New Member!

[MoreGreens]

Hello, everyone

I'm new to the forum but not to vegetarianism or veganism. I was never fond of animal flesh and was repulsed by meat on bones before I even started school. Being vegetarian was almost instinctual for me. However, I was an adult before I understood the horrors of the dairy and egg industries that led me to veganism. Veganism isn't as natural for me as vegetarianism. I've had many slips since I went vegan, and it's almost always cheese.

Recent exposure to beautifully arranged holiday cheese boards, which I didn't sample, left me with intrusive thoughts about cheese. I ignored them as best I could, because I know the truth about why I shouldn't eat it. I tried to counter my cravings by making 'cheesy' dishes but it didn't work. When I started having dreams about cheese, I knew that I was destined to slip again unless I exposed myself to like-minded people. When I joined up last week, I needed positive reinforcement and reading the posts and comments here helped me a lot. It worked, and I'm grateful for the assistance you didn't know you were giving me. So, thank you to everyone who posts and shares, and I look forward to contributing, as well.

 

[shyvas]

Hello & welcome.

 

[Emma JC]

hello and welcome to forum and it is so nice to hear that it is helpful for you

I was thinking about cheese recently as because it was the holidays we indulged more than we normally would/should and I bought us some sliced 'cheeze' for grilled cheese sandwiches and I also bought one of those cashew based cheese wedges. We normally try to limit our oily fat intake and buying these items doesn't help. We ate some of the cheese wedges about a week ago and then the rest the night before last. When I served it I put it on a plate and we put it on our perogies. The yuckiness of it all struck me after when I went to try to clean the plate. There was greasy white globs on the plate and even hot water didn't get it off, I used a tissue and then hot soapy water. The thought to myself was.... 'my body does not have soap in it and so imagine my blood and organs trying to deal with all that grease/oil'. I will not be buying it again and although I will continue to buy the cheeze shreds for our occasional pizza and enchilada, even vegan cheeze will not be a big part of our life. You can get a lot of the same taste by using nutritional yeast on pastas etc. It is the salt in cheese that makes it so appealing, along with the fat, so if you get a cheese craving just sprinkle a few grains of salt in your hand and lick it.... it may just do the trick.

Dr Neal Barnard has a great book about our addiction to cheese and it may be available at your local library.

The Cheese Trap

The Cheese Trap

It’s one of the unhealthiest foods in the Standard American Diet (SAD).

www.pcrm.org

Thank you for sharing your journey and keep us up to date. BTW I was someone who ate pasta as an excuse to eat parmesan.

Emma JC

 

[MoreGreens]

hello and welcome to forum and it is so nice to hear that it is helpful for you

I was thinking about cheese recently as because it was the holidays we indulged more than we normally would/should and I bought us some sliced 'cheeze' for grilled cheese sandwiches and I also bought one of those cashew based cheese wedges. We normally try to limit our oily fat intake and buying these items doesn't help. We ate some of the cheese wedges about a week ago and then the rest the night before last. When I served it I put it on a plate and we put it on our perogies. The yuckiness of it all struck me after when I went to try to clean the plate. There was greasy white globs on the plate and even hot water didn't get it off, I used a tissue and then hot soapy water. The thought to myself was.... 'my body does not have soap in it and so imagine my blood and organs trying to deal with all that grease/oil'. I will not be buying it again and although I will continue to buy the cheeze shreds for our occasional pizza and enchilada, even vegan cheeze will not be a big part of our life. You can get a lot of the same taste by using nutritional yeast on pastas etc. It is the salt in cheese that makes it so appealing, along with the fat, so if you get a cheese craving just sprinkle a few grains of salt in your hand and lick it.... it may just do the trick.

Dr Neal Barnard has a great book about our addiction to cheese and it may be available at your local library.

The Cheese Trap

The Cheese Trap

It’s one of the unhealthiest foods in the Standard American Diet (SAD).

www.pcrm.org

Thank you for sharing your journey and keep us up to date. BTW I was someone who ate pasta as an excuse to eat parmesan.

Emma JC

Thanks for the book recommendation, I'll have to check and see if it's available. -It's definitely the fat that I enjoyed about cheese, but you're right cheeze and dairy cheese stick to a plate like super glue. Poor arteries!

I've always been bothered by commercially made vegan cheeze options. I don't have calories to waste on empty foods. It amazes me that they have no nutritional value at all. Sooner or later someone has to create a cheeze shred that also has nutrients. I'll be jubilant when that day arrives! Until then, I'll stick with potato/carrot queso.

 

[Second Summer]

Welcome on board, MoreGreens! And happy to hear we've been unwittingly helpful!

I eat some vegan cheese, but e.g. for pizza I've found that hummus (which also has a good bit of fat, but not nearly as much saturated fat ...) does the trick for me - I use it as a sort of pizza dip.

 

[Lou]

I'm too lazy to look it up right now but I've linked some articles about cheese here in the vegan forum. My favorite was the one that compared cheese to crack.

I now use hummus to replace cheese on sandwiches and such. And I've gotten used to making burritos and pizza without cheese.

But there are some good recipes for homemade vegan cheese. Myoko actually has a real cookbook you can buy (or maybe find in the library) and OneGreenPlanet has a bunch of good cheese recipes.

 

[Emma JC]

I've always been bothered by commercially made vegan cheeze options. I don't have calories to waste on empty foods. It amazes me that they have no nutritional value at all. Sooner or later someone has to create a cheeze shred that also has nutrients. I'll be jubilant when that day arrives! Until then, I'll stick with potato/carrot queso.

You're welcome - I love potato/carrot queso and just posted a video on another thread with High Carb Hannah's recipe.

Emma JC

 

[Qwaychou]

Welcome to the group!