Current food obsessions

I have a crockpot of red beans simmering in my kitchen. It smells amazing, but it's not ready yet, so I've been eating everything else in my house while I wait, because the smell makes me so hungry!

A crucial ingredient is this stuff, which according to the internet is vegan, but which I find completely perplexing:

I mean...what? And...how? Regardless, it's quite helpful in making vegetarian food taste...not quite so vegetarian.

Another magical food which I ate a lot of while waiting for my red beans is this stuff:

This is the best vegan "ice cream" I've ever tasted. My guy showed up on my doorstep with Coconut Bliss on Saturday night (yeah...I think he's a keeper). It has very few ingredients (especially compared to Soy Dream and Rice Dream and stuff) and the texture is perfect. I think the reason it works so well is that coconut milk has so much saturated fat. But I don't really want to think about that right now, since I ate half a pint in one sitting.

Tomorrow I'm headed to a raw food potluck. Red beans and rice is obviously a no-go, so I'll have to create something else. More on that soon.