Back from the US Random Mini-Vegan Food Haul

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So the hubs went back to the States for a week and he brought us back some goodies!!! I had this whole long list in my head of things I wanted to ask for but when it came down to it, nothing seemed all that important and as usual, time went by so quickly! I asked for Better Than Boullion which if you've checked out our recipes page, you will see why (we LOVE that stuff!!!) and toothpaste. I just didn't want to be bothered trying to get used to a Japanese brand of natural toothpaste. This is why I was pleasantly surprised at the fun things my hubs brought or us in his mini-haul. We have video and can explain each thing...

Here's what he brought:

1. A whole bunch of Near East Spanish Rice - like 8 boxes

I know. We're in Japan. There's rice everywhere here. But we really like convenience foods and this tasty vegan rice is our favorite so laugh all you like. Taco Tuesday just went from meh to 100 in Nagoya for us.

2. Better Than Boullion - (vegan) Chicken flavor and Vegetable

My mom turned me on to this jar of magic. I glop a spoon of it into every pot of beans, rice, quinoa, lentils, soup, sauce, you name it. I make it better. With Bouillon. It's certified vegan so nobody can ruin this for me and I feel safe about that. Hubs bought me 2 of the veggie ones but did scare me a little with the chicken flavored one which turns out is vegan as well. Woohoo... I think?! Why a vegan would want to make things taste like a dead body was floating in it is beyond me. How do they get that flavor? Did they just let a pet chicken take a leisurely bath? I'm not sure what to do with this stuff... maybe we'll like it. I'll have to see... If Hubs doesn't use it I will gift it to someone out here and maybe they will go carcass-water free for that very special recipe.

3. Bogle Vineyard Old Vine Zinfandel from California.

At the risk of sounding like the wine snob that my 2 Buck Chuck drinking self would have eye-rolled 15 years ago, I cannot drink bad wine. Unfortunately, I've gotten quite spoiled in California because we can literally drive to a vineyard to get the good stuff if we grow tired of the selection at our local gourmet food store and want a vintner's reserve or exclusive blend. Yup. It's happened. I've crossed over and I'm THAT girl now. I can't even AFFORD to be that girl. To make matters worse, I found out wine isn't always vegan which is ruining my life because you can't find good vegan wine in Japan. You are lucky if you find GOOD wine here (that I can afford). So... enough of my rant, now. Hubby went to then ends of the earth to bring me goooooood vegan wine and I'm super happy about this. It was delicious!!!

4. Bragg's Aminos

I know, it's pretty much soy sauce but not soy sauce and yup... we're in Japan where there's like a million different kinds of soy sauce at the grocery store. Only like 20 wines but a MILLION soy sauces... smh. So what. We like the taste of this stuff and I immediately made fried lentil rice with it and it tasted like home.

5. Almond Butter

I did move here with a bunch of almond butter and when we went back home, it was nice to get my hands on some again. I haven't really seen plain almond butter in Japan but I was thinking of making some and just haven't gotten around to it. Now I don't have to. I keep feeling like with the extra burden of having no car, no dishwasher, no dryer, no Costco, no Trader Joe's etc. - I want some shortcuts and convenience food! I want someone else to turn almonds into butter for me and I don't care. I'm going to try to make it last but we'll see.

6. Isabella's vegan COOKIES

These were a BIG treat for us. These cookies are that special treat from a certain grocery store and we splurge on this crazy expensive item just because you can't get it anywhere else. These cookies really made my day. I love when my hubby comes back after a business trip but I love it even more when he comes back with wine and cookies.

7. Coconut butter

I have no idea what to do with this. He knew we used up all of our butter flavored coconut oil from Nutiva and we really liked it but he got confused. I have no idea what to do with regular coconut butter. I have a few items like that in the house like canned beets (I'm feeling like trying pink hummus...) and a couple other weird things I don't know quite what to do with. Send me your coconut butter recipes! I'm sure he paid a small fortune for this random food item and it would be a shame for it to go to waste.

8. Tom's Toothpaste

Am I the only one that doesn't like trying new toothpaste? Like I really don't. It freaks me out. I don't even like starting a new tube of toothpaste let alone getting used to new brand. It is the equivalent of getting a vaccine or a pap smear to me. You know you have to do it and it is over quickly and you forget about it but the yuck is real.

9. Bark Thins

This is one of our guilty pleasure foods. It is probably not really a good idea to call it food. Although it's vegan, it calls itself snacking chocolate which I'm pretty sure is a way to trick you into eating the entire bag.

I hope you all enjoy our haul video above and finding out about the random mini-haul that my hubs brought home. Let me know in the comments if you're into any of the stuff in this post and if not, what kind of foods would you HAVE to travel with if you were leaving the country for a significant period of time?