So I've been trying a number of new vegan foods and have found several to be really great, and some others that weren't quite.


Number one on my list of winners is 'Silk'. I bought the 'Original' flavour and when I tasted it I was very glad I decided against the 'Vanilla' as it is quite sweet enough. It doesn't really taste like milk, more like some sort of shake, but I find it to be very tasty and happily drink several glasses a day; I even got myself a little thermos so that I can take some with me to work. It is a fortified drink and in 250 mL it contains 30% of daily calcium intake, 45% of my vitamin D and 50% of my vitamin B12. It contains lots of other things too, but those are some of the nutrients I am most concerned about.


My second winner is 'Solgurt'. It still doesn't taste quite like yogurt but I like it much better than the Wildwood soyogurt I tried and this is one that I can just eat with a spoon; I don't have to sneak it into my smoothies in order to make it palatable.


I am also a fan of Becel 'Vegan' Margarine. I actually have always been a margarine eater (rather than butter) and in fact I assumed that all margarine was vegan. It turns out that isn't the case as most margarine contains vitamin D3 which can only be obtained from animal sources; vegan margarine contains vitamin D2. I find this vegan margarine has more of a buttery flavour than regular Becel margarine and that a little goes a long way.


Last but not least is my 'Nutritional Yeast' supplement. I've read lots about it and tried it this evening on my homemade pasta dinner. It has, as I'd read, a 'cheesy' flavour and I used it as I would parmesan cheese. The kind I bought is in a flake form, and I was a little uneasy with the resemblance it showed to flaked fish food... But I still consider it a winner.


And so there only remains the solitary 'loser'. I read a great deal online about faux-cheese and Daiya seemed to be the clear winner so I gave it a shot. One shot is all that it is going to get. I just didn't like it at all. I tried it on pizza I made last night and luckily I only put it on a small corner because I could not make myself eat it. It is more the texture than the flavour I don't like; it melted into a gummy mess that stuck to my teeth. I wish I could at least bring myself to finish off the bag since it certainly wasn't cheap but I really don't think I can.

It's funny but the things I find myself missing the most are processed foods, which I never even ate much of to begin with. I find myself walking through the grocery store thinking about all junk food I can't eat because it isn't vegan. I have no idea why I am missing these things that I so rarely ate but I expect I'll soon get over it.