Skater Lunch Box #25

An old fashioned Southern "veggie plate," veganized: braised green beans, a boiled potato, buttered carrots, some veggie bacon (Sweet Earth), a bit of Benecol spread, and a corn muffin.

I have a confusing, convoluted story to tell about the green beans, but first, the corn muffin: I used this recipe, halved and made into muffins. It tastes good, but I was startled by how pale the veganized version was--not a real surprise, I guess, given that we're missing the egg yolks here. I may try a few different things to see if I can make it more yellow--that pop of color is so nice sometimes.

Also it looked really yellow in the picture.

And now, my braised green beans.

Some time ago I read that Goya Ham Flavor is vegan. The ingredient list is as follows:

Salt, monosodium glutamate, artificial flavors, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, silica

So I bought some and rejoiced as I veganized my braised green beans recipe, with a bonus that now that I wasn't using a ham hock I could make it in smaller quantities.

And yet, somewhere else on the box, in bold, a while later, I noticed this on the box:

Contains: Milk

What? How? Why? Where?

I concluded that it doesn't really matter, because I can probably figure out how to flavor the beans with liquid smoke in the future, and all that MSG--not that I really worry about occasional MSG; it's something that's been weirdly demonized--might not be the greatest thing.

Anyway, I tried. And it might even have been vegan, if that was one of those allergy warnings that was supposed to mean they process the stuff on the same equipment as something else. I'd welcome more info on that if anyone has any.