~Betty day 3 Brown rice veggie salad bowl

Hello!! Lots going on today and we tried a BUNCH of new items that I want to discuss. First of all breezed right through breakfast with some fruit and bagels, this breakfast thing seems simple but I don’t want to come off as overconfident so I will report back on that in the future.

I had a meeting in the morning and had to run home and whip up lunch in about 20 minutes and so I came up with this quick and easy brown rice and veggie “salad” bowl. Turned out great and it was quick and easy. I basically took some brown rice that I had and added carrots, tomatoes, scallions, some balsamic vinaigrette and  the juice of half a lemon topped it with a nice sprinkle of cashews and voila! LUNCH!

We made our first trip to the natural foods store to stock up on some non-dairy staples that I’ve been wanting to try. We got all kinds of stuff. Even a little container of loaded mashed potatoes made vegan style! It was pretty cool to go to a place that had so many options for us. I wanted to taste everything but tried to get a little of this and a little of that, so we don’t get too crazy. I realize that just by eliminating meat and dairy there are still choices that aren’t necessarily healthy so I’m trying to learn as I go and take baby steps. Eliminating dairy for me is a big step so since I don’t eat much sugar normally I’m leaving that alone for now and will address white sugar some where down the road.

When we got home we were sampling  everything! Let me tell you Vegenaise is unbelievable, truly fabulous alternative that I should have been using my whole life. The dairy free sour cream seems fine and will be nice to use for dips and such when we have places and things to see and do. We even bought a non dairy “magic” bar to share just to see if we liked it. Fabulous! The Newmans-O's ROCKED! Now on to my first stumbling block…… We bought follow your heart cheddar. I consider myself and Franc somewhat of cheese connoisseurs’ we are always sampling cheeses from here and there, we have restaurants that we go to just to eat their cheeseboard and enjoy a glass of wine.

There are times when I consume a nice 5 year old cheddar that I reach true euphoria.

So I was very anxious to sample this cheese, the reviews I’ve read online say this is one of the best non-dairy cheeses you can find, first off the consistency was strange felt plastic like and slightly greasy, was strangely light and not at all cheese-ish in texture or feeling, but the taste, the taste was so odd and strange I am actually struggling to find words to describe this odd alien cheese substance. I actually had to spit it out. It was that bad L  Can anyone suggest a better cheese alternative that I could try? I am mourning the loss of cheese today.


Our faux grill cheese



On a slightly better note, Franc convinced me to give faux cheese a second chance and he made us a grilled cheese, I believe he was sensing I needed some comfort food at this point, he used earth balance butter, wheat bread, pseudo cheese and when it was all melty (the mock cheese does melt BTW) he put veganaise on his creation. I was extremely doubtful that I was going to be able to even stomach a bite of one of my former favorites but was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. The veganaise made it creamy and delish, I think it perfectly complemented the counterfeit cheese. We paired this with a nice salad a all was good at the house of Betty and Franc J
               xoxo,
               Betty