! I wish they had a wider distribution.
Ok so glad to hear that you love love them. I thought maybe I was just biased or something but yes, they rocked!
Those little treats look so delicious! Although I’m not sure how I would feel about tofu powder? A little odd!
Thin mints and Oreos definitely top my list for store bought, otherwise I prefer homemade as well–primarily because then I have control of what goes in them. Since reading your blog, I have followed suit in under baking bars and cookies and I think the results are so much better!
Yes that is the way to go! Even just 10-15% off the total baking time can make a huge difference in results. Most recipes I find are written to bake the you know what out of things; and there is usually plenty of room for underbaking. I write my recipes with my tastebuds in mind and for the most part, have already budgeted in the underbaking factor, so if someone underbakes my stuff, they may very well end up with gooey beyond belief, but that’s not horrible I guess :)
tofu powder? i bet it can be made. with a dehydrator? and then grind it up in a processor?
cookies do sound good.
I was thinking of pressing tofu really well, crumbling it, dehydrating the crumbles forever, and then grinding them down in my Vita…or just use a raw/vegan decent protein powder like Sun Warrior vanilla and going with that. I am not a protein powder lover but in this application, I bet it would do the trick!
Quick search just returned this too
https://www.alibaba.com/product-free/112156648/Dry_Tofu_Powder.html
Love finding new treats like that. Wonder if the tofu powder is dried tofu ground up? I’ve heard of soy flour….but never tofu powder. Interesting. So how many baking ideas did you come up with after trying out those goodies ;-) Can’t wait to see!
I was thinking of pressing tofu really well, crumbling it, dehydrating the crumbles forever, and then grinding them down in my Vita…or just use a raw/vegan decent protein powder like Sun Warrior vanilla and going with that. I am not a protein powder lover but in this application, I bet it would do the trick!
Quick search just returned this too
https://www.alibaba.com/product-free/112156648/Dry_Tofu_Powder.html
And you know me well…I have about 17 recipes in my head just based off these nuggets already!
Geez, that seems like a lot of work. Could they mean soy powder? https://www.nowfoods.com/Search/?search=soy+powder
At any rate, it will be interesting to see what you come up with :)
new to me: Cover Girl Natureluxe lip gloss (very nice) and mascara. I have to say I like the mascara BETTER than my beloved Maybelline Great Lash Big Brush.
They’re actually Chunks of Energy I found out, which I’ve had in the past (and worked with years ago). You can get them at Whole Foods…they are so good!