In the Cart (vegan foods of the month) January 28, 2010

I’m often asked how to feed a family on vegan food that won’t break the bank or take all day to prepare. Many of us are in this boat, so I’m sharing my list of groceries and meals for a family of four, including two wee ones who love to chow.

* Dairy replacements:

Soy and almond milk. (includes supplements of Calcium, B12, D2–vegan D, and more).

Daiya cheese. A new kind of vegan cheese, based on tapioca starch, with a great cheesy taste and easy to melt. I order this from veganstore.com in large refrigerator bags, then I pack the preshredded cheese into small zip packs and freeze them, keeping one at a time in the refrigerator.You can use this cheese for anything–grilled cheese, quesadillas, pizza, pasta. If you prefer to buy your cheese in the store, Vegan Gourmet is a great choice. You must broil the shredded cheese though to get it to melt.

Vegan cheese slices. Tasty and great for kids’ sandwiches.

Vegan yogurt–soy or coconut milk based, plain and fruit flavored. Make sure you are getting the probiotics in yogurt to keep your digestive tract healthy.

* Meat replacements:

This month I am all about GARDEIN. It’s a brand new kind of vegan meat, found both in the freezer section and refrigerator sections, near the produce. It’s made of soy, wheat gluten, and ancient grains, and tastes like the real thing. My kids would eat the chicken tenders every day if I let them. There are many varieties that can be used alone or prepared in other dishes.

Ground “meat” crumbles. (In the supermarket refrigerator section.) Smart Ground is what I’m using, ever since Morningstar decided to rudely un-veganify their crumbles. I make stroganoff and lasagna with the crumbles.

SmartBacon. (In the supermarket refrigerator section.) For an occasional BLT. You must spray it with oil before baking, grilling or broiling so it browns nicely. I don’t fry it.

* Produce: We eat lots of produce, either straight, in salads or prepared with other foods. I love the organic herb salads, red peppers, cilantro, tomatoes, carrots, kale, zucchini, broccoli, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, avocados, herbs if it’s off season for my garden, garlic and onions, all organic when possible. I always keep frozen spinach and berries available. I will throw it into any kind of recipe for extra nutrition. Plenty of fruit, like citrus, tropical fruits, and apples.

* Other: I always have whole grain flours on hand, many types of pasta, including whole grain, buckwheat soba noodles, brown rice, quinoa, silken and regular tofu, plenty of beans, nut and seed butters, tahini and fresh whole wheat Italian bread and whole multi-grain and seed sandwich bread. I also use dulse (seaweed) flakes, flax meal and nutritional yeast as food nutrition enhancers. And who can live without Olive Oil? I also keep vegan mac n cheese boxes around for the kids, and frozen vegan dumplings. They love these with sesame-based Goddess dressing. We also have bagels and vegan granola and oats for breakfasts. I use Vegenaise or other vegan mayonaise replacement, tofu cream cheese and Earth Balance vegan butter. Oh, and this is the most important ingredient: dark chocolate!

These groceries are enough to get us through weeks of last-minute food making and some special meals. It’s really nothing so exotic that anyone can’t get. The vegan meats and cheeses we could easily do without if necessary.

Baby Steps Toward Veganism October 26, 2009

You may be one of the many people who are interested in veganism (well, hey, you are reading this aren’t you?). But you don’t know really where to start. It’s so overwhelming to imagine your life without. Just without. Because you think of it that way. You think of all the things you’ll have to give up. Here are a few steps to help you on your journey toward a healthier and kinder diet.

1. Change your mindset and brace yourself for an adventurous ride. Prepare as if you were going to do a massive experiment, because this is what you will be doing. You will be buying all kinds of things, tasting things, exploring recipes and new ways of eating. Be open to new experiences.

2. Embrace nondairy milk. Take your pick. There are about 20 varieties or more of soymilk. There are ricemilks, almond milks, whole grain milks, hazelnut, coconut, hemp, oat, and many more kinds of milk. Please make sure that you get the fortified variety. You will need the calcium, vitamin D, and B12 that are added. Make sure the vitamin D is D2, which is laboratory-created and not D3, which is derived from lanolin, from sheep oil. Taste different kinds of milk and decide which you like best plain, in cereal, coffee, or however you use cow’s milk currently.

3. Find the new and great meat subs. The new meat substitutes are amazing!! Go out and scan your supermarket, health food and specialty stores, fresh and frozen sections, and just try out lots of things. If you’re not in an area where you can get much, you can order frozen and packaged vegan specialties that will be delivered via UPS, http://www.veganstore.com is one example. There are vegan versions that really do approximate bacon, chicken strips, chunks, nuggets or patties, hamburgers, ground meat, sausage, hot dogs, ham, turkey, cold cuts, and so on. And they have gotten so good that you would be fooled!!

4.What about CHEESE???? You’ve hit on the sore spot of vegans for a very long time. I bet you could attribute a great percentage of failed conversions from vegetarian to vegan to the lack of a tasty cheese alternative. But that problem has just about become obsolete with the new products. My favorite are Daiya shreds for any melting (pizza, other Italian and Mexican food, grilled, etc.) and Sheese hard cheeses for slicing or toasting, plus Dr. Cow for eating straight. Vegan Gourmet, Tofutti slices, and Vegan Rella are also great. Yes, they are relatively expensive, but worth it. Why let cheese stand in the way of becoming a vegan when you can use these cheeses? You might have to special order them from an online vegan store, but they are entirely worth it. It’s gourmet and a real treat, and good enough to use in your every day cooking and eating.

5. Check out other dairy food replacements. Try soy versions of yogurt, sour cream, cream cheese, butter and mayonaise.

While you’re exploring, try to add more vegetable dishes to your diet. We’ll talk more about this later.

Enjoy!!