P90X3 Review: Weeks 2 & 3 by Randi / February 9, 2014
The very generous people over at Purfit gave me a huge container of their chocolate Meal Replacement Shake to try, and I must say I really like it. I have been obsessed with Sunwarrior Raw Chocolate protein powder for a few years now, but Purfit has posed a surprisingly successful contender. I would definitely buy this in the future.
For each serving of 37g (or a ‘scoop’, but my container didn’t include a scoop so I used the Sunwarrior one), you get 140 calories, 5g fat, and 14g protein, plus at least 100% of your daily vitamin A, C, B6, B12, and other vitamins. The chocolate taste is the best I’ve found in any protein powder, from Sunwarrior to Vega to Plantfusion. It’s a little chalky, as they all are, but it tastes the most like chocolate milk and not like chocolate-flavored protein. So that’s good!
For each serving of 37g (or a ‘scoop’, but my container didn’t include a scoop so I used the Sunwarrior one), you get 140 calories, 5g fat, and 14g protein, plus at least 100% of your daily vitamin A, C, B6, B12, and other vitamins. The chocolate taste is the best I’ve found in any protein powder, from Sunwarrior to Vega to Plantfusion. It’s a little chalky, as they all are, but it tastes the most like chocolate milk and not like chocolate-flavored protein. So that’s good!
I tried Purfit in several forms in order to get a complete picture. First, I tried Purfit’s recommended recipe of “Chocolate Twist”, which is the powder mixed with water and a tiny bit of vanilla extract. I just blended the following ingredients in a small blender.
CHOCOLATE TWIST
- 1 serving Purfit
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
This simple recipe is what sold me on the product. I never drink protein powder straight with water; I always add it to my morning smoothies. The thought of having other powders plain grosses me out. But this tasted like chocolate milk! I was shocked, and delighted. I’ll definitely be getting Purfit out when I want a chocolate milk fix.
Next, I tried it in my favorite green smoothie recipe instead of my usual Sunwarrior protein. My secret to green smoothies is to freeze all of the components, including the greens. Frozen greens blend and disintegrate more easily. Freezing is made simpler with prewashed and bagged greens, like the ones from Trader Joe’s. This is roughly what I do:
MY FAVORITE GREEN SMOOTHIE
- 2 cups frozen kale (squish it into the blender with your hands and you can fit more)
- 1 cup frozen rainbow chard
- 1 cup frozen spinach
- 1/2 cup frozen collards
- 1 frozen banana
- 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries
- 1/2 cup frozen pineapple
- 1 scoop chocolate protein powder
Fill the blender with water first, about 2 cups. Blend until really really smooth. It makes a ton, so I like to freeze the extras in single-serve Mason jars to take to work on days I have less time.
My favorite smoothie was just as great with Purfit. The chocolate was a bit more pronounced but I like that. The strange thing was, I felt way fuller much later in the day than I normally do. I was barely hungry for dinner after having this for my first meal. I don’t necessarily like that, but for those of you who need help staying full between meals, I recommend giving this a try!
Lastly, I tried to make my standard Vitamix ice cream/water ice with Purfit taking the place of some of the cocoa powder. A high-speed blender is necessary for this recipe, I’m sorry to say!
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CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER ICE CREAM
Ingredients:
Directions:
Normally the consistency of water ice, this recipe turned out much creamier this time, and I have to attribute that to the Purfit. Shocking! I love the idea of sneaking protein powder into ice cream. Since the taste didn’t seem different, there’s really no reason not to add it in if you need more protein. 
The finished product from a bird’s eye view 
YUM! |
All loaded up and ready to go! 
If you have access to this peanut butter, I highly suggest using it for everything you can possible think of, except toothpaste. 
The easiest, fastest ice cream ever |
Thank you so much to the people of Purfit for letting me try your product. I am so excited to say that I honestly enjoyed it and am looking forward to adding it to my regular lineup of protein powders. I hope you readers enjoy my recipes and enjoy Purfit if you decide to buy it!
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“Secret” Vegan Supper Club at The Gate, Marylebone
Man alive do you know how much putting “Marylebone” in the headline is stressing me out?! I NEVER spell that forking fancy pants neighborhood (dammit, it’s so fancy it’s gonna require the ‘u’) neighbourhood correctly so I must be feeling BRAVE to put it in the headline. I think the correct mnemonic is remembering it as Mary Le Bone like it’s a person’s unfortunate name but it still looks wrong. Omg was Mary Le Bone a real person? Is it named after her? Was she chic af? OK that’s a ramble for another time. Suffice it to say Mary’s hood is chic af and we recently (like last night) went there to dine at The Gate, London’s classic vegetarian restaurant. The Gate has been serving up quality boutique vegetarian food in London since 1989, and they’ve remained a constant, dependable, classy, delicious mid-upscale choice for us throughout the quiet veg years and now in this remarkable vegan boom.
Once a month, The Gate in Mary’s the bone hosts a “secret” vegan supper club (which is cute to call it that I guess because you can’t actually find info on their website easily but obvs it’s not secret; they let me in). For £49.50, you get a decadent, beautiful 5-course meal PLUS matching wines. Five wines are included in that pretty decent price! That’s amazing if you drink/are British! I do not and am not, but I was taken care of too (more below). I believe the menu changes for every supper club event – or at least it should, because I’m gonna go every single month as often as I can, because it was wonderful. (I’m really enjoying this strikethrough feature today. I’ll never stop I will stop.)
Out of the 5 courses, 1 was just fine, 2 were good and could easily have been great, 1 was great, and 1 was forking phenomenal, so overall I call that a win, especially because if this was all phenomenal I’d have nothing to say except EEEEE! and you all know how much I like to say things. Let’s get to the food!
First up to bat was my absolute favorite of the savory dishes, the crispy shiitake wonton: shiitake duxelle (duxelle is a fancy way of saying you prepared mushrooms with onions and garlic and herbs and then mixed it all up into a paste or an almost-paste or just finely chopped), cilantro, lime sauce, alfalfa, enoki mushrooms, and shiso. At first I was like ‘I love me some sprouts but that’s a huge pile of alfalfa’, but it was actually well balanced in the dish on the whole, because the mushroom duxelle was so rich and SO delicious that you needed to even that intensity out with literally nothing threads. I loved the little herb sauce dollops, the random enoki on top, and all the flavors together. This was the dish that was great.
The second dish was avocado, mango, and shimeji ceviche. Shimeji mushrooms are the little cartoon-looking fuckers pictured. I love all kinds of mushrooms (except magic ones) (don’t do drugs (THERE’S NO HOPE WITH DOPE lol remember that episode of Saved by the Bell omg it was the best with Johnny Dakota???? and then actual NBC president Brandon Tartikoff did the actual PSA at the end? HILARIOUS) (also obvs I’m joking do whatever you want just don’t forking drive and DO NOT make me smell it FFS ALL MY NEIGHBORS)). This was a very refreshing, very fresh ‘ceviche’ of our three awesome stars (avocado, mango, cartoon mushrooms) covered in lime juice, chili dressing, soft cashews, and placed in leaves of chicory. As you can see, there are also some edible flowers sprinkled about which is a surefire way to please me. So fun! This was one of the dishes that was good but not great, and that’s because while the flavors were all fresh and nice, it was super limey without having the right amount of salt to bring it out in a nice and not overly sour way.
Next is another of the (very) good dishes that could so easily have been great. I really enjoyed this, but admit that a few tiny tweaks could probably make it incredible. Here we have zucchini rolls (I WILL NEVER SAY COURGETTE) (no I already do), filled with WONDROUS fava bean mousse and topped with sumac. These rolls were super delicious; I would buy tubs of that mousse and eat it instead of my regular hummus rotation for several weeks if I could. It was so mild and pleasant and delicious, and the sumac was an interesting and nice touch. However, the smooth mousse was a little geriatric/soft-food-diet, and one of my dining companions said it needed something in the roll-up that was a little more substantial so he didn’t think ‘nursing home safety.’
As you can see, it’s on a bed of couscous, with mint, pistachios, and pomegranate, which was fine, basic. And then there’s a blob of green garlic yogurt on the side. The yogurt did not do it for me; I left most of it where I found it. I don’t think it was necessary and it was too strong, overpowering the mousse flavor, to be worth it. I think if they adiosed that (maybe replacing with something proteiny since, as usual with vegan tasting menus, that was lacking) plus maybe added a few whole fava beans or crushed nuts or something solid-food to the mousse filling this dish would have been great.
The last of the savory dishes was the one I think was just fine. Don’t get me wrong, it tasted great, as everything did (except that yogurt glob), but it was just so ya basic, the dish vegans have been served since before people knew what vegetarian meant so now just feels uninspired and lackluster: the Mediterranean aubergine. This was a big old (nicely) grilled eggplant with Romanesco cauliflower, pieces of butternut squash, semi-dried tomato pesto (I guess because it’s not sunny enough in the UK to fully dry your maters), radishes, and a very welcome piece of baby artichoke, and some green herby sauces all over. All the components were good, especially the pesto and that artichoke (artichokes rock), but despite everything tasting good, (to paraphrase Husbo’s best restaurant review:) you’re still just an asshole eating yet another roasted pile of root veg.
BUT IT’S OK THEY MADE UP FOR IT WITH DESSERT!
The dessert was the PHUH FORKING NOMENAL dish. I mean. Wow. Guys, I think this has been added to my top five restaurant desserts of all time. OF ALL TIME! This chocolate tulip featured a lovely chocolate shell cup housing the most incredible chocolate mousse like EVER. You can see the mousse cup looks red, so I was concerned that they were trying some funny business of trying to ‘improve’ upon classic chocolate by making it chocolate-raspberry or some bullshit that we don’t need because classic chocolate is perfection, but that’s just a dusting of I’m guessing dried raspberry powder to match the lovely little bits of dried raspberry crunch on top and the real raspberries around the plate. IT WAS SO AMAZING. And even though this was amazing in its own right, that right there in green is a dollop of the MOST INCREDIBLE pistachio Chantilly cream you ever did see. I mean I’m just so grateful. This was THE BEST. You need to try this.
While my three omnivorous (they really enjoyed this!) dining companions enjoyed all the wine, I got to choose whatever soft drinks I wanted to accompany my dishes, for no added charge. I was a bit dismayed at first that the ‘soft pairing option’ they confirmed they had in the email wasn’t pre-planned, but it was nice to be able to choose my own drinks off their regular menu. I got a carrot, ginger, beet, and celery juice first, and then a ginger spritz (ginger, lemon, soda) mocktail next. They made it clear I could order more, but they brought me full-size versions so I was so full from liquid so fast, especially considering I’d gone through 3 liter carafes of water before long! And we had 5 courses to go through!
This supper club was a truly lovely experience and I was glad to be reminded of how great The Gate’s food is. Their next one is August 22, so book in now.
The Gate, “Secret” Vegan Supper Club, Marylebone, London, UK
Water speed: They brought carafes of water pretty regularly! It was good! I was so full of liquid!
Service: Very good. As usual with these sorts of events, with everyone in the room finishing at the same time, it’s a little difficult and stressful to pay at the end since everyone is trying to, and it was frustrating that the servers seemed to be cleaning up instead of seeing that we wanted to pay, but that’s my small quibble. Overall good!
Bathrooms: Three stalls in the women’s room with internal sinks, which always make me mad because when there’s a line you’re like ‘why don’t they just put the sinks outside the stalls so the line moves faster’ but this wasn’t the theatre, there was no line. So it was fine. And clean.
Food: Delicious! Overall it was really nice, and even the things that weren’t interesting were still well made and tasted great.
Bonus: I love a good supper club! I felt this was a great value for money, especially with all those drinks included. AND THAT DESSERT!
That Time I Finally Went to Vegan Treats (Mecca)
After a very busy weekend as a bridesmaid in my best friend’s insanely fun wedding, and after being awake and hyperactive for most of the past three days, I wrapped up my bridal party duties and hopped in a car to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In that little town of Bethlehem, we raise our glass – you bet your ass – toooooo VEEEEEGAAAAAN TREEEEEAAAATS! La Vegan Treats!
Ok, anyway, I’ve been wanting to go to this very best, most famous vegan bakery for years. However, I could buy a lot of VT’s products at restaurants and cafes in Philly and NYC, so I just didn’t deem the trip urgent. I should have. Going to Vegan Treats in person is of course much more exciting, but also you get fresher baked goods, a wider selection, and, most importantly, soft-serve! Special thanks to my friend Elli for finally taking me!
Ok, anyway, I’ve been wanting to go to this very best, most famous vegan bakery for years. However, I could buy a lot of VT’s products at restaurants and cafes in Philly and NYC, so I just didn’t deem the trip urgent. I should have. Going to Vegan Treats in person is of course much more exciting, but also you get fresher baked goods, a wider selection, and, most importantly, soft-serve! Special thanks to my friend Elli for finally taking me!
Pumpkin & vanilla soft-serve
Those of you who know me know that soft-serve is one of my top five foods. It goes kale, chickpeas, quinoa, peanut butter, soft-serve. It’s the best thing ever, and I will go anywhere for it. House-made soft-serve at Vegan Treats is just another reason why making the trip to the storefront is so worth it. Today’s flavors were pumpkin and vanilla custard. Of course, I got the two flavors swirled, and it was insane. The pumpkin was very subtle, thankfully not overspiced or overcinnamoned as so many pumpkin goods often are. Somehow, the ice cream did not melt as fast as other ice creams would have on this warm sunny day, and the texture remained incredibly thick. I don’t know how they do it, but they concocted a crazy amazing texture. So delicious!
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Elli and I also pretty much bought out the bakery case. How beautiful is this! That whole third row is filled with gluten-free goodies, which is cool, but they cost more, which kind of sucks. We spent obscene amounts of money, but everything freezes well, so it’s like an investment!
The best Vegan Treats creation is the famous chocolate peanut butter bomb, which you can see in mini form on the top far right. I think mini form might actually be preferable to the full size, because the ratio of peanut butter cream to cake is much higher (i.e., there’s more cream). I don’t know how they make that, but it’s mind-blowingly perfect, light and the right amounts of salty and sweet. At right, you can see the daily specials, which of course we bought and of course were delicious beyond belief. On the left are donut sandwiches filled with Bavarian cream. Man alive these were good. Somehow, the cream was light and thick and left absolutely no aftertaste, as so many vegan creams do. The donut a little sturdier than their other ones, in order to hold all of that cream. So good. On the right are cinnamony-sugary-appley? donut pretzels. Of course these were great, come on. I love soft pretzels so much, and I could get used to one in donut form.  Donut pretzel with crackly sugar coating |
 The most beautiful thing! Except for the car reflection  Wow  You can see where all the magic happens in the back  |
There’s also a selection of cookies, candies, cupcakes, whoopie pies, and more. It’s overwhelming but amazing. I really bought way too much. Let’s check out my haul!
Clockwise from top left: S’more cheesecake, donut sandwich with Bavarian cream, peanut butter bomb, Boston cream pie donut
Clockwise from top left: carrot cake, another peanut butter bomb, vanilla cake with peanut butter, vanilla, and chocolate parts, and a brownie with chocolate peanut butter icing. I love peanut butter. You can see where my mom already dug in the second she saw this box, before I could take a picture! Most of this is now frozen. Make sure I don’t forget about it, please!
The cannolis are also splendid
Do you believe how much I got! And I was trying to limit myself. Everything is too delicious for words. Most of this haul is safely frozen now, as everything freezes and thaws very well. Of course, I did eat a lot of it, and of course after days without rest I feel prettayyy prettayyy horrible right now. But it’s worth it! I can’t wait to go back when they have the rumored salted caramel soft-serve. If you are ever in eastern PA with a car and time on your hands, definitely make the pilgrimage to the wondrous Vegan Treats!
