Cream Cheese Alternative

Jane and I read labels now, religiously. Adopting a vegan diet has ensured that we read labels because who knows what they're sneaking into your food! The thing that makes me most insane is the milk product in most soy cheeses. If you're not manufacturing a dairy based cheese, why would you put in a dairy product, thereby alienating a good portion of your consumers!?!

After a while you "know" certain products are ok to eat. Somehow or another, we thought Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese was one of those, but as I was eating my "bagel with a schmear" (NY speak for bagel with cream cheese) for breakfast this weekend, I read over the list of ingredients.

• Water
• PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL
• Isolated soy protein
• Maltodextrin
• Tofu....

GRRRR! We have three containers in the fridge. We love this stuff. It's the container on the left in the photo above.

However, we were able to find "good" tofutti cream cheese at Whole Foods (container on the right in the photo above). The ingredient list reads as follows:

• Water
• Expeller pressed natural oil blend (soybean, palm fruit, and olive)
• Maltodextrin
• Soy protein
• Tofu...

Now, we just have to get our local Trader Joe's to carry the good stuff. Since they tend to advocate healthy eating it shouldn't be too much of a challenge.

If you eat Tofutti Cream Cheese, the "good" product is in a yellow/white container versus the blue/white container the "bad" stuff comes in, an it says "non-hydrogenated" on the lid.

Live long, eat healthy!

I Miss Milk

I know there are all kinds of reasons not to consume cow's milk. I've embraced a vegan diet. I drink soy milk, rice milk and almond milk these days. Even though we were drinking fat-free milk in our house prior to this vegan thing, I understand that cow's milk may not be healthful. Not to mention the horrors of the dairy industry.

But nothing beats a tall glass of real milk to go with warm chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven.

I simply cannot drink a glass of soy milk. I can put it over my cereal and it's an ingredient in many of the meals Jane prepares. But I cannot drink a plain glass of soy milk, or even almond milk. The rice milk is sort of like Horchada (a mexican rice milk concoction that's sweetened and there's a bit of cinnamon too), but unless it's doctored...

I miss cow's milk.

I've got my baker back!

I've been missing Jane's baking. It's not like she baked something every week, but she baked occasionally, and she baked really well. Her coffeecake and strawberry shortcake are some of my favorites, along with apple pie and berry pie. Or her cookies. I could wax poetic here, but I'll spare you all.

Anyway, I've been whining. I understand that learning how to cook vegan after cooking non-vegan for 20+ years is a bit of a challenge. And the baked goods we've tried eating out haven't been particularly inspiring.

So, I've been poking around a few message boards to see what other people are doing. And I got this recipe from one of them: Link Here

Jane made this version of muffins, and they were yummy. We ate the batch in 3 days. (That's two muffins per person per day -- and maybe Jane didn't have two muffins every day.)

Because of the conversion from British cooking to American, they weren't perfect. Jane is going to use a little less oil and sugar and more flour in her next go round. But yay, I've got my baker back!

Bacon and Eggs!

No, we haven't slipped. We're still happily doing the vegan thing, not that you could necessarily tell from this photo. Looks like the real thing, eh?

Last night I was feeling a little unwell and I asked Jane to make me some comfort food. We'd just had pasta so that was out. Jane decided we'd try an old standby from our non-vegan days. Of course, she converted everything to fit our vegan lifestyle. She made a tofu scramble and we had Lite Line's Smart Bacon along with Alternative Bagels (low calorie, low carb, vegan friendly), Tofutti Cream Cheese, cherry tomatoes from our local farmer's market, sliced red onion, and a large green salad.

Verdict: Yummy. This dish needs to make it into the rotation. The tofu scramble tasted better than scrambled eggs and the smart bacon passed Jane's test. I couldn't believe it! How could scrambled tofu taste better than scrambled eggs?! Wow!

Maybe We'll Just Stick to Breakfast at Home

Jane has a friend who works in Hollywood. This woman, Kay, is so busy she only surfaces every few weeks or so, and then we only just manage to meet for breakfast. It's been a long standing thing with us, and we all seem to really enjoy it.

Yesterday was our first breakfast with Kay since we've been doing the vegan thing. Well, I can only say that I am not looking forward to future breakfasts out. The only items on the menu were oatmeal or cream of wheat. And it's not that I don't enjoy a good bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. But that's just not what I want to eat when i go out.

Kay was outwardly sympathetic to our plight, as she plowed into her steak and eggs, but somehow I don't think our shining example of vegan happiness and healthiness is going to convert her any time soon!

No Whey!

Today's post is dedicated to my ritual breakfast. For years now, I have been having a shake for breakfast. No, not Tommy Lasorda, and the shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch, and a sensible dinner thing. But Jane would argue with you. It is a sensible dinner, and generally a sensible lunch too since I'm a 'brown-bagger' bringing my lunch to work most days.

Anyway, that breakfast I mentioned consisted of a cup of milk, a scoop of whey protein powder, a banana and a tablespoon of almond butter. Yum! However, do you see any problems there? I was very concerned that my favorite breakfast was now going to be off limits or at least, not so palatable with the milk/whey substitutions I was required to make. But thankfully, that was not the case.

I've used soy milk, plain and vanilla, sweetened and unsweetened, almond milk (same variations) and rice milk... All were equally palatable, but I've decided on the unsweetened vanilla almond milk as my liquid of choice. As for protein powder, I'm using the soy powder available at my local Trader Joe's. It's relatively inexpensive, but not as tasty as the whey powder.

Overall, there's almost no difference in taste. No whey!

Lane