Hello Everyone!

[Kale]

Hello everyone,

I am new to this message board and just registered.

I have four words to say about this board:

You guys are awesome! - (well aside from me not meeting everyone yet!) :D

The things that you all have said in your posts through assisting others whom are vegan and have other issues is great! I just had to join and become apart of this wonderful get-together.

I have been a vegitarian for 3 1/2 years now and I am ready to go vegan now. I have tried in the past but failed miserably at it by slipping on chesse! But I told myself this morning "NO MORE!" I AM GIVING IT UP TODAY AND THAT IS FINAL! - I litterally said this out loud - I wonder what my neighbors are thinking :confused:

Well anyways I am happy to be here and wish me luck on my Vegan endeavors. :D

[Doug]

Let me be the first to welcome you to the board Kale.

Good luck with giving up cheese. Just keep telling yourself, 'cheese is made from cow's breast milk'. :) YOU CAN DO IT!!!

[Kale]

Wow, What a quick response! Hey you guys are great :)

Thank you for the wonderful encouragement Doug :D

I will keep going full speed ahead toward permanent Veganism and consider the feelings of the cows while staying away from cheese consumption!:)

[annie7]

Your choice to go vegan is wonderful! Just remember it's really not that hard when you know what that food contains. Look up "casein" ONCE and that's all it will take! (hee hee);) Best wishes ~Annie

[Erin Pavlina]

Welcome Kale!

Regarding the cheese... all of you who know me know what I'm going to say right?

Go to www.imearthkind.com and check out the vegan cheese. It's my absolute favorite! It tastes good and melts. I just had a cheesy potato casserole made by my mother in law with this cheese. I'm begging her for the recipe so I can share it with you guys. It's got cheese, potatoes, onions, and vegan sour cream. I'm in heaven!

Anyway, I'm drooling and I digress. Congrats on your decision and if we can help you in any way, let us know!

Be sure to read the articles on the site (http://www.vegfamily.com/articles) and check out the recipe section (http://www.vegfamily.com/vegan-recipes/index.htm) and our list of vegan products (http://www.vegfamily.com/product-reviews/index.htm).

[Doug]

hey erin- my wife made vegan rueben sandwiches with that cheese last night. Delicious!!!! :)

[Erin Pavlina]

Excellent. If she feels like sharing the recipe, please submit it to the recipe section. We need recipes people! :)

http://www.vegfamily.com/vegan-recipes/submit.htm

What was in the sandwich?

[xmysticprincessx]

Kale, I really missed cheese too when I went vegan. (That and chocolate were the hardest parts!)

Some of my friends who have been vegan for over 10 years tell me "back in the day" stories and what they had to use as a substitute before some company came out with a substitute for the real food they couldn't eat anymore. For example, they used to have to walk uphill both ways in the snow with no shoes... just kidding. They used nutritional yeast before they found Vegan brand parmesian cheese. I did have to get used to the taste of some vegan products (like soy milk, soy ice creams, Tofutti cheese, etc), but now these tastes seem normal to me, and I am sure that if I accidently had the real thing, that would taste weird to me.

I had been vegetarian for about 7 years before becoming vegan, and it was probably a bigger change becoming vegan than becoming vegetarian. (I became vegetarian when I was almost 13, so part of the "fun" of becoming vegetarian was annoying my Mom because I wasn't eating the chicken she spent all afternoon making.)

I think my best advice would be to shop around and try different products. I have found (or maybe discovered) so many new vegan foods in the past year. Keep your eyes open when you are grocery shopping. Products that would appear to be vegan are not, but others that seem like they would not be are. Even different store locations that are part of the same chain will have different products.

Good luck!