thefourthvine | Help me, vegans!

Because of my baby's suspected dairy allergy, I have joined the ranks of the more-or-less vegan. (I can actually still eat eggs, but they aren't a huge part of my diet anyway.) And, see, I've been a vegetarian since I was ten. I know how to be a vegetarian! It doesn't require thought or effort! Whereas this veganism thing is very new and very, very hard.

Normally I'd just hit Google and research the shit out of this. But, well, I have a four-month-old baby. I don't have time to make out with Google the way I used to. So I am hoping to use the friends list shortcut - that there are vegans on my friends list who might have advice for me. Or, I guess, people on my friends list who aren't vegan but just love to Google.

Basically, here's what I need to know:

What are the basics of a vegan pantry? What are the special things that vegans keep around all the time, that make cooking or meals easier?
What are really good vegan products?
What are some good vegan recipes? Right now I'm relying much too heavily on fake meat, and that is not how I like to cook or eat. At least, not this much. I might as well be a carnivore! So - recipes? I especially need ones for balanced meals that are super-fast or that I can make in a crockpot. Suggestions of cookbooks featuring these things would also be very welcome.

Help? Please? Anyone? I will take links or comments or just supportive pats. I am experiencing involuntary dietary change and it's very scary!

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Hello! You don't know me, and I hope you don't mind, but I thought I'd give you a few pointers that help me! I was born with a dairy allergy myself and for reasons that don't need explaining at this juncture, had to learn the hard way about what happens when grow up thinking that--like a lot of babies--I grew out of it. (OMG. I SO DIDN'T. AND ALSO, OW.)

Anyway, soy formula (if your kid isn't allergic as well) is totally your friend here. Once the solid foods kick in, it's pretty basic. You can always give her cut up fruits and make peanut butter 'sandwiches' with tortillas, or Trader Joe's Fat-Free English muffins.

That's a point, actually. You should look out for bread recipes, unless it's a very old recipe, there's probably going to be a long list of preservatives, often including whey, and possibly containing milk-derived preservatives (sodium stearoyl lactylate can be one of them.) The thing is, that Lactic Acid can be either dairy derived or from vegetables like beets. Some vegan items use lactic acid, but unless they say it's non-dairy derived I'd steer clear. I always err on the side of caution in that way, just to avoid the rash, hives, and the throat closing. There are actually a lot of vegan items out there that taste quite like the real thing! Milton's brand has a wheat bread that's non-dairy, and I believe the Ezekiel brand of sprouted bread is dairy free, but goes bad quickly and is rather dry to my tastes.

I'd recommend Tofutti's brand products, they're quite good and people who still remember what dairy taste like say that the taste is quite similar. I'm a regular user of their cream cheese and sour cream products, and a great fan of their 'Cuties' brand of ice cream sandwiches.

The cream cheese, I can personally attest, stands in very well for the cheese in lasagnas, and if you want to sort of mimic the texture of ricotta then you can stir in a little TVP, or Textured Vegetable Protein (I don't, but I'm lazy.) TVP is also a meat substitute that must be hydrated before use. I've used it in bologneses, and it doesn't really have a taste by itself. It's soy beans, so it's basically like adding ground up edamame to a dish. It's fast too, just add water, zap it in the microwave and it's like rice, it doubles in amount.

The sour cream is very good in mexican food. As an aside, just say NO to soy cheeses. Many of them still contain casein and whey and the one's that don't...look, it all tastes bad. Just. It's bad.

There's lots of stuff that's already vegan in recipe unless the manufacturers fiddled with the recipes, such as pierogies, and for a lot of cooking recipes you can just substitute soy or rice or almond milk for the dairy.

Soy Earth (or Earth Balance) soy butter is a fabulous substitute for both cooking and general use. My mom loves it and she's perfectly able to eat dairy!

Asian food. I was lucky enough to grow up in an asian neighborhood so I developed a taste early on, and it's really good and not a dairy-based culture (boom-CHING!).

A word about eggs. They aren't dairy, and I've honestly never had a problem eating them, and I am ridiculously sensitive to dairy products. I've heard some studies, however, that say they carry dairy-like proteins so I'd check with your doctor to be sure. Substitutes include: ground flax seed (try Bob's Red Mill brand), apple sauce, and bananas, but they all leave a certain degree of taste.

Things to know! If she's really allergic, a lot of bread recipes proof the bread yeast in milk. They don't post about it in the recipes, either, but I've found that Trader Joe's fat free english muffins are fine and that the Amy's brand of non-dairy pizza is great.

For cookbooks, I'm a big fan of Vegan with a Vengeance (http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Vengeance-Delicious-Animal-Free-Recipes/dp/1569243581), and the Veganomican (http://www.amazon.com/Veganomicon-Ultimate-Isa-Chandra-Moskowitz/dp/156924264X/ref=pd_sim_b_1), however, I've often just used my mother's old recipes and substituted. This book is also a lot of fun: a href="http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Cupcakes-Take-Over-World/dp/1569242739/ref=pd_sim_b_2">Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule

Pantry items: Molasses, lentils, split peas, TVP, tofutti cream cheese, Earth Balance(Soy Garden) butter, hummus, lots of celery and carrots and onions, Cheerios, saltine crackers, peanut butter, Apple Cider vinegar, olive oil, canola oil, baking powder, etc.

This website: Food Fight! Vegan Grocery (http://store.foodfightgrocery.com/) is very helpful with questions and finding vegan foods. They also ship!

If you have any questions, I'd be glad to help out!

Help me, vegans!

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