Three is The Loneliest Number

Some treats!

Some greens!

This was part of my Co-op haul from Sunday. Not in the picture were boring things like bulk oatmeal, some spices, and bulk catnip. The Co-op had organic Ataulfo mangoes on sale for $.99cents each! Amazing, so I bought four or five. So far this year organic berry prices are out of control, and even if I could afford it I wouldn't buy them. There is going to have to come a time where organic prices have got to become more reasonable, I hope. People shouldn't have to sell blood because they don't want pesticides in their food. Anyway, I also love these super long scallions! They are from a local farmer, and I love the more natural look. They are thinner, and longer than the usual grocery store variety. The hummus that I tried this week was spicy Thai coconut hummus. I almost was scared to try it, as I had a hard time picturing Thai flavors in hummus. I almost went with the more traditional, and at this point kind of yawn inducing roasted red pepper, and quickly realized that I would forever wonder about the mysterious Thai hummus. This hummus blew me away. It was spicy, and super creamy as it had coconut milk in it. I am definitely going to try to recreate this at home. I could definitely taste heat, and lemongrass, and of course coconut. I'm so glad I took a chance! You can see a little bit of Roxie's head in the top left of the second picture. Sniffing around the greens as usual.
The star of the top picture is probably the Coconut Bliss salted caramel ice cream bars. Before I spill the beans on those treats, I want to talk about the tiny little sticks you can barely see under the ice cream box. They are little concord grape stix, made by Grower's Co-op. I impulse bought these, they were next to the chocolate, and only fifty cents a piece, so I bought two. The only ingredient is concord grapes! It's like the most intense, sweet twizzler ever! The funny thing is as a kid, my mom loved concord grape season, she would buy bushels, baskets, whatever it was called and that was her book reading snack. I could not understand how she could enjoy those weird, slimy sour little things. It was another weird food that grown ups liked. As an adult, I don't often see concord grapes at groceries, and so I kind of forgot they exist. If I had a kid or kids in school, these would be lunchbox staples for sure. I'm already thinking of buying all the stix available next time I'm at the Co-op. So bad, but they are so good!
Now, about these bars! I didn't even know Coconut Bliss made ice cream bars! All of a sudden, the Co-op had two different brands of cashew milk ice cream(!), almond milk ice cream, and these bars. It was super hard to choose, but I've been on a bar kick lately, so I chose the salted caramel in chocolate. The bars are not mini, they are maxi. After enjoying the minis for so long, this thing seemed so huge! What can I say, it is as delicious as you would imagine. This is only the second time I've tried salted caramel, as it wasn't a trend in my pregan days. The ice cream is creamy, and rich and sweet, with a salty little kick. The chocolate coating is on the thinner side, thumbs up, and the bar stayed together well. I remember the cheaper ice cream bars were notorious for falling apart halfway through. Now that I've talked pluses, let's talk minuses. There are two main reasons I will choose the So Delicious minis over the Coconut Bliss bars. One is the size of the bars. For such a rich treat, I like the minis. This bar was too much. By the end I was kind of over it. The second issue I had  is although the bars are full size, the box comes with three bars, as opposed to the 4 mini bars, or 8 mini sandwiches you get with So Delicious and the Coconut Bliss bars are a little over a dollar more per box. I have to wonder who thought three bars in a box was a stellar idea. I prefer even numbers for things like that. Anyway, thumbs up, If you like salted caramel, you will love these. It's so exciting to see all these different ice cream options that are vegan! It's hard to remember the dark days of Tofutti pints being one of the only hard to find options. Both the So Delicious minis, and the Coconut Bliss bars would definitely impress any non-vegan. Coconut ice cream is way creamier than a lot of dairy ice creams.