My Vegan Adventure #1

Monday I started a six-week vegan challenge. It is one of the 35 Birthday-Bucket-List Challenge (that will be up Sunday.) Going vegan is new, stretching, and probably good for me (I've watched the documentaries on Netflix.) I have completed three 30-day vegetarian challenges in the past but this is something else. The first two days were fun and the cooking isn't that much of a leap from vegetarian. However, today is the third day and things are getting a bit arduous (I thesaurused that because I felt like I was using challenge too much.)

I'm the only one in my home on this adventure, which is a challenge. The smell of meat hasn't bothered me, thank you Jessica for preparing me with the first veggie challenge. It's the new eliminations that are hard. Sister offered me chocolate but I had to pass and then as a consolation she offered me a different treat I also had to refuse -because vegan.  I am missing dairy, specifically butter and cheese. In the previous veggie challenges, if there was a food/dish/vegetable I didn't like I would solve the problem with cheese, or butter, or both. With this vegan challenge that isn't an option. Also I enjoy the favour combinations of certain foods with different cheeses. I miss the cheese.

So, Sister and I went on a mission to find a substitute. The area's natural foods had one option, pictured above. It is "non-dairy cheese shreds" and free of dairy, gluten, and soy, and "melts great." The bag also promises it is "mozzarella flavour."

I used it for the first time tonight melted on top of tomato-eggplant stacks. As a cheese substitute it didn't measure up. The smell is a bit nutty and I don't really have a word for the taste. It's just not mozzarella. Sister tried a bite and just made a face. The thing is when we both stopped thinking of it was "mozzarella" or a cheese alternative it wasn't half bad. I can't compare it to other vegan cheeses, since it is the only brand I could find. I will be using it again and not just because there is still a bag leftover. The texture is similar to cheese which is nice. And if I think of it was a new ingredient I enjoy it.

I learn this every time I try a veggie challenge. I don't like fake foods. Nothing is going to be bacon so I am no longer going to look. I need to make delicious meals I enjoy with good whole ingredients. It works better than trying to eat a faux something that almost matches bacon/beef/cheese, if I plug my nose and I forget what the real thing was like, but never really measures up. Why do I keep having to learn the same types of lessons?