making the switch to veganism and need help

What are vegan brands of dairy products: e.g. cheese, yogurt, cream cheese, ice cream, and also what are your staples for your diet??

Rice dream is a really good milk substitute. Rice dream also produces it's own ice cream, which is pretty delicious.

I've yet to find a soy cheese that was any good, but the Sour Lean sour cream substitute is fabulous!  For soy milk, I think the Silk products are hard to beat. Their coffee creamer is very good.

milk is the easy one..the other products are giving me a hard time. like cream/cottage/shredded cheese, and yogurt, ice cream, butter, etc. there are tons of milk substitutes which i already use but now for the tricky items :)

I know you said milk was easy.. but I have to say I love Almond Breeze :)

I've seen soy-based cheese, but I've never tried it (i just think cheese is pretty gross).

I've also seen soy-based and coconut based yogurts in the Organic section of my supermarket... but ive never tried them.

I've heard of vegan cream cheese, butter, and ice cream, but ive never tried them... ahh sorry that I'm not much help.. but i know they are out there!

try this site: http://www.vegproductsguide.com/

:)

Original Post by whatever07:

I know you said milk was easy.. but I have to say I love Almond Breeze :)

I've seen soy-based cheese, but I've never tried it (i just think cheese is pretty gross).

I've also seen soy-based and coconut based yogurts in the Organic section of my supermarket... but ive never tried them.

I've heard of vegan cream cheese, butter, and ice cream, but ive never tried them... ahh sorry that I'm not much help.. but i know they are out there!

try this site: http://www.vegproductsguide.com/

 

:)

that was such a helpful link!! thanks a ton. i also like almond breeze, it's my favorite!! have you tried the chocolate one?

Original Post by whatever07:

I know you said milk was easy.. but I have to say I love Almond Breeze :)

I've seen soy-based cheese, but I've never tried it (i just think cheese is pretty gross).

I've also seen soy-based and coconut based yogurts in the Organic section of my supermarket... but ive never tried them.

I've heard of vegan cream cheese, butter, and ice cream, but ive never tried them... ahh sorry that I'm not much help.. but i know they are out there!

try this site: http://www.vegproductsguide.com/

 

:)

that was such a helpful link!! thanks a ton. i also like almond breeze, it's my favorite!! have you tried the chocolate one?

I just drink the original Almond Breeze. I see they have vanilla too! I'm pretty boring though and I'm not really a fan of choc or vanilla milk. I had vanilla Soy Milk once and I didn't really like it.

The only problem with that link is that some stuff is probably hard to find!  Def check out the organic section of the store.  It's more expensive, but I can usually find vegan-friendly food there (like Amy's has a bunch of vegan-friendly options)

Right now I use So Nice organic unsweetened soy milk in my breakfast cereal and it's fantastic. I could never eally get into the rice milk, and "Rice Dream" has no protein in it. The extra boost of protein in the morning is the entire reason I drink the stuff! I've yet to find a 'soy' cheese that didn't have casein in it, though. You might be interested to note that Safeway now carries an entire line of soy ice creams, and sorbets have always been "vegan". It's just blended frozen fruit. :)

My staples and whole grain breads and pastas, almonds, home-made bean salads (heavy on the chick peas), and organic tofus. I occassionally splurge on the sugar in flavoured tofu 'dessert' cups. You mix a packet of that with a half-cup of fibre-1 cereal and some fresh strawberries and you'll have a breakfast fit for kings. I know it sure makes me happy! If cereal isn't your gig mix some silk tofu up with fresh or frozen fruit in a blender. Viola! Delicious.

I have loads of vegan recipes and tons of meal ideas, including a pretty sinful made-from-scratch pizza, so if you're ever looking for something in specific or just want a fresh entre to switch things up a bit feel free to drop me a line! I love sharing. :)

Congratulations on your decission to take the vegan plunge! Good luck on your journey. For the first little while you'll literally have to read the labels on -everything-, but it gets easier as you go along. :)

Vegan Parmesean cheese is actually really good.  It's made with nutritional yeast.

Rice milk is my absolute favorite, and I've tried them all!

You can easily find soy based ice creams that are delicious

There are lots of products on the market, or you can try making your own substitutes.  For example, you can make some pretty good cheese substitutes out of nuts (they won't melt, though!)  Plus most good vegan cookbooks (Veganomicon especially) will include some substitute recipes. 

IMHO, if you just substitute vegan products for non-vegan ones in your everyday diet, you're probably going to find your food unsatisfying.  Reality is, the way most americans are brought up eating is based on, and centered around, eating animal products.  Developing a good vegan diet means you have to re-think the way you put meals together and the patterns you normally eat in.  There aren't right or wrong ways to do it; what's important is to try different things and see what works.

Staples for me (I'm not vegan, but I cook vegan foods about 50% of the time):

• Beans and lentils (in soups, alone and with rice, or in other interesting forms like falafel, hummus, bean and lentil salads)
• Raw salads (I like cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and olives in a vinegar dressing; I also include things like guacamole here)
• Stir-fries (broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, with rice or noodles and a whole variety of sauces - peanut sauce, curry sauce, pad thai, garlic sauce, brown sauce ...)
• Seitan and tofu (in stir-fry and pasta; also silken tofu is great for vegan baking)
• Nuts and dried fruit and dark chocolate (for snacks)

i am already vegetarian...i only need help with milk/dairy/eggs THAT'S IT!! thanks for the suggestions everyone but i'm pretty knowledgeable about protein and the other areas of my diet :)

i am already vegetarian...i only need help with milk/dairy/eggs THAT'S IT!! thanks for the suggestions everyone but i'm pretty knowledgeable about protein and the other areas of my diet :)

I havent found a substitute for eggs, other than dry powerish stuff for baking (and even that I've never used... I dont bake much haha).

I enjoy Follow Your Heart Vegan Cheese Monteray Jack style. It's good for pizza and lasagna. It actually melts (well mostly melts). It's not exactly the healthiest thing out there (it has tons of fat), but it hits the spot when I'm missing dairy.

Soy yogurt is good, though I find Silk to be the least tasty. Wholesoy & Co are really good and creamy.

For ricotta style cheese, you can blend together cashews, lemon juice, and salt and mix it in with crushed firm tofu. It's good in lasagna.

For milk, I use hemp milk for cereal and smoothies and soy milk for baking and drinking straight.

not sure where you live but i'm in the UK and you can buy 'pure' soy spread in most of the supermarkets.  Its tastes creamy, and is frankly nicer than most of the spreads i ate before turning vegan.

I have been fully vegan since the first of the year (though I do eat honey) and I also now work at Whole Foods, so I feel pretty well-versed in the vast array of vegan products. These are the ones I swear by:

• So Delicious Cultured Coconut Milk Yogurt (Raspberry is to die for, and there's no soy in it!)
• So Delicious ice cream (Chocolate Peanut Butter, oh my goodness)
• Follow Your Heart makes the best fake cheeses there are, and you don't have to worry about them containing that sneaky gross casein, they are 100% vegan (their mozzerella is just fantastic, especially on homemade pizzas!)
• Tofutti makes a fake cream cheese without hydrogenated oils, and it is really, really great. Some of their others have hydr. oils, but you can just take the plain one and make it whatever flavor you want with a blender!

My staple foods as a vegan include much fresh fruit, nut butters, raw nuts, quinoa, black beans, fresh veggies (I usually make stir fries or curries), tofu, whole grain breads, oats and soy/coconut yogurt. I try and stay away from too much processed soy, but I do like the occasional fake meats and I'd eat soy yogurt everyday if I had it. But you MUST try that coconut milk yogurt if you can find it, it is amazing and a great alternative.

FYI, most of the cheeses that actually melt do so because they contain casein, a milk protein.  So they aren't technically vegan.

I'm not vegan, but I cook for a lot of vegans, so I've done a fair bit of product testing.  You may already be aware, but vegan dairy substitutes tend to be just as high in fat as their dairy equivalents, and sometimes contain more fat.  Just a little heads up.  That being said, the best margarine I've found is Earth Balance.  It's fine for toast and stuff like that.  It can also be used with some success in baking, but it's better to start with a vegan recipe than to modify one with butter or margarine.  Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese is pretty good, too.  It's a little thicker than dairy cream cheese, so it spreads more easily if you let it sit out of the fridge for a little while before using it.  When I need vegan yogurt for baking, I use WholeSoy brand.  Soy Delicious ice cream is pretty awesome, and seems to be most popular in my circle of friends.  Cheese is kind of the tough one.  As said above, the vegan parmesan is pretty good.  A lot of the other dairy-free cheeses aren't totally vegan, though.  I've never really found a good one.  When I want something to be cheesy, I usually make nutritional yeast cheese, which is kind of like a cheese sauce.  It's good on pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches and macaroni.  There are tons of recipes online for it.