Coconut Organics sent me free samples of their various coconut chips to try: CocoBacon, Dark Chocolate Coconut Chips and plain. Now I will tell you all about them! I had everyone at the office try them so I will give you the omni POV too. 

Info from their site:

Lightly toasted, not fried! Our coconut chips are USDA Organic, high fiber, high energy, vegan, and gluten free. Also, we use 100{ae720e0b436026f867bfa0c31185c2252a138f27e85f5f152ec5acc1c10a8cc9} raw organic cacao, organic coconut sugar, and Celtic Sea Salt® to make our raw chocolate coconut chips.

So that is all super! However, I am not a huge coconut person so I wasn’t sure I would like these…but they are so tasty! They do have the coconut thing where you are still chewing like a minute later but they do not taste v coconutty. 

The CocoBacon didn’t taste much like bacon, it tasted like the BBQ chips I ate as a kid! You know the ones–salty, sweet, smoky, yummy! So I love these. And I like the texture of all the chips, they aren’t too tough, more crispy. 

The chocolate coconut chips (pictured above) were yum as well. They are a bit salty with a hint of cinnamon and they are not that sweet but def chocolatey. But more like eating chocolate granola than a straight up chocolate candy. There was a split among my coworkers between which were better, these or the Cocobacon, I think it’s all about what mood you’re in!

But I think my fave flavor was actually the plain! Who would have guessed?! The plain was the crispiest of the three and just like…idk, I could snack on them all day!

So I am v excited about this little snack but my dumb coworkers ate all my post-tasting leftovers! Damn omnis! Looks like you can order from their site though so I can re-stock. Damn omnis though!

Coconut Organics seems to have a bunch of fun products coming out (including pancake mix and chocolate coconut butter?!) so follow them on fb to keep up with that. 

Well, I’ll be. This is the sweetest ever, is it not? This little black cat Rademenes now has a full-time job as resident comfort buddy at a veterinarian in Poland. Rademenes actually came to the vet very sick himself, but miraculously recovered. Now, he lives there and watches over the pets that come in for care. Yup, too cute, I’m dead. 

Omg it’s 9:30 in the morning but I am still so down for this “Crispy Spicy Popeye’s Chicken-Style Vegan Fried Chicken” right now! BlacksGoingVegan.com has the best recipes! (you know my predilection for vegan frittatas…)

Follow them on Twitter if you want to keep up with all the good stuff. Not even kidding though now I really want veeg fried chicken. Sigh.

I wrote last week about the new dinner series from Jay Astafa and Angela Lowe, well I actually had the chance to attend Friday night! So now I will tell you all about it. 

In an out-of-the-way Brooklyn home, the event was kind of like a fancy catered dinner party. I went straight after work, and at 15 courses, it was somewhat of a test of endurance. But the food was without a doubt spectacular. There was also quite a bit of fanfare, so it was as much entertainment as it was fine dining. 

We got to see the chefs preparing everything in the kitchen–now known as my dream kitchen. That was v fun. And everything was plated to perfection. 

I’m not showing EVERYTHING but here are quite a few of the dishes. Up at the very top were the first four bites. The crostini with mint sorrel pesto and english peas on the bottom right was actually my brother’s favorite dish of the night. I mean, that pesto: have mercy! Jay said it’s one of his signatures.

Leanne of Vaute was there and said her favorite dish was also among the earliest–the carrot bun slider on the bottom left. It was really good. I don’t always go for barbecue but these black coffee barbecued carrots on a carrot roll were out of this world!

More food porn:

Parsnip vichyssoise with pickled fiddlehead ferns and shiitake bacon. Love love love. 

White asparagus panna cotta with green asparagus, morels, and ramps. The panna cotta texture was creamy and amazing! This was perhaps my favorite dish of the night……but it’s so hard to pick!

Baby leeks in pumpernickel “dirt” with edible flowers. I want more of that dirt!

This was also a contender for top dish, a mushroom rosemary tart with thyme chevre and frisee. Chef Angela billed this as comfort food and with a moist, buttery crust like that, I felt very comforted indeed.

Stinging nettle gnudi with english pea, eggplant bacon, and cashew parmesan. “That’s good bacon” -my omnivore brother.

The cheese course! My brother shies away from vegan substitutes like veggie meats and cheeses, but he ate every bite of veeg cheese on his plate! It was served with Bee Free Honee–that stuff was yummier than I even remembered. 

Here was the most pomp and circumstance of the evening–liquid nitrogen caramel corn!

My bro wondered how necessary it was but I gotta say, best caramel corn ever. 

Baby donut and vanilla milkshake!

Strawberry cheesecake with fennel ice cream to finish!

If you want to go to the dinner series, there are a few upcoming dates, including a 7-course dinner tomorrow night! Get your tickets for any of the nights here. And heads up! They’re coming to the west coast soon!

JL Fields has been on the road since January for Vegan Pressure Cooking: Delicious Beans, Grains, and One-Pot Meals in Minutes. The tour is still coming to many cities, but TONIGHT it’ll be in NYC! At the ever-lovely Mooshoes in Manhattan. Who doesn’t need a good excuse to go to Mooshoes, right?!

Not only can you get a copy of the book signed, you also get to try Soy Curl Mac ‘n Cheese!!!! YES PLEASE ALL FOR ME THANK YOU. 

LA folks, you can check out the book signing on April 20th. To see when the tour is hitting the rest of the country, check here.