The Veg Blog

Thanks to Rob’s recommendation in a comment to a previous entry, I decided to pick up a box of Tofutti Cuties. Verdict: good stuff! I’d really like to try their Mint Chocolate Chip Cuties sometime.

The book Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating is now available to download in PDF format for free (yes, the whole thing!) at Vegan.com. The book is 216 pages long, but the PDF file is only a little over a meg.

It’s kind of funny… a lot of people recently have been asking me, “You’re not vegan, are you?” I think the assumption comes from the fact that I substitute soy cheese for regular cheese almost always when I’m cooking or making sandwiches as well as the almond and soy milk in the fridge (right next to cow’s milk, though). My response: “Nope… but I have cut back on dairy and eggs.”

I don’t know whether I’ll ever make the jump towards veganism, but even now, I’m trying to be as “cruelty-free” as possible (buying strictly organic milk, sour cream, etc.) as well as cutting back on cheese (due mainly to the saturated fat content).

Now if I can just cut back on those Double Stuf Oreos… :)

Last week I noticed that almond milk from Blue Diamond (a sponsor of Regina’s Vegetarian Table) was on sale. I decided to give the chocolate variety a shot.

I must say, I’m impressed. The taste was about the same (and perhaps slightly better) than the chocolate soy milk I’ve tried… more understated, but not watered down. It’s amazing that they’ve managed to get a good taste chocolate milk substitute out of almonds, of all things.

Take a look at the nutritional information.

With summer approaching, I’ve been trying a number of different non-dairy ice creams. Here’s a quick rundown of the ones I’ve tried so far:

• Tofutti. Probably the most well-known soy-based ice cream, Tofutti lives up to its reputation. Their chocolate was absolutely excellent. I’d really like to try their “Too-toos” and their ice cream sandwiches.
• Organic Soy Delicious. Far and away the healthiest of all the non-dairy ice creams, Soy Delicious uses only organic ingredients and has almost no saturated fat (the other brands can have some pretty significant amounts). While I’m not a huge fan of the Creamy Vanilla, I’m absolutely in love with their Mint Marble Fudge.
• Super G Dreamy Tofu. A vegan friend introduced me to the Giant Foods store brand non-dairy ice cream. I was skeptical since it was “Super G,” but it turned to be extremely good. I’ve only had their peanut butter, but I polished off a pint mighty quickly.

With the exception of the Cream Vanilla flavor of Soy Delicious, I think most of the varieties I’ve tried would please most fans of ice cream. The flavor and consistencies are quite close to “the real thing” and are great alternatives to ice cream for vegans and those that are lactose intolerant.

The Vogue is Vegan

This is a good article on raising children as vegans. It provides a bunch of good information and encouragement for parents who are attempting to raise their children without animal products of any sort. This article was written in honor of “World Vegan Day” (which is, apparently, today).

This weekend I cooked my first meal for non-family members. No one collapsed after eating it, so I guess it came out pretty well. :)

I served up what is becoming my “specialty” (if you can call it that), Pasta Fagioli from Lorna Sass’ book. As a side dish, I tried out a new recipe from the Moosewood at Home cookbook, Seasoned Tempeh. It was simple enough—strips of three-grain organic tempeh sauteed in a basic marinade with soy sauce at its base. The end result was decent—I wouldn’t use it as a main dish, but it was a good side dish and probably would have been good in a salad.

Last night I tried another recipe from AllRecipe: Chickpea Salad. This is a good spring or summer cold salad, though the recipe called for entirely too much vinegar. With about half the vinegar, it would probably be just right. It’s a super-simple dish, combining chickpeas, cucumber, tomato, onion, and two kinds of vinegar (red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar).

I must say, I really dig VegetarianRecipe.com (part of the AllRecipe network). It provides a good search-by-ingredient option and allows you to rate recipes. The best feature, though, is that any recipe can be adapted for any number of servings.

Last night, I tried the Couscous and Cucumber Salad recipe. I had to run out and grab some of the ingredients, and after the preparation, cooking, and chilling, it was already 10:30. But the dish itself was good—some nice spices and an attractive presentation. Next time I’m going to cut back a bit on the water, though, because it was a little weaker than I would have liked.