To say that I am truly a virgin to the ways of vegany goodness is only about 70% true. I’ve dabbled in the world of vegan cuisine off and on for several years. I’ve also been primarily vegetarian for quite sometime. But lately I have been thinking about the benefits that a vegan diet would have to my health, environmental sustainability and… my wallet. With these thoughts in mind I have decided that for the good of the world, or more importantly myself, to go vegan for 1 year.
I know. Some may find this daunting and even crazy but let me explain. Despite being raised by very meat and potatoes type parents I’ve never been overly fond of meat. Ground meats in particular have been low on my list of culinary favorites. At the tender age of 5, the cheeseburger in my Happy Meal “crunched” as I bit into it. There was pretty much no going back to after that. As to eggs and dairy products, I will be mourning some hefty losses. Eggs have always been a cheap and easy meal when money is short. And omelettes are always my go to breakfast item when eating out. While milk will not be missed at all, I will be very sad to give up the melty goodness of cheese.
Upon embarking on this vegan journey I decided to start this blog. It will not only serve as a motivational tool for me, but will hopefully help others who have toyed with the idea of veganism. I will share my discoveries, challenges, frustrations and recipes in hopes of creating an accurate look at the transition to becoming vegan.
V-day is October 1st. In leading up to that I would love suggestions and recommendations from all you vegans out there. Especially revolving around substitutes for cheese as I know that will be the hardest thing to give up.
Thanks for the comment on our blog! I’m so excited to hear that you are going vegan for a year! I just passed my one year veganversary, and I am still loving every single day of my vegan life. Ok, for cheese substitutes *dundundun*, I am going to say that first, give yourself some no-cheese time. Vegan cooking is so darn tasty, I promise you won’t feel the need for any cheese. Plus, vegan cheese won’t really be comparable (although I hear Daiya is pretty close!). I used to love cheese, but after being vegan for a while, it has started to smell disgusting. I rarely use vegan cheese, but when I do, Teese (if you can find it) or Follow Your Heart (but not the mozza, yech!) is perfectly satisfying. But seriously, there is a world of food beyond cheese, I promise! Keep us posted on how it’s going! 🙂 -Eve
Congrats on your decision! Aside from the environment and your health, all the lives you’ll save by being vegan for a year is outstanding! I look forward to reading about your journey through the year of the vegan 😉
Cheese was definitely the hardest thing to give up, and the last thing to go. Aside from loving the taste of organic, raw-milk cheeses..I loved the comfort cheese provided me. A lot of my comfort foods were filled with cheesy goodness. So I needed to find what it was in cheese that gave me comfort – it was the warmth, thickness, gooey goodness, etc. So I needed to find other foods that satisfied the same emotions. I tried the fake cheeses, but for me they were always sub-par (to be fair, I haven’t tried Teese yet). Foods that do it for me are potatoes (I eat so many freaking potatoes now, it’s unreal), thick sauces, and such. I grew up on Tex-Mex, so cheese was always a big part of that. So I had to find superior substitutes so I wouldn’t miss my cheese enchiladas, or cheese-filled burritos and chimichangas. My sis created a tomatillo-black bean sauce that far surpasses any cheesy enchilada sauce I’ve ever had..and everyone I feed it to doesn’t even notice that there’s no cheese in it! If you’re missing cheese on your pizza, just get it heavy on the sauce and fill it up with veggie toppings. You won’t experience the dehydration/swelling that sometimes accompanies eating pizza (due to the cheese), you won’t feel Buddha belly or gross afterwards. In fact, I enjoy pizza more now that I don’t have cheese on it. I have a ton of ‘cream-less/cheese-less creamy/cheesy’ recipes on my site, The Innocent Primate. Stop by and I’d be glad to direct you to those recipes which satisfy my cheese-addiction recovery.
Congratulations!
I agree with the two comments above. Before I went vegan, I heard a vegan say she really didn’t want cheese on her pizza any more. I figured she was either lying or weird. Who would not want cheese on their pizza??
So when I went vegan, I didn’t eat pizza for a few months because I figured, why bother? Then one day I ordered a slice of cheeseless veggie, expecting it to be pathetic, but it was awesome! The trick is to make sure it has a lot of veggies on it.
I really think cheese is a sort of habit or addiction. It looks really gross to me now. The thought of some gloppy goo poured all over my food is nauseating.
After about 6 months of being vegan, on a whim I bought some Follow Your Heart cheddar and made a quesadilla. I didn’t like it, but not because it didn’t taste like cheese. I disliked it because it DID taste like cheese: oily, goopy, salty sludge instead of the fresh hummus I had been enjoying as quesadilla filling.
Watch out for taking cheesy recipes and just cutting out the cheese. These recipes often rely heavily on the cheese for flavor. It is often better to look for a new, vegan recipe, which highlights the fresh food and herbs and spices.
Maybe soon you will say, “Why would I want something smothering this lovely, delicate dish?”
Thanks for your advice and thanks for stopping by to check out my blog! I’m definitely going to take everyone’s advice and start by going cheese free for the first few weeks. I have been browsing alot of recipes and I have a feeling that after I get used to the lack of cheese I won’t even notice that it’s gone. The more I hear from others about how good they feel sans cheese, the more I look forward to my vegan adventure. : )