Cheese! Oh how I love thee

shan_0517

Hello, I'm new to this group and fairly new to MFP. (1 1/2 months) I watched the movie about 3 weeks ago and was very impressed and moved by the effect that changing to a whole plant based diet can have. I watched it with my boyfriend and slowly weve been shifting our eating habits. After so many years of eating "so-so" or poorly this is a new experience for both of us. Were in the process of convincing my son to go this route as well. Him being 23 is a little bit harder, but I cook the meals in the house so he doesnt have a whole lot of choice. They both LOVED the Engine 2 veggie sweet potato lasagne though! I think the hardest part is going to be cheese. Do any of you have any adivce on dealing with the "missing cheese" syndrome? I've heard the non-cheese items are nasty. Great to meet all of you! Shannon

dmarsh220

I too was a huge cheese eater. I was on the Atkins diet for many years before switching to a plant based diet. I can tell you that after a while the cravings for cheese will go away. There are also some very good vegan cheeses on the market now. My favorite is Daiya brand shredded cheeses. They look and feel and taste like real cheese and are great when you have a craving for pizza or just a grilled cheese. For cheese spread and dips, I use Wayfare brand "we cant say its cheese" they make spreads and dips that are actually made from oats...and they are awesome. Both brands I get at Whole Foods...Good luck!!! Hope that helps!!
Oh...and when it comes to cheese substitutes...don't judge them by how they taste on their own...many times they have a funny taste but when incorporated into a meal they taste really great.

shan_0517

THANK YOU very much for the suggestions. One of the hard things that weve faced is trying something new and spending money on it only to find that it tastes like crapola!

adamcrisis

Cheese was the hardest thing to give up for me as well. But as Dmarsh said, the cravings will subside. And honestly, I think I like my food much more without the crutch of cheese. Lets be honest, anything that doesnt taste that great can be fixed with cheese. Theres also some reports I have read about cheese/milk having an opiate effect and hence we all have a slight addiction to it. Im not 100% sold on this also the articles are an interesting read...although I never craved meat, chicken, ect anywhere like I did dairy products so maybe theres something too it.

Personally Id recommend waiting 6 months w/o cheese before trying the vegan cheeses, because as much as I like them (theres some gross ones out there too, I like daiya the best) I think someone who still has the fresh memory of cheese with them might not like it.

I also make a pretty killer cheese sauce from nutritional yeast (loaded full of b vitamins and protein) thats prety great. The Uncheese Cookbook has a bunch of mock cheese recipes you can make at home, and there are a ton of nut cheese recipes online to try since I know buying the packaged stuff can be pricey.

Good luck!

shan_0517

Awesome ideas to pass on! Thank you! I agree, I think I'll wait for a bit before I try the vegan cheeses. I think I'm still dreaming of cheese and am weaning myself off of it. I have already heard about the yeast and plan on trying that this weekend. Thanks again for your advice. I have been slowly changing my ways straight from eating almost all types of meat to completely vegan, so this doesnt happen overnight. I'm very much in the learning stages