What vegetarian products do you have trouble finding?
 

I keep looking for TVP in chunks rather than the ground-up style, but just cannot find it. I know it is on the internet, but I have never ordered food! I am just a bit hesitant to do it, but nobody seems to carry the chunks.

Seitan is not easy to come by unless I drive 1/2 hour and spend my whole paycheck at Whole Foods.

And I used to be addicted to Boca Breakfast Wraps, especially the Southwest...and then they went and discontinued them on me without notice. I wrote the company and got back a generic "we didn't sell enough so we stopped making them" response.

I know, I wish I could find the tvp chunks too!!!.....I use mostly MorningStar Farms Meal Starters....like ground beef. I have ordered the ground up tvp from Bobs Red Mill before, but I hate to pay shipping! I would also switch to soy yogurt if they made a low carb version for cheap. But they dont. I also wish Walmart sold Free Range Eggs, they sell Cage Free eggs, but I often wonder about the poor chickens........

I also cant find Goya Ham flavored Boullion. It has no meat in it but tastes like smoked ham. I may have to order some.

Have you ever tried making your own seitan?

Have you tried making your own seitan? It takes a little experimenting to get what you like, but there are so many ways to make home made seitan and you can experiment with flavors and different methods to get different textures. I’ve seen Bob’s Red Mill and Arrowhead Mills brand wheat gluten in even mainstream grocery stores in the baking isle.

I'm very fortunate to have a kick-butt co-op here in town. They have ground and chunk TVP in the bulk isle, as well a powdered and flake nutritional yeast, agar, vital wheat gluten (for making seitan) and all types of different grains and beans, nuts, cereals, spices, I love the bulk section! They also carry a good variety of vegan cheese, mock meats and vegan frozen convenience food. I've asked them to carry Go Max Go candy bars, if they pick those up I'll be set (or in a lot of trouble, can't decide :o)

It's so frustrating, isn't it?

I'm lucky enough to have several health food stores in my area, but I do prefer to go to just one particular store, so when they quit carrying something I have to search out the other stores. I just went in to get some fat-free Nayonnaise, but they quit carrying it! Now I have to go to Whole Foods and see if they have it.

Often my regular grocery store or even the commissary will carry something I like and discontinue carrying it because they're not selling enough.

Good luck in your search!

I've never seen or heard of TVP chunks?

Seitan can be found easily around here in asian markets. I've also never tried commercial seitan but I make it off and on. It is really easy to make and a lot cheaper than paying for it.

Mug, 'free range' eggs aren't really free range anyway from what I've read. Its a term used but it isn't much different than cage free.

Yep, using tofu instead of eggs is definitely more chicken friendly. :)

More info here

I've tried making seitan...it was a dismal failure. :(

I don't really understand it...I am a pretty good cook most of the time, but homemade seitan seems to be my waterloo.

What was wrong with your seitan? It is one of the trickier things to master, I know it's frustrating when things don't work out in the kitchen, but once you get it down it's so worth it.

The first time I made seitan, it was a failure too. I did the boiling method. I later learned the steaming and baking method and it came out great! I have since done the boiling method and it worked well but I still fear a reoccurence of the first time.

I have trouble finding all the stuff I used to get at Trader Joe's because there is no Trader Joe's in Idaho. :( In particular, I miss the soy chorizo.

Seitan...
 

It didn't have a nice texture, for one thing. It also fell apart. I felt as if I wasted some very expensive flour and am reluctant to try it again.

I have a hard time finding good California Burgers

I can't find Wildwood smoked tofu locally. I can get it if I drive to the next state, lol. When I'm somewhere that has it, I stock up and freeze it. Their regular (not smoked) tofu is easy to find and it's great too, but not as fabulous as the smoked variety :) I love Wildwood's tofu anyway because you really can't tell it's tofu. It's so firm it's like slicing into cheddar cheese. The flavor is different, too. It's really good stuff.

Maybe you could make a tofu marinade with liquid smoke, soy sauce and spices? It's cheaper to flavor tofu yourself instead of buying the pre-flavored stuff at the store, and you get to play around with ingredients to get just what you want.

There isn't a big assortment of vegetarian food where I'm from in Canada.We get the Yves products (ground round, deli slices, skewers, and burgers), Oh Naturel line (chick'n nuggets, burgers, "meat"balls and chicken burgers) and tofu but that's about it. I wish we had Morning Star products here. Twice a year there is a semi that comes to the city that sells a lot of vegetarian food that we don't have here so we have to stock up then but since we only have a small freezer in out fridge it doesn't last us long.