Tag Archives | Cheese

It’s Easy Being Vegan Reason #1

October 3, 2011

Welcome to VeganMoFo (aka Vegan Month of Food)! For the month of October, It’s Easy Being Vegan will take part in VeganMoFo, which means I will post almost daily about vegan food. Last year over 800 blogs participated in VeganMoFo. Subscribe to the RSS feed and you will receive daily vegan blog posts from all over the world. My focus this month will be why it’s easy being vegan. Here we go!

Pizza with Vegan "Cheese"

It’s easy being vegan ’cause you don’t have to give up cheese. If I had a dollar for every time I heard, “Isn’t it hard being vegan? I could never give up cheese,” I would have a lot of dollars! We are lucky to live in the 21st century when there are excellent vegan alternatives. Daiya cheese is the best vegan cheese on the market. It’s available at Whole Foods and other natural foods stores. If you don’t live near one, you can buy it online at Vegan Essentials. See, it’s easy.

Other notable vegan cheeses readily available include Follow Your Heart and Teese. Can’t find these products where you live? Then ask your favorite store to carry them. This goes for all things vegan. Ask, ask, ask.

More cheese alternatives to come, so keep reading It’s Easy Being Vegan.

If you enjoyed this post, click here to get free updates by email.

Comments { 8 }

Praise the Vegan Gods!

March 6, 2008

*****
Update: It gets even better. You can buy samples of Teese online! Check it out and report back how you like it.

Also, more pictures of pizzas with MELTED Teese from The Post Punk Kitchen.
*****

It just got even easier being vegan! There’s a new vegan “cheese” in town — made right here in Chi town.

Chicago Soy Dairy, the company behind Temptation Vegan “ice cream,” announces their own vegan cheese — Teese Vegan Cheese. They are starting with a Mozzarella flavor, but are working on more. It’s being served up by the Chicago Diner and on pizzas at the Whole Foods on Halsted Street in Lakeview. Although it isn’t available yet in groceries, I’m sure that’s just a matter of time.

For more information and to watch a video of the cheese melting–IT MELTS!–click here. So for those vegetarians who say they could never give up cheese, go try this vegan cheese. Perhaps you will change your mind?

And that’s not all.There is a new vegan restaurant in Evanston called Life Vegan. The food is tasty — similar to Soul Veg but allows us Northsiders easier access! Go taste the food for yourself. It’s quite delicious in a comfort food kind-of-way. Check out a review for the new restaurant from Time Out Chicago. Life Vegan is located at 1601 Simpson Street, Evanston, IL, 847.869-6379. Life Vegan is closed.

Amen. ;-)

Comments { 3 }

Comfort Food Fix

November 15, 2007

The Chicago Diner is one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago. It’s a excellent destination when you are craving vegan comfort food. Now that it’s cold outside, comfort food is almost a necessity! Chicagoans are very lucky to have this great establishment, but sometimes you just want to have some comfort food at home. The Diner serves an entree called Chili Mac, which is a combination of vegan chili and mac & “cheese.” It’s a tasty combination that can’t be beat on a cold, blustery day. Here is my version of Chili Mac…vegan chili topped with a scoop of mac & “cheese.” This recipe will serve approximately 10 people. (I promise to post a picture the next time I make this.)

Vegan Chili
Will make one large pot of chili. This recipe is really flexible. You can adjust the ingredients to your liking and increase or decrease the spice level as well.

1 large can of chili beans
1 can of diced tomatoes with juice
1 medium onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped (red, yellow, or orange peppers also work)
1 can corn with juice (optional)
1 package sliced mushrooms
carrots shredded, amount desired
1 zucchini sliced thin (steamed)
1 can kidney or pinto beans
1 packet chili seasoning
Cilantro and Tofutti brand sour cream to top (when eating without the mac & cheese)

Saute onion and peppers in oil. Add mushrooms and work until tender. Puree can of chili beans in blender. Add to onions, peppers, and mushrooms. Add tomatoes in juice. Add packet of chili seasoning mix. Add beans, carrots, steamed zucchini. Cook on medium-low and simmer for about 1 hour. Just before finished, add corn if desired, and heat through. Top with cilantro and sour cream (skip when making the chili mac recipe).

Mac and “Cheese”
This is a variation of a mac and “cheese” recipe I found online. The mac and “cheese” recipe was attributed to Soul Vegetarian.

14 oz. uncooked elbow macaroni
4 cups water
10 1/2-oz. package soft silken tofu, drained
1 cup soymilk (unsweetened)
1/2 cup tahini
3 Tbs. nutritional yeast
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. vegetable oil

Blend tofu and soymilk in blender or food processor until smooth Add tahini, nutritional yeast, turmeric salt, and oil; mix until smooth.

Using a large pot, boil macaroni in water until done; drain in colander.

Place macaroni back in pot and turn stove on low. Stir in the “cheese” sauce and heat until warm. To keep a creamy consistency, add soymilk as needed while warming. (Adding soymilk when reheating leftovers will also make it creamy again.)

For chili mac, serve chili in a bowl with a scoop of mac & “cheese” added on top. Both recipes alone are quite tasty, so you actually have three choices for leftover dishes: chili, mac & “cheese”, and chili mac. Enjoy!

Comments { 1 }

Happy World Farm Animal Day! (October 2nd)

October 1, 2007

In honor of World Farm Animal Day, I have two suggestions for celebrating:

1. You could make your own soy cheese. It’s easy and quite tasty.

Soy Cheese
8 cloves roasted garlic
1 cup nutritional yeast (readily available in the bulk section of Whole Foods or Wild Oats)
2 cups soy milk unsweetened
2 cups vegetable oil (try Canola)
1 Tbsp kosher salt (start with 1 tsp and add as desired)

Combine all ingredients in a blender except oil. Blend until uniform. With machine running, slowly add the oil to form an emulsion. The end result is a creamy, thick sauce-like soy cheese that is yummy on pizza or wraps.

Recipe from Cooking Fools vegan cooking class in Chicago, Illinois.

2. Volunteer at a farm animal sanctuary or for a farm animal welfare group. No time you say? Then why not write a check and donate to a farm animal sanctuary or welfare group. These groups could not survive without volunteers or donations. Do something today! Some of my favorite groups:

SASHA Farm
Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary
Farm Sanctuary
Humane Society of the United States’ Factory Farming campaign

Included in this post are a pictures from my trip to SASHA Farm in Michigan where my friends and I volunteered for a day. It’s fun to get out and be with the animals. A good reminder of why go vegan! Farm animals are beautiful creatures. They all deserve to experience a good life…these are some of the lucky ones.

 

Comments { 2 }

The End of Cheese as You Know It

July 9, 2007

Vegan Cheese That Melts

Do you think it would be too hard to give up dairy?

I felt this way for years until a friend of mine pointed out the link between the dairy and veal industries. (Thanks, Megan.) I knew right then I had to make the change. For more information on what’s wrong with dairy, click here.

I use to live on cheese. So if I can give it up, anyone can give it up. 15 years ago the soy cheese options weren’t so good. They didn’t melt and many actually included casein, a milk-by-product.

But now we live in 2007 and there are great vegan cheese alternatives. My favorite is Follow Your Heart brand. It tastes delicious and it melts! It comes in cheddar, mozzarella, nacho, and monterey jack flavors. You can buy it at Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and many natural food stores. If you don’t live near a store that sells this product, you can buy it online. See how easy this is?

You can use it on pizzas, sandwiches, nachos, anything really! For instance to use it on a pizza, you would put the pizza under the broiler for the last minute or two to melt it. Yum! Try it and let me know how you like it.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Comments { 0 }