SBR but really NBR: Any vegans or mostly vegans?

ThisModernLove

I'm starting to read Mark Bittman's Vegan Before 6 which is exactly what is sounds like: a diet of veganism before dinnertime every day with some wiggle room.  I've been having some health problems with my sinuses, stomach, and general fatigue which I'm beginning to think could be because of the amount of dairy in my diet but I want to make some kind of a change.  I want to start making the diet change at least a bit more towards whole foods but it will be a large change for DH and I.  Are there any books, websites, blogs, or tips that you could share with me on this?  I really appreciate Mark Bittman's viewpoint and I'm looking for a new doctor too as the one I have is the type that believes there's a pill for everything.

shellmh

I'm not vegan but I am 100% dairy free so I can help you there if you have any questions!

ThisModernLove

@shellmh, are you dairy free by choice or necessity?  I love cheese which is my biggest problem plus I can't find a good milk substitute that isn't too sweet or chalky.

RevJen

Try Almond Breeze's almond milk unsweetened.

Menrandes

If you want dairy free cheese, I suggest daiya. It's pretty good.

RiverPlate

I'm going to try the almond milk.  I love the vanilla soy-milk, but I'm the only one in my family with a sweet tooth so I'm the only one who likes it.  Lucky me!  I get ALL THE CANDY.

I'm trying (and failing) to get my 5-yr old to be not so picky.  Sigh....

SusieBW

I'd love to get rid of dairy, but I'm not sure I could live without cheese.  Or creamy coffee.

What is dairy free cheese made of?  I wonder if switching from dairy to whatever dairy free cheese is made of is really an improvement, health wise.  Obviously, if you are allergic or sensitive to dairy, then it is better than no cheese, but is it made from soy products?  Artificial stuff? 

What I'm getting at is that if you are eliminating dairy and trying to have a more whole food or plant-based diet, then I don't think non-dairy substitutes for dairy products are really going to fit, kwim?

pinkybooklover09

I try and live a mostly vegetarian lifestyle with whole foods and whatnot. It's been hard for me finding a balance, but I don't drink cow's milk anymore, only almond milk and I only eat cheese twice a week. 

shellmh

@thismodernlove, I'm dairy free not by choice. I am severely allergic to milk protein, which is in an incredible amount of things you'd never even imagine have dairy in them (Bugles, for one. Why would a corn chip have milk??).

I drink Vanilla Blue Diamond Almond Milk (and @RevJen, we recently switched to the unsweetened only because I was grocery shopping alone with a 4 month old and didn't realize until I got home, but it doesn't taste any different and has like 1/3 the calories!) and it is delicious. I even got DH to switch. He tried it one day because the "real" milk was all gone and he loved it. Has never looked back. I've found that a couple grocery stores around us have really good store brand almond milk too and it's a lot cheaper. One good thing about it too is that it lasts foreeevvvver, so when DH was buying regular milk we were throwing it away a lot of the time (with only him drinking/using it). Almond milk we never have to throw away.

Ditto @Menrandes on the Daiya cheese. I discovered this at Whole Foods (only place I've been able to find it since) about 2 years ago and it's amazing! I make mac and cheese with it and even DH (the guy who puts cheese on literally everything) eats it. He likes to say it's like comparing real mayonnaise to low-fat mayonnaise. 

@SusieBW: Daiya is made from tapioca, so no soy. It's dairy, gluten and soy free. It's kinda expensive $5 for a small bag), but I think worth it if you love cheese. They make it shredded and slices. Plus I think they make other things like dips, whipped cream, etc. I haven't tried those though. I've never had real cheese, so I don't know what I'm missing and usually just make things without any cheese.

RevJen

@shellmh  Around me, the Almond Breeze is cheaper.  But we can always find one on sale so that's usually the one we go with.  If we go to BJ's, the gallons are cheaper than half gallons at the supermarket.  Have you tried the dark chocolate flavor yet?  Yummmmm ...

SusieBW

@shellmh Cool.  So, since you are dairy free and YH is all done with cow milk, will you give LO almond milk instead of cow milk, too? 

The more we read and learn about it, DH and I keep talking about cutting more (if not all) dairy out of our diets.  I love almond milk, and so do DH and DD, so I'm not really sure why we haven't switched yet.

Back to the original post - DH just found out he's allergic to chicken.  (WTF?  I've never even heard of that before, but that's what the test results said.)  The only meats I eat are chicken, turkey and fish.  So now we're mostly a vegetarian/pescatarian (No clue if that's the right word - we eat fish) household so that we can eat the same meals.  My best advice is to make sure that you are getting enough protein.  Plenty of plants have plenty of protein, but my biggest problem when I was a teenage vegetarian was that I didn't eat anywhere near enough of those plants.  I know better now.  And you can find tons and tons of amazing vegetarian recipes just by googling.  We have a farm share in the summer, so we often just google for recipes just listing the veggies we have in the house for new ideas.  And then we add some kind of beans to it. 

shellmh

RevJen said:

@shellmh  Around me, the Almond Breeze is cheaper.  But we can always find one on sale so that's usually the one we go with.  If we go to BJ's, the gallons are cheaper than half gallons at the supermarket.  Have you tried the dark chocolate flavor yet?  Yummmmm ...

I have not! Years ago I tried chocolate soy milk and it made me gag so I haven't been rushing to try chocolate almond milk. Plus I never drink a glass of it.. Always in cereal and cooking. But maybe if I found a small container of it I'd give it a shot.

@susiebw, that's the plan right now. I'm holding him off on all solids until 10-12 months to hopefully save him from getting the food allergies that I have. I haven't talked to his doctor yet about giving almond instead of cow (if it turns out he's not allergic), but I plan to. The almond milk has more vitamin d and other nutrients that cow's milk doesn't have so I don't think it should be an issue.

RevJen

My doctor told me that she's trying to eat vegan for a month.  She loves it.  She eats a lot of quinoa and other beans for proteins.  She tries to limit soy.  

She said that this is the first time she's really been able to taste food in nearly a year.  She had breast cancer last year and said that the chemo killed her taste buds.  The spices have been a welcome discovery for her even if her husband doesn't like all of them.

ThisModernLove

So many good responses! @pinkybooklover09 I like that plan a lot.  I don't think I can cut cheese out entirely since it is by choice but twice a week is probably doable.

I'm definitely going to try those milks though.  I don't think we'll do the fake cheese but we do eat some of the morning star type patties once in a while.

muzikgrrl

I'm not entirely vegetarian or vegan but I have started eating that way.  I've made some major changes to my diet due to some health issues and its brought about great changes. I'm like @SusieBW, we eat mostly lean meat and fish.  Many people have already mentioned switching to almond milk, I also like coconut milk as an alternative.  I found going dairy free to be beneficial to reducing my sinus issues.  I've also cut down on red meat, sugars and gone gluten free.

@ThisModernLove I've heard good things about The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone.  I believe she has been vegan for quite a long time and she has a great blog with some excellent vegan recipes.  http://thekindlife.com/.  I also check out the Gluten Free Goddess.  She has some great vegan and gluten free recipes.  I would also suggest checking out Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook, It's All Good.  There are some excellent tasty recipes.  Finally check out Pinterest, there is a huge ton of links to all kinds of blogs and recipes.

SusieBW

I made stir fry for dinner last night, and I put tempeh in it.  Neither DH or I had ever had tempeh before, and we liked it.  I have since read up a little more and realized it's probably better with some marinating, instead of just throwing it into my stir fry, but we liked it.  Since it's soy-based, we probably won't eat it all the time, but it's an option, at least.  I only used half the package, so there's a possibility that we'll have marinated tempeh and veggie kebabs for dinner tomorrow.