Pacific brand makes a variety of non-dairy milks that don’t use soy – oat, hazelnut, rice, and almond.

yeah! It was pretty tasty, but I definitely had a bit of tofu aftertaste – although I might have just been spreading it super thick. Also, I can almost always taste tofu in recipes even when other people insist it’s totally hidden by other flavors so I would go ahead and give it a try.

4)I’m not sure how much I spend on groceries these days since I share shopping with other adults. I’m guessing it’s about $150/week for a family of four. When I lived in Atlanta, I was spending about $45/week on groceries, but I was buying almost all organic at the time.

I really like cooking so I probably spend a lot more time than I have to in the kitchen, but otherwise my shopping/prep time is pretty minimal. My big thing is that I wash and/or cut any veggies as soon as I get back from the store. So when I’m tired or busy I already have a lot of the work done if I just want to throw some veggies in a stirfry or if I want some carrot sticks with hummus or something. I do the same thing with cutting and freezing fruit for smoothies.

5) It doesn’t happen me a lot, but I will keep a lara bar or something in my purse if I’m going somewhere where I don’t know what the food situation is like. I also have a pretty good idea of which big chain food places have stuff I can eat so I keep an eye out for those.

I think the response to soy is widely variant (as with a lot of foods like wheat gluten). I have heard the thyroid thing but I’ve also heard that taking or eating kelp can help.

I’d be curious to hear how other vegans became vegans. Did you go cold turkey (er, tofurkey?)? I gave up cheese first because it was my favorite and then slowly eliminated other dairy products (I’ve been vegetarian for a really long time).

On the subject of soy, in addition to what Joie mentioned, apparently it also exacerbates endometriosis (this might relate to phytoestrogens, but I don’t know the science behind it). I think it would be really tough to go vegetarian, let alone vegan, if you couldn’t eat soy. That’s another reason I don’t judge people who aren’t vegetarian (in addition to the fact that I occasionally pay a prostitute — er, eat meat — myself).

I’ve really been enjoying your blog. I’m fat, but not a vegan. I guess I’m what I think they’re calling “flexitarian.” I eat primarily lacto-ovo and sometimes vegan meals, but will have some fish or chicken a few times a week, and maybe other meats occasionally. I admit it’s not exactly a hard core principled stand, but reducing your meat intake does more than you might think to reduce your environmental impact.

1) Ha! I believe that was a reference to whey which is what puts the protein in protein water. In general, vegans don’t like to use words/phrases which erase the animal-origins of food products. I’m generally happy to just say ‘cow’s milk’, but others are more creative.

2) As soon as I can do her justice.

3) It’s inactive so you are safe from colonization. All I really know about it is that it’s grown on enriched molasses and that I used to think it smelled a bit cheesy until someone told me it smelled like feet and now that’s all I smell when I open a container. Still, smells better than the green jars of parmesan.

I know a couple of veg*ns who are allergic to soy and they seem to get along fine. Really, the only sticking point for me would be coffee which I drink a fair amount of and always with soymilk. Otherwise I don’t use soy much.

I think it would be harder to buy a lot of conveniece foods though.