Super bowl super fail

(There is no photo. For a good reason.)

-By Lisa

The Stealers weren’t the only losers on Sunday, there was a much more spectacular fail in my house: vegan cheese.

I am vegetarian - not vegan - and Husband is an omnivore, but we've both been trying to cut back on dairy. It doesn't tend to agree with him and I am easing into the Clean diet by cutting down on certain categories.

While I am not the football fan that Husband is, I love Super Bowl Sunday because I adore any kind of celebratory event. I enjoy spending most of the day in the kitchen preparing festive foods. (The fact that he watches football while I cook is certainly 1950s housewife cringe-worthy, but we are both happy so I ignore that part.) I like to make foods that are good football fare but with a healthier twist.

We snacked and pre-gamed for most of the day, and it was lovely. The fried tofu sticks (like mozzarella sticks, but made from tofu) went over like gangbusters. Then it was time for the vegan pizza with a "cheese substitute." It all looked so acceptable; I never would have guessed what was to come. Husband took one bite, gagged, and rushed his plate back to the kitchen.

“I…I can’t eat that.”

Now, this, dear readers, is a shocking phrase. I’ve been with this man for a decade. I’ve never heard him utter these words. This guy will not only clean his plate, but everyone else’s at the table. He studied in China and his American classmates always went to him with their “eat this and tell me what it is” requests.

“Please,” he begged, “I don’t mean to be rude, but I really can’t look at it.”

That was the end of the vegan cheese. Turns out that cheese made from tapioca (which I just learned is the starch extracted from the root of a cassava or yucca plant) does not fly around here. Personally, while I was able to lay eyes on the stuff, I did find the texture to be odd. It might be an acquired taste thing, though, likely not for him.

It makes me wonder about all the things pretending to be other things. Like fake meat products, fake cheese products…is it all a little too manufactured? Might we be better off just eating real things than accepting substitutes for the things we don’t want to eat? Or maybe I just haven’t found the right alternatives?

Any opinions out there? Do you have a favorite fake bacon or do you think textured soy protein is the work of the devil?

For more from Lisa, check out www.justherejustnow.com

Comments

[Chuck Fetter]

I’ve been vegan for nearly 2 ½ years, and I personally love Daiya Cheese (I’m assuming that’s what you’re talking about) – but before Daiya, my wife & I would frequently have (ordered & made) cheese-less pizza. As I grew further away from meat & dairy, I found myself appreciating the intricate flavors of the individual veggies more and more.
As far as meat substitutes go – you can’t go wrong w/ Gardein (my omni friends & family love it too) and we do use Boca Burger Crumbles, Gimme Lean Sausage and Gimme Lean Ground Beef .
If you’re interested, a group of local vegans and vegan-curious folks meet about once a month for a potluck and then again for at a restaurant. Here’s the website: http://www.meetup.com/Central-Virginia-Vegan-Meetup-Group/. It’s a pretty easy going group that really talks about and eats food about 95% of the time. We’ve actually got an Italian-themed Meetup this weekend!

[Sam]

I used to look around a lot for meat substitutes, and my wife has been on a fake-meat bender for years, but now that I have read up on them, I think they might be the work of the devil. First problem; they take just about as much energy to produce as meat (more of an issue if you're an omnivore and want to cut back on meat partly because it's a small planet). That goes for soy-based products as well as mycoprotein. Second problem; like every other processed food, a lot of ingredients used to produce them are best left in the chemistry lab where they came from. The solvents used to process soy into meat substitutes are definitely not edible. In fact, they are the very things I was taught to fear and keep inside the fume hood at all times in organic chemistry lab. Lately we've been eating a lot of tempeh. It's fairly funky, which I like but Judy doesn't, and it has better texture than tofu. It's more palatable with a strong sauce, or after a long soak, preferably followed by grilling.

[Annie]

We have been using the cookbook Vegan on the Cheap, and there are a few recipes for homemade meat substitutes in there which aren't too bad and aren't made with processed soy or other strange ingredients. We haven't tried the 'cheesy' sauce made with nutritional yeast yet, so I'm not sure what that would be like. But, nutritional yeast is good sprinkled on popcorn. We also do things like order or make cheese-less pizzas, which we like just fine. Instead of substitutes, we tend to try and eat a variety of natural protein sources like beans and nuts etc, adding in organic tofu and tempeh once or twice a week. We really like Food for Life's sprouted grain breads, as the combination of grains and legumes used forms a nearly complete protein, so we eat that daily.

[Simplifying the Simple Life]

Hey Chuck,
Thanks so much for your helpful comment! I actually just bought some Gardein, so I'm glad to hear that it's tasty! I'll have to try out your other suggestions, too.
That group sounds really interesting (and delicious!)I might need to check that out...
Thanks so much for reading - and happy eating!!
~Lisa

[Simplifying the Simple Life]

Yeah, this was exactly what I was wondering about Sam. I'll definitely check out tempeh. I think I've had it grilled and smothered in something - and I recall it being good!
Thanks for checking in!! : )
~Lisa

[Simplifying the Simple Life]

Hey Annie,
What great alternatives. I'll have to look into that cookbook - I've not heard of it. I've recently discovered sprouted grains, and I think they are so delish!!
Thanks for reading and commenting!
~Lisa