Dairy Schmairy

Going vegan was pretty easy for me - I have never been a big meat eater. Eggs, milk, cheese, butter, yogurt and ice cream on the other hand were a little harder to part with... but giving them up has seriously been the best thing I have ever done for my body - and I am thoroughly convinced that I am at least mildly lactose intolerant. It took some research and a little trial and error finding products to replace the dairy products I used most frequently - but here are a few exceptional products that I now cannot live without.

Veganaise. This is truly a must-have in a vegan pantry or for anyone looking for a cholesterol free alternative to regular mayonnaise. Veganaise is an eggless, soy-based, expeller-pressed canola oil, mayonnaise substitute and is by far the best tasting faux-mayo on the market. Canola oil has the lowest saturated fat of all the widely-used salad oils and this product delivers all of the rich taste of real mayonnaise without the usual cholesterol and preservatives. It's awesome on sandwiches - I have added fresh herbs, garlic, fresh chopped jalapeno etc to great affect - but it's also really good plain. I've made delicious salad dressings with veganaise - it's especially excellent for creamy potato salad...  I go through this stuff like crazy. Look for the high Omega-3 version for an extra healthy, good for you boost.

I used to cook with and eat a lot of butter (Mmmm butter...) These days I cook exclusively with cold-pressed coconut and extra virgin olive oils. Since I am no longer a big consumer of bread or bagels or other things that require a spread of something... I don't find much need for a regular butter replacement. In those rare bread instances I prefer a nut butter... BUT I do love to bake (hellooo... cupcake obsession!) and so I do occasionally need a good butter substitute. The best I have found is Earth Balance non-hydrogenated vegetable oil spread - which comes in tubs and the more-convenient-for-baking sticks. Some hard core activists may take issue with this product given the company's use of palm oil and their supposedly unethical harvesting practices. I am not going to go into all of that here... if you're interested in learning more about that you can google it. What can I say? I am not that hardcore an activist and at the risk of sounding smug - I hope my being vegan in general and the positive affect that has on the environment offsets some of the negative practices using this product may support. I use it rather infrequently and alas... am not perfect. Unless someone can suggest a comparable product of the same high quality as Earth Balance that does not use palm oil, I am sticking with this brand. Incidentally... I do have several cake recipes that call for plain canola oil instead of butter - so this may be a good alternative as well. (just be sure to use the correct conversions) Oil in cake recipes usually makes for a very moist cake :)

Now that I've been doing the vegan thing for a while and my body has gone all 'pure' - I really don't even crave dairy anymore... I used to love yogurt - but I miss it so little that I've not even gotten around to trying some of the yummy sounding soy and coconut yogurt alternatives out there. (if any of you have tried them, I'd love to hear what you think!) I even successfully gave up ice cream - and I used to consider myself something of an ice cream connoisseur!  These days when I want something sinfully sweet, I grab one of Turtle Mountain's Coconut Mini 'Ice Cream' Sandwiches or a Tofutti Cutie ... which are so yummy-licious that I can't even imagine ever wanting to eat the 'real thing' instead ever again. For reals! If you've never tried them you should... healthier on the heart and better for your kiddos too if you have 'em...
Tofutti (the company) makes lots of other dairy substitutes as well - but the only other one I have tried is Tofutti 'Better Than Cream Cheese ' which frankly, I think is not better than cream cheese at all... and pretty icky tasting if you ask me. Some of you might like it though - so don't let me discourage you from trying it.

As far as eggs go... again, I really don't miss them very much. I do enjoy a good tofu scram as an occasional breakfast alternative :) In baking I always replace eggs in recipes with applesauce or other fruit purees with great success - and that usually has the added benefit of making baked goods extra moist as well. I've never tried the 'flax seed mixed with water' trick as an egg replacer in baking - has anyone else?
Milk? In all honesty I was never much of a plain milk drinker before I went all vegan, but I am now a big proponent of almost all of the milk alternatives on the market including soy milk - especially chocolate soy milk, which does a very good job of satisfying my pesky sweet tooth and which I am somewhat addicted to... Love the EdenSoy brand. Rice milk (my personal favorite for drinking plain, smoothie-making, or having in cereal - Rice Dream is the Best!) and nut milks such as almond milk. I have yet to try hemp milk - but I've heard good things about it as far as taste and nutrition goes so I look forward to giving it a try soon.

I know there are also a lot of faux cheese products on the market (such as Daiya ) I probably shouldn't knock something I've never tried, but I feel the same way about these products as I do about faux meat products - no thank you. But that is just my own strange food preference... if you don't have an issue with them - by all means give them a try. I tend to lump them into the same category as non food-stuffs... overly-processed junk -  and so I don't eat them for that reason as well.

That's it. That's my list of non-dairy must haves for the vegan kitchen - or for anyone looking for healthy dairy substitutes. If you have something to add to this list - or would like to share a dairy-free product or experience with the rest of us, I'd love to hear from you! I hope this post was informative to those of you who may have been unfamiliar with the products that were mentioned... even if you are not a vegan and have no interest in becoming one - perhaps you are just health-conscious - I would definitely encourage you to give these products a try some time.